Prompt: Numbers

A.N: Written for the Livejournal community NextGen_Drabble. Tied in second place with Hondagirll's "Anticipation".

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Six Freckles On Her Shoulder

Lily has six, tiny freckles scattered on her left shoulder. They don't form any recognizable shape; they're just there, unexplainably decorative.

Teddy first notices them on Molly's wedding. Lily's wearing a strapless, electric-blue dress, which combined with her auburn hair, makes her stand out from the rest of her red-haired relatives.

She's twenty-one years old, indisputably beautiful, and she dances the whole night with him until they can no longer walk.

Teddy remembers the indignant look on her face when he suggests that she should stand on his feet like she used to years ago.

"I'm not a little girl anymore, Teddy," she says, and suddenly she's everywhere, wrapped around him.

Teddy remembers noticing how her ivory skin gleams on the candlelight, how good she smells, how right it feels to hold her.

Then he notices the six enticing freckles on her bare shoulder, and everything changes. His hands itch to count the freckles; to discover where else she has others.

He doesn't really know what's wrong with him, to think about Lily like that, when he'd never looked at her with desire before. But she invades his thoughts uninvited, and Teddy fells like he's coming undone, brought to his knees by those unforgettable six freckles on Lily's shoulder.

Teddy can tell Victoire knows his mind is elsewhere, and he wants to make it right, for he does love her. Victoire means home and Teddy's not quite ready to give up on that yet.

But the memory of Lily's six freckles haunts and taunts him.

Teddy frantically counts the days until this fascination goes away so that he can feel normal again.

Lily shows up at his place by the twenty-seventh day and kisses him, hard.

All numbers, with the exception of those six freckles of hers, stop making sense.

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