Fortunately, most people are still fully occupied with the party, leaving the elevator bay and the lobby more or less empty aside from a few frazzled employees. The woman at the reception desk stares at them with wide eyes as Noel hobbles up and flashes Jade's ID badge. As with most things, the rooms are assigned on a tier-system, so whatever room has been set aside for Jade will probably be better equipped than whatever rooms the D-class employees will be using. Not to mention, those rooms will probably be shared.
The receptionist is rightfully wary, but falls in line quickly when Jade lifts his head to growl "Keycard. Now."
"Is he alright?" she asks when he slumps forward again, already typing.
"He's fine!" Noel insists, voice cracking. "He just drank a little too much. The same as a bunch of people, probably." He laughs awkwardly.
The woman smiles just as awkwardly and hands over the card.
Of course the room is on the top floor. Noel piles Jade back into the elevator and pushes the button. No sooner has the door closed are there hands around his upper arms, spinning him around and pinning him to the mirror wall as the car begins gliding upward.
"Jade!" Noel squeaks, positive for a moment that he's about to be punched. "Wait—"
"Quiet." A scorching body plasters itself to Noel's front and a flushed face ducks into the crook of Noel's neck. "Head hurts."
"Yeah, because you're smashed!" Noel squirms. The wine glass incident and encounter in the hallway sobered him up a bit, but he's definitely still buzzed, and the hard planes of muscle pressing him to the wall are only making his head spin faster. "Come on, Jade, you don't wanna—"
"Shhh—" Jade lifts his head and swallows Noel's protest in a hard kiss.
Their positions force Noel's neck into a weird angle, and the elevator railing digs into his back, but then Jade licks into his shocked mouth and everything narrows down to the places they connect. He kisses back, hands scrabbling at the railing for leverage. A hard thigh shoves between Noel's legs, alerting him to the fact that some parts of him are already very engaged in what's going on.
The hands around his biceps squeeze tighter, as though Noel is still struggling to escape instead of opening his mouth for Jade's aggressive tongue. With a wet sound, Jade pulls away, but before Noel can get his bearings, he dives back in, biting and sucking like he's trying to eat Noel's mouth off his face.
It shouldn't be hot, but blood courses down to Noel's groin at the violent handling, and the elevator car dissolves around them, leaving him floating in space.
Then a loud ding cuts through the haze and Noel snaps to his senses with the abrupt clarity of an ice bath. Turning his head to break the kiss, he manages to slide out of Jade's surprised grasp, and grabs Jade by the front of his shirt as he trips through the opening doors.
With spots still dancing before his eyes and his breath coming in labored pants, Noel yanks Jade down the hall to the door matching the keycard and somehow manages to unlock it despite his shaking hands.
Once they're safely inside the room, some of the cloying panic eases.
As though leading a dog, Noel pulls Jade through the entryway and into the large penthouse suite. The pain in Jade's head seems to have momentarily distracted him from any other desires, and Noel steers him toward the bedroom, bundling him over to the ensuite.
"You need to wash up," he says as Jade braces himself on the doorframe, rubbing his forehead. "You're covered in sweat. And you'll feel better after a shower." Unbidden, Noel's hand lifts, finding its way into the nest of black curls on Jade's head. He imagines he can almost see the path Genevieve's fingers took, like residue shining under UV light, and he traces along it, combing through the longest tresses, as if he can erase the stain of unwanted touch. "After you clean up," he mumbles absently.
Jade hums in grudging acceptance and Noel drops his hand as he turns and trudges into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
"If you need something, yell!" Noel calls.
Even if he is drunk, Jade is an esper, Noel figures. He wouldn't do something lame like slip in the shower and break his neck, right?
Well, whatever.
Sighing, Noel makes his way slowly around the hotel room. It's only a one-bedroom suite, but it's still too big, of course, with a massive bed and a separate, large living and dining area. The fridge and cabinets are stocked, even though the occupant wouldn't be staying longer than a night, if that. The decor is luxurious and palatial to match the rest of The Solana, with ornate wood furniture and plush jewel tone cushions and stained glass lamps all over the place. A set of double doors leads out to a private balcony overlooking the sparkling city, not unlike the view from Jade's own apartment.
After snooping around, Noel finally sheds his ruined vest, draping it over the back of a chair in the living room, and unbuttons his damp shirt. He considers taking it off, then remembers Jade naked in the bathroom and thinks better of it.
There are expensive water bottles in the fridge and Noel grabs two, opening one right away and downing half of it. The sudden heat kindled by Jade in the elevator has abated, thankfully, but his skin is still buzzing, the blood pumping just beneath it ever so slightly electrified.
He hears a door click open and returns to the bedroom in time to see Jade step out of the bathroom, still dripping, with nothing but a towel hanging low on his hips.
"Jesus," Noel swears, turning away from Jade's bare, ripped chest. "That's—you—"
"Nothing you haven't seen before," Jade points out, sounding a bit more lucid, but still languid and low.
"That doesn't mean I'm prepared to see it whenever," Noel argues. "I'll go—get you a robe or something." Head down to spare his poor, tipsy nerves, he beelines for the walk-in closet.
He's so focused on his task that he doesn't notice Jade following him until he turns, robe in hand, and nearly faceplants directly into Jade's pectorals.
"Uh—"
"So what is this?" Jade asks, bracing one hand on the closet doorframe, boxing Noel in. Water runs in rivulets down his face, catching the lamplight in sparks of gold. "You save me from a scheming harpy, just to have your way with me yourself?"
"What? No!" Noel presses the robe to Jade's chest, unsure where to put his eyes. "I wasn't even planning to stay—I just thought you'd rather get away from…from her."
"You thought I needed rescuing. By you."
"Sure looked that way from where I was standing," Noel bites out. "You could barely walk."
"I can protect myself."
"I never said you couldn't." Unconsciously, Noel hunches, as though looking smaller might save him from Jade's raptor sight. Even hazy and dilated, his sapphire eyes are still terrifying in their intensity. "I just—it's not like I could just walk away. I'm a…decent person, I think. I'd have done the same for anyone else."
"Would you?"
"Yes." Shoving the robe into the immovable wall of Jade's chest, Noel ducks around him, forcing Jade to catch the robe before it falls to the floor. "I'll get you some water, and then you should go to sleep. You're still drunk, and—" Noel cuts off on a startled shriek as his feet leave the floor. Two hands like vices on his hips lift him effortlessly into the air, so quickly that Noel's stomach swoops with the inertia of a rollercoaster drop. "Jade!"
Jade tosses him like he weighs nothing onto the bed and Noel hits the mattress, head spinning, bouncing from the force of the throw. Before he can get his bearings, Jade is on him, pinning his wrists to the bed, blocking all the light in the room with his wide frame.
"What are you doing?!" Noel demands, outraged, twisting his wrists futilely against Jade's strength.
"Finishing what we started in the elevator," Jade says, white teeth glinting out of a wolfish smile.