16 - barbie and felix pls!
😭I love Barbie and Felix. I do imagine their trajectory relationship-wise is...not strictly in line with how the romance goes canonically. I love canon, don't get me wrong, but I love to play with it even more.
Anyway, I'm throwing this in the AU I have with @crownleys where her MC Kira is the detective and Rebecca's kid, Barbie's been working for the Agency for a while and is in her mid-to-late 30s, which causes her a bit of friction with romancing Felix. They're in pretty different places in life and it's a struggle to get on the same page.
***
Felix/Barbie: 16 nose kisses
Wayhaven, post-book 3, a sunny beach several hours away from town
It’s been a few years since the last time Barbie was able to lay out on warm, sandy beach. She settles in on her stomach on her fluffy beach towel, using her arms as a cushion for her head. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore, gulls calling out, and children playing creates a lovely melody just for her enjoyment.
“I don’t supposed you’d need help putting sunscreen on?” Felix asks. Barbie lifts her head and her sunglasses to look up at him. The youngest of Unit Bravo’s team stands tall and proud, wearing a very loud pair of neon colored board shorts. No shirt.
Swallowing hard, Barbie says, “What are you doing here?”
“Wow, what a warm welcome,” he pouts, crossing his arms. “I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
Barbie bites down on her lower lip to hold back a smile. “Of course I am, Felix. Just surprised. I thought everyone would be busy what with Kira’s training at the agency and everyone else doing…patrols and paperwork and such.”
“Ugh, yeah.” Felix flops down on the sand beside her, scooting close until he’s under the shade of her umbrella. He flashes a toothy grin. “That’s why I volunteered to come keep an eye on you.”
Barbie nearly rolls her eyes, but considering she’s still wearing a few bruises from that awful auction, she refrains.
“So I’m an excuse to get out of work, and you’re upset I wasn’t happier to see you?” Barbie arches an eyebrow, feeling a pang of genuine disappointment.
“Aw, Babs, it’s not like that,” Felix says. He wiggles so he’s laying out beside her, unbothered by the sand covering his skin. “You know how I feel about you.”
Yes, she knows exactly how he feels. He’s made it abundantly clear many times. The real trouble is her own feelings. She looks down and toys with a loose thread on her towel. He’d been open about having a sweet little crush on her from the moment they met while working on the Murphy case. What he’d said before they went to the auction though. That really threw her for a loop and she hasn’t quite stopped looping about it.
“Your hearts beating really fast,” Felix says. She swats his arm.
“Don’t tease me.” She wets her lips, Felix’s eyes laser focus on the motion of her tongue. No doubt her heard how that made her heart skip a beat. “Felix, I…”
He reaches out to squeeze her hand and says, “No, don’t. Don’t say anything.”
She blinks. “You…don’t want me to?”
“Nah, not until you’re ready,” he says with a soft smile. “You know, if you ever are.”
“I think I will be,” she says. “But, Felix, you don’t have to wait around for me.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” He brings her hand up and kisses her knuckles, amber eyes sparkling brilliantly. The warmth of his soft lips on her skin makes her ever whirring mind come to an abrupt stop. God, she wishes she was ready now.
Felix would be so easy to fall in love with. She already does love him, on some level, but it’s not the same as what Felix has expressed. What he wants. He wants to be her boyfriend, to jump head first into commitment but…
But despite being a vampire with several decades on her, he’s so painfully young. And he won’t ever catch up to her. She’s already been married and divorced once. If she has another relationship, she wants kids from it. She’s ready to settle in, whether with someone else or alone. Would Felix ever be content with that, having his wings clipped before he’s really gotten to soar?
“I just want you to be happy, and I want me to be happy.” Mustering up a smile, she says, “If we can both be happy together, then that’s when I’ll be ready.”
Felix takes this in with careful consideration, for longer than Barbie expected he might. For Felix, this all seems to come so easily. He doesn’t understand why it’s complicated, why Barbie makes it complicated.
His thumb soothes over the back of her hand, and he says, “Sorry, Babs. I just still don’t see why you think we wouldn’t be happy. I mean, I know you’re eager to see about sexual compatibility but…That’s not the only reason, is it?”
