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Aphmau sighed. She had just finished writing her letter to Nicole to let her know about their little.. stow away “rat”.
Dmitri probably had no idea how much stress this was causing her. Aphmau grumbled to herself looking down as she kicked rocks, It felt like she had aged ANOTHER 15 years.
“Stupid blue-headed little sh-“ Aphmau stopped herself mid-sentence.
Aphmau calm yourself… everything will be fine. Nicole won’t kill you.
….
Probably won’t kill you.
Now that her head was cleared Aphmau remembered what she was supposed to be doing. Malachi had told her to head to the docks because Nicole had left her something in the crates.
So that's where Aphmau was now headed. Aphmau hoped Nicole wouldn’t regret sending this now knowing that Dmitri hid himself aboard her ship...
Well, she’d cross that bridge when she got to it! For now, she was just excited to see what Nicole could have left her.
She lifted the lid of the crate to a letter and some chocolate-covered strawberries.
She grabbed the letter first and read it aloud,
“Some chocolate-covered strawberries for you and Laurance to share ;) No need to thank me xoxoxo”
Aphmaus's face flushed and her heart began racing as soon as she finished reading it. She haphazardly looked around, she hoped to Irene nobody heard her reading that. She quickly stuffed the letter in her pocket and walked away from the docks.
Obviously, she was walking off to go find Aaron not because she wanted to accidentally bump into Laurance or anything that would be absurd, crazy even! Yeah, maybe Nicole gave her these strawberries to share but who cares about sharing with stupid Laurance? Why would she ever want to share strawberries with him-
“Oh hey, Aphmau.” Laurance spoke with the usual smile on his face
Aphmau jumped back upon hearing Laurance’s voice.
“GAH!! LAURANCE! I mean… Heyyyyy Laurance.” For some reason, Aphmau hid the strawberries behind her back. She didn’t know why but it felt right to do in this situation.
“Aphmau.. are you okay? You’re acting weird and what do you have behind your back?” Laurance inched closer to her as he spoke which lit Aphmau’s face ablaze.
“Laurance... What are you talking about, I’m fine. And there's nothing behind my back just a… rat. Yes, a rat that's definitely what I have behind my back but you wouldn't want to see it, it's SUPERRR ugly. So don’t worry about it.” She tried her best to act normal but she had a feeling it wasn’t working.
“Why are you acting so awkward all of a sudden? Are you alright? Did somebody hurt you? I swear if that Aaron guy did anything..” Laurance slowly pulled out his sword which made Aphmau panic.
“NO!! No.. Laurance everything is fine I can assure you. Aaron didn’t do anything.” Aphmau went silent for a moment as she thought about what to say next, “Actually Nicole got me these chocolate-covered strawberries…” Aphmau pulled the box of strawberries from behind her back to show to Laurance.
“Oh, so you finally fell for my amazing looks and charming personality and came to share these strawberries with me? Well, I’ll happily oblige!” Laurance laughed at the end of his sentence waiting for the rebuttal of Aphmau, but she stayed silent.
“Huh…” Laurance looked at Aphmau’s face, “APHMAU??” Her face was bright red and suddenly for Laurance it felt like all the heat from Aphmau’s face was transferring to his.
“Aph.. Aphmau this is where you refute me and call me an idiot…” Laurance chuckled awkwardly.
Instead of saying anything in response, Aphmau dragged Laurance to her old house. And unlike the usual Laurance, he stayed quiet with a flushed face the whole trip there.
Laurance sat stiffly in front of Aphmau. He stared at the bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries before him. “You know Aphmau, I was just joking when I sa-“ Aphmau put a finger to his lips to make him be quiet.
Aphmau wasn’t quite sure why she had brought Laurance here. Maybe after Laurance had made that “joke” earlier something clicked inside her and she brought him here to go off on him. Or maybe all the exhaustion from the past few days was catching up to her making her do foolish things.
But in this moment she felt it was neither of those things but purely her own ambition that led her here.
“Laurance?” Aphmau looked at him, speaking softly.
Laurance stopped fiddling with the loose thread on his sleeves and glanced back at her. His acknowledgment was his way of telling her that he was listening.
She took a deep breath and picked up a chocolate-covered strawberry. She was hesitant before doing anything with it but she soon brought it up to Laurance’s mouth.
Upon seeing the strawberry in front of him, Laurance’s eyes widened. From the tip of his fingers, all the way up to his face it felt like they were on fire. The strawberry smelled heavenly and Laurance felt a warmth spread through his body. He wanted to try it but the situation already felt awkward, would it be right to do that in this situation?
Laurance decided to take a chance, he shut his eyes tightly and nibbled on the tip of the strawberry.
When Laurance opened his eyes, all he saw in front of him was a dumbfounded Aphmau.
“Hey... Why do you have that look on your face?” Soon after Laurance asked that Aphmau burst out laughing.
Aphmau’s giggles echoed through the house. She tried to speak in between each laugh, “Laurance is that REALLY how you eat strawberries?”
“WHAT? Of course not!” Laurance tried defending himself, “I… I mean if you were in MY position you’d have a similar reaction. Did you just want me to finish it in one bite?” He felt all the blood rush to his cheeks and his neck.
As Aphmau’s laughs dialed down, Laurance grabbed a strawberry and brought it to Aphmau’s lips.
“Well go on, eat it.” Laurance stared at Aphmau while waiting for her to react.
After a few moments of staring Aphmau finally leaned forward and bit into the strawberry.
Aphmau couldn’t help but notice how soft and sweet the strawberry’s flesh was. Without fully chewing it up Aphmau spoke, “WOW, that is really good. Did Nicole grow these strawberries herself? And this chocolate?? It’s amazing!”
Laurance listened to her ramble on, he was trying to embarrass Aphmau the same way she did to him, but clearly, she was way more into that strawberry than she was into him. But that’s why he liked her so much.
Laurance sighed breathlessly. This brought Aphmau back to her senses and stopped her analysis of the strawberries.
“I love you, Aphmau.”
Aphmau looked at Laurance, slack-jawed.
And as if her mouth and hands had a mind of their own she said, “I love you too Laurance.” She grabbed Laurance’s face with both her hands and kissed him.
The kiss lasted less than a minute, but for Laurance, it felt as if time stopped. If anybody could see Laurance right now they would think he had some sort of illness from how red his face was, but the only illness he had was being lovesick.