"How do you like them ribs, Sam?" T-Bo asked. Sam looked up from her feast and grinned at T-Bo.
"Are you kidding?" she laughed. "They're wonderful!" T-Bo gave her a thumbs up and wandered back behind the counter. Sam remained lying on the floor, clutching a rib between her hands. She bent down and ran her tongue over the meat, moaning in pleasure at the taste.
"Hey, Sam," T-Bo called from behind her, but she waved a hand dismissively.
"Eating," she growled, nibbling lightly on the rib. She took a deep breath, licked her lips and locked her mouth around the rib, beginning to suck gently on it.
"Sam, stop it now!" Sam was breathing heavily now as she worked her way over the delicious mass of meat, savouring the taste of it.
"SAM!"
Sam's eyes snapped open and she was met with the sight of reddened flesh. A small hand was tugging on her arm, and there was heat radiating from something underneath her. She pushed herself up, releasing the rib from her mouth. No... wait, that wasn't food. She jerked back as she realised she was lying on top of a sleeping Freddie, quickly getting off of him before Calry noticed.
"Sam, what were you doing?" Sam cursed silently and turned to see Carly squatting next to her, running a hand over Freddie's sore neck. Oh god, she'd been doing all that to Freddie? She breathed in slowly.
"I..." she faltered, still not sure what had happened.
"What happened to T-Bo?" she asked. Carly took her eyes off of Freddie and looked up at Sam, one eyebrow cocked.
"T-Bo?" she repeated slowly. "Nothing happened to T-Bo. T-Bo wasn't here." Sam rubbed her face and coughed, relieving the soreness in her throat somewhat.
"I was at the Groovy Smoothie," she muttered. "T-Bo gave me barbeque ribs." Carly's other eyebrow shot up and she looked back at Freddie, gently massaging his neck with one hand.
"You must've just been getting started, thankfully," she joked weakly. Sam nodded, glancing around for water. Nothing... she stood up.
"Where are you going?" Carly asked. "You can't leave Freddie here with bite marks all over his neck! His mom'll think a vampire got him!" Sam chuckled.
"I just need to get some water," she replied. "Wash the taste of nub out of my mouth." She walked shakily across the room, her legs still half-asleep, and Carly turned back to Freddie. It had been Sam that had woken her up, the sound of chewing penetrating her dreams as she slept and shaking her awake. She'd opened her eyes to find Freddie sprawled out on his back with Sam draped over him like a blanket, gnawing happily on his collarbone. Part of her wondered how they'd ended up like that, but she was more focused on waking him up first and making sure he was ok.
Sam gargled the water and spat it into the sink, before running another handful and throwing it over her face. She couldn't believe she'd actually been sleeping on him all night - she'd agreed not to fight, but she hadn't planned to get close to him. She tried to run over the events of the night before. She'd arrived, that was all fine, and they'd spent seven hours watching back to back Girly Cow, while making their way through a forest of food. She would have been sitting apart from him then, she needed a radius when she was eating, but after all that... well, that was where it started to get fuzzy. She knew Carly had sent her and Freddie to wash the sauce off their hands after... that was it, after the barbeque bacon.
Barbeque bacon?
Carly hadn't touched the stuff, but Freddie had been sneaking bites whenever he thought Sam wasn't looking. She'd seen him every time, of course, but just for that one night she'd allowed it.
There was more bacon after that. I'm sure of it.
They'd washed it off together, if only because there was nothing preventing them from doing so. Freddie had been more touchy-feely than usual, no doubt because he knew she wouldn't retaliate, and he'd rubbed the sauce off her hand. She'd actually let him clean her hand? Ah, but that wasn't it, because her other hand was still sticky with sauce and she'd got him back without him noticing. Right... on his neck. Huh.
So you weren't just dreaming about barbeque sauce," she thought happily. She wouldn't have chosen Freddie as the meat, but...
There was more bacon after that. Sam ran a tongue over her teeth and lips, searching for clues to what she had eaten. The first batch of bacon, sure, that was there, but she couldn't find anything else. But she remembered the taste of bacon much later in the evening. She growled and brushed her hair off her face.
Freddie woke up and immediately cried out, causing Carly to jump back in surprise. He clutched at his neck and his finger explored the newly formed indents and grooves he found there. He looked up at Carly, fear in his eyes.
"Carly, was this... did you do this?" he asked slowly. Carly shook her deperately and glanced back to see if Sam had returned.
"Sam was having a dream and she got a bit... carried away," she explained. "Does it hurt?" Freddie rolled over and stood up, hiding his smile. His neck throbbed slightly but other than that it was fine.
"No, it's cool," he explained. "Just a bit of a shock when I woke up." Carly breathed out in relief and smiled at him.
"Fancy breakfast?" she asked. Freddie nodded and followed her out of the studio, absent-mindedly rubbing his neck.
Sam was already sat at the table when Carly and Freddie came down. She raised a hand lazily to them and leant back in her chair.
"What food you got?" she asked as soon as Carly was close enough. Carly rolled her eyes.
"Didn't you eat enough already?" she teased. Freddie laughed and despite herself, Sam found herself laughing too. Freddie still had his hand over the sore patch. Carly went to see what food was still available, and Sam scooted over next to Freddie. He flinched but she ignored him and pulled his hand away from his neck, studying it with a professional eye.
"Lucky Carly woke me up before I really got started on you," she noted, running a gentle finger over the wounds. "The skin's not punctured but it's bruised, so you're gonna want to be careful about that." He smiled, pleased that she was still being nice.
"Thanks Sam," he replied, before turning back to see how Carly was getting on. Sam paused, taking a deep breath as his breath played in the air. There was a smell of bacon to it. Sam slunk back away from him, sitting back in the chair opposite.
That can't be it.
But I remember bacon.
It's Freddie! How could it be-
You were lying on top of him. That had to come from somewhere.
But I don't even like hi-
You did it before.
Sam gulped and ran a nervous hand through her hair, surreptitiously sliding her tongue over her lips. They felt as they usually did, but that didn't mean anything. She wasn't sure what she was looking for - some kind of mark? Something... left behind? That was just ridiculous.
"SAM!" Carly shouted. Sam jumped and her chair rocked dangerously.
"What?" she snapped back. Carly pointed down at the still full plate of food in front of her. Ah. She'd missed that. She'd been too caught up in her thoughts about Freddie.
Freddie wouldn't dare.
Freddie glanced up at Sam and couldn't help relishing the confused look on her face. It was a rare occurance, but the way she scrunched up her face just... he loved it. He looked away as she caught his eye, trying to keep his face blank. He didn't want her to get the wrong idea.
