summary the girl next door’s pull is inevitable. he finds himself being sucked in.
pairing fezco x original character.
warnings mentions of pot smoking. lots of pot smoking.
word count 2,691 words.
listen to x // x // x
author’s notes i love fez :/ i couldn’t stop myself from writing this. hope u guys enjoy.
the first time he sees her she’s standing under the lemon tree in her front yard. her face was one of complete concentration, bottom lip held tightly in between a set of seemingly perfect teeth. fezco has no idea how long he stands there on his front porch watching her, almost like his feet are glued there. she plucks the lemons from the branches, gives them a thorough inspection, and drops them into a wicker basket.
he counts to twenty before she stops, satisfied, and picks the basket off of the ground. she balances it on her hip and in turning to head to her front door, she catches sight of him. the expression on her face is unreadable, and if you asked him, he’d say his heart stopped right then and there.
her furrowed brows relax and the world’s biggest smile appears on her lips. she lifts a free hand and waves at him, “nice to see you again, fez.”
he narrows his eyes slightly, a million questions racing through his mind. the most important being — “who are you and how do you know my name?” she’s so beautiful, he assumes it’s a trap. she has to be an informant. a narc. a rat. someone that was planted next door to keep an eye on him since the police’s previous efforts had failed miserably.
before he can open his mouth to ask her something, anything, the front door to her house closes behind her figure.
fezco stands on his porch for another minute in silence, sighing as he lifts his forgotten blunt to his lips. he tries to take a hit but instead sucks in air. he smacks his teeth and fishes through his pocket for his lighter. how long was he zoned out like that? standing out there just staring at her like a moron.
once inside he locks the door behind him, all the locks, and sparks his practically untouched blunt. he plops down on the couch beside ashtray, “yo… you know who that girl next door is?”
“what girl next door?” he looks up from his phone for a second.
“never mind.”
maybe he’s tripping.
maybe he imagined the whole thing.
maybe he’s finally losing it.
he loses interest in the blunt before he can even get a buzz from it, snuffing the cherry out on the ashtray that rests on the coffee table.
“you ready to open up shop?”
like a well oiled clock the two are out of the house and headed to work.
he just sits by the counter the whole day, staring off into the distance in between customers.
vulnerable…
but only because he’s distracted. and if there’s one thing about his line of work and being distracted… it’s that it doesn’t go hand in hand.
being distracted got you killed.
so he shakes his head. over and over. tries to get her out of his head. but he can’t.
he thinks about her all day and well into the night and if he could dream, he’s sure he’d dream of her too.
////////
a whole week goes by before he sees her again. he’s standing at the kitchen sink, staring out of the window at the house next door. her house.
at first he only sees a delicate hand reaching out a window, followed by a puff of smoke. her face pops out the window eventually and fezco is quick (for once) to put two and two together.
she’s smoking weed out of the window.
the water inside the bong overflows and spills onto his hands. he’s cussing as he snaps back into reality, pouring some of the water out so it’s leveled correctly.
he sets the bong down on the counter and lingers there for a while longer.
he can’t stop his feet from leading him outside. “where you going?” ashtray calls out to him as he walks out of the side door.
fezco has a one track mind, ignoring ashtray as he walks along the side of his house to lean against the fence that separates the two houses.
“hey,” he calls out, loud enough for her to hear. fezco can get a good look at her from where he stands, her big brown eyes, even from this distance, make him nervous.
“hi.”
“so… how you know my name?”
“i know a little more than just your name,” she’s smirking, sticking her hand out the window again to ash her joint. she taps the filter a little too hard, the joint bouncing out of her hands and landing on the grass underneath the window.
his fingers grip the top of the chain link fence as he leans over, “you want me to grab it for you?” he asks, mentally reminding himself to revisit her words.
“nah. thanks though. wasn’t much left to smoke really,” she laughs and rests her arms over the window ledge, her face coming into view better. he can only imagine what the rest of her looks like. he’s almost positive she’s standing on the edge of the bathtub, careful not to fall in as she leans to look out the window.
“on some real shit… i know you or somethin’?”
she nods a few times, shit-eating grin permanently fixed to her mouth, but offers nothing else.
fezco goes out on a limb, “you busy right now?” he scratches at the back of his head, feeling like a little kid. “i’ll smoke you out.”
“sure.”
