Re: [Outside the Rec Center.]
Noah probably could get Holly to like Jenga, and that was the problem, right? Holly realized that Noah, should Holly let his guard down, could probably get Holly to do a lot of things, namely, you know, trust. He'd had him, Noah had, hook, line, sinker, until that motel room, and all those feelings were still there and chasm deep. They were there, and all Holly could do was repeatedly pour dirt atop them and hope against hope that they would remain buried. But, you know, they were here, and it was pretty obvious that everything had surfaced again. Today, there hadn't been any time to, like, re-erect the wall, re-leaden the shoes. This still felt like a continuation of the night before, and Holly needed space and distance to, well, distance.
So, right, which all meant that Holly was glad he was there, too. He was glad Noah was there, and he didn't have the current emotional ability required to protect himself from that. He just felt it as Noah raked his hazel gaze along his, Holly's, face, and Holly watched the spread of fingers against his own. And, right, the reel put him really close. He could tell Noah hadn't even managed a shower, but he didn't care. He considered teasing about it, but he didn't. Instead, he rolled his eyes when Noah said he could look, because, hello, Noah was absolutely not letting him look.
He liked the soft edge of that smile, of Noah's smile. He thought he'd maybe seen some of that at the very top edge of a phone screen, but that was it. He'd heard it in Noah's voice, right? In the theater. He'd ignored it, if it'd existed, in the motel room. And he couldn't remember enough from the night before to be able to paint any real picture. He'd watch the stream archive later, you know, alone, and try to jog memories that way. For now, there was this, and Holly moved Noah's hands to his hips as Noah leaned in for the kiss. He wasn't even sure what he was expecting from the kiss, Holly, but it surprised him in ways he didn't exactly get. It made butterflies collide in his gut, their wings frenetically fluttering, and sparks pinged behind his eyes, and Holly kissed back with a lick to the inside of Noah's mouth, tongue passing over the line of white teeth and against the sensitive and pulpy inside of Noah's lips.
He broke the kiss, right? It was him that broke it, before he was even sated, and nowhere near having gotten enough, not knowing what Noah intended with their hands. Instead, he took a step back, far enough to be out of immediate touching range, and he looked. "Stand there," he said, knowing Noah wouldn't be able to, you know, stay still there for very long at all.