some things in life are undeniable

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

Sohalia slipped from the party and into the back room of the Hanged Man, closing the door behind them and leaning against it for a moment as the room wobbled slightly in her vision. She was admittedly drunker than she'd planned on being for this conversation, but that was fine. She was fine. Everything was fine.

The back room was cozy, complete with plush sofas and a second bar, but with the music dimmed by the closed door and the fact that she and Koa were the only two in the room, it felt downright intimate. Paired with their body-shot-and-almost-kiss combo, Soh could easily imagine this going in a variety of different directions, some decidedly more fun than others.

But before she could get into any of that, she knew she had one thing that she had to take care of first. After a moment's pause, where she simply leaned her head back against the door and looked at Koa, she spoke. "I finished my quest," she said without preamble, because he would know what that meant - for him, and for his family. And that was what mattered most. Not her feelings, not their relationship (such as it was), but rescuing Noe.

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Have the words 'I need to talk to you' ever inspired anything but dread in the person they're directed toward? They certainly have Koa blanching, his cheeks growing (relatively) pale beneath the body glitter he'd scrubbed off of Mateo's chest. "O...kay," he'd responded a bit unsteadily, too dizzy with alcohol and tonal whiplash to do anything but grab his drink and his shirt and follow obediently behind as Soh leads him to the back room.

He steps inside and turns around to find her leaning on the shut door, and for a moment they stay like that, a wealth of possibility in the (relative) quiet. Unsure if she's planning to scream at him or jump his bones and too weighed down by the haze of the past few hours to decide which would be better, Koa fidgets with his shirt as he waits for what feels like forever but is really maybe fifteen seconds for Soh to say her part.

He's just opened his mouth to prompt her when Soh's voice finally cuts through the din, sliding their way into his brain. And while it takes a second for him to parse exactly what she means, once he does his teeth snap shut, before opening again. "You... finished." The quest. The rose.

Hope blooms like dawn on Koa's face, his open expression made even more frank than usual by the lubrication of alcohol and surprise. Taking a half-step toward Sohalia, he blinks down at her in half-disbelief, too scared to let himself think it's true. "Are we... I mean, do you still..." Koa swallows, pushed beyond his usual limits to form coherent thoughts. There's only one word that matters, in the end, one thing he must confirm before he can really know how he should feel.

"Noe?"

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

To be perfectly honest, Sohalia wasn't really quite sure what she should be feeling at the moment, either. Their relationship hadn't exactly been the most stable of things, and even now, when she was still trying to find ways to fight to bring Koa back to her, she wasn't really sure how to build a foundation on shaky ground. But as she leaned back against the door, gazing at him, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would, at least, make good on her promise to him.

She would cure Noe.

She didn't know what would come after. She didn't know how Koa would feel about her. But that didn't matter, because she'd meant it when she'd said before that all lives deserved saving. And Noe - no matter her own tumultuous past with the girl - was no exception.

Soh pushed off the door, crossing the distance between them to peer up into Koa's face. She could see the hope blooming, and a little half-smile blossomed on her face in response. Did he really think she would bring him back here just to say she'd finished her quest, but no, you can't have the rose now, sorry? "Noe," she confirmed. Just that. Just her name. No strings, no buts, no hesitations. She'd promised to do this for him, and she had.

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Noe.

He'd never doubted she'd keep her promise - he knows Sohalia better than that, respects her too much to believe she could be so petty and cruel. It's resentment he'd feared, that he now searches her face for and does not find. All he sees is resolution, and promise, and he feels his smile broaden and his shoulders slack as a surge of warm adoration wells inside him because gods she has no right to be this good.

Without thought or prelude Koa closes the space between them, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her into a hug. "This is incredibke!" Koa laughs, his bare chest rumbling against her. Buzzed and elated and overcome, he lifts Soh up and spins her around like a precious treasure won at the fair.

Setting her back on solid ground, Koa pushes the Luminary just far enough away to cup her face. The skin is sinfully smooth on his calloused hands, and the look he gives her holds nothing less than awe and adoration. "You are incredible," Koa breathes, flushing as he meets those argent eyes, the history and barriers and weight of being good discarded with his shirt on the backroom floor.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

How could Sohalia resent him, when all of this had been her idea in the first place? Never had he asked for her to help him - and, knowing him, he never would have dreamed that she would offer. Not like this. Not with a rose granted by Vi himself, with the fate of their world at stake. But here she was, fulfilling her promise - and proud, and pleased, and relieved to be able to do so in such spectacular fashion.

