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She liked that, and his face turned into the rarely-seen grin in response. He felt warm and tingly and there was a weird heaviness but lightness in his stomach, nausea combined with excitement in a way he wasn't sure he could ease apart. Perhaps it wouldn't matter what the other members of the Negaverse would think. This was fine. They were in the dead-for-the-seasons botanical gardens, it wasn't like anyone could see them there...

For now.

She was indeed entirely a puddle, and he found himself unfolding from his own gathered ball to take a closer look. She was on her stomach, face flat on the ground, but at the right angle, he could see that little smile and the redness was hard to miss. "You did warn me. You said I could proceed, but that you might melt."

Where did he go from here--

Oh, she called him cute. His cheeks were warm too, weren't they--

"You're cute, strong as a butterfly, but also as a puddle of butterfly goo," that didn't seem like it was terribly charming, but he snickered at it anyway. "You keep calling me cute and I might just keep up everything else," that would give him some time to think -- wait, didn't he need a questioning noise there? "Mm?"

What might Riker say--

"The blush looks good on you!"

She said it again, and she said it like the challenge Fulgurite had invited it to be, and his smile lifted to a lop-sided grin as he quickly began to ponder how he would escalate it. She met his challenge, so he should meet the challenge and flirt with her more. See how much he could lean into being a secret heartthrob romance novel dude. Fulgurite loved that titling, goofy or not. It felt so innately Sylvite Nectaris.

-- Oh.

That was an escalation, and his mind jumped for a moment in worries about the concerns it may elicit if they were caught. If Fulgurite was actively smooching Nectaris without the aim to bring her back into the fold or simply murder her, it could put the both of them in hot water. If he was kissing her and Albite found them on top of that, he wasn't quite sure how that reaction would go. Would Albite be incensed and angry that Fulgurite was taking his own claim? Would he try to propose a menage a trois because he swore he was one of the only people on the team of appropriate age that Albite had not considered--

Fulgurite wasn't sure that sounded right, either--

He shoved that into the recesses of his mind, glancing over at her once more. "Your lips provide a lot. Beautiful smiles, interesting words, good conversation... I'm sure you're an excellent kisser."

What was he doing?

Fulgurite felt a bit heady, an interesting swap from where their conversation had begun where his body felt like it was being weighed down by a thousand-ton stone. It reflected in a lightness in his form, too; he liked this and he liked her, and his mind was occasionally buzzing with questions about what this meant for them and what this meant for the power of love in specific. Love. Him? Loved him? What was the dimension there? How long had this been happening?

He saw the way she raised an eyebrow and bit the inside of his lip as a way to stifle the enthusiasm--if he was playing the character of a heartthrob romance novel dude, squirming in excitement was not a good way to project that. Squirming in nerves? Anticipation?

It didn't matter, in the end.

She leaned forward, took his shoulders, and pressed her lips against his before he could dare say anything else about it. Fulgurite's eyes fluttered closed as he fell into it, indulging it as he did his best to match the softness she offered, even as a Crobat opposed to the butterfly she was in turn.

Afterward, he was quiet for a moment, attempting to regather his thoughts from where they were scattered against the bottom of his skull.

"Glad I wasn't off," he decided was the appropriate response, his smile lop-sided and then increasing as he thought of it. It didn't quite frame him as a lothario, but then, did it matter?

There had only been a couple of people who had offered him this sort of freedom, really. Perhaps it didn't matter what he was doing. "That was ... really nice."

(In retrospect, his gambit to keep her distracted worked. It had gone in a much different direction than he was planning.)

It hurt, in a way, for Nectaris to pull away, but he understood it.

What she said next spoke to all the fears bouncing around his skull. They're not gonna like it-- no, they wouldn't, and Nectaris would be dead and perhaps Fulgurite would get himself labeled a traitor too. What would Albite do if he came across Fulgurite kissing his former girlfriend and doing nothing to drag her back? What would a general-sovereign do if they came across them? Someone like Faustite, who was still the leader of his apparent team even as he was now an eternal?

The irony, really, was that perhaps some of these eyes were already on his back. He was none-the-wiser.

"They wouldn't." Fulgurite's voice was almost a sigh by itself. "Pretty sure Albite would have my ******** head if he found out I was out here kissing you." What had been their relationship? Would this even be okay? He knew Albite had his hands in almost every pie but he didn't know about Nectaris, nor did he know what commitment they had-- "And not bringing you back to Chaos in the process."

He fidgeted.

She was right, though, and he was still glad he got to see her too. It made his heart a bit lighter, even if just for a few minutes. It was a break in what mostly brought him stress and malaise and frustration.

"Glad to see you, too. And glad that happened, too." It gave him a lot to think about, in any case. He was going to have to follow up on a few things. Personally. Perhaps with proxies in writing.

Whatever worked to explain the jumble in his brain.

"I'm around here fairly often. The flowers bring me comfort, even when most of them are dead." He glanced toward her. "Not a guarantee, but if you feel a chaotic eternal aura near here, it might be me."

Had they talked about that? It was good, in a way, to know that everyone involved was open to open relationships; it made that hurdle an irrelevant one. But it was more complicated than that, anyway. Albite was of the Negaverse. Nectaris was a traitor to the Negaverse of some of the highest order considering she sprang a princess.

Fulgurite worried that there would be no negotiating in a way that ended with all of them alive.

"Don't think we have, actually," he finally responded, shaking his head because he couldn't recall any kind of relationship conversation with her, to be honest. It hadn't truly been relevant before; at least, it hadn't been relevant since she had purified. The two of them hadn't been dating beforehand, hadn't even been kissing; her relationship involvement was her own even if gossip invited his curiosity.

"But good to know that, at least."

If he could ignore the side difference, perhaps it would be easier. If Fulgurite could be where he wanted to be, perhaps things would be easier.

"I want to see you again, too." Fulgurite's smile was sincere, even if faint, a sigh of relief escaping his lips after she dipped in for another quick kiss. "This has been nice."

Really, really nice.

He stayed where he was as she backed away. If there was anyone near them that he couldn't feel, better that at least one of them stayed out of view.

"Soon. I'll be here," he murmured, and then in order to best stay out of view, he simply ... disappeared.