#the next morning yolanda and court are going to wake up to hournite in their honeymoon era and are going to be SO confused

[hournites]

Do you love me?

Hournite fluff - we deserve it 

Prompt: Do you love me? @bethchapel​​ It’s slowly approaching three AM and Courtney and Yolanda are already asleep in the pile of air mattresses and sleeping bags collected in the middle of the JSA cabin’s living room. Day one of their JSA bonding retreat was a success, mostly spent exploring the woods, swimming in the lake, and repeatedly asking themselves how on earth Pat affords such a luxurious cabin in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. Rick bundles up his and Beth’s blankets and moves to one of the upstairs bedrooms when Courtney starts to snuffle in her sleep. 

Beth watches as Rick sits down in front of the ancient television set, pulling out dusty VHS tapes for her to veto what movie to put on. He’s on a mission, oddly alert for the middle of the night. Beth pretends she’s not disastrously exhausted as she settles on top of the bed. 

“How are you not tired from driving this morning?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs and glances over his shoulder. “I guess I’m just excited to be here.”

Rick feeds Beauty and the Beast into the slot and it immediately plays the movie’s end credits. She giggles when he groans and clumsily thumbs the rewind button on the clunky remote. He joins Beth on the bed, yanking on a very old knitted quilt to lay over their knees. 

“I’ve never actually watched this.”

Her jaw drops. “What? Are you kidding?” 

He cracks a smile at her shock. “No.” 

“It’s a Disney classic!” Belle comes on screen with her basket all doe-eyed and wistful. Beth points at her. “You’ve never seen Belle before?” 

“Sure, I’ve seen her. I’ve just never seen her movie.” 

Beth sighs, now worried about what else Rick’s missing out on. When Belle is in the bookshop, Rick starts chuckling beside her. 

Beth quirks a brow at him, laid back on the mountain of propped-up pillows. “What?” 

“She reminds me of you.” 

Her frown deepens, but a smile starts to  spread, too. “Me?” 

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“She’s smart and caring.” Two fingers playfully crawl up the blanket over her leg. “Nose stuck in a book inhaling information like you with those goggles.”

Beth’s chest warms. 

She lets her head slip to rest on him. Her eyes start to droop mid-way through the movie, but Rick is really dead-set on watching this film  for some reason, so she forces them open. 

“Hey.” He pokes her side and she lifts her head up from his shoulder. “You falling asleep on me?” 

“No,” she lies. 

“It’s late. We can turn it off.” 

“No, I want you to watch it.” 

“You don’t have to be awake for me  to do that.” He searches for the remote again and turns on closed captioning. “It can keep playing while you sleep, Beth.”

“No,” she protests again through a long yawn, knowing she’s starting to sound ridiculous. He’s still grinning softly at her though, so she doesn’t back down. “It’s a musical, you need to hear everything. And I want to experience it with you.”

“You’re about to pass out.”

“I don’t care.”

Rick glances back and forth between the tv screen and her. 

“Pinch me if you have to,” she tells him, yawning again.  

“I’m not going to pinch you!” 

“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll just get up and make coffee.” But she is so incredibly comfortable nestled in blankets with Rick that Beth can’t muster any energy to move. 

“Wow. Coffee in the middle of the night. You don’t even like coffee.”

“Sure, I do.”

“Beth Chapel,” Rick drawls out with a smirk, seeing right through her lies. “Do you love me?”  

“Yes,” she mumbles into his arm.

Rick falls awfully quiet, processing what he just asked and how she replied. It seemed to have slipped out, Rick not actually expecting anything from that.

“Do you, really?” he whispers, serious.

Beth blinks up at him. “Yes.” She pulls herself up to truly get a better look at him. Rick is a little dazed, blinking fast, mouth parted open like he’s stuck. She carefully puts her hand over the back of his gray t-shirt. “Has no one ever said that to you before?”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Rick?”

“Not in a long time,” he chokes out, overwhelmed. 

Rick is changing. Beth has seen the subtle differences since her parents started paying for his therapy. He’s not quite so wound up anymore. He’s developing patience. And, the most remarkable newness from him is that he’s not shutting down anymore immediately after sharing the pain he carries. Opening up is getting easier for him, even if it’s still hard, and Beth is immensely proud of him for it.

“I love you,” she says gently, mentally chasing her drowsiness away so that she can have this discussion properly. Beth wants to remember this, she needs to be fully awake. “Rick, I always love you.”

“Even when I’m a jerk?”

“Yes,” she says, “not that I like it. But because you always come back after and apologize for being one.”

His fast blinking continues until Beth starts to see he’s struggling with tears. “Really?” he says again, like he can’t believe it and her heart almost breaks.

“Yes.” 

Rick laughs like he’s embarrassed, tearing his gaze away to wipe at his face and glance back at the movie. Beth shifts closer, hand still on his back. She lets her hand slide to his shoulder, gently teasing the nape of his neck. 

“Rick?” she asks. “Do you love…me?” It’s a little silly because she already knows the answer, but her breath hitches nevertheless. 

