Hello, my beautiful creatures! So, I decided to just hit shuffle on my playlist and I came up with this idea all from a song called Shakin' by Eddie Money. Basically, I went deadpan "Hey, what if Claire was a lot more rebellious as the badass punk she is" accompanied with "Jim is a lovesick soft boi like always but not as fucked up from everything that happened to him in Trollhunters and was allowed to be said lovesick soft boi".
Warning though, it ended up being a bit more... Saucier than I expected. Saucier? Is that an accurate way of describing it? I have no clue honestly. It doesn't go into like, sex or anything like that, but it does have a bit a make-out scene unlike that of what I'm used to writing for these two so I guess we're going on an adventure together, mates!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and let me know what you think!
Claire Maria Nuñez wasn't someone to mess with. Everyone knew it and it was all mutually agreed upon that she was one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
Determined to nearly to stubbornness and passionate to boot caused her to accomplish whatever the hell the teenager set her eyes upon. May it be honor roll, getting the leading role in the school play, or even pissing off her parents. You know she would accomplish it if she desired. She had an aura that just screamed that she was ready to rule the world and fuck up anyone that tried to tell her otherwise. And to be honest, I think it was one of the most attractive things about her. The fact she saw the world as a challenger instead of her tormentor was both intimidating as well as empowering to watch.
Me though, I'm just an awkward lanky kid that I thought would never get her attention. Just a normal kid following the rules and trying to keep his head low so he wouldn't catch too much attention. I just figured that if I just kept myself out of the limelight it would make high school easier for a guy like me. I followed that mindset for a little while as it did make freshman and sophomore year a lot more bearable when no one notices you exist. But when a guy named Steve started making me his new favorite punching bag, my plan went to shit. I hated it. Every morning I would get cornered in the halls and thrown around until they were satisfied before being chased off campus after the last bell rang.
But honestly, if it wasn't for Steve and his bullshit I don't think I would have ended up on Claire Nuñez's radar.
I groaned as I tried my best to pick myself off the floor. My books were scattered about around me, but they were the least of my worry as I already knew there was going to be a bruise where Steve had kicked me in my side. It was then as I lifted my eyes slightly to notice the black leather combat boots that were standing before me. Suddenly, a tanned skin hand held itself out toward me with enough leather bracelets for me to understand exactly who it was that was before me.
"You alright there? Looks like you took a nasty kick." I brought my eyes up to be graced with the lopsided smirk of Claire Nuñez. Her short nearly black hair sat around her shoulders as the simple white strip she had dyed into almost fell into her face until she huffed a small buff of hair up to get it out of her coffee brown eyes. She had a black shirt with Shakespeare holding a heart before him all in white detailing as her normal ripped-up black skinny jeans had a familiar chain looping itself from her left front belt looped backward behind her as her normal black leather jacket hung off her shoulders with ease. I could feel myself swallow dryly as I already knew I couldn't even speak toward the punk angel even if I tried. "Are you okay or are you just planning on laying on the floor all day?" I shook myself out of my trace somewhat as I took her hand and allowed her to help get back up to my feet. We then knelt to the floor almost at the same time to gather up my notes and books that had tumbled to the floor during the small scuffle. When she handed me the pile that she had gathered, I realized that she had taken the liberty of gathering the loose pages from my sketchbook that had nearly fallen to pieces on the school tiles. I felt a blush fill my face as I accepted the extended notes and sketches with a sloppy smile on my face.
"Thanks." It was all I could muster as I tried my best to make it seem I was appreciative of her kind gesture.
Oh God if Toby was here he would mess with me until the apocalypse came.
"You're Jim, right? We have history class together with Mr. Strickler." I nodded my head as I adjusted my stuff so I could carry it within my one arm by my side.
"That's me. Good ol' Jim. Claire, right? Nice to actually talk to you. Kind of wish it was based on better means, though." I chuckled hesitantly as I caught myself before I could ramble anything further. Toby would always say that whenever I was nervous that I would speak too much and this moment was no different as I was standing before the girl I had a crush on since I first saw her freshman year.
"Yeah. Nice to actually talk to you." She giggled a little and I wasn't really expecting the angelic sound to come from the punk, but it sounded beautiful all the same. With that, the bell rang which caused the moment we shared to come to a sudden end. But instead of just turning away from me and heading down the hallway, she gave me a toothy lopsided grin before speaking once more. "Now that we actually met, make sure not the be a stranger, Lake. I'll be seeing you around." With that, she turned on her heels and started making her way toward her next class with enough grace that it would make the Queen of England jealous. As I just stood there like a fool staring after her.
If you asked me for an exact moment when we started actually becoming friends, I wouldn't be able to actually tell you. It started so suddenly. Out of nowhere, it seemed she decided to crash within my life like a welcomed tidal wave. Almost every day I would spend at least some time with her. Either it be off-campus or during school hours, she would find a way to sneak herself into what I deemed my "Out of Sight" planned schedule. Suddenly my "Keep Your Head Low" plan turned into being someone that almost everyone knew all because I was known as the guy that Claire Nuñez was hanging out with. It even caused Steve to lay off my ass a little with his bullying becoming less and less violent as the day went on.
