Work Text:
one
His first drawing of her was quick. It took him forty minutes tops, his professor probably thought he was very interested in the lecture by the way his pencil flew across his paper.
But he wasn’t interested in probabilities or whatever statistics was about. No, Jack Kelly was looking at the girl seated in the front row, the one who entered twenty minutes late with a hurried apology about her car breaking down. The girl whose chestnut hair bounced as she jumped into the first vacant seat. She had a pretty face, delicate in a way that made him think she should be protected, but her eyes were focused and sharp with determination.
“Katherine Plumber,” she had said to their professor. “I’m so sorry I’m late.”
This girl, Katherine, was smart, from what he could tell. She knew all the answers to the question the professor asked and finished solving all the problems faster than anyone in the class. She also asked follow-up questions that made him feel like his head was going to explode.
His hands seemed to move on their own when they picked up a loose piece of paper and his pencil and started to draw her outline. From his view from the third row, he could only see her side profile. She was bent over her desk, determinedly scribbling away notes and crossing out miscalculations. She furrowed her brow when she concentrated, and her bangs kept falling into her face so she’d blow them up every couple of minutes.
He sat there, trying to capture every detail that he could with his limited view. The torn piece of paper and his pencil that needed sharpening didn’t help much but he did his best. He was so focused that he didn’t even notice that the class was dismissed until his teacher tapped him on the shoulder.
“Now I see why you were so focused on your paper,” his professor says, shaking his head. “I hope that next time you’ll be able to concentrate on your actual work Mr. Kelly.”
Jack has the decency to look sheepish and quickly starts putting away his things into his worn messenger bag. He was almost out the door when his professor calls his name.
“Mr. Kelly.”
“Yes, sir?”
“I think Ms. Plumber might like your work.” His professor smirks and gives him a knowing smile. “You’re a very talented artist.”
Jack blushes and shakes his head.
“No, Sir, I had a good muse.”
two
Jack thought that their interactions would be limited to him staring at her from afar in statistics class, but it seems like fate is on his side.
He was in the coffee shop that was right beside campus. It was a cozy store, walls lined with bookshelves filled to the brim with a variety of different books. Jack liked to settle himself in one of the plush armchairs to do his work alongside his cup of coffee. He was seated at his favorite table, the one right beside the window where he liked to people watch and sketch interesting things that happen or the leaves fallings from the willow tree outside the café, when he talked to Katherine for the first time.
It was an extra busy day at the café, almost every single table and seat was filled with students who were cramming before midterms. He was busy finishing up his history homework when he felt a light tap on his shoulder.
“Hi,” Katherine says, holding a tray with a cherry danish and what looks like a cup of tea. “I’m so sorry to bother you, you probably don’t know who I am-“
“I know who you are,” Jack says, smiling up at her. “You’re Katherine from my stats class. You came late on the first day.”
“Oh,” she says taken aback, her brown eyes wide. “I didn’t think anyone would remember that.”
“Wouldn’t forget someone like you sweetheart,” Jack grins. “You came in late and still managed to understand everything Denton said and answered every single question right.”
Katherine blushes but looks pleased. He notices her eye the vacant armchair opposite him.
“Would you like to sit?”
Katherine looks relieved as she nods.
“You don’t mind?” she says as he shakes his head. She takes off her backpack and moves to sit on the chair. “Thank you, I just needed to work somewhere that isn’t my apartment and my best friend recommended this place to me. I didn’t think it’d be this full.”
“Nah, it usually isn’t.” He shrugs and takes a sip of his coffee. “I go here a lot, and this is the busiest that I’ve ever seen it. What are you majoring in?”
“Journalism. I have a bunch of papers due and 3 midterms this week.” Katherine settles into her seat and rifles through her bag. “I also have a bunch of projects to organize for some of the clubs I’m in and an article to write for the school paper. How about you?”
“Wow,” Jack breathes out and his smile grows even wider. “I didn’t think you could get any more impressive. And I’m an art major, Miss Ace reporter.”
She rolls her eyes at him playfully. “I bet you say that to all the girls, Mister Artist,” she says sarcastically, shaking her head.
“Nah,” he says, his eyes sparkling mischievously. “I was testing that one out, but I think I’ll nix it and try other lines since that one didn’t work on you.”
She scoffs and gives him a small exasperated laugh as she opens her laptop. They sit in companionable silence for a while, the only sounds being the occasional clinking of a mug and Katherine rapidly typing on her keyboard or picking up a new book.
