#calebmolly

Strictly Ballroom by wilderswans (15,939 words)

rec submitted from istezada:

I’ve just discovered (and devoured) Relative Worth by @RunekeepersHymnal. It’s a Mollymauk fix-it fic… and is gorgeous and brutal and absolutely refuses to pull any punches.

Breathing was a very hard thing to do when your heart seemed to press on your airways and lungs because it felt so big, as if it was about to explode.

“I don’t want to go back to being friends, Caleb”, Molly said surprisingly soft and Caleb tried to muster the courage to look him in the eyes. He barely managed.

“I’m just--this is--I don’t think I’m good at this”, he croaked and gestured awkwardly between Molly and himself.

“Well, it’s not as if I have tons of experience with this whole relationship thing, so maybe we can just find out how shit we are at this... together, yeah?”

Caleb clasped his hands together and counted his breaths--four, five, six, seven.

“Can we just try to make it work before we freak out about it?”

Caleb couldn’t help but snort, but eventually he nodded.

“Ok, ja.”

He could’ve sworn that Molly’s red eyes actually glowed a bit in the darkness, as Caleb felt the cold brickwall scratching at his back and Molly’s unbelievably high body temperature in stark contrast to it.

Caleb’s heart might have made his ribcage combust from the inside at any given moment, while he took a deep breath and tried to look everywhere but into those intensly staring eyes right in front of him.

“If you want me to leave, I’ll go”, Molly said, his voice surprisingly soft despite the fact that he had crowded Caleb against this wall, his thigh pressed between Caleb’s legs and his hands pushed against the wall beside Caleb’s head.

Caleb desperately didn’t want Molly to go, but he had no words to verbalize it.

Caleb blushed furiously.

He was a grown man and “cute” was not a word he would ever use to describe himself, but Mollymauk Tealeaf just said it while his critical, red-eyed gaze wandered over Caleb’s body and made his blood boil.

Caleb had pulled his hair back in a ponytail, so Yasha could shave his face without his hair hanging in the way. He’d gotten a bath. Nott put flowers in his hair.

All in all Caleb felt like a newly polished piece of decoration.

“I--what---no?”

Mollymauk let out a snort and grinned at him, a grin that showed his fangs and made Caleb’s insides curl and bubble with a mix of shame and happiness. It was a very confusing feeling.

“If we let you go out like this half the town will throw themselves at you”, Molly continued, making Caleb wish he could just dissolve into liquid and vanish between the floor boards.