closed 🌠⚡ it's far too easy to miss the beauty in the simple things

[starshower]

Who: Eustace & Tifa Lockhart.
Status: Closed.
Where: Around.
What: It's Tifa's birthday, and she's overworking again, so Eustace takes her away. Event stuff tba.
Warnings: Fluff.

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[starshower]

[Beneath the heat in her eyes, something else shimmers in them. Hope, maybe? Relief? No, it's something else that runs far, far deeper than that, to a place where she doesn't dare tread. A place where she is still a little too scared to look, even if she knows the truth of it. Has known the truth of it for a while...

But she does not want to go there now. Doesn't want any more of those thoughts to loom over her. Not when she has him here in the flowers beneath the stars, in a moment that is so perfect that she fears even breathing would shatter it.]

I just... I want you to be sure that this is what you want, too.

[Yet even still, she does not want him to regret a thing. Does not want him fearing for her after.

So she leans up to kiss him a little more softly, as if seeking the answer in the warmth of his lips against her own.]

Because I want it, too. This. Us...

[Her hands slide up his arms and then down, before she moves them to slip beneath his shirt, her palms hot against his stomach as she gently nudges the fabric away.]

[flamekthunder]

[There's a moment where he stares down at her, something deep reflected in his eyes. And while he had debated on the timing, whether if it's too soon or if he should wait...]

I love you.

[The words spill out, anyway. Words that he does not try or want to retract.]

I only want you because I love you.

[Instead he wants to be very clear on where he stands. Are they still kind of early in their relationship? Romantically, yes, but... They've known each other for longer than that, haven't they? And he knows, he is absolutely certain he wouldn't be here if he didn't feel this way towards her. Would not be seeking such a committed relationship because he's not the type to date someone without that kind of intention. It's why he hasn't dated anyone ever before.

But with Tifa...

He does.]

[starshower]

[She freezes at those words. Or maybe it's the rest of the world that freezes around them? Or maybe it's both? It certainly feels that way, and for a moment, none of this feels real. It feels like another dream so delicate that, if she so much as breathes, will shatter out from under her. She stares up at him, at the stars behind him, at that look in his eyes, and at the lips that had spoken them, as if searching for any sign that this could or could not be real, all the while her heart leaps and bounds in her chest, racing its way to him.

Had she been ready to hear it? She doesn't know. Had she been ready to admit that much herself? No, definitely not, but...

As she gazes at him and sees the depth in his eyes, the meaning that shines within them so crystal clear, she doesn't think that it matters anymore. It was that place that she was not prepared to go, if only because she really does fear the fickle nature of this world, but would it be so terrible to at least allow herself that happiness? Why shield herself from it only because she is afraid of losing it all? Maybe that's why she's been the way she has lately... Too afraid that if she breaks from routine, from normalcy, that it will change everything. She dug her heels in and so desperately tried to bury her roots, but she'd become scared of toppling over at the slightest breeze.

And this is so much more than that and yet...]

I... I love you.

[The words spill out of her in turn, her heart saying them before anything else in her could stop them, even if she wanted to. But she doesn't. Is it too early in their relationship? Maybe, but it is easy to forget of all the things that they had been through before that. Of the friendship that they had forged beneath everything else that she doesn't have to fear losing him if this... if they don't work.]

I love you, too. I have... I think, for a long time.

[She doesn't realize that tears have started to well up in her eyes until she feels the burn of them, but they are far from sad. They come from a place of relief and joy at finally being able to admit it aloud, and she deflates into the flowers with a sigh as a weight finally feels like it's been lifted.]

[flamekthunder]

[Even if he was mostly sure she felt the same, hearing it from her own lips brings both relief and joy, feelings that are reflected clearly in his eyes and in the soft smile that forms.]

...I think I have, too.

[It may have evolved from different forms of love, but it was there. That affection, that closeness, that attraction. Even if he may not have been aware of it for most of the time, whenever he looks back he's certain it had been there and grown all this time.]

So...don't question it anymore.