Suddenly, Koa was there, wrapping her against his bare chest in a hug that took her breath away for more reasons than one, and she might have been content to stand against him for the rest of the evening if not for the fact that he spun her in a circle, pulling a squealing laugh from her lips.

And then she was back on solid ground (if, perhaps, a bit shakily, thanks to the alcohol still very present in her system), and Koa was cupping her face, and he was looking at her with awe and adoration and like she was the shining sun and he was just floating in her orbit, and gods did she love him more in that moment than perhaps in any other. And between the welling emotions and the drunken elation and the words that came from him next, it was all Soh could do to keep from surging to her toes to press her lips against his.

But somehow, she managed to respect that he'd said no to her the last time they'd been together, managed to avoid crossing a line that she could never take back. Instead, she smiled up at him, breathless with wonder and affection and all the things she couldn't name at present. She was hyperaware of everywhere they touched - his hands on her face, calloused thumbs on her smooth cheeks; her own hands on his shoulders, still gripping him from where he'd spun her.

"You're incredible, Koa," she told him, sincerity in her intense silver gaze. She reached one hand up to brush her thumb against his neck, where she'd licked a trail up to his jawbone only a few moments before. "So incredible," came the hushed whisper, so soft that she wasn't even sure she'd said it aloud. But even if she hadn't, it was clear on her face: devotion, and determination, and all the things she'd promised him before, on clear display.

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

At some point his fingers have crept into her hair, or maybe her hair has overcome his fingers? Either way he finds himself spinning strands of gold, letting a curl as soft as silk run like sunlight through his grasp. He burns at every point they touch: her hands on his bare shoulders, his fingers on her cheeks, the brush of her breasts against his chest, just barely separated by thin fabric. He leans into her thumb stroke on his neck, melting at the praise like a Labrador puppy who's just been told he's the goodest boi. He wants to be the goodest boi.

So why is there a part of him screaming that this is bad?

But y'know what? Fuck that voice. Koa is drunk and elated and young and dumb and standing in front of a gorgeous, wonderful girl who loves him and wants him and he's so damn tired of holding back. He's tired of making the smart call, the right call- right now all he really wants is the thing that feels good. So what if Soh is Flora's bestie and he's still half in love with the Doubletake? He's half in love with Sohalia, too, with the silver gaze that makes him shiver and the heart that beats for the entire world, leaving so little for herself. His hand slips back to cup her neck, tilting her head up toward him; he focuses in on that coral mouth, pert and warm and begging to be tasted.

Koa's gaze lifts back up to meet hers, his expression utterly undone. "I'd like to kiss you," he tells her in a voice that is half boyish promise, half masculine growl, but waits for her affirmative before taking the plunge.

Consent is sexy, kids.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

Perhaps this wasn’t exactly the way Sohalia had envisioned this conversation going, but she wasn’t going to complain. Not when it landed her exactly where she wanted to be: in the arms of the man she loved.

There was a tiny part of her that screamed in the back of her mind, tugging at her logic and begging her not like this. That she and Koa shouldn’t fall back together on the trail of a rose, in the wake of a drunken stupor that would no doubt disappear come morning, leaving them exactly where they had been before: Sohalia a girl in love, and Koa a boy too indecisive to take the plunge with her.

But if she was only going to get to have him in bits and pieces here and there, wouldn’t it be better to take what was offered and worry about the rest later?

And maybe, another part of her mind whispered, maybe this wasn’t just a lapse in judgment born of too much alcohol and too little sense. Maybe Koa really had decided to be with her, and this was just how things had played out. Maybe being here, in his arms, wasn’t an accident or a mistake or an illusion - maybe this was what was real. And she decided to cling to that with all that she had left, because she was tired of everything being complicated, tired of the what-ifs and if-onlies, tired of trying so hard to be good and respectful and honest when in the end it got her nowhere -

Koa’s touch was like a brand on her neck as he tilted her head back. Her fingers tightened on his bare skin, her breath catching in her throat because, gods, he was so perfect -

And a million responses ran through her mind, each more seductive than the last -

But in the end, she was just a girl in love, her heart melting once more in her chest, and she was breathless as her gaze flickered to his lips and she whispered, ”Please.”

