Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sabrina was sitting at a small table near the window of the small cafe, people-watching the crowds of tourists and locals mingled together on a bright and breezy Sunday afternoon smelling of fresh rain and roses. The bell above the door distracted her from her thoughts as a familiar man entered. He had a briefcase in one hand and a phone in the other and looked completely out of place. The last time she had seen him was over a year ago when he had popped his head out of David’s closet to ask her if she’d bring him home an Eiffel Tower paperweight. 

The mortification came rushing back, she felt her cheeks grow warm but before she could casually slip out without notice, Linus looked up and caught her eye, recognition blooming. There was a quiet debate in his eyes on whether he was going to acknowledge her or not, whether she’d recognized him, whether she would even want to speak with him after the last time he saw her. Unluckily, the two made eye contact and the bell above the door rang again, Linus having to move towards Sabrina to avoid blocking the entrance. 

“Hi,” Sabrina managed to muster up when Linus approached her table with a reserved smile, awkward and out of place.

“I didn’t expect to-” Linus began.

“Why are you-” Both snapped their mouth’s closed, cringing at their own awkwardness. 

“Oh, you go first.” 

“Oh no, you go.” Sabrina said softly, almost to herself. 

“Well, I’m just here on business. Plane delayed because of the incoming storm.” Sabrina just hummed acknowledgment at his answer. Neither were great at small talk and Linus was just about to offer to leave her be with an apology for disturbing her when she asked if he’d like to sit down. He thought about it briefly, looking around the small cafe with seats all filled and figured there was no reason not to, so he sat his briefcase down and offered to get her a refill which she declined. He ordered a straight black coffee and sat stiffly across from her. 

“So, Paris,” Linus said almost like a question but not quite, pulling out a series of neatly stapled documents from his bag. It wasn’t quite an invitation to speak, but Sabrina didn’t mind. Linus had the uncanny ability to both put her on edge and at ease. It was the first familiar face she had seen in over a year, and so, even though a familiar sense of caution flooded her system, she found herself talking about the city. 

“I had always seen photos, but there’s nothing more extraordinary than seeing some of these hundreds-of-years old structures up close.” Linus only briefly looked up and nodded in polite agreement.

“Like, Notre Dame or the Louvre. It’s just overpowering thinking about all the people who’ve stood in the exact same spot, and were taken by the exact same view. You know?” Linus nodded again, still shuffling through papers and sipping his coffee. Sabrina didn’t mind it much though, she found an ease when talking about Paris. “And yet, they didn’t because we all experience things so differently. You know? Have you ever been to Paris before?” Sabrina rolled her eyes when Linus didn’t respond, of course it was to be expected. She could count on one hand the times she saw Linus sitting still and even then, he was doing then what he was doing now – sifting through papers and squinting like there was nothing else in the world that could be as interesting as numbers on a piece of paper. “Linus? Linus,” Sabrina said with a firmness that surprised both him and Sabrina herself. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Linus looked up, focusing his attention on her.

“I asked if you’ve ever been in Paris before.” 

“Yes, a few years ago, I was here for a few hours for some stockholder’s trip.” 

“Yeah, but have you ever actually looked around?” Linus rolled his eyes.

“I look around all the time.”

“You know what I mean.” Linus was silent. Of course he knew what she meant, but he simply didn’t have time to look around. 

Sabrina knew better than to believe she had rendered him speechless, but she could see the cogs turning behind his eyes. There was a small part of her that liked it. She especially liked that he seemed to be momentarily rattled by her in the same way she had by him her whole life. 

Linus finally met Sabrina’s eyes and then, just as quickly looked away, but not back to his papers. Instead, he turned his head towards the cafe, seeming to register where he was at for the first time since walking off the plane. His gaze wandered back to the tall glass windows they were seated against and to the cobblestones beyond. He sucked in a breath, not quite used to seeing the world in such detail.

“I think… you should use this time to experience the world.” 

“No, I have lots of work to get done, the storm means I have schedules to adjust, meetings to push back, and more paperwork than ever with David and the merger.” Linus looked as if he were going to continue but caught himself. The minute the name passed his lips, Sabrina visibly deflated. Of course she knew about the engagement, no doubt read about it in some paper or heard news from her father in the last few weeks since. He didn’t quite know what to say after that. He had known about her crush on his brother for years, and up until her confession the last time they had seen eachother, he had believed that’s all it was. But now, seeing the bubbly bits of Paris Sabrina dissipate at David’s name sent a pang through his chest. 

