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Kris let out a shaky breath as their lips parted from Dess', the familiar taste of lingering weed as thick as usual on her tongue. They were long used to this by now, having become no stranger to smoking the green stuff since they'd grown close.
They'd come to associate the taste with her, that acrid sweet flavour that lingered in her mouth. It tasted... Okay.
Dess looked down at the younger human with a somewhat spacey grin as she leaned down slighlty to their level, "Y'know, I'd thought by now that you'd get better at kissing, I mean, we've been doin' it for a couple years now..."
The human let out a raspy, humourless laugh, "S-Sorry to disappoint, heh..." Their voice, gravelled far more than a teenager's usually would be but still high as it was before their puberty hit, drawled in a half-high dryness.
The deer snorted, "I meant cuz'a that new girl y'been hanging with, what's her name?"
"S-Susie..." They cocked a brow, "You don't think that we're like, d-dating, do you?"
Dess put up a half-hearted pair of fingerguns, "Bingo, kiddo; I was sure with how quickly you two hit it off that y'were doin' more than petty street crap," She brought the blunt held in one of her hands to her lips and took a hit, the smoke daintily floating up toward and dissipating at the ceiling, "C'mon, y'can't tell me that a hormonal teen like you isn't fawning over a monster like her."
Kris let out an indignant huff and receded into the bed, "I-I... I don't... Not l-like that..."
Her amused smile turned into a wide grin, a look that made Kris shiver with all manner of emotion, "Oh, please, there's gotta be someone y'do like, right? You're sixteen now, you gotta be makin' gaga eyes at someone-" She cut herself off with a gasp, leaning forward with sudden excitement, "Wait, don't tell me; it's Catti!" She snapped her fingers, "It's definitely Catti, right?"
Despite themself, Kris couldn't resist the smile that forced itself across their face, "A-Are you kidding me? She's way too weird."
Dess wheezed out a laugh, throwing her hands up in surrender, "Yeah, that's one's on me; hope y'not like your bro and go for some dork like Bratty, heh."
"Heh, yeah..." Kris' face sank suddenly and they flopped back onto the bed, "D-Damnit... I miss him..."
Almost immediately, the teen was swept up in Dess' arms, soft with the weight she'd put on since he'd left but not suffocating like it used you be when they'd been younger. As the comfort set in, Kris let out a whine that became almost a purr as they sunk into her embrace, goosebumps prickled across their yellowed skin.
"Don't worry Krismas, I miss 'im too," Her arms wrap ever so slighlty tighter around them, snaking down around their bony chest and mostly hollow waist, "That's why I'm... It's why we're both here."
Kris nodded, beginning to shake as sensations erupted throughout their body that, despite familiar by now, still managed to catch them off-guard and exhilerate all the same.
"I-" They swallowed, mouth somehow even drier than before now, "I-I guess... so..."
Dess' smile shifted and a hand trailed lower... Lower, down towards-
Kris tensed and came to a still, Dess' hand grasping at a place even they hadn't touched often themself.
Her smile shifted, going from that familiar mocking vindication to... Something different. Intense, but not angry. Hungry, maybe? No, she'd be far more obvious.
"Y'know... If you keep quiet, maybe we can...?" She trailed off, a question that both understood even if it was left unfinished.
Kris, despite their flaws, was not a stupid teenager; they knew exactly why and how this was all wrong, but... After everything, losing their only footing in a world that seemed out to get them, with a home filled with an agonising tension and their only other friend pushing them deeper into their violent vices, they didn't see why they couldn't allow themself - them or Dess - to indulge in something selfish.
Without so much as a noise, Dess understood, hand slipping within Kris' pants.
So long as they had Dess, they'd be okay.