#MC: Valentina Chavez

[studentdirectorajay]

Tis’ The Season For Crushing Pt. 2

pairing: ajay x f!MC (Valentina)

summary: Ajay and MC had drifted apart after the end of rehearsals, only to be brought together once again by the magic of the holidays.

tags: @tuesday-storm @spiffing-choices-unicorn (anyone else lemme know if u wanna be tagged. part one link will be added later)

Parked on the couch, Ajay found himself truly relaxing for the first time in months. He hadn't realised how tired school had made him, until on the first day of break he had parked his butt on the couch for about forty eight hours and felt zero inclination to move. And, he didn't even feel bad about it at all.

Ajay himself wasn't one for the holiday spirit, but he certainly enjoyed curling up in front of the TV watching some corny movies. Corny romance movies that satisfied the secret romantic within him. At one point he had fallen asleep, and scenes from all the movies he had watched were all blended together with him and Valentina at the center. He even remembered feeling a blurry kiss, and then he woke up, feeling warm and sweaty and his stomach a pit of longing.

Luckily, Erin would call just a day later, telling him the time, day and location for the snowball fight.

The wide expanse of Highland Park was coated with a deep layer of fresh, sparkling snow that had fallen overnight. As Ajay settled his car into a free parking space, he noticed Valentina standing on the sidewalk alone, looking positively tiny, bundled up to her nose in a long, stylish white coat and a thick baby blue scarf with matching hat and mittens. Ajay pulled on his own black gloves before sliding out of his car. His eyes met hers, and he breathed in sharply seeing her eyes light up. Valentina bounded over, and without thinking Ajay opened his arms, bracing himself as she pounced on him. It had been a while since they'd shared a hug and Ajay almost had forgotten just how good it felt.

"Ajay you're here!" Valentina squealed. Ajay smirked down at the girl, giving her a small pat on the head.

"I sure am. I couldn't miss the chance to pelt you with a snowball or two. Better than staying in doing nothing, right?"

Valentina nodded, looking serious. "Right!" She grinned and fake saluted. "And I'm glad I'll get the chance to pelt you with a few snowballs of my own!"

"Hah! I'd like to see you try. I--"

"Hey you two!" Erin walked up to Valentina and Ajay, seeming to have come from out of thin air. "Both of you got here before everyone else; just like you used to do during rehearsal."

"So how long is this supposed to last?" Ajay asked, folding his arms over his chest. 

Valentina elbowed him gently."Don't tell me you have work to do!" Then she looked at Erin. "I'm hoping this lasts until we all drop dead of hypothermia!" Valenitna couldn’t help but cackle loudly.

"Only you could make macabre jokes cute and not disturbing somehow. Right Ajay?" Erin’s tone was quick and light, and she jutted her chin in Ajay’s direction. Immediately, he shot a glare over towards Erin. He was hoping she would leave the teasing alone for today but he should've known better.

Erin clapped her hands together. "Alright so what about this, since we're the first ones here, we can get gather our snowballs and give a surprise ambush on the others. What do y'all say?"

Ajay and Valentina looked at each other, smiling at the same time.

It was only a short while before Erin, Ajay and Valentina were joined by several of the other theatre kids. At first, everyone stuck to their mini teams, but soon it was looking like every man for themself. Ajay tossed snowball after snowball at Valentina, delighting in the funny expressions and noises she made when she got hit. He had been ignoring everyone else in fact, at least until he got pelted by a random flurry of loosely mishappen snowballs, courtesy of Natalie and Clint.

Just for a moment, Ajay turned his back, until he heard a piercing scream from Valentina. He whirled around, alarmed, because that sounded nothing like her little yelps of glee. He saw her knocked down onto her butt, her hands wiping at her face. Ajay rushed over, almost slipping, and he gently lifted Valentina up by her elbows. She lowered her hands and gazed up at Ajay, dazed. Her nose and much of the right side of her face looked quite red.

"Valentina, are you okay?" He asked. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and came over, looking kind of anxious. Natalie rushed forward, almost falling.

"Oh my god Valentina! I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" Her big eyes looked about full to the brim with tears. "I didn't meant to hit you hard, or like, at all really! Oh my god I'm sorry!"

"It's okay," Valentina said slowly. "I'm fine. I think I just want to sit the rest of the fight out though."

"I'll sit with you." Ajay was still holding her close to him, searching her face. He loosened his grip and Valentina  spun around to go and stand beside him. The two walked all the way to the front gate, before leaning against it just staring at each other quietly.

