Snowy Confessions
Sal Fisher x fem!taller!reader
WARNINGS: aged up characters (early college years), mentions of sexual acts going on but no smut so read at your own risk!
a/n: happy third fic for my merry ficmas event!
It was quiet in the house when Todd got home. He knew Neil was out, but he swore Sal would be in. Usually that meant you were over as well, and yet the silence was deafening.
He found out why as soon as he passed through the living room. The two of you had fallen asleep and from what Todd gathered, you seemed to have been reading with your legs propped over Sal’s lap. Your feet were adorned in fuzzy, holiday socks. Your glasses lay behind you on the side table, but with the indents on your nose and your book face down on the ground, he was sure you'd fallen asleep with them on.
On the other side of this scene was Sal with headphones around his neck, music barely trickling through. Because the volume was down or because the entirety of his face was shoved into the crook of your neck was anyone’s guess.
Todd sighed, biting back an annoyed smile at the fact Sal had taken his mask off. That also meant he would be in a highly vulnerable state if he woke them up now.
And he had to wake them up, not only for the news but because he felt a lecture coming on that way was highly overdue.
Retracing his steps, he grabbed his keys off the table, tossed his coat over his arm and made a show of unlocking and then promptly slamming the door a bit too roughly to ensure sound traveled into the living room. With the muffled curse and a drawn out yawn in response, Todd hummed in triumph before steadily making his way back to the living room.
“I'm home.”
“Hey, Todd,” you called, not even bothering to change your position on the couch. You seemed to be in search of the page you'd left off on, glasses back on your face. Sally had his mask on once more, headphones and CD player balanced along the back of the couch as he stretched his arm out.
Todd slowly lowered himself onto the chair nearby, fingers splayed and against one another as he leveled both of you with his best, serious stare.
“Two things,” he began, watching as the two grew tense. “Firstly, I have news that I think the two of you would like to hear. Secondly, I don't see why, after two months of this ‘fake dating’ scheme, you must continue it behind closed doors.”
“What do you mean?” Sal muttered, voice rough from sleep.
Todd motioned to your legs in his lap. You pursed your lips and slowly began to ease them out of it before Sal’s chipped, black nails smoothed over your ankle and brought them back over.
“We've always been like this. Larry practically sits on her lap every time he's over.”
“That's a running joke,” Todd pointed out, “this isn't.”
“What's wrong with being cuddly?” you grumbled, ducking lower behind your book. It was a terrible hiding place.
“Nothing. I just ask that maybe you two reexamine some things.”
“If you had crazy parents who asked you every single time if you were dating or seeing someone before you even got a greeting out of them, you'd fit right in my shoes, Morrison,” you argued. “Now what's the news so I can go back to reading in peace?”
Todd sighed, noting Sal’s unconscious maneuver of rubbing your calf. The line between your eyebrows seemed to fade with each pass of Sal’s hand and Todd felt like throwing something which was strange because he was not a violent person.
“The news,” he began, peachy, “is that Ashley will be back in town tomorrow and I'm in charge of rounding up all of us for a holiday dinner. Do with that information what you will.”
With that, he left you two to your mess.
Sal had stopped rubbing your leg. It was his turn to sink lower into the couch. You were hiding behind your book twice as much now.
“Fuck,” you muttered. “I forgot to tell her.”
“We forgot to tell her,” Sal corrected.
“We can just stop,” you shrugged, your voice doing that pitchy little thing when you were trying to hide how upset you actually were, “it's not that big of a deal.”
“That dinner with your parents is in a couple of days. I don't want you to have go through that alone.”
“Been doing it since high school. I'm used to it.” The sigh you let out damn near broke Sal's heart. “I'm not about to jeopardize your time with Ashley while she's back.”
“She didn't even text me she was coming.”
“Maybe she wanted to surprise you.”
“I think if something would've happened between us, it would've happened before she left for college,” he murmured, leaning closer on the couch.
Your fingers tightened on the edges of your book.
“Yeah, but you still like her.”
It was quiet before Gizmo’s chirp echoed through the room. He jumped up behind you on the couch arm, purring as he got between you and your book and flopped down.
You and Sal snorted, some tension breaking.
“I'm sorry,” you said, syllables soft. Sal’s prosthetic shifted from how high his eyebrows shot up behind it. “I should've brought this up back when I asked you to pretend to be my boyfriend. I was just…desperate. And you're my best friend and, like, you get it. But I shouldn't have messed it up like this.”
“You didn't mess up anything.” He let out a gasp as your eyes went shiny. You sniffed, burying your face into Gizmo. “Why are you crying? Babe, it's okay.”
