Riptide

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"Car?" Javi asked, looking at his girlfriend through the dimmed lights, squinting to make out the expression on her face, across the dark, and in the dim light of the flashlight of their two phones, combined, and then chuckling, realising she was looking like a molten candle, with all the sweat and that exasperated expression on her face.
"Car?" She repeated his question, but in a more bewildered tone, not understanding what he meant.
"We don't know when the lights are gonna be back..." he started, his eyes suggesting things, "it's too hot, and I think, if we're going to get any relief— I mean it's a city-wide blackout— it's gonna be in the car. We can sit with the AC on"
The chuckle escaped Amelia's lips before she could stop it, "you're such a dork, Javi" she shook her head, and then got up, and moved out of the area lit up by the flashlights, and into the dark, and Javi's eyes searched for her, wondering what she was doing.
"So... plan flop?" He asked, pouting, but then heard a sound of keys jingling, and his ears perked up, just as she ducked back into the flashlight's range, with the most devilish smile on her face, "Whatchu waiting for?" She asked, picking the phone up, and darting out of the door, Javi following close behind, locking their apartment door as they ran down the stairs and into the society parking lot.
The parking lot was mostly deserted, a couple of dogs barking at each other, and a boy on a bicycle just parking his own, when Javi and Amelia reached their car. Sliding in to the backseat, Amelia threw her feet up, on the front seat, snuggling in cozily, with the two plushies she had brought with them, placing one under her arm, one over her belly, and switched her phone back on, while Javi sank into the front seat to switch on the AC.
"Hey Jay," she shouted from her spot, "can you turn up the music?"
Javi winced— he was almost out of the car— but reluctantly got back in, turned up the radio, and then followed Amelia's lead, shuffling into the back seat, but instead of putting his legs up on the front seat, like Amelia had done, he turned his own towards Amelia, and yelled "arms uppp"
Amelia groaned, as his calves landed on her plushie, and he settled down with his back against the side window, and grinned at her, "comfy babe?"  he asked her, rather cheekily, pulling up his own iPad, and scrolling up to GarageBand.
"Ha ha" she pouted, sticking her tongue at him, and then shifting around a little bit, and putting her hands over his pink pyjamas, elbows digging at his knees, "yes, very comfy" while Javi helped with the sudden onset of pressure on his hands.
The lifted the pressure and settled down more comfortably, though, stopping to annoy him for a few seconds, and threw her head back, "aaaaaaaahh WHY DO WE HAVE POWER CUTS!"
Javi chuckled, just as advertisements began playing on the radio, "because the government is shitty and we can't use ranger power for electricity"
"I think they tried to do that—" Amelia chipped in, and Javi laughed.
"I heard they failed miserably"
"Whatever it is. I'm grateful we have cars"
"Shut up" Javi punched her in the arm, playfully, "no one curses this car as much as you do—"
"Not true..." she accused, "you do it more. And so does Izzy"
"That's because she always finds weird footprints in weird corners because of our shenanigans" Javi huffed, "hey you got any snacks?" He looked up hopefully.
Amelia smirked, "of course I did!" She rummaged around the foot space, shoving Javi's leg upwards, making it hit the roof and making him wince, and dug out a pair of snicker bars, "et voila" she winked, handing one to Javi, who massaged his leg with one hand, and unwrapped the snicker bar with the other.
The advertisements ended, and a song started, and Javi almost fell over in his seat when he heard it, "Supernatural?!"
Amelia too, grinned, and started moving her shoulders in the cramped space, along to the tune of the song, while Javi leaned forward, and smirked, "you're supernatural, baby" his eyebrows wiggled suggestively, and she laughed, understanding the cue, and closed her eyes to summon her Rafkonian antlers, and tilting her head slightly, to show them off to Javi, "boy this love is supernatural, can you feel it?" She sang along with the lyrics.
Javi extended a snickers filled hand towards her, as if asking her for a ball dance, and she ducked to avoid it from hitting her head, while he sang, unnaturally high pitched, "poison me with love, I'd bring you back to life" then winked, cheesily, making her laugh, as the song moved to its last phase.
Charlie Puth's 'Cheating on you' came on next, and Javi watched Amelia wince, "Change the channel, would ya, Jay?" She made her signature puppy dog eyes at him, and Javi shrugged, "Aiight babe" a little confused, and struggled into the space between the two front seats, and struggled awkwardly in the cold, cold space, to rotate the little knob on the second hand car's age old radio, and slide into a channel where Pink $weat's 'At my Worst' was playing,
"That's better" she said, as he landed back in his seat, this time, keeping his feet down, so she took the opportunity to swing hers over his, stretching herself, and then yawning, "we beat the heat. I love this little space— SO glad you're not claustrophobic!"
Javi laughed, watching her pull on her phone, and get busy once again; he didn't say anything more, he had a song to finish. Both of them had been doing this very thing, on the couch, with Amelia on top of him,  scrolling instagram, and Javi finishing his song, when the power cut had happened. It was part of their lazy Saturday evening, when all work was done, and nothing except a lazy, lazy Sunday, the next morning was all to look forward to.
