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summerfitzy · 5 years

Text

any time

Fandom: Skam Austin Ship: Grace x Daniel Summary: In which Grace needs a fake boyfriend again.

Inspired by a scene in Elle Kennedy’s The Risk and by a conversation with the amazing @colored-pins

ao3

It wasn’t that Jesse was a bad guy.

He was Eve’s only hetero male friend. He attended Take Back the Night walks. Jesse was obviously… political and intelligent and exactly what anyone would expect from a man-bun-wearing practitioner of naked yoga. All nonconformist and liberal and woke.

He’s so your type! Megan had giggled in her ear, when they’d first noticed him standing in front of them in line at Grace’s favorite salad place. Unless you’re into someone, I don’t know, a little more… jock-ish.

And then Grace had rolled her eyes, and belatedly retorted, Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, ‘political and intelligent’ was her type. Her type would have to be someone ‘nonconformist and liberal and woke.’

Her type would definitively not play high school football.

So, yes, Jesse was great and wonderful and etcetera. Grace just wished that she wasn’t eating lunch with him right now. As soon as they'd starting talking, Megan—traitor—had gushed about how perfect it was that they’d run into each other, because, would you look at her phone, she had to run, and this way she wouldn’t be leaving Grace to eat all on her own.

Jesse had grinned, all easy and zen.

Grace had tried not to grimace.

Trust me, you need this, Megan had whispered to her, before slipping away, and throwing a Have fun! over her shoulder.

Traitor, traitor, traitor, traitor.

That was how Grace had ended up sitting next to Jesse at a counter by the cafe window, closer together than she would have liked, nibbling on kale and quinoa between bits of small talk. And she knew it wasn’t Jesse’s fault that their knees were just about touching, that his arm kept brushing hers; their seats were just that close together. Her elbow kept grazing his too. Such was life.

“I think you’d have a good time,” Jesse was saying, his brown eyes intent on her. Eve had told her once that Jesse had a lot of Scorpio intensity, for such a chill guy, and Grace was starting to see what she'd meant. He really had that ‘trying to stare into your soul’ thing down.

“I…” Grace shook her head, and tried to laugh. “I don’t know. Naked yoga isn’t really my thing.” She was going to kill Megan. And then Eve. And then Megan again.

“Look, I get it,” Jesse said. His arm slid against hers again, as he went for another forkful of his salad. “I didn’t think I’d be into it either. But there’s something surprisingly empowering about stripping away all the outer layers. Being there, breathing, completely exposed, accepting yourself as you are.”

Too much eye contact. Abort eye contact. Grace turned to look out the window, as she answered, “Yeah, I’m just not sure I’m looking to be… completely exposed. While doing yoga.”

And Jesse must have answered—Grace was sure she heard him cede that's fair—but she wasn’t listening, because right outside the window, walking past the restaurant was—

Daniel. Daniel was walking down the sidewalk, all by himself, looking like such a cliché, with his Henley and styled, very-much-not-in-a-man-bun hair. Or he had been walking, until he spotted her in the café window. Then he’d slowed. Now, he paused to meet her gaze. And Grace would love to say that she immediately looked away (best case scenario) or that her eyes communicated total indifference (second best case scenario), but…

How was it possible that she’d had more fun laughing with Daniel Williamson over a piece of kale in her teeth, than she was having with Jesse? Jesse, who might be a little too enthusiastic about naked yoga, but had never slept with—and than discarded—one of her best friends.

“You know, it doesn’t have to be naked yoga,” Jesse was saying. “I go to this Kundalini class that’s doing, like, amazing things for my chakras. If you want to join…”

Daniel tilted his head at Jesse with a raised eyebrow.

Grace wasn’t sure what her answering shrug—her shoulders still hadn’t totally un-tensed—said exactly, but it had Daniel walking away within a second.

Her stomach sunk around her next sip of water. Good. Daniel leaving was good. Daniel misunderstanding her lunch with Jesse, assuming it was at all romantic, would be—even better. It would.

The café door swung open, ushering in a gust of spring air with it. God, Grace wished she could leap up and escape through it.

“That’s actually how I found that naked yoga class,” Jesse continued. “Same teacher.”

“Oh. That’s really—” Interesting, Grace had been planning to finish, before a palm pulsed around her shoulder. Not Jesse’s. Jesse’s were still occupied with his salad and iced green tea. These hands belonged to someone else. Someone clearly male and obviously strong and—

“Hey, babe,” a voice—Daniel’s voice—came right at her ear, before a pair of lips—Daniel’s lips—pressed a quick kiss into her hair.

