expectations; au. also nsfw

Somehow, he'd pictured things going much differently than this.

Not that this was in any way bad, oh no. After being together for over a year, both Hope and Lightning had decided that they were both ready to take the next step in their relationship…physically. It'd been strange to discuss it and even weirder to think about it actually happening, because it was three dates in before they'd even shared a chaste kiss. They'd always taken things slow.

Not that Hope would have any complaints about turning things up a notch, oh no. After all, Lightning was gorgeous and amazingly attractive. He'd be lying if he claimed he hadn't imagined it multiple times…especially after the first time he'd seen her in a bikini.

Despite the fact that they would be each other's first, that he'd never even come close to this with any of his other girlfriends (not that there'd been many), he'd always pictured this going a lot more smoothly. They'd kiss passionately and fall to the bed in a effortless tangle of limbs, somehow knowing exactly where to put their hands and lips as they drove each other to the edge. No words would be exchanged except heated gasps of each other's names, and they would know just by the tone whether they need more, more, more.

Actuality wasn't exactly like that.

At least the setting was like in his daydreams - they'd booked a nice, fancy hotel just for the occasion. The gigantic bed loomed like a third presence. Hope couldn't stop staring at it the second they'd dumped their bags on the floor, which just added to the sudden awkward silence.

Lightning cleared her throat as though to dispel it, but it didn't work. She stared at Hope for a second before wandering around the room a little, her arms crossed under her chest. Her gaze stared out the window. It wasn't much to look at - just a skyline of the city - but it would likely be nicer later at night.

Hope stared at her back, letting out a quiet, nervous breath. He knew they wanted this. He wanted her, and had for what seemed like ages now. And now that they were ready…

He approached her, sliding his arms around her waist and leaning in to kiss her neck…only to be met with a mouthful of hair. She started as he made a surprised noise and spit it out, which caused her to accidentally jab her elbow in his side.

"Ow!" Hope clutched the area she'd stabbed. "Geez, Light, you and your pointy elbows, seriously."

"Romantic." She smirked and shook her head, lightly patting the 'injured' area. He stared at her hand, imagine it touching him without his shirt in the way…and maybe a little further down…

The pain dissipated almost immediately as he leaned in to capture her lips. At least they had practice with kissing - not as much as he'd like to have, of course, but they could certainly rectify that. It was walking while kissing they didn't know how to do, unfortunately.

And even more unfortunately for him, he misjudged the distance back to the bed and tripped over nothing, abruptly pulling away from Lightning's lips with a startled yelp as he crashed against it, half of his body awkwardly on the mattress while the rest was on the floor. Only Lightning's quick reflexes kept her from bonking her head on the bedside table in the meantime. She ended up on the floor instead.

Hope wanted to kick himself. So much for being suave.

There was a long pause, as though the two of them were trying to figure out what the heck had happened. To his surprise (and relief), when he met her eyes, it seemed like she was trying not to laugh, and a smile crossed his face as well. They both managed to hoist themselves up onto the bed, staring at each other for a moment.

"That was graceful of you," she quipped, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"At least we didn't end up on the floor!" Only she had. Oops. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, we're up here now, so…"

"…So we are." She scooted a little closer to him, and the look in her eyes made Hope's heart begin to race. "And while we're up here…"

Their lips met again. For awhile, they just sat there side-by-side and kissed. It was familiar. Safe.

But not what either of them were after.

There was another awkward little pause when they began to shift around, but it was nothing to complain about. When Lightning started to lean back against the pillows, Hope easily aided her, their kisses growing a lot more heated. A quiet, pleased noise escaped him when her arms went around his waist, hands fisting in his shirt.

Yes, yes, yes.

This was what he'd had in mind…which meant, naturally, that it would last for all of point two seconds.

In his imagination, clothing removal was sort of blur. He couldn't really easily picture how it would happen, just that their clothes would be blessedly off. Of course, real life had to be way more complicated than that.

Maybe it would have gone off without a hitch had they not had the same idea at the same time, but Hope's already overheated mind realized a little too late that her hands were struggling to tug his shirt off at the exact same moment that his were doing the same.