Jack looks up from his computer after finally finishing his history paper, the afternoon sun streaming in through the window. He rubs his eyes and stretches out his neck and back, hissing as he hears a crack.
“You finished?” Katherine asks, glancing up from the textbook she is highlighting.
“Almost-“ Jack starts to say when he notices how the light hits her as if it is enveloping her in its golden glow- “I, uh, just have something else I need to work on.”
She nods and goes back to her book. His fingers are itching for his good drawing pencils and his sketchbook, which he luckily brought with him to the café in the hopes that there would be something interesting to distract him from his work.
If Katherine wasn’t interesting enough for him to draw, he didn’t know what was.
He starts to draw her, grateful that he finally has a good angle to work with. There was a sweetness to her face that he didn’t capture in his first sketch of her. Her hands were dainty but stained with blotches of ink. The sunlight was highlighting her high cheekbones and her nose would crinkle every once in a while as she read her book.
At one point while he is sketching her, their eyes meet when he was staring at her a little longer than he should’ve been and she felt his gaze on her. But she gives him a smile that softens her face and lights it up at the same time.
He starts a new sketch, just to include that smile.
It’s almost dark when he is finally pleased with his drawing. He starts to put away his sketchpad just as Katherine sighs and closes her laptop.
“I think that’s the most I can do for now,” she says tiredly, rubbing at her eyes. Jack finishes packing his things and stands up as Katherine says, “Thank you again for letting me sit with you.”
He waves her off. “Don’t worry about it,” he says and suddenly grins at her. “You were good company. Not that bad on the eyes either.”
She huffs out a laugh. “You’re impossible.”
He shakes his head at her and waves goodbye. He’s almost near the door when he realizes something and turns around.
“Hey Plumber.” Katherine looks up at him. “The name’s Jack Kelly by the way. And, if you ever come by this place again, I’ll always save you a seat.”
He gives her one last grin and turns around after seeing the blush on her face return.
three
It becomes a thing between them. Coffee (tea for Katherine) and studying together. Weeks after their first study session, Katherine always finds Jack at, what is now, their table, his eyes lighting up every single time he sees her. They’d sit and study together, oftentimes talking deep into the afternoon, and even until closing, about anything and everything under the sun.
She refuses to let him buy her a drink, as much as he tries to convince her.
“This isn’t a date, Jack,” she says to him for what must be the tenth time that week. “You don’t need to pay for me.”
“Aw come on, Ace,” Jack whines playfully. “One drink, that’s it. It doesn’t mean anything!”
“No, Jack, I won’t let you,” she says firmly, taking a sip of her green tea (that she didn’t let him buy). “Besides, you’re saving up for new drawing pencils, I don’t want you to spend any unnecessary money, especially on me.”
“Fine, Kath, you have a point,” Jack concedes but his eyes are still teasing. “Have you ever thought about being a lawyer?”
“Debate team is enough for me,” she says pointedly. “Besides, my dad always wanted me to be a lawyer, so when I told him I wanted to be a reporter he wasn’t happy.”
Jack paused from his latest artwork (an outline in charcoal that was starting to take the shape of a certain aspiring reporter sitting in front of him). Katherine rarely brought up her family life, instead often listening to Jack regale stories of all his foster brothers. She once mentioned a sister, but this was the first time he heard her mention her father.
Katherine notices him watching her curiously. She looks up from her laptop and sighs.
“I don’t like talking about him much,” she says lowly. “We don’t really get along, so I would prefer if you didn’t ask me about him.”
She looks at Jack with wide eyes, eyes that are pleading him to drop the topic. He has never seen her so desperate before. He just nods and gives her a tentative smile. Katherine sighs in relief and goes back to her work.
“I do have a favor to ask you,” she says after a while. Jack was working on his homework when he looks up at her and raises his eyebrows for her to continue. Katherine nervously rubs her hands together before saying “There is a women’s march being held on Saturday, and I wanted to go to support but also so I could write an article about it in the school paper.”
“That’s awesome, Ace,” Jack says, putting down his notebook.
“Yeah, I was wondering if you could go with me?” she asks, her eyes looking down at her lap. “I know that this is super last minute but I need someone to be there to help document me and I already asked Darcy but he said he couldn’t go and I- “
“Ace, slow down,” Jack interrupts her. “Of course, I will go with you, it’s not a problem.”
They hadn’t really hung out together outside the café (and sharing looks with each other during Stats class) so Jack understood why she was nervous about asking him. But Jack has only known her for about a month and he already knows that he would follow her to the moon and back if she asked him to.
