Then Came You { a pedro pascal fanfiction }

Chapter Six

A.N. If you're enjoying this please let me know, I appreciate it and it gives me more motivation to keep goin' <3

Lucy clicked the oven light on, leaning down and peering inside.

"Should be ready in like 45 minutes." She said, wiping her hands on a dish towel that she then deposited on the counter.

The two-week period the CDC had said would probably subside the virus enough for the world to go back to normal had come and gone. We were nearing the end of week three, with no end in sight. There was no way to imagine how harrowing a time I would have been having without Lucy. She was over every day, all but sleeping at my apartment. Sometimes she even brought her laptop over, clicking away at her manuscript while I watched something on the television.

Her presence was a solace, one I'd probably come to take for granted over those three weeks. Especially considering I was eating better than I had in decades... She cooked every night, scampering around the kitchen like it was her apartment rather than mine.

"Oh! Can I go grab some laundry? I ran out of socks like two days ago."

I nodded adamantly, "Of course, I told you that you don't have to ask."

"Just being considerate!" She blurted, throwing her hands up theatrically.

"You, considerate?" I teased, "give me a break."

She lightly punched my arm on the way to the door.

"Don't forget to lock it when you come back!" I called out after her.

Her departure, even though it was only for a matter of minutes, still altered the entire atmosphere of my apartment. The air felt colder, the space more hollow. Every night when she left to go sleep in her own bed, I lied awake for hours, feeling like the walls were closing in on me. Everything brightened when she returned each morning, a cup of coffee in one hand and her laptop in the other.

She stumbled back through the door, her arm stretching to hold the hamper of laundry on her hip.

"Did you lock your door?" I asked, leaning back against the counter as she hauled the clothes down the hallway.

"Yeeees." She elongated the word, her voice a pitch higher than normal.

"Lucy." I groaned her name, letting my head fall back in disappointment, "Give me your keys, I'll go lock it."

"Ugh!" She stood up after tossing a couple pods into the chamber, "I'll go do it, can you just throw my laundry in? It's gonna take me a few minutes, I might have misplaced them."

"You're killing me." I called out as she raced back out the door.

"That's not me, it's old age!" Her voice echoed back from down the hall.

I chuckled, shaking my head as I knelt next to her basket of laundry and began tossing handfuls into the washer.

I was on the third handful when my fingers brushed across a tiny, silky piece of fabric. Curiosity got the better of me and I let everything I was holding fall back into the hamper apart from that one article of clothing.

It was panties, I discovered quickly as I held them up... if the tiny, black piece of fabric could even constitute as such. I mean, all her clothes were small, she was a petite woman, but these.

Did she always wear tiny, silky thongs? Was she wearing a pair right now? My mind frantically tried to piece together a mental picture, then flashed the final image in my mind over and over, causing the seam of my jeans to suddenly feel far too tight, an aching bout of desire bubbling up in my stomach and shooting down my pelvis.