“meet me in my backyard.”
she says nothing and simply nods, sliding closed the bathroom window and disappearing from his vision.
fezco feels so proud of himself as he walks back into his house, locking the door behind himself. he walks over to the coffee table in the living room, picking up his rolling tray with the blunts he rolled that morning. there’s movement on the cameras and it steals his attention.
ashtray’s eyes snap towards the screen as well but jump to fezco seconds after. “this that girl you were asking about?”
“yeah.”
ashtray just nods and turns his attention back to the game he’s playing on the playstation.
fezco watches as she walks around the side of his house, her figure jumping from frame to frame as she makes it to his backyard. she stands there by the patio set awkwardly instead of just making herself comfortable by taking a seat.
“shit,” he mumbles under his breath realizing he’s been standing there just watching while she waits for him outside. fezco’s footsteps are quick and he struggles with the sliding door for a moment before he pops out, chuckling nervously.
“take a seat. make yourself comfortable. mi casa es su casa.”
she laughs but takes a seat anyways. it’s not until she crosses her legs together that he begins to stare at them, beautiful and sun-kissed.
“so you really don’t remember me?” her voice brings him back to reality.
he shakes his head. “there’s a lot i don’t remember.” fezco lights the blunt he rolled earlier and takes a couple of hits before handing it off.
he can’t decipher the expression on her face, something between pensiveness and disappointment. she smiles and it all melts away. “i’m reina. my grandparents own the house next door.”
“that’s dope. i’m jealous of the treehouse y’all got in your backyard.”
reina cocks her head at him, smirking as she hands the blunt over. she cranes her head to look across the fence, “my grandpa built it with his bare hands. it holds a lot of good memories.”
he exhales a large cloud of smoke. “i can’t tell you how many times i sat in this same exact spot and thought about how badly i wanted to be a kid playing in that tree house.”
it’s silent for a few seconds while reina processes that achingly deep recollection. she laughs softly, “well, it’s never too late. i might be inclined to let you smoke weed in my treehouse. that is… if you’re a good boy.”
it’s his turn to laugh, goofy and genuine. she’s tickled him. “i gotta be a good boy?”
she nods, “yup.”
the blunt, shorter and shorter from being passed around has run out of smoke time. the tips of their fingers brush together as she hands it back to him. the dead end of the blunt falls to the concrete under their feet, as if it was intentional.
reina’s eyebrows raise and she’s quick to cover her mouth with her hand, “ooooh, damn. you dropped the blunt… i’m sorry your girl’s fucking around on you.”
he laughs as he leans over to pick it off of the ground, “aight first off… it’s a roach so it don’t count.” fezco drops it into the ashtray that sat on the glass table. “second, ion got a girl so i ain’t got nothing to worry bout, ma.”
reina nods, pleased with the information. see, the drop was intentional. she knew the implications of a dropped blunt, in their case: a roach, it was the perfect way for her to prod for information without outright asking.
they fall into comfortable conversation filled to the brim with questions and laughter and insatiable curiosity. the marijuana only helped the conversation slide out of their mouths with ease, the both of them revealing a lot more than they usually would.
he finds out that when reina was younger she wanted to be an actress, she’s the oldest of three siblings (all girls), and she’s terrified of fireworks.
“holy shit,” she calls out frightened when the lights come on in the backyard illuminating everything that began to be shrouded in the dark.
“sorry,” he apologizes with a small chuckle, “they on a timer so they cut on at the same time every night.”
reina shook her head, tucking her hair behind her ears. “the lights startled me because i hadn’t even noticed that it had gotten that late. how long have we been out here?” she’s grabbing her phone from the table where it laid untouched the whole they’d been hanging out.
“shiiiit, like two, three hours.”
“you sure know how to help kill time. i uhh—“ she trails off for a second and fezco is thankful for the harsh fluorescents of the overhead lights because if it wasn’t for them he wouldn’t be able to see the bashfulness take over her face.
“you… what? spit it out, junior.” he teases, his toothy grin only charming her further.
“i was going to say…” she starts, exaggerating her words with an added eye roll for emphasis. “that i wouldn’t mind killing time with you again.” there’s a certain sparkle in her eye when she says it and he swears that he can see the pink in her round cheeks.
fezco is quick to grab her hand, scooting closer so he can hold it against his chest and in all seriousness he says, “you can use me to kill time whenever you want.”
“you’re a fucking doofus,” but she makes no effort to pull her hand away, keeping it there as she convinces herself she can feel the way his heart beats slowly underneath the fabric of his shirt.
