Room 206, Saturday Evening

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine, for he was somewhat certain by this point that his name was indeed 'Valentine,' was sitting on what he was also somewhat certain was the edge of his own bed, looking at the papers littered upon his floor.

Everyone's faces were wrong. Detention had been very wrong. And he didn't have the slightest idea where he was or if perhaps it was his own face that was quite off, after all.

Valentine, if that was his real name, was quite certain that he had gone absolutely barking mad.

(For Naminé.)

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[dark_slippy_thing]

"I'm certain that 'somewhere else' will stick around until tomorrow morning or the world ends, whichever comes first," he mused idly. "As it stands, I simply--" He kind of trailed off a little, thoughtfully.

The notion surprised him a little, actually.

"I'd be worried letting you roam about this place after dark with nothing more than a name, when we really don't know the first thing about this place."

Well, he certainly didn't. He had no idea what she had learned while she had been out and about during his detention.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Do you think it might be dangerous?" she said, stepping a bit closer to him.

She didn't know anything about him, either, but she obviously trusted him, to have drawn him and fallen asleep in his room. Clearly they were friends. He was safe. Right?

[dark_slippy_thing]

"It could be," he replied with a big of a shrug. "One never really knows. Or, perhaps one does know. If 'one' happens to be able to... you know. Remember things. Which we obviously don't."

He knew that it was big and strange and gravity seemed a little wrong and he was the only one with a face around here. He knew that he didn't know the first thing about local geography, and that something had been nasty enough to render a useful book entirely useless by tearing out its pages. And that, for whatever reason, he was afraid of the dark. Not that he'd admit that part.

"It would be safer here, I think. Best to get some rest and make a fresh try again in the morning, when there's likely to be more people about who might know where you live."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"You're far too kind," she said. "You're certain that it's no trouble, that I stay here? I didn't mean to be quite so rude, this morning."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"It's no trouble at all, honestly," he replied with a nod. "And honestly, I wasn't exactly manners personified myself, either."

He smiled, rather in spite of himself.

"We can't be expected to be entirely polite if we're confused and entirely lost and can't even remember our own names, can we?"

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mean to call you a pervert," she laughed, flushing. "But waking up with a strange person isn't something that happens to me terribly often. At least, not so far as I know. Perhaps I'm awfully promiscuous and have lost those memories along with my room number."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"In all fairness, I'm relatively certain now that we weren't drinking," he laughed a little, as well. There was something about seeing her smile that way that was simply contagious. "Unless it was quite the spectacular party, indeed, and most of the people I've seen today had attended as well."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"We might have been drinking on top of that," she reasoned. "Just because we've all lost our memories doesn't mean you and I didn't spend the night in some sort of drunken revelry."

It had certainly seemed to end on a celebratory note, what with both of them partially clothed and snuggled rather close.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Were his ears turning a little pink? That must be your imagination, really.

"I suppose we shall never know," he stated soundly. "Unless we remember. Of course."

...

Of course.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé flushed. "I don't suppose you'd take home some strange faceless girl without being a bit intoxicated," she said, playing idly with the hem of her dress.

[dark_slippy_thing]

Valentine considered that for a moment, his ears still a rather fetching shade of pink.

"Perhaps it's simply a testament as to your character," he suggested. "And, as odd as I might seem to say so, I think you wear the faceless look... rather well."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"Or perhaps I was masked, and you found my mask to be rather fetching," she said lightly. "Masks do have a rather exotic quality to them, you know."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"Well," he said with a smile as he leaned forward ever so slightly. "Perhaps you should take that mask off and we'll have another look, hm?"

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé's hand went up to her mask, and then let go of it again. "I shouldn't like for you to think part of my face is missing," she said. "It's no bother. If you were to be missing a mouth, I might stare and wonder where your words were coming from. It's only natural."

[dark_slippy_thing]

"The mask obscures your eyes some," he stated before he was even really aware that he had been looking at her eyes in the first place. "I think I might like to see them."

They were very... blue, her eyes.

He raised a hand toward the mask.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Naminé froze in place. This was a terribly bad idea. A horrible one.

She stayed very, very still as his hand closed around her mask.

[dark_slippy_thing]

And he pulled it away.

So very strange, to be taking off someone's face. Mask. Someone's mask. Which was covering her face. Which to her, was a rather proper face, indeed, and his was the odd one, wasn't it?

He turned the mask over in his hands. He was gentle with it- face or no, paper was fragile, and he wouldn't want to damage it.

His eyes were on hers at the moment, and to his own surprise, he was smiling. He couldn't make heads or tails of what sort of look she was giving him. But what he was looking at... It simply wasn't as horrifying as he had assumed this morning based simply on the fact that she wasn't wearing a mask.

"Actually, dare I say it, those eyes of yours make the thought of covering them with a mask... almost a sin."

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

"My eyes?" she said softly, her heart pounding in her throat. Why on earth was she inching closer to him? She should be leaving. Did she remember that? Not sleeping in a stranger's room. Leaving. She should say that immediately.

"I should be leaving," Naminé murmured. That voice of rationality might be more pleased with her if she sounded as though even she were listening.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"It's dark," he replied, as though that was all the reason in the world she might need to remain right where she was at.

...

Wasn't it?

He was looking at her eyes. She shouldn't leave. They were so very expressive. He leaned forward a little. Maybe it was to get a better look.

"I understand your eyes," he realized aloud, barely a whisper.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

He was leaning in. She should put her hands right there, on the lapels of his coat. That would help her balance if she leaned in, as well. That made sense, didn't it? Better not to ask why she wanted to lean in.

"What are they saying?" she asked softly.

[dark_slippy_thing]

He was probably going to regret this, wasn't he? Perhaps? Possibly?

Because, really, there was only one way he could possibly answer that question.

And so far, he wasn't regretting it.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

Neither was she. She should. She knew nothing about him except that his name was Valentine and they'd known one another before.

And that he was odd, and kind, and a bit of a flirt.

And that he had a mask for a face, and wasn't used to anyone who didn't.

And that when he stared into her eyes that intensely, her knees felt wobbly.

Perhaps that was all she needed to know.

[dark_slippy_thing]

He wanted to say that the kiss was familiar.

He couldn't.

He wanted to say that he knew the taste of her lips, somehow.

He couldn't.

But they were kissing as though they had been kissing all along, as though this was a sort of dance with steps that they had perfected and knew by heart. And it made his head swim in a most dizzying sort of way. He didn't know her at all.

But he still wanted to say, "I love you," when the kiss had ended.

[palestshadow.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, she nearly said. I don't know why I did that.

I shouldn't be so forward, she really did mean to say. We don't know one another at all and shouldn't be embracing until we've remembered ourselves. This could be awkward and uncomfortable later. Perhaps whatever happened the other night was a terrible mistake, for some reason neither of us remember, and we're compounding it.

That's why I'm leaving immediately.

"I wonder how many times we've kissed before," Naminé said.

[dark_slippy_thing]

"I wonder if we haven't been kissing every waking moment until we forgot ourselves," Valentine added. And it was very difficult to not simply kiss her again.

And again.

And just not stop.

"Spend the night?"