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ax_mainCaleb confesses a crush. Nott confesses having some feelings for somebody, too. Cheez balls, cheez balls, cheez balls.
It was Friday night and, while most people were out drinking or partying or doing whatever else there was to do on a Friday night, Caleb was having a sleepover. He and Nott were snuggled down into blanket nests on his bed, had drinks and snacks at the ready, and a small selection of movies downloaded on a laptop. Frumpkin, purring happily, was curled into a ball against Caleb’s thigh.
It had been a quiet evening so far. No movies yet, just talking and making a decent dent in their snack and drink stash. It was nice. There was probably a point in your life when you were too old for sleepovers, but Caleb didn’t really care. He’d have sleepovers with Nott for as long as she’d let him.
"...They stopped restocking the cocktail shrimp after that, so I was mostly done anyway," Nott continued her ramble regarding the events from the night of the Halloween party. She paused, shifting and stretching in her comfy little niche just enough to grab a handful of cheez balls, then popped a few into her mouth for a crunch before she got back to the story. "But that's when I got the text from Jester telling me not to come back right away, because she was making out with Piotr in our room!”
Caleb’s hand froze on its journey to stuff cheez balls into his mouth and his eyebrows lifted, disappearing beneath the fringe of his red hair. “Piotr? Really?” There went his theory that Jester had a crush on Thor. Granted, it had been a theory based more on speculation than evidence. “Wow. Ah, go, Jester. That is one way to celebrate a holiday.”
"Right? I mean they probably weren't the only ones, but I thought they'd go on a cute little date or something first, not just get right after it during a party." There was surprise but also a kind of admiration in her tone. "I knew Jester had it in her, for sure, but I was surprised by how she described Piotr as not being terrible at making out. She may have used the word 'perfect' several times, which feels like an exaggeration to me, but the important thing is she had a good time. Of course I brought her some condoms and left them outside the door, just in case, but she says they didn't get quite that far."
If it wasn't about Jester (who didn't seem to understand the concept of shame and was a little iffy on privacy), and if it wasn't about Caleb (who Nott would tell...well, almost anything), Nott might not have given so much information. But this much seemed okay.
The image of Nott sneakily setting a stack of condoms outside of Jester’s door like some kind of Condom Fairy struck Caleb as particularly funny and he had to bite back a giggle. “You are a very thoughtful friend.” He didn’t need to ask when she’d gotten the condoms. The answer was both ‘stole them’ and ‘infirmary’.
Caleb popped a cheez ball into his mouth. “So, are they dating now?”
"I think so? I'm not sure how serious they are about it, but I think it's more than just foolin' around anyway. Like they like like each other." Nott hesitated, sucking cheez powder from her teeth for a beat and looking at Caleb. It would be weird to tell her what Jester had said about them, right?
“Like like. That is pretty serious,” Caleb replied with a bit of a smile, then, more sincerely, added, “I am very happy for her.”
It would be REALLY weird, Nott decided, abandoning the idea and moving on. "For highschool, it's pretty major," she agreed instead. "So don't look surprised if I do more creeping into your room at odd hours. It's nothing bad. Just being a super cool roommate and helping out a couple of lovebirds." She sat up and crossed her legs under herself in her sleep shirt (which was anyone else's regular shirt), collecting a cheez ball and very deliberately aiming for Caleb's mouth, waiting for him to say something for her shot to get it in there. "Your turn! What's your juicy gossip?”
“Oh, I—” Caleb’s eyebrows lifted as a cheez ball made a three-point, nothing-but-net landing in his mouth. He crunched down on it, finishing as he chewed with, “Don’t know.” There was Cal and Loki, but that seemed private… And Clint and Cal, but that was pretty private too. He thought about his and Cal’s argument at the Genosha Halloween party, and decided against it. He didn’t want Nott getting upset on his behalf. She meant well, and he loved her for it, but it would only make things worse.
Maybe… Oh. Well, there was Mollymauk… Caleb popped a few more cheez balls into his mouth, chewing consideringly. There was very little he couldn’t tell Nott, he knew that for a fact. And it’d be nice to talk about it. “I…kind of have a crush on someone,” he said, after a moment, attention nervously fixated on picking at a scab on his finger.
