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For some reason, on a lazy Saturday, with rain smacking against the windows of the ALPHA house, Kate Pryde couldn’t stop staring at Illyana’s teeth.
That felt weird for her to admit. But she just couldn’t. And she couldn’t really come up with a good reason for why.
It wasn’t like Illyana’s teeth had changed dramatically. Well, actually, they had. Yesterday, her canines definitely weren’t long enough to be fangs. But that wasn’t weird. Her teeth just kind of… did that, sometimes. Kate had never asked why, but she was pretty certain that it was connected to the Darkchylde.
For some reason, though, on that particular morning, Kate couldn’t look anywhere else, especially when Illyana—in the process of making herself a sandwich (For breakfast? She needed to convince Illyana to spend at least a little bit less time around Scott)—yawned, her jaw almost seeming to unhinge, baring two sets of elongated canines. Heat shot right to Kate’s stomach, then softened into something achingly soft and gooey when Illyana eventually closed her mouth, but ended up with her bottom lip caught just slightly beneath her upper canine, making her look for a minute like she had a little snaggletooth.
Kate was up and out of her seat in the little breakfast nook before she could second guess what she was doing, and Illyana looked at her—mostly in mild confusion—before Kate grabbed her chin and pulled her head around to face Kate fully. With a step back, Illyana’s hips hit the counter, but Kate closed the gap immediately, ending up almost flush against Illyana as she hooked her fingers into Illyana’s mouth and pulled it open.
Well, to say she pulled Illyana’s mouth open would be a bit inaccurate. The second Kate’s fingers touched Illyana’s lips, her mouth was already starting to drop open, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, a thin but satisfied, almost glassy sheen settling over her eyes. Illyana—mindlessly, on reflex alone, it seemed, at least at first—licked Kate’s fingers, circling slowly, like she was trying to coax them deeper. Kate’s attempt at a reproachful look only garnered a wider smile and a wink, which had Kate rolling her eyes in exasperation.
Illyana made a halfhearted attempt to ask Kate what she was doing, which ended up sounding like a bunch of vague, guttural noises that sort of resembled language, while Kate leaned in.
“I’m looking at your fangs,” Kate answered.
Illyana’s response was a noise that sounded like, “Oh.” Then, “Why?” Kate wondered briefly if it would be so easy to understand someone else in a similar situation.
“I don’t know,” Kate answered, bringing her other hand up to press the pad of her thumb against one of Illyana’s fangs, almost hard enough to start drawing blood, but stopping just short. “I guess I never really noticed them before.”
“And so you decided to shove your fingers in her mouth about it?”
Kate froze, momentarily a statue as the weight of the moment and the realization of just how compromising a position she was in hit her. Especially when she realized that at some point Illyana’s hands had ended up on her waist, a surprisingly tight grip keeping her from pulling away. Or at least making a compelling case to stay where she was, straddling one of Illyana’s thighs, her own pressed between Illyana’s.
“Hi ‘a’i,” Illyana said, a laugh bubbling up in the back of her throat.
Slowly, Kate turned to see Dani standing in the door to the kitchen, looking supremely unimpressed.
“Really couldn’t do this anywhere else? Somewhere we don’t eat food, maybe?” Dani asked. Illyana shook her head as much as she was able to with Kate’s hands still mostly keeping her in place, and Dani rolled her eyes. “Whatever. This isn’t even close to the horniest thing I’ve walked in on this week. Can you just… my bananas are behind you.” She pointed past Illyana, who wordlessly reached over to pull a banana off the bunch and pass it over to Dani, who turned a critical eye on Kate.
“So, what’s up with you, Captain? Decided to make a career change, get into dentistry?” Dani asked. In another situation, Kate would have had a smart, witty response, but she was suddenly very conscious of Illyana’s hands at her waist, and it was making her brain feel kind of mushy.
“No. I… Like I said, I just never really noticed them before,” Kate eventually answered, after Dani had gotten a few bites into her banana.
“Yeah, well, she’s a demon. Demons have fangs, sometimes. Sometimes her eyes are yellow. Sometimes she has claws. Sometimes she’s got a crazy long tongue—” That was a bad thing for Dani to remind Kate of, because heat flooded Kate’s cheeks at the same time that it shot down, curling in on itself. “And every once in a while, she’ll have really big feelings, and she’ll get horns, a tail, and hooves, and that’s usually about the time she starts trying to stab me.”
None of that was new information to Kate. She’d known all of that for a long time. So why did it feel like it hit her from a new angle? Why did it feel like Illyana had been hitting her from a new angle, especially recently?
But it wasn’t exactly recent, now that she thought about it. She’d been seeing Illyana in a new light probably since Scott and Emma split off. Since Illyana had followed them, and Kate hadn’t immediately followed. Since she’d joined them on Utopia and it seemed like Illyana had… grown. She wasn’t different, she was just… more. More confident, more expressive, more open. And even more so since Krakoa was founded. And, if Kate were being totally honest with herself, the whole Grand Captain of Krakoa thing was both surprisingly hot and an amazing fit for Illyana.
Illyana tried to say “Sorry,” but even if she could get the word out properly, her utterly shameless grin would have heavily undermined the apology.
The look Dani shot her said just how little she believed Illyana’s apology. “Have fun edging each other, I’ve got to go, people to help. You know, actual stuff. Like I’m certain you have to do, Illyana.”
