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With an exhausted huff of finality, Caroline dropped the cardboard box on top of the rest of them, packing tape squeaking unappealingly and adding to the uncomfortable ambiance of the otherwise empty living room.
Hands on her hips, hair tied back with a bandana, Caroline blew a stray strand from out of her eyes. She glanced over to Tyler. "That's the last of it, right?"
As he swung the screen door shut with his foot, he scoffed, dropping the moving box he'd been holding on top of the others, too. "Better be. For a girl who's supposed to be all about environmentalism, you sure have a lotta shit, Line."
"What's my job have to do with how much stuff I have?" she asked accusingly as she moved to unpack the first box. "Who's to say I won't recycle all this cardboard and put it towards somethin' helpful?"
"Like what?" Tyler challenged, the amused tension of a bickering spat rising between them as he knelt next to her and began pulling her things out of the same box. "Gonna make some forts, Line? That it?"
"And if that was my plan?" She raised her eyebrows, tossing two throw pillows off toward the couch. "Would you join me or would you stand off to the side like a dork?"
"I'm the dork if I don't get involved?"
"You'd just be the dork with the muscles."
Tyler grinned at the appeasement, then lifted his arm to flex his biceps. He even let out a little grunt for show. "Yeah, these babies? You tryna make fun of 'em? They sure came in handy when someone tried to move seventeen hours all by herself with nothing but a U-Haul and a thirty-song playlist."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I already thanked you for helping me, didn't I?"
He smiled, picking up a stack of books from the bottom corner of the box. "No thanks needed, darlin'. I'm just glad you're joinin' us back down here in the South."
Begrudgingly, she broke into a smile of her own, taking the books out of his hands and sliding them onto the coffee table beside her. "Yeah, well—don't get too comfortable. I'm still not a storm chaser, Ty, just someone who decided she was right where she needed to be."
"And y'know, that's fine, too," Tyler said, spreading his hands. Then he grinned and slid the cardboard box out of the way from between them. "As long as you're here. Don't matter much to me what you're doin'."
"Well, that's real good to know," Caroline said, raising her eyebrows, feigning offense. She let out a little laugh and splayed her palms onto the hardwood floor to bridge the gap between them, pressing her lips to his in a gentle, familiar kiss. When she pulled away, Tyler's eyes searched her face, and she bit back a smile. "What? You looking for somethin'?"
"Nah," he said passively, his gaze fond. He tipped his head. "Just admirin'."
Caroline rolled her eyes to try and deter the grin that was trying to spread across her face, but she failed. Tyler laughed at the sight and, to hide her smile for her, he pressed their lips back together and buried his hands deep in her hair. Caroline exhaled a little sigh into the kiss.
The screen door slammed shut beside them. Javi's voice carried easily across the empty living room.
"Gah," he exclaimed, disgustedly. "I would say get a room, but you had a whole house to yourself and you still chose to make out right in front of the door."
Tyler pulled his head away from Caroline just long enough to tip his hat at Javi. Then he dipped his face back towards Caroline, eager for another kiss—but she laughed and turned to Javi.
"You got somethin' for us?"
Javi lifted his shoulders in a listless shrug. "Wouldn't be here if I didn't."
He dropped a Manila file folder onto the floor and used his foot to slide it over to where Caroline and Tyler sat on the ground amidst the boxes. Slipping his hands into his pockets, Javi glanced around.
"Decent place," he complimented. "You ever thought about adding furniture?"
Caroline shot him a glare as she picked up the printed scans of cells forming over toward the west, just on the border of Oklahoma and Texas. She felt Tyler over her shoulder, dissecting the same data as her, thinking the same thoughts. She turned her eyes over to him.
His gaze flickered to her lips only momentarily. "You want to?"
Caroline glanced down at the data, wondering. Then her lips folded in a tight-mouthed smile, her eyes shining with the same adrenaline she knew Tyler felt inside at the thought of getting back out there. He grinned.
"Well, alright, then," he said, and sneaked another short kiss onto her lips despite Javi's groan of protest.
From the driveway, a loud, prolonged honking of a car horn caught everyone's attention. Javi gestured over his shoulder and took a step back toward the door.
"Kate's getting impatient," he said warningly. "I wouldn't trust her not to drive off without you if she thinks you're taking too long. Come on—let's go chase a storm."
He hurried out the front door and down the steps of the porch. Caroline and Tyler turned back to each other, smiling.
"I don't chase storms," Caroline said, and wasn't surprised to see Tyler's lips move right along with hers. She laughed and shoved his shoulder. "You know I'm right. Now let's go; I think he was serious about Kate leaving without us."
She hauled off the ground and reached out her hands behind herself without hesitation, feeling Tyler's palms clasp hers. With an over exaggerated heaving grunt, she drug him up to his feet. He pretended to lose his balance and stumbled into her back, tackling her in a hug.
Laughing, she shoved him off. "You're such an idiot."
He grinned, pleased with himself. Then he took his hat off and placed it crookedly atop her head, throwing his arm around her and leading her out the door. "And we're off. To chase a storm."
Caroline elbowed him. He only laughed; of course he did.
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Calm luh epilogue (this is the tiniest chapter I've ever written of anything ever)
That concludes this fic?? I guess?!?1??1 I don't know how to feel about that 🙂 This literally started off as a silly little side quest and suddenly it has almost 20k reads .... I'm shidding myself.
Thank you guys so so much for reading & interacting with this fic. I'm super glad you guys seem to enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!!! Thank you for all your kind comments and support 💓💓 Love you all hope you liked my writing 😊
