Work Text:
The lone bar that resides in Faraway town is rather quiet. It’s never been that popular of a location within the town all things considered but normally more people are drinking away their sorrows or using the social lubricant of alcohol to attempt to have a good time. Considering that tonight is New Year’s Eve the relative lack of patrons at the establishment makes sense but that context doesn’t do that much to combat Hero’s increasing feelings of loneliness.
He still isn’t fully sure why exactly he decided to spend the last day of this year and the night before his birthday sitting with a drink in his hand at a bar. Originally the plan was for him to drive back home from his University tomorrow morning just in time to celebrate with his family and the old gang but something made him make the trip early. Whatever that something is however also made him not want to actually go home and be social around his loved ones tonight as well.
As he looks up at the tv playing local news above the bar his eyes are transfixed on the countdown continuingly ticking down to the new year, there's over two hours left in the night still so it’s not even like he’s waiting for the ball to drop or anything. Instead it more feels like he’s lamenting the coming end to another year that has come and went. Another year that he’s spent without Mari. Another year that he somehow hasn’t fully gotten his shit together despite his old friends managing to cope and somehow end up in a better spot with each other.
They keep their relationship(s?) with each other on the down low but Hero knows them well enough to read between the lines. He’s happy for them, truly, but it really does make his own loss sting. Perhaps that’s why he’s secretly dreading tomorrow? Seeing the people that he should be excited to spend time with secretly share affectionate moments with each other just feels like it’s twisting the knife in his somehow still beating heart further and further in.
When did I even get this melodramatic? Hero thinks to himself as he decides that the alcohol he is consuming is only making it worse. Blaming something external to himself feels good at the moment, he’s never actually tried much therapy or other mental health things but from what he’s gleaned from it that seems to be one method of coping. It’s funny, he’s slaving away at the books so he can become a doctor and heal others yet he still can’t heal his stupid broken heart. But technically mental health care falls under a different field and degree so maybe the irony of that situation is something he’s overexaggerating.
Whatever bitter thoughts he’s currently having are suddenly interrupted by the bartender breaking the awkward silence that has been sitting amongst them for the past god knows how many minutes. “Nice lady over there bought you a drink, she says happy birthday,” he says as he slides down another glass of scotch towards Hero.
Hero can’t help but turn around and see which “nice lady” even remembered that his birthday is coming up when he spends so little time actually back home. He’s surprised to see Polly waving at him from behind as she sits at a table next to the wall. He returns the wave as he decides to stand and join her where she’s sitting. Having some company does not sound like the most terrible thing at the moment.
“Thanks for the drink,” Hero says as he sits down, “I’m surprised you actually remembered my birthday. We don’t really talk much outside of Basil related contexts…”
“I’m pretty good with remembering dates like that!” Polly says before taking a sip of her own glass. “Besides, Basil is currently at your place preparing for celebrating your birthday so I’d be kind of a crappy caretaker if I didn’t keep track of that fact.”
Ah, so she did have an actual reason to know that, I don’t know why I got my hopes up for that…
Despite Basil now being a legal adult, Polly still has remained in a caretaker role for him. His actual parents spend most of their time abroad doing whatever business things they get up to and apparently when his grandmother passed she dedicated a good portion of her will to Polly so that only legitimized her as an important part of the family to his parents. Caretaker might be a bit of a misnomer at this point, the dynamic has seemed to evolve into almost a sibling dynamic or at the very least roommates. It’s been pretty good for Basil from what Hero understands from their limited conversations recently.
“Ah yeah, that checks out,” Hero says.
“So… what’s got you spending your time here of all places? I thought Basil said that you wouldn’t be getting back home ‘til tomorrow but honestly I could have misheard him.”
“Well…” Hero takes a brief inhale as he decides how much of his pretty stupid life qualms that he should share with her. It’s not like they are truly friends or anything, but they know each other well enough, right? “...Since Mari passed, my birthday has honestly been kind of tough for me. I got here early but I don’t know if I have it in me to be the perfect eldest son and older brother tonight…”
“Yeah, I can only imagine,” Polly says with a comforting smile. “Well, if you don’t mind I can keep you company. I understand you wanting space but I know how lonely it can get here by yourself on a night like this.”
“Thanks… What do ya mean by that?”
Polly matches Hero’s prior action with an inhale of her own. “Taking care of a genuinely kind but very mentally unwell kid for years is rewarding in its own right but doesn’t really open up that many opportunities for actual friends of your own age…”
Hero vaguely remembers her age, she’s probably around four years older than himself right? Even if the exact age-dynamic isn’t the same Hero definitely empathizes with the struggle of having most of his meaningful social connections being with those much younger than yourself.
“Tell me about it, I’ve been at college for like almost three years now and I still can't relate to my peers. I guess there’s something about Kel and the gang that I can’t recapture with people my age.”
Polly nods affirmatively, “Yeah definitely, I love the little guy but some days I find myself wanting some big girl time and this place is the best way of achieving that in this town apparently.” She vaguely gestures at the room around her as she says this.
“Ah so I’m the newbie invading into the safe space of a regular such as yourself. I understand,” Hero says as he smirks sarcastically.
“No, don't say that. I’m happy to have the company.” Polly’s face shows a genuine comfort in Hero’s companionship at the moment that he struggles to truly process at the moment. “Here’s to a couple of lonely souls drinking together on new years eve,” She says as she holds up her glass to a toast.
Polly and Hero continue to converse for the next hour. The conversation navigates all over the place as they speak. Silly memories of Basil and the gang, the struggle of pre-med school, a discovered shared passion of cooking, and more are covered before the bartender interrupts them.
“Sorry gang, I gotta close up soon I apologize. I promised my son I’d take him to the game tomorrow in the city so I should get some sleep,” the bartender says to them, prompting Hero to recheck the note posted on the door that he read when he came in.
