#The bendy on the left kept on saying he knew how they met but refused to give an answer

[askbendyandpals]

(Putting this here just incase, I haven't slept in hours due to school stuff and this post, hopefully this isn't wonky, and if it sounds/looks off then blame my tired brain)

[preface2adreamplay]

Under Your Spell (Chapter 24) - A Most Elegant Impediment

Summary: A Jared Padalecki/OFC /Oscar Isaac fiction.

Stef spends time with Oscar in New York. Old friends and new feelings?

Chapter warnings: Swearing, angst, fluff.

Chapter WC: 2,699

I want to be in every corner of your heart

To haunt your every waking moment

You close your eyes and live and breathe in me

Plucking at the strings mindlessly, Stef hummed a tune she had been working on. Curled up on the sofa, her bare feet tucked into the insides of her knees; something that Oscar had always found freakish, but she was supple, she couldn’t help it. 

It was snowing hard outside. 

Gazing out the patio doors, she was entranced by it, not hearing Oscar walk into the room, his boots making no sound on the carpet. Leaning in close to her he whispered, ‘what are you up to?’ Pulling back and holding his arms in front of him as Stef leaped off the chair and swung her arms around at him. ‘You jerk! You scared the life out of me.’

He laughed at his own mischief, grabbing her hands while she tried to playfully slap his chest. 

‘Sorry, I had to. You were goofing off.’

‘I could have been writing the one masterpiece of my career, and now I’ve forgotten it.’ Stef scrambled over the back of the sofa to get at him. Oscar held his arms up higher in protest. 

‘No, don’t start!’ He warned, grabbing her wrists as she fell over and toppled onto him. 

Playfully grappling with each other, Stef tried to use her teeth on his fingers. Oscar was giggling, deciding that grabbing her waist and spinning her around was the best way to beat her.

Finally, he had her in a grip that she couldn’t get out of. Both of them were breathing hard, laughing. 

‘Truce?’ Oscar asked.

‘Truce,’ Stef agreed, but he knew by her voice, she would attack as soon as he released her. He was broader while she was slimmer and weirdly bendy, but he had speed she didn’t have, when he pulled his hands away, sure enough she was after him with a war cry. Running through the dining room and into the kitchen, he found refuse behind the island. ‘You promised me a truce!’ He cried. 

‘I lied, you should know by now that I like to get my revenge.’ The mischievous grin on her face put a bit of fear in him. She was capable of grabbing something and hitting him with it, she’d done it before. 

Oscar eyed the door out to the garage, feigning a sprint to that side. She fell for it and lunged at the left side of the kitchen island while he slipped past her. Laughing with delight as she yelled in frustration behind him.

She appeared in the dining room holding a sieve. 

‘The fuck you gonna do with that?’ Oscar dived for the fly swatter by the windowsill, dodging the sieve that whistled by his ear. 

Drawing his hand back he hit her right on the round of her ass with a loud thwack.

Stef screamed, doubling over to laugh. Oscar had his hand raised to strike her again, but stopped on seeing her fall to her knees. 

‘OK truce, you got me.’ 

Oscar raised his eyebrows, ‘I don’t trust you.’ Neither of them could breathe very well through the exertion. 

‘Just don’t come at me if I put this down,’ Oscar reasoned, lowering his arm, still on guard. 

‘Nah, I’m done.’ Stef promised, holding up her hand for Oscar to help pull her to her feet. 

‘I’m so thirsty after that,’ Stef ran her tongue along her bottom lip.

‘There is beer in the fridge,’ Oscar kept his eyes on her, unsure if she really was finished or if she were only pausing before she attacked him again.

‘Bit early for beer.’ 

‘Egg nog?’ Oscar raised his eyebrows suggestively.

‘Ohhh, yes, that sounds better.’ Stef led the way to the kitchen, the next thwack of the fly swatter against her ass really took her by surprise. Oscar had run well out of sight. Stef cursed loudly at him, hearing him tear up the stairs and into the safety of the upstairs bedroom.

‘Don’t think I won’t go up there and get you!’ Stef yelled.

Filling two glasses with egg nog, waiting for Oscar to come out of hiding, Stef checked her phone, there were no messages. It had been a couple of days since she had spoken to Jared, a few texts had come through saying that he missed her, asking what gifts she had gotten. No pictures though and she missed seeing his face. 

She missed him, the heat of him against her, his long arms around her. Mostly, she missed his sweetness, when he gave her kisses she wasn’t expecting, or running his fingers lightly over her spine while she lay next to him, knowing it would make her squirm.

‘Penny for your thoughts.’ Oscar was munching on chocolate when he appeared by her side.

‘What?’

‘It’s a saying,’ Oscar replied, his mouth full.

‘I know what it means, you just caught me by surprise.’ Stef looked back down at her phone, locking it, she put it in her pocket. Out of sight out of mind.

‘He still hasn’t called?’

Sounding as if he were talking to his daughter rather than his ex lover. 

