#in living color | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

k-evans-reads · 11 months

Text

In Living Color

Chapter 22 - Part Two

Summary: When Natalie Marton, lead character designer for Buzz Lightyear, meets the voice of Buzz, Chris Evans, the sparks are undeniable. But when their work pushes them away from each other, both physically and emotionally, will the sheer differences between their worlds be enough to force them apart?

Pairing: Chris Evans x Pixar Animator OFC Natalie Marton

Word Count: 3,962

By: @k-evans-writes and @ourfinest-hour

We do NOT give permission for our works to be reuploaded, translated, or reposted on any other site. Our work is our own.

Warnings: None.

Previous | Main Masterlist | In Living Color Masterlist

April 2022

“Hi Nattie.”

Nat felt as though her stomach was in her throat and she could do nothing more than stare at Chris – her ex-boyfriend – in disbelief. Her phone sat abandoned and ignored in her hand as it buzzed with a notification, watching the man who was no longer hers stand in the opening of the elevator, his hand holding the doors open as his ball cap sat low over his face.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to find something to say to him, hesitating for several moments as her brows furrowed even deeper and she pushed her curls back behind her ear nervously. Nat swore then that her eyes were somehow tricking her. There was no way that he actually was standing there, holding the elevator doors open in the lobby of that San Francisco hotel. So many questions started swirling in her mind, not knowing how or why he was here, let alone how he even knew where she was. But even in that moment of pure shock and plain confusion, there was a piece of her heart that knew this felt right, that somehow knew that there was something still holding them together.

“C-Chris?” She finally asked shakily, pausing to clear her throat and hopefully calm down a bit. She slipped her phone into the pocket of her leggings, then crossed her arms over her chest as she curiously asked, “What are you doing here?”

“...I wanted to talk to you,” he whispered, glancing over his shoulder quickly as a couple entered an elevator on the opposite side of the room. He turned back to look at Nat, raising a single eyebrow and added, “If that’s okay with you.”

“I’m just um, I can’t believe you’re here,” she admitted, blinking her eyes rapidly as she shook her head. She reached up absentmindedly, adjusting the strap of her purse before she paused and asked, “How did you know I was here?”

A slight grimace appeared on Chris’ face as he shook his head, glancing down at the beat-up sneakers on his feet. “Jamie told me,” he informed her quietly. He paused as the elevator behind them beeped and someone exited it, leaving the room without a second glance to them. Once they were alone again, he explained, “After I went to your apartment and you weren’t there, I asked him if he knew where you were.”

Nat’s brows furrowed deeply at those words, surprised at the admission. “You went to LA first?” She asked him in disbelief.

“Yeah, um, Nat, can we talk? Maybe somewhere more private?” He asked, a tight expression on his face as the sound of a large group approached from the lobby. But then he paused, staring at the mirrored wall of the elevator before he clarified, “...Do you want to talk?”

She hesitated, still reeling from the sudden change in events before she nodded and stepped to the side, telling him, “We can go up to my room.” Her hand hovered over the button for her floor as he removed his hand from the opening and stepped into the small elevator car.

It felt so weird to have him step into that elevator, leaving space between them while an uncomfortable silence settled over the space. She didn’t have a clue what to say or even how to feel in the moment. As her brain slipped back into memories of the previous weekend, Nat felt a pang in her heart as she thought of all those harsh words and the pain that it had caused. Tears prickled at her eyes as she remembered Chris saying he felt as if he didn’t know her and how easily he had wanted to draw boundaries on what she should be doing in life while he did exactly what he wanted.

She hadn’t thought their relationship was like that, and wanted to believe that it wasn’t and was just a massive misunderstanding. But when he slammed that door of her apartment, leaving her alone and in silence, she hadn’t thought even then that her phone would go quiet without a single text or call from him which only solidified that it wasn’t a misunderstanding. That was it. They were over almost as quickly as they had started.

Nat felt like her heart had completely broken in two. She had never felt love like she had with him, feeling fully known, fully celebrated, fully challenged, and fully loved by him in every way but having him leave so easily and holding her job decision over their relationship had caused her trust to be shaken. Nat had spent the last week feeling like this whole relationship truly had been too good to be true. At the end of the day he didn’t want her more than anything. He wanted her only as long as it worked for him.

