leyla nodded her head in understanding. “do you get a lot of scoops from doing that?” she asked him. a smile found her lips. “perhaps i should go to you for gossip not zehra,” she joked. “have you got any more tips for hidden gems in the city then?” she asked, interest brightening her features. she pursed her lips in thought for a moment. “mm, not really. at least not to just drink. i like a dance, and i like spending time with people. i like meeting new people, and people watching. you can meet some really interesting people in the most usual places,” she told him. “i’ve been known to take a friend up on an offer of a 3 am adventure, every now and then. once i met a goblin in a laundromat at 04:00am in staten island, who had been on a three year hunt for a set of daggers that had been in his family for three thousand years but were stolen two centuries ago,” she said, a laugh tumbling from her lips. “how incredible and odd is that?” she asked. leyla realised she’d been talking for a while now. “sorry, I’m rambling,” she said, flashing kieran an almost bashful smile. she glanced at the television. ten minutes to go. chewing her bottom lip, she looked back to kieran. “how about you? are you a partier, or a homebody?” she asked, with a smile.
ten minutes must have passed without her notice ( even though it wasn’t the most remarkable conversation; what do you do with your time off? it was enough to enthrall leyla ), because before she realised, a countdown had started behind them. she turned in surprise as the people around them counted down from twenty. looking to kieran, a bubble of surprised laughter pressed past her lips. “i didn’t realise how close it was,” she told him, leaning in closer so he could hear her over the chanting. she smiled softly, but could feel the knot in her stomach. why was she nervous? there was no pressure. they were just seeing the new year in together. but of course there was pressure because the new year often came with a kiss. and the two, betrothed, were yet to even have a conversation about what they wanted from this arrangement, let alone shared a kiss. yet as they count down occured, leyla felt compelled to join in, if nothing, than to make things feel a little more normal. she didn’t shout, or chant, but spoke the numbers until they reached one. “happy new year,” she told kieran, leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek. that wasn’t so scary, right?
he watched her with a soft smile on his face the entire time, the rambling coming from her as adorable as it was intriguing. it wasn’t as if he had not had conversations with leyla in the past, but it felt different hearing her now, when he didn’t just see her as talia’s youngest sister, or someone who he was obligated to be around. he blinked when she turned her attention back to him, and he chuckled softly, his eyes dipping down and back to hers for a moment. “definitely a homebody, unfortunately. but at least i’m not a flight risk,” he teased, referencing the conversation from earlier.
kieran turned his head to look at the tv’s strewn all over the room, a reminder that it was, in fact, getting quite close to the new year. he wasn’t nervous about it - he’d spent plenty of new year’s with people that he didn’t end up kissing at midnight. kieran didn’t feel that there was any pressure between them, given that they knew their circumstances. so when the crowd around them started counting down, he watched them without a second thought, until they all shouted in unison together. kieran’s attention was pulled to leyla at the sound of her voice in his ear, and he turned his head, just as her lips were meant to catch his cheek.
instead, he found himself pressing his lips to hers, and after only a moment’s hesitation where his brain had to come to terms with what the hell was happening, he kissed her as everyone around them did one another, and,after a moment, his hand moved up to cup the side of her head, tilting her face upward toward his own.
