Look East | A Hozier Fanfiction |

30

"Mol, you're gonna be late, love!" Andrew called from the kitchen, pouring coffee into a travel mug and screwing the top on tightly.

A second later, Molly appeared at the top of the staircase, high heels in hand. She hurried down the steps and sat on the end of the sofa to put them on.

"Why in under God does my first class of the day have to start at fucking eight in the morning?" she huffed. "I thought this was supposed to be a degree for people with jobs already?"

Andrew smiled and held out the travel mug. "You're the one who hit 'snooze' twice," he teased, kissing her quickly.

She rolled her eyes and slid around him to grab an apple from the new fruit bowl on the island - a hand thrown ceramic bowl from one of Raine's friends. "Why were you up so early this morning? If I had just come off a months-long tour, the last thing I'd be doing would be getting up at the ass crack of dawn."

"I went for a swim in the sea," he replied, taking her bag off the hook near the door. "It's going to get too cold for it soon."

Molly looked at him in annoyance. "Could you stop having your life put together so well for like, five minutes?"

He laughed and handed her bag over. "Here," he said. He pulled her to him, kissing her long and deep. "Have a good morning. I'll see you for lunch."

She fixed her lipstick and shimmied her coat on over her red button down blouse and black pencil skirt. "Alright. I'm off," she said. "See you this afternoon."

"Right. I love you," he said, kissing her one last time as she dashed out of the house to her car. He watched her drive off from the kitchen door, waving.

Traffic into the city wasn't horrible, but Molly didn't like being rushed. She never had. She would purposefully wake up half an hour earlier than she needed to just to make sure she had enough time to relax in the mornings. Unfortunately that morning, she'd been so exhausted from the night before that she'd chosen to sleep in much longer than she should have.

She had forgotten what it felt like to be back in school. Law school had its challenges, but she'd done pretty well for herself. It turns out, they were right when they said that going back to school after a break was harder. She was only on her third week of the term and already she felt slightly overwhelmed. But Molly was glad for something to sink her energy into.

With Andrew home all day now, it became pretty obvious that they would grate on each other's nerves sooner rather than later. He was an early riser, and on days when she had to go into the city it was helpful to have coffee ready to go. But when she was able to be at the house, it annoyed the hell out of her. Despite Andrew being a tall, slim man, he was not a quiet one. And she was a light sleeper. The combination meant she often found herself awake well before dawn.

Then there were nights like last night where they stayed up late exploring each other's bodies, kissing, touching, moving together off a cliff of ecstasy. Andrew had kept her up well past her bedtime, but she was happy for it. No matter how late she went to bed, she always slept better with him next to her, his arm around her waist or under her shoulders.

So far, Molly's classes had been challenging but interesting. On her first day, she was surprised to walk onto campus and be greeted by several undergraduates wearing Hozier concert t-shirts from his last few dates in Dublin. She was so startled that she nearly got run over by a cyclist on the sidewalk. It wasn't until that moment that she realized how well-known Andrew was in Ireland.

In all her time with him, the paparazzi had taken zero photographs of them together. But his fans had taken plenty. Out in the countryside, she'd been oblivious to his fame. His neighbors knew him and greeted him warmly just like everyone else. At the supermarket, people passed by him without so much as a second glance. But in the city, there was less familiarity and more fascination.