trash-cube

[trash-cube]

I’m sorry it’s kind of long, I have never done one of these before. But I have been playing @seraphinitegames The Wayhaven Chronicles for the past few days, and I got inspired to write again! What better way to practice than with something I enjoy.

I would appreciate any and all feedback if you would like to give it, otherwise if you’re interested here is a thing I wrote:

(the title is still a work in progress)

“I just don’t understand why we need to come back here so soon. We literally just checked on the supernaturals, everything looked fine.” I ask, trying to hide just how confused I am while being pulled deeper into the carnival by a stoic Adam.

“There is nothing wrong with being thorough, Detective.” he replies nonchalantly, clearly not intending to give a straight answer. He instead just continues forward, weaving between families and tents with the detective in tow.

“You could have at least let me eat dinner first.” I start to pout, trying to talk over my grumbling stomach while staring at the funnel cake the group next to us seems to be hoarding jealously. What I wouldn’t give for one of those right now.

“I promise you, it’s more important than whatever pastry you’re lusting after right now.” I furrow my brow, annoyed that he knows me well enough to know just when and how I am staring at sweets. 

We silently press on through the carnival until Adam finally comes to an abrupt stop in front of a stall that I didn’t quite catch before walking directly into him. I look up, my cheeks glowing bright red when I notice the smirk plastered on his face as he looks down at me. “What’s your hurry, Detective?” he says with a chuckle.

I turn around to see where we’ve ended up and immediately get a headache at the sight.

He brought us back to the duck-hook booth.

“This is what was so important that I had to skip dinner?” I fold my arms, once again reminded of just how hard my stomach is protesting.

“I finally figured it out,” He replies, genuine enthusiasm only just escaping past his usual expressionless demeanor. “I have been practicing for weeks and I finally understand how to beat this ungodly attraction.”

“Weeks?!” I can hardly believe that this has been consuming his thoughts for even an hour, let alone weeks.

“You are hardly in any position to judge. I have seen how invested you get in spending time browsing pastries at Haley’s.” He also crosses his arms as he says this, clearly irked that I am not taking this as seriously as he thinks I should.

I hold up my arms in surrender. “Point taken, I’m sorry.” I say, stifling a laugh. He frowns and turns his attention to the vendor, looking at his only ticket hungrily, the moment somewhat consuming him.

“Feel like tryin’ your luck?” the vendor asks with a wide smile partly hidden beneath a bushy mustache. He takes the ticket and hands Adam the hook, which he then grips firmly enough for his knuckles to turn white. He approaches the ducks, eyes narrowed in focus. 

“Good luck.” I offer with a smile. He pays me no mind, already engrossed in his battle stance. I lean against a neighboring stall and watch as the vendor turns on the game.

I notice Adam’s muscles tensing as the ducks begin their taunting choreography. Immediately he hooks one of the ducks, his frown only deepening as he tries to retain his focus. He doesn’t venture an attempt again until he has one clearly in his sights. He hooks it flawlessly.

Five minutes pass. The only movements he dares to make are moving his eyes to follow the rigid motion of the ducks. The vendor lets out a wide yawn, clearly becoming bored with how seriously Adam is taking this game. I am about to mimic that yawn when Adam snatches a duck in a flash of moment so fast that I barely catch it. The vendor also attempts to follow the movement and nearly falls over. Then as quickly as he attacked, he is now still again. 

Five more minutes pass, the vendor casting an irritated gaze down at his watch. “Look buddy, I’ll give ya one more minute but I can’t wait on ‘ya all night.” Adam flashes him an agitated look before returning his attention to the ducks. Clearly under an immense amount of pressure now that there is a time limit, he sloppily swings the hook forward to ensnare his fourth duck. Only one more to go.

I stare at Adam a bit more intently as his movements become less calculated, a bit of desperation noticeable in his deeply furrowed brow. Is he...sweating?

He moves the hook in one final motion, hoping that his aim is correct. He grazes the neck of the duck, narrowly missing, and sends it cascading down into the children’s pool below. I don’t dare say a word. I simply creep over to the vendor while Adam’s fiery gaze is fixated on the duck, maybe hoping he’ll scare it into submission.

“Look,” I whisper, hoping Adam is too focused on the duck to hear me. “This is yours if you give him literally anything. Say there was a fluke or something.” I reach into my wallet and pull out some cash that the vendor sizes up.

“I dunno,” he replies, rubbing the back of his neck. He’s about to say something else when Adam lets out a strained breath, anger lacing every bit of the exhalation. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of that anger, the vendor quickly snatches my money and tugs a small plush toy off of one of the shelves, offering it to a now confused Adam. “Must have been a screw-up with the belt! I’ll have to get that looked at, but here ya go!” he says with a nervous laugh, holding out the small blue teddy bear as far away from himself as possible.