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have mentioned it.” 

“No, no, it’s fine. I read about it a little while ago. I’m over it.” Linus didn’t believe it but he also didn’t feel that it was his place to pry. He changed the subject quickly, asking about her job instead. That got her talking again, although the energy seemed to have been sucked from the room. 

“How long’s your flight delayed?” Sabrina asked him, finding her footing after describing her job and asking him to thank Maude for getting her the opportunity. 

“Oh, I think just a few hours.” 

“You’ve been given a few free hours and you want to spend them working?” Sabrina asked genuinely. Linus thought about it, but to him, there was a lot he could do in just a few hours. A lot he should do. But, a small part of him was curious. Curious about the new, short-haired, permed Sabrina with a spark in her eyes who didn’t seem to be too afraid to challenge him, all it had taken was some warming up. 

“What would you suggest I do? A few hours doesn’t give me quite enough time to ‘experience the world.’” 

“Come on.” Sabrina stands abruptly and beckons him to follow her out of the cafe. He quickly gulps down the rest of his coffee, now cold, before gathering his stuff into his briefcase and turning to follow her. 

Outside, Sabrina stood looking down the road one way, and then the other, debating on where she wanted to take him. He asked her what they were doing and she asked that he trust her. Surprising himself, he did. He let her point the way and the pair started heading down the uneven sidewalk, flowers bursting from window sills they passed and the sky, a cloudy blue that seemed to clear as Sabrina marched onward. 

Linus followed, nearly forgetting this was the same girl he had grown up with. She looked at home on the streets of Paris, walking with a confidence he had never seen in her back at the Long Island house. She smiled and greeted strangers in soft-spoken French and soon found that the bag slung over her shoulder held a camera. Occasionally. she would stop and frame a scene, whether it was a bright pink bicycle perched against a storefront, or a flower growing through the cobbles. When she stopped, the world seemed to stop with her. Linus was forced to look at what he otherwise would have been too busy to notice if he had been on his own. He knew he sure as hell never had time to stop and smell the roses and here Sabrina was, stopping to take photos of them. 

“So, photography,” He began, as she carefully put the lens cap back on the camera after snapping a photo of the shops leading down the road. “I didn’t know that was something you wanted to do.” 

“I didn’t know either, but a friend offered to teach me.” Linus didn’t respond, but Sabrina could tell he was listening and continued. She had never known him to be a talker, the two had never spent quite so much time together aside from one night several years ago, and even then, she wasn’t sure if that counted. “I feel as if I’ve been taking pictures all my life.” 

“Really?” 

Sabrina smiled and nodded. He was beginning to realize that Sabrina was not much dissimilar as he once believed. Sabrina spent her life taking in the lives of everyone else, and now, in Paris, she was given the chance to live her own, and, Linus saw that she was. Sabrina embraced Paris with open arms, growing into her skin more than she ever could have in the room above the garage.

The pair walked on in comfortable silence, and after another few minutes, Linus, looking ahead into the distance, saw where Sabrina was leading him. 

The Arc de Triomphe stood tall, ornate carvings hitting Linus with a sense of power and awe at the monument. Sabrina smiled when she saw Linus’ expression. She had been here a few times in the past year, every time never failing to take her breath away.

“When I first visited a few months ago, I did one of the tours. The guide talked about the history but I couldn’t pay much attention, the details in the structure were too fascinating, even now.” Linus wandered through the arc, admiring the carved statues and Sabrina pulled out her camera. She had dozens of photos, but none quite captured the feeling of wonder she herself felt, not until she snapped one of Linus with his back to her. She swiftly turned the camera towards the gray sky when he looked back at her. 

They spent about an hour wandering the structure, reading the plaques, and enjoying the breeze. Sabrina found herself smiling at getting to share this with someone. She had spent plenty of time in Paris alone, and while here and there she spent time with Irene or her work colleagues, at the end of the day it was just her. 

As they meandered about, the sky darkened quickly, dark clouds rolling in and blanketing the sky. Sabrina, used to the rain, began heading towards the street, beckoning for a taxi just as the rain started coming down in a heavy shower that drenched the pair in minutes. Linus broke into a light jog as he saw Sabrina wave politely at a driver before opening the back door to climb in. 

