Damn her.
Damn her stubborn self, damn her independence, damn her fierce, unrelenting feral nature.
All these things, he's ashamed to recall, he has thought to himself at one time or another. Even if he was right to think them.
But he's just as right to forget them as he stares hard into amber eyes that will him to shut his own before her lips will touch his. Give in, the eyes order. I win.
No, he thinks, before the reflex kicks in and his body warms to the graze of her hair against his ears and he can taste milk. His own hands knead her back lightly, the slight arch of her clavicles is all he needs to know she has no right to call this anything but a draw. But even that thought is falling away as her mouth opens just a little more and his tongue grazes her molars.
He is dimly aware of his heart hammering a tattoo in his chest. His thighs ache. The weight of her lean form is nonexistent; even now she is intent on causing as little discomfort for him as possible. She has always been like that, even when she clearly wanted to touch him but wouldn't.
Perhaps we were expecting some kind of explosion. Perhaps we've been so bottled up that we can only ease the cork out slowly, or we'll miss it and our wanting will just stain the walls, the air, the floor. . .
She hears the growl at the bottom of his throat before she truly registers what is happening. She is on her back and his kiss is hungry, greedy, anything but the tenderness she anticipated. Her own laugh bubbles up into her throat. She won't say this aloud, it will only embarrass him. Juu-chan, you letch. His hands on her bare bottom are strong and rougher than. . .well. . .nevermind. He nuzzles her neck, murmuring something he doesn't want her to hear.
Her hands are tangled in his hair. Her ear is between his teeth and he nips. She stiffens only a little, sucking in breath, but this is enough to wrench him away, a flash of alarm on his face. "Did I―" It's gone in an instant when she smiles up at him. It's okay that he's this hungry. She would be irritated if it were any other way. She doesn't need to tell him this either. Her hand pulls him back to her. Mine, she thinks.
She is soft in all the right places, even along her wiry arms. Her thighs hold him in place as he pushes forward into foreign territory and finds it welcoming. Beneath him he can feel her heart pounding and even as his breath comes in shorter gasps hers is the same. Is this what I tried to avoid? He thinks absently as he reaches the end of the world and jumps, knowing he'll never really hit the ground again.
He buries his face in her hair. Mine, he thinks. Beneath him, Yoruichi is purring.
A/N: Sorry, folks, this isn't the last chapter. Just call it me tripping on a thought and getting my foot stuck.
