*****

"Here comes a kiss that I've never had
Nothing feels like this if it were heaven tonight
I love you"
  — "Heaven Tonight," by Hole

*****

And so they did. The next day, catching her in the hall between classes with no one else in sight, he drew her into an unoccupied classroom and put a hand to her cheek. They were able to stay like that until she had to go to her next class, and he was still on his feet and unwobbly when he took his hand away.

After that were a lot of similar incidents. Stopping by his room in her longer breaks between classes, or evenings after dinner, and seeing how long they could hold contact. Brief pauses during the day whenever they caught a few moments alone for fleeting touches. One afternoon when they ducked into an unoccupied classroom, he pulled her close and held her, resting his cheek against hers, and that was best of all, with their arms around each other and his scent so close to her reminding her clearly and sharply of exactly what she was trying to gain from this little exercise.  There was almost no pull at all that time, only a faint tingle against his cheek and the softest whisper of his thoughts against hers — and so of course they had to repeat that particular pose, as often as possible.

They never discussed what kind of "motivation" she was using, or what they were leading up to with all of this "practice," aside from her not needing to shroud herself in layers of fabric to protect those around her. They didn't need to, since he had guessed and since she absorbed little flickers of what he knew on a daily basis.

So after a few weeks of this, he didn't feel the need to say anything but, "Let's see if I can make your second kiss turn out a little better than your first," before pulling his cheek away from her face and pressing his mouth to hers instead.

She hadn't been expecting it, but she clung to him and gamely returned the kiss, parting her lips slightly and letting him brush his tongue against hers. When he tried probing a bit deeper, she playfully sucked at the tip of his tongue before nipping at his lower lip a bit. He growled softly low in his throat and put a hand to the back of her head, plunging his fingers into her hair and holding her closer.

Several nuzzly nibbly minutes later, he pulled away from her lips and rested his cheek against her forehead. They held each other close, getting their breath back, before he murmured, "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."

"Hmm?" she inquired contentedly, for once not following his train of thought.

"No pull at all."

She pulled away abruptly to meet his eyes, realizing that he was right. She hadn't even absorbed a little bit from him during that kiss.

*****