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i.
adaine couldn’t help but snarl when she saw the picture riz sent her of the house party they had been invited to—fabian was full on making out with her older sister aelwyn, the button up shirt he had chosen to wear for the party unbuttoned halfway down his chest with just the barest glimpse of white powder on his collarbone. her fingers curled tightly around the crystal that fabian had gotten for her (since her parents refused after she failed the hudol entrance exam) as she shoved the book off of her lap and slipped her sneakers on, bounding down the stairs to show her parents the picture.
shrugging on her jacket of useful things as they acted the picture didn’t mean anything to them, adaine had to wonder why she was so worked up over this picture. was it because aelwyn was always the perfect sister, the one abernant child that her parents wanted, even when she was being crazy and partying? was it because her friends knew how horrible her sister was to her and there one of them was, still clinging onto her like she was his lifeline with his tongue down her throat? was it because she wanted to be in aelwyn’s spot?
as the blonde elf made her way out of the house to walk over to ostentatia’s place where the party was being held, she thought long and hard about the last part of her thoughts.
sure, fabian was absolutely gorgeous. how could anybody not see it? his smooth, dark skin completely unblemished from his elven heritage, his silver hair with eyes to match, a grin that always spread wide on his lips that could also turn into a soft smile she had only had the privilege of seeing a couple times in her time of knowing him. he was tall and fit, muscled even for a fifteen year old, and he was caring about the other bad kids and always made sure they were okay. he was confident, probably more than he should be, but with that confidence came a selflessness that adaine recognised in herself—knowing that his father’s reputation would sooner drown him than help him to rise.
a brief flash of a thought crossed adaine’s mind for a moment of herself in fabian’s embrace instead of aelwyn, his arms wrapped protectively around her small waist as she was pressed against his chest, his kiss not hungry with her but soft instead, the smile that he had given her only earlier that day pressed to her lips as he—
but then she made it to ostentatia’s house, making her way into the party with fire in her eyes, and she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind as the elemental cheerleaders started to attack to properly focus on kicking her sister’s ass.
(she thought about it again when aelwyn was arrested and fabian went with her to her family’s house to make sure she was okay, but she was much too angry to put much stock into it.)
ii.
with kalvaxus frozen in time and the bad kids spread out on the gymnasium floor, adaine looked around at the way everybody settled down to sleep. she rubbed at her eyes under her glasses and waited until riz was at least almost asleep before she slipped out the gym door to go outside.
even with time frozen, the air outside was much less stuffy than it was in the school gym, and she slumped against the brick wall outside. adaine didn’t care if she got her jacket dirty, if her jeans now held dirt on them from the ground beneath her—she was tired, she didn’t want to continue the fight, she wanted to go home and curl up in her bed.
but her parents abandoned her, and home was now a couch in jawbone’s apartment where she barely got any privacy.
“everything alright, adaine?” a voice from beside her spoke quietly, and the blonde elf looked up to see fabian standing in the doorway. he looked tired as well, his missing eye now covered with an eyepatch as the other stared unblinkingly at her, and she nodded once before looking down at her hands in her lap. the door shut quietly before footsteps alerted her to the fact that he had stayed outside with her, but she didn’t look up. fabian’s hand slid over hers to hold them, and she separated her hands so he only had one of them in his grasp.
“i’m so tired.” adaine whispered brokenly, trying to keep the waver out of her voice as she stared at her hand in his. pale skin against dark skin, his hand much larger than hers, and his fingers gently curled around her palm before shifting to tangle their fingers together. she let out a shaky breath and brought her free hand up to her eyes, wiping at where tears had fallen without her knowledge, and she looked up at him with big eyes. “my parents, they—they just abandoned me. they’ve gone back to fallinel and left me here, never once visited me in jail, and i just—what did i do to make them hate me so much?”
“sometimes parents just—sometimes they don’t know what to do.” fabian answered her question gently, his voice much softer than his usual confident boasting, and adaine shrugged a shoulder with just the barest hint of a smile on her lips before it faded away. he scooted closer to her until their sides were pressed together and he squeezed her hand a couple of times, giving her a smile in return. “my father is...was not the best father even though i love him dearly. and you know, it’s okay. because i have a new family with you guys now, even though it’s dysfunctional and very odd. you’ll find a new family too.”