"Don't you like break-up songs?" He asked, all of a sudden, making her look up in confusion. She shrugged, "why think of things that don't make you feel good"
"Because they might happen one day?" Javi shrugged, and Amelia stared at him in disbelief, "you mean to say—"
Javi blushed, "what?" He asked, in an awfully high pitched voice, pretending to be nonchalant.
"You mean you've thought about us breaking up?"
"I mean..." Javi looked back into his tab, unable to meet her eye, "who hasn't?"
"I haven't—" she started, but then frowned, as Javi looked up, in surprise, "I don't believe that. Never thought of throwing in the towel?? Because it feels tough?"
Amelia sank back against the window pane, "Okay maybe, once or twice... but then I think that I wouldn't be able to see your face every day, and that thought makes me so, so sad. That's why I made you change the song. Like I said" she shrugged, "why think of things you don't like? That make you sad."
"But you do think about it" he laughed, and then returned to his iPad, and started humming along the tune of the song playing on the radio, assuming the conversation was over...
And then, as though the same live wire had struck a bolt of one particular thought inside both of their minds, the two of them looked up, and almost in unison, asked each other, "do you ever think about cheating on me?"
The laughter that followed this joint accusation was so real, so genuine, and the two of them smiled at each other, with a tiny little blush, "Who would it be? Where would you go?" Javi continued, knowing now, that the conversation was less spirited, more open, and that the two of them were to be fully honest.
"A celebrity?" She shrugged, "honestly, I don't know. I can't imagine not being with you. Do you think about one night stands? Leaving the bar at three AM with a stranger?"
Javi laughed, "No, maybe, the Pink ranger feels like a viable option—" he chuckled, getting a kick in the gut as a result, "it's a hard question to answer! Jeez!!" Then he changed the topic, "Do you think you'd ever do it with one of our friends? Cheat on me, I mean, like with Ollie, your ex, or Zayto, Aiyon?" Then he placed a hand on his chest, like he had just heard the most shocking news of his life, "my SISTER?" He asked, almost comically, making her laugh.
"I'd never get together with an ex... Zayto and Aiyon are way too old for my liking... plus I don't think I feel that way about any of our friends... But Izzy Garcia? That's..." she smirked at him, and at his amused expression.
"And suppose you find a ghost, that's into you?" Javi questioned back, and Amelia placed a hand on her chin, as if thinking deeply, and then winked, "no, I'd 100% cheat on you, if we find a ghost that's into me"
"We? What makes you think I'd help you look for a ghost, especially if it's gonna take you away from me?" He stuck his tongue at her, just the way she always did, and she smirked, "Then I'd have to take the help of..." she never completed the sentence, and Javi rolled his eyes.
"One night stand with a ghost. I should just go and die right now, so you can date me, and a ghost. I mean, no ghost can be as much into you as I am." he chuckled, and received an ankylosaurus plushie in his face, as a result, "shut up"
"You know what, I always thought we'd end up together" he said, in a sorta dreamy voice, "you know? Like those Tumblr fanart couples who still live together after they're both ghosts"
Amelia's mouth opened, and something along the line of a squeak, a squeal, and a shriek, and a sound one makes when one hugs a tiny kitten barely bigger than the palm of one's hand, emerged, which had no parallel— and was the sweetest sound to Javi's ears. "Javi you are too sweet to be real"
He leaned his head back, while she turned to look at him intently, "I mean, if you consider the options, either we break up— which, neither of us really wanna do— or we stay together?" He smiled, "unless one of us dies, of course; in which case, we live with the ghost. We do really end up together, then, don't we?"
Amelia blushed, "So you see yourself growing old with me? With our hair turning grey? When our eyesight starts to fade?"
"I'd dye your hair every day. I'd take you to eye doctor appointments." He chuckled, "my 'I love you' to you, will still sound the same"
"You know what, I can see this" she closed her eyes, "we can have two kids. One girl, one boy"
"You let me name the girl! I've thought of it already!"
"I know Javi. I don't know why you've got this fixation with 'Adelyn' as a name—" she shook her head, "but then I'm naming the boy. And I'm gonna call him..." she made a pondering face, "Hazel" she said, finally, with a satisfied grin.
"Works for me, it's a cute name— as long as I get Adelyn" he chuckled, "I think she'd look like you, though. Your hair? Do you think our kids will have antlers and be able to read minds?"
"That's something we'd have to fuck around and find out—" she joked, making Javi almost wheeze at the double implication, and he almost doubled over, placing his hands on his face to hide the blush.
"Forever isn't enough, with you, Javi" she smiled, "I want you till the universe exists, and even after that."
Javi looked up, still blushing, leaned forward, and was about to place lips together, when suddenly, in an almost blinding flash, the entire universe lit up— the blackout was gone, all lights were back, and lit up in that blinding moment, in a moment, where they were inches apart, and he could see the sparkles in her eyes, he smiled.

A/N: inspired by a fic by ameliajones145 and a couple of songs I'm obsessed with: https://youtu.be/c7Fx8XIz-Lw and https://youtu.be/_H6TOTDH2Ds

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