[It's strange, how he can't quite track things back to when this all began. Their first meeting is still clear in his mind - he, a bemused newcomer with all the questions to ask and she, already on her way to the clinic with all the airs of someone who had been here for months. From that, their paths had crossed again and again, with each time adding another thin layer of the unexpected affection that had slowly but surely built between them.
Ignis had never been aiming for this. He'd never sought to see her as more than a friend, and yet... she'd so quickly become so much more than that.]
Mm. [He hums softly, lightly nudging his nose against hers before he kisses her again, just briefly. Being with her feels like belonging. Not in the way he belongs with his friends, where he's part of a matching set, but more like being a puzzle piece that only fits in beside her in the wider picture of Hadriel itself.
( It doesn't seem so important right now, with her fingers hooking into a belt loop and his lips so utterly, utterly kissable. Like he's some little thing she never realised was missing from her life before.
Life had always been okay, just fine. She knew how to keep busy, had friends she called family and enjoyed drinks and strangers. It was an existence that never troubled her, but somehow-
It's brighter with this. Far brighter with him. Things she only vaguely understood seem to fall into place now, pushed there by each brush of their lips as she pulls him back until she hits the wall behind her. )
[She doesn't need to actively pull him for long before he gets the idea and gently pushes her back, all but pinning her between himself and the wall as he leans down to capture her lips again. It's a firmer press this time, more heated in a press of lips and tongue as he pins the hand clasped in his to the wall just above her head and holds it there.
Everything about her and everything she sparks in him is new and different and entirely unique to her, from the way he seeks out contact with her to the way that finding it feels so much like belonging.
It's without asking, and with little warning that he frees her hand only to lift her up against the wall, settling her thighs at his hips.]
( He shifts his hand from hers before Kate gets impatient enough to yank it away from the wall, leaving her just enough time to settle her hands on his shoulders as he lifts her off the ground. Kate inhales reflexively, her fingers finding their way into the very ends of his hair as her thighs squeeze against his hips and her legs wrap themselves around him. )
Sure you don't want to help?
( Right. Help. Help is exactly what that low purr and the nip of her teeth against his jaw means. Certainly just help with the way her lips trail across a path of bone to his earlobe.
[His fingers run along the line of her jaw to coax her back, another kiss landing on her lips once that's done. When he's content she's holding herself up he slides a hand along one of her thighs and utters a soft 'hah' with the faintest lick of sarcasm wrapped around it.]
I'm afraid not. [He tells her, his expression warm as it ever is in these situations even while he quite deliberately manhandles her into doing what he wants.]
I had something else in mind.
[Ignis would have been more than satisfied with anything. A kiss, a talk, a drink shared while they swapped stories of their time spent running through the desert and what they'd seen while they were out there. Anything, right up to this, where it seems that she noticed his absence just as much as he noticed hers.]
( Is that how it's going to go? When he pulls back from the kiss, her brows raise slightly, brown eyes dancing with amusement at his response.
His presence has been sorely, sorely missed over the weeks they've spent apart, a sensation Kate's been all too aware of the entire time, and being back together...
Well, there's something easy and familiar about this method of expression. Saying everything that needs to be said without wasting a word.
Hm. [He squeezes his fingers against her thigh and looks at her, the humour in her eyes reflected back in his own.] I had thought I was making it obvious.
[Kate, this isn't the time for you to act like you don't know what's going on.
As he steps back from the wall, still with her legs wrapped around his waist, a gentle kiss is planted to her jaw line. He smiles, amused, and she could easily weigh nothing at all for how little effort he makes in holding her up.]
( She can't help herself sometimes, especially when the room is filled with the lightness that comes from being back together, whole and safe, and his smile is sparkling in his eyes.
No, she doesn't need him to be more specific, she just needs those lips to find hers again. Call her greedy, but she hasn't felt them for all too long and each part of her body hums with a familiar need for something more. )
Just need to get out of these clothes.
( It really does lose some of the romance to be wearing scruffy jeans and a t-shirt that suffers permanent stains. )
[But not immediately. He kisses her first, a slow and warm press of lips before he crosses the room and only takes his hands off her to deal with the bedroom door. They could have stopped anywhere along the way for this, but the separation demands that little bit of extra comfort.
When he sets her down on the edge of the bed it's with another lingering kiss, soft and entirely savoured. What she's wearing doesn't bother him in the slightest.]
