a_littlefaith | (no subject)

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jason

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Beth doesn't really know what the plan is today, but she's not worried about it either. Whatever they end up doing, she knows she and Jason will have fun. They always do when they get together, and she's looking forward to being able to try climbing another rock.

This time around, she dresses more carefully for the excursion. She wears shoes that are tighter and a little smaller, better for climbing the rock face. She's wearing a pair of exercise tights and a tank top, because she knows it's going to be warm, and Beth isn't usually one for working out a lot, but she'd bought these clothes just for this. She wants to be prepared. She wants Jason to be proud of her.

All she knows for sure is that she's meant to meet him at his place and they'll go from there. She has a water bottle, a little backpack with some snacks, and she's purposely not letting herself think about what they might do after they climb a rock.

Because she very clearly remembers their conversation at the beach that day. They haven't talked about it since then, but she's pretty sure they had both been talking about two things at once and she's excited. Nervous and excited both. Maybe tonight won't be the night, but maybe it will. She's not going to get ahead of herself, but she's not going to count it out either.

"Hey," she calls out when she's close, expecting him to probably be out in his garden. "Jason?"

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"We've got one or two more pushes," Jason says, peering up and leaning back against the rock. "Are your arms okay enough to do that?"

He knows she wants to try and he knows she'll push herself past her limits but he has to keep checking, make sure.

"Be honest with me," he says, moving closer to her and catching her eyes. "I mean it."

Holding carefully to the rock, Beth tilts her head back so she can look up the rest of the way and it's a little daunting, but not disheartening. She can do this. Even without expecting too much of herself, she really thinks she can make it, especially with Jason going first and showing her where to grab.

"I'll be okay," she says, looking back at him. "I think I can do it."

Her arms had hurt after the last time, but what had surprised her were the muscles in her torso, the ones in her rib cage, under her shoulders. And those aren't hurting yet. Those are the muscles she knows she needs for another push.

Jason eyes her steadily for a few seconds, trying to make sure she isn't just telling him what she thinks he wants to hear. When he sees nothing but pure grit and determination in her eyes, he leans forward and presses a light kiss against her lips.

"We're almost there," he promises, nodding. "And then you can rest and I'll rub your arms."

"I like the sound of that," Beth says, grinning when he kisses her. She gives the water back to him, then carefully rolls her shoulders, testing out her muscles. She really does feel good, just like she'd told him, and she thinks this might be the sort of thing she could really get used to doing regularly.

"Where next?" she asks, then points without waiting for Jason to answer. While she doesn't think she's ready to go first, she thinks she's spotted the safest way up and she looks at him as she points.

"There? That looks... I can see good places to get your hands and feet in. Would you try there?"

"Good. Soon enough you'll be planning the routes," Jason says, putting the water away before he turns himself back towards the rock. He wipes his hands, spreading the powder on them and untethers himself so he can start climbing again. His muscles tremble, his legs shake but he's never unstable.

He climbs, sweat dripping into his eyes and in the span of a few long, calming breaths, he's gotten to another stopping point. He rests his head against the rocks, taking a breather before he glances down at Beth.

"Okay. I'm ready for you."

"You think so, huh?" she teases, but she sounds a little distracted, visually mapping her path again. It's not the sort of thing she can very well memorize, but she's doing her best, and once she thinks she knows where she's going, she starts.

It is harder this time, but she's determined. And trying to look at her route beforehand helps, she thinks, even if she wasn't sure if she would remember it all. It takes her longer than it took Jason, but he's an expert on this and she's just starting out.

By the time she reaches him, she's breathing hard and sweating, but she's beaming, too.

Edited 2018-08-11 19:03 (UTC)

"Almost there," he tells her when she's level with him again. The final portion of the climb isn't as hard as the previous few but he knows they're also tired so it could be harder than it looks.

He reaches for her hands again, checking to make sure she hasn't split skin or hurt anything that might handicap her in the final push.

"Still feeling all right?"

