The Sky's Not The Limit [Studio C/Mattory] (From The Heart Contest Winner)

[3] The Sun in the Morning, Kissing Your Skin

It was a quiet, thoroughly ordinary Tuesday afternoon when it all changed.

Matt realized, later, that he shouldn't have been surprised it was all thanks to Stacey's meddling.

He'd wandered in halfway into a conversation, in time to see Whitney apologizing to Mallory with a chagrined look on her face.

"It's fine, Whit," Mallory assured her. "I'll work something out."

"You can stay with us," Stacey piped up from the corner. "I'm sure Adam and Matt won't mind."

"What won't I mind?" Matt asked, crossing his arms and lifting a brow.

"I'm getting work done on my place next weekend," Mallory explained. "I asked Whit if I could spend the night but Stephen's parents are going to be visiting."

Matt paused for a moment. "Oh." He glanced back at Stacey. "Yeah, if Adam's all right with it then that's fine."

He should have realized Stacey was going to take the opportunity and run with it the moment his friend stifled a snicker.

~~~

Sometimes, Matt wished he didn't live with the biggest Mattory shipper of them all.

Stacey had always been a little less than subtle about wanting to see his friends back together, and today was no exception. From the moment Mallory showed up at the door, he seemed to be trying his hardest to leave her and Matt on their own, pointedly keeping Adam busy. Though it was clear he saw right through it, Adam seemed content to play along.

"I wanted to thank you again for letting me stay," Mallory said when the two of them were alone in the kitchen for what felt like the twelfth time that evening.

"Not like you wouldn't have done the same for any of us," Matt replied, staring at the open refrigerator with half his mind occupied on fitting the leftovers of their takeout dinner inside. Distracted as he was, his mind immediately went blank as she skimmed her hand over his shoulders when she walked past.

Those easy touches had once been so commonplace that it had been almost like withdrawal when the two of them first split. As time passed and the hurt grew less, they had started to come back—a casual tap, an affectionate nudge, a decision to sit closer than necessary when there was plenty of space around them—but they never failed to make his conscious mind short-circuit for at least a moment.

The rush of water from the kitchen faucet snapped him out of his reverie. "Hey," he protested as she picked up the sponge from the side of the sink.

"Hey, nothing," she replied with a teasing smile. "It'll take me two minutes."

He grumbled under his breath, coaxing a full-throated laugh from her as he closed the fridge and crossed the kitchen to her, reaching for the sponge that she kept from his grasp.

Somewhere between planting one hand on the counter and reaching around for the sponge, what had so quickly turned into a ridiculous game just as abruptly turned into something else entirely. He hadn't realized he'd caged her in with an arm on each side until she leaned back, the merest fraction of an inch separating them and doing nothing to dissipate the heat radiating from her.

Her name died on his lips. No sensible impulse to move away made it past the realm of thought. His grip on the edge of the sink tightened, knuckles going white as the last of their laughter faded from the air.

After what felt like an eternity—though it couldn't have been more than a few seconds—Mallory slowly, deliberately dropped one hand beside his, just close enough that a simple twitch of his thumb had him brushing it over the side over her hand.