Consider this thoroughly disclaimed, my friends.
This isn't how it's supposed to go.
Mini McGuinness, undisputed Queen of Roundview, blonde and beautiful, should not be standing ankle-deep in mud, her hair dragged back from her face as she leans on a rake and watches Aloysius Creevey driving a fucking tractor. She certainly shouldn't be thinking about the way the sun catches his red hair, the tilt of his head or the way that the cigarette hanging from his mouth looks infallibly adorable. In an attempt to banish such thoughts, she clears her throat before speaking.
"Remind me again why I'm doing this?" She calls annoyedly, flinging the rake away from her. Alo doesn't hear her and continues to drive, smiling at nothing. So she takes more drastic measures. Theatrically yanking each foot from the mud, she stamps quickly across the field and pulls herself up onto the tractor with an easy grace, perching on the side with her plaited hair swinging over her shoulder.
"Farmboy!" She snaps. He turns to her, cutting the engine, shock and amusement written all over a face that, by rights, Mini should never have dared to think of as handsome.
"Minerva," he greets her, moving over so she can sit next to him. "How can I help you?"
"You can help me by telling me why the fuck I'm helping you on this bloody farm." She drawls, taking the seat and glaring out over the farm instead of looking at Alo. He laughs.
"There are many reasons, my friend. The first being that my parents are away, the second being that everybody else was too fucked from last night to get out of bed, and the third being that you just can't resist my animal magnetism."
At that, Mini's snaps her head round to look at him, eyes wide. It's true that his parents are away at a farmer's market. It's true that, after a party at Nick and Matty's, everyone is far too hungover – or, in fact, still too drunk – to make the journey out to Alo's.
Mini just wishes it wasn't true that, for whatever ridiculous reason, she can't resist Alo.
It's lunchtime, not that that means much on the farm. Unless you're one of the Creevey parents, who have strict mealtime rules, you eat when you can, you eat what you find, and you eat it quick before Rags gets his – literal – paws on it. But, since he's got the run of the kitchen, Alo makes a big show and dance about putting toast in the toaster, scrambling up some eggs, frying bacon and boiling the kettle on the hob, placing a cup of tea in front of Mini. He makes sure to use the best china cup, the one remaining item from his mother's prized collection, because this is Mini McGuinness sitting in his kitchen, and he wants to impress. She smiles at it, French-white tipped fingers tracing the gold-leaf rim.
"Classy." She smirks. "You're having bit of a feast, aren't you?"
"No," Alo says, hiding his nerves as Mini surveys him over the rim of her tea-cup with her ocean-coloured eyes. "This is for both of us."
"You're not expecting me to eat that!" Mini screeches. Rags, under the table, puts his paws over his ears, whining. Alo spins.
"Why the hell not?"
"Well, it's... Well, it's a lot. And I've really only got the smallest of appetites, and-"
Mini gives up trying to be nice about it.
"Farmboy, it's a fucking mountain of grease and fat!"
"It's the food of the shitting gods is what it is. Eat."
He thumps a plate of bacon, eggs and toast down on to the table in front of Mini sternly, handing her cutlery and folding his arms. She stares at him, then at the plate. Tentatively, she takes a scoop of eggs and chews it, before daintily cutting up a small piece of bacon.
"Well?" Alo demands a verdict. She glances up at him, and he catches his breath when she smiles.
"It's... it's the food of the shitting gods."
Despite her praise, Mini only eats one rasher of bacon, a triangle of toast and five scoops of egg, before pushing the plate away from her. Alo raises an eyebrow, and she simply smiles in return.
"I'm full. But thank you."