Sabrina gave the driver instructions and then turned to Linus, shaking the rain from her short curls and running her fingers through the tangles. He was surprised to see her smiling. He ran his own fingers through his hair. He had gone grey at a young age, and it had never bothered him before, but now it was at the forefront of his mind. 

“What did you think?” 

“It was…big.” Linus couldn’t seem to find the words to describe the experience, and he expected Sabrina to laugh at his descriptor but she only smiled bigger. 

“I know what you mean.” 

“I just, I guess I never realized how it would feel being so close to something so old. You know? I mean, it’s not like I didn’t know it wouldn’t be huge. I work in the city, I’ve seen structures like that, but I don’t know.” He found himself flustered, but she didn’t seem to notice.

She took the reins, describing some of the other things she had seen while in Paris. She showed him photos she had taken, and he recognized some of the places. The Louvre had been on his bucket list for a long time, it was a place his mother had visited on her honeymoon and had regaled the family with stories about. His father had planned vacations to Paris, but work came first and there simply wasn’t enough time. And when his father passed and Linus assumed responsibility of the company, he understood. If he wanted to continue growing the business, there simply wasn’t time to swan off on vacations. Not when he was needed to lead the company to greater success. To make the hard choices that no one else seemed to want to make. 

The rain continued to pour, prolonging the taxi ride, the streets flooded and caused traffic to grind to a snail’s pace. Linus now understood why his flight had been delayed. About a half hour into the car ride, he received a call that his flight would be delayed longer. The storm hit earlier than expected and a plane ended up crashing at the end of the runway. Not only did they have to wait out the storm, but now they would need to wait for the debris to be cleared away and for the runway to be inspected. Linus found that he was actually not as upset as he might typically be at such a delay. 

“You can stay at my place, if you want.” Sabrina offered, thinking Linus would refuse. There were probably much nicer hotels he could stay at afterall. But to her surprise, he accepted. The pair were only a few blocks from the building, and the sky seemed to get impossibly darker. Lightning and thunder crackling and booming, shaking the taxi.

Sabrina saw Linus tense up. It was very small, something she would not have noticed had they not been only a few inches from each other in the backseat of the small car. She was surprised at that. She found herself with an odd tingling in her chest at the realization of their proximity. She turned herself back to face forward, but couldn’t shake the uneasy energy rolling off of Linus. She had never seen him so stressed, even when he was conducting business he did it with such ease that she was actually a bit worried herself. 

“Don’t worry, there’s storms like this all the time. It rains every other day here, we’ll be fine.” 

Linus only smiled and nodded, trying to play off the storm as no big deal, even though with every shudder of the car and clap of thunder, he once again thought about the possibility of them being washed away. 

“You know, this reminds me of the time when we were younger.” Linus could see what she was doing. Talking to distract him and it was working, though he wasn’t sure if he quite recalled what she was referring to. 

“It was raining, even harder than it is now. The sky pitch black, I had run into the main house, finding a safe place under an office desk to hide and wait out the storm.” Linus found that he did in fact remember this.

“You walked in and found me. And stayed with me until the storm was over.” 

He remembered what he had said to her then. “You were very brave,” He repeated from memory. 

“I was more afraid of you than I was of the storm.” Linus felt as if he had been struck. Afraid? That’s why she was always so quiet with him? 

He was going to respond, but thunder boomed again and the driver announced that there was no way he could get any closer. Sabrina saw they were only a block away and told Linus they could try and make a run for it. Linus, though still wary, agreed. They paid the driver, gathered their things, and hopped out.

 The rain was still coming down heavily and he found himself stomping into a puddle a few inches deep as he got out. Sabrina had pointed out the building before they exited, but he still found it hard to figure out where he was looking through the curtain of water pouring endlessly from the sky. 

He felt her reach out and grab his hand, pulling him in the direction of the building. The couple took off running on the abandoned sidewalks, the rain chilling them to the bone. They made it to the building a few minutes later, drenched and panting. He felt her drop his hand so she could run it through her wet tangles, water splashing onto the mat at the entrance. He felt his shirt soaked, sure he could wring water from it if he tried. Even through all that, Sabrina smiled, looking out into the streets as if she wanted to run through the rain again and Linus thought he wouldn’t mind it again either so long as she was dragging him along. He shook the idea from his head like water droplets and followed her down the long hall to a stairwell.