Reluctantly, he broke their kiss, already breathing heavily, and flickered his eyes at their tangled arms. Both of their shirts were halfway off, and he just really, really wanted to rid Lightning of hers because hello, navel piercing. But she seemed reluctant to be the first half-naked one and tugged on his shirt insistently. "Let me."

"…Okay." Whatever made her comfortable, he was going to do. And it was a relief when she finally tugged his shirt off and dropped it to the floor. The appreciation in her gaze made his heart thud - she'd seen him shirtless numerous times, but never with… this kind of look on her face.

After a moment, he reached over and gave a little tug on the hem of her shirt in a silent question. She looked confused for a second, but then nodded, lifting her arms as he slipped her shirt off and tossed it aside with a little too much enthusiasm. His appreciative stare was cute short when her shirt smacked into the lampshade with a weird amount of force, almost toppling the lamp over.

"Shit!" Hope flailed and reached out to steady it, ignoring Lightning's snort of amusement. She was still smirking when he looked at her again, though it quickly faded into a much more desirable stare.

She was so beautiful…not to mention still here, after he'd eaten her hair, sent her to the floor, and almost knocked over a lamp.

There was another glorious long moment as their lips met again, hands hesitantly roaming over each other's bare skin. Hope felt as though his touch was a little more enthusiastic, but it was clear that they were both really unsure. It was almost as though they were testing each other's boundaries and finding out what the other person liked.

As though he could ever not like anything Lightning could possibly do to him, really.

When her hands roamed down to the small of his back, he couldn't help the embarrassingly loud moan that escaped him. Apparently that was a really sensitive area. Who knew?

His noise was enough to make Lightning pull away from his lips with a surprised gasp, sounding breathless when she spoke. "What is it?"

"Nothing," he answered, pressing a kiss to her jaw. "That just - it felt nice."

"I didn't even do anything."

"Guess you did." He smiled against her skin, lips roaming downwards, relishing in the gasps and sharp inhales of breath. He'd figured out in the past year that there was a certain spot on her neck that Lightning particular like attention on, so he busied himself with that as his hands moved to her back and struggled to unclasp her bra.

And struggled.

And struggled.

…And struggled.

She seemed to notice his frustration, because her pleased noises stopped about halfway through and she arched her back a little as though to aide him. It didn't really help.

"Do they superglue these things together?" he muttered, sounding frustrated in more ways than one.

To his surprise, she chuckled. Maybe his lips had put her in a good mood. "Want me to do it?"

"No, I - " After a few more seconds of struggle, he sighed and sat up, trying not to pout. "…Yeah, maybe you'd better."

She smirked and shook her head in amusement, but he only watched in amazed as her hands went behind her and she swiftly unhooked the bra - which was a lacy thing that he did like to look at - in about two seconds, slipping it off her shoulders and dropping it to the floor. Hope would have asked how the heck she'd done that had he not suddenly been met with the half-naked sight of her.

"Lightning…" He groaned quietly, hands immediately reaching for her breasts. A quiet gasp escaped her, maybe just at his sudden boldness.

Either way, it urged him on. He groped and touched her eagerly, kissing down over her collarbone and chest, relishing in the quiet moans that came from her. It was only when he bit down on a nipple that he heard a hiss - a good noise? He bit down again, letting out a startled little noise when Lightning attempted to move away. He lifted his head in confusion. "What?"

"Not so hard."

"Oh. Sorry." He kissed the afflicted area apologetically, and she huffed, though gave him a little smile. At least she didn't seem to mind his enthusiasm. Or maybe it was because he'd apologized.

It didn't seem to matter, because in the next moment, their lips met in a sudden almost hungry kiss that was all teeth and tongue. A fuzzy thought formed in Hope's mind that it didn't really matter if he did something Lightning didn't like, because she'd let him know. And of course, he'd know not to do it again…especially since he was sure that there were plenty of ways to properly please her.

The kiss was even more intense now that they were both shirtless. He could feel how heated her skin was against his own, though it only served to turn him on so badly that it was nearly painful.

"I want you," he managed to breath out out of the corner of his mouth. Okay, it was a cliched line, but cliches were that way for a reason. And besides, it was completely true. His heart and mind already had her…and now his body desperately wanted her as well.

