Caleb smiles faintly at Yussa's answer despite the anxious excitement currently making him feel a bit dizzy. Yussa's particular combination of stubbornness and curiosity has put him in serious peril twice now just in the relatively short time that Caleb has known him. Apparently, he's made up his mind about Caleb strongly enough that even this new information doesn't change it. That is encouraging, and more than a little flattering.
"I do know," he agrees, and is a little surprised to hear the warmth in his own voice. Ah. He's becoming fond, isn't he? They've spent some days together in study in recent months, when Caleb can spare the time away from case preparations. Yussa's agreement to invite him to be a part of his work with the Heirloom Sphere has helped to keep him sane, providing an excuse to get out of Rexxentrum and focus on something else for a bit. "I also think that you would not push regardless. Though I appreciate your consideration."
Your first kiss, he says. Locked in a closet together and pressed to play a game he knew when he was a teenager, those words invoke a wistfulness for his youth, as if he might be able to have a first kiss again all these years later. But of course, Yussa is more mentor than peer--which only serves to tilt the angle of that thought in a way that makes heat flare in his gut.
"What if I did not feel coerced?" he murmurs. Though it would be a fairly impersonal touch in most situations, right now it feels like a very bold move to take his hand off the shelf behind Yussa and lay it instead lightly against the older man's upper arm. But that is what he does. His fingers, he notes, could easily encircle it entirely. Gods. "If I now found myself very interested in being kissed by you?"
no subject
"I do know," he agrees, and is a little surprised to hear the warmth in his own voice. Ah. He's becoming fond, isn't he? They've spent some days together in study in recent months, when Caleb can spare the time away from case preparations. Yussa's agreement to invite him to be a part of his work with the Heirloom Sphere has helped to keep him sane, providing an excuse to get out of Rexxentrum and focus on something else for a bit. "I also think that you would not push regardless. Though I appreciate your consideration."
Your first kiss, he says. Locked in a closet together and pressed to play a game he knew when he was a teenager, those words invoke a wistfulness for his youth, as if he might be able to have a first kiss again all these years later. But of course, Yussa is more mentor than peer--which only serves to tilt the angle of that thought in a way that makes heat flare in his gut.
"What if I did not feel coerced?" he murmurs. Though it would be a fairly impersonal touch in most situations, right now it feels like a very bold move to take his hand off the shelf behind Yussa and lay it instead lightly against the older man's upper arm. But that is what he does. His fingers, he notes, could easily encircle it entirely. Gods. "If I now found myself very interested in being kissed by you?"