A/N: Okay, so lots of things to say. I wanted to thank everyone for the reviews and if you didn't review, then reading the story. I was flattered by your responses and how much you all liked it. And because almost everyone demanded more, even the risk of death if I didn't continue, I had to oblige. No matter how long it took. Which brings me to the second thing. I wanted to get this done faster for you all but real life and school and minor bouts of writer's block prevented that. Hopefully the length makes up for it though.
Word Count: 6103
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
"So let's close our eyes and we'll talk in the morning
When we're able to feel
The true weight of our words and why we're both here"
-We'll Be OK, Bayside
"I thought I could resist you
I thought I was strong
Somehow you were different from what I've known
I didn't see you coming
You took me by surprise and
You stole my heart before I could say no"
-Speechless, The Veronicas
"I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me
I still feel your touch in my dreams
Forgive me my weakness
But I don't know why
Without you it's hard to survive"
-Everytime We Touch, Cascada
"I love the way you undress now
Baby begin
Do your caress, honey, my heart's in a mess
I love your blue-eyed voice
Like Tiny Tim shines through"
-How Do You Do, Cascada
The alarm was blaring again. It was quite unwelcome and both stirred at the noise. Duke reached behind him and hit the snooze button not looking to be reminded that he actually had to face the outside world today. He'd much rather stay right where he was, as the other occupant of the bed snuggled closer to him.
Viola groaned at the noise and the subsequent shifting of the bed, not wanting to leave the comfort of the arms around her and the lips that were now attached to her neck. She did however smile to herself, thinking that despite the offensive alarm clock, she liked waking up this way.
"Morning," came Duke's scratchy voice from next to her ear.
"Mmmm," replied Viola, as she turned in his arms to deliver a kiss, "Morning."
She snuggled back up against him, strategically placing her head in such a way that her lips were up against his neck. His only response was to tighten the hold his arms had on her and place a kiss on the top of her head.
They stayed like that without saying anything and almost drifting back to sleep until the alarm began screaming at them again. This time Viola leaned over Duke to turn the thing off.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to get up before the guys start beating down the door."
He groaned at that thought and said, "I guess that means I'll have to make an appearance in the showers."
She considered this for a moment before she said, "On second thought, I think I'll keep you here all to myself," and she hugged him tighter, unwilling to let him out of the bed.
He chuckled at her words and attempted to pry himself out of her arms, no matter how much he'd rather take her suggestion and stay. Once again, the thought of Andrew and Toby finding out about this little situation was not high on his list of things to do this week. It took some time but he finally managed to free himself.
Viola lounged in his bed watching him with a very disturbing smile on her face as he grabbed a towel and the rest of his bathroom stuff. He turned to look at her before bursting out with, "Would you stop looking at me like that!? You're freaking me out."
She giggled at his clear lack of comfort with her ogling his almost unnatural body.
"I can't help it. Didn't anyone ever tell you how hot you are?"
"Yes. As a matter of fact, I believe it was you."
And with that statement he leaned down to kiss her before walking out the door, leaving her slightly stunned.
When she finally recovered from Duke's little outburst, she took the opportunity to get dressed. She was just putting the final touches on her eyebrows when Duke reentered the room, clad only in a towel. She just stared at him, any attempts at words pointless.
"Okay, you seriously need to stop doing that because…" he said before trailing off as he realized why she was looking at him as if David Beckham had just walked in the room, "Oh, um …sorry. I forgot."
But Viola had by this time regained her thoughts, not to mention her devilish grin as she descended upon him. She leaned up to give him a slow, lingering kiss as her hands caressed down his naked back to his towel covered ass which she gave a squeeze and a little smack before grabbing her bag and rushing out the door, leaving Duke in a familiar stunned state and the thought that wearing some form of clothes from now on might not be a bad idea.
Viola headed off to her English class and managed to make it there on autopilot while her mind was elsewhere. She welcomed the opportunity to sort through the events of the last twelve hours and the feelings she had tried to avoid. As the teacher droned on about some Shakespeare play or another, her mind indulged in the place she hadn't allowed it to go during daylight hours.
