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One bedroom or two?
That was a dreaded question following up the fact that after enough nights of them being sleeping buddies--it would be simpler to move in. To stop spending money on an extra motel room, to continue driving away the nightmares or to unwind the week of stress. Moon was always over at his, and if not he was over at hers. It was a practical solution. Saving on rent, saving on added worry that the other got home safely.
But this? This development that involved them all too close? Gladion would be an idiot if he pretended this wasn’t going to be an issue.
He already was accustomed to her in his bed. Them settling on two bedrooms for appearances sakes, but only using one. Her room nearly abandoned—a revamped guest room if anything.
And it was right now, this evening, that Gladion realized he really didn’t have a solution for this. Both of them back early, in bed. The warmth of her fingers gingerly sparked his fingers as their heads laid on the pillow. The window letting in enough moonlight to reflect off her the star-like freckles on her face, to bring a glimmer to her eyes, to notice that she too kept looking at his lips.
At first it was a simple joke.
“Do I get a goodnight kiss?”
A joke met with a softly thrown pillow in her direction. Her laughter a melodic lullaby he wouldn’t mind hearing every night for the rest of his life.
Luckily the pillow obstructed her view of the faint blush on his cheeks.
Hopefully she wouldn’t ask again.
Yet she always did. Always with a playful grin. Sometimes with a pink flush.
And he always responded with a scoff of his own and a quick “go to sleep, Moonbeam.”
At a certain point Gladion swore the joke became too real. The mirth in her voice replaced with something more wishful, more longing.
She sounded like he felt.
He never acted upon it.
But now with her face a mere inches away from his, and her body radiating a welcoming warmth underneath a shirt, his shirt, she was wearing, he finds his hesitation being thrown out the window with every passing beat of his heart.
“Do you actually want me to?”
He murmurs, catching Moon by surprise by the way her eyes widen, by the way her fingers stop her mindless movement against his palm. The blush is back, but her resolve never leaves.
“Do you?” she questions back, quietly this time, eyes flickering to his lips for what Gladion swears is the umpteenth time. His eyes mirror hers undoubtedly, and from underneath the blanket where their limbs were already tangled, his hand comes up to cup her cheek.
Her small gasp is loud in the dark and quiet room he swore was more theirs, than just his. His thumb gently caressing her cheek before he leans down ever so slowly. Noting how her eyes shut easily, how she shifts closer than possible. His lips graze hers tentatively, still asking for clear permission, still wondering if this was really okay.
He knew his feelings, and deep down he thought he maybe knew hers, but then she froze.
And he finds himself wanting to separate himself, to whisper apologies over and over again. That he shouldn’t have kissed his roommate. His best friend. The Champion of Alola.
But then the fingers that were playing with his adjust to interlock instead and as her shock melts away and her lips move to slide he realizes it was shy. And if he remembered correctly from their one too many late nights, it was her first. But it was slow, and warm, and filled with the emotions neither one of them explicitly said but always showed.
When they part for what only really was two seconds later he could feel Moon’s breath against his, calling out a quiet,
“One more?”
And then he could feel her smile, the one he had grown to love on his lips, adding on a “for sweet dreams sakes?” before he captures it gently against his again.