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Garnet's arm automatically shifts to hold Pearl's tighter, feeling her cheeks heat up at how close they are walking. She's grinning boldly, though, and a chuckle escapes her at Pearl's awed words. "I guess we'll just have to go back sometime and see if I can do it again." She turns to flash her grin at Pearl, eyes softening at the flush on her girlfriend's cheeks. "Maybe I could win you something bigger."

The arcade is only around the block, so they arrive at Garnet's house rather quickly, even if it feels like Pearl's arm has been looped into hers for ages. "Looks like my parents are home," she says, glancing at the windows where light is shining out into the darkening night. She keeps Pearl on her arm as she moves to open the front door, then pauses. "Do you still want to come in?"

Pearl blinks at the question, unsure herself as to why she can feel the heat in her cheeks rise. Garnet can be a little self-conscious about her parents sometimes -- has been that way ever since they were in elementary school. They're both warm, uninhibited in their affection and incredibly inquisitive, in a way Pearl has always coveted, while Garnet would usually shoo her down the hall to her room as quickly as possible.

This is nothing new.

"W-well, of course!" she answers with a bit of a laugh, higher in pitch than the last. "Your mothers are lovely people. I ought at the very least say hi."

She hadn’t really thought Pearl would say no, but Garnet is relieved regardless. They just have to make their way past her parents, hopefully without any knowing looks or too much prying in front of Pearl. She opens the front door carefully, leading the pair of them into her home.

“We’re back,” she calls out somewhat needlessly as both of her mothers are sitting in the living room. She has the strangest feeling they might have been watching them walk up from the window. Garnet cannot completely hide the smile that Pearl is bringing out of her, but as she meets their expectant gaze she can only hope her eyes convey how much she doesn’t want them asking about her date just yet. “We’re going to go hang out in my room,” she announces, clearing her throat. She gives Pearl just enough time to greet them as she always insists on before tugging on her arm and urging her away.

"Heeey, kiddos," Ruby salutes them from the couch. Curled up beside her is Sapphire, who smiles and raises her hand in a gentle wave. The television before them is promptly muted, though picking up on Garnet's wordless plea for minimal conversation, Ruby considerately restricts herself to one comment: "Nice hippo."

"Honey," Sapphire frowns, "that's a dog."

"What? No, it's not. Dogs don't have noses like that!"

"Well, these are definitely not hippopotamus ears." She gestures towards the droopy sacks of fabric protruding from the sides of the toy's head, looking stern for all of two seconds before smiling up at Pearl. "Whatever it is, it's adorable."

Pearl brightens in return, and holds the gift out proudly in front of her. "I know! Garnet won it for me. She may have broken the test of strength."

Ruby's eyebrows hike up, and with a whistle, she thwacks her daughter on the arm. "Good going, princess."

That's about as far as they're able to get before Garnet yanks Pearl away. "It's good to see you," she calls over her shoulder as she's dragged down the hall, smiling widely and waving at them with her free hand.

"Have fun, you two," Sapphire calls in return, to which Ruby adds: "Yeah, let us know if you need anything!"

"We won't need anything!" Garnet insists, all but dragging Pearl along to her room. If nothing else, she knows they'll respect her boundaries enough not to come in once she closes the door. "They should leave us alone now," she says, somewhat needlessly. She's aware Pearl knows how things work in her house, but she doesn't want her growing nerves to become apparent. As they reach her door she finally untangles her arm from Pearl's, attempting to be slightly more chivalrous and let her enter first. She flicks on the light, thankful that she'd made sure to pick up any clutter in her room before they'd gone out on their date.

Garnet follows once Pearl makes her way in, carefully pushing the door shut behind her. The relief of finally being safely behind a closed door must be evident on her face as she takes a seat at the edge of her bed, smiling almost shyly at the other girl. “So… Did you have a good time?”

Edited 2015-07-11 02:43 (UTC)

Pearl's brow lifts at the formality of the gesture, but she accepts it with a smile all the same. It's just one of those things about dating someone you've known half your life.

"Why, thank you," she says, hugging the doll to her chest as she steps inside. While Garnet was never too disorderly -- nothing you could compare to Amethyst, to be sure -- Pearl's immediately struck by the lack of scattered shoes on the floor, and the carefully straightened beddings. A small smile pulls at her lips as she glances around her, but she's sure not to linger too long before joining Garnet on the bed.

"Oh, yes," she answers, smile now showing teeth. "You were very charming." The corners of her eyes crease with mute laughter; she can't help it, there's something halfway surreal about this entire situation. Months and months of excruciating internal conflict over her feelings for Garnet, all that denial and uncertainty and guilt, and here she is now: cuddling a comically large plush animal that Garnet won for her, sitting on Garnet's bed that she made -- for her, Pearl dares to add here too -- and being asked if she had a good time.

