trope: friends to lovers, slowburn
Prompt: reader is an empath and is helping Dakota deal with emotions and stuff, when she finds out about his feelings. Setting this in the Winnebago cause i just got there lmao
requested by @-StarrLux
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William and Vyncent had left the Winnebago about an hour ago, and rain had set in almost immediately. It wasn't close to a storm, but heavy enough to keep the other Prime Defenders, Dakota Cole and Y/n L/n inside. Droplets hit the windows as a calm silence blanketed the room. The air inside was warm, and almost heavy with drowsiness as Y/n fought to keep awake while she sat at the small convertible table, leafing through a magazine she had picked up at the last gas station. With Williams driving, she hadn't had time to actually read and process anything. Not that it was very much his fault, he was under a lot of stress, but it was a tumultuous condition to try and relax on the road.
She turned a page, beginning to fill out a quiz on some sort of topics like boys, or members of some generic boy band she honestly had started listening to. A perfect quiet filled the room, much too quiet considering Dakota Cole himself was sharing the smaller space. Y/n didn't question the absence of her friend's constant chatter for a second, reasoning he was asleep or listening to music in his bunk.
But like all simple things, this quiet came to an end as she felt a sudden weight flop on top of her. "Bored!" Dakota moaned, sighing heavily. Whatever he had been doing had lost his interest, prompting him to smother the girl as she tried to read. "Bored bored bo-" She tapped at his arm, trying to heave him off of her. "Kota please get off-" He huffed, picking himself up off of her. The red-haired teen sighed dramatically, moving to fall onto his bunk. "I'm so bored!!" He whined as Y/n bookmarked the magazine, pulling herself off of the seat she was at. Crossing the admittedly small space, she hoisted herself onto his bunk, crossing her legs. "What do you want me to do about it?"
He shrugged, falling backward. "I dunno, talk to me? It's too quiet and like- I like that now but it's overwhelming-" She frowned, scooting closer to his frame. See, a fun fact about Y/n was that she had empath-like abilities, and was more attuned to emotions. That's how she didn't get overly upset when William almost crashed the RV, or how she, when he was around at least, connected easily with Ashe, despite not knowing anything about him.
"Overwhelming quiet? How so, red?" Dakota sighed. "I can hear all of my thoughts and it kind of hurts. I dunno." "No no that's good, well ok it's not good how you feel but the fact you can put it to words is good!" He sat up, shifting to sit next to her. He had almost a death glare as he stared at his hands, seemingly trying to burn holes into them. If he had laser eyes, he probably would have. "I don't like how all of this makes me feel I thought-" He sighed, balling up a fist as she nodded along. "I thought nothing would change, that we'd still be the actual Prime Defenders and the hall of elements! And I thought that Tide would still be there and we'd all be as close as always and nothing would be tense and shit but-" She interjected. "You were gone for ten months Dakota, and we had to adapt. I actually pushed for us to stay at the hall but when Vyncent and William left for our old base I didn't want to be alone, and I'm sorry for that. At least I should have stayed and waited."
Y/n pressed her lips together and locked her pinky with his. "I'm sorry, Dakota." Wordlessly he nodded. Quiet filled the room again, broken by the patter of rain against the trailer. Though faintly, Y/n could feel the bubbling up of emotions in her friend. Frustration, confusion mainly. "Do you... want to talk about it?"
"About what?" He looked over at her. "How you're feeling right now? I uh- I can feel it vaguely but it feels better to say it out loud I've noticed." "Oh shit I forgot about that-" She laughed at his reaction, prompting him to join in. The noises of laughter and swearing filled the space, replacing the dense quiet from before.
"It-" Y/n to a deep breath, trying to calm down. With their pinkies still locked, she could feel amusement and entertainment swell from him, infecting her, growing a large grin as she spoke. "It's alright man, sometimes I forget as well!" "Wait you forget you can like- do all that emotional stuff?" She shrugged, rubbing the nape of her neck. "I've been doing it for years now and it's just normal now, it's helpful actually, I can help with emotions and shit" She pursed her lips. "If you want me to, at least."
