of kisses and books and knowing looks
Summary: Tyler abuses his power and faces the embarrassing, but not altogether awful consequences. [ Tyler/OFC :: one shot ]
Genre: Romance/Humor
Rating: Rated T
Characters: Tyler Simms, Original Female Character, and Reid Garwin.
Trigger warnings: sensuality and minor language.
Notes: I watched The Covenant last night and then wrote this – just some fluff for Tyler, because he was a cutie among hunks.
DISCLAIMER :: I do not own The Covenant or any of the characters except those created by me, which would just be Olivia.
Tyler sank back into the chair that sat in front of his desk in his dorm at Spenser, easing the strain on the muscles in his back as he rolled his shoulder blades and neck in small circles. He was still sore from a vigorous work out at swim practice after his coach had said his backstroke was getting loose. He was right, of course, his routine had become sloppy.
Over two months had passed since the events caused by Chase, but it was still freshly present in his mind. The first few weeks after the barn fight had been great in ignorant bliss; Caleb and Pogue had decided it was best to keep the fact that Chase's body had not been found a secret between them, in fear that the youngest of the Sons Of Ipswich would not be able to handle the news. Keeping it from Reid had been for the obvious reasons; and they also knew that he would have told Tyler the moment he had the chance. But eventually they slipped and it came out, as all secrets do, and now that they were all living in fear of Chase coming back again Tyler found that focusing on things like swim meets and homework had been more difficult than it should have been.
At first after he had been told about Chase's questionable disappearance, Tyler had been offended and angry with the older brothers for withholding that fact for weeks; it was insulting to know that they thought so little of his stability. They had always treated him as something fragile and innocent, like he would break at the slightest discomfort, and that was exactly why he had not mentioned his anxiety to any of them – not even Reid. Proving them right would only assure them and himself that they had done the right thing in lying to him.
He did not see any of them screwing up their individual strokes at swim practice.
The pencil he had been writing with hung loosely between his index and middle finger, long forgotten with the essay he had been drawing up a fact sheet for, and Tyler stuck it between his lips as he began slamming textbooks and folders shut, tossing his work onto the corner of his desk after deciding he could not concentrate anymore.
It was ridiculous to stress himself out this much from the mere thought of Chase coming back. If he was going to act this way, then they had every right not to include him on the distressing details, and it really was no wonder he had always been considered a weak threat; why Chase hadn't even really considered him at all. If Chase was going to come back then he would come back, and there was nothing anybody could do to stop that.
Caleb had ascended – in addition his father had willed him his power – making him stronger than ever, Pogue would be ascending at the start of the new year, Reid not long after that, and Tyler would ascend a few months after Reid in August of next year. Defeating him would be relatively easy if they were all together. Four to one. So he would just have to deal with it when and if it happened. Halting his life now so that he could live later did not seem like the most ingenious plan.
It was November and that meant the heaters in the building were blasting at full speed, making the dorms stuffy at times, so he shrugged off his sweatshirt and stood to hang it on the hook beside his dresser.
Looking over at Reid's side of the room, he wondered if it would kill his best friend to pick his shit up every once in awhile. Worn clothes and shoes were strewn across the floor, dresser, desk and bed, fingerless gloves and beanies tilting from anything with a point, his school books were scattered along the bookshelves, opened on his desk, a few peeked out from under the foot of the bed, and old food wrappers tried to hide themselves underneath the mass of clothes everywhere.
Tyler's side of the room was not perfectly clean but at least he had a bit of organization to it.
His clothes were stacked dangerously high in the hamper; a sign that he needed to take his laundry back home for his mother to do, he had a waste basket for empty bottles and trash, albeit it was overflowing a little – the sides spilling granola bar wrappers, his desk had bric-a-brac and other trinkets on it along with his recent homework, and his bookshelves for the most part held the books upright, although if someone expected them in alphabetical order then they would just have to get bent. And his bed was made up, unlike Reid's.
Tyler was overall proud of it.
