--if not now, when; elliot

[Elliot is on the edge.]

It dawned on her with a sort of blinding brilliance, a sharp sensory alarm that had the world pounding in her ears; he liked her. In the right light, Eiji meant everything to Elliot, and as the words played over in her mind, there was a great rushing of blood to her head and even though she felt like her heartbeat was hammering just behind her eyes, it wasn't an altogether unpleasant sensation.

The first words from his mouth had put her on edge, left her face red as her mind had ran wild, frenzied with thought as she tried furiously to maintain an appearance of nonchalance. But suddenly he had said the most positively lovely thing she had ever heard, and everything changed. She stilled, her hands no longer trembling and she quit chewing on her lip, coloring flooding back into her grin, which was an expression that started out subtle until it broke into an honest smile, wide and dazzling enough to illuminate her entire face; finally.

This was it; it being everything, and more specifically, the scene she had wrote a hundred times in her head, the words they had never said and the moment that could very possibly threaten to save them. Eiji was electrifying, addictive in the most staggering sense and part of her had already given in months ago; in truth she was nothing short of miserable without him.

To be with him, to cross her fingers and jump blindly over the brink would surely finish her somewhere along the line. As dangerous as he was tempting, whatever they could create between them would surely consume her in time, she was sure of it. They had never been one for subtleties or moderation, and Elliot was convinced that things would only get worse as they was allowed to go on; though the thought brought more peace than turmoil, and in her smile there was hope.

She looked up and their eyes met once more with a spectacular, silent crash. From the very beginning it had been a weak, frail fight. She had tried, less than valiantly, to be something stronger than what she felt for him, but it was no use now. There was nothing left to fight and she couldn't harbor a single thought of bitterness now, not when she was standing in the middle of a dream and Eiji was, actually and absolutely, admitting these things to her. He was crazy about her, and suddenly she had no time nor capacity, for malevolence. Her hand left her pocket and she reached out, stillness hanging in the air about them as she went to take his arm, but stopped short, her fingertips lingering on his wrist as her eyes snapped back to his, as she searched his features; the face she would recognize among a million. It hadn't occurred to her until just then, how close they were standing, or perhaps how she had been leaning in toward him, unable to resist the way he pulled at her. Elliot was good at resisting all things save for temptation. *

Inwardly, there was a mass of explosions like fireworks and butterflies in her stomach, but she was pouring everything into remaining composed to the outside, still unsure and far more than nervous. Suddenly, a thought occurred and her lips quirked.
"What took you so long?" Her voice was quiet and a part of her was still trembling, quietly terrified; though inwardly, all she could think was how much she wanted to kiss him just then.

[Eiji Almasy.]

There was a bubbling of something, inside of him. He could never name what he felt whenever he was around her, but it was so imminently significant; enough to make him forget about the world around them, of who they were. All that had ever mattered, was who she was to him, and the current moment was so humbling that it made him shake. He was burning as he touched her, a hand trailing across her cheek and the other tangled in the curls he hadn't been allowed near until then. She was spun gold, and something very decidedly heartbreaking flickered across his face; he couldn't believe it was real, but he didn't want to wait for the inevitable possibility that it could all still go wrong.

"I was waiting for you to come around," he teased softly, his smirk the lightest it had ever been, but there was some truth in his statement. Between them was a mess of hearts, of theirs and others, and a mass of stupidity, of choices made and gone wrong, of mistakes and the intentional hurt they had inflicted. It was only at the beginning of their decline that he had realized the extent of his feelings for her, and then she had left him with no little encouragement from him, and the different boys and girls they had worn on their arms transgressed to separation across the oceans.

There was hesitancy in his eyes as he looked at her but he lowered them and leaned forward to press the merest of kisses against her lips. He froze, losing all sensation except for where they met, and his heart stopped beating until he pulled away less than a second later and he stared at her in amazement, his pulse racing.
"I was afraid," he admitted, his expression confused and harried, but determined in his truthfulness, "of this, of us."

