#is the ship spaame or spame?

[wavemaker9]

Sometimes you intend to write a (late) short toni/mel fic for Day 2 - Language and it ends up being long and 50% about carmen having no chill

Title: Judgy Characters: (Human AU) Spain (Antonio), 2P!Nyo!America(Amelia), Nyo!Spain (Carmen)

Antonio sees her first, sitting up a bit in his chair and lifting a hand in a wave, trying to get the American’s attention. “Amelia!” he calls out, nodding when he sees her wave back and then gesture to the counter, indicating her intent to grab a coffee before sitting down.

The action gets the attention from the other woman already seated at the table, and Carmen turns quickly to get a look at the third. She glances over the other for only a handful of seconds before she turns back and frowns at Antonio. “That’s her?" she asks, speaking in a low voice.  She sticks to Spanish instead of the English used by the other customers around them, both for secrecy and out of habit. "Really?” It’s Antonio’s surprised look at her reaction that further dips the corners of her lips, and she sighs heavily, allowing her weight to shift slightly to lean on one of her elbows a little harder than the other. “Don’t look at me like that, Toño. You’re seriously impressed by her?”

Antonio nods, a little indignantly, and confirms he is, and she would be too if she knew how to give anyone a chance. It’s his turn to roll his eyes a bit when he gets the response back that she does, but that it isn’t her fault if no one can meet her expectations. “As impossibly great as they are,” he says back in the same language. His words are spoken in the manner of a breath, quiet and soft, only loud enough for her to hear.

She shrugs in defense, countering it’s not a bad thing to have standards, offering he should try it as well some time. She even notes that, when they first met after she’d moved to the city, she saw that he had high expectations in others, as well, so it’s such a shame to see him losing them with the dates he’s finding now.

This time when he rolls his eyes, it’s not a slight thing. He exaggerates the action a little, leaning back in his seat with a scoffing breath. “I’m not; Amelia’s a wonderful woman!” He seems to catch himself as it suddenly occurs to him that his voice might have been a bit louder than truly intended there. He casts a glance around to be sure no one’s paying attention, even if the chances of him being understood are low. He can see Amelia look over as she collects her coffee and pastry, focus apparently caught at hearing his voice raise above the chatter of the other customers. He gives a small wave to her, hoping to pacify her curiosity, and then turns back to the other, lowering his voice again. “She’s a good, clever woman, and you would like her if you weren’t so judgy.”

“If she were as great as you keep saying, I’d like her even if I were judgy,” Carmen counters back, then adds quickly, “which I’m not. I’m discerning, not ‘judgy’.” She ignores the less-than-convinced ‘mmhmm’ her friend gives back to her.

Instead, she turns to flash a pleasant smile at Amelia as the redhead approaches and carefully sets her items down on the table before starting to sit in the chair to the side of the pair. Across from Carmen, Antonio moves swiftly to his feet upon noticing Amelia’s arrival, standing until Amelia sits and then returning to his seat as she slides her chair in.

“I thought I told you that you don’t have to do that,” Amelia points out, herself speaking in English. The pleasant smile on her face and the teasing tone of her voice makes it clear she’s not upset by the action, though. “I mean, not that I don’t appreciate it, but you don’t have to worry about that.”

Antonio matches the smile with a practiced ease, and matches the language as well when he counters back a little playfully that she did say that, but it wasn’t that he had to do anything. “I wanted to do it, nothing more than that.”

Carmen flashes him an amused smirk and teases under her breath to him, still in Spanish, “Always the charmer, eh, Toño?”

Antonio’s eyes widen just a touch for a second before thinning instead as he swings his gaze to her. He shoots her a look that both of them have gotten very good at giving each other, reserved specifically to respond to the sly comments they sometimes manage to fit into conversations at the other’s expense. “You’re mixing up charmer and charming, my friend,” he whispers back to her in the language.

