AN: Hello readers! Thank you for your patience. I planned on giving myself a little break after the last update to work on other projects and my son started summer vacation. My baby just went back to school so I'm trying to get back into it. Working on it little by little, I promise.
A soft click roused Rinoa from her sleep. She opened her eyes and as her vision cleared she saw the soft pillow in front of her, dented in the middle. Rubbing her hand over her face, she rose up in her bed and stretched her neck from side to side.
After Squall and her had talked on the couch, the rest of the evening went by in a blur. She laid atop of his chest, breathing in his scent and just basking of the comfort of his strong arms enveloping her. When dinnertime came around, he ordered pizza to be delivered to her apartment.
"I don't want to be presumptuous," he had said to her. "But can I stay the night?"
Instantly she squeezed him around the waist. "Please," she whispered. "Just stay close to me."
"Always."
She wasn't entirely sure what time they had gone to bed. They'd had a Mel Brook's film marathon and somewhere during the cabaret scene in Blazing Saddles, they had fallen asleep on the couch. She briefly awoke to Squall carrying her into bed and lining up behind her, his arm wrapped around her waist.
Now she awoke to empty bed. She saw his cellphone on the nightstand by his side of the bed and knew he hadn't gone far. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and made her way out of her room.
There was Squall, rummaging through the fridge. She saw a spread of ingredients along the countertop: Cheese, sausages, and eggs. She knew he had already found the near rotting bell pepper looming in the back corner and had most likely already tossed it.
She leaned over the counter and smiled at the sight of him so comfortable in her kitchen. It was something she had seen before, and something she'd never tire of seeing. Within her chest her heart thrummed. While they both had made it explicitly clear that they had seen each other as long term, the conversation of living together in the very near future hadn't come up.
"Whatcha doin?"
He turned around, a string of red licorice dangling from his teeth. "Hm?" His eyes were wide, the blue iris surrounded by white, and his ears were flushed.
"You're stealing my snacks!"
He simply shook his head. "No idea what you're talking about," he said, his words muffled around the licorice.
She rounded the corner and blocked him in at the fridge. "You little thief!"
He shook his head again, this time a little more fiercely so the tip of the licorice tickled at her chin. She squealed and laughed, clacking her teeth so it bit down on the flailing tip. She gave a playful snarl and tugged so the licorice fell out of his mouth.
"That was mine," he growled.
She scrunched her face at him. "Come and get it."
His eyes flashed, a stroke of heated lightning crossing his features and Rinoa sucked in a breath. She hadn't meant to get this overly flirty so soon, but he did make it quite difficult for her. They hadn't even kissed last night, only embraced each other and snuggled late into the night.
But now the pull between them was practically electrocuting them. Her heart pounded and she felt her breath come faster as he continued to stare at her. Gently, he raised his hand to cup her jaw. He leaned in. With his teeth he took the remnants of the licorice from her mouth and dropped it unceremoniously to the floor.
Rinoa lifted her chin and her lips met his. The contact sent a shiver down her spine and she gasped, allowing him to snake his tongue inside. He tasted sweet, like the candy, a polar contrast to the fiery grip his hand now placed upon her waist.
Before she could suggest going to the room, she found herself being lifted onto the counter. As she sat he pulled away only for a moment to pull her leggings and panties down her body. She tilted her head back, panting as his head dipped low between her legs. She crossed her ankles behind his neck, keeping his eager tongue right where she wanted it.
When he had her whimpering and shaking against his mouth, he stood back up and undid the tie to his sweatpants.
"Please," she begged.
He positioned himself at her opening, his eyes never leaving hers. His hands cupped her face again, his thumb lightly caressing over her cheek. "Yes," he whispered. He slammed into her in one stroke. His mouth claimed hers as she let out a scream.
He leaned into her, his hips thrusting with such fervor. Each movement, each kiss, every sensation filled her nerves beyond their capacity. She could hardly speak, could hardly get any words out to encourage him to go faster, to not stop, to fuck her completely senseless. She squeezed tighter with her legs and clung to him.