The problem was that she still loved him. She still wholeheartedly loved him and didn’t know how she’d get that to stop. Nat was a headstrong person and wasn’t afraid to work hard, but the emotions that she felt so deeply and clearly made it so hard. She had thought this time was different. This time was going to be forever. But all of that had come crashing down with one simple argument.

But now she wasn’t so sure.

Seeing him taking her by surprise, standing here while asking her to talk gave her hope. It made her think that maybe he was feeling the same way she was. Maybe he wasn’t willing to give up as easily as he had seemed to. Nat had so many moments this last week that she had picked up her phone, staring at his contact as she thought about just clicking ‘Call’, but each time, that hurt and fear seemed to creep back up and resulted in her clicking her phone off. It seemed so hopeless and as if there wasn’t a point, but seeing Chris who had flown across the country – and evidently, the state too – just to talk to her made her realize that it wasn’t as hopeless as it had seemed even just a half an hour earlier. She’d been struggling to reconcile what their reality had quickly become, but now, face-to-face with the man who had admittedly hurt her so so badly, she felt her arguments and defenses weaken.

She got pulled back to reality when the elevator dinged and the doors opened. Nat tucked her curls behind an ear as she stepped out into the hallway and saw Chris out of the corner of her eye lift his hand, instinctively reaching out to rest his hand on her back as he followed behind her, just as he’d done so many times before, but then saw him drop it just as quickly when the reality of the situation dawned on him. Just that one simple action was enough to make her want to cry, hating the chasm that seemed to be between them.

They were never like this before, having been drawn to each other since the very first day they met, over a year ago. Even though their relationship hadn’t started until the previous May, he’d quickly become her closest companion before then. They were always affectionate, nearly always touching when they were around one another, and to see him hesitate to touch her for the first time ever… it hurt. It hurt almost more than the sound of him slamming her door did the week before.

Right then, Nat knew in her heart that although there were a lot of things that still were left unsaid and needed to be dealt with, she knew that she didn’t want it to be this way. She wanted him. She wanted to be with Chris and she was willing to work through the struggles that came with it because to her, he was worth it. As she pulled out her key to hold it up to the door, she felt emotions weighing down her chest, touched as she thought of him getting on a plane in what had to be the middle of the night to try to track her down. He had gone to so much effort just to talk to her, without any guarantees of a positive outcome, and the realization of that had tears forming in her eyes and she just couldn’t seem to hold back any of her feelings once the door was closed.

Now it was Nat’s turn to surprise Chris as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling her body up against his and pressing her lips against his. It didn’t take him more than a second to react, his hands coming to press against her back, holding her even tighter against him as he kissed her back just as passionately. Nat knew they needed to talk and work through this all, but she just couldn’t have gone one more second without him knowing that his effort to come track her down hadn’t gone unwanted and that through all of this, that she still truly, deeply, loved him. It was still there, she always knew that by how much pain she’d been in for the last week. But to know that what they shared between them was still there, still beating strong in both of them, unaffected by what had been fractured, gave them both something to continue fighting for.

When they couldn’t breathe anymore, they each finally pulled their lips away from one another but their arms stayed holding onto one another. They just stood there for a long moment before he brought a hand up to tuck some of her curls behind her ear, giving him a better view of her face as he looked down at her with so many emotions in his blue eyes.

“I love you, Nattie,” he told her, his voice low and wavering before he took a deep breath, shaking his head in frustration then admitting, “I was so stupid. So fucking stupid and I’m so sorry.”

The tears that had been threatening to fall since the second they saw each other finally spilled down her cheeks openly as her body shook with the weight of the words. He pulled her closer to him, his arms wrapped around her and holding Nat up as she buried her face in his chest. She let the emotions finally leave her system as he pressed kisses to her hair, quietly holding her until she finally took a deeper breath, gathering herself as she moved her face away from his now tear-stained tee shirt.

“I love you too,” Nat’s voice cracked as tears still cascaded down her cheeks while looking up into his arched eyes as she honestly spoke, “I’m sorry too Chris, I overreacted and I’m sorry and I just…I really really love you.”

When her words dissolved into more tears, Chris just pulled her right back against him, her head laying against his chest while he rubbed her back and comforted her with, “Shhh, it’s okay. Everything is going to be okay, baby.”