“Ah, not me,” she says back immediately, barely slow enough for him to make it out, before turning her attention back to Amelia, who’s staring between the two of them as they talk. Carmen reads it without a second thought as bemusement over the two bickering in some unexpected gibberish to her. “Sorry about that,” she speaks up in English with a clearer voice, lifting a hand and offering it to the other to shake. She grips Amelia’s hand tightly, although is a little surprised by how firm the handshake is made in return, though not letting it show on her face. “Since Antonio apparently don’t know how to be polite, lemme introduce myself. I’m Carmen.” She resists the urge to let her smirk widen as she catches another look shot across the table.

Still in Spanish, he mumbles, “I’m gonna fucking fight you,” under his breath at her, though his tone is almost playful sing-song in quality, signifying the true emptiness of the threat.

In an equally playful warning, Carmen shoots back, “You’d lose~.”

Amelia speaks up abruptly, maintaining a smile as she gives a final shake to Carmen’s hand to draw her attention back. “Mel. It’s nice to meet you,” she declares, switching the conversation back to English again, before freeing her hand and moving it to reach for her cup of coffee. As she lifts it up, she lets it rest at her lips, forming a little smirk as she asks if they do this a lot. “The back and forth bit? It’s kinda funny to watch.” Here she takes a sip, enjoying the heat of the drink before setting the cup back down.

“We were just stopping,” Antonio answers her, eyes locking onto Carmen, warning for only a second before letting his expression soften as he turns back to look at Amelia. “Sorry, we just spend most of our time together speaking in Spanish. It let Carmen keep using it like she wanted after she moved here and it was good for me too, y’know? Before I met her, the only other person in town that I knew who was really fluent in it was my aunt.” He gives a faint chuckle, lifting a hand to rub at the back of his neck a little. “Didn't mean to ignore you or nothing, though; it’s just easier for us so we usually fall back to it. We’ll stick to English, though.”

Amelia waves off the worry, admitting she completely understands. For Antonio, it’s a reminder to a conversation that’d briefly come up between them, but for Carmen, it’s an explanation as Amelia says that, coming from a family of kids originating from all over the place, she definitely gets how nice it can be to find someone who can speak the same language you can.

Antonio nods and gives a soft word of thanks for her not being too upset by the behavior that could easily come across as rude. There’s a beat or so before he adds on with the rushed quality of having just remembered something, “And also for being able to stop by today.” He cuts off a response from her of it not being a big deal, emphasizing that it is to him. “I know you said you were busy, but I appreciate you stopping even for a little bit, and Carmen does, too.”

It’s as Antonio is gesturing to her that Carmen gives a muttered, “Speak for yourself,” though she keeps it in Spanish as an added layer of security just in case she’s not quite as quiet as she means to be.  

Immediately, the other ex-Spaniard’s eyes fall back to her again, looking as if she’d just reached across the table and pushed his drink into his lap. “What the fuck are you talking about?” he asks, forgetting his previous promise to stay in English as he leans across the table slightly to half-whisper in the other language to Carmen, “You said you wanted to meet her. I asked her to come meet us today because of you.”

Carmen shrugs her shoulders slightly, before reaching for her own coffee. “And now I’ve met her. Toño, you went on and on about her in such wild exaggerations-.” She manages to catch a mumbled comment from the other, insisting the comments he made hadn’t been exaggerations, but she only continues unfazed by the defense. “You say that, yet I come here and just confirm my suspicions.” When he starts to tilt his head and lift an eyebrow at her, she reminds him, “Remember your poor standards?”

“Judgy,” Antonio grumbles.

“Discerning,” Carmen corrects.

Antonio is fighting the urge to throw up his hands at her stubbornness. Instead, he lifts one of them to gesture abruptly in Amelia’s direction. “Will you just talk to her for fuck’s sake?” he asks. “It’s the least you can-.” There he catches himself again, remembering Amelia’s presence next to him and turning back to her with an apologetic smile. The good news is that she seems to be trying not to laugh watching the two, which at least implies she’s still not offended by all of this. He still worries that this can’t be a good impression when they haven’t been dating for a very long amount of time. They’re starting to get more comfortable with each other, sure, but if a newer significant other of his kept whisper-shouting in a language he didn’t know while gesturing at him, he’d at the very least be concerned.  

