cinderlea | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ Riku disappears first. Vanished in her sleep, in the middle of the night, collapsing in on herself in a shimmer of starlights. This isn't like last time. No warnings, no chances to say goodbye, no hesitation or resistance. She just isn't there.

Lea goes minutes after Riku, in the same way. But she's awake, lounging on her couch, having a conversation as she flips through her phone. Here and then gone, like a flame. This isn't the first time either of them have gone home, but it's the first time it's so abrupt. At least it isn't death. The last time Riku went home was seven years ago. She was gone for a month, and she came back with shorter hair and the Mark of Mastery. The last time Lea went home, no one really noticed. She thought she was used to it by now.

Things are different this time. Disorienting. Lea meets Kai in the training, for real this time. Riku has her memories, or at least most of them. They're hazy, dreamlike, but real. She has them all. She remembers how old she really is and how long she's been gone. She remembers everyone she cares about, and everyone that won't change here. She keeps her ice magic and takes what she's learned here to use there. But time is fluid. She doesn't feel like she's been gone for seven years.

Lea's are gone, for now. She lives everything new and fresh, with the dressing room appearing only in dreams vivid enough to unsettle her.

Things aren't the same for every world.

Things go better than expected.

The core story is the same. The heroes rescue the ones that need it, they bring everyone back, they defeat the darkness, and they go home. How and when and who — these things vary, but they do it all together and they go home together. And then their story is over, at least for now, and they come back.

Unlike how they went out, Lea and Riku reappear together on the beach. Coming back is just as disorienting, and neither has their phone, so they get their bearings and confirm memories with each other, of the dressing room and of home, and then separate to find their friends.

They've been gone two months. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ She's not really going for anything in particular, and even if she was she wouldn't know where to begin. The intention here was just to kiss her under the neck, and then she gets distracted pressing her face over Isa's heart. ]

[that's fair, all of that. Lea getting distracted in that way is a nice distraction for Isa, whose brain veered straight back to comparisons and what-ifs and how easy it would've been to fuck up enough to not end up in a place where they could be together like this. she's almost getting emotional again, but contents herself with tangling her fingers in Lea's hair (still damp, i bet) and just breathing for a moment.]

[ There's a bonus here that Lea's face is at least partly smushed into Isa's breasts, but she really is there to listen to her heartbeat. It's familiar, and comforting, and she humms when she feels Isa's touch in her hair. Lea is just one long cat, there's no way she'll move while that's happening. ]

Only gets better from here, right?

[ Them, their lives, things like that. No more... heartloss or fighting or distance. ]

[better than a real cat in a lot of ways tbh. the only way this could be better is if they were in front of a cozy fire instead of a movie. also if there were fewer clothes, but baby steps still. she's never had anyone she could be close to like this except Lea, so she's allowed to feel possessive, right? right.]

Hopefully. If it doesn't I really am going to start knocking holes in this place until I reach some sort of agreement with it.

[it's not perfect, but it's pretty close. god knows they've suffered enough for several lifetimes.]

[ She's the only person who really has any right to feel possessive about her, and Lea wouldn't mind if she knew about it, really knew about it. ]

Could see how much I can burn down for you.

[Isa breathes out a laugh and rests her cheek against Lea's hair.]

That's probably the most romantic thing anyone's ever offered to do for me.

[ She snorts, turning her head up a little so she can look at Isa's face. ]

That? I'll have to step up my game.

[if it's possible to look wistful and content at the same time, that's probably how Isa looks. Lea's getting another little smooch on the mouth.]

I'm preemptively banning rose petals in the bed, but otherwise go for it.

[ Lea stares at her and gives a slightly bug-eyed laugh. ]

You ever see petals scattered around assume something went horrifically wrong.

[ Fuckin' Marly. She'll come up with something though, and it'll be ridiculous, because they both know that's how she rolls. This is not enough kissing for the present though, so she leans up again to get a proper (and hotter) kiss. ]

["i love you" spelled out in slightly burnt pizza rolls. that kiss is enough to make Isa's toes curl, and she hums slightly against Lea's mouth, returning it with equal intensity. can she have more skin contact? she's gonna just settle one hand against Lea's lower back, under her shirt.]

[ Let's be real, if she was gonna make a big deal out of saying that the first time that's absolutely how she would do it. Also don't give her shit for liking her pizza a little well done around the edges!!

Even if she goes up higher, Isa will only feel skin under there. Lea's sure as fuck not wearing a bra. She does break the kiss though, huffing because she's not practiced at this and needs to breathe. She shifts her weight to one side, running the other hand through her hair. ]

Show me what I'm doing here.

[do either of these girls even own a bra? what would be the point, they only barely have one whole tiddy between them. Isa almost looks startled at that. almost. queen of deadpan here, after all.]

You— alright. Should we just... take shirts off and just deliberately look and get that out of the way?

[she has no idea how this works, and is fine with basically whatever, but Lea's dumb baby virgin awkwardness is definitely contagious, the longer this goes on. removing one of the most immediate sources of awkward seems like a good step though.]

[ She's not a dumb baby virgin! She's just a regular virgin. She's almost pouting at her, in that kind of annoyed way Lea used to do on the rare occasion where she wasn't playing off being bested. You know, pre-Heartloss teenagers. But no, that's as good a plan as any, but if they have a conversation about it they'll just flounder.

