residentflorist

[on the bright side she's not drunk enough to obsess about his biceps again. anyway, unfortunately she kind of likes when he's like this.]

Hmm...both! Two little things. [they are a package deal but she will in fact clarify she wants both. cloud is doomed to giving her kisses forever...oh no....so sad...]

[ he would probably be more flustered if she was doing it when not drunk tbh. he should be offended at being called a little thing but he kind of huffs instead, tucking some hair behind her ear ]

Greedy much? [ very serious not at all teasing. but: ] Guess I've got no choice. I said you could have little things.

[ oh no... what a nightmare.... ]

Mmhm. [a little hum of affirmation, like she's proud to be greedy for once. it helps that he's teasing. i mean not teasing. very serious.] You did say that, so no going back on it. Any other little thing I can think of, too.

[she can think of a few, but again, baby steps.]

You've already got a list, haven't you?

[ baby steps, sure, but he. knows her. ]

[the hands slowly glide over his shoulders and up over the sides of his neck.]

Maybe. It's not that long though. [that's debatable.]

[ no one is shivering look away ]

Yeah? Maybe I should be the one to judge that.

[no this is interesting, let's keep doing this.]

Hey, you can't just ask a girl for her whole list in one go. What if you don't remember them all?

[ stop ... he's weak to touch.... ]

If you don't have that many, I shouldn't have any trouble remembering them all. [ COUNTERPOINT. ]

[what if...we try a fun little experiment where she removes a hand and presses a lil kissy to his neck. what then.]

But if I give you the list now, what if you won't let me add to it later?

[ well he wears a turtleneck usually but sure they can be in different clothes i wasn't thinking about this too hard until now. the lil kissy gets a little gasped out ah, more surprise than sensitivity, though. there is definitely that. ]

... You'd have to start a new list instead.

[you say that like she wouldn't have forced it down a little anyway, but it's fine. we're not thinking about it because she kind of likes that reaction? even if it's just surprise, because it's a little funny. so of course she's doing it again, and she's letting her mouth travel a little over his neck where she can reach.]

Would you let me have all of the little things on that one, too?

[ whatever clothes he is wearing she is all over his neck which means his hand kind of has to be in her hair "he can move it" no he is forced to run his finger through her hair at gun point by neck kisses, and she can probably feel him swallow. ]

Depends what's on the first. [ he settles on that as an answer and. very lightly tilts his head to give her more space around his neck DON'T @ HIM ]

[no, no, he's allowed to keep his fingers in her hair.]

This and that. [teasing, because when has she ever made things easy for him? she feels the way he swallows and the way he tilts his head, which means he can probably feel the way her lips brush against the skin of his neck before she bites down a little. like a test. also because bite week. but mostly because she wants to, it's the top energy.]

[ well good because he is keeping his fingers in her hair. running through it. she has a lot of hair. ]

You're not giving me much to work with.

[ he complains while letting aerith do whatever she wants so it is his own damn fault. in this case, whatever she wants it a little bite on the neck, and that gets another little breathy ah, his fingers curling a little at their spot on her back, eyes half-lidded. bottom energy, but. yeah, he does not dislike that. ]

[cloud your bottom energy...not that she didn't already know he had it, but this is fine by her. she's aware of his fingers curling against her, and she breathes out a little sigh over him even when she bites down slightly harder since he seems okay with it. it means she also has a free hand to run up along cloud's side just because she can.]

Little thing number one. Your time. Little thing number two. Your attention. Little thing number three. You with me. And little thing number four...[a nip.] We'll see.

You've already got all those things.

[ it is surprisingly easy to say things like this when aerith is in his lap biting at his neck, it turns out. she's probably never going to get a lot of noise out of him, but she's close enough to hear it, the hitches in his breath and the way it catches when she bites down harder. she's also close enough to feel how he tenses and relaxes immediately at the touch at his side; unexpected but not unwelcome. he trails his hand to the back of her neck, messing with the short hairs at her nape. as if to compensate, his other hand goes down a little lower, back to the small of her back, pressing her closer even though they are pretty damn close already! ]

[honestly she'd be more startled if he was loud about it, actually, so this suits her fine because normally cloud has resting bitchface about most things anyway. besides, this really is just for her. it's a private, coveted thing, something she can keep for her own memories and know exactly what affects him and what he might like.

she's aware that she should maybe slow them down and little and stop pushing him, but she's also aware she kinda doesn't want to? cloud can hit the breaks whenever he wants, and there's a surprised little sound when she feels him drag her closer. they really are extremely close already. there isn't exactly a ton of space for her to go closer now that she's very much settled on top of him, but she's also not going to discourage his hand from wherever it's going right now. she's more or less mimicking motions at this rate. or, perhaps, setting an example for cloud to follow.]

Sometimes...it was hard to tell. [because cloud's so focused on their mission. because aerith has her own problems to focus on. because there's a sixteen year old out there waiting for them. because there's a whole team of their friends they're missing. a multitude of reasons to be unsure, but this does make it much more clear.] Like you weren't sure if you were ever interested.

[ it is resting there for now, just above her butt, while they have a very serious discussion about attraction. ]

It wasn't like that. [ well. it was, and it wasn't, but it's more complicated than not knowing if he was interested or not. a little closer to not knowing if he should be, or even if she was, and then all the other factors he is refusing to think about right now. and they had been-- busy. always busy, since they met. with shinra, with sephiroth, with the cult. ] Never had any issue telling people when I wasn't interested in something, have I?

[ it is practically his catchphrase, he knows. but. honesty for honesty: ]

I wasn't always sure you were... serious.