He turns his head and their eyes meet. Rick’s are wet and soft, full of affection, but maybe they’re just mirroring her own. He nods and mere seconds later, his gaze falls to Beth’s lips. It’s only then, she realizes, that the love in this question– it isn’t the one they were talking about before. The room grows hot, prickling beneath Beth’s skin. Rick’s hand finds its way on her cheek, cradling half of her face. The touch knocks the air from her lungs. Rick’s hand tilts her chin up, those hazel eyes flicking as they try to read her, with a million things to say. 

Is this what you want? Is this what we mean? Is this okay?

He finds her answer when she closes her eyes and Rick greets her mouth with a kiss. It’s slow and tentative and burns a fire in her soul. Beth almost falls into him, leaning in to kiss back. Her other hand catches on his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, the other stills around his neck until they part. 

Beth’s more silent than she’s been in her life, Rick’s steady heartbeat thrumming beneath her touch. Rick exhales. He doesn’t say anything either, afraid to ruin the moment or wake up from a dream. They don’t have to talk. Beth takes his face in her hands and kisses him again, now applying her working knowledge of how to properly do it.  

It’s almost four in the morning when Rick gently tugs Beth by the wrists out of the bed to return to the sleepover downstairs with their friends. Courtney’s dead quiet, curly hair flung above the pillow of her sleeping bag. Yolanda’s curled up in hers like a cat. Rick settles into his own on the wooden floor. Beth crouches on the other side of the room, picking up her blankets and air mattress to drag over to him. She looks up from the task, feeling his eyes on her. Beth’s arms squeeze around her pillow, still floating on air. 

Do you love me? Beth mouths across the dark room. 

He grins and props himself up on an elbow, draping the quilt over her form once she’s in the makeshift bed. 

Do you love me? Rick mouths back. 

[hournites]

Blush

Fluffy Hournite fic for Valentine’s Day! 

~.~ 

~.~

It’s as normal a day as any. Beth wakes up and brushes her teeth, gets dressed, makes breakfast, eats breakfast then walks towards Main Street in the crisp morning cold. She sticks her hands into the pockets of her maroon tweed skirt and hurries into the Pit Stop just as the sun peaks over the clouds atop the St-Thomas Church steeple. 

Pat’s head is stuck under the roof of his recent fix-up, but he waves his wrench in her direction when the garage door opens. 

“Good morning, Mr. Dugan!” She shrugs off her bag. There’s forty-five minutes until homeroom, it makes more sense to wait here than wait for her friends to trickle in one by one to  school. “Is Court up yet?” 

Pat’s words are muffled under the purring engine. He rights himself up and shoots her a sympathetic smile. “Actually, Court’s got an emergency dentist appointment. Barb’s driving her in so she won’t be late for second period.” 

“Oh,” Beth replies. “That’s okay.” 

Internally, she rolls her eyes. Courtney’s been strategically faking a toothache since Monday in order to score a very convenient teeth cleaning on Valentine’s Day, convinced it’s finally the day Cameron Mahkent is going to kiss her. 

“Rick should be here soon though.” And the bells just finished chiming so Yolanda is likely heading down the front steps of the church now. 

Sure enough, the Yellow Mustang rolls into the driveway, while still early, a little later than usual. Beth bites down on her lip to quell the stupid grin threatening to grace her face as she watches him walk in through the window. It’s not like she hadn't seen him yesterday. 

“Hey,” he greets her when he arrives, climbing up the steps to the loft. He’s wearing one of his classic tan coloured sherpa jackets. “I passed by Yolanda at the church, she said she’s going to walk.” He pauses halfway, hands on the bars of the ladder instead of coming up all the way. “What’s up?” 

Beth shrugs. “Nothing much. Doing some homework. Have you started reading Emma?”

“Uhhh...” Rick says. “No? I mean, I’ll get to it. Eventually. When’s the book report due again?”

“Not until the week after next.” 

Rick shakes his head at her. “Yeah, that’s not happening anytime soon.”

“Or I can read it to you?”

“I know how to read!”

“I know!” Beth laughs. “But I think it would be fun.” ...And it’s an excuse to spend more time with him.

“Fine! You can read it to me.” He rests his arms against the top ladder step. “Sure. Okay.”

“Really?!” Beth grins. That was easy. “We can meet here tomorrow before school! I’ll bring you coffee!”

“Sounds good.” He gestures to the ground floor. “Come down. I’ve got something for you in the car, wanna see?”

Curious, Beth quickly puts away the book and follows him down. Rick throws up a wave at Pat, and they leave through the side door. Main Street is a lot busier now, and the chill isn’t as bad with the sun on her back. It’s nice enough for February, but Beth is really wishing she brought her heavier coat. 

“What happened to your jacket?” 

Beth frowns a bit. He’s right to point it out that it’s weird but it’s hard to exactly justify to Rick foregoing a hat and scarf and thick jacket in favour of looking cute. Courtney would get it. 

Beth deflects by striking a pose. “Do you like my outfit?” It’s on theme without being too on the nose. Her mom thought it was a very classy 80s style cardigan and skirt pairing she couldn’t go wrong with. 

