𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚒 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚌𝚔 𝚊𝚝 𝚊 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚠𝚘 — 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚟
✧ — 𝚖𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝
✮ a/n: this is surprisingly fluffy. sorry about inserting another zelda game into a fic, it will happen again. majora’s mask my actual beloved <33
✮ cw: nothing i can think of for this one, it's pretty clean apart from a bit of dirty talk at the end
✮ wc: 2.8k
like clockwork matty’s gone when jules wakes up.
she doesn’t mind it all that much. at least that’s what she tells herself. it’s not like he’s her boyfriend, it’s not like he’s obligated to stay and give her morning cuddles or make her breakfast in bed. (not like max had ever done any of those things either)
but jules shrugs it off and gets dressed. she has a whole day ahead of her and work too.,she can’t just dwell on silly little things like these.
her day goes without a hitch. to her utter relief, carly doesn’t ask anything about any…noises she might have heard the night before. then again she’s busy on the phone arguing with someone when jules enters the living room.
“packers and movers,” she mouths, crease between her brow, and jules is suddenly reminded that in two weeks time, she’ll be alone here. carly will be gone.
she feels a little tinge of sadness, but she’s happy for her friend. she knows how much this means to carly.
throughout her entire shift at the local hmv, she goes through a throng of emotions—nervousness over living alone, excitement over having the house to herself, sadness over not having her friend right there. the entire time she does things on autopilot, dividing her time between thinking about her situationship with matty, and thinking about living alone for a change.
when jules returns from her shift, carly is on the phone again, loudly complaining by the sounds of it.
“babe, they’re trying to rob me blind!” is all she catches from carly before jules makes her way to her bedroom, turning on her 3ds and loading up her second run of majora’s mask.
before jules relaxes and buries herself under the blankets, she sends matty a text.
jules: u up?
matty: not in london for the rest of the week :(
she frowns. not that she should know about his whereabouts at all times like a girlfriend would, but she would have thought he’d say something. then again, perhaps it’s best he keeps her at arms length—she’d do well to learn that too, not let him in so quick despite all his flirting and sweet talk.
dawn of the second day, 48 hours remain flashes on her screen. jules cracks her knuckles and casts matty out of her thoughts.
the rest of the week she spends much in the same way, stuck in the same routine—she has work and then some other things to do, then she hangs out with carly, lets her vent about how expensive moving is.
“i’ll help you,” jules declares, “fuck those packers and movers, we can pack up your stuff.”
“it’s so much though!” carly whines, dramatically throwing her head onto jules’ lap. jules strokes her hair. it’s poofy and unruly, but one by one she smoothes the clumps of curls with her fingers.
“why don’t you ask adam for help?”
carly hums noncommittally. “i think i will, maybe rope his friends in too.”
for a bit they’re both quiet, thinking about two very different things jules imagines.
“flowers came for you today,” carly mumbles, head still on jules’ lap. jules wrinkles her nose.
“from max?”
“mm, chrysanthemums, i think. i put them in your room.”
chrysanthemums… that’s certainly new. maybe max thought buying her newer, better flowers instead of an actual apology would help.
it still surprises her that he keeps sending flowers. sporadic as it is, even after six months of radio silence from her side, after six months of blocking him completely and moving on even if it’s partial.
“i guess one more bouquet for the storage closet,” she shrugs and carly frowns at her.
“you’ve been keeping them?”
“leaving them to rot, more like…”
“jules,” carly sits up, looking at her with more than a little skepticism, “you’re not… you’re not holding on are you? because trust me, that boy—”
“i’m not.” jules declares, her voice firm. and she means it too. it pains her that such a big part of her life is over, but she doesn’t miss max as much as she thought she would. and sure she thinks about him occasionally—a voice at the back of her head telling her to do things a certain way—but that doesn’t mean she’s holding on.
“i just haven’t gotten round to disposing of them yet.”
“sure,” carly mumbles. “but the more you keep it jules the more the rot is going to spread. that closet’s gonna smell horrid.”
