river, moon (pt 5.5)
young teacher frank ! x single mom reader !
A/n : me and @m0th0er worked on this together in a google doc. it's really nice writing together. Watching her work real time is honestly really inspiring. And she's so sweet all focused and stuff idk I love her (hey guys e here i love u frankie ur my everything n i want u homeboy, we are gonna write together more often cause DIVAAA I had so much fun ough)… anyways.. Make sure u go give ‘river,moon’ love as (although i am not bias and not just saying this because its about me and im in love with the author.) it's honestly a great story and beautifully written. E is a talent. i just adore her. I'm so grateful i get to be apart of this. Okay well… I hope u enjoy!! (Try a spot where each of us wrote lol)
It's been a rough fucking day, seriously. Frankie's been hit, kicked, balls thrown at his head, screamed at, water poured on him. His assistant called out sick, so he was alone for half the day with 17 kids. One kid bit another kid, 2 had accidents at the same time, and all kids came in crying for the first hour. Don't even get him started on how much of a nightmare nap was. Everything that possibly could've gone wrong, went horribly wrong.
But the day was finally over. Now it was just him and Elsie May waiting for you outside on the tan bench. 10 minutes late, but you called ahead this time so no tears. Just a cheery little curly haired girl reading a book and pointing out all the pictures.
"Look! Look Frankie!! That do- doggy looks just like Bratney!!" Her cheeks are a bit red from how cold it's been but she's smiling so big. He just smiles back and nods.
Your car pulls up right at 3:10. Elsie May takes Frank's hand to lead him to the gate while you scramble out of the car. A freshly groomed Bratney lays in the back.
"Hi sorry sorry! I seriously don't know what was taking them so long. I mean 20 minutes over time? What more does he need? Spoiled litt-" Cut off by tugging at the hem of your sweater. You pick up Elsie no problem, scanning over to find any new markings. "Miss Ma'am, you have marker all over your hands."
"Yeah she was coloring hard. All of it in her backpack, of course." Frank walks back to the bench to collect his bag. You immediately take notice of the tension he holds. His shoulders slumped and he's clearly out of it. Elsie's playing with your small hoop earrings.
"Hey, wanna join us for dinner?" The question comes out fast, no hesitation. That perks Frank up fast. You just smile pointing back to your car. "We're going out tonight, little miss wants Thai. Just gotta drop off brat."
He hesitates for a few seconds, contemplating the softness of his couch versus food with his two favorite girls. He nods after favoring the latter.
The car ride to the restaurant is filled with music and hushed ranting. Frank’s one hand moves fast while the other grips the steering wheel, trying to keep his voice down so Elsie May’s attention isn't taken from the window. You just gently rest your hand on his shoulder when he starts to raise his voice.
"I'm sorry but, turn here? It's just. Fuck it's like they don't do anything! Like I'm in there alone and you're telling me you can't send one person to help? This one?" You nod and he turns into the parking lot. He quickly parks, gets out, and scrambles to the passenger side to open your door for you. It makes you blush every time. He moves to get Elsie out of her car seat.
Frank takes her hand and walks her across the parking lot, you following closely behind. Watching how she smiles, her small hand barely fitting in his, the way she skips and giggles when he picks her up. It's like it's normal, like this is how it's always been. You and Elsie, and Frank.
"Hi guys, I'm April! I'll be taking care of you today. Can I get you started with some drinks?" A new waitress you've never seen before, she must be new.
"Hiya, yeah she'll just have a water, I'll take a Diet Coke."
"Alrighty! And for dad?" Frank’s hands tense, yeah she's definitely new. He looks at you and the blush that spreads on your face, then quickly to Elsie, who's way too into her coloring book.
"J- Just um, just a coke. And a water. Please, thank you."
The waitress just smiles and walks away.
You and Frank try not to make eye contact the rest of dinner.
It's silent on the car ride home. A huge 180 from before. Elsie May quietly snores in her car seat, the music is low and you can really only hear the drums. The air feels heavy with the same feeling you always get when you two are alone.
Frank stands in the kitchen while you put Elsie to bed. The look he gives you when you walk in seems defeated, guilty.
“Fr- Frank listen it's. It's okay. She didn't know.”
“I know, and I'm not trying to intrude. Really. In your life, with her.” You lean back on the island counter across from him. He's staring down at his hands. “I'm not trying.. to be. To be anything for her. I'm just her teacher. Just your daughter's teacher.”
“I know Frank.” You reach forward and take his hands in yours. “I know that. And.. Thank you. Thank you for being there, without pushing. All of this is new for us.”