Stef didn’t answer, she took a sip of egg nog and tried to look past him into the garden. 

‘We should go out. You’ve been cooped up for days.’ 

Stef groaned, ‘I like being cooped up, it’s better for my mind. Besides,’ she added, seeing Oscar frowning, ‘last time I loosened up, as you said, I started an affair with a married man.’

Oscar rolled his eyes, ‘yeah you did.’ He sounded exasperated. Stef really wished they weren’t having this conversation.

‘You still have friends here, you could go see them if you don’t want to go somewhere with me.’

‘Nik said he was home for Christmas, actually. I wonder what he and his wife are doing.’ Stef pulled her phone out of her pocket again, typing a message to her bandmate. 

‘There, message sent. Happy?’ Stef teased, sipping her egg nog.

‘Happier,’ Oscar grinned, transferring the warmth of his humour into her, she couldn’t help smiling.

‘Thanks for letting me stay this week.’ Stef said bashfully.

‘Well, you always stay, why would this year be different?’

‘Darius is getting older.’ Stef sighed. ‘I’ve been thinking every day about him starting his own traditions and not hanging with us anymore.’

‘Don’t think about things before they happen. Why do you think about shit so much?’

‘Well, it’s gonna happen! I’m tormenting myself with thoughts, I know, I know!’ Stef leaned against the counter, wrapping her free arm across her stomach, chewing on her finger, watching Oscar’s brown eyes disappear while he closed his eyes and reached out for her drink.

‘Come here.’ 

Dropping her glass on the kitchen island, he pulled her into a tight hug. ‘You’re welcome here, always, Effie.’ He was rubbing circles into her back, his hand reached up to her neck, holding her close.

‘Even if you get married and have another family?’

She felt Oscar’s shoulders move as he laughed silently. ‘Even then. But, I doubt I’ll be having a family any time soon.’

Stef released herself from the hug and looked at him, ‘Why not?’

Oscar laughed again, ‘you sound like my mom used to when I told her I didn’t do my homework.’ 

‘Well homework wasn’t your thing, if I remember correctly.’ 

‘Don’t scold me!’ 

‘Why won’t you have another family?’

‘Do you want me to have another family?’

‘No,’ Stef started, not really sure how she was going to ask. 

‘Listen, I have no woman in my life right now. Maybe I’ll meet someone, I can’t predict those types of things. But I have no marriage plans.’

‘You said you wanted more kids though.’ Stef felt sullen.

‘I did, I said I wouldn’t mind if it happened, but I’m not on the hunt for a woman with roomy hips, Effie.’

Stef shrugged. 

‘You and Darius are my family.’ Oscar grabbed her hand and pressed it to his lips. 

Stef watched his mouth kissing her hand, she didn’t want to say anything, if she broke the silence between them now, while his dark eyes met with hers, would she say something foolish?

She decided to say nothing and just give him a weak smile. 

Her phone buzzed, taking her hand from his warm grasp she checked her phone.

‘Look at that! Nik says he’s at home, his parents have gone out shopping with his wife and we should come over for beer and play some guitar.’

Oscar leaned in to see her screen, ‘Nik never says that much in a text, I don’t believe you.’ 

Stef giggled, ‘well, he said that just with less words. You game?’

‘Yeah I’m game. Let’s go!’ 

***

Oscar was in the yard on the phone to Darius while Stef pulled out another photo album from Nik’s various boxes in his mother’s kitchen.

‘How do you still have all this stuff?’ She asked, flicking through the sleeves. 

‘Mom won’t throw them out, I’m glad though, coz hey look at your outfit in that one!’

‘Oh fuck,’ Stef laughed, ‘the 90s were something else.’

‘But look at Oscar’s hair! Fuck me. Where is he? Get him in here so we can laugh at him instead.’  Stef ran a finger across a photo of herself and Oscar, they were just kids back then, it wasn’t too long after they had started dating. This one brought back sweet memories, she was laying across his lap on Nik’s sofa. 

‘You were obsessed with him.’ Nik piped up.

‘Was not.’

‘You fucking were! You two were inseparable.’

The next two pictures showed exactly what Nik was talking about, Stef was again draped across Oscar while he was speaking to someone out of shot. The other was Stef holding his arm in a photo with the early band line up.

‘Good god, you’re right. I was a bit full on wasn’t I?’

‘He loved it.’ 

‘You think?’

‘Well, he did pursue you.’

Stef snorted, ‘I remember that, he’d spin around in his seat in class and try talk to me constantly.’

‘Well, it worked. You wouldn’t see you without him or the other way round.’

‘I’m gonna grab the guitars from the basement, please don’t burn any of those photos, you’ll love them when you’re old and ugly.’

‘Thank you, Nik.’ Stef leered at him as he walked away, just as Oscar came in from the yard. He put his hands on her neck.

‘You’re freezing, get your hands off me.’

‘Or what?’ he teased.

‘Or there will be a repeat of earlier today.’ 

