kissing meme comment fic
the potential of you and me (Sports Night, Dan/Natalie, 505 words)
If there was anything Dan hated more than an awards dinner, it was an awards dinner where he wasn't going to win anything. But when Natalie walked into his office and said, "Danny, what time are you picking me up for the PrimeSports dinner," he found he didn't quite know how to say no.
And because of that, Dan found himself sitting in the ballroom of the Four Seasons, a plateful of rubbery chicken in front of him and Natalie by his side. It wasn't such a hardship to be here with her, especially not when she looked as pretty as she did tonight, he thought to himself. But no matter how pretty she was, the food was still terrible.
"Having fun?" Natalie asked, leaning over to whisper in his ear.
"Do you really want an answer to that question?" Dan countered, turning his head towards her. Her hair brushed over his cheek, and he swallowed, hard. It was all too easy to make the leap from that to thoughts about her hair brushing across other parts of his body, and he'd been having far too many of those types of thoughts lately.
Natalie wrinkled her nose at him, and then she stood, holding out her hand. "That's it, you're dancing with me."
"I really don't think that's a good idea," Dan hedged. Not a good idea was a massive understatement of how bad an idea he thought it was.
"I don't care," Natalie said, and she didn't wait for him to give her his hand, she just took it and pulled him to his feet. "Haven't you learned by now that I always know best?"
"I plead the fifth," said Dan as they walked onto the dance floor. He took her in his arms, and she looked up at him with a pleases smile.
"Coward," Natalie said affectionately. They swayed in time with the music, and after a few moments, she said, "See, is this so bad?"
"No," he answered honestly. That was the problem. It wasn't bad at all. It was distracting, her body pressed against his and the smell of her perfume and her hands around his neck. It made him want thinks that he had no business wanting. "Are you having a good time?"
"Of course I am," she said, surprise in her voice and in her eyes. "I"m here with you."
Dan stopped moving. She wasn't allowed to say things like that. It wasn't fair. "What did you mean by that?"
Natalie looked up at him, confusion written all over her face. "Danny, what --"
"Screw it," he said, and he took her face in his hands and he kissed her, there in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by virtual strangers. The five seconds it took for her to kiss him back were the longest fives seconds of his life. But then her mouth opened under his and she moved closer, and it was everything he'd never known he wanted.
After that, Dan didn't hate awards dinners quite so much.
The End (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 519 words)
The night that Harvest Fest ends, Leslie sits on the hood of her car and watches the carnies tear the rides down. She's not quite sure why she's here when everyone else is at the the Snake Hole celebrating a job well done, but somehow she doesn't want to celebrate even though she knows she should. The festival was a success and everyone's jobs are safe and she's happy, but there's a part of her too that's sad. She doesn't know why she's sad.
"Is this seat taken?" Ben asks from out of the blue, and Leslie's neck snaps towards him and she presses a hand against her suddenly beating way too fast heart.
"Ben," she says, still flustered. "Where did you come from?"
He points to his car, which is parked right next to hers and she blinks in surprise. She didn't hear that either.
"Oh," she says. She scoots over to make room for him, and then pats the hood. "Get up here already."
He smiles and sits down next to her, his body pressing warmly against hers. Not that she notices. Much. She doesn't notice much.
"It's sad to see it go," Ben says, and Leslie makes herself listen to him and not think about his body temperature.
"It is sad," she agrees. "I can't believe it's already over."
Ben nods, and he looks more torn up about this than he should be, what's going on? "I know what you mean," he says. "I feel like I just got here, and now..." He doesn't finish his sentence, so she does it for him.
"And now you're leaving," she says flatly, and suddenly she knows why she's so sad. She doesn't know if it hadn't occurred to her before tonight or if she hadn't let it occur to her before tonight, but the end of Harvest Fest means the end of Ben. She doesn't want this to be the end of Ben. She doesn't want him to go.
"And now I'm leaving," he repeats, and okay, she might be projecting, but he definitely sounds sad about it. "Leslie, I --"
"Stay," she blurts out. She says it without meaning to, without thinking about it or what it means, but the second the word leaves her mouth, she knows that it's what she wants more than anything. "Stay."
There's a look of surprise on Ben's face, like someone gave him his Christmas, birthday and Sweetums Day presents all at once, but he just shakes his head. "I can't," he says, "There's --"
She kisses him to stop him from finishing whatever ridiculous thing was going to come out of his mouth. She kisses him and he kisses her back, and it's so good, so right, and she can't believe that this was here all this time and she didn't know it. How could she not have known?