It's enough to make her wonder what she ever worried about at all.

Setting the toy by the foot of the bed, Pearl shuffles closer, placing a soft hand over Garnet's own. Her features soften as she lowers her head, keeping eye contact beneath the curtain of short copper bangs: "I had a lovely time, Garnet."

Garnet is certain the play of emotions on her face must be nearly ridiculous, but now that they're in a familiar place and they're alone, she can feel some of her nerves fading. She had wanted nothing more than to impress Pearl today, and it seems as if it worked. She knows on some level that it's a little bit ridiculous to want to impress someone who's known you for years, but it doesn't matter. For Pearl, it's worth the effort.

It's especially worth it if she's going to sit so close, if light touches and smiles just for her alone are something they can have now.

Garnet's breath catches audibly as Pearl's head tilts down, still peering up at her. She can feel her heart rate quicken again, overwhelmed with the urge to kiss her but still new enough at it to be a little hesitant. She stares back for a long moment before bringing her free hand up to gently cup Pearl's jaw. It seems to take just as long to get up the nerve to tilt Pearl's head upward lean in, but it's worth it as she closes her eyes and their lips press chastely together.

Her whole body seems to sigh in relief, tension dissipating from her at the contact. Truthfully, she'd been hoping for this all day. After a moment she pulls back slightly, resting her forehead against Pearl's and opening her eyes with a smile. "...I had a really good time, too," she says, belatedly.

There's a fluttering in her chest as Garnet's hand presses over her jaw, and Pearl swallows, tipping her head up with the motion. Kissing is still alien territory to her, and though the thought crosses her mind frequently -- perhaps more than she'd like to admit -- she's never sure when, where, or how to initiate it. It's reassuring to have Garnet take the lead like this.

Leading. Garnet's always been very good at that. And Pearl likes to think that at the very least, she's good at following her cue. She laces their fingers together as their mouths touch, squeezing Garnet's hand lightly in her own. Lips graze together with a tilt of her head, and she can feel warm breath against her skin -- it seems to spread from the point of contact, until it's heating up her whole face.

She's sure she's bright red when Garnet pulls back to look at her, and yet Pearl finds that she can't bring herself to really mind.

"You were really cool," she murmurs, simple and girlish -- a rare instance of sounding her age. Returning the affection, she presses a small kiss of her own to Garnet's lips. "I'll have to seriously hone my Dance Revolution skills if I want to have any chance of beating you."

“I’ll teach you, you’ll be a pro in no time,” Garnet offers, tightening her grip on Pearl’s hand. She knows it’s kind of ridiculous, and if she thinks on it she’s not sure how you would teach someone video game skills, but she knows she would love to try anyway.

They’re still so incredibly close, and Garnet can nearly still feel the soft brush of Pearl’s returned kiss on her lips. She feels almost dizzy, wanting more but not certain how far her partner is comfortable with taking this. She’d hadn’t pulled away yet, though, and that had to mean something.

Tentatively, Garnet closes the distance between them again. Her fingers curl against Pearl’s cheek, and she presses a little harder this time, lingering a little longer. If she’d only known how good this would be, she knows she would have confessed her feelings sooner.

Pearl exhales shallowly into her mouth, as if her breath's been sucked away. She's all too aware of the new pressure behind the kiss, subtle as it may be, and it makes her heart do little somersaults. Just the two of them, in Garnet's room, too early in the evening for her parents to begin their frantic phone calls, and tomorrow's the weekend -- oh gosh, we could be kissing forever, she thinks to herself, and immediately flushes warmer at the thought. Both due to how silly it sounded even in her own head, and both because, well...

They could, right?

"Okay," Pearl breathes against Garnet's full lips as she draws back, and her free hand reaches up to rest at the side of her neck. Her teeth dig into her lower lip slightly, as they do when she's nervous, but there's a real earnestness to her voice when she says: "Please teach me."

Everything about Pearl’s demeanor is saying yes and Garnet isn’t sure she can contain herself any longer. She shifts her hand from its spot at Pearl’s jaw, gently tangling her fingers into her hair instead. She’s adorable, she can’t help but think, having known for awhile how weak in the knees the girl’s nervous habits could make her, but still enjoying how the thoughts don’t make her feel guilty anymore. She stares for a moment again, giving herself time to take in the sight before her before taking a sharp breath of courage and moving in again.

She presses her lips against Pearl’s earnestly, lingering for a moment. Instead of pulling away fully, she comes back in for a second, shorter kiss, followed by a third. Though she keeps it chaste it’s exhilarating, and far bolder than she’d been thus far. She wants to keep going but she pauses again, afraid of taking things too far no matter how receptive Pearl seems to be. It also gives her a second to catch her breath, which she sucks in with an inadvertent laugh. Luckily she’s feeling far too good to be embarrassed by it.