That or it was because the punk herself made sure she was by my side at what used to be my daily schedule beat downs. But it didn't seem like she was doing it to get Steve to leave me alone. It seemed to me that she actually enjoyed my company which I never thought would happen in my wildest dreams.
But there I was one day. Sitting in her dad's passenger seat as she was driving through the outskirts of town half past midnight.
She reached out and turned up the dial on the radio as a large smile started to dance across her lips. She brought her right hand to the wheel once more as the other then went through her hair to tousle around the loose locks of black as the simple strip of purple she had freshly dyed into it recently waved around with ease. Her hair was normally kept in place with multiple little hair clips but whenever we had these nightly drives, she always just allowed her dark locks to do whatever they desired.
"Don't you think you might blow the speakers out?" She only chuckled at my response as she set her left arm down to rest on the driver's side door. She turned her head toward me for a slip second as she flashed a daring grin in my direction before bringing her eyes before her once more. She had to nearly yell over the speakers as she spoke but it seemed so effortlessly from the actress.
"Isn't that the point?" I swallowed hard as I felt my face flush in the darkness. I was just thankful that the lack of light was able to shield me from embarrassment since the driver of the vehicle made it obvious toward me in the past that she loved to toy with me whenever I blushed around her. "I know this spot off by a hill. Wanna check it out?" She flashed me another daring grin before bringing her eyes back before her. When we first started having this little late-night sneak outs, I was afraid at first that we were going to get caught. The fact that her mom was a councilwoman as her dad was a rather built engineer gave me enough worries about getting either my ass kicked by her father or all holy yell being released upon me by her mother and that wasn't even adding in my own mom's wrath to the equation. But after enough little rendezvous, it made me realize that Claire had a schedule we these kinds of things. She would wait till her parents we asleep for at least two hours which would be a solid hour after her little brother was put to bed. Then she would steal the keys to her dad's car and then drive to my place within ten or so minutes where she would wait up the street with the headlights off until I got into the vehicle. Lastly, we'd drive around Arcadia for a few hours until it struck one-thirty. Then we would start making it back to my house before she would sneak the car back to her house before anyone could notice. So if she asked me about three weeks ago, I would be rather hesitant to agree but I almost instantly gave her a "yes" when she had presented the idea.
"Sure. We've got a little bit of time." I looked over toward her to see a satisfied look on her face even though her eyes were still glued on the road before her. Her normal leather jacket still covered her arms and from what I could tell by glances of her purple shirt was the fact that it was her torn-up Papa Skull concert t-shirt, but she seemed a lot softer than she normally did around others. It was as if the "Don't Fuck With Me" persona she would always present to others was started to set aside slightly for me to see the bit more sensitive side to the Latina.
"Perfect. You'll like this spot, Lake. I'm sure of it."
It didn't take us long to get there. When she drove up to the cliff siding, I instantly understood by what she meant by I would like the little spot. It had a clear overview of the city even from the passenger side seat that I still occupied. But instead of just getting out of the vehicle, Claire had rolled down the windows to the car and kept the keys in the ignition. She turned the stereo up to max before flashing me a toothy grin and exiting the vehicle. She kept the door open for a moment as she shrugged off her leather jacket to throw it into the now unoccupied driver's seat before shutting the door behind her. I followed as I exited the passenger side to see she started to grove along with the rock song that poured out of the stereo system. It was a simple sway with her hips doing most of the work but with her fingers snapping to the beat as she shook her hair out of her face, I couldn't seem to pull my eyes away from her as I closed the passenger side door softly behind me. The moonlight graced her skin gently as the headlight of the car were like spotlights to the grassy stage she was performing on. Suddenly she flashed me a smirk as she ran her hand through her hair once more.
"Are you going to join me or what?" I tried my best to speak but my words didn't seem to want to come out. So instead of waiting for a reply, she came over and grabbed both of my hands before pulling me long to the front of the car. It was only when I stood before her with the headlights shining upon me that I was able to get my words out.
"I can't really dance." She let go of my hands to place themselves on my shoulders. Her thumbs were toying with my jacket's collar as her fingers drummed the beat of the song into my shoulders.
"Have you been to a school dance before? Have you seen how they dance there? Just jumping around in acceptable, Jim." She gave a soft smile before dropping her hands from my shoulders so she could jump up and down before me before whipping her hair around a little. I couldn't help but smile at her as a small laugh escaped her. "See? Join me!" I found myself reluctantly joining along as I started jumping a little even though I felt like a complete fool. "There you go! Let loose, Lake!" She twisted around in the air as she was jumping before running her hands through her hair to get it out of her face once more. "How's it feel?" I just found myself smiling at her for a moment before stopping my jumping movements to shoot her two finger-guns.
"Crispy."
This just caused her to laugh wholeheartedly at me as she continued to move around to the beat. It didn't take too long for me to join along. We started to lose track of time as we lost ourselves in the rock music that was streaming from her dad's stereo system. It actually got to the point that we almost ended up getting caught that night.
