notes: ok kids: there's a lot of making out in this one. and implied sex. not graphic, but heavily implied. and copious make-out sessions, with all that entails, including clothing removal and such. don't read if you're not here for that.
i tried to keep it light, but, as you know, teenagers.
i've got my mind on your body (and your body on my mind)
i met a girl, i took her right up to the balcony
i whispered something in her ear that i just can't repeat
she said "ok" but she was worried what her friends would think
― one direction, alive
i. the plaid shirt
He's pretty sure Gia knew about them way before Emma started stealing his shirts to wear, but she doesn't say anything too pointed until the day Emma comes in to Ernie's wearing his favorite red button-down over her dress.
It's a light enough red that under the fluorescent lights it seems to match her own color, the soft pink of her dress and shoes, but he catches Gia's eyebrows raising as soon as Emma sits down next to Jake with a cheery smile.
"Got your favorite," Gia says to her, sliding a cup of froyo across the table. Troy tries to keep his gaze focused on whatever Noah is explaining excitedly to him and not on Emma's hand as she reaches over to take the froyo and the way the cuff of his shirt is too big on her wrist and has to be rolled up three times as it is.
"Thanks," Emma says contentedly, digging into her froyo as if nothing is wrong. Gia switches her amused look from her to Troy, who shifts under the weight of her stare. Noah and Jake don't seem to notice anything, at least.
"Nice shirt, Emma," Gia says after a moment, loud enough to cut across Jake's attempt at flirting with her, quiet enough that nobody outside of their table would hear, but Troy still feels the echo in his ears as they burn red.
Emma, for her part, looks down at the shirt as if she'd forgotten she was wearing it, then smiles brightly at Gia. "I know, right? I just found it yesterday."
Troy nearly chokes on his lemonade. Emma doesn't look at him, but Gia does. Noah looks quizzically at him for his reaction, but Jake is too busy sulking over being ignored again. Gia's look is pointed enough for all three of them, however.
Don't think about what you were doing last night don't think about what you were doing last night do not think about what you were doing last night –
"Yeah?" Gia says, leaning forward as if genuinely curious. "Where from?"
Emma takes a bite of her froyo before answering. Troy wants to sink into his seat and disappear. "Just happened upon it," she says with a smile. It's not a lie, but it's not exactly the truth. He makes a noise halfway between amusement and despair. Noah's expression turns even more curious.
"Oh, that's why it looks used," Gia agrees solemnly, and he presses his face into his hands. "In a good way, of course."
Emma catches his eye and grins widely. "Of course," she says. Troy schools his features into nonchalance and gives up his quest of not thinking about Emma in his bed last night wearing only that shirt and her underwear, laughing as he pressed kisses down her body. It's easier when Gia has stopped staring at him like he's on trial before a jury.
"So," he says quickly and loudly before anyone can add anything to that conversation, like Noah looks like he's about to, "does anyone want another round of froyo?"
/
"I think Gia knows," Emma murmurs into his neck later that night when she's snuggled up next to him on his bed wearing his shirt and nothing else. Troy looks down at her with an amused smile.
"No, really?" he asks sarcastically, and she laughs and pushes at his chest. He captures her hand and brings it up to his lips to kiss. "That's not a bad thing, is it?"
Emma hums as he lets her hand drop back onto his stomach and begins tracing circles over his bare skin. "Nah. She won't tell anyone. She'll probably want to talk to me about it, though, when she gets a moment alone. And… she's going to give you the Talk."
She says this ominously, but with a giggle in her voice, and he frowns at her in alarm. "The Talk?"
"You know," she grins, tapping a rhythm over his abs that makes him shift – he's not exactly ticklish, but Emma knows where to get him by now. "Don't hurt my best friend or I will rearrange your limbs. Stuff like that. She can be intimidating, but don't let her scare you, she likes you."
"That's a relief," he mutters and she laughs and leans up to kiss him. "Hey, don't try to distract me. This is your fault for wearing that damn shirt out in public."
She rolls over on top of him and bats her eyelashes. "What, you don't think I look good in it?"
Troy slips his hands up her waist and underneath his open shirt, pulling her down so they're chest to chest, nose to nose. "You know you look good in it. But I think even Jake and Noah started to realize something was up."
Emma shrugs and lets him steal a kiss, her body shifting under his hands. "It's not exactly our best kept secret."
