A/N: Some minor Enola Holmes spoilers for the first 35 min of the film. I needed to use two characters' interactions as part of the story. I tried to be as vague as possible, but I would rather give you the spoiler warning just in case.
A/N #2: Lastly, as per usual, all emojis will be in brackets with the appropriate description/translation. (This time from Chlo - Corvus' older sister!)
First week of July, Summer
Corvus was trying to hide his smile as Gren watched the train scene from Enola Holmes. He had already watched this movie, several times, with both of his sisters individually and collectively as a family during Sunday movie night last week, but Gren hadn't seen it and wanted to "study" for the escape room by watching some typical detective films and shows. Corvus didn't mind; even though this was now his fourth time seeing the movie, he honestly enjoyed it and he didn't have to pay as close attention to it, opting instead to watch Gren's adorable reactions in equal amounts to watching the actual film.
"Go back! Go back!" he heard Gren whisper at his laptop. Corvus smiled more; Gren was leaning in close to his screen, he was really into the movie.
A knock from his bedroom door withdrew his attention from the screen. "Hang on, Gren," he said while pausing the movie - the "Netflix Party" extension pausing it on Gren's side too.
"Cooorvus!" he all but squeaked while moving his head back - trance broken. "It's still the beginning of the movie, he's not going to die, right?"
Corvus laughed, "I'm not telling you, you'll have to watch!" he teased.
Gren laughed with him and it made Corvus smile more. "I would but you're the one who stopped it," he teased back.
"Fair point," he grinned, "Someone knocked on my door. Hold on." He muted himself, lowered the laptop a little so the camera was pointing towards his desk, and opened his bedroom door to find his older sister standing there.
"What's up, Chlo?" he asked, a mix between confusion and annoyance. He loved his sister, but he thought he told the family that he would be on a call and asked not to be interrupted unless it was an emergency.
"Hey, do you mind helping Asha find the flour? I don't remember where dad put it…"
Not exactly an emergency, but fine, Corvus sighed, "Yeah, hold on…" He walked back to his computer, lifted up the screen, and unmuted himself. "Hey, Gren, I need to go help Asha with something. I'll be right back," he said.
"Take your time. I understand," Gren gave him a cheeky grin and two thumbs up. Corvus felt the thud in his chest as his heart rate increased - Gren was too cute for his own good. He smiled back, nodded, and exited his room, leaving the screen half-opened.
He walked down the long hallway and into the kitchen to find Asha frantically opening and closing cabinets. Was she even actually looking in them or just going through the motion? Her cornrows were pulled back into a loose ponytail and she was wearing the apron she received from her birthday, in April. Other ingredients were scattered across the counter and Corvus recognized the paper, loosely fitted on the recipe stand, as one of the print outs from summer camp. He smiled at his sister, who was growing up way too fast, because instead of giving him one of the cute grins she would've in the past to butter him up, she instead returned with a frustrated scowl.
"Corvus, I'm trying to make the new brookie recipe from camp for family night tomorrow…" She turned away from him and continued looking through the cabinets, "and I can't find the flour and that's kinda an important ingredient," her frustration came out as whine and sass.
And it was funny how she could, at once, be both thoughtful and borderline rude. Corvus shook his head, wondering if he was like this during his early teen years.
"Dad keeps it in an airtight container, at the top of the baking cabinet, to limit the amount of light exposure," he explained, going to the cabinet and pulling it down from the top shelf. "Here, easy fix," he grinned at his sister.
Asha took the container with a small, "Thanks," and resumed her work laying out all of the ingredients and checking if she had the needed measuring cups.
Corvus nodded to himself, satisfied, and ready to go back to Gren.
"...But, why wouldn't Chlo know that?" Asha suddenly questioned aloud before turning to Corvus, all preteen sass gone and genuinely confused. "And it's not like she wasn't tall enough to reach it…" Her brown eyes searched for possible solutions, looking at Corvus like he had the answer when it dawned on them both.
"Wait!" they said at the same time, and panic swept through Corvus.
"You're on a video call with your boyfriend, aren't you?" Asha asked. For some reason, she sounded as offended as Corvus felt.
Corvus started booking it down the hall, "He's not my boyfriend."
"But you like him!" Asha followed closely behind. "That's not fair! How come Chlo gets to meet him and I don't…" As much as Asha tried to hide it, he could hear the undercurrent of hurt in her voice.
He slowed down to a stop and turned to his little sister, "Erg, not like I meant for her to meet him!" He made sure to catch her eyes, "I don't want you guys to meet him because I don't know where it's going," he whispered.
This only seemed to agitate her more, he could practically see her puff out her chest, "Well it's Going every Saturday," Asha said in whispered irritation. "Come On! My room is next to yours! I can figure things out! When you guys talk at night it takes like ten minutes for you to get off the call. I get tempted to go in there and just hang up for you! I'm going into my teenage years, Corvus, national studies show that I need my sleep during this 'critical time' in my life."
