title: gorgeous
author: mementomoripontifexmortis
rating: general audience
pairing: estomano
warnings: nyo!estonia, high school???, idk i feel like that’s something that should be warned about
summary: lovino vargas likes ema, and as it’s graduation day, he decides that it’s the best time to tell her. of course, little bumps happen.
A/N: the title is bc i was listening to Taylor Swift’s new song, Gorgeous while writing it so take it with a grain of salt. Any mistakes are my own and it’ll be up on my ao3 account very shortly. anyway i found a prompt i really liked before everything happened, and i decided i wanted to write it. the prompt was: “I’ve been in love with you since sixth grade and it’s graduation day so I worked up the courage to tell you and now you’re staring at me blankly because you thought I hated you??? How did you think that- oh okay now we’re kissing we’ll talk about this later.” I put all blame for my new obsession with this pairing on @matistama and their fic “I Will Remind You”
“This is the last time I’ll probably ever see her,” Lovino muttered, staring at his reflection in the school’s mirror. Today was graduation day which meant that he’d never see any of his classmates after the day had ended – at least most likely not; he was going to school out of town and he knew that most of his classmates were going to the prestigious International College that was in town. He had thought about going but had ultimately decided against it, knowing that when his younger brother graduated in a few years, he’d be going there and he was not going to go to college only to get up-stood by his perfect little brother.
Shaking his head, Lovino focused on his thoughts that dealt with her. Ema Kotka was the only girl in their year that did not respond to any flirting by the other students – not even Francis, the most romantic student in their year who everyone had agreed was near perfect boyfriend material; if only he didn’t flirt with whoever moved. She was always more focused on her school work and that was what had endeared her to Lovino. From the moment he met her in their first year Maths class – her seat right in front of his – he had been a goner.
She was witty and fun, a delight to talk to not that he knew that from actually interacting with her. Unlike with all the other girls of their class, she was not easy for him to talk to. For him it was like trying to talk to a Goddess; impossible because he was not worth her attention. Of course, for the most part, that was just his inferiority complex talking, but she was still unattainable for him. Maybe it was the way that she always had a comeback for whatever was thrown at her – whether it was a good comeback or not, it was still a comeback – or maybe it was the way that she just seemed completely put together even though she was a high school student taking a bunch of AP classes.
Whatever it was, he was completely smitten and this was going to be his last chance to ever explain that to her.
Every time he had tried to talk to her, it had come out wrong and eventually he had just stopped trying all together. It had been a bitter pill to swallow back in their second year, but he was tired of making a fool out of himself in front of her, tired of the looks she gave him as words failed to come to him easily and he stumbled over things that even preschoolers knew how to say.
(Get back, inferiority complex, Lovino thought to himself, not today Satan. He was going to have a conversation with her and alert her of his feelings, even if it went nowhere).
Exiting the bathroom, he fixed his graduation robes and looked around the hallway. The graduating class was told to hang out in the hallway in front of the auditorium which meant that it was packed worse that a can of sardines. He spotted her near the end of the hallway, farthest from the door where they were expected to walk through. She held a book in her hands as she sat directly on the floor, her graduation robes splayed on the floor underneath her. Her hair was up in a complicated bun, wisps sticking out in places and reminding him of that time she had one of her science projects accidentally explode. Her hair had been so frazzled after that for a few days that he had almost actually touched it, only remembering to not at the last second.
That had been absolutely embarrassing.
His palms began sweating as he moved towards her, not stopping to say anything but a simple “hi” to his friends that he saw along the way. While he hated a majority of his fellow students, there were few that he counted amongst his friends. All those that he counted knew about his crush and knew about his stupid plan.
The closer he got the more scared he got. Nonetheless, he continued on, stopping before her even through his emotions, staring down at her as she played with the edge of her valedictorian scarf, her green eyes scanning the pages of her book. He was always impressed by how fast she read, she was always so smart. She was probably going to go to some super smart college where the people became the next creator of something amazing. He started to move back, too scared to go through with what he was doing when she looked up, a small look of confusion growing on her face.
“Hi.” He managed to say, watching as she placed a bookmark in her book and closed it, laying it across her lap as she looked up at him.