They climbed three flights and he saw her hands shaking from the cold as she stuck the key into her apartment door. The two let out a collective sigh as they entered her small apartment. She pointed out a few things, there was a small couch and television set in one corner and a door leading to a small bedroom in the other. A small kitchen and table set also filled some of the tiny space along with an electric fireplace. 

She offered him the bathroom first, insisting he get dried off, though the only change of dry clothes she could offer him was an oversized pair of flannel pants that had been her fathers that she sometimes wore as pjs and an extremely oversized shirt she won at a raffle a few years ago that she wore to bed. He took them graciously before disappearing to shower and change. 

Minutes later, he exited and looked very overwhelmingly normal. The clothes were a weird combination that suited him perfectly, even if she had never seen him outside of his suit before, even when he was at the house. Even as a young boy, his style was always professional, always a copy of his father. It was refreshing to see him look more relaxed. She directed him to hang his clothes by the electric fireplace and slipped into the bathroom to shower and change as well. 

Alone and feeling at ease after a hot shower, Linus began to explore the small apartment. There was a cork board on one of the walls and he cringed at the photo of David peeking out from beneath some of the other things she had pinned up. A ticket to a club, a flier for a poetry reading at the cafe they had met in earlier. There were also printed photos, beautiful views of Parisian streets and landscapes, photos of boats in the Seine and of the city lights at night.

Sabrina popped out of the bathroom, dressed in a similar style, oversized night shirt and soft pants. She wandered over to him, seeing what he was looking at. 

“That was a few weeks ago. Funnily enough, it had just rained and the city lights reflected beautifully off the wet streets. It was pretty amazing.” Sabrina’s voice was softer, lost in remembering. The pair were shoulder to shoulder, both admiring her board of adventures. Linus was beginning to understand Sabrina’s transformation, and she was thinking about how odd it was to be sharing this space with Linus of all people. The two seemed to realize how close they were, and Sabrina stepped back while Linus cleared his throat. 

“Tea?” Sabrina asked, setting a kettle to boil. Linus nodded and continued wandering through the space, peeking at her bookshelf. Not quite the bibliophile her father was, he found her shelf intriguing. Aside from the books, there were a few leather-bound journals. He had never been one to pry, but he had spent the day being surprised, and he found he quite liked getting to know the new Sabrina. Or perhaps, she had always been this fascinating and it was him who had not taken the time to notice. 

The kettle whistled, and after pouring the tea, she pulled a mug from a mismatched cabinet of dishes and brought it over to him. She saw where his hand had been running along the spines of the journals. She reached over him and pulled one off the shelf, flipping through it with a funny smile on her face. He wasn’t sure what to make of it.

She was remembering how foolish she had been, filling the pages with observations of David. And then, with her misery at having to be so far from him. That felt like a lifetime ago. After the news of his engagement a few weeks ago, she spent a day mourning. Irene was insistent on taking her out and making her talk through what happened. It was in the weeks following that she realized how incredibly foolish her infatuation with David had been. He seemed to be everything she thought she wanted, but nothing she actually needed. What she needed had been found in her time she spent alone, writing. It had been in her time spent wandering the streets of Paris and snapping photos of the beauty outside her apartment window. It had been in seeing the world, but not only seeing it, living in it. 

“You know, I’ve spent nearly every day in that cafe. Scribbling nonsense in these journals.”

“Oh?” 

“Yeah, a friend of mine told me she found herself in Paris, and said, if I was lucky, I would too.” 

“You were lost?” He already knew the answer to that, but it still took her a minute to ponder the question.

“Yeah, something like that,” She said, returning the journal to the shelf with a sigh that brought the topic to a close. 

Sabrina crossed the living room to the couch, on the table was a well worn deck of playing cards. She pulled them out of the box and began to shuffle them with ease. 

“What are we playing?” Linus asked, following her. 

“Usually, I stick to solitaire.” She continued shuffling. “Did you have anything in mind?”

Linus smiled and suggested they play Blackjack instead. 

“That’s it?” Sabrina asked after a few rounds. “I thought Blackjack would be much more complicated.” 

“Well, usually there’s bets involved,” Linus replied, dealing the cards. 

