For a moment there, Sharon just stood there staring at him dumbly, as if her brain couldn't (or wouldn't) internalize what he was implying. She blinked and furrowed her brows, looking off to the corner of her eyes in some attempt to locate the memory that would explain just what Irvine was referring to. Opening the archives of her brain, she flipped through instances like a large book until the pages slowed down to a moment four years ago, back when the Final Fantasy world was something new and exciting rather than something almost horrifically realistic. There was a Homecoming Festival to put on, and Sharon was looking for Squall to make sure he didn't cop out and leave them all hanging at the last moment. Instead, she had run into Jenkins and retrieved Gina's newly repaired sword, and unfortunately also an annoying cowboy shortly thereafter.
"AAHH! WHAT THE FUCK? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS FOLLOW ME EVERYWHERE!?"
"Not everywhere; I haven't followed you to the bathroom or the bedroom... yet."
Since she remembered all too easily the instance in which he actually did follow her to the bathroom, she sucked in a breath and glared at him incredulously. Seeing the recognition in her eyes, Irvine added a smirk to his already pinning gaze... and waited for the explosion.
"What the FUCK ARE YOU IMPLYING, DIPSHIT?!" Sharon started, caught between trying to keep her voice down while still managing to raise it to enough octaves to where it would be considered yelling.
"I'm not implying anything."
"And you lie like a rug," she responded, folding her arms continuing to stare at him. "That is just low. You'd seriously throw that kind of ultimatum down, right the hell now? When I bust up in here to get you out of prison, this is how you repay me? I can't believe this."
Shrugging far too good-naturedly for the situation, he tilted his head. "Come on, now. Stop pretending that you're offended by my proposition."
"I am not pretending, I assure you. If it's hard to see at the moment, that's because I'm caught between being ridiculously appalled and pissed the fuck off and haven't made up my mind which emotion wins over the other." She pointed at him furiously. "Stop fucking around, and let's get the hell out of here. Now. I'm not kidding."
Looking at her for a moment, Irvine switched his gaze down to the finger that was in front of him, and leaned forward and wrapped his lips around the tip, and pulled the digit into his mouth seductively slow, sliding his gaze back up to catch Sharon's horrified one.
Oh, and she was horrified. Horrified that she saw it happen in slow motion, horrified that it was happening still, and most of all, horrified at the ridiculously pleasant reaction that was coursing through her body at it all. When she felt his tongue tease around her fingertip experimentally, she squeaked and pulled her hand back to her finally, clutching it to her chest and willing the memory of the sensation away. Fuck this shit. This is not happening. She was no longer angry, for what it was worth, but now she felt distinctly like an animal that didn't realize it was being stalked until it was way too late. Her brown eyes large behind her spectacles, she beheld Irvine warily and with a healthy amount of fear.
Sharon didn't know how she missed the memo, or more accurately, how she ignored the memo ever since she came face to face with him again, but she was realizing more and more that this certainly wasn't the boy she left behind all those years ago. Annoying, yes. Flirtatious and said all sorts of things that implied directly towards NSFW activities? All of that, she was used to. But he never did anything about it, never acted on all the things he said, and a part of her knew that he wouldn't. Even when it was apparent to the both of them that the attraction became more outwardly mutual, both of them in their own ways continued dancing around each other. The game was their safety net, and by the time they both had run out of things to play, it didn't matter either way.
Now, they were older, and shoved right back in front of each other through a very strange twist of fate... and Sharon just discovered that she was the only one still playing the old game. Back then, she just could have played along. But now? The rules were different. She couldn't feign ignorance, she couldn't ignore the elephant in the room, and she didn't have any other plan of action. But her opponent did. And the worst thing about it was, she didn't know what he'd do.
"That was cute," Irvine took a step forward, and Sharon immediately took a step back. "I wonder; what other noises do you make?"
"... stop it." Goddamnit, why can't I sound convincing when I really need it?
"Stop what?" He feigned innocence, taking another step forward.
"This." Sharon bumped into something behind her, and steadied herself.
"Why?"
Because this is insane and I feel ridiculously stalked. "You know why. I didn't come here for this."
Even in the dim light offered from the open bedroom door, she could see his eyebrow raise. "Are you sure you didn't?"
"What the... OF COURSE I DIDN'T COME HERE FOR A BOOTY CALL, JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ON A POGO STICK!" she shouted, then closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep calming breath.
"Then why did you come alone?"
"Because it would have been too risky to come with the others. Zell would have kicked in the front door whooping, Gina would be panicking, Selphie would run up and down the hallways calling out your name in hopes that you'd hear and come out without us having to do much else, and Squall would have had an aneurysm and chewed all of us out if we survived the whole catastrophe. At least this way, I'm the only one in danger of dying or returning back and getting chewed out by the commander. And I ... kind of didn't have a set plan of getting in here before leaving, so... all of this was on the fly." She stomped her foot when he didn't stop looking at her in such an unnerving deadpan. "I'm not lying! Don't tell me you don't see any of what I just said happening for real! I didn't want that."