( Surely there's no difficulty in walking and removing clothing, is there? Well, perhaps while Kate's hands are idly exploring whatever parts of him they can reach, as though he's the paths of home revisited for the first time in a while, everything familiar and right under her fingertips. The barest of smiles touching the very edges of her lips as he walks them back through the flat and Kate never feels the need to turn her head back or jump down and walk.
It's fine just like this.
And it's better when he kisses her again, Kate's hand curling into the fabric of Ignis' shirt, using it as leverage to tug him onto the bed as they kiss, smoothly pushing herself on top with a few well-placed movements. Her fingers find buttons as her hips settle on top of his.
... That's a good enough answer to your question, right, Ignis? )
[He doesn't resist the switch of position - it's a good enough answer, and just the one that he was looking for. His hands don't lie idle, pulling her t-shirt off and gently drawing her hair loose, kisses lingering warmly and frequently between movements and the light running of fingertips along soft skin.
The position of every scar is memorised for him to find, every mark of battle and hard won blemish on her body.
When her hands move over his shoulders he shifts to make it easier to push his shirt off, and once it's tossed aside he lies back and draws her with him, over him, fingers curled around the back of her head as he kisses her.]
I've missed you. [He murmurs between one press of lips and the next, the words coming out like something easy and natural.
With his heartbeat slowly quickening and a fluttering warmth settling through him, it doesn't feel so strange to say it. He'd missed her. Missed this. But mostly... just missed being with her.]
( Somewhere between her top coming off and the warmth of bodies pressed against one another, lips seeking the other out, there's a skip of Kate's heart and something pooling in the base of her stomach which says she'd be quite happy with this and nothing more. Something in this simple moment which feels like enough, more than enough.
She pulls back from the kiss more sharply than intended, eyes slightly narrowed as they map out his face once more, a breathless pause that barely lasts a moment before her fingers find his glasses and pull them off, discarding them to one side. )
That so?
( Her voice is light and there's a smirk, a smile, curling at the corners of her mouth as she sinks back down for another kiss. )
[He follows the movement of her hands, marking where she places the glasses down. Quickly, though, his attention is captured by her again and he isn't given time to speak before another kiss halts any words he might have said.
Ignis closes his eyes, relaxing into everything about being with her, one hand at the curve of her hip and the other idling in her hair. He could stay like this and be happy with nothing more, he thinks.]
Mm. [He says, once he can. His eyes open slowly to look up at her.] It's so.
( Maybe that's a good thing for Kate when things are suddenly feeling so strange. A distraction before he realises - or, at least, can say that he realises - that something's off. A distraction which is easily found in his lips and the touch of his hands against her, Kate running her hands through his hair, palms resting either side of his face, giving him just enough time to get those little words out before more kisses pepper his lips, tracing their way to his jaw in soft, chaste movements. No teeth, no harsh movement. Just her lips seeking skin after this time apart. )
[She knows his eyesight isn't actually that bad, and it's certainly not bad enough that he can't follow her movements as she kisses down his jaw so slowly. He sighs softly, eyelids dipping slightly, fingertips tracing the curve of her waist and the dip of her spine.
The gentle clenching around his heart has nothing to do with the curl of warmth in the pit of is stomach or the subtle reactions of his body to her attentions. It does prompt him, though, to tip her over onto her side, to lightly cup the side of her face and kiss her again before he props himself up on one elbow to look at her.
She's beautiful, and he's always known it, but she seems even more so now.]
( The movement causes a soft noise to bubble up in Kate's throat, caught off guard as she's rolled onto the bed, catching his lower lip between her teeth when he first pulls back, a gentle tug to prolong the kiss by just a moment. )
Yes?
( When she moves, she takes care to move weight off loose hair and toss it behind her, leaning back on her arms and looking up with raised brows and a soft smile.
[He hasn't moved too far from her - just far enough to allow the movement of his eyes up and down her body. Every inch of skin, every scar old and new has seen the touch of lips or hands and still she seems so new to him, and before he realises he's staring he meets her eyes and that smile and his pulse skips, just once.
Words curl up, up from his heart to an almost-thought that doesn't make it to speech. His fingers brush the line of her jaw, the curve of her ear, and he kisses her again without offering any elaboration on his thoughts.]
( It might be a good thing that those words never make it past his lips, that Kate can easily be distracted by the brush of fingers and a kiss which quickly deepens, held together by her hand threading into his hair, back arching up towards him as though he's got her by a string.
