Thanks to red wine
Prompt (on tumblr): Neal/Anita. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you."
Notes: Some references to "Thus with a kiss I die" - prompt n.6
It wasn't something planned – not the excess of wine, not what came after it.
It should have been just a party at The Rabbit Hole to celebrate the end of the summer, but then somehow Hell broke loose. Almost everybody started dancing, drinking, smoking – not necessarily in that order – and, while Fitz was flirting with Melody and Dominique decided to leave, Anita and Neal found somehow themselves to be alone. Outside the pub, with a bottle of red wine. Some typical excuses –of cold (even if it actually was still summer), boredom or awkward conversations – and they soon drank it all.
"You're beautiful…" he whispered suddenly, staring deeply at her.
Anita looked at him surprised, but then just shook her heavy head. "You are just saying that because you're drunk, baby Nolan…"
He offered her a grin and it was his turn to shake his head. "Well, it's like that Spanigh motto: In vino veritas"
Suddenly she started to laugh openly. "Oh, you know that's Latin, darling?"
And he laughed too, but for a whole different reason. "And you know you just called me darling like your mother?"
The girl widened her eyes and they exchanged a quick look. It was enough for both of them to start laughing again, more carelessly, not caring for anything else in that moment except for those not so funny sentences. They did not care about anything – except for each other.
In fact, after some moments, their eyes locked and the laugh died all at once. Green against blue, they remained like that for a while in silence as if they were under a spell, until she decided to make a brave but maybe thougthless move. She kissed him and it was a shy and light kiss that ended before it even began. Anyway, without waiting for a response, she broke the contact and with widened eyes, quickly stepped away.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you" she said, unavoidably becoming red.
Neal looked at her again, under a new light after that bold act. He was clearly impressed, pleasantly surprised, but most of all he was happy. In fact, despite his fame of heartbreaker, his heart was broken too, since it had belonged to Anita for years; but yet, now,it suddenly seemed that he had a concrete chance with her or that, at least, she felt something for him after all. So, after the first shock, he smiled a little and then put two fingers under her chin to let her look up again at him.
"You're right…" he whispered then, surprisingly. But the grin "I should have"
And then he was the one to kiss her, this time with more intensity, and she kissed him back almost immediately. To both, it felt like it was their first kiss and actually it was, because for the first time it wasn't a stolen one and it lasted long enough to allow them to taste each other. Suddenly he forgot about Alexandra Hermann and she forgot about Peter Whale.
In that moment they were together and everything felt right… At least until they both would still have red wine in their system.
Once again it's not about Authella, but after the short fic about Fitz and Nicky, it was required to write something about this other ship of the next generation! Hope you liked this small scene of these two. I will focus more on the family and Authella for the next chapters;)