Another JonoLee ficlet
Because I don't know when to leave well enough alone.
I've Got a Question and Another Bad Idea...
His jacket’s much too big for her, and she’s a little drunk and he’s a little too close and suddenly everything in her world gets a little bit warmer. And Jubilee laughs.
“Wot’s suddenly so funny?” Jono asks, and she has to cover her mouth to try and look less like an idiot. It’s less her hand and more the overlong end of his sleeve that gets the job done.
“Nothing, nothing.” Just everything. For no reason. “You ever notice heat differently, now that you’re…” She trails off, circling around his torso in the air with a finger. “Like, feel your temperature changing more or less since you got patched back together?”
She’d never have asked if she wasn’t about five shots deep in an hour and a half. Her mouth’s not really connected to her brain anymore and at the look he gives her, one eyebrow raised and those stretched-too-far blue lips twisted up into a smirk, she doesn’t much mind.
“Yer a strange one, luv,” he says and shakes his head, but thinks about it and Jubilee feels appropriately vindicated. “Depends wot I’m doing.”
“Or who,” she snorts under her breath. It’s funny ‘cause for all the time she’s spent with him, she still can’t imagine Jono getting laid. Not for lack of trying. And the mental images the effort conjures up are easy on the eyes. She leans against his side and pulls one knee up to her chest. He feels warm to her, even if he doesn’t notice it himself.
“Hold on, come again?” Jono asks, and she giggles a little more than is strictly necessary. He rolls his eyes.
“You never really answered my question.” She wants to run her fingers through his messy hair but her arms feel heavy and his head is so annoyingly high up.
“No, no, no, wot was that about me shagging people? Don’t think I opened th’ floor t’ that kind o’ inquiry.” He can’t decide whether to wrap an arm around her or try to push her away, so instead he just sits there and endures while Jubilee links her arm through his.
“I never asked about it,” she says, and rubs her cheek against his shoulder. She could fall asleep right here and be perfectly fine with it. Jono wouldn’t be, but that’s not exactly her top priority at the moment. “I just made an observation. Bet you’d notice yourself gettin’ all hot an’ bothered if you had a girl all over you. An’ youstill didn’t answer my question.”
He can’t decide if drunk Jubes is entertaining or not. A part of him wants to ruffle her hair and another wants to cuff her upside the head. But Jubilee is, indeed, very much a girl, and she is taking up quite a bit of his personal space. His skin’s gone hot where she’s touching him. “Alrigh’, fine, I notice heat now. ‘S a lot more subtle than it used t’ be. Yer satisfied?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She nods. She’s wrapped both her arms around one of Jono’s now, her cheek still pressed to his shoulder. He notices that, alright.
Jubilee whines in protest when he extricates himself, then purrs a bit when his arm relocates to her shoulders. He feels nice. She feels the need to tell him so. “You’re hot.”
He’s stuck between a swallow and a cough and some kind of strangled wheeze comes out instead. “Come again, pet?”
She clenches up a fistful of his shirt and then smooths the wrinkles out again. It’s not an excuse to touch all over his chest. Because he has one of those now, and it’s weird. In a nice kind of way. “You’re warm. ‘S nice. Just wanted to see if I was the only one who noticed that sorta thing.”
“Yeah,” he says, and his palm rubs down the smooth curve of her back. He catches himself wishing his stolen jacket wasn’t in the way. “I noticed it.”
Her hand slips down to his stomach. Jono swallows. It’s not the only thing he’s noticed, and it hasn’t escaped Jubilee, either. His muscles go all tight under her palm. She smiles.
“‘Kay.” She snuggles up further into his side and closes her eyes. Her arm drapes across his lap. “I was jus’ curious, is all.”
Her fingers trace over his hip. This is a bad idea. He knows because every time he’s had this same idea, it’s ended badly. The Guinness in his system is making it an even worse idea, but isn’t letting on. ”Yeah, right.”
Jubilee leans up just enough so he can see her smiling through her eyelashes. She sticks out her tongue. Jono dips his head and rests his lips against her hair, and she knows she’s won this round.
“‘M always right.”