[ it's weird to see minji as sort of...vulnerable, but that's what she is right now, isn't she? sleepy eyed and beautiful (and half naked, but tess is trying really hard to forget that right now) and not swaggering around the deck with a captain's grace and sense of order. here, she's just a regular person, and tess likes that, likes the idea of familiarizing herself with the way minji is outside of her coat and hat. this is the person she wants to kiss, she thinks, sort of absently, and has to squash that thought quickly before she starts turning colors again.
the kiss on her knuckles does that same trick, though, and the color flushes up her cheeks again, instantly warming against minji's palm and making tess feel further embarrassed but also kind of warm and squirmy inside, in the magic way that can only come from having a crush. princess tessarae had only ever had a crush once in her life, on a great knight named brendan in her guard, but it was not weeks later that it was announced she was betrothed, and away it went. she never liked her fiancee, and maybe all of those feelings of passion had to be directed at someone. whatever it was, tess had fallen hard for minji, in a way girls like her just don't usually fall.
reaching up with her small hand, she covers minji's calloused one with her own on her cheek, holding it there gently. ] Okay.
[ her gaze flickers away for a minute--staring at minji for too long is a little like staring into the sun--and asks a question. ] Can I...stay here?
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the kiss on her knuckles does that same trick, though, and the color flushes up her cheeks again, instantly warming against minji's palm and making tess feel further embarrassed but also kind of warm and squirmy inside, in the magic way that can only come from having a crush. princess tessarae had only ever had a crush once in her life, on a great knight named brendan in her guard, but it was not weeks later that it was announced she was betrothed, and away it went. she never liked her fiancee, and maybe all of those feelings of passion had to be directed at someone. whatever it was, tess had fallen hard for minji, in a way girls like her just don't usually fall.
reaching up with her small hand, she covers minji's calloused one with her own on her cheek, holding it there gently. ] Okay.
[ her gaze flickers away for a minute--staring at minji for too long is a little like staring into the sun--and asks a question. ] Can I...stay here?