Standard Disclaimer: These characters belong to the WB & AS-P.
Dedication: This is for sosmitten, who was my first, ever, number one, reviewer EVER for my first, ever, number one fanfic. You made history, baby.
Spoilers/Timeline: Anytime after 503, "Written in the Stars.
A/N: Do read and review.
Not Perfect

Before Chris, I used to wonder about sex. And after that encounter, after Rory but before I started dating again, I started to wonder again. Chris and I were young, and first sex is always awkward - and for the girl, almost always never pleasurable. After Rory, I went so long without that I started wondering again. (# Insert your choice of appropriate Madonna 80s song here.)

Anyway, about sex. You see the rutting that goes on on television and in the movies. It's all so choreographed, so perfect. The guy knows what to do, they communicate with their eyes, they both take turns undressing each other, no teeth clash, no foreheads bump, no awkward hopping on one foot as you try to take off your pants, no feeling foolish after you undress and find yourself wearing only socks. No sudden shyness, no feeling embarassed by your prickly leg hairs because you forgot to shave, no accidental elbows in ribs, no hair in the eyes. The woman always comes thrice before they come together. It's all perfect.

It's not like that with us. Our teeth have clashed, we've bumped foreheads lots of times, and both of us have done our fair share of hopping. And let me tell you, Bridget Jones had it right - no girl ever feels good hopping on one leg without clothes - the amount of jiggling that certain rolls of flesh do is an uncomfortable reminder that we're not supermodels, no matter how much your man tells you he loves them (and he really does.) I've forgotten to shave so many times that he nearly commented on it once. I say "nearly" because he obviously thought the better of making a comment like that when we were starting to get hot and heavy one night.

When we first got started, it was awkward, to say the least. Not that we didn't know the mechanics of it - both of us are healthy adults, and I'd like to think we both know our way around the geography of the human body. It was just... the particular country which was giving us problems. After seeing him forever as "just a friend", it felt almost... obscene to be removing his clothes, like I shouldn't be doing it at all. And he wasn't doing so good either, he kept pulling back from kissing me ever so often, just to stare at me, and between kisses, I asked him what the matter was.

"I'm just feeling a little weird to be actually, one, kissing you, and two, taking off your shirt. I feel like I'm waiting for you to tell me to stop and serve you coffee instead," he managed to answer, in between the kisses and removing of the abovementioned shirt.

"Hmm... coffee, sex, coffee, sex... I don't know, it's a tough choice," I grinned into the lip-lock. "Well, if you're going to put it that way, I'm obviously not doing something right," he mock frowned at me as he pulled my blouse over my head.

Obviously, we got over the initial awkwardness of the moment just fine, but what I really loved about it was that we talked throughout it. Not just grunts and groans of pleasure, but about silly things like how great it felt just there, or him making a silly comment about how we should bottle this feeling up and sell it at Wal-Mart or something, which sent me into inappropriate giggles. I never really seriously thought about sex with Luke (though I admit having the odd naughty thought), but I never knew it would be this much... fun.

We've moved on from that stage, of course, and now things are a little more... settled. We don't bump heads anymore (after that first time, we both decided that it was too painful, and put too much of a damper into our ... proceedings), we both know where the condoms are which eliminates mad scrabbling and fumbling, he knows my spots and I know his... but it's never like the movies, never. No simultaneous acts, no silent acknowledgements, no communication with the eyes. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's okay, and all of the time, it's not perfect.

But then again, it is.


# If you guessed "Like A Virgin", you're spot on.