Pairing: Melissa x reader
Summary: You introduce Melissa to Stardew Valley
“Hey, Kid,” Melissa greets you as you stroll through the teacher’s lounge. You swiftly open the fridge and toss your lunch bag inside, not caring where it lands. Melissa lets out an amused snort before asking, “We still on for tonight?”
She’s staring at you with those big, green eyes and you know you’re blushing hard—too hard, because a wide grin spreads across her face.
“Of course, Mel,” You mumble, fiddling with the zipper of your fleece jacket. “Unless you wanted to cancel, or something?” You ask, failing at hiding the disappointment in your face. She must be able to tell because she beckons you forth with a manicured finger.
“Sit,” she says, kicking out the chair next to her with her foot. “And no, Y/N. I was askin’ cause I was gonna make you dinner.”
“Oh, shit!” You hear Ava before you see her. She strolls in, Janine in tow. She throws her head over shoulder to look at her. “Make sure you get this for my live show.”
“Now, hold on,” Melissa starts, her previous lighthearted voice turned rough as Ava’s cackles get louder. “Janine, you better not be getting nothin’ and what live show?”
Ava ignores Melissa’s questioning momentarily. “You getting this?” Janine mumbles an incoherent response, awkwardly thrusting an iPhone from her chest. Ava rolls her eyes and returns her smile to look at Melissa. “My live show, Red. I had to hire Thumpy over here to get my good angles.”
“Um, Ava, sorry to interrupt,” Thumpy—Janine laughs, her voice trailing off into a joking tone. “You don’t pay me.”
“Well now you’re definitely not getting paid. What did I tell you about interrupting?”
“Alright, alright,” Melissa groans. “Forget I asked. Just leave us in peace.”
Your heart flutters for a moment when Melissa says the word ‘us.’ It’s pathetic how easily she can give you butterflies. If anything, it’s just further proof of how you feel for her. You sigh at the thought but Melissa thinks you're agreeing with her, so she nods her head.
“Fine, I’ll leave you two alone for now,” Ava mutters, directing Janine to point the camera at you two. “But for the record,” She says to the camera, “I got twenty that says they end up together by the end of the week. Who’s going in on this?”
End up together by the end of the week. The words echo around in your mind, the thought of you and Melissa ever “ending up” together causing warmth to blossom in your stomach. It’s a frequent daydream of yours, but for a moment, it’s real.
“Ava Coleman, are you gambling online again?” Your second favorite coworker, Barbara, says when walks in on the conversation.
“No, Mrs. Howard,” Ava dismisses, trying to shoo Janine away at the veteran teacher’s arrival. “Just a joke between me and my fans, you know.”
With that, Ava and Janine are gone. You can still hear Ava as she directs Janine around the school. Melissa clears her throat loudly, drawing you from your thoughts.
“Anyway, hon, I was thinkin’ I can just pick you up from your place?”
You nod, a light blush rising to your cheeks. “Yes, that’s fine.”
Barbara pours herself a cup of coffee and sits down with you two, glancing up at the clock on the wall. You almost forgot you only have a few more minutes with Mel before classes start for the day, so you appreciate the subtle reminder.
“Do you two have plans this afternoon?” Barbara asks, blowing on her coffee.
You’re about to answer, but Melissa beats you to the punch. “Y/N’s gonna show me how to set up my new gaming system, or whatever.”
Barbara’s eyebrows raise, the corner of her lips turning in a knowing smirk. “You bought a gaming console, Melissa?”
Now it’s Melissa’s turn to blush. “Yes, Barb. I love video games.”
Your eyebrows furrow. You didn’t know she loved gaming. You sort of just assumed that she was interested in them, not that she loved them. Had you not been paying attention this whole time?
“Forgive me, dear. I forgot how much you absolutely love them,” Barbara says it like an inside joke, her voice dripping with implication.
Before Melissa can respond, the bell rings loudly and all of three of you stand from the table, chairs squealing on the linoleum floor.
