((Continued from Casual Encounters of the Assassin Kind))

Her place or his? He had intended the statement to mean hers, but if she was already willing to go to his place... No, she was still to some degree intoxicated; kissing her was one thing but taking her to his place was another thing entirely. He would drive her to her home.

"Yours."

He took a few steps backwards before turning to lead her by the hand to the improved Fordasaurus. He offered to help her up into the cab before taking the driver's seat and bringing it to glorious, loud diesel life and they were on their way to Lenna's apartment building.

The drive was brief, traffic was light... Light being relative of course. And soon enough the Ranger pulled the truck up in a spot near her apartment and killed the engine before exiting the truck and walking around to walk Lenna up.

>>"Yours."

Aww, Lenna thought. I was curious about his... But her place still worked. It wasn't completely a lost cause.

Lenna smiled at him as he helped her up into the big truck. Without him, it might have been a bit of an undertaking. With him, it was easy to get into the monster.

The monster roared. Lenna's eyes were fixated on its driver, and the way he enjoyed driving the feral beast of a machine. It was almost too cute. Boys and their toys. She could hardly think straight. She hardly noticed how long it had taken them to get to her apartment, but then there they were. And there he was, outside her door, ready to help her again.

She unbuckled her belt, then turned to get out. Somewhere on the way down, she lost her footing.

Whoops.

It was a good thing he was there to catch her.

The Ranger opened Lenna's door and stood by to help her out, the step down to the diesel tank step was rather long. He Expected just to provide a little help, but when she attempted to leave the cab the step became a fall. He quickly moved under and caught her in his arms

"First day with yer new feet?" He jokingly asked as he turned to simply just carry her up to her room. This way she wouldn't have another chance to fall, and it was more satisfying than just holding her hand on the way up to her room.

Through the door opened by the doorman, into the elevator, up to her floor stealing the chance on the ride to kiss her again, and into the hallway outside her apartment. His intention to say goodnight at the door.

>>"First day with yer new feet?" He asked.

It was a world-first. Lenna blushed. "Yup," She grinned up at him. It wasn't like her to blush. Then again, it wasn't like her to get swept off her feet. Falling counted, she resolved. Even if he hadn't literally scooped her up, it counted. She was not going to think mushy thoughts, though.She was just going to relax and enjoy it.

Getting carted around in strong arms, she thought. Yup. I could get used to this.

.. And the kissing.

Tonight was a good night. As they reached the door of her apartment, Lenna swung her arms up to wrap around his shoulders and leaned up in his arms so she could better look him in the eye. The night didn't have to end so soon. "You should come in," Lenna suggested. "For... coffee." Something about the way she said it made coffee sound more like a stand-in word for something else she had in mind.

Lenna maneuvered herself around in the Ranger's arms, most likely to be in a better position to look him in the eyes. She then stated that he should come in, for coffee. The addendum sounding almost more like a placeholder for a whole nother reason for him to enter.

The Ranger thought that he shouldn't, sure it was what many people did but it wasn't how he as a boy growing up in the extra territorial jurisdiction of Bryan Texas was raised to behave. Although, he had already been kissing a girl that had been drinking, that ship had sailed.

"You'll 'ave t' unlock the door first."

Oh.

Lenna laughed weakly to herself. "Whoopsy."

Reaching into a breast pocket on her coat she drew out her key ring. Now which was it again...? Lenna's brow furrowed as she examined the array of keys. "This could take a whi--- wait. Here." She held the key ring out for Michael, the right key out of a whole whopping three, selected.

There. That hadn't taken nearly as long as she'd thought.

"Whoopsy."

The Ranger smiled, and chuckled slightly as Lenna fished out her keys and them studied them before holding them out for him to take and unlock the door, the needed key located. The Ranger shifted his left arm so that it was in a position to hold up Lenna itself and took the key from Lenna.

He slid the key into the door, turned the knob, pushed it open, and stepped into her apartment as he reclaimed the key from the lock. Once inside he returned Lenna to the ground, keeping his hands on her side for a short while to make sure she didn't fall.

"So... coffee?"

The apartment was dark. The only light came in through the doorway from the hall. They were but two silhouettes embracing. Him, with his hands on her hips, her with her arms slung 'round his shoulders again.

>>"So... coffee?" He asked.

"Yeah. Coffee." Lenna leaned forward and kissed him again.

As the two stood there in the dark of her apartment, Lenna leaned forward and kissed the Ranger.