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Beneath the heady, horny heat that's threatening to overwhelm him lurks a tendril of self-control. Thin as piano wire, it's holding on for dear fucking life, pulling him back like a leash keeps a dog from running into traffic after that squirrel. Koa's breath may be shallow and his cheeks may be flushed, but somewhere deep down he knows he shouldn't do this, even as he licks his lips in preparation for tasting hers.

But seriously fam- you try being young and drunk and a little bit in love with a girl who's literally begging you to kiss her, and see how fast that self-control unspools.

She's barely finished the word when he's swooping down to claim her, fingers tightening at the base of her hairline as he brings Sohalia's face up to meet his. Confident and hungry, he doesn't hesitate or pussy foot around - he crashes against her with the unleashed flood of everything he's kept pent up these long years, as eager and worshipful as a man in the desert who's finally found a cool crystal spring and will drink until he's sated or he bursts.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

No sooner had the word left her than Koa's lips were on hers, hot and insistent, and everything around her simply ceased to exist. There was no shared history, no my-best-friend-is-your-ex, not even any Family to save Noe from. There was only she and Koa, and the environment in which she was dimly aware of a couch that they could so easily fall onto, lost in one another and the moment.

Sohalia pressed closer to him, her arms snaking up to wrap around his neck, every bit as eager as he was to lose herself in the kiss. Heat flared where her body touched his and pooled low, immediately ignited by this sudden closeness. It was one thing to yearn for Koa for all this time. That was romantic and loving and tender. This was something else entirely. Not, perhaps, unrelated, but drunken lust doesn't tend to follow quite the same guidelines as sober love.

The fingers of one hand were twined in Koa's hair; the other pressed against the smooth skin of his shoulder. She was not, perhaps, drunk enough or bold enough to climb him like a tree, but she might as well have for all the good the scant (and quickly disappearing) space between them did. This was not the shy Sohalia that Koa had once kissed in the hot springs beneath Stormbreak. She might not be experienced, but this Sohalia wanted in a way that the old one never had, and that desire was evident in the way she leaned into him, her every breath mingling with his as she kissed him back.

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

Soh presses against him and Koa presses back, closing the distance between their bodies as effortlessly as he had their lips. He drinks of her deeply, tasting, devouring, his hand sliding down from her face to caress her neck, her back, her waist. She tastes exactly the way he remembers and like something entirely new, and wants all of it, to consume and be consumed.

Taking a step and then another, Koa shepherds Soh until her back is to the cool wooden door, his left arm raised to keep them steady as they fall into each other in a way they never have before. Deprived of sense and self-restraint, Koa is a creature of instinct and desire: considerate in his ardor, passionate in his need.

And maybe she isn't ready to climb him like a tree unbidden, but Sohalia is no longer in command, and fuck does he want to be climbed. Koa's hand reaches for her thigh, pulling her up and closer to him, the places where their bodies meet aglow with pleasure and want. He presses against her, his lips a grin as he groans her name - "Sohalia," - softly between their mouths, a plea and a promise that if she lets him, he'll make her see the stars.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

Tomorrow would probably be a time for second-guessing and regret - not because Soh didn't want this, want him, but because she wasn't sure he truly wanted her. But when she thought back on this moment, on this night, she knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, that she couldn't possibly regret it. Not when every moment spent with Koa was something new to treasure, even when everything else between them was gone.

Cold wood against her back contrasted sharply with the warmth of Koa's body as he pressed her against the door, Soh arching against him as he kept them steady. Never before had she felt need this carnal, desire this wanton, and when Koa palmed her thigh and pulled her closer, she hooked her knee around his hip to press against him, a soft whimper on her lips at the pleasure promised on her name whispered between them.

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

The taste in her mouth is lime and tequila, sharp and bright and heady and enticing, leaving him dizzy and desperate for another shot. 

He takes the arching of her back as tacit invitation, gripping thighs between his hands and lifting her up to perch on his hips, a queen upon the throne of his desire. Her skirt rides up, exposing bare skin that Koa presses his fingers into, his grasp upon her strong and firm as his body rolls into hers. He lets his lips trail from her mouth and over the angle of her jaw, down into the curve of her neck, each kiss a sighed release of the desire he's pent up for so long.

