sophie/daniel, post life @ 23, Holding Hands

[wellownedbkup]

She’s not sure what freaks her out more—the sudden drop her plane takes, or the feel of a hand gently taking hold of hers not long thereafter. Both make her stomach do unnatural flips, make her heart race. If it wasn’t for the hand holding having been part and parcel of marrying Daniel, she doesn’t know what she would have done. As it is, she’s yet to become familiar with the feeling of warm palm rasping across warm palm and the soothing patterns his thumb draws on the back of her hand.

Like the way she keeps finding her fingers playing in the short hairs at the nape of his neck, toying with his hairline without her express permission. She’s unsure of what to do when she realizes what she’s doing, so comfortable and yet so out of character for what she’s used to doing. He hasn’t complained or said a word, really, so would it be worse to stop or to go on? She can’t bring herself to stop immediately, greedy for the touch, the softness of his hair. Only when he sighs does she finally move her hand back down toward her lap.

“Why’d you stop?” Daniel asks as he grabs her hand up to kiss it. “It felt nice.” Nonplussed, she has no answer for him, stunned watching their fingers twine like they’re growths into each other. Her mouth is dry and she wants to answer, she really does. But she can’t know what to say. She turns instead to look out the window at the clouds in the dark, indistinguishable from the sky and the ground.

He doesn’t speak for a long time, long enough that her eyes start to slip closed from exhaustion and she’s leaning more and more into his body for support. He wraps his arm around her shoulder, refusing to let go of her hand and she twitches, wanting to keep holding on but unsure how long anyone would be willing to do so. She’s so obvious, and wants to be so good for him.

Daniel presses a kiss to the top of her head as she finally relaxes down. “It’s ok, sweetheart. I like holding your hand.”