Illyana leaned back just a bit, enough to pull Kate’s hands away from her mouth. Kate, still kind of reeling, just let them drop to Illyana’s shoulders. “Scott, Kwannon, and Bishop have it handled,” she said, obviously trying to deflect and act nonchalant. Dani just stared at her silently, and Illyana crumbled almost immediately. “Ugh. Fine. Kwannon and Bishop are busy this morning, and Scott needs to meet with Emma before we can start planning for the Gala. We’re not meeting until this evening. Happy?”
Dani hummed, and turned her attention to Kate again. “Well, when you guys finally make out, come find me to debrief. I taught Yana to kiss, I’d like to know if she took those lessons to heart.”
Illyana’s jaw dropped in shock before she exclaimed, “Dani!”
“Kidding. Mostly,” Dani quickly said, just a hint of a smile pulling at her lips, before she turned to walk out. Before she left the room, she paused, glancing over her shoulder. “It was actually Xuân.”
A wordless shout of indignation chased Dani and her short bark of laughter out the door, but once she was gone, Kate was left smothering a laugh when Illyana looked at her. It was really only then that Kate noticed how close their faces were; close enough that she could feel Illyana’s slightly shuddering exhale ghost across her skin, close enough that when she reflexively glanced down towards Illyana’s lips then snapped her gaze back up when she realized what she was doing, she could see Illyana’s pupils dilate, black swallowing blue that usually twinkled with mischief and were now dark like the ocean, dark with need. It was such a familiar look on Illyana’s face, especially when her mouth slashed into a grin, a precursor to what would probably be a joke, something to break the moment, give Kate a chance to pull away. It’d happened a thousand times before.
How was she only just recognizing it?
Because now she wanted to recognize it. Because now she didn’t want to take the out.
Before Illyana could make the joke, Kate leaned in, just slightly, just enough to make Illyana’s breath catch, her words stuttering in her throat, while Kate slid a hand back up to cup Illyana’s cheek. She melted into Kate’s touch almost immediately.
“Katya?” she asked, hesitant, quiet and achingly hopeful.
Kate didn’t—couldn’t—say anything. She didn’t have half of an idea of where to start.
Instead, she just leaned in, kissed Illyana, and hoped she’d understand.
Kissing Illyana felt incredible. Like taking a massive weight off her shoulders. It felt like standing on a ship, watching the sun rise. It felt natural and addictive at the same time. She felt like her mind was going a mile a minute and also slowly melting into blissful goo.
Illyana relaxed into the kiss almost immediately, once she realized what was happening, her hands on Kate’s hips trying to pull her closer, even though it was futile. She was the one to deepen the kiss, sighing into Kate’s mouth, and Illyana was the one to roll her hips, grinding down on Kate’s thigh as she moaned, a noise that sent a torrent of red-hot arousal scorching through Kate.
Kate lurched backwards like she’d been burned, though she didn’t get very far, breathing heavily, her thoughts wild, skipping around. But the more coherent thoughts bubbled to the surface, or managed to shoulder check their way past the others to make themselves known. Illyana had moaned, Kate wanted to hear a lot more of it, she felt wound impossibly tight, like she was about to come undone just from kissing Illyana, she wanted more, Illyana’s fangs had felt so dangerous and exhilarating against her lips and tongue, she wanted to feel them more, Illyana was giving her a little smirk, she wanted to kiss it away.
“God, finally,” Illyana groaned.
“Finally?” Kate asked, a little bit breathless.
Illyana nodded, her eyes a little wild. “I’ve wanted you to do that for a long time,” she admitted.
“Worth the wait?”
Illyana pretended to waffle for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll know for sure if we do it again, somewhere more private? And eventually without clothes?” she asked. It may have been said partially as a joke, but there was earnest hope underneath it.
“How long until you have to meet the others?” Kate asked.
“Like eight hours.”
Kate hummed, then leaned in for another, slower kiss, consciously pressing her thigh up against Illyana, who quickly brought her hands up to bury her fingers in Kate’s curls. It didn’t take long for Illyana to moan again, though this time it sounded a bit frustrated, and when Kate pulled away to catch her breath, it drew a little whine that had Illyana’s eyes widening into dinner plates in surprise.
“Oh, we’ll definitely need to go somewhere private if you’re going to keep making noises like that,” Kate said, with a little laugh of surprise, leaning in for a short, comparatively chaste kiss, pulling away after only a few moments. Taking a step back, she let her fingers trail down Illyana’s arm until they could lace their fingers together, and pulled Illyana away from the counter. Truth be told, Kate was very scared that if they didn’t get somewhere private soon, she’d be the one making very loud, very embarrassing noises where anyone could hear. But she liked seeing Illyana blush for once. “Your room, or mine?”
Illyana’s answer was to smirk, then lurch forward, tackling Kate through a Stepping Disc to land on Kate’s needlessly large bed in the Red Keep. Illyana looked down at Kate, arms on either side of Kate’s head, blonde hair falling down in a curtain to cast shadows across her face.
Kate couldn’t help but stare in awe, a nervous smile tugging at Yana’s lips after a few seconds, and something clicked solidly into place in her chest. Everything just felt right. She so desperately hoped she wasn’t in a chapel perilous—like some small part of her suspected—because how she’d waited this long, she’d never again know, but she did know, in that instant before Illyana leaned down to kiss her, that she never wanted to go back to how things had been.