there's no reason to be shy [PIPPA]

[Francis Lehane]

Francis blinked at her response, surprised at her reaction at him referring to himself as a berk. "Hey, hey, chillax," he shrugged, playing the role of confidence quite well although his mussing up his hair - a nervous habit - somewhat betrayed this. "Just trying to make you laugh, Tremlett - but, hey, I didn't know you cared," he joked, laying both hands over his heart and striking a lovestruck pose. Now that they'd gotten over the initial oh-look-we're-both-practically-naked awkwardness, it was actually okay. Not ideal, or fantastic, but okay. Exciting. Different. He felt restless, somehow, not sure what exactly to do with his limbs.

He, amazingly, didn't regret the 'hot' comment, nor the beautiful one, even when Pippa flooded with colour. He heard lads saying shit like that to girls all the bloody time, not even meaning it half the time, just with the goal of getting a shag later, and so he felt perfectly entitled to tell a girl that he wasn't planning to shag the truth. "Nice to look at?" He repeated, both eyebrows shooting upwards, and laughed. "Cheers, Tremlett. Girls falling at my feet right, left and centre, yeah? Still, don't think I'll ever be the real hot one in the year - I'll leave that to Towler and Pritchard, yeah?" Francis had never before begrudged Fritz or Nate for being better looking and more charismatic than he was, but he felt a slight twinge of jealousy right then, sudden and unexpected but perhaps natural.

"Yeah, though, you're pretty beautiful," Francis added, returning to her previous question. "You're like...I dunno. I mean, beautiful, it's not, like, a definition, is it? Just kind of there. Like, Lo and Karina, and you, you're all pretty beautiful..." he kept losing track of his words, the drink not exactly helping which added to his natural awkwardness with this sort of thing. "But, hey, looks aren't the only thing in the world, are they?" He grinned suddenly, leaning over to drag the bottle back to his side of the bed, although there was only a sparse amount left, brushing against Pippa as he straightened up to stretch over her. Fumbling for the bottle, he grasped it foolishly, slightly caught off-guard by the brush of their skin, and he turned to look at Pippa, a puzzled expression on his face. And, on a whim, acting without really thinking about anything first, doing it without honestly realising he was, he leaned in and kissed her, a soft kiss, so gentle he almost surprised himself. He didn't pull back after the kiss; instead, he stayed close to her, feeling her breath tingle against his lips, unable to determine whether or not she would kiss him back.

[Pippa Tremlett]

"I am relaxed!" Pippa said, flustered. Her teeth were gritted, giving away the fact that she was lying. Sort of. She hated it when people told her to relax; she supposed it was a Slytherin thing. Maybe she did fit in there after all. But she couldn't stop the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth when Francis pretended to be oh-so-flattered. Pippa, feeling too playful all of a sudden, pretended to be Cupid. She fashioned her arms as if she were shooting a bow-and-arrow, and closed one eye, as if this actually help her accuracy. Then she released the 'bow' and bellowed out, "Shot through the heart! And you're to blame; darling, you give love a bad name...!" She grinned at her friend, forgetting all about her naked chest.

Pippa bobbed her head, but then frowned almost instantly. There Francis went, always putting himself down. "To be honest," she started off slowly, "okay, this will sound really cheesy, but... I think personalities are what make a guy hot. Fritz and Nate, though they're my best friends, have nothing on you. You're not like them; you care... and that's what makes you hot. Plus, your hair is totally awesome," she added as an afterthought, her blue eyes flicking upward to marvel at his brown curls. She wasn't just telling him this to make him feel better; she firmly believed it. She'd rather date an ugly person who cared about her (not that Francis was ugly!), than some douche who just wanted a piece of arse.

