Chapter Text
Autumn regretted agreeing to go to this godforsaken work party.
Well, she didn’t exactly agree to go. Marjoire had been begging her to go ever since she had put a date on the calendar, and luckily, Autumn had a perfect excuse. The week that Marjoire had secluded the party for was the exact date the Knight family ball was, which meant that Autumn couldn’t go. The excuse had been perfect because Marjoire wouldn’t change the date to a few weeks before or anything. Autumn wasn’t like Charlotte, or any of Marjoire’s other friends. They weren’t close to each other like that, or at least, that’s what she thought.
Marjoire changed the date of the party to a whole week before. See, had this been a few months ago, Autumn would’ve told her to fuck off and not gone to the damn thing, but it wasn’t a few months ago. She didn’t want to tell her to fuck off, and maybe a small part of her wanted to go.
She figured that she could post up at the bar, drink a few drinks, and leave before anyone even realized she was actually there. Marjoire would go off with Charlotte or someone else and would leave her alone for the majority of the night. Again, not what happened. The manager had, instead, decided to hang off Autumn’s shoulder and talk her ear off for the entire night. Three hours had passed, and Autumn was no closer to leaving than she had been when she arrived. She looked down at her drink, then over at Marjoire’s, before back at her own. She knew that her manager was something of a lightweight, and yet, she seemed to be holding her alcohol tonight better than ever.
“Autumn,” Marjoire said, pulling Autumn’s eyes towards her. The brunette’s hand landed on her wrist, causing her to jerk it away. “Sorry! I forgot about the no-touching thing. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something.”
Autumn nodded without thinking, quickly finishing off the rest of her drink. Marjoire had always been interested in knowing things about her; maybe that was what actual friends did for each other, or perhaps it had more to do with how secretive Autumn was. Either way, she didn’t answer her manager’s questions. Most of them were nonsensical or too personal for her liking.
“Why did you come tonight?” Marjoire asked, her voice careful, almost as if she was trying not to scare Autumn off. “I’m glad that you did! I was just expecting you to come up with another excuse.”
“I was bored,” Autumn managed to say after a long moment. She could tell that Majoire didn’t fully believe her, judging by the soft smile that curled on her face. “I had nothing better to do with my evening.”
Marjoire started talking about something else after a few seconds, though Autumn couldn’t force herself to focus on what it was. When did she get so bad at lying? Was it just with Marjoire and her stupid ability to make Autumn feel comfortable with her? Autumn turned her head away from Marjoire slightly, just far enough to where she could think without feeling suffocated. Unfortunately, her eyes landed directly on Winter. He was the bane of her existence, mainly because he was the only person who hadn’t been scared of her. Which meant that he could see through part of her mask, and one part was a part too many. She didn’t want to like him, and he didn’t like her. Simple, and it would stay that way.
Tonight, though, he seemed different. Maybe it was the alcohol clouding her judgment, but he didn’t have the usual set of his shoulders. He seemed lighter. She didn’t even realize she was staring until Marjoire said something.
“Ooo! Winter, huh?” Marjoire said, her voice light and playful. Autumn glared at her, pulling her eyes off of Winter to do so. “Does someone have a crush?”
“I’m not dignifying that with an answer,” Autumn said, still glaring at Marjoire. She could feel the heat rushing to her ears, prompting her to stand. “I’m leaving. Don’t follow me.”
She could hear Marjoire laughing behind her before calling out a goodbye. The fresh air was grounding, though not nearly enough. Autumn wanted to bang her head against the wall until all feelings disappeared without a trace. She pulled out her cigarettes. She hoped that a cigarette would help her little emotional issue she was having, but it didn’t. Autumn sighed softly, inhaling another breath of smoke.
“Have an extra?” The voice caused her to jump. She turned, her mouth twitching slightly when she saw that it belonged to Winter. Whether or not that was a good thing was to be determined.
Autumn passed him a cigarette, watching him. She wasn’t expecting that from him, which was odd because you’d think she would have learn to expect the unexpected from this nursery. Winter, though, had already managed to dodge most of her expectations; maybe that was why he interested her so much. She didn’t expect this from him; maybe it was the fact that she found him vaguely stuck-up, or maybe it was because his life seemed to be way more put-together than hers.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” Autumn commented briefly. She was aware that Winter could feel her eyes on him, though he seemed to brush it off.