“Don’t worry about me,” Amelia reassures back in English, prying a piece off of the baked good on her plate and lifting it. “Please, finish your conversation.” She pops the bite into her mouth, smiling at Antonio around it. “I’m really- I promise, I’m just fine.”

Carmen can see the hint of worry passing over Antonio at his girlfriend’s reaction, and so she decides to show the other a little mercy. What are friends for, after all? Speaking up again and, thankfully for Antonio, following the other’s lead of using English again, she says, “No, we’re sorry, this meeting was supposed to be about you.” She reaches forward to set her hands on the table, letting the words hang for just a moment, before she continues with a nod toward Antonio, though still keeping most of her attention on Amelia. “I was just curious to meet the person that my friend seemed so enamored by, y’know? He said you two met here, right?” Carmen rests her elbows on the table then, lifting hands up so that she can set her chin on the fingers as they interlock. “I’d love to hear the story.”

Antonio starts to speak up, pointing out that he already mentioned it to her before, but Carmen briefly shifts her gaze onto him without turning her head, pointing out, now in English, that he’ll sometimes exaggerate when telling a tale, picking the words that sound best for what he wants to say, not necessarily for what actually happened.

“I want to hear how a normal person tells the story,” she teases again, resisting the urge to break out a wider grin when she can hear a couple curses strung together to build an insult, muttered at her in Spanish under his breath.

Amelia resists another smile as well, watching Antonio further grumble and cross his arms for a moment. It only last for a moment, though, before Antonio seems to push the sour reaction aside to put on a smile as he turns to Amelia again. When both sets of eyes are on her, she resigns to telling the story, even if she doesn’t think there’s particularly a lot to tell. “I don’t know, I mean, it wasn’t anything too special or anything. I’d just had a bad day and had stopped by for a much-needed coffee, which ended up spilled all over my shirt when we bumped into each other-.”

Antonio pipes up to say, “Which I apologized for,” which gets another wave of a hand and a shushing sound from Carmen. He knows he shouldn’t, but the instinct to shove at her with his foot from under the table is definitely still tempting.

Amelia chuckles again, nodding in confirmation of his defense. “You did, you did. And buying me another drink and then letting me vent at you when you saw how stressed I was was very sweet, too.” She turns back to Carmen then, adding that they’d talked for a bit, then happened to run into each other at the shop a few more times after that, before Antonio had ended up asking her out on an actual date.

Carmen’s eyes are already back on Antonio though, smirking at him again. She makes a drawn out hum of a noise, one that already has Antonio preparing for some comment on the details. Sure enough, in Spanish she makes a low comment at the other, pointing out that he’d never said that he let her vent at him. “You really must have been smitten, huh?”

Without even thinking, he’s switching into the same language once more. “I was being nice,” he shoots back instinctively, his body leaning forward a little and nodding at the other. “Maybe you should try it some time, too?” His lip pulls up into the hint of a sharp smirk, offering it could do wonders.

Carmen lets out a sharp laugh, before dismissively insisting that she is nice when she wants to be, just like he is. “Apparently unlike you, though, I don’t act like it’s a chivalrous act to let a woman I barely know complain at me for an afternoon just to get her number.”

“It wasn’t to get her number!” Antonio snaps back immediately, his voice momentarily rising again, smile dropping back down into an pseudo-offended frown at the very suggestion. He doesn’t catch himself enough this time to think about looking around to see who might have noticed his slight outburst again. There are very few at other tables who seem to notice for a second, none of which seem to be able to follow in the foreign language enough to keep paying attention. At the table, though, Amelia keeps watching the two as they slip back into their back-and-forth argument yet again, finding herself once more struggling not to break out into laughter.

Luckily for Antonio, his voice naturally falls back to a normal speaking tone as he continues his defense. “She’d had a bad day and I made it worse so I wanted to help. Besides, we started talking about other topics within a few minutes. You’re making it sound like we sat at a table for an hour with only her talking about how shitty her day was.” He shakes his head slightly, releasing a deep breath. “Not that it’s any of your business what we talk about anyway. I only brought you so you’d get to see what she’s like. I ain’t asking you to judge who I date.”