“i know, i—” she holds onto carly’s hand, giving it a firm squeeze, “i’m gonna clean it okay? soon.”
and they leave it at that. jules promises she will help with the packing. she even manages to feel absolutely nothing when she chucks the flowers in the closet. there’s a whiff of decay though, not strong enough to make her eyes water, but definitely strong enough that she can’t keep doing this for much longer. besides, she’s already gotten rid of all the sunflowers immediately, she can do the same with the others.
it's sunday, she deserves to relax first.
jules starfishes on her bed, holding the nintendo right in front of her to load up the game. her fingers move deftly on the buttons, going through the motions almost on autopilot until her eyes close of their own accord. until sleep weighs heavy on her limbs.
she doesn’t know when she sets the 3ds aside and dozes off.
jules wakes up to sounds coming from outside her room—male voices, and then carly—going back and forth about something. she frowns and gets up, smoothing the wrinkles of her t-shirt and opens her door.
it creaks louder than it ever has, and just like that, she’s there in the corridor, with five pairs of eyes staring right at her.
carly, adam, ross, george and matty.
matty.
staring at her with a strange look in his eyes, like he’s seeing her for the first time. subconsciously, she pats her hair down, realising it’s still a little mussed from sleep and pulls the long sleeves of her t-shirt over her hands. a nervous habit.
“hi…” she raises her hand nervously. carly breaks the silence first.
“oh my god, sorry! i was going to tell you they were coming over to help me move some stuff,” she smiles a little guiltily, “did we wake you up?”
jules waves her off, stifling a tiny yawn. matty’s still staring at her, still unable to look away. does she have something on her face? something stuck in her hair?
“do you remember them?” carly asks, about to reintroduce. and sure, it’s fair because she is seeing adam, ross and george after a good few months. matty though…
she sneaks another glance at him, only for him to quickly look away and stare at his feet. from the corner of her eye she sees george frowning at him.
jules nods, politely repeating her hellos. “do you need help?”
when carly nods, jules joins them, passing by matty to follow her into her room. he looks up, properly staring at her for the first time and smiles. she notices the little crinkles by his eyes, notices how his hair has grown a little more in the week she hasn’t seen him. it’s curled more than before, and jules has the most peculiar urge to reach out and touch it. to tug on it just to hear him hiss.
she’ll have to do that the next time he’s in her bed.
“hi jules,” he whispers in the same sing-song voice he always does, so close behind her that his breath practically tickles the nape of her neck.
she almost grins, biting her lip. “hi matty.”
his hand grazes her elbow, almost like he’s going to pull her into his chest and start fucking her here in the middle of the corridor, in broad daylight while their friends are a few feet away. jules shakes the thoughts away, schooling her face into a bright, friendly smile once she enters carly’s room.
“alright!” carly stands with a determined look on her face, hands on her hips and her face twisted into a frown of concentration. she looks so endearing, jules almost coos at her.
“ross and george, i need you to help me with furniture.”
a little group mumble of ‘yes, ma’am’ follows which she acknowledges with a sarcastic smile.
“adam and i will pack my clothes,” she looks at him, this time with a real, tiny smile. then she stares at jules, and at matty who’s standing right next to her.
“matty and jules, need you to pack my things in the kitchen. she will know what’s mine.”
they both stare at each other and then back at carly, nodding once. jules wonders if everyone in the room can tell they’ve been fucking each other. is it obvious on their faces? does she have it written on her forehead or something? does matty?
but even as she lets momentary paranoia consume her thoughts, she knows she’s overthinking. everyone else is busy doing their assigned tasks, even matty is half-way out of the room.
there’s also that weird little nervous flutter that she feels. she’s only spent time with him to have sex. never… never otherwise.
“did you have a good week?” she asks, her voice an almost practised level of polite. matty falters mid-step.
“yes…?”
“mmm, good.”
and then she clams up again, unsure what else to say.
“is—”
“you—”
they both speak at the same time, stopping and staring at each other wide-eyed. jules clears her throat. “you go first.”
“you alright?” he cocks his head in confusion. “you’re being so weird.”
oh god he can tell she’s overthinking and over-analysing, can’t he!?
“you’re being weird!” she retorts. real fucking clever, jules! matty, predictably, frowns some more, and takes a step towards her.
she almost thinks he’s going to kiss her then, a casual little kiss that absolutely leads to nothing sexual. but that would be breaking a major rule. besides, all he does is brush a little strand of hair away from her forehead and tucks it behind her ear.
the entire thing takes about half a second. and yet to jules it feels like the longest time ever that she stands here with sunlight streaming in the kitchen and matty about six inches away from her.
“alright, i won’t push,” he holds his hands up by his side, like he’s surrendering.
and as much as it bothers her that she doesn’t know what to talk to him about when they’re not having sex, for that, she is still grateful.
“i can do this!” matty declares with renewed determination.
the two giant cardboard boxes that carly assigned to them have been sitting on the kitchen floor for nearly ten minutes now. jules and matty stare at them as if they’re mentally preparing themselves for the battle—no, the war—they’re about to face.
if it were possible, jules is sure they’d both have eye of the tiger playing in their heads in perfect sync.
