"Lips meet teeth and tongue. My heart skips eight beats at once." —Billie Eilish.

••

Harmony feels as though the world is standing still as his lips finally meet hers. The flutter in her heart greatly intensifies at how warm and soft he feels against her mouth. Her eyes are squeezed shut to avoid all possible distractions. This is her first kiss; it's a sacred moment for her and she needs to savor in every bit of it. Though this isn't how she imagined it to be like.

They say 'he who kisses with his eyes open, isn't feeling at all,' well the saying has to be legit since Blaze's eyes are currently half-opened, watching her in satisfaction. Her lips are just as delicate as she looks and he's very much aware that she has never kissed anyone before him since when he nudges her bottom lip with his tongue, she refuses to grant him access. He decides she isn't ready for that and keeps the kiss at a modest rate, even though that isn't something he normally practices.

He is a ball of ferocity when it comes to sex and intimacy. For him, it is all or nothing. Pecks and smoothies don't necessarily cut it for him; they're too simple, too mild. But he has to contain himself so as to not chase this petite girl away. He has seen how often she runs from him as if he's some scary phantom.

He breaks the kiss slowly, observing her with a faint smile as she gradually opens her eyes. His face is still close to hers as she softly breathes through her mouth, still in a state of shock that they had just connected lips. Blaze gives her some time to gather her senses back since it appears that she's addlepated at the moment.

"Was that your first kiss?" He checks, and she nods her head hesitantly, feeling slightly cynical about admitting to that. Some people would think it ludicrous to have never been kissed at the age of eighteen. She is not sure if Blaze is of that same belief, but what she is certain of though is that he has given countless women their first kiss. She is not the first and probably won't be the last.

"I can tell," he whispers, and she lightly sucks her lower lip in, a burn rising in her throat.

Then Blaze notices something he wasn't expecting. Her eyes begin to gather moisture; thick, glittering teardrops frothing within her vulnerable circles.

He tilts his head with interest, watching as she rubs them away with the back of her hand.

"Why are you crying?"

Her tiny shoulders lift in a shrug as her round face becomes red and wet. "I-I don't know...it's just a special moment for me, I guess."

Blaze stares at her silently. He has a lot to learn. He has never experienced a girl crying because she just had her first kiss.

"It was special to you?" He asks, referring to her first act of intimacy.

She nods her head, sniveling as she wipes more tears away. "Yes. It meant the world to me."

He inspects her quietly. Did it mean that much to her that she even shed tears? For someone like him it's strange, he can't pinpoint the last time he cried genuine tears.

And then it happens. A small poke of guilt, not much, but it is evident enough for him to have recognized it. His forehead puckers as he drops his gaze, wondering where the hell that odd feeling came from. However, swift as it came, it left, and now a strong feeling of accomplishment settles within him. He just attained her first kiss and he is excited to see what else he can do to corrupt this righteous angel sitting in front of him.

Harmony did enjoy the kiss but now her senses have sunken in and she realizes how out of character she has been tonight. Not only did she freakishly touch a boy's face, but she willingly allowed him to kiss her. This isn't her and she's not okay with her strange switch in disposition.

"I...I think I should go," she mumbles, grabbing her sketchpad from the bed.

Blaze's deportment is now distant and aloof as he stations his glare on the ground. As if his task for the night has ended and he doesn't feel the need to 'pretend' further.

"Okay." He taps his finger against his knee; a habit he normally does when he's thinking darkly. "See you around."

She glances at him, instantly noticing how offish his entire demeanor is. He's salivating his lips with a blank face while his gaze is transfixed away from her. She gets up slowly as her brows furrow in slight perplexity. Grabbing her pouch from the couch, she hears him offer a dry farewell behind her.

"It was nice drawing with you."

She looks at him, discovering that he's finally looking in her direction, a small smile on his face.

"Yeah...it was nice for me too." She presses her lips together in a tight-lipped smile, and he allows his simper to widen a bit. But he breaks the eye-contact first, dropping his gaze to his cellphone that he's now holding in his hand.

Disappointment. Regret. Those two emotions are currently battling to attain governance of her heart. She liked the kiss, but his reaction after they did it confuses her. She's not sure what she expected, but his sudden formal and weird comportment wasn't what she saw coming.

As she closes his room door behind her, her thoughts begin to race with the warnings she had received.

"He only uses girls"

"He is heartless"

"Stay away from him"

"You will regret it"

Maybe she shouldn't have come to his dorm room tonight. She just gave him something she can never give to anyone else. A first kiss is something that she'll never be able to get back.

••

With a tired sigh, Harmony lowers herself onto her bed, pressing her face into her pillows with a light groan.

Hot, red lips against hers, minty breath, and masculine deodorant swarm her thoughts, and she shakes her head rapidly, trying to erase them. But she's not doing such a good job as the recollection of her first kiss becomes more vivid. She touches her lips with her middle and forefinger, her stomach twisting at the thought of what had just happened.

Blaze kissed her. The venue and location where it happened were not what she had in mind, but regardless of that, she did like the experience. His lips were way too soft to be just flesh. She wouldn't be surprised if she later discovers that they are actually made out of marshmallows.