She really did like Duke, more than she probably should or even thought was possible after knowing someone not even two weeks. Her sparse amount of sleep the past few days had left her tired, but with some slightly vivid dreams that were obviously the result of what she was avoiding during her conscious hours. She dismissed them as soon as she awoke, not wanting to dwell on what they meant. But now, it was cliché, but her dreams were coming true. And it was amazing. Every time Duke kissed her or touched her or looked at her like he was right now, she felt it. (He had slipped into the class five minutes late, managing to not even draw the attention of their teacher.) She could feel his stare on the back of her neck and the mere thought of their secret made the hairs there stand on end. She couldn't describe the intensity of it all, it was actually quite scary, but wonderful at the same time. Her mind was so far off, consumed by these thoughts that it took Duke almost pulling her out of her seat for her to realize it was time for lunch.
Duke and Viola reached the cafeteria first and after grabbing their food from an ecstatic Principal Gold, they seated themselves next to each other at their usual table, pulling their chairs closer together. They were so deep in conversation discussing one thing or another, feet engaged in constant battle and hands in constant contact under the table, that they didn't even notice Toby and Andrew walking towards them until Andrew greeted them with a "Hey guys," before grabbing the vacant seat next to Duke. The various body parts under the table sprung apart, hitting various legs of both the table and chairs and the table shook as a result. Toby looked at Andrew to gain confirmation of what had just happened but he was already thoroughly engrossed in his food, not noticing either Toby's raised eyebrows or the loss of color in both Duke and Sebastian's faces. The rest of the meal went normally as the conversation quickly turned to soccer and the Cornwall game on Saturday.
They finished their lunch and then proceeded to walk to Biology together. They all took their seats and settled down for an hour of whatever their teacher decided to lecture about today.
Viola was trying to ignore the small looks that Duke was sending in her general direction every ten seconds, but in the darkened room it was hard not to keep the ridiculous smile off her face. As their teacher was going on about some picture of a micro-something or other on the overhead, Olivia was trying to engage her in small talk. She kept whispering something, but Viola was having a hard time understanding her. She couldn't tell if it was the lack of sleep combined with a darkened room and boring lecture, or the attempts to keep a straight face that was causing her to blank on the words coming out of Olivia's mouth.
Finally, Olivia got fed up with the blank stare she kept getting from her lab partner and decided a flick was in order. It seemed to get Sebastian's attention and he gave Olivia a weird look and whispered, "What?"
"I was trying to tell you something, but you weren't paying attention."
"Sorry," and she was, giving Olivia an apologetic look and a small smile. She didn't want to be on bad terms with Olivia; it would just make everything harder to deal with. "What were you saying?"
"I think you're right about Duke."
Well that certainly got her attention. "What?" she said, though probably a little too loudly, because their teacher was now singling them out for disrupting her lecture. They mumbled their apologies and after a few minutes began their conversation again, this time on paper, passing notes like it was seventh grade again.
'What do you mean I was right?'
'He's cute. I was thinking of maybe asking him out.'
'WHAT? You can't do that.'
'Why? What's the problem?'
'I heard he's seeing someone.'
'No, he's not. I would have heard about it if he was.'
But once again their communication was interrupted as the teacher grabbed the paper right out of Sebastian's hands. "That's enough Mr. Hastings, Miss Lennox. I'll see you in detention this afternoon."
"But I have practice. I can't miss it."
"I'm sorry Mr. Hastings, but if you don't sit down, you'll be paying a visit to Principal Gold."
That thought alone was terrifying and after a few last defiant glares at the teacher, Viola sat back down and didn't look up from her notebook until the bell rang. She didn't wait around for Duke or Olivia or anyone else and almost bolted out of the room, looking to get a handle what had just happened. Too much information in too little amount of time was causing a headache to quickly develop behind her eyelids.
She never even saw it coming. Before she could even process what had happened she was pulled out of the hall and pushed up against the door of what looked to be a janitor's closet and trapped by someone else. With the combination of the shock of being dragged out of the hall and the darkness of the room, it took her a moment to realize it was Duke who was pinning her to the wall.
