❰ @headsetjester sent : a kiss on the temple between ✨ pals ✨ ! ❱
* . the dorm apartment was — small. not much to balk at, but it was comfortable, and warm, and safe. the thing about home is that it had never felt safe, not really. here, though — pomni is a steady presence. a calming one. it hadn’t been hard, settling in. in fact, everything with her felt simple. even now, she isn’t paying much attention to pomni, who putters about as gangle doodles. pomni’s presence never bothered her, anyway.
it’s only when the distance closes that gangle nearly drops her pen. the notebook balanced against her knees wobbles, graphite smudges catching the lamplight. she’d been curled there, quiet in the corner of the couch, hair tumbling over her shoulder as she sketches in those half - formed shapes that don’t belong to anyone but her. and then — pomni’s lips, soft and sudden against her temple. just a passing thing, a careless kiss as she drifts off toward the bedroom, muttering something about cursed, evil 8 am classes. nothing weighted. nothing strange.
except her pulse stumbles. it’s warm, dizzying, as if the simple press of it had tethered her whole body to the moment. she blinks fast behind her glasses, ducking further over the page like she’s simply concentrating, like nothing at all has happened. gangle feels kind of crazy. or — maybe this was normal. do roommates do this ? ❛ nuh - night ! ❜ she manages, voice squeaked. way to be casual, gangle. the graphite trembles in her hand, smearing gray across the paper.
pomni is already gone, the sound of her door easing shut. gangle exhales, shaky, and tells herself it doesn’t matter. tells herself it’s just friendly, ordinary, nothing to puzzle over. but the heat lingers along her temple, a phantom brand, and she knows she’ll be tracing it in her mind long after the lamp goes out.
what . . . what was that ?