Oscar held his hands up and looked at if he were going to take a step back until he saw the photos Stef was looking at.

‘Wow, look at my hair!’

‘It’s no different now, you just got it cut.’

‘And I have more greys.’ Oscar’s face lit up seeing the pictures. ‘Oh man, that’s a trip down memory lane. Hey, look at your outfit!’

‘Nik just said the same thing, I looked cool!’ Stef didn’t really need to defend herself, teenage pictures were never good. 

‘Man, I remember this, we were together a few months. Already I felt like we were gonna be together forever. I’m pretty sure I wrote that on my music book, hey, we met in music class!’

Stef chuckled at his face showing his range of emotions, realisation to good memories to the more embarrassing ones. ‘That’s probably why I wrote Oscar loves Stef 4ever on it.’

‘I think so. That was cute,’ she added softly. ‘But wait no, you showed up in music class and stared at me the whole time. We didn’t ‘meet’ there. You introduced yourself to me at lunch break about two days later.’

‘Yeah, it took a couple of days of talking to your friends to see if you were cool or not. You were cute, I swear I fell in love right then and there when I saw you that first day.’ Oscar rested his head on her shoulder, watching as she flicked to the next set of photos. 

‘Uh oh, pregnancy photo.’

‘Oh, I may have to take this one, we don’t have any pictures of you like this.’ Oscar pulled it from the plastic film.

‘I’m sure we do.’

‘Nah we don’t,’ Oscar interrupted. ‘I don’t even know how we even managed to have a kid, I wasn’t allowed in your house if your mom wasn’t in the room with us.’

Stef giggled, ‘Yep. I think it was the ‘fucking any chance we got’ that did it.’ 

Oscar’s nose crinkled while he laughed. ‘You know, I think we almost did do it everywhere, since I was never allowed in your bedroom. In fact, I’m almost certain we did it on Nik’s sofa.’

Stef’s eyes widened, ‘oh we did, didn’t we.’ 

‘What are you two giggling at?’ Nik came back into the room, holding a guitar in each hand. Oscar and Stef both coughed at the same time, trying to cover their giggling. 

‘These pictures, man, they’re hilarious. I need to get that picture of Effie pregnant, I need to show it to Dar.’ 

‘No problem, take it. Show him how NOT to dress.’

‘Shut the fuck up!’ Stef turned the photo album around to show Nik a photo of him wearing a long, black leather jacket paired with board shorts. 

‘Well, at least some things have changed.’ Nik screwed up his face.

‘You still have the jacket?’ Stef asked.

‘Yep,’ Nik stepped out of the room. ‘I still have the jacket and you two are still in love.’ He hollered as he climbed the stairs two at a time.

Stef didn’t need to see her face to know that she was turning bright red. Fumbling with the photo album, some pictures dropped out of the back. 

Oscar grabbed them quickly, turning them over. 

‘Oh hell, check this one out.’ Oscar said steadily, as if he didn’t hear Nik. 

The first photo was Stef on stage, dressed as a nurse for a Halloween show. The outfit didn’t leave much to the imagination. ‘That was after we had Darius, my god, the size of my tits in that!’

‘I remember, they were awesome!’ Oscar was smirking down at the picture, Stef nudged him with her shoulder.

‘Ever think of dressing up on stage?’ 

Stef was going to give him another nudge and tell him off when she saw the look on his face. His cheeks were flushed, his lip pulled between his teeth. There was lust in his eyes, but it was more than that. It was the look he used to have on his face before he would lean in to kiss her when they first started seeing each other. When every kiss would turn her inside out, every touch was electric. 

‘Uhm, I haven’t really…’ she stammered, trying to pull her gaze away from him.

‘I’m keeping this.’ He slipped the photo into his back pocket before Stef had time to protest.

‘And this one is interesting.’ Oscar held the other photo between his fingers, Stef was dressed as Lara Croft, Nik was Beetlejuice and Oscar was a pimp, top hat and cane had been lost at some point during that night. 

‘Wow, I still hadn’t lost the tits.’ Stef grumbled.

‘I want to know why Nik had the sexiest photos of you at the back of the photo album.’

‘Hey Nik,’ Oscar bellowed at his friend, who was coming back down the stairs, struggling with an amplifier. 

‘Why do you have sexy pictures of Stef?’

‘I have sexy pictures of Stef?’ Nik lumbered through the room, setting the amp in the corner, plugging in his beloved Ibanez iceman. 

‘Yeah, Halloween from about 20 years ago.’

‘Ohhhhhh,’ Nik laughed, ‘spank bank? Don’t tell my wife.’

‘You’re on a warning, buddy,’ Oscar teased.

‘A warning?’ Nik cackled, ‘she ain’t your girl anymore, man.’ 

Oscar snorted, stuffing the photograph into his back pocket. 

‘Why are you taking them?’ Stef whispered.

Oscar winked in response, causing Stef to groan inwardly. 

‘Right, come on dudes. Let’s jam!’ Nik switched on the amplifier.