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Scary Marlowe is seriously tired.
It's almost midnight in a clean but small hotel room in London overlooking the Thames. If she cranes her head out of her window she can just about see half the clock face on the Elizabeth Tower; she knows better than to call it Big Ben- her mother's English blood curdles in her veins at the thought.
From the next door across she can vaguely hear the theme song from some anime or other- and that's her cue. She clicks the latch off on her window and pulls open her hotel room door.
Linc's there, hand raised in an almost-knock and he blinks in surprise at the sudden appearance of Scary. Her heart stutters at his doe-eyed nervousness. He tugs at his collar.
'Hi, Scary. Um, I'm here? But you already knew that obviously, um, I'm stupid, nevermind, are you sure we should be doing this?' he blurts out all in one. The temptation to pull him in and kiss away his anxiety is great but she shakes it off. She needs to show him this.
'Hi Linc. No, I'm pretty sure we shouldn't be doing this. But that makes it way better, right?' He swallows and nods, his inner deer-in-headlights is really shining through.
Wordlessly she walks back through the room and opens the window. The warm summer breeze fills the room with a slightly flowery scent and she breathes it in as she heaves herself out.
The roof here is flat, thank God, and the Soho rooves are pretty similar heights where they are. Not like Central or Whitechapel, where the rooves are all smooth glass and towering. It'll block the sky.
She turns back to Linc and sees him ungraciously tumble through the opening, landing hard on the asphalted ground. He picks himself up quickly and brushes himself off, unsteadily taking a few experimental steps.
'Nothing broken.' he confirms, colour drained from his face. His eyes seem locked to her, firmly anywhere but the roof.
Scary's about to start a long the rooftops to her destination when suddenly, BANG! A thud echoes through the London night and both of them whip around to see that in his fall, Linc must have jostled the window. Their only way back in has slammed shut behind them.
'Fuck.' they both say simultaneously, which gets a giggle from Scary so unlike herself she giggles again. Linc is looking at her like she's an alien. 'What?' she demands, still giggling. 'What?'
'Nothing! It's just- I've never heard you giggle before.' he admits, now giggling too. It's endearing.
'Well, you have now. And we should get going! Normal wakes up at four, so we only have a few hours to really get the run of London. Come on!' Without thinking she grabs his hand and tugs him along the way, hurdling over bumps and hauling over walls. They laugh and smile and scrape their knees, and Scary gets her net wrist gloves caught on her jeans chain and her band tee stuck on a drainpipe but it's fun, running across rooftops with Lincoln Li-Wilson, anxiety extraodinaire, football star, absolute hottie.
After a while, however, they reach Scary's least favourite and favourite part. The jump.
Thirty feet below are dumpsters and trash and all sorts of rubbish, chucked I to this three-foot-wide alleyway without a second glance. When she was younger and would come here every summer she would hang out here for hours, texting and watching films and looking up at the red sky. But now she's sixteen and holding the hand of her crush, and goddamn if shes going to pussy out of this jump now.
She takes a steadying breath ('Scary?'), a few steps back ('Scary what are you doing?') and she releases Lincoln's hand ('Scary don't do it!') as she leaps the gap between buildings. She somehow lands elegantly, and turns back to Linc, who is watching mouth agape, hands slack and trembling at his sides.
'No biggie.' she says, trying to push her racing heart back into her chest mentally before he hears the jackhammer noise it's making. 'Come.on, I'll catch you.' She puts both hands out and braces one foot against a levelling block.
Deep breath. 'I can't.'
Beat. 'Yes you can. That's like- one stride for you!'
Beat. 'I'm scared.'
Beat. 'Its okay. I was too, my first time. You don't have to if you don't want to. We can go back if you really want.'
Beat.
Beat.
Beat.
Nod.
Lincoln takes a big step back, runs and leaps, soaring through the air and lands right next to Scary, sneakers skidding to a halt.
'That was GREAT!' he laughs delightedly, glowing in the half-light. His face is full of colour again, warm and happy and open and Scary just wants to grab his face now and kiss him into oblivion.
'Come on! Let's go! We're almost there now!' Linc pulls at her arm and she breaks from her trance. This is her favourite Linc, laughing and bright and silly and fun, rushing into new adventures and hauling her along as well. So she goes with it, hyper-aware of his warm soft hands in her cold calloused ones (her circulation is awful and she writes too much).
