Curious

[suspicious_popsicle]

Story: Curious
Series: Tales of Vesperia
Pairings: Fluri
Warnings: none

A/N: Written for Fluri Month 2016. The prompt was 'confession of love.'

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are from Tales of Vesperia and do not belong to me.

“What's it like to kiss someone?”

Yuri's question dragged Flynn immediately out of the flow he'd gotten going on his psychology paper, and he turned away from his computer to gape. “Huh?”

“What's it like to kiss someone?” Yuri repeated, slower this time. He was stretched out on his side on the bottom bunk—Flynn's bunk—in their doom room, head propped up on one hand, a textbook open in front of him. One of his legs was bent, and his knee waggled back and forth. Reaching beneath his tank top, he scratched his stomach while he read, the very picture of indifference.

“I thought you weren't interested in that sort of thing,” Flynn hedged. Yuri had never seriously entertained the idea of going out with anyone. At least, not that Flynn was aware of. And Flynn knew him better than anybody. Yuri's disinterest was legendary, leaving him shockingly dense when it came to matters of romance and attraction.

“I'm not.” He blew a bubble with his gum, and turned the page of his textbook.

Skeptical, Flynn spun the desk chair back around and settled his hands on his keyboard. He re-read the last interrupted sentence, trying to recall where he had been going. Yuri pulled him out of his thoughts again.

“Just kinda curious.”

Heaving a sigh, Flynn rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling and reminded himself to be patient. “I don't think you would like it,” he said.

“How would you know?”

“It's soft. And wet,” he added hastily, thinking that perhaps the insinuation that Yuri couldn't be gentle might be just a bit insulting.

“Duh. What's it like, though?”

“I just told you what it's like.”

“You telling me what it's like doesn't tell me anything!”

Flynn turned just far enough to glare. Yuri was frowning at him from the shadows. He blew another bubble, somehow making it seem as childishly insulting as sticking out his tongue.

“What brought this on, anyway?”

Yuri met his stare for a moment longer, then let his gaze slip away as he lifted one shoulder in a lazy shrug. “Just curious.”

“You've never been 'just curious' about this before.” He saw Yuri's lips tighten as he held back a smile. “If you're just screwing with me because of the breakup—”

“Hey, I always said you could do a lot worse than Sodia. You two had decent chemistry. I saw you out by the library that one time.”

Flynn felt his cheeks burn at the reminder. “The breakup was mutual. Sodia and I aren't right for each other—not like that, anyway—and we realized it. It didn't have anything to do with kissing. Or with the fact that you two hate each other, which, I should add, is not a well-kept secret.”

Yuri grimaced. “She's all your worst habits rolled up and magnified.”

That comment was the last straw. It provided a painful reminder of the realization Flynn had come to that all the traits he'd been attracted to in Sodia were ones she shared with Yuri. He stood, scowling. Part of him knew that he was about to make a mistake, that he was letting his temper get the better of him again, but Yuri had always been so good at pushing his buttons.

“You want to know what it's like to kiss someone? Get up. Spit out your gum.”

“What? You gonna give me a hands-on lesson?”

“You were the one that was sooo curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know.” He laughed shortly, but the sound was more anxious than amused.

Leaning over, Flynn peered into the dim lower bunk. “I'll give you a little death if you want.”

Flynn saw the innuendo fly right over Yuri's head and he sighed. This was stupid. He knew that. It was nothing more than picking at an old wound. But Yuri had never shown any interest before, and Flynn knew that if this chance got away, he would never know what it felt like to kiss him. Yuri didn't ever have to know that it was only an excuse. All he had to do was refuse to back down after having started this—and both of them knew that Yuri was too stubborn to back down. His curiosity would be satisfied. They would likely never talk about it again. And Flynn would have an actual memory of Yuri's lips against his to torture himself with. He knelt down, leaning heavily on his elbows as he stretched over the mattress toward Yuri.

“You wanted to know, so come here.” He kept his tone light, but when Yuri didn't move, Flynn kept talking. “It starts out soft, like I said. It can be dry, particularly if you're nervous.”

He licked his lips reflexively and saw that Yuri had watched him. He saw Yuri mirror the motion, possibly without even realizing it, saw him catch his lower lip in his teeth. Yuri's eyes were locked on Flynn's mouth as he lifted a hand and rolled the wad of gum out from between his lips with the tip of his tongue. He didn't even look up as he pressed it onto the underside of the top bunk. Too caught up studying his face, Flynn found that he didn't care about the gum at the moment. Slowly, slowly, Yuri leaned forward. The pages of the textbook crinkled beneath him.

His puckered lips were dry.