"Duke! What are you doing? What if someone saw that?" she accused, reaching up to smack him on the bicep, the very same bicep that had started this whole mess in the first place.
He quickly leaned down to kiss her not being able to resist having her alone and in a darkened space, "Who cares? Besides the way you practically ran out of class there was no one around."
He leaned down to give her another kiss before she could respond, but she pulled away, causing him to miss and kiss her jaw line. He didn't seem to think this was a problem as he trailed kisses along it.
"How do you know that? Besides…besi…mmmm…"
But whatever she was going to say died on her lips and was lost because Duke's mouth had attached itself to her earlobe. She let him continue for a few moments, as he slowly worked his way down her neck and to her throat, before she regained the ability to speak and choked out, "Can't…Gotta stop…hunh."
She finally gained up enough strength to push him away. "We have to stop. This is serious. We have a major problem."
"I'd say we do. How could you get detention TWO days before the Cornwall game?" he replied, seeming to find the dormant anger that caused him to drag her in here in the first place. That is, before he got distracted.
"I'm sorry. But it doesn't matter. I'm not going. I don't even go to this school. I'll let my brother deal with it when he gets back. Trust me, he has plenty of practice."
He gave her a slight smile, seeing the humor in her words, but said, "You have to go. You can't play against Cornwall if you skip."
"I can't play if I don't practice either. Oh God, this is so messed up," her head falling into her hands, tears threatening to fall.
Duke took her into his arms, whispering nonsense words as a means of comfort. "It'll be okay. Why don't you go talk to Gold, see if he'll move your detention. He wants to win as much as anybody, besides he seems to have a thing for you."
"Um…thanks for that image. But you're right. There's got to be something he can do and even if there's not, it's worth a try."
"Good," and with that problem solved he leaned down to start kissing her again, but her words stopped him cold.
"That still doesn't solve our other problem though. Olivia wants to ask you out."
He looked at her as if she had just told him he had won the lottery and his dog had died all at the same time. "What? That's what you two were talking about?"
"Yeah. She said I was right, that you were cute and she wanted to ask you out."
"And what did you tell her?"
"That I heard you were seeing someone. She didn't seem to believe me. Apparently, that would be the biggest news of the century," she couldn't help but smirk as she said this knowing full well Duke's abilities with girls who weren't dressed up like their brothers.
"Oh God, this is bad. And that's not funny," he said not missing her suggestion as he pointed a finger at her in an accusing way.
She swatted his finger away and said, "Yes, it is, but that still doesn't solve our problem."
He thought about it for a moment before finally telling her that he would just have to avoid her until he could prove he really was dating someone.
"And how are you going to do that exactly?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"By hiding in janitor's closets with my girlfriend, of course," he answered with the most suggestive smile he could muster.
"Oh, really? And what if she doesn't agree to that treatment?"
"I'll just have to kidnap her I suppose. I hear it's easy."
She went to smack him again but he caught her hand before giving her a wicked grin and then proceeded, as per previous instructions, to 'kiss the crap out of her,' all attempts to solve their problems forgotten.
Eventually they made it out of the closet, with enough time for Viola to go speak to Principal Gold about her problem. He eventually agreed to let her make it up after practice so she could preserve her spot on the roster for the Cornwall game. She told Duke later that she thought he was actually outraged that someone would jeopardize Illyria's chances, but he had to put up the front that he was behind his teaching staff and their disciplinary actions. She found the whole thing quite amusing and struggled to keep a straight face the entire time she was in his office.
Practice was typical for two days before a big game, grueling. Tomorrow would be a light practice to reserve their energy, just some light running and going over the major plays. They barely spoke as they dragged themselves off the field and into the locker room. Still in her soccer gear, Viola headed off to her detention with Principal Gold.
It was a standard detention. Principal Gold took the opportunity to talk and talk and talk, but Viola heard none of it as she dozed off somewhere between the topics of his mother and what he had for breakfast six months ago. The lack of his voice in her head woke her out of her stupor and told her that it was time to go back to the room, curl up with Duke and take a nice long nap.