She guides him to an old service ladder, which creaks beneath them but holds as they climb down and they run through London shrieking with laughter, not caring which drunk old geezer or disapproving policeman sees them- they're young and beautiful and they can do what they like.
Then she slots it and her footsteps stutter.
Nandos.
This holy Grail, this pilgrimage, this church of chicken and spice sits on the Strand, 24hour doors wide open and inviting. As if in a trance Scary moves to enter and immediately feels Linc beside her, basking in the all-consuming warmth of truly being English.
'Woah.' he breathes, and she shivers involuntarily at how his breath hits her exposed neck. 'This is it?'
'Yep. This is it. This is peak Englishness.' And they step inside.
At 1am, any restaurant is bound to be quiet. Not many restaurants go all-night, so finding this one barely half and hour away was a blessing. Taylor declined to go and Normal claims he needed his sleep (but everyone knew he was going to go sneak into Hermie's room and kiss him black and blue), so it was just them on this one.
They slide into the coveted corner booth and grab menus- Scary doesn't really need one, but it's a comfort anyway. She searches her pockets for the twenty pound note she put in there before she left and unearths it onto the table. She points out some good choices and they order, breathing in heavily the scents of the fruits of the British Empire.
Their food arrives and without a word they absolutely plow through it, demolishing their family size bucket and drowning it in Perinaise and the spiciest Peri-Peri sauce they can get. They go in arms deep, shoving food into their mouths as fast as possible, like starving rats. They stumble out, three pounds fifty left and full to the brim, bursting with giggles and spicy burps.
They wander the city shoulder to shoulder, the gloaming light of predawn beginning to tinge the air as they start their way back to the ladder to get home before their dads wake up. A bar is just booting out the last drunkards as they walk past, and Scary feels a very unpleasant sensation on her behind. She whips around indignantly, but Linc gets there first.
'What the fuck?' he shouts at a mousy looking man with a leer on his face- all his features are unattractively squashed in the middle of his face like a Mii on those vintage gaming consoles.
'What, can't handle a little flirting, baby? Gotta have your boyfriend do it for you?' he lurches towards her and Linc wraps and arm around her shoulders, pushing the man back and stepping between them. For a moment, Scary is furious he thinks he needs to protect her, but suddenly she feels very very grateful. It's hard to admit, but this prick would never take her seriously- he might have done worse. And now Linc, a six-three, pretty muscular guy is shouting at him with a protective arm around her, kind of like...
Well. Kind of like a boyfriend.
'She's sixteen, you pervert!' he shouts angrily as Scary presses into his side, playing up the scared-kid card and watches with satisfaction as his face drops. He takes a step back in horror and puts both hands up like he expects Linc to lunge at him.
'Im sorry man, I didn't know- it thought she was old enough!' he cries and whines like a sad little baby. It's disgusting.
'Doesn't matter!' Scary adds loudly. 'You don't do that so anyone, ever, of age or under it, creep. Now get lost!' He nods rapidly and disappears, figurative tail between his legs.
Linc is actually trembling with anger, hand shaking that's wrapped around Scary. She goes to reach a hand up to calm him but she realizes she's literally snuggled into his side. Still, she doesn't want to move, so she twists her body and puts her arms around him, enfolding him in a hug.
'Thanks.' she whispers into his chest, and tentatively his arms come up around her too, pulling her closer I to him. It's cozy, and her heart is racing and her stupid shirt is so hot under the collar and Linc's arms are so strong she wants him to pick her up and kiss her into a wall. It's hard to keep her thoughts in check sometimes when she's around Linc.
'Are you okay?' Linc asks, pulling g away slightly to look over her, as if the guy had done anything else. Her stupid face flushes bright red as he pulls her in again, clutching her protectively. Ordinarily she'd be enraged but there's just something about Linc that makes her calm and willing.
'I'm fine, Linc, thanks for checking. Now, it's half three! We're gonna be late back and we'll miss Normal 's absurd wakeup time! Do you want to get caught by our dads?' Linc swallows and shakes his head and they set off again, but Scary can't shake the icky feeling of the man's hand on her.
They clamber up the ladder and set off over the rooves at a quick pace, slowly leaving behind the feeling and opening up into the early morning. Her eyes are drooping but she never wants to close them, not while she's roaming London with Linc.
All too soon it's half four and they're standing on the roof outside the window with time to kill. They sit and drop rocks onto the pavement and Scary flickers a flame near them to warm the chilled air. They sit and chatter for a while, when Scary spots something.