Winter was, well, to put it simply, exactly the type of guy she ended up dating lately. Other than his height, he was exactly her type. She could admit that, even if she didn’t want him to be. He had this air of cockniess that surrounded him for really no good reason, and she wanted to know why. Winter had this massive ego, but it wasn’t fragile like any other man she had interacted with recently. Granted, the only men Autumn has interacted with lately have been her father and her brother, so definitely not the gold standard for healthy men. Still, she was painfully interested in why Winter is the way he is.
“I don’t,” Winter said as Autumn passed her lighter over to him. “Unless you count when another person gives me one.”
Autumn hummed slightly, inhaling from her cigarette. Her eyes dragged themselves up to the sky. Unfortunately for her, the sky was clear for once. The stars sprinkled across the sky, mocking her. She sighed, forcing her eyes away from the sky before she started to feel something.
“Do you like space?” Winter asked, handing her lighter back to her. Autumn shrugged, inhaling again. “Huh. Weird. I always thought you liked space,”
“Why?” Autumn asked, turning slightly towards him. Winter laughed softly, inhaling from his cigarette before speaking.
“Your bracelet,” Winter gestured towards the old beaded bracelet hanging from her wrist. He didn’t touch her, though. “The charms made me think you at least somewhat enjoyed space.”
“It was a gift.” Autumn lifted her arm slightly, watching the charms sparkle in the moonlight.
‘Ex?” Winter guessed, leaning towards her slightly. Autumn shook her head, dropping her arm back to her side.
“Family.”
“Ah. I won’t ask.”
Autumn turned away from him, inhaling again. She could feel Winter’s eyes on her; his hand tapped against the brick wall behind them. She knew that he was about to ask something she didn’t want to answer.
“Can I...” Winter started, pausing slightly to rephrase what he wanted to say. “Can I ask you a question?” Autumn sighed, nodding. What was the worst that he could ask? “What’s going on with you? For as long as I’ve been here, everything I have heard and seen has proven that you are a horrible person, or, I guess, you were.” Winter paused, carefully watching her face. Autumn's eyes kept darting from his to the ground. “I don’t know. Just something has changed.”
"I don't think I've changed that much,” Autumn said softly, inhaling another breath of her cigarette. She kept her eyes firmly trained in front of her, knowing that she would break if she had to look into his eyes.
"Yeah, you have." He said with a soft laugh, it wasn’t cruel like she would’ve expected. Autumn was sure he was smiling, but she didn’t dare look. "Marjorie wouldn't have invited the Autumn from a month ago to the party.”
Autumn hummed noncommittally, fidgeting with her bracelet as Winter leaned forward slightly. She had no choice but to look at him; he was smiling at her with this infuriatingly kind look in his eyes. If this had been anyone else, except for Marjoire, but she was not about to explore that. She would’ve left already. Autumn was not about to explore why her brain was slotting Winter, a man who she wouldn’t mind sleeping with, and Marjoire, her only friend—don’t tell Marjoire that—and her manager, into the same category. Anyway, maybe she was watching Winter a little too closely, but he didn’t seem to notice, and if he did. He didn’t say anything.
“They're all still scared of you.” Winter inhaled a breath of his cigarette before he continued speaking. Autumn tilted her head towards the party still going on inside to confirm who he was speaking about, at his nod. She shrugged, not knowing how to feel about it. “Sorscha actually bet me that I didn’t have the balls to come out here and talk to you,”
“You’re out here on a bet?” She asked with far too much emotion in her voice. She didn’t care why he was out, and she certainly wasn’t upset about it. Not at all.
"No. I'm out here because you looked lonely." He said quickly, noticing the way she was closing herself off again, angling herself away from him slightly. "The bet was just something extra."
