When was the last time a pair of lips had actually pressed against his own?
Cherion's brain, currently lagging hard in the dim light of the tent, started digging through memories that didn't even feel like his anymore. A different universe, a different set of bones. Oh, right. It had been years ago, a lifetime ago, involving a high school crush who'd treated Cherion's genuine affection like a low-stakes weekend hobby. It had been a series of clumsy, damp smooches. The kind of awkward, clumsy kissing where teeth bumped and somehow there was always a hair involved. It was embarrassing. It was… fine. Honestly? It felt like unpaid labor.
That memory, innocent and fundamentally unremarkable as it was, had never made his pulse perform a violent, rib-cracking drum solo. It had never made his vision blur or his lungs forget how to function just from someone being near him.
But this? This was a goddamn catastrophe for his nervous system.
