Thank you for the reviews.
For those of you that don't follow me on Twitter, this is going to be the last of the Wednesday Works for a bit. I am on a bit of a mission to try and get YGTL out to you and when I am not getting things done like I think I could, it is putting me behind. I would rather take a break while I am still ahead rather than running out and being forced to stop.
Now I said that I went AU with this. Mainly because there are only so many ways that you can write the bowling alley kiss. Hence why we are where we are with this one...
Eight: First Kiss
Exactly what it sounds like— make a piece inspired by/about your OTP's first kiss.
It wasn't quite how Rachel wanted Eddie to know that she liked him. Well, liked him more than a friend. But there was a part of her that found him to be rather infuriating at that moment and she just needed him to get himself to safety. Not arguing with her about her doing a last search of the school. This was her school and if she wanted to be the last one out, then she was going to be. She wanted to make sure that everyone was safe and that included him as well.
So she felt like she had to give him something. A reason to leave and a reason that she would be following after him.
Placing her hands on either side of his face, she rose up on her toes slightly and kissed Eddie, catching him mid-sentence as well.
Rachel felt like it took Eddie longer to react than she thought it would have done, with her feeling rather unsure about her decision. Maybe he just saw them as friends. Maybe she had read him wrong (although she felt like she could read people quite well. But then again, Eddie had been one of the people that it took her a while to read).
But with his arms wrapping around her waist and him kissing her back, she knew that there was more to their relationship. This is what they were heading to. This was the reason he was so annoyed by her past. This was one of the reasons why he couldn't leave things when it came to Stuart.
This was them.
And Rachel felt the world melt around her. That, maybe, she was acting a little irrationally. That she had got so caught up in her feelings and the bad reputation that she would get with her past coming to light that maybe she hadn't realised that if she left Waterloo Road, she would be leaving behind more than just the school. She would have to leave Eddie behind. She would have to leave the plans that she had only just started behind. She would have to leave behind the kiss.
And when they parted, she could see the hopefulness in Eddie's eyes. That he might be able to change her mind in leaving. That she might fight whatever the fallout was going to be.
"I'll be right behind you. I promise." Rachel said. "And I am definitely going to need that drink now."
She was certain that the argument was still on the tip of his tongue but she had obviously done enough for him not to voice it. With a quick squeeze of her arm, he left her and Rachel hoped that she wouldn't regret her own action.
Eddie didn't really know what to think. Mainly because he was trying to drag his mind back to the matter in hand and it kept drifting to the kiss that he had shared with Rachel. It was a development in their relationship that he hadn't expected just yet. He definitely thought that there would have to be more wining and dining before that happened, getting him to prove to Rachel that he was deadly serious about them and that she could trust him.
Maybe the thing that surprised him most was that his growing feelings for her matched her growing feelings for him. That they both thought that their relationship was heading in the same direction. That it wasn't just going to be this weird one-sided thing. Because Eddie was more than certain that he was in love with Rachel.
Just reading Rachel was one of the hardest things to do in the world and there were times when Eddie felt like he was finally there and that they were on the same page for him to feel at a total and utter loss to what she was thinking. He was quite glad that, recently, it seemed like he had been more successful but he would never have imagined that she would have kissed him.
So he was more than a little anxious waiting for her to appear from the school. He was sure that they had a lot to talk about. From the events of the day to them.
Because they had to be a them now.
There was no going back on what had happened.
He couldn't go back on what had happened.
He didn't care how slow they took things but Eddie knew that he couldn't go from having Rachel in his arms, kissing her, for them to go back to friends.
So he might have tried to get back into the building a couple of times, just to make sure that she was going to do as she promised him that she would. He got the feeling that there was more to Rachel's last look around than just her being the headteacher. He knew that, even if she wasn't, she would feel responsible for what happened and Eddie's heart would break if he thought about how she was that morning, to how happy she was before her day went downhill.
It had been a disastrous day and Eddie just hoped that it wasn't going to get any worse.
And then she appeared.
Rachel walked through the main doors, coughing and spluttering but she was there.
And Eddie couldn't get up from his place on the floor quick enough.
He was sure that he had always been drawn to Rachel but he definitely felt it in that moment, like they were magnets and he had no other destination than to be by her side.