Irvine didn't drop his gaze. "So what do you want?"
Sharon breathed sharply through her nose, irritation rising. "For. You. To. Come. Back. To. Balamb."
"Alright, then. I guess now you have two options on the table." He held out one hand. "You could do what you boasted so heavily about in the beginning and try your hand at forcibly dragging me out of here. While your martial arts skills are actually pretty commendable, I don't take credit for any underhanded techniques I might employ to prevent my kidnapping." Unfolding the other, he grinned. "Or, you could actually try to persuade me. You know, cutting out the middle man. In the end, I predict it'd be a faster method to use in getting us back to Balamb. But... in the end, it's your call." He dropped both arms and crossed them in front of his chest, and waited for her move.
Pursing her lips together, Sharon scowled at Irvine and highly contemplated dragging him out of the place anyway, just to prove that she could no matter how long it took. But knowing the "underhanded techniques" he would use to derail her... it probably wasn't wise. Remembering how he kissed her quite passionately, she reasoned that he probably had many more tricks up his sleeve where that came from, and Sharon didn't want to be caught off guard like that again. Fucking a. The cake is a lie, isn't it? I don't really have a choice. Sniffing, she held her head up as high as she could, and turned on her heel and walked purposefully into the open bedroom, turning around as she crossed the threshold by two steps and putting her hands on her hips. "Okay, I'm in here. Follow me so we can finish off your checklist and get the hell out of here, please."
She pushed a couple of strands of purple and pink hair behind her ear nervously as she heard his footsteps approach the room, and as his figure outlined the doorway, she stepped back a couple of more paces to allow him in, and stood her ground. As soon as he was as far in the room as could be technically considered possible, she nodded and turned around. "Alright, you win. You can now say you've followed me to the bedroom. Congrats. Now that we're in here, I can see that your window might actually work better as an escape route since it's facing the back and is actually better for-"
"Why are you still running?" Irvine interrupted her, closing the door behind him. She didn't reply, nor did she turn around, but she noticed how she tensed as soon as the question left his lips. He waited for a few moments, and when she didn't reply, he let out a sigh. "Seriously, Sharon. I thought we were past this. Is it because you thought you'd never see me again?"
She shrugged tersely and kept her eyes on the window in front of her, trying not to feel claustrophobic in a room that was certainly large enough for her to move around in. "Maybe we were young and stupid?"
"Of course we were. I don't dispute that," he let out a short laugh. "But now, things are different."
"I suppose we can agree on something here. Things are different."
"Except you."
Sharon whipped around. "What the hell do you mean by that? You're the one that's somehow remained attached to 'feelings' that were really just flamboyant young hormones bouncing off of each other. I don't know about you, but I've moved on from that shit, okay? And it doesn't help when you do things like... like... what you did." She inwardly got started to beating the crap out of her palpitating heart while outwardly trying to maintain a calm mask despite her stuttered replies that were becoming more and more frequent.
Stepping away from the door, he let loose a smirk. "Well, if you had really moved on from that 'shit', then whatever I do wouldn't affect you, would it?"
Her right eye twitched, and the ornery part that was forever ingrained in her hissed. "Who says it affects me?"
It only took two long strides for Irvine to cross the length of his room and grab her around the waist, pulling her body flush to his own and simply holding her there in a firm grip, but didn't make another move to do anything else but just look at her. He examined her face carefully, seeing the signs that he both expected and could read so well, no matter how hard Sharon personally tried to mask everything deep down inside of her. Her expression remained defiant and bold, but he had both felt and heard the sharp intake of breath that betrayed her when he grabbed her. He studied the orbs of her brown eyes and watched them slowly dilate even as she struggled against herself to control her breathing. It was always in these moments, once he learned to slow down and pay attention to them, that he felt he knew her. Everything else was just a well formulated facade of protection that he was left fighting with to get a glimpse of her core. That's why he kept up his end of the game before. And even though it took him awhile to realize that he was hooked farther than he had ever planned, the bits he saw of what truly lie at the heart of Sharon just made him try harder. Irvine could have lived with what little he had been given of her right before she departed back to GV, even if she had never actually outright admitted anything verbally. But now?
Like hell he was letting her go twice.
"Sharon..." His voice dropped to something low and husky as he brushed his free hand through her hair, pausing for a moment to examine the multi-colored strands. "Why are you so afraid?"
