#ficlet dumping at 3am

[m-vymer]

Three Words Unspoken

It's the night before. Alphen is about to drift asleep when he notices her shift and sigh in his arms. He hugs her a little tighter around her waist from behind.

"Sorry..." Shionne says. She places her hand over his and lightly scratches it. It feels nice like it always does, but he realizes he isn't the one who needs soothing.

So he takes his hand away from her and gives her a light massage on her back, with his thumb running up and down slowly in the middle. She replies with a quiet hum of approval.

It's so quiet that Alphen doesn't want to disturb the peace they have now. When daylight comes, their house will be filled with the excited chatter of their close friends helping them set up for the rest of the guests.

His mind drifts to the vows he'll make later, and he becomes a bit nervous about stumbling over his words.

Words. Vows. A promise. ...Oh.

He licks his lips, about to speak, but wait...

He writes with his finger the first letter on her back.

"Hm? What was that?" she asks.

He traces it again.

"I...?"

He slowly writes the next letter, then the next three.

"L... O... V... E..." She gasps as she realizes the word.

"Y..." Now he can hear she's about to cry. He's glad she can't see him smiling. "O..." He pauses after she sniffles.

"U," she chokes out just as he traces out the bottom curve of the last letter. Alphen hugs her again and kisses her shoulder.

"You stupid idiot," Shionne mutters, wiping her face. "Now? How am I supposed to get some sleep now?"

He laughs and turns her face to him so he can kiss her again. Again and again, every night since they could, and every night from now on.

Remaining Promise - M_Vymer - Tales of Arise [Archive of Our Own]

#ficlet dumping at 3am #my writing #alphen x shionne

[blessed-but-distressed]

An AU ficlet. Contains Pizza.

Emma was convinced Fair Weather Pizza didn’t exist in the same slip of time as the rest of the human race. She must’ve walked past the storefront a hundred times during the day and she’d never noticed it, her eyes passing straight from the second-hand book shop on the corner over to locksmiths in a single bound.

She might’ve never noticed it at all, if one of her skips hadn’t pushed her through the plate glass window that one time.

Yep. Fuck her life, right?

Thirteen stitches right above the hairline. She was lucky the owner had been more concerned with phoning the ambulance than the amount of property damage she’d managed to inflict with just her thick skull.

She’d always meant to go back, to apologize, to make a half-hearted attempt at covering the cost of the repairs, but she’d gotten turned around and never really found her way back.

It wasn’t until another night, years later, that she stumbled upon the place after a boozy night out that she figured it out. You did not find Fair Weather Pizza. Fair Weather Pizza found you. It existed as a shining beacon of all that was greasy and good, but only sometime between 2 and 3am on alternate Wednesdays, and only when you were truly deserving.

It was a pity really, because the guy at the counter was pretty hot.

Not the owner, the guy who’d called the ambulance for her. The one who gave off married vibes. The other one. The one who’d held the cold flannel to her forehead while they waited for the paramedics, and used that silky British accent on her to keep her conscious until they arrived.

She dreamed about that voice sometimes.

A fact she really should’ve never admitted to, especially when Ruby was on one of her quests. Especially when they’d already hit four bars already, and Fair Weather Pizza had to be somewhere within a five block radius.

They were kidding themselves if they thought they were being subtle.

“I’m hungry. Aren’t you hungry, Emma?”

“God, I could really go for a slice right now. Don’t you just feel like pizza, David?”

Poor, oblivious David. He got halfway through admitting he’d prefer a burger joint when a swift elbow to the ribs cut him off, mid-sentence.

No, Emma wasn’t hungry. Especially not for the kind of intervention Ruby and Mary Margaret had just cooked up in the ladies room. But that was the thing with her friends, they could be pretty determined when they wanted to be.

For a few hopeful minutes, as they wandered aimlessly down shuttered city streets, Emma thought the magic of the place might just work in her favor. That is, until they turned a random corner, and there it stood. Fair Weather Pizza, the illuminated sign drawing in the drunken masses like a moth to a flame.

Fuck.

She tried to avert her gaze in time, but it was too late. Ruby had already spotted it, and was dragging her forth, a fire in her eyes that would not be denied. 

It was just as she remembered it. Yellowing linoleum. Fluorescent lighting. Hot counter guy.

He was pretty obviously texting under the counter as they came in, but the sound of the bell above the door startled him pretty quickly back into a professional stance. The smile was customer service fake, but as Ruby pushed her forward, and his eyes landed on Emma, his lips curled into something else entirely.

“Nice night, lass? Taken down any criminals yet?” he asked, propping his head in his hands as he leaned over the counter.

Yep, he remembered her just fine. 

“Well, you know, the night is still young,” Emma shrugged, keeping her eyes deliberately drawn to the items in the hot food display.

“Ah,” he replied, knowingly. “So you’re seeking nourishment before the “kicking arse, taking names” portion of the evening. Well then, don’t let me detain you. Peruse away. Everything is still fresh from the oven.”

She glanced back at her friends, but they were all making too big a show of pretending not to be looking at her to be any help.

She turned back to the display, assessing her options. One in particular stood out.

“What’s with the one on the end, that looks like someone dumped an entire side of beef on it?”

“Ah,” the counter guy said, a hand coming up to scratch behind one ear. “That’s a particular speciality of mine. See, my brother-” he motioned towards the kitchen, “-thinks I’m too stingy with the toppings. Hence, the monstrosity before you. I call it The Passive Aggressive. Limited availability on that one.”

Emma grinned despite herself. “I’ll take it.”

“And my phone number?” he added, with a cheeky grin of his own.

“I’ll take that too.”

#cs au #cs ff #ummm #this is based on a joke i made at work #sorry