When he finally reached her, his arms went around her waist, putting them in a similar position they were in before they parted, only this time, Rachel's arms were around his neck, her forehead leaning on his shoulder for a moment before she rested her chin there.
"I'm okay. I'm here. I'm here." She whispered.
It really shouldn't have been Rachel who was the one to comfort him but him to comfort her. She was the one that had just come out of the burning building. He should have been telling her that it was all going to be okay.
With a coughing fit causing Rachel's body to shake in his arms, Eddie knew that it was his turn to take over, letting go of her enough so that they could walk towards the paramedics with him also helping to keep her upright, with him sure the adrenaline was starting to wear off.
And maybe he needed to convince Rachel that they could have a drink another time. Because they still had a lot to talk about. Just maybe that night wasn't the night to do it on.
"He isn't coming back," Rachel whispered.
"Who isn't?"
Rachel closed her eyes, to try and stop the tears that threatened to fall, with one stubbornly making its way down her cheek for Eddie to wipe away with his thumb. She didn't expect to open her eyes to see him kneeling on the floor in front of her, raising his other hand to cup her face as a tear made its way down her other cheek.
"I shouldn't have left him."
"Rachel, who are you on about?"
"Stuart."
"Stuart?"
"Just… Just before the explosion, he was coming up the stairs to my office, saying about me being a martyr. I was screaming at him to leave." She closed her eyes briefly as she scoffed. "He said we were the same. That we did whatever we needed to do to survive. And he was glad that my life was in a mess like his was. I kneed him to make him get away from me and he fell down the stairs. He was in the rubble, Eddie. Down the corridor to the canteen. And I left him there. And you are the first person that I've told. I left him to die, Eddie. Wh-wh-what sort of a person does that make me?"
She could see that Eddie was trying to come up with the right answer to that question. She could tell that he wanted to say that it is what Stuart deserved but she felt like he knew her better than that. He knew that she was going to blame herself, from the argument that she had with Stuart before to her potentially putting him in the position that she found him in and leaving him there.
"Rachel… there was no way of telling how long he had been there for. If he was by your office, then he could have been there while we were doing the evacuation process and the last sweeps."
"I don't even know how he ended up there. He left through the doors going towards the drama room. How did he end up at the canteen?"
"I don't know and you are only going to make yourself ill from thinking about it."
"Then stop me." She whispered.
"Sorry?"
"Stop me from thinking."
She could tell that Eddie was at a loss as to what to do. And maybe it was that confusion that she hoped for as she leant forward, feeling no resistance from Eddie, to kiss him again. This time, however, it wasn't going to be like the other kiss. Which is where she did feel some resistance from Eddie as she tried to pull him closer to her, for him to join her on the sofa and for it to turn into something more.
"Rachel." He said, pulling back further than Rachel hoped for. "I'm not doing this."
"Why not?"
"You can't tell me that this feels right."
"It felt right earlier."
He moved a little closer to her, with one of his hands moving from her cheek to cup her neck. She was sure that it was just a move so that he could keep her in place. But she was confused about his actions. But maybe that was because she wasn't thinking straight.
"It did. And that is why it doesn't feel right now. We can get there, Rachel. Let me wine and dine you and show you how much I care about you before we go there. I don't want to rush things with you. I love our friendship too much for you to completely disappear from my life if something goes wrong." He paused. "I could. I could easily distract you in that way but… I don't want to. That kiss, our first kiss, is the only thing I am going to think about and, of course, I want it to happen again. But not now. Now, I want to look after you and hold you and tell you that everything is okay. I'll give you all the sweet nothings tonight. But not that."
She was already leaning forward before she really realised what she was doing, bringing her arms up to slide them underneath his arms, to hold onto his shoulders while she buried her face into his neck. Eddie seemed to be happy enough with the movement, wrapping his arms around her middle before he moved them into a more comfortable position on the sofa, with her pretty much lying on top of him. And he did start whispering sweet nothings to her, telling her that everything was going to be okay. She knew that they would both be aware about how things probably weren't going to be okay but maybe Rachel just took comfort in the fact that Eddie was going to be by her side to face whatever was coming next for them.
