WHO: Leon Stebbins & Jessamine Spinnet WHAT: Someone makes good on a promise to visit more often. WHEN: March 13 WHERE: St Mungo's WARNINGS: Don't read if you don't like kissing.
He’d walked by about a dozen times, trying to stir up some courage to actually talk to her. It’d been easy to talk on the journal network about how he thought she was beautiful and about how he wanted to ask her out on a date, but when faced with actually seeing her in person, his throat dried up and his heart practically leapt from his chest. A hundred doubts and questions ran through his mind. Had she only said it out of fear? Would she still want to go out with him? Why was he even questioning that when she’d told him specifically to stop by more often?
Had he waited too long?
“Okay. You can do this,” he muttered to himself, and then he stepped fully through the doorway that led to the pharmacy.
There wasn’t a line that day, which was a huge relief. Leon wasn’t sure what he would have done if he’d had to wait. He was already in his head enough as it was.
“Hello, is Jess -- Jessamine, I mean, Chief Spinnet, no, Chief Pharmacologist Sp-- oh, hell, you know who I mean.”
The young woman at the counter smiled. “I’ll go get her.”
Off to a grand start already, Leon thought, his cheeks reddening.
“Spinnet! Romeo cometh …" That was one of the pharmacology technicians calling back through the long stacks of potions and potions ingredients. And under a shelf, face smudged with dirt, Jessamine Spinnet found herself experimenting on one large and bulbous toadstool.
The reminder afforded her an anxious catch of the breath. (It also afforded her a knock to the top of her head.) She scrabbled from under the bench and strode forward, pushing locks of hair out of her eyes before she came skidding to a halt before the window and offered him a crooked smile.
She leaned on the counter.
“Oh hey.”
If he thought that seeing her would make his blush go away, he was very, very wrong.
His eyes widened slightly when she smiled, and he tried to smile back, though he wasn’t sure if it came across as terrified or uncomfortable or suave. (Probably not the latter. Definitely not the latter.)
“Hey.” He lost track of everything he wanted to say and the reason he even stopped by or what his excuse was. “I -- uh. Funny seeing you here.”
“Uh, right? This is only like, my second home.” She stood up, crossing and uncrossing her arms. Prior to the werewolf night she’d have been able to flirt hard and make it look effortless. Now, with the awkward in full flower, she laughed.
“Slow day.”
“Ah, well… I’m not really here to give you any more work, unfortunately,” Leon admitted. He could have waited for when he had a patient who needed something from her, but he wasn’t in a very patient mood that day. He’d considered writing up fake scripts instead, but that seemed like overkill. He shrugged. “I just came to say hello. Because you asked.” Just in case she’d forgotten.
“Cool, because it’s my break.” Jess’ counterpart gave her a hard wink and she tossed her lab coat on a hook and slid out a side door to walk up to him. Rowena’s books, he’s tall. She looked up (and up and up) and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“Stroll?”
“Oh.” Leon blinked, startled by the wink, and then nodded when she reappeared. “Yes. Yes, all right. I’d love that.” He fought the urge to reach out and take her hand, like he really wanted to do, like he would have done if they’d been out for a stroll in a park in London. His fingers twitched a little, but he shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers. They were at work, which meant he should try to uphold some sort of professionalism.
He looked up and down the hallway briefly before looking down at Jess again. She was really beautiful, even with a smudge of dirt on her face. He reached out slowly and then stopped. “You have --” His smile brightened. “Dirt.”
“What?” Jess stopped, frowning slightly before she caught up to him. “Oh that bloody toadstool!” she said and reached up to rub away the smudge. Then, thrusting her arms back to her sides, she smiled and took a tentative step inward.
“Will you get it for me? I can’t see it …”
“Yeah, of course.” His voice sounded breathless already, which was embarrassing as hell, but he couldn’t ignore the electricity in the air around them. Or was that just him? Things were different now, ever since their confessions. He’d wondered, before, but he’d always brushed it off as a stupid fantasy. No way would she be interested in someone like him.
His hand was close already, so he closed the rest of the space, resting his fingers lightly along her jaw as he swiped his thumb along her cheek. After a moment, the dirt was gone. “There you go. Gotta say, though, it wasn’t a bad look.”
Jess had this idea that though they attempted to live well in the midst of this trouble, they had no reason to waste more time. It was like with the werewolves.
She surged up on her tiptoes and kissed him briefly.
“Yeah you should see me on the weekends.”.
All his earlier worries drifted away with the kiss, even as brief as it was. It was full of hope and promise and all the things he didn’t think were still possible.
Leon smiled widely and brushed his thumb across her cheek again even though there was nothing left to brush off. From where he stood, he could see that they were being watched, and he knew that this would be a topic of conversation across the hospital. When he looked back at her, though, he didn’t care. His hand dropped to her shoulder, and then slid down her arm to take her hand. “I’d love that, too.”