He intended to close a half hour ago…
“Crap, I totally lost track of time. I’m so sorry to keep you late like this,” Hero says as he grabs his wallet so he can pay off his tab.
“Not a worry at all, if it bothered me I would have kicked you out far earlier. Besides it’s nice to hear Polly all happy like this for a change.”
Polly steps in front of Hero with her credit card outreached before he can even present his own. “I’m covering tonight, don’t worry about it, Hero. It’s my treat.”
Hero reluctantly agrees to this and he grabs his coat and waits for Polly to finish paying so he can walk out with her. It’s been god knows how long since he’s been able to relax like this with someone not named Kel, Sunny, Aubrey, or Basil. Even with that he still has felt a certain distance from them given the circumstances of how past events actually played out that Sunny finally shared with him about two years ago…
This felt different. It was nice, comforting even.
Polly meets Hero at the door and steps outside with him, turning around to face him once they’ve taken a few steps away from the establishment. “You know, if you don’t wanna face your parents or the gang tonight you could crash at Basil and I’s… He’s out tonight as I mentioned earlier and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind it even if he wasn’t. We can watch the ball drop on TV, it could be fun?”
“Oh you don’t have to offer that, that’s really nice of you though…” Hero says as he feels words rest on his tongue that he’s still slightly unsure of despite his gut telling him to say them. “–Actually, no. I will take you up on that if you don’t mind.”
Polly smiles wide, “Great, see you in ten?”
Hero nods and opens his car door. He only feels a light buzz if even that, he’s always been able to hold his liquor well. Besides, Basil’s house is like half a mile away, he’s done more reckless things of the sort at college already.
When Hero pulls up to the driveway he notices that Polly is already here and the lights are on inside. He tried to be slow for safety purposes but was he really that far behind her? Sitting outside thinking about it isn’t gonna do him any good, he concludes and decides to knock on the door before opening it.
Polly instinctively goes to give him a quick tour of the place before lightly slapping her forehead as she realizes that he has been here, dozens of times by now. Albeit in different contexts to this. Hero swears that at one point her expression showed some form of awkwardness but he isn’t fully sure if he clocked it correctly.
The two find themselves eventually sitting on the couch with the television showing the new years countdown with the ball waiting to drop with a bowl of popcorn sitting on the table in front of them. While they have started conversation again, it isn’t flowing as easily as it did at the bar. Hero chalks it up to the effects of the alcohol beginning to dissipate mixed with the growing fatigue of staying up this late but he definitely notices the differences.
He especially notices when Polly suddenly turns away from him as he finishes telling some random story about his organic chemistry professor. When she remakes eye contact with him she's now…blushing? That’s a little weird, I wonder why that–
“Uhm… I might be overstepping here and I apologize if I am… I just wanted, yeah–” Polly visibly swallows as she tries to finish her sentence. “– I wanted to ask if I could kiss you?”
Oh.
That–
That certainly wasn’t a possibility that I was expecting.
Hero’s eyes widen as his mind begins to race as he tries to process the sudden request. Even if he noticed something was off he never once considered that it was this. Sure kissing someone on New Years is a cliche and in hindsight he should have seen it coming, he just hasn’t thought of anybody in that regard at all since Mari passed. He hasn’t once considered the possibility of someone coming into his life again since Mari passed.
If he says yes, is he betraying her?
He hates that he wants to say yes to her, that this was his gut reaction. Kel’s teased him about finding someone at college before and he’s always shrugged him off despite Kel trying to convince him that Mari wouldn’t have wanted him to spend the rest of his life all mopey and alone. Hero is really regretting that he hadn’t taken the opportunity to actually process Kel’s suggestion and his actual thoughts on the matter before being forced to like this.
His eyes focus back into the reality of the woman in front of her awkwardly awaiting a response from him as he zones out completely. Polly manages to speak before he can apologize himself, “Shit. Sorry. That was probably too much right… I know how much Mari means to you still so I shouldn’t have asked that. I ruined what was supposed to be a relaxing escape for you, I’m so sorry…”
She sounds like how Basil gets when he’s blaming himself and spiralling…
Hero interrupts her knowing where this type of thinking can lead someone. “Hey, it’s okay. I just was thrown off guard is all, I promise you didn’t ruin anything.” Polly looks noticeably calmed by his reassurance. “I just… I just haven’t really done anything since she passed like that so it took a second for me to process. Sorry that I spaced out like that.”
“No it’s totally okay! That’s absolutely understandable and I should have realized that.” Polly awkwardly turns away from him and shoves a fistful of the popcorn into her face, completely failing at her attempt to play this off cool.
“I didn’t answer you though…” Hero says. “I think I would enjoy that honestly, kissing you that is….” Polly looks towards him as she hastily swallows the popcorn with wide eyes. “Just, like, if it somehow is too much for me can we stop, no hard feelings?”
“Y-yeah! Obviously!”
“Good.” Hero leans towards the tan skinned girl in front of him and gently places his hand at the back of her head as he closes the distance to meet her lips.
It’s a soft kiss, their lips gently pressed against each other as they try their best to not overextend themselves in their contact. It feels… really nice. Hero forgot how enjoyable this sort of thing is after all this time. He’s surprised that he’s allowing himself to enjoy it. The guilt that he’s carried for so many years that he feared would stop him from doing something like this ever again has somehow decided to not show up to work today.
Polly decides to pull apart from him. The kiss was short all things considered, just enough to test the waters. “So…” she says.
“Yeah.” Hero answers, not fully sure that the response even makes sense given how brief it was. “Can, god I feel silly asking this. Can we do it again?”
Polly nods with a smile and before she can even answer verbally Hero has met his lips against hers oncemore. This time however his