“and you find it cute, right?” fezco says matter-of-factly, the warmth that california provides doesn’t compare to what her hand provides from underneath his own.
reina doesn’t confirm or deny and instead stands up, pulling her hand out from his grasp. “give me your number. or your instagram, snapchat… whatever you use to communicate.” she holds out her unlocked phone to him.
“ion really use instagram. i think the last time i posted was like… two years ago or some shit and snapchat… i ain’t ever get into that shit.” he explains, eyebrows knitted in concentration as he taps away on her phone.
“a man who doesn’t spend all day lying on social media,” reina inhales deeply, “a breath of fresh air.”
“got too many people watching me to be putting my shit out there like that.” fezco gets up and extends her phone out. “i’ll walk you back,” he places his hand on the small of her back and tries not to react when he feels sparks shoot up his arm.
“by the way, hit me up whenever you need bud. i got you.” he says suddenly, the silence (although comfortable) bothering him. fezco didn’t have much time left with her and wanted to squeeze every bit of conversation he could.
“how convenient.” she laughs, “i’ve always dreamt of having a reliable and cute dealer live next door.”
fezco smirks, “and they out here saying dreams don’t come true.”
they arrive at her front door in no time and the disappointment is visible all over his face. reina mirrors his expression, practically cooing at how childlike he looks. “look at you. all pouty. like a baby.” she reaches out to touch the side of his face, her thumb gently brushing over his bottom lip.
he’s acting on instinct when he grabs her wrist suddenly, his heart is racing now, and he can’t take his eyes off of hers.
“i think this is the part where we kiss…” she’s breathless when she finally says something.
“can i?” he asks softly and half-steps closer to her, “can i kiss you?”
reina doesn’t answer his question and instead closes the remaining space between the two. chest to chest, she grabs his jaw in her hand and pulls his face down sharply to kiss him. she wraps her other arm around his neck, tugging him down slightly. it was like fireworks going off in the distance. something out of a coming of age romcom. instantaneous sparks. they’re almost breathless as they kiss. ravenous. feeding each other small gasps and groans. she feels his large hands on the small of her waist, fingertips digging into the fabric keeping her skin from his. he wants to be closer and closer and closer.
she finally pulls back, gasping for air, but smiling all the same.
his eyelids are heavy as he stares down at her, fingers wrapping around her forearm. “you’re shaking…”
her eyes widen, surely out of embarrassment, and she swats at his chest. “shut up.” she turns to look at her front door and sighs, facing him once again. “thanks for walking me to my door.” reina takes a couple of steps back, their interlinked hands dangling in between them.
“my pleasure, reina.”
the distance between the two grows wider and reina hesitates at the front door after unlocking it. “goodnight, fezco.”
“goodnight, reina.” he waits until he hears the door lock behind her before he heads over to his backyard.
fezco collects his rolling tray left on the table in the backyard. he shuffles inside, placing everything on the coffee table and plopping down on the couch. he fishes through his pocket for his phone, grinning to himself as he reads the text message he sent to himself when she asked him for his info.
i had soooo much fun smoking w ur cute self
he makes quick work of saving her number as a contact on his phone.
ashtray appears out of thin air, the couch sinking underneath his weight as he throws himself back against it. “what you smiling so hard at?” he asks.
fezco scoffs and grabs a pillow off of the couch, tossing it at his face. “man, mind your fucking business.”
his phone vibrates, snatching his attention back.
lol just saw what u texted urself.
you are pretty cute
thanks for tonight btw
goodnight & sleep well 😘
there’s knots in his stomach. there was no way that she could be so wonderful… gorgeous, and funny.
ofc
my pleasure
gn and sweet dreams
she replies almost instantly.
my dreams will only be sweet if u show up in them 💖
ok going to sleep now fr 😴💤
his face is hot and it spreads all the way to the tips of his ears. he knows he’s a goner. he throws his head back to rest against the couch, dragging the palms of his hands down his face.“bruh, i’m so fucked.”
ashtray holds a blunt towards him, “smoke about it.”
I’ve not done fan art in a while as I’m beginning to focus more on lettering in preparation for my signwriting course to start. Then this line popped in my head and I had to do it!
Sonic I said don’t touch--- yeah, see, that’s what you get.
This was a fun page. Honestly I’ve been wanting to do that scene since forever!
Since we’re starting to hit some plot, this is also probably a good time to mention that this comic won’t quite be a word-for-word retelling of the origin stuff that was shown in flashback in STC. It is slightly AU, so there’ll be a bit of canon divergence with the details and how things are set up.
(Also, Patreon is now working for me again. We’re on page 6 over there! Link in bio/About page.)
