The Enigma of the Arrival and the Afternoon

Artist: Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888–1978 )

Date: 1912

Medium: Oil on canvas

Mary, Queen of Scots: The Farewell to France

Artist: Robert Herdman (Scottish, 1829 -1888)

Date: 1867

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

Description

have it. take it. hold it. i did a thing.

Ao3 / FF.net

“What do you think of Christmas Movies, Lahiffe?”

Nino only groaned.

“Which one do I have to watch?”, he complained from her couch, his head rolling back against the headrest.

Alya laughed, shaking her head.

“Well, my Maman likes the comedies but I’m more of a children’s movie type.”

“Everything but the Grinch.”, he whined, earning another giggle from her.

“How do you feel about ‘Rise of the Guardians’?”, she asked, grinning back at him. He laid splayed on the couch in her home after they agreed on meeting again and she just couldn’t get over how cute he looked, eyeing her like that.

“Never watched it, to be honest…”, he slowly said, furrowing his eyebrows, “Is it good?”

She grinned and put in the movie, flopping down next to him after setting everything up.

“Absolutely. One of the cutest movies I ever watched.”

He grinned at that and offered to hug her by lifting his arm which she willingly accepted. He blushed as she snuggled close to him, resting her head on his chest.

“So it’s worth it?”

“Mhm, completely worth it. I really like this movie. Trust when I say that we don’t have it because of my sisters.”

He grinned and brushed over her hair, scratching her a bit. She hummed and slumped her arm over his stomach.

“We really need to do this more often. Mari is a good cuddler but for some reason this girl is a concrete block to lay on. You’re softer.”

Nino laughed, holding out his free hand to her, spreading his fingers. She took it and interlaced their fingers while sneaking her lower arm beneath his back, now hugging him while playing with his fingers.

“You know, we can do this from now on. We can just-… Do this.”

She furrowed her eyebrows, paused the movie and propped herself up on her elbow, turning her head towards him. Her hand stayed in his, though.

“What do you mean?”

He felt his ears heating up but tried to ignore it while holding her gaze.

“W-Well-… I wanna do this more often… I, uhm-… I wanna meet up with you more often and-… I wanna cuddle with you and-…”, he gulped and awkwardly nodded, making her smile at him.

“Okay! Let’s meet up more often.”

He sighed and tried a smile, too, but it came out shakier than he wanted. His hand that held hers was beginning to tremble.

“Uhm, no, I mean-… We can, like-…”, he rolled his eyes, laying his head back, “Yeah, that. Meet up more often.”

Alya giggled, having understood what he meant in an instant. Maybe because she herself wanted it and jumped on every hint. But also, maybe, because she hoped he’d really mean it.

So she surged forward, pressing a little kiss to the soft underside of his jaw. He almost hit her with his chin as he looked down to her again.

“Uh-”

“I’d very much like to do this more often with you, Nino. And I’d like to do this so often with you that we could do this every single evening. And I also think that we’re still not close enough.”, he became very red at that and she giggled, kinda proud of herself for being able to cause that kind of reaction in him, “You get me?”

Oh, she knew very well what this statement could mean. She knew very well why his cheeks darkened another bit and why his eyes began jumping between hers.

But he remained silent and unmoving. His fingers between hers still trembled a bit and he didn’t say a word.

Alya just rolled her eyes.

“Earth to Nino, you there?”, she giggled. He slowly nodded at that.

“Y-Yeah?”, he tried.

Alya sighed dramatically, pulling out her hand beneath his head to lean the back of her hand against her forehead.

“Thank god!”, she smirked as she hugged him again, “And now kiss me.”

His eyes widened and she knew she had broken him when she had said that. He remained still as a rock for a solid minute.

But just as she was about to crack another joke, maybe wanting to take it a step back and play it off, he surged forward, capturing her lips.

She was surprised at first. Certainly, she hadn’t expected him to take some kind of action towards something like this. But his closed eyes directly in front of hers and his warm, a little dry lips pressed against hers were the vivid proof of how wrong she had been.

She let her eyes close as well, melting against him, her posture getting softer. She actually pushed back a little as well, humming against him. He let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer.

She happily complied, shifting her weight so he’d have it easier to pull her towards him.

The movie was long forgotten as they kissed, happy to have found each other, relieved that they would be able to be together.

There was no place they’d rather be.

Or, well, up until her parents came back home with the twins instantly running to greet their older sister. But as they found her on the couch with a boy, kissing him completely oblivious to the world, they started gagging.

“Ew! Ew, Alya is kissing!”

The young couple jumped apart and Alya immediately got to her feet, wildly shaking her head.

“N-No! He just-… There was something-… I, I tried to, uhm-…”

Marlena Césaire joined her two youngest, chuckling in amusement as they both hid behind her while making disgusted faces at each other. She smirked even wider as she saw Alya standing in front of the couch with Nino still laying there, both trying to look innocent.

“You know, daughter, I’ll teach you how to apply your lipstick without smudging then. Oh, and don’t try to put this color on Nino as well. It suits you well but I think he’d wear a darker tone better.”

As Marlena had waited years to finally say something like that while catching one of her daughters kissing, she was overly smug as she threw the kids a wink, turning to put the groceries away.

Yes, it was very satisfying as she caught a gaze of their very red faces as Alya pulled Nino into her room. Shutting the door and locking it.