#corbeaupenelope

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Being unable to see the stars was one of the worst parts of her stay in Lumiose City. The lights of the city were too bright and the bit of smog didn’t help. Still… Penelope liked to pretend she could see them on the highest rooftop she felt like climbing to on random nights. The sad, lonely ones when not even her Pokemon were able to dispel the miasma of homesickness. Because she would also pretend that the stars here were exactly like at home. That she was able to see the constellations associated with her now dead gods shining above her head.

Alas…

“I wasn’t expecting you on this particular rooftop tonight, sunshine,” said a familiar voice coming up behind her. “Behind my headquarters, hm?” The voice’s owner drew to a stop next to Penny. She smelled his expensive cologne mingling with the scent of a lit cigarette, that’s how close he was standing. Nearly shoulder against shoulder. This guy really was bad about personal space when it came to her. He exhaled a cloud of smoke from the corner of her vision.

“Don’t worry, your decorative roof bamboo across the way is safe from me,” Penny drawled, not bothering to look at him fully. Just allowing herself subtle glances through the shorter blonde locks framing her face. The rest was braided down her back. For once she wasn’t smoking on this melancholic night. (Her last specialty cigarette from Etheirys was already half gone even though she had been savoring them slowly and desperately this past year and a half since her arrival to this world…)

“Oh, I know,” Corbeau murmured around the lit cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth. Beneath the scant glare of the rooftop lights he was wreathed in half shadows. It suited him. Dark hair, dark clothes, yet gleaming golden eyes. The low intermittent glow of his cancer stick. What a picture he painted. The head honcho of Rust was a pretty patterned poison serpent in this garden of steel and glass that he loved.

Penelope didn’t want to dwell on how beautiful she found Corbeau to be ever since they met.

One shouldn’t find one’s past debtor attractive when he’s threatening you. Gods, you’d think she would hate him just for that as a former refugee in the cutthroat nation of Ul’dah. But unlike Lolorito or Teledj, Corbeau was not the sort to sell a loved one to a voidsent for a single cornchip. He had standards. He’d squeeze the voidsent for ten cornchips, maybe even a whole bag.

Okay, the metaphor was getting ridiculous in her head. Perhaps Penny ought to call it a night…

“Come in a night cap, sunshine,” Corbeau said, interrupting their companionable silence and her nonsensical thoughts. “I’ve got a new bottle of whiskey to crack open if you like.”

Penny turned her head to actually look at him. “You think I’m a whiskey kind of girl, huh?” she asked, morbidly amused at the way his ears turned a little pink in the warm night air. No, stop being so charming to behold, dammit! She was a weak, weak fool!

“I’ve got other drinks if that’s what you prefer.” He snuffed out his cigarette and tossed the butt into a trash bin meant just for such things. Corbeau blew out one last wisp of smoke. His golden eyes gleamed through the fading haze. They became hooded as heat jolted through his expression. “Or we can indulge in something else, cherie.” His grin was just short of filthy.

Aw fuck, of course he noticed! Actually…

Corbeau tilted his head when she shuffled closer. The stylized poison drips of his glasses chain brushed against his cheek with the motion. It was easy to see eye to eye when she was his same height. Gold clashed with pale gray as they stared at one another. He exhaled softly when she leaned over to slant her lips against his mouth. Corbeau slipped his hands to her hips, palms cupping the sweet curves of them. But though it was Penny who kissed him first, Corbeau was the one to deepen it. Her taste of coffee and chocolate bloomed across his tongue. He groaned at the feel of her hands stroking his chest through the silk of his shirt.

Thankfully because he owned this building and the top floors were his, it was the work of a somewhat distracted moment to walk Penny backwards to the private elevator while still exchanging heated kisses. Corbeau huffed a little laugh against her mouth when she hopped up to wrap her long legs around his waist as he pinned her to the elevator wall. The half tumble into his penthouse was comical. They left a trail of clothing from the front door to the bedroom.

Corbeau and Penny did not share a night cap that night. Or the next. Instead what they shared was the start of something quite permanent. All because Penny decided to brood on his rooftop in particular for once. Corbeau certainly wasn’t going to let her go now that he had her. He was a greedy man after all. And his patience had paid off exponentially.

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End