ANOTHER YEAR LATER
“I don't like this place,” Anna mumbles to herself as she finally manages to hook a foot over the window ledge and launch herself into the small room, landing face first on the carpet. “Ow,” she lets out in a squeak after a few moments, cheek shoved awkwardly against the scratchy fabric.
“Hello?” a sleepy voice mumbles from further inside the room.
“Oh, God,” Anna whimpers, still with half her body sticking out the window and the other half splayed across the carpet. Please don't wake up please don't wake up pretty please don't wake up.
“Relax, Matt,” another voice rings out. “It's probably just a cat on window ledge or something - ”
“Dude, I thought I heard voices - ”
“Doubt it,” the second voice laughs, and Anna thinks she may be saved. “I need the bathroom, go back to sleep, okay?”
At a murmured assent from Matt, she begins hearing footsteps padding closer to her. “No,” she groans, but by now, she's given up with trying to move (okay, not like she was making much of an effort in the first place, but the awkward climb and shuffle up the drainage pipe of the building in order to get into each window wasn't exactly relaxing), and can only sincerely hope that whoever finds her is as kind as Jonathan was. The footsteps continue to come closer, and eventually she can make out a pair of slippered feet come to a stop directly in front of her face. There is a long pause as Anna holds her breath and hates herself for being clumsy and awkward and also the building for being so tall and not even having a chimney.
“Looks like quite the situation you've got yourself in there,” a voice says from above her, amused, and a glance upwards is enough to catapult her lower half into the building as she makes out the familiar features.
“Jonathan!” she lets out. “I didn't know this is your college!”
“Well, you do now,” he laughs, and she gets up to launch herself into his arms, smiling happily at the feeling of his chest rumbling with amusement. “Looks like someone's happy to see me,” he jokes, but she can feel the squeeze of his arms around her, and only grins wider into his shoulder.
“Of course I am,” Anna chastises, pulling away to glare at him. “It's been a year!”
Jonathan grins down at her. “That's true,” he agrees. “How's things?”
Anna, having pulled away, is a little distracted by Jonathan - aren't they supposed to stop growing at some point? And - oh. Jonathan is wearing boxers and a shirt.
Just boxers and a shirt.
“Anna,” Jonathan sings, poking her cheek gently. Her eyes snap back up guiltily, but he doesn't seem to have noticed, and she thanks all and any gods for low lighting. “Uh - sorry. Yeah. Things are good. Great. Really great. Great as can be, absolutely gr - "
“I'm getting the sense that they're great,” he teases, pressing a finger to her lips. She silently struggles to contain the flush threatening to creep into her cheeks, but then moves away, saying:
“So. College.”
“College,” he agrees, running a hand through his hair.
“How is it?” she asks, lips curving up into a knowing smile.
“Fine, so wipe that smirk off your face, Miss,” he reaches over to flick her forehead gently.
“What smirk?” Anna questions innocently, but her grin's only grown, the overall effect being a little too oxymoronic. “Is it hard?”
“Very,” Jonathan replies with a wry smile, sitting on the floor by the window and leading Anna to follow suit. “But in a good way. Well, a kind of good way. Finals really aren't fun.”
“Finals?”
“Final exams,” he explains. “We tend to have them before important breaks.”
“So you're on break right now?”
“Of course, it's Christmas.”
“But you're not at home...” she says slowly, frowning.
“I'm going down tomorrow,” he assures her with a smile. “I couldn't book a bus earlier because I was too busy studying. I'm on a scholarship, so if I don't pass my classes with good grades I'm pretty much screwed.”
“Scholarship?” Anna repeats unsurely, the phrase vaguely familiar.
“Sorry,” Jonathan shakes his head. “It's this thing that the college offers if you get really good grades. They pay for all your fees and stuff. I was really lucky I got one, actually. I wouldn't have dreamed of going here without one, it costs boatloads.”
“Why?” she peers around the room, as though trying to find something worth paying so much for. “Is this a good college?”
“What, Princeton?” Jonathan says with a chuckle. “I guess you could say that.”
“You never told me you were smart,” she nudges him with a grin.
“Ah, well,” he scratches the back of his neck sheepishly. “Not exactly something that comes up in conversation.”
“Oh, I don't know,” she says lightly. “With your people skills I would've thought you'd find a way to work it in. So, what are you studying?”