He rested his head against hers and gladly lost himself in the endless blue of her eyes.
"That was really stupid of me," he told her, tone hushed, one kiss away from her. His heart was dancing again, to the tune of her and his lips tingled from where they touched her before. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, for real, an honest to God, breathtaking, colossally titanic kiss that would bridge the months the had grown between them, but something stalled him, and he found himself continuing to speak in the same quiet voice.
"Three words, eight letters," he said, the subject of his recurring fear suddenly evident and the green he wore became startling bright; if she said it, they would become a promise he would keep forever.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

Time had stopped, and everything around them had faded away, leaving only Eiji and the universal emerald that was his eyes. Despite how tumultuous their road had been, he brought her peace, and for that alone she would have turned away the world just for him. Her hand found his hip and she grasped his side, needing to ground herself for fear that the fluttering in her stomach would cause her to take flight. There was still a surreal gloss to everything, a belief in lay suspension as she attempted to process everything, and as such, she couldn't help but hesitate. She was afraid to step wrong, to slip and accidentally shatter the moment that they had stolen away for themselves, to ruin the second outside of time that belonged completely and totally, to them alone.

His answer caused her to laugh, a tiny, sweet noise that lingered between them until he ducked his head to kiss her. Even with the abrupt gesture, she could still feel the spark between them and she had to hold onto him a bit tighter, just to stay upright. Elliot had a notion of what was in store for her in the immediate future, of the real test that stood before her after the initial shimmer faded from her baby blues and she was forced to begin contemplating exactly what they had gotten into, and who's heart was going to be broken because of it. She could not think of these things, she knew, but her thoughts were scattered and jumbled, static and far too rebellious for her to try and censor. She could not think of then, or when, especially not when she had never known a better now.

She found his fear understandable, justified even, and she wanted to be able to tell him so, but words and her capacity to form them, were nearly beyond her now. Her skin was practically on fire underneath his touch and she felt light-headed, unbound and everlasting. With their heads tilted together, she searched his eyes for a moment, but pulled back for fear of losing herself to their intensity. Her thoughts continued to swarm somewhere in the back of her mind, but she tried her best to pay them no attention, afraid that they would turn on her like a drug.

"I," His words, his request, had caught her off guard for a moment, his voice pulling her out of the daze she had momentarily dipped into. Looking up, Elliot's eyes bore into his, blue clashing with green as she tried not to chew on the inside of her lip, as she tried not to let anything seep through for him to read, as she tried to keep secrets from him, perhaps just to see if it was possible, to no avail. She was sure of what he wanted now, of things he needed her to say, and even more, she was sure now of what she wanted, at least in this moment; which seemed, to date, to most important moment she had ever existed in.

Her mind started to race.
This is your chance; take it.

Elliot's mouth crashed down on his, her hand already tangled in his dark tufts as she leaned against him, feeling somehow faint, and yet more alive than she could ever remember being before. She kissed him with all the intensity she could muster, attempting to make things apparent without the obstruction of words. It was a kiss about forgiveness, but not forgetting, about starry night in June and new beginnings. It was a kiss about black coffee, and chocolate ice cream, cherry lip gloss and traces of spearmint gum. It was a first kiss and a last, about every moment forever and ever after. He made her feel holy and decidedly different, and so this was about them, and this, and not fate, but hope;

She broke away finally, and a sigh escaped her as she looked up at him, her grin timid and reserved, lingering just a breath away from his.
"I, like you." her confession was soft-spoken and she felt almost childish, but at the same time there was a part of her burning with such intensity and veracity that her knees were shaking.

"Completely and totally, head over heels in like, with you." and she was quite sure that absolutely nothing in the entire world had ever scared her so much.

[Eiji Almasy.]

He had never been one for poetry, but Elliot inspired in him a million and one words of description; she was the one ray of sunlight through dark clouds, she was the pretty thing standing out from the weeds and the thorns that had been their corrupted past. It was too early to be anything more than like, and they were still so fragile together that he couldn't trust them to become anything more than what they already were. But it was beautiful, the explosion, the collision when she kissed him. His eyes closed out of instinct and he saw white. There was a fire in his ears and something liquid and molten ran through him; she was infinite and the moment. His chest weighed heavily from the impossibility of what he felt and from her lips, her mouth and everything sacred inside, he read the obscure truth. Definitely too early to be anything more than like, but if this was the constant state of what they currently were, then he would rather be in it forever, with her, than move beyond it and change, without her.

Hearing her speak was like waking up from a dream only to open his eyes and realize that it was all real. He damned the thoughts that said it was too good to be true, because he knew he'd suffered enough and this had to be it, the end of the cold days; of not knowing and the surrealism of suspension, just hanging there and his half-life theory had never been more accurate before. Elliot liked him and it filled him with something fierce, raw and so very tangible to realize that she was the girl, and there was no more comparison and no more pretending, and there was no one else, couldn't be when it was only her.

