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[youngtimer]

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[gothicgambit]

[Ah, name had the opposite effect. She’ll keep that in mind for later, especially with how unnaturally it shaped on her tongue. She can’t say she liked using it either. Touch though - that helps. So she can do that, for him at least. So Celeste doesn’t take her hand away until he’s settled on the couch, doesn’t pay any mind to the cups or tea or any of it, she can boil more fucking water.

Instead she settles next to him and watches him fret with that particularly blank expression when she’s reading someone as intensely as she can. It’s probably very disconcerting, that amount of focus. Grand Bois notices it too. Giving them both a glance before settling back again into his normal demeanor

Words just flow out of him. In a rambling, wandering, I’m-freaking-out-please-don’t-mention-it kind of way that Celeste has very little experience with. So instead she takes stock. He’s trying to explain what happened instead of talking about how he’s feeling, as if ranting endlessly about the facts of the situation will make him feel less scared. He’s hiding behind theory the way she hides with lies.

So silently Celeste lets him talk himself in circles a little and when she sees his anxious hands pulling at the thread on his sleeve, she weaves her fingers between his instead. Not forcing him to be still, necessarily. Not if he doesn’t want to be.]

That makes sense. I’ll admit I don’t know much about either, I was not exactly given a normal education.

[But, because he wouldn’t let her wallow nor turn away from her feelings, she would pay him that courtesy. Even if she has to turn all of her focus to the carpet as she says it.]

You frightened me, disappearing like that… Komaeda is gone. I thought she’d taken you next.

[Her voice is not small when she says it, instead lacking in any emotion or vulnerability at all, the defensiveness of it immediately betrays her instead.]

[youngtimer]

[the anchor of her fingers threading with his both calms him and makes it worse. she's not calling him out, not picking apart every hole and crack in his defense the way she does with the gamblers who sit at her table, or the other fools she doesn't suffer.

no - she's not only respecting him, she's ... trying to comfort him, even now, in her own way, in whatever way two people who don't know how Real People work do.]

No - no, I'm -

[he turns a little on the couch, angling himself towards her, turning his heart toward her. somehow, he trusts she won't rip it out of his chest and eat it whole. he reaches for her other hand and takes that, too, squeezes them both. it seems they both need to be reassured]

I'm right here. With you.

[gothicgambit]

[God she'd missed him, and she feels like a fucking sap at how much holding his hand lights her up. But she pushes that thought aside for now. It's just the two of them, and they're past the point of really judging each other. Especially right now.]

You are.

[She squeezes back. There's an admission sitting just behind her teeth, and maybe it's the fairy form and maybe it's the way he's meeting her, level for level, that draws the words out. She has to tell him in some manner how she feels.
And because she's Celestia Ludenberg, and she cannot help it, she looks him in the eyes with a very familiar ferocity.]

Do not ever do that again, Horatio Hargreeves. Because I swear to any god that I will level this island to find you.

[Because she would. It had nearly driven her crazy to find him gone, and that itch beneath her skin still hasn't faded yet. Celeste has always been selfish, almost transactional with people's value, and he's worth more to her than most innocent lives.]

[youngtimer]

I can't promise you I won't, because of how things tend to go here. But I will promise that I'd do the same if you went missing. Especially since -

[he swallows. why is he afraid to say it? coward. he knows why. if he says it, he could LOSE everything. but is it even really his to lose, if he doesn't?]

- since none of it would be the same without you.

[gothicgambit]

[He's absolutely right, knew he wouldn't make such a promise when they both knew he would have to go back on it one day. Horatio has never, ever lied to her. Even if it would make her feel better-

it what?

And her brain halts fully when Five admits to any sort of feelings. Like what he's just said has completely caused a synapses to misfire. He's seen the expression on her face before, the momentary blink of unexpected recalculating when he does something that she has to step back to reassess.

It's just that she never did expect it. Ever. There's every reason in the book why he would not hold her so important. She is a traitor, a person who plucks at the weaknesses of others, someone who prides herself in the pain she can wreak. And he is absolutely none of those things, a martyr. More than that he's much more capable of a person, hell he was someone, he was born somebody when she just made herself so.

Silence. Is not the way to react to an admission like that. But sometimes for Celeste not speaking communicates far more than having an immediate rebuttal. She, to whom words are a weapon to be wielded, a master of every witty response, who cuts any and all fools to ribbons with her words, is struck silent. Even as her eyes hunt into his expression for any semblance of a lie, any dishonesty, and finds nothing but resignation laid truly bare.]

[youngtimer]

[he watches her carefully, with a quiet concern. he's waiting for her high, dismissive laughter, some remark about how pathetic it is that he let his guard down like this. about how she thought it was beyond him.

but nothing comes. instead, she seems to be watching him just as carefully. he stops searching, stops worrying, and simply looks at her, letting everything he hasn't said out through his eyes.

it's a long, strange silence, but it isn't an uncomfortable one, and that surprises him just as much as it may her. he squeezes her hands again gently, and just ... nods. yes, he means it. yes, it's true. yes, it's you. it might always be you, now. yes, yes, yes.]

[gothicgambit]

[She feels a bit of burn behind her eyes, but embarrassingly blinks it down. Crying right now would be idiotic. Even as her heart seems to squeeze behind her ribs and she finds herself untangling their hands. Maybe it was time to take a page out of Mukuro's book, to act on instinct instead of speaking.

Celeste fists her hands in the crease of Five's lapel, crushing the fabric as she drags him closer and kisses him instead.

It's clumsy, rushed, and the second time she's ever kissed anyone in her life. But she decides that it doesn't matter, because she can't quite say anything back to him. Can't find the words. But she can do this.]

[youngtimer]

[it's curious how being startled and relieved can fit so easily in the same space. he only has time to blink, but even in that tiny space of time, Horatio realizes what's coming, and meets her halfway. clumsy as the kiss is, he adjusts to it, finding her lips with his as he slides a hand around the back of her slender, soft neck. his fingertips hook in just the right place. somehow the pressure he puts into the kiss is gentle and starving at once.

has he done this before? yes, most definitely. but has he cared so much? just as definitely not. he wants her to know that this is safe to do. that he's not about to hurt her or betray her or - or anything anyone else in her awful past may have done.]