“we can do this!” he jumps in place twice to pump himself up, slaps his chest like some prized fighter about to enter the cage. jules snorts.
“can we?” she asks, scepticism clear in her voice and winces when matty narrows his eyes at her.
“jules, no…” he sighs, “where’s your can-do attitude?!”
and those really are famous last words. he is especially determined because he was the one to declare—quite proudly, if she remembers correctly—that they will not “cross the box budget” (whatever that means). and now here they stand, figuring out ways to tetris everything into the two boxes that are frankly…not big enough…
jules bites her lip, stifles a smile.
“let’s do this then. us against the…oh, what is it? a game of kitchen tetris? yeah, us against…that.”
while matty stands there, hands on his hips and glaring at the boxes, jules takes the time to look at him. his hair is just as unruly as always, curls sticking in all sides and still so perfect. he’s once again in a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a band t-shirt (fugazi)—an utterly mouth-watering combination, if she’s being honest.
but he’s determined to win this imaginary fight against the boxes and so she picks up a set of plates and stares at one of the boxes in concentration too.
matty hovers behind her, mirroring her position while his chin rests practically on top of her head and mumbling something to himself.
“it’s not the boss of us,” he whispers; eyes crazy and hair even crazier as they stick in all directions. he does look like a bit of a mad scientist. it’s an almost impossible task to not laugh out loud when he scratches his chin. jules keeps her snort to herself.
“we should start,” she turns to him, stealing a little look at him again, allowing herself the indulgence of lingering on his face. he really does look so domestic in the soft light of the kitchen.
domestic… jules shakes her head and clears the thought away just as fast as it came. she has no business thinking about domestic and matty in the same sentence.
“we should,” he agrees.
“so i think,” she sets the plates down in one of the boxes, “we should put big things in one box and the smaller ones in the other…”
“no but then one of the boxes would be more crammed.”
“matty!” she crosses her arms in front of her chest, “there aren’t a lot of big things. there are a lot of small things!”
“jules!” he mimics her position, swooping down so their noses are almost touching, “we’ll sort the bigger things out first and then cram the smaller things into corners.”
she throws her hands up, exasperated. “that might break things!”
“we have bubble wrap!”
“matthew,” she cuts him off, a little surprised she’s used his full name, but she’s too deep into this now, almost on the tip of her toes to glare a bit better at him, “i will whack you with this pan. listen to me!”
that seems to break his resolve. in a split second, matty’s mouth stretches into a grin and he giggles, he laughs like an imp, backing away just a smidge. “you’re so cute when you threaten.”
jules blinks, completely speechless, and matty grabs her jaw, tracing his thumb over her bottom lip, dragging it down. “so hot too… we’ll have to try that next time, i think.”
it really should bother her more how quickly he disarms her. because in one second jules goes from wanting to whack him in the head to wanting to be absolutely railed on the kitchen counter. her cheeks heat up, so does the rest of her body.
“you’d like that?” she asks, voice quivering, “for me to be a little more commanding?”
“jules…” his voice is equally as breathy, fanning her face while he backs her into the kitchen counter. the marble digs into the small of her back, matty’s chest presses into hers. jules exhales, feeling the familiar heat coiling in her stomach.
“i’ve thought about you,” he swallows roughly, “thought about fucking you every day of this miserable week, i–” matty chokes.
jules wishes she could kiss the shit out of him right there. but that would be breaking a rule. as much as she wants it, they can’t go at it right here like horny rabbits while everyone else is right in the next room.
“thought about how you taste, jules,” matty continues, voice so low it’s almost a growl. her skin feels like it’s on fire.
“i—” she almost whimpers, trying to desperately tell him what she wants.
a split second passes and matty flinches, stepping back completely.
“everything alright?” it takes her a moment that it’s not matty she’s hearing, it’s george, staring at them with confusion written all over his face. jules tries to discreetly clear her throat.
“yeah, mate, just figuring things out,” matty waves him off. george stares at him with a strange smile on his face.
“we could hear you bickering all the way in carly’s room.”
jules still feels like she can’t speak without giving herself away. so she just laughs, the sound fake and unnaturally high.
“we’re good,” matty nods at him. “we’re good, right jules?”
“hmm? yes.” she cringes at the sound of her voice, smiling blankly at george and hoping he believes her.
“sure,” he shrugs and leaves. jules tries to control her thudding heart and swallow through her dry mouth.
“let’s pack this, shall we?” matty winks at her like nothing’s just happened, like he’s all calm and composed even though she can see the evidence of it quite clearly. jules doesn’t push it though. she just busies herself into the packing.
the rest, she can figure that out later.
40 notes
·
View notes