When he kissed her again, it was to steal that coquettish smile she wore, his favorite because it was all her; shy and vulnerable, secretive but honest with just a hint of something deeper, that begged to be pulled together. He kissed her because she was monumental, she was everything; all his dreams and aspirations, even the ones he was unaware of. And what he felt, it was like a cigarette burn on paper and skin, it ate at him and stole his breath, his pulse and the beating of his heart. The months apart became numbers that couldn't possibly even attempt to measure up to the moment between them, and he knew right there, that he would never again be as happy as he was then, but he wouldn't ever stop trying. So he kissed her, with the breath he didn't have and the heart that was all hers. He kissed her, for the first night in February, for that Valentine's Day they found and spent with each other. He kissed her for all the hurt that existed, the ones that they caused and never appropriately addressed, and when he held her face to his and her hips to his, so lightly, it was for everything else that would come and that he couldn't even begin to list. They were something unforgettable, and he kissed her because her lips were an imprint of the disaster they always were, but could be greater than.

"Is this it?" he asked her faintly, skimming butterfly kisses at each corner of her mouth, and then he got distracted kissing her bottom lip. But he thought of everything they'd been through, and the others, and he wondered if they'd finally reached a point; a very high, sharp and treacherous point that he wished very muchly she'd fall from with him.
"I think we're at a very dangerous place, El," he said, but his smirk was evident, and in his expression was something more eloquent, that didn't need to be said.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

Elliot melted against him, letting that smile dissolve as she kissed him for everything that had put each other through and the knowledge that it wasn’t over yet. She knew that he would hurt her, but she also knew of how she would let him. Eiji was unlike anything she had ever known, and it terrified her; he was something much more glamorous and exquisitely painful.

She was so completely caught up in him, entirely swept away with every kiss and movement and tiny, nervous breath. Her fingers traced his hip, drawing circles on his lowest rib as her eyes followed, captivated. Her other hand was tangled in his dark hair, her thumb tracing his jaw idly as she raised her gaze to his. Months lay between this moment and their last; an ocean lingered between their once upon a time, when she had been able to lay next to him and waste time trying to memorize every curve and shape, every last bone and freckle that made up this boy. False words and forced smiles separated her from the last time she had been allowed to touch him, since she had been able to look at him without hiding the spark he brought to life in her eyes, and now that everything else had fallen away and it was just the two of them again, she had never been happier.

The smile she wore was a little taste of the nirvana she was feeling, and there was no trace of the infinite bitterness that usually haunted her eyes as she looked up at him.
“I hope so,” and her awkwardness was evident, her uncertainty marked all over her electric eyes. She felt breathless and bare before him, her scars exposed as she trembled before him, lost and completely at his mercy. Elliot had her opinions about life and love and people and every little bit of nonsense that made up living; she was disparager, a cynic that was never one for taking chances and chose to wear her heart close to the vest. But Eiji inspired a sense of absurdity, a simple state of not knowing, in her that she found to be wholly peaceful. With him, she felt comfortable in the vagueness of it all, and suddenly, the damage in her heart was completely insignificant.

She leaned forward and kissed him once more, a silent reminder and a promise still. It was remarkable to her, almost overwhelming, the things that they could become.

"I think so too," she paused, lips curling upwards again. "And it's been an awful long time coming."

[Eiji Almasy.]

Being with Elliot felt like all his firsts. He was always on the verge of his first kiss, just shy of thirteen, and every moment felt like the day before his fourteenth birthday, before he'd gotten his first girlfriend. And he felt he wasn't sixteen just yet, he felt the devastation of losing his girlfriend and the absolute mindfuck of running headfirst into another, just as dangerous relationship, but one that was nowhere near as sweet. Standing here, with her, he felt little but so great because that was how it was with Elliot, he always felt like he was starting over and all that followed was the grappling and striving, and the tribulation of just getting it right. But there, a hand in her hair and fingers splayed against her waist, kissing her, he thought it was the best they'd ever been in a long while.

A smile came unbidden even as she proved how innately stupid they were. They'd wasted most of the year dancing around each other and with other people; he wondered how it all would have been if he'd been honest from the beginning. It was startling then, to discover that he didn't know what to do next.
"I don't know how to do this," he confessed abruptly, and the swirling of his gaze grew and stood still at the same time; how he shook at the revelation, the unknown almost as terrifying as all he did know, which was truthfully just her.

