Don't Go There

come back soon

[a/n: this fic was recently rewritten entirely. if the comments don't make sense that's why!]

       "Woah hey, I'm sorry," Michael said, resting his head atop yours.

"N-No I'm sorry," you stuttered and sniffled, trying to let out as little noise as possible.

"You don't have to apologize, Y/N, I get it," he comforted you. "I understand; she was a great lady. Do you think I haven't shed a tear or two over her?"

You realized then how nice it was to have one other person on earth who had gotten close with great aunt Clara; nobody else in your family seemed to care that she was gone. You decided to let yourself hug him back, and he stroked the back of your hair when you tucked your head into his neck. You got a text, then another a few seconds later, but decided to ignore them. It was probably Aunt Juniper teasing you about Alex.
You could faintly hear Michael's heartbeat, and it actually helped to calm you. You focused on that until you could really compose yourself again. When you gently pulled away, he was looking down at you with sympathy and understanding in those baby blue eyes. While you were cozied up in his scarf, you hadn't realized it'd started snowing; tiny white flakes glistened on his hair and lashes.

"God you must be freezing," you noted aloud. Then it was your turn to frantically rub his arm.

"I was actually comfortable," he said calmly. "It's pretty warm with you here." He looked over at you with a content expression, which soon turned to what you would almost describe as anticipation. It was silent all around you two as snow fell and lights twinkled above and behind you two...

You stood, effectively ruining the moment, "I should probably get back."

"Oh, of course," he reluctantly agreed. The walk back to your car was mostly quiet, except for his quick thanks for taking a chance and coming out with him, and one more apology from you for crying on him.

"You still have my number right?" Michael asked once you were in the driver's seat about to shut the door.

"I do."

"Okay," one corner of his mouth turned up, and it was admittedly pretty cute. "Let me know when you're free next."

You shyly assured him you would, and shut your door as you guys waved goodbye to each other. Driving back to Aunt Juniper's took less than ten minutes, and when you parked in her driveway, you finally checked your phone for those couple texts you'd gotten earlier.

Alex, 13 minutes ago
Hey, where'd you go? coming back soon i hope :/

Alex, 11 minutes ago
oh, my bro just said he passed you on the way here, snuggled up with michael. that's cool-- you could just let me know you're leaving next time. later

Shit.

As soon as you were in the house, you tried calling Alex. No answer. You didn't want to bombard him, so you texted, "it wasn't even like that I swear, he wanted to show me some pretty xmas lights and i ended up getting emotional about my aunt. he knew her too"

A few minutes dragged as you bit your nails and questioned why you were even so nervous, but finally he responded.

"you don't owe me an explanation. im glad you saw something pretty and had someone to comfort you"

You sighed deeply with relief, though all of your guilt was not yet gone. Your phone pinged again a couple seconds later with a text that made you laugh.

"i wouldve taken u somewhere prettier, and comforted u better tho :)"

You were thankful he was back to joking with you; it seemed the little misunderstanding was forgiven. You momentarily contemplated if Alex could've been... jealous? You refused to let that excite you.

~

    Christmas Day was spent baking various sweets -- vegan of course, this was Aunt Juniper's house after all -- and terribly singing festive songs. We both opened the couple gifts you guys got each other, watched old Christmas classics, she told you about the guy she's been talking to named Simon, and at some point you both fell asleep on her oversized couch. Alex went a couple towns away for the holiday, so you guys weren't able to see each other, but that didn't stop him from getting you something. The day after Christmas, when Aunt Juniper went to check the mail, she came inside grinning at you and holding a medium sized wicker basket topped with a shiny green bow.

"What is that?" you asked from the table where you'd been on your laptop.

"For you," she wiggled her eyebrows. "From your friend."

"No way?" you rose immediately, and went over to inspect the basket.

Inside, the first thing you saw was Alex's teal sweater you'd borrowed. Lying on top of that was a gift card that had a cutely scribbled drawing of a coffee cup; it was to Bean Hollow. Alex's handwriting next to it said, "So you have to come back to town at some point. but you don't have to give back the sweater this time, lol. miss u :)"

You bit the inside of your cheek to try to fight a smile, but failed. It was unbelievably considerate that he'd taken the time to have this delivered while he was away. You took the sweater out first, and put it on right over top your pajama shirt. You brought the collar of it up to your nose, it smelled like him, and you were in heaven about it. You glanced sideways at your aunt then, who was shaking her head with a grin, but held her hands up defensively to convey something like I didn't say a thing.

Starting that night, and the following two days after that, Alex and you talked on the phone every night. We found yourselves staying up past 2am, saying things that didn't even make sense like the most random what would you do scenarios, or playing Would You Rather.

"I'm finally coming back tomorrow," he told you on December 29th. "My parents are staying a couple extra days though, I think being away from home is helping them. Killing me though."

"Why's that?" you asked. "Thought you didn't plan on staying here forever."

"Yeah well it's not much better over here," he assured you. "Especially since you're over there."

Butterflies erupted in your stomach of course, but you shoved them deep down. He only meant anything sweet he said like that as friends.

"You were my favorite thing about living here too when I did," you decided on a response, kicking yourself for making it sound sappier than you intended.

He stayed quiet for a moment after a fleeting chuckle, then said, "You should come over for New Years', if your aunt is okay with sharing you for a few hours."

Coincidentally, she'd just told you yesterday that she'd been invited out for NYE with Simon. You could tell she wanted to go, but felt guilty leaving you alone. With this offer, everything would work out for all of you.

You smiled, "What time should I come over?"