It was well past midnight, and Victoire had been tossing and turning for a solid ten minutes. She knew that by many people's standards, that was not a lot of time at all, but she didn't really do tossing and turning. If she couldn't get to sleep immediately, she stopped trying until she could.

She also knew that Gallagher was still awake, because he'd said he was planning to read for a bit before going to sleep.

So rather than keep trying, she reached out to grab her phone.

She knew, logically, that she was probably being ridiculous. She had known him for two fucking days, and he'd spent the past three hours texting her. He was probably sick of talking to her. She wasn't even sure if he'd have spent as much time talking to her as he had if there hadn't been the election anxiety to grapple with.

But it was worth a try, since she'd found that she quite liked the sound of his voice.

Even though her performance in their game the day before had radically deteriorated as she'd become more and more preoccupied by the idea of hearing him moan her name.

He picked up immediately. "Hey?"

"Hey," she said. "Sorry - I know you're kind of a morning person and probably want to go to bed soon, and you just spent half the evening texting me - I just can't sleep. It's fine if you don't want to talk."

She heard the smile in his voice, which went a long way toward alleviating her anxiety. "So am I the first person you thought of, or are all the normal people who don't hit on their poll workers asleep?"

She giggled. "Both. And the hitting on me wasn't that weird - it was the following up. That part was just you."

"I don't know whether I'm more surprised that it's not that weird or that I'm the only person who followed up."

"This was our first year poll working - give it time."

He was silent for a moment, and she considered asking if the concept was making him feel a little jealous. She decided not to - she didn't know him well enough to know how he'd take the question, and she knew that he didn't know her well enough to know how to respond. "So why did you decide to do poll working during a pandemic?" he asked. "I mean, it's really cool - I'm just curious."

Victoire felt her face get a little hot. "I wanted to get a date, and it seemed like the easiest way." He let out a snort of laughter, and she added, "No, seriously - we decided that since we're both pretty healthy, it's the least we can do."

"We?"

"Well, I mean, I think it was Fred's idea, so then I had to do it too."

She thought it sounded like he was smiling again. She wished she could see it - she liked his smile in pictures. "Is this a situation where if your cousin doesn't like me, you'll never speak to me again?"

"Probably," she said. "So make a good impression when you meet him."

It took Gallagher a moment to respond to that, too. She was just regretting the implication behind her word choice when he said, "I - yeah. I mean, like, if you seriously want me to meet him, it's fine if you don't. Unless I'm paying way too much attention to word choice at one in the morning. Then please just ignore me."

So it had been the insecure kind of pause, not the 'you're making this into something it isn't' kind of pause. That was comforting. "Do you want to go on video?" she asked without thinking. "It'd be nice to see your face."

He was doing a lot of hesitating before responding. She hoped that meant that he was anxious because he liked her, not because he thought she was being obnoxious. "Yeah, if - can you give me a few? I'll call you back."

"Sure."

Victoire had always had a problem where she didn't really think about what she saying until the words had already left her mouth - Fred had started teasing her about consistently being the least subtle person in the room when they were teenagers, and he'd never stopped.

This was one of those times. She would have much preferred to look her best if she was going to facetime with him, and just then, she definitely didn't look her best. Her hair was still damp from her shower, and she wasn't wearing any makeup at all.

But there was no going back on it now.

Or if there was, she didn't want to.

Instead of getting caught up in her anxiety, she reached over to turn her bedside lamp on. Once she'd decided that the lighting was acceptable, she yanked the neckline of her shirt down a little and propped herself up on her elbows.

It was silly and shallow. It also had its desired impact: when she picked up his call a few minutes later, he opened his mouth and closed it again without saying anything.

She'd spent more time than she particularly wanted to admit to flitting between obsessively scrolling through his instagram and avoiding it as though he could see her staring at him in the pictures, but seeing him here was different, and her nerves were starting to bubble up. It was nice to have a moment to collect herself.

It occurred to her that this was probably the first time she'd ever been glad to have a man focus on her chest rather than her face.

"Hi," he managed.

"Hi." She forced herself to swallow. "Why'd you need a few minutes?"

