The Path From Town To the Dorms-- Late Saturday Night.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine was up a tree without much of an idea how in the world he was going to get down, and it probably was not the best place in the world for him to be, but it certainly seemed to beat the prospect of being eaten in town.

It didn't make him any less hungry, though.

(For Naminé)

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[dark_slippy_thing]

"It wasn't impersonal," Valentine repeated quietly. "It wasn't like anything that... I mean, nothing has ever felt like that."
And that realization shocked him, too.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I can't say," she admitted, taking a step towards him with a nervous shrug. "I haven't ever been kissed before."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Oh," he looked up in time to see her step toward him, and there he went, forgetting to breathe again. "I didn't... I mean... If you didn't want to be, or anything like that, I..."
He what?
He couldn't exactly take it back.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé shook her head. "I haven't any objection. The opportunity just never presented itself before."

It wasn't nice of her to be this amused.

[dark_slippy_thing]

No, it probably wasn't. But amused was better than leaving, wasn't it? Even if the whole notion that she didn't mind had possibly knocked his mind somewhere clear into next week.

"So then," he ventured forth tentatively as soon as the urge to babble incoherently had passed, "why did you kiss me back?" Oh yes, that wasn't terribly forward of him at all.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé bit her lip and flushed, hands clasped behind her back. "Because ... you were back, and I had missed you a great deal, and was starting to think I should never see you again; and because you were shivering as though you were still trapped in the void; and because I rather liked it when you kissed me."

He probably hadn't expected such candor.

[dark_slippy_thing]

He really hadn't expected such candor at all.

But at the same time, he really didn't mind the aforementioned candor in the least. It was refreshing. And it spared him an 'I have no idea what to make of that' heart attack.

Well, mostly.

"Really?" He was trying not to sound as though this was all a fantastic revelation and was failing at it most terribly. "I liked it too, uh, I mean, you know? When we kissed. Uh." Obviously. "I've somewhat said that already, haven't I?"

He should be quiet now. Yes.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Yes," she said, tilting her head at him curiously. "Whyever did you imagine that I kissed you?"

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Because- I don't know." Valentine might have sounded a little sheepish at that. "I mean, you obviously wouldn't kiss me back if you didn't like it. Right? I mean..."
He shut his mouth and tried to ignore that his ears were turning progressive shades of pink.
"I'm more unfamiliar with this sort of thing than you might think."
This, after all, was so very not impersonal.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"With it being personal, you mean?" Naminé stepped slightly closer, feeling oddly reassured that he seemed every inch at sea as she had felt two nights ago.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"So very personal," he agreed. "I don't know that it's terribly obvious, but really, I haven't had much in the way of experience with anything that could be considered 'personal' at all."
He juggled for a living and lived on the streets because his own tower evicted him. He had really had other things to worry about at the time.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Neither have I," she said softly. She was stepping closer again and if he didn't want her to, he would say so, right? No need to be nervous.

[dark_slippy_thing]

And there she was, stepping closer to him again and he was fidgeting, yes, but perhaps that was what everyone did when their heart skipped a beat or three and maybe it wasn't too obvious that he was starting to smile something of a stupid smile at this revelation that she was a little closer than she had been a moment ago?
"I'll do my best to not be too awkward about it all," he said, his brain still vacationing somewhere and his lips still doing all the hard work without it. "If I appear awkward at all, let me know? And I'll go about whatever it is differently?"

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I haven't any objection to you being awkward," she said, still considering. "But I'm not certain how I do feel about all of this."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"What part of all of it aren't you certain about?" Valentine wasn't certain he was certain about some of this either. He was also certain that he wasn't certain if he should certainly ascertain what it was that he certainly wasn't certain about. Maybe it was best to just figure it out as he went along?

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Demyx. You deciding this is impersonal in a week. What all of this means. How I feel. If I can feel. How you feel. Whether kissing you again will make this better, or worse. Whether I can trust you. What it means that I created you. Whether I restored you or you as I saw you, or worse, as I wanted to see you. If I can swallow all of that long enough to kiss you again. If that's the worst idea ever or the best.

"Everything," she answered, not meeting his eyes. "All the little bits and ends of it."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Ah," he nodded faintly, then turned his own gaze to the floor. Mighty interesting floor, tonight. All dorm-roomish and floorlike as it was. "There are... many little bits and ends, aren't there?"
I'd love to know what they all are. I can't do anything unless I know. I can stand here like a fool- I seem to have perfected my being foolish into an art, you know. Me and my idiot inability to trust people-- to take them at face value.
'At face value.' What a funny phrase that was, really, wasn't it?
"If there are any of those little bits and ends that I might be able to help with? I would..."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

She opened her mouth and was nearly out the first syllable of a perfectly logical resonable response when other impulses won out.

"Can you? Help me, that is?" She stepped just a little closer, standing almost in his arms again, staring up at him with wide blue eyes. "I don't know if you can. I think I would like it, if you could."

[dark_slippy_thing]

His view of the floor was suddenly filled instead with those blue eyes of hers, and Valentine found that he didn't mind at all.
"I think I would like it if you could let me try," he replied, putting his hands on her shoulders quite on impulse. "I think you're worth trying for..."
And there was that urge to kiss her again, and he found himself leaning forward so that his lips were just barely brushing against hers.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Somehow that was exactly the right answer. And then he was leaning forward and she was leaning forward and that was an even better answer, and Naminé let her eyes slide closed as his lips found hers, easing into the kiss.

She hadn't meant to come here, she hadn't realized it was his tree, she hadn't known what to say to him when they met again, but serendipity seemed to be following her around of late. Maybe she needed to let go and follow its lead instead.

[dark_slippy_thing]

This was certainly much better than standing there and wishing she'd stop trying to leave. And while they were kissing, thinks like darkness and whispers and guilt all washed away and it was just him and her. Mostly her. Her. It was just her, and she was everything.
When their lips once more drifted apart for air, he didn't even think before he spoke again.
"Thank you."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé's eyes fluttered open, and she smiled. "Don't thank me. You're the one who thought to get us kissing again."

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine couldn't help but smile back at that. "It didn't take much thinking, really, I suppose. But, I mean, thank you for giving me the chance." ... "To help you, not just to kiss you."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"This may not be terribly easy, you realize," she said, biting her lip. "The helping, I mean. Not the kissing. We seem to be all right at that part."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Yes, we seem to have the kissing part figured out already," he agreed with a bit of a nod. "The rest-- it might not be easy. But I've never had anything come easily my entire life. Why should this be any different? It just makes it worth more in the end."