“but why does my biological family hate me?” adaine’s voice cracked at this, and fabian’s one eye flickered with something unfamiliar before she was being pulled forward into a gentle embrace, her head tucked into his neck as she finally broke down and started to cry.
being in fabian’s arms was exactly how she imagined it to be—protective but warm at the same time—and she let out a shuddering breath as she wrapped her own arms around his waist to hug him back, having to let go of his hand to do so. one of fabian’s hands moved up her back to hold onto the back of her head, stroking at her hair gently, and she let out a quiet whimper at the easy affection that she suddenly realised was new to her in a way that it shouldn’t have been.
“i wish i could do more for you, adaine,” fabian said softly, the side of his face pressed to her head as he held onto her, and she shook her head for a moment to rebuke his words. “no, i wish—all the money in the world can’t do anything if you’re not happy, and i don’t—it hurts me to see you so upset because of your shitty parents, because they didn’t love you, and i just want—i want you to be happy. because you out of all of us deserve it the most.”
adaine sniffled quietly and pulled her head back so she could look up at fabian just as he looked down at her, and she froze for a moment when she saw how close they were. it would have been so easy to just lean up the tiniest bit more to press their lips together, and her hand came up without her permission to caress his cheek. it was the side of his face where his eye had been ripped out, and so she carefully let her fingers trail over the half-healed scar that ran down his cheek. fabian sighed shakily at this, his breath hitting adaine’s forehead, and she leaned up to press a kiss to the bottom of the scar on his cheek.
“adaine, i—”
“hey, are you guys okay?”
adaine scrambled out of fabian’s arms and stood up, swiping off any dirt that may have collected on her pants or her jacket as she looked at sklonda standing in the doorway. the detective looked concerned when she noticed that adaine’s eyes were red, but the wizard shook her head for a moment before clearing her throat.
“i’m alright, i just needed a moment. i’m going to go back inside now, goodnight.” adaine nodded once before quickly slipping into the gym and going over to where her sleeping bag was. she turned onto her side to go into a trance facing away from the door, hoping that nobody who was still awake saw the blush that threatened to overtake her cheeks, and she forced the thoughts of what almost happened with fabian to focus on what she should prepare for the battle ahead.
(sklonda gave fabian a look with a raised eyebrow, and fabian couldn’t help but blush as he made his way back inside to his own sleeping bag, but he wasn’t sure what just happened. she had kissed his cheek. maybe he wanted her to kiss his lips. he didn’t know.)
iii.
when ragh and kristen founded the gsa at aguefort, adaine was apprehensive to even go to a meeting.
she had enough conversations with jawbone to know that it was okay to question her identity, that she didn’t always have to be certain of the things that she wanted in life, but she knew one thing for certain—she liked fabian, had romantic feelings for fabian, and if it was fabian that she experienced anything more intimate with it would be okay because it was fabian and not a stranger.
adaine finally decided to attend a meeting to support her party member and friend, and so she pulled on the most casual outfit she could for one of these meetings—a black hoodie that tracker had bought her for her birthday that had the phrase “words are my weapon” in a sparkly thread with a pair of black leggings from fig’s closet and a plain red tank top (she wanted to look casual and was still experimenting with her look)--and joined jawbone in the car with kristen as they made their way to the academy.
“i’m really proud of you guys, it looks like it’s coming along very well.” jawbone remarked as he pulled up to the school, seeing that the front parking lot was filled with cars, and adaine’s heart stopped for a moment when she saw the hangman parked right by the bloodrush field.