She tried to follow his explanation of why he thought she was beautiful. She hadn't honestly though he'd answer her (she hadn't been looking for one.) But Pippa nodded nonetheless, beginning to follow his thought process. Beautiful wasn't a definition; it was a thing. It made sense, actually, if she thought about it. Pippa smiled to herself because she thought Lo and Karina were very beautiful; she wouldn't have compared herself to them in a million years. Francis was reaching for the bottle now and Pippa sat there, somewhat timidly. She caught his eye, though, and in the next instant... he was kissing her. It sent a wild jolt from her stomach down to her toes. The kiss didn't last long, though Pippa wanted it to last longer. She stared into Francis' eyes when he removed his lips from hers. And, for a moment, she thought she wouldn't do it... but it was like he was waiting. So Pippa bent her head down and pressed her lips against his - harder this time. She snaked her arms around his neck as if it were the most natural thing she'd ever done and she waited... wishing-hoping-praying that he'd kiss her back.

[Francis Lehane]

"You don't seem relaxed," Francis insisted, despite the fact his own heart was hammering. He'd managed to feign nonchalance, but that didn't stop him from feeling the way he did, and on one hand it felt awkward and off-balance, and on the other it felt - well. Almost pretty fucking good. Francis clutched his chest, perhaps a little too late, after being hit by her imaginary bow, pretending to swoon backwards and almost falling through the curtains off the bed. "Jeeeeesus Christ!" He blurted, coming out with one of his muggle phrases, clutching to the blankets so that he didn't clatter onto the floor painfully, regaining his balance. "Watch it, Tremlett," he told her mock-seriously.

Francis, after making sure he wasn't about to blush, clutched his heart again, saying, "Aw, thank you, Tremlett. Makes me feel all warm inside. And who am I kidding? I'm beautiful. You're beautiful. We're both gorgeous," he raised his arm as though lifting a champagne glass in a toast. "And my hair," Francis sighed, pulling at one of his curls. "Drives the ladies wild."

Initially, Francis felt his stomach plunge. She wasn't going to kiss him back. Nicely done, Lehane. It was true; he was probably the most pathetic person he knew. He'd have to get out of this situation as quickly as possible and then haul himself down to the Kitchens where he'd eat approximately three large tubs of ice-cream without feeling in any way better about himself. But she did kiss him back, much to his utter astonishment; one minute and their gazes were locked, the next and her lips were on his, her arms coiled around his neck. He rested his hands on her waist, feeling a tingle of pleasure at the feel of her bare skin, and leaned in tentatively at first, although the kiss grew stronger. He moved closer, caught up in just how much he liked kissing her - the taste of her lips was surprisingly good, and the feel of her body against his was foreign but undeniably fantastic.

[Pippa Tremlett]

((ooc: to make the posts less awkward, i'm just going to cut out the part with them being playful, if that's alright? if not, let me know and i will edit it back in! if you need me to expand this, just ask. ^^))

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There was a brief moment in time when Pippa thought that Francis kissing her had just been a fluke thing; he'd just done it to do it, and she wasn't supposed to kiss him back. That would be so awkward and embarrassing; she'd never be able to look in him the face again. However, when she felt Francis' lips moving against hers, all of her self-doubt seemed to disappear. Pippa relaxed into him, arching her back forward to push her chest against his. The fact that she was only in her pants was forgotten as she melted into the kiss.

She pulled away after a moment, resting her forehead against the boy's. Pippa swallowed and breathed through her nose to calm the last remaining nerves. She wasn't winded at all, which she supposed was from the fact that she was a singer. Good lung capacity and all that. "Where did you learn to kiss like that?" she asked with a quiet laugh. She didn't honestly care where he'd learnt it; she was just happy he was willing to snog her. Tilting her head to the side, Pippa pressed her lips back to Francis', twirling the hair at the back of his neck around her fingers. Who would have ever thought that snogging Francis would have been so much fun?

[Francis Lehane]

ooc. - this is so awkward i completely thought that i'd replied to this! waaaa i fail so so much. and what you did with the post was perf!