She was becoming too dizzy for words, her body feeling like it was on fire where they were touching, and she wasn't able to tear her eyes from his. "Because..." she trailed off as she shivered slightly, causing Irvine to flex the grip he had around her waist momentarily. Sharon couldn't stand how it felt like every single molecule in her body was straining for every one of his to the point where she was so hyper sensitive that no movement went unnoticed. She'd been trying futilely to ignore the obvious reaction she had on him, but considering the fact that now she felt glued to him, it was becoming something short of completely impossible. "Because..." She struggled to keep her brain on track.
"Because?" He moved his hand behind the nape of her neck and idly played with the strands of hair there, twirling it around his finger gently.
It seemed like an eternity before Sharon answered, and when she did, it wasn't verbally. Shaking herself free of his grip that had loosened once he thought she wasn't moving, she flung herself backwards until she was far enough away from him and her back was touching the wall by the window. "Because you drive me insane," she whispered harshly, looking much like the caged animal she had been feeling like the moment he closed the door. "You... you..." Sharon struggled to find the words, wringing her hands and looking off and down to the side. "I don't understand. Ever since my little near death experience-"
"Which one?"
She did a double take and looked at him oddly before remembering that she in fact did have two near death experiences, the first being the ice javelin ripping through her shoulder from the Ultimecia-influenced Sorcress Edea. Laughing shakily, she tried to smile. "Oh yeah... well, the one I was completely conscious for. The one you saved me from. I don't know. You... it's hard to explain."
Irvine stood where she left him, letting her try and choke everything out. "Love usually is hard to explain," he said softly. That caused her to stare at him with the most panicked expression yet, and he could tell that he was getting close to hitting another nerve that seemed as deeply buried in her as the whole church incident in her and Gina's past he accidentally stumbled upon back when they were in Fisherman's Horizon and found himself at the tail end of Martine's temper for a countless time. "... you're scared of falling in love, aren't you?"
"How can you say that's what it is? How can you know?" Sharon replied, now her voice taking on a pleading tone. "All I know is that I've never felt so ridiculously vulnerable in my life until I'm around you. I know exactly where my limits and boundaries are, with anything else. Or at least, I'm good at winging it but knowing that whatever happens, I consciously choose where and how far I'm going. I'm making the choices. I'm in control of me. You challenge that control." She walked back up to him, slowly. "Everything just crumbles apart. My patience, which I am sure you and so many other people doubt that I even have, snaps the moment you say or do something to piss me the hell off. Then, if that's not bad enough?" She put both of her palms on either side of his face and made herself gaze into his eyes, the impossibly deep blue eyes that contrasted so much with the rest of his features.
"Being attracted to you is worse. Oh, much worse than anything else you could have done. My long-term boyfriend, the one who came in my life after all of this one faded away, doesn't make me feel the way you do. I don't think he ever can, no matter how hard he tries and how much I try to feel what I'm supposed to feel, but can't find. And that's really ironic, considering the things he and I have done over the years. But... they don't compare to what I'd let you do to me without a second thought." Her eyes welled up with tears, and she struggled not to blink as she didn't want them to spill over. "And that's scary, to not know why you're at the mercy of another human being like that, and it's everything you can do to try and stop it. And it's fucked up, that somehow, without me deciding that..." She swallowed. "... I'm more yours than I'll ever be his." Sharon dropped her hands to her sides finally, and stared at the floor, having finally verbalized the thing she didn't want to admit was true. The one she was most afraid of admitting out loud to herself. "So... this is why I push you away, Irvine," she said in a low voice. "Hell, this is why I push my current boyfriend away sometimes, and he's nothing compared to you. I fight him tooth and nail in the bedroom."
The cowboy couldn't help but snort softly. "Poor guy."
"It's not any better when he does get what he wants, either." She managed to grin and look back up at him with a small wink. "I leave very mean love bites." She put her hands over her mouth and looked at him apologetically, having forgotten for a moment in the relief she felt at just being able to say what she had been choking down for such a long time just who she was talking to. "I, umm..."
Irvine actually had to laugh for a moment, and shook his head at her. "Woman, you want to talk about who's driving who insane around here..." He stood still, staring at her for another moment, then ran his hands through his hair and turned around to pace the room, anything to distract himself. "You're awful, you know that?"
Sharon's mouth dropped open, an expression of surprise hurt on her face. "Dude, I'm SORRY! I didn't say that to be mean or anything! You know, despite all of the specialness we have going on here between us, I do consider you a friend! And... I got comfortable and... forgot who I was talking to... and... argh. Argh. I'm shutting up before I dig my hole deeper."
