It's Understandable: A Tronnor AU

23. Darling and the Bitch

It had only been a week, but Connor already felt so safe in the Mellets' home. Safer than he had ever felt in any of his own houses over the years. In those places, he never fell asleep to the sound of his mother turning on a security system. He never slept in a bed in which all components babied him with lullaby-like coziness, nor had he ever woken up to the smell of anything but mould and smog from the factory up the road.

But, this one morning specifically, Connor's newly conscious nose was blessed with the scent of bacon. And avacado. And waffles; he loved waffles. Nobody made them like his chef sister, Nicola, but these smelled pretty damn good to him, what with his usual expectations of burnt eggs or nothing.

He rolled out of bed with slow, groggy excitement, and padded downstairs in his woollen socks. Running his hand, covered in his too-long sleeves, down the banister, he started to hear a soft voice getting louder and louder as he got further down the stairs.

"Gracious, goes the ghost of you, and I will never forget the plans and the silhouettes you drew here. Gracious, goes the ghost of you, my dear."

Connor leaned up against the doorway to the kitchen, one foot hanging off the ledge as he watched Troye pour mix into the waffle maker. His curls were feral, sticking this way and that, his complexion rosy. And there was a shadow of stubble under his nose. He looked a new, different kind of beautiful. An intimate, first-view-of-the-day kind of beautiful.

He moved his body a little with the music coming from his throat, pressed down the waffle maker, and Connor smiled. "Do you always sing Ben Howard songs while you cook?" He laughed. "Honestly, I would've never expected you to be singing his music. Aside from like, Oh Wonder and Lorde, I pegged you as an, I don't know, Smells Like the Only Nirvana Song You Know angry grunge type of guy."

Troye, before he even turned around, laughed to the ceiling. He wasn't startled in the slightest by the sudden company; Connor's voice never did anything but remind him that he existed. And that just made him feel good, so he turned around with a smile on his face. "What's so bad about liking grunge music a lot?"

"Troye, you played that one Alice in Chains album for six hours yesterday while we were studying." Connor teased, pulling a piece of bacon off of the paper towel they were cooling on. "I was about to grind my teeth out of my head. Let's just say you're lucky that I love you as much as I do." With a cutesy quirk of the shoulder, Connor popped the bacon in his mouth and sat himself on top of the counter.

Troye put a hand on his hip and curled his lip coolly in his boyfriend's direction. "Alice in Chains is dope and you know it."

Connor swung his short legs up and down, licking the grease off his fingers in a sassy sense. "Whatever you say, babe." He said, smirking in satisfaction as Troye rolled his eyes endearingly and let a short, amiable silence wash away the topic.

He took out the last waffle, placed it on the top of the stack and unplugged the waffle maker. Connor reached out to rip off a piece, but Troye swatted his hand away. "Ah, ah, ah." He tutted, putting the plate of waffles at the other side of the stove. Connor pouted, thinking that Troye wanted him to wait to eat but, before he knew it, there was validation that that wasn't the case.

Suddenly, like being caught in torrential rains on an otherwise sunny day, Troye was putting his hands on Connor's waist and kissing him hard. It took him by surprise, and the sudden, unexpected explosion of emotion that came with kisses made Connor feel like his organs nearly lurched out of him. In the good way.