Work Text:
Lex sits by the window of their small apartment. They'd bought it for chump change, really. The place was nice, if a little rough around the edges. After full days of handing in resumes, they'd spend the evenings of their first week in California on their knees scrubbing down the floors until everything gleamed and glistened. Hannah sat atop the kitchen table, strumming out song after song. She had her own bedroom now, with a real desk to study at and a real bookshelf with books and art supplies she'd bought with her own money.
The breeze plays with Lex's hair, freshly washed in a shower that had a whole half hour of warm water. It was her free day and she intended to enjoy every second of it. She was pretty sure Ethan was still asleep. He picked up work wherever he could get it, odd jobs here and there. He'd come home at three am last night covered in dish water and kitchen grime. These nights were Lex's favourite. She could stay up until Ethan got home, a warm cup of cocoa waiting for him at any hour of the day. They quietly talked the night away, huddled close together so Hannah wouldn't wake up. The walls were thin, but at least they were theirs.
There's a seagull outside, Lex can see it circling the school from her spot on the third floor. Hannah was at that school, a nice one with a fee they could afford and a woodworking teacher almost as kind as mister Houston. She breathes in deep, enjoying the smells of the restaurant right down the road and the blossoming trees a few blocks further. The seagulls look different here than in Hatchetfield, she doesn't miss them. She feels oddly light here, as if something is missing from her, something intimately familiar.
A hand softly touches her shoulder, closely followed by the smell of coffee. She can't stop herself from startling slightly.
"M'lady, your cup of joe, freshly brewed!"
Ethan bows exaggeratedly as he reaches out to hand Lex her coffee. He laughs, loud and boisterous, glad to have gotten the jump on her. Ethan seems lighter here too. He still wears that dumb jacket of his, rain or shine, but his smile has grown wider. There are bags under his eyes and she reaches out to run her fingers over the purple divets. Her hand wanders down to trace lines between his beauty marks.
The California sun had burned every inch of his face an angry red. The skin was peeling now, flakey and odd and showing the fresh freckles even clearer underneath. He had never been more beautiful.
"Take a picture babe, it'll last longer." His grin turns impossibly bigger and she shoves at his shoulder. The coffee sloshes over the side of the cup, she quickly reaches out and brings it safely to the windowsill before he can run off with it.
"Oh, shut up Ethan!" Lex can't keep the smile out of her voice.
Then, softer, vulnerable.
"I love you."
"I love you too babe." He pecks the top of her head, sneaks a sip of her coffee. "I don't know how I ever got this lucky."
She wants to protest, but looking up at him to retort only brings her closer to those stupid brown eyes of his and Lex is rendered speechless. She falters. There is a precious sincerity in the way he looks at her, gaze slipping from her eyes to her hair - he runs a hand through it - to her lips and back to her eyes. He followed her all the way here. Her and Hannah and the dreams she's carried with her since she was a little girl. He'd follow them to the ends of the earth if she asked for it, Lex is sure of it. His girls, he calls them, her heart swells every time she hears it.
She can't help herself then. She pulls Ethan in by the lapels of that dumb stupid leather jacket and kisses him right in front of the open window. The neighbours can watch, she doesn't care. She relishes in the freedom of it all and deepens their kiss. Ethan brings his hands to the small of her back, pulls her in by the waist. They come apart breathing heavily.
"Do you want t-"
"There's a hole in your jacket."
She's speechless again.
"There's a what now?" Ethan grabs her shoulders and spins her around, taking the hem of her jacket between two gentle fingers. He points to a worn down spot right between one of the seams.
"Right here, there's a hole. I could fix it up for you if you want?"
"I didn't know you could sew babe."
He shrugs non-committally. "I sewed on patches on all my jeans when they got holes in 'em, I'm sure I can handle some wear and tear."
He gestures for her to hand over the jacket, and she does. It is her favourite after all, and she knows she couldn't find a replacement that felt or looked the same. That jacket's been with her even longer than Ethan has. The memory comes back in snippets, the thrift store by the kennel, skipping classes to go into town, smoking in the alley behind Pasqualli's. She remembers losing it once, she'd been inconsolable. Hannah found it the next morning stashed in Pamela's closet.
That jacket has been with her from Hatchetfield to California. She remembers standing on the doorstep to Ethan's house late one night, Hannah shivering in the too big jacket. She remembers lending it to Ethan. He'd forgotten to put the cap back on his bottle of juice before shaking it up. She'd laughed herself nearly dead before she gathered enough of her wits to shrug off the jacket and hand it to him, taking his drenched shirt from him in return.
A cat meows outside, snapping Lex out of her reverie. Ethan is still standing in front of her, jacket in hand and stupid grin on his face and hair tousled from the breeze and the kissing and-
It hits her then, between the jacket and the cat and the warm California sun and the cold coffee on the windowsill. How light she felt, the familiar presence that was missing in this perfect picture.
For the first time in her life, Lex felt happy.