“Anatomy. I, uh, I wanna go on to do medicine, so...”
“A doctor?” Anna says dumbly, although she isn't sure why she's surprised at all. When she thinks about it, Jonathan would be a perfect doctor.
“Yes, a doctor,” he elbows her lightly. “I'm thinking along the lines of pediatrics - ”
“Okay, stop there,” she holds a hand up. “If you're gonna start using big words and going all biology student on me - ”
“I'm not!” he protests. “Pediatrics isn't a big word!”
“It is for a simple present-deliverer like me,” she jokes.
“You're not simple,” he returns steadily, looking her in the eye. Anna suddenly finds it a little difficult to breathe, her eyes drawn to the thin thread of light streaming from the window and reflecting softly off his hair, rumpled and messy from sleep. “Okay?”
“Okay,” she replies, a little dizzily. She blinks suddenly, shaking her head. What is wrong with her? “So, uh, what's - um, what did you call it again? Something with a p...”
“Pediatrics,” he smiles. “It's a branch of medicine. It deals with, uh, just kids.”
“Like babies?”
“Yeah. But kids of all ages, really. I guess I've always liked kids, so...”
“Yeah,” Anna says softly, recalling the way his eyes brighten whenever Flynn is brought up in conversation. She clears her throat. “Well...that's really cool,” she offers. “Like, more than cool. Super cool. Amazing. Really amazing, like if there was an amazing scale it would be right at the top with - ”
“You're doing this a lot tonight,” Jonathan interrupts, eyeing her suspiciously.
Anna almost chokes. “Me? No! I mean, no more than usual - ”
“Yes more than usual,” he raises an eyebrow. “What's up?”
“U - up?” she repeats, shifting uncomfortably. “Up? Nothing's up - everything's so not up, it's practically down!”
“Down?”
“E - exactly,” Anna nods, hoping her term is a little firmer than before and trying desperately to keep her eyes from straying to the expanse of skin which is exposed as a result of his shirt hitching up slightly when he moves.
Jonathan doesn't look convinced. He leans in closer, concerned, and Anna almost groans in frustration. Please don't do that. Please please please don't. “Anna...” he wraps his fingers around hers, and she feels her heart rate pick up slightly.
Don't do that either, she thinks to himself. Only bad things happen if you do that. “Are you sure you're okay?” he questions.
Anna blinks up at him. “I - uh - yeah,” she breathes, withdrawing her hand as though burnt. What is she doing, feeling like this about a human?
Then she looks at Jonathan - really looks at him, and she realises that he's not just ahuman. He's Jonathan.
And she thinks he might just be her best friend.
“If you're sure,” he looks dubious.
“I am,” she assures him, reaching back over to squeeze his wrist and offer him a smile. She's only met him four times, how can she be so...how can she even like him so much? Is it even possible to like someone that much after four meetings? It's not even four, this is the fourth, she's only seen him three times before, oh no this is totally not okay -
“Anna?”
But technically, she's known him four years, hasn't she? That's enough for someone to be your best friend, right?
“Anna...”
But the time in between each Christmas Eve doesn't count, that's so stupid, it's still only four nights...
“Anna!”
But four years, too? Four years and four nights, four years, four nights, ohwhat difference does it make anyway she still really likes him -
“Anna.”
Oh God. She likes him. She totally likes him, doesn't she? Oh God...
“Anna!”
“I - yes. Hello. Hi.”
“You're so not okay,” he declares with conviction. She can't keep the blush from her cheeks.
“I am, I totally am, I promise! I just, uh...” Anna trails off, then, eyes alighting on the kitchenette a few yards away, says: “Am lacking some of the legendary Jonathan McQueen cookies,” she says quickly.
There's a moment where Jonathan pauses to study her intensely, but it passes when he relaxes and laughs. “I should've guessed,” he says with a knowing grin, and Anna lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. “There are some on the counter.”
“Good,” she says, getting up from her seat by the window and rushing towards the aforementioned counter. Sure enough, a plate of beautifully iced biscuits is set on the marble, and she eyes them closely, picking one up and peering at them through the darkness. “Is this...me?” she asks incredulously, holding one even closer to her face at the sight of a frosting girl on a sleigh pulled by several reindeer, smiling widely as gusts of icy wind whip through her deep red hair.
