(no subject)

[helsinkibaby]

The Pieces of My Life - September 1996
When a knock at the door wakes her from a deep sleep, Ellie is first convinced that she’s still dreaming. It’s only when she hears Ashley groaning that she realises that it’s real, pulls herself into a sitting position, glancing over at the clock on her nightstand. The glowing red numbers read 00:00 and she stares hard at it, willing it to change to 08:00. Midnight may not be that late by college standards, but she has an early lab in the morning and sleep is a necessity.

“They’d better not be setting off the fire alarms again,” Ashley mumbles, still more than half asleep, but Ellie’s always woken quickly, and has realised something.

“No… it’s just our door.”

At the same time that she realises that, she hears a familiar voice hissing her name. “Ellie… Ellie, wake up…”

Her hand flies to the light, and the first thing she sees is Ashley staring at her. “What the hell-?” she begins, but Ellie is already standing, already halfway to the door.

She wrenches it open, a hundred questions on her lips, but they all disappear when a large red balloon hits her in the nose. She gasps in shock, bats it aside, realising when she does that it’s tied to the doorknob. As expected, her boyfriend stands in front of her, huge smile on his face, single red rose in hand.

“Greg, what are you doing here?” she asks, her cheeks flushing red, all the more so when she hears Ashley behind her, doing nothing whatsoever to keep back her laughter.

“It’s midnight,” Greg tells her with a shrug, as if this is the most normal thing in the world, and all she can do is shake her head.

“Strange as it might seem, I can read a clock,” she tells him, not unkindly, though a touch awkwardly, because she can see from the corners of her eyes that people are standing in the doorways, staring at them. No doubt Greg, with his exhibitionist tendencies, doesn’t care that much, but Ellie’s never been comfortable with scenes. “What are you doing here?” she repeats, and he shrugs again.

“It’s midnight,” he tells her again, this time stepping towards her, rose extended. “Which means that it’s a new day. Which means that it’s your birthday.” Another shrug as her jaw drops. “I wanted to be the first to wish you happy birthday.”

Ellie’s speechless, not so Ashley. “You guys are so sweet,” she says, and Greg leans so that he can see her over Ellie’s shoulder.

“I know,” he says airily. Then he turns his attention to Ellie, leaning forward and brushing his lips over hers. “Happy birthday Ellie,” he whispers before kissing her again, and this time, she wraps her arms around her neck, holds on tightly. There are whoops and cheers from all around them, and Ellie knows people are going to be talking about this for a long time.

For once, she doesn’t care.

For those of you reading this series, you will note that that's not the next chronological part. (That's still in the works.) However, the csreports challenge for the week is midnight and it inspired this, so into the time machine we step for the fluff of it all.

I have many many fics to write. This is not good. At all.