Kiss Prompt: Kissing in a stairwell, giving them an artificial height difference
"Ooh, taking time off?"
Appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Julie rests her chin on Luke's shoulder as he uses one of the employee computer stations.
"Yeah, I'm feeling fancy." He absently presses a kiss to her temple without taking his eyes off the screen.
As he checks off a list of dates on the TO request form, she stills against his shoulder. "Oh wow, that's a lot of time off. A whole week without pouring Butterbeer? You'll get a big head." She's clearly trying for it to come out as a quip, but her delivery is slightly stilted. And when he glances over at her, he finds tension in her jaw and confusion in her eyes.
"Did I not tell about this?"
Rolling her eyes, she presses her chin more firmly into his shoulder. "You don't have to tell me every time you take a week off of work. I'll be okay." But again, it's like she's trying for a sass that isn't authentic.
He grabs her hand and spins her in place, bringing her to rest tucked under his arm. "Big Sur. My parents and I go camping every year." He nudges her hip with his. "And I'm gonna miss you."
"You don't need to reassure me. I'm fine. I just didn't know," she replies, not sounded convinced by her own words.
They fall silent as he fills in the final lines of the form. But his mind refuses to stay focused on the task at hand, bouncing back to the girl under his arm. Desperately aiming for casual, he hums out, "You could come if you want." He doesn't look at her face, so he fills her silence with the worst case scenario. He came on too strong. He always comes on too strong with her. Backpedal, fast. "I mean, not…" He giggles nervously. Ugh. So much for casual. "Doesn't have to be this year. I know it's last minute and three months is maybe a bit early for… spending a week with my parents, but next year. Just if you wanna. No pressure."
He hits the submit button and quickly logs out. Since she still hasn't said anything, he avoids looking at her face and bounces over to the escalator that leads to the employee exit. Because nothing says casual like bouncing.
It's fine. He doesn't even care. This isn't important to him at all…
He's barely boarded the down escalator before he hears her rushing after him. "Luke!"
Turning around, he finds her two steps behind, towering over him in a way she normally never does. The grin that lights up her face is shy and fond. "You really want me to?"
Ducking his head, he peers up at her through his eyelashes. Easier to do with the current height difference. "Sorry, have I been playing it cool?"
She chuckles, a giddy edge to the sound. "Never. I just… I know abstractly that you're…"
"Hella serious about us," he supplies.
"… but family vacations are very concrete."
"Well, I'm concrete." That means nothing. Why the fuck did he say that?
She beams and slides her hands down the handrails, leaning over at what feels like a dangerous angle to get her face closer his. "I don't have enough vacation days yet, but next year?"
He's not sure what's a reasonable amount of smiling to be doing over this, but he's definitely exceeding it. "Next year."
She scrunches her nose up at him and bends her mouth down to his, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. One of her hands comes off the handrail to cup his face, and he opens his mouth to—
—fall backwards when the escalator reaches the bottom and kicks him off of his step. Julie, too bent over to stop herself in time, falls squarely on top of him, forcing all the air out of his lungs.
"Crap, did I hurt you!?"
Yes. So very much. But once he's got enough of his breath back, he huffs out an embarrassed laugh. "Do you wanna know what I thought as soon as I started to fall?"
"What?"
"It's embarrassing. I'm warning you."
"Tell me!"
"Arresto Momentum."
She buries her head into his chest, collapsing into a fit of giggles. "I love you, you massive dork."
There will be more fics coming in the Wizarding World of Food Service verse soon!