Pearl lets out a soft gasp of surprise at the extension of the kiss, but it soon melts into a contented hum, back arching to fit the curve of Garnet's body. Her hand at Garnet's neck snakes around to her nape, where short thick curls tickle her skin. Her other hand in Garnet's own is starting to get a little sweaty, but that mild discomfort is eclipsed by everything else that she's feeling right now.

"I really like kissing you," Pearl says once they part for breath, despite knowing there's no real need to. She's sure Garnet can tell, but it's just so... nice. This wonderful effervescent warmth that bubbles up from the pits of her stomach, making her tingle all the way to her fingertips. It's more than she can express in words, expansive vocabulary and all, but she wants to let Garnet know somehow. How nice it is.

"... It's really nice," she lamely concludes.

Her verbal skills seem to be on a steady decline ever since the two of them started dating.

"It is really nice," Garnet breathes, unable to keep the wide grin from spreading back across her face. She's too giddy herself to see anything Pearl says as lame right now. The words just encourage her to keep progressing this further, increasingly confident knowing that Pearl is enjoying herself too. Things are going even better than she'd hoped for at the start of their date.

She reluctantly disentangles their fingers, shifting both of her hands to Pearl's slender waist. They've hugged countless times before, but it paled in comparison to how it felt to just be able to touch her. Mentally crossing her fingers that she's not about to ruin the moment, Garnet leans back onto the bed, gently tugging at Pearl to come with her.

"...Is this okay?" she asks, feeling her voice crack with the very nerves she's wanting desperately to hide.

Pearl's heart promptly leaps into her throat and lodges itself there. She swallows, hoping to ease it back down, with limited success.

Garnet looks so incredibly pretty, hair splayed out on the mattress beneath her, full lips parted with the slightest hesitation. Being the one to look up at her, for once, with those unguarded eyes patient yet wanting.

Another swallow, and Pearl eases herself down. Faint goosebumps run down her arms, and she doesn't have it in her to completely lay her body over Garnet's -- she's not even sure if she should, if that would be misinterpreting the other girl's intentions -- and so she settles for planting her elbows at each side of her, mere inches between their chests, foreheads just barely touching.

Her back's a little stiff, and her face is red down to her collarbone, but Pearl offers a meek smile all the same.

"L-like this?"

Edited 2015-07-11 14:03 (UTC)

Garnet is certain Pearl must be able to hear her heartbeat, for as loud as it is thumping in her own ears. Without their bodies fully pressed together, she is hyper-aware of all the places that they are touching. The sensation is much more overwhelming than she’d thought it would be, but in the best possible way. She shifts her arms to wrap around Pearl, fingers gripping lightly into her back, wondering faintly if the slight shake of her hands is noticeable.

“Like this,” she confirms, nearly in a whisper. She has the urge to kiss Pearl again, it would be as easy as a slight tilt of her head, but she holds that urge back. Instead she stares up at her, searching her eyes, lips parted slightly in expectation. She has to be certain this is something they both want, and that means sometimes leaving it up to Pearl to make the next move. Even if she never makes it, Garnet feels certain she’d be happy to spend hours just like this, feeling like there was nothing else on Earth but the two of them.

"Okay," Pearl answers uselessly, if only for the purpose of having a different sound to disrupt her own heartbeats. She licks at her suddenly very dry lips, and then angles her head to answer Garnet's unspoken invitation.

Oh... kissing like this is a completely separate experience. Pearl finds herself hyper-conscious of everything: Garnet's softness beneath her, her weight on Garnet, the whisper of fabric where their bodies touch -- such a simple shift in position, and suddenly it's all intensified tenfold.

They've definitely gone up a level. Or possibly three. The intimacy is equal parts intoxicating and impossible to bear, and for now Pearl decides to just keep her eyes closed and lose herself in the kiss. If she thinks about this too deeply, she'll undoubtedly work herself up into an aneurysm.

So don't think, she tells herself. Go with your gut. Don't ask yourself what you should be doing, just feel it out and--

Completely heedless of her attempts at self-reassurance, a voice pipes up from the back of her mind: Oh God, I think I should use tongue.

And so Pearl's carefully constructed attempt at inner calm collapses like a house of cards. Oh God, she should, shouldn't she? If they're going to go as far as kissing on top of each other on the bed, it only makes sense that they move on from the chaste, closed-mouthed kissing, doesn't it? But if Garnet wanted it, wouldn't she have done so by now? She should wait for Garnet... no, that's not right. As much as she treasures her guidance, no good will come out of depending solely on it. Pearl should take the initiative too, sometimes, or else Garnet could get the idea that she doesn't really want this, or grow tired of always nudging her along, or...

Ugh. So much for not overthinking things. Pearl can feel herself frowning into the kiss. Get it together, get it together...

Sucking in a steeling breath through her nose, Pearl touches the very tip of her tongue to Garnet's lower lip. There. Going with her gut. Probably.