“Really?” she says hopefully, looking at him for the first time since she started asking him.
“Of course.” Jack nods his head at her and grins. “Besides, I want to see you in action. Miss Katherine Plumber, ace reporter.”
She rolls her eyes at him. “I knew there had to be a bigger motive.”
They exchanged numbers that day, and Katherine was waiting for him at their agreed upon meet up point. Jack had never seen Katherine so excited, she was almost shaking in anticipation. She even brought her own homemade sign, Jack straining his neck to try to see what was written on it.
LADIES, NOTHING HAPPENS IF YOU JUST GIVE IN
He barked out a laugh and Katherine turned her to raise her eyebrows inquiringly at him.
“It’s nothing, Ace,” he says smiling at her. “It’s very you.”
She shrugs but smiles at him. “It’s true, though.”
“Oh, I know Ace,” his eyes flash charmingly at her. “It’s why you won’t let me buy you a drink.”
She rolls her eyes at him and reaches into her pocket to give him her phone. “Just take pictures, Jack.”
He grabs the phone just as the swarm of people around him starts moving forward. He looks around and sees groups of people, men and women, shouting chants about equality. Signs start to pop up overhead, with varying messages of outrage and calls for change. He takes pictures of little girls marching with their mothers and old women with canes shaking their fists.
He stays beside Katherine throughout the whole march. As empowering and uplifting marching with a group of people towards a cause like this is, his attention is all on her. Her eyes are alight with a passion he has never seen before, her face fixed into the determined look she gets when she writes about a topic she cares about deeply. He has never seen her like this before, and thanks his lucky stars that she asked him to go with her. He snaps a picture of her as they near the end of the march, her sign in full view and her eyes blazing.
He sends the photo to himself.
He offers to walk her back to her apartment, which she reluctantly accepts. They walk in silence until they get to the front of her building.
“I’m really glad you made me come, Ace.” He says to her, hands in his pocket, looking at her shyly.
“Really?” She says disbelievingly. “You’re not just saying that?”
“No, Kath, I mean it,” he says, looking at her. “It felt good being part of something bigger than me and supporting a cause that is really important. And I am glad I got to help you with something that meant so much to you.”
She is staring at him, almost as if he were some puzzle she is trying to solve. He opens his mouth about to tell her that he is going to head home when she hugs him.
He is still for a moment, shocked to the bone, but he relaxes and puts his arms around her. Her small frame safely tucked away into his arms.
“Thank you.” Her reply is muffled because her head is buried in his shoulder. “That really means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome,” he says softly. “I’ll come march with you anytime.”
She laughs and loosens her grip on him. He lets her go, and she turns toward her building. She is at the top of the stairs when she turns to look back at him. “Bye, Jack.” She smiles at him before going inside.
That night, he paints the photo he took of her, using the last of his watercolors he had been saving. He is mostly pleased with it, but the fire in her eyes is still nothing compared to the light he saw in them in real life.
four
Their relationship shifts after that day. She opens up to him more, about her controlling father and her older sister, whom she was once close to but who is now married and lives far away. They’ve graduated from just studying in the coffee shop to hanging out in both their apartments. He’s introduced her to his foster brothers, who visit his apartment every now and again, and Davey, his roommate. Sometimes she joins them for dinner and Jack orders in pizza, all of them laughing and sharing stories deep into the night.
Davey teases him endlessly about Katherine, but Jack ignores him. He is too happy to care.
It’s not like anything has happened between them. He has even eased up on the flirting, although the boys would disagree with him given the amount of time they now spend with him and Katherine. Crutchie says they give each other “googly eyes” whatever that means.
In all honesty, Jack doesn’t think Katherine would ever go for a guy like him. She is going to change the world, and he is just along for the ride, ready to watch her reach her dreams. As cheesy as it sounds, Jack is content just being her friend. (It’s more than enough, really).
But sometimes he thinks he sees her looking at him the way he looks at her, with awe and adoration painted across her face.
He is trying to think of something to paint for one of his art classes when Katherine barges into his apartment and plops down beside him on his couch.
“Hey,” she says happily, rummaging in her bag that she just put down.
“You know there’s this thing called knocking, right?” he says teasingly, putting down his sketchbook.
She rolls her eyes at him. “It’s not like you ever lock your door if you’re at home. Which, by the way, isn’t safe, Jack. You should really start locking it. You don’t know who could just barge in- “
“Like nosy reporters?” he says, interrupting her. She gives him a glare, but he can see in her eyes that she doesn’t mean it.
