Total Drama Perfect
"now three"
love love love is a word so small
let it fill up up up 'til i can't see at all
i want to be blind only my hands to guide me
bring all of you inside me
- "Now Three", Vienna Teng
Heather does three things when she sees Alejandro for the first time following his elimination from Total Drama All Stars.
The first of these is to grab him by the shirtfront and repeatedly call him a "stupid jerk" at varying levels of volume and pitch, with an obscenity or twelve interjected here and there, to the general intrigue (and, likely, the amusement) of everyone in the immediate vicinity.
Secondly, as her voice begins to grow hoarse and her grip on his collar loosens, Heather's yelling gradually begins to give way to laughter, and then she's crouching in front of him, both arms wrapped tightly around her middle and tears streaming down her cheeks, hardly caring that she's laughing so hard she can't even speak coherently, and Alejandro vaguely wonders if he's the only one concerned about her current state of mind.
And then, when her laughter begins to trail off and she's finally caught her breath, Heather stands up and reaches for his collar once again. She pulls him close and fixes him with a decidedly pointed look, except for the first time he can recall her expression is completely unreadable to him, and as he scans her face desperately for some inkling of exactly what she's thinking at that moment, Alejandro is suddenly all-too-aware of their current proximity to one another, how Heather's mouth is mere inches away from his, the way her thick, dark lashes cast such exquisite shadows across her cheekbones, and the fact that his heart his now pounding erratically in his chest - and perhaps that is the point, because to his surprise (and to the apparent disgust of everyone else around them) a split second later Heather is kissing him. It's sudden and catches him off-guard, and Alejandro can feel his teeth pressing into the inside of his lip, but that doesn't matter because Heather is actually kissing him.
Well, that was certainly unexpected.
He's too shocked to immediately respond properly, but after the initial bewilderment has passed (and he's certain that Heather's knee isn't going to end up near anything sensitive again) Alejandro feels a certain inexplicable joy welling up inside him, and he ends up returning the kiss with just as much fervor. And when they pull away from each other moments later, Alejandro knows he must look like a fool with how much he's grinning at her, but Heather's smiling just as widely back at him, and so, to paraphrase a certain timeless line - though not necessarily its context - Alejandro frankly doesn't give a damn.
"What was that about being a perfect couple?" Heather asks him, then. Her arms are still wrapped around his neck, and he thinks she's never looked more beautiful.
Alejandro settles one hand on Heather's waist and is pleased by how natural it feels to hold her like this. "I take it you don't mean this as a strategic sort of alliance, mí amor."
Heather's response is to press her lips to his once more, although now it is far softer and more gentle than before, and maybe that's why Alejandro can't hear all the retching and gagging in the background. Still, a small part of Alejandro urges him to be careful, yes, but for now he finds it perfectly acceptable to ignore it.
And so obligatory post-TDAS finale Aleheather fic is go. Lyrics are from "Now Three" by Vienna Teng.
Real talk: this isn't the first fic I've named after this song. Oh well. It's interesting, though, because the context is entirely different this time around.