"But I do know that I like you," he really did, ever since that lone night back in June, but he wouldn't admit to that yet. And he knew too, just how much he wanted to let her know about the promise ring inside his pocket, and how much he wanted to detail to her every single reason of his for buying it in the first place. His only reservation, the same one that stopped him from showing it to her right then and there, was how knee-deep-shit-scared he was of appearing anything less than he was before her. If he showed her the ring, it was most likely that words would fail him all together, and she'd receive the wrong message entirely. He wasn't ready for that, he just wanted her to wear something from him.

"I don't want to push you though," he told her, that simple earnestness about him again; the lengths he was willing to go to, to let them work.
"I don't want to ruin this," and it was almost blatant, that he was choosing his words carefully.
There was a tentativeness about him that was positively shattering. Above all, Elliot was fleeting and he was still waiting for something to take her away again; he was more or less whole again, but a testament of just how jaded he'd become, was how he still half expected her to walk away.

Fear inspired a lot of stupidity, and far from admitting the magnitude and every description of his feelings, he did something just as outrageous.
"Go out with me?"
It really, definitely couldn't be that easy, but he made seem that way and even looked good doing it, despite the way his hold on her tightened a fraction, and the very noticeable guardedness of his expression.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

The idea that there was something Eiji Siege Almasy didn't know how to do had her smiling with a bit more amusement than usual. He was so arrogant and swaggering and so completely frustrating in his narcissism sometimes that despite how adorable she had always found it, she still took much more delight in his uncertainty than she should have; it was just nice to see that underneath his usual show, the boy was just as nervous and clueless and fearful she was. Somewhere between them, her hand had left his hip and her fingers were tangled with his own, drawing her heavy blue eyes as she ran her thumb over his.

Every time he said it, those decidedly breathtaking words, every time he admitted it now, and for however long it rang true, her heart started to flutter in the bone basket of her ribs, and she felt very nearly weightless. The caution that hung about his every motion now was heartrending, and it caused her to fall for him all the more, because Elliot knew that now they stood on such dangerous ground, and if he were to turn her away now, the world would surely crumble around her. Seeing the same, indistinguishable dread mirrored in his eyes was comforting in the most darkest sense, to be bound to someone by a great and terrible affection, and more so, by the common, debilitating fear of breaking. Elliot wasn't sure how much of her was even real anymore, but she was dead certain that she couldn't take another catastrophe.

"You could at least say please," and her features came together into a coy smile, because somewhere along the line their words had dropped to whispers and she was still having trouble grasping onto the veracity here. Blue eyes looked up from their clasped hands and Elliot tipped her chin skywards, letting her grin dissolve against him as they kissed, feather-light.

"Is this really happening?" and then she kissed him again, a bit more fervent this time, because it was all still too good to be true; but still, here she was, dangling her toes over the precipice, daring the cliff to crumble beneath her* and her hand squeezing his, because she was still too afraid to let him go again, and silently wondering, hoping, if they could stay like this forever.

[○ Draco Foyen.]

The sharp yipping came first, and then the barking, and then a familiar voice was swearing, drowned out only by the door slamming and the incessant chattering of a puppy. Draco stumbled violently, his steps awkward and uneven as the entrance hall before him lurched and began to spin. For half a second, he caught himself wondering just exactly how he had gotten home, and then he hoped desperately that he hadn't pulled 'an Eiji' and driven, because then he was sure to find his beautiful Ferrari wrapped around a lamppost the next day. Suddenly, the disheveled and drunk boy was yanked from his thoughts as a tiny little dog in his arms began to bark once more, and then the colorful train of swearing started up again.

Up ahead and out of his field of vision, something suddenly made a great clattering noise and Draco remembered that he had brought home not one, but two puppies. Scowling deeply, but somehow still managing to look positively tickled with amusement, the boy marched forward, gripping onto the wall with one hand and cradling one of the puppies with the other. Eventually he came across the poignant scene in the living room, and at the affectionate sight he felt as if he might be sick; or perhaps it was just the Hennessy that he had been binging on all day, that caused the nausea in the pit of his stomach. Whatever the reason, he felt like shit and the barking dog in his arms certainly wasn't helping.