Fate had other ideas because when she got back to the room she found the boys all there. Andrew and Toby in their reserved spots in front of the Playstation and Duke at his desk, doing something on his laptop.
"Hey," she greeted them, rather dejectedly as she had to put up with her front as a boy for that much longer.
The boys in the corner barely grunted in recognition of someone speaking to them, while Duke looked at her with a look that clearly said he felt the same way about the situation as she did. Nonetheless, he gave her a warm smile, his eyes lighting up at her presence. She tried to return the gesture, but her smile lost most of its sentiment by her rejection of the scene that had greeted her.
She took stock of the situation and realized she couldn't engage in conversation with Duke without the risk of something regarding their relationship being mentioned. And no matter how engaged Andrew and Toby were in their game, she still didn't trust that they wouldn't overhear anything. She decided an early start on homework was the best course of action. She got out her books and sat on the bed, schoolwork spread around her and got down to business.
The room was silent except for Duke's typing and the noises coming from the video game. The silence reigned for close to half an hour before the game finally ended with some horrific death sequence that left Andrew victorious and Toby protesting that he had cheated by making suggestive comments about Eunice in leather to distract him.
"Dude, you know the rules, girls are off limits during the sudden death round," Toby was arguing.
"Hey, it's not my fault you have a leather fetish. Or could that be a Eunice fetish?" Andrew suggested elbowing him with a slight rise of the eyebrow and a smirk.
Toby gave him a look that clearly said 'shut up or I'll break your face' and answered him with a, "I think you have that wrong. You're the one with the thing for leather."
Andrew opened his mouth to protest the accusation, but Toby continued talking. "And don't deny it. I've seen the magazines."
At this point Viola had had enough and she took her pen and threw it at Duke. When it hit him in the back of the head, he finally turned to look at her and when he noticed the disgusted look she had on her face, he decided it was time to intervene.
"Guys, guys…why don't you take the game into your room and settle this there so that we don't have to hear about it? Okay?"
They looked at him as if he were slightly mad, as he usually enjoyed the stupid fights they got into over video games and girls. But the look on his face was serious, even for Duke and they agreed.
As they left the room, they were already throwing insults at each other and only the door closing drowned them out.
"Ugh…I can't take much more of this," she said as soon as the door slammed shut and she proceeded to flop back on the bed.
Duke got up out of his chair and walked over to her, extending a hand to pull her up.
"Come on."
"What? Why?" as he pulled her toward the door.
"You'll see, just come on."
He pulled her into the hall and closed the door behind them. There was no one around, but he dropped her hand as soon as he was sure she was following.
He managed to dodge her questions and constant interrogation the whole way to the garage where his bike was parked. He climbed on the bike and handed her a helmet.
"You've got to be kidding."
"No," he laughed, "Why would I be kidding? Come on. Just get on. It'll be fun, I promise."
She gave in and climbed behind him, as he gave her a cocky grin and pulled the helmet over his head.
"Hold on tight," he said as he started up the motor.
She obliged and gave a little scream as they took off.
They rode the deserted streets for close to half an hour before they reached their destination, which turned out to be Viola's house.
"What are we doing here?"
"Clothes. I refuse to have you dressed as a boy on our first date."
"Date?" she asked skeptically though with a slight glimmer of hope.
"Yeah. That's ok, right?" he replied, losing some of his confidence.
"Yeah. Actually, it's perfect."
"Good," he said with a bright smile, "Now get in there and put on something girly."
"Fine," she said, rolling her eyes, "But what if my mother's home?"
"She's not. It's Thursday. Junior League meeting."
"Right. I might be awhile. Do you wanna come in?"
"Sure."
They went up the front walk and entered the house through the front door. Viola immediately headed for the stairs, while Duke stopped in the foyer, unsure if he should follow her or not.
She noticed he hadn't continued to follow her and she stopped on the stairs to turn around and look at him.
