Work Text:
~ ~ He doesn’t want to embarrass you, so he won’t mention it ~ ~
When he arrived at your place to pick you up, he found that you’d been so engrossed in your research on aether cores that you hadn’t noticed the time that had passed since you’d begun.
Though looking forward to spending time with you, he tried to be considerate and offered to reschedule to the next time you two weren’t busy.
Knowing how uncertain your schedules were, however, you weren’t having that. Running around the place getting ready for your day out together, Zayne waited patiently for you in your living room.
You’d left all your papers out on the table when you left. Wanting to trust that you would tell him if you discovered anything important, he resisted the temptation to peer at your notes. However, something had caught his eye when he allowed himself a small glance in that direction.
It was your familiar handwriting on the upper corner of a notebook, quickly tucked under the pile of papers and files. It was his name in your familiar handwriting, surrounded by a cutesy little heart.
His head tilted as he glanced toward your door to make sure you weren’t coming in before gently lifting the mess that tried to hide the journal beneath.
Your handwriting was scrawled all over the cover. Little doodles of hearts and snowflakes. And, of course, his name over and over again—in cursive, print, bubble letters, and other scripts he didn’t know the names of.
His initial surprise quickly swelled into a feeling of shyness, then immense affection as he realized that you had spent your time apart thinking about him while making these little doodles. Maybe you’d even done it subconsciously, your mind wandering to him whenever you had a free moment.
The journal is returned to its place under the piles of paper by the time you appear, Zayne seeming not to have moved since you left him. He has a smile around his eyes when you tell him you’re ready to go and you’re relieved that he doesn’t seem bothered about having to wait.
Zayne is grateful that you remain oblivious to how his ears redden ever so slightly when he randomly finds himself thinking about this incident over the next couple of weeks.