•~Stanford Pines X Birth Defect Reader~•

•Part 13 | Deciding Where To Go•

You wiggle your foot a bit and tried getting it back out of the roots, but you couldn't. "Hey, Ford-?" You said, a bit embarrassed. "Yes Y/N?" Ford said warmly as he turned his head back to you. "I uhm... I'm stuck" You said with a nervous chuckle. "Oh- Well let me try and help." He said as he walked back over to you.

After a moment of thought, he wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled your foot out of the roots by lifting your entire body off the ground. It seemed like you didn't even weigh anything to him. You felt your face immediately turn red as he set you down and you fully processed what just happened. "There we go," he said warmly as he walked back to the trunk of the tree, leaving you stunned for a moment.

You quickly realigned yourself and walked up to the stump with him. "So- how old do you think this tree is?" You asked as you looked up into the old willow tree. "I'm not sure, it was here around 30 years ago, I know that," He said as he glanced over at you, looking you up and down again with a soft expression, still not moving his head as he did so. You didn't pay attention to it though, you were looking up at the branches of the old tree.

After a moment Ford mumbled something and he had his hand over his mouth like he was thinking. "What did you say? I didn't hear you-" you said as you looked at him, he immediately got red and a bit startled when you turned to him. "Nothing of importance." He said as he looked away from you. "Alright, if you say so." You said with a short shrug as you looked back up into the tree. "So- do you think these branches are strong enough to hold me-?" You asked as you turned to face Ford again, who had been staring at you.

Ford turned a bit red as he looked up into the tree. "Well, willow trees like this have flexible branches that are easy to grip. The trunk is strong and stable, making it safe to climb. Overall, it should be okay to try it." He said calmly with a short nod. You shrugged and pulled yourself up into the branches, sitting on a relatively low branch. Ford seemed a bit surprised. "I thought you were asking out of curiosity- not to see if you could actually climb it-" he said with a small chuckle.

"Well, you thought wrong I suppose," You said with another shrug and a light chuckle. "Why don't you join me up here?" You said as you offered a hand to help him up. He chuckled a bit and took your hand to pull himself up into the tree, you nearly got pulled down because of how heavy he was, muscle weighs more than fat so it wasn't too surprising. You didn't fall out of the tree and he pulled himself into it and sat on the same branch next to you.

"It's nice up here," Ford said calmly. "Yeah- it is." You replied. You both sat there in comfortable silence for a bit, before you remembered something. "Hey, should we actually go out to lunch now-? I feel like if we didn't come out here we'd already be on our way back to the shack-" After a moment he chuckle lightly. "I suppose you are correct, do you still wanna go to lunch, or should we just head back to the shack now?" You thought for a moment before replying "I think lunch would be nice," you said calmly.

"Alright, lunch it is," Ford said as he got out of the tree and offered out a hand to you to help you down. You smiled lightly and took his hand to get out of the tree. "I don't know the way back to the trail- so I'll follow you," You said calmly. "Right. This way," he said warmly as he walked off, you followed close behind him.

He didn't seem to realize that he was still holding your hand as you two walked through the woods, and honestly, you were quite enjoying this feeling. His hand was rough and worked, but still warm and nice to hold. Your own hand felt quite tiny in comparison to his, and it was a good feeling in all honesty.

After a few minutes of walking, Ford got you both back to the trail and turned to you with a warm smile, realizing now that he was holding your hand the whole time. He got as red as his sweater and let go of your hand as he scratched behind his neck nervously, looking down at the ground, which made his glasses slide down his nose slightly.

"You okay Ford?" You asked with a slight chuckle leaning down and looking up at his face. "Y-yes of course Y/N." He said as he looked back up at you. You stood up fully again but had to look up at him slightly since he was slightly taller than you.

"So should we keep going then or are we both just gonna stand here?" You asked with a slight chuckle. He also chuckled after a moment, adjusting his glasses before speaking again. "Indeed, let's get a move on." He said warmly before walking down the trail again towards town, you following close behind him.

After a bit, you two got to town and started walking toward the diner. You couldn't help but notice that Ford kept glancing at you a bit, not in a weird way, just a short glance. You tried to ignore it but you could feel yourself get a bit red every single time that you noticed him taking a short glance your way.

You both eventually got to the diner and the kid named Pacifica seated you two, she looked a bit surprised to see Ford with you this time. You both sat down at a booth, sitting across from each other. You just remembered that you forgot to bring one of your journals to keep your mind occupied, but you thought talking to Ford would be enough to busy yourself.

The clouds outside were getting darker, it was probably gonna rain, and it did. A couple of drops started hitting the window. You were gonna get wet on the walk home, but Ford had his trenchcoat, he'd be covered from the rain. Unless something happened to the tenchcoat.

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That's right it's another cliffhanger because I suck :D
Also I know the title makes little to no sense but I tried ok😭