He grins at her. "I know," he says, and then slides the shirt off her. Whatever she was going to say next gets swallowed in his kisses.
ii. the red hoodie
He should have known Noah would figure it out sooner rather than later; he's too smart not to have noticed the lingering glances, the touches, the smiles. Emma has more or less stopped being subtle about it, anyway, and Troy doesn't bother to confirm or deny any suspicions, either.
Still, he knows for a fact that all Noah has are suspicions, at least until he and Emma walk up to him at the beach to work on their science project together and Emma is wearing his hoodie. It's bright red and large enough to make it seem like that's all she's wearing, although Troy knows better.
He rather likes the effect, but it gives Noah pause when they meet him at the shore. "Hey," he greets them slowly, alternating his gaze between the two of them and the telescope he's busily adjusting. "Ready to work?"
"Yup," Emma says cheerfully, darting forward to look through the telescope. Noah steps aside to let her do it, joining Troy a few steps back as he watches Emma with a smile. "Do you have the astronomy chart?" she asks over her shoulder.
"Yeah," Noah says, pulling his notebooks out of his bag. "If you wanna look and narrate what you see to us, Troy and I will write down the data, does that sound good?"
"Works for me," Troy says, settling down onto the sand. Noah sits down next to him and Emma adjusts the telescope to her height and tilts it upwards at the sky.
"You know," Noah says, super casually, as he hands him on of the notebooks, "it's not really that cold out, is it?"
Troy pauses in his admiration of how Emma looks in his hoodie. "It's kind of windy," he says lightly, though he has to admit, it's not even cold enough for him to be wearing his usual jacket.
"Not really," Noah says, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Is that yours?" he asks, nodding at Emma and the bright red that looks so out of place on her when she normally only wears light blues and whites and pinks.
Troy doesn't answer for a moment, mulling over his options as he flips to a random empty page of the notebook. He could lie and say no, but he kind of has a thing against lying, as they all do. He could misdirect, or ask why that matters, but Noah doesn't seem malicious in his questioning, really. He could be honest and say yes, but then Noah might ask why and how and when he gave it to Emma.
Much as he likes his friend, Troy doesn't exactly want to tell him all the torrid details of making out with Emma in his car right before they came to the beach, or that Emma had left her shirt in his backseat, so she actually wasn't wearing much beneath his hoodie, anyway.
"Is what mine?" he finally settles on asking, looking up from the notebook with an apologetic grin as if he'd just remembered they were having a conversation.
Noah doesn't seem to buy it, but there's an amused smile at the corner of his lips as he repeats, "Is she wearing your hoodie, Troy?"
That's much more direct than before. Troy shifts around in his seat on the sand before admitting, "Yeah. I gave it to her earlier. I don't think she plans on giving it back."
That's not a lie – Emma isn't in the habit of returning his clothes once she wears them, and he doesn't exactly mind, since she looks better in them than he does. Noah makes a thoughtful, if bemused sound under his breath and returns to his notes as Emma begins narrating what she sees to the two of them.
If his notes accidentally devolve into doodles of Emma, well, he's certainly not giving the page to Noah to see.
/
"Pretty sure Noah knows now," he mentions casually to her when they're back in his car with no intention of leaving the beach parking lot any time soon. Emma straddles him on the backseat, her curls dangling forward and brushing his face, and laughs as she leans down to kiss him.
"Of course he does," she murmurs against his lips as he slides his hands up the hoodie, over the soft skin underneath, and she shifts at his touch. "He's smart. He probably suspected ages ago."
Troy snorts, but loses his train of thought when she kisses him again, this time more deeply. By the time he surfaces, he's forgotten what he was going to say, and Noah is a faraway memory. "You're doing it again," he mumbles, but his mouth makes a noise of protest on its own accord when she pulls back and sits on his stomach. "Distracting me."
"Distracting you from what?" Emma giggles, brushing her hair back into a ponytail. She loses focus on him as she works on it, so he takes advantage of the opportunity to unzip his hoodie so he can run his hands over her body without encumberment. She raises an eyebrow at him and he grins lazily up at her, settling his hands on her bare waist and pulling her back down for another kiss.
"I think you're the one distracting me," she whispers when they break, keeping her head close enough that he can smell the seaspray mingled with her pomegranate shampoo in her hair, can feel her breath ghosting over his cheek. "Weren't you talking about Noah?"