“oh, they have bloodrush practice today too, so ragh will be showing up late,” kristen said to adaine as they got out of the car together, and the blonde elf simply nodded a few times as they made their way into the school. it was odd getting there when it was quiet but kristen had insisted on having longer meetings on the weekends rather than after school for only an hour as this was the best time that wouldn’t conflict with other extracurricular activities.
once inside the classroom that they used for the club, adaine realised that there was a good number of people there who were chatting excitedly amongst each other in small groups. she ran a hand through her hair before immediately righting it once again as a few people looked at her, and she sat down at a desk that held a number of pamphlets on it. there were things she had never heard of on the front of each one of them, but the ‘asexuality spectrum’ caught her attention.
knowing that kristen wouldn’t start the meeting without her co-president, adaine picked it up and began to read it.
it felt like all the dots were connecting in her head when she read the paragraph on demisexuality, her thoughts instantly drifting to fabian and how she imagined kissing him, how she would be completely okay with it if he was the one taking her clothes off to do anything more intimate with her—
the door slammed open and ragh walked in with a bright grin on his face, hugging kristen and looking behind him with a loud laugh, and then fabian walked in with just as bright of a smile on his face wearing a loose tank top and shorts, his silver hair dripping with water from having taken a shower, and everything tilted on its axis in adaine’s brain and the dots connected—
she managed to stand up and give fabian a greeting before excusing herself to the bathroom where she sat for a good half hour, breathing deeply to calm the anxiety welling up within her at the thoughts that floated into her head. when she came back to the club meeting, fabian was gone, and she felt like she could breathe again.
(she didn’t see the way fabian couldn’t stop staring at her in her casual outfit, his eyes practically shaped into hearts, but then kristen asked him if he was staying and fabian decided to beg off so he could go home and figure out what that was all about.)
iv.
as sophomore year started and went on without her having to murder somebody on the first day of school, adaine felt like she was on top of the world. jawbone had helped her get medication for her anxiety that was finally starting to work, and she wasn’t having nearly as many panic attacks anymore. her visions were starting to make more sense and she was no longer having any random flashbacks to the battle at prom with kalvaxus.
she wasn’t thinking about fabian that much anymore, but that was something she forced of herself, not wanting to dwell on another person who only had eyes for her sister.
at hudol before she failed the entrance exam into the college, it had always been about aelwyn. her parents always compared her to her older sister—aelwyn was prettier, more talented, the perfect daughter who would do anything for them. she was the one they brought to parties as she was good at socialising, and adaine had never understood what it was about aelwyn that had people liking her so much when she was insufferable of a person to be around, but she knew it was true.
fabian would talk every so often about how he would rescue aelwyn from her prison in fallinel, how he would swoop in and be the dashing knight to save her from her isolation in the tower, and every single word that came out of his lips had adaine’s heart cracking just a little bit more.
the night before they were about to leave on their big adventure for the crown of the nightmare king, adaine was up late to finish her packing. since she didn’t have to sleep as long as the others much less sleep at all, she could get away with being up a little later, but it just had her drowning in her thoughts, so much so that she hadn’t heard the knocking at her door until a soft voice said her name.
“adaine, you should try to get some rest,” sandralynn said kindly from the doorway, and the blonde looked up before nodding a few times, smiling slightly as she sat on the edge of her bed. the woman must have seen something in her expression because she came into the room and sat down beside her, looking at her kindly like a mother would, and that sent a pang of yearning through adaine’s heart—fig was so lucky to have a mom who loved her. “what’s going on?”
“i don’t know, i just—” adaine cut herself off before she spilled anything she wasn’t ready to say yet, looking down at her clasped together hands in her lap as a shuddering breath left her lips. sandralynn was patient, a hand coming up to rest on top of hers, and she had a brief flash of fabian’s hand in the same spot before they defeated kalvaxus that had tears welling up in her blue eyes against her will. “have you ever just felt not good enough for somebody? like, i just—i’m a nerd and i don’t really care about kissing and stuff unless it’s with one person, and i know this person will never look at me the way they look at ael—their current crush. i don’t wear makeup, i’m smart but i don’t know how to interact with people, i’m harsh and rude at times and i—fuck, i’m sorry.”
“shh, come here,” sandralynn was saying, and adaine was suddenly pulled into a hug that felt so warm and loving that the tears in her eyes spilled onto the woman’s shirt, and she just let herself cry and cry because continuing to push down the feelings was just getting to her too much. it was overwhelming how much came out all at once, how much she felt for a half-elf who had wormed his way into her heart with his confidence and his easy going nature. at the same time, all of her bottled up insecurities that had been there ever since she was first pitted against aelwyn, how this wasn’t the first time she was second to her older sister, all of them were overtaking her in that moment, and she just felt so—
broken.