He was leaning his arms out forward like Superman to stretch his back, the short sleeves of his tee-shirt straining against his triceps, when someone knocked quietly on the door and he straightened up, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand and taking the pencil from his mouth to throw it towards his desk with his other.
The door was not locked and Reid would have come barging in without warning anyway. And any guy on their floor definitely would not have knocked so lightly, if they did at all. Tyler made a noncommittal noise in his throat to whoever it was behind the door, leaning from side to side, still pulling at the tense muscles in his back. He felt sluggish and looked forward to hitting the sack early.
"Could I come in?" A familiar female voice responded.
As soon as he heard the voice, an image of light brown hair and green eyes twinkled in front of his vision and he felt his mind and body react, beginning to wake up and come alive for a known face.
"Oh. Hey, Olivia." He hid a yawn behind his fist. "Come on in; it's unlocked."
She stepped in and gently shut the door behind her, giving a bright smile that she always seemed to have in store for everyone. "I'm sorry to interrupt anything, but Reid said I could borrow a book of his for a project – I just need to grab it real quick and then I'll dash out of here."
He noticed that her face was slightly flushed, as if from the heat of the building too, and that she had discarded the wool jacket she had donned earlier in the day when they had briefly spoken, leaving her in a long sleeved Henley shirt, skinny jeans, with a scarf draped around her neck and clavicle.
"No problem," Tyler said with a shrug and watched her face as she walked further into the room and looked to Reid's side of the room, her eyebrows shooting up in concern. He quickly added with a smirk, "Kudos to you if you can find it that quickly though."
She laughed and hopped over a pile of clothes to his roommate's bookshelf, stumbling in the process and catching herself on the corner of a dresser. "That is if I don't get lost first. Maybe you should tie a rope around my waist and tug me out if I get in too far?"
Tyler laughed then and glanced out the window, seeing the darkening sky give away to the twilight stars, just past the barren trees whose leaves had all fallen to the ground and been trampled over by bustling students; readily accepting Friday's end and the weekend's beginning.
Olivia scanned the shelves, her index finger trailing along behind her eyes as she touched each spine of the book she passed. He continued talking though, her dulcet personality infecting his earlier sullen mood, "You weren't interrupting me anyway. I can't seem to focus lately."
Her head turned to glance back over her shoulder at him, whispering satirically, "Really? I never would have suspected." She grinned and returned to her search.
His mouth twitched as he pointed his eyes to the ground and she absently murmured the titles of the books quietly under her breath.
She was referring to an incident that had happened previously that week in British Lit class, when Tyler had been so caught up in his own thoughts about ascending and excessive using that he had failed to realize that not only had the teacher been addressing him but he had the entire class' attention as well from his lack of apperception, and had only come to when Olivia gave his foot a good shove from under the table. Afterwards he had been so embarrassed that he could not manage to find his voice to apologize.
While Tyler and Olivia were both the same age – seventeen years old – they still only had a limited amount of shared classes from their Senior and Junior joined studies. This was because in the summer after his seventh grade year, he had found out that he would be skipping the eighth grade and going straight to being a freshmen at Spenser. He had not been too thrilled to be known as that smart kid that skipped a grade but it had also meant changing into Caleb, Pogue, and Reid's year. Looking back on it now that he would soon be graduating, it had been worth it.
He recalled the year before when Olivia had transferred to Spenser from some West Coast academy, and they had not been immediate friends – she had been so quiet in the beginning that nobody had successfully managed to become friends with her, but after a few months when she had been more comfortable with the place it was suddenly like she was friends with everyone. She was a rare kind of person who was friendly to anyone she met in such a genuine way that she seemed to bring out the best in people.
It wasn't popularity – Olivia was by no means a part of the main coterie at the school; her clothing modesty was her first strike against her, but she was a sort of pretty wallpaper. Nobody really saw it at first when they walked into the room but once it was in their sight they could not find a reason as to why they had not initially noticed it.