Pride washes over Adam’s intense features, confusion starting to melt away. He gladly takes the bear, and the vendor yanks his hand away when the harrowing ordeal is over. He then pulls down the shade in front of his booth, which is our cue to leave.

We begin walking away, getting as far as the edge of a clearing lined with food stands before he stops and turns towards me. “Detective,” he says, satisfaction embedded in his tone. “This is for you.” He presents the shaggy blue teddy proudly. I can’t help but smile back at how determined he’d been. I have no idea whether it was to win a prize for me or to simply regain his honor from his previous loss, but I don’t care. I gingerly take the bear and coil myself around his muscular arm affectionately. He smiles down at me, using his free hand to lift my chin up so our gazes meet. 

Neither of us move, neither of us blinks. We are both enveloped in each other’s eyes. I revel in the chill his icy green stare sends down my spine, and my cheeks get hot as I notice him moving his head closer to mine. I start to close my eyes in anticipation for what’s coming when we both hear a loud voice booming from the other side of the clearing. “There you are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Farah bounds towards us gracefully, Nate close behind but treading lightly for fear of dropping all of the novelty items Farah has entrusted to him. Adam hasn’t stopped looking at me, and I hear a low growl as he retreats quickly, our faces having been only an inch apart a moment ago. I let out a defeated sigh and admire the small animal Adam “won”.

“Jeez, what took you guys so long?” she prods, her gaze quickly traveling between Adam, myself, and the bear. A long smile spreads over her face as she turns to look at Adam. “So that’s where all those ducks came from.” I hear a groan come from Nate behind a wall of plastic horns.

“Farah…” Nate scolds.

“Oh come on, you were thinking the same thing!” she replies with a laugh. How many ducks could he have possibly gone through? 

“Are you quite finished?” Adam says in irritation. Farah is now smiling triumphantly, a wide grin etched across her face at hearing his annoyance.

“Only until Diana is out of earshot.” She grabs a handful of cotton candy from the pile that Nate is lugging around and tosses it into her mouth, possibly in an attempt to stop herself from saying something else.

“Are you done here?” Nate asks. “I don’t think I’ll have room to hold anything else you might fancy. You’ll have to start taking some of it.” Terrified at the idea of bearing her own baubles, she quickly waves at us.

“Grbah!” she says past a mouthful of cotton candy as she whisks Nate away before he has time to give her anything to carry.

“Was she saying goodbye?” My eyes narrow in thought. I know plenty of languages but none of that matters when trying to understand Farah talking with her mouth full.

“If she wasn’t, I don’t think I want to know what she was saying.” Adam states, folding his arms and burying a slight chuckle. His gaze travels over me and he notices that I am still hugging the bear he gave me, something that I myself wasn’t even aware of. His face softens, and he pulls me closer to him as gently as I have ever known him to do anything. He places my cheek in his hand and holds me tenderly. My heart is hammering in my chest, a fact I am sure he notices as his cheeks flush the faintest shade of pink. He leans down to accommodate my small stature as he closes the gap between us, his lips finally cascading over mine.

I can barely help but smile against his touch as I’m submerged in ecstasy. Everything about him feels so right, and I become slightly intoxicated by the moment. The kiss becomes deeper and hungrier as we both realize that it is something we have both wanted for a very long time. I wrap my arms around his neck in an attempt to get even closer to him, and he responds by breaking away from me, a ravenous look in his eye.

I don’t have time to ask what’s wrong before he scoops me up and breaks off in a mad dash. The carnival passes by in a steady stream of bright colors as we run past at an inhuman speed. Before I know it, we are in the hallway of my apartment. He sets me down, almost reluctantly, and I put a hand against the wall to try and steady myself, everything that had taken place just now making it very hard to stand up straight. I catch my breath and fumble with my keys to let us into my quiet, barren apartment. Adam’s eyes don’t leave me for a second.

He seems to be coming down to a state of normalcy as he enters my home, a sort of calm passing over him. I am right at his heels until we are both inside, and as I turn the lock of my door I feel him right behind me. He grabs my hips and stoops down to lightly kiss my neck, then starts to kiss it with more agency. I almost hear him breathe out a few words against my skin which is now covered in goosebumps. Before I can focus a bit more to figure out what it is he said, he picks me up and pins me between him and the wall. I wrap my legs around him for added stability as his lips are once again enveloping mine.