He stopped at the gun closet on the other side of the room, idly tracing the patterns in the wood with his fingers. "I know. But, you have to realize something that I'm not sure you quite get. The difference between you and me, how you explained how you feel... you make me feel the same things. I just don't have your inhibitions. I tossed them out the moment I had to choose between you or them. Even if it didn't matter in the end. Even if I'd never see you again, even if you'd never admit anything to yourself or to me. It didn't matter. So... you showing up back here in front of me?" He turned back around to look at her. "I'm standing on this side of the room for your own good. Because I'm not playing a game. And if I have to keep myself in check so as not to scare the hell out of you with my feelings and the need to express them in ways you're not prepared for, then... to hell with what I want. I won't be selfish. I love you too damn much for that... and if I ever..." He breathed and turned back around. "Throwing myself at Martine's mercy for an eternity wouldn't hurt as bad if I ever ended up hurting you."
Ah, hell... Sharon just looked at his back, and trained her eyes up to something black that was sitting on top of the closet that she didn't notice before. Gazing at the line of the sea shells that were all too familiar to her, the time she spent as she had slaved away sewing them along the base of that cowboy hat she wore for the majority of her adventures in their world, she re-evaluated a lot of things. She was still scared... but so was he. He just learned to overcome it. She continued to run from it, to no avail. Why do I always run away from what I want most? Why am I so stubborn in all the wrong ways? All it's doing is hurting him, and all I'm doing is punishing myself. "You still kept the damn thing."
Irvine nodded. "Of course I did. I daresay it's the one thing I keep around from my past out in the open. Maybe it keeps me sane on the days that it gets really bad. I don't wear it anymore, though."
"Can I see it?" Sharon walked over to his side of the room, and when he nodded, pulled it down from the cabinet top and placed it atop her head. "I don't see a mirror, so you'll have to be the judge." She turned towards him and struck a pose, one hand on her waist and the other hand on the brim of the hat. "How do I look?"
Beautiful. It took him awhile to respond, as he just focused on taking in a sight that he'd never thought he'd see again, the nostalgia of all of the good and bad times of everything they had done and faced. With a wistful smile, he nodded. "I would say same as always... but that hair of yours throws it off." He let out a laugh and grinned. "And you shit a brick when you notice my hair; at least I kept mine the same color."
"Yeah, well... fuck you. I like my colors, damnit." She took the hat off of her head and twirled it on one finger. "Impromptu fashion show, and it's your turn." She plunked the hat on top of his head before he could protest, and adjusted it appropriately.
It felt ridiculously odd to have a cowboy hat on his head again after so long, and with the significant loss of his long hair he didn't know how he'd look in it, now. "So, how do I look?" he shot the same question back at her, following it up with his trademark wink without even thinking about it.
Whatever answer he was expecting, he didn't get it. Instead, he found Sharon's lips on his quite suddenly and definitely with an urgency he wasn't predicting from her in the least. Jerking his head back, setting the hat on his head off kilter, he stepped backwards. "Sharon, what in the hell-"
"Irvine, shut up," she told him a little bit too evenly. "Do you remember when I said never to give up on me? Back in the room at Balamb before we had to go play our last game of Frisbee with the group? You're not doing what I told you to do."
He just stared at her like she grew a head out of the side of her neck. "... what do you mean?"
"I mean... that you need to make me stop running. You're the only one who can."
"... no, you-"
"Listen to me, half-wit. I am telling you that you need to do what you wanted to do the moment you gave me that sorry ass ultimatum. And you should do it before I become fully conscious of what I'm saying and do something drastic like throw myself bodily out of the window."
Things were going so fast now for him that they were barely registering. "Sharon. Slow down, and think about what you're saying."
"I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT, GODDAMN YOU!" she shouted, tears running down her cheeks. "If I stop to think, then I lose. Don't let me give myself a reason to push you away anymore. I don't want to run anymore, but that's all I know how to do, and I can't stop. Make me stop."
Irvine didn't know what to do. He was torn between his sense of honor and being practical, and the fact that the one woman he's ever truly wanted was literally screaming at him to ravish her, damn near incoherently at that. It was the invitation he dreamed of, albeit not quite like how he used to imagine it happening, and he was stuck because he really didn't know if he should believe it or not, or even if it was the right thing to do no matter how much she was begging for it. Hyne, why is she always so unstable and unpredictable?
Growling, Sharon knocked the cowboy hat off of his head with a swipe of her hand, and took a handful of the front of his uniform and yanked him forward. "Boy, if you don't take me right the fuck now, I swear to God, I'm gonna-"
In a flash, Irvine had turned and had her pinned against the wall behind her, kissing her fervently and deeply, running his hands down the length of her body as he did so. Kissing him back without any hesitation this time, she tangled her fingers in his hair and wrapped one leg around his, pressing him further to her if it was at all possible at that point in time. Finally breaking the kiss that left them both breathless, Irvine looked down at her, his blue eyes dark with the heady emotions encircling them. "This is... not how I planned our first time, you know."