“It was nice chatting with you ladies,” Barbara says, picking up her mug. She gives you a warm smile and Mel a familiar one. “I hope you both have a wonderful and blessed morning.”
She turns toward the door and three becomes two, once again.
“Does 6 work for you, hon?” Melissa asks you as you slowly walk toward the door, trying to delay leaving her by dragging your feet.
“Yeah, Mel, sounds great,” you pause before saying, “Should I bring anything?”
She smiles softly. “Just yourself. I’ll see you later, kid.”
She plants a kiss on your cheek as she passes you on her way to her classroom. It’s something new she’s been doing, you noticed. And it’s only been with you. It makes you feel giddy and special, but you act like it doesn’t phase you at all.
You push the butterflies in your stomach down as you try not to think about Melissa’s lips. She is your friend, maybe even your best friend, but your heart seems to think otherwise. You tell yourself that she’ll give you a kiss on the cheek later, too, if you set up her console without issue.
Your day goes by in a blur. It was an easier Friday— the kids were calm, everyone did their classwork, and dismissal went by without any real issue. You’d even managed to avoid Ava all day, which in turn, meant you didn’t talk to Janine much but you didn’t mind. You were too busy thinking about Melissa, as you normally were these days.
You get home quickly, the 15 minute drive from Abbott to your apartment short and sweet. You immediately go to your closet and begin to fret over outfits. It's stupid, you know it is, but you want Melissa to think you dress nice outside of school.
Eventually, you land on a pair of jeans that hug your waist just right and an oversized green sweater. You’ll throw on a pair of old Converse later, but for now, you wait for Mel to pick you up.
You think about the inside of her house while you wait. You’ve been there before, probably more than Barbara at this point, but you still feel nervous. You know you’ll end up eating dinner with her, as you always do when you visit, and it brings you momentary comfort.
A knock sounds at your door a few minutes later and you know it’s her.
“Hey, hon,” Melissa greets you when you swing the door open, planting another kiss on the side of your face. She runs her eyes over you for a second, smiling brightly. “You look cute. Ready to go?”
“Hey, Mel. Let me get my shoes,” You say.
It isn’t a long drive from your apartment to her house. The entire drive, you and Melissa talk. It starts off about school, then complaints about Ava, and into more personal things like weekend plans or family. Melissa even offers to accompany you on your ritual Sunday trip to the grocery store, and you tell her you might take her up on it.
She guides you into the house with the palm of her hand pressed to your lower back. It sends shivers of delight down your spine, and immediately you feel like your knees might buckle. “Make yourself at home, you know where everything is,” she says when you step through the front door. She kicks her shoes off in the hallway and you do the same, following her into the living room.
“Can I get you anything to drink? Or a snack?”
“Oh, water’s fine,” You reply, going to sit on the edge of the couch. Melissa shoots you a pointed look, a lock of red hair falling in front of her face. She chuckles when you can’t meet her eyes and disappears into the kitchen, a series of muttered curses and clatters filling the moments after. She returns to you quickly with a glass of wine in one hand and a can of Sprite in the other.
Sprite. Your favorite soda. Did she buy this just for you?
“Oh, Mel, you don’t have to,” You say as you take the can from her hands, blushing as your fingers brush past each other. She sits next to you in the couch, angled toward you.
“Yeah, yeah. I know you like ‘em… so,” she trails off, her face reddening in a blush of her own.
“Well… thank you. You’re sweet.” In a moment of boldness, you lean over and quickly kiss her cheek as she’d done to you so many times. Your lips meet her soft skin, and for a brief moment, you can smell the citrus scent of her shampoo.
Melissa smiles brightly when you pull away, a small hum falling from her mouth. She clears her throat, taking a sip of her red wine. “So, um,” she mumbles from under the lip of the glass. “I got this, Playing Station, or whatever.”
Before you can help it, you snort. “PlayStation, Melissa.”
