Characters: Sol Garcia and Anastas de Kooning
Setting: Destrehan Hall, one of the less populated hallways, right before lunch on the first day of classes
Rating: PG-13? Definite snogging. Definite punching.
Summary: Sunny gets a warm welcome back



It had been a pretty busy morning. Sunny had her first advanced transfiguration class, regular transfiguration, charms, and she had just gotten out of Latin. Her robe hung open as she bounced down the hallway, doing a little dance every few steps. She was in a great mood being back at school immersed in books and learning and not writing letters to a particular boy she preferred to avoid.

Anastas had barely just managed to roll out of bed in time for Charms. It was the first class on his schedule, the only one he had before lunch. He wandered out of class, almost aimlessly toward the dining hall. He’d had a good bit to drink before bed last night; his fresh breath charm had saved him from being lectured about it. Doubtless he’d be drinking again tonight.

He didn’t think his day could really improve. Wasn’t the first day back always miserable? This was his central thought until he saw Sunny. Oh, that girl could brighten up any hallway and damn him for thinking it. He made a bee-line for her, clutching her by her elbow and steering her into an empty corridor. “Miss me?”

Sunny was caught completely off-guard when she felt the hand at her elbow but wasn’t too surprised to see who the culprit was. Damn it. “Anastas,” she said her eyes narrowing. “I didn’t think it was possible to miss you.” She would rather fling herself off the astronomy tower than admit she actually missed seeing his stupid face. “Did you actually make it to class this morning?” she asked pleasantly.

“I did.” He pulled her closer and brushed his thumb along her jawline. “I was on time, if you want to believe it.” Stas leaned into her hair and breathed in that scent he’d been missing over the summer. If she wasn’t going to admit it, neither was he.

Her stomach did a little flip when he ran his thumb along her jaw line and again when he leaned into her hair. His face so close to hers reminded her of the things she liked about him but damn it the boy was frustrating. Her chest rose taking in a deep breath as her head leaned towards his. Sunny wanted to clear her head but that was nearly impossible with him being so close. “You going to lunch?” she asked suddenly.

“I was headed in that direction, but I much prefer where I am standing now.” He pushed his hips closer so that they pressed ever so lightly against her robes. His hands were already tangling up in her hair, enjoying the silky texture coiling around his fingers. He had to lean just slightly to brush his lips along her chin; she was the perfect height. He could gaze directly into her eyes as he kissed her, never breaking that strange link between them.

She couldn’t move, not towards him or away from him, she just stood grounded to the same spot. There was a part of her that wanted this to be real but another part of her that wanted to run away screaming. It was an irritating mix of revulsion and attraction. She finally made her move, placing her right hand on his cheek as he kissed her. She couldn’t look away from him or think of anything remotely intelligent to say.

He could see that internal struggle, he could feel it in her hips as they pressed against his. He smirked a bit lazily into their kisses. Sunny was possibly his most challenging and beguiling conquest from last semester. He was pleased that his letter writing campaign over the summer kept her intrigued enough to invite more kisses.

Oh god, there’s that smirk. She wanted to punch it right off his face... not that she hadn’t done that before. “You better wipe that smirk off your face Anastas,” she grumbled.

He loved it when she used that tone of voice with him. He liked the threat behind, underneath, and wrapped all around it. “Will you promise to wipe it off for me?” He didn’t wait for an answer and offered her a particularly scorching kiss as a temporary truce.

She had a comeback ready, she really did but then he was kissing her and she was surprised at how much she liked that. Sunny pressed her eyes shut and her arms wrapped around his shoulders but she was cautious enough to leave a little space between their bodies. Damn it... again. I must be going crazy.

He did as much as he could to bridge that little space between their bodies, but he was willing to leave Sunny a little bit of distance if she needed it. He lingered in his kisses now. He didn’t mind missing lunch to engage in such decidedly poor conduct with such an upstanding student. He was almost hoping they’d get caught and that dreadful little smirk had snuck back onto his lips.

She stepped back with a decidedly irritated and frazzled look on her face. “You! You stop that!” And before she could help herself she slapped him across the face. “Oh!” she covered her mouth with her hands and cringed a little. “Sorry,” her eyebrows rose slightly.

This made him smirk even more. Kissing Sunny was easily one of his favorite pastimes. Getting slapped by Sunny was probably his second. He grabbed her wrists and twisted them away from her face, not as cruelly as he usually might. “Never apologize,” he whispered with a tinge of heat under his voice. He pinned her wrists to her side and kissed her again, this time on the side of her neck. He wouldn’t leave a mark, not today anyway; he’d be nice since it was the start of the year.

She hated it when he did that. Sunny would have been lying if she wasn’t terrified every time he grabbed her like that but when his lips were at her neck her heart started racing. As many times as it had happened the past semester, she still couldn’t remember that he didn’t react the same way other boys did when she hit him, it only encouraged him. And with her wrists pinned to her sides, she felt powerless.

Sunny wasn’t quodpot captain for no reason though. She flexed her arms and twisted one wrist free, giving him a little shove. “What’s wrong with you? Ugh!” For reasons unknown to her, she didn’t give him time to answer before she pressed her lips to his again.

