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— 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 door to his house for Layla, letting her enter first.
As he closed the door, he called out to his mom — as she was nowhere in immediate sight. "Māma, I brought a surprise for you!"
Layla smiled at his words and waited eagerly for Winona to round the corner.
Sure enough, the brunette emerged from the living room with a curious look on her face. As soon as she processed that Layla was there, she lit up and rushed over to pull the redhead into a hug.
"Layla! How have you been, honey? It's been too long!" She exclaimed happily.
"It really has!" Layla agreed, as she eagerly returned the hug. "How have you been, Mrs. Peace?"
Warren stared at the two most important women in his life with a look of incredulity. "It's been like a week." He stated.
Winona pulled away from Layla to look at her son as if he were stupid. "Like I said, it's been too long."
Layla giggled, as Warren only shook his head.
Winona turned back to Layla and smiled. "Are you staying for dinner, honey?"
Layla nodded. "If you don't mind. I finished all my homework in school today and got my parents' permission so it's all good on my end."
The brunette woman nodded, as her eyes glinted with pride. Her son had chosen a good one.
"Of course! You're always welcome, honey. And I've been meaning to try out that recipe you sent me. I got all the ingredients when I went shopping today and I would love it if you could help me make it?" She asked.
The redhead nodded eagerly. "Of course! It's a super simple side dish but it's so good. And the best part is that you can make it in bulk and it won't spoil for the whole week." Layla rambled, as she and Winona made their way into the kitchen, Winona listening with rapt attention.
Warren stood rooted in place, watching the two women walk away from him.
"When did you even get each other's numbers!?"
— 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, Layla made her way into the living room — where Warren was waiting for her to finish up with his mom.
He shot her a smile once he noticed her entrance, and waited until she was within arms reach to pull her so that she was standing between his spread legs.
She went willingly and smiled as he looked up at her.
"Alright, we have two choices. We can either watch a movie on the TV or go up to my room and watch something there. The only thing is that I don't have a TV in my room, so we'll have to use my laptop."
Layla tilted her head in thought, before speaking. "Can we go to your room? Your bed is really comfortable." She laughed.
Warren smirked. "Using me for my bed, are you?" He teased.
Layla nodded with a mock-serious expression. "And your mom. Don't forget about that."
The pyrokinetic snorted. "How could I? You two are best friends." He noted dryly, though his eyes glinted with happiness as he said it.
Layla shrugged. "Your mom is great, I don't know what else to say."
"I'm your favorite Peace though, right?" He raised a brow.
The silence that followed was very loud.
Warren scoffed, as he nodded. "Oh, okay. I was going to let you pick the movie we watch but just for that, I'm choosing now."
Layla giggled, as she brought her hand up to pinch his cheek teasingly. "Aww, it's okay, Hotshot. At least you're in my top two."
"You only know the two of us!" He argued back with a laugh.
"Exactly." She smirked.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and lightly pinched her side in admonishment, receiving a small yelp in return.
He rubbed the spot he pinched soothingly, as he smirked. "That's what you get. Now let's go to my room. There's a horror movie that I've been dying to watch."
"You know I don't like horror movies, Warren! I get too scared!" Layla argued back half-heartedly, as she followed him upstairs.
She only got a snort in return. "Too bad, Hippie."
— 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄, 𝐓𝐇𝐄 movie Warren chose was jam-packed with jump scares. Of course.
It was only a few minutes in and Layla lost count of the amount of times she felt her heart nearly stop as she jumped out of her skin.
Warren laughing every time she did so wasn't helping either, the- something. She was too busy being scared out of her mind to come up with a proper insult.
The screen of his laptop flashed as yet another jump scare happened, this time causing Layla to let out a small yelp. Shaking her head, she moved to bury her face in the crook of Warren's neck in an attempt to block some of her view.
After a few moments of her just staying there, Warren raised a brow.
"You gonna stay there all night, Hippie?" He questioned with a smirk.
"Yup," Layla responded immediately, not a hint of shame in her tone.
Warren snorted softly but didn't say anything else, moving to wrap his arm around her shoulder instead, pulling her closer into his body.
As the movie continued to play on, Layla felt her eyes begin to droop. While the movie was far from soothing, the soft ambiance of the characters' dialogue paired with Warren's very comfortable bed and the even more comfortable warmth of his arm around her, she couldn't help but begin to fall asleep.
Warren noticed her breaths turn even, and looked down, only to see her eyes closed entirely.
He smiled softly at the sight, happy that she felt safe enough to fall asleep around him.
He debated on leaving a soft kiss against her forehead but refrained — as that would require him having to shift around a little, and he didn't want to risk waking her up. Instead, he just grabbed the blanket resting by their feet and pulled it up to cover her body.
His smile widened when he felt her melt deeper into his hold, and turned his attention back to the movie. He had no idea what was going on anymore, but he knew that he had just found his new favorite movie.
— 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐀 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 herself when she was only greeted with silence after knocking on Warren's door and letting the two teens know dinner was ready.
Opening the door slightly, she poked her head in to look inside.
She paused when she noticed that both teens were asleep; Layla's head now resting comfortably against Warren's chest, her hand placed right next to her face. The Peace boy had one arm still wrapped around the redhead's shoulder, the other one covering Layla's hand on his chest.
Winona smiled at the endearing sight, as she quietly took her phone out of her pocket and took a picture.
The flash from her phone startled both of them awake, and she dashed out of the room, giggling to herself as she called out. "Dinner's ready!"
