Work Text:
Drift couldn’t sleep. She had sat awake in bed for what felt like hours, counting the leaves that decorated her dorm, and once she’d counted all of those, she traced the lines that streaked across the many wooden planks within the room. Whenever she let her thoughts wander she was met with a lopsided smirk and a pair of glimmering eyes. AJ’s eyes.
The earth mage groaned at the warmth that rushed across her face when she thought of AJ. It seemed that she had found yet another way to annoy Drift - that the tinkerer, through some odd trick of the mind, had embedded herself as firmly in Drift’s thoughts as a diamond in stone, something beautiful against the mundanity of the usual.
Not like AJ was beautiful or anything. Nope. Not in the slightest.
Though, the words “AJ” and “beautiful” sounded awfully good together. Drift wasn’t stupid- she wasn’t attracted to the flirtatious young woman- but she did have to admire AJ’s ability to look good with quite literally no effort. Her messy black hair and the grime always on her clothing did have a certain.. charm.
Drift’s heartbeat, annoyingly, increased, accompanied by a flush of warmth and discomfort that crept up her spine. The brown haired girl was unlikely to get any sleep tonight.
Rising from her bed, Drift gazed out of her window at the moon, which had always made her feel like she belonged, yet through another quirk of the spell AJ seemed to have placed on her, the earth mage’s first thought was of AJ, silhouetted against the moon, with the glow of the night sky reflected in her goggles- wait. Drift was absolutely not supposed to be thinking about AJ right now. Perhaps going outside would distract the earth mage.
It felt awfully hot in her dorm, and it wasn’t like there’d be anyone outside to see Drift in such a state. Yes, that sounded right. She’d go outside for a bit to clear her head, then, when she had recovered from the curse AJ put upon her, she’d return to her dorm and get a well deserved rest.
A tiny strand of light entered the leafy dorm when Drift cracked open the door to find no other Vulpes dorm member had chosen to go on a nighttime stroll. Drift let out a sigh of relief. It would certainly be awkward to run into someone at this hour of the night.
Wandering the academy’s halls, Drift found herself getting accustomed to the silence. That was until she began to hear the faint cawing of crows, growing louder as Drift neared the open air. Surely she was losing her mind, now that she had begun to hear the Flicks, who were certainly sleeping with AJ right now.
“What’re you doing up so late, Open Book?”
Drift nearly fell over from the startle. “What the- Where are you?”
A familiar birdlike laugh from the branches of a nearby tree answered her question. AJ hopped down from the branches, trailed by two of the Flicks, proving that Drift hadn’t completely lost her mind.
“That’s not an answer. Why are you up so late?”
Drift glanced away, having become very interested in the ground beneath her feet. “I could ask you the same thing.” she huffed.
Despite not being able to see the other’s face, Drift knew AJ was smirking as she said, “What, were you too busy thinking of me to get to sleep? Because if you were, you could just say so.”
There's no way she knows,Drift thought, burying her reddening face in the green cloth of her cloak. “..No! Of course not. Of course you would think that.”
“Ah, hesitation.” AJ leaned in closer, her goggles slipping a bit further down her hair. “I’ll believe you if you say it without looking so madly in love with me.”
Drift spent an embarrassingly long amount of time staring into the tinkerer’s eyes before she could formulate a response. “Are you projecting, AJ?” she said, trying her best to hold eye contact in a way that didn’t seem odd. No, she didn’t just want an excuse to look at AJ. Drift totally hated looking at AJ.
“Would that be such a bad thing? I mean, you are the most beautiful girl in this academy.”
Drift turned bright red and sputtered a few incoherent sounds before at last collecting herself. “S-shut up.”
AJ cawed her laugh again, taking a few steps closer. “And why would I do that, if you’re so obsessed with the sound of my voice?”
The newfound chill in the air did little to calm the furious blush upon Drift’s face, who opened her mouth to say something, but only got out a flustered grunt before she glanced away again.
“Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy it,” AJ teased, her voice smooth.
Drift buried her face in her cloak once again with a groan.
“Aw, are you blushing, Drift?”
“No!” Oops. Drift hadn’t meant to say that so loudly.
One of the Flicks cawed with something that seemed like amusement, earning a reply of “Yeah, she’s totally blushing,” from his owner, who sounded like she was enjoying this a bit too much.
A few minutes of dreadful silence later, Drift finally felt confident enough to meet AJ’s gaze without immediately transforming into a sputtering, blushing mess. “Well, I should really get going. I’m sure Fern is wondering where I’ve gone.”
Drift dashed off, face still hidden by the green fabric, AJ’s honeyed laugh still echoing in her ears. Why did it have to be her?