A/N: A scene I’ve had in my head and drafts for far too long. If I get up the brain power there is a part two which has the potential for some spice.
Summary: When you’ve waited almost seven years for the moment, you think it has to be a grand affair. Roses and fireworks and crystal wine glasses. Sometimes the perfect moment is waiting in line in the bookstore.
Warnings: None. Just fluff.
Parings: Wong/OFC (Cherry)
Tagging: @silvergryphon @diarythebookwyrm @empressofthelibrary @strxngemxgick @supremestrangeness @shieldagentnatasharomanoff @mastersofkamartaj
(If you’d like me to tag you in my stories. Please let me know!)
*****
She couldn’t quite remember how she’d ended up with her arms around him.
Not that she was complaining.
Cherry had expressed that she’d wanted to go and get in line for the newest volume of her favorite book series. She still enjoyed the hardbacks even if she read a lot on her tablet. She loved the scent of fresh pages, and today the author was signing. It was exciting and Wong had agreed to go with her. Since they weren’t looking to be stared at the whole time they were in line, Wong had opted for a more conservative and modern look. He left the plum and golden robes behind for a pair of khaki slacks, a simple turtleneck and a long flannel coat. Cherry had to admit she didn’t know Wong even owned more clothes than the robes he typically wore.
Despite her not knowing, she didn’t think he looked any less handsome. In fact, she found herself looking at him more. The coat flattering his frame, adding an air of dramatics his robes lacked, and it made her appreciate him more. Cherry wondered vaguely if she should change up her own looks.
Cherry and Wong had been in each other's orbit since the Blip...going on nearly seven, eight years now. It was hard to believe that neither of them had landed a successful move on the other.
There was the date that Tony had engineneer that had ended in diaster when he accidentally awakened an eldritch demon. How was he supposed to know the candles he'd bought in the antique shop for the evening had been cursed?
There were the concert tickets that Stephen and...everyone had the vague notion someone else had been involved, but no one could agree on who it was, had bought for Cherry and Wong, but it was interrupted when the band's lead singer was kidnapped by his spurned super powered ex girlfriend.
There was the kiss that had happened the closest they'd ever got. A fun night of karaoke with Shawn and Katy, both warm from drinking and laughter. Cherry had stumbled and Wong caught her and the kiss just...happened. There was no one to tease them, no one to push them together or force them act before they wanted to. It had been so natural. Cherry had wanted it to go on forever and then...the sky split open into a million purple shards. New York was in danger and Wong had to return. That was over a year ago and he'd been so busy they never were able to return to that place.
Now they were standing in a line in the biting autumn air and despite her peacoat, woolen skirt, tights and gloves, Cherry was cold. The line had been a slow to move and Cherry was worried she might be hypothermic before they got inside the bookstore. She had her hands tucked under her arms as she shifted on her feet miserably.
Hearing a soft chuckle, she looked over to see Wong with a warm expression on his face before he motioned for her to come closer to him, "Come here,"
It didn't take much persuasion from him for Cherry to find herself naturally leaning into his side, soaking up the warmth from his form, and then one hand and arm snaked inside the long flannel coat. It was much warmer under the layers of thick fabric where all of his body heat was trapped and before she knew it, she had her head nestled against his shoulder, both arms under his jacket, hands resting against his shoulder blades.
This. This was much nicer than shivering by herself. She'd worried at first that maybe she'd been too forward, moved too fast, but Wong didn't voice any argument. He kept one hand naturally in his pocket and another across her shoulders, thumb working rhythmically against her spine. She closed her eyes, losing herself to the warmth of him and the sound of his pulse under her ear and the scent of him. The smell of fresh clothes and incense that came and went as earthy and then changing to something spicy.
She wasn't sure how long they stood like this. He didn't press her to move forward and Cherry was certain she'd heard him murmur for a couple people to go ahead of them. She didn't care. She didn't want to lose this small moment like so many others.
Finally, Wong leaned his head down closers to hers. She could feel the heat of his skin, the swirl of his breath, and the magnetic pull she always felt around him, the need to be closer to him.
“The line is moving, if you don’t want to get too far behind,” He murmured softly, his voice velvety in her ears and she shook her head.
“I don’t care,” She said, realizing just how childish she sounded, especially as the Sorcerer Supreme chuckled softly.
“You don’t care? we’ve been out here for almost an hour and youre freezing,” He pointed out, his tone tender, and she felt her cheeks flush. She still had her head tucked against him, but now that he needed an answer, she knew she should look at him. There was an overpowering sense of girlish bashfulness that came over her. The feel of her fluttering stomach and her pounding heart, surely he had to feel it as close as they were, and the attraction she felt for him, all coming together in a powerful storm of emotion she hadn’t felt since she was in college. She knew from her ears to the apples of her cheeks to then bridge of her nose, she had to be crimson as she lifted her eyes to him. Wong’s face, that was usually so unreadable to those who didn’t know him, was soft for her in that moment. Amusement glittering in his sharp eyes and his mouth pulled into a barely lopsided smile.
He removed the hand from his pocket, the other still across her back, and brushed away her curls with blunt fingers. He followed the motion through, tucking several strands behind the pinkened shell of her ear. The contact electric, as she rarely let anyone as close as she let the sorcerer supreme. “If you truly don’t want the book we can-“
He never got to finish she sentence as much like the night outside the karaoke bar, the kiss just happened. Cherry was fairly sure she had initiated it, lifting up on her tiptoes before he was done, but she swore she felt his hand thread through her curls to cup the back of her head before their lips met.
It was like a sun igniting between her lungs. A white hot burning thing that she thought she’d never experience again as her fingers tightened into the fabric of his shirt. The kiss was slow and luxorius as Wong set their pace. It was like they had been, sure and thorough, as he pulled back enough for breath, but never enough to truly break contact with her lips, before leaning back in to start the process all over again.
She wasn’t sure how long they stood there. It was long enough for several of the others in line to share secretive smiles and shuffled past them. If they only knew what this moment meant. A moment both Wong and Cherry believed needed to be grand and momentous as they both had waited so long, only for it to come in a moment of quiet, mundane stillness.
When they finally pulled back and the stars that skittered in her veins died down and she caught her breath, Cherry murmured, “I don’t want the book…I don’t care what we do…I just want to be with you,”
Wong studied her a moment before with a gesture, he spun open a portal that made several people in line squawk in surprise. The portal revealed a stack of glossy bound books. Wong reached in with a free hand, keeping his other around her, and withdrew a book. He handed it to a bewildered Cherry before depositing a heavy coin on the stack of books before closing the portal.
“You can’t-“ Cherry began, looking torn between being shocked and amused and Wong raised a brow at her.
“That coin would easily purchase dozens of those books. I think I can,” He corrected her before spinning another gateway open. “Come on. I think I know a place you’d enjoy,”
She was reluctant to leave her space against him, but took a consolation prize as she untwined herself, of pressing her hand to his cheek and leaning in for another soft kiss, this one sweeter and more familiar. It left them bright eyed and smiling before she slipped through the gateway, leaving Wong to follow and close it in a shower of sparks.