As the world slowed from it's chaotic spin to just a slightly tipsy lean, Draco began to scan the room for the other puppy, the one who had evaded them the second he had stepped in the door. After a minute of searching with his steely eyes narrowed and eventually once simply shut because he was seeing two of everything, the blonde spotted the other dog, just in time for the animal to run between Eiji and Elliot and pee on Eiji's shoe.

"Your mini-dog is peeing Eiji!" Draco announced, looking frantic save for the manic fit of laughter he had fallen into because that puppy was obviously retarded, and therefore, suddenly Eiji's. Tomorrow the boy would surely wake up - around noon, at the very least for he was definitely going to be plagued by a very nearly lethal hangover - and realize just exactly what he had walked in on and be all sorts of gleeful and apologetic, but right now he was completely plastered and there was a downright adorable dog relieving himself all over his friends' shoe and it was all just too priceless.

[Eiji Almasy.]

There wasn't really any need for words, not when she was kissing him like that. And he knew it was all happening, that it was all real, when he was able to pull her closer and the friction between them was exactly as it had always been. It wasn't a dream and it wasn't a lie, because he was able to kiss her slower, savor her deeper; all the things he'd wanted to do when he hadn't been allowed. Her words barely registered because he was so taken by her, so overrun and then his attempts to frustrate her turned on him. His fingers tugged at the front of her jacket and he wondered for a second, offhandedly, if she was still as waif-like; if the months in Europe meant that she was a little taller, a little thinner or if Milan, Paris and wherever had added a little bit more curve to her. His lips trailed from hers, reluctantly, but he was mapping her jaw, and that niche just behind her ear, along her neck and finding her collar.
"Please," he said, nothing more than a plea against her skin; it wasn't enough, he'd missed her.

The noise was sudden but his hands were inside her jacket, splayed around her waist, and truthfully, it was a damn big penthouse; it could've been the walls shifting, anything but a drunk roommate. Then it was Elliot, all Elliot; only Elliot, though he wasn't fool enough to think it could be this easy. He was a combination of needing her until he couldn't see straight, and wanting her until he was exhausted. She'd said something that sounded like a yes, but even then, they had leagues to go; she was comfort though, she was the current and she was very similar to contentedness, and it was just insane how she seized him. He'd let up, and was a symphony of soft pleas against her; the last one pressed against the corner of her mouth, when a rabid, possibly diseased, mutt barked itself known between them.

"What the shit!"
He stepped back from Elliot and the dog in a hasty fashion, feeling all sorts of anger, regret and incredulousness; it just figured.
"Draco!" He sounded incredibly deadly, like he wanted to throw a bottle at his stupid friend; "what - these were new!"
He gestured tensely at his Timberlands, where there was a visible dark patch on the boot of his right shoe. It was a shame, he would have to throw them out, which, speaking of; the dogs.

"I hate you," he stated levelly at the less pretty blond, and then pointed pointedly at the puppies; why couldn't the one in his arms do something doubly dirty.
"I'll deal with this after I change."
He shot Elliot a pained look and felt like kicking something; he just wanted to kiss her, it wasn't too much of an ask.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

He had been layering promises against her, leaving vows across her curves like butterfly kisses, though not nearly as fleeting, and she had been a fool to think it could have lasted. With his hands splayed around her and her hands gripping his hips like a lifeline, she had found herself wondering about terribly wicked things. A moment prior and the moment had been still and sweet and silent, frozen by the memory of their past and illuminated by the knowledge that they had a future to look forward to now. But it wasn't long before things began to speed up, much like her pulse, as he leaned against her, anything but sweet, and yet too enticing to be sour.

Draco ruined everything, as he had the habit of doing. She suspected that he loomed about, waiting for the perfect moment crash in and upset the balance - he must enjoy dodging all the vases that were thrown at him, she decided as the puppy ran between then and she turned around, her expression darkening considerably; but only until she got a good look at the dog in his arms and practically melted.

"Oh Draco! It's so cu-" The outburst behind her put an end to any thing she had been about to say, and as she turned around to witness the second puppy scurry underneath the couch in the wake of Eiji's yelling, she couldn't help but laugh. The boy was already storming upstairs by the time she had swallowed back enough giggles to properly form words and by then it was just too late. Diving under the couch to retrieve the offending dog, Elliot curled up against the massive sofa, leaning her back against it so she could coddle the 'mini-dog'

"Where did you get them?" Scratching the puppy's stomach, she had to giggle as it stretched in her arms, revealing a little spot of white fur on it's tummy, but as she finally looked up, realizing that no one had answered her, Draco was gone. Somewhere in the distance of the massive penthouse, she heard a bathroom door shut and upon taking a second look around the room, she spotted the other dog just in time to see it try and dive into the purse she had set besides the bar, spilling it's contents everywhere.