Carmen’s face softens slightly, and though it’s intended to come across as understanding, the slight smile her face still wears has the expression coming across as more sympathetic in a pseudo-pitying way than anything else. “You know I only do it because I want what’s best for you, Toño. You have a lotta potential and I don’t want to see you waste it all on someone who ain’t worth your time.”

There’s a part of Antonio who regrettably understands that reasoning. He’s been guilty of making similar arguments to people he knew who he felt weren’t quite living up to all he thought they could surely be, warning the occasional slacking or aimless acquaintance that maybe they were missing out by not having some kind of goal to work toward. But still, his pride can sometimes lead to him being a bit hypocritical, so when he hears such an excuse said to him, it only gets him to frown further in almost defiance. “I can manage my own potential just fine, Carmen. You know me.”

“I do, but-.”

“And besides, right now I believe that Amelia is what’s best for me. She’s the best person I’ve ever met and you sh-.”

A surprised ‘aw’ noise comes up from the side of the table, before Amelia leans in a little and puts a hand on Antonio’s arm to get his attention. Her expression has switched from complete amusement at the whole situation to something a bit more touched, and she asks, in perfect Spanish, “Is that really true, Antonio? You think I’m that great?”

He turns to her with an expression almost seeming confused that she could doubt him on that, nodding practically immediately. “Of course, Amelia,” he responds, carrying on in Spanish without thinking about it. The same as he’s been doing through most of the conversation, really, even if it’s to a different person now. “I think you-,” and there is when he stops for a half second as the words she said fully click in his mind. He looks over to Carmen, as if for validation that it’s not just him that heard that. He sees that her eyes have widened a touch in surprise- not to mention embarrassment -as well, and she’s turned to look back at him, as if trying to size up if he really didn’t know, before they both turn their eyes back to Amelia. Slowly, Antonio changes the ending of that sentence, “...are speaking in Spanish right now.”

Amelia shows a small smile, one that doesn’t seem based in guilt exactly, but still acknowledges that this probably won’t be able to be swept away as a neat new fact to be brought up and then moved past. It’s not helped by the fact that Antonio’s expression is surprisingly hard to read to her in the moment, seemingly caught somewhere between a vague sense betrayal and an amusement of his own. Maintaining the switch to Spanish, she questions, “I didn’t tell you exactly which languages were spoken in my family before, huh?”

After a beat, he shakes his head, answering simply, “No. No, you didn’t.”

Her smile grows a little wider and she lifts her shoulders in a shrug-like gesture. “Well,” she says, dragging the word out just a touch before continuing, “one of them might be Spanish.”

Here he laughs, mouth curling into a lingering smirk of a smile. He nods then, expression starting to slowly find itself in more of the amusement side of things. “I gathered,” he states, before letting out a long sigh. “Ah, you must think I’m an idiot,” he finally says.

“You must think I’m an asshole,” Carmen speaks up from her side of the table. She’s split her hands and turned them palms inward to rest her forehead against, face tilting down towards the table.

Antonio lets out a quick laugh, practically only for a second, before reaching across the table and teasingly nudging at one of the other brunette’s forearms. “Maybe this’ll at least teach you to be less judgy in the future.”

Carmen’s head snaps up slightly, locking thinning eyes onto him. “I’m going to fight you.”

Antonio’s smirk finally breaks out into a full grin. “You’d lose.”

Amelia grins, too, letting out another laugh and explaining that this is partly why she didn’t speak up about it earlier. That she didn’t mean to step too far on their privacy, but that the two’s playful arguing was kind of too hilarious to miss out on. “Sorry,” she starts to say, but then immediately corrects, “but since you two were talking about me half the time anyway, I’m not that sorry.”

