hanging off your lips

---no telling what i might do when i'm in the right mood---- [indie, fandomless oc. please read rules before interaction c:

[nocturnaliisms]

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jake: when did i become ur chauffeur 

[nocturnaliisms]

&. antoinette

she smiles faintly at him, sleep filling her every feature. perhaps since she couldn’t sleep, the look of it had taken over her face. her fingers are tap-tap-tapping on his chest as she tries to come up with a joke. “king tut.”

“king tut who?” the angle she’s looking at him in must be horrendous, he must have six chins at the very least. 

[nocturnaliisms]

&. antoinette: 

“okay..okay.” shit, she doesn’t actually have a joke. “uhm, knock knock !! “ her chin is propped up on his chest, her eyes wide and hopeful.

“who’s there?” he asks, running one hand idly through her hair, the other tucked behind his head. sure, it’s an ungodly hour, but he would pull himself from sleep for no one else. 

[nocturnaliisms]

&. antoinette: 

“ – jakey, no please !! stay awake. “ she had a nightmare, hence why she wants him awake. but she won’t ever say that. “ i have a — a joke !! “

he’ll pause for a moment, considering it. “okay... i’m listening.”

[nocturnaliisms]

“----- you woke me up to tell me that? what the hell, nette. go back to sleep.”

epiphcny

[nocturnaliisms]

​ epiphcny pls look @ this

[epiphcny]

she’s this close to kissing him again, to get him to stop the countdown, because she knows that once the countdown begins, she’s going to end up being forced to run out into the thunderstorm like a madwomen. it’s just their thing, no one ever denies the countdown.

on three, she’s dashing out behind him, letting out a squeal as the rain pelts her unusually small frame. “ i don’t like this! “ she’s laughing though as she literally throws herself into the subaru, her eyes are wide with adrenaline – and all she’s done is run to the car, but it’s a big step for her. normally during thunderstorms she won’t even get out of bed, and barely allows jake to leave the bed. but that could be attributed to his comfortable chest and warm body temperature.

they’re both already soaked, the interior of their beloved car catching their drippings. she’s giddy with laughter though, as she spots jake and his bangs. like a wet dog, he has to keep pushing his hair out of his eyes and she finds it adorable.

[nocturnaliisms]

with a drunk sort of laugh, he digs the key from the glove compartment--- classic antoinette, leaving the keys in the car, they’re lucky it wasn’t locked--- and puts it in the ignition, turning in his seat so he can back out of the driveway.

“---where should we go first, that b&b, or the storage unit? i don’t think it matters, because they’ll be pissed to see us either way.” 

god, wait til their friends hear this. 

oh, wait. 

[nocturnaliisms]

shawn mendes starters

"I love it when you don't take no."

"We don't care what them people say."

"We don't have the time to be sorry."

"Together, we can just let go."

"Take your shot, it might be scary."

"No one's ever left me quite this sore."

"I'll be needing stitches."

"I know that I'll make it out alive if I quit calling you my lover."

"Move on."

"I promise that one day I'll be around to keep you safe."

"I know there are some things we need to talk about."

"Just let me hold you for a little while longer."

"I know we just met. Maybe this is dumb."

"I don't wanna ever grow up."

"I don't even know your name."

"When the time is right, maybe I'll propose."

"I want all the strings attached."

"And now you're gonna say, 'pretty please forgive me.'"

"I hope you remember me."

"One more kiss is all it takes."

"Never thought that we would end up here."

"I used to think that we would last forever."

"You always try to put your two cents in."

"What if our time has come and gone?"

"Take it slow, it's not a race."

"You won't have to wait no more for me."

"Everything's a mess when you're away."

"I'm having trouble sleeping on my own."

"You don't have to be afraid."

"We're all the same."

"Sometimes, it all gets a little too much."

"Take my hand, we'll be alright."

"I wonder, am I the one you're dreaming of?"

"Let me be the one to bear the pain."

"I'm a fool for you."

"You don't have to do this on your own."

[epiphcny]

his caring tendencies, his worried look, his gentleness, is enough to make her heart skip a beat. normally, it was wild ways, adrenaline pumping craziness and hectic making out that made girl’s heart’s go wild; but for her, it was the soothing aura that was exuded by jake right in this moment. it makes her whole body feel like it’s going to give out, that and the sheer soreness beating in her muscles. 

“ yeah, jakey, i know. there’s nothing to tell, i fell down some stairs. “ her eyes are completely giving away that she’s hiding something, so she twists in her position to hide her gaze, also stopping him from doctoring her lip any more. “ it’s fine, honestly, you should be getting back to work, you’re sister is going to need help.

with a voice that’s practically crying, ‘ i’m going to push you away, but stay please. ‘ she speaks again, “ thanks, jake, i’m all good now. “

[nocturnaliisms]

a sigh of frustration. “yeah, but you don’t look it, nette.” 

it really makes him sick to see her like this, all bruised and broken in a sitatuon that was beyond his control, simply because she wouldn’t tell him who. she keeps trying to turn it into a what, but he knows it’s gotta be someone. 

he’s about to mention this when the door opens, and a familiar blonde head peeks around the door. “yo, j. someone wants to see the first editions of those mark twains we have.” 

he groans, annoyed that his moment with antoinette has been ruined. if it were anything else, he’d tell sophie to deal with it on her own, but people looking for first editions always got pissy and tried to call them out, tried to prove their versions were fakes. after sophie had been reduced to tears by an irate customer last year, jake has taken over that department ever since.  