[Eiji Almasy.]

Eiji may or may not have lingered too long in his walk-in. There was a section that was directly in front of the doors; small, thirtyxtwenty pigeon holes that went fifteen high and ten across. They were made for all his shoes, the occasional hat and the most exceptional sunglasses. He had extended the ledge and sat on it for a while, and wondered not for the first time, if he was dreaming.

His eyes were unseeing, unfocused on a point through the doors and beyond the window. He tried to think of every reason why this could be happening to him; he hadn't been terribly perfect, charitable or altruistic. He'd always been himself, only tamer since some time in September. If anything, the feeling to burst grew stronger; he was undeserving, he was sure, of a happy ending, and could it really be this easy? His luck was legendary, but this was just - he was absolutely positive none of it could have been real. Then, he stopped being a right idiot, stopped thinking of every other reason why he could be stuck in a game of make believe, and just let himself sink.

He could see, he realized, himself with Elliot, lazing about on the rugs, teasing the dogs and laughing when everyone fell over each other. And he could see himself wanting to stop thinking, whining and falling six feet from the air onto the bed, pretending it was a sea of clouds; with Elliot. It was happening and he took a moment to breathe. In all his what-if's and wishing, he hadn't been prepared for the after and the after was certainly approaching fast, now that they'd admitted almost everything there was to admit. He needed to know what to do now, and he figured that for Christ's sake, starting it right wouldn't be a bad idea at all.

He thought fuck it, fuck shoes, and when he came down the stairs, his feet were cleaned because he was neurotic, and he'd changed shirts, because he was a freak. Draco was no where to be seen, and that made a lot of sense too. Elliot had decided to be a complete girl about it all and had naturally chosen to love the rats on sight. He sighed; it had always been an uphill battle and he could never say 'no' to either blond. He scooped up the other one on his way toward her and the thing tried to nip his fingers. Something near to an amused grin formed, because God forbid him looking affectionate this early in the run.

She was lounged against the sofa, one twin in her arms, and Eiji knew it wasn't any of his imagination; she was lovely.
"Do you reckon he won them playing poker?" he asked her, definitely half serious. His grin had turned soft when he hadn't been paying attention, the squirming mess in his arms too close to appearing adorable, and he looked away, to her. Eiji knelt before her and honestly thought about letting the puppy go to run about somewhere else, but decided against it, which was probably for the best.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

Elliot was oblivious to all of Eiji's musings, and while she would surely be plagued by her own threatening thoughts come nighttime, right now she was so completely caught up in the puppy in her arms that it was so easy to just shrug everything off. No part of her deserved Eiji or all the things he could offer, because she was so sure that every part of her was rotten and wicked to some degree, and yet, she would will herself to try, to be good and honest and worth every single butterfly he stirred up in her.

"It's believable." Elliot finally said, raising her eyes to meet Eiji's all the while wearing a smile that had absolutely nothing to do with the bundle of adorable in her arms. "Or maybe he lost." Because Draco really did have an awful habit of getting completely knackered and betting his French Villa's in stacked poker games, and she had no trouble imagining him betting a pair of eight's over someone's royal flush and being forced to take the destructive dogs home as punishment.

"I mean, they do seem mildly retarded." And as if on cue, the fuzzball in Elliot's lap yipped, trying to roll over onto it's stomach only to end up squirming in the cutest seizure she had ever seen. Laughing, the Almasian set the puppy right side up, but made sure to keep a firm hold on the mutt for fear that it would run off and attack her purse like it's brother. Raising her eyes up to meet Eiji's once more, it was obvious how much of the storm had left her gaze in just the short time she had been here, and she was finding it terribly hard not to grin. Leaning forward, the blonde stole a kiss from the boy before her, hardly taking notice as the dog in her lap began nipping adamantly at her hand.

[Eiji Almasy.]

He was just so taken by her, completely and wholly; from her smiles to her laughter and he threatened to fold into an unintelligible mess. To tell her all his pretty words seemed likely, something ridiculously random like how he was sure she was inscribed on him, or to invite her to a runaway vacation with him because he could see them in a world of white sand and sea, or anywhere else she wanted to go. It wasn't at all surprising the things she inspired in him; starstruck, he didn't care.

The dog in his arms took full advantage of his distracted state, and jumped out, head-first into his lap. The hand that wasn't tugging on Elliot's hair, landed haphazardly on his tail, and he squealed before Eiji decided to let it go and allow the dog to cause havoc wherever. He broke away from her, laugh lines along his face and a chuckle that he was hard pressed to keep hidden.
"I feel so domesticated," he thought aloud, to no one in particular; a touch of awe, incredulity and a sense that he didn't mind at all because they were dogs brought home by one of his best mates, and this was the girl.

There was a bark to his right and he ignored it, a part of him not being able to believe that he was honestly trusting them to not pee everywhere. There was a small space between him and Elliot, and he blinked; her blues dangerous and he was so far from being immune to them. His every intent was written on his face; no trace of anxiety but he was nervous again and the smile he gave her was shaky, crooked and young.
"Hi," he said, threadbare and his hands were against the floor somewhere near her, and he was a boy again, kneeling before the girl, asking; asking.

"So, I'm not really good at this," he admitted, but that was already apparent, "it was always about the pursuit and then everything else was easy;" because he was one good-looking bastard, and it was an absolute shame how it all always fell into place for him. Before Elliot, girls had never said no without him even saying anything, and for someone so intentional as he was, it was an expected awakening that he was so at a loss now.

"But I think - that is, that this is - aw, fuck. Elliot Davis, will you go out with me? Please," he added and hoped it didn't sound like an afterthought. It was terribly embarrassing and he supposed that was the best part of it all; how he was unassuming and awfully everywhere, and how he made it a choice.

[Elliot is on the edge.]

"Hey," and she sounded a little more breathy than she had anticipated, despite how evident it was that Eiji was leaving her awe-struck and in not so many words, breathless. Every glance left her uncovering something new about him, and even though the thought of him had weighed on her for nearly a year now, suddenly everything seemed new and unscathed and as he smiled, it was like she was seeing him for the very first time. It was a new beginning, in the purest of forms, and while she wasn't entirely sure who to thank for offering them a second chance, she suddenly found it much easier to believe in the big picture and the idea that all things happen for a reason.

Fate or will or just pure stupidity had led them here and Elliot had known very few things in her life that made as much sense as this, and more importantly, as them. She was so intoxicated by him, and the things he was saying, whispering into the spot just past her own smile, were making her feel dizzy and light-hearted and limitless; she felt like she could live forever like this, everlasting.

The dogs had long since scurried off, potentially chewing up the corner of the insanely expensive sofa, or perhaps, and this scenario had Elliot smirking for a half second at the visual, relieving themselves all over the rest of Eiji's shoes, just to see how much they could get away with. And in truth, the identical rascals could probably break into the liquor cabinet and smash all the sea-glass bottles and leave digested wine corks all over the massive beds right now, because Elliot just didn't care, and she knew the boy before her, who was looking so terribly bare and intent, didn't either; not after all the months spend waiting, not with the daydream finally coming true.

"I," and once again the words were caught in her throat and so she leaned forward to kiss him, and steal a bit of his courage. "Yes," another kiss and a whispered promise against his lips before she finally pulled back so that he could see her eyes, and the fire that burned in them.

"Yes, of course," like he was so insane for thinking she could turn him down. Somewhere between them, her hands had found his and there was something so absurd, yet absolutely sublime about the entire exchange. "Yes, yes yes yes." And she leaned forward to kiss him, trying to hide the smile for fear of making him arrogant later. She pushed against him, causing them both to topple over, Eiji backwards and Elliot on top of him, though save for the small noise of surprise that escaped her, the blonde pretended not to notice, too distracted in layering kisses against him.

Though, the puppies had been torn from whatever havoc they had been wrecking in other parts of the Penthouse and came running, tripping over their stubby legs and each other in a race to reach the ridiculous lovers first. Elliot would call it a tie, as one of the impossible mutts made a gigantic leap onto her back, while the other started to tug on Eiji's hair, making ridiculous growling noises all the while.

"I'm going to murder Draco," she finally whispered against him, her expression caught somewhere between dark amusement and utter frustration as the dog on her back decided to sit down just below her shoulder blade, determined to be a gigantic pain in the ass. It was with that thought that Elliot realized how absolutely perfect the pets were for her best friend.