“Aha, yeah...” Jonathan looks close to embarrassed as he comes to join her by the counter. “I didn't think you would notice...”
“You frosted me on cookies?” she asks, half awed, half disbelieving.
“It is your day!” he responds, a little defensive.
“My day?”
“Yeah,” he says, a little unsurely. “I mean...yeah. Christmas Eve is all about stockings and presents and giving and being happy and you're at the centre of that. I mean, people spend tonight with their families, and you get up, whizz around their houses at top speed, fall - jump - down their chimneys and leave their presents under their trees all without them even knowing - hell, if it isn't your day, I don't know what is, Anna!”
She pauses, cookie still halfway between her and the plate and the counter. “I...”
“God, you still don't get it, do you?” he asks, and she thinks he hears a little frustration in his voice.
“Get what?”
“You're special, Anna!” Jonathan says, throwing his arms up in the air. “You think you're not, and that Nick is more important, but you so are!”
She turns properly now, to stare at him openmouthed, but he doesn't seem to notice, still speaking at about a million miles an hour.
“You're funny, and sweet, and thoughtful, and you always think of other people before yourself, and not to mention you're absolutely gorgeous - I don't even know if it's your magical genes or whatever, but God, do you not see yourself? I don't understand how you can - ”
Overall, she thinks, she did make an effort. She really did. She tried to resist any urges she may have had for the past hour or so, but people always look so much more kissable in the dark, not to mention people are always more kissable when they are listing all of one's good qualities, which is precisely why Jonathan's monologue is cut off completely by Anna seizing the front of his shirt and dragging his lips to hers. He lets out a quiet oomph, but she soon makes sure his mouth is otherwise occupied, and it occurs to her as his lips move gently and steadily against hers - just how Jonathan would kiss - that this is the best idea she's had in, like, forever.
He pulls away a few moments later, hands resting at the small of her back, and he's smiling, so she thinks maybe she didn't do something completely wrong.
“I was not expecting that,” he murmurs, leaning down to press his forehead against hers.
“Surprise?” she offers, and the resulting laugh makes her feel warm all over.
“You caught me off guard,” he says, nudging his nose with hers.
“I'm sorry,” she replies, arms still around his neck. “I just - I don't know. I think maybe I've been wanted to do that for quite a long time.” As soon as the words leave her mouth, Anna realises they're true.
Jonathan's smile widens. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. Because I've been wanting to do it for a long time too.”
“So why didn't you?” she arches a brow at him.
“I don't know?” Jonathan says sheepishly, more of a question than a statement. “I guess I might've been a bit worried that it would mess with your crazy immortal mojo. Or something.”
Anna pulls back at that, looking up to fix him with a pair of eyebrows raised high in amusement. “Crazy immortal mojo?”
“Well, yeah,” he responds, and she probably shouldn't find the way he's defensive and the flush she can just make out creeping up his neck as adorable as she does. “I don't know...”
She laughs. “For the record, I'm not one hundred percent immortal,” she informs him.
“Oh?”
“Yeah. It's just easier to say I am. The difference between us and you puny humans is we age at a completely different speed. A much, much slower speed.”
“So...old for you is, like, three hundred years, or something?”
“More like three thousand,” she corrects, fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt. “But yeah. Everything moves at a slightly different speed for us. It's how we get round those houses in time.”
“So are we currently in slow motion from your side of things?” Jonathan asks, frowning.
“No,” Anna shakes her head. “I can change it around for a while. But only for short periods of time. I speed things up for you whenever I see you.”
“That's...really cool,” Jonathan says, slightly awestruck.
“Hey, I don't like that tone in your voice, Mister,” she chastises, poking his chest.
“What tone?”
“The one that implies that you can't believe I'm cool," she teases.
“Oh, you are cool,” he informs her, tugging her closer. “You are totally cool.”
“Is that so?”
“Definitely.”
“I'm glad you think so,” Anna says, eyes already drifting back to his lips.
Jonathan leans a little closer. “Think you can manage to speed up time a little longer?” he murmurs, lips near her ear. Anna feels her lips curve into a smirk.
“Hm, I think I might be able to arrange it.”
_______________________________________________________________________
a/n: ur welcome :)))
it's mcqueen day today go send daven @starlightt some love and yes you all officially have my permission to freak out in the comments section
- mariam