“i just want to be the first choice sometimes.” adaine’s voice cracked as she held onto sandralynn like a lifeline, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs as she completely broke down, and she let out a shuddering breath as she buried her fact further into sandralynn’s shoulder. “i just—i wish he loved me back, i wish i wasn’t just the nerdy girl who somehow turns out to helpful, i want somebody to look at me and tell me that i’m beautiful, i want to be held and cherished and i want to be the one that gets chosen because he loves me too, but this sucks. if this is what love is like, i don’t want it.”
“it’s okay, i’m here.” sandralynn mumbled as she pressed a few kisses to the side of adaine’s head, and the blonde wizard shivered for a moment at how protected she felt in a mother’s embrace before she carefully pulled back. adaine tried to compose herself as she wiped at her cheeks and sniffled a couple times, ignoring the way sandralynn looked at her with a profound sadness in her eyes that showed she completely understood what adaine was going through, and the younger girl pushed her glasses back up her nose before smiling sadly, looking back down at her hands in her lap.
“but i will always be the side character, and i—that’s okay. it’s better than never getting to see him at all.” adaine forced herself to get those words out before she looked up at sandralynn, her heart cracking once again as sandralynn gave her a knowing look. “if i can be—if fabian will still choose me as a friend, then...i can live with that. i have to, right? how can i hold a candle to aelwyn when she’s perfect and beautiful and a much better wizard than me?”
silence filled the air for a long moment, long enough that adaine went to speak again, but sandralynn simply shook her head and reached out to caress her cheek. adaine couldn’t help but lean into the touch with a wobble in her bottom lip, trying so hard not to cry again, and sandralynn eventually pulled away with a smile.
“you’ll be okay, adaine. i know you will. now, get some rest, okay? we have a long journey ahead of us.”
adaine nodded a few times and moved to get under the covers of her bed as sandralynn stood up and turned the light off, shutting the door behind her and leaving the tower to go into a trance herself.
(sandralynn ignored the way she could see fig just barely hidden in the shadows, knowing that her daughter only wanted what was best for her friend, and fig sniffled to herself a few times at the way adaine had simply fallen apart before making her own way to bed, an unsuspecting nightmare gripping her tightly to keep her from saying anything else.)
v.
adaine tried to push out the thoughts in her head that popped up when fabian contracted pneumonia, but she didn’t have much of a chance to really spend time with him alone. it wasn’t until the elven agents from fallinel took her with them to calethriel tower that she allowed herself to think of him.
he had been broken by the fight against captain james whitclaw that had happened in the crow’s keep, having witnessed many deaths in such a quick amount of time, and he had just looked sad when they had cut him down from the clothing lines and ropes that had kept him suspended. adaine had wanted nothing more than to curl around him and soothe his thoughts, knowing that the insecurities he had shown the tiniest hints of were now crowding his mind until they were the only thing he could hear.
once she had been rescued and they made it back to the hangvan, fabian had talked about aelwyn once again since her memory was restored and she had left, and adaine had used that to slip away into the woods to take a short walk.
“adaine, hey,” fig’s voice said from behind her, and the blonde stopped as her friend jogged to catch up to her. “can we talk?”
“what’s up?” adaine asked with big eyes, adjusting her glasses on her face, and she carefully rested a hand on boggy’s head for a moment once she saw the look in fig’s eyes. in that moment, she could see just how much fig looked like sandralynn, and adaine had a moment of wonder if she looked at all like her older sister before fig spoke.
“it’s about fabian.” fig was panting by the time she reached adaine, obviously not working out a ton, and adaine could understand the sentiment before fig’s words reached her brain.
“what about fabian, he’s fine isn’t he?” adaine moved her gaze to the ground, but it was obvious that there was something she wasn’t saying as her hands shook slightly.
“adaine...” fig trailed off before stepping closer to tangle their fingers together, and the blonde shook her head for a moment. “how long have you liked fabian for?”