She felt his hand moving up and down over her back, the action soothing her as he tucked her head under his chin. Her ear was pressed against his chest, next to the spot where she knew his tattoo for Dodger was, but as she nearly clung to him, she recognized the sound of Chris’ heart racing below her ear. The rapid thumping of his heart echoing in her ear reminded her that it wasn’t just herself that was relieved, put back together from being broken. It was about the two of them coming back together as one whole unit instead of two fractured halves, something she hadn’t thought was possible before stepping onto that elevator today.

Breaking the silence, she felt his low voice rumble in his chest as Chris spoke, “I know there’s a lot we need to talk about, but I just want you to know that I adore you Nattie. I was such a fucking idiot and I’m so sorry. I’m just so sorry and I love you so much.”

“I just can’t believe you’re here,” Nat shook her head while she ran a hand over his chest that was covered in a soft tee shirt, almost wanting to remind herself that he truly was here. She brought her eyes up to meet his, still in disbelief as she asked, “You really flew all over just to find me?”

“If I wasn’t so stupid I would have done it a helluva lot sooner,” he admitted, his voice low and slightly amused as he chuckled to himself with a shake of his head.

“I still can’t believe you came here for me,” she whispered. She’d never be able to reconcile that – that he believed so strongly in even trying to fix this mess that he’d fly all over just to try to find her, with absolutely no idea if it’d even work.

But here they were. And she was so so so glad he tried.

“I love you Nat, and I just couldn’t give up on us,” he whispered to her, a soft smile on his bearded face as he stared down into her eyes.

She was completely out of words, unsure how to even say how she was feeling and instead just pulled herself back against his chest, hugging him tightly. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head as he held her right back just as securely, both feeling like everything was finally going to be alright.

They shared another long kiss, relishing once again in the feeling of being back in each other’s arms before they made their way over to the small couch, Nat leading Chris as she held his hand. She paused right as they came to a stop in front of the couch, dropping his hand to unceremoniously move the various clothes and her bag that she’d shoved onto the couch the night before, only so she could sleep in the messy bed behind them. Once the couch was clear of her things, she curled up next to him, bending her legs to let them rest in his lap, his hand dropping to rub along her thigh as they relaxed in one another’s presence.

“How’s Dodge?”

“Did you really just ask how Dodger was?” Chris asked, his nose scrunching as he laughed in disbelief. His voice was light and amused as he pointed out, “I flew across the country and the first real question you’re going to ask me is about Dodger?”

She simply shrugged her shoulders, a smile spreading across her lips as his hand kept moving over her legs absentmindedly. “Well he’s clearly the best part of being close to you,” she joked.

His voice was low as he pulled her impossibly closer to him with the arm that rested over her shoulders, admitting more to himself than to her, “God, I fuckin’ missed you Nattie.”

Reaching out to rest her hand on his chest, fingers brushing against his necklace as she admitted, “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”

“I felt that too which is why I just couldn’t stand it anymore,” Chris spoke truthfully, fingers curling and uncurling against her leg, just happy to feel her underneath his touch once again.

There still was an elephant in the room though, one that couldn’t and shouldn’t be avoided and they both knew it. Although they both would have loved to just stay in that happy and relieved moment, Nat spoke what they both knew to be true and said, “I think you are right though, I think we need to talk about…everything.”

“Do you want to talk now or do you want to go get something to eat first or just have a break for a while?” He asked her, his voice small as his fingers tapped on her leg softly.

She pursed her lips as she thought. She was hungry, that was undeniable, and her goal earlier had been to go find some food before she ran into Chris. But putting off this conversation would do them no good, especially if she knew Chris was only a few floors away, pacing in his own room before they talked it out fully. “I think I’d rather talk now,” she began slowly, pausing to sigh as she shook her head and confessed, “I just don’t even know where we went wrong, Chris. I feel like everything just blew up suddenly.”

He took a deep, steadying breath, his nostrils flaring slightly as he nodded his head. “It did, but I think where we both went wrong was walking away instead of just tabling things until we were more clear headed,” he pointed out.

“I know you’re right,” she agreed with a whisper. It was easy now to point out the faults in everything, seeing things clearly once the dust had settled. But they had to do some work before things got to an okay place. As his hand sat on her shin, she pushed the rising anxiety back down inside her and mustered up the courage to tell him, “I know I overreacted and I’m sorry for that. I know I can get all spun up and too emotional about things but I just felt really… alone. I felt like you weren’t listening to me at all.”