“Well?” Sabrina asked expectantly.
“Well, what?” Linus asked, peeking at his cards. 

“Well, lets start the bets.” 

“You’re out of luck, I don’t have cash on me.” Sabrina thought for a minute and then suggested: “If I win, you have to tell me something about you I don’t already know.” 

“And if I win?” 

“I’ll tell you something about me.” Linus considered it for a moment and agreed. 

“Get ready to talk,” Sabrina said with a smile before setting her cards down: two kings. 

Linus, with a glint in his eye, set his, a queen and an ace. 

Sabrina saw the cards and sighed. “Okay, when I was younger, I used to climb the tree by the gate and watch the parties your family hosted.” 

“Sabrina,” Linus began, confused, “I already knew that.” 

“Oh.” Sabrina assumed no one had. “Okay, deal another.” 

“Wait, I don’t think that counts,” Linus protested. 

“Yes it does,” Sabrina replied back, smiling but unwilling to budge. Linus just dealt the next hand. Sabrina found herself with the losing hand again. 

“This time, something I don’t know,” he prompted. 

“Okay, okay, what if I told you something about you.” 

“I don’t think that’s how it works either.” 

“But it’s what other people say about you.” 

“Doesn’t count.” Linus replied, but he was actually curious. I mean, he could take a wild guess at what they had to say. Always working. Stick in the mud. Nothing he hadn’t heard before. Sabrina made a face and was quiet, trying to come up with something else when Linus caved. “What do people say about me?” 

“Well, that you’re the world’s only living heart donor,” Sabrina couldn’t help the smile that followed when Linus’ expression remained unamused. 

“Oh, that. ” It was true that it was something he hadn’t heard. He wasn’t sure whether hearing it should have been amusing or sad, but he found the only question he had running through his mind was if she truly believed that. He chose to smile instead and deal another round. 

The round proved a win for Sabrina, and it was Linus’ turn to share. 

“I really like Paris.” 

Sabrina caught his eye, ready to challenge his secret, but there was something more there. They were seated side by side on the couch, so close she could see flecks of gold in his brown eyes. She quickly turned away and grabbed the cards to shuffle and deal another set. 

The pair spent the next hour swapping tidbits. Some they knew about the other, some they could have guessed. 

“My name comes from my father’s reading.” When Linus didn’t respond, Sabrina rolled her eyes and continued. “Sabrina fair, listen where thou art sitting under the glassy, cool, translucent wave, in twisted braids of lilies knitting the loose train of thy amber-dropping hair.” 

Linus was surprised that she had the line memorized. 

“So, what does it mean?” 

“It’s the story of a water sprite who saved a virgin from a fate worse than death.” 

“And Sabrina’s the virgin?” 

“Sabrina’s the savior.” 

“I feel I’ve been following in footsteps all my life.”

“Really?”

“I do what my dad did. He did what his own father did and so on and so on. Never once taking a moment to myself. Not quite a secret I’m sure.” 

“I’m pretty sure my father is going to propose to Joanna.”

“Yeah, I saw that coming.” 

“Really?” 

“Listen, I may not notice a lot, but I do know what’s going on.” 

“I wouldn’t say that.” 

“What? That I don’t know what’s going on?” 

“No, that you don’t notice things.” 

“It’s true, isn’t it? You told me yourself, I don’t ever slow down to just, look.” 

“Well, maybe I was wrong,” and then, before she could stop herself, she added, “you noticed me.” Linus was quiet for a minute, realizing that maybe that was true. There wasn’t anything she had revealed about herself that he hadn’t already known or could partially guess. Even when she revealed how long she had been infatuated with David he had known. In fact, that one the whole family but David knew. 

“You’re hard not to notice. Even before the transformation.” 

A blush crept up Sabrina’s cheeks. Sometime in the last hour, she had pulled her feet up under her and turned to face him, leaning an arm against the back of the couch. He had turned to face her, and in the dim glow of the firelight, he chose not to mention her face turning red.

“It’s your turn to deal.” She said softly, not breaking his soft gaze. He held the cards and dealt without looking. The two reluctantly looked away to peek at their cards. Sabrina asked for another card and got a perfect 21. 

“What do you want to know?” Linus asked, unable to come up with anything. 

Sabrina thought for a minute. “Why didn’t you ever get married?” 

Linus was taken back, he wasn’t expecting that. “Oh, I just, I never had the time.” 