Nott's yellow eyes widened at Caleb, saucer-like, mouth parting as she took this in. The words, but also the cute little look away, and how he didn't just come out and say - "YOU have a crush, Caleb?! Is it Cal or Clint? Cal's get that broken-prettyboy-allthepowers thing, but Clint's got that depowered-hapless-doogooder and humorarmor, with the chin and the eyes... I always kind of thought they were already - is it both of them?!" Didn't Jester's smutty bookclub have spreadsheets and flowcharts for exactly this sort of thing?
Caleb’s eyebrows lifted higher and higher the longer Nott rambled, his mouth slanting in a small, amused smile that grew as he let out a laugh that was only half jittery. “No, neither. No. It’s, ah, it’s Mollymauk.”
"...Molly. Of course! He's so pretty and fancy." Nott still kind of thought Molly was full of shit. But the longer she knew him, the more it seemed like big a joke that everybody was in on instead of something malicious. Maybe.
She leaned in closer. "So what do you like about him? Does he know?”
“No, he doesn’t know,” Caleb replied with a laugh. Of course, Mollymauk didn’t know. That would be crazy—Mollymauk knowing. Like Caleb had told him ‘hey, I think you’re great in the sense that I enjoy hanging out with you and also I’d like to kiss your face or maybe hold your hand’ and he knew.
Caleb glanced over at Nott who was watching him with those big, inquisitive and expectant eyes. He shrugged, bashful. “I don’t know. He’s kind. Brave. Clever. He makes me laugh. I like that his lies are ridiculous and he knows it, but that doesn’t stop him from telling them. And he just… He makes me feel comfortable around him. He’s so bright and loud and takes up all this space, but I never… I never feel crowded, you know?” A small smile. “He is himself, always.”
It was a surprise to Nott, who would've guessed that Caleb's interest would have been in someone... Well, someone more like himself, maybe? Introverted and quiet and nerdy. But they said that opposites attracted, didn't they? And the warmth in Caleb's words...that smile? He really did like Molly.
"Those are all good reasons," her large eyes danced with this shiny new secret. "When are you gonna tell him? OH! Did you want me to tell him for you?! Or - or I could arrange a blind date type of situation," Nott suggested brightly, already moving to get up from her seat as if to take care of it right away. "That would be romantic, wouldn't it?”
“No!” Caleb lurched to put his hands on Nott’s shoulders and stop her from getting up. “Don’t. Please. I’m not telling him yet. I don’t know if I even will.” He definitely never would. Just the thought of telling Mollymauk put his stomach in knots, actually telling him would be a nightmare.
She looked at him like he was suddenly talking crazy. Because that was CRAZY, that Caleb of all people would actually have some of those feelings for somebody, her shy, beautiful, complicated, fucked-up boy, feelings enough that he was telling her about them, so they were a bigger deal than he was letting on, and it would have to be a secret now too? "But...but, Caleb," she squirmed under his hands anxiously. "If you don't tell him, and I can't tell him...how's he gonna know?!"
Taking his hands off Nott’s shoulders, Caleb dropped them onto his lap and shrugged. “He won’t. He’s my friend. I don’t...” He shook his head, looking over at Nott with a small smile that was somehow both sad and acknowledging his ridiculousness. “His friendship means too much to me.” Never mind, the last time he’d even had anything that counted as a crush had been Astrid and, well, look how well that had turned out.
Her long ears drooped slightly, searching his face for signs of a wink or knowing look that maybe he wanted her to meddle on his behalf but didn't know how to say it. Because in a weird way, Nott thought she wanted it for Caleb maybe more than he wanted it for himself. He deserved someone in his life like that, like maybe Molly could be. He deserved to be happy for once, like a normal (but obviously above-average) teenage boy. And he could totally benefit from getting laid.
"What if he feels the same way about you - that he wants to be more than friends? What if he's felt that way about you this whole time, and he's just waiting for a sign or something, because he wouldn't want to push you into anything you don't want, or, or you're not ready for?”
Caleb’s flat look seemed to say come on, be serious. “There’s no way I’m his type.” He had thought about it, though. Stupid, little fantasies of Mollymauk secretly harboring feelings for him from afar. All those ‘dears’ and ‘darlings’ meaning more. But, those were just daydreams. He wasn’t stupid; he knew he wasn’t the kind of person people pined over.
