Justification | Deetranada AU

genesis

Dee stretches as she wakes, her blanket falling to the floor. "Fuck," she mumbles, turning her head to check her phone for the time. 8:27AM. She groans, pulling her cover from the floor and tossing it back over herself. She closes her eyes, hoping the next three minutes feel like three hours but just as the thought finishes, her alarm goes off.

She whines, tossing the cover toward the wall and forcing herself out of bed. Slowly making her way through her morning routine, she feels herself wake up and by the time she reaches the dining room, she's perked and ready for something more than the usual mindless web surfing and attempts to write.

Walking back upstairs, she grabs her notebooks, in the mood to knock out as much work as possible. It seems to go by fast, the assignments blown through in record time as she blares music to hype herself up.

It's noon when she realizes she still hasn't eaten, her stomach louder than her music. Closing her laptop, she starts for the kitchen, groaning when the doorbell rings. "This better be my shit," she mumbles, going for the door. When she opens it, she's met with an extremely large bouquet of roses.

"Diamond Barmer?" the delivery woman questions, moving the bouquet to the side but still only showing a portion of her face.

"Yeah," Dee replies, confused.

"These are for you," the woman says brightly. "Just sign here."

"Huh?" Dee replies, unsure if she heard correctly. But she takes the clipboard, reading over the order form and seeing her name and address as the recipient. She signs, trading the clipboard for the bouquet. She tries to search for a name tag but is unable to see through what has to be four dozen roses.

"Happy Valentine's Day," the woman adds, rushing down the stairs for her truck, leaving Dee confused.

She shuts the door, walking the bouquet to the table, noting the weight. She carefully searches the bouquet for the tag, finally finding it near the bottom, out of sight.

"You may not be my Valentine but you're still my number one woman and a beautiful woman shouldn't be without beautiful things today. Love, Juli," she reads. A smile immediately covers her face before she groans. This...I can't let this happen.

She whips out her phone, scrolling to his contact and pausing, trying to find the best way to handle it. It takes a few minutes but she settles on a simple approach.

Hey, thanks for the roses. You didn't have to.

Anything for you, Diamond.

She rolls her eyes, suppressing the ever-present rush she feels when he says that.

You busy later?

I have a paper due by 5 so yeah.

Oh, well if you wanna swing by later your other valentine made you something.

She giggles, not surprised that Noah made her something. If not today, I can get Mani to swing me by Thursday.

Okay babygirl, I'm in class but I'll see you soon.

Bye Nov.

She tosses her phone aside, looking at the extravagant bouquet yet again. "Nope," she says aloud, sitting it in the corner on the floor and returning to her work, no longer hungry.

****

Nova walks through the halls with a large smile, his day better than any he's had in a while. He spots Roscoe at his locker and decides to take a chance, luck on his side for once.