Troy sighs. "Talking about our friends in the middle of making out is such a buzzkill, Emma," he complains, and she laughs and pulls back so he's staring up at her half-naked torso instead of her face. Not that he minds the view. "I was just thinking… if he knows, and Gia knows…"
"Jake definitely doesn't know," she says, running her hands down his shirt before she reaches the hem and tugs it up. Her weight on top of him is starting to do interesting things to his body; from the grin she flashes him, he thinks she knows. "Until he gets his head clear of Gia, he won't figure it out, so we're good there."
"Yeah, but," Troy says, and stops so she can pull his shirt over his head and toss it onto the car floor. "Is there a reason we're keeping it a secret anymore?"
Emma tilts her head, considering. Whether she's considering the question or his abs, he's not sure. "They'd never let us live it down," she suggests.
Troy rolls his eyes, an amused smile playing across his lips. "Emma, you just went to the beach with Noah wearing only your underwear and my hoodie. They're already never gonna let us live it down."
She flushes, but grins. Her blushes tend to go from her cheeks down to her chest; Troy watches the progress with interest. "Shut up, you're the one who made me lose my shirt."
He waves a hand absently. "It's somewhere here," he says, gesturing at the car floor and the trunk behind them.
"Yeah, along with, like, half of my underwear drawer!"
"…You have an underwear drawer?"
Emma hits him in the chest and he coughs on his laughter. "Stop that," she says warningly, but the effect is lost in her giggles, and then her squeal as he slides his arms around her waist and pulls her back down for a kiss that turns into another kiss which turns into another.
By the time they part, he's almost forgotten what they were talking about before. Almost. Emma rolls over to curl into his side, and he pushes his hoodie off her shoulders in the interest of having more bare skin to touch – and possibly getting her to forget about taking it home with her, though he doesn't have high hopes for that.
"You know," he says as she cuddles up against his chest and a smile comes unbidden to his face as he watches her, "I think we only started keeping it a secret because it's fun."
"What, sneaking around, finding excuses to be together, stealing your clothes?" she asks innocently, grinning up at him. Troy dances his fingers over her stomach and she bursts into giggles. "Stop that!"
"Stop stealing my clothes!" he says, laughing as he lets her grab his hand and twist it away from her bare skin.
"Maybe once everyone's figured it out," she suggests, a wicked smile tugging at her lips. Troy rolls his eyes. With his track record, it could take Jake months.
"Fine," he says, relaxing into the seat and sending her a smirk. "Wanna make it interesting?"
Emma stares at him thoughtfully. "I'm listening."
iii. the leather jacket
He's right about Jake – it does take him months. Even with the copious amounts of red appearing in Emma's outfits, he doesn't seem to notice and he certainly doesn't say anything by the time they've actually changed suits, gained a new teammate, and have beaten most of the Armada into dust.
Emma's getting impatient, he knows. She had bet five months, he'd bet six. He's fairly certain he's going to win, right up until she saunters up to them at the park on a bright and sunny day wearing his favorite leather jacket, and Jake's brow furrows.
"Hey, guys," she greets cheerfully, and Gia nearly falls over laughing. Troy glowers at her, but that doesn't help much. Noah, at least, has the decency to cover his laughter with a cough. "What are we doing?"
"Uh," Noah says because Troy has no interest in speaking at the moment and Gia is too busy laughing and Jake and Orion are both too busy being confused, "we were playing frisbee, right, Gia?"
This snaps her out of it. Troy sends a silent thank you to his friend. "Right," she say brightly, grabbing the frisbee from Jake's hands. "We were gonna teach Orion. Wanna join us?"
"Sure," Emma says, and tosses him a grin over her shoulder as Noah and Gia pull them a safe distance away from Troy and Jake. Troy tilts his head upwards and counts down from ten.
"Are you sleeping with Emma?"
He exhales slowly. Jake certainly knows how to cut to the chase. "Well, I – " He pauses when he looks over at the other four and notices Emma's shoulders shaking from laughter. His eyes narrow, and he changes tracks mid-sentence. "What makes you say that?"
Jake swivels his head between Emma, practically dwarfed in his leather jacket, and him, standing in only his red t-shirt. "Um. She's wearing your jacket?"
