Lee could tell by the look on Tarin's face that he wasn't ok with using the elevator. Still, he nodded before pulling her by the hand away from the stairs and back toward the elevator.

It was late and there really weren't any others coming or going from the building, so the elevator arrived quickly.

In they went, doors closed, and Tarin pushed the button before she could even reach out.

Then Tarin started speaking, and Lee realized that any progress he'd made with the elevator, with his claustrophobia had been erased because of the building collapse.

”I know I said tomorrow would be good for sparring,” Lee said, then reached a hand up to gently turn his face toward her rather than the floor numbers slowly lighting up. ”But it's been a hard week. Maybe we should just stay home. Together. Clothing optional.”

This had maybe not been the best idea, Tarin thought as he waited for Lee to speak. He knew that the trip up would be short and that everything would be fine with the doors opened, but why was the damn elevator moving so slow?

Tarin actually flinched a little when Lee’s hand touched his face and he realized that she was speaking as she turned his face towards hers. His eyes wanted to stay on the floors because they were getting close, but then what Lee was saying registered and Tarin’s eyes locked onto hers.

Mission accomplished, Tarin was absolutely distracted now. He was just leaning down for a kiss and to tell Lee that she had great ideas when the elevator dinged merrily and the doors slid open, so Tarin settled for pulling Lee from the elevator and digging his keys out of his pocket as they approached the door.

”We’ll find a happy median…” he said, hands still shaking just a bit as Tarin worked to unlock the door, ”That way you can burn off some energy.”

If Lee hadn't been sure that Tarin would turn his eyes away the moment her hand stopped touching him, she would have pulled back when she felt him flinch. She still almost did.

But she got his eyes on her, and though it took much longer than it would have in normal circumstances, Lee could tell the moment that her words had distracted Tarin.

Grinning back up at him, Lee saw Tarin starting to lean down, move closer to her for a kiss, and she was just starting to rise up to meet him when the weekend dinged and the doors opened.

Tarin didn't waste any time. Quickly following after him as Tarin pulled her by the hand out of the weekend, he was already pulling his keys out with his other hand.

Lee was sure that things would move quickly the instant that the door was locked behind them. And while she had absolutely zero issues with that, she was eagerly anticipating getting behind that door at this point, there was one thing that Lee needed to do before she forgot.

Taking a slow breath as Tarin worked at unlocking the door, Lee closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment.

Suddenly, the only way she knew that Tarin was still there was feeling his hand in hers; otherwise, it felt like there was no one remotely close to Lee, she felt no energy having turned her siphoning off.

Opening her eyes again, Lee followed Tarin into the apartment the moment he had the door open. And turned to close and lock the door as soon as they were fully inside.

But Lee wasn't worrying about a happy median or anything else silly like that at the moment. Stepping closer to Tarin again, Lee wrapped her arms around his neck. ”Where should we start?’ she asked in a whisper.

Getting the door unlocked and opened was slightly more of an ordeal than it should have been, owing to the fact that Tarin’s hands were shaking and he was trying to accomplish the task one-handed.

Still, he eventually managed and then both of them were inside the apartment and Lee was locking the door. She apparently didn’t think much about his idea for the next day because she didn’t respond, it that was okay because Lee was wrapping her arms around his neck and asking where they should start.

Leaning down just enough for that kiss that had almost happened in the elevator, Tarin wrapped his arms around Lee for a few moments, just holding her while they kissed. Then his hands moved from where they’d settled in the small of her back to travel up her back and then back down and Tarin had to laugh a little against Lee’s lips.

”I really hope this thing has a hidden zipper somewhere…” he said in reference to the corset, then looked back at their rooms before shrugging a little and dipping his head down for another kiss, this one a bit more intense than the previous.

As Tarin leaned down to kiss her, Lee's arms tightened around his neck as she kissed him in return.

She didn't even notice at first that his hands were moving up her back because she was so focused on the kiss. But when Tarin's fingers slipped off the fabric at the top of her closet and brushed against her bare skin, a strong shiver ran through her entire body.

A hidden zipper? No, there wasn't one of those, but at least it was easier to take off than it was to put the corset on.

Tarin's lips were pressed back against hers before Lee could answer, this kiss feeling more passionate and urgent than the previous one.

Lee's breath was coming quicker as she returned the kiss, one hand moving up into his hair.

