Chapter Four: The Kiss

[backinthsaddle]

It's only a few weeks into the new semester, but Cole is a busy boy, getting down to his reading for homework even though nothing is due just yet. He's a good student, and has automatically shut out most of his surroundings, deep in his textbook.

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[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor comes barrelling through the door and she slips her mask off the top of her head with one smooth motion, takes one look at Cole, and says, "Put on your galoshes. I'm taking you on an adventure riiiiight now."

Her face is all flushed, she's grinning ear to ear, and she hops out of her shoes and runs to her box of clothes, and yanks on her own rainboots.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He blinks, having to make the transition from being immersed in homework to seeing his housemate all excited. "Say what?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Adventure. Now. Galoshes. Now." She gets her PINpoint out of her pocket, and goes to the kitchen for a... knife?

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"...you're taking me on an adventure with galoshes and a knife?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yes. Trust me. Goggles... do we have goggles? No, we don't need them. Trust me. Take my hand."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He finds himself actually doing it, going for his boots and suiting up, trying not to wonder too much. "Do I get a hint?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely not," she sasys, with great and vehement glee. She sticks the knife in her pants pocket (blade up), grabs his wrist, and PINpoints him to a pumpkin that's the size of three VW Bugs.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"That's not very safe," he starts to say, before the PINing happened and then bam, pumpkin. "What...?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"We are gonna have a pumpkin guts fight," she says, as though it's the most reasonable thing in the world. Then she stabs the pumpkin.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"A pumpkin guts fight?" he says, looking at it in slight bafflement. Mostly trying to think of where she got this pumpkin. "Is that what you do in Texas since you don't get snowballs?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Nope," she says. "I think I made it up. But what else can you do with a pumpkin this big?"

They're in a field. No one in sight, big hills, and she's outdoors without her mask.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Drop it on cars? I've seen YouTube videos." After he assesses their surroundings, he turns his attention to the pumpkin. "Can I have a go?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yes please," she says, as she tries, and fails, to wiggle the knife so that it makes a deeper incision than two inches.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He takes hold of the knife, and makes his own attempt to hack open the side. "I bet the skin of this thing is half a foot thick. Where'd you find it?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"The Nexus. They were givin' them away for free," she says, skipping around the pumpkin, running fingers over the grooves.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Oh. I can't imagine why."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She gives the side of the pumpkin a hug, cheek against the cool orange skin. "This is lovely."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He manages to hack a hole in the side of the pumpkin, although it's nowhere near as big as it should be. "I'm starting to think you should've brought dynamite."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I should've. Be honest, how freaked out were you when I grabbed the knife?" She tries to reach through the hole, fingers wiggling, straining for a handful of guts.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Well, I was at least reasonably certain you weren't kidnapping me or having me help dispose of a body."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Good. Glad I didn't freak you out too bad." She braces her foot against the side of the pumpkin and tugs at the edge of the hole, trying to open it wider. Futilely.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Here, let me." He waits until she gets out of the way before he starts cutting again. Now that there's a plug missing, it's a little easier to get at an angle to widen the hole, and he hacks away at it.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She wipes her slightly slimy hands on her pants, wiggles her toes inside of her boots. "Thanks!"

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," he admits, but now that the hole is bigger, he can reach inside and cut out a big slimy handful of pumpkin guts. Which he then tosses at her.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor gasps in delighted shock as it splatters her shoulder, neck, and cheek, and scoops up a handful of gloopy guts, slinging it in his direction.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He ducks, although a big gob slaps into his shoulder. And he reaches into the pumpkin for more, now that the hole is about as big as a large window, and lobs a big stringy handful at her. "This is, for the record, the grossest thing I've ever done." But he's smiling, simultaneously 'attacking' her and giving her a supply of ammunition.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She laughs, chin tilting up, grinning as she gets splattered, not even bothering to dodge out of the way. She plucks a seed out of her hair, and snags a glob, and lobs the glob.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

His hand gets tangled in the slop as he tries to pull out another handful, and it just squelches through his fingers, leaving them covered in sticky pulp. He sticks the knife into the side of the pumpkin, away from the hole, so they don't accidentally hurt themselves, and leans far in to get more guts.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She sneaks up behind him and runs her pumpkiny hands through his blonde hair, making it stick up all over, lips twisted into an impish smile.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He makes a wordless sound of disgust, rather like "Awwwwuckblaugh," and turns to grab her and stick her feet-first through the hole, though he slips before he can get her more than ankle-deep, and he bravely sacrifices his backside to cushion their fall.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

Victor squeals, grins down at him, as though she's won a great victory, although she hasn't got a clue what it is, and then she looks concerned at him, and says, "Are you okay?" and moves to roll off of him.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine," he says, lying in the field all covered in pumpkin guts, his hair stained orange, and he tests his back and rump to make sure they aren't really damaged. Then props himself up on an elbow to look at her. "You?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She looks up at him, peering up at him through her eyelashes, then tilting her chin back, stretching catlike, content. "I've never been better," she says, fervently.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Even though you're going to need to shower about five times?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I don't mind. This is the best; I'll shower later."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"You're too cute," he says, and the impulse takes over to kiss her before he realizes he actually did it this time.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

A sharp little intake of breath, and she freezes but she doesn't go rigid, and her eyes flutter shut, she's focusing on him.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Should I not have done that?"

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"No," she murmurs, talking gently, barely breathing, trying to assess what is going on and why she isn't panicking. "No, I don't think this is a bad thing."

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He decides to test that with another kiss, watching her now for any sign of a panic reaction, though also enjoying the moment for itself.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

No one's kissed her since... you know, and she likes that Cole has broken that record, so the last person she kissed is now a good guy, and she doesn't feel bad. It isn't numbness, it's warmer than that. She's still trying to quantify it. She doesn't kiss back because she's busy thinking.

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"You sure this is okay? I can stop if you want."

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"It's okay. Are you sure you, um, you want to? Kiss me, I mean?"

((K-9 is up!))

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"Only if you want me to... kissing usually involves two people, you know."

((eeee, he is ADORABLE))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"I know," she says, matter-of-factly. And she finally does kiss him back, sliding her lips gently against his, like someone expecting an electric shock, eyes still shut. Beyond vulnerable, beyond gentle, clumsy even in her carefulness.

((Eee, thanks!))

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

He's pretty nervous about the whole kissing thing, but at least she's responding, and it's pretty encouraging, and he can almost ignore the smell of pumpkin guts and the way she's all slimy when he touches her shoulder.

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

She splays her hand, like the gentlest starfish, on his shoulderblade, kisses so lightly, barely touching his lips with hers, chaste beyond chaste.

((It's probs his first kiss, too, considering Vic's also his first girlfriend! It just occurred to me!))

[backinthsaddle.livejournal.com]

"So this is okay?" he asks, once there's a pause. He's always been either too shy or too busy with homework to deal with girls, and so there hasn't really been a lot of kissing in his experience just yet.

((I totes suck at kissing descriptions, never done it myself, hah))

[victormakesart.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," she says, and she finally opens her eyes to look up at him, and there's this moment of exquisite pain that fades away quickly. "You're so good to me. Are you sure you didn't make a mistake? Maybe you meant to kiss someone else and... slipped?"

((You're doing great.))