Barbie blanches. Sex has been a very fraught topic, and Barbie had certainly drawn her line in the sand about it. It’s an important aspect of relationships for her, for life. After nearly a decade of bad sex with her ex husband, she’d sworn to never put up with it again.
“If you’re asking whether I’d be willing to date if we have sex first, then no,” Barbie says. Wincing, she adds, “And…I’m sorry I said that in the beginning.”
Felix gives her a weak smile. “It’s alright.”
She hadn’t known about Felix’s own hang ups when she’d first insisted on sleeping together before any kind of commitment, how he’d been left feeling used and abandoned by previous lovers.
They lay there for a while, hand in hand, listening to the ambience of the beach. A warm breeze runs through, washing over them with the scent of salt, seaweed, and…something sweet. Felix glances at her.
“Recognize that?” he asks. Barbie nods.
“Waffle cones,” she says.
“What’s that?”
Barbie sits up, eager to explain. “It’s a thin, sweet batter that’s pressed then molded into a cone. You usually put ice cream in them.”
“Oh! Yeah, I’ve seen those.” Felix sits up and dusts his chest free of sand, a motion Barbie tries really, really hard to not stare at. He catches her doing it anyway and gives her a smirk. “You want some?”
“Huh?” she asks, jerking her gaze back to his face. After what she just said about not only being interested in sex, she really can’t keep ogling the man. At least he doesn’t seem to mind, if the way he angles his body as he leans back is any indication.
“Ice cream?” he says with a teasing lilt to his voice.
Barbie considers it. “Have you ever had it?”
“Once, and it was way too sweet,” he says, wrinkling his nose. Then he shrugs. “But you like it, right?”
“I love ice cream.” Barbie reaches into her bag and tugs out her wallet. “I’ll get you one as well, if you want to try again.”
“Nah. Let me get it though,” he says. Barbie arches an eyebrow.
“Do you have a wallet?” she asks.
“I do,” he says, but as he pats his pockets, his expression goes sheepish. “Uh, back at the warehouse.”
She giggles and slips a few bills from her wallet and hands it to him. “Mint chocolate chip."
He gives her a wink and a salute (with the wrong hand), then darts off in the direction of the sweet smell. Barbie chuckles, noting that there are a few children all heading in the same direction with money clenched in their fists. No doubt on the same mission.
She settles back in and takes a moment to let her mind settle as well. Oh Felix. If they’d met when she was younger…But Felix wasn’t in this world back then. Maybe the timing would never be right for them, no matter what. That’s just not fair. Barbie would be okay with knowing love isn’t in the cards for her, but having Felix so determined that he wants to wait for her, putting so much into his feelings isn’t right.
No. She won’t let him waste his time, waiting around only to be left broken hearted. Even if it means maybe she won’t get exactly what she wants. Compromise has never been easy for Barbie, but Felix is worth it. He seems to think they can both be happy, at least. Maybe she can trust him enough for that.
As she’s still in the midst of trying to make things work in her head, Felix comes back. She moves so they can both sit on the towel, grimacing when he tries to hand her the ice cream cone. Long, green rivers of ice cream are dripping down the entire thing.
“Sorry,” he says. “I didn’t know they would melt so fast.”
“I’ve got it,” Barbie replies, taking his wrist delicately and leaning in to suck at the melted liquid at the top of the cone. Felix’s eyes are wide when she sits back and takes the cone. At least, she tries to take it. He pulls it out of reach when she does.
“I can keep holding it,” he says. When Barbie gives him a look, he waggles his eyebrows. “What, it’s a good look on you.”
“Didn’t I say no teasing?” Barbie huffs. Felix bats his eyelashes innocently.
“Well, it’ll also keep your hands from getting sticky or dirty,” he points out. Barbie makes a considering noise.
“That’s true,” she says, tapping her chin. “Very well. You can hold it.”
“Thanks so much, Babs,” Felix coos. Barbie rolls her eyes.
“I suppose you’d like a thank you as well,” she says. Felix brightens. She crooks a finger and, hesitantly, he leans forward. With careful movements, she presses a gentle kiss to the bridge of his nose. Felix sits back, a bit dumbfounded.
“I was definitely expecting something different,” he admits.
“Disappointed?” Barbie asks before grabbing his hand to get another taste of her ice cream. Felix laughs.
“Nah Babs. Never with you,” he replies.
Despite it all, Barbie feels just the same.