"So..." Valentina’s eyes darted over to the ongoing fight.

"So...?"

"It's cold." Valentina's cheeks puffed up as she held her breath for a while. Ajay gently placed his hands on each side of her face, rubbing a little. The two kept their eyes focused elsewhere, but Ajay kept gently rubbing. After a while, he dropped his hands.

"Better?"

"A little." Looking at her closer, Ajay saw that she looked tired and a bit less spirited than she had been a few short hours ago. That snowball must've knocked more than just the wind from her lungs. And yet, even with her energy sapped she looked so cute, her big sleepy eyes gazing up at the blank white sky.

"Earth to Valentina... I was wondering..." His words caught in his throat as she looked at him, smiling softly.

"Hmm?"

"Hot chocolate?"

"What?"

"Wanna get out of here and grab some... hot chocolate?" The small silence between them felt endless.

"And just leave everyone behind?" Valentina grabbed his hand. "Sure! Let's go!"

--

PREVIEW LOVELIES:

Ajay chuckled as he watched Valentina sit upright and her hands tightened around her cup.

"No, it's not that. Actually I was just going to say... Today was great. It sucks that we haven't hung out lately as much as we used to." Awkwardly, he rubbed at the back of his neck. Valentina gazed at him softly, looking just tiniest bit sad for a moment before her expression brightened. Like flipping a switch. An expression so subtle, that nonetheless captured Ajay's heart and held it hostage.

"Well... It doesn't have to be that way! I'm always up for hanging out you know--I'm not exactly popular so my calender's always open. Ooh, how about we hang out again this weekend? That would be fun! Oh but what would we do--"

"Oho okay, slow down there eager beaver. I'd love to hang out with you though."

[studentdirectorajay]

Alone Together (AjayxMC)

Pairing; Ajay x F!MC (Valentina Chavez) Rating; PG 13 (Does a rating like this even count) Genre; Fluff with a bit a angst. Word Count; 2492

Basically what I hope happens in the next chapter which is a whole damn week away... This will fill the void for now, I 'spose.

After a few more attempts to get the door open, Ajay and Valentina found themselves slowly backing away from the door, and quietly accepting that they just could not get out without some outside help. Ajay groaned, and while Valentina didn't seem particularly bothered by this, the thought of having to spend so much time with Ajay alone made her feel a bit nervous. So she decided to try to lighten up the mood just a bit.

"Ajay, do you think we'll get out of here alive?" She bit down on her lip, her shoulders shaking, barely able to keep herself from bursting out laughing. Ajay rolled his eyes.

"Oh, not a chance," he replied, voice flat, before making his way back to the stage, where he took a seat on the edge. Valentina smiled as she took her time following him, walking past the row of seats to join him on the stage. Her small smile disappeared after observing the troubled expression on Ajay's face.

Valentina cleared her throat. "Considering our situation, this might be dumb to ask, but are you okay?"

Blinking, Ajay cleared his thoughts somewhat and looked at Valentina. "What? No, you're not dumb to ask. As... irritating, as this situation is, I'm more worried about other things."

"Okay, and what are those things, exactly?"

Ajay pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Well, one of those things is your safety, honestly. A lot of weird little accidents have been happening lately. I don't want you to get hurt." Quickly, he added, "Anyone. I don't want anyone getting hurt."

"And, it feels like I should be doing more, taking more safety precautions or something. But the frustrating thing is that I can't anticipate these things at all." Ajay wasn't sure what was going on, but it was taking a bit of a toll on his confidence as student director.

"Sounds like you just have to trust that everything will work out in the end. Unless... You want to start babyproofing the set," Valentina said, her eyes glinting humourously. She and Ajay shared a small laugh.

"Yeah, I don't think so." Ajay sighed. He was still frowning, but talking it out with someone was actually helping alleviate the pressure of it all from his mind somewhat. He was kind of glad that Valentina was the prying type.

"What's the other things?" Valentina shifted herself until she sat facing him, legs crossed.

"Little stuff here and there. And then..." Ajay suddenly shifted his gaze elsewhere, away from Valentina's concerned look. "There was today's Homecoming comment." He looked back, only for a quick glance at her now sheepish expression. "I thought you said you weren't into Rory, like everyone else was. In fact, I remember you making more than one comment like that. What happened?"

A part of her didn't want to say anything; she felt incredibly embarrassed. And she was also unhappy about letting Ajay down after he had taken a chance on casting her despite being a Freshman. Without looking up, she spared herself one glance at his face. Ajay looked disappointed and also a little bit sad. She looked back down at her sneakers.