Strangely enough when Tyler thought about it, Olivia was probably his closest friend next to Reid. He had always considered her to be more of an acquaintance than a friend because they had never actually went somewhere outside of school to hang out, but they usually chose the other as a partner if a project called for one, and they knew quite a bit about each other from the amount of times they had conversed in class or during lunch, and they frequently found themselves sitting at that old abandoned table nobody else would go to, in the very corner of the library to study in the other's company, just content with their breaths in the silence; hidden glances and secret smiles.
"There you are, book!" Olivia exclaimed in delight, yanking Tyler out of his reverie as he looked up to see her back facing him. Her left arm was extended upwards, reaching out to the top shelf of the bookcase with her fingers straining to get a hold on the spine of the book, as she stood balancing on the tips of her toes.
He stared curiously at her stretched frame and the way her back had arched in her struggle, her hips and rear appearing to reach out towards him, and a very thin flash of skin on her lower back peeked at him where her shirt had began to ride up.
In his mind he could see her face – that wide smile that was more sincere than any he had ever seen before, her light brown hair that usually fell in sorts of waves rather than hot ironed curls, a somewhat narrow face that gave her small dimples when she smiled, and tender, sea green eyes – but as he saw her just about reach the book, his gaze fell back to that bit of skin on her back, and the thought crossed his mind that she rarely revealed her skin to the public eye, hidden by jeans and long sleeves and sweaters.
And then something feral inside him lurked out from the shadows and made Tyler's hazel blue eyes flare midnight black as he used the power that was within him but used so very little to slide the book backwards an inch or so.
His fist clenched at his side.
Olivia huffed in irritation for a moment but did not seem to suspect foul play for she quickly resumed her battle for the book, thrusting both arms upwards as she groaned with exertion to elongate her body, fingers desperately struggling for the spine.
He let out a low breath when her hershey brown shirt's hemline conveniently lifted itself a few inches, revealing the smooth, lightly tanned skin of the small of her back and the two dimples she had above her rear at the waistband of her jeans. Something stirred in his chest, and a part of him recognized the relief at knowing the feeling wasn't lower, although he felt an odd blush raise to his cheeks, and he coughed quietly.
Stepping forward and past the monstrous piles of clothing, he pressed himself near her back – close enough to feel her warmth and smell her floral perfume, but not quite touching, and reached around her. The few inches that he had on her gave him just enough extra height to grasp the book and pull it down off the shelf, a sheepish look on his face as he met her gaze from over her shoulder, knowing that he had just taken advantage of his friend and abused his power to do it.
"Here," he said, holding the book off to the side with his right hand for her.
She turned around tightly, still between his body and the shelves, peering up at him as a small smile parted her lips and she grasped the book, "Thank you, Tyler." Her two lateral incisor teeth were smaller than the rest, he noted as he stared at her mouth before looking up, his left hand leaning against the edge of a shelf beside her head.
He still hadn't released the book, and she glanced down at both their hands holding it, a chuckle escaping her. "Are you going to give me the book or do I have to fight you for it?"
"Maybe I'll make you fight me for it." He replied lowly, a sudden tease laced heavily in the words that escaped before he could stop them. A rush of something surged in his veins at the widening of her pretty eyes when he leaned toward her, the sharp intake of breath, and the falter in her smile when his gaze dropped to her lips.
Only the startled look left her face in damn near an instant, a flash of amusement lighting her eyes and lifting the corners of her smile back into place.
"Wait, hold on just a moment – are you actually trying to flirt with me, Simms?" She laughed, poking a finger into his ribs.
He cringed, falling (no, literally falling because he had to catch himself on the bed post after tripping on a boot) back a step, away from the giggles that wounded his ego. "If I was?" He grumbled, sounding more pathetic than he would have liked.
This was Olivia, dammit, the girl who snorted when she laughed too hard and could inform someone more about The Avengers, or any superhero or villain in the Marvel universe for that matter, than he could – he should not be this upset about her shooting him down.
But that was just it. He didn't want somebody like Sarah or Kate, girls who were obviously attractive and who everyone wanted at the party; it was a pipe dream. Tyler wanted someone who he could talk to about things, who would ditch a stupid party to just hang out with him to play video games or pool, someone who accepted him as the weaker one of the Sons Of Ipswich. He, who wasn't special; not a leader like Caleb, or mysterious and impulsive like Pogue, or a bad boy like Reid.
He wanted Olivia. And he damned himself for only just realizing it then.
"Well, okay," she conceded, pursing her lips to quiet the snickers as she nodded her head, "If you're serious, then I'd like to see this – charm the pants off me, mister."
He paused, feeling uncharacteristically awkward as she set the book down on the nearby bed and placed her hands on her hips.
After a moment, she beamed at him, her voice light and filled with merriment, "C'mon, Tyler – I don't have all night."
He drew a hand down his face with a loud exhale, giving her a look and swearing under his breath before rushing forward (more careful in his footing this time to avoid more future embarrassment) and grabbing her face with both hands, pressing his mouth to hers in a slightly-off aimed kiss. It was messy, clumsy even, but impetuous, and it gave him a nervous thrill to feel her heat on him, her hair tickling his fingertips.
Olivia made a sound at the back of her throat, like a whimper, but she curled her fingers around his wrist nevertheless, and allowed his lips to part hers. He guided her backwards, against the book shelves once again, their legs tangling as his arm slid around her waist to hold her tighter against him. His mouth opened wider over hers, his tongue diving heatedly past her lips to entice her own into play, and Tyler could have sworn that he felt her hips snap against his, eliciting a strangled, barely audible moan to come from his gut. One of his legs jammed between hers, and he kissed her harder, until her fingers went to his hair and shoulder, digging in as she gasped into him softly –
He pulled back less than an inch, and her head turned away from him, falling backwards as she breathed in deeply. His head had fallen into the crook of her neck, his temple rested beneath her jaw and his nose inhaling the scent of her that lingered on her scarf.
"Jesus," she managed faintly, chest heaving beneath him, "I said charm the pants off of me,not molest me against a bookshelf."
"I was getting there," he admitted, leaning back to look at her with a wolfish grin.
They stared at each other for a minute before she chuckled, shoving his chest to move past him and towards the door. Despite being as collected as she usually was, he could see the flush along her neck and the way her lips, colored and swollen from their kiss, quivered.
"Point made, Simms." She said, going for the door handle with a hint of unease in her tone.
"Wait!" Tyler motioned with his arms, once more without grace as he shuffled through the clothes and landed beside her, something gripped in his hand. "I'll forfeit the book if you agree to go out with me sometime, off school grounds." He offered, his grin as wide as hers.
Olivia sighed, a hand on the doorframe as she glared at him, eyes comically narrowed.
"Okay." She agreed, holding out a hand with an air of indifference. "Anything for the book."
He relinquished the pages with a smile, grazing his fingers on the back of her hand as he tilted his head down to kiss her again –
The door swung open behind Olivia, propelling her forward into his arms, and Tyler was barely able to keep both of them upright as Reid rushed through the partially opened door, a chain of curse words all strung together falling from his lips until he saw them.
She rubbed absently at the back of her head, brows furrowed while she displayed the book to the other boy in front of them, "Found the book."
"Oh," Reid said simply, shrugging and falling onto his bed.
Olivia gave Tyler a fleeting smile, mumbling a quiet thank you as she ducked out of the room.
As he sat down, not listening to his roommate rant about Caleb or Aaron or somebody else that managed to piss him off, Tyler only gathered himself when Reid threw a glove at his face, jerking to look at him with a frown.
"What?" he complained, pelting the glove back.
"I asked if anything interesting happened?" The blonde bit out.
Tyler shook his head, throwing himself down onto his pillow with green eyes and snorting laughter in mind.
Perhaps he should abuse his power just a bit more often, he thought with a smirk.