Troy looks him dead in the eyes. "She's been wearing my clothes for six months, Jake."
Jake looks at Emma, then back at him, then at Emma, then him. He does this five times, like he's watching a tennis match, before he stops on him. "I know that."
There's a pause. Troy stares at him for a long moment, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it does – Jake's quizzical face turns into a grin before he can even wrap his head around it.
"How long have you known?" he demands, thinking wildly back on the past few months – Emma in his flannel at Ernie's, Emma with her hair mussed and her make-up smeared at a class right after their lunch break, Emma in his red night shirt that time they were all so exhausted they'd fallen asleep on the ship – and Jake had never said a word.
"I'm not completely clueless," Jake protests, laughing. Troy raises an eyebrow at him, and he admits, "Okay, Noah might have let it slip."
Troy sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Did you plan this with her? If you'd waited, like, two more weeks, I totally would have won this bet."
Jake chuckles, clapping him on the shoulder. "I didn't, but let me tell you – you don't stand a chance, making bets with Emma. Probably should have told you that when you moved to town."
Troy rolls his eyes. "Might have been helpful, yeah."
/
Emma is perched on the edge of his bed when he gets home, still wearing his leather jacket. At least she has actual clothes on under it, though, if he's being honest, he would have preferred she didn't.
"I do believe you owe me my prize, Burrows," she says with a grin as he groans and drops his backpack off on his desk. The bed is high enough that her feet don't touch the floor, and she looks like a tiny leather-jacket-wearing pink-dressed fairy sitting atop it.
"Not so fast," he says, holding up his hands as he comes closer to her. "Remind me, what were the terms of the bet?"
Emma blinks at him. "I said Jake would find out in five months, you said six. We're still at five months."
Troy places his hands on the bed at either side of her body, boxing her in as he leans down. "Not quite. We bet that all members of our team would know about us in five or six months."
"But they – " Emma cuts herself off with a sigh. "Oh, you are such a dick."
"Hey, you like my dick," he teases. She rolls her eyes, but at least she doesn't hit him. Probably because she can't argue. "Also, I want my leather jacket back."
She pouts. "But it looks really good on me."
"It looks better off you," he says, and kisses her to distract her while he sets about proving it. She giggles and falls backwards onto his blankets, taking him with her, and he rolls them over so she's on top and he can take the jacket off her with ease.
"I gave you that one," she insists, laughing as he throws the jacket into his closet, far away from her grasp.
"No, you walked into it," he grins, letting her straddle him. "So, what are we going to do about Orion?"
Emma's gaze grows determined as she casually unbuttons his shirt. "Don't you worry about Orion. I have a week left, and I am winning this bet."
"Whatever you say," he says lightly, and she growls before leaning down to kiss the smirk off his face. He's not terribly worried. Orion doesn't know anything about Earth culture, anyway.
iv. the bed sheet
Turns out, Orion knows enough about Earth culture to understand what it means when Emma opens Troy's bedroom door wearing nothing but his bright red sheets wrapped around her body. If Troy hadn't been in the bathroom, he might have been able to stop her; as it is, by the time he comes out of his shower, Orion is already staring at Emma in puzzlement.
He had two days left. At this point, it was just unfair.
"Did you need something, Orion?" Emma asks innocently, splaying her hands over the sheets at her chest in an almost pointed effort to direct Orion's attention to just how sinfully naked she was. Troy wants to slam the door in his face, but that might be too obvious.
"Uh," Orion says, his gaze darting between her and Troy. Even beside the bed sheet, Troy notes ruefully, he probably hadn't helped the case by coming out in only a towel. "I just… came here… to tell you… "
Words continue to evade him as he stares at Emma. Troy feels the first, faint stirrings of possessiveness and stamps it down. Emma doesn't like that, and it's not like he can blame Orion for looking. It's not like he's staring at her completely naked, either; the sheet is a good enough protection. Besides, he would do the same.
"Breakfast picnic," Orion finally remembers to choke out. "On the ship. Gia sent me to tell you guys. Well… to tell you," he says, glancing at Troy. "It's in one hour."
His cheeks heat up. "Right. We'll be there. Thanks, Orion." His words are a clear invitation to leave, but Orion lingers in the doorway. He's not even staring at Emma anymore, which is almost concerning.