“So, what are you doing here anyway, Ace?” he asks.
Her face brightens up as she pulls two tickets out of her pocket. “I know you’ve been busy with all your art projects, so I thought you could take a break.”
He raises his eyebrows at her and nods at the tickets in her hand. “Okay, what do you got there?”
“I got tickets for that Claude Monet exhibit you keep talking about!” she says, so excited that she stands up. “You were saying that you wanted to go, and you didn’t think you’d have the time, so I tried figuring out a way to get tickets for you. I was about to give up when apparently my dad had tickets, and he said he didn’t want to go, so he gave them to me.”
He looks at her disbelievingly for a moment before grinning up at her.
“Wow, Kath,” he breathes, his bright eyes looking up at her. “This is unbelievable. Thank you so much.”
She blushes and holds his gaze for what seems like eternity before she clears her throat. “It’s nothing,” she says, looking down at her shoes. “Didn’t want to waste good tickets.”
She moves her gaze from the floor back at him and beckons him to stand up. “Come on, let’s go before the museum closes.”
He jumps up from the couch and follows her to the door. He is grabbing his coat when he has a realization that makes him laugh out loud.
“What is it?” Katherine asks, turning back to him. He shakes his head at her.
“I never thought that it’d be you taking me on a date instead of the other way around,” Jack says, rubbing the back of his neck, but he looks at her with teasing eyes.
She scoffs, but her neck flushes. “This isn’t a date,” she says unconvincingly to the floor.
“Whatever you say, Plumber.”
When they get to the exhibit, Jack gets so excited from all the paintings, he forgets that he is with Katherine. He roams around alone, often staying in front of one painting for a couple of minutes, studying each with hungry eyes.
Katherine finds him in front of the famous haystack painting.
He doesn’t realize she is beside him until she taps him on the shoulder. He startles a bit but relaxes when he sees it’s her. She is looking at him curiously as she points to the painting they are standing in front of. He looks back at it before speaking.
“I’ve always loved this painting,” he says quietly. “When I was younger, I always dreamed of going somewhere open and free, like Santa Fe. The foster home was always so crowded, and, don’t get me wrong, I love my boys, but sometimes you want space for yourself.”
He sneaks a glance at her and she is staring at the painting as if it’s shown her a secret that she never knew before. She meets his gaze and says, “Never pictured you as a cowboy, but alright.” She smirks at him but nods for him to continue.
“When I was fifteen, I went to the Met on my own, free ticket you know,” he says, looking back at the haystack that was glowing in the morning sun. “This painting was hanging up in a special section; it was only there for a month, but when I saw it, it made me think of Santa Fe. I was already into art by then, but that painting made me realize art can take you to places you’ve never been to.”
They’re silent as they look at the painting, standing side by side. Jack thinks he feels Katherine’s hand brush against his, but it was so fleeting that he can’t be sure. They stay till an usher tells them that the exhibit will be closing soon.
After they order Indian food for dinner and Katherine goes home, Jack finally has an idea for his art project assignment.
His professor gives the oil painting of the boy and the girl holding hands in an art gallery an A.
five
He didn’t even realize he said it until she punches his arm.
To be fair, he was really concentrating on his sketchbook, so he absentmindedly just said the first thing he was thinking of when she asked him a question.
They were in her apartment. He needed peace and quiet to work on some of his art, and she offered her place for them to work since she also had a big article to write. It was late afternoon when he finished all his requirements for school. He had looked up from her couch, where he was working, to see Katherine washed in the sunlight coming from her big windows right beside her desk.
He just couldn’t resist drawing her. She really was his muse.
He ignored how his hand was cramping and started a new drawing of her. Later, when he goes back home to all his supplies, he would turn the drawing into a painting he could give her for Christmas. He was thinking about using the watercolors she bought him for his birthday when Katherine had asked him if he was going to stay for dinner and what he wanted to order. He was so fixated on Katherine and how he would surprise her that he didn’t really hear her question.
Really, it was her fault that he replied, “I love you.”
She had punched him in the arm just as he was finishing sketching her face.
So now, he has Katherine standing over him (and an arm that is definitely going to hurt in the morning). Her hands are on her hips, and she is glaring daggers at him.
“What did you just say to me?” she demands. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
Jack genuinely has to think about what he might’ve said to get her so angry when the words come echoing back into his mind and the realization dawns on him.
Oh. Oh.