They kiss until neither of them can breathe, and then Ben rests his forehead against hers as he takes ragged breaths. "I should stay?" he asks, and all Leslie can do is nod.
This time Ben is the one that kisses her.
waffles are still better than pancakes (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 442)
On their third date, Ben tries to cook for Leslie. The thing he should have remembered, the thing he should have taken into consideration before he made her any kind of promises is this: Ben can't cook.
That's not entirely true. Ben can cook. But he can only cook the things that his mother taught him before he left for college, things like chicken soup, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, hamburgers, and macaroni and cheese. Everything else remains just beyond his abilities, and no matter how many times that he promises himself that he's finally going to learn how to cook like a grown up, he never quite gets around to it.
But Ben invites Leslie over to his crappy extended stay motel and attempts to make her waffles in his tiny kitchenette, and it's not until she's there and he has the batter all mixed that he realizes that in order to make waffles, a waffle iron is a necessary tool.
Ben looks at Leslie, who's sitting cross-legged on his bed, smiling at him like there's nowhere else she'd rather be in the world, and he looks down at the batter, and then back up at her. He doesn't want to let her down. "I think I made a mistake," he says.
"Did you forget the eggs?" Leslie asks. "Because I always forget the eggs." She shudders. "You don't want to do that, let me tell you."
"No," Ben says, shaking his head. "I didn't forget the eggs."
"What then?" Leslie asks, sliding off the bed and crossing the room to look over Ben's shoulder. "It looks right." She dips a finger into the batter and tastes it. "Tastes right, too."
"I forgot the waffle iron," Ben says sheepishly, feeling more than a little foolish. "Pretty dumb, right?"
"Nah," Leslie says. "We'll just make pancakes instead, even if they are vastly inferior to waffles." She starts to pull the bowl towards her, but he puts his hands over hers, stopping her. She looks up at him. "What --"
Ben kisses her instead of letting her finish, tilting her head back and sliding a hand into her hair. Leslie makes a noise of surprise against his mouth, but she melts into the kiss, rising up on her toes and wrapping a hand around the nape of his neck. When Ben pulls back, she looks more than a little surprised.
"What -- what was that for?" she manages to ask.
He just grins at her and steals another kiss. "Pancakes, huh?" he asks. "Good idea."
They make them together, standing over his two burner stove, and in the morning, Ben makes her eggs. He doesn't screw those up.
The Middle (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 138 words)
The first time they kiss is in the conference room, when the lights from the other offices have gone dark and the halls of City Hall have emptied. They are arguing about the upcoming budget meeting, both armed with facts and figures and color coded spreadsheets, all in an attempt to convince the other that they are right. They start on opposite sides of the conference table, but without realizing it, they both drift to the middle, until they are side by side, trading stacks of paper between them.
This is how it happens: Leslie's hair falls in her eyes, and without thinking Ben pushes it back. His hand freezes on her face, and her breath catches in her throat. They just look at each other, and they both know. When the kiss happens, they meet in the middle.
Rust Bucket (Parks and Rec, Andy/April, 251 words
It turns out April is freakishly strong. Andy didn't know that about her until one night when they're outside the Snake Hole, loading equipment into the van after a gig.
Andy sees her bend over to pick up an amp that it normally takes both Mike and Kenny to lift, and he says, "Wait, don't," but April lifts it like it's nothing and his mouth drops open. He's a little turned on right now.
"What?" April asks, after she's slid the amp into the van and turned back around to see the look on his face.
"That was super hot," Andy blurts out, taking a step cloer. "Like, incredibly super hot."
April looks pleased, but all she says is, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Andy answers, and then he kisses her, boosting her up in his arms, pressing her back against the rusty metal of the van. She wraps herself around him and presses closer, and her shirt rides up against his hands. He rubs his thumbs over the bare skin. It's warm and soft, and he really wishes they were anywhere but in a parking lot right now.
"Andy," April manages to say between kisses, and he leans their foreheads against each other. "Andy, I don't want to get tetnus and die becuase of this stupid van."
She's right. Andy knows she's right. But that doesn't mean he wants to let her go. He groans and he kisses her again before he lets her down. "We have to get a new van," he says.
what darkness lies (Bones, Cam/Sweets, 306 words)
It's not something either of them means to do. Cam is still dating Paul and Sweets is with Daisy, and neither of them are the type of person who takes those commitments lightly. Cheating is not something that either of them do lightly.
