finchwoodacademy | IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

HOW THIS WORKS

This takes place after the most recent exploration, after curfew.

Anyone can post scenes here even if I made it for Neal and Atticus!

Love you!

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Since she doesn't take a step back, Pearl takes a step forward. She's never been shy about claiming space that she wants to be in, and she wants to be close to Ces. She's a magnet. "You got me midnight flowers."

She insists, her voice all delighted awe. Both her hands dart out at the same time. One reaches out to touch a silk petal, the other catches Ces at her elbow. "And I don't have any to give back, and I'm in my pajamas."

She is, and they're very much just a black band tank top and sweatpants that look like they're 15 years old and never started anywhere close to her size in the first place. It's all very imperfect and messy next to this other girl, who is a beacon of light, as usual. But she can't be bothered much by that.

Ces hums out an affirmative, pitched slightly forward onto her toes - one sock tugged up to her knee and the other slid down, not nearly as neat as biased observation might suggest - as a grin pulls at the corners of her mouth, similarly delighted with her own (not at all biased) view.

"You don't need any," she says with conviction. "I had asking-intentions." The flowers are tilted forward in offering before her eyes widen and she jumps a bit, tugs them back toward herself with a quick, "Oh!" and then an even quicker, "One second!" Her fingers twist a bit of ribbon aside (black, because Pearl likes things black) to click what is almost certainly a battery into place. And the flowers light up in her hands. "That's better."

Maybe Pearl never really has seen actual light before. It certainly seems that way, from the soft, high noise she makes. They're the best flowers she's ever received. That probably would've been true, had Ces got her roadside weeds, but these are something special. They remind Pearl of the girl herself. They're vibrant. Gorgeous. Pearl accepts them into her hands, and takes a moment more to appreciate them.

"Whaaat." She half-sings, "They're perfect. God. Were you afraid I'd say no?"She turns her face back up, smile illuminated by the light-up flowers.

She look like home. There's something about the dark, cut by nothing but stripes of bright light, that looks like midnight in the back room of her aunt's club - girls rushing back and forth, fixing their makeup and shouting for pins, their heels high and the music muffled enough to do nothing but thrum around in Ces' chest - that's impossibly warm. It's not strictly savory, not the childhood most people think of, but it's still what home looks like. And it's - It's nice, the lights casting colors on the high parts of Pearl's cheeks.

"Just cause I think you'll say yes doesn't mean I shouldn't try, honey." Ces' hand reaches up just a bit to tough the ends if her hair, twists some strands around her fingers. "I should probably ask, huh?"

It does feel like they've entered another place, now. She knows that they're still standing in front of her dorm room. Her roommates are asleep inside. But out here, they're in a little neon cave all their own. Just Ces's fingertips and then Pearl's, reaching out to pull her in. Ces is so small, she marvels, not for the first time. She fits so much light. It's not science. It's more than.

"Yes." She answers, immediately. Her head falls so she can brush foreheads, but ends up with a nose full of fake flowers. Her nose twitches, but she's not hindered. "Whatever you ask, yes. Every time."

The common room is quiet and dark and still. Just the scant light from Pearl's flowers illuminating the (not very much at all) space between them. And Pearl is lovely to look at from any angle, but maybe especially from this one - or maybe especially right now, looking nighttime-soft and in one safe and solid piece.

Ces laughs at the motion wrinkling up Pearl's nose, sound caught and kept quiet between her teeth. "Oh," she says, all wonder. "I think I'll stick with the dance for now. But that's a real dangerous statement, sweetheart." And it could be. Maybe. Not that she'd really take advantage.

"But you'll go?" Her head tilts, just slightly. "You'll go to the dance with me?"

"I've said worse." Pearl sings out, soft. She has. Technically this entire school was something worse. She isn't taking it back either way. She drops the flowers to her side, curling them into one hand so she can sneak the other to Ces's back. There doesn't really need to be space right now.

"Mmmmm." She hovers the answer, the flash of a tease in the darkness, "I thiiink I have that night free."

But she shakes her head. Midnight or after seems like a time to be earnest. If there ever was one. "Of course I do." She murmurs, "Of COURSE I will." Because she wants it to affirm it, and mostly because she can, Pearl leans down to kiss the other girl, swift and soft.

Maybe it is. But they're all still here, aren't they? And that really has to count for something. Worse, maybe. But better too. The wrong choice for the right reasons. Or the right choice on some very rickety principles. It's relative, but no one's going. No one's moving anywhere but closer.

"That's okay." It remains marginally reassuring, despite the impish way that her lips twist themselves up at the corners, and she slips her hands around Pearl's waist, tugs on the seam of her shirt. "I'll only use it against you for special occasions."

And then she's rocking up and onto her toes again, leaning into the press of Pearl's lips with a pleased little noise, only pulling back far enough to murmur, "I should ask you more questions."

They're all still here. And Ces is going on to her toes in that way that makes Pearl feel very tall, which is a funny feeling, and it would make her laugh if she wasn't so very thoroughly occupied otherwise. Her fingers and the flowers tangle into Ces's hair. She's not really looking, or she'd marvel at how much she looked like a supernatural being. A fairy come to earth.

But Ces isn't that. She's real and solid and Pearl leans forward almost comically to follow her when she parts at all. "Oh, ask." She urges, hushed. That's important. Even if talking's the last thing in the world she wants, right now.

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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl

Ces & Pearl