“I'm fine! It's fine!” You pulled your legs off him and sat up, quickly passing Gizmo over. Sal didn't have a chance to do anything before you were grabbing your jacket from the floor and booking it towards the door. “I told my mom I’d help her with some cooking. I'll call you later.”
Sal yelled your name but the door shut on it. He stared after you before Todd leaned out from the kitchen, eyes expectant.
“Shut up,” Sal sighed, patting Gizmo and putting him to the side.
“This would've been solved ages ago if you two actually talked.”
“I know!” he groaned, checking besides the couch. He scowled as he came up empty.
Todd cleared his throat, holding up his jacket as Sal turned. “Use mine. Go fix this before I have to.”
Sal thanked him and moved quickly, shrugging it on and stuffing his feet into his sneakers by the door before noticing your shoes were still there. Laughing to himself, he grabbed them and stepped out into the winter evening.
You hadn't gotten far. You were at the end of the driveway, looking about ready to accept your fate and walk back to your house barefoot.
“Forget something?”
You wiped at your face before sticking your hand out to him blindly. “Don't say a word, Sal Fisher.”
“Damn, not the full government name.”
You snatched your shoes and shoved them on not bothering to tie the laces. He kneeled down to tie them for you, ignoring your grumbling. He paused on the last knot when a snowflake hit his hand followed by a few others. The both of you looked up as snow began to fall around the two of you in soft puffs. Winter had crossed into its last threshold in the town of Nockfell.
Getting to his full height, Sal glanced up at you, always the taller one just like Larry. You avoided his gaze but you weren't running away.
“Ash was my first real crush,” he admitted in the quiet. Your face shriveled, leaving his chest aching. “She means a lot to me, okay? But that's not the same thing as how I feel about you.”
“I know,” you sighed, crossing your arm and starting to pout but he didn't let you. He grabbed the crook of your elbow and pulled you back to face him.
“No, you don't. Remember when you asked me to pretend to be your boyfriend and I got super quiet and you thought I was weirded out?”
“Yeah.”
“It's because I was stoked and I felt like shit for feeling that way because it wasn't even gonna be real.”
You finally met his gaze, giving him just enough courage to continue.
“I had one of those, like, infatuated crushes on Ash, but I fell super hard for you back in senior year when you asked me to prom.”
“Sally!” you whispered-yelled. “This whole time?”
“Oh, thank fuck, you feel the same way?” He let go of your arm to grab at his chest. “I thought I was about to have a heart attack.”
“Yeah, you dork! I've liked you since junior year!”
“Isn't that when you moved here?”
You pursed your lips looking away. “No.”
He laughed at the horrendous lie as you groaned.
“Shut up! You were all starry-eyed for Ash, okay? I stomped those feelings as far down as they would go so I could be a good friend.”
“Well, it worked out in the end,” he mumbled, grabbing your hand and staring up at you with a gaze you never thought you'd get to experience. “Right?”
You took a deep breath and played with his sleeve, suddenly shy and so fucking cute Sal was ready to keel over right there.
“I really wanna kiss you,” you whispered. He fought not to choke on his spit. “Can I?”
“Out here in the snow?” he teased but his head was drowning in Please. Oh God, I want to kiss you. I've been wanting to kiss you. Please.
“Did you leave the basement door unlocked?” you mumbled, kicking at the light coat of snow surrounding the two of you.
Sal knew that you knew he damn well never locked that door. It didn't even have time to close all the way before you two were on each other, Sal unclipping his prosthetic as you pulled it off, giggling uncontrollably at how messy his hair was before his scarred lips landed on yours. Both of you were a bit cold from being outside, but between wet gasps and wandering hands Sal was losing Todd’s jacket and tugging yours off.
Upstairs, Todd quickly grabbed Gizmo and eased the door to Sal’s room closed as a high-pitched moan echoed. He was beginning to regret having that talk, the quiet now losing to muffled words and a creaking bed.
He supposed it wasn't all that big of a surprise you'd jump each other when everything came to light. It had been over two years of second glances and ‘friendly’ cuddling.
Todd turned the TV on before pornographic sounds flooded the rest of the house. Perfect timing for Neil to get home early, too. His eyebrows shot into his hairline as he heard you and Sal, albeit it muffled over the news and Todd washing the dishes.
“They know I'm home, too,” he muttered dryly.
Neil burst into hysterics and pulled his phone out. “Larry owes me ten bucks. I said before Christmas.”
“You're all awful,” he sighed, but he was smiling.