What happens is this: there is a case, one that cannot and will not be solved. The lab is inundated with bodies, and Sweets' office with contradictory evidence, and by the second week no one is sleeping.
Sweets goes to the Jeffersonian to get an update on the latest autopsy and Cam talks him through it, her face tight with strain and worry, and he can't stop himself from touching her face. "You look exhausted," he says, his fingers gentle against her skin. "You should get some sleep."
Cam shakes her head, and his hand falls away. "Can't sleep. Too much to do." Her eyes narrow. "Besides, when's the last time you slept?"
"That's different," he says, and instantly he wants the words back. He knows how they sounded by the look on her face. It's not how he meant them.
"Really, how?" she asks, her voice laced with irritation.
"You have someone who needs you," he tries to explain. It sounds trite, even to his ears. "Michelle needs you." He looks at her and he does not say, "I need you, too."
Her face softens, just a little. "People need you, too, Dr. Sweets."
He shakes his head. "Not like that."
They stare at each other for a long moment, and he doesn't know which of them moves first. But his arms are around her and hers are around him, and he kisses her with all the pent up urgency that he feels, and she kisses him back exactly the same way.
She is the one who ends it. He is the one who leaves.
I Do (Greek, Evan/Rebecca, 144 words)
It's ten years before they get married, ten years of fights and breaking up and getting back together and hating and love each other so much that there was never any room for anyone else. They were always going to end up here. They needed time to figure it out.
The ballroom at the Plaza is filled with Evan's brothers and Rebecca's sisters, and the other people that they've met and shared, the people that have become their family. When Rebecca walks down the aisle, radiant in her long, white dress, Evan's eyes go wide and the smile on his face could light up all of Manhattan. They take each other's hands, and they are married.
The officiant says, "You may kiss the bride."
Evan takes her face in his hands and he kisses her. Rebecca winds her arms around his neck and kisses him back.
last dance (Vampire Diaries, Stefan/Elena, 171 words)
They make it to the prom right before the last dance. Elena's hair is a mess and Stefan's tux is ripped at the shoulder and there is a stain that is probably blood on the front of her dress, but they are there and none of that matters. Stefan leads Elena to the center of the dance floor, and she steps into his arms, rests her head against his chest.
"I'm sorry," he whispers in here ear. "I know --"
Elena shakes her head, looks up at him. "I'm not sorry. I'm here. You're here. We're here. That's all that matters."
He smiles at that, and raises his hand to push her hair back out of her eyes. "You're beautiful, you know."
"And you're a liar," she laughs. "I love you anyway."
"I love you, too," he says, and then he bends his head to kiss her.
The music ends and the lights come up, and they keep on kissing, there in the center of it all. No one says a word.
branding (Vampire Diaries, John/Jenna, 392 words)
It's a Friday night, just past midnight, when John walks into the bar. He's not supposed to come in when Jenna is working; it's as much her rule as it is the manager's, but it has been a long day and a longer week, and he needs someone. He needs Jenna, though he will never tell her so. It isn't something he can say, and it's not something she can hear.
John can't speak and Jenna can't hear. He thinks that might be why he needs her so much. He knows it is why they will never work.
He spots Jenna at the opposite end of the bar, pulling a draft for a man whose face he can't see, but whose shirt is too tight and his hair too perfectly disheveled and John is struck with the sudden urge to punch this stranger in the face. He doesn't particularly like it. He pushes his way through the sea of people to where she is still chatting with her customer, and he knows the exact moment she spots him, because her eyes light up, just enough so that he notices.
No one who doesn't know her would notice. John knows her.
"What are you doing here?" Jenna asks, her attention immediately and firmly on him. The other man slinks away, and John tries to keep the smirk off his face. He fails.
He shrugs instead. "I wanted to see you," he says. "Is that so wrong?"
Jenna looks skeptical, and so he leans across the bar to kiss her. It's not a long kiss, or a particularly good one; the bar bites painfully into his chest and their teeth bump against each other. But it's a kiss meant for everyone else in the room, so that they know that she is his, and when he draws back, he can see in her eyes that she knows it too.
They don't speak for the rest of the night. John drinks and he watches and he waits, and when last call is announced he stays. He kisses her again, outside the bar, lining their bodies up, fitting them together in the way that he knows she likes. This is meant for them.
"Let's go home," Jenna says, and she takes his hand. He follows where she leads. She is his and he is hers, and for now, that is enough.