Everything is moving so fast, but at the same time it feels as though the two of us are frozen. Our movements are rushed but they feel so natural as we meld into one another. His hands cradle me softly as we become intertwined in an endless kiss, only stopping when I finally run out of air. He puts me down and takes a wide step back from me, breathing heavily as he does so. He gets more tense, like being apart from me in that moment was one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do. My mouth feels dry and my chest heaves up and down to aid my labored breaths as I try to think about what just happened...and why it feels so wrong now that we’ve stopped.

“I apologize, Dia--...Detective,” he says, his composure almost fully regained at this point. “I don’t know what came over me.” His head seems to hang a bit lower, like he feels real remorse for what just transpired between us.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” I say, walking over to him and taking his hand in both of mine. The look in his eye makes it seem like he will pull away from my grasp as soon as he’s in it, but his shoulders unwind a bit and he finally accepts the gesture.

“I should go, I don’t want to trouble you any further.” There is a heaviness to his words that directly contrasts with the moment we just shared, but I try to ignore the sharp pain it sends into my stomach as I look up at him. He starts to make for the door.

“Would you at least stay while I make some dinner?” I blurt out, a hopeful tone lifting my words. His hard gaze softens and he smiles. With a half-hearted nod, he shrugs his coat off and hangs it next to the door. His muscles bulge at the motion under his skin-tight grey t-shirt, and I find it impossible to look away from his perfect figure.

“Are you alright?”

“Y--yes!” I say, quicker than I should have. He chuckles and takes a seat on the couch. As uncomfortable as he looks, it is the first time I have noticed him do anything other than stand in my home. I turn around and head to the kitchen to hide the smile rapidly making its way onto my face.

Once I’m in my kitchen, I start rummaging through my cupboards and fridge, hoping that I can find something to make. Unfortunately, I forgot to restock my shelves today so the search yields very little. I manage to find a mostly empty box of pasta hidden behind other odds and ends, and with a sigh I start boiling water. I spread my hands across my counter-top in thought, eventually getting back to my search. I found just enough to make a light sauce for the noodles, so I count that as a personal victory.

“Are you hungry?” I instinctively ask. I don’t usually have house guests but I have also never seen this house guest eat, so it seemed like an unnecessary question. I turn around to address him further, about to head into the living room when I have to make an abrupt stop to avoid running into him for the second time today. His eyes go wide as though he is only now realizing how close he actually is to me. He takes a step back, but not a wide one this time.

“Thank you, Detective,” he begins. “But I find that highly unnecessary.” Of course he does.

A silence falls over us, and he starts to run his hand over the back of his head as though trying to remember why he got up in the first place. I open my mouth to try and make something barely passable as conversation when he beats me to it.

“Diana.” I can’t fight the flutter in my stomach at hearing him say my name. “Have you...enjoyed the evening so far?” I assume he is only trying to make basic conversation, but there is a weight on his voice that lets me know there is some deeper answer he’s searching for. I take a step closer and almost close the gap between us, even without hyper-senses I can hear his rapid heartbeat drumming in his chest.

“Every bit of it.” I reach my hand out to touch his arm, but before I finish that motion he has me wrapped in a warm embrace, his breathing a bit unsteady at first, but it slowly returns to its natural rhythm. I lay my head against him and he places a hand on the back of it, trying to keep me close to him. We stand there for what seems like ages, and every second of it is perfect. 

As hungry as I was earlier, that is the last thing I care about right now. Reluctantly, I break away from our embrace so I can at least pretend to be responsible for my own belongings. I turn off the burner and head into my bedroom followed closely by Adam. We get into bed together, laying against one another in blissful silence, the only sound being the soft breaths emanating from both of us. At this moment, I feel like nothing can hurt me. I wrap an arm over him and rest my head against his broad, muscular chest. Everything seems distant except for him, and I don’t even realize when I fall asleep against him.

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Adam lets a small smile creep over his face as he holds the detective. He doesn’t want this moment to end, and fears any sudden sound or movement will do just that. He even tries to slow down his breathing so the rise and fall of his chest doesn’t make her stir as she falls asleep. She looks so peaceful, so calm. She looks like everything he has ever wanted. 

He moves his arm to wrap it around her and hold her closer, to which her sleeping form responds by nestling further into him. He turns his attention to the window; the sun set some time ago, and the rest of Unit Bravo will be wondering where he is by now.

“Good, let them wonder.” he thinks to himself. He is already exactly where he wants to be. Where he needs to be. He can handle the heckling from Farah, the concern from Nate, and the snide remarks from Morgan, but he will do so tomorrow. Adam then begins to let himself settle, allowing sleep overtaking him for once. The smile he’s wearing widens, and the detective’s tranquil expression is the last thing he sees before he also succumbs to slumber.