She sits up, and if she has to straddle Isa's legs or hips then so be it; off goes the shirt. Now, her scar is visible, but so are the boobs. They're not necessarily very impressive boobs, and she's not the juggernaut Isa is, but the boobs are still there and she's still more muscle than she looks ~~even as a tol gay~~. ]

[god. shit. fuck. this is possibly the only thing Isa's ever wanted in her life, and she only just learned that. if she looks a little awestruck that's because she is. not over any one (or two) thing(s) in particular, just in general, and because she wasn't expecting things to go this way, not that things are necessarily going anywhere, but this is progress, and Isa isn't even noticing the scar since her heart feels like it's about to ascend from how much she adores Lea, and and and. this is Isa's face right now.]

[ Lea's sweating, internally, over this, but she looks remarkably well put together, and is only rather red in the upper parts of her cheeks. She did it. But they both know Lea is a lot of talk and big shot attitude until she has to put her money where her mouth is, at least when it comes to things she's inexperienced or not confident in. As a kid this usually ended up with her furiously practicing.

Isa's gonna go blind, but at least Lea's not pale like her. She will start to get self-conscious if Isa stays silent though, and runs both hands through her hair to fuck it up more, and so she doesn't cover her chest. ]

C'mon, we both know they're not good enough to break you like this.

[there's a slight hitch in Isa's breath that might be a laugh, and all she can really do is reach up to take Lea's face in her hands and pull her back down for another heated kiss. there's a lot of shit getting upended in her own head right now, stuff she doesn't even have words for, but it's good, all of it. mumbled, against Lea's mouth:]

They're yours, and you're the most beautiful person I've ever seen.

[ Ah, the dokis. Lea is stunned, and disoriented, but that's hot and it makes her pink all the splotchy way into her chest. She's pleased, too, and a little nervous, but also fuck, that was hot.

She's still a dweeb and turns her head away to breathe and also avoid looking Isa in the eyes after that. After that?

...

Fuck, what does she even say?!

Nope. Nothing. Let's go back to kissing while she grasps at the front of Isa's shirt. ]

[Isa's feeling mostly the same, and it's almost too much suddenly, her Heart's still only a few months old, and it's been a while since she felt some of these feels. kissing is both helping and making it worse somehow, and she's interpreting the grip on her shirt as "get this off", which is fine with her. she pushes gently at Lea, and attempts to talk without actually stopping the kissing.]

Sit up- so I can-

[ Not what she was explicitly going for, but fuck, she's not gonna stop her. She's a little fuzzy-headed from what's going on, though, and pulls away to sit up with confusion. So she can what?? Are they moving? ]

[no, Isa's a little fuzzy-headed as well, this is A Lot, but it's good. as soon as Lea's backed off a bit Isa squirms out of her shirt, briefly getting her head caught in it like a dweebus. just for angst purposes because i'm an asshole, there's a starburst patch of scar tissue between her breasts that Lea probably didn't see earlier while she was busy not looking because gay panic.]

[ Good thing there was no warning this time, because she probably would have been shifty not-really-avoiding-looking like before. For now she just stares, because she wasn't expecting it so quickly, but also no, she hadn't seen the scar, even during the bath when she helped Isa wash her hair. It's not a surprise, or anything. It makes sense when you know. But it's startling, like accidentally skipping a step when you're walking down stairs. It makes her expression go serious, and Lea reaches out with one bruised and bandaged hand to touch it. ]

[Isa had forgotten it was even there, since it's been a while since it was last brought to her attention. when it was, though, it was a point of some contention, which is why she flinches slightly when Lea touches it. she brings her own hand up and gently covers Lea's hand; those bruises and Isa's own scars all come from essentially the same place, and that source is gone now. Lea gets a soft kiss, and Isa's other hand tangled in her hair.]

It's just us now.

[ She has so much goddamn contempt and unresolved anger over all of it, more as time goes by, some that she didn't really have clear cut reasons for until now. But Isa's right. No one else is here right now. Just the two of them, topless on a couch with aging scars and their Hearts back, each of them a fucking miracle. ]

Mmmn.

[ The Isa route; a hum (a growl?) that conveys "you're right and I'm dropping it but I'll be mad about it later". She drops her head down on the side Isa's touching her, so she can breath out and then go for a kiss on the neck. ]

[they need to commit to just having a big ugly blowup about it where they're allowed to say mean shit and get everything out in the open. but not today, when they've already hit so many emotions, many of them negative. Isa lets out an amused huff, because she knows exactly what that noise meant, and wraps her arms around Lea's waist.]

You sulk too much, but if you promise you aren't doing it right now then I won't have to put my shirt back on.

[pot, kettle, etc., but shh.]

[ Shirts exist in this world still? And Isa wants to take this cherished and vital moment from her? Stupid. She already has Isa's shirt in her hands, and is deftly tossing it somewhere behind them to land on a small table, or the floor, or perhaps the kitchen tile. Goodbye, so long. It's fine, though, they both know how good Lea is at bottling up all kinds of things when she really needs to. Said against her neck: ]

What about your shirt?

Edited 2020-02-14 05:38 (UTC)