If there was anything Dan hated more than an awards dinner, it was an awards dinner where he wasn't going to win anything. But when Natalie walked into his office and said, "Danny, what time are you picking me up for the PrimeSports dinner," he found he didn't quite know how to say no.
And because of that, Dan found himself sitting in the ballroom of the Four Seasons, a plateful of rubbery chicken in front of him and Natalie by his side. It wasn't such a hardship to be here with her, especially not when she looked as pretty as she did tonight, he thought to himself. But no matter how pretty she was, the food was still terrible.
"Having fun?" Natalie asked, leaning over to whisper in his ear.
"Do you really want an answer to that question?" Dan countered, turning his head towards her. Her hair brushed over his cheek, and he swallowed, hard. It was all too easy to make the leap from that to thoughts about her hair brushing across other parts of his body, and he'd been having far too many of those types of thoughts lately.
Natalie wrinkled her nose at him, and then she stood, holding out her hand. "That's it, you're dancing with me."
"I really don't think that's a good idea," Dan hedged. Not a good idea was a massive understatement of how bad an idea he thought it was.
"I don't care," Natalie said, and she didn't wait for him to give her his hand, she just took it and pulled him to his feet. "Haven't you learned by now that I always know best?"
"I plead the fifth," said Dan as they walked onto the dance floor. He took her in his arms, and she looked up at him with a pleases smile.
"Coward," Natalie said affectionately. They swayed in time with the music, and after a few moments, she said, "See, is this so bad?"
"No," he answered honestly. That was the problem. It wasn't bad at all. It was distracting, her body pressed against his and the smell of her perfume and her hands around his neck. It made him want thinks that he had no business wanting. "Are you having a good time?"
"Of course I am," she said, surprise in her voice and in her eyes. "I"m here with you."
Dan stopped moving. She wasn't allowed to say things like that. It wasn't fair. "What did you mean by that?"
Natalie looked up at him, confusion written all over her face. "Danny, what --"
"Screw it," he said, and he took her face in his hands and he kissed her, there in the middle of the dance floor, surrounded by virtual strangers. The five seconds it took for her to kiss him back were the longest fives seconds of his life. But then her mouth opened under his and she moved closer, and it was everything he'd never known he wanted.
After that, Dan didn't hate awards dinners quite so much.
The End (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 519 words)
The night that Harvest Fest ends, Leslie sits on the hood of her car and watches the carnies tear the rides down. She's not quite sure why she's here when everyone else is at the the Snake Hole celebrating a job well done, but somehow she doesn't want to celebrate even though she knows she should. The festival was a success and everyone's jobs are safe and she's happy, but there's a part of her too that's sad. She doesn't know why she's sad.
"Is this seat taken?" Ben asks from out of the blue, and Leslie's neck snaps towards him and she presses a hand against her suddenly beating way too fast heart.
"Ben," she says, still flustered. "Where did you come from?"
He points to his car, which is parked right next to hers and she blinks in surprise. She didn't hear that either.
"Oh," she says. She scoots over to make room for him, and then pats the hood. "Get up here already."
He smiles and sits down next to her, his body pressing warmly against hers. Not that she notices. Much. She doesn't notice much.
"It's sad to see it go," Ben says, and Leslie makes herself listen to him and not think about his body temperature.
"It is sad," she agrees. "I can't believe it's already over."
Ben nods, and he looks more torn up about this than he should be, what's going on? "I know what you mean," he says. "I feel like I just got here, and now..." He doesn't finish his sentence, so she does it for him.
"And now you're leaving," she says flatly, and suddenly she knows why she's so sad. She doesn't know if it hadn't occurred to her before tonight or if she hadn't let it occur to her before tonight, but the end of Harvest Fest means the end of Ben. She doesn't want this to be the end of Ben. She doesn't want him to go.
"And now I'm leaving," he repeats, and okay, she might be projecting, but he definitely sounds sad about it. "Leslie, I --"
"Stay," she blurts out. She says it without meaning to, without thinking about it or what it means, but the second the word leaves her mouth, she knows that it's what she wants more than anything. "Stay."
There's a look of surprise on Ben's face, like someone gave him his Christmas, birthday and Sweetums Day presents all at once, but he just shakes his head. "I can't," he says, "There's --"
She kisses him to stop him from finishing whatever ridiculous thing was going to come out of his mouth. She kisses him and he kisses her back, and it's so good, so right, and she can't believe that this was here all this time and she didn't know it. How could she not have known?