The world didn't quite stop, but Flynn felt his heart skip a beat. He tried to memorize every detail: the warmth of Yuri's lips, the way the touch of his hair made Flynn's feel coarse in comparison, the scent of his skin mixed with the sweet smell of the gum and the tang of his deodorant, the way his breath caressed Flynn's face when he stopped holding it and breathed out. The moment stretched between them until Yuri started to pull away. Flynn wasn't nearly ready to let him go.

“There's more to it than just touching your lips to someone's.”

Spoken against Yuri's mouth, the words tickled. Flynn felt him shiver, and he pressed forward, lips coming together softly over Yuri's. Tucking his chin in, he broke off the kiss. His forehead bumped Yuri's and came to rest against the bridge of his nose. He'd made a mistake. He was afraid to look, afraid to stop and break the spell. The pounding of his heart seemed like the loudest sound in the room. His next words emerged hushed and hoarse.

“When you kiss someone, it's as if...as if you're trying to find just the right way you fit together.”

He and Yuri fit together. Ever since they had been kids, they'd been practically inseparable. No disagreement could keep them apart for long. But they fit together as friends. This.... This was.... Flynn lifted his face and caught Yuri's lips with his. His heart ached, swelling too large in his chest. This time, he felt Yuri respond, felt him begin to mimic the movements. The chapped feeling faded as skin slid against skin, soft and warm, tingling with excitement and stifled desire. Yuri's mouth was hot and flavored with the too-sweet taste of artificial strawberries. Flynn raised himself up a bit higher on his knees, chasing after him, needing more.

“Starts to get messy once you get tongues involved,” Flynn murmured. He ran the tip of his tongue across the seam of Yuri's lips, felt them part with a tiny gasp, tilted his chin at the invitation, pressed the advantage, pressed forward, tongue slipping between lips, fingers threading into Yuri's hair, needing him to be closer, needing him—!

And Yuri bit him.

Flynn jerked away, more startled than hurt. Yuri had retreated as well, pushing himself back toward the wall, one hand lifted as he wiped his mouth with the back of his wrist. Their gazes met and held for what couldn't have been more than a second or two. It was Yuri who looked away first.

“Guess I can't joke around about this.” The words came muffled through his fingers where he'd curled them over the lower half of his face. He sat up, leaning one side against the wall as he dragged his knees up to his chest and hunkered down over them.

“Satisfied your curiosity?” It was hard to remember that he wasn't supposed to have felt anything, that he'd only been trying to teach Yuri a lesson about asking impossible questions. Hard to keep his tone sharp when he felt so breathless. The ache in his chest sharpened.

“I like you,” Yuri muttered.

For a dizzying moment, Flynn couldn't believe what he had heard. “What?”

Yuri side-eyed him. “You heard me.”

“But....” He didn't understand. “You encouraged me to go out with Sodia.”

“Yeah. Still can't believe you screwed that up.” A soft laugh escaped him. “I thought it...the two of you...would work.” He hung his head. “Thought it would be easier if you were taken,” he mumbled.

“You....” He could still barely believe it. Could he really be this lucky? So soon after he had realized that it was Yuri he wanted to be with, Yuri who had time and again dismissed dating as a waste of time? Flynn licked his lips. “How long?”

Yuri shrugged. “Does it matter?” He started to move, scooting toward the edge of the bed, eyes lowered to avoid Flynn's stare. “Semester's almost over. I can request to switch dorms—”

“Can I kiss you?”

Now it was Yuri who looked bewildered, unable to believe what he was hearing. Flynn moved to place himself in front of Yuri, hands braced against the top of the sheets as he knelt on the floor.

“I'll go slow. You can bite me again if I do something wrong—I don't care. But...I want to find out how we fit together.”

For a heartbeat, Yuri's expression was impassive. Then, with a snort, a grin split his features, and he relaxed.

“Jeez, Flynn. Is that how you talked to Sodia? No wonder she dumped you!”

“It was mutual,” he insisted, but it was hard to care. His focus was on Yuri's lips, stretched thin by his smile, on the way his hair needed to be pushed back out of his face, the way his tank top hung crookedly from his shoulders. “I never said anything like that to her.” It hadn't even occurred to him to do so. “I—”

Yuri shut him up by the simple method of leaning forward and kissing him. It was a soft, close-mouthed peck, and it had the immediate effect of making Flynn forget what he'd been about to say. He kept his hands pressed flat to the sheets, resisting the urge to run his fingers through Yuri's hair, to pull him close and hold onto him. As overjoyed as he was to have his feelings returned, they had to do this at Yuri's pace. Flynn knelt beside the bed, face upturned, lips moving slowly against Yuri's, coaxing and caressing as best he could as all the while a smile of pure joy tugged up the corners of his mouth.