When he reaches for her hands, Beth lets Jason check them, knowing he won't let her go on unless he's sure they're being safe. Her hands certainly hurt, but the calluses she has from playing guitar are helping her in this, the skin already thick and tough where it needs to be. Her palms might blister, but only a little, she thinks, and only because those calluses haven't developed yet, but they'll get here.

"Feelin' great," she promises him. "Let's do this. We're almost there."

"You're not feeling great. I'm not feeling great," Jason says quietly, rubbing her hands and nodding. "I'm tired and my arms are hurting but we're going to get there."

He let her hands go and then untethered himself so he could start the ascent. There's a burn in his arms, shoulders and he scrapes a hand against some sheer wall before he sees the top and scrambles over.

Breathing hard, he takes a few moments to lay there before he shifts his body around and looks down at her. "Your turn!"

"I am feelin' great," Beth answers. There's a big difference between a bit of physical pain and not feeling good. Her death still haunts her, still reminds her of everything she might eventually lose, and so Beth takes joy in as much of life as she can. In this moment, despite her sore, trembling muscles, she feels amazing.

She watches Jason go up and over the edge of the rock at the top. Her eyes track his path and then, when he tells her to come up, she begins her ascent.

It does take longer, just like he said it would, but she finally makes her way to the top and heaves herself over the edge. Collapsing on the ground, she lies there for a moment, her eyes closed, her cheek pressed to the dirt, breathing hard and smiling.

"Just stay where you are for a little bit," Jason encourages, moving around beside her to grab some water and some cream for her hands and arms. The exhilaration of reaching the top is there but so is the throb and burn of exertion.

Sliding until he's beside her, Jason smiles down at her and presses a kiss to her cheek before pulling back and offering her water.

"Congratulations. You did it."

Beth grins as she pulls herself into a seated position, then takes the water from Jason. "We did it," she corrects, giving him a gentle nudge, because she knows without his help she wouldn't be here at the top. He's better at this than she is and he's patient with her, a good teacher, someone she's happy to follow when it comes to something she doesn't know.

"Wow," she says, having caught her breath, able to look down at the view they can see from here. It really is beautiful. Darrow can be so hard in so many ways and it's taken a lot of things from her, but it's also given things to her, too, things she never would have imagined possible.

She probably never would have climbed a rock in Georgia, that's for sure.

"Yeah, it's not too bad a view," he says, shifting into a sitting position and shaking out his hands and arms. His legs feels tired, his back's a bit stiff and there's sweat coating his hair and shirt but he feels great. Exhilarated and alive.

But, he's watching her watch things and he can't help but smile warmly, gently. This made the whole thing worth, the strain and the pain. Seeing her look so happy and pleased with herself.

"How are your hands?"

"Kinda sore," she says honestly, but when she opens and closes her hands in front of her, it's not the same sore as the first time. It's like she's building the calluses and muscles she needs for this sort of thing. There are still red marks where she thinks she might blister a little, or the skin will peel away, but it won't prevent her from playing guitar or piano and that's the most important thing.

"But okay," she adds, grinning over at Jason. "Not so okay I would say no to some nice guy rubbing them for me, of course."

She has to tease him after everything she'd said earlier. She can't just let it go by without a comment. Whether or not either of them had meant for it to be anything at the time, it had still been something.

"Well, there aren't any nice guys around so what about me?" Jason asks, reaching for one of her hands. He pours a little water over them, rubbing it in to clean any dirt or scrapes she might have picked up before he starts slowly kneading the muscles in her wrist and palm first.

"What about your legs? How are they?" he asks, glancing down at said legs. "Not shaking or anything?"

"Very funny," she teases, sticking her tongue out at him as he takes her hand and gently begins to knead the muscles. It feels really good and she relaxes into it, closing her eyes and just enjoying the feeling of Jason's hands on her skin. Her legs don't feel too bad, she thinks her arms did most of the work, but after a second she cracks open one of her eyes and grins at him.

"My legs are okay, but I'm not gonna protest if you wanna rub them, too," she tells him and she's still kind of joking, but not completely. She likes when Jason touches her, however that happens. His hands are warm and rough against her skin and even with something as innocent as this, it sends little flashes of heat through her that she enjoys.

