Completed One Last Tango

[Silas Artesto]

"All sorts of shit." Silas responded, tilting the notebook to show her. "Study notes, diagrams, doodles, journal entries..." It struck Silas as kind of funny that somebody so obsessed with organization wouldn't buy separate notebooks for different purposes. "I figure I look through it I might find a hint or something..." He trailed off as he turned his head to look at her.

Livia was good at hiding her emotions, most of the time. Unfortunately for her, Silas now knew exactly the kind of effect he had on her. She'd revealed that to him herself last night. So Artesto knew that lingering color on her cheeks probably had something to do with his 'last name' comment.

Hell if he wasn't going to lean into it, and make this just a little bit fun.

Turning his head back to the notebook, he leaned against her, his cheek pressed to hers, his arm and leg snugly meeting her own as he flipped across the pages idly. It was all he could do to hold back the smirk that wished so badly to plaster itself across his face. "Nah..." He murmured quietly, "Ain't no Urahil girl can hold a candle to you, Quill..."

Despite the fact he was doing this more to tease her than anything else, it was relaxing, being so close to her. Silas would be lying if he claimed he wasn't enjoying her presence as he thumbed through the pages, stopping at the longer journal entries to briefly read through them.

A few in particular caught his eye.

"A lot of these later entries talk about a vague 'her' in them. Joel thought somebody was stalking him, felt like he was being watched, and had a pretty good idea of who it was. He was terrified of 'her' coming to his room."

A light chuckle found his lips as he looked at Livia.

"I dunno, letting you come to my room is usually a pretty pleasant experience. Maybe he had nothing to worry about."

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Silas Artesto had changed her entire outlook in one night.

Liv had grown so comfortable in his presence that she thought nothing of how close she sat beside him, until he fully embraced the close proximity and closed the distance between them until almost no space was left. She could have jolted from him, could had slowly pulled away, but her heart thumped so hard against her ribs that she was sure they would crack. How could this one boy make her feel like this? It was so raw and unearthly, not even her parents felt this way about each other at their happiest.

Ain't no Urahil girl can hold a candle to you, Quill..."

Fuck you, Silas! Her heart seemed to scream, her lungs filling with shallow breaths to keep herself calm when so close to him. She was so convinced he would hear her heart, how violently it fought to be free from it's cage.

Livia was so still, as if completely aware of Silas... how close his lips were to her own and if she just tilted like so...

No...

She shot up, beginning to pace the room in a bid to be free from that dazzling smile of his.

We are literally in the room of a dead classmate, Quinnick. Pull yourself together!

Livia spoke to him, not caring to look his way because she knew what she wanted to do with the smile. "So this her he refers to is not one he is all too keen on seeing. It does not narrow it down much for us at all..." A girl with an intense crush? A girl hellbent on making him sweat and threaten his... what? Grades? Security? Friends?

She slowed her pacing, slowly wandering back to Silas and stood in front of him. "Next few pages. There is something there." She could of snatched the book from him, but her skin was still warm where he had touched her. Last night was not a distant memory, and the fact she had an interrogation looming later in the day, it was instinct for her to want to not think of anything... and Silas was proficient at distraction.


Silas Artesto

 

[Silas Artesto]

He could feel Livia come alive at his words, at his closeness. Silas had been around her long enough to know when she was falling, when she was giving in. The heat of her skin, the way she sank against him for a fraction of a second, her head tilting closer...

She rose to her feet suddenly, pacing back and forth as if to rid herself of the energy he'd been building up inside of her. Silas's smirk turned to a small frown; perhaps he'd pushed her a bit too far. It'd been in good fun, but... it also wasn't right of him to do that to her here. He'd allowed his own desires to sidetrack him.

After all, their attraction went both ways, as badly as she wanted him, Silas craved Liv every bit as much. The difference was that Silas didn't try and lie to himself about it.

His amber eyes looked up at her as she fretted about, avoiding any eye contact with him and focusing on the journal entries he'd found. She didn't seem to think it helped much, but hell, it gave them a likely gender and possibly even a motive. That was leagues more than they'd had when they'd entered the room. Silas relented though, giving her a moment to breathe as he looked back at the pages in front of him and flipped ahead again.

