Hot & Heavy (Eren x Reader)

Chapter 38 - Oh Love

As you lay there, sharing a quiet moment of clarity, you looked around his bedroom. Posters of animals and shelved figurines showed you hints of Colt's life before you.

"So why study animal behaviours?" you asked him, trying to catch up in as much of his life as possible.

"I just think creatures are neat," Colt answered. "They work by instinct, by what feels right. They always act on what they were designed to do. A fish won't ever know the life of a bird. Every creature has a place and a purpose."

You nodded, watching the glowing in his eyes dance as he spoke about the things he loved the most. A sigh slipped your lips, feeling your mind take you to a different place. "I've been feeling like that lately, like a fish out of water. Out of place, no purpose."

Colt stroked your head and grinned so softly, you could almost see his thoughts. "Well, a long ass time ago, some fish decided that it didn't want to live in the water anymore and grew legs. New place, new purpose. Change, adaptation. It's not easy, but it's doable."

As you listened to Colt's words, you could feel your breath reaching depths in your lungs that you had never felt before. Your muscles stretched to lengths farther than imaginable. He didn't place unprecedented expectations of you and somehow you found yourself wanting to fill your lives with boundless wonders of each other. You loved him for making you love yourself, for how much he believed in you, for how safe you felt to try something new.

Now, you felt like you understood Nicolo more than anyone.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

It was only a few days after the new year and students were only starting to trickle back to campus. For just a little longer, the silent paradise that you and Colt had created in Marley was still there. Since opening your heart to him, there were small advances in your relationship. In longer hugs, deeper kisses, and busier hands. You wondered in your mind if it was too soon. In your heart, you felt like it couldn't come soon enough.

Colt suggested that both of you should take advantage of the quiet campus. You had admitted to him that you'd only been in the few buildings your classes were in. After hearing that, he appeared at your dorm, holding up a bag of the cheapest beer on the shelf.

"Let's just get a little day drunk," he suggested with a glint in his eye. You let him rummage around your cabinets until he found the travel mug you had received for your birthday. "Can I use this?"

You nearly told him no. It was a precious gift that sparked the last bits of your youth, and of rekindling the flame of an old friendship. Your first reaction was to try and preserve as much of that as possible, but you remembered that you hadn't even used it once since receiving it. Even something as trivial as moving past a material memory felt like a grand achievement.

Colt opened a can of beer and poured the contents into the engraved travel mug before twisting the lid tight. Taking in a sip, he recoiled from the bitter taste of the bad beer. He had broadened your horizons so much that even your drinking preferences had changed. You didn't mind the hoppy aftertaste if it meant sharing an indirect kiss as you passed the mug back and forth.

He showed you around the science building and all his favourite spots to study. There was a quiet table with two chairs hidden underneath a stairwell. Next to it was a small window that provided just enough sunlight. "I've trusted you with my deepest darkest secret. I gotta keep you with me so I know you're not spreading it around."

You grinned up at him, feeling the effects of the beer bubbling in your system. Being day drunk with Colt felt like an exciting secret as you did your best to keep your giggles down and your footsteps steady. You found yourself leaning on his arm, clinging to him with desperation for stability. "I don't even know how to find this place. I'll only go here with you."