They kiss until neither of them can breathe, and then Ben rests his forehead against hers as he takes ragged breaths. "I should stay?" he asks, and all Leslie can do is nod.
This time Ben is the one that kisses her.
waffles are still better than pancakes (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 442)
On their third date, Ben tries to cook for Leslie. The thing he should have remembered, the thing he should have taken into consideration before he made her any kind of promises is this: Ben can't cook.
That's not entirely true. Ben can cook. But he can only cook the things that his mother taught him before he left for college, things like chicken soup, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, hamburgers, and macaroni and cheese. Everything else remains just beyond his abilities, and no matter how many times that he promises himself that he's finally going to learn how to cook like a grown up, he never quite gets around to it.
But Ben invites Leslie over to his crappy extended stay motel and attempts to make her waffles in his tiny kitchenette, and it's not until she's there and he has the batter all mixed that he realizes that in order to make waffles, a waffle iron is a necessary tool.
Ben looks at Leslie, who's sitting cross-legged on his bed, smiling at him like there's nowhere else she'd rather be in the world, and he looks down at the batter, and then back up at her. He doesn't want to let her down. "I think I made a mistake," he says.
"Did you forget the eggs?" Leslie asks. "Because I always forget the eggs." She shudders. "You don't want to do that, let me tell you."
"No," Ben says, shaking his head. "I didn't forget the eggs."
"What then?" Leslie asks, sliding off the bed and crossing the room to look over Ben's shoulder. "It looks right." She dips a finger into the batter and tastes it. "Tastes right, too."
"I forgot the waffle iron," Ben says sheepishly, feeling more than a little foolish. "Pretty dumb, right?"
"Nah," Leslie says. "We'll just make pancakes instead, even if they are vastly inferior to waffles." She starts to pull the bowl towards her, but he puts his hands over hers, stopping her. She looks up at him. "What --"
Ben kisses her instead of letting her finish, tilting her head back and sliding a hand into her hair. Leslie makes a noise of surprise against his mouth, but she melts into the kiss, rising up on her toes and wrapping a hand around the nape of his neck. When Ben pulls back, she looks more than a little surprised.
"What -- what was that for?" she manages to ask.
He just grins at her and steals another kiss. "Pancakes, huh?" he asks. "Good idea."
They make them together, standing over his two burner stove, and in the morning, Ben makes her eggs. He doesn't screw those up.
The Middle (Parks and Rec, Ben/Leslie, 138 words)
The first time they kiss is in the conference room, when the lights from the other offices have gone dark and the halls of City Hall have emptied. They are arguing about the upcoming budget meeting, both armed with facts and figures and color coded spreadsheets, all in an attempt to convince the other that they are right. They start on opposite sides of the conference table, but without realizing it, they both drift to the middle, until they are side by side, trading stacks of paper between them.
This is how it happens: Leslie's hair falls in her eyes, and without thinking Ben pushes it back. His hand freezes on her face, and her breath catches in her throat. They just look at each other, and they both know. When the kiss happens, they meet in the middle.
Rust Bucket (Parks and Rec, Andy/April, 251 words
It turns out April is freakishly strong. Andy didn't know that about her until one night when they're outside the Snake Hole, loading equipment into the van after a gig.
Andy sees her bend over to pick up an amp that it normally takes both Mike and Kenny to lift, and he says, "Wait, don't," but April lifts it like it's nothing and his mouth drops open. He's a little turned on right now.
"What?" April asks, after she's slid the amp into the van and turned back around to see the look on his face.
"That was super hot," Andy blurts out, taking a step cloer. "Like, incredibly super hot."
April looks pleased, but all she says is, "Yeah?"
"Yeah," Andy answers, and then he kisses her, boosting her up in his arms, pressing her back against the rusty metal of the van. She wraps herself around him and presses closer, and her shirt rides up against his hands. He rubs his thumbs over the bare skin. It's warm and soft, and he really wishes they were anywhere but in a parking lot right now.
"Andy," April manages to say between kisses, and he leans their foreheads against each other. "Andy, I don't want to get tetnus and die becuase of this stupid van."
She's right. Andy knows she's right. But that doesn't mean he wants to let her go. He groans and he kisses her again before he lets her down. "We have to get a new van," he says.
what darkness lies (Bones, Cam/Sweets, 306 words)
It's not something either of them means to do. Cam is still dating Paul and Sweets is with Daisy, and neither of them are the type of person who takes those commitments lightly. Cheating is not something that either of them do lightly.