Autumn hummed softly, fidgeting with the charms on her bracelet again. She could see him turn out of the corner of her eye as he leaned against the wall, smoking. She watched, watched the way his hair fell just slightly over his eyes, watched him spin the rings on his right hand, she just watched him. Winter’s eyes found hers, causing her to quickly revert her eyes to the clear sky in front of her. The wind blew through her hair, causing her to shiver slightly. She rubbed her hands over her arms as she crossed them over her chest. She glanced back into the nursery, trying to locate Marjoire and her jacket. She couldn’t find her jacket, which meant she wasn’t finding her jacket tonight. Autumn turned at the sound of rustling as she watched Winter pull off his own jacket and hand it to her, smiling at her.
“Thank you.” She wrapped the jacket around herself. The sleeves were longer than she expected, falling ever so slightly over her hands.
"Don't mention it," Winter smiled. God, that smile was a sight she was starting to enjoy."What kind of gentleman would I be if I let a lady like yourself freeze?"
She laughed softly, rolling her eyes at his comment. Autumn wanted to keep him at arm's length; she really did. But the longer she talked to him, without any interruptions from others, she wanted to trust him.
And that terrified her.
It really shouldn’t. She’s a fully grown adult who’s been in plenty of relationships before, granted, none of them lasted for more than a few months, but she really shouldn’t be scared of trusting a person. Autumn’s mouth twitched the more she thought about it.
“Come back inside with me,” Winter said, pulling her out of her thoughts. “Dance with me.”
Autumn raised an eyebrow because why would she agree to that? She liked Winter, but she did not like him nearly enough to let him pull her into the hell that was the work party. Especially not with Marjoire in the room, she’d never hear the end of it for her.
“Everyone is already incredibly drunk,” Winter put out his cigarette as he spoke. “You don’t have to, obviously. But I mean, no one would notice.”
Autumn’s eyes darted between Winter’s face and what she could see through the windows behind her. He definitely wasn’t wrong about everyone being drunk, so she sighed, put out her cigarette, before dragging Winter inside. He grinned widely as he was tugged inside. Autumn fiinched as she stepped inside, the drunken noise of her coworkers smacking her in the face. Winter tilted his head to the absolutely packed dance floor; she tugged her lip between her teeth as she followed him.
Here’s the thing: she knew that Winter could dance. Even before this night—not because she was watching him at work or anything—What she wasn’t expecting was just how good he was at it. Winter was painfully good at dancing, spinning her around as he hummed along to the song. Autumn felt herself smiling at him, mirroring his from earlier. She laughed softly as he dipped her, watching as a wide grin spread across his face.
Autumn realized then that she really wanted to kiss him.
His grin faded into something softer as he pulled her back up, his eyes looked behind them. Winter’s hands shifted on her waist as his gaze was pulled back to her face. Autumn tilted her head at him; oddly enough, he looked nervous.
“Can I kiss you?”
Autumn’s eyes widened, her eyes flickering down to his lips. If she were to think about this in a few months, she would’ve seen that coming from a mile away. The entire night had been leading up to him, at the very least, kissing her. And yet, she, at that very moment, hadn’t. Winter swallowed, shifting his weight slightly.
The only warning she gave him was a small nod.
Autumn leaned down, pressing her lips to his. The kiss was light at first as Winter’s brain took a minute to catch up with what had happened. The second he managed to recover from the shock, he deepened it. His tongue ran along her lips, begging for access. She pulled back before she could grant him that. Autumn tilted her head to the rest of the room. He looked past her head; their coworkers were all doing various things around them, drunk, sure. Still present enough to notice if he started full-on making out with her.
“Do you drive?” Autumn asked, ever so slightly breathless, brushing his bangs back to where they normally sit.
Winter shook his head, his face flushed as she dropped her hands from his face to find her keys. Autumn smiled softly as she held her keys up. She pressed another kiss to his lips before backing fully away from him.
“I’ll meet you outside.” Autumn looked around, trying to find where the hell Marjoire had disappeared to. Finding her jacket was going to be a lot more difficult than she had patience for. “Promise.”
Winter didn’t waste any more time after that before he bolted outside.
She pressed her hands to her face, trying to calm the redness down enough to face Marjoire without being teased mercilessly. It wasn’t working, not even a little bit. In fact, Autumn could feel her flush working across her entire face the more she thought about him. She sighed, accepting her fate as she went to look for her manager.
This man was going to be the death of her pride.