Squall dropped his head to rest on her shoulder, his tongue darting out to lick along her collarbone and then side of her neck. "Fuck," he snarled. "You feel so good. You feel so fucking good."
Rinoa's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she nodded. She couldn't even begin to describe how impossibly good he felt inside her. He filled her to the brim, stretched her and fit in ways she never would have imagined. It was as if her body was made for his, and his for hers.
Meant for each other.
The little voice itched within her skull and she tightened her hold on him. She brought his head back up and kissed him just as he reached his peak. He came with a forceful pounding of his hips and his hand slipped behind her head to clench her hair in his fist.
She let out a moan and peppered kisses along his cheeks and jaw. He responded with a tender caress along her back and then a soft kiss to her forehead.
"Well, good morning," she murmured.
A flush bloomed along the tops of his cheeks and he let out a nervous chuckle. She loved seeing the different sides of him. He was so passionate in his lovemaking. His stoic and elusive outer shell cracked, revealing the lion he kept contained. He only let her see this side. And she relished in that fact.
"Morning," he said, slowly sliding out of her. "Sorry, I wanted to make you breakfast and then…well." He leaned in and kissed her cheek.
She looped her arms around his neck and sighed. "A much nicer wake up than a good cup of coffee."
"I'm inclined to agree." He helped her off the counter and slid the panties back up her legs, ending the motion with a light kiss to her thigh.
"My leggings?"
"No." He pulled up his sweatpants and kicked the leggings away while he tied a knot to his drawstrings. When she laughed and tried to protest, he grabbed her arm and stole another kiss from her that left her breathless. "I'd rather you put on one of your little shorts," he murmured. "It is almost a hundred degrees today, after all."
She smiled against his mouth. "Oh yes, of course. Wouldn't want to suffer heat exhaustion."
"Not at all."
Squall started back on his quest to make breakfast. When Rinoa returned to the kitchen, wearing the small pajama shorts he had so politely requested, she found he was already cracking eggs into a heated pan. "Your produce is…not so edible at the moment, but the andouille sausage was still good."
"It better be. I bought it like a week ago but I hadn't even opened the package yet."
He chuckled at her. "Try getting into meal prepping. Once you buy everything from the store, get everything premade and then freeze them. That's what I started doing when I started working ten to twelve hour shifts at the hospital."
Rinoa shrugged. She told him about how she had started following Quistis's advice about getting those premade meals at the store. "I've already gone through two of them since my last shopping trip. The last one is still in the freezer I think. I'm due for another grocery trip tomorrow."
Squall nodded, listening to her as he started to cube the sausages. His phone started to ring and he answered with one hand while the other started to drop the meat into the omelet. "Yeah?" His brows furrowed as he started to listen to the other person on the phone. "When? Alright." He paused for a moment as the other person said something. "Well, you can tell her that I'll ask her myself. She's standing right next to me."
Rinoa's ears perked up when she heard a shriek come from the phone. She tried not to sputter a laugh as Squall nearly hurled it away from him.
"Goddamn!" he muttered. He pulled the phone back to his ear with a wince. "Yes," he growled. He closed his eyes and bared his teeth. "Ugh. Fine." He turned to Rinoa. "Selphie," was all he said as he handed the phone to her.
Gingerly she took the phone from his fingers. "Hello?" she said sweetly.
"Did you two make up?" Selphie screamed.
Rinoa rubbed a finger to her ear. "Is screaming like that good for the baby?"
"Baby's fine! Now tell me!"
Rinoa covered her eyes and laughed. "Yes, we're fine. What is Squall supposed to tell me because I don't think you'll even give him a chance to speak now."
