"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.