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“Bud.”
“Hm?”
“Buddy.”
“Hm?”
“Buddy goddamn Aurinko—”
“Whatever could be the matter, darling?”
Vespa groaned, glaring up at the ugly popcorn ceiling of their room at the Oasis. It was certainly easier to look at than the predicament hoarding all the blankets in the frigid air conditioning. At least a ceiling couldn’t be smug about it.
“I think you know what the matter is,” Vespa huffed.
She made the fatal mistake of glancing down just in time to see Buddy raise an eyebrow. If her mouth hadn’t been hidden behind several layers of her one-man blanket burrito, Vespa would have bet anything it was curved into that damn smile of hers, too sweet and soft and self important for her own good. Vespa adamantly stamped on the part of her brain that spoke up to say she didn’t mind it too much.
“What, that I’m giving you all the space you requested and more? Well, apologies for following your boundaries to the letter of the law, especially when dealing with one so well-versed in penal codes and the like, but—”
Buddy’s words fell away as Vespa hid her face behind one frigid hand to sigh.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” Buddy warned, though a warm note of amusement wormed its way into her voice as she began to shake exhaustion away. Clearly one of them had been much closer to falling asleep than the other. “You and I both know you had no intentions of being anywhere near me while we slept, which I intend to respect to the best of my ability while we are sharing a room under the guise of newlyweds, which regretfully requires the both of us to be civil enough to share a mattress.”
“I’m freezing my goddamn tits off, Bud,” Vespa finally huffed when she got a chance to get a word in edgewise.
“Well, then that sounds terribly like a you problem, darling.”
Vespa glared, not missing Buddy’s chuckle at the expression.
“Could you at least—I dunno, maybe ease up on the bedsheets a little bit?”
“Why Vespa, I thought you didn’t want to be anywhere near me,” Buddy returned, her audible smile muffled behind where she buried herself even farther into the blankets.
“Oh shut the hell up,” Vespa complained.
“Fine, but I do fear this arrangement will be much more difficult in Solar Sign Language, as I have no intentions of freeing my hands. This hotel room is rather cold, you know,” Buddy mused.
“That’s the goddamn point!”
“Hush, darling, you’ll wake the neighbors.”
“God, I hate you.”
“Oh, most certainly,” Buddy chuckled.
“You wanna stop that?”
“Stop what?”
“I dunno, whatever the hell that is.”
“You’re going to have to be more specific, darling.”
Vespa could only throw her head back and groan as Buddy audibly pulled the blankets tighter around her. Even with her eyes shut against a room cold enough to freeze her goddamn tears, Vespa could almost see Buddy’s smug grin nonetheless.
She could sleep like this, she told herself. She’d spent colder nights with worse people, after all. An unfortunately attractive thief hoarding all the blankets and being infuriatingly cute while doing so wasn’t going to stop her from getting the rest she needed.
Even if there was something painfully endearing about her, at the end of the day, Buddy was still a criminal. Vespa couldn’t name the first thing about her, let alone whether or not she would let Vespa sleep through the night and wake up alive the next morning. It was best just to stay out of her way as much as she could until they parted again.
However, it seemed Vespa’s resistance to the cold was a little less stubborn than she was.
At the very least, she wouldn’t ask Buddy to share the blankets. She would be fine without them. She didn’t have to acknowledge any of what was happening. Maybe looking away from something until it stopped being a problem wasn’t the most successful of solutions, but it was better than admitting just how desperately some stupid part of her wanted to be close to Buddy anyway.
Besides, if all else failed, she wasn’t sure she would be able to look her reflection in the eye again if she stooped that low.
Unfortunately, that didn’t make the room any warmer.
She tried to hold onto her pride. Apparently she had butterfingers.
“Bud,” Vespa started slowly, “could you maybe share one of the blankets?”
“One of? Why, Vespa, I’d be happy to share all of them with you. All you had to do was ask nicely,” Buddy raised her head enough for Vespa to see her smirk. “Now get over here. I intend not to move while the air is this wretched temperature.”
Vespa paused for just a moment, eyes narrowed for any sign of a trap. That moment seemed to last far too long for Buddy, who rolled her eyes, dragged a portion of the blankets out from underneath her, and tossed them over Vespa. She might have minded this a little less if Buddy hadn’t had to get so close to do so.
Maybe minded was the wrong word.
She wasn’t sure what emotion made her breathing stop and her eyes go wide and her heart begin to work in double time just from the feeling of Buddy Aurinko’s body heat so close to her own, but it definitely wasn’t one she wanted to think about or process any time soon.
Vespa tried to pretend these were symptoms of the cold air, or maybe just general symptoms of getting so close to Buddy Aurinko. She couldn’t ever rule out her allergies and Buddy’s cologne dancing their annoyingly constant tango, but then again, the cologne was washed off hours ago and she didn’t think speechlessness had anything to do with the sniffles.
“You’re staring, Vespa,” Buddy pointed out.
Vespa lurched.
“So what? I mean—I’m not staring, goddammit, you’re staring—”
Buddy broke her stammering off with a chuckle, infuriatingly sweet. Vespa was pretty sure she felt one of her organs fail when the sensation of it tickled her collarbone. Buddy was close enough that Vespa could smell her—not the synthetic poise of cologne, but the hotel lotion still clinging to her skin and something softer, more human underneath.
“You wouldn’t be the first and you’d be far from the least welcome,” Buddy smiled.
Vespa was pretty sure she wouldn’t make it out of the hotel room with her dignity in one piece if she kept looking at that damn grin. Instead, she huffed, turning over and pulling the bedsheets around her as the cold began to fall away. She did her best to pretend she couldn’t hear shifting as Buddy drew a little closer to her.
“Pardon the pun, but there’s no need to be so cold about things.”
Vespa flipped over again, the blankets tugging beneath her shoulders and pulling the two of them closer. Their hands brushed for a moment, which was all Vespa’s poor, overworked heart needed to go off racing again. Vespa staunchly ignored it.
“Are you gonna let me sleep or not?” Vespa huffed.
“Well, you ought to be less entertaining, then perhaps we might both get some rest,” Buddy chuckled.
Vespa groaned into the nearby pillow while Buddy merely shrugged, making some clever comment about something or other that Vespa barely heard from her cushy vantage point. She was probably better off not hearing whatever Buddy said anyway. It wasn’t like it would do her any good, not when every other snarky remark out of her mouth made Vespa’s breath catch in her throat.
When she finally found it in her to raise her head, Buddy had turned away. Vespa let out an exhale and turned to that side as well, just to make sure the thief couldn’t sneak off when she wasn’t looking. At least that was what she told herself.
“Vespa, darling, are you attempting to spoon me?” Buddy teased, half muffled by sleep and the blankets.
“What?” Vespa sputtered. “No, of course not! Why the hell would I—”
Buddy’s lazy laughter drifted through the room. Despite herself, Vespa couldn’t bring herself to interrupt a sound that nice on the ears.
“Well, you certainly wouldn’t be in poor taste to do so,” Buddy mused.
“Whatever,” Vespa grumbled, making sure to fold her arms across her chest.
“You know what they say about missing every shot you don’t take,” Buddy audibly smiled, still having the audacity to be smug through her yawn.
“Goodnight,” Vespa tried to say as pointedly as she could manage.
“Goodnight, darling,” Buddy chuckled, as if there were something novel in the phrase.
Vespa tried to keep herself awake as long as possible, but she didn’t stand a chance. Instead, she found herself drifting off, dreaming dreams of Buddy Aurinko she could only pray she’d forget by morning.