"Life doesn't go as planned. I'm still learning that every day," Sharon flippantly replied, then leaned forward to run her tongue along the bottom of his left earlobe before taking it in her mouth and nibbling gently. She couldn't help but grin at the sudden breathing change this initiated in him, and the low moan that escaped him. "Heh... I guess every man's weak spot is his ear. I'll have to save that for future reference."
"Very funny." He turned his head and attacked the spot on her neck he had found before in their little skirmish, and felt her melt like putty in his arms as did so. Moving his hands underneath the hem of her shirt and sliding them upwards, he pulled back just in time to slip the garment up and over her head and toss it off someplace to the side. Leaning back in for another long kiss, he ran his fingers across her bare skin, making circles around her belly button before coming around the sides to caress her back. As he did this, Sharon couldn't help but disturb the moment by giggling against his mouth, and he leaned back questionably.
"Sorry. I'm ticklish. Very ticklish," she explained sheepishly. "Especially near my ribs."
"Oh... you are, now?" He grinned wickedly, allowing the distraction at the expense of this new discovery.
Sharon's eyes widened. "Oh, no. Don't you daAARRRGHHAHAHAHAHA!" She doubled over and immediately tried to protect her sides that were now under attack by his insistent fingers, poking and prodding at every space she left exposed. "You son of a bitch!" She rolled around on the ground and pulled herself up by the edge of the bed behind him. "Don't take advantage of me like that!"
"Oh, it was just part of my master plan." He pushed her by her shoulders so that she fell somewhat ungracefully on her back on his bed, and while she was busy getting her bearings straight, he had pulled off her shoes and was now leaning forward to expertly undo the button and zipper on her pants. By the time Sharon had managed to sit up indignantly, her pants were off and tossed to another forgettable shadowed corner of the room.
"That... was totally not fair at all," she breathed, curling her legs up underneath her. Now that the laughter had died down and they weren't otherwise engaged in any kind of activity, she was beginning to feel more than a little self conscious and a lot more aware of the fact that she was half-naked perched in the middle of Irvine's bed like some sort of prize that wasn't completely sure how she got there. She made herself stop twitching under his hot gaze, and simply waited for him to make the next move.
Irvine was currently memorizing how she was in that moment, sitting on his bed looking more than a little timid, right in the path of the light of the moon that was shining through his window and suddenly was draping everything in a surreal, dreamlike quality. And it might as well have been a dream, for as far as he was concerned. By some odd stroke of absolute unbelievable luck, a girl by all intents and purposes that shouldn't have reappeared in his life did come back... and all that much more a woman at that. She was still as slender as ever, but she also had filled out in all the right places; notably the chest and back area. This was his first time seeing her with more than just her arms or her legs exposed, yet leaving her in just her undergarments still managed to entice his imagination to unbelievable heights. "... you really are evil incarnate," he mumbled, his eyes not leaving her form and the silvery tinge the light left on her brown skin.
Sharon huffed and folded her arms. "You really do know how to make a girl feel loved. Do you say this kind of thing to every girl you lay, or is it just me?"
"Just you." He trained his eyes on her face. "You're the only one that's been in this bed, you know."
She did a double take. "You're shitting me. You have a room to yourself and you don't take advantage of it? You must be an anomaly to the male gender."
He shook his head. "If being an anomaly means not allowing trash into the one place where I've only ever wanted the woman that I loved, then that's fine with me."
"... are you still a virgin?"
To that, he gave a sly grin. "I didn't say that, sweetheart."
"I see." Pausing for a moment, she gave her own sly grin and perched in a blatantly seductive position, and used the small surge of bravery she felt to purse her lips together and toss her hair to the side. "Are you going to show me what you learned, cowboy?"
The look he gave her immediately following that stunt she pulled both lit her on fire from the inside and partly made her regret doing that much. She was used to teasing her boyfriend in that manner all of the time, but she had forgotten that the connection that she had with Irvine made even the smallest action that much more of a mutual experience. She shivered as he slowly began removing his own clothes without having his gaze leave her, and she was well on her way to shivering in anticipation before he had even finished.
"Don't call me evil ever again," she said, finally finding her voice as the last of his clothing dropped to the floor.
"Why not? You're the one sitting on my bed in all black underwear for Hyne's sake, and saying naughty things to me."
"Because not even I do a strip tease like that. What the fuck." Sharon crawled forward in a daze to further examine the definition in his abs. She always figured that he wasn't flabby, but seeing was a completely different story. Her current boyfriend left a lot to be desired on the physical front, but Sharon wasn't as shallow as to be with someone just for their looks. But she also couldn't deny that having a great body helped. It helped a damn lot.