She let out a deep moan, though whether it was at it words or the instinctive way their hips moved together was lost on him. Damn these clothes in way. They needed to go. They had to go, and he didn't care how many lamps they knocked over.

With an obvious amount of reluctance, he moved from his position on top of her and rolled to his side instead. Pretty smart of him, he figured, since it'd be easier to get the rest of their clothes off this way. That little theory was proven when they easily kicked their shoes off, barely hearing the thunk-thunk as they hit the floor.

There was one awkward moment where both of their hands reached for the buttons of each other's pants at the same time, but it was quickly dispelled when Lightning insistently tugged on his waistband. He complied, especially since they were starting to feel awfully…cramped.

Hope noticed with a faint smile that Lightning took care to make sure to toss his pants away from any lamps. He was about to tease her about that, but a hesitant touch of her hand suddenly rest on his hip and all he wanted was the rest of their clothes off and to finally make his daydreams come true.

Her pants were much easier to get off than that bra, much to his relief. She seemed just as eager as he was, which was a relief.

They were ready for this.

Hope barely got to admire the view once her pants were off, leaving her only in a pair of lacy panties - hey, they matched the bra, had she done that on purpose? - since she abruptly rolled onto her side and pressed her lips to his neck before murmuring into his ear, "You brought protection, right?"

"Uh - " It was incredibly difficult to concentrate on the word. All he could think about was her husky, needy tone. "Y-Yeah, it's uh - in my bag."

Her reply came in that same tone. "Better go get it while you can."

"G-Good idea." Where the hell had she gotten that tone of voice? Good thing she hadn't used it at all in the past year, or their first time would have come a lot sooner.

With a herculean amount of effort, Hope forced himself away from her and off the bed, walking on shaky legs to where he'd dumped his bag. He glanced up in Lightning's direction, staring for a second at her nearly-naked body - those toned arms, long legs, her breasts and navel piercing, and holy hell, he really needed to find where the hell he'd stashed the condoms.

At first, the quiet in the room didn't seem that way due to the heat cackling between them. Their desperation was practically tangible. But as the minutes ticked on, it faded into impatience as Hope flung the stuff in his bag out and around the room, searching in every single pocket.

"….Crap."

He heard a rustling of sheets as she sat up slightly, regarding the stuff in piles around him. A knowing look appeared on her face.

"…You forgot to pack them, didn't you?"

Hope wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Or perhaps the floor would open up and swallow him. When that didn't happen, though, he awkwardly stood and made his way back to the bed, rubbing the back of his neck and admitting with guilt, "…Yeah."

Lightning sighed. It was a noise that was still tinged with desire that almost unmade him, and he was incredibly tempted to forget about being safe and just give in to what his body so desperately wanted.

But he couldn't do that to her.

"Now what?" she asked, effectively interrupting his thoughts.

"Um…" Hope wanted to say he was becoming less aroused, but Lightning was just sitting there looking all beautiful and topless and he couldn't tear his eyes from her. "I could, uh, see if the store in the lobby has anything."

He flushed slightly when her gaze drifted to the front of his boxers. Apparently he wasn't the only one with a staring problem. "I don't think you're really in the right…condition for that." Her cheeks turned pink at the implication and she abruptly looked away.

"I could, uh…" Though before he even finished the sentence, he knew that helping himself out wasn't the best idea, even with Lightning distracting him. "….Hm."

"Maybe we can just call this a practice session." The corners of her lips turned upwards in a very slight smile, and she leaned up to kiss him. "We can go have dinner or something and then check to see if any stores around here have, uh - " she cleared her throat, "anything we can use." He cheeks turned pink again. "Maybe tonight or tomorrow."

Much to his libido's disappointment, Hope's mind agreed with the idea. And she had a point about this being practice, because at least next time - there was going to be a next time - he'd know not to bite so hard.

"Okay." He leaned in and kissed her, letting out a long breath when he pulled away. "Sounds like a plan." Her reply was to smirk, which he raised a questioning eyebrow at.

"Better go take a cold shower, then."