"They're having an album release party on Friday at The Red Scorpion," Selphie chirped. "Edea pulled some strings with the owner and they're going to close it down to the general public around six and the party starts at eight! Everyone's going to be there so Irvine asked Squall for me if it'd be ok if I'd ask you to attend and then Squall dropped that big ass bomb in the most nonchalant oh so casual way of his."
Rinoa grinned as she listened to Selphie perfectly describe Squall. "Yeah, he does that. I'll look at my work calendar and make sure I don't have any shoots scheduled. I should be open though."
She could practically see Selphie jumping in a circle and clapping her hands. "Yay! The whole group is back together! Ohmygod I'm so excited. Ok, I have to pee. Here's Irvine again."
"Hi Irvine."
"Well hello there Miss Heartilly," Irvine drawled. "Glad to hear you guys are good again. He was sulkier than normal and I'd hate for his creativity to get kicked and write only emo lyrics. This ain't 2005 anymore."
"Oh please, emo lyrics can still make a profit, especially if it hits people with that good ol' nostalgia feeling." Rinoa laughed and looked over to Squall, shaking his head and muttering silently to himself as he finished sliding an omelet onto a plate. "Alright, well I'm handing you back to Squall now."
Silently he took the phone and set the plate down in front of her. "Just send me the details later. Bye." He hung up and set the phone back into his pocket. "Zell and Quistis will probably be blowing up my phone in a few minutes," he groaned, scrubbing his hand over his face.
"It's because they love you," she teased, popping a bite into her mouth. "This is excellent, as always."
"Good." He prepared his own plate and they sat down on her couch, ignoring her new and squeaky dining set. "I have some WD-40 at home," he said. "I'll bring it to you next time I'm over."
"Sounds good."
Some time after they finished and were wiping crumbs from their mouths. Rinoa stretched her legs over his lap and leaned back against the arm of the couch. "What're your plans for the rest of the day?"
"Nothing really. We're probably going to have to schedule some more practice this week before this release party. Usually it's a whole gig. Irvine will let me know if anyone else is playing that night with us."
"That's so exciting. Have you heard the entire album yet?"
He shook his head. "Not yet. Irvine and Zell have. They've been taking care of a lot of this album preparation."
"Well I can't wait to hear it," Rina grinned.
Then, as if on cue, Squall's phone started vibrating.
The first text was from Zell, a gif of a cartoon bunny hopping around with the words 'Tell me tell me tell me' blinking along the screen.
QT: YOU GUYS MADE UP?
ZD: Don't ignore me.
QT: OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGODDDDDDD
ZD: Answer meeeeeeeeeeeeee
QT: You gonna propose yet?
ZD: UPDATE PLEASE
Rinoa threw her head back and laughed as she read through the multitude of text messages that now flooded his phone. In addition, Quistis and Zell were sending gifs of various animated cartoons dancing in joy, one was even holding pom poms and doing a cheer. "How much you wanna bet that they're sitting right next to each other as they're sending these?"
"Most likely are."
Rinoa's phone chimed and she nearly screamed with laughter again.
QT: How was the makeup sex? Attached was another gif, this one of a cute little chubby penguin, lowering its sunglasses and arching a brow.
"Oh my god," Rinoa giggled. "She kills me."
Squall let out a snarl as his phone vibrated again.
ZD: Ya'll fuck yet?
"Goddammit Zell," he muttered, moving his thumbs along the screen to type a response.
SL: Have you two?
ZD: Sir, I am a GENTLEMAN. How dare you?
ZD: But seriously, you tap that yet?
SL: Fuck you.
ZD: THAT'S A YES.
ZD: But also, more seriously, you good now?
SL: Yes.
Zell responded with four lines of emojis wearing party hats and confetti.
Rinoa chuckled and took the phone from Squall's hands. "Ok, that's enough alerting the masses," she said. She put the phones onto the coffee table and shook her finger at him. "I haven't seen you nearly all week. You're all mine now." She crawled into his lap and playfully nipped at his earlobe.
"Babe, I've been all yours," was his reply.