A small sigh escaped Chris at those words, and she knew that seeing the other’s view for the first time wouldn’t be easy for either of them, but it was certainly necessary. “Nattie, I want you to know that I really was trying to look out for you. I really was just trying to make sure you were doing what you want, but when you told me that you wanted to do it, I should have supported you and I didn't. And I'm sorry for that.” He simply apologized, his thumb moving in a small path over her leg as he spoke.

“I know you were Chris and I’m sorry I didn’t really give you any room to voice your concerns. If I ask for your opinion, I need to be ready to listen and I wasn’t,” she apologized. She recognized her own faults in the argument, she had since the second he stepped out of that apartment in a fury. But the fault laid on both of them, and she needed him to admit that.

He nodded slowly, fingers tapping an anxious pattern on her leg as he said, “I just didn't think that this job was something that you wanted to do and I think it surprised me and I didn’t really understand why… although I still don’t.”

Nat nodded, knowing she hadn’t been able to give him the full reasoning behind this move. She ignored the way her heart was racing with adrenaline, anxiety, and nerves, and instead explained, “I really thought that this job would be the answer to so many things. I thought it would give me better hours for us to be together, I’d have more flexibility to go home and see my family, and I’d be putting so many years of hard work to use and having a great career in art.”

Judging by the tender look that had crossed his face, she knew that the vulnerability in her voice must have been evident and he shook his head softly for a moment before his eyes came to look right into hers, “I’m sorry that I didn’t support you and I promise that I’m completely on board for what you want, Nat.”

“It’s not an excuse but I think I’m just a little extra sensitive because of Shane. He expected me to just drop my career for him and I was feeling like you were willing to go film and sign onto new projects but didn’t want me to keep moving up,” she tried to explain. Nat wanted him to see how what he had been asking her to do was something he wasn’t doing himself. “It wasn’t fair to project that onto you though. I let my emotions rule me rather than relying on what I knew was true about our relationship.”

“I’m not going to lie Nat, that really did hurt me that you felt like I was just trying to control you and not that I had your best interests at heart,” Chris’ voice was soft, his hand lifting up in the air as he thought of what he was trying to say before it fell back down to rest on her knee, “I want you to be able to trust me.”

“I do, Chris, and I’m sorry. I really am,” she honestly apologized, dipping her head to the side to catch his eye. “I think what wasn’t okay was that you wanted everything to revolve around your schedule and not taking mine into account. You signed onto new projects and wanted me to come see you but then complained when I’d have to work longer because of taking time off to see you.”

There was something in his voice that was almost unrecognizable that she didn’t understand was fear until he told her, “I was just worried about you working so hard.”

“Something to keep in mind though is that you have an irregular job,” Nat wanted to be sensitive to his feelings but also wanted him to be able to recognize how wildly different his life was from most peoples. “You work hard, but you don’t go to work every day and never have and most of the people you’ve dated had a similar schedule. I think some of it you just don’t realize what having a more regular career is like.”

He blinked a few times as he stared at Nat, a perturbed look settling over him as he admitted, “I guess I hadn’t thought of that.”

“I feel like you were only looking at it through your point of view,” Nat pointed out to Chris, starting to touch on the root of the issue on his end.

“Nattie, I really wasn’t trying to be selfish. I just didn’t think that this job was a good fit for you,” he still wasn’t changing his mind on his reasoning but went on to explain, “But what I realized is I don’t think we have to agree. I care more about us being together than all the other shit.”

“I feel that way too,” Nat couldn’t help but reach out to rest her hand on his bearded cheek, her thumb stroking softly as she told him, “I love you so much.”

At first Chris didn’t verbally respond, but the tenderness in his blue eyes said everything he needed to. His hands came to rest along the sides of her waist, leaning in slowly, his lips brushing against hers before he whispered, “I love you,” before crashing their lips together.

Nat melted into the kiss, moving to lay back against the couch as Chris followed her down and kept kissing her and moving against her until they both were seeing stars. She realized just how true Chris’ words were, how they truly didn’t need to agree or always see eye to eye, but what they did need was to be together.

Everything felt like a blissful blur as they peeled each other out of their clothes and let their hands start to explore warm skin and hear soft sighs. Nat swore it didn’t even matter what he was doing, but just feeling him again was pure heaven as she was reminded that they belonged to one another. They needed one another more than they even knew and Nat knew now, in her heart, that they’d always have each other, no matter what.

A/N: Our asks are always open!

129 notes · View notes