"I lost my virginity, can I have yours?"
Nathaniel leaned back in his chair, eyebrows rising as he went. "Really?"
Praxina set his phone down on his desk next to his elbow. "Yes really."
"Where did you learn that?"
"The google."
"It's just called 'google', Praxina." He rolled his eyes, turning the computer chair towards her. "Besides, are you like, serious?"
"Why wouldn't I be serious?" Her own eyebrow sliding up.
"Well, you're being awfully presumptuous." Nathaniel started.
"How so?"
"You're assuming I'm a virgin."
"Well…" Praxina traced a finger over his jaw, stepping between his legs. "You've never fucked me."
His cheeks colored at that. "That's not what virgin means, Xena."
"You look pretty virginal to me…" She slid her finger down his throat to tug at the collar of his shirt. "I haven't seen enough of you yet."
Nate paused and glanced around his room. "Go close the balcony door and drop the curtains."
Praxina grinned. "So you say yes, then?"
"Do I have to say it?"
"Actually… yes." She crossed her arms. "Say it. I want to hear it."
"Fine. Yes, you can have my virginity." He rolled his eyes, crossing the room to lock the opposite door.
His family was very blessed. They had a large house that they used to house a good chunk of their large family, one with both an indoor hallway leading to the bathrooms and staircase, as well as a shared balcony ringing around the back patio and pool, a staircase on either side, a door from each bedroom leading onto the covered second story lounge space. It was almost more like a hotel or a dorm building, each room not having much to themselves but lending enough space and privacy to keep the occupants happy.
Likewise, Nathaniel was incredibly blessed to have a mother that went literally starry eyed over his getting a girlfriend. A cute girlfriend, albeit sometimes with a very black and white worldview, that liked cooking and was passable at cleaning and managed to get along with his most gruff uncles and nephews and cousins, and could blow the best raspberries on the children's stomachs and necks and elbows. He was also lucky that said girlfriend was an alien who loved the color red and liked to trail her fingers over his skin until he got goosebumps and told him the truth about everything the moment she'd caught him behind the smoothie bar.
Nate twists the lock on his door, hooking a thumb in the hem of his sweatpants and the elastic band of his boxers. With the curtains down like that his room was transformed from typical college student's room to something dim, barely lit, their breaths stirring the dust particles dancing between them.
Praxina moves first.
She'd taken to borrowing his hoodies, liking how they draped over her skin, along with leggings that Priya and Madeline bought for her. She cups his cheek and pulls him into a kiss, and not for the first time he finds himself glad that they were the same height, that they could kiss comfortably.
Had he ever thought about how much he liked kissing her?
Her lips were soft and her canines were sharp, so sometimes when her teeth caught his lips they'd start to bleed and she'd suck them clean and it shouldn't have been as attractive as it was.
His hands find her hips, and she hums into his mouth and everything feels amazing. The fabric under his fingers is worn soft, and she smells like strawberries and cinnamon and he can't help the way his heart swells when he's around her.
She pulls back just enough to pepper kisses over the corner of his mouth and his cheek, and he pulls back too to brush her hair out of her face.
Praxina scrunches up her nose and he bumps his forehead to hers, closing his eyes.
"What are you doing?" She whispers.
"Just breathe with me for a second." He whispers back.
They still, and the only noise is the leaves rustling outside, the air conditioning filtering through the vents, the lazy way each exhale mixes as their breathing matches, as they level with each other.
Nate pulls back slowly, and their eyes open slowly, together.
A smile quirks at the edge of her lips.
"Xina?" He whispers, moving back into her space.
"Hm?" She kisses his cheek, and she's just a hint taller than him, and he can't help it.
"Nothin'." His arms tighten around her and he pulls her onto the bed, and her surprised burst of laughter echoes through the summer silence- which wasn't really silence, not really- and that's that.