You both don't move, just standing in the kitchen holding hands. Progressing anywhere doesn't feel right. The way his thumb rubs over your knuckles does. Minutes go by slow, crickets chirp outside. It's quite cold.
“Want some hot chocolate?”
Frank presses his fingers deep into the meat of your knuckle, smiles to himself- then to you, “yeah, yeah i would. That’d be swell-”. You move away, dropping his hand to flirt around the kitchen. Conversation moves back to normal, while Frank picks at the kitchen counter-top and laughs graciously at your jokes.
You move to talk about his day again, going over the finite details of which kid did what, he kindly avoids elsie may’s tantrum that happened around 11:30, due to her extreme disinterest in consuming her lunch, and how watching her friend kennedy go home at half day just made her wail for her mama all that much harder.
“It’s just- I love the kids. Like in really do, they’re smart and cheeky- crass and charming but- oh thank you” he nods as you hand him a mug full of cocoa- coated in whipped cream and marshmallows, again hilariously childish- “but my god i feel like there is this little demon in each perfect kid that is out to-fucking get me- dude-” you laugh along, sitting on the kitchen island across from him, as you sip at your cup in return. He continues:
“It’s like, the job is good- but if i got a couple thousand more a year i’d feel like, so much more available- or atleast like, that my time was valued- by other teachers and shit i mean the kids value me obviously i’m like the number one guy-” you laugh at his confidence and his charm. He looks over you, finally letting himself catch a breath mid-work rant. And it shocks him.
It's just you, sitting on your kitchen island, leg tucked up under your pyjama shorts. You, smiling at his jokes- cheeks flush and eyes bright. It’s you- and he wants that. He wants all of that. He wants you, and elsie- he wants this, everyday if he can have it. You’ve been going steady for a month now. And yeah sometimes he’s still to shy to assert himself, to stand up for what he wants- but he can fucking do it. He stands up to a gaggle of toddlers every moment of every hour. Being honest with you couldn’t be too fucking hard. But then he looks at you again and his gut turns.
“I just- god-im a fuckin’ idiot- how was your day?”
You laugh at his abrupt-ness, placing your mug down beside yourself, “my day?” “yes, yes your day- at work- how was n-nora, you had that meeting?” and you nod, smiling into your chest as Frank moves from his spot across from you to place a hand down by your leg. Not touching, just inching closer.
“Oh yeah, it was fine- just about the archive visit’s coming really, im leading the one on the 19th so it was just like. Legality and stuff. We have shit in there so old you can’t even touch it, but there’s this collector coming, who wants to buy half our medieval printwork- but i think he’s a hack-”
You go on, letting yourself rant on like he did to you- and frank just, inches closer. Encroaching on your personal space and moving toward you in slow, solid movements. His hand breaches the outside of your thigh as you explain the ridiculous requests you’ve gotten from higher-ups about indirect orders. He mutters “mhm” while looking over your body. He doesn’t look uninterested and he moves his hand to the arch of your thigh- nodding as he leans in more and just pushes so slightly on your thigh so you move it open, spreading your legs out from under yourself as you go on about Nora's complications with the printer.
“Just-she’s got such a specific way about things you know? She’s set in her ways, and its like explaining that unplugging an ancient piece of fucking officewear can and will reset it, is like looking the woman in the eye and speaking a language she will never comprehend-”
“that sounds frustrating?” Frank replies, eyes moving over where his hand breaches your upper thigh. He’s slightly shocked you're still so distracted. And yeah a little offended too, he’s making a fucking move here. But he just mirrors his left hand with his right- while you discuss the complexities of narrow parking and bad office a/c. It’s only when he moves to kneel down on the kitchen floor- with both of his hands pushing your legs apart so he is eye to eye with that part of you, you pause for a breath.
“You uh? Good there frankie-i” “are you good with this? Keep-tell me about the- the fucking. Printer again-” you nod while holding eye contact with him, his pupils blown out to cover the span of his iris. You try and talk about where the printer is, something along the lines of “it-its- like just next to her off-” but he presses a kiss over your cunt through your pyjama shorts, and it all feels perfectly overwhelming.
“She- um. She doesn't really..” Frank licks a stripe up the center seam, the wetness immediately bleeding through to your panties. A small ‘mmmhmm’ from his throat sends a shiver through your core. “She was s- so, ah.. so mad when she had- to re.. reconnect it so the… the wifi, shit frank…”
He pressed small kitten licks on you while moving his hand right over your clit, slowly thumbing small circles into it. The pressure seeping through your shorts makes your thighs shake- you pant out a probably too loud breath and he looks up at you with a grin, motioning for you- silently- to shut the suck up. But two can play at that game. You roll the hem of your jumper up so you can bite down on it- exposing your chest to him. He dives back toward your shorts- moving them quickly to the side so cold air hits your core.