“Tomato, tomahto,” she says, playfully rolling her eyes. She points toward the large TV across from you. It sits on a wood entertainment center, taking up most of the space on the surface. There are shelving compartments underneath, some full with DVDs of old movies or books. There’s a few pictures of her family, some of whom you recognize. The PlayStation sits in its own compartment, cables stacked on top of it neatly.
“Looks like a PS4,” You tell her as you stand up to get it. You slide it from the shelf and hold it in your hands, checking the ports for any damage. “I didn’t know you liked to play games though, Mel.”
“Right,” You mumble, kneeling down on the carpet to begin plugging it into the TV. You’ve done it a million times before with your own consoles, so it only takes you a couple of minutes to get it hooked up. “Alright, that should do it,” You say as you brush off your jeans and plot next to her on the couch. She hands you a remote and you turn the TV on, going to the HDMI2 menu option.
“Make sure you go to this one, Mel,” You explain to her as the PlayStation loading screen comes to life on the TV. You grab one of the controllers on the coffee table and begin setting it up for her.
You go through the language menus, account creation, and put in Melissa’s WiFi password. She asks you questions while you work, mostly ‘what’s this?’ Or ‘how’d you do that?’ You jump at any opportunity to talk to her, so you make sure to explain in detail what you’re doing.
You’re halfway finished with your Sprite when the console is ready for use. “So,” You start, taking a sip from the can before returning it to the coffee table. “Do you have a favorite game then?”
Melissa bites her lip, face flushing from the alcohol. “I like that, uh, shooting game or whatever.”
“Of course you would,” You laugh, and you really believe her because that is so very Melissa.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” She slaps your arm playfully, mocking hurt. “What do you play?”
You think for a moment. “Lately I’ve been into this one game called Stardew Valley. It’s cute, you should try it.”
“Okay. Put it on there,” She says, completely serious. She’s sitting up straighter now, glass of wine discarded and forgotten. Instead, she focuses on the TV with a gaze you’ve never seen before.
You giggle, “Well, you have to buy it first, Meli.”
Meli. You didn’t mean to, but the nickname slipped from your mouth before you could correct yourself. For the umpteenth time that day, a warm blush crossed over your face.
“Meli, huh? I like it,” she says. She squeezes your knee affectionately as you panic internally. It’s pathetic how the smallest touch could send you into haywire, you think. Melissa nods her head at the TV. “Buy the game, I want to play it.”
Before you know it, you and Melissa are playing together on the couch. She’s slumped next to you, her thigh pressed against yours as you explain the mechanics of the game. She doesn’t understand at first, occasionally muttering curse words under her breath when she runs out of energy on the game. You play for an hour and have a good start to the farm when Melissa begins asking about the NPCs.
“Okay, so who’s the dork with the hair?”
You flick your eyes to her side of the screen and notice she’s talking to one of the bachelors. “That’s Elliot,” You explain as you clear out some debris from your shared farm. Melissa makes a confused noise, so you continue. “He’s a marriage candidate. I mostly don’t bother with him, though.”
“Marriage? I thought this was a game.”
“It is a game Melissa,” You laugh, joysticks clicking as you play the game. “It’s kind of a life sim, I guess. You farm, do stuff around the community, and build relationships with the characters. It’s a cute game.” You feel silly for a second as you explain all of this to Melissa, but when you look over, she looks completely entranced. The embarrassment is short lived and you feel yourself scooting a little closer to her on the couch.
“Who do you get married to then?”
“What do you mean? You get married to the characters.”
It’s an innocent question, but it still knocks the air from your lungs. Can I marry you then? You’ve heard her say it many times in your silly little daydreams, but nothing compared to the real thing. If you could even call it the real thing.
You struggle to answer her for a moment. “Well, technically, you can, but I don’t know if that’d be very fun.”
“What? I think you’d be a very fun wife.” She says it in a way that you don’t know if she’s joking or not, so you just settle for an awkward laugh instead. “Re-lax, hon,” Melissa drags, bumping your shoulder with her own. “I’m just kiddin’. Tell me about this marriage stuff now.”
