Work Text:
The St. Cassian Chamber Choir was scheduled to rehearse at exactly 3:00 PM sharp, as Ocean would always emphasize. But today, 3:00 came and went, and you could tell someone was clearly not there from the lack of talking. Ocean had laid out the sheet music ahead of time, each stack aligned on top of the cold metal folding chairs. The piano stood tall at the front, slightly out of tune. Ricky barely got to use it these days when he was suddenly assigned to play the tambourine instead.
“Where’s Ocean again? We can’t start without her…” Constance asked, her voice gentle but with a hint of panic.
“She with Father Marcus. He asked to help with music closet, so she go.” Mischa responded as he typed away on his phone.
“So, we have about less than 20 minutes before she returns and starts channeling the ghost of Mozart through sheer force of will.” Noel sighs as he leans back against his chair, “Well, clearly, none of us wants to practice today, right?”
“I don’t want to practice any other day either…” Constance mumbles.
Noel snaps his fingers, “Exactly, so we need someone to distract her when she gets back.”
She’ll probably just scold us , Ricky signs.
“So? One scolding for full afternoon of peace is good trade.” Mischa shrugged, pocketing his phone, “One day won’t hurt.”
“But how do we distract her?” asked Constance.
Noel smirked, that unmistakable spark of scheming was obvious from his face. “Easy. We send in the girlfriend.”
Everyone immediately turned to Penny.
Penny, who’d been sitting quietly on the edge of a table, jolted upright. “Huh? Me? We’re not—”
“Oh please,” Noel rolled his eyes and waved a hand. “Save it. We’re not blind.”
“Yeah…” Constance added with a soft giggle. “You two are kind of obvious.”
Ricky nodded in agreement and signed, She smiles more when you’re around.
Penny bit her lip, feeling her cheeks heat up slightly, “So, you want me to just… flirt with her?”
Noel raised an eyebrow. “Are you not already doing that every time she opens her mouth?”
Before Penny could retort, the door creaked open.
“I’m back!” Ocean called, setting down a stack of folders. “Father Marcus had zero system in there— Wait, why aren’t you guys warming up?”
“Hey, Ocean?” Penny interrupted quickly, hopping off the table. “Can I, uh… talk to you? Alone?”
Ocean immediately went into problem-solving mode, “Of course! Did something happen?”
“No! I mean—no. Just come here.”
She reached for Ocean’s wrist, hesitating briefly before tugging her gently toward the empty classroom one room down. Ocean shot the others a confused look over her shoulder, but she let herself be pulled along. As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, Penny turned around. Her heart thudded so loudly she wondered if Ocean could hear it. She didn’t wait another second; she reached up, cupped Ocean’s face in her hands, and kissed her.
Ocean was surprised at first but she quickly melted into it. Her shoulders relaxed, and she kissed her back like she’d been waiting all day. She smiled against Penny’s lips, her arms instinctively wrapping around her waist.
“Well… hello,” Ocean murmured when they broke apart.
“Hi,” Penny replied breathlessly, already kissing her again. “You were gone for a while.”
“I was gone for 15 minutes.”
“That’s 15 minutes too long.” Penny whispered, kissing her cheek this time.
“H-hey, stop that… What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing,” Penny replied, brushing her nose against Ocean’s. “Nothing at all.”
Ocean raised an eyebrow. “Miss Lamb—”
“Ooh, I liked that. Call me that again,” Penny cooed, pressing another kiss to the corner of her mouth.
“Wait a second… Are you trying to keep me from rehearsal?”
“Would it work if I said no?”
Ocean stared at her a moment longer then let out a soft laugh. “This isn’t going to work on me.”
“So you won’t kiss me back?”
Ocean hesitated for only a second. “I never said I wouldn’t…”
***
Back in the choir room, Constance broke the silence, her gaze switching between the clock and the hallway. "They sure are taking a while…"
“Penny’s better at this than I gave her credit for,” Noel added, heading for the door. “Maybe we should skip warm-ups more often.”
Do we give them another five minutes? , Ricky signed.
Mischa shook his head, “Nope, no more. I say we go.”
“Agreed.” Noel said, casually tucking his poetry notebook into his bag. “We’ll say we practiced without them, got tired, and left. Boom. Alibi secured.”
Constance hesitated, fiddling nervously with the edge of her sleeve. “But what if they come back and, like, try to scold us for leaving?”
“They won’t,” Noel replied, “It’s not like they’re rehearsing either.”
“You’re not wrong, I guess…” She looked toward the door again, “Maybe it’s better we just let them have some time alone. Ocean’s been so stressed these days. She deserves a break.”
“Yes, yes. Let us all enjoy a break.” Mischa says.
Noel was ready to leave, already standing by the door. “Alright, let’s get out of here before they come looking for us and make us do something productive. I’m already feeling tired just thinking about it.”
The group slipped out of the room quietly, careful not to make any noise that might tip off Ocean. Their laughter and chatter slowly faded as they exited the building, leaving the sound of muffled voices behind.