Corvus was a little taken aback, looking to the side and feeling the heat rise to his cheeks, "We don't take ten minutes…" he mumbled.
"Do you want me to start quoting?" She pointed her index finger and raised an eyebrow.
"No! No, point made." He gave her the side eye, "And we're both missing the main point."
"Which is what? That you're embarrassed of your little sister?" Ouch, there was the source of the hurt. That made sense now...
"No! Never!" He paused for a moment, letting the words sink in, making sure to catch her eye so she knew he wasn't joking.
She was silent, but there was a small spark of recognition in her brown orbs, enough to lead him to believe that she took his words as sincere and he could probably safely change the tone.
Corvus rocked his head back and forth in exaggerated mock thought. "Well, except, maybe in public...But I'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual there," he teased with a wink.
Asha half-smiled, "Jerk, but yeah…maybe a little true, maybe a little not..."
"Aww!" Corvus smiled and they resumed walking to his room, together.
"Just don't go shouting across the camp to say 'hi' to me though! That's so embarrassing!"
"Deal. Now, let's refocus, the real jerk is Chlo. I can't believe she played us both."
Asha shrugged, "Well, it worked out for me, in a way. I'm going in right behind you. I at least want to know what he looks like."
"Asha…"
"It was really nice seeing you Gren… Yeah, yeah, I hope you sleep well too…" she started quoting in a dreamy voice, and Corvus felt his face turn hot again. He couldn't bear to hear his own embarrassing love-struck words thrown back at him.
"You're a stinker, but fine," he grumbled, slightly impressed, and slightly scared, by the amount of game she already had at her age.
Asha grinned cheekily, "Show your enemies no weakness," she quoted their mom now.
"So now we're enemies?"
"Corvus, we're siblings," she stated matter-of-factly, "All siblings are born as frenemies," she winked, and Corvus couldn't find it in him to be mad at her.
"Fine. But just looking, no conversation."
"Agreed. We'll work up to that."
Corvus rolled his eyes, shook his head, and slowly opened the door. For as much big talk as she had in the hallway, Asha kept to her word and hid behind Corvus' back as he entered the room; that way she could see him but not otherwise engage with Gren.
"...That's really cool that you'll be completely done in five years. I need to finish my bachelor's degree then directly enroll into a doctorate program," he heard Chlo's voice.
He could see Gren at a slanted angle giving her his full attention. "Corvus mentioned that, but being a physical therapist is important. I'm sure you're going to help a lot of people."
"Thanks. I was inspired by Mom…" she smiled to herself before turning around to Corvus and Asha. "Ah, caught." She grinned, looking at Corvus, not at all ashamed at being "caught".
Corvus gave her a tight-lipped smile and took a deep breath.
"Oh! Is that Asha?" He heard Gren from the other side of the computer.
Instead, Corvus tilted his head back and mentally groaned, Fine, I give up. Let my sisters talk to my crush.
Asha came out from behind Corvus' back, "Wait, you know my name?" She scooted Chlo over so they now shared the chair.
"Yeah. Corvus talks about you too. Baking camp, right? Then drawing comics and… art baking?"
"Creative Cakes!" Asha said excitedly and leaned closer to the screen, kicking Chlo off the chair in the process. "That's cool of you to remember. Do you like baking?"
"I can make a mean set of cookies from boxed cake mix - adding chocolate M&Ms on top right before baking."
"That sounds good! We did something similar in camp," Asha continued to brighten.
"Awesome! From what I understand you're an excellent baker, just like your dad. Corvus sends me pictures sometimes. Everything looks delicious, like your fingerprint cookies, they looked really cute too!"
"Yeah! Those were for our big 'Enola Holmes' movie night last week! I mean, they didn't have that technology back then, but I still figured it was detective-themed enough."
Gren nodded with a smile, "I agree! Corvus sent me a picture before we started watching, they looked detective enough to me. It must've taken a lot of time to do all that really small piping considering you made them for your whole family."
"Yeah, but I've gotten better at that. Dad says I just need to practice, 'Careful repetition leads to peak performance'," she tried to make her voice sound deeper when quoting their dad. "But it's not as bad now, and I get to eat the ones I mess up on," she beamed. "Plus, it helps that everyone kept saying how much they loved them when watching the movie!"
And Corvus could see the moment of realization hit Asha's face, "Oh…Right, I guess we interrupted…Sorry 'bout that…"
"Nah, it's fine. I really enjoyed meeting you and your sister," Gren waved it off with a grin.
Asha smiled again, and she fidgeted a little in the chair, "Thanks. I enjoyed meeting you too."