This has always been nerve-wracking, from that emotion-charged first kiss during sunset to this very moment, but there's something all too intense which has crept up, slowly, over the months together. Something she doesn't recognise which comes out in moments like this where a simple brush of lips and fingers is enough to make her crave his touch in a way Kate isn't used to - seeking it out rather than simply rolling with it.
Something that has a name she can't quite place to it. )
[There's always room for something further but here, he doesn't rush towards it. He doesn't need anything save for the press of her lips against his, the brush of skin against skin, and he follows the curve of her waist with the backs of his fingers before his hand comes to rest on her hip again, pushing for nothing more.
It was this that he'd missed. The closeness and the intimacy of just having her near to him. Anything else was a bonus.]
Kate, I... [He murmurs, barely an inch parted from her lips. The words don't come out, though, lost in another kiss as he pulls her in close, fitting her body against his like it was always meant to be there.]
( He shushes himself before she does it for him, and maybe that's for the best right now, because it's easier to melt against him when that nameless intensity lingers unacknowledged in the background. Do certain things really need to be said?
A small part of her mind, the one that's largely silenced by kisses and doing rather than speaking, knows they do. After all, it's a regret she's carried for years. Leaving certain things unsaid.
But for now, she can lose herself in running fingers down Ignis' spine, catching his lip between her teeth and pulling with a smile that's more playful than devious, more comfortable like this than she has any right to be. )
[Perhaps they should be said. Perhaps they should, when you can never be sure what the next day will bring, and what regrets there could be if you hold the important things back until it's too late. He shivers slightly against the fingers up his spine, and a soft chuckle rides an exhaled breath after her teeth tug against his lip.
With the interruption and time offered to quietly compose himself he doesn't struggle against unspoken words this time, but holds his silence as he closes his eyes and presses his forehead lightly against hers. It would be an easy thing to stay here, at least until the cares of the world outside this room begin to seep back in. How could it be wrong to want to stay somewhere that feels so much like home?
She's been his first for everything. First kiss, first romance, first intimate partner. His first...
Ignis opens his eyes, and he knows as surely as Kate is solid in front of him that the gentle twist in his chest each time she looks at him has nothing to do with simply missing her. While they're side by side he abruptly pulls her in close, his chin tucked gently on top of her head, his voice a low hum in his chest.]
It's amazing... how one day someone walks into your life, and you can't remember how you ever lived without them.
( It takes a special kind of strength to open your heart like that, intentionally leave yourself at the mercy of all those feelings. One thing to fall into it accidentally, like missing a step on the stairs and tumbling to the bottom, but to let it all out-
No. Not yet. She's not even sure what it really is, other than a heady rush of emotion which constantly leaves her wanting more. Never wanting it to end but knowing it's all but guaranteed to. The Door hangs over every moment they have together and her mind inevitably drifts there when her insides contort around themselves uncomfortably. No matter how easy it can be to feel as though they're trapped here forever, every month The Door opens, all too often they hear that someone else has gone home. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He pulls her in against him and she lies still against his chest, listening to the vibrations of his voice as the words sink in.
[She's been a constant presence since he arrived here. Others have come and gone, friends and acquaintances alike, even Noctis, and yet Kate has always been the one who stayed. It would be a fool's hope to think they could remain this way, but for his own part, he intends to make the best of it for as long as it lasts.
He hears his name and almost holds his breath. His fingertips brush up her back to her shoulder, clasping lightly over it.]
It's alright. [There's something here, felt by them both, with both unwilling to break the tenuous thread of security that staying silent ensures. Ignis reassures her with a soft murmur, a kiss pressed to the top of her head.]
( Better like this a little while longer as those feelings percolate, the uncomfortable bubbling in her stomach lessening when he leaves anything else to one side. This is all she really needs, really wants, right now, anyway.
Silence reigns and her eyes slide closed, comfortable until she shifts and feels the waistband of her jeans against her hipbones. )
Mmm... trousers.
( They should probably take those off if they don't plan on moving. )
[He could have stayed where he is quite contentedly, despite the faint sensation of his own trousers pressing lightly into the side of his hip. When she speaks, he huffs out a soft sigh of amusement and nods, sitting up.]
If this is where we're to be for a while. [Comes the idle agreement, though he appears content enough to watch her move before he makes any movement himself.]