"He could surprise you!" Nott frowned at him, because Caleb had clearly already made his mind up for now, and she wanted to talk him out of it, but... In the end, it was up to him. "Well...alright," she groused at the cheez balls before peering back up at him. "If you're sure you don't want to go there. If you change your mind though... Maybe before the next dance, or - Or Valentine's, that's coming up.”
“I wouldn’t even know what to do. I’ve never dated anyone.” Caleb had never even kissed someone. Which was just another point, really. He was inexperienced. Why the hell would someone want to date anyone whose entire familiarity in relationships was from smutty fanfiction and romance novels? Especially if that someone was Mollymauk who could easily date whoever he wanted? And that inexperienced anyone was him?
“You just... Hang out," Nott suggested. "Do fun things, share a nice dinner, whatever. And then, if it goes well, you get SMOOCHIN'," she grinned her jagged zig-zag grin as she said it.
“Fun things, nice dinner,” Caleb echoed uncertainly. and he picked up his cup—a mug Nott had stolen for him that said Cattitude and had a drawing of a sassy looking cat walking away—and took a drink just to have something to do. It sounded an a lot like the things they already did, but somehow way more complicated.
She'd only stolen it because he'd smiled when he'd seen it but then hadn't bought it. And because they didn't want to pay for things. Also, she had been kinda drunk and it gave her a little thrill.
"Don't overthink it," Nott encouraged, seeing Caleb with one of his many Thinking Faces on. One of the more constipated ones. "You'd still be friends. Just friends with extra special feelings and some full-contact tonsil hockey.”
Caleb choked on his rum and coke. “No. I, ah, I think just friends is best. No full, ah, contact tonsil hockey.” He bite a cheez ball in half and stared at the remaining half as he munched thoughtfully. It really was for the best… He’d tell Mollymauk and he’d tell him he’s flattered, but he doesn’t feel the same way and then things would just be awkward.
“Have you ever dated anyone?” Caleb asked, looking over at Nott curiously.
When Caleb swung the question at her, Nott went silent for a beat, like maybe she hadn't heard him. But then her eyes darted quickly to the half-a-cheez-ball in Caleb's fingers as her words rebounded. "W-what? Me? Who would I be dating?"
Caleb gave Nott a befuddled sort of look. “Anyone?” Was she secretly dating someone? Is that what had her so freaked out? She’d have told him if she was seeing anyone.
"Not anyone," Nott muttered, because that seemed like an overstatement for sure. What did he think she was working with here? "...There was...a boy I used to like," she admitted sideways.
A grin broke across Caleb’s face, giddy in the way Nott’s had been only moments ago, and he bumped his side against hers playfully. “There was? Who? Is it someone here?”
"Obviously not," she insisted. Nott pulled her twiggy arms inside the half-sleeves of her sleep shirt and shrank into it a bit, pointedly not looking back at Caleb's shit-eating grin. Green skin didn't really blush, but her complexion might've warmed. "Just some boy from the neighborhood. I don't even know if I remember his name anymore. It was a kid's kissing game, that's all.”
“A cute boy?” Caleb asked, still grinning as he nudged at her again. He couldn’t resist teasing. He’d never seen Nott so adorably flustered before.
"He wasn't even a looker, really." She tried to downplay it, but something softened in Nott's expression. "He was...short. Bushy brown hair, long sideburns. Big nose, not a great chin. Narrow shoulders," she reported, crooked little smile spreading to flash her pointed teeth.
A quiet, warmth spread over Caleb’s features as Nott spoke with that sweet, fond look on her face. She deserved someone in her life like that. Someone nice, like this mystery boy, who made her feel all those giddy, bubbly feelings of liking someone. “He sounds cute.”
"He's a preeee-tty good kisser," was how Nott put it, drawing it out suggestively before her grin eased. Which made her feel sort of warm and happy. And then...sort of sad. Sadder, even.
She'd fallen quiet for a little too long, she realized after a minute or so had passed.
