Work Text:
It’s late, it’s late, it’s so late, and even though most students at SFIT view sleep are a purely theoretical concept Honey can’t stop laughing because if she’s out of it, Tadashi iseven more so. He’s usually so studious and grounded and now he’s been walking into walls and muttering about “new angles” and “sensor updates” and it’s so funny, like,everything is so funny right now. She’s sitting on his worktable, giggling in her sleeves as he’s surrounded by metal parts and wires and cables and his trademark SFIT ball cap is completely gone somewhere.
Finally, even the dauntless Tadashi gives up and sort of slumps to one side, hitting the floor with a thud that he doesn’t even seem to register and Honey laughs harder. She can hear her mother’s voice in her head going, Esperanza, mijita linda, calm down, but her head feels like a balloon that’s slowly losing air.
Tadashi looks up from his undignified sprawl on the floor and just sort of blinks at her, as if just realizing this new change in position. “This did not go as planned,” he says, completely dead serious and Honey can’t even laugh any more, she’s so tired. Tadashi sort of heaves himself into an upright position, clutching the table edge for support. Still giggling, Honey grabs him by the back of his t-shirt and hauls him upright, clutching his shoulders to steady him. He sort of sways and falters for a second and some part of Honey’s mind thinks dreamily, he has such nice shoulders and another part thinks, we need to get home, Mamá will be so worried and then somehow, as she supports him, she realizes he is right in front of her, close enough to see the darkening of his jaw and chin. His eyes are brown and warm, the color of good chocolate and the wild honey herabuelita used to put in the medicines she made when she was little and everyone called her Esperanza and the name Fred gave her is just as much a part of her and when did Tadashi get so close?
The room is very quiet. They might as well be the only two people in the world.
She’s not sure who moves first—maybe it’s him, maybe it’s her or both, it’s like gravity, inevitable and Honey’s always been a chemistry girl, but that’s what this feels like. Like the pull of the moon to the tide.
His mouth is warm and something rasps pleasantly against her skin, she likes it, likes the feeling and wants more of it. It occurs to her, distantly, that could be nothing but an exhaustion-induced delirium dream but in that moment, she does not care. Esperanza Ortega is not known for her self-restraint and neither is Honey Lemon, if this is a dream, she wants it to be a good one.
His hands are large and they brace her back, they are steady and that’s one thing she’s going to love about Tadashi for always, that he keeps people steady. There is nothing steady about this kiss, it is unsure at first, then a question and an enthusiastic answer and wow, this work table is really cold and hard against her back and something is digging into her spine. She must make a sound indicating this, because Tadashi pulls back but doesn’t let go, he looks as dazed and as dream drunk as she feels.
“Oh,” he says and lets go enough for her sit up but stays in front of her, still holding on to the table like he’s going to fall. “I wanted to take you out to dinner before I did that,” he tells her and one more punch drunk laugh escapes her.
“You still can,” she assures him, brushing one knuckle gently across the circles under his eyes. “After we get some sleep though.”
“Sleep,” he groans, slumping forward again, this time his head lands on her shoulder. She muffles her laugh into his t-shirt and says, “I’ll take the trolley with you home."
Somehow they make it off campus. Somehow Tadashi insists on seeing her home first and when she collapses into bed, dimly registering to kick off her shoes, she dreams of oceans and the tide and warmth, soothing and steady.