Feeling that touch (and the tips of her toes curling in her boots), she vined her fingertips with his and allowed another smile to crookedly touch her lips. There was a little too much at stake to be anything but thoroughly at the will of pleasure when it came to good things. And there Leon was basically proclaiming he wasn’t standing in the middle of their workplace for just one night.
She pulled on his arm, intent on kissing him again.
Of all the ways he’d imagined kissing her (and there had been a lot of times he’d imagined that), it never involved right in the middle of St. Mungo’s.
Leon leaned in, hoping he was reading the right sort of message in her face and in the way she tugged on him, and pressed his lips to hers again. He lingered, that time, forgetting where they were and that they were only on break and would have to get back to work soon. He kissed her like he’d always wanted to and never had. When he finally pulled back, his other hand had found her waist. “Umm.” His cheeks flushed. “We should have done that a while ago.”
There was a muffled cheer from somewhere beyond them, back toward the pharmacy. Jess laughed quietly and brushed her lips against his cheek again before stepping back and out of the circle of his arms. “And to think all it took was a little walk.” She paused, holding out her hand to him.
“C’mon, Steb. Let’s go get coffee.”
And a couple werewolves, he thought, reminded of the reason either of them even confessed anything in the first place. He hated feeling grateful about that, but it was entirely possible neither of them would have found the courage if they hadn’t been backed into a corner. Or at least they wouldn’t have done it yet.
He nodded and took her hand. “I still owe you a proper first date, though,” he reminded her. “When are you free?”
His hand was big and warm and callused and she felt as though she fit within it neatly, slowly walking him down to the vending machine that spat out disgusting viscous slop. But it was caffeine and so she drank it … and often, just like this time, all in one go. She couldn’t help but smile the brighter.
“Whew,” she breathed, and then looked punched in the code to get two more cups. One for each of them. “I’m free this weekend. Saturday?”
With the way his heart was already racing, Leon wasn’t sure how much more caffeine he really needed -- although he’d probably change his mind five seconds after he left her if he didn’t partake now. At the moment, however, he was so caught up in her and how it felt to have his feelings returned that he was sure he could run several miles.
“Saturday,” he echoed in agreement, without really thinking about what he had going on. He took the second cup from her and glanced down at it. He didn’t have a shift that day, miraculously, but anything could happen. “I can do Saturday. Where do you want to go? Or should I surprise you?”
“Surprise me,” she told him. They probably had another 5 minutes on their break and she was determined to catch a little sunshine. Leaning on a set of windows closeby, she straightened her back against the glass to catch a fragment of warmth.
“And I’ll surprise you for the next.”
The next.
Leon’s eyes widened slightly, taken aback by how confident she was that there would be a next time. They hadn’t even gotten through the first and she was already planning more -- or she was just hopeful. Either way, it felt good to hear, and he reveled in it.
“I’m good with that.” He was more than good with it. It was perfect. There were so many things wrong with the world, but this -- this was good. This was perfect, and she was beautiful.
He didn’t realise he’d said those last thoughts outloud until the words were already out.
She smiled - a hint of blush blossoming up her cheek. “Glad to know you still think that even when we’re not dealing with Snaggletooth.”
Okay, losing track of his ability to keep his thoughts to himself wasn’t a turn off. That was a relief. Probably, he thought, because of what he’d said. Thank Merlin it
hadn’t been something awful, though he wasn’t sure he could have terrible thoughts around Jess.
He dared to step a little closer, back into her personal space. “I thought that before we were dealing with Snaggletooth. One little brush with that,” he smiled and shook his head, “it was never going to be enough to change my mind. On the contrary, I think it had the opposite effect.” He’d been worried, of course, but he’d also been impressed with her bravery in the face of so much danger.
Reaching forward, she placed her hand on his shoulder and drew him closer, into the window well where she sat. “Well here’s to Snaggletooth,” was a quip, even if he came so close to the truth with his earnest responses.
Leon Stebbins was a rare man. And Jess wanted to see how long she could protect the light between them.
“I meant everything I said, it wasn’t just endorphins.”
“So did I,” he insisted, trying to put a damper on his worries and his insecurities, especially now that he knew she still felt the same way she had before. She didn’t need to know that he’d doubted her sincerity. He already felt bad about that as it was.
“Shame we have to go back to work.”
“People need Healer Stebbins. Who am I to refuse them?” she said, playing at a grin. “Besides it’ll make the surprise date so much more fun. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
She paused. “But don’t ask me to quantify that!”
Waiting didn’t sound as fun anymore, but Leon still laughed. “That’s what they say, but that’s really not an experiment I want to take on, don’t worry.” As far as he was concerned, there had been enough absence as it was.
He wasn’t sure how he was going to last the rest of the week with this hanging over them, once he started thinking about it. But that was a problem for another day, for the next time he saw her in passing. Future Leon would have to figure it out.