“Why?”
“Why didn’t I have time?” 

“Sure.” 

“The company.”

“What about David? Surely you could have split the responsibilities?” 

“Listen, I love David, but I do real work in the real world.” Sabrina was silent. There was something in Linus’ tone. Not anger, but perhaps resentment. 

“You know, my father once asked David why he stopped going into the office. He said, ‘What do they need me for? Linus is there.’” Linus was silent at this. “Listen, I know you do real work in the real world, and your awfully good at it, but that’s work.” Linus didn’t quite know how to respond. He didn’t want to be a workaholic. He might not have cared before what anyone thought of him, might less Sabrina, but now, the idea that she might not only feel sorry for him, but be upset with him for working too hard because David decided he didn’t need to work for his life was absurd. 

He wanted to say something sharp back, but wasn't sure what else could be said. No, he did not know that about David. A small seed of guilt had been planted. Perhaps he had taken control fast and held on tightly. Maybe he did need to learn what it meant to let go. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-” 

“It’s fine. I didn’t know that about him.” 

“I just think if maybe, you gave him a chance. He’d surprise you.” 

“Yeah, maybe.” Linus remained unconvinced. 

“And then you could go on vacations more than once a decade.” Both felt the growing tension disappear between them almost as quickly as it had grown. Her comment, a cheeky call back to his sharing. 

Sabrina only tossed him a reluctant smile and stood up, grabbing the two mugs and bringing them to the sink. 

“Well, I’m exhausted.” Sabrina said quietly, not quite to herself but also not to Linus. She thought that might prompt him to move, but he didn’t. 

“Bedroom’s through there.” She pointed towards the door. 

At that, Linus protested. “I’ll take the couch.”

“No, it’s so small.” 

“Sabrina, I’m sure this doesn’t come as a shock that my office has a couch that I slept on from time to time.” That did not surprise Sabrina one bit, even if she did grimace at the thought of his tall form hanging over the arm of the couch at an awkward angle that made her spine sore just thinking about it. 

It seemed neither had quite thought through how this arrangement was going to work. It was way too late for Linus to leave, even if the rain had let up even a little (which it had not). 

Linus refused to stand up from the couch, stretching his arms out as if to show how big the couch was, which only backfired when his arm hit the wall. He didn’t let that deter him though from making himself appear comfortable, he pulled the throw off the back of the couch and stretched his legs out, unsure whether to let them dangle or just remain in the seated position. Sabrina looked over, distressed at his helpless form, bent and uncomfortable. 

“Why don’t we share the bed. It’s big enough for the two of us, I’ve got some extra pillows in the closet.” Linus was going to protest, but instead walked over to where she had gestured and pulled two spare pillows from the top shelf. 

The room itself was very small, the bed taking up most of the space. Sabrina set the pillows in a barricade down the middle of the bed.

“You’re sure about this?” Linus asked, trying to make the situation less uncomfortable and only partially succeeding. 

“Yes,” Sabrina replied more confidently than she felt. She felt odd sharing a bed with someone else, after all, she had never had boyfriends who slept over like that, not when her bedroom was a small hallway down from her father’s above an old garage. She hadn’t really had boyfriends at all, but that was beside the point.

The bed jostled as Linus pulled back his side of the covers and climbed in. “Thanks.” He mumbled. The pair were quite a sight, refusing to look over at their bedmate and instead staring at the ceiling, backs straight as planks. Linus was used to taking up the whole bed while Sabrina usually slept curled in a ball on her side. Now, both were painfully aware of the other. 

As minutes ticked by, a tired Sabrina was still wide awake and if her senses were right, Linus was too. His breathing had yet to slow to a steady rhythm. Sabrina turned to face the opposite wall, her back to Linus’ side of the bed. He felt the shift and turned to his side as well, counting backwards from a hundred. He got to 47 before drifting off.

Light spilled into the apartment, all traces of the thunderstorm gone aside from the box of flowers on the window sill that still had droplets of water on their petals. Sabrina’s eyes fluttered open. The remnants of a very peaceful dream seemed to lull her awake, the memory pulling away like a receding tide. Fully aware of her senses, she felt an arm wrapped around her. Not just an arm, but a body. Linus. His arm was slung over her waist. Her nightshirt had bunched up, allowing Linus’ fingertips to graze her skin and giving her an irrational amount of butterflies. She grabbed his wrist lightly, untangling herself from him. She carefully placed his arm back on his side before getting up and heading straight for the bathroom. She needed to put as much distance between herself and Linus as she could in the small space. 