The thing he liked best about Sunny was that she fought back. It was beyond dysfunctional, but then most of his relationships were. At least Sunny dished back anything he might serve. He moved the wrist he still had pinned to the small of her back and pressed himself in tighter to her body. “There are many things wrong with me; I am sure of it,” he whispered against her lips. “I am willing to let you figure it out for yourself.”

Being with Stas was exasperating while entirely intriguing. There was something about him that drew Sunny in and kept her coming back regardless of how fucked up it was. She tried to fight down the urge to kiss him by glaring at him. “Maybe I don’t want to,” she said through gritted teeth. That was a lie.

She was only a hair away from fight kicking in and she knew it. She would either have to kick his ass or try to calm the situation before she got to that point. She put her hand on his cheek again, gently this time. Still smirking... she thought to herself.

“If you did not want to figure me out you would not have bothered to kiss me so much.” This was his running theory at least. He knew his kissing prowess was quite excellent, but he didn’t expect someone who openly loathed him to come back for more. He was beginning to suspect that Sunny liked him and for some reason that kept his smirk firmly in place.

“You are too nice of a girl to mess around with a jerk like me,” he added with serious mischief in his eyes. “I am not someone to bring home to Papa Garcia.” All the while he kept his hand firmly pressed into the small of her back and his dangerously blue eyes trained on hers. “There is another reason for your kisses I think.”

Sunny had to admit that Stas was a damn good kisser, but he was right, there was more to it than that. She wasn’t entirely sure herself what it meant and why she kept coming back. “Maybe,” she resigned only a little. “And you’re right, I would never bring you home to Papa.” Emmanuel Garcia would drop dead of fifty heart attacks if he ever met Anastas.

“Oh really? You think?” she challenged him, keeping her eyes trained on his as well, all she had to do was pull her hand back and let it fly, but she refrained... for now.

“I would not bring you home to my father, but believe it or not that is because I respect you.” He gave that a hot minute to settle in before sneaking in with another kiss. This kiss was less demanding than his others, maybe a little too soft.

He leaned back just enough to smile at her, not so much with the smirk. “Yes, I do think.” Then he said his little nickname for her in Russian. It translated to my little Sunshine and he hadn’t yet told her the meaning. For all she knew he’d just called her something truly awful.

Oh. That was nice, unexpectedly nice. She was pleasantly surprised with the way he kissed her, even leaning in a little. She couldn’t help but go red when he smiled at her. It was a different kind of smile, but she still didn’t quite understand what it was. “Hey, watch it bud,” she crinkled her nose at his nickname, she knew it well but he had refused to tell her what it meant. “Are you ever going to tell me what that means?” she almost pouted.

“When you are ready to know it,” he replied as the old smirk hitched itself back in place. One of these days he’d give her an intense lesson in Russian. One of his eyebrows hitched up a bit and he peered down the hallway to his right and then to his left. He wanted at least one more good kiss before she stomped off or they were interrupted by a wandering student.

He leaned into her this time with enough force to push her all the way back against the wall. He placed his hands on either side of her shoulders as if their placement alone could keep her stationary. His lips found purchase on hers, his tongue impatient and devious as it sought out company.

She pulled a face and almost stuck her tongue out but decided in better judgement against it. She merely crossed her arms. “I think I am ready,” she said. “To know,” she tacked on at the end. He was getting that sneaky look though and Sunny knew better than to not expect something. Her stomach still bottomed out when he pushed her against the wall.

If he wasn’t such a good kisser she would have punched him way sooner. In her mind it was quite clear that she had boundary issues and she was certain that he had to know that there were things one did not do to Sunny. She kissed him back at first but her arms broke free of his grip and she pushed his shoulders hard, sending him backwards a few steps. “Jerk!” she practically spat the word as she launched a punch aimed for his jaw.

He shook his head every so slightly in the negative. “Not yet.” He enjoyed the kiss for as long as it lasted and then she was shoving him away and calling him a jerk. The expected ending to a lovely bit of kissing. He opened his arms and welcomed the punch, pushed back a few steps with the force of it landing.

“Keep hitting me there and you will miss out on more excellent kisses.” He wasn’t particularly perturbed or even offended. “There are so many other places you can hit me.”

So weird! “I didn’t... I mean... I wasn’t... I can’t...” Sunny covered her face with her hands again and sighed. She took two deep breaths and moved her hands from her face to look at him one more time. “You’re infuriating, you know that?”

“I’m... I’m going to be late for... for stuff,” she said completely frazzled. She turned away from him and booked it down the hallway as fast as she could only stopping once she was outside so she could catch her breath.

He hated to admit it, but she was breathtakingly beautiful when she was flustered. The largely devious part of him rather enjoyed getting her to that state. “I know,” he answered almost dutifully. He didn’t apologize for his infuriating qualities; he considered it a part of his character, regardless of how flawed that made him.

He watched her go with an appraising smirk. It slowly spread into an honest smile. Yes, this semester was starting to look up.

Tags: !complete, sol garcia