Steph's been away from Pete for ten days, dealing with press conferences and election bullshit. She thinks that she deserves to be a little evil and mess with her boyfriend.
“Peteyyyyy. Where are youuuu?” Steph called out into the quiet apartment.
She grinned at the ensuing silence, carefully toeing off her shoes and placing them off to the side.
It had been the longest week—well, ten days, but who was counting?—to end all long weeks. Steph had been dragged around by her dad to events and dinners and all kinds of other shit that she couldn't be bothered to remember. She'd been pulled out of school for this crap and—she couldn't believe she was saying this—she wished that she could've just gone to school.
A week of painful smiling. Of keeping her mouth firmly shut. Of disappointed looks from her dad whenever she wasn’t the perfect mayor’s daughter he wanted her to be. Of constantly being on her feet. Of barely being able to even talk to her friends, let alone see them.
A whole week without Pete.
Sure, they texted when they could, which wasn’t as often as Steph would’ve liked. Pete would send her pictures of whenever he saw her on the news and make fun of whatever horribly uncomfortable outfit she’d been forced to wear that day. She’d complain about all of the stuffy old white men she had to play nice with and make fun of her dad’s speeches.
On occasion, they only had the chance to say good morning, I love you, before Steph was whisked away. Then at the end of the day, she would collapse into bed, look at Pete’s Goodnight <3 text, laugh because he was a loser who used <3, reply with her own heart, and then fall asleep just to do it all over again.
That had been the first eight days.
Starting yesterday, it had been a bit of a different story.
Things had been a bit slow, and people weren’t paying Steph much attention, so her mind had started to wander. She thought about Pete, about how excited she was to finally see him again the next day.
Then, she started thinking about her favourite pastime for whenever she was feeling bored and restless, which usually involved bothering her boyfriend. Poking at him while he tried to study until he finally cracked, trying to frantically scramble away from her while those precious squeaky giggles poured out of him.
God, it was one of her favourite ways to mess with Pete. He was just so adorably ticklish that he was practically begging her to take advantage of it.
And with the way he never asked her to stop, and then always held her extra close when it was over, Steph had a feeling that he liked it almost as much as she did.
Which is when an idea started to form.
Discreetly, Steph took a picture of her new manicure. They were alternating orange and black, with a cute little pumpkin painted on her ring finger. If her dad was going to force her to get dressed up, the least she could do was take advantage of his money and get some nice, Halloween-themed nails.
She sent the picture off to Pete and grinned when his little icon popped up immediately.
Wow those are so cool! You’re all set for Halloween!
After quickly glancing around to make sure nobody was watching her, Steph typed up her next text with a satisfied grin.
Yeah, they’re really spooooky huh? I bet they’d tickle more than usual too ;)
The three bubbles appeared in the corner of her screen. Then disappeared. They reappeared again for a bit longer. Steph couldn’t help but feel proud of herself, picturing Pete’s red face as he attempted to think of something to say.
Finally, she got her response.
Why????????
A snort of laughter escaped her, which Steph immediately tried to cover up with a cough, tucking her phone under the table. Just in time too, because her dad gave her a brief, searching look, before raising an eyebrow in a clear warning and going back to his discussion.
Steph had a feeling that she didn’t have much time left, so she quickly typed out one final message.
Because now I get to picture you all flustered and giggly, which is currently the highlight of my day. And now you’re going to be thinking of me tickling you all day. Which is good because that’s what I’m going to be thinking of too. Gotta run love you bye!!
Moments after her phone was safely in her pocket, the mayor appeared at her side and she had to pretend to care about all these politics again.
On the bright side, it was much easier to smile at the crowds now that she had something fun to think about.
This became her go-to distraction for the rest of the day. Whenever Steph had a chance, she’d take her phone out and text Pete about how much she loved his laugh, or how the way his nose scrunched up when he smiled made her want to squeeze him until he popped, or how she was really itching to get her hands on him. To spider her nails over his neck, or claw at his ribs, or squeeze at his knees.
With each message, she received increasingly flustered responses that eventually devolved into helpless keyboard smashes and half-hearted pleas for mercy.
When she woke up this morning, she was able to shoot off one text before being whisked away for the last of her dad’s meetings.
Can’t wait to see you today! Hope you’re ready ;)
Which brings here back here, to Pete’s apartment. Where he is hiding from her.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
“Pete?” Steph called out, peering into the living room. “C’mon! Haven’t you missed me?” Nothing. To be expected, but Steph had a feeling she’d know when she was getting closer. There’s only so many places her skinny-ass nerd of a boyfriend can hide in this shoebox apartment.
She decided to skip the kitchen, walking down the hallway towards the bedrooms. Ted’s supposedly out at Richie’s uncle’s place, so she shouldn’t have to worry about him.
“It’ll only get worse the longer you avoid it!” Steph stepped into Pete’s bedroom, eyes immediately locking onto a suspicious looking pile of clothes in the corner of the room. Her neat-freak Pete would never.
Ah, it couldn’t hurt to stretch this out a little longer.
“Haven’t you just been waiting for this?” She asked, slowly making her way around the room. “I know I have. I’ve spent all day thinking about what I’m going to do when I get my hands on you.”
A nearly inaudible whine sounded from the pile, and Steph’s grinned sharpened.
She paused for a moment to check under the bed. “I think I’ll start off with your ribs. Go big or go home, right? Maybe, after I’ve had my fill of that, I’ll move to your neck. I’m thinking of being a vampire for Halloween, I could use you as practice.”
The pile of clothes had started to tremble a bit, small noises leaking out, and Steph felt like she could put him out of his misery.
Coming to a stop in front of him, she shoved her arm in and wrapped her hand around what she hoped was his wrist.
“Gotcha.”
The clothes scattered around the room as she yanked Pete out of his hiding spot. Steph wasted no time in shoving him onto his bed and climbing on top on him, hands bracketing his head.
For the first time in ten days, Steph was able to take in the sight of her boyfriend. Red-faced, glasses crooked, and a nervous grin already starting to tug at the corners of his lips.
“Hey, Steph,” Pete said affectionately, shifting to press his forehead against her arm, “I missed you.”
She practically melted right there on the spot. Her evil grin softened into a lovesick smile, and Steph couldn’t help but lean in to press a kiss to his lips.
“Hi, Pete. I missed you too.” They stayed therefor a moment, just looking at each other, before Steph remembered what she was here to do.
Something must have shown in her eyes, because pleas immediately started tumbling out of Pete’s mouth.
“Steph—Steph, hold on! We can talk about this! Surely we can come to some sort of an agreement!” His eyes tracked her hands as they inched closer and closer to his ribs. “You don’t have to—nonononoSHIT! Steph plehehease! Nohohot there!”
God, she really was in love with this dork. With his stupid bowties and nerdy laugh, Steph couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.
“Not here? Where then?”
“Anywhehehehere!”
“Anywhere?!” She paused, drinking in the sight of Pete’s goofy smile and hair that was somehow already a disaster. “You’re going to regret that. Before I kill you, I just want to make sure that I love you. I’m doing this out of love.”
And now, she had all the time in the world to make sure he knew it, starting with tickling all those clever thoughts out of his head.
Underneath all the laughter, though, Steph heard the outline of the words I love you too. Then she dove back in, determined to make good on her threats.
She was never staying away for this long ever again.
Now that The Guy Who Doesn’t Like Musicals is getting reprised can I interest some of you in: What if the infection spread through tickling/laughter instead of murder