"Did Corvus fix whatever you needed help with?" Gren asked, and Asha looked back confused.
"Did he find the flour?" Chlo clarified.
"Oh, yes, he did."
"Corvus seems like a good big brother," Gren beamed.
Asha turned to face Corvus, a lopsided grin, "Yeah, he's alright, for a brother." She turned back to Gren, "But you can take him if you want."
He was going to kill her. Yup, so dead.
"I'll let you get back to talking with him. Enjoy the rest of the movie," she got out of the chair nonchalantly.
Gren waved, "Thanks, bye Asha. Bye, Chlo - if you're still there…" Gren wasn't even fazed by the comment. Corvus let out a breath; he should've guessed...
"Bye!" Chlo shouted as she and Asha closed the door behind them.
Corvus returned to his chair and ran both hands down his cheeks, "Sorry, about the detour…"
Gren's blue eyes darted down before returning to look at him, smile on his face, "Actually, it was really nice to meet them. You speak so highly of your family, it was nice to experience them first hand."
A feeling of pride washed over Corvus, because even though he hadn't meant for Gren to meet his sisters he was glad (and relieved) that they seemed to get along so far. "I think they enjoyed it too."
Just then his phone vibrated, a quick glance down: from Chlo. He'd wait until they restarted the movie; right now, talking to Gren was more important.
"Speaking of sisters... Just to give you fair warning, Embla's visit is next weekend and she has been rather forward with me about how she doesn't want to interrupt our Saturday call, and how she also wants to meet you." His blue eyes now darted between looking at something past the bottom left corner of his screen and back at Corvus, "I-is that okay with you?"
Gren's voice was a little higher and faster than normal. And the stutter... Aww! Gren must've been nervous. Corvus melted a little staring at him.
"Yeah! Yeah, of course! It would be great to meet her." Besides the obvious public figures, like General Amaya, Embla was practically Gren's hero growing up from what Corvus could tell. "I can ask her about the Navy."
Gren groaned and gently rested his face on his desk, "I didn't even think about the Army versus Navy aspect." He lifted his head back up, "Please don't mention that Navy lost last year at the big game. There would be no recovering from that, and I really want her to like you."
Corvus grinned and leaned closer to his computer, raising an eyebrow and giving his best sultry smile. "Oh? You really want her to like me?" he teased.
Gren's eyes grew wide and his face quickly turned two shades pinker, covering his freckles. (Totally worth it.) He let out a nervous laugh, looked away for a moment, scratched the back of his head, before tentatively (adorably) looking back to Corvus. "Well, yeah. I like you, so I want Embla to like you too," he said softly, but also in a way that made it sound like this should've been obvious.
It was Corvus' turn to blush, "Yeah, no, I mean...y'know...that checks out…" Corvus flustered and looked away. When he returned back to the screen he could see Gren looking at him with a soft warmth in his eyes.
Since when was Gren the one to be caught staring? He didn't even seem to mind being caught.
"So, uh, should we resume the movie?" Corvus asked, grasping for straws.
Gren seemed to snap out of whatever that was and let out a quick, "Hold on!" His eyes shifted from one side to the next and Corvus could hear his mouse click. "Okay, split screen ready." He said while making a small 'klik-klik' sound and pointing to him with alternating index fingers while winking.
Corvus brought a hand up to hide a grin because Gren's ridiculousness was also so precious and never failed to make him smile.
Gren seemed to catch this, and Corvus could see him take in a visible breath and let it out in a sigh, looking at him with that warmth again and a calmer smile. Corvus feared he was going to completely melt under that gaze, and If he didn't get this movie started soon they would spend the rest of the call just staring at each other like lovestruck fools. (Wait, that would imply that Gren was also lovestruck..?)
"Okay, starting it up…" Corvus gave warning before clicking the play button. He could hear the audio start on Gren's side. His side was muted so there wasn't an echo, but had the captions on. After a few minutes Corvus dared to glance down at his sister's text, which had vibrated again after the first one.
"Asha and I convened and decided to give Gren tentative approval. [Thumbs up] Further interactions are needed if you actually start dating."
"Of which, go for it little brother! [Heart] What are you waiting for? An invitation? [Winking face]"
Corvus flustered.
"He's obviously smitten," Gren said in a sweet, dreamy, tone.
Corvus looked up with wide eyes, did Gren know? He tried to hide the panic in his voice, "Who?"
Gren paused the movie and looked at Corvus, "Tewkesbury. He already seems smitten with Enola. It's sweet that he doesn't want her to think that he's an idiot - trying to show off with his knowledge of plants. He's even cooking for her," Gren's tone radiated with 'aww'.
Corvus' face still felt completely flushed, but Gren seemed none-the-wiser so his heart rate started to slowly calm down. "Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think he's smitten too."
