hastalikhunts:
She was quiet for an…awfully long time, seeming to just look at him. Like he didn’t quite know where he stood in the rest of his life he realised he really didn’t know where he stood with River either. He’d told her he didn’t intend to leave her but he also had wanted to give her space. What he’d promise her hadn’t really been what he delivered and Hastalik was realising he needed to stop promising people things he couldn’t be sure he’d deliver on. The only thing he was sure he could promise River was that he wouldn’t leave, at least not completely, but he knew at this point it was probably bogged down by the promises that had turned out to be lies.
Fortunately she eventually spoke and one corner of his mouth pulled up in a smile. “No, I can call you Miss Moore if you like though,” he joked, stepping further into the office as he held up the bag. “I tried to do this a few days ago but turns out not texting or talking to someone means you’re super behind in their life and you end up going to their old job and having to eat two people’s worth of Chinese food on your own, there was no other option.”
Placing the food down on an empty part of the desk he continued to look at her hoping that his light way of speaking was not going to cause her to yell at him. “I know I could have texted but I didn’t really want to just text you.” Saying he missed her before he knew if he was welcome felt premature so for now that felt enough. “So Chinese food seemed the perfect option, even if we don’t have a cheesey movie to go with it,” he concluded, brushing hands through his puffy hair as nerves obviously moved through his body. He’d considered bringing his laptop so they could watch The Half of It but didn’t figure her office would be comfortable.
“That might be weird,” she responded bluntly at his suggestion to call her Miss Moore. Not even the students called her Miss Moore. She was essentially the same age as most of them and younger than some so they all just called her River.
He was clearly trying really hard to make things feel like nothing had changed but his trying so hard only made it more obvious that things had. “You could have still texted though,” she said as she closed her binder and set it off to the side. “I’m still technically working. My office hours don’t end until another hour so, I mean, you can stay but if a student shows up then you need to leave.” She wasn’t saying it to be rude but just to make a point that he should have given her some form of warning that he was going to show up at her work.
River watched him as he moved and inclined her head toward the food containers, “Orange chicken and chow mein?”















