finchwoodacademy | IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Kyra cuts a strange figure, moving through the moonlit windows, cradling a small dog in her arms who she intermittently feeds bits of beef jerky in a bid to keep the angel quiet. (Stolen from Liam; she'll replace it.) She's distracted from her destination a few times, in favor of kissing Sunny's beautiful furry head.

She sneaks her way as far as the Swords common room door and pauses, texting Marina a simple "Here" that does not convey any of the nervous affection beating in her chest. Her heart already did funny things around Marina. This feels like that, only magnified by a million. All she can think about is how much she cares for her. How beautiful she is.

Kyra buries her face in Sunny's fur and inhales his warm dog smell to steady herself, before Marina can find her all worked up over nothing, already.
Shit.

Edited (EVERYTHING I WRITE IS TOO LONG SORRY) 2019-02-10 05:44 (UTC)

A soft ding and a quick check of the phone. It's not difficult for Marina to slip past her sleeping roommates, but it still adds to the nervous excitement of a late night rendezvous. There's no shadow sickness necessary to get her skulking about and acting like an idiot where Kyra's concerned. She's been effortlessly under the other girl's spell for some time.

The low light of the girl's common room confirms that it's thankfully empty at this hour, but Marina wouldn't have been above chasing some freshmen off to bed. A more noble minded person - a proper Emperor - would have supported locking Kyra away in a tower until the shadow's effects had run their course. But both girls had flipped their arcane assignments on their heads, and Marina couldn't help but push back at good sense when the temptation was so appealing.

Opening the common room door feels like Christmas morning. But better. So many possibilities.

Finding Kyra indulging in parfum de pup isn't one of the possibilities Marina had imagined. It takes her a moment to recover - something about this unrestrained version of Kyra is completely Charming. "Kiki. Sunny." The latter greeting is considerably flatter. She'd known to expect Sunny, was trying hard to warm up to him for Kyra's sake, and yet he continued to be.. a dog. That Marina still found him wholly repellent was a good thing right now.

Edited (heart horny & standard horny for foxy Robot Hood) 2019-02-10 15:28 (UTC)

The trouble with this particular ailment is that it doesn't feel unnatural. The desires and attractions that play at the corners of her heart aren't strange ones. There's just no other half of her brain pushing back down on them. In a toxic way she won't examine right now, she really likes it. Around the right people. She is, now.

She blinks up at Marina opening the door like she'd just seen a star fall. Kyra's grip on Sunny tightens, and the dog wriggles around, so she puts him down, hoping he won't go too far. But she needs to stretch her hand out so Marina will take it. That seems like priority. "Hi." she breathes out, and it's really all she's capable of.

Edited (buries her under dirt) 2019-02-10 17:44 (UTC)

Hearing about it, imagining, talking over the journals.. it's all so very different than coming face-to-face with the effects of Charmed drunkenness. She's only ever seen Kyra look at her like this when they've been pressed close in a corner together, even then it's only a shadow of the look that's on her face now. Marina's pulse quickens. "Hi," she stupidly breathes back, and takes Kyra's hand, drawing her through the doorway.

Her brain reminds her that she's the only one here in full control of her senses. Or, as in control as she ever is when Kyra is around. But she's taken her hand before. Plenty of times. Denying that right now would be cruel. Yes, that's how the rationalization goes. For the first time ever, her eyes dart away in search of Sunny, in hopes that the horrible little monster hasn't deserted them. Close enough for now.

Then she smiles, basking in this strange new glow. "You made it past your guards."

Edited (bad) 2019-02-10 18:40 (UTC)

Her skin's on fire as soon as Marina touches it. Kyra feels her skin growing warmer, spreading quickly from her fingertips all the way up her cheeks. Oh god. She tilts her chin quickly down to look for her dog companion, but her fingers entwine tightly around the other girl's. Sunny's waiting patiently at her heels, which doesn't offer enough of a distraction.

She steps close, sensible still at least enough to try at not getting caught. But close means that her hands want to reach out for more. She uses their fingers as an anchor. "Hadlee has to sleep, sometime. No one else...?"

She tries to look beyond Marina's shoulder into the next room. She doesn't hear anyone.

"No one else. Except our furry chaperone," Marina confirms, and with Kyra getting closer, that's a dangerous promise. She can feel it, and yet, when she steps backwards into the room, she doesn't use it as a chance to add some space. It's just fingers on fingers. (And a diminishing space between.) There's no harm in that.. right? She curls her fingertips against Kyra's palm, urging her to follow. It's not fire, but there's still heat, butterflies.

The sofa seems like a good landing place. She hovers near an arm, watching Kyra, careful to take cues from her, even as she dearly just wants to become a tangle of limbs. Talking.. is a distraction, though her question isn't as innocent in its affection as it could be. "How're you feeling, fuzz head?"