"Are you guys…" Orion hesitates, looking between the two of them again. Emma has schooled her face into the brightest, most innocent expression she's capable of, and Troy's pretty sure he looks as annoyed as he feels. "Er… engaged?"
He chokes. Emma brings up one hand to cover her mouth as she tries not to laugh. "Engaged?" he repeats faintly, already feeling the flush creeping up his face.
"You know," Orion says awkwardly, making vague hand gestures that don't mean anything. "I don't know how to say it on this planet. Engaged… in sexual activities?"
"Oh," Troy breathes out in relief. "Oh. Um." He looks at Emma desperately, but she's turned her face away, still smothering her laughter. Traitor. "I… yes? I mean, yes. I mean – we call it dating, here."
"Ah," Orion says, nodding. "Dating. Yes, that makes more sense. Well, I'll… leave you to alone… to date." Emma makes a strangled noise. Troy considers throwing something at her. "Breakfast in an hour, yeah?"
"We'll be there," Troy promises, and purposefully closes the door shut as Orion turns to leave. When the footsteps down the stairs stop echoing, he finally turns back to face Emma, who manages to get her laughter under control in time to flash him an innocent smile.
"Don't even," he says warningly, pointing a finger at her. "Did you plan this?"
Emma giggles, holding her hands up in the sign of surrender. "I swear, I did not plan that," she says solemnly. The motion has the side effect of making the bed sheet drop to the floor, and at that point, Troy kind of forgets to be annoyed anymore.
/
"You know," Emma says thoughtfully that evening as she studies him in the mirror, "I don't think you even look that different."
Troy stares down at his bright pink shirt in bemusement. "I don't look that different?" he repeats. "I look like I took a bath in a Barbie dollhouse."
Emma laughs, smoothing down his collar. "Well, I think you look very handsome," she says teasingly, leaning her head on his shoulder as she steps into the view of the mirror. Between his shirt and her pink dress they look like an array of bubblegum. He makes a face at her in the mirror and she giggles.
But he has to admit, he kind of likes the effect, too.
"All right," he sighs, reaching to unbutton the shirt. "You get one day of this and that's tomorrow. And no pictures."
"I won't take pictures," she promises, and he groans. Of course she's going to tell Gia to take pictures. "Oh, come on. You like it, admit it!"
"I most certainly do not," he says, hiding his grin as he ducks his head down to get the last few buttons and shrugs the shirt off. "But whatever helps you sleep at night."
Emma rolls her eyes, but she's smiling as he gathers her up in his arms and leans down to kiss her. "I sleep very well at night," she informs him primly, and he responds by tickling her until she squeals.
"When you do sleep," he teases as she twists around in his arms to get free. He catches her by the waist with one arm and presses her against his chest. "Are you happy?" he murmurs into her ear as he works on opening up her zipper. "Now that everyone knows and we don't have to pretend to hide it anymore?"
She relaxes into his hold as he slides the zipper down and pushes her dress off her shoulders. "I think I'm actually going to miss the sneaking around. It made everything so much more fun."
Troy shrugs, pulling her with him back towards the bed. "We can still do that," he points out, lying down and letting her climb on top of him. "They'll make fun of us, but we can do it."
She smiles brightly and leans down to kiss him. "I like the way you think. By the way, what were you going to have me do if you won the bet?"
Troy breaks the kiss to grin at her. "I was gonna ask you to wear my leather jacket."
Emma frowns at him. "I've already worn your leather jacket."
"…The leather jacket, and nothing else."
She snorts, but his smirk gets a blush out of her. "You're ridiculous. Besides, I can do that any time you want. It's not like I mind wearing it."
He raises an eyebrow at her, and she amends with an unapologetic grin, "But you'd have to let me take it home."
"Yeah, that's not happening," he says, tapping his hands up her back till he reaches her bra clasp. "That's why it was going to be my prize, so you couldn't steal it."
"Clever plan," she muses, kissing him as he fumbles with opening her bra. "Too bad it didn't work out."
"Oh, I have contingency plans," Troy tells her, grinning as he finally masters the clasp. "What would you say to another bet?"
Emma laughs. "What were you thinking?"
"Jake and Gia."
She scoffs. "Jake is gonna take forever. Four months."
Troy smirks. "I say two months."
Emma grins. "Deal," she says, and leans down to seal it with a kiss.
(He wins that bet, but he doesn't really think she minds.)
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