"I'm a hands on exhibit, so don't be afraid to touch," he purred with his eyes half lidded, letting his ego soak in the fact that she seemed almost involuntarily gravitated towards his body. With the way she kept roaming her eyes over his upper body like he was some kind of precious exhibit that might break, he thought she'd continue hesitating on ever doing anything unless she was driven to do so by having her limits pushed to the extreme.
He absolutely did not expect her to continue calmly examining his body until her brown eyes traveled down, and reached out and grabbed his member by the base. Watching in disbelief as she moved her eyes up to meet his with a wink that told him she knew exactly what she was doing, she then lowered her head and first touched the tip of her tongue to the top of the head, then slowly traced a line completely around the rim, seemingly oblivious of how labored his breathing was becoming as she did so. When she finally got around to taking the head completely into her mouth, he was gone. Irvine wasn't a stranger to blow jobs in the least, but for some reason when she did it, it was all he could do to keep standing, and to keep himself under control so he didn't become a minute man overnight. He supposed it was due to the fact that he cared that much about her that just the thought of her doing something like that to him was enough to send him into a daze, but being so in tune with every movement her mouth and her tongue made around him almost too much to handle. Maybe it would have been better if he had been somewhat prepared for it, but Sharon had thrown him for another loop. He was beginning to learn all over again to not underestimate her, even if it was in a completely different fashion than he learned before.
It was both a torture and a relief when she finally pulled back, and gave his member a last little kiss and looked up at him, entirely too pleased with herself and ironically looking just a little bit too cute and innocent for the stunt she just pulled.
Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he blinked a couple of times to regain focus. "What the hell was that?"
"Hey, you said 'don't be afraid to touch'. And since he was just waving hello..." Sharon shrugged nonchalantly, but was unable to hide the glint in her eye. "I've been told I give a passable blow job."
That might as well be the understatement of the year. Sharon scooted backwards as he followed her onto the bed, stalking her with his movements as well as his eyes. "I think... that I'm extremely jealous of your boyfriend," he said, leaning over her as the last of the wicked sparkle in her eye faded away to something less playful.
"Why do you say that?" Sharon asked, their proximity threatening to cloud her senses again. She tried not to shiver as he reached behind her and traced a slow line up her spine, causing her to arch towards him. Irvine took that opportunity to expertly unhook the bra she was still wearing and slip it off her arms before tossing it to the side.
"Because he got years of a part of you I'm just now discovering. That's completely unfair." He kissed along the line of her collarbone. "I thought I knew you pretty well by now."
"Yeah, well... I'm full of surprises."
"I can see that. But that's one of the things I love about you, I won't lie. Even if it does drive me crazy in the not-so pleasant way sometimes." He pulled back to look at her, and gave a mischievous grin. "Now, if I recall correctly... you expressed interest in what I've learned?"
Oh, shit... I forgot I said that. Fuck. "Ah... well... I was just-" Before she could even finish coming up with a somewhat decent sounding bullshit response, his mouth descended to her right breast as his hand reached down and skillfully found the most sensitive spot of her nether regions and began massaging her slowly through her panties, nipping and licking circles around her nipple as he did so.
"Ah, shit..." Sharon really wished she had something more eloquent to say in that moment, but she was proud of herself for even getting full words out at all as Irvine switched from one breast to the other, his hand still working at a regular pressure and rhythm that she was appalled was so successful in getting her more aroused than she already was in the first place. Now that she wasn't busy trying to hold back anything, it made even more impossible to hold back any moans or similar sounds of pleasure as he went to work. By the time Sharon found she was able to properly regulate her breathing, the last of her undergarments had disappeared and blinked in horror as she saw Irvine had his attentions set on someplace else more intimate than her chest. "Wait...what are you-"
"Returning the favor, darling. You're not the only one talented at these things."
Sharon didn't know how her boyfriend felt when she gave him head. She could only see the results through his sounds of assent and how hard he pulled on her hair at the time. She assumed that it was pleasurable enough, and sometimes she didn't have to assume and found out in other ways just how good it felt. But whenever it was her turn to receive, she considered it a tremendously torturous experience. Being eaten out was always just enough to carry her right to the point of orgasm, but never being quite enough to take her over the top, hanging there, then falling down again just to do the same intricate dance. Her fingers found his hair once again and held on tight as his tongue flicked across the nub nestled between her folds, and from then on out she endured how much his very skillful mouth undid what was left of her control. She lost complete track of time. Everything was narrowed down to what he was doing to her, and when he would stop and do something more to give her the release her body tiredly screamed for.
By the time Irvine decided that he had adequately paid back the debt of cunnilingus Sharon had given him earlier, he found himself looking down amusedly at her eyes that were still squeezed shut, her hair that had now messily fanned his pillow behind her head, and the thin layer of sweat on her brow that shone in the moonlight. Touching his nose to hers gently, he chuckled. "Are you ticklish down there, too?"