[His words a low whisper before his lips take hers into a soft kiss, one that will last and linger, naturally deepen as it prolongs.]

[starshower]

[The soft sound that he draws out of her in response—one of affirmation and invitation—is drowned by his lips, and as she accepts it in full, soft yet heated, her hands return to what they had been doing before. They explore, going places that she had gone but never really was as aware of as she is now as they slide his shirt further, nudging the fabric that separates them out of her way until she feels nothing but the heat of his skin beneath it.

Her legs wrap around his waist, pulling his hips closer to her own, and she lifts up to meet him with a breathy, wanting sigh over his lips, every act a shy but deliberate one to show him what it is she wants...

Though she's fairly certain that by now, he doesn't need to be told or shown.]

[flamekthunder]

[Indeed, he does not, but it does help encourage him to continue as he had wanted.

After the kiss deepens and becomes more aggressive, with his tongue pushing into her mouth to take more of her taste, his hands and mouth have moved...

...

And it first starts with her shirt pushed up higher and higher until it's over her head, the moonlight now fully washing over as he stares down for a moment to take her in. Her skin is already flushed, both from the heat and from where his hands had already made their preliminary explorations, and while he's seen many women in his world freely wear even less to the point he's practically immune to it...

There's something about seeing her already disheveled and breathless that sends a heat through him, a desire and want—a spark of carnal lust—that he's never had before.]

[starshower]

[She may not be fully unclothed, and he has seen her in far less than this before—touched her in far less than this—but never before has she felt so naked in her life as she does right now under his drinking gaze. She does not miss the way his eyes light up, or the way that they rove over her with a desire that she has not seen in him before, and it makes her cheeks flush all the more. She tries to tear her eyes away from him lest she feel more embarrassed about it, but with how the moonlight seems to hit him just right and the way the stars shimmer as the perfect backdrop, and how she can see his chest rising and falling, lips parted with breaths...

She cannot seem to bring herself to look anywhere else but up at him, in awe and reverence... and love.

So why does she feel so vulnerable now? Is it because she knows where they will go if she doesn't stop? Because of where his hands and mouth had been and where they intend to go? How she wants to reach out to him so, so much just to touch him?

She does, her hands carefully and lightly running over his exposed abdomen, right over his belt, her touch so gentle and careful that it's almost not there.

Her other arm, meanwhile, slides up between them and folds against her chest shyly, as the weight of his gaze becomes too much.]

[flamekthunder]

[When she moves her arm over her chest in that shy manner, there's a slight quirk of his lips as amusement flickers over his eyes.]

Don't hide.

[His voice is low as he leans back down closer, his hand reaching out to pull her hand away...and pin it above her head.]

I want to see you.

[His lips are now hovering over lips, his eyes bearing down her with a deeper intensity than before, one filled with that heat that he no longer tries to hide or contain.]

All of you.

[A sharp nip of her lower lip before his lips descend upon her once more. First her lips, then her chin, the underside of her neck, down the front of her throat to her collarbone—then downward as his other hand has slipped beneath the lace, kneading the soft skin briefly before pulling down her bra to expose more of her cleavage. It's as if he's taking his time while steadily moving forward at the same time.]

[starshower]

I...

[She feels her breath catch in her chest and her cheeks run hot, her voice and her thoughts lost to the touch of his hands and lips on her and a static heat sweeps in to replace it instead.]

Okay.

[It's all she gets out before she yields to him, her body pliant as he moves over her now. She arches up off the grass when he reaches those more sensitive spots, pressing herself into his hands, against his lips, more firmly, his name riding out of her with a pleading sigh before she can stop it. Her hips roll against his, every inch of her body on fire as it seeks every bit of his, as if he is the thing that will both stop her from bursting into flames and will be the one thing that will turn her to ash.]

But I want... I want to see all of you, too.

[Her voice is trembling and near breathless as she tangles around him, legs squeezing tighter at his waist as she continues to lift his shirt away, her palms pressed firmly against his sides and his back like she is trying to imprint every curve, every dip, every little detail of him onto her skin...]