Laughter threatened to spill over, mixed by nerves and encouraged by the way that Ron kept on talking, needing to document his every thought, as though it wasn't already made clear by the smile that he pressed against her lips and the soft brush of his hand by her side. The more she thought about it, the increasingly difficult it became to bite the laughter back, until Hermione found herself pressing forward more to compensate, deepening the kiss and running her bare foot along his calf, subtly edging yet further up the mattress. It was all rather awkward, in truth, the sort of knocked elbows and halty breath that one would expect from youth, and the bumbling nature of the first stages of intimacy was very new to Hermione indeed. Books wouldn't help here. Overthinking just made it worse. There had been a few occasions over the years when Hermione realized just that, and usually threw aside all of her reservations as a result, but this moment was slightly different than breaking the rules to brew Polyjuice Potion in the girl's bathroom, or doing her absolute best to undermine a professor's authority. Here, she couldn't steadfastly press forward and ignore everything in the periphery.

Because every detail was just too clear. Upon catching her breath, her eyes skated over Ron's lashes, a lighter shade of gold than his hair. His skin was warm to the touch, noticeable even through the slight brush of her knuckles against his shoulder blade. And there was simply the scent of him as well, the one that always seemed to be the last detail she focused on in the evening, right before drifting off to sleep.

And as she couldn't get her mind to settle, couldn't slow her thoughts down if she tried, Hermione sought instead to fill her mind through her senses, tasting something lightly spiced as she brushed her tongue along his lower lip, feeling heat against her lips as she pressed a kiss against his cheek, before falling back gently against the mattress and moving a hand to rest on top of his. Not quite lacing their fingers, Hermione pressed herself into his palm, back arching as her eyes slid closed, lips lightly parting in a sharp intake of breath.

There was one last tremor through her hand before it all fell calm, Hermione shyly opening her eyes to gaze at him again, lips curving in a nervous smile.