"I'm sorry Ajay. I guess... I was not... Completely honest. But I swear I really do not have feelings for Rory! Like actual romantic ones." Or, at least she was sure she didn't. "It's sort of weird, I don't know how to explain it."

"Well you better just explain anyway." Ajay huffed.

"See, in the beginning of the year I thought I was over the small crush I had on Rory ages ago. And I swear when I said I wasn't interested in Rory I wasn't lying or anything; I didn't feel anything like that towards her you know, infatuation. Then I guess as the play went on, and I got to know Rory again maybe that dug some feelings up?" Ajay didn't say anything, so Valentina breathlessly continued. "But still I just tried to ignore it as best as I could because I didn't want to disappoint you."

Ajay looked up.

"And then when Rory asked for me to take a walk with her after rehearsal, someone suggested that she might be asking me to Homecoming!" Even now saying that, Valentina could feel her face heating up.

Noticing that his hand had balled into a fist without him being aware, Ajay frowned and spread both his hands flat down onto his knees. He wasn't quite sure what was happening with him, just that he was starting to feel a bit off, anxiety of all things bubbling up in his stomach. He forced his mind away from that and glued his eyes to Valentina's hands, her small fingers picking and poking at each other.

"And well, I think my mistake today was more to do with me being excited about being asked to go to Homecoming in general, rather than being happy solely because it was Rory in particular who might be asking me. Know what I mean? I would have been just as excited if it had been say, Skye... Or Erin or Clint or even you..." She chuckled nervously.

Ajay snorted in surprise, for a moment locking eyes with Valentina. And just as soon as it began, that little moment was over.

                        ◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

 About an hour later, Ajay and Valentina still found themselves sitting at the edge of the stage, side by side and bored out of their minds. Every so often, Ajay noticed that Valentina would shiver besides him, and it did occur to him that it was pretty cold in the theatre. He had been thinking of putting some space between them, but decided not to.

"Cold in here huh?" That came out a lot more awkwardly than he had intended it to. Valentina snickered, then turned her head upwards to look at him. He could feel his stomach flip when she grinned at him.

"Wow Ajay. That's kind of a dumb question."

 He scowled. "Oh, like you don't ask one of those every single day."

"Exactly! It's like you're trying to steal my thing!" Valentina giggled.

"Oh please. Anyway, do you want me to give you my jacket?" He asked quickly. The longer he thought about it, the more awkward he felt it would have been to ask. Valentina's grin became a light smile.

"Yeah... thanks for asking actually." She made a "gimme gimme" motion towards him.

Ajay slipped his arms out the sleeves of his jacket and drapped it around Valentina's shoulders. Now he felt a bit cold, only in his red button up shirt now. Still, he was glad in a way and somewhat amused at the sight of the petite teen being a bit too small for his jacket.

Valentina snuggled into the jacket, still warm from Ajay's body heat, as another silence fell over them. She turned her head a little to smell the sweet and subtle scent of his cologne without him noticing. Ajay stared off in another direction.

                        ◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

It was starting to get awkward between the two, just sitting there waiting for something, anything to happen. Valentina decided to break the silence because of course she had to be the one to do it.

"Ajay. Remember Amber's party, after the game a while ago... And we played pool together?" She started grinning at the memory of playing with Ajay, flirting with him and actually getting him to flirt back a little. Ajay found himself smiling too.

"Yeah, and what about it? Don't tell me you're going to rub it in my face how you won?" He coughed. "WithmyhelptooImightadd."

Valentina rolled her eyes. "I'm just gonna ignore that last part. As awesome as my victory was that night, I don't plan on gloating about it. At least not right now." Oh no, she had something else very different in mind. She started twiddling her fingers, suddenly quite. Ajay tilted his head, an eyebrow raised at her.

"Um, is something the matter--"

"Yeah, no. It's just, um, remember how you gave me a kiss on the cheek, cos I won?" She was getting quieter and quieter.

Ajay frowned a little, unsure if he was liking where this was going. For what reason would she need to bring up their little bet?

"Well, duh. I remember."

"Well, I was thinking about giving you a cheek kiss, as uh, thanks for giving me your jacket."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Oh no, no way. You already said thanks anyway--"

"I know, I know. It's unnecessary, it's unprofessional and it's really just an excuse to kiss you on the cheek. But look, I'm bored, I'm pretty sure you're bored too. Me giving you a smooch or two could be kind of fun don't you think? Just an innocent cheek kiss?" Valentina was starting to feel stupid. Why, oh why did it feel like it was blurt out stupid things day?