“okay, soph.” then to antoinette: “i’ll be back soon, alright? sophie’ll take care of you.” he leaves her with a small smile, before pushing past his sister to deal with mr. mark-twain-collector. before the door closes a snatch of jake’s voice can be heard: “oh, hello, you wanted to see our mark twain collection? right this way, we’ve got huckleberry...” 

sophie’s eyebrows raise and she turns to the other girl before visibly recoiling. “whoa, what happened to you?” 

[sobeitjayt]

[nocturnaliisms]

shawn mendes’ music videos are fuckin genius 

[epiphcny]

she’s beginning to see this back room as a sort of safe haven for her, though she knows she shouldn’t keep coming back here, she’s beginning to get too dependent on the fact that he’ll be there to clean her up. her eyes are studying his face as he cleans her lip, resulting in a few winces when he cleans up her lip. she’s staring at the way his grin alters the lines of his face, the tongue that darts across his lower lip…

she stops herself. blinking to get out of her daze, remembering that he had asked her a question. she’s worried that if she doesn’t get it together, she’ll give away her secret. 

“ yeah, he’s — it’s, kinda – tricky to to navigate. “ her heart picks up speed at her mistake, she’s never so much as hinted at anything going on at home, to anyone, and yet jake had made her so at ease that it began to slip out. “ lip! lip, is it swelling?” trying to change the subject, more like panicking. 

[nocturnaliisms]

he jumps a bit when she raises her voice, a sharp inhalation accompanying his surprise. “i, uh--- no! no, it’s fine. lip wounds always look worse than they are because there’s more capillaries there.” a semi-useless fact he’d picked up from an old medical textbook he’d flipped through on a rainy afternoon at the store. oh, the curses of having so many books pass through his hands.

and he can’t be sure, but he thinks he’s hearda male pronoun in there somewhere. but he’s not about to call her out on it. something’s holding him back, and he doesn’t know what it is. 

“look, nettie,” he says, swapping his rag in favor for one of the bandages. “you know you can tell me anything.” 

and it was true. he hadn’t expected to get so close to a customer, but she visits so often that he can’t help but strike up conversations at the cash register, in the aisles, at the bulletin board by the door. sometimes, just to be different, he’ll stop in at her flower shop on his lunch break. they used to just have a commercial relationship, but ever since he started taking her in the back room to bandage broken flesh, it’s starting to feel like something... else. 

[thehoecouture]

[epiphcny]

“ there’s not multiple stairs, i just always fall down the same one. “ she tries to smile, to reassure him that she’s fine, but it only results in a grimace – having reopened her split lip.

the female doesn’t want to tell the male the truth, but she doesn’t want to keep lying to him. at this point she finds it better to keep her explanations to a minimum. “ is it bad? “

[nocturnaliisms]

“still, is there like, a trick stair or something that keeps tripping you up? because this is the  third  time this month you’ve come in like this.” 

they’re in the back room, where jake herds her  every time he sees her like this. his sister is cover- ing for him at the front, but he’s not sure how long  he can get away with being back here. he’s got an- toinette sitting on one of the dozens of boxes of books he’s still got to unpack and shelve, a bottle of antisep- tic and bandages sitting next to her. 

he knows he shouldn’t, but he grins when her smile ruptures her lip again. “no, but you’re lip’s not doing too well.” he dabs the at the blood blossoming on her bottom lip before running his tongue over his own, his mind wandering to the place it has been for the last few months: 

what’s it like to kiss her?                                                                                                                                                                                

[epiphcny]

she doesn’t mean for her movements to be sexual or anything, really she’s just trying to get their bodies connected as they stumble down the hallway. by the time they’re at the front door, she presses her back against the cold wood, finally allowing their lips to disconnect. she’s breathless, smiling brightly. once again the annoying fly-aways in her hair are smoothed down by her hands, causing them to finally leave their spot below his navel.

she giggles a bit, leaning her head against the wooden surface behind her. her hands had someone managed to get tangled in his hair, so she finally uncurls her fingers and releases his strands. “ jakey, let’s go get your stuff. “ with that, she throws the door open, bracing herself against the storm that she was actually terrified of. 

things were going well as she took her first steps outside, but then a large crack of thunder sends her flying backwards, knocking straight into jake, nearly sending them both tumbling back into the house. 

[nocturnaliisms]

he can’t help but let out a surprised chuckle when the roll of thunder causes her to fling herself back, stumbling over her feet as she clings back to him. they haven’t even made it out from under the porch awning. 

“okay, look, nettie. on the count of three, we’ve gotta both run out to the car in this shitstorm. ready?” that’s how they usually do things they’re afraid of; one of them counts to three, and the other almost always does it. it’s how they take shots, it’s how antoinette got jake to jump off the high dive, how jake got her to sing karaoke with him at a bar one night. without even waiting for an answer, he stars: ‘1.... 2... 3!” 

he dashes out, the big drops of rain almost immediately soaking him through, seeping through his hair, his skin, his once-dry t-shirt. oh, well. he yanks the car door open, a little red subaru that he and antoinette had shared. oh, wait--- share, present tense. he grins, pushes his wet bangs out of his eyes once again. 

[epiphcny]

“ —- i fell down the stairs, AGAIN. clumsy me. “

[nocturnaliisms]

“where do you live that has so many stairs?” jake mumbles as he presses the rag to her  temples, cleaning away the bits of dried blood that had gathered there. 

antoinette always comes into his shop with some new bruise or bang, but jake’s not sure if she’s really this clumsy or if it’s... something else. but he’s not sure if it’s really his business, so he  keeps his mouth shut. 

[nocturnaliisms]

it's jake's!!! and mun's!!! birthday tomorrow!!!! c: