Chapter 77: Stress Relief

POV: Carly

She was explaining to two witches for the third time how lights were supposed to trickle when she felt hands on her hips.

She reacted immediately.

She spun around with her clipboard raised and found Niko already stepping back with both hands up and a grin that said he had been expecting exactly that reaction and had done it anyway.

"Seriously." She said.

"Hello to you too." He said rubbing his chest where the clipboard had connected.

She lowered it. "I have told you not to sneak up on me."

"And yet." He said.

She pointed at him.

He kept smiling.

She put the clipboard down because she could feel the smile trying to get out and she was not going to give him the satisfaction right now.

"What are you doing here." She said. "I thought you were working on your project."

"I was." He looked around the gym. His expression moved through what he was seeing. The wrong tables. The lights still not right. The banner being taken down by a very annoyed Sierra. "I decided to take a break and check on my hardworking muse."

"Your muse is about twenty minutes away from committing an actual crime." She said.

He laughed. "Is there anything I can do."

"Can you go back in time and make my entire coven competent?"

"Unfortunately no." He said. "I can get you a coffee from the café."

She was about to say no.

She looked at his face.

She looked at the gym.

"The one with the caramel and the extra shot." She said.

"Obviously." He said.

She exhaled and felt six pounds leave her shoulders just from the exhale.

"Thank you." She said. "For coming. I know you didn't have to."

"I wanted to see you." He said simply. Like it was the most obvious thing.

She felt the warmth move through her chest and looked at the lights situation and thought about how two weeks ago she would not have believed any of this was her life.

She was not going to stand here and get warm and soft when she had a gym full of disasters to manage.

"You're staring." He said.

"I'm thinking." She said.

"About what." He said.

She looked at the lights. "About how the trickle effect requires the lights to start at the same height and these two started at completely different heights so now the whole left side is lower than the right side and I have to decide whether to pull them all down and start over or try to adjust."

He looked at the lights.

"Pull them down." He said.

"That is going to take another hour." She said.

"Would you rather look at a crooked installation for the rest of the semester." He said.

She pressed her lips together.

He was right.

She hated that he was right.

"You're far too tense for someone who's going to fix it anyway." He said. He stepped closer and his voice dropped. "You know what you need."

She gave him a look. "Do not."

"I was going to say a five minute break." He said with wide innocent eyes.

"Sure you were." She said.

He smiled. Leaned down and pressed his lips to her temple quickly and she felt it all the way down to her feet.

"Five minutes." He said. "Come with me."

"I cannot just leave." She said.

He was already taking her hand.

"Niko." She said. Being pulled.

He pushed through the gym doors into the corridor and she looked back at the gym and at her clipboard still on the table and at the crooked lights and then she let herself be pulled because five minutes was five minutes and she was going to lose her mind if she stayed in that room for another consecutive hour.

He found the girls locker room. Checked the corridor both ways. Opened the door.

"Absolutely not." She said.

"It's empty." He said.

"How do you know." She said.

"Vampire." He said.

She stood in the doorway.

He looked at her.

She walked in.

He locked the door behind them and turned around and she had her arms crossed and her chin up and the expression of someone who was here under protest and was not going to pretend otherwise.

He crossed the room in two steps and kissed her.

She lasted approximately one second of protest before she kissed him back and felt the entire gym and the crooked lights and Sierra's face and the wrong tablecloths dissolve into somewhere behind her and stop mattering.

His hands found her face and she grabbed the front of his shirt and he walked her back gently until the cool of the lockers was behind her and she exhaled into the kiss and felt him smile against her mouth at the sound.

"Better." He said against her lips.

"Don't be smug." She said. And kissed him again.

He was right though.

She felt better.

She felt significantly better and she was not going to tell him that for at least another five minutes.

His hands moved to her waist and she curled closer and thought that this was an extremely irresponsible use of a five minute break and she did not currently care even slightly.

He pulled back slightly and looked at her face.

"You handled them well today." He said. "I heard part of your speech from the corridor."

She felt the heat in her cheeks. "How much."

"Enough." He said. "You were right about all of it."

She looked at the locker behind his shoulder. "I just got tired of apologizing for being happy."

He tipped her chin up.

She looked at him.

"Don't apologize for it." He said. "Not to them. Not to anyone."

She held his gaze.

"Okay." She said.

He kissed her once more. Soft and unhurried.

She kept her hands in his shirt and let it be slow and thought about the trickle lights and the wrong tables and the banner and none of it felt as heavy as it had ten minutes ago.

He pulled back.

"Five minutes." He said.

"Approximately nine." She said.

"Worth it." He said.

She laughed and fixed her hair in the nearest mirror and he watched her with his arms crossed and that expression and she shook her head and unlocked the door.

"Coffee." She said. "Extra shot. Do not forget."

"I have never forgotten anything in my life." He said.

"You forgot to set my alarm." She said.

He opened his mouth.

Closed it.

She walked back toward the gym with her clipboard and a significantly better mood and did not let him see the smile until she had turned the corner.

Author's Note:

He heard her speech from the corridor and told her not to apologize for being happy and I needed that moment as much as she did.