Ryuji's breath was warm against Ren's skin.
She hovered close, her fingers trembling just slightly where they rested on his chest. There had been countless times they'd sat side by side—on rooftops, in classrooms, in the velvet dusk of battle—but never like this. Never with her body pressed lightly to his, her lips so close they shared the same breath.
Ren's hand slid up her side—slow, careful, fingers brushing over the curve of her waist. The texture of her shirt, damp from the rain, clung slightly to her skin. Ryuji shivered.
"I don't know what this is," she whispered. "But I don't wanna run from it."
"You don't have to."
Their lips met.
It wasn't a kiss of hunger—it was recognition. A quiet release of years spent at each other's side, now channeled through this changed, charged closeness. Ryuji's hands gripped the collar of Ren's shirt, holding on, grounding herself in something real.
The kiss deepened slowly. Her soft gasp was a sound Ren never thought he'd hear from her—feminine, uncertain, full of want.
Ren pulled her closer, arms around her waist. The new shape of her body molded into him, natural and warm. He could feel her heartbeat through the thin fabric of her clothes—rapid, fluttering like a bird in his hands.
Ryuji pulled back for just a moment, her forehead resting against his again.
"This is so damn weird," she murmured, half laughing, half breathless. "I used to punch you on the shoulder when I got flustered. Now I just wanna…"
She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.
Ren leaned in, brushing her cheek with his lips, then her jawline, then the hollow just beneath her ear. Each touch made her body respond—soft sighs, a subtle arching into his touch. There was no rush. No pressure. Just the slow unraveling of barriers that had once felt unbreakable.
Ryuji's fingers tangled in his hair. Her voice, softer now, carried a depth Ren had never heard in her before.
"Ren… you don't have to stop. Just… don't go too fast."
"I won't," he said. "We'll go at your pace."
She nodded against him, face buried in his neck, the vulnerability wrapping around them both like a blanket.
What started as confusion was becoming something else—something raw and beautiful. Not just lust, but trust. The beginning of something intimate neither of them had the words for yet.