I don't want a lot for Christmas, there's just one thing I need

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

*Tall and undeniably elegant, the tree dominates the room. Live fairies playfully roving within the inner branches like schools of luminescent fish, giving the evergreen an almost alien, restless quality. A dozen floating candles bob around the festive centrepiece, some having even traversed waywardly into the further reaches of the parlour. In the warm, wavering light, Victoria Higgs sits primly, half engulfed by an enormous, fir-green gown. Wine has loosened her posture and as a consequence her hands rest easily at her sides, brushing Regulus's legs. Tellingly, the adults have long left the newly-engaged couple to themselves, only their distant chatter emanating in from another room.

There's an expectant half-smile on Victoria's lips - it speaks of obligations, seasonal cheer and desire.*

Comments

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

This would be about when our attempts at conversation taper off to passion, Regulus.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

Is it? -Well then perhaps you'd like a coffee, I can ask Kreacher to... if you want.

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

*Victoria doesn't want, she doesn't answer, instead she gets closer. Five fingertips lightly holding Reg's head in place as her lips approach.*

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

*He is sure he must have been kissed somewhere as an infant and close relatives have cornered him for a brief kiss on the cheek now and again, but the closest he has come to being kissed anything like this had been on a dusty kitchen floor with his soul at stake. Needless to say, the idea of another go at it isn't very enticing to him.

He isn't sure what to do or if lips are supposed to be wetted before this exchange or if this could possibly give him a disease, and that line of thinking does nothing but bring sores to mind. Nose crinkled in horror at his imagination, his lips are still as they meet Victoria's, and he simply watches her eyelashes in a suspended moment of awkwardly innocent union.*

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

*Suddenly, there's something alien in Regulus' own mouth - it isn't immediately clear what exactly it is, but unless Victoria's oral anatomy is intrinsically inhuman, it is her tongue.*

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

*He usually expects the worst, but this is entirely without precedence as far as he's concerned and is about as shocking as if Victoria had spontaneously dissolved or turned into bugs. Of course he has seen this happening, nearly impossible as it is to live through ones teenage years without bearing witness to some public displays of affection, but he had not thought it would be someone's tongue in his mouth or that it would feel as strange as that. The moment their tongues touch he snatches both her hands into his - not at all violently, but with no attempt to hide his haste - and leans back to look at her with the widest eyes.*

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

*Victoria smirks, looking far too pleased with herself.*

Is there a problem?

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

Ah...

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that very much, Regulus.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

Did you.

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

*Her face is suddenly deathly serious.*

I should hope you felt the same.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

Why... wouldn't I.

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

Precisely. There should be no reason whatsoever that you would be unwilling to repeat the experience on command.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

So not just on holidays.

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

We are engaged now. This is the sort of activity we must engage in at all opportune moments.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

Of course.

Well then, I will... tell you, when I come across them.

[austenianhorror.livejournal.com]

As will I - and you can trust a woman's eye is far more discerning in these matters.

[spindleform.livejournal.com]

My mother never mentioned that.