"Jeez, you sure are adamant about this. For whatever reason." Ajay bit his lip, thinking about it. He was shocked to find himself seriously considering her offer, and even more shocked that he found himself wanting to say yes. Being in the theatre for so long must be causing worms to spawn in his brain. But then again, Valentina was right. He was bored, and the cheek kiss at the party was just some cute, innocent fun. It didn't mean anything after the party, so Ajay figured this little thing wouldn't mean anything after they get out.

"Okay, whatever! But listen to me Chavez; under no circumstances is anyone else to know about this. In fact, after we get out I want you to forget all about it. I cannot stress this enough--"

"Professionalism, yes! Got it." Valentina nodded eagerly. "Nerd," she added under her breath.

Valentina angled her body towards Ajay and shifted onto her knees so that she could put her arms around his shoulders better. He tensed at how close she was, and Valentina waited until he relaxed a bit more before continuing. She started moving her face close and closer to his cheek. Ajay could feel himself getting overwhelmed by it, especially how she smelled so nice. Like fruit gushers and some kind of baked pastry. She felt just as warm too...

After what seemed like an eternity, Valentina softly planted a kiss on his cheek. As if a switch had been flipped, Ajay began leaning into Valentina's embrace. She pressed another kiss on his cheek, further down and closer to his mouth. She did this again several times until she pressed one last slow, sweet kiss on the corner of his mouth. It was here that Ajay snapped out of his daze, drawing back from Valentina, eyes wide.

"Sorry Ajay, I got really carried away I guess." She rubbed the back of her neck.

"No, it's okay. It's just... definitely not something I'm used to. I was just surprised is all. I thought you were going to kiss me on the lips, when we only agreed to just cheek kisses."

"God you're right. I wasn't going to actually kiss your lips though, I was just going to start the trail over again. Again Ajay, I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable."

Ajay could feel his heart hammering in his chest almost painfully. And though he felt mostly anxious, a part of him definitely enjoyed the warmth and closeness he was sharing with Valentina. He scooted back closer to her and she did the same, until their legs, arms and sides were touching. Then, Ajay turned his upper body around so he could partially face Valentina. He admired her hazel eyes and pretty brown skin and full lips (which were glossy? When did she put lip gloss on? Or had he just only noticed...) It was weird how different she looked to him now compared to when they had first met.

Feeling bold, Valentina was the one to close the distance between them and initiate the kiss. She pulled back immediately, sensing that Ajay wasn't entirely okay with this.

"Don't," he said gently, before kissing her back this time feeling more relaxed and confident. He reached out and took Valentina's hands in his, rubbing them to make them warmer. Valentina broke the kiss and beamed at him. Ajay smiled back.

                      ◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥

For a while, the two continued to share gentle kisses, wrapped up in their own little world. Sudeenly, Ajay pulled away, his troubled expression from earlier making an appearance. It was like a bucket of ice had been tipped over onto his head. Valentina rubbed his hand with her thumb, frowing at the sudden change.

"Ajay...?"

He slipped his hands away from hers and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning away. "I cannot do this. I just can't." He turned around again, looking tired.

"Look Valentina that was really nice, but it's never going to happen again. It shouldn't happen again. It's way too much! Besides, I don't even like you like that." Ajay mumbled. He wanted this to be true. In fact he needed what he said to be true, even if it made him look like a huge jerk. "I'm sorry I just, I think I get what you said earlier. About Homecoming. How it isn't the person you're excited to be with, but the fact that you are desired enough for someone to want to do that with you makes you... excited." He was regretting every word he said, but he couldn't take it back now.

It was hard seeing Valentina look like she was on the verge of tears, but he noticed that she covered this up pretty well. On purpose, which made him feel even worse. She smiled. "Oh Ajay, that's great! That you don't have feelings for me. I feel the same way too, you know. Professionalism, remember..."

Ajay smiled weakly at her. "That's great. You understand me very well, Valentina."

"I guess," she shrugged. "Ah, anyway I feel really tired. I think I'm gonna go in the back and lie down or something. Let me know when the door gets opened." Without waiting for a response, Valentina turned on her heels and fled behind the curtains. Ajay turned his head just in time to see the curtains swish close. He slowly turned his gaze forwards, looking out over the empty seats in front of him.

A/N; lemme know what u think Ajay fans...