Back in the bar, North still sat there. He hadn't even having touched his beer and was desperately trying to process what had just happened.
North had asked Ala out to go to the bar. He hadn't really been able to put it into words, but he had asked her out on a date. He wanted to tell her that tonight.
What he couldn't say was when things had gone so horribly wrong.
They were dancing and enjoying each other's company. They were dancing so close, their upper bodies almost touching. He had felt awesome when they had danced like that.
He had also felt great when they were sitting in the booth and talking about everything and nothing all at the same time. They had been laughing and he had felt so lighthearted and lightheaded like he hadn't felt in years.
Theta was right, he really was whipped…
But when Ala left to get another drink, and North had to admit to himself that he had been checking her out while she walked away, another girl had suddenly sat down beside him.
She was absolutely not his type, but she was fucking clingy. And being the fucking nice guy that he was, he had tried to be nice and start up a conversation.
He didn't really know when it happened since he already was a bit buzzed. He never really had been much of a drinker, but his body size had made him be able to drink more than others without being completely plastered.
But not having drunken something alcoholic in months probably had set his tolerance a lot lower and reduced his reaction time quite a bit.
Which probably was why he didn't notice Sugar turning his head and kissing him. And it probably also explained why he didn't notice Ala until she put the drinks down with an audible bang.
North jumped at that, looking at her with wide and round eyes, feeling caught red handed while Sugar looked not at all impressed.
This action of Ala's, however, made him sober up immediately as though he had been put in a fucking heap of snow.
They shortly had a discussion about Sugar and North enjoying the night, while North still desperately tried to get his bearings in check.
Before he had managed to find his way back into reality, Alaska was already gone and Sugar was again trying to turn his head to kiss him when Theta decided to interject.
'You goddamn fucking idiot!' For once North didn't even have the reaction to chide the Fragment for his language, 'Move your fucking ass and go after her, asshole, or you're going to lose her!' Theta screamed in his head, giving North a start.
With a mumbled excuse, he jumped up and snatched his jacket up too. He practically ran out of the bar.
Luckily he already knew the way from the bar back to the apartment, so he ran without really paying attention to his surroundings.
His thoughts were running full tilt about what had just happened and he was desperately trying to process them. When he did understand the situation fully, he would have loved to beat himself up.
How could he have been so fucking stupid?! He had more than one chance to seal the deal and now Ala thought he was not interested in her!
'Stop being so fucking polite all the time!' Theta also started berating the Freelancer, 'She's been waiting for you to make the first move for forever and now you majorly fucked up everything!'
Growling in his thoughts, he sped up a little bit, trying not to look like he was running from something but wanting to get to the apartment as fast as possible.
'I know I fucked up, okay?! I only tried not to overwhelm her!'
Theta sighed, and it sounded long and suffering, 'I know that. I know how much of a polite idiot you are sometimes.'
North frowned at Theta's choice of words, but decided not to comment on them.
Theta continued as he took his silence as a cue to continue, 'But sometimes being polite is only going to get people hurt, like in this situation. Sometimes you need to be a bit more demanding, North. You could have prevented this situation if you had been a bit more offensive.'
'What if she wouldn't have liked me that way? It would have been awkward.'
'And what do you think is the situation now?' Theta replied dryly, deciding to shut his trap when North reached the door and took the spare key out of the box of the alarm system.
Right. If he would have been more offensive and she hadn't liked him that way, it would have been awkward. But they're both grown up people, they would have gotten over it.
But now, with him being so polite all the time, he had majorly screwed up everything. He had known that Ala liked him. Her reactions during the last few days had made that pretty clear and he had wanted to make everything perfect.
And instead he had screwed up gloriously.
Standing in the entry way of the apartment, he looked around—a bit lost.
It was completely dark and quiet in there.
Was Ala even here? Or did she run off somewhere else?
Looking around, Theta then informed him that she was outside on the lounge.
'You better make up quickly. She's fucking crying.' North could almost touch Theta's anger. He could understand it in this situation and he didn't hold it against Theta.
Besides him, Alaska had been his closest friend and he loved her like he loved North. And now his best friend had screwed things up so stupidly. He could understand why the Fragment was angry with him and he had all right to be.
Theta again returned to the background, saying that he would observe and intervene if necessary but that he wanted North to fucking fix his own shit.
North sighed lowly. The two people who were closest to him were either angry or hurt because of him.
Slowly making his way over to the door, he poked his head out. What he could see made his gut and conscience twist.
Alaska was sitting there on the lounge, a quilt wrapped around her tightly and she was staring off into the distance.
In the dim moonlight falling on her face, he could make out tears rolling down her cheeks. Said cheeks were wet from crying.
Walking over carefully, as if approaching an injured animal, he sat down beside her.