“since a few weeks after we all became friends.” adaine’s whisper filled the silent night sky around them like a gong going off, and she let out a shaky breath before closing her eyes. if she was going to talk about it, she might as well tell the truth, and fig would know if she was lying anyway. “but i’ve been in love with him since prom last year. we—he hugged me, he was there while i was breaking down about my parents, and i just—how can i not love him, fig, when he’s such an amazing person who deserves the entire world? but he likes aelwyn, wants to be with aelwyn, and i can’t compare to her.”
“you are two very different people, adaine,” fig said softly, her forehead pressing against adaine’s, and the blonde held onto her friend’s hands like a lifeline. “but you’re beautiful, and if fabian can’t see that then he’s dumb. you deserve the best care, and i know it sucks but maybe—i’m not saying it’s not okay to be in love with him, but if it’s hurting you like this, why are you hung up on him?”
“i wish i knew.” adaine shook her head before closing her eyes, letting go of fig’s hands to hug her tightly, and the hug was returned just as tight.
she was going to try and get over him.
(in the back of his mind, fabian wished that adaine had slept in the room with him, then maybe she would have been able to detect that he had a spell on him and could have broken it, but he knew his reasons were more selfish than that, so he too pushed them down.)
+ i.
fabian and aelwyn broke up before junior year started, and adaine felt like she could breathe again.
aelwyn had realised she was actually a lesbian and they had a long conversation about it before telling everybody, and it was only a short week before aelwyn was moving out to travel and ‘find herself’ again, as she phrased it. fabian didn’t seem upset about it at all, smiled every time somebody asked him about his ‘pretty elven girlfriend’, and adaine wondered if they really dated much at all with how nonchalant he was about it.
adaine had (mostly) gotten over her feelings for fabian, but they only seemed to flare up again once the school year started and he spent more time with the bad kids now that he wasn’t chasing after a girlfriend who barely wanted to spend time with him anyway. it only got worse when fabian suggested they go to homecoming together, the knowledge that riz was going to come with them in a mini group since the other half of their number were going with their respective partners (and adaine wasn’t sure how gorgug was going to dance with both of his partners, but they all seemed happy so everything was good for her) not changing anything.
they had all decided to wear matching colours, adaine in her dress and then fabian and riz with their ties, and the two boys had even splurged together to get her a corsage (well, riz had brought it up as an idea and fabian had bought it, but it was the thought that counted). she was so happy to be going with her friends, but she could have done without fig’s concerned glances over to her in between every picture that she took with fabian at her side.
fabian’s hair had only gotten longer since he had decided to not cut it when they got back from their spring break quest, and it hung in gentle curls to touch the top of his shoulders. he had even found an eyepatch in the same colour as her dress that matched his tie, and there was something about the way that they were so obviously matching that had her wishing it was all real.
adaine had curled her now longer hair as well, hoping that she would look pretty enough to stand beside him at a school dance, and she had allowed fig to put on a little bit of makeup—enough to make it obvious that she was wearing makeup, but not too much that it completely obscured all of her features. she had even tried to put in contacts but quickly got irritated with them, simply using a spell to give herself good eyesight for the night while tucking her glasses into the small pocket that she had gotten in her dress for when it was late and the spell ran out.
all of her effort to look eye catching enough seemed wasted though when they got to the dance and fabian had disappeared to dance with multiple people he had been flirting with since the year started, and there was only so much of it that adaine could handle before she needed a break. while riz was in a very intense conversation with shellford about a few things they were working on in the av club, she slipped out of the same door as she had at the end of her freshman year, pressing back against the brick wall.
with a long sigh, she ran a hand through her hair, not caring if she messed up the curls at all, and she slipped out of the high heels she had somehow let kristen talk her into wearing for the occasion. adaine left them against the wall as she pushed off of the wall to walk a little bit into the grass, enjoying the feeling of it under her bare feet as she gazed up at the night sky. the moon was almost full, allowing for tracker to come as kristen’s date, and from the gymnasium a beautiful slow song started to play.
