The Apartment Above 6 Unicorn Street, Thursday Evening

[angelo_wings]

Stranger and stranger. The other-her, the Rinoa that Lady Caraway felt like she was tracking through time and space, apparently owned a store in town, at least according to the tiny blonde Sorceress who worked there. How had she come to settle here? Mr. Sta- Jono said that the Rinoa he knew had gone to school here, but Rinoa had been privately tutored most of her life.

They still had no real progress on the other question, what had caused the rifts and portals, but the emergence of new faces on the island seemed to indicate that more and more of those were opening, almost as though cracks were appearing in a dam just short of bursting. It wasn't a reassuring thought.

The benefit of everyone assuming you owned a store was that you were perfectly free to make use of the merchandise, and so Rinoa had helped herself to several of the books from the back of the room. She would put them back when she was done, but for now, one of them might help.

She was in street clothes today, as there was no one to impress, and she'd replaced the bottle of chianti from the other night with a pinot noir. Rinoa sprawled out on the couch, one of the heavier tomes on her lap, hoping to find something, anything, that might explain what in the world (worlds? universes?) was going on.

(open for housemates or visitors!)

Comments

[angelo_wings]

"We don't know that it isn't," Rinoa said, reaching to cradle his hand in both of hers, now. "If this place really is a nexus ... maybe I can stay here. Maybe I can find it again. I'd ... like to. I mean."

Okay, maybe it was impossible. But maybe it wasn't. Was it so wrong to have a measure of hope?

She was blushing. "So, has anyone ever told you ... how frustrating it is, not being able to kiss you?"

She had to imagine it was even more so, on his end.

[furnaceface]

//At least once or twice.//

He brought his other hand forward, then, not reaching for her hands, but for her cheek, to gently cradle her face against his palm.

//There are workarounds for that. It's not quite the same, but...//

He reached out with his telepathy, sending the sensation of a ghost of a kiss, brushing softly against her lips.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa closed her eyes, feeling ... feeling kissed. She leaned into it, trying to kiss back, but just as quickly, the sensation was gone.

She was creative. She could adapt. She tucked her chin down and pressed her lips firmly against his palm, nuzzling against the inside of his hand. She tilted her head to let her cheek brush against his long fingers, her lips trailing over his skin.

[furnaceface]

Oh, that was... it was lovely, really. Such a small thing, an affectionate nuzzle against his hand, but it was easily more affection than he'd been shown in years. He countered with a wave of warm emotion, the sort one might feel when they can't quite hold back a little smile, when they're moving past charmed straight on into enamoured territory.

His hand moved across her face, thumb tracing the outline of her lips.

//Beautiful.//

[angelo_wings]

The loveliest feeling was washing over her; warmth, connection, and a tingling, giddy infatuation. This was reckless. The Sorceress was usually so careful with her affections, with who she chose to be seen with, who she allowed herself to date.

She wasn't the Sorceress here. Rinoa could do whatever she wanted. Rinoa -- could kiss his thumb, softly, and then draw it into her mouth so that she could tease it with her tongue.

So what if it was shameless? He wouldn't judge her. He ... understood.

[furnaceface]

//Oh.// That one word, that one syllable, was full of all of the raw appreciation that Jono could fit into it, and he found himself bunching his shoulders slightly at the pleasant surprise.

He gave her hand a light squeeze with the one that she was still holding on to, and then slipped it free so that he could run his fingers up over her arm, slowly and lightly, exploring whatever bit of exposed skin he could find.

Arms like silk, he mused, and might have even felt the faintest bit guilty that this Rinoa's Squall wasn't the one sitting here in his place. But then, this was a different reality entirely. He owed no loyalty to a man who accused him of being a spy here to compromise their mission, someone who was familiar in face and name alone.

And besides, this wasn't Squall's choice to make, it was Rinoa's.

[angelo_wings]

Another Rinoa might be attached to a Squall, but that wasn't Squall in the other room, it was the Lieutenant Commander. Besides, Rinoa's heart went where it would, but she only ever belonged to herself.

Her mouth was continuing to idly explore his thumb, the nail here, the ridges on the knuckle there, and then she nuzzled all of her face into the palm of his hand. She wanted -- more. Could she kiss back, when he gave out those telepathic ones? How much of him was real, and how much was fire? Even if he could only touch her with his mind, he ... it seemed more real than any of the times she'd crept into a hotel suite with the current discreet boyfriend. That was only hands on skin, and this was deeper.

Not that she was objecting to hands, as his sent tingles up the sides of her arms. She wriggled in closer against him, using her free hand to press gently against his chest, some place where it seemed especially solid. She might be a Sorceress, but she didn't know how fireproof she was, and it wouldn't help the mood any to find out.