He looked a little flushed. "I wanted to wash my face, fix my hair, and find a shirt."

She was quickly realizing that this kind of honesty was pretty consistent from him, and she was finding that she really enjoyed it. "Oh. I mean - you didn't have to find a shirt."

He let out a snort of laughter and dropped his phone onto his bed. She heard a rustle of clothing, and then he picked his phone up again.

She immediately felt her heart start to speed up. Most people she knew had lost a fair bit of muscle during the pandemic. Judging from his pre-pandemic instagram pictures and what she was seeing now, though, he wasn't one of them.

"What?" he asked, shifting uncomfortably.

She felt her face flush. "You're - uh - really - yeah."

She saw him swallow. "Can you help me out on whether that's a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Good thing," she said quickly. "No, it's a good thing."

Some tension seemed to leave his body. "Oh, thank fuck."

"Yeah," she said quickly. "Yeah, no, I - you're one of those people who hated the gyms being closed, aren't you?"

He grinned. "Yeah. We've got an okay home setup - Van has weird work hours - but it's not like the actual gym."

His eyes hadn't stopped darting downward as they talked, and when she shifted and pressed her elbows together, he let out a groan.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Oh, come on." She felt a smile start to creep across her lips, and he said, "Since you told me to take off my shirt, I'm pretty sure it's not out of line to say that I want that tank top on my fucking floor."

"How about on my floor? That seems easier to manage."

"Fuck yes."

She sat up to lean against the wall and then pulled her shirt over her head. The hand on his neck dropped down as she started to circle her finger around one of her nipples. "Do you want to be here?" she asked softly. His lips were slightly parted, and she could see his chest starting to rise and fall very rapidly. "Do you want to be doing this?"

"Oh my fucking fuck, yes. I want to suck on theem and tease you until you're begging me to let you come." Heat was really rushing through her now, and she slid one of her hand between her legs. She heard him suck in his breath when she whimpered. "Then I want to slide down your body." His voice was soft. "I want to taste you and hear you moan my name when you come for me."

She wasn't sure why it was so difficult to take her eyes off his chest. "Please yes," she whimpered. "And you should never wear a shirt when we talk."

"Neither should you."

That made her giggle. "I was staring at a picture of you shirtless earlier."

"Really." She nodded. "How far back did you have to scroll to find it?" From the broad grin on his face, he had a good idea how far back she'd had to scroll.

"Do you want to talk about that, or about how I kept thinking about getting on my knees and unbuttoning your jeans so I could take you in my mouth?"

"Definitely the blowing me one. I can circle back around to tease you later."

She felt a smile spreading across her face, too. Apparently, he was good at making her laugh no matter what they were doing. "Well, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. On one hand, it's fun to think about you coming in my mouth -"

He groaned.

"- but on the other, I do like the idea of teasing you until you lose your mind and then having you push me up against the wall and fuck me. I'm so wet for you right now - I want you inside of me."

She could see his arm starting to move faster. "Say my name." His voice was soft. "Tell me you want me."

"I want you," she managed to get out. She was getting close, too, and her brain was getting very hazy. "I want you, Gallagher, I'm so wet for you right now, I want you to make me come with your tongue, I want you between my legs -"

He let out a gasp, and his head fell back to rest against the wall. "Oh my god, Vic." A bolt of warmth shot through her as he looked back at her. "Fuck, I want you in my bed right now. I'd kiss you so you could taste yourself on my tongue as I slid into you, and then I'd play with you until you came around me."

"Please," she said, closing her eyes. "Please, yes, please -"

"I want you moaning underneath me as I bury myself in you." He hadn't caught his breath yet, and something about the tremor in his voice was shooting straight through her. "I want feeling you come around me be the thing that pushes me over the edge."

Waves of pleasure coursed through her body, and he stopped talking. "That felt good," she managed to choke out.

He made a noise that sounded roughly like agreement."Fuck," he said after they'd both caught their breath. "I really, really wish there wasn't a pandemic right now."


A/N: Thanks so much for reading! Reviews/faves/follows are appreciated, and thank you especially to yellow 14 and dnck for their reviews on the last chapter! Updates every Monday.

- Branwen