(Rose Mira's PoV)
The evening had been both amusing and exasperating. It wasn't often that Cassius proposed parties like this, and Rose could perfectly understand why.
It was hard, being a guy standing next to Jin. Harder still when you came from a famous family like the Desdes, when people constantly measured you against the genius of the generation. You were always in the shadows. Always compared. Always the second choice.
Many times, she and Jin had done their best to reassure their friend. And tonight, seeing him actually prepare everything, seeing him laugh so freely, she'd been delighted. He'd seemed happy. Truly happy.
Still, that drinking contest was too much, Rose thought, her hand moving in slow circles on Jin's back. He was trying so hard to keep up with Jin's pace. Of course he got sick. He was probably forcing himself the whole evening, pretending everything was fine...
That wasn't what she wanted. She wanted Cassius to be honest with them. To tell them when things were hard, so they could face it together, the way they always had.
A wet snort came from the table. Rose glanced down at her childhood friend the one she had loved for so long, so simply, so completely and felt her heart soften. Jin looked peaceful, even drooling slightly.
Sleep well, dummy, she thought fondly.
Then she turned, casting a worried glance toward the bathroom. Cassius hadn't come back. Minutes had passed.
Maybe he really was forcing himself to be happy tonight, she thought, a small ache forming in her chest. Maybe the party was his way of saying he missed this. Missed us. And I let him drink himself sick without noticing.
She nodded to herself, decision made, and stood up.
She walked to the bathroom and opened the door, slipping inside and closing it shut behind her.
Cassius stood in front of the mirror, head lowered, one hand gripping the edge of the sink. His white hair fell forward, hiding his face. In the dim bathroom light, his broad shoulders looked tense, coiled.
Rose approached quietly and placed her hand on his back.
"Cassius," she said softly. "Are you okay?"
For a moment, he didn't move. Didn't answer. His grip on the sink tightened, knuckles whitening.
Then, slowly, he straightened, turning his head to look at her over his shoulder.
And Rose's breath caught.
Because the look in his red eyes wasn't sickness. It wasn't drunkenness.
It was hunger. Ten years of it, compressed into a single stare, aimed directly at her.
"R...Rose," he said, his voice low and rough. "You came in."
"Of course I did. You looked terrible, you idiot. You didn't have to force yourself tonight, you know. If things are hard, you should just tell us. That's what friends are for "
"Friends," he repeated, the word coming out strange. Almost like a wound.
He turned fully now, facing her, and Rose suddenly realized how small the bathroom was. How close he was standing. How the heat radiating off his body seemed to fill the entire space.
"Rose," he said again, and his hand rose, slowly, toward her face. "I've been wanting to tell you something. For a very long time."
"C...Cassius?" She took a half step back, her hip bumping the sink. Her heart was suddenly beating very fast. "You're drunk. You should sit down..."
"I'm not drunk enough for this," he said quietly. "Unfortunately."
And then his hand cupped her cheek, and he leaned in, and Rose Mira who had spent her entire life loving one boy, who had never once been kissed, who had never once imagined this moment could arrive like a thief in her own bathroom felt Cassius Desde's lips press against hers.
Commit, Ellen's voice echoed somewhere in the back of his mind.
He committed.
The heat of Cassius's lips landed on hers, and Rose's mind went completely blank.
...Eh?
Eh?!
This is Cassius he's we're KISSING?!
Her hands flew up, pressing flat against his chest, pushing weakly. But there was no strength behind it. None at all. Her arms felt like they belonged to someone else, and the firm warmth of his pecs under her palms only made everything more confusing, more real, more impossible.
This is Cassius. Cassius! The boy who fell in a river screaming like a kettle! The boy who walks two steps behind Jin! The boy I've known since since
Why is he kissing me?! Why is his mouth so so
Why can't I push him away?!
Before her panicked thoughts could organize into anything resembling action, the kiss changed.
His red eyes, locked onto her pink ones, had turned feverish. Something ten years deep had finally cracked open, and all of it was pouring through his lips. The hand on her cheek slid back, fingers threading into her hair, cradling the back of her head with a grip that was gentle and utterly immovable. His other hand dropped to her lower hips and pulled, pressing her body flush against his.
Rose felt the hard plane of his torso against her chest, the heat of him soaking through her uniform, and a small, helpless sound escaped her throat.