"Coming?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
She didn't exactly answer him with words so much, as with a mischievous smile. He could do nothing except sigh, thinking that it really was NOT a good idea at all, and followed her up the stairs.
She had started to pull off her wig and facial hair as they walked up the stairs and continued on to her room. He stopped again once she had opened the door to her room and walked inside.
She saw that he had stopped again and was now shifting from one foot to the other, obviously very unsure of himself.
"What is the matter with you?" she said with a small laugh and pulled him into the room.
"Nothing. I don't know. Sorry."
She gave him a reassuring hug and a kiss before grabbing her towel and heading for the bathroom.
"Where are you going?"
"Shower. I smell like something a cat threw up."
He made a disgusted face at her reference and said, "Well I wasn't going to say anything, but…"
"Oh, shut up," she said hitting him with the towel and then leaning in for a kiss.
He stepped away from her though. "Uh-uh, not until you're clean and especially not after you abused me with that towel."
"You're impossible," she laughed as she walked out the door.
"Wait!" he called out, "What'm I supposed to do?"
He received no answer, however.
"Great," he muttered and took stock of his surroundings
Soccer posters on the walls, Beckham, Donovan, Ronaldo, Hamm, everyone you'd expect. The room had an air of girlyness without being too overpowering. He suspected that her mother had a hand in the choice of the color scheme, as he wouldn't pin Viola as a purple type of girl.
He noticed a board above her desk that held a bunch of pictures and went over to examine them. There was a bunch of Viola and two girls he recognized as the ones who had come into Cesario's the other night and another guy who looked vaguely familiar. There were all kinds of pictures of Viola playing soccer, either action shots or candid team photos. He moved on to another that showed Viola with her arm slung around another boy. He realized it must be the real Sebastian, as the two of them did look scary alike. Then again, they were twins. The image, however, was too creepy considering the situation and he moved on.
He was sorry he did though when he realized whom the next batch of photos were of. Viola and Justin. God, he hated that guy. Just seeing the two of them together in the pictures was enough to make his blood boil and his stomach turn all at the same time. He didn't quite know what to make of the feeling and he didn't really want to admit that it scared him a little.
He was saved from further contemplation on the issue as Viola had just reentered the room. She saw what he was looking at and she immediately felt guilty.
"Oh, um…Sorry about those. I haven't really had a chance to purge the room of all things prick."
He turned around and the sight that greeted him caused his blood to boil for a completely different reason.
"It's…er…um…fine. Yeah," he stuttered, a slight blush appearing on his cheeks.
She gave him an amused grin at his obvious discomfort of her standing there in only a towel. She went over to him and leaned up to whisper in his ear.
"You're blushing."
"Oh, um…am I?" she had by this point started to plant soft kisses on his jaw line, her for-once girly smell overwhelming his nostrils and drowning his thoughts.
"Uh-huh. I didn't want to say anything before, but it's kinda sexy. Makes me wonder where else I can make you blush."
That was the comment that did him in. He couldn't stand her saying things like that anymore, it was driving him slightly mad, and he claimed her lips in somewhat of a bruising kiss.
She had been goading him for a reaction, but this was slightly more than she was expecting. Duke was quickly becoming the most confusing and complex guy she had ever met. One moment he was a scared, nervous boy and the next he was this confident and slightly dangerous…man. That thought alone was enough to send tremors through her body, or it could have been the way his hands were slowly making their way over every inch of her towel-clad body, claiming their territory.
The way her body was beginning to ache and arch was a clear indicator in her vaguely working mind, that things could quickly get out of hand here if she didn't slow them down and put some clothes on. She separated herself from Duke, as difficult as that was becoming, and pushed him towards the door.
"As much as I love watching you get dressed, I don't think you've earned the same privilege," she said with the same devilish grin from before.
It had all happened so fast he didn't even realize what had happened until the door was being closed in his face, though he was thankful for the reprieve. He stood there staring at the door, willing himself to calm down from what had just happened. He didn't know what it was about Viola that did this to him, but it was starting to become quite the problem. One minute he could barely get out a complete sentence and the next he barely had control of himself. Their situation was going to get very hard to deal with if they didn't get a handle on the dangerous territory they were quickly entering. His first instinct was right, coming upstairs was definitely not a good idea.