"I caught her in my room last night. Just a glimmer of her eyes in the dark. I couldn't do anything but hide under my blanket like a coward!" Silas reads aloud. "I don't know what she wants from me, she just smiles whenever I see her, that emotionless smile... I really think she's a monster."

He stopped reading and thumbed ahead a few more pages. There was a bevy of entries on this mystery woman, more than he'd realized at first glance. This could be what they were looking for.

"Quill." He stood up from the bed, closing most of the distance between them and holding the journal up to her chest, smiling. "This is it! Something that they missed!" Before she could react, he wrapped his arms around her in a hug, laughing. "God, wouldn't you love to see their faces?" Stiffening as he realized he'd perhaps encroached a bit again, he pulled back, instead offering the notebook to her, an apologetic expression on his face.

"You should hold onto this. We shouldn't stick around any longer, we can read this together somewhere safer."

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Livia never knew what it felt like to want to be held until the moment Silas released her. Her chest constricted, feeling cold without the warmth of his excitement at their discovery. That burst of emotion he held and then suddenly lost, she knew it was at her expense. Her distance. She bit her lip, glancing down at the notebook and taking it without a saying much.

She never wanted to lose or hurt Silas. It was selfish of her to indulge in what she wanted, when she was so afraid of the hurt that would come if things did not work well between them. Crushed, she would be utterly crushed and damaged if she lost Silas, but also wanted him to be happy.

And that look right there, that hesitation... she was afraid it already began.

Livia looked down at the notebook, opening it to a random page and reading the fearful notes Joel left. It was a documentation of the constant and never ending fear the mystery identity gave him. Fear had caught up with him, at least, if this was any indication of what happened.

She dropped the book onto the bed, effectively brushing against Silas.

"I..." The words were stuck in her throat. She lifted her gaze, searching his eyes with her olivine hues before letting them close as she exhaled heavily. Her brows knitted together, head shaking slowly as if in response to her thoughts. "I do not like seeing you looking like you cannot..." Oh, no. She scrunched her eyes for a moment before they shot open and blinked rapidly to keep the sting of tears at bay. "Fuck."

How was he still so caring of her after how she continued to treat him? She would push him away when she felt like they were too close, too real to the reality of it potentially ending, and then pull him in when she needed him. When she wanted him. A selfish way of keeping him to herself, of reveling in what they could be behind private doors...

Livia embraced him then. Clutched at him, as if to show apology in the intensity of how she held onto him, but it did not feel like it amounted to how truly sorry she was for making him believe this was how it was meant to be... and she was not sure of when she could ease into letting the world know that her heart only belonged to him. Time... it would take time for her.

Her hands moved to hold his face, angling it down to meet her own so that her lips could capture his in a gentle kiss. It was tentative, testing the waters she seemed to drown in like her worries. It was her soft apology, her way of showing him fragments of her heart's desire.

"You scare me." The whisper left her before she could take it back, afraid what that buried truth would do.


Silas Artesto

 

[Silas Artesto]

Silas had thought maybe they'd be able to work around the emotions that were still fresh in their minds from last night, that what had been said and done wouldn't linger, wouldn't affect them throughout the day. That was just him being naive though; How couldn't it affect them? What had happened between them only hours ago was nothing like the quick rough-and-tumble moments they'd had before. There had been genuine passion and emotion behind every touch, every whispered, honeyed word they spoke.

Both of them could see what was happening, but neither of them was willing to be the one to say it out loud. Silas because after all they'd been through, he wanted to hear it from her lips, and Livia because... Well, he didn't know. Something held her back, made her hesitate.

It became obvious though, as she took the notebook and carelessly tossed it onto the bed, that it was something they needed to address before they went any further. He turned his head to look at it briefly, before looking back at Liv to find her face twisted, and her eyes holding back tears. The sight made him frown, and he raised a hand up to rest on her cheek as she spoke.

"I do not like seeing you looking like you cannot..."
She choked back her words, eyes moistening as she squeezed them shut and swore under her breath. Artesto's brow creased with concern, and he sighed against her. He'd only meant to tease, but he'd dredged up so much hurt and pain with his antics... A pang of remorse hit him, and Silas opened his mouth to apologize.