But throughout all of this, I never really had the guts to tell her how I felt about her. I would always get nervous whenever I even got close to it. I would always talk too much and change the subject before we could even get that point in a conversation. I knew I was attracted to her since the moment my eyes landed on her, but I knew then that I had more than just physical attraction to the Latina. I had actual feelings for her. I enjoyed everything about her. Everything from her love for her little brother to the way she spoke Spanish. Hell, it got to the point where she could read Shakespeare and I would just listen so I could spend time with her. And I hated Shakespeare for the longest time.
What I never expected though was for her to feel the same.
"You like me, right?" The question was so sudden as I found myself leaning against the passenger side door for support within that moment. My heart was pounding within my chest as the sunset behind the lightly shorter girl. She seemed to have this halo effect from the sun even though her black and blue skull t-shirt, leather jacket, and ripped-up black skinny jeans would tell anyone else otherwise. It took me a moment to even realize she had asked the question as my mind was too preoccupied with just how beautiful she looked within that moment.
"I-. I mean. Of course, I like you. I wouldn't be sneaking out late at night if I didn't like hanging out with you."
"You're a smart guy, Jim. You know what I mean." I felt my face flush as she took a step closer to me. I found myself scratching the back of my neck nervously as I started to stutter out a reply.
"I-I mean yeah, I like you. L-Like, you're really pretty and everything but like I just always thought you didn't see us like that or anything so I just kind of kept it to myself. But I'm not like a shallow guy or anything and only like you for your looks or anything like that because well you're really cool and everything-." I didn't notice within all of this that she had grabbed the collar to my white t-shirt before placing her left hand onto the car as if to give herself leverage as she then captured my lips with relative ease. I was in shock for the first moment as my eyes widened in reply until I felt her right hand let go of my shirt collar and slipped her hand around my collar bone and to the back of my neck. After that, it sunk in that this was reality and I allowed myself to lose myself in the feeling. I started to kiss her back as I closed my eyes gently. It was then I was able to note just how soft her lips were as I felt the corner of her mouth twitch upwards for a moment before she pulled back suddenly to give me a small smirk. Her right hand was still placed firmly around my neck but her left hand now found itself over the right side of my chest.
"You talk too much." I felt a small chuckle escape me as we both leaned it to capture each other's lips once more. This time I allowed myself to place my hands on her waist under her leather jacket as I held her there gently before me. The small smile she gave against my lips told me enough that she enjoyed the small gesture. What had started as one simple kiss had turned into several as she wrapped her arms around my neck and brought herself closer against me. All I could do in reply was react on autopilot as my lips simply followed hers as my hands gripped probably a little too tight on her waist. She didn't seem to mind though as it took the lack of air for us to separate from each other. A small smile danced on her lips as her left hand found itself onto my left cheek as a dopey smile found itself onto my face. I knew I was smiling like a fool but I felt as if I didn't really need to keep my cool anymore with the girl before me. "And that wasn't too difficult, now was it?" She whispered out to me as her thumb grazed over my cheek gently. I couldn't help but chuckle as I kept my hands on her waist.
"Trust me, if I thought it was that easy, I would have done it months ago." A smirk appeared on her face as she then brought her right hand up to cup my other cheek.
"Months huh? How about we make up for lost time then?" All I could do was widen my smile in reply before a soft giggle escaped her before allowing herself to take up her own offer. Our lips found each other once more. The feel of her leather jacket sleeves on the back of my neck mixed with her lips on mine being my new favorite feelings to have ever been given to me.
Then there were moments like now that would compete with moments like that one for my favorites.
My hands danced on her clothed waist as she sat within my lap. Her fingers were tangled within my hair as she seemed to tug on it gently every time our lips would separate between kisses. Her legs were on either side of me as my back was leaning against the headboard. To most guys, moments like these after a year of being with someone wouldn't excite them enough. But for me, every time we would kiss would cause me to become light-headed. It didn't matter if they were fleeting kisses she would give me when we were at school or those like these that turned us both into panting messes. I never needed anything more or anything less from her and even though if it was known we have nothing done anything more than this that I would be toyed with, I wouldn't mind. I never needed anything more than a few kisses to make it known that she still felt the same. I would never pressure her for more and Lord knows I would even settle for just simple hugs if it would make her happy. After a few minutes, we found ourselves placing our foreheads against one another as we just laughed lightly at how giddy we still were just to enjoy each other. A genuine smile appeared on her face as she combed her fingers through my hair seemingly without much thought to it.
"I love you, Jim." I felt a large smile appear on my face as if I had won the greatest award a man could be given within the universe.
Well, technically, I was. I always felt that way when she said she loved me because that was the only thing I could ever wish for since I was fourteen years old.
"I love you too, Claire." This caused a joyous smile to appear on her lips before she captured mine in a quick kiss before placing her head beside mine with a content sigh. I just decided to rub circles into her back with my left hand as I just enjoyed the feel of her against me.
Claire Maria Nuñez wasn't someone to mess with. Everyone knew it and it was all mutually agreed upon that she was one hell of a force to be reckoned with.
But I never knew that the pure love she gave to everything she has ever done would be something I would be given by the Latina. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way though.
Cause I loved Claire Maria Nuñez and Claire Maria Nuñez loved me.