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Ignis had never been aiming for this. He'd never sought to see her as more than a friend, and yet... she'd so quickly become so much more than that.]
Mm. [He hums softly, lightly nudging his nose against hers before he kisses her again, just briefly. Being with her feels like belonging. Not in the way he belongs with his friends, where he's part of a matching set, but more like being a puzzle piece that only fits in beside her in the wider picture of Hadriel itself.
I missed you.]
Have I interrupted something?
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( It doesn't seem so important right now, with her fingers hooking into a belt loop and his lips so utterly, utterly kissable. Like he's some little thing she never realised was missing from her life before.
Life had always been okay, just fine. She knew how to keep busy, had friends she called family and enjoyed drinks and strangers. It was an existence that never troubled her, but somehow-
It's brighter with this. Far brighter with him. Things she only vaguely understood seem to fall into place now, pushed there by each brush of their lips as she pulls him back until she hits the wall behind her. )
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[She doesn't need to actively pull him for long before he gets the idea and gently pushes her back, all but pinning her between himself and the wall as he leans down to capture her lips again. It's a firmer press this time, more heated in a press of lips and tongue as he pins the hand clasped in his to the wall just above her head and holds it there.
Everything about her and everything she sparks in him is new and different and entirely unique to her, from the way he seeks out contact with her to the way that finding it feels so much like belonging.
It's without asking, and with little warning that he frees her hand only to lift her up against the wall, settling her thighs at his hips.]
Sorry to pull you away from it.
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Sure you don't want to help?
( Right. Help. Help is exactly what that low purr and the nip of her teeth against his jaw means. Certainly just help with the way her lips trail across a path of bone to his earlobe.
Help and nothing else. )
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I'm afraid not. [He tells her, his expression warm as it ever is in these situations even while he quite deliberately manhandles her into doing what he wants.]
I had something else in mind.
[Ignis would have been more than satisfied with anything. A kiss, a talk, a drink shared while they swapped stories of their time spent running through the desert and what they'd seen while they were out there. Anything, right up to this, where it seems that she noticed his absence just as much as he noticed hers.]
But I'll be sure to help you later.
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His presence has been sorely, sorely missed over the weeks they've spent apart, a sensation Kate's been all too aware of the entire time, and being back together...
Well, there's something easy and familiar about this method of expression. Saying everything that needs to be said without wasting a word.
I missed you.
But for the moment? Colour her curious. )
And that is?
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[Kate, this isn't the time for you to act like you don't know what's going on.
As he steps back from the wall, still with her legs wrapped around his waist, a gentle kiss is planted to her jaw line. He smiles, amused, and she could easily weigh nothing at all for how little effort he makes in holding her up.]
Do you need me to be more specific?
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No, she doesn't need him to be more specific, she just needs those lips to find hers again. Call her greedy, but she hasn't felt them for all too long and each part of her body hums with a familiar need for something more. )
Just need to get out of these clothes.
( It really does lose some of the romance to be wearing scruffy jeans and a t-shirt that suffers permanent stains. )
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[But not immediately. He kisses her first, a slow and warm press of lips before he crosses the room and only takes his hands off her to deal with the bedroom door. They could have stopped anywhere along the way for this, but the separation demands that little bit of extra comfort.
When he sets her down on the edge of the bed it's with another lingering kiss, soft and entirely savoured. What she's wearing doesn't bother him in the slightest.]
I assume you'll return the favour?
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It's fine just like this.
And it's better when he kisses her again, Kate's hand curling into the fabric of Ignis' shirt, using it as leverage to tug him onto the bed as they kiss, smoothly pushing herself on top with a few well-placed movements. Her fingers find buttons as her hips settle on top of his.
... That's a good enough answer to your question, right, Ignis? )
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The position of every scar is memorised for him to find, every mark of battle and hard won blemish on her body.
When her hands move over his shoulders he shifts to make it easier to push his shirt off, and once it's tossed aside he lies back and draws her with him, over him, fingers curled around the back of her head as he kisses her.]
I've missed you. [He murmurs between one press of lips and the next, the words coming out like something easy and natural.
With his heartbeat slowly quickening and a fluttering warmth settling through him, it doesn't feel so strange to say it. He'd missed her. Missed this. But mostly... just missed being with her.]
