Modern AU. Another shot with Cassiemortmain prompt : Tom/Sybil, accidental kiss. No beta, all mistakes are mine.
The haunted house
"How the hell did I found myself in this situation?" wondered Tom Branson as his date Edna Braithwaite was jumping excitedly next to him. They were standing in front of a haunted house in a fair outside London and the young woman was proudly showing him two tickets for the attraction.
"Come on! It will be fun!"
"I can't see the fun in walking in the dark in a house full of false spiders and webs and being touched by false ghosts or skeletons, trying to scare you…"groaned Tom.
"You're actually scared", laughed Edna.
"I'm not!" Retorted Tom. "It's just I don't like it. It's stupid, that's it."
"Just one turn, I promise."
"It's the only attraction where there's no queue to enter. It speaks loudly in my opinion."
"Well, it means we'll have the all thing all for ourselves", pampered Edna, caressing his chest.
Tom tried his best not to pull away from her. Why did he accept to date his sister's friend again? It was their second date and Tom could already say that they weren't meant to last. Their first kiss the previous day had just let him indifferent and he had quickly realized that they had nothing in common. Plus, Edna was looking for someone to settle with and Tom wasn't ready for that yet. Even less with her. He now just had to find a way to let her down gently.
"Look. I'm gonna go", said Edna, oblivious of what was going on in Tom's mind. "Follow me in a few minutes and look after me. If you catch me, you can kiss me! Both of us alone in there…think of it", she finished with a voice she wanted to sound sexy.
"And that's supposed to arouse me?" thought Tom, nodding at her. At last, he'll have some time alone while she's losing herself in there. But he didn't want to get into a fight with his sister later so, he decided to play along. At last until he walked her home and told her it wasn't going to work out.
So, as Edna requested it, he followed her inside a few minutes later. It was dark as expected and, of course, he found himself surrounded by sounds and things that were supposed to scare him. He really felt like a fool. Eager to have this ended as quickly as possible, he started to walk in the dark alleys, trying to find Edna.
After a curve, he felt something (or rather someone) brushing past him. "I've got you!" he thought. Not thinking more, he reached for the person and pulled her to him.
"Now, I want my price", he said trying to sound nice before crushing his lips against Edna's ones.
Except that Tom realized immediately that whoever he was kissing wasn't Edna. The body pressed against his was soft and curved, rounded breast were gently brushing his chest and the full lips felt wonderful. This kiss had nothing in common with the one he had before with Edna because THIS one, was actually doing things to him. He could feel electric shocks all inside his body and warmth spreading everywhere. He thought it was insane…it couldn't happen. He was kissing a stranger in a haunted house and he wasn't even bothered by it. Like his kissing partner he noted. The girl (with long curls he could guess by touches) hadn't protested yet and, when he pulled away slightly to breathe a little bit, her moan of disapproval made him smile. So, he kissed her again, more fully this time and she moaned again, pushing hard against him. Tom's head was madly spinning and all his blood seemed to rush south when the stranger pushed him against a wall, crushing him against a skeleton that made a broken sound. But he didn't mind. All he was capable of thinking about now was the amazing body pressed against his and the feel of a soft tongue caressing his sensually.
But all too soon for his taste, Edna's voice calling after him came from afar and reached his foggy mind. In a desperate move to extend the exquisite moment and forget the outside world, he spread his hand on the back of the girl and hugged her more tightly against him. But it was vain. Edna's voice came again and the girl pushed away gently, kissing lightly one last time his lips before taking a step away. Tom could barely see her figure in the dark but he could make out two bright eyes and a soft face.
Thank you, she breathed with a raspy voice that made him shivered.
He was about to answer, to beg her to tell him her name at least but she was already gone. Tom stayed still for a few minutes, enables to move, stunned by what just happened. He never felt this way before and he already wanted to feel it again. How was he supposed to go on as if nothing happened?
Reluctantly, he looked for the way out and, when he reached it, blinked several times. He was back in the real world again, Edna pouting in front of him and he hated it. As she was rambling about how he didn't play nice with her, how he had let her down, Tom saw, over Edna's shoulder, a couple exiting the attraction. His attention was immediately drowned to the brunette with the tall man and, when she smiled at him, his heartbeats quickened.
She was the one. She was the one who had kissed him in there with such abandon that his body was still trying to get over it. He was sure of it. Full of regrets, he smiled back at her and shrugged, watching them fade away in the crowd.
It was over. The most amazing kiss of his life so far would just stay a memory. The memory of a breathtaking girl with two bright eyes. The memory of a body soft and warm against his.
When he couldn't see them anymore, he brought back his attention on Edna who was still mad at him. But he didn't care. And, as he was walking her back to her home, he made a decision. He would find the mystery girl. He was a journalist after all. He would find her and devote his life to her happiness. It wasn't a decision. It was rather a resolution.
But, what Tom didn't know yet was that, the next day, his investigation would already be over. Because, as he would open his newspaper at work, he would be strike by a picture of her stranger in the people pages. He would be reading that Sybil Crawley had broke up with her long time boyfriend Larry Grey.
And Tom would smile.
The end