The night is fun and filled with laughter. You stop playing Stardew after another hour so Melissa can make you dinner. She, of course, makes Italian food and insists on sending you home with a huge tupperware container of leftovers. She drives you home and asks you about other games to play and you tell her a few more of your favorites. When you get out of the car, she gives you another kiss on the cheek and promises to get caught up with the game so you can really play the next time you come over.
Monday morning comes quickly and you find yourself walking back into school. You didn’t get much sleep the night prior, to your own fault. You were up all night playing drunk Minecraft with your friends and it got a little out of hand after one too many whiskey shots. You ended up falling asleep on your couch and if not for Melissa’s text, you probably would’ve been extremely late to work.
She’d asked about your favorite breakfast food and when you answered, she left you on read. You assumed it wasn’t meant for you and went about your day, bringing you to now.
You unlocked your classroom door and pushed it open with your elbow, flipping on the light as you started your morning routine. Arrange all of the chairs, make copies, and do some lesson planning before the kids arrive. As you go to set your bag down on your desk, you stop in your tracks.
A brown paper bag sits in the middle of your desk with a note stapled to the top. It smells like grease and breakfast, and you immediately know it was Melissa.
In Melissa’s loopy handwriting, the note reads:
I hope it’s good! Have a good day, hon.
It makes you swoon, and for a moment you wonder if you’re being pranked. She has to know what she does to you. But then again, maybe not. You go about your morning, completing your routine between bites of your favorite breakfast sandwich.
Tuesday starts out the way it usually does. Nothing particularly exciting, just the same old stuff you do every week. You haven’t really had a lot of time to socialize, so you decide to walk down to the teacher’s lounge during your 45 minute grace period. You should be lesson planning, but you’re a little burnt out from the day.
“Hey, everyone,” you say when you stroll in, opening the fridge to find something to drink. There was usually water or Diet Coke, and sometimes you even stole a bottle of whatever healthy drink Gregory had stashed for the week. The other occupants in the room greet you back as your eyes rake over the refrigerator shelves, landing on a Starbucks drink with your name on it.
“What’s this?” you ask, taking it from the fridge.
“Hm?” Barbara glances toward you from her spot at one of the tables, noticing the drink in your hand. A small smirk graces her lips. “Ah, I believe Melissa picked that up on her way to work this morning.”
You take a sip of it and your eyebrows widen slightly. It’s a caramel macchiato, and you can swear there’s extra caramel in it. Exactly like you order it. You didn’t think you ever told Melissa that, though.
You send Melissa a quick text to thank her. It gives you a little more energy throughout the day and on your drive home, you imagine kissing Mel on the cheek again.
When Melissa shows up to work with a potted Orchid on Wednesday, she accidentally catches Barbara’s attention. She holds her breath as she walks by, praying that she won’t say anything.
But she’s Barbara, so of course she does.
“Melissa dear, a minute, if you can,” she calls in her preaching voice. Groaning, Melissa marches over with the plant tucked carefully in her arms.
She smiles in response, despite Mel’s annoyed tone. “I apologize for taking up your time. I was curious why you’ve brought that,” she points toward the pot, “in with you this morning.”
“Oh, so a girl can’t want a frickin’ flower Barbara?”
“No, Melissa, a girl can want a flower,” Barbara says, her voice dripping in sarcasm, “but you don’t want a flower. I know you. Is it for Ms. Y/LN?”
A rosy blush rises to her cheeks and she realizes she’s been caught. “Yes, it’s for Y/N. It’s her favorite flower.”
“And remind me again why you don’t just ask the poor girl out?”
They are walking toward your classroom now, carrying casual conversation on their way. Melissa replies in a serious voice, “The game told me to do it like this.”