Dakota nodded. "How does that work?" "I hold your hands, and you open your mind to me." She explained. He grabbed her hands without hesitation, moving to sit in front of her. His hands felt rough against her softer ones, a strange but pleasant feeling. "Ready!" He beamed as she laced her fingers with his. She closed her eyes, Dakota following suit scrunching up his face. Y/n took a deep breath as she felt a surge of frustration hit her. "You feel frustrated, at yourself, at the heroes who should be helping, at our situation. Frustrated in general really-"
"That checks out, thanks." "No problem." She focused again, feeling the waves of anxiety hit her like a brick. "Jeez you have a lot of anxiety- I can set you up with my therapist after this if you'd like" "I'm ok, but thanks! didn't even realize I was anxious!" She sighed, letting go of one of his hands to pat the other. Reclasping hers with his, she made the connection again, feeling a rush of affection hit her brain.
Wait, affection? Had she felt that right? Cracking open the lids of her eyes, she jumped back, surprised to make eye contact with Dakota as he stared at her. His face went red as he shouted out apologies. "I'M SORRY-" As he held his hands up in defense, she took one of them, making eye contact. He redirected his eyes at the contact. "Kota, Kota it's fine! That happens more than you think-" Another rush of affection, love really, hit her sense, staining her face red. She let his hands go again, reaching up to hold her face in an attempt to cover the blush. Dakota had a concerned look on his face at her actions. "Woah, you ok, Y/n?"
She sucked in a sudden breath. "Hey, Kota?" she spoke cautiously, balling up her fists on her knees. Y/n stared at the backs of her hands, refusing to hold eye contact with her friend. "Yeah?" Confused, he tilted his head. Fuck, she thought, he's so cute. "So uh- funny thing with my powers uh- I can turn them on and off but I forgot to just then and uh- I can tell the more intense emotions-" She covered her face once more. "I felt a lot of uh- affection-"
Dakota's face went completely red, as red as the sky at night, or a tomato. His heart pounded faster in his chest as he made the connection, she could feel the feelings of others right? Oh god, had his stealing glances at her whenever she laughed at his jokes or played along with whatever plan he had come up with been, well, less than platonic? I mean, he thought to himself in a panicked state, she had always been the most consistently on his side, and she always helped him put when he was upset. Shit, it was love. "Really?-" "Yeah-"
They sat in silence, the rain falling harder now. A crack of lightning and the roll of thunder broke the silence and awkwardness as Dakota grabbed her hand, tensing up at the noise. "Shit, you ok, Kota?" He seemed to curl into her arm, resting his head on her shoulder. "It's fucking loud-" He muttered into the fabric of her shirt as she shimmed her arm out of his grasp, draping it over his shoulder as she pulled him closer to her chest. "I know, I've got you- headphones?" He shook his head. "No I'm- I'm ok like this-"
"Ok." She said softly, barely above a whisper. Y/n pulled him closer to herself, absentmindedly drawing patterns on his arm as they sat in silence again. A couple of minutes passed. Dakota could feel his heart calming down as the girl acted as a sound barrier for him. During this time, Bobo had joined them on the bunk, curling up on Dakota's lap much to the amusement of Y/n. A fond smile grew on her face as she watched Dakota pet the spider-monkey, cooing at him.
"Do you want to go out with me?" Her face went red and blank as she realized the words that had slipped out. Probably not a good time to ask that, she reasoned. "Shit sor-" "Sure." He cut her off. Y/n looked down at him, meeting his eyes. Unlike the other times, he didn't tear himself away. She blinked. "Really?" He nodded, casting his gaze elsewhere. "Yeah I mean, you know I like you that way and you asked so it makes sense to me, and I think that's one of the few things that has since I got back..."
A laugh escaped her lips as she pulled him closer. "So I can call you my boyfriend?" "Only if I can call you my girlfriend!!" Y/n laughed again at his enthusiasm, pressing her lips to his forehead in response. "It's a deal!"
Giddy and high on love, he pulled her into a tight hug which she returned, face red as he mumbled declarations of affection and plans for the future. In the chaos of life, even as normal teenagers on a cross-country road trip to hopefully save a beloved friend, normalcy was what they needed. They found needed comfort and solace in one another.
A soft quiet filled the room as the conversation died down. Declarations of love need not be spoken in the silence, as they were already realized by them both. Still, wanting the last word in, Y/n spoke up as Dakota seemed to drift off in her arms, clearly exhausted from everything.
"I love you, Kota. Sleep well."
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word count : 1783
i had so much fun writing this lmao
I hope you like it!