Disclaimer: I got $30 for Val Day. Weeeeeeeeeeee.
Eight Letters
Eight letters. He just needed eight letters.
A crossword puzzle for Valentine's Day.
Yippee.
Morgead pondered over it, sprawled face-up on the evergreen ottoman. He held a no. 2 pencil in one hand and the day's paper in the other. He stretched his back, letting his head hang upside down as he thought (he was tall, even at fourteen. His legs were bending on the opposite side).
He licked his lips. What eight letters? The last piece and he had no hints. It was ostracized from the rest of the puzzle, so it could be anything. Morgead pressed the eraser to his cheek, tapping it and biting his tongue.
An eight letter phrase. A saying normally spoken to someone who gave you an endearing compliment/confessed love or adoration.
Finally, he jammed down the tip of the lead. He scribbled out some options.
No kidding
I'm so glad
Whatever
A pounding knock on the door.
"Morgead, hey, wake up! Val forgot his text book again, the teacher was going crazy. So I had to ditch and—o"
The doorknob turned with the spare key. "Morgead?"
Morgead had gone rigid, hoisting himself back up. Jez had dropped her book bag once she opened the door.
They were both still, Morgead staring—glaring at her. "It's not what you think—"
All at once, Jez burst with laughter. She was clutching her sides. "You… have got—to be kidding."
She wiped her eyes, red with laughing tears, and flipped her hair. "This is what you do when we're at school? Read Marmaduke and Blondie?"
"Stuff it. I'm doing a puzzle."
"Ooh." She was biting her lip to keep from smiling, her neck tilting up with the sudden advantage to torture her foe. "Look at you. Being all intellectual."
"I said stuff it."
Jez held up her hands. "Fine. I'm leaving. Just tell me where Val's textbook is."
"Same place it's always been." Morgead settled back on the ottoman, hunching his shoulders and ignoring Jez's muted snickers. "Under the mattress with some pizza slices."
He saw Jez flash a thumbs up. "Right-o."
Morgead let himself get re-absorbed. He ignored the opening door and the heaving and replacing of a mattress cushion. He ignored Jez's cut off squeal and curses when a rat leaked out of one of Val's socks.
One phrase. One damn, eight-lettered phrase…
"All right, Morgead. See you." Jez stepped out the door.
He grunted a "Later," and scratched his head with the eraser.
Dammit.
The door opened in a flash, not even completely closing. "Oh yeah, Happy Valentines."
"Yeah, yeah. You two."
"I hardly call that a greeting, Morgy." She stated in a sweet, puppy-dog hurt tone.
Morgead groaned and said, in the same tone, "Buzz off, Jezebel."
"You're really into that aren't you?"
He ignored her, not bothering. She'll leave sooner or later.
She huffed, mad. "I love you too, Morgead."
That's it.
God.
I love you.
Eight letters. Common phrase. Something you say to someone who just confessed their love to you.
He almost did a fist-pump to the air. Then he, proudly, brought the pencil to the paper.
He didn't get the chance to write anything.
Jez had snatched it up.
"Whatchu got there?"
He tried to get it back, but Jez held it out of his reach.
"Do you have to be such a brat?"
She responded with a snarl and roll of eyes. She looked at the paper. Morgead knew when she landed on the missing phrase because of the instant flash of thought in her eyes.
"What are the hints?" She asked.
"They're at the side."
"Why would I look if you could tell me?"
He scoffed. "Something you're supposed to say after someone gave you a compliment or confessed love."
She stayed silent.
"You're not going to get it," Morgead taunted. "I've been stuck on that one for the whole morning, I just got it now."
Her eyebrows furrowed.
He chuckled. "See? You can't even think properly—"
Of course, it only took another second for her to get that annoying up-right quirk at the corners of her lips. She grabbed the pencil from his hand and wrote something down.
"There you go you big baby." She rolled it and flipped it in her hand. Then she tossed it back to him. "It wasn't that hard."
He stuck out his tongue.
"And you're the older one." She tsked,"Like that's believable."
"Don't you have somewhere to go to?" Morgead rested his chin on the roll of paper. "Like school, maybe?"
She tsked again, and balancing Val's biology work, she walked to the door to pick up her bookbag. "Crap. Bye."
"Happy Valentine's Day!" he shouted on an impulse. Jez giggled at him, waving it off and shutting the door.
When he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore (one minute— Val would get in even more trouble if she took her time), Morgead unrolled the paper.
He looked at the puzzle.
And he laughed.
I love you was eight letters, he thought, and it was perfect to fit the clues.
But so is—according to Jez—bullshit.
Author's Note: Ha. This wasn't the mushy gushy Val Day moment I was planning, but one of my friends told me this quote (Thank you Mia!) and just had to make a fic about it.
Do you want a mushy Jez/Morgy moment? REVIEW and request one… cuz im not all too good with mushy… :/… it'll be dedicated to you. :)