She didn't move, her eyes not even once looking over at him. Those vivid blue eyes he loved to look into when they were talking together, reading the emotions in them: the joy, the happiness, the mirth…
Now they looked positively dull. As though they had lost their luster.
When he sat down, Ala pulled the quilt a bit tighter around her and still stared off into the distance.
"Wow, you were pretty fast." Her voice was breathy, probably from crying.
"I didn't hook up with Sugar. She's not even my type." North answered, feeling guilt pool in his stomach.
"You looked pretty close back there, you know?" Her voice didn't carry any of the emotions or the fire that it used to when she normally was talking.
"She was being clingy and I was trying to be nice." North rubbed his palms together.
"And being the nice guy that you are, you tried to be nice to her since she looked so lost." Ala still was staring off into the distance with tears still rolling down her cheeks, "In case you hadn't noticed, she's a fucking prostitute. She's the local hoodrat." She bit out, standing up abruptly and looking as though she wanted to leave to another place as far away from North as possible.
'Don't let her leave!'
North growled in his head that he knew that too, jumping up only moments after Ala and grabbing her arm.
What made his worry grow was the fact that she wasn't even fighting him. She always would fight him during sparring or when they were fooling around and he grabbed her in any way that she didn't want him to.
He could see how her shoulders and head tilted forward and how she drew a shuddering breath. What she said then made his heart twist with guilt.
"You are only responsible for what you do. And I am responsible for what I feel. It was my fault for falling in love with you and thinking that this time we spent together meant the same to you as it did to me."
With a weak jerk, she freed her hand, slowly walking away, but only managing to walk some steps before she suddenly was whirled around.
It hadn't taken North so long to process what Ala meant with her words. When he saw her walking away, he decided to 'Fuck it, I'm done playing the Nice Guy here!' and surged forward, grabbing her right arm with his left and whirling her around.
Before she even was able to gain her footing, North had an arm around her waist and another one on her face, pressing his lips to hers in a strong, yet loving kiss.
For the first moment, the woman was frozen in place from shock, not replying to the kiss that North initiated. He slowly pulled away, bringing just enough space between them so he could talk, although he pulled her as close as possible to him.
"I didn't want to overwhelm you. That's why I waited so long. And, fuck, I realize now that I almost fucked everything up. I'm sorry! I asked you out tonight because I wanted to tell you that I love you too, but I didn't imagine in my dreams that—"
He couldn't continue his rambling any longer as his lips were sealed by Ala's, kissing him with tears rolling down her face and a smile on her lips.
When they parted again to breathe, Ala pressed her face into his neck. They both were pretty tall, but Ala still was a bit shorter so she reached only his nose when she was standing straight.
It was the perfect height for her to lean against him the way she did.
He could feel her hands going up to his chest, fisting the shirt there with her hands when another couple of tears started to fall down and she drew a shuddering breath.
Now wrapping both of his arms around her, he only whispered to her, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
He chanted that over and over again, holding her close while she was crying.
"I'm sorry." He muttered again when he felt like Alaska had calmed down a bit.
There was another shuddering breath, "It's okay. It just fucking hurt to see you like that."
"I can see that." North muttered, feeling his cheeks warming up in embarrassment.
"It's okay, seriously." North couldn't help but smile when he heard a giggle bubbling up inside Alaska's chest, "It hurt, sure, but you made up for it." The black haired woman laughed again, "You're just a fucking dork sometimes, you know that?"
With that question, she looked up at him and he couldn't help but smile.
The emotions and the fire were back in her voice and in her eyes, although her eyes were still red and puffy from crying.
"I was told that earlier." He started to laugh too at that question, before again pulling the black haired woman into another kiss.
From there on, it started escalating. Their kiss soon turned into something more passionate, more fervent.
They were stumbling back to Alaska's room, shedding their layers of clothing on their way there until they landed in her bed, kissing.
Both were incredibly eager and game for what they were doing and what they were about to do.
When the sun started to pour through the closed curtains, the young black haired female slowly started to wake up.
She was lying on her right side, feeling someone pressed closely up against her back with strong arms wrapped around her.
She didn't need to open her eyes to know who it was. That knowledge brought a smile to her lips.
Okay, it had started off horribly and she had felt like her heart was going to tear into pieces. Like it would shatter in the very next second that she breathed. She hadn't noticed where she ran to, ending up in front of her door. Without thinking she punched in the code to shut down the alarm and entered the apartment. She ended up on the lounge, wrapping a quilt around her shoulders and trying to block out everything coming from the outside in order to try and make the pain disappear by sheer force of will.
…That was until North appeared and sat down beside her, when she felt the last piece of her mental strength crumbling away from him just being there.
She had wanted to shout at him, to rage and throw things around. But she didn't have any strength left to do so. So she had just said what she said.