Nott pushed her arms back through the half-sleeves of her baggy shirt, patting around to find her flask in the blankets. "Anyways, that was a lifetime ago," she said with the put-upon, world-weary wisdom of only a teenager who has seen some shit could convey. She opened up her flask and got a good, burning mouthful down before she finished her thought. "All I'm saying is, if you have a chance with your handsome young man... You should take it.”
Caleb watched as Nott fiddled with her flask, that old hurt, whatever thought it was she’d gotten lost in, lingering around her like a shadow. Sometimes silence could say a lot more than words could. He put an arm around her to draw her against him in a hug, and deposited a kiss to the top of her head. She was so brave, had a heart so impossibly big for someone so small, that sometimes he forgot he wasn’t the only one carrying a weight. They were both broken, in their own ways.
“Thank you,” Caleb eventually said, his arm still around Nott, his expression soft, gratitude warm in his eyes. “It was, ah, nice to talk about it. You are good at giving advice.”
She swallowed around a lump in her throat, though she hadn't taken another nip of whiskey yet, where he hugged and kissed her so sweetly it made her heart ache. She wasn't gonna get too emotional or anything - she wasn't that drunk - but her eyes may have gone a bit softer, a bit wetter. "Sure," she managed weakly after a beat. "It's easy, when all you have to do is tell someone to go do the thing they wanna do."
Okay, so Caleb hadn't actually come out and said that he wanted to confess his feelings to Molly. Nott understood that wasn't what he'd decided to do, or at least not yet. But Caleb wanted to confess his feelings to Molly, I mean, come on.
“No.” Caleb didn’t want Nott selling herself short. She always did, and it wasn’t right. She deserved far more credit than she ever gave herself. “I think you are just smart. You are one of the smartest people I know.” He gave her another warm squeeze, then finally let her go. He really did appreciate her advice; he hoped she knew that. Nothing would ever happen between him and Mollymauk, but talking about it had helped. He felt better.
It was a little surprising, to hear Caleb's disagreement. It turned out to be a nice kind of disagreement, anyway. Nott didn't even object to remind him of all the literal geniuses he knew.
She smiled under the compliment, and took another drink from her flask, willing the damp sheen to her eyes to go away. "Yeah, well," she told him once she'd swallowed. "You're pretty smart, too." Except for when it came to people.
It was Friday night and, while most people were out drinking or partying or doing whatever else there was to do on a Friday night, Caleb was having a sleepover. He and Nott were snuggled down into blanket nests on his bed, had drinks and snacks at the ready, and a small selection of movies downloaded on a laptop. Frumpkin, purring happily, was curled into a ball against Caleb’s thigh.
It had been a quiet evening so far. No movies yet, just talking and making a decent dent in their snack and drink stash. It was nice. There was probably a point in your life when you were too old for sleepovers, but Caleb didn’t really care. He’d have sleepovers with Nott for as long as she’d let him.
"...They stopped restocking the cocktail shrimp after that, so I was mostly done anyway," Nott continued her ramble regarding the events from the night of the Halloween party. She paused, shifting and stretching in her comfy little niche just enough to grab a handful of cheez balls, then popped a few into her mouth for a crunch before she got back to the story. "But that's when I got the text from Jester telling me not to come back right away, because she was making out with Piotr in our room!”
Caleb’s hand froze on its journey to stuff cheez balls into his mouth and his eyebrows lifted, disappearing beneath the fringe of his red hair. “Piotr? Really?” There went his theory that Jester had a crush on Thor. Granted, it had been a theory based more on speculation than evidence. “Wow. Ah, go, Jester. That is one way to celebrate a holiday.”
"Right? I mean they probably weren't the only ones, but I thought they'd go on a cute little date or something first, not just get right after it during a party." There was surprise but also a kind of admiration in her tone. "I knew Jester had it in her, for sure, but I was surprised by how she described Piotr as not being terrible at making out. She may have used the word 'perfect' several times, which feels like an exaggeration to me, but the important thing is she had a good time. Of course I brought her some condoms and left them outside the door, just in case, but she says they didn't get quite that far."
If it wasn't about Jester (who didn't seem to understand the concept of shame and was a little iffy on privacy), and if it wasn't about Caleb (who Nott would tell...well, almost anything), Nott might not have given so much information. But this much seemed okay.