"Mmph...!"
His head tilted, finding a better angle, and the kiss deepened. His tongue pressed at the seam of her lips once, twice insistent, patient, hungry.
No no, wait this is we shouldn't Jin is Jin is right outside
Her protests were muffled, swallowed, reduced to soft, breathless noises against his mouth. And her hands traitorous, trembling hands weren't pushing anymore. They were gripping. Her fingers had curled into the fabric of his shirt, knuckles whitening, holding on as if the room were tilting.
Then his tongue slipped inside.
The sensation hit her like a lightning strike. Hot, wet, alive, sliding against her own tongue, coaxing it, tasting her. Rose's knees buckled; Cassius's arm around her hips was the only thing keeping her upright.
"Mm...! Nnh... ha...!"
The bathroom filled with sound. The wet, obscene rhythm of the kiss smack... smack... shlp... the soft gulping noises as Cassius drank her mouth like something he'd been starving for, the heated rush of their breath through their noses. Every sound echoed off the tiles, magnified, shameless, too loud.
It's too loud, Rose thought dizzily. Someone will hear Jin will everyone will
...Why does that make it hotter?
Her tongue, almost without her permission, answered his. A clumsy, inexperienced dance, following his lead, learning the rhythm he set. He groaned low in his chest at the response, and the vibration of it traveled straight through her body, making her shiver.
This is Cassius, she thought again, but the name meant something different now. The shadows, the second place, the boy always beside Jin all of it dissolved, and what remained was this: a man who kissed like he'd been waiting a decade, whose hunger had weight, whose arms felt like a place.
Her eyes, which had been wide with shock, fluttered half closed.
Why... why does it feel so good...? Why am I not stopping...? Why do I want...
His tongue chased hers, and she made another small, broken sound, her hips pressing forward without her consent.
The kiss didn't stop. It grew. Hotter. Slower. Deeper. Cassius kissed her like a man memorizing something, like a man reclaiming something, and Rose shocked, breathless, utterly unprepared discovered that her body had made a decision her mind hadn't approved.
Her body was kissing him back.
Rose's resistance shattered.
The last shred of her polite, careful self dissolved as her hands slid from his chest up to his neck. Her fingers tangled in his white hair, pulling him closer with an obsessive, desperate motion she didn't recognize. Her tongue, which had been passively accepting his advance, suddenly snapped into action, answering his with a purpose that was far more hunger than hesitation.
I... I don't know anymore, Rose thought, her mind dissolving into a haze of crimson heat. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know who I am. I only know that I need this. I need him.
She pressed her hips forward, seeking more contact, more friction. As she did, she felt it the unmistakable, hard ridge of his cock pressing against her lower belly through the layers of their uniforms. The contact sent a shockwave through her, making her gasp against his lips.
"Mmph... ahh...!"
The sound was wet, needy, and completely uncontrolled. She was no longer just being kissed; she was being consumed. She drank from him like a drenched woman in a desert, her mouth working against his with a desperation that matched his own. The sounds in the small bathroom became obscene the wet slurp of tongues meeting, the rhythmic smack of lips, the increasingly ragged gasps for air.
Cassius's response was immediate and terrifyingly intense. His groan was low, vibrating against her tongue, a sound of pure, unadulterated triumph. His hand, which had been holding her hip, slid downward with bruising purpose.
His palm found the swell of her ass through the fabric of her skirt. He gripped her there, fingers digging into the soft flesh, and began to knead her with a raw, possessive hunger.
"Nnh...! Haa... ahh...!" Rose's head fell back, her neck exposed, her eyes rolling. The sensation of his hands claiming her ass while his mouth claimed her lips was too much. It was overwhelming. It was terrifying.
And she wanted more.
Every squeeze of his hands, every wet slide of his tongue, felt like it was rewriting her entire history. The girl who loved Jin was being buried beneath the girl who was being claimed by Cassius. The sounds of their joined breathing and the wet noises of their mouths filled the space between them, drowning out any lingering voice of reason.
Cassius wasn't just kissing her anymore; he was claiming her territory. He was marking her as his, right there in the bathroom, while her childhood friend slept mere feet away. And Rose, lost in the storm of sensation, could only cling to him tighter, her fingers twisting in his hair as she surrendered to the delicious, devastating corruption.