Crap! Did she get hurt? Jude knelt next to her and pulled her into the circle of his arms. She was shaking bad. He didn't mean to hurt her and he only dared hold her because they had specifically come out this far so that they could risk interaction. He made comforting noises and hugged her tight until she finally spoke up and said something.
 
"Zere is nothising to apologize for. Every new power brings challenges." He had to figure out the trick of the control of it. Starting out boosted and actively engaged was definitely not the best way to get a handle on a new power. He might have made it work… maybe. 
 
It had been one of the scarier ones. Even he'd been a bit worried before he was able to encourage his power to latch on to the only other viable option. But he had only been worried. The illusion of control made the difference between worry and fear.
 
"We should work on your power, right? Now zere's two of us to figure zis out." He suggested they get up and get to work, but he made no motion to move beyond a gentle rocking and an extra squeeze. He really was okay as far as he could tell. The funny looks would go away once he copied something else.

He hugged her. In a way, that made things worse. Sveta was not used to people hugging her anymore. And it felt good. But it also encouraged her to sob some more. Which sucked, really.

>>"Zere is nothising to apologize for. Every new power brings challenges."

"I thought I hurt you." she muttered, burying her face in his chest. The hug helped, after all, even if the effects were slow. She was starting to calm down. Jude was fine. Or at least claimed that he was fine. And she could feel her own powers washing over the both of them. Which meant he was copying her now. As planned.

>>"We should work on your power, right? Now zere's two of us to figure zis out."

"We should." she muttered, but he did not move, so neither did she. Now that she calmed down from the sudden panic the rest of it was staring to dawn on her. The kiss, most of all.
That was some kiss...

Taking a shaky breath, she sighed, and hugged him back. There was really nothing to say, anything she could think of was wrong one way or another. Even 'sorry' and 'thank you'. Blah.

"Okay" she muttered finally "I'll need to let you go, to practice..."

> "I thought I hurt you."

He almost missed it since she'd explained why she was so upset to his pectoral muscle. Or, rather, where his pectoral muscle would be once he had worked out to have one. He stopped rocking and petting her hair. If it had been scary for him, how scary must it have been for her?

Jude gave her a good squeeze and laid his cheek on the top of her head again. "Sorry... I'll try not to scare you next time."

It took time, but she did hug him back. He took that to be a good thing.

"Do you have to let go to practice?" Selfish question, but wasn't that part of the whole thing? The wanting to touch someone else and not make them go bananas? He didn't budge since she didn't seem to be making any effort on her end to get out of it.

>> "Sorry... I'll try not to scare you next time."

He was still holding her, and Sveta almost felt bad for being this selfish, but it felt too good to give up.
Also. Next time? That half sentece brought up a whole series of questions. And doubts. And worries. And some hope.

>>"Do you have to let go to practice?"

"I don't want to practice."

And now he sounded like a grown-up and she sounded like a stubborn child, when did that happen, huh? Once you get into the habit of doing the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do, it is really, really hard to stop. It's a lot like hugging, in that sense...

She didn't... want to...? Jude shifted. He kept one arm around her, but he wanted to see her face... which was buried into the front of his sweater. He touched the side of her face to gently draw her back.

Somehow they were back to where this whole debacle had started. Her face rest again his hand and there was far too much space between their lips. Or maybe not enough. He ran his thumb along her cheek bone.

"What do you want to do?"

Her cheeks were still wet, but she was not crying anymore. That was good. Too much crying made for puffy eyes and red nose, and nobody wanted that. Not that she cared right now.

They were back to the start. It was dark, but there was light enough from the flashlight he had dropped to see his face when she looked up.

>>"What do you want to do?"

Now there was a romantic nonverbal answer tugging at the back of her mind, and there was also an actual answer, that probably sucked anyway.
Sveta went with the latter.

"I... I don't know." she was already starting to stumble over words, great. "It's just all, too much. I know I have to practice, but, the power that you had... and now you have mine and I am not even sure how that works, and I don't want to hurt you again, and, you have changed so much, and I don't think I really understand what... I mean, the kiss... I did not mean to, I don't think, we should, it's just, it was... I want that."

Whatever that was, it felt good.

Sveta sighed.

"I'm sorry, I don't make sense."

Far too many words were coming out of Svetty's mouth. That wasn't what he wanted those lips to be doing. In fact, he was having a really hard time focusing on what she was actually saying. It didn't occur to him that she wasn't making sense. He was just that distracted by the moisture on her cheek and the movement of her lips.

"It's okay." He kissed her forehead. This was all he could think that might make it better. "It's okay." He repeated himself as he laid the faintest kiss on one cheek to kiss away the tears. "It's okay." He turned her face up just enough to rub the last bit of moisture from the side of her cheek.

It would be okay. That was what he thought anyway as he leaned in for a kiss that had nothing to do with power and everything to do with this being the moment he had imagined time and time again in his head. It had to be okay. If it wasn't, he might never recover.