"I hate you. I hate you so fucking much right now." She let out the breath she didn't remember holding, and the oxygen that rushed her brain in that moment didn't help her current state at all. "Fucking sadist."
Moving his hand back down to where his tongue had just been, he began idly massaging again. "Oh, you have no idea."
Sharon decided that if she could, she would have killed herself in that moment, because she didn't think she could take either his tounge or his fingers anywhere near her anymore. Feeling the familiar rush of heat that was building up all too easily in the pit of her stomach once again, she reached up and grabbed the back of his neck as if she were drowning and let out a long, helpless moan. "Irvine..." She squeezed her eyes shut again and arched towards his fingers, her head tossing back.
He admitted to himself that what he was doing now could be considered sexual overkill. By the looks of it, she was quickly approaching the point where she would be overstimulated that even the littlest touch would send her world spiraling. Irvine managed to remove the glasses that should probably have been set aside long before they had reached that point, and became oddly fascinated with the way she reacted to his touch in such careless abandon. Perhaps it was the sharpshooter in him that thrived on examining his target, but he felt he had to memorize everything about her, even if that meant slightly prolonging certain moments so he could drink in every detail. Even if every detail was turning him on so much that his own arousal was becoming painful. When he heard his name breathily pass her lips again, he slowly moved himself in between her legs. "What do you want?" he whispered, but knew it was loud enough for her to hear even with all of the noise she was making.
"You," Sharon managed to choke out, her eyelids fluttering.
"Are you sure?" Irvine positioned himself at her entrance, and felt the anticipation and perhaps a little hesitation creating a flutter of butterflies in the pit of his stomach.
"Yes... Now."
Without inquiring any further, he slid himself easily past her opening and didn't stop until he reached the hilt.
And time seemed to stop moving.
Sapphire eyes met chocolate orbs as both of them seemed to exchange simultaneously the same feelings at the exact same time and the exact same fashion. In that moment, both of them were completely transparent to each other, entirely uninhibited and tremendously pure. Everything boiled down to how intimately connected they were, and how nothing else seemed to matter. For Irvine, he knew that he'd never sleep with anyone else ever again. Nothing could compare to the feel of her around him, and he wouldn't even bother looking. He had found all that he ever wanted or needed from her, and the irrational part of him wanted it to last forever.
Before Sharon could get her brain moving from the BSOD it had experienced at the feel of him entering her, he began moving inside of her, slowly at first. At the next thrust, she felt herself orgasm, and as she went dizzy with the initial sensation, the next one rolled through her, and with each and every movement she matched with him caused subsequent waves of pleasure that rolled up and down her body, penetrating her in ways that she had never experienced before. She kept up the rhythm while giving herself completely and wholly up to it, up to him, and for once didn't stop to think about anything else. She vaguely remembered wrapping her legs around his waist. She lost count of how many times she moaned out his name. She could only guess at how many times he said her name as their pace steadily increased, his breath hot in the nape of her neck. She gasped in a sort of wondrous fascination as she felt him finally spend himself inside of her, and both of their labored breaths and pounding hearts finally found a reason to mellow out.
Somehow managing to fight the forgotten bed sheet out from underneath them enough to be useful, Sharon carefully covered their bodies with it, and settled down again in the pillow and gently ran her fingers through Irvine's hair. She stared at the ceiling and simply took in the feeling of peace that had settled over her like a cloak, letting his arm drape casually across her stomach as he settled off to her side, his face nuzzled comfortably in the crook of her neck. "... hey, Irvine?"
"Hmm?" He murmured, stirring enough so that he could see her face clearly.
"I love you," she said softly, waiting a moment before looking at him out of the corner of her eye with an almost sheepish smile.
Irvine blinked incredulously for a couple of seconds, then planted his face down in the pillow next to her laughing in disbelief. "Hyne, I know I'm dreaming, now."
"No, you're not." She turned on her shoulder to face him, and waited until he looked back at her before continuing. "Believe me, dreams this good never last this long, because they're fickle bastards." She sighed. "I'm... sorry. I'm a hard learner, it seems. I really was intent on continuing to run like the fool I am, even if I didn't want to. I've never been accused of being very smart."
Caressing her cheek with his palm, he shook his head. "Don't say that. Besides... I love you, too."
"For better or for worse?"
"What the hell are you talking about, woman? If all it takes is four years of sexual frustration to come to this point, then I think I'd do it five times over again just for the hell of it."
Snorting at first before letting loose a full laugh, Sharon trained her eyes back up at the ceiling and watched the shadows move. "Is that what sex is supposed to feel like?"
"No." He kissed her temple. "I think that's what making love is supposed to feel like."
