#ill take kieutou requests if anyone's interested

[vlindervin7]

put your chin on my shoulder, love 

read on ao3 

Put your chin on my shoulders, love. Climb under the quilt. Remind me what joy feels like. You do it every day, darling -- shouldn’t be too troublesome for you. 

***

The sun is sinking when Kieu My arrives at the shop, and with it its warmth disappears too. She shivers when she pushes open the door. She quickly closes it behind her to preserve the warmth inside, and lets it warm her up before she enters the store. 

She’s only been here once or twice, but she already loves it. There’s something magical about the dim lighting mixing with the colours of the aquariums, the fish all around her and the purple lightning. 

The colours of the bi flag, she thinks with a little smile. She’s been noticing these things more and more, doing research and embracing it as part of her instead of fearing it. It feels nice, quiet acts of acceptance and pride. 

She’s still lost in thought when suddenly from behind she hears, ‘Kieu My!’ 

Her smile grows at the sound. When she turns around she’s met with the sight of Fatou bent over one of the aquaria, one hand holding a box and the other excitedly waving at Kieu My. Kieu My’s body does a small excited bounce before she has the chance to stop it, before she can contain it and then realise she doesn’t need to be guarded anymore and do it anyway. This way is definitely quicker. 

When she’s by Fatou’s side, Kieu My breathes out a ‘hi’. Fatou straightens onto the tip of her toes and drops a quick kiss on her lips that, however brief, makes something tighten in her chest. The sweetest person on the planet is her girlfriend and Kieu My doubts there’s anything she’s ever done that made her deserve this. 

‘Hi! I’m almost done, just gotta finish feeding some of the fish. I’ll be right there.’ She waits for Kieu My’s nod as her cue to continue doing what she was doing, and Kieu My starts walking to the register to sit down and wait. She’s stopped by Fatou saying ‘wait’ before she can get very far, though, and when she turns around she finds her rummaging through her sweater pockets, and finally fishing out a bright pink piece of candy wrapped in crackling plastic. Then, with her hand outstretched and the candy in the middle of it, she bows. Taking on a ridiculous, deep voice, and looking up at Kieu My with an exaggerated smoldering look, she says: ‘My love, will you accept this candy as a token of my affection? It stands for my heart and is as sweet as you are.’ 

Fighting back a laugh, Kieu My curtsies, takes the candy and brushes her lips against it, before pressing it to her heart. ‘I will take good care of it, good sir.’

She manages to look serious for about two seconds before she succumbs to giggles, even though a part of her was dead serious saying she’d do anything to keep Fatou’s heart safe now that she’s been trusted with it. It’s the most important task she’s ever been given. 

She pops the candy in her mouth, and asks, ‘Why do you walk around with a bunch of candy?’

Fatou’s still softly laughing. ‘It’s for when kids come in! They like it.’

‘You’re sweet.’ 

Fatou turns her smile downwards and shrugs, ‘It makes them happy.’ 

Kieu My laughs at her bashfulness, but she knows she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to Fatou. 

Fatou shakes her head, seemingly shaking herself out of the state she’d gotten in. ‘Okay! Go sit down, I’ll finish up quickly.’

This time Kieu My manages to actually sit down on the chair behind the register. She gets comfortable with her leg folded on the chair and her chin resting on her knee. She’s perfectly placed to keep Fatou in her line of sight, see how she feeds the fish and talks to them, how she wipes down aquaria while humming a tune and bobbing her head to it, how she catches Kieu My’s eye and gives her a smile that’s as bright as the first time. Kieu My’s pretty sure she’s in love. 

It takes about ten minutes for Fatou to finish what she’s doing and come bounding in Kieu My’s direction. ‘Now I just need to count the money, and we can go.’ She drops a quick kiss on Kieu My’s head, setting free a horde of butterflies who were dormant in her stomach, and opens the cash register with a ping. ‘Sorry for making you wait.’ 

‘It’s okay’, Kieu My answers. It’s all she can say, unless she wants to let her know she’ll wait however long she needs to spend time together, and that she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than sitting right here, but she doesn’t think she’s ready to be that honest quite yet. 

Instead, she gets up and, using her height to her advantage, wraps her arms around Fatou’s waist, and sets her head on her shoulder. She’s just tall enough to easily be able to look over it to what she’s doing. It makes Fatou pause for a second, leaning into it, before she picks up the money she was counting and promptly starts over. 

‘Am I distracting you?’, Kieu My asks, putting her lips on the exposed part of her shoulder.

With a huff Fatou answers, ‘Yes.’, and shivers when Kieu My kisses her neck. She allows it for a few seconds, before gently moving Kieu My’s head away from her skin. ‘Now, shush, I need to concentrate.’ She punctuates it by bringing one of Kieu My’s hands to her mouth and kissing it before wrapping it back around her. 

Kieu My laughs. ‘Sorry’, she says, but she’s not really. Really her whole body feels warm with the kiss and with the knowledge that Fatou didn’t push her off entirely, that she’d rather be distracted than do that. She’s definitely in love. 

It doesn’t take long once Kieu My behaves, and five minutes later the cash register has been counted, the amount has been written down, the lights are off, and Fatou is closing the entrance door behind them with a key attached to an axolotl keychain. 

With how warm and comfortable she’d been inside, Kieu My had forgotten how cold she’d been walking here, and now that the sun is completely gone it’s even worse. She wraps her coat tighter around herself, but it doesn’t do much. She still shivers hard enough for Fatou to notice. 

‘Are you cold?’ 

‘Yeah, forgot my scarf at home.’ 

‘Here’, Fatou says, unwrapping her scarf from around her neck and, not listening to Kieu My’s protests, stands on her toes to wrap it around Kieu My’s neck instead, leaving it there with a kiss on her nose that only serves to heighten the warmth she’s receiving from the scarf. 

‘But now you’ll be cold.’ 

‘Nah’, Fatou says. She zips up her jacket all the way up and pulls her hood up, too. ‘See? I’m all covered.’ 

She does look very well-protected to the cold, but Kieu My can’t help feeling guilty. ‘You sure?’ 

‘Yeah’, she assures her, accompanied by one of her little head bobs, ‘I’m sure. And besides’, she takes Kieu My’s hand and starts walking again, their entire sides pressed together, ‘this way you’ll just have to keep me close.’ 

‘Okay’, Kieu My breathes out, putting an arm around Fatou’s shoulder so she can pull her even closer to her, ‘I can do that.’ 

the excerpt is from here! thanks @davidtransking for the suggestion! if anyone wonders what to buy me for my bday ill take an axolotl keychain in honour of fatou