The image of Nott sneakily setting a stack of condoms outside of Jester’s door like some kind of Condom Fairy struck Caleb as particularly funny and he had to bite back a giggle. “You are a very thoughtful friend.” He didn’t need to ask when she’d gotten the condoms. The answer was both ‘stole them’ and ‘infirmary’.
Caleb popped a cheez ball into his mouth. “So, are they dating now?”
"I think so? I'm not sure how serious they are about it, but I think it's more than just foolin' around anyway. Like they like like each other." Nott hesitated, sucking cheez powder from her teeth for a beat and looking at Caleb. It would be weird to tell her what Jester had said about them, right?
“Like like. That is pretty serious,” Caleb replied with a bit of a smile, then, more sincerely, added, “I am very happy for her.”
It would be REALLY weird, Nott decided, abandoning the idea and moving on. "For highschool, it's pretty major," she agreed instead. "So don't look surprised if I do more creeping into your room at odd hours. It's nothing bad. Just being a super cool roommate and helping out a couple of lovebirds." She sat up and crossed her legs under herself in her sleep shirt (which was anyone else's regular shirt), collecting a cheez ball and very deliberately aiming for Caleb's mouth, waiting for him to say something for her shot to get it in there. "Your turn! What's your juicy gossip?”
“Oh, I—” Caleb’s eyebrows lifted as a cheez ball made a three-point, nothing-but-net landing in his mouth. He crunched down on it, finishing as he chewed with, “Don’t know.” There was Cal and Loki, but that seemed private… And Clint and Cal, but that was pretty private too. He thought about his and Cal’s argument at the Genosha Halloween party, and decided against it. He didn’t want Nott getting upset on his behalf. She meant well, and he loved her for it, but it would only make things worse.
Maybe… Oh. Well, there was Mollymauk… Caleb popped a few more cheez balls into his mouth, chewing consideringly. There was very little he couldn’t tell Nott, he knew that for a fact. And it’d be nice to talk about it. “I…kind of have a crush on someone,” he said, after a moment, attention nervously fixated on picking at a scab on his finger.
Nott's yellow eyes widened at Caleb, saucer-like, mouth parting as she took this in. The words, but also the cute little look away, and how he didn't just come out and say - "YOU have a crush, Caleb?! Is it Cal or Clint? Cal's get that broken-prettyboy-allthepowers thing, but Clint's got that depowered-hapless-doogooder and humorarmor, with the chin and the eyes... I always kind of thought they were already - is it both of them?!" Didn't Jester's smutty bookclub have spreadsheets and flowcharts for exactly this sort of thing?
Caleb’s eyebrows lifted higher and higher the longer Nott rambled, his mouth slanting in a small, amused smile that grew as he let out a laugh that was only half jittery. “No, neither. No. It’s, ah, it’s Mollymauk.”
"...Molly. Of course! He's so pretty and fancy." Nott still kind of thought Molly was full of shit. But the longer she knew him, the more it seemed like big a joke that everybody was in on instead of something malicious. Maybe.
She leaned in closer. "So what do you like about him? Does he know?”
“No, he doesn’t know,” Caleb replied with a laugh. Of course, Mollymauk didn’t know. That would be crazy—Mollymauk knowing. Like Caleb had told him ‘hey, I think you’re great in the sense that I enjoy hanging out with you and also I’d like to kiss your face or maybe hold your hand’ and he knew.
Caleb glanced over at Nott who was watching him with those big, inquisitive and expectant eyes. He shrugged, bashful. “I don’t know. He’s kind. Brave. Clever. He makes me laugh. I like that his lies are ridiculous and he knows it, but that doesn’t stop him from telling them. And he just… He makes me feel comfortable around him. He’s so bright and loud and takes up all this space, but I never… I never feel crowded, you know?” A small smile. “He is himself, always.”
It was a surprise to Nott, who would've guessed that Caleb's interest would have been in someone... Well, someone more like himself, maybe? Introverted and quiet and nerdy. But they said that opposites attracted, didn't they? And the warmth in Caleb's words...that smile? He really did like Molly.
"Those are all good reasons," her large eyes danced with this shiny new secret. "When are you gonna tell him? OH! Did you want me to tell him for you?! Or - or I could arrange a blind date type of situation," Nott suggested brightly, already moving to get up from her seat as if to take care of it right away. "That would be romantic, wouldn't it?”