What happens is this: there is a case, one that cannot and will not be solved. The lab is inundated with bodies, and Sweets' office with contradictory evidence, and by the second week no one is sleeping.
Sweets goes to the Jeffersonian to get an update on the latest autopsy and Cam talks him through it, her face tight with strain and worry, and he can't stop himself from touching her face. "You look exhausted," he says, his fingers gentle against her skin. "You should get some sleep."
Cam shakes her head, and his hand falls away. "Can't sleep. Too much to do." Her eyes narrow. "Besides, when's the last time you slept?"
"That's different," he says, and instantly he wants the words back. He knows how they sounded by the look on her face. It's not how he meant them.
"Really, how?" she asks, her voice laced with irritation.
"You have someone who needs you," he tries to explain. It sounds trite, even to his ears. "Michelle needs you." He looks at her and he does not say, "I need you, too."
Her face softens, just a little. "People need you, too, Dr. Sweets."
He shakes his head. "Not like that."
They stare at each other for a long moment, and he doesn't know which of them moves first. But his arms are around her and hers are around him, and he kisses her with all the pent up urgency that he feels, and she kisses him back exactly the same way.
She is the one who ends it. He is the one who leaves.
I Do (Greek, Evan/Rebecca, 144 words)
It's ten years before they get married, ten years of fights and breaking up and getting back together and hating and love each other so much that there was never any room for anyone else. They were always going to end up here. They needed time to figure it out.
The ballroom at the Plaza is filled with Evan's brothers and Rebecca's sisters, and the other people that they've met and shared, the people that have become their family. When Rebecca walks down the aisle, radiant in her long, white dress, Evan's eyes go wide and the smile on his face could light up all of Manhattan. They take each other's hands, and they are married.
The officiant says, "You may kiss the bride."
Evan takes her face in his hands and he kisses her. Rebecca winds her arms around his neck and kisses him back.
last dance (Vampire Diaries, Stefan/Elena, 171 words)
They make it to the prom right before the last dance. Elena's hair is a mess and Stefan's tux is ripped at the shoulder and there is a stain that is probably blood on the front of her dress, but they are there and none of that matters. Stefan leads Elena to the center of the dance floor, and she steps into his arms, rests her head against his chest.
"I'm sorry," he whispers in here ear. "I know --"
Elena shakes her head, looks up at him. "I'm not sorry. I'm here. You're here. We're here. That's all that matters."
He smiles at that, and raises his hand to push her hair back out of her eyes. "You're beautiful, you know."
"And you're a liar," she laughs. "I love you anyway."
"I love you, too," he says, and then he bends his head to kiss her.
The music ends and the lights come up, and they keep on kissing, there in the center of it all. No one says a word.
branding (Vampire Diaries, John/Jenna, 392 words)
It's a Friday night, just past midnight, when John walks into the bar. He's not supposed to come in when Jenna is working; it's as much her rule as it is the manager's, but it has been a long day and a longer week, and he needs someone. He needs Jenna, though he will never tell her so. It isn't something he can say, and it's not something she can hear.
John can't speak and Jenna can't hear. He thinks that might be why he needs her so much. He knows it is why they will never work.
He spots Jenna at the opposite end of the bar, pulling a draft for a man whose face he can't see, but whose shirt is too tight and his hair too perfectly disheveled and John is struck with the sudden urge to punch this stranger in the face. He doesn't particularly like it. He pushes his way through the sea of people to where she is still chatting with her customer, and he knows the exact moment she spots him, because her eyes light up, just enough so that he notices.
No one who doesn't know her would notice. John knows her.
"What are you doing here?" Jenna asks, her attention immediately and firmly on him. The other man slinks away, and John tries to keep the smirk off his face. He fails.
He shrugs instead. "I wanted to see you," he says. "Is that so wrong?"
Jenna looks skeptical, and so he leans across the bar to kiss her. It's not a long kiss, or a particularly good one; the bar bites painfully into his chest and their teeth bump against each other. But it's a kiss meant for everyone else in the room, so that they know that she is his, and when he draws back, he can see in her eyes that she knows it too.
They don't speak for the rest of the night. John drinks and he watches and he waits, and when last call is announced he stays. He kisses her again, outside the bar, lining their bodies up, fitting them together in the way that he knows she likes. This is meant for them.
"Let's go home," Jenna says, and she takes his hand. He follows where she leads. She is his and he is hers, and for now, that is enough.