Gren nodded, now with a larger smile, "Ooo! That gives me hope that he'll live." He looked at Corvus, "Ready to resume?"
Corvus nodded and Gren started the film again. He watched as Tewkesbury interacted with Enola, and yes, it was obvious that he was besotted. That look he gave her as they parted reminded Corvus of the look Gren gave him the last time they saw each other in person, before the hug. Corvus glanced back at Gren, who seemed to be sad that the pair had separated.
Did Gren see that pining look in Tewkesbury's eyes too? Did it also remind him of their parting? One thing was certain: Tewkesbury aside, Corvus was definitely smitten and it was getting worse every day.
He glanced at Chlo's text again, "...What are you waiting for? An invitation?" No! Well, maybe just a little more time, because as sweet as it was watching someone else be infatuated, it was also a little unsettling to be the one experiencing it.
He glanced back to Gren, whose face was showing delightful surprise for the current scene, and it made Corvus smile.
And that was the thing, wasn't it? The risk/reward factor. Because at the beginning of this whole thing the risk was, "I might not see my cute and nice KSL TA again", and the reward was the possibility to get to see him more and get to know him more. Towards the end of the fall semester the calculation was obvious: the potential payoff outweighed the risk.
A month and a half ago he had at least figured out a plan to test the waters to see if more was even possible. But then, the summer happened, he just acted and that hug happened, they started texting everyday, and Gren...Gren was being even more friendly than before. Maybe flirty? Maybe just valuing their time together...and was Gren even aware of this himself? Was it Gren being Gren, or Gren wanting more? Because the closer Corvus allowed himself into thinking that Gren might be interested in him…No. No, rather, the closer Gren got, the higher the stakes, the higher the risk, and Corvus was more scared of how to proceed.
Risk: he might alienate, and potentially lose, someone he now considered a close friend, someone he couldn't go a week without seeing, a day without talking to, someone who inspired him and supported him. How could he lose someone that was already so dear to his heart, and for what?
The chance they could be something even more? What would that even look like? How would that be different than what they currently have? Kissing, maybe? Would Gren even want to? Would it be worth losing Gren just for a chance to kiss him?
No.
"Corvus, are you okay?" Gren's voice cut through his thoughts. He didn't even realize the movie was paused again. He looked up to see Gren looking at him with such concern it felt like his gaze stabbed Corvus in the heart.
"Yeah!" he tried to sound enthusiastic, but it came across as weak. "Yeah, just thinking is all."
"Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes thinking aloud helps..." Gren gave him a weak smile, and his eyes were soft, trying to silently convenience Corvus to let him help.
Corvus felt his heart ache. He liked Gren. He liked him so, so, much.
"No, no, I'm good." He could see Gren frown a little, Corvus wasn't doing a good job selling this. "Water break?" Corvus said with forced enthusiasm. "Then back to the movie?"
He could see the gears turn in Gren's mind as he slowly leaned back and reluctantly nodded his head. "Sure," he said softly.
"Awesome I'll-"
"But, Corvus?" Gren interrupted, and there was something in his voice that caught his attention, something that sounded nervous.
"Yes?"
"I want you to know that, umm…if you ever...if you ever change your mind...and need someone to talk to...I'm always here for you. No matter the subject, and no matter the hour." He gave his best goofy smile, but Corvus could see a little bit of unease behind it.
Corvus sighed, he really didn't want Gren to worry. So he smiled back, "I know, and same with you."
Gren nodded.
"And don't worry about me. It's nothing, really."
Gren chuckled a little, which was uncharacteristic given the current mood, and caused Corvus to raise an eyebrow silently asking Gren to elaborate. Which he thankfully did, "It's just a strange and funny request, isn't it? To stop worrying about you? That would mean I would have to stop caring about you and I couldn't do that if I tried." He smiled warmly, "Wouldn't want to do that."
Corvus chuckled and shook his head. Of course, it was very Gren of him and Corvus should've expected as much. "I guess you're right. Thanks, Gren." His heart pounded against his chest and yes, he definitely needed a breather. "Okay, water and restroom break. Be back in ten?"
"Sounds good," Gren smiled warmly again.
Corvus nodded, muted himself, and turned off the camera, letting out a deep sigh as he dropped his arms to his side and tossed his head slowly back, stretching out his spine in the process.
Risk and reward.
Smitten and smiles.
What was he waiting for?
Time.
He really needed time to figure this out. Was this even just a crush anymore? Was there such a thing as a crush+? He had the rest of summer. Hopefully, he'd figure it out before they returned in the fall.
A/N: I really enjoyed writing Corvus' sisters. Asha is twelve here and two in my other fic. So while I particularly enjoyed writing her for multiple reasons, one was that I was able to explore a side of her that I will never be able to explore in my other fic. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed them too. I doubt they will pop up too much when Corvus and Gren are back in school.