Edited 2015-07-11 15:24 (UTC)

It’s better than she could have hoped for when Pearl closes the small gap between them, and Garnet tries hard to focus on the movement of her lips, to memorize just how nice this is. Here she is, in her room, with Pearl on top of her. It wasn’t too long ago that she was laying on this very bed, alone, trying without luck to banish such fantasies from her head. She could have never imagined Pearl would really be on top of her, happily kissing her.

But the hyper-attentive focus on her own lips makes it easy to pick up Pearl’s hesitation, and her heart sinks. Is that a frown? Was this too much too soon? Did she accidentally pressure her into something she wasn’t ready for?

Just when she feels like Pearl must be about to pull away, that she certainly crossed a line and ruined everything by initiating such very intimate contact, she’s hit with a new sensation altogether. Even just the hesitant touch of tongue to her lip is enough to set her whole body on fire. She hadn’t imagined Pearl would take such initiative here, and is so caught by surprise that she loses what little cool she’d still be hanging onto. The noise that escapes her throat is embarrassing, but she can stop it no less than she can stop her own tongue from immediately rushing to meet Pearl’s, her body rising encouragingly.

Oh God. Garnet made a noise. Was that a bad noise? Did she mess up? Is that a trying-not-to-laugh noise? Is she--

"Mmn--!"

Okay. That's her tongue. A shiver shoots down Pearl's spine at the initial contact, before she settles into it with a shaky sigh. Not a laughing noise, then.

Her lips instinctively part further to allow Garnet's tongue into her mouth, until a second later it hits her that Garnet's tongue is in her mouth. Immediately she slaps her hands against Garnet's shoulders, signaling for her to stop -- it takes her another good moment to pull her mouth away, gasping out a raspy string of "wait-wait-wait-wait".

Garnet’s tongue retreats back into her own mouth even faster than it had left it, both of her hands immediately letting go of Pearl and clutching her blankets instead. Shit. Shit shit shit. She should have known this would happen, should never have pushed this past where they’d comfortably been yesterday… She desperately tried to sink as far into the bed as possible, to break off any remaining points of contact that she could. She’d never, ever meant to make Pearl uncomfortable, and she wanted to lessen that blow as much as she could.

“I’m so sorry,” she gasps, eyes wide with horror. “I thought-- I didn’t realize--”

"No, no! You didn't do anything wrong, Garnet, I just--" Pearl presses a hand over her own cheek, momentarily dumbstruck by her own asininity. She can't believe she made Garnet apologize, and with such a terrified look on her face -- in ten years, she can count the number of times she's seen her make that expression on one hand.

And now Pearl's going to look like an absolute idiot explaining herself. "It occurred to me that my mouth might, erm, taste unpleasant. It's been two hours since my last breath mint." Reaching into the back pocket of her jeans, she holds up the half-empty box with a lopsided smile.

Small and feeble, she offers: "Sorry."

Garnet can’t help it: laughter erupts from her throat, fingers relaxing their grip on the blankets. She closes her mouth to stop the laughter as quickly as she can, not wanting to give the impression that it was Pearl she was laughing at. It’s been a rollercoaster of her emotions since they left for their date, and she’s only immensely relieved that she hasn’t made a mistake.

“It’s okay,” she says, collecting herself and offering a genuine, relieved smile. “I just… don’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything.” She pauses for a beat, and then adds, “Your mouth tastes just fine, by the way, if you maybe want to… try that again.” She tries to play it cool, but she’s certain she hasn’t been able to keep her eagerness from her face.

Pearl instinctively tenses at the burst of laughter, but she soon relaxes, her crooked smile stretching into a more even one. She can tell it's not at her expense, so much as it is at the whole situation -- and she likes Garnet much better laughing than frantic.

"I do," she assures her, voice soft. Then she hesitates, biting her lower lip again. "... But you don't mind if I take one first, do you?"

Garnet relaxes against the bed, smiling up at Pearl. She was so busy with all the ways she could mess this up, she let herself forget what her best friend could be like. Though she knew Pearl was self-conscious about a lot of these behaviors, she couldn't help but find them adorable herself. "Go ahead," she says with a sideways grin, "I'm ready whenever you are."

Smiling at the approval, Pearl drops a mint into her palm and pops it into her mouth. She rolls it around on her tongue, waiting for it to melt away -- though it occurs to her that minute-long process is too lengthy to spend just staring down at Garnet in silence. The corner of her mouth twists in a circle, a bit awkwardly, before she remembers she does in fact have something to say:

"You cleaned up your room for me, didn't you?"

"I--" Garnet's first instinct is to deny it, but she knows that Pearl is already on to her. Better to play it cool than to deny it entirely. "I picked up some stuff I guess," she says, as nonchalantly as possible, hoping that her face isn't visibly flushing. "And made my bed. Just in case."