He had never thought about his feelings for her in depth. He knew he liked her, how could he not, but he had ignored any genuine romantic feelings because he valued her as a friend and didn’t want to ruin anything.
But now that he said those words, he can’t take them back now. And he doesn’t really want to.
Because he does love her. This girl who came in late to class the first day, who still refuses to let him buy her a tea but steals his egg rolls every time they order Chinese. The girl who brought him to an art gallery and lets him paint in her pristine living room because she knows he likes painting when it’s quiet. The girl who argues with him about everything under the sun but who is kind and caring and compassionate. Katherine, his best friend. His muse.
His mouth is hanging as he looks up at her from his seat on the couch and takes in her angry stance, her eyes that are taunting him to give an answer. He takes a deep breath and stands up, grabbing both her hands. She lets him, confused by the sudden change in his demeanor, and he looks down at their joined hands before he starts talking.
“I said I love you,” he says softly, glancing up at her shyly. “And I meant it, Ace, but you don’t have to say it back, and I don’t want this to ruin our friendship because you mean so much to me. It just came out and I really didn’t mean for you to kno-“
“You’re an idiot,” she interrupts his tangent. She is looking at him with those bright eyes he loves so much, and he dares to hope.
“I am?”
“Yes, you are,” she laughs breathlessly. “I’ve been waiting for you to make a move for months.”
“Oh.”
“It’s okay, maybe I should’ve been a little clearer.”
“You think?” he says jokingly. “Give a guy a hint, would you? You’ve been shutting me down since we met and-“
He loses his train of thought when she takes a step closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck. His hands move to rest on her waist. Their faces are a breath apart when she whispers his name.
“Jack.”
“Yeah?” he whispers back.
“Now would be a good time for you to shut up,” she leans in and their lips meet. Her lips are soft against his and he feels her sigh into the kiss as he wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer.
They don’t do any more talking after that, his sketchbook and her article are left forgotten as he picks her up and carries her to her bedroom.
one
He isn’t sure if he is more nervous about giving his Christmas gift to her or meeting her dad for the first time during Christmas dinner.
(It’s meeting her dad, who is he kidding).
But for now, he only has to worry about the present.
The two of them are spending Christmas Eve together. Davey went home to his family and Jack and Katherine had decided to exchange gifts the night before Christmas just so they wouldn’t have to rush in the morning. He is staying the night in her apartment so that they can drive down to her parents’ house together the next day.
They’re settled on her couch, two mugs of steaming hot chocolate on her coffee table and a Netflix Christmas movie paused and ready to go. Katherine smiles at him as she brings out her gift from behind her back: a long rectangular present that is meticulously wrapped in red paper.
He unwraps it eagerly and, when he finally gets the paper off, his jaw drops in disbelief. She smiles brighter when he looks closer to inspect the handsome, leather-bound sketchbook with his name engraved on it.
“You said that your sketchbook was running out of pages,” she shrugs, as if buying him the nicest gift he has ever gotten is something that happens every day. “So, I thought I’d get you one that doesn’t look like it’s about to fall apart.”
He just shakes his head good-naturedly. “You really are something special, Ace. How did I get so lucky?”
She laughs and rolls her eyes at him. “I don’t know, but you really did luck out, Kelly.”
He gives her a kiss, and she settles back into her seat before clapping her hands, “Okay, my turn!”
He barks out a laugh before reaching behind the couch to pick up her present. He takes one last look at it before turning it over and handing it to her.
Her gasp and soft “Oh, Jack,” makes him a little less nervous. She is looking at the watercolor painting of her at her desk with wide eyes, her hand covering her mouth. When she finally looks at him, he rubs the back of his neck nervously.
“I made that on the day you and I got together,” he says sheepishly. “I know that it isn’t a lot, especially with what you gave me, but I thought- “
“No,” she says hurriedly. “It’s perfect, Jack, thank you. I love it.”
“For sure?”
“For sure.”
His eyes light up as he grins. He scoots over to sit next to her and looks over her shoulder to admire his work. He was so happy when he got the light to look just right, the golden light engulfing her like an angel.
“I have a million other sketches of you, Ace,” he says to her. “I’ll show them all to you someday, but they’re kinda scattered around my apartment.”
“You made me look so beautiful in this one,” she says, leaning against his chest and looking up at him. “Surely you took artistic liberties, even in your other sketches of me.”
“Nah, Ace.” Jack looks her in the eyes as he says with utmost sincerity, “None of them stand a chance against you. I can never do you justice.”