Duke was completely lost in these thoughts and didn't realize until it was almost too late that Viola was asking him something through the door.
"How'd you know where I lived anyway?"
"Huh? Oh, I have my ways," he answered her, his voice taking on that devious tone he was so fond of.
"Oh, really," she said, opening the door slightly, "And what might those be?"
Any witty answer he could have come up with was lost in his throat, when he got a partial view of her bra-clad breast and the jeans that hugged her toned thighs like second skin.
"Phone book and Mapquest," he answered slightly breathless, all thoughts of continuing their banter completely lost.
She chuckled slightly and closed the door again, emerging five minutes later, completely clothed and ready to go.
"Ready?"
"Yeah. You look great by the way," he answered and leaned over to give her a quick kiss before reaching for her hand.
"Thanks," she said giving him a smile and his hand a squeeze.
"So, where are we off to?" she asked as they walked down the stairs.
"Somewhere," he answered vaguely and they continued outside and took off once again.
Somewhere ended up to be the movie theater. They bought their tickets, popcorn and various other snacks and headed into the theater. They chose seats towards the back so they could throw popcorn at the other couples. Just as the theater darkened a bit, signaling that the previews were about to begin, Viola noticed something and visibly stiffened. Duke turned to look in the direction Viola was staring a hole through and there it was. He couldn't believe it. Justin. And his posse, if you wanted to call it that.
Viola was shaking, whether from anger or fear of being discovered he wasn't sure and he really didn't want to find out.
"Vi. Vi. Vi! Would you look at me?" but she wasn't answering so he gently turned her face towards him. Her expression softened a bit with the reminder that Duke was there. He took her in his arms and gave her a soft kiss, letting her know that Justin wasn't getting to him. "Don't worry. It's dark. He won't see us," he whispered against her lips.
She nodded and gave him a small smile and another kiss. Justin and his 'crew' sat towards the front of the theater, not even glancing in the couple's general direction. They couldn't really see him from where they sat, but they could hear the group perfectly. Talking shit about various people and generally not being very nice.
"Tell me again why you ever dated him."
Viola shrugged, but replied, "I don't know really. I think everyone expected it. Both captains of our teams, soccer was all either of us talked about. We were both decently attractive. It just kind of happened. Who knew the one thing that brought us together, would be the thing that tore us apart. Plus he was terrible in bed."
"Um…What!?"
"Oh, sorry. Guess I was on a bit of a roll there," she said slightly abashed, blushing slightly. She risked a glance at him, but his face was unreadable, "You're not gonna get all weird on me now because I slept with him, are you?"
He took a moment to process what he had just heard. He shouldn't be surprised really. Everyone has a past, no matter how they might seem on the outside. He shook his head more to get rid of these thoughts, than as an answer to her question, but answered, "No, you're not the only one with a past, you know. Besides it's none of my business what you did with Justin. I only care about what you do with me."
"You're amazing, you know that?" she asked him in a bewildered tone. She couldn't believe some of the things that came out of his mouth. "I think you deserve a kiss for that one."
She leaned over to give him a kiss. When she pulled away, a thought dawned on her and in a lightly nervous and unsure voice she asked him, "As long as we're sharing here, what did you mean that I wasn't the only one with a past?"
"I don't really like to talk about this, but I guess you have a right to know. Last year, after we won the division, we went to this huge blowout. I got completely wasted, don't have any idea what I was thinking, and there was this girl and I guess alcohol cures me of my problem and well yeah. I think you can guess what happened."
Duke had told her he wanted a relationship to be about more than just the physical and she could tell from his tone that he regretted what happened. It didn't matter to her either way if he had slept with someone else or not. Who said they would even get to that point?