After a while the Ranger stole himself away briefly, "I never knew coffee t' be this good." and then resumed the kiss content to just stay there all night.

>>"I never knew coffee t' be this good."

"Yeah," she kissed him back, then pulled her head back and tilted it at him, lips askew in a mischievous smirk. "It'll keep ya' up all night."

By that point the Ranger was done with adhering to how he was raised. To hell with it, he was acting.

"Let's hope so."

The Ranger replied just before sliding his hands down and to Lenna's rump and after a short squat lifted Lenna up off the ground to carry her, supporting her with his forearms his elbows nearly at his sides. A quick jerk of his left arm back and the door slammed shut. Just because he was going to be walking was no reason he couldn't continue kissing her. Lenna was killing his power so he couldn't see in the dark anyway.

He stumbled around her apartment occasionally sticking out an arm to feel where he was, knocking things around, until he found the stairs leading up to her bedroom. A stairway to Heaven. Ranger made his way up, his heart pounding as he carried an angel with him.

Reaching the top of the short stairway he moved into the room. This room he had never been in and as such managed to walk into the bed. From there he lowered Lenna down onto the mattress, bending down to follow her.

This was relaxing. She hadn't even expected him to go this far. But what with the picking her up and the carrying and the kissing and the stumbling around, it was impossible to say she wasn't impressed.

She'd laughed when he'd picked her up out of surprise. Grinned behind kisses and cupped his chin. Kept his eyes on her, kept his focus, again, on her. It had brought about a bit of stumbling, but that was okay. They couldn't see much anyways. They could clean up in the morning. To worry about it now would have been stressful... and to reiterate a point, this was relaxing. She didn't bother caring. It was just him and her.

Finally, Michael found the stairs to her bedroom. He managed them, and found her bed. Bumped into it, and then, set her down... then tried to join her. A hand stopped his chest. Lenna shook her head with a smile. She reached up, resting her arms around his neck again, and turned him, lowering him side-first towards the middle of the bed. When he was down, she climbed on top of him. Her hands moved to work his leather jacket off of his shoulders. Her hands dropped insistently to gesture at his shirt. It was like a clothing liquidation sale in the bed room. All items had to go.

As the Ranger lowered down to the bed a hand rose up to stop him. With his limited night-sight he could see Lenna shaking her head before wrapping her arms back around his neck and turning him over. From there she perched atop him and worked to slide off his jacket, the Ranger shifted around to help the jacket off. She then gestured at his shirt, immediately the Ranger's hands found the hem of his shirt and yanked it off, flinging it randomly off to the side.

That done the Ranger reached up gripped the zipper on Lenna's jacket with one hand while holding the collar with the other. He slowly unzipped it before bringing up the hand to hold both sides of the collar and pulling at it to remove it. The jacket off he dropped his hands and slid his hands down her sides until he found the hem of her long sleeve shirt and pulled it up, not content for her to manage it off herself.

Her hands dropped to cover his, taking control of the job half-done. She finished it. The shirt fluttered off to somewhere behind her on the fluffy carpet. She ran a hand over his chest, then moved forward, kissing his lips. Lips to chin to neck to chest. She put her head against his chest, hovering over his heart, and just listened.

A wistful sigh escaped her. Lub dub, lub dub. Warm and rhythmical. Lulling beat. Fog crept over the corners of her mind as she lay there, resting her head. She closed her eyes. Maybe she'd just take a little nap... just close her eyes for a minute. Or two. Or three. Or...

Lenna became dead weight as her form slumped over his, head against his chest, and snoring. All the alcohol had finally caught up.

The shirt was half off before Lenna took over and had it all the way off, discarding the thing into the air behind her. By then he was only wishing there was more light in the room so he could better see the beauty before him.

She ran a hand over his chest, and he brought his hands over to her sides. When she leaned down to kiss his lips his arms shifted to have them wrapped around her her lower back. As she moved back, going from his lips, to his chin and then his chest where she stopped his arms moved so that one lay his hand near her shoulder blade, and the other arm resting its hand the middle of her back.

Lenna stayed there, it seemed she was listening to his heart beating, and before long she was limp and snoring. The Ranger gave a soft chuckle and laid his head back on the bed. He reasoned that the alcohol she had been drinking finally got her, and there was no sense disturbing her so he'd just sleep on her bed tonight.

He ran a hand softly along her head and whispered. "G'night." From there he returned it to her back and let himself drift off to sleep.