“I’m sorry about that,” Carmen admits, lifting her head fully from where it’d been resting this time, and instead moving one of her hands to offer to Amelia again. “Just so you know, I was only giving you a hard time to give Toño a hard time,” she insists as Amelia, still smiling to show no ill will, accepts the hand shake. “And I gave him a hard time, but he’s honestly pretty great. I only fuck with him because that fact tends to mean his ego requires knocking down every so often.”

Antonio laughs once more, though this time it sounds noticeably a little more faked. He mutters some comment about his not being the only one, but chooses to leave it at that. Carmen considers responding, but figuring she’s apparently stuck her foot in her mouth enough today, instead pushes her chair back from the table. She thanks Amelia for stopping by to meet her, again apologizing for the bad first impression, but offering that she’ll end it now so that they can look forward to a better second impression. Amelia tries to protest, offering that she really isn’t mad. She didn’t take any of Carmen’s judgements harshly at all, finding them more genuinely amusing than anything.

Carmen gives a thankful smile, but still stands and starts to collect her purse. “I appreciate that, but really, I think it’s for the best. You may not be that upset, but Toño hates looking bad in front of people and our main form of affection is competition and taking shots at each other, so.” She flashes a smile to him as she swings her purse over her shoulder, though stops a step into her departure in order to turn back to Amelia.

She leans over and rests a hand gently on the redhead’s shoulder, leading her carefully to lean in as well to better hear what Carmen has to say. “Honestly, though? I can’t really be mad at you waiting for that reveal either. You got me- both of us, really -pretty good.” When given a response that that wasn’t really the intention, she lifts her other hand to wave off the words almost immediately. “Take the compliment, Mel. I mean, that’s the thing that’s got me actually starting to see what might have impressed Toño so much before. What can I say? We both find appeal in a good challenge.”

There’s a beat where Carmen’s foot shifts, as if she’s about to step away again, before she leans in further. Her voice lowers slightly, like a whisper, but still with just enough volume so she knows Antonio can hear. “In fact, if things don’t work out between you and Toño, maybe-?”

“Carmen,” Antonio finally speaks up, waiting until the other set of green eyes have fallen to him. He keeps the charming smile on his face, even if it's not quite fooling anybody present, and asks pleasantly, “Weren’t you going?”

Carmen’s shoulders shake as if in a laugh, even if no sound leaves her lips. She straightens herself back up to her full height, giving a quick nod to Antonio. She considers a simple word of goodbye, but instead spares one final comment to point out that she notices he didn’t stand up for her like he'd done with Amelia. With that and a final pat at Amelia’s shoulder, she turns and heads to the door, heels clicking on the wooden flooring as she leaves.

Antonio releases a breath after she’s gone, before turning back to Amelia. He considers switching back into English with the other’s departure, but if Amelia seems so comfortable with it, he really would like to stick with Spanish. “Sorry about her,” he offers. “I like having her as a friend but she can be…,” he trails off, letting a glance in the direction of the door she walked out of give him a few seconds to consider the diction he wants to use, “a lot.”

“She’s fine,” Amelia counters with an easy shrug, turning her chair slightly to face more towards Antonio. “Almost half the people on earth have a friend like that and the other half probably are a friend like that. You really don’t have to worry about it.” She reaches for her coffee again, but just curls her fingers around the cardboard for the moment. “Besides, the most harsh things she said were just not being impressed by me, which I guess she’s flipped on?” She slightly raises her eyebrow at Antonio as she lifts her cup to her lips then. It’s a small gesture to ask for a correction if he, knowing the other woman better, might feel like Carmen had just been being nice after caught.

He nods, though, confirming aloud that he suspects she was being sincere. “She wasn’t wrong when she said she liked a challenge.” He chuckles, admitting with a shrug and a tilting of his head that he sometimes chalks that up as the reason for the majority of her behavior.

Amelia lets a moment or so of silence pass as she finishes her drink, before setting it down and turning her attention back to Antonio with another raise of an eyebrow. “So was she wrong about it for you?” She can see just a flash of an initial reaction, a smirk that twitched to his lips for a second as his eyes glanced to the side, before he’s shaking his head in rejection.

