Word count; 1521
"If you do this you'll officially be dead to me," Millie threatened Finn, her voice stern and her warm brown eyes piercing into his. There were a few moments of silence before she cracked a smile and sent the two of them into a fit of laughter. "But, seriously Finn, ruin my highlighting and I will end you."
Finn raised his hands defensively, dropping Millie's purple highlight that he was planning to scribble on her color-coordinated page. "I would never do anything to ruin your work, Millie!" Finn gasped in attempt to manipulate the situation and make Millie the bad guy. Denying he'd ever ruin her perfectly mapped out color scheme.
She'd explained to him that pink was for headings, purple was subheadings, blue was definitions, green was examples, yellow was facts, orange was dates and she saved her favorite color - a peach shade for all the important bits because "everything was important". Finn couldn't believe she even had any parts of her page lacking color, but he kept that to herself because she was so enthusiastic and excited when explaining it to him.
She narrowed her eyes at the boy positioned a few feet in front of her, leaning against his nightstand as he grinned at her. Her lips were pressed into a thin line as she tried her best to maintain the pissed off attitude she was pretending to have, but all it took was for him to stick his tongue out at her and she was grinning and trying to hold back her laughter. "Shut up Wolfhard." She managed to get out through laughter. Well, she thought she did; but it sounded a lot like she was drowning.
"What was that?" He questioned as he leaned forward, tilting his head to the side with raised eyebrows and his warm, brown eyes holding an innocent look
"I said," Millie also leaned forward, "shut. up. Wolfhard."
"Oh, really?" He was really close to Millie now, his voice a low whisper, "well, Millie, that was really rude of you so I think I'm just gonna have to..." he pretended to think for a mere three seconds before lunging forward and tickling her sides.
Millie shrieked in laughter, hating that Finn knew of her one weakness. She was throwing punches, as a subconscious response to being tickle attacked, whilst trying to get the word, "stop," out, but miserably failing. Her laughter filled the room and it was music to Finn's ears, he loved seeing Millie so happy.
She'd clutched her stomach which was aching from laughing so much when Finn finally stopped prodding at her sides, "so, remind me, what was it you said?" He queried with a hint of righteousness in his tone as he stared into her eyes with a smirk playing on his lips.
Millie only realized he was practically on top of her when she quietly spoke the words, "I don't remember," his hands were positioned on either side of her head to avoid putting his whole weight on her tiny body.
She was looking into his dark eyes, admiring the sea of freckles sprinkled across his cheeks and his eyebrows that were naturally shaped to perfection. Millie could've sworn he was leaning in, even certain she'd felt one of his soft curls tickle her forehead, but he jolted away when he heard footsteps approaching his bedroom, returning to his original position across from Millie, who was extremely flustered.
Finn's bedroom door burst open, as expected, "Jesus Finn, who knew doing homework could be so loud? Please try to keep it down, you know I have a book club meeting downstairs!" Finn's mother demanded, with a surprisingly sweet tone of voice. She glanced at the two teens who were avoided making eye contact with one another, opening her mouth to speak but being interrupted by an eruption of laughter from downstairs. She closed the door before heading down.
Once the door was closed, Millie carefully lifted her gaze from her work on the floor to Finn, who was looking at her. The two started laughing before Millie spoke up, "I didn't even know she did book club?" It was a statement, but it came across as more of a question - a rhetorical one, that Finn chose to answer anyway.
She'll do any social activity she can," he shrugged. Diverting his gaze to his book in front of him and beginning to write something down, he was quiet for a few seconds, "I think it's to distract her when dad isn't around. Which is a lot at the moment, he was home for a few days earlier this week but left again on Wednesday. No - yesterday." Finn mumbled, his eyes still remained on the page in front of him.
Millie could tell he wasn't actually doing any work, just trying to make himself look busy whilst probably overthinking, she moved her body to sit beside him instead of opposite him, still keeping hold of the work she had before. "You know I'm here for you right?"
Finn shrugged his shoulders, "it's really not that big of a deal," he lied as his hands were trembling slightly, he was feeling a bit anxious. Millie noticed the small movement and reached out to cup one of his clammy hands in hers, her touch making Finn feel calmer.
"Yeah, but your mum is an incredible woman and I admire her for being so strong and raising you and Nick so well," she paused, sighing, "she's practically been a single mother." Millie understood the struggle of that all too well, her mother had raised her alone all of Millie's life. Millie had never met he father, he bailed as soon as he found out her mother was pregnant and Millie considers that enough of a reason to never want to see him again. She loved her mother more than anything and appreciated how incredible she was anyway, so she didn't need her coward of a father in her life. "Plus, you're so mature, Finn. I admire your independence. I know you don't think so, but you're a great person." Millie complimented, squeezing his hand. She was unintentionally showering him with compliments, her natural method of comforting someone.
Finn was taken aback by her outburst of kindness, not that it was unusual for Millie to be kind, but more that he wasn't too used to someone being so gentle towards him in a time like this. He was thinking about their almost-kiss, was it an almost kiss? He thought so, had Millie even noticed though? Millie took his silence as a sign that he was still upset, so she gave his hand one more comforting squeeze, which persuaded him to respond, "thank you Millie, but I swear it's really nothing." He insisted, his voice shaking slightly. She praises him and shows him pure kindness and that's how he responds? He felt like an idiot but it was all he could muster.
Millie's hand let go of his as she turned back to her work, "well, I'm here for you anyway." She reassured sincerely, despite peering at the blank page on her lap. She'd noticed Finn acting a bit differently recently, he'd seemed more stressed out and down. It was refreshing to see him laughing and smiling earlier, even if he had returned to being quiet and upset now.
After a few minutes of silence and Millie doing work while Finn pretends to, not being able to stop thinking, he nudges Millie's shoulder with his own. Her familiar and innocent face turned to him, silently asking what's up. His hand reached for her cheek as he breathed, "can I... can I kiss you?" His words sounded pleading, and Millie's grew wide at first, the silence causing Finn to fear the worse. He was about to apologize and tell her not to worry about it when she nodded slowly. A small smile growing on her pink tinted lips as he leaned in, bringing his lips to her own soft pair.
Millie's eyes went wide at first, startled at the action despite him asking first, it wasn't long before she melted into the kiss. Both their stomachs were filled with butterflies and Millie smiled into the kiss as Finn brought his other hand to her other cheek. Millie's body was fully turned towards him now, as she wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him closer. She felt like there were a thousand butterflies having a dance party in the pit of her stomach as her heart started beating faster.
Finn's heart was also pounding, not being able to comprehend that this was actually happening.
When they pulled apart Finn bit his bottom lip in an attempt to prevent the grin that was trying to spread across his lips as he stared at the beautiful girl in front of him. "Thank you," he whispered, trying to ignore the thumping of his heart, of which he was unsure of whether it was derived from the glee he was feeling or the anxiousness that had subsided but was still present in his body.
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Double update cuz I'm so so so happy about 1K reads. Seriously thanks to everyone who reads and even more so to everyone who takes the time to comment and vote it gives me so much motivation!!
