[...yes. Yes, this is exactly the feeling he'd had in the dream world. Only this time, there's snakes curling around Ryou's hand, and this time, Atem's not completely blindsided by the way this feels. It's not a moment of suddenly coming to understand why his friends back home were crazy for this, when he really hadn't gotten it before. This time, it's getting something back, something he'd been missing since it happened, something that left an absence behind that Atem hadn't felt before and had been doing his level best not to try to fill. He'd held Ryou's fog form in his coils to help Ryou. He'd slept in Ryou's room more often than the nest in the living room for almost a month now to team up against mutual nightmares. He'd held onto Ryou in a taxi in his travel form so he wouldn't end up on the floor.
None of it was this. It didn't drive out loneliness like a struck match drives out the dark; it didn't make a vise around his heart that's been there so long he doesn't notice it anymore loosen and ease. Of course it didn't; the only thing like kissing Ryou is kissing Ryou. No other piece fits.
But this, this is it, he thinks with a sigh, sliding his fingers further into Ryou's hair and opening his mouth against the kiss. This is the same, it's what he realized he wanted back then, right down to -- the way Ryou hums, a little --
--huh.
Hang on. That's one of the sounds he's been replaying in his head for nearly two months, now. Is it that the trees somehow knew what Ryou'd sound like? Or...
Atem breaks the kiss and backs up a few inches, looking at Ryou quizzically. The snakes don't loosen their grip, but their tongues flick, tasting the air.]
Ryou...when the trees got you, in June...did you dream about playing Monster World with the Ring-Spirit and Adam?
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None of it was this. It didn't drive out loneliness like a struck match drives out the dark; it didn't make a vise around his heart that's been there so long he doesn't notice it anymore loosen and ease. Of course it didn't; the only thing like kissing Ryou is kissing Ryou. No other piece fits.
But this, this is it, he thinks with a sigh, sliding his fingers further into Ryou's hair and opening his mouth against the kiss. This is the same, it's what he realized he wanted back then, right down to -- the way Ryou hums, a little --
--huh.
Hang on. That's one of the sounds he's been replaying in his head for nearly two months, now. Is it that the trees somehow knew what Ryou'd sound like? Or...
Atem breaks the kiss and backs up a few inches, looking at Ryou quizzically. The snakes don't loosen their grip, but their tongues flick, tasting the air.]
Ryou...when the trees got you, in June...did you dream about playing Monster World with the Ring-Spirit and Adam?