Melissa sighs, “I’m supposed to bring her favorite stuff, or whatever. Then I’ll get to ten hearts. Fricken’ plant was like 80 bucks, so I think that’s at least like, what, 2 hearts? She’ll get it.”
Barbara raises her eyebrows, coming to a stop at the door of your room. She pats Melissa on the shoulder, leaning in slightly. “Sure she will.”
On Thursday, Melissa brings you a box of new markers for your whiteboard. You’d been begging Ava to put the order and were about to give up and buy them yourself. So, naturally, what does Melissa do?
She brings you every dry erase marker ever made.
“Meli, I don’t even know what to say,” you mumble, blush reddening your cheeks. You glance up at her as you sift through the markers, your hands gliding along the different colors. She smirks at you, her green eyes shimmering mischievously. “Where’d you even get all of these?”
“Oh, I know a guy. No big deal,” she shrugs, hands on her hips. “You like ‘em?”
“I love them.” You stand from your chair and quickly wrap her in a hug, your nose landing in her soft hair. You feel her arms snake around your waist and squeeze. Your heart beats wildly out of your chest, and before you can talk yourself out of it, you give her a lingering kiss on the cheek once more. “Seriously, thank you,” you say as you pull away.
She waves you off, a large smile plastered across her face. She looks beautiful and for a second you wish you could take a picture.
“Anything for you, babe.”
You’re too caught up in your thoughts that you don’t realize Melissa’s absence. For the rest of the day on Thursday, you glance at the box of markers next to your new Orchid.
The following Friday afternoon, Melissa finds herself in a hushed conversation with Barbara.
“I think it’s working,” she whispers as they watch students play outside. She shoots a glare at a pair of students who start to play too rough and resumes her rambled confessions. “I mean, she hugged me, Barb. I think that was the heart event, you know?”
“You’re going to have to remind me what exactly this heart event entails, my dear.”
Melissa grumbles, “I told you, Barb, the eight heart event. One more event and she’ll marry me.”
Barbara’s eyes almost pop out of her head. She angles herself toward Melissa, placing a concerned hand on her shoulder. “Marriage, Melissa? Isn’t that a little… soon?”
Melissa shakes her stubborn head. “No, she told me. Well, the game told me, but Y/N told me about the game, so.”
Barbara is about to reply, but the bell rings. The kids begin the run inside for dismissal, and Melissa follows. A defeated sigh escapes her lips as she watches her friend usher her students back to the classroom.
You and Melissa are walking out to the parking lot when she stops you from getting into your car.
“Wait, Y/N,” she says, hand on your wrist. “I have something for you.”
She reaches in her purse and pulls out a small yellow envelope. Your eyebrows tighten in confusion as you open it, revealing two small pieces of paper. You pull it out and are greeted with tickets to an Eagles game.
“I know you don’t watch football,” Melissa explains as you turn the tickets over in your hand, “but I do. So I thought I could take you to your first game, teach you about it.”
She’s looking at you expectantly and you realize you forgot to answer. You blush, chuckling softly. “This is really sweet of you, Melissa. I would love to go with you.”
“I thought it would be nice,” she says, reaching for your hand. “You taught me about your game, I’ll teach you about mine.”
It’s dreamy and charming, and you imagine kissing her again. It seemed to plague your mind lately, preventing you from thinking about anything else. You settle for gently squeezing her hand and you send her a warm smile. “I’m excited.”
“Okay, so is that ten hearts now?” she asks. She adds in a half-whisper, “or maybe that’s only nine?”
She takes a deep breath, leaning closer towards you. “Ten hearts and then I can marry you.”
“Y/N,” Melissa says seriously as you stare at her in confusion. “You said I had to get ten hearts to get married or whatever. It’s okay if that was only one heart, but I’ve been keeping track. I should be at like nine, at least. Right?”
Stardew Valley. She’s talking about Stardew Valley. She’s talking about marrying you, heart events, and favorite gifts. Unknowingly, Melissa has been dating you all week and you didn’t bat an eye.
