It's not breaking the rules if I live here

The crystals were warm to the touch, as they rested so close to his skin. A space heater in the shape of a boy-- weren't girls supposed to enjoy that? He remains still, near holding his breath as she touches each. The closest he's let someone be for recreational reasons, though he doesn't feel quite so self conscious when it's Ember doing it. Disarming, though he wouldn't admit that. There's danger to admitting that. Instead, he allows himself to bask in the attention.

Though Ember's words were firm, a light danced in his eyes. Something brilliant, maybe a bit more playful than Erik would usually allow. Head tilting down to speak to the girl, tone confidential. Taking command of the small space between them. "If something's hard to say and I'm still doing it, then's worth saying." A smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Brassy. The pushback comes with a glimmer in Erik's gaze, an intensity to him. Warm, especially where he maintains contact with Ember.

He'll stay quiet for the moment, listening as she speaks. Was he even a bit disappointed when she withdrew? Not that he'd admit out loud. He doesn't lean away, preferring to stay only a breath away from the girl. Leaning in. Some sort of gravity that she has to be at the center of. Not yet armed, but it would come in time. Though the future was uncertain in far more ways than Erik could even dream of, he knows that there's big things ahead of the both of them. Right. Yearlings, and then what? What could children know of destiny?

"Used to getting your way, princess?" Erik murmurs the words, speaking them close to her ear. Neck arched with a surprising amount of elegance for the bulky viking bastard. Only a breath away, a playful smirk playing on his lips and dancing as it lights up his eyes. He's alive with it, warmth washing over him. Dizzying. All of it is fucking dizzying.

Words spoken like a promise, carrying weight where they settled between them. Erik took a deep breath, her wish that he not speak... coming true, if for a moment. Though he knows where she's coming from, the boy doesn't think it possible. Healers, incredible healers, had tried and been unable to come up with a treatment. The boy knows he lives as a curse, a scourge. He's already learning to embrace that. To see her desire to try warms him in a way that he doesn't expect, but really, he doesn't know that it's possible. Unable to sort out quite the right words, Erik does something that even he doesn't quite expect. Leaning in, he presses a kiss to her lips.

"Speech"