Chapter Text
Just because you were part of the scene didn’t mean you had to like everybody.
That was very apparent to the both of you. Because you and Stone may have experienced forced proximity, but that did very little to foster goodwill. Instead, it did the opposite. He seemed fun and laid-back with everyone else around him. Yet for some reason or the other since the day he had first accidentally been shoved into your shoulder you two had also annoyed each other to no end.
Which was inconvenient in situations like these where everyone was gathered. You couldn’t exactly avoid him; he was friends with all your friends and vice versa. It was insufferable.
But it was the holiday season, and even Stone couldn’t put you in a bad mood.
The heat was on and it was toasty and warm in the room, thankfully contrasting with the bitterly cold weather outside of the window. You and a bunch of your friends were hanging out, in a loose ring in a manner where everyone could see and converse with everyone else. Somehow by chance you and Stone had ended up next to each other, but you weren’t focusing on him and instead were doing so on the conversations occurring around you.
At least that’s what you were trying to do. You had a single-use cup in hand, some sort of alcoholic drink filling it and your system as you nursed it, sipping it slowly.
Jeff was being drunk, currently the most sloshed out of all of you. He was speaking animatedly, sitting criss-cross applesauce and precariously leaning to and fro while he told whatever story he had experienced in the past few days. He roped you in occasionally, but in general you were just sitting peacefully in your tipsy haze and looking at the space around you.
You had to look over and consider him. Stone, sitting unfortunately or fortunately close, you couldn’t tell which was which. Everything was mildly hazy and bright, washing the world in a glittering filter. And for some reason an intrusive thought broke through. He looked so good.
Why did he look so good? Was it his lips, so perfectly framed and soft-looking in the glow, was it his hair pulled back, simultaneously revealing and accenting all his features, was it his eyes, paying you no attention, lids droopy as he observed what was happening around him, was it his hands interlaced, his legs crossed, his body bent so comfortably, casually?
The conversation had shifted and in your peripheral vision you could see Jeff standing up to grab something and laughing but your vision was tunneling on Stone and his side profile and how pretty it was, cutting through your cognition like glass.
What the fuck. Surely you were going crazy. It was probably the alcohol talking.
Suddenly you were snapped out of it by becoming startlingly aware of Jeff. He was now standing up, towering over your sitting forms as he held some sort of plant. You looked to the side. Wow, he had just torn it off of a wreath lying sadly on the kitchen table.
He was brandishing it above you and Stone like a weapon. Why was he doing that?
Oh. Mistletoe. Of course.
Jeff was grinning in a way that was unnecessarily wicked. “Come on, lovebirds. You’re under the mistletoe, can’t escape now!”
Stone scoffed in your general direction. The notion of calling the two of you lovebirds was mildly hilarious.
But Jeff was egging you on and waiting expectantly. You could see Stone starting to form words to refuse, but the blood pumping through you deafened you as your line of thinking strayed to where it shouldn’t be.
To fuck with it. Maybe it was the alcohol speaking, but it was just gonna be for laughs anyway, what harm could it do?
You reached a hand out to grab his face and angle it towards yours, and leaned in. You could see the words die in his throat and his eyes widening as you got closer, and then your lips were on his. He let out a tiny, involuntary hum, leaning back on his palms as you kissed him. You struggled very hard mentally to banish the thought but he felt good. Too good. His lips felt like they slotted perfectly against yours as he kissed you back, you pushing harsher against him and opening your mouth so his would follow suit. And he did, giving you space to go deeper as a chorus of mildly disgusted “ah!”s sounded throughout the room, and an “okay, okay that’s enough!”
It was all for the act, you had to break it up. You pulled away abruptly, leaving him panting slightly, still leaning back.
You chuckled in a way that you hoped played it off and hadn’t betrayed your thumping chest and your shaky hands. “That good enough for you?”
* * *
After that the night had gone on as normal, but it was hard for you to think. Stone kept fidgeting, the two or so feet between you feeling like a mile-wide ravine. At some point he excused himself silently, leaving to enter some other room.
Though you had rarely acted exactly nice towards each other, you still hoped you hadn’t way overstepped his boundaries, and if you had you had to clear the air. So you had to set out to look for him.
Though the people there were thinning and the house was no mansion, finding his form was still a challenge. You finally found him sitting on the bed in a bedroom that you were sure neither of you were supposed to be in. You could see his fingers clenching and unclenching on the bedsheets.
“Stone?”
He didn’t turn around but his face scrunched into a deep scowl, “What do you want?”
“Jeez, even you aren’t usually this prickly.”
“Look, if you don’t have anything important I need to know just leave me be. I’m occupied here.”
It seemed as if he had only been staring at the wall, but you could only shrug. “I’m just hoping I didn’t overstep a line there.”
You saw his eyes narrow. “Will you just go?”
You felt like you must have, guilt washing over you. “I’m sorry.”
His only response, “Why are you still here?”
Jeez. What was his problem?
You left the room.