their first kiss would be after a slow-burn from hell, near misses and lingering moments too close together but not close enough. i’m talking sexual tension that’s been building and building and building until they both feel like they’re suffocating in it.

( seth keeps it to himself because he always feels guilty and responsible for all of the terrible things that happened to her. because he’s always had unshakable views on how older men are supposed to treat / think of girls / young women. because no matter how old kate is or what she’s been through she’s still that girl he took hostage and who’s life he ruined )

& there’s a lot about their relationship that they never talk about or never address and there’s just too much baggage to dare to try and cross that line but neither of them can breathe and if they sleep side-by-side on the same bed again they don’t know what they’ll do.

& kate initiates it first because she knows what and who she wants and she’s not going to pretend otherwise anymore and she wants to kiss someone she loves and who she knows loves her back. she hesitates, inches from each other, close enough to feel each other’s breath on their cheeks, close enough to feel each other’s heart’s beating and see the race of their pulses and standing there that close feels like an eternity before kate actually kisses him and it’s hesitant and cautious, carefully testing the feel of it, the touch and the taste and it’s like getting shocked.

they both jump.

& seth who always runs the second a relationship looks like it’s about to get too deep ( it’s not intentional, it’s just instinct. his flight response is the same as his mothers because love’s always been a hangmans noose ) kisses her like his life is on the line.