“No!” Caleb lurched to put his hands on Nott’s shoulders and stop her from getting up. “Don’t. Please. I’m not telling him yet. I don’t know if I even will.” He definitely never would. Just the thought of telling Mollymauk put his stomach in knots, actually telling him would be a nightmare.
She looked at him like he was suddenly talking crazy. Because that was CRAZY, that Caleb of all people would actually have some of those feelings for somebody, her shy, beautiful, complicated, fucked-up boy, feelings enough that he was telling her about them, so they were a bigger deal than he was letting on, and it would have to be a secret now too? "But...but, Caleb," she squirmed under his hands anxiously. "If you don't tell him, and I can't tell him...how's he gonna know?!"
Taking his hands off Nott’s shoulders, Caleb dropped them onto his lap and shrugged. “He won’t. He’s my friend. I don’t...” He shook his head, looking over at Nott with a small smile that was somehow both sad and acknowledging his ridiculousness. “His friendship means too much to me.” Never mind, the last time he’d even had anything that counted as a crush had been Astrid and, well, look how well that had turned out.
Her long ears drooped slightly, searching his face for signs of a wink or knowing look that maybe he wanted her to meddle on his behalf but didn't know how to say it. Because in a weird way, Nott thought she wanted it for Caleb maybe more than he wanted it for himself. He deserved someone in his life like that, like maybe Molly could be. He deserved to be happy for once, like a normal (but obviously above-average) teenage boy. And he could totally benefit from getting laid.
"What if he feels the same way about you - that he wants to be more than friends? What if he's felt that way about you this whole time, and he's just waiting for a sign or something, because he wouldn't want to push you into anything you don't want, or, or you're not ready for?”
Caleb’s flat look seemed to say come on, be serious. “There’s no way I’m his type.” He had thought about it, though. Stupid, little fantasies of Mollymauk secretly harboring feelings for him from afar. All those ‘dears’ and ‘darlings’ meaning more. But, those were just daydreams. He wasn’t stupid; he knew he wasn’t the kind of person people pined over.
"He could surprise you!" Nott frowned at him, because Caleb had clearly already made his mind up for now, and she wanted to talk him out of it, but... In the end, it was up to him. "Well...alright," she groused at the cheez balls before peering back up at him. "If you're sure you don't want to go there. If you change your mind though... Maybe before the next dance, or - Or Valentine's, that's coming up.”
“I wouldn’t even know what to do. I’ve never dated anyone.” Caleb had never even kissed someone. Which was just another point, really. He was inexperienced. Why the hell would someone want to date anyone whose entire familiarity in relationships was from smutty fanfiction and romance novels? Especially if that someone was Mollymauk who could easily date whoever he wanted? And that inexperienced anyone was him?
“You just... Hang out," Nott suggested. "Do fun things, share a nice dinner, whatever. And then, if it goes well, you get SMOOCHIN'," she grinned her jagged zig-zag grin as she said it.
“Fun things, nice dinner,” Caleb echoed uncertainly. and he picked up his cup—a mug Nott had stolen for him that said Cattitude and had a drawing of a sassy looking cat walking away—and took a drink just to have something to do. It sounded an a lot like the things they already did, but somehow way more complicated.
She'd only stolen it because he'd smiled when he'd seen it but then hadn't bought it. And because they didn't want to pay for things. Also, she had been kinda drunk and it gave her a little thrill.
"Don't overthink it," Nott encouraged, seeing Caleb with one of his many Thinking Faces on. One of the more constipated ones. "You'd still be friends. Just friends with extra special feelings and some full-contact tonsil hockey.”
Caleb choked on his rum and coke. “No. I, ah, I think just friends is best. No full, ah, contact tonsil hockey.” He bite a cheez ball in half and stared at the remaining half as he munched thoughtfully. It really was for the best… He’d tell Mollymauk and he’d tell him he’s flattered, but he doesn’t feel the same way and then things would just be awkward.
“Have you ever dated anyone?” Caleb asked, looking over at Nott curiously.