“adaine.” she paused in her movements to turn back to where the voice came from, and standing in the doorway was fabian, leaning against the doorway looking at her with an unreadable but soft expression in his eyes and a fond smile on his lips.
(and she wouldn’t think about how he had been doing that lately, how his eyes had been soft while he was looking at her, because it would send her into a spiral that she couldn’t let herself go through again.)
“sorry, i was just—i needed some air,” adaine said, already wanting to curl up and hide from how weak her voice sounded in that moment, but fabian didn’t seem to mind as he pushed off of the doorway and approached her. the door shut behind him and muffled the song once again but didn’t completely keep it from the air around them, and fabian stopped just in front of her. slowly, he held a hand out, and adaine looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “what is this?”
“will you dance with me?” fabian asked, and adaine’s breath hitched in her throat before she could tell herself that it was nothing, just a friendly date to a dance together with their mutual friend.
(their mutual friend, who was aromantic and asexual and made it clear he didn’t want anything with any of them.)
adaine didn’t say anything, too scared to ruin the moment, but she carefully placed her hand into fabian’s, her eyes wide and trusting as she looked up at him, and he gave her a small smile that sent butterflies into her stomach to fly around nervously. he took half a step forward before his other hand came up to rest on her waist, and adaine could feel herself flashing back to the moment she first thought about fabian’s arms around her before her hand came up to rest on her shoulder (this was much better than that thought so long ago).
without a word, fabian led the two of them in a slow dance over the grass, and adaine let herself enjoy the moment for what it was while wishing it meant so much more to him.
dancing barefoot meant that adaine could now realise how much taller fabian had grown since they got back from spring break, and she had to crane her head back just a bit to properly look at him. as she did so, she realised that fabian had already been looking down at her, and a flush spread across her cheeks that she was sure was visible in the dim lighting of the moon above them. when the song ended, fabian went to pull away, but adaine held onto him.
“please, let me just—” adaine interrupted herself as they continued to the slow tempo they had before, ignoring the faster paced song playing from in the gym, and fabian waited patiently for her to finish. “let me have this for just a moment. because i—i’m tired of pretending that i’m not in love with you, and i just want to know for a few minutes what it would be like to have you look at me the way tracker looks at kristen, or the way ayda looks at fig, or the way you looked at aelwyn.” their swaying stopped but adaine didn’t care as she felt the way her eyes welled up with tears again, and she was so tired of crying over her feelings because they were all over the place. fabian’s arm tightened around her waist but she didn’t pay any attention to that, trying to gather her thoughts. “and i—you know i came out as demisexual, and i just—it’s you, it’s always been you, but why would you ever look at me like you love me when i’m just a nerd?”
“adaine, you—” fabian cut himself off and adaine looked up to try and make eye contact with him, but she realised that at some point in her ranting, her spell had worn off. she cursed and pulled her glasses out of her pocket, but fabian took them out of her hands gently.
“fabian, what are you—?”
the half-elf was sliding her glasses onto her nose carefully, and adaine forced herself to stay still as she blinked a few times, getting used to having them back on even as her eyes tingled from the after effects of the spell. it wasn’t until she had been reoriented that she felt the hands on her cheeks, and adaine looked up to see fabian giving her that same soft look that he had been giving her.
“why do you think that i’m not in love with you?” fabian asked quietly, his thumbs smoothing over adaine’s cheekbones as his eye gleamed with something happy and warm, and the blonde bit her lip as she tried to make sense of what was happening. “i—you know, when aelwyn and i tried to make things work, i couldn’t stop thinking about you every time i kissed her. i couldn’t stop thinking about how i should have kissed you when we were freshmen about to fight kalvaxus, and i just—adaine, i thought you knew and were trying to reject me.”
“i’ve been in love with you for a long time, fabian,” adaine said as her voice broke, and her hands came up to grip onto his waist so she could have a lifeline as she floated away from the way her heart was swelling up. “i thought i didn’t have a chance, you’re just—fuck, i really love you, and i don’t see a future for myself without you.”
fabian leaned down to press their foreheads together, and adaine couldn’t help herself as the widest grin spread on her lips, her chin tilting up at the way she could feel his breath fanning across her lips.