Linus awoke to Sabrina moving his arm back to his side of the bed. He saw her stand and quickly closed his eyes, feigning sleep as she headed out of the room. He listened for the door to shut before fully opening his eyes and taking in the space in the bright light of day. He stood up, stretching, and headed towards the kitchen. He peeked into Sabrina’s fridge for ingredients, figuring it was the least he could do for imposing, and for whatever had happened last night after they both had fallen asleep. 

In the bathroom, Sabrina’s brain was muddled and confused. She refused to admit that last night was anything more than catching up with an old friend. That the butterflies were a result of touch depravation and not because of who was doing the touching. And yet . Sabrina splashed more water on her face, as if to shock herself out of it. She saw herself in the mirror, hair wild, the giant shirt, which upon closer inspection, had a giant grease stain near the neckline she had missed last night. She ran a brush through her hair and adjusted her shirt before exiting. 

She had heard Linus get up while in the bathroom, but she didn’t realize he’d be preparing a meal. The smell of eggs wafted through the apartment. Linus had quickly whipped some in a bowl and was adding cheese and scallions he had found. 

“What are you doing?” Sabrina asked incredulously.

“Making eggs.” 

“I can see that. I guess, what I meant was - you know how to cook?” 

“Believe it or not, I didn’t spend my entire childhood following my father around. My mother, taught us, me and David, basic meals. It comes in handy when I spend the night in my office…” Linus replied, trailing off at another confirmation of how much time he spends at work. 

“Well, I just never thought of Linus Larrabee as a world famous chef.” Sabrina smiled, her eyes sparkling from her poking fun at him. He found he wanted her to make more jokes at his expense if it made her happy. 

“Ha ha,” Linus replied dryly before plating the eggs, steaming and smelling delicious. 

The pair, Linus, having served Sabrina, then himself, sat across from each other with a comfortable ease. Linus, for what felt like the first time ever, was at his leisure. There were probably a dozen people trying to call him, but he found Sabrina’s company did a pretty good job at drowning out the feeling of losing control. 

“Oh, before I forget,” Sabrina said suddenly, jumping up. She walked over to the desk near the bookshelf he had been admiring the night before and pulled off a trinket that Linus couldn’t see. She brought it back and set it down in front of him. A miniature eiffel tower sat before him. A paper weight. 

“I saw it in a shop window a few months ago.” Sabrina said almost sheepishly, a blush returning to her cheeks, she could only guess at the reason why. Linus picked it up and examined it closely, replaying the last time he had seen Sabrina, when she was confessing her long-time love for his brother. 

“I, I don’t know what to say.” He looked up at her. 

“It’s nothing. I just, I saw it and I remembered you had asked for it…” Sabrina trailed off, holding his gaze. There was something in his eyes she had never seen before.

He pushed his chair out and stood up. Sabrina didn’t move, only looked at him with curiosity, as he stood tall in front of her. Her breath stilled, sure that her quickened heartbeat could be heard by the neighbors in the building across the street. 

“What?” Sabrina whispered, cutting through the tension. 

“I need to know something.”

“Okay.” Sabrina could feel the heat rising to her cheeks again, and, as her instincts had always been, she wanted to run. But no, she stayed planted, needing to see if what she was feeling was all in her head. 

“Are you still…” He trailed off, Sabrina only continued to meet his gaze. “Do you…” He began again. “Do you think I could make you happy?” 

Sabrina, stunned at his question, thought about it. About how she had spent her whole life growing up with Linus. Until yesterday, she had never even considered him, and yet, now. She realized he was everything she wanted. Everything she needed. She nodded, smiling. A look of relief softened Linus’ features. 

“Sabrina Fair,” He murmured, his face mere inches from hers. His scent was so familiar, the same aftershave mingling with the same cologne he had been using for years. In the haze of what had been and what was to come, she found herself acutely aware of his hands, one grazing her neck while the other tucked a curl that had fallen back behind her ear. “Save me, you’re the only one who can.” His lips tasted sweetly like sunlight and flowers after a rainshower. Like a home she never thought she would ever have again.