But Viola knew that at the rate they were going, it was a clear possibility they would be faced with that issue sooner rather than later. But tonight was not about that and as she leaned more into Duke, his arm around her shoulders and her head firmly placed on his shoulder, she enjoyed the fact that at the moment they were a normal couple, not having to deal with anything else but watching the movie.
An hour and half later, the movie was over and the lights came back on. They got themselves together and hand in hand walked down the steps towards the exit, where they consequently met up with the last person they wanted to deal with. Justin. During the course of their heart to heart and the movie they had forgotten he was even there.
They all stood there, blocking the exit, just staring at each other. It was Justin who finally broke the silence. "Viola! What are you doing here with him?"
It was obvious by his clenched fists and white knuckles that Justin was fighting a very strong urge to launch himself at Duke, clearly not over the way things had ended at the carnival.
"Why do you care Justin? I dumped you. Remember? It's none of your business what I do," Viola answered, slightly outraged, as she attempted to pull Duke through the crowd.
Justin didn't seem to think this was such a good idea and apparently neither did Duke because he wasn't budging.
"Viola, you can't be serious! You don't even know this guy. You met him at a kissing booth, for Christ's sake!"
"She obviously doesn't want to be with you, Drayton. Do I have to pound it through that thick skull of yours?"
This was apparently not the right thing to say to him, however, as all his anger had reached its limit and he reached back and punched Duke in the face. The fight that ensued was much like the one less than a week before. It lasted less than five minutes and resulted in a split lip, bloody nose and a not so pretty gash above the eyebrow for Justin. Duke came out of it rather unscathed considering, with a bloody nose and a small cut in a similar place to Justin's large gash.
Viola pulled Duke off the floor and out of the theater. The night air was cool, but it seemed to make them more aware of what had just happened and they wordlessly got out of there as quick as possible. They made it back to Illyria and reached their room with no further incident. It was getting late and there usually weren't many people around at this hour. As soon as they were inside, Viola pushed Duke back on the bed and went to the refrigerator for a bottle of water.
She had him sit up at the end of the bed with his head tilted up towards her so she could get a good look at the cut on his forehead. She cleaned the dried blood off his face and then she grabbing some antibiotic cream and a band-aid for the cut. They hadn't said anything to each other since they left the theater and the silence almost deafening. Viola stood above him, holding his head in her hands as she searched his eyes. He had grabbed her waist to steady himself, the blood loss, lack of food and shock of the cold water on his face making him slightly woozy. They continued to stare at each other for moments on end, before Viola finally bent down to give his bandaged head a light kiss. She went on to give his lips similar treatment and after a moment, Duke surprised her by deepening the kiss.
Viola slid her hands down to reach inside his jacket, pushing it off him. Once free of the offending garment, she pushed him back against the bed, following him and never losing contact with his wonderful mouth. Her hands had found their way up the front of his t-shirt, slowly pushing it up and up. His arms were in the way, however, as they were following a similar pattern with her shirt. They were interrupted though. Not by anyone at the door or a phone ringing, but as Duke's stomach gave a loud and protesting growl.
They stopped mid-kiss and Viola let out a very unattractive snort against Duke's lips. He pulled away and at least had the modesty to look sheepish. Viola only continued to giggle uncontrollably and Duke soon followed when her stomach gave out a similar noise. Their stomachs continued to protest, reminding them both it'd been hours since they'd last eaten.
"I think I'll order a pizza. What d'you think?" his voice still containing his laughter.
Viola still didn't have a handle on herself, the lack of food was making her slightly crazy apparently, and only nodded her head enthusiastically.
An hour later they were fed and watered and ready for bed. The run-in and fight with Justin were still present in their minds, but they'd silently decided it would be discussed at a later date. The physical and emotional traumas of the day were beginning to take their toll and exhaustion was evident in both of their faces. They crawled into bed, said their goodnights and snuggled down together for a well-deserved night of rest.
A/N2: So surprise! I had to cut this into multiple parts because it was just getting too long and I didn't want it to be months before I finished it all. So, there's going to be one more part after this, maybe two, I'm not sure yet. Reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome and flames give me a good laugh so feel free to do that too.