Harmless

Fredric finished his shower and Madeline went into it as he left to put on clothes. Choosing his tried and true comfortable attire for the day.

He sunk down on the sofa to check the Sunday morning news on the television all the while Madeline was humming loudly from the shower, ten minutes later, she left the bathroom with a towel around her and sat down next to him.

“Alright, so, I have an idea that should be fairly harmless” She said seemingly full of energy.

“Sure, shoot, what do you have in mind?” Fredric responded, while lowering the television volume

“My back has been hurting for a couple of months now and it has been making my work a bit difficult. Hard to tell some one that training will help with back pain when the trainer who themselves train have back pain. So something that helps with that should be fairly harmless right?” Madeline said with a hint of hope as she theatrically stretched her back.

“I guess so, I’ll see what I find” he said some what relieved that it was not anything more altering.

It took him a while to sort through but he eventually found a trait related to it:

Iron back – 200 gems

No matter the strain the back will neither break nor ache.

Without hesitating he clicked it.

“There, should be a trait called “iron back” your back will never hurt now according to this. How do you feel?” He said looking up at her inquisitively.

Madeline sat straight up in the sofa instead of being relaxed into it, twisting her torso around testing her back. She rose from the sofa with a growing smile, continuing her movements with the towel threatening to escape as she rotated around.

Fredric phone blipped a low battery warning and he rose to put it to charge in the bedroom. Shortly after he could hear Madelines bare feet tapping in after him across the floor.

“It worked” She said happily with her arms wrapped around her gripping the towel. “I can’t feel any pain I used to, can’t wait to see how it feels at work tomorrow. Thank you.” She said walking up behind Fredric.

Fredric was fiddling with his phone charger that seemingly refused to plug into his phone, as if it was turned the wrong way every time he tried even though he just turned it. Too busy to notice Madeline creeping up her arms around him still holding her towel with her hands as a wrap. It was not until he managed with the phone and let it go that she clamped down to hug him from behind.

“Thaank youu” Madeline repeated as she rocked Fredric back and forth against her with the towel covering them both.

Fredric turned in the embrace to look at her, running his hands behind her to hug her back. Looking up from the towel line.

“Not a problem, just let me know if there is anything and I’ll can see if we can’t fix it.” he said endearingly

Madeline was cuddling with her cheek against his head slowing the pace of the rocking, her embrace tightened and her breath slowly began to pick up. Fredric was comfortable in her presence but unsure how long is long enough for a hug.