Unbreakable Habits

When had certain habits and behaviors that she’d once found abominably irritating become endearing and adorable? Age certainly hadn’t dimmed her memories of shouting at Lindsey to stop leaning on her because he was a dead weight but currently, as they flew over yet another large stretch of barren land, she welcomed the heaviness of his head on her shoulder. Stevie sometimes wondered if it was merely because this kind of familiar intimacy was so much rarer now than it was forty years ago, if she just clung pathetically to whatever physical affection she was given now that he was married and emphatically NOT HERS.

Sleepily, he nuzzled into her neck, seemingly trying to get more comfortable and she smiled down at him before extending her hand to him, allowing her fingers to play with the now entirely grey curls atop his head. Mumbling nonsensically, Lindsey shifted again, moving closer to her side and one of his hands dropping to her leg. The warmth of his touch on her thigh was welcome and she allowed herself to close her own eyes tightly, tilting her head so it rested comfortably back against her luxury seat. She could hear Mick and John talking a few meters away, hushed whispers about the set that, for once, she wasn’t interested in at all.

Stevie was far more interested, far more fascinated by how closing her eyes enhanced her other senses. She could hear the slightly deeper breathing coming from her bandmate, feel the way his fingers curled slightly against her own hand on her lap, smell the familiar scent of him clinging to his old leather jacket.

She ran her fingers along the veins in his wrist and felt a small thrill run through her body as Lindsey’s own digits stretched out to capture hers, locking their hands together in a tight clasp, warm and friendly. Blearily opening her eyes she noted he was still sleeping and smiled to herself.

Dropping a kiss to his hair, she closed her eyes again.

This was one habit - reaching for her, with joy, with frustration, with calm, even unwillingly and especially automatically, naturally, without thought - that she hoped Lindsey would never break.

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