t's pitch black outside and almost midnight, for once the dorm is so silent its almost eerie after such a noisy evening. Sitting on his bed, chin resting on his wrists and arms crossed over his knees, Akihiko still can't quite process the prior events and how it all unraveled. Just thinking about it makes him shiver all over and close his eyes, but even that doesn't help.

All I see are yours and my reflection in them.

That's one mental picture that's sizzled in his brain forever and it's just haunting. It's all he saw whenever they had to breathe, and when they managed to make more than five steps without being glued to each other to get back home. It's a bit of a blur how he even came back to his room to shower and change after all this, not that it matters in the end.

Everything's red and glowing and textured like plush velvet.

All he can think back on are the never-ending languorous kisses he gave her in the darkness of the dorm's side alley before he let her run inside, and the long time he spent with his face pressed to the cool brick wall after, until he leveraged enough brainpower to move from his spot and follow sometimes later.

It's a good thing all the residents of the dorm were already back from the festival and tucked in when he did, so he didn't have to interact with any of them, or it might have been really awkward. Maybe it's not written all over his face what exactly happened, but he certainly looks out of sorts, like he's having an out of body experience or saw a ghost.

I tasted fire and it scarred me to no end.

He runs his hands in his hair and over his face roughly, the amount of stress on his nerves is tiring, but it feels like another toss and turn night is on the menu. He will never be able to sleep now, not when her fiery specter is hanging around his neck and all he keeps thinking about is the way her scorching lips felt on his.

Might as well go grab something to drink now before…

The Dark Hour curtain zaps all the lights out and he can distinctly hear the electricity fizzling out in the wires going in the walls like a tide wave receding. He scowls at his distraction of what time it was; the vending machines on his floor are now inoperable because they're out of power. That leaves the water bottles in the offline fridge downstairs, they won't cool down anytime soon.

Padding on bare feet silently, briefly scoffing at Junpei's customary snoring from the corridor, Akihiko makes his way downstairs by skipping all the creaking wood spots. At this point, it's almost a reflex to do so; he spends a lot of time sneaking around when everyone's asleep and he had lots of practice when he was younger.

The lounge looks like a nightmare rendition of itself because of the green gloom, but the kitchen is coal black since its windows are not angled toward the moon's position in the sky. He's lived here for quite some time now, so he knows exactly where everything is located, finding a plastic bottle of the proper shape by feel in the refrigerator.

He almost takes hold of it when he feels a presence nearby and turns toward the doorframe; he didn't hear anyone coming down the stairs and he taps the fridge door so it closes softly. All the hair on his neck stands up because he can feel who it is despite the complete darkness, almost like a frequency in the murky air, and Akihiko just stops breathing. She murmurs, sounding a bit high-strung.

"Sorry, I… couldn't sleep either."

You and me both.

There's just a sliver of light coming from the lounge toward the kitchen entrance that lights her gaze like red cinders and it's enough to throw him back in the roundabout of the evening all over again, except with a nervous static overlay on top that makes his hands shake.

Minako just slowly enters the kitchen toward him, tentatively moving forward until he can feel the heat irradiating from her. He can't see anything in the darkness and he's just going by feel, dipping his head down a bit until he feels her hair tickle against his cheek, and he leans into it gently.

The tip of her nose connects with the base of his jaw and traces its curve, sighing dreamily. Her fingers graze downward on his shirt near his ribs, like she wants him to get the hint and he takes a hand to the back of her head delicately to angle it backward, stroking the curls of her undone braid.

Her lips are brushing on his chin, her breath is warming his throat, and he dips downward until they're against his mouth like a whisper instead. Everything instantly turns into clouds in his mind and he groans half a suggestion that was still floating in there a second ago.

"Do you…"

It almost sounds like a tired sigh when he feels her word spoken against his mouth.

"Yes."

He closes his lips around her lower one with intent, parting them slowly to mold them all over hers and she shudders, nails twitching on his shirt.

Wait…

She tilts her head, and he can barely whisper three words before she presses on him with a scorching kiss.

"You don't even…"

He keeps his mouth slack to run a lazy lower lip all over hers, his exhale shaky.

"Know what…"

And she catches it between her own, squeezing it gently in passing.

"I wanted to… ask you."

His eyes are rolling back and he digs his fingers in her hair, nuzzling the corner of her cheek so he can catch his breath. She takes the opportunity to whisper to him, gasping for air.

"I assume… it's cat-related."

Akihiko lazily chuckles at that one because that's a good recap of his untold proposal to stay close tonight and she just tugs at his shirt so they can get going, brushing her lips against him like a tantalizing call to follow.

I'd follow you anywhere anyways.

It would be a repeat of the earlier slow trek to the dorm, except Koromaru, sleeping on the couch, shuffles his ears and opens his eyes to look at them and they split apart in a flash. The dog cocks his head to the side and makes a muffled whine of curiosity that makes them both freeze.

I completely forgot about him.

"It's okay Koro-chan, go back to sleep. We're going to bed too."

She spoke very softly, and the dog puts his nose back on top of his paws, sighing in tiredness while closing his eyes again. They both exchange a glance of guilt and shuffle upstairs in silence toward his room, mood a bit subdued. It takes the lock clicking in place for Akihiko's mind to spark an actual rational thought, ringing a thousand bells in the back of his mind.

This is actually… a really dangerous idea.

But Minako's hand is fluttering up his neck to ruffle the tufts of silver at the back of his head and that dreadfully alarming notion sizzles out of existence like a rain drop in a bonfire. Everything's a dark forest green and there are two little embers that recedes from him whenever he dives forward like a fish following a baited hook.

She keeps going backward until she throws both her arms around his neck and lets him connect to her like a magnet searching for its twin, humming. Arching her back, she pushes her weight backward and he puts his hands to her spine to cushion her fall, melting her delicately on the bed instead.

There's a vague echo in his subconscious of rumpled red velvet in the murk of the Dark Hour, her frame bending backward with the curve of her neck exposed and rubies melting, him above her and he frowns.

Don't let the rope snap. Don't go there.

The irony of the moving goalpost doesn't escape him, it's almost funny how his definition of where the line is just drastically changed today. It used to be near her, then touching her, then gently kissing her, and now…

Now it means something a tad more intense.

He just runs his mouth across hers as slowly as possible, just to convince himself it's not as bad if it's just this and his eyes are closed. If he's not drowning in red, perhaps he can stay sane, except something soft and boiling hot slips in to caress the inside of his upper lip and he quivers violently at the burning sensation. That throaty sound Minako made doesn't help, at all.

Oh my god rope on fire.

Her arms are still on his neck and his across her back, so Akihiko dips his weight to the right to roll on his side, cradling her with him so they lay face to face, still entwined while he catches his breath and tries to cool down a bit. Her eyelids crack open to look at him, glazed over.

"Sorry… It's just that you…"

Please don't speak your mind or mine will explode.

He interrupts her explanation by brushing his lips on hers and using his words as a tickling caress, pressing her spine toward him with his palms.

"Just, let me do this… until we faint to sleep…"

And he just keeps languidly kissing her very softly, just savoring the silky texture of her as he runs a hand across her hair dreamily. Lashes fold closed almost fully on the flames in her eyes and her nails graze behind his head until they eventually both succumb to exhaustion.