"Ah. I see," Sharon thoughtfully replied. "Well... I think I like it a lot better than sex."
"I know I like it a lot better than sex. It makes me happy that you agree, since I plan to be repeating these little sessions with you in the future."
She bit back a grin. "We're going to have to be really creative in staging our scenarios, but I don't imagine that will be too hard." Pausing, she added, "And depending on where these sessions take place, we'll certainly have to be more careful."
It took Irvine's brain a moment to internalize what she said, and when he did, he sat up so fast in alarm that the sheet went flying completely backwards and left an immediate trail of goosebumps down Sharon's arms that she rushed to rub away. "SHIT!" He exclaimed, quickly becoming pale even in the moonlight. "I'm so stupid! I forgot to use a-"
"Yeah," Sharon waved it off and sat up to reach for the sheet. "Don't worry about it. And damn, it's kind of cold in here..."
"What do you mean 'don't worry about it'?!" he sputtered, disbelieving at the nonchalance that was certainly crashing what was his perfect dream come reality down around his ankles. "I could have gotten you pregnant!"
"Nah, I don't think so." She found the sheet and started tugging it back up. "I get automatic birth control when I'm over here."
Irvine stopped hyperventilating long enough to listen to what she was saying. "... come again?"
She laughed and laid back down, folding her palms behind her head in a relaxed position. "Forgive Gina and I for not making a group discussion of it with you guys, but we stumbled upon a peculiar side effect that made things a lot easier to deal with while traipsing around here with you all defeating evil sorceresses from the future; we didn't get our monthly cycles anymore. We figured it was the same as why our time seemed to stop while we were not in our world... I guess some processes of our bodies decided to follow suit as well. It also would have been awesome in a freaky kind of way if our bladders and colons got put on pause too... but I wouldn't want to have to explain why I had to sit on a toilet for about a week straight getting out all that built-up blockage. I mean, ew, what the fuck. That'd put a new spin on 'shitting bricks', don't you think?"
He just continued to deadpan her with the most dumbfounded expression on his face, before finally descending on her in a tickle-fest that had her squirming and yelling at him to stop. Eventually, he did, and kissed her gently on the lips before coaxing her into a sitting position. "Well, as much as I honestly hate to end this... you really didn't come here to have mind blowing sex with me. You have to kidnap me back to Balamb Garden, and I can say that I've been thoroughly persuaded."
Sharon felt a tad guilty for the way her heart sank and her brain remind her of the reality that awaited her outside his bedroom walls. There was a mission ahead of them all, and while she was granted the most interesting and satisfying interlude of the unexpected, she couldn't expect it to last. "Good. Because we need you," she finally said, her shoulders feeling heavy with the task ahead of them.
While his heart was considerably warmed at Sharon's obvious disappointment in having their little rendezvous end, he knew that there were other people that were close to him that he needed to say hello to again. Kissing her again deeply, he pulled back the moment he felt the sluggish stir of passion getting ready to rear its head again. "Ah, I think our relationship is going to require us to spend a bit of mandatory time apart."
She moved forward and placed a hand on his chest, pouting despite the rise of arousal in her eyes. "I don't think that's necessary."
Feeling himself respond to the undercurrent in her voice despite himself, Irvine shook his head and tried to ignore the fact that they were both still naked in the center of his bed. "I really think it is, otherwise the sheets might never get changed."
"Oh, they'll get changed. Eventually. Besides, there are other places to fuck than the bedroom. Believe me, I know." She grabbed him by the arms and pulled him down to the bed, rolling him over until she was the one straddling him. "However, seeing as though we're already here, and you've reminded me that we're short on time... I'm not completely finished with you yet." Sharon gave an experimental grind with her hips. "I hope the state of these sheets won't trouble you too much."
Irvine really didn't know what he unleashed, but he had a distinct feeling that wouldn't have to be concerned about whether or not he'd like it. "I'm assuming you're a closet nymphomaniac?"
She smirked. "I'm assuming it wouldn't be too much for you to handle?"
Shaking his head again, he smiled. "Oh, I think I could manage pretty well."
"Good. Now; less talk, more action, please." She gave another grind, and his hands came up to rest at her hips automatically. "I don't want to have to explain all of the details of my impromptu reconnaissance mission to the commander. That'd just be awkward."
"You still have a lot of explaining to do for me. I still don't know what in the world is going o-aah..." Irvine's train of thought violently derailed the moment he felt Sharon slide herself onto his now hardened member, and he felt the haze of passion settle over his senses again.
"Don't mind me; I'm following the advice of a bumper sticker I once saw on a car back in Michigan." Sharon flipped her hair to one side and started rotating her hips slowly. "'Save a horse, ride a cowboy.' And I plan on saving as many horses as I possibly can."