To the Light { a joel miller fanfiction }

Chapter Seven - Tensity

A.N. Hiiii -- sorry it took me a bit longer than usual to update. it was my birthday last week so things have been a little chaotic, and with the end of the year approaching I probably won't be able to update weekly going forward. I promise it won't be a big wait between chapters, though, most likely every other week. ily have fun <3

"I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"
― Sylvia Plath, Mad Girl's Love Song

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She pressed her face further into his chest, making a little home for herself there, curled up against his warm, wide form. He was like a fucking radiator, always feverish to the touch, to be near him was like basking in warm sunshine, like wading in a hot spring.

"Need to get up, little lady." He hummed into her hair, negating his words by crushing her against him, big, strong arms holding her there with a vise grip.

She whined, the sound muffled, vibrating across his skin. "It's cold." A beat, then, "I hate the snow."

He chuckled; a low, brassy sound that made her tummy cramp up. "I know, baby." His large, heavy hand ran up and down her spine in a solacing motion that made her want to go back to sleep, lie there all day, tangled up with him. "But those kiddos ain't gonna teach themselves."

"Stop trying to guilt trip me, Miller." She muttered, reaching up to tug her fingernails through the scruff on his cheek, then trace that little gap in his beard that she swore was shaped like a heart. Big, bad Joel Miller, with a little heart shaped gap in his beard.

He leaned into her palm, nuzzling against it like an oversized house cat. "Come on, get dressed." He hummed, turning his face, and kissing her palm. "Don't wanna make you late."

She watched him get up, relishing the way the muscles in his back rolled underneath his golden skin as he tugged on a shirt. She wanted to stay there, watching him, admiring the way he commanded the room. But when his gaze wandered over to her and his eyes flickered to the closet, she was scrambling out of the bed, her hurried motion soundtracked by a chuckle echoing from his chest.

She was at his house so often that she had a little shelf in his closet filled with her things. The sight, no matter how often she saw it, made her chest ache, made her stomach flutter. The mingling of their things might have seemed banal, but it felt monumental, a physical testament to her being there, with him, even when she wasn't. Her things were still there when she was at her house, or at the school, or at the market, right alongside his things— her toothbrush in the little cup in the bathroom, her shirts and pants folded up all nicely on the shelf, her dresses and jackets hung up in the closet. She hoped he looked at her things when she was gone and felt that same little tug in his chest.

Adeline got dressed and emerged from the closet, flashing Joel a shy grin as he cleared the space between them, placing his hand on the small of her back for just a moment before he was slipping past her, where he tugged a large coat off one of the hangers in the closet.

"Need a heavier coat than that, darlin'. Gonna freeze out there." He said, holding the coat out for her to slip her arms into.

She obliged, her heart thudding loudly in her ears as he carefully swept her hair out from the collar, calloused fingers skimming the nape of her neck as he did. Then he leaned down, placing a soft kiss to the space just below her ear, his mustache tickling her skin, causing goosebumps to rise, and spread down the back of her neck.