Grace
I shut the door behind us and turn to Henry, finding him surprisingly close even if I'm still holding his hand. There are so many things I want to say, but none of them are coming to mind.
The only thing I can think about is kissing him again.
He reaches out and brushes my hair out of my face, leaning in as if he's heard my thoughts.
I don't waste a moment and press my lips against his. I wrap my arms around his neck and sink into him, feeling the same tingle in my wings as I did the last time we kissed.
Except this time, I don't suppress it, and let them do whatever it is they're trying to.
Henry deepens the kiss and I lose myself in the promise written within it, even if I have no idea what that is. The only thing I do know is that I want more than this, and that it's something that's been building in me for a while.
We break apart and surprise flits across his face. "Your wings..."
"Oh." I flap them gently. I guess that's what they wanted, then.
"I can safely say I've never kissed the wings out of someone before."
A blush spreads across my cheeks. "They were tingling."
"Huh. Mine too. But I didn't think to let them out." He closes his eyes and before I can ask what he's doing, bright blue wings erupt from his back, showering Krissi's room in pixie dust.
She's going to have so many questions. I should make sure to tell her before she finds out by accident.
He turns around. "I've seen yours, it's only right that you see mine."
"They're beautiful." I reach out to touch them, getting a laugh from Henry in response.
"That tickles."
"Sorry, I didn't think."
"No, it's nice," he responds. "I don't think anyone's ever touched my wings like that before."
I trail my fingers over the intricate patterns on them. "They're beautiful."
"Thanks." He turns around, a slight hint of a blush on his cheeks. "I'm glad you like them."
"I do. Thank you for trusting me with them."
"I'd trust you with anything, Grace."
"Same." I look up into his eyes. "We can't ignore this, can we?"
"You mean the fact that we've kissed three times when we agreed to once?" he jokes.
I chew on my bottom lip. "Yeah, that. Though even before now, I can safely say that I haven't stopped thinking about our kiss earlier."
"And you know that's not pixie dust," he quips.
"Well the fact that it's been more than an hour kind of gave that away," I admit. "And the truce. None of your magic should be affecting me right now."
"It's not," he says with certainty. But I don't need him to, I already know it's true.
"Then why do I still feel like this?"
"Maybe it's because that's just what we're feeling."
"We?" My heart flutters. I know he kissed me back all three times, but there's still a part of me that wants to hear things out loud.
"Mmm, we."
"But that doesn't make any sense," I murmur.
"Except that it does. We trust each other, that's never been in doubt."
I nod. Between the time we've spent working together on tricks for the Sapphire Sparks, and respecting the rules of our pixie dust war, there's no room for distrust.
"And we've been having fun," he says.
"More than I think I've ever had," I admit softly.
He chuckles. "Even the part where I accidentally made you think about kissing me?"
"You pointed out that I did that myself," I counter. "I've been having a lot of fun. Some of that is using my magic, and some of it is that I got to think of creative ways to annoy you, and part of it was that I knew you were enjoying every minute of it too."
"I was," he agrees. "You push my buttons in a good way."
I put my hand on his chest. "I caught feelings somewhere." The words come out unbidden. I didn't plan on saying them, but now they're out in the open, there's no denying them.
"You're not alone there," he murmurs.
My breathing hitches and he leans in again, brushing his lips against mine. My wings flutter along with the beat of my heart, only adding to the giddiness his kiss is causing.
We break apart and I look up at him, only one thought on my mind. "So where do we go from here?" I ask, putting my hand back on his chest and smoothing it along the fabric of his shirt.
"Well, I think leaving your best friend's room would be a good start."
"How do you know it's Krissi's?"
He shrugs. "It's fairly obvious. This is her party and you haven't mentioned any of the other people she lives with. Plus the photos." He gestures to Krissi's wardrobe. The doors are covered in photos from the past seven months of academy life, and do make it fairly obvious. "Is this the night out you talked about?" he asks, pointing to a photo of me and Krissi all decked out in neon outfits.
"Yeah, it was a good night."
"She's wilder than I thought," he admits, trailing a hand across my lower back and not pulling away from me. His fingers brush against the edge of my wings, only making them flutter harder.
"She's a leopard shifter, how much wilder can you get?"
"Really? Sweet and innocent Krissi? Living out every cheerleader's fantasy of dating the hot jock," he says.
"That's not every cheerleader's fantasy."
"Hmm, what's yours?"
"I guess I've never really had one," I admit. Though I think I'm starting to.
"I find that hard to believe."
"What about you? You're a cheerleader, did you dream of dating the hot jock?"
"Mmm, Jeremy is just my type."
I let out a bemused laugh. "I see I've been giving you the wrong kinds of thoughts."
"Or the right ones."
"Yeah, or those. But you didn't actually answer my question. What do we do? Other than getting out of Krissi's room, I mean, she's already not going to appreciate all the pixie dust everywhere, she'll think it means something it doesn't." And it's created quite a mess, but the way it glitters over everything is kind of pretty. At least it will disappear after a little bit.
He snorts. "Good luck dealing with that one." He puts a hand on my waist and draws me closer. "I think the first thing we do is kiss again."
"Mmm, I can be on board with that."
"And then it depends if you're free tomorrow night."
"I believe I am."
"You don't even know what I'm going to suggest," he points out.
"I'm hoping for some kind of date."
"You'd be right about that," he responds.
"Good." I go up on my toes and press my lips against his. Excitement thrums through every part of my body, and I can feel my wings responding now they're out.
Henry threads his fingers through my hair and deepens the kiss, explaining everything that's been building between the two of us without any need for words.
All of it slots together and I just know that this isn't something fleeting. It can't be when it's all built on the platform of trust and a mutual sense of fun.
And when I think about it like that, it makes perfect sense.
The kiss ends and I look into Henry's eyes, certain that this isn't some kind of mistake.
It's the complete opposite.