“Ah, y’know me, I don’t-.”

Amelia cuts him off with a skeptical humming noise, shaking her own head slightly. “See, I’m beginning to suspect maybe I don’t?” She keeps her voice still light, so as not to sound critical or accusatory in her statement, but she turns her head slightly, thinning the closer eye and teasingly sizing him up.

His shoulders sink a little and he rolls his head to the side, showing the hint of a grimace. “The things Carmen said about me were-.”

“I don’t care what Carmen said,” Amelia counters, though a moment later she nods as if considering her words and acknowledging the error in them. “I mean, I do care a little. Her talking about you going ‘on and on’ about how much you like me is very sweet.” She puts a finger up to warn him to wait as she sees a smile start to come onto his face as he opens his mouth to respond. “But.”

His smile pulls to one side, now looking a little suspicious himself. “But…?” he repeats.

“But,” she continues once prompted, dropping her hand back onto the table, “I more specifically meant the things you had said.”

“Me?” Antonio questions again, eyebrows lifting and then furrowing, revealing his surprise. “What did I say that made you stop trusting me?”

She shakes her head again, though. “It’s not that I stopped trusting you. Toni, it-.” She stops, catching herself and considering the name before offering up instead, “Toño?” When she gets a shrug and a non-committal answer about either working back, she sighs and leans in a little with a firmer, “Antonio. Which do you like more?”

“I’m fine with both,” he insists again, making his voice a little firmer to try and better sell the statement. “If you’re used to using Toni-.”

She rolls her eyes and makes a frustrated little noise, before reaching over and tugging sharply on the rolled up sleeve of his shirt. “I only called you Toni because you said when we first met that everyone called you it. Which do you /want/ to be called?” She waits somewhat patiently when he falls silent in consideration for a moment, before answering that he prefers Toño. She can hear it said half in the tone of a question though, an unspoken comment on the end that while he may prefer that, he really would not be put out still being called Toni by her. “Toño it is then,” she declares with a small smile.

She continues right afterwards, though, not daring to give him the time to distract her focus from the point at hand. “That’s part of what I’m talking about, though,” she explains. “I mean, I know everybody puts on a little bit of an act around people to get them to like them, but-.”

“You think I’ve been putting on an act with you?” Antonio interrupts, before reaching out to wrap his fingers around the hand Amelia’d last rested on the table. He gives it a half squeeze and maintains the hold, leaning forward in his chair slightly as he tries to reassure her against the idea. “I would think, given what you apparently heard, you’d be certain that I’m not pretending about how I feel about you.”

“I don’t think that’s what you’re hiding, no,” Amelia agrees. She moves her hand slightly, though only to ease out of his grip just enough where she can comfortably turn her hand over in his, wrapping her own fingers around his hand. “But you’re clearly not being entirely open with me about how you feel about other things. I mean-,” she leans back slightly as she spares a quick chuckle, “I did just now have to pry what nickname you want out of you.”

He lifts his free hand to make a swiping gesture, waving off the concern. “Because it’s not important. I mean, most people find Toni easier, so most people use it. I wasn’t lying about that.”

Amelia immediately rejects the idea that she’s trying to call him a liar or anything over this, still not wanting this to sound like a harsh accusation. However, she does counter that most people would probably start calling him Toño if he pressed on preferring that. “And again, I get it. I’m guessing it’s the same reason you won’t swear in front of me unless you think I can’t understand it, or that I normally see you playing the diplomatic with strangers while you’re threaten a friend you’re more comfortable with to fight as a joke.”

“Amelia, I don’t understand,” Antonio finally admits. His shoulders have slumped slightly and though he’s as careful as he usually is to keep a full frown from his face, the corners of his lips pull wide and the smile on his lips is worn in more bemusement than anything else. “You’re saying that it’s bad I don’t pick fights or swear in public with you?”