"Tell me what you want." It's a vibratory rumble against her skin, punctuated by the pressure of his hips, the teasing squeezing of his hands. "Anything you want, it's yours." A dangerous promise, and one that his northbound head would scream at him for daring to make, but he's not listening to his brain just now. He's listening to Sohalia, paying attention to the tiny gasps and gulps, the shifts in her breathing, the ache and need in her voice. It's the music he dances to, the drug he craves - to be wanted, and to want, and to give, and to have.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose

Sohalia

And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back

Sohalia had never done drugs, but she was starting to think that if she had, it might feel something like this. Every touch, every taste, every sensation sang, setting her skin ablaze and her mind aflame. Koa was a drug she couldn’t get enough of, and it was clear in the way she tugged him insistently against her, her nails dragging lightly against his skin. 

He lifted her and she wrapped her legs snugly about his hips, her skirt riding up to expose bare flesh to his wandering hands. He rolled against her, and she whimpered anew, desire coiling within her as she responded in kind. He kissed down her neck, and she gasped as he found a particularly sensitive spot. Gods, but if she died now, she would die happy. 

Tell me what you want, he whispered against her skin, the vibration of his voice making her breath hitch and stutter. ”I want…” What did she want? It was hard to think when she was pinned between his body and the door, all wrapped up in him the way she’d dreamed of for so long. ”I want to taste you,” she murmured, dipping her head to press her lips to his collarbone, trailing lightly up the trail she’d licked earlier. ”I want to feel you.” She nipped at the sensitive skin beneath his jaw.

But it was more than that, wasn’t it? Because what she wanted couldn’t be found pressed against a door or splayed out on a couch or even wrapped up in bedsheets. What she wanted - what she truly wanted - went beyond the physical. Soh retreated, just enough to capture Koa’s face between her hands, cupping his cheeks like he was something precious - because to her, he was. And everything she desired, every bit of her love and lust, was displayed in her open, honest silver gaze. ”I just want you.”

Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken

Koa

Don't take this the wrong way
You knew who I was with every step that I ran to you

His stomach summersaults with pleasure at the graze of her lips upon his collarbone, hips again rolling- and in this position she'll have no trouble recognizing his desire. The rising skirt is less hindrance, more invitation; Koa's hand presses in beneath it, fingers caressing their way up her thigh to the curve of her ass, sneaking beneath the hem of her panties to grasp on supple, sensitive skin. To taste him, to feel him... throwing his head back to allow better access, Koa rumbles a husky laugh. "I can make that happen," he purrs, fingers pressing closer toward the heat of her core in a promise of what all he'll make her feel.

Then her hands are on his stubbled jaw and Koa's looking up, captured by a gaze that blazes quicksilver against the rose flush that stains Sohalia's cheeks. Her face is a mirror into her soul, the desire and hope and want and love laid out and bravely, foolishly on offer for him partake of to whatever end he will. It pulls a gasp of awe from Koa, and maybe a little fear. Nobody's ever loved him like this, nobody's ever offered themselves - all of themselves - like an unfolding flower.

Much like the dog who's caught a car, he doesn't quite know what to do with it.

Gently Koa cradles her cheek, brushing his thumb against the bruised pout of her lip. He wants nothing more than to recapture that mouth, to silence any risk of sRS fEeLInGs getting in the way of the magnetism that's kept them in each others' orbits for all these years. And if it was anyone else he probably would, but he loves Soh too much to risk shattering her by being young and horny and dumb.

"Soh... You're so beautiful, and good, and kind, and so fucking sexy... and fuck, what is wrong with me?" With a strangled sigh the Dragoon leans forward, resting his forehead against hers, their noses brushing as their breath combines. "I want you so bad, but there's a part of me that just... just can't give you everything you want - that you deserve - and I hate it."

He tilts his head, brushing a kiss on her cheek, her nose, her forehead. "I don't ever want to be something you regret," he murmurs, lips coming back to rest a hair's breadth away from the temptation of hers. A mixed message to be sure, but we never said Koa was  great (or even good) at sorting, and she's still in his arms and he's still incredibly attracted to her and a fair bit buzzed and fuck, why do things have to be so hard?

Sorry, Soh. You deserve better than this, but this is what you've got.

Only blue or black days
Electing strange perfections in any stranger I choose