In the end, it turned out better than she would have ever expected in her dreams.
North had kissed her, confessing his feelings after she said that she loved him.
And well… things went towards the bedroom after that.
Sighing happily, she moved a bit so her back was pressing up more against North's chest, her smile widening a notch when she felt his grip around her waist tighten a bit at her action.
However, aside from him tightening his grip around her, North seemed fast asleep.
Which was when Theta decided to show up.
Luckily, they were covered up to their chests so Ala was pretty much decent. She wouldn't have wanted Theta to see anything more.
When she noticed the flicker of violet in front of her when Theta materialized, she opened her eyes slowly.
She felt a headache pound behind her eyes from the alcohol and the crying, but she decided to shove that aside. It wasn't that bad, she could easily ignore it.
"Good morning, Theta." Ala greeted the little Fragment with a low voice only to not wake North up.
"Hey." said Fragment greeted, sitting down on the mattress beside Ala's hand and letting his legs dangle off the edge.
It took a while until Theta finally started, "I am glad North finally managed to confess what he feels for you." He told her, making Ala observe him with an attentive glint in her eyes.
"You know, he tends to be overly polite and protective when he really likes someone. His politeness often stands in his own way." The Fragment continued, sighing deeply when he said the next words, "He's just a fucking dork sometimes."
This caused Ala to snort and start to laugh lowly, trying to keep her volume down in order to not wake the sleeping Freelancer they were currently talking about.
Theta threw her a bewildered glare nonetheless and she had to explain herself, "I said that to him yesterday and he said that he had gotten called that already earlier. I guess that was you then?"
"Well, yeah." Theta said then, laughter bubbling up in his chest and making Ala smile, "I haven't quite gotten what you talked about since I logged off when I was sure that this idiot would be able to handle the situation on his own."
"Thanks, Theta." Alaska said then, smiling happily. She was happy that North and she had been able to share this special moment together without anyone else observing them.
"You know I still can dig through North's memories." Theta stated simply, which caused Ala to grin her lopsided grin.
"Have fun trying. I'm sure North is going to fight tooth and nail to keep you away from that."
"Right." Theta laughed again. "He probably thinks I am too young to see something like that." He snorted at that, "But when he was unconscious, I went through all his memories, like the ones of his girlfriend back before the military. Besides, I had a fair share of his fantasies when he checked you out."
Ala coughed at that, making the Fragment laugh, although this was a dirty and mischievous laugh.
"Some people in here are trying to sleep." North grumbled against Ala's neck, not really moving otherwise.
Alaska laughed, while Theta only snorted and muttered, "You're such a morning grouch." before getting up.
The black haired woman turned around and kissed the Freelancer "hello" when he was a bit more coherent.
"Mh…" Alaska sighed into the kiss.
They soon parted, this kiss being far from simple, but not triggering anything else.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked then, which caused North to smile happily.
"More than well." He muttered, pulling her closer again. He soon braced his weight on his forearm to look over the still lying woman to the fragment.
Theta again laughed lowly, before turning his head to North when he spoke to him, "Since when have you been back online?"
"Don't worry, North, I haven't been eavesdropping." Theta replied, looking over to North over Ala's shoulder, "I just came back online and talked a bit with her since you wouldn't let her go."
This caused the black haired woman to laugh under her breath and shake her head while North huffed in annoyance and looked away from both of them, "So? Is it so bad to want to keep my girlfriend close?"
Yeah, it felt good to think of North being her boyfriend and she being his girlfriend. It caused a goofy grin to appear on her lips.
"There's nothing bad about that. I just wanted to say that I could go through your memories still if I wanted to know what happened here." Theta replied deliberately, the mischievous undertone not lost on either of them.
North's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Don't you dare." his voice turned dark.
This caused Ala to burst out with laughter with Theta soon after joining in while North looked at both of them totally baffled, "What's with you guys now? Since when have you been teaming up against me?"
Gasping for air, Ala managed to breathe out, "We're not teaming up against you." She took another minute until she continued, "I just told Theta some minutes ago that you would fight tooth and nail to keep him from those memories. It was just hilarious that you confirmed my previous statement so clearly."
It took the still sleepy-looking North some moments to process that information.
When he did, he breathed out a 'Heh!' before flopping back on the bed, bringing the black haired woman with him who had turned around when she kissed him after waking up.
Lying back down, she rested her head on North's chest, listening to the slow thumping of his heart.
Theta appeared on the other side of the bed, sitting with them and chatting a little bit longer before both of the humans decided to take another nap. Theta decided to do the same, logging off soon after.
Cuddling closer, the black haired woman let out a contended sigh.
She could feel North's lips press against her forehead, and she leaned up to get rewarded with a real kiss this time.
Alaska could feel a hand cupping her face, while the other hand around her waist pulled her closer.