She squeezes her face into her pillow, blushing profusely like a middle-school girl.

The door to the room opens as April walks in and Harmony quickly pulls her head from the pillow as her roommate scrutinizes her with a suspicious grin on her face.

"Are you okay?" She raises a curious brow as she shuts the door after her.

"Um, yes." Harmony sits up promptly, swallowing sharply as she trails her palms down her now messy hair.

April laughs. "Okay..." She narrows her eyes pryingly. "You just look a little flustered."

"I am okay."

Her dormmate shakes her head with a smile, placing her glittery black purse onto the table before strolling over to her and plopping down on the springy bed. "I am super tired."

"How was the restaurant?" Harmony asks, folding her feet beneath her as she tries to get rid of the color in her cheeks. If she keeps this blushing up, April will discover that she and her cousin had just locked lips despite the numerous warnings she gave them both.

April shrugs. "It was okay. But it would have been better if you were there...and if Blaze were there, but he claimed he had plans. I don't know what was more important than a dinner with his cousin."

A thoughtful line forms between Harmony's brows at the news. Did Blaze cancel his dinner plans to spend time with her? The notion does move her heart, but she prefers not to overthink especially since after the kiss he became super distant. She plans not to read into what happened tonight or get her expectations up for something that is probably nothing. Pinning over a guy just because he gave you your very first kiss isn't very appealing. She's aware of this.

"Anyway, have you seen Blaze recently?"

Harmony tenses up, gulping quietly as she rubs her knees. She's contemplating whether to be honest or to hide the fact that she saw him tonight.

She decides to tell the truth.

"No, I haven't seen him recently."

What? That was not what she intended to say, she has no idea how that came out!

Repressing her self-dissatisfaction, she inwardly mewls at the lie she just spilled.

"Okay, great. I was worried he would keep pestering you. Blaze never gives up until he captures his victims in his web. Just don't let him kiss you, that's where it starts." She gets up and Harmony bites her lip guiltily.

Too late, he already did.

"But he does treat me nice..." Harmony says, choosing to disregard his bizarre behavior after the kiss. She figures that things just became a little bit weird and maybe he had no idea what to say after. She must admit that she herself felt awfully uncomfortable after it all happened.

"Yeah because he wants something from you, he is never nice to someone unless he wants something," April apprises as she walks over to her closet to take her jacket off. "I am his cousin and he doesn't come over to my place unless he wants a favor."

"What kind of favor?" Harmony is willing to accept every information regarding him. Even if it'll punch her in the gut.

"Like a girl's number or to borrow my car if his car is at the garage. I mean, James has been his best friend since high school and he's only friends with him just so he can get hooked up with the girls he knows, and he doesn't try to hide it either."

She turns to her and rests a hand to her hip. "It's an endless cycle for him. He likes to conquer things and feels it's his right to have everything he sets his eyes on. He sees a girl, he stares at her, he aims for her, he kisses her then she's all his."

Harmony realizes that that is exactly what has been happening lately between them. He saw her at the orientation night-out, he stared at her, he followed her around, and then tonight, he kissed her. But the lucky thing is, she is not fully caught into his web yet, right? So she can easily wiggle her way out...right?

"Oh. He sounds like a bad guy," she mutters with a hanging head, and April smiles.

"He isn't, he's just...troubled."

Remembering the horrifying death of his mother, Harmony ponders on whether to ask April if it is true or not, but when she looks up again, her roommate is already making her way into the bathroom, so she decides to just swallow her curiosity. Plus, she wouldn't want her discovering that they have been seeing each other a lot more than they're supposed to.

••

"It was special to you?"

"Yes, it meant the world to me."

Blaze has his back up against his headboard, bright images of Harmony's big, watery eyes afflicting his mind. He can't understand what on earth is wrong with him. Last night he had the opportunity to tear her innocence away with just one shot, and yet he couldn't find the will to take things farther than a kiss. He mentally used the excuse that he didn't want to chase her away by being too forward, but when has Blaze Xander ever cared about being too forward?

And then that sudden strange feeling he got when she told him how precious what she just gave him was. His head is probably fucking up even more than it already is because he isn't being himself at all.

"Ow, fuck!" He curses aloud, tightly groping his now throbbing neck. "Did you just bite me?" He gawks at the bronze-haired girl who is currently sitting on his groin, her thick, creamy thighs pressed up against his.

Her face contorts in embarrassment as she sheepishly provides a reply. "It's called a hickey, Blaze."

"That was no freaking hickey. Are you a vampire? Damn..."

"Sorry." She tries to place her lips to his neck again, but he steers his head away with a grimace. His mood is now so sour that he just wants to tell her to get off his groin, and his filter-less mouth says it before he can withdraw it.

"Stop, get off me, please."

She screws her face up in disappointment. "Why, Blaze?"

"I am not feeling this anymore."

Not that he was in the first place.

"Ouch, that hurt."

