[ It's no surprise that Benedict grew up with a lot of comfortable wealth surrounding him. It's certainly not a secret to Kate, who's experiencing the fruits of that first-hand. With that amount of wealth comes a certain kind of schooling, which means he's studied human anatomy from both an academic standpoint, poring over highly-detailed textbooks, and he's also taken his fair share of field medicine courses, an endeavor helped along by his own brief stint in the military.
Plus, he's grown up surrounded by women, from his mother, to his cousin who's close enough to him in age that they were often bathed together as young children, to the twins whose diapers he helped change when they were young.
All that is to say that the sight of a naked woman shouldn't be enough to fluster him. And yet...
He doesn't drop her clothes, mainly because his reflexes are too good for that, but it's a near thing. What he does, actually, is notice the expanse of honeyed skin on display in the reflection of the mirror, freeze for a half-second, then snap his eyes shut like that's going to do anything but force him to look at the after-image behind his eyelids.
If his voice is a little bit strangled when he replies, well. Hopefully she won't notice. ]
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Plus, he's grown up surrounded by women, from his mother, to his cousin who's close enough to him in age that they were often bathed together as young children, to the twins whose diapers he helped change when they were young.
All that is to say that the sight of a naked woman shouldn't be enough to fluster him. And yet...
He doesn't drop her clothes, mainly because his reflexes are too good for that, but it's a near thing. What he does, actually, is notice the expanse of honeyed skin on display in the reflection of the mirror, freeze for a half-second, then snap his eyes shut like that's going to do anything but force him to look at the after-image behind his eyelids.
If his voice is a little bit strangled when he replies, well. Hopefully she won't notice. ]
It's no problem.