[again, super fine with it. she's really out here straddling him on her bed and necking him and they're having a weirdly serious conversation about like and like and the world being too busy for them to explore this before now. she stops biting for the moment, settling for a little kiss in the juncture between his neck and his shoulder and tucking her face there to listen, one hand at the back of cloud's neck and the other trailing fingers over his side where she can reach.]

Good point. You're really good at telling people to beat it when you're not in the mood. [always funny to witness, but when she thinks about it he really has not tried to get rid of her since they very first met. and to the rest...she shifts a little in his lap to make herself more comfortable, lips brushing against him every now and then while she talks.] Maybe I wasn't really, at first. After all, you were just some guy who came crashing through my roof and helped throw Reno off my trail. And...it never felt like we really had time to consider it. Or like it was a bad idea to when there were so many other things we had to think about. [like shinra. sephiroth. tifa. zack. everything.]

But I'm serious right now. Have been for a little while, actually.

[ thinks about how he has a hickey for trial but no one can see it so it's Okay. he lets her keep kissing and touching. somehow, despite the fact that she's being so intimate, it's still easier than having this conversation while staring each other in the eyes. he doesn't want any hesitation he feels to reflect on his face and make her think he regrets this.

a lot of what she's saying is how he felt too, really. no time. other things to think about. he was pretty sure she still had feelings for zack, even. and he's not certain that isn't still the case, but...well. it's a bit late to consider what that might mean later down the line if they're already doing this.

that doesn't make him not curious, though. ]

How long's a little while? [ does he get to know? also what if the hand on her back kind of slides over her back to her hip to run over her thigh. what if he is testing that. for curiosity's sake. ]

[yeah. he sure does. she's not done yet either which is the worst part but cloud wears turtlenecks enough nobody will ever know. as it is, she's content to take her time with what she's doing here, fingers brushing through the ends of his hair and lips still softly mouthing at him while he takes his time to decide what to say to that.

of course she still has feelings for zack, just like she knows he has feelings for tifa. that was just another part of it, but at the same time she thinks in this exact moment that does not matter as much, because they have feelings for each other. maybe that's the part they should focus on right now. the hand on her back moves, stroking over her hip and to her thigh and without really thinking about it it means she presses her leg up into cloud's hand. the problem with that is it means spreading her thighs a little wider over him, but that's probably fine. she's too busy brushing over his hair and working her teeth over the nicely reddening patch of skin at his neck.]

Dunno. Um...maybe by our date? The Skywheel. [maybe a little before that. she was kind of doomed around then though.

"you're not him, but that's okay. because right now i wanna be with you."

she knew by then it was too late to turn back.]

[ it is like. very distracting how much she's enjoying nipping at his neck. also distracting: her pushing her leg against his hand and spreading her legs a little more. she cannot see the way his eyes drift down there but it is happening. hello. pets thigh more? it's over her dress and it's a soft touch but he is curious and exploring reactions as well.

on a less physical front, he frowns a little at her answer, because... ]

That's pretty recent. [ he's not sure how he feels about it? the recency. not that he knows if he could pinpoint it for himself, so maybe he shouldn't think about it too hard. especially since he also remembers the same phrase she's thinking of now. ] And after that, we...

[ hmm. a lot of things happened after that. some which makes his head hurt if he thinks too hard about it. ]

We didn't have a lot of time to talk. [ he is going to settle on that. ]

[this is kind of less fair because she is pretty sure cloud has no idea what he's doing. and also, while this isn't much of anything (gentle touches, everything over clothes), it's by far the most intimate kind of touching they've explored together so far. her face remains against his neck, and while his hand continues to pet over her thigh it means she bites down a little harder. this is not a negative reaction, judging by the way she shifts a little further for comfort and to adjust over him.

on the less physical front...she sighs.]

Maybe I should rephrase it as...maybe by then, I was okay acknowledging what I knew I wasn't sure we could have. [because if she's honest with herself, she's liked him for some time and really just tried so hard to avoid it for his own sake. and that never quite worked out the way she wanted.] But we didn't have a lot of time to talk after. And then we came here, and we had Yuffie to look after and we knew we had to find a way back, and it felt...selfish, really, to think more about it when I know you had a bigger picture in mind. And that was okay. I did, too. But...I don't want to ignore it anymore.

[ they are truly doing these intimate exploratory touches while having this talk and it is kind of a funny dichotomy. she likes the petting, and he, well-- learned something new today in that he likes the biting, which was not a thing he considered before. he pets a little higher up her thigh, almost teasing, before his hand drifts as he experimentally squeezes her leg through the skirt? this isn't really a thing, but he's just. trying touches, here.

"what I knew I wasn't sure we could have", huh. ]

... I don't want to only think about the bigger picture. [ not only because the bigger picture is sephiroth and he is sick and tired of being forever linked to him, though that is a big part of it. but despite pretenses he has things he wants and things he feels and he's not necessarily good at putting them aside. ] Even if this is selfish, I...

[ want it too. he doesn't outright say it because he thinks it's obvious by now, and because he has said so much already give his little baby heart a break he is not this good at words ]

[it's not even so much that she likes the petting (she does, in a weird way), it's really she just likes the touch from cloud in general. she likes that he feels comfortable enough with her to try, and to be fair to her it's...y'know. been a while since anyone has touched her. feeling it from cloud is new, and she's not going to rush him into deciding what he wants to try. he squeezes her leg through her skirt and there's a little noise of surprised muffled into his neck, but she doesn't push him away. there's just another kiss to his collarbone.]

...yeah. [she gets it. he doesn't have to outright say it given they're here right now, but even the aborted attempt helps her know it's not just her. that cloud really does care in his own way, that he wants to take this plunge with her even knowing the battles they have ahead. it's reassuring in its own way.] We have a little more time now, don't we? So...we can use it to take a little more of what we want from each other.

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