"Yeah well, I will see you later." He begins to move off the bed as she unwillingly slides off his lap, adjusting her mini jean skirt as she does. She frowns while she settles onto her knees, scowling desperately.

"Blaze."

His brows are tightly furrowed as he walks to the kitchen in just his silver necklace and a pair of slacks. He's not in the best state of mind, currently undergoing one of his bipolar episodes, therefore he has no time for the frowning girl sitting in his bed. If she doesn't get the hell out of his dorm by the time he gets to the kitchen and goes back, he'll have no choice but to ragingly advise her to fuck off.

He opens the fridge and takes out a bottle of water, unscrewing the cork and putting it to his lips. The brunette finally gets the message and hisses loudly, the bedsheets ruffling before footsteps drift to the dorm door. It doesn't close behind her, and instead, James's voice bellows throughout the room.

"Woah. Justine Meyers. President of the Music club. You get all the nice ones! Damn." He shuts the door after the angry female as Blaze puts the bottle back into the fridge. He returns to the room to find James reaching for the sketch Harmony did from the bedtable.

"Who drew th—"

The paper is snatched from his hand before he can finish his sentence as Blaze pulls out the nightstand's compartment and slip it inside.

James smiles at him, raising an intrigued brow. "Wait...did Harmony draw that?"

Blaze decides not to respond as he plops down onto his bed, reclining onto his palms and watching as James gets all excited by himself. He is supposed to be elated too; he took her first kiss, but suddenly it isn't as fun as how he thought it'd be.

"Wow wait, so she drew you, and then you guys had sex like in the titanic?"

Blaze deadpans him with drooping eyelids. "Please, do not say a word more. I am threatened to punch you."

"This is great news!" James pumps a fist in the air, dancing like an idiot, and Blaze rolls his eyes in amusement and plops back against his bed.

"You are getting so excited about messing up an innocent girl, I thought I was the asshole."

James is doing the robot dance now and Blaze chuckles at his antics, shaking his head. One thing he can say is that if he's having one of those aggressive episodes, James making a complete ass of himself sure does aid his case greatly, putting him back into a calm mood. Whenever he's having a bad day, one simple look at his best friend and he realizes how lucky he is to not be a dork.

"If you don't stop, I will cut you to threads with the cutting knife, James."

"Tell me how it went!" He crashes next to Blaze who now has his bicep over his eyes, smirking quietly. "I want to hear everything! Is she really a virgin? What color bra was she wearing? Better yet, what color panties—"

Blaze grabs the pillow from next to him, smacking the rambling boy with it, causing him to snicker buoyantly as he throws it back to him.

"Alright, let's be serious now. You didn't have sex with her, did you, Blaze?" James narrows his eyes.

"Nope." He sits upright, cricking his neck. "None of that happened."

James's jaws drop at this and he slowly reaches out a finger to poke his friend's cheek. Blaze's eyebrows draw together at the action. "What are you doing?"

"I am testing to see if you are really Blaze Xander and not some Styrofoam version of him."

"James if you touch my face one more time, I'll break your finger."

A wide grin surfaces his face at the threat, and he slowly pushes his finger into Blaze's cheek again, causing him to firmly grab it and twist it painfully.

"Ahhhh! Shit!!" James crouches over with wide eyes, gaping at his finger that is now tightly squashed between a chuckling Blaze's fist. He knows his best friend doesn't bluff when it comes to inflicting pain onto others, so he's not sure which demon of courage had possessed him just now.

"Ah-ah-ah!, Ow, shit, you're breaking my flipping finger, you psychopath! Let it go!" He's on the verge of crying like a toddler.

Blaze smiles menacingly, clearly enjoying this a lot more than he should. "If I let you go, what's in it for me?"

"Blazeeee!" He pules.

"Say: I am the king of the world."

James gapes at him in disbelief, and he raises an amused brow, crushing his finger even more.

"Ahh! You're the king of the world—ow, shit."

"Say I am the most amazing person to ever be created." He bites back a grin while his friend's face is scrunched up in suffering.

"W-what are you, five — ?!"

He wrings it. "Say it!"

"Alright, alright! You're the best person to ever be created!! ah!"

"I didn't say 'best.' I said, 'most amazing!'"

"What's the damn difference?!"

Blaze gawks at him in mock shock. "Do you want to lose your finger?"

"Alright! Alright! You're the most amazing person to ever be created!!!!"

"Louder!"

"YOU'RE THE MOST AMAZING PERSON TO EVER BE CREATED!!!!"

Blaze finally lets him go with a loud laugh, throwing his head back in satisfaction as he gets up from the bed to move toward the bathroom. Ah, he loves having power and dominion.

"You mad, psychotic asshole!" James massages his sprained finger with a pained face. "Sometimes I am convinced that you're a sociopath of some sort!"

Blaze chuckles at this as he enters the bathroom, turning around to jerk James a slender middle finger. "Who says I'm not?" He grins widely before shutting the door.

••

"Go ahead and watch my heart burn with the fire that you started in me." —Billie Eilish.

"When you close your eyes, do you picture me? Do you fantasize, am I your fantasy?"—Billie Eilish.

••

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