TAKE IT EASY • TC ✔️

53. The Beginning of the End

That week was bliss.

Bliss in the most profound sense of the word, bliss that even Lucia, with her outstanding vocabulary and brain that had read hundreds of books, could not articulate, could not put into words.

She would wake up warm, in a bed that wasn't hers but was becoming all too familiar. Would wake up with her head against Timmy's cheek.

Sometimes, she almost didn't want to know if she was dreaming or not, didn't want to wake up in a reality where there was a possibility of it all just being a hope, all just being wishful thinking.

But then she would press her forehead gently, so gently, against the softness of his cheek. Wait for something, anything, and Timmy would nuzzle back against her, rubbing his face against her hair, not even smiling, just breathing, barely awake.

Sometimes, Timmy would get up before her. Sometimes she'd wake up to a cup of coffee on the bedside table and Timmy leaning down for a kiss that tasted like toothpaste and morning breath. She'd always try to fend him off, but Timmy was not easily swayed. He'd made his stance on kissing very clear, in that if he wanted a kiss, he wanted a kiss. There was almost nothing which could put him off. So that's how Lu found herself, Wednesday of the following week, woken up by a pair of lips on her own and a warm, fully clothed, Timmy-sized weight crawling on top of her, over the covers. Planting himself down and shoving his face into her neck.

She laughed. Ran her fingers over his crazy hair, looped her fingers into the pockets, the light blue fabric of his joggers. There was a hickey on his neck from the night before, which she traced with the tip of a cold finger. Lu giggled when Timmy squirmed, and he sat up. Reached out for the coffees on the bedside table and handed one over. Took the top off of his own and put it down, wiping condensation on his shirt.

"So there's something I wanted to talk to you about," Timmy began. Lu watched his face, watched his lips pull into a little pucker at the side of his mouth.

"What?" she asked. Took the lid off of her own coffee and put it next to Timmy's on the bedside table. He wrapped his fingers around the cardboard heat protector of the cup. Shifted about in her lap, his weight comforting. Warm.

"You know this...the Pride and Prejudice thing," he began, and Lu began to nod, but she shook her head.

"That's still happening?" she asked, blowing on the surface of her drink, trying not to spill it on the nice white bedsheets.

"Yeah, it's still...I didn't tell you, did I?"

Lu frowned up at him. "Tell me what?"

Timmy nodded, his eyes fluttering closed. "I got the part," he said quietly, twisting the cardboard round and round his cup. Lu grinned.

"Timmy, that's amazing!" she beamed. "Well done."

Timmy nodded into his cup of coffee. "Why didn't you tell me?" Lu asked, still happy. She realised as soon as the words left her mouth. "Oh, we-"

"We weren't- yeah," he agreed. He looked a little funny on Lu's lap, all long limbs and long fingers and long-ish hair and shy smiles. She shook her head.

"Doesn't matter," Lu said lightly. Transferred her coffee cup to one hand so she could rest the other on Timmy's hip, let her fingers dip below the waistband, meeting soft, soft, cold skin. He shivered a little. Nodded again, scrunching his nose up a little. "That's amazing, Tim. You should be so proud," she congratulated him. Timmy looked uncomfortable, but was obviously trying his best to match her enthusiasm.

"Look at you, Mr Wickham," she dug her fingers into his hip, tickling him. Timmy gave her a token laugh, and she stopped. Something felt off.