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Unless you counted a brief encounter with a muggle girl back when he was thirteen (which Francis tried not to) this was basically his first kiss. Which was somewhat embarassing and a bit shocking considering the amount of parties he'd been to and the fact that he wasn't shunned socially or anything. He had just never been the guy that girls wanted to kiss, and it'd never actually bothered him too much until now, being gifted with a sense of humour that helped him through most things. And this was a giant leap from his first official-if-slightly-embarassing kiss - this was kiss on his bed with a shirtless girl. And he was shirtless too. After they broke apart, he inhaled sharply.

Pippa rested her forehead against his, and he didn't move away from her, liking how close they were and feeling surprisingly unabashed meeting her eyes. Feeling a sudden swell of confidence inside of him, he lifted one hand to cup his face, allowing himself to chuckle and saying, somewhat hoarsely "It's a natural ability," before pressing his lips against hers softly once again, elated by how utterly, unimaginably good it made him feel. "Although that'd be a good class to have..." he met her lips gently again, "Snogging lessons...more useful than Muggle Studies for sure..." the next kiss he gave her was deeper, one hand trailing over her side in its own inexperienced, slightly hesitant and yet deeply excited manner.

[Pippa Tremlett]

((ooc: it's okayyyyy <333 ))

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Pippa giggled. "Much more useful," she mumbled back, agreeing wholeheartedly. At least it would be a lesson that every student could pass. Pippa kissed Francis back just as deeply as he kissed her. A chill ran down her back as his hand, although warm, found it's way up her side. She was nervous, but all of the snogging was giving her rush and making her feel light-headed.

Pippa didn't shrink away from his touch, but instead let him continue. She, in turn, slowly began to lower herself down on the bed, pulling Francis with her. She opened her legs so he could get a little closer to her body. She didn't care at all that she was nearly all naked. Pippa pulled away from Francis and dropped her head onto his pillow. She ran her tongue along her bottom lip, her heart beating too fast.

"Francis..." she began slowly, not knowing what was about to come out of her mouth. "Do you... do you think... have you ever wanted to... to know what it was like?" Her blue eyes bore into his. She was positive that he would withdraw from her, cast her away. It was an odd question, Pippa knew, and she wasn't sure if she were serious about it or not.

[Francis Lehane]

"'Cept I don't think the Professors would be well and truly pleased with us," Francis added in a mumble, much more interested in kissing Pippa by this point and allowing her to lower themselves down onto the bedclothes, both hands propping him up so he could hover over her as he kissed her with mounting enthusiasm by the moment, allowing one of his hands to boldly slide up over the warm bare skin of her torso.

It took a moment for Francis to make full sense of her question, and once he had, his heart beat rapidly, and he swallowed, attempting to look as thought he was pondering her question when really he could barely function at that moment in time. He finally replied, in a quiet, half-amused, half-surprised sort of manner, "Yeah...I mean, doesn't everyone? Everyone who hasn't done it, obviously. Because if you haven't done it, then you've basically not got a clue, no matter who you talk to or what you read...I'm hoping we're talking about the same thing, here," he added teasingly, although in the back of his mind there was a tiny voice reminding him that Pippa could be referring to some other it, a perfectly innocent it, and he was embarassing himself.

[Pippa Tremlett]

Pippa didn't have time to reply, but in the back of her mind, she was thinking that while the professors may not be pleased with them, they couldn't judge. Like they hadn't all snogged - or done more! She shivered again at his hand on her bare skin. It was a little exhilarating, but also nerve-wrecking in the same instant.

She stared up at him with an amused smile as he stumbled over his words. Her hands trailed down to his biceps from his neck and held onto them gently. "I think we are," Pippa said with a laugh. She gave Francis a curious look. "But, I mean... guys think about it all of the time, don't they? Even if they have done it." At least that was what she'd heard. While she may not be that uncomfortable without any clothes (at this point, that was all forgotten), Pippa had always been curious about sex. What it was like, why people hyped it up so much.

"So... you've never done it?" she asked quietly, searching his face. She swallowed. "I never have. But I've always been curious...." She let her sentence linger in the air, giving Francis a small smile.