“You don’t do it in private either,” Amelia points out simply. She can see Antonio consider the response for a moment before nodding in acknowledgment of that. He starts to say something but she lifts her free hand to gesture for him to let her add something. “I mean, I don’t wanna sound like I’m complaining about you being respectful or polite to me. Really, that’s not my point here. It’s just….” It takes her a moment before she finally finds the right way to word what she wants to say, “Yeah, most people expect you to say ‘Fine’ when an acquaintance asks how you’re doing, but when your girlfriend does, it’s okay to be honest about how you’re feeling.”

She gives another breathy laugh and rolls her shoulders back a touch. “I mean, practically everyday with you is ‘just fine’. Every inconvenience ‘isn’t really that big of a deal’. And like- some people are just like that; I get that. No matter what happens, they really don’t get mad about it. But I don’t think someone who tells their friend,” she lifts that hand up to gesture air quotes as she fights another laugh, “‘I’m gonna fucking fight you’ is one of those people, y’know?”

There’s something akin to guilt that passes over Antonio’s face, and that gets Amelia to add quickly, “Again, I’m not mad. It’s just… if we’re gonna be dating, I think you should start to feel like you can show me what you’re really like, don’t you?”

Antonio sighs, and then nods, and then pulls his hands back, retreating them to fold together in his lap. He’s quiet for another moment before admitting aloud that that sounds like a fair request, though he tries to explain that he was only doing it with her in mind. “I mean, even over the short time we’ve been dating, you’ve been….” He trails off into an airy laugh, before sighing again. “Amelia, you are strong and ingenious and determined and just generally amazing in a way I didn’t expect. In a way I very rarely see in people. I… very much like you and… I guess I worried if you saw something you didn’t like in me, you might be tempted to back out. There are traits I’ve had for years that I just… didn’t want to scare you off.”

Amelia’s smile had turned into something touched by his words, until the last few lines, where it cracks wide and slanted again. “Wait, so- what?” she asks in the exhale of a laugh. “You’re just gonna trip over yourself to act like Mr. Perfect for as long as we’re together? I mean you’d have to be open eventually or you’re gonna be putting on that act forever, plus I’ll never get to know what you’re really like.”

“That’s not a bad thing,” Antonio muses quietly.

“I think maybe it is,” Amelia counters back quickly. “C’mon, Toño, two things you already thought were turn offs about yourself are things I’m totally fine with. I mean, honestly, that’s like at least a third of who I am as a person,” she jokes, pleased to see it get a quick laugh out of the other. “Like… all I’m asking is just for you to relax and be yourself, alright? Sure, there’a chance I won’t like you, but I’m betting there’s a higher chance I will.”

Now it’s his turn for his expression to soften, a smile, more gentle and warm, easing back onto his features. He looks at her for a long moment with that, before his smile drifts again and he lets out a slow sigh, before speaking up to apologize. “I didn’t mean to lie to you or anything like that. I wouldn’t-.”

Amelia immediately protests the term ‘lying’, reiterating once more that she doesn’t consider it to that level. “If anything I’d just say you’re…,” her gaze drifts slightly, trying to pick the right word, before she grins again as the perfect choice comes to her. “A little too judgy about yourself,” she finishes, eyes flicking back down just in time to catch the other’s reaction.

There’s a half second of almost offense, but it’s quickly swept away by surprised laughter. He turns back to the table, resting elbows on the wood and tilting his head down, making the shaking of his shoulders stand out a little more. He finally picks his head up just enough to get out, “Oh, I can’t believe I have a second person I apparently have to fight now.”

The play-threat only gets a smile out of her, though, glad to see even that step taken. Another second passes before she leans in, looping one of her arms around the closer one of his to pull him nearer as well. She makes a humming noise, the kind of skeptical acceptance given to a person who has suggested a wild but not technically impossible idea. Then she presses her lips, still curled into a grin, to his cheek and murmurs back a simple, “You’d lose.”

The new bout of laughter she gets from him at the joke, before he turns enough to pull her into a proper kiss, is entirely worth it.

#aphrarepairweek2019 #is the ship spaame or spame? #??? #ignore this #sorbetshark #the boss kid #hey you au #yay story time #i almost gave up on this about 5 times this one just wouldn't work with me