“Yeesss…” Rick answers slowly, “But are you sure you don’t want my hoodie?”

Beth’s eyes grow wide. Uh, was Rick just offering? Before she could untwist her tongue to reply, he’s shrugging it off from under his jacket and tossing it to her. Beth spins to catch the hoodie before it lands on concrete. 

“Thanks,” she says weakly, pulling it over her elastic hairband, just knowing it’s messing up with her hair as she struggles to get her head through the hole. It’s huge on her, hanging from her elbows like a gigantic fleece sheet. Rick’s eyes are full of laughter when she scrunches up her nose, trailing her fingertips at the hem of the hoodie where it brushes against her knees. With the flesh-coloured stockings matched for her skirt still skin-tight on her legs and her red earrings, it looks like Beth is swallowed in a makeshift hoodie dress destined for a photo-op in street-style fashion. 

“It’s not that big,” he lies. 

Beth grumbles as if she’s not secretly loving this. Both Rick’s clothes hugging her and his lingering gaze. 

She rushes to the passenger side of Rick’s car, eager to get in. Rick unlocks the car and Beth opens the door. Instead of climbing in, she stops and her mouth hangs open. 

Rick shrugs as though it’s completely normal to find a beautiful bouquet of romantic red roses in his car. “It’s Valentine’s Day, isn’t it?”

Wait, those are for me?

And then she feels silly as a warm sweep of happiness rushes through her all the way down to her toes. They have her name on them. And Rick leant her his hoodie. Rick shooed Yolanda away this morning and said he had something for her. And they’ve been maybe sorta kinda circling around feelings for each other for a pretty long time now. They’re absolutely for her!

Beth is floored. “I know, but…” She stares at the red roses in the front seat of the Mustang some more. Yep, they were still there. Rick fights to control the flush spreading over his cheeks. Beth finds herself accepting them when he gently pushes the bouquet into her arms.

“I know you’re not my girlfriend or anything. I was just thinking…Maybe you could be?” The second half of his sentence ends up coming out more like a question. 

“You want me to be your girlfriend,” Beth echoes dumbly. She ducks her head into the bouquet and smiles like crazy. Was this for real?! “You can be my boyfriend?”

“Only if you want,” Rick adds quickly, losing confidence. “You can keep the roses either way. You’re still my best friend.” When Beth didn’t say anything he clears his throat. “But I really like you, Beth.”

“I really like you too,” she says shyly, meeting his eyes. And holy heck when has Beth ever been one to sound shy? “I wasn’t sure if it was just me.”

“It’s not just you,” he says. He settles into the driver’s seat, rubbing the back of his neck like he doesn’t know what to do now that she’s said they could make something of what they have. “Um. Okay. Cool.” 

“Cool,” Beth says back. She leans over and presses a kiss to Rick’s cheek. “Thank you for the surprise.”

He shoots her another smile. One of his real ones.

“So tomorrow morning can be a date!” Beth says excitedly. “I know you don’t like Jane Austin though--”

“I just feel like we deal with enough Victorian nonsense with The Shade.”

“Jane Austen is Regency.”

Rick rolls his eyes. “It’ll be fine, Beth.”

“--So maybe it’s not a perfect first date but we can do something you like after class...” She trails off as Rick drives into the school parking lot, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at him. “Wait...Did you agree to listen to me just because you like to hear me talk?”

“No.” His face goes red immediately. “Maybe.” 

“Ha!” Beth kicks her feet. “You do!” 

“Shut up.”

“You have a crush on my voice!”

“I have a crush on all of you!” Rick snaps, then looks mortified. He parks and crosses his arms, setting his jaw and staring straight ahead. “I can’t believe we’ve been dating for 3 minutes and you’re already making fun of me.”

“Aww,” says Beth. She unbuckles her seat belt and sets the flowers on top of the dashboard, leaning over to wrap her arms around his neck. His hoodie sleeves flood past her hands. The corner of Rick’s mouth lifts a bit. “I’m not making fun of you,” she promises. “I’m just really excited.” She licks her lips, realizing how close she is to Rick’s face. “Rick? Since I’m your girlfriend now...Is it okay to kiss you?”

Rick turns to look at her. She blinks. Then Rick’s hand is gentle on her face. And he kisses her, soft and very sweet. 

Someone knocks on the Mustang window. The two jump apart. Beth clutches the bouquet of roses as a weapon. Rick, nearly about to throw hands. 

“It’s just me,” says Yolanda once Rick slams hard on the button to roll down the window. “You’re going to be late for school.”

Beth awkwardly climbs over Rick’s lap to get out of his car. She shows Yolanda her flowers. “Aren’t they pretty?”

Yolanda smiles at her. “Yeah, he’s had that planned for a while, haven’t you, loverboy?” Rick steps on her boot. Yolanda gasps, shoving him in retaliation. She tilts her head at Beth. “Is that Rick’s hoodie? And where’s Court?”

“Dentist.” Beth grabs Rick’s hand as they make their way into the school, Yolanda following behind them. “And I think this hoodie’s now mine.”