"Let's take care of your hands first and then we'll seem," Jason says, sounding almost coy. Her legs probably got a good workout but he knows that her hands and arms are what took the brunt of the climbing. He rubs at her shoulders, rotating them gently to make sure her muscles don't lock up.

"We're running out of rocks," he tells her, looking at her from underneath his eyelashes. "Have to climb a building next time."

He wasn't serious.

"Hm, or a very tall tree?" Beth asks in return, feeling more and more relaxed by the moment. She likes the way he's looking at her right now, the dark of his eyes, the way his lashes look against his cheek, and she just watches him as he rubs her shoulders, then stops him, reaching for his hands.

"Someone should do you, too," she says, then realizes how that sounds and tries to correct herself. "I mean, someone should rub your hands. I should rub your hands. Not someone." There's no one else here, obviously, and even if there were, she wouldn't want another person to be the one doing this. He's her boyfriend and Beth doesn't know whether or not she's jealous with Jason -- she hadn't been with Curtis, she'd only ever felt a sort of smug pride when other women looked at him -- she still doesn't want to share him.

Jason can't help but laugh quietly at the accidental innuendo. Though he wants to tell her that he's fine, that his hands are fine, he can't resist the opportunity to be touched so he hands them over without an argument.

"There's no one else here to rub my hands except you," he points out, unable to help himself. "I don't think anyone's going to climb this rock just to get a shot at my now dirty hands."

Beth takes his hand between hers, gently rubbing his palms, smoothing away dirt and grit before she slowly begins to dig her thumbs into the muscles to soothe away any pain. She's not going to argue with him that he might be surprised by just how many people might climb a rock to get at his dirty hands, she only smiles down at his palms and shakes her head. He's so much better, so much more desirable than he realizes.

She's just lucky he likes her out of all the people she's sure he could have.

"Guess it's my job then," she teases him softly, rubbing her thumbs into his wrists for a moment before she ducks her head to press her lips to the delicate place where his pulse beats under his skin.

Jason's content to let her work, sighing and watching quietly. Then, she leans down and kisses his pulse and he inhales sharply. Goosebumps seem to bloom everywhere and he can feel the back of his neck heat up.

"I don't know if that's really the way to help my hands," Jason murmurs, "but it certainly helped me."

They still have to get down the rock and they're still kind of in public, although Beth has gotten up to some things in similar places to this before, so she knows she can't do much else -- or shouldn't, anyway -- but she still grins against his skin and glances up at him.

"If it helps you, it helps your hands," she teases, then presses another kiss to his wrist, then a little higher, against the smooth skin of his forearm. She loves places like that on the men she's been with, where their skin is smooth no matter what kind of work they've done. Someone's hands can grow rough with calluses, her own are a good example of that, but the skin on the inside of the wrist and the elbow and the bicep, that always stays so smooth. Untouched. Until she presses another kiss to it.

Jason's...honestly not sure if anyone's ever kissed him there before. Most of his relationships had been short and quick, to the point and never involving much romance so this -- this is something a little new.

A red flush tries to darken enough that it shows up despite his skin tone and he ducks his head, breathing in, breathing out.

"Those aren't my hands," he murmurs, slanting a glance at her. "They need help too?"

"Just checkin'," Beth answers with a little grin against his skin. She gently pushes up the sleeve of his t-shirt, kisses the curve of his bicep, then glances up. "How 'bout there? Does it need help?"

There's a hint of red on his skin and he's focusing too much on his breathing, which makes her think, even if his arms don't need help, that he likes what she's doing. So she kisses his skin again, then lifts one hand to his shoulder and gently pushes him back, moving to crawl into his lap at the same time.

They're alone. No one else is climbing the rock and Beth doesn't see how anyone can access their little clearing otherwise, not when it's surrounded by trees and brush and wildlife. They're alone enough.

Oh.

Oh okay, this is -- this is surprising but not in a bad way. He's absolutely not going to be pushing her away or telling her to stop, oh no. She pushes him back and he goes easily, reaching to settle one hand on her hip at least.

"You're going above and beyond now," he murmurs, looking up at her quietly but adoringly.