When Caleb swung the question at her, Nott went silent for a beat, like maybe she hadn't heard him. But then her eyes darted quickly to the half-a-cheez-ball in Caleb's fingers as her words rebounded. "W-what? Me? Who would I be dating?"
Caleb gave Nott a befuddled sort of look. “Anyone?” Was she secretly dating someone? Is that what had her so freaked out? She’d have told him if she was seeing anyone.
"Not anyone," Nott muttered, because that seemed like an overstatement for sure. What did he think she was working with here? "...There was...a boy I used to like," she admitted sideways.
A grin broke across Caleb’s face, giddy in the way Nott’s had been only moments ago, and he bumped his side against hers playfully. “There was? Who? Is it someone here?”
"Obviously not," she insisted. Nott pulled her twiggy arms inside the half-sleeves of her sleep shirt and shrank into it a bit, pointedly not looking back at Caleb's shit-eating grin. Green skin didn't really blush, but her complexion might've warmed. "Just some boy from the neighborhood. I don't even know if I remember his name anymore. It was a kid's kissing game, that's all.”
“A cute boy?” Caleb asked, still grinning as he nudged at her again. He couldn’t resist teasing. He’d never seen Nott so adorably flustered before.
"He wasn't even a looker, really." She tried to downplay it, but something softened in Nott's expression. "He was...short. Bushy brown hair, long sideburns. Big nose, not a great chin. Narrow shoulders," she reported, crooked little smile spreading to flash her pointed teeth.
A quiet, warmth spread over Caleb’s features as Nott spoke with that sweet, fond look on her face. She deserved someone in her life like that. Someone nice, like this mystery boy, who made her feel all those giddy, bubbly feelings of liking someone. “He sounds cute.”
"He's a preeee-tty good kisser," was how Nott put it, drawing it out suggestively before her grin eased. Which made her feel sort of warm and happy. And then...sort of sad. Sadder, even.
She'd fallen quiet for a little too long, she realized after a minute or so had passed.
Nott pushed her arms back through the half-sleeves of her baggy shirt, patting around to find her flask in the blankets. "Anyways, that was a lifetime ago," she said with the put-upon, world-weary wisdom of only a teenager who has seen some shit could convey. She opened up her flask and got a good, burning mouthful down before she finished her thought. "All I'm saying is, if you have a chance with your handsome young man... You should take it.”
Caleb watched as Nott fiddled with her flask, that old hurt, whatever thought it was she’d gotten lost in, lingering around her like a shadow. Sometimes silence could say a lot more than words could. He put an arm around her to draw her against him in a hug, and deposited a kiss to the top of her head. She was so brave, had a heart so impossibly big for someone so small, that sometimes he forgot he wasn’t the only one carrying a weight. They were both broken, in their own ways.
“Thank you,” Caleb eventually said, his arm still around Nott, his expression soft, gratitude warm in his eyes. “It was, ah, nice to talk about it. You are good at giving advice.”
She swallowed around a lump in her throat, though she hadn't taken another nip of whiskey yet, where he hugged and kissed her so sweetly it made her heart ache. She wasn't gonna get too emotional or anything - she wasn't that drunk - but her eyes may have gone a bit softer, a bit wetter. "Sure," she managed weakly after a beat. "It's easy, when all you have to do is tell someone to go do the thing they wanna do."
Okay, so Caleb hadn't actually come out and said that he wanted to confess his feelings to Molly. Nott understood that wasn't what he'd decided to do, or at least not yet. But Caleb wanted to confess his feelings to Molly, I mean, come on.
“No.” Caleb didn’t want Nott selling herself short. She always did, and it wasn’t right. She deserved far more credit than she ever gave herself. “I think you are just smart. You are one of the smartest people I know.” He gave her another warm squeeze, then finally let her go. He really did appreciate her advice; he hoped she knew that. Nothing would ever happen between him and Mollymauk, but talking about it had helped. He felt better.
It was a little surprising, to hear Caleb's disagreement. It turned out to be a nice kind of disagreement, anyway. Nott didn't even object to remind him of all the literal geniuses he knew.
She smiled under the compliment, and took another drink from her flask, willing the damp sheen to her eyes to go away. "Yeah, well," she told him once she'd swallowed. "You're pretty smart, too." Except for when it came to people.