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She pulls back from the kiss more sharply than intended, eyes slightly narrowed as they map out his face once more, a breathless pause that barely lasts a moment before her fingers find his glasses and pull them off, discarding them to one side. )
That so?
( Her voice is light and there's a smirk, a smile, curling at the corners of her mouth as she sinks back down for another kiss. )
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Ignis closes his eyes, relaxing into everything about being with her, one hand at the curve of her hip and the other idling in her hair. He could stay like this and be happy with nothing more, he thinks.]
Mm. [He says, once he can. His eyes open slowly to look up at her.] It's so.
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The gentle clenching around his heart has nothing to do with the curl of warmth in the pit of is stomach or the subtle reactions of his body to her attentions. It does prompt him, though, to tip her over onto her side, to lightly cup the side of her face and kiss her again before he props himself up on one elbow to look at her.
She's beautiful, and he's always known it, but she seems even more so now.]
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Yes?
( When she moves, she takes care to move weight off loose hair and toss it behind her, leaning back on her arms and looking up with raised brows and a soft smile.
You're staring, Ignis. )
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[He hasn't moved too far from her - just far enough to allow the movement of his eyes up and down her body. Every inch of skin, every scar old and new has seen the touch of lips or hands and still she seems so new to him, and before he realises he's staring he meets her eyes and that smile and his pulse skips, just once.
Words curl up, up from his heart to an almost-thought that doesn't make it to speech. His fingers brush the line of her jaw, the curve of her ear, and he kisses her again without offering any elaboration on his thoughts.]
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This has always been nerve-wracking, from that emotion-charged first kiss during sunset to this very moment, but there's something all too intense which has crept up, slowly, over the months together. Something she doesn't recognise which comes out in moments like this where a simple brush of lips and fingers is enough to make her crave his touch in a way Kate isn't used to - seeking it out rather than simply rolling with it.
Something that has a name she can't quite place to it. )
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It was this that he'd missed. The closeness and the intimacy of just having her near to him. Anything else was a bonus.]
Kate, I... [He murmurs, barely an inch parted from her lips. The words don't come out, though, lost in another kiss as he pulls her in close, fitting her body against his like it was always meant to be there.]
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A small part of her mind, the one that's largely silenced by kisses and doing rather than speaking, knows they do. After all, it's a regret she's carried for years. Leaving certain things unsaid.
But for now, she can lose herself in running fingers down Ignis' spine, catching his lip between her teeth and pulling with a smile that's more playful than devious, more comfortable like this than she has any right to be. )
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With the interruption and time offered to quietly compose himself he doesn't struggle against unspoken words this time, but holds his silence as he closes his eyes and presses his forehead lightly against hers. It would be an easy thing to stay here, at least until the cares of the world outside this room begin to seep back in. How could it be wrong to want to stay somewhere that feels so much like home?
She's been his first for everything. First kiss, first romance, first intimate partner. His first...
Ignis opens his eyes, and he knows as surely as Kate is solid in front of him that the gentle twist in his chest each time she looks at him has nothing to do with simply missing her. While they're side by side he abruptly pulls her in close, his chin tucked gently on top of her head, his voice a low hum in his chest.]
It's amazing... how one day someone walks into your life, and you can't remember how you ever lived without them.
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No. Not yet. She's not even sure what it really is, other than a heady rush of emotion which constantly leaves her wanting more. Never wanting it to end but knowing it's all but guaranteed to. The Door hangs over every moment they have together and her mind inevitably drifts there when her insides contort around themselves uncomfortably. No matter how easy it can be to feel as though they're trapped here forever, every month The Door opens, all too often they hear that someone else has gone home. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He pulls her in against him and she lies still against his chest, listening to the vibrations of his voice as the words sink in.
...Hell. )
Ignis...
( But she doesn't know how to finish that. )
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He hears his name and almost holds his breath. His fingertips brush up her back to her shoulder, clasping lightly over it.]
It's alright. [There's something here, felt by them both, with both unwilling to break the tenuous thread of security that staying silent ensures. Ignis reassures her with a soft murmur, a kiss pressed to the top of her head.]
I know.
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Silence reigns and her eyes slide closed, comfortable until she shifts and feels the waistband of her jeans against her hipbones. )
Mmm... trousers.
( They should probably take those off if they don't plan on moving. )
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If this is where we're to be for a while. [Comes the idle agreement, though he appears content enough to watch her move before he makes any movement himself.]
You ought to tell me of your travels.
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