His thumb pushes harder into your clit as he mumbles into you “seems-mhm-like-like hard day-” as you moan though mouthfuls of old sweater. He licks long stripes over your cunt, moving his tongue in a solid rhythm- to the point where you're close to riding his face, tugging at his hair to move his face deeper into you.
You can hear in his breathing, the soft whines pushing out through the back of his throat that he’s hard, pushing his cock into the seam of his jeans. Rolling his hips down and around to get the exact right sensation while keeping his mouth on and around you.
He licks small circles around your clit to the point where you tug him away, and he looks up at you with pools for eyes- “wha-what the fuck-” “frank-fucking, what the” he moves his thumb over your clit again, his chin wet and he continues touching you through his blissed out conversation
“i fuck-baby, you taste so fucking-i-i lied earlier-” you can feel sparks move through your arms and legs- dancing through your finger tips as he continues “i want- i want to in-intrude-” you moan through your mouthful as he moves his hand to palm himself through his jeans. His eyes squeezing together “i want-i wan-this- every-every fucking day, the-the dinner, the-coca-the fucking, the drive home, i want that, everyday-i want you, fuck baby you sound so-i want it every fucking day-from now-now on- shitshitshit”
You roll your head back, nodding in agreement as he pushes his hand flat into you so you can ride it to completion. He moans as he watches you take what you want from him, but also just the emotional relief of reaching a point of agreement. You nod again and again till your head feels like it’s gonna slip off until you look at him once more. His mouth wet from drool and spit and you- and you grab at his hair with one free hand and whine as quietly as you can an indiscernible notion that your gonna cum and he pants “please, please yeah-i want it-”
You watch him unravel below you, coming at the same time you do as he grinds his forehead into the meat of your thigh. He jean’s left sticky and eyes hazed over. After a moment he lifts himself up moving his head from your thigh to your shoulder. Both of you are silent until your breathing is matched and consistent.
“I- I mean it… I like this. Today was perfect.. I want to do right by you, by Elsie.” He leans back just to look up at you through his now messy hair. You brush a single strand behind his ear. Your chest feels heavy, you can't tell if it's from exhaustion or the small anxiety this conversation is giving. “It doesn't have to be right away. It doesn't have to be ever. And for being a teacher I really don't know the first thing about being a parent but. I love you and Elsie. I know everything about that.”
“Frank…” You feel your heart swell, eyes getting wet. Mouth full of cotton not really knowing what to say. Change is difficult with a toddler, especially after having to explain to her what went wrong. It's so hard letting people in when things have failed. The fighting, the moving, the new everything. This is good now but that was good then, when will it go south?
Frank sees your eyes darting over his face. Not being able to focus on one thing or the next properly. He just smiles and places a hand under your chin reminding you to take a second, to literally unclench your jaw. The feeling of pressure being released. The hem of your sweater drops down and he takes time to make sure it's sitting properly over your stomach. He has you.
“Listen, we can talk about this forever, take the rest of our lives to figure it out. But trust me I wanna be who you can call. I wanna see your face when I wake up. See Elsie's smile while she eats breakfast. Make a chart on who drives who to work that day. I want you, all of you.”
The tears finally tip over the lining of your eyes. A flow you feel like you haven't been able to let out since everything fell apart. Your face lays still, just staring at him blank. He wastes no time asking if he can hold you or if you want him to step back. Giving you full control over your comfort. Finally, your face contorts and he just nods. Pulling you in tightly to his chest. Rubbing his fingers over the back of your head and over your spine.
“I got you, it's been a long day let's.. let's go to bed huh?” You just fall into him. Frank takes your hand and leads you to your room. The room he's grown familiar with over this past month. He helps you sit down and grabs the small remote on your night stand, clicking it to turn the heater on. He pulls your sweater over your head and shorts and underwear down your legs, throwing them in the hamper. He walks over to your dresser pulling you out all new warm clothes. “How about you have a long bath in the morning okay? I got Elsie, you just have a few hours to yourself.”
“Ye- yeah.. yeah okay.. that sounds.. yeah that sounds good..” your eyelids grow heavy as soon as you lay back and hit the pillow. Frank just crawls in bed next to you and pulls you close. Plantings small kiss you to your head with a quiet-
“Good Night honey..”