“Hi.” Her eyes darted from his face to the crowds but she whatever she was looking for didn’t exist as she let her eyes drift back over to him, looking over him from head to toe.
They stared at each other, silence growing between them before he held out his hand for her to grab. It was only nice of him to do so. She grabbed his hand and made her way onto her feet, her black stilettos clacking on the floor as she did so. She groaned as she made her way to her feet and he noticed that she was now much taller than him.
Normally he was only an inch shorter than her, something he could hide by wearing lifts in his shoes, but now she was two inches taller and it was noticeable.
“Lovino.” She repeated his name as she tucked her book into an obvious added inside pocket. She gave him a small grin, “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Never.” He promised before he could stop himself. He flushed at his words before looking down, now what?
“So, ready to graduate?” She asked after a second, “I, personally, can’t wait for college.”
“Yeah,” He looked around the hallway, watching the teachers at the end. They were going to call them all to go into a line formation in a few minutes. That meant he didn’t have long before he had to go to the back of the hall. “So, where are you going?”
“I don’t know,” She replied. “I’ve got a few choices but I haven’t figured out which one I should go to.”
He hummed, unsure of what to say. Right then, one of their teachers called for everyone to get into formation – they were going on stage in a few seconds. “Walk with me?” He asked, holding out his arm for her to grab. He was going to walk her to her spot and then leave. It was better for everyone if he just didn’t tell her.
“You’re being so nice; is the end of the year making you solemn?” She said, her tone light and airy. A second later thought she groaned, “Oh crap, sorry. That was mean. I’ve been spending time with my little sister and preparing her for her first year and she’s got no filter – which is why I’m trying to prepare her and -” She sighed, shaking her head and stopping to stare at him. “I’m sorry, that was mean of me.”
“It’s okay.” He said after a moment, staring at her bright sea green eyes as she tried to backpedal her words. “Spending time with Feliciano can do the same to me so, no problem.”
“No, it’s not.” She gave him a small smile. “I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t be nice, you certainty can be. I just-I guess because you aren’t normally nice with me, I could take my anxiety out on you with some ribbing and it’d be fine, but I shouldn’t have. I mean, I don’t want you to hate me anymore.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you do.” She shook her head again, this time sadly. “I mean you don’t flirt with me or treat me like I’m really there. I’m sure I’m not on your radar because I’m not that pretty but I mean, I shouldn't be mean to you just because I wanted you to flirt with me. That’s childish.”
“What?” He stared at her in confusion. Was she really saying what he thought she was saying? No way. It couldn’t be true. She couldn’t like him like he liked her, could she? “No.”
She stopped speaking, looking heartbroken and he realized that while he was in his own mind she had been still saying things. “Oh.” She muttered, her voice low. “Okay then.” She turned from him, pulling her arms into her and walking away without looking back.
No, no, no. He thought. This was not how things were supposed to go.
“Ema, wait!” He yelled after her, running to catch up. The hall wasn’t that long but still she was near the front. “I didn’t mean – you misunderstood what I meant.” He said as soon as he caught up to her.
“No, I don’t think I did.”
He shook his head, “No you did, because I like you!” He opened his mouth, closing it a second later before pulling on his hair in frustration. “You’re really pretty and I really do like you. I haven’t been able to tell you though because you seem better than me – I don’t think you do that on purpose it’s just you’re so put together and confident in yourself even when you aren’t and you’re so smart and you’re going to take on the world and -”
He was cut off by Ema pulling him close and kissing him on the lips. Their classmates cheered and laughed behind them, the world muted as he focused on wrapping his arms around her and kissing her. She was so soft he never wanted it to end. Her arms wrapped around his neck and they pulled apart a second later, smiling brightly at him. Murmurs arose from their classmates as one of the teachers made their way over ,hands on her hips as she glared at them. Ema moved forward and kissed him once more, much shorter, before pulling away and fixing his tie.
“Talk to me afterwards, okay?” She said before running forward to the front of the line, He stared after her for a minute before shaking his head, laughing to himself as he made his way to the back of the line. People whooped and hollered as he walked, his dazed expression making many of them laugh.
Well, guess it wasn’t as one-sided as he thought it was.