Had Grace had time to think, she probably would have pushed him away. Or asked him what the hell he was doing. Or something similarly disdainful. But Grace didn’t have time to think, she had to react right now, and, right now, she felt herself easing back against Daniel’s chest.

“Hey,” she said, smoothly, like her lunch hadn’t segued into bizarre world. Like she wasn’t suddenly very aware of Daniel Williamson’s body heat.

“Hi,” Jesse said, straightening slightly. Raising a hand in a kind of wave. “I’m Jesse. Friend of Grace’s cousin.”

“Daniel. Grace’s boyfriend.”

Grace wasn’t sure she believed in miracles, but—it was kind of a miracle that laughter didn’t bubble out from the closed line of her lips just then.

“Ah,” Jesse said, turning back to her. “Didn’t realize you were seeing someone.”

Daniel’s fingers trailed their way down her bare arm, casual, as though he touched her like this all the time. As though he had no idea what her heartbeat was doing right now.

“Yeah,” Grace said. “Well. It’s new.”

Running. Her heartbeat was running.

“But serious,” Daniel added. “I’m crazy about her.”

There was nothing particularly intimate about the way he’d started massaging his thumb along her wrist. Her pulse. There was no reason Grace should have had to shake her head, clear her head, before stage whispering to Jesse: “He claims it was love at first sight.”

“It was love at first sight," Daniel retorted.

Jesse grinned, zen restored. “That’s really sweet.”

Almost against her will—definitely against her will—Grace felt her other hand moving to tangle with Daniel’s. And he let her, as though this was normal for them, as though she danced his fingertips across his knuckles all the time.

“You should hear the songs she writes for me,” Daniel said. “Real sweet."

His arm was draped across her, around her, now; her back even more molded to his chest. She’d done that.

If asked, she would deny that she’d done that.

“Oh, babe,” Grace teased, trying to ignore the firmness of his utterly cliché athlete abs. “I sort of had to. You know, after you started leaving a poem in my locker every day.”

“What can I say,” Daniel said. Lips twitching. She could hear his lips twitching. “You’re my muse.”

And Grace knew she should be concerned that they were still right in front of the window, that anyone could walk by and see her basically in Daniel Williamson’s arms. But when Jesse stood up, and said, “Hey, man, take my seat. I should be heading out,” she had a hard time regretting anything.

Picking up his salad bowl, Jesse added, "Awesome seeing you, Grace."

“Yeah,” she said. “I’ll say hi to Eve for you?”

“Tell her she still owes me ten dollars.”

Grace gave him an exaggerated grimace. “That might be a lost cause.”

“A guy’s gotta try, right?” Jesse said with another toothy smile on his way towards the exit.

And then he was gone, and Daniel was lifting his hand out of hers, moving away, sitting down next to her. Raising his brow at her.

Grace crossed her arms. Ignored the echoes his fingers left on her skin. “Hey, babe?” she repeated.

He leaned closer, one elbow on the counter, before drawling, “I could have gone with sweetheart.”

Grace tilted her head, and teased, “Could you have, though? Really?”

Daniel’s lips curved again. “You looked like you needed help. You’re welcome.”

“Maybe I wanted to hear more about Jesse’s enthusiasm for naked yoga.”

Mock consideration creased Daniel’s forehead. “Yeah. I don’t think so.”

A shrug. Another bite of her quinoa. Total, wordless patience from Daniel as she chewed.

“Okay,” she said. “So maybe I was little…”

“Desperate?” Daniel offered.

“A little stuck,” Grace corrected, shoving her shoulder against his. “I was not desperate.”

“You looked desperate,” he countered. “You might as well have been blinking SOS in Morse code.”

“And you totally know Morse code.”

“I'm proficient."

“Of course.”

Another beat.

“Thank you,” Grace said, finally. “You were”—a slight laugh, because this was so ridiculous, how was this her afternoon—“a model fake boyfriend.”

“Any time.” Daniel had dragged his lower lip between his teeth, just a bit.

It should have sounded light. Like a joke. But all Grace could hear was the edge of gruffness in his voice. His eyes, latching onto hers. The leftover warmth of his hand on her arm.

That was all she could hear, even after he looked away.

When he moved to get up, Grace heard herself blurting, “You should stay.”

Stupid. She was being so stupid. She was prolonging this, betraying Kelsey, giving Daniel every opportunity to call her out for wanting to spend time with him…

But Daniel just nodded with faux-gravity. “I probably should. He could come back.”

Grace nodded. "We wouldn't want him to think we were lying.”

When she offered Daniel a sip of her water, he took it.

#grace x daniel #daniel x grace #wilsen #skam austin #fanfiction #my writing

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