He never got the chance, Livia's lips claimed his before a word could come.

It wasn't a heated, lustful kiss like the ones they'd shared before. It was gentle, chaste, almost nervous in how feather-light she placed herself on his lips. As fast as it came, it was gone. Quinnick offered a simple confession, albeit not the one he may have been expecting or hoping for.

"You scare me."

Nothing. Again he'd come so close to getting through to her, and still he could discern nothing about how she truly felt towards him from those words. He scared her? What had he done to do that? What was she afraid of? Keeping one hand on the side of her face, he tilted his head down and took a deep breath of air into his lungs.

And then he kissed her again, pulling her back to his lips and sliding his hand around to the back of her head, sliding his eyes shut as he embraced her with his other arm. There was a little less restraint in his actions than her own, he breathed into her mouth, pressed himself snugly against her body.

He wasn't here to scare her. If anything, he wanted her to be happy, to feel okay around him.

To care about him.

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

She had wanted to tell him that she was scared of losing him. That if she were to open up herself to hurt, to being vulnerable... it scared her that she cared so much for him. She was not well versed in love, but to have this terrifying and strong emotion for him... Livia knew it to be love.

His lips stole her own, silencing her from blurting all of that out but she was welcoming the distraction. To have this moment of softness with him after last night, it left her wanting more and more of it. More of him, just like this. Stolen moments between them, sating that need of their lips in a kiss that she swore she could feel still tingling at the softness of her mouth. Livia leaned onto her toes in a bid to be closer to him, fingers now pressing at his jaw as they exchanged breaths.

But she needed to say something and not leave it with the confession of her fear of losing him.

"Silas..." Her lips moved to his cheek, then trailed kisses to his neck before retiring to lean her head into the crook there. Her arms circled around his shoulders and she exhaled gently. "I am scared of you because you make me feel like losing you would be the very thing to break me. If anyone were to take you from me, or if I, gods forbid, hurt you the way I did to my father..." It would be a wound Okko or Bannon could not help heal. "I think it unfair that I love you so, and have this fear I am not brave enough to bear and live with."

And what an open wound it was to admit it finally to him. She opened up to him, pulling her head back to see his face after her words were left hanging in the silence. The wound opened right up, showing bone. "If you will have me, I want to experience what it means to feel for you without the eyes of others because... maybe it is selfish of me... but I want you to myself before others can see us and we no longer have that bubble..."


Silas Artesto

 

[Silas Artesto]

Soft sounds left Silas' throat as Livia poured her heart out of her lips and onto his skin. All that Silas had wanted from Quinnick was honesty, to be true with her emotions, to stop toying with him and pushing him away only hours after running into his arms. It was a cruel game she played, and one that had left him far more confused and conflicted than he would ever admit to her.

To hear her say those words... No, to hear her say one word in particular... It made him feel heavy, like his entire body had turned to stone in her embrace. Even the shivers of his body as she left searing kisses across his neck felt like monumental efforts. Livia's confession had managed to accomplish something that nothing else had in Silas' young life.

They made him slow down, and brought his blisteringly fast world to a screeching halt.

And just as quickly as she'd paralyzed him, she pulled her face back and stared into his eyes, finally allowing him to see all of her, abandoning her attempts to conceal the feelings that had lingered behind her eyes for so many weeks. Silas had known what it felt like to be touched as a lover by Livia. Only now did he know how it felt to be looked at as one, to see another's face so alight, merely because of your presence.

It melted the stone she'd placed around him, broke the ice that had gathered at his feet and caused his blood to pump once more. His hands slid to the sides of her face, and his gaze lingered somewhere between her eyes and her lips.

"Then let's revel in that bubble. Just a little bit longer." He breathed, leaning forward to press his lips to hers again. Gods, how long he'd waited for her to admit it aloud. He couldn't help but claim these kisses, to feel her lips against his own as often as possible. "But not here." Artesto whispered against her lips. "Come back with me. Let me show you my own love."

Livia Quinnick