He wants to tell her to finish the whole plate, or at least finish the bacon, but he just feeds that to Rags and eats the rest himself. While Alo's washing the dishes, he hears the door swing open and shut. Turning, he finds that Mini is missing from her seat, and Rags isn't under the table anymore. Throwing the dish towel over his shoulder, he goes in search of them both. They're not in the hallway, not upstairs, not in the sitting room – in fact, they're nowhere indoors. So Alo pulls his boots back on and marches outside, blinking in the sudden bright light. He can hear Rags barking, and he can hear Mini laugh – not an event which happens often in his presence, he'll admit – so he follows their noises, feet crunching on the gravel. Eventually, Alo tracks them down in the barn, though he doesn't immediately let Mini know he's there. Instead, he prefers to watch her play with Rags, straw in her hair as she rolls around like a child, laughing her head off. When she notices Alo, however, the smile's quickly wiped off her face. She scrambles to her feet, ignoring the fact that Rags is still nudging at her legs, rubbing his head against her hands, and she coughs.
"What – what are you doing?"
"Watching you." Alo says, laughing a little at how dirty it sounds.
"I wasn't doing anything wrong," she says defensively, as if she's telling a lie. Alo smiles.
"No."
There's a pause, then Alo steps forward slightly, closes the space between him and Mini. He frowns.
"Mini, why don't you ever let people see you like this?"
"Like what, Farmboy?" She demands, as if she hasn't the slightest idea, as if there's nothing but air behind those big, blue-green eyes framed by those terrifically long lashes.
"Like... a human being. Like a girl having a laugh. Not some fucking... high and mighty princess, too good for everyone. People wouldn't be so scared of you if they could see you with straw in your hair and mud on your knees."
Mini smirks and raised an eyebrow.
"Who's scared of me, Farmboy? You?"
Yes, he wants to say. You fucking terrify me. You're so beautiful it's scary.
Instead, he just snorts.
"Please. I've seen Rich in the morning. Nothing could scare me after that experience, my friend, let me tell you that."
Mini giggles, and Alo can't help but grin. Then, slowly, Alo puts out a hand and plucks a piece of straw from Mini's hair. She doesn't stop him. And it's only the tiniest thing - a piece of straw, not even the length of her finger, being pulled from her hair. But it feels like the whole world is tilting on its axis. Alo's surprised she even lets him anywhere near that light golden halo. But she still isn't reacting, other than to let her eyes fall half-mast, her mouth parting slightly to reveal pearly white teeth. Alo's temped to kiss her, but doesn't, no matter how pretty she looks with the sun dancing over her pale, freckled skin. So instead, he simply tugs gently on Mini's pigtail and smiles at her.
"C'mon. We've got work to do."
By the time evening falls, Mini's aching and sweaty and there's a streak of dirt across the bridge of her nose. They've finished their work, however, and Alo's having a cigarette in the stationary tractor. Mini's sitting on one of the giant wheels, examining a broken nail with some unhappiness.
"You alright, Minerva?" Alo questions, and his voice sounds distant. She turns to him.
"No," she scowls. "I'm bloody tired. And I feel disgusting. And I've broken a nail!" She says, waving one long-fingered hand in his direction. Alo laughs, blowing a smoke ring towards her.
"A tragedy."
"Damn right it is! It's messed up my manicure!" Mini says, though in a way that makes it clear she's sending herself up. "How will I ever go on?"
"I have no idea," Alo says, throwing away his cigarette end and stretching. "But I do have an idea that could cheer you up."
"Oh? Unless it involves a lot of Desperate Housewives and a Strawberry Daiquiri, I'm not sure I'm interested."
"It's better than that."
"Better than that?"
"Oh, yeah," Alo snickers, hopping out of the tractor. "Go on. You can have a go."
"At... driving the tractor?" Mini raises her perfectly shaped eyebrows, mouth puckered. "It's not really my thing, Farmboy."
"So? Neither was being nice, but you've proved you're pretty good at that. Now up-up-up!" He says, running round the side of the tractor and lifting Mini into the seat. She smells gorgeous, he discovers - sweet – but not like candy, as people would expect. More like cinnamon. Mini shrieks and bats at him, but he can tell that she doesn't mind at all. Under his careful instruction, she drives the tractor back to the farm from the top of the field.
