It wasn't every night, but it was every night they could spare. He had stopped the forced chill, the silent resignation to the floor and duty, and she had stopped letting her neckline slip down, hinting that her feet was cold and pretending she couldn't hear his teeth chattering or his mind wandering because now there was no shame left when they slid in next to each other beneath a single blanket. There was only a little left when they woke, disentangled their limbs and avoided all talk of it.
That night was the first time he'd been waiting for her though, as she dithered and chewed her nails at the window, flicking the curtains to see outside.
He sat up, rubbing the heel of his palm against his heavy eyes as he spoke. 'No one followed us. We're safe. Come to bed.'
It felt a bit strange said like that, as if he was confirming that their bed was a thing, that there was something... He should have said it differently. 'Go to sleep?' Yeah, that wouldn't imply any affection. That wouldn't imply any need for her closeness or warmth, that wouldn't imply he felt something for her beyond 'Don't die, our cause needs you'.
Before he could overthink things any further her weight settled beside him, and she dropped her head on the pillow with a gentle sigh. His skin was hot where his arms pressed against her stomach under the fabric of her T-shirt, and he hissed when her cold feet stole the warmth from his. For someone who slept shirtless, he was a furnace, she thought, and she moulded to his shape easily.
Her toes wriggled against his and for a wonder he laughed, a low huff of breath against the back of her neck.
When had his lips moved so close to her? The knowledge of their placement had her numb, a curious tingle running beneath the skin from her ear down to her shoulder. His every breath was tickling her nape, was making it increasingly hard to stay still in his arms, to actually sleep.
His thumb stroked the soft skin of her belly and she almost bucked him out of the bed. To her dismay relief he rolled in to his back, eyes closed and small murmur telling her he was already asleep, or at least too tired to take notice. After taking a moment to psych herself up, Hinami rolled on to her back, eyeing his profile. His hair had fallen down over his eyes, so even in the darkness his nose and jaw only served to direct her attention to his lips. They looked soft, somehow bigger as they parted slightly with every exhale, exaggerated with the shadows the filtered city lights were casting.
He blinked at her, but she didn't seem to notice, her attention fixed on the lower part of his face. He fought the urge to smile. Her fingers, small cold and shaking, grasped his arm as she edged closer, her breath warm against his cheek. Keeping himself still was harder and if she'd been her usual attentive self she'd have picked up on the rise in his pulse, the way his breath seemed to catch at the back of his throat, but she was distracted. Still he didn't want to encourage her... Or put her off... Doing nothing would have to do.
She sighed again, one that sounded like an affirmation, a 'let's do this'. He waited.
Kissing him in his sleep, what sort of weirdo was she? What if he had woken up. She was more than painfully aware that she'd been the one to get him to sleep next to her and if it were up to him he'd stay on the cold hard floor. Still, he was there wasn't he? Her love couldn't be unrequited if he was this responsive could it? Though he'd also let her pull away with little to no protest, and was sleeping more soundly alone on his back than he had been wrapped around her. She pulled away and buried her head in her hands, letting out a sigh against her palms that sounded a lot like 'you idiot.'
Ayato sat up with a sigh of his own, and before she could turn around or explain he had taken her hands in his own, thumb rough against her smooth knuckles. Her eyes were shining, lips twisting in to a nervous smile. He took her chin between his thumb and finger and tilted her head up, licking his chapped lips and edging forward with a hesitance she hadnt thought he'd ever posses. Her hands bundled in to fists in the sheets beside her thighs as he pressed his warm lips against her's.
Theyd both kept their eyes open, and they'd held their breaths and it was hilarious. He wanted to laugh. Except then she'd closed her eyes and he'd parted his lips - not too much, at first - and they'd sat there adjusting to each other in the near darkness surrounded by the sounds of muffled breaths and little brushes of skin on cloth and somewhere in the awkwardness the whole thing was perfect.
It was the first night they had fallen asleep facing each other, lips swollen and sore.