“can i kiss you?” fabian said in a questioning tone, a smile spreading on his own lips, and adaine nodded a few times as best as she could while taking a step forward so she could be closer to him. in anticipation, her eyes fell shut, and she could feel the way his lips hovered over hers before—
a drop of water suddenly landed on her cheek, and she only had a single moment of ‘what the fuck is happening’ before the heavens ripped open above them, and there was suddenly a downpour that swept the two of them up.
adaine laughed loudly as she flinched for a moment in the rain, looking up at the sky and enjoying the way the rain was cooling her down at that moment. fabian’s hands disappeared from her face for a moment before returning to hold onto her waist instead, and she caught a glimpse of a grin on his face before he was tugging her closer and—
the first thought adaine had was that the kiss was wet, their lips sliding together with the help of the rain, and her hands flew up to tangle her fingers in his silver hair. she raised herself up onto her toes so he didn’t have to bend down too much, a foot and a few inches taller than her now, but fabian wrapped his arms around her small waist before lifting her up so they were more level. the first kiss didn’t last long enough, adaine unable to hold back her giggle at the way he had so effortlessly lifted her up, and fabian giggled with her before adaine took the initiative the second time.
this kiss was much better than the first one, adaine’s head tilting to the side to mimic his movements, and he took her bottom lip in between his teeth to bite it gently. she couldn’t help the whimper that left her mouth at that action, a surge of heat running through her veins, and her fingers tugged at his hair for just a moment. at this action, fabian positively growled and swiped his tongue along her bottom lip, and adaine couldn’t deny him as her lips parted.
the first touch of their tongues together had a moan leaving the both of them, the moans lost in the kiss as their tongues slid together languidly. one of adaine’s hands slid out of fabian’s hair to hold onto the back of his neck, her nails slightly scratching his skin, and fabian shuddered for a moment before the both of them broke apart to catch some air. he set her back down on her feet and adaine pressed her face into fabian’s chest, her arms winding around his broad shoulders. his arms made their way back to trapping adaine’s waist in an embrace, and the cracks that had formed in her heart were now filled with gold.
“that was—we can do that more, right? you’re the only person i’ve ever wanted to kiss and now i don’t wanna kiss anybody else.” adaine rambled as she clung onto fabian, and he laughed quietly before kissing the top of her head, trying to shelter her from the rain as much as possible.
“of course, i want to get my kisses in with my girlfriend after all,” fabian said in return, and adaine lifted her head up to look at him with big eyes that were slightly obscured from the raindrops on them. his smile was fond as he leaned down to peck her lips, and she let herself smile in return.
“girlfriend?” adaine asked, unable to keep the waver out of her voice, and fabian nodded once.
“if you’ll have me as your boyfriend.” fabian answered her with a smile, and adaine couldn’t stop nodding once she started until he leaned down to kiss her for another moment. “now, i think this dance is overrated honestly, would you like to come back to my house and we can like—not that i’m inviting you for sex or anything, but we could like—watch a movie, just chill, get out of these soaked clothes and just—”
“or we could do all of that.” adaine cut him off with a blush rising back up on her cheeks, and fabian paused before looking down at her with big eyes. “i mean, the others will want to stay for the rest of the night to see who gets crowned homecoming queen and king, and i’m—sex can be included, in that, we can—as long as you let me wear your letterman jacket to school, i’m going to stake my claim.”
instead of responding verbally, fabian led her to where the hangman was sitting waiting, and they rode out of there in the rain with laughter trailing them.
(later on in the night, right as the dance was ending, riz went to look for the two of them and found adaine’s heels still abandoned on the side of the building, so the rest of the bad kids went into panic mode that only escalated when neither fabian nor adaine were responding on their crystals. they all piled into the hangvan and went to seacaster manor first, and when cathilda finally led them to fabian’s room as he had been ‘busy’, adaine was wearing one of his hoodies and a pair of his sweatpants that were much too big on her.
fig knew she wasn’t going to let this go anytime soon, but she allowed herself to see the hickies on adaine’s neck and the top of scratches on fabian’s back and smiled, deciding to leave her teasing for tomorrow. her sister was finally happy.)