It was okay. It had to be. After the first kiss on her forehead, because now he had her power, the rest was just a blur. Coffee buzz was one thing; the endless cycle of the same power boosting itself was, once again, almost too much to handle. If there were any people within a few miles, they would be wide awake by now. The crickets were definitely going crazy.

Jude stopped murmuring promises as he kissed her. Her hands came up to tug on his hair as she shifted closer, trying desperately not to be desperate. When did he learn to kiss like that?... they were already sitting on the ground, there was not much place to sink any lower... well. They could manage.

There was no way of telling where the powers ended and where the feelings began.

The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end. She urged him on, her power urged him on. He thought his heart might try to explode out of his chest and try to make its way over to hers.

This was so not what he expected to be doing right now.

He kissed her mouth, her chin, her cheek, her neck, her lips again. He hoped his goatee didn't scratch that smooth, smooth skin but he appreciated every bit of exposed skin she would let him. Jude pulled her back and she all but melted on top of him into the grass. So, she probably didn't see him as a kid anymore.

The night sounds were cacophony. Everything seemed amplified, driven half crazy by the power this beautiful woman held over them all. He didn't want it to end. He wanted to protect her, hold her. He would find the perfect power for her. After a few more practice sessions like this, who knew? One of them was bound to find the perfect way to make all of this safe for every day.

Wow. Just. Wow.
If there was a transition, she completely missed it. She was not even sure about dimensions anymore. But yeah. She definitely was on top of him. And his lips were everywhere.
Things, including the animals in the immediate area, were completely out of control.

Pulling back from the kiss she looked down at him. She needed to catch her breath. The drumming heart and the tingling under her skin had nothing to do with the mutant powers at work. The look on his face spoke volumes. It was a good read.

Her hand was touching skin. It somehow found a way under layers of clothing and now her palm was over his heart.

Breath caught. Back to business.

Would this mess things up? Would they ever get a better chance? Every kiss made him think that this was the worst choice. And the best thing that ever happened to him.

Her small hands slithered up under his sweater and shirt and brought a chill that was quickly warmed over with kisses. She would feel his heart racing. Was hers racing as hard? His hand touched the skin of her back just above her belt line. A tentative touch to ask permission.

Was she making noises? Somebody was. A soft purr, barely audible. A gasp. It was dark around them, and the air was getting colder, and they did not seem to notice at all. There were so many other things to pay attention to.
For a moment, she was afraid he would start thinking any minute now. That would be a reasonable thing to do. There was a whole series of reasonable things to do. She didn't want to do any of them.
She felt his hand on her skin; she arched her back, looking for warmth. If it was permission he was looking for, it was granted.
Yup, someone was definitely making noises.

Her every move invited more. Her every sound encouraged him until finally, he had no mind left to be made up.

Jude caught her ribs between his hands and flipped her over. He made sure she didn't hit the ground hard, but the time for temerity and asking permission was long gone.

Fade to Black.

They missed the train.

Sveta shifted in and out of something that might have been sleep, or just just general dizzyness. Once all the kissing was done the powers calmed down a bit; now she was tucked in safe against his side, with his arms wrapped around her. Despite the coffee buzz, she felt sleepy. It was the content kind of sleepy. The good kind.

There was some point in the near future where her brain will need to start catching up to all that happened tonight. It didn't take much effort to postpone that for a while, though. She smiled as she snuggled closer for warmth. Clothes and coats and gloves got pulled back on since the night was getting cold. Thank god it was not freezing yet.

"Jude?..." she really didn't have anything to say. Just saying his name made sure he was still there. One of them will have to start thinking about mundane things. Soon.

The world took a collective breath. Or maybe they'd overexcited the crickets to death. Either way everything seemed to slow down once they had. It was unbelievable what had just happened. Here she was, still tucked in next to his side like a puzzle piece that fit. 
 
He didn't feel that he had lost anything or even given anything up, but he did feel different. More… real. Like he was really allowed to be an adult in the here and now. Svetlana obviously thought so.
 
Jude let her slide away to get dressed and he slipped his pants back on before flopping back onto the grass using his mound of shirt as a pillow. He hadn't realized the glowing cracks went everywhere and the chilly night air felt good on his exposed chest. The light he emitted was dim at best but he thought he counted one more chest hair than there was before… He lazily swatted away a curious moth.
 
It wasn't long before she was back and snuggling. He put his arm under her head for a pillow and let his other hand play along the fabric of her shirt sleeve. Everything seemed just so damn fantastic at the moment.
 
> "Jude?"
 
He rolled so that he could see her. Just inches separated them and even that seemed too much.
 
"Hmm?" His hand found her face again. Somehow that just seemed right.
 
A soft whuffing sound made him smile on his way to her lips. "Bless you." That was the cutest sneeze ever. He'd even felt it ruffle his hair.
 
The majestic Canadian moose sniffed at his scalp again before deciding to take a nibble.
 
(PS - points if you mistakenly kiss the moose instead XD)