TVD/TO Oneshots

Rubber Duck (Enzo St. John)

"I take it the swearing and scowling is a good sign?" asked Enzo. I shot him a look, then went back to my coding.

"In theory, it is a very good thing," I muttered as I scanned through my code one last time. "But I'm not giving you an answer until we find out if this shit is finally going to work."

I took a deep breath and hit enter, then crossed my fingers and my toes. Enzo watched with an amused smile, but my focus stayed on the laptop before me.

I didn't dare move or breath as my program ran, lest it disturb something in the computer or just make my program angry. Time seemed to slow as I waited, but finally, the correct output appeared on my screen. No error message to be found.

"Yes!" I yelled, throwing my hands up in the air. I quickly reigned myself in and went to save and submit my code. Enzo leaned forward, but I ignored everything else in the world until my computer told me my code had been successfully submitted to my Professor. As soon as it was done, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and shut my laptop.

"All done?" asked Enzo.

"Yes, thank God," I sighed, putting my laptop aside. I sank back into the cushions, then gave Enzo a smile. "And thank my rubber duck."

He grinned and leaned forward, hovering over me on the couch.

"Glad I could be of service."

I smiled as he leaned down even further, slowly closing the distance between us. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair as he kissed me, and the tension from coding eased out of my body as I melted into him.

We stayed like that for a good, long while, enjoying my newfound freedom from my coding project. When we finally broke apart, Enzo gave me a lazy smile that I absolutely adored.

"I don't know about you love, but I'm beat. Ready to head for bed?"

"Yeah," I said, giving him a small smile. "You go ahead, I'll be right behind you."

Enzo hummed and kissed my forehead, then stood. He took both of our mugs into the kitchen, then gave me one last look before going into the bedroom. I knew he'd want to wait for me, but hopefully he'd be tired enough that he'd just go back to sleep.

Despite the fact that I'd finally gotten the coding project off my back, I now had to make a final presentation for the same class. I'd already stayed up this late, so what was the harm in a little more sleep deprivation if it took me one step closer to being done with this class forever?

I reopened my laptop and got to work right away. I quickly realized, however, that one of the drawbacks to working when you're extremely tired is that sometimes the things you come up with make way less sense. Besides that, formatting is always a bitch, even when you're fully rested. I glared at the half-started presentation still in front of me. I would make it work, dammit.

After probably twenty minutes, I heard the door to the bedroom open again and Enzo's soft footsteps as he came out. He walked around the couch to stand in front of me, hands on his hips and an eyebrow raised.

"Isn't it time for you to go to bed?" he asked. I barely looked up as I replied, the exhaustion and work-driven craziness really taking hold.

"Isn't it time for you to mind your business?"

"...Okay. Bed, now."

I started to protest, but before I knew what was happening, my laptop was closed on the couch and Enzo had thrown me over his shoulder. That damned vampire speed.

"No, Enzo, come on! Once I finish this presentation I'll be so close to being done with that class!"

"Y/N, I could see the slide you were working on over your shoulder. It's four in the morning. Nothing you're going to do on that presentation right now is going to hold up once you've had some sleep."

"What? I thought it looked good!"

"I say this with nothing but love for you, but it looked absolutely horrible."

With that, he slung me back over his shoulder and dropped me on the bed. I started to sit up, but before I could, Enzo was next to me with an arm around my waist, holding me in place.

"Using superstrength is cheating," I whined as I turned to scowl at him.

"I'm perfectly comfortable with that," he said, a soft smile never leaving his face. I wiggled a little more and made a fuss, but now that I was horizontal in a comfortable bed, the exhaustion was quickly taking over.

"Relax, love, and get some rest. You need to take care of yourself," he said, pulling me in a little closer and placing a soft kiss on the top of my head. I snuggled into his chest, but still managed to fire off a retort.

"No you."

Not even a little bit my best, but I was exhausted, dammit.

I felt the rise and fall of Enzo's chest as he chuckled, and I could hear his heartbeat from where I lay. Despite my best efforts, I had no hope of holding off sleep for another second. My boyfriend's arms were too warm, too safe, too comfortable. He ran his fingers through my hair as unconsciousness finally took over, and I got the first moments of some much needed sleep.

I may have wanted to keep working on my project, but Enzo was right. I did need to take care of myself. And I was eternally grateful to have a wonderful person like him looking out for me the way he did.