The arms around his neck are unexpected, and there's an oomph of surprise muffled into the kiss, but he doesn't otherwise try to stop her-- because he recognizes a challenge when he sees one, and he never backs down from it, not even when he's way in over his head. Which isn't the case right now.
If he were a noble or something higher up the hierarchy, perhaps he would be more scandalized to be kissing a near stranger in public, and to such depth, on top of it -- he can practically hear Dimitri calling it untoward! -- but as a mercenary, he isn't tied down to such notions of propriety. So he returns her kiss with gusto, undeterred even by the (oddly metallic?) taste of a nub in her tongue, lips more openly parted to both welcome and meet her in kind, his pressing and pulling a tad less soft. His hand on her moves lower, to the small of her back, fingers clutching on tight.
(In the back of his mind, he remembers something he read in one of Byleth's favorite novels. "Tongues battling for dominance" has never sounded more appropriate. ]
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The arms around his neck are unexpected, and there's an oomph of surprise muffled into the kiss, but he doesn't otherwise try to stop her-- because he recognizes a challenge when he sees one, and he never backs down from it, not even when he's way in over his head. Which isn't the case right now.
If he were a noble or something higher up the hierarchy, perhaps he would be more scandalized to be kissing a near stranger in public, and to such depth, on top of it -- he can practically hear Dimitri calling it untoward! -- but as a mercenary, he isn't tied down to such notions of propriety. So he returns her kiss with gusto, undeterred even by the (oddly metallic?) taste of a nub in her tongue, lips more openly parted to both welcome and meet her in kind, his pressing and pulling a tad less soft. His hand on her moves lower, to the small of her back, fingers clutching on tight.
(In the back of his mind, he remembers something he read in one of Byleth's favorite novels. "Tongues battling for dominance" has never sounded more appropriate. ]