'A shooting star!' she laughs. 'I forgot!'
'Forgot what?' Linc asks, confused.
'D'you know the Perseid Meteor Shower?' Linc shakes his head. 'Well, every August we fly through a patch of rocks in our orbit that we haven't got rid of yet- those rocks cause shooting stars, and they're called the Perseids! We see them sometimes from America, but they're best here. I used to come and watch them with my mom, but then Terry happened, and I didn't want to... to go anymore. I didn't want him to spoil it, this thing with my mom. But now we're cool, and I'm not a dick anymore, so I guess we're coming back? And nothing could spoil this now.' That last part slips out unbidden and her face turns red. Linc seems surprised but then his face twists into something resolute. He lies back, pulling her down with him with that strength Scary loves and admires so much. She wonders what else he could do with it.
'Show me them! Tell me more, please. I love space but since the Doodler, I never really got to see the stars or anything, and clearly you know a lot, so...' he tails off, his confidence draining, but Scary smiles indulgently and tells him about Pluto, and constellations, points out asterisms and Polaris and planets and she tells him about them, each and every one until her mouth is tired so they lapse into comfortable silence, marvelling at the universe they never saw before.
At ten to four they stand and stretch their tired muscles, yawning and eagerly awaiting bed. They had only originally planned to be out for an hour, but due to their unfortunate window mishap, they were out a lot longer than that. Amazing what three hours can do.
She watches Linc swallow and then to her, opening his mouth and she really doesn't need more of his worry right now so she holds up a hand to silence him.
'I know, I know, thanks and all that, are you okay and all that, blah blah blah. You're welcome, okay? It's cool.'
But Linc shakes his head and takes a steadying breath. 'Not what I was going to say.' His face hardens into one of fierce resolve and slight fear. 'What I was going to say is, I think you're really cool, and super cute, and really amazing, and I really really want to kiss you under the super romantic shooting stars right now so please, please can I?' His hands come up to gently rest on her face and his other arm hesitantly coils around her waist and she nods, swallowing her excited scream and he's finally, FINALLY, kissing her as bright, bright shooting stars soar overhead, broken chucks of space exploding away in the atmosphere.
It's warm, and gentle and Linc's lips are soft. She groans into the kiss and tangles her fingers in his hair, pulling him ever closer. She opens her mouth and sighs into it, spicy breath mingling between them as they kiss, hands everywhere, roaming and grabbing and greedy, lips and teeth and groans and stars and it's intoxicating, he's intoxicating, and his touch is electric. She can practically feel her hair standing on end as he breaks off to breathe and peppers soft kisses to her jaw, down her neck, kissing hand enough to leave a mark. Scary gasps, and buries her head in his shoulder as he chuckles softly.
'Nothing can spoil this now for sure.' Scary mumbles into his neck, and they're laughing and kissing again, and it's fucking everything.
They lose track of time, exploring their newfound permission to just kiss, to hold and be held, to touch and mark and smile and meld into one another. They could spend hours there, learning new things about one another but four am rolls around and they do have to get inside.
Scary hefts a handful of small stones and prepares to pepper them against Normal's window when Linc catches her hand, concern in his eyes.
'You might break it.' he points out, and Scary rolls her eyes and drops the stones, revelling in his lips as she winds her arms around his neck and kisses him again. He hums in mild confusion but wraps his arms around her waist as they kiss.
Until-
'EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!' A high-pitched squeal that can only be Normally Ly Oak-Swallows-Garcia erupts from the window and the pair break apart in a hurry. Quickly he is stifled by a small Asian hand covering his mouth and Taylor appears also at the window, smug look on his face replaced rapidly by disgust as Normal licks his way free.
Much giggling and jostling and teasing ensues as they climb through Normal's window, hands still entwined together. They sit on Linc's bunk as a barrage of questions come flying from all directions- Normal, Taylor, even Hermie joins in for a few.
'More questions!!' Normal squeals twenty minutes later after Hermie has rolled back over, his attempts for quiet futile.
'Questions? Or interrogation?' Scary mumbles tiredly, leaning against Linc.
'Questions, idiot!' Normal and Taylor cry at the same time, and Scary rolls her eyes and turns away, blocking her ears with Linc's body. She smiles softly and drifts off as he's bowled over with what is definitely interrogation.
Her wish came true, then