Snitches Get Pancakes

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 :)

Yelping in surprise, Stephanie turns to face the new deep voice.

Leaning against the doorway with his usually straight lips dipped into a slight smirk is Drake.

She would have glared at him, except his normal dark t-shirt had disappeared into thin air, instead showcasing muscles that rippled across his chest, and arms that definitely knew how to lift a thing or two. He was an Adonis among the other men she had encountered in here life, and she gaped openly as she observed his sun-kissed skin. She noticed the snake tattoo she had seen earlier, as well as other tattoos painted onto his naked chest, but the lack of light denied her the right to analyse them closely.

Even if she wouldn't admit it to herself, she knew he was the definition of handsome.

A jerk, but a handsome jerk.

Stephanie's eyes trailed all the way down to his right hand, where a burning cigarette was cupped between his fingers. She followed his movements as he brought it to his lips and took a slow drag, his sharp gaze never leaving hers.

The wrinkled toxic stick had a slow creeping stench, as the smoke made its journey over to her now scrunching nose. Her eyes began to water, and she coughed.

"You can't smoke in front of a baby!," she whisper yelled at him, giving him a disappointed look as she shielded Archie away from him protectively. He let out another wail, and she rushed to soothe him, patting him on his head awkwardly, in what she hoped would relax him, but only made him cry harder and louder.

"You can't look after a baby," he impersonated her, covering his ear with his free hand due to the noise.

Archie definitely had a career in singing ahead of him.

He was beginning to sound like a constipated menstruating seal, and nothing she did calmed him down.

"Here, give him to me," Drake commented, finally having enough of the chaos. He deposited the flaming death stick on a nearby ashtray packed to the brim with its family members - huh, hadn't noticed that - and motioned for Stephanie to come over.

Except, there was an earring lodged in her foot, and it was impossible to walk properly, hence the limp.

"Walk faster woman! Slow and steady doesn't win the race!"

"You know, you have your entire life to be a jerk, why not take today off?"

"Because- Wait, what the hell happened to you?"

He reached forward and gripped her arm, effectively stopping her in her slow painful tracks.

A look of bewilderment crosses his features, as he bends down and crouches, lifting the seam of her - most likely his - checkered blue pyjama leg, and lifts her small foot. His eyes instantly widen when they land on the crime scene down there.

She welcomes the warmth from his fingers as he traces an unknown pattern around the guilty jewellery. Whatever he's doing causes some relief from the throbbing pain.

What unfolds next happens in the blink of an eye.

Well, at the pace of Stephanie's blink. Because one minute she's standing up, biting her lip from the pain, the next minute she's in the air, a comforting hand holding her back and another around her legs.

He swung her into his strong arms effortlessly as if she weighed nothing more than a ragdoll.

Archie's wails had quieted slightly from the sudden movement, and the throbbing in her foot had dulled a little.