"I did it! I fucking did it!" She squeals ecstatically, leaping from the cab and throwing her arms around Alo's neck. He holds her tight, and they hang on for perhaps a moment longer than is neccesary. Then they let go, all awkward smiles and coughs.
"Do you want me to run you home? We could make a night of it – the rest should be sobered up by now."
"We could," Mini says with a softness to her voice. "That would be... that would be good."
So Alo takes her hand, and after changing their shoes, they're off.
"Fucking hell, you guys are manky," Liv laughs as she opens the door. "Where have you been?"
"The farm," Alo and Mini say together.
"Mins drove a tractor." Alo informs Liv, and then the rest of the gang, who are perched on Liv's couches with popcorn and bottles of beer.
"Tractors," Franky starts, tossing popcorn into the air and catching it neatly with her mouth. "Are very, very cool."
"I know, right?" Mini smiles. "So what are we doing tonight, anyway? Club? Pub?"
"Movie night!" Grace grins right back at her. "We've got a choice between Grease or Ella Enchanted."
"They're my little sister's," Liv apologizes. Rich makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat, but otherwise, says nothing. So they watch Grease. When Rizzo sings "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee", Mini leaves the room. After all she did to Franky, it cuts too close to the bone. Instead, she perches in the kitchen with her beer and hunches up by the fridge. A moment later, Alo has followed her. He's drunk already, as is most of the rest of the group, who have been tanning beer bottles like there is absolutely no tomorrow.
"Minerva, Minerva, Minerva..." he croons, making his way to her side. "What's the problem?"
"There's no problem, Farmboy." Mini smiles wanly. "Just... needed some air."
"Really?" Alo says. Even though he's drunk, he can see right through her. "You don't have to keep your walls up with me, y'know. We've bonded today. Bonded over... tractors and bacon. And straw."
Mini laughs full-out.
"Yeah, maybe we have. But even so, I'm not holding up any walls."
"And I'm the fucking Queen. Though, admit it, I'd look sexy in that crown, surrounded by all those Corgis..."
"Alo, you talk such bull-shit."
There's a halt in the conversation, almost a physical lurch.
"Mins, you just called me Alo."
"I did, didn't I?"
And then, she knows it. She can feel what's coming in her fingertips, which soon enough are twined in Alo's hair as he kisses her, presses her up against the fridge. It's strange to kiss him, Mini decides – but not so strange that she couldn't get used to it. After all of today's stolen glances and little moments, she realises, this was inevitable, even if he wasn't drunk. When they part, Alo sways slightly, with a look of happiness etched right across his face.
"So maybe you aren't holding up any walls, then," Alo laughs, gently prodding the end of Mini's nose before kissing her again - softer this time - and returning to the others. When he's gone, Mini throws her head into her hands, utterly confused about what's just happened. Mini and Alo. Alo and Mini. It doesn't trip off the tongue.
But they could be Sandy and Danny from Grease – brought together by chance, complete opposites, madly in love.
They could be the princess and the pauper.
Or Romeo and Juliet – no, she doesn't want to make any comparisons there.
They could be the worst fucking couple in the history of the world, catastrophically matched, doomed from the start. But, Mini thinks, even if they were the best matched couple in the world, it might not work. Look at her and Nick. Alo's kiss still lingers on her lips and she touches her fingers, tipped with broken nails and dirt, to them. Her hair is mussed up, her heart hammers – but she smiles.
And she thinks maybe, just maybe, that this is how it is supposed to go.
A/N: Holy shiznay. What even is this? Now, before anyone says anything, I'm definitely not a Minky basher - anything but, I think it's really cute and it does work - but there's just something so, so sweet about the moments that these two share that I just had to think up my own.
And, eh, take a bit of a liberty here and there. Cough.
So, yeah. Second Skins fic. There will probably be many many more, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one!
Cherry