Work Text:
It's a miracle he sees the body laying on the ground a few feet in front of him in time, so he has the chance to react and hit the brakes before something bad could happen. Outraged, he jumps out of his van and stomps in the little cone of light his remaining flashlight casts on the street, the one flashlight he didn't crash against the fence with.
“What the hell are you doing? I could’ve killed you!”
“Yeah, but unfortunately you didn’t. So try again.”
He furrows his brows and cocks his head as he looks at you, a worried expression on his face.
“But you didn’t try to kill yourself, do you?”
“Tried to kill myself? On an empty road? Yeah, very effective.” You roll your eyes as you prop yourself up on your elbows. “I’m waiting for Merry and Pippin to pick me up so we can join the ents on overtaking Isengard.” With a deadpan expression you wait for his reaction, but Eddie is too stunned by your answer, he’s lost for words. He needs a moment to process what you just said before shaking his head and questioning confused “What?”
With a heavy sigh you try to cover the smile that creeps on your lips. What unspeakable joy spreads in your chest to be the one joking around, leaving him speechless.
“I’m stargazing, dumbass.”, you confess a few moments later. “The stars are so wonderful tonight. Look,” you point up in the sky, eyes wide and mirroring the stars above your heads.
“see? Right there.” He follows your gaze and after a short while the sight of a bright shooting star enchants him. It’s the first one he’s seen in a long time. In years to be exact. How come he forgot the joy of just stargazing, watching the peaceful nightsky and clearing his mind?
A soft ‘wow’ escapes his lips as he turns back to you. Your gaze is still fixed on the sky but out of the corner of your eye you can clearly notice the smile on his face.
Satisfied you lay back down on the still warm pavement and cross your arms behind your head. “Awesome, right?”, you ask and take in a deep breath.
“Hell yeah.” Eddie is surprised by the warmth the ground still radiates hours after the sun already disapeared as he lays down next to you. More and more shooting stars light up the dark sky as you silently just lay there and watch the sky, count the endless stars, trying to identify the many starconstellations, making wishes each and everytime another comet crosses the sky above. Hours could’ve passed, days or even months, Eddie wouldn’t mind, as long as he can enjoy this little peace he found next to you. Next to you …
Like a lightning it struck him. He is actually lying next to you, not even a few inches seperates him from you. And all of a sudden Eddie feels his heart violently beating in his chest. What is it that makes him feel this way suddenly? That makes him feel so anxious? Is it the fact that he is all alone with you? You two have never been alone together. There was always someone else. Teachers or your little brother with his friends or other students. It's not like you are friends or something like this. You share a few classes, barely ever talked to each other outside the occasional group work. But he would be lying if he said he never tried to catch a glimpse of your cute face. He spent extra hours at the library instead of being home when he planned a new campaign. The way you always poke out the tip of your tongue when you're concentrating on your homework or when you frantically seek your pencil between your papers, the pencil you pushed through your braid moments earlier, never failed to make him smile like an idiot. But he's never been so close to you.
Maybe it's because he got to know another side of you? A soft and vulnerable side, not the quiet and reserved version you are at school? A side no one else in school can ever see?
A shiver runs down his spine as he secretly glances at you. His eyes catch a glimpse of you just for a split second, but the way your eyes are halfway shut and your soft lips form a pleased smile burns into his brain and he hopes he’ll always remember this picture.
Eddie can’t describe it, there are no words for this, but the way this moment makes him feel is better than anything he ever experienced. Grounded and satisfied, one with the world around him but at the same time soaring higher and higher on this happiness, as if nothing could go wrong or hurt him anymore.
But he knows he can’t lay next to you like this forever. Already knowing he has to leave this moment anytime stings like needles in his heart.
“Eddie?” Your voice breaks the silence you’re in and pulls him back out of his thoughts. Only now does he realize that he stares at you, his eyes glued to your face as if he was trying to memorize every freckle on your cheek, every lash that frames your beautiful y/e/c eyes, every curve your lips make wearing this kind smile.
“Oh, sorry, didn’t … I didn’t mean to … you know …“ What is this spell she casts on him to make him this … this … tongue tied?
“Stare like a creep?”, laughing you interrrupt his nervous rambling noticing how his cheeks begin to glow redder and redder the more he tries to talk himself out of this.
“Yeah, didn’t mean to stare like a creep, sorry.” He hufs to cover up the embarressment he feels creeping up. “I just - I never saw you from this close and I …” Again his ability to articualte vanished completely, leaving a big blank space in his brain. “Never noticed how beautiful you are.” The words tumble out of his mouth without permission of his brain. The second these words left his mouth he wants to punch himself. Well, now she thinks you’re a creep, Munson, he tells himself squeezing his eyes.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, really. I think I should -” Before he could finish the sentence with the word leave, you grab his hand and squeeze it gently.
“Thanks.” Carefully he opens his eyes again and looks at you, finding you smiling at him. “By the way, I think you’re really handsome too.” Now it’s your turn to blush like a little kid.
Eddies lopsided smile only grows wider at the sight of the little dimples that now appear on your cheeks. Your smile is radiant, lighting up your face brighter than the sun could ever do and Eddie swears he has never seen a more beautiful thing on this goddamn earth.
“So you think I’m handsome?”, he begins to tease you with a smirk on his face. A whole heartedly laughter escapes your chest as you turn away from him.
“What's so funny ‘bout that?” His laugh is deep and vibrating as he joins your giggles, poking your upper arm in hopes you turn back to him, he already misses your eyes and your freckled nose.
“Nothing, Munson, nothing.”, you tried to assure him, but your giggles make your statement implausible.
“Yeah, sure.”, he sarcastically retort and sits up crosslegged, looking at you in a mock-pouty manner.
“Why can’t you simply take a compliment without making a joke out of it? Can’t you just accept the fact that I think you’re a handsome guy?” The giggling dies down in your throat, the smile remaining on your lips as you too sit up, hand behind your back for support. “Or do you really think I’m joking, because I’m not, y’know?” You cock your head as you look at him, scanning his face that’s framed by his wild curls, his dark chocolate brown eyes that reflect the stars. “I mean, I’m sure you may cross a mirror or two a day so you know how you look. And you must be an idiot to think you look - “ As you try to explain to this boy that he, in fact, is really handsome and that you’re not joking around with him, you suddenly feel his calloused hand pressed against your skin, cupping your cheek.
And before your perplexed mind has the chance to analyze the moment and prepare you for what's about to happen next, his lips already crashed on yours. Although all this happens so fast, faster than your mind could understand, the way his lips moved so smoothly with yours feels like slow motion.
You break the kiss and gasp for air. "What the actual fuck was that, Munson?" You have to admit, your question came out ruder than intended. With wide eyes you look at him, not knowing what exactly the kiss sparked inside of you, but you like it. You even like it more than you thought you would. And more than what was good for you.
"God, I'm so sorry really. I -" With shaking hands he combs the strands of hair away and rubs his hands over his face. "This is so embarrassing, I'm deeply sorry if I…"
"No." You stop him, your voice barely above a whisper. "No." More words than that just refuse to come out, your mind is completely blank, the only things that won't get out of it are his lips, his touch and the smell of cigarettes and cheap perfume.
To your surprise you had to find out that his hair is way softer and fluffier than it looks like as you bury your fingers in his mane, pulling him closer to you.
Your heart beats so fast and so loud, you ask yourself if he could hear it as you lean forward into another kiss.