Edited 2019-02-10 20:25 (UTC)

Kyra curls on the sofa next to Marina, her body acting without her full permission. She could allow it to do that now, let it be drawn like a moth. She rests her forehead on her shoulder, half to soak her in, half to hide her face. It’s likely still pink. “Fuzzy.”
She admits from the hiding place, and wriggles her fingers so Sunny would know to come up and save her from herself.

This is nice. Just like this. Kyra's always fit nicely against her, but its rarely ever been like this. Curled up. No urgent fumbling of hands, lips. (Not that that.. isn't also very nice. But this is better right now. Safer. Maybe something.. they should do more.)

Sunny comes without hesitation. Marina presses her lips against Kyra's hair and then shifts enough that she can lean over, fighting against instincts to shoo the monster off, and gingerly picks Sunny up, begrudgingly placing him in Kyra's lap and leading her hand to rest in his fur. They could share the attention for now.

"Today was a lot," she concedes. All the training had been worth it, though. A boss. Fighting each other. It could have gone so much worse. She touches Kyra's hair lightly with her hand, brushing her fingers through it. "I'm glad you decided to come be fuzzy with me."

She wants to cry, a little. Kyra's fortifications around her own feelings are high and spiked. Gaps in her armor are rare. People have found them. Marina herself has. Never quite like this. She feels like her heart's been stabbed and flooded with fondness. Something stronger than that. It hurts, it's so potent. But she's comfortable too. Nothing in the world could move her from this.

Her entire spine collapses into gravity, and she allows herself to rest. She scratches Sunny's ears softly, and nestles in to Marina's shoulder, pressing a kiss to her collarbone almost idly. "I could've done better." She says, distant. "But...thank you. For letting me come over. I was lonely."

And it had been overwhelming. All these feelings for so many people. Now that there's only one place for them to go, it works out.

When Kyra's lips press softly against Marina's skin with no agenda, simply there, it's like a pebble getting dropped in water, except all the ripples feel weirdly centered not at Marina's collarbone, but her heart. Everything with Kyra is new experiences. Not just physically, but emotionally. Mo's her security blanket, her best friend and worst enemy, but there had never been any choice in the matter. But she chose Kyra, to the point of feline fixation, and Kyra chose her. Not because she'd won the most matches or proven to her father that she was the most molded in his image, but simply for being her. Vulnerabilities and all.

"This is wholly selfish on my part, I promise," she teases softly, fingers roaming to brush against Kyra's ear, her jawline, whatever soft bits of skin she can reach without risking summoning Sunny's attention to her fingers. Maybe she shouldn't be enjoying this so much. She knows Kyra, knows that she's not normally like this, boneless, completely unguarded. Her teeth worry her bottom lip. "But.. maybe we could do this more. When you aren't feeling fuzzy. Like.. regular girlfriends."

Kyra lets herself relax all the way into Marina. And Sunny. Her eyes close, but she's not sleeping. It would just be too much to have them open right now. This is the first time she's felt safe in a long time. She's not out of it enough to not hear the request, though. On an ordinary day, it would send a pang of guilt through her for keeping Marina at an arm's length for so long. But now, her eyes just blink open, lazy.

"You want to be girlfriends?" She sounds awed. She is, in fact. This perfect girl? She couldn't be this lucky. "Girlfriends with me?"

Guilt rushes Marina at Kyra's dazed tone, and she feels anything but perfect. Too far. Sunny might be keeping Marina's hands from roaming where they shouldn't, but hearts were what was really at danger. Kyra acting like she's the world is intoxicating, from the tone of her voice to the weight of her body against her - fully trusting, loving. Two hearts in perfect sync.

But it's all an illusion. This might be pulling poorly hidden truths to the surface for Marina, but she can't reasonably expect the same of Kyra, not with the remnants of a shadow still swimming in her head. She shifts awkwardly against the sofa arm, words stumbling out at a halting pace. "Hey. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have. You're really fuzzy right now."

Kyra tries to shift up, and gather some of her wits back about her. The thrumming in the back of her brain tells her that's appropriate. She's said too much. Or something. There's a magnet drawing her in, but she knows she needs to pull back. So she does, a little, taking one palm and rubbing it over her eyes, kneading sense back into her brain. She shouldn't let this affect her. She should've just gone to sleep.

"No...it's...no." Her words stumble out, halting. "I...come back to that. Later."

Marina relaxes bit by bit as she senses Kyra, the Kyra she knows, fighting back for control. She's not sure what happened, but she could sense that she'd lost her, for a moment there. This is better, even if it's a reminder that the reality is different from the reverie.

"Chalk that up to crazy new ideas that need a pin in them," she agrees with an uneasy, breathless laugh. The danger is past, for now. She tries to focus on that. To settle down again. No need to ruin an incandescent dream over one slip of the heart. She presses her lips against Kyra's hair once more, quickly, stealing what she shouldn't. "It's late. You should rest. I'll be.. quiet." Selfish. Selfish. Selfish.

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny

Kyra & Marina & Sunny