After a time, it may have been seconds or minutes later, Lee started moving a bit, turning slowly making her easy further into the apartment.

Until her back hit the wall because they weren't as far into the apartment as she thought. Lee gasped slightly, as her hand tightened in Tarin's hair and she pulled him even closer to her.

Some time had passed and they hadn’t made it very far into the apartment. That was fine though, it was Saturday and Lee had already said that she wasn’t going to be sleeping that night so they had time. Time to stand there in the entryway and kiss, time to figure out why Lee felt the need to wear the fashion equivalent of an escape room sometimes, time to do whatever it was they decided that they wanted to do.

Lee wanted to move and Tarin moved with her, not really paying any attention to where they were going because Lee’s hand had found its way into his hair and that made it hard to pay attention to anything.

They stopped moving again and Tarin vaguely realized that they’d come up against the wall. Tarin was going to turn them so they could continue making their way towards his room, but then Lee’s hand tightened in his hair and Tarin forgot to think about anything beyond the fact that she seemed to wanted him closer so he obliged, pressing Lee into the wall as they continued to kiss.

Lee had already forgotten about her idea of moving toward the bedrooms. She was there, and Tarin was there, and they were kissing, and there was no one around to interrupt them. They didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything else anytime soon.

As she felt Tarin’s body pressing against her, pushing her up against the wall, Lee moaned into the kiss. Though she had been the one to tighten her grip in his hair, she had tightened her arms around him to pull him closer to her, when she felt Tarin’s body pressing against hers like that it had suddenly changed the situation from Lee wanting him to be closer to Lee needing Tarin to be closer.

And still feeling like he wasn’t close enough.

Not breaking the kiss, Lee let go of Tarin’s hair and pushed her hands into the almost non-existent space between their bodies, blindly trying to undo the buttons on his shirt.

Lee moaned into the kiss and Tarin almost scooped her up right there and carried her back to his room, but Lee didn’t seem to want to move at all. No, Lee seemed content to stay right where they were. Lee’s hands worked their way between them and started on the buttons of his shirt, and Tarin’s breath hitched a bit as she did so.

There wasn’t room between them for more hands, and Lee did not seem like she was going to be willing to wait so Tarin slid one hand up Lee’s arm and shoulder and up into her hair, God he loved her hair.

Lee eventually finished with the buttons and Tarin shrugged out of his shirt, letting it fall to the floor before getting his hand back in her hair, the other on her waist, to kiss her for another few moments or minutes before sliding that hand between them and up the front of that corset.

This was going to take two hands, he realized, grumbling in frustration and bringing his other hand down. ”This is almost as bad as buttons…”

Lee shivered as she felt Tarin’s hand running up her arm, her hands fumbling the buttons even more than they already had been when she felt Tarin’s hand moving into her hair.

Finally, Lee got Tarin’s shirt unbuttoned and he was taking it off. But before she could get her hands on the front of her corset to get it undone, Tarin was kissing her again, his hand in her hair, and Lee forgot what she had been trying to do as she returned Tarin’s kiss.

It wasn’t until Tarin had broken the kiss and started grumbling about buttons that Lee remembered that she had been about to remove her own shirt. ”No it’s not,” Lee said as she lifted her hands, unhooking the busk of the corset in just a few quick movements.

It couldn’t exactly fall to the floor, since Lee was still pressed up against the wall, but she was now free of the corset.

But during the whole ordeal of getting partially undressed, a couple inches of space had grown between them, and that was far too much space in Lee’s opinion. Lifting her arms, Lee wrapped them around Tarin’s neck again, pulling him closer as she stretched up to kiss him again.

Lee disagreed, and since she was the one wearing the article of clothing, Tarin deferred to her knowledge and moved his hands out of the way as Lee went to work on the clasps or hit some magical release mechanism because all of a sudden the whole damn thing was gone and all Tarin could say was, ”Oh my God...”

Uh yeah. Vastly preferable to buttons.

Lee wrapped her arms up and around his neck and any thoughts Tarin had of holding back or taking their time absolutely dissolved into nothing as the motion brought them back into much more direct contact and a hard shiver ran through Tarin’s whole body.

As much as he liked where they were and what they were doing, this was only sustainable for so long, and there was a perfectly good room at the end of the hall with a more than perfect bed.

To that end, Tarin bent and slipped an arm behind Lee’s knees, scooping her up and heading down the hall.