The impetus for the affection -- the worry, the terror that there would be a finite number of times they could do this, the uncertainty -- that stuff, Annie could do without. But there totally was something to how all of that stress made the act of just making out on the couch something kind of special.

"We're missing out on all kinds of ninja warrior antics now," Annie murmured, not bothering to look and gauging that entirely off the sounds she could hear as she shifted to draw herself a little closer to him.