Work Text:
“If you play that song one more time, I will throw you out,” Jude rubs her temples as the speakers finally stop vibrating.
The black haired boy a few metres away from her gasps, placing a hand on his chest. “Youngblood is a great song, my sweet nemesis. How could you say that?”
She glares at him from behind the counter as he comes up to her. “It’s a great song but you have been playing it on loop for the past one hour. There’s only so much one can tolerate, not to mention your horrible singing. And don’t call me that,” she grits as she returns to her work.
“Liliver calls you Your Majesty.”
“She’s my friend, she can call me whatever she wants.”
“So am-”
“You are not my friend, Cardan.”
Silence.
When he doesn’t speak after a few minutes, Jude thinks she might have gone a bit far. She looks up and opens her mouth but her throat runs dry at the look on his face. It’s intense in a way unlike anything she’s seen on him before. And it’s gone in the span of a few blinks.
“Is that your way of saying you want me to be your boyfriend , Jude?” That lopsided rogue grin of his replaces his previously intense look, which despite Jude’s annoyance sparks something in her.
She casually eyes the pen in her hand. “I can and will skewer you with this.”
He laughs, the sound adding fuel to the fire. Cardan leans his forearms on the counter, his head turning to his left to look outside as the rays of the LED lights hit his high cheekbones.
“What a miserable day to be a Walmart employee,” he mutters, eyeing the blizzard raging outside.
“What a miserable day to be stuck with just you of all people.”
He rolls his eyes. “I don’t fancy your company any more than you fancy mine.”
Then you do fancy my company? Jude inhales sharply before shaking her head. “Just go and do your work. There’s plenty of it seeing we were the only ones stupid enough to get into trouble, no thanks to you.” She shoots him a glare which is reciprocated with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh no that was all on you,” he says walking away with a basket of food products.
She gasps, throwing her hands up. “That was all on me?”
He nods in confirmation, stopping in front of the designated isle and beginning to stack up everything.
“You were the one who thought it would be a good idea to spill blue sprite down the aisle and make Locke trip! My only fault was that I was caught on scene with you,” she exclaims, outraged.
Cardan shoots her an incredulous look. “I may be forgetful but I clearly remember you adding the food coloring to the drinks and adding more sugar so it would be stickier.”
Color floods Jude's cheeks and she sputters. “God, you’re annoying.”
“Annoying for what? Being right?”
She wishes she could shut him up. Preferably with her mouth. On his mouth.
“Can you just shut up and work?” To Jude, she sounded like she was talking more to herself than to that annoying colleague of hers.
“Your wish is my command, Your Highness.” Cardan bows his head, smirking.
Jude grumbles under her breath as she picks up her own basket and goes to fill up the empty shelves. She hums to herself and it’s only when she is placing the last product does she realize she had been singing the very song she had chastised Cardan for playing. She shakes her head before turning.
And promptly yelps as she finds Cardan leaning against the opposite shelf. She hadn’t heard him approach her.
“What the hell?” she scowls.
He eyes her, those golden flecks in his eyes shimmering in a way Jude had never seen them do before. Under his gaze she felt small, her heart doing gymnastic routines even her chiseled body couldn’t manage.
“What are y-”
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Jude rears back. That was not what she was expecting at all.
“What?”
Cardan tilts his head, “I asked why do you hate me so much?”
She gulps before licking her lips nervously, not missing the way Cardan’s eyes caught the movement. Because you’re you , she thinks. Because you make my heart flutter like nobody else has and sometimes all I can think about is you no matter how much I try not to.
“We have known each other for a whole year now and yet, I don’t think I have ever done anything that you’ll hate me so badly for it,” he murmurs. “Or are you afraid of me?” She gulps and he blinks.
“Is that it? You’re afraid of me because of… what? The people I used to hang out with? The- the…I honestly don’t even know why you’d be afraid of me,” he throws his hands up in the air in frustration before running a hand through those messy curls of his.
“I don’t know what I did but I’m sorry, Jude, no, Duarte,” he finishes.
Although she had been asking him since forever to call her by her last name like all of her colleagues, Jude’s heart twinges at his correction. Their eyes meet.
Cardan purses his lips, “I’m gonna g-”
“I do hate you and I am afraid of you,” she interrupts, making him halt to look at her.
“But I want to know your reasons too. You once asked me if I hated you and I said almost as much as you did. You didn’t deny that. So tell me. Why do you hate me Cardan Greenbriar?” she says, feeling rather breathless.
He is quiet for a moment and Jude realizes he doesn’t want to say whatever it is that’s going on in his mind.
“Tell me,” she repeats.
“I did hate you,” he begins, serious like he’s never been before, “Or at least I thought I did.”
He closes his eyes. “I hated you because I thought of you. Often. I found it disgusting and I couldn’t seem to stop. I still can’t.”
Jude thinks she stops breathing. Cardan opens his eyes and looks at her. And everything comes rushing to her lips, like a dam broken loose.
“I hate you,” she whispers. “I hate you so much sometimes I can’t think of anything else. I have tried to ignore.. Whatever this is I feel whenever I am around you because I felt like if I didn’t I would burn up like a match, maybe the whole matchbook.”
They stare at each other for a moment, the silence resounding in the otherwise empty Walmart.
“So..?” Cardan says uncertainly, as though he wasn’t sure what she was trying to say.
Jude stares at him for a moment longer before they’re suddenly rushing towards each other. And when their lips meet, Jude finally feels like everything has been set into place. Cardan felt like everything she had imagined and so much more. The silkiness of his luscious black locks, the gentleness yet urgency with which his hands hold Jude, the taste of mint on his tongue and the softness of his lips.
When they part, they’re both gasping for breath. Another thing they have in common are the idiotic grins etched on their faces.
“So..?” Jude echoes Cardan’s question from earlier.
He clears his throat, still sounding somewhat breathless as he asks, “So... will you let me be your boyfriend, my sweet nemesis?”
She leans in and a small smile tugs at her lips despite herself. “I suppose I can, if it means you’ll go back to kissing me.”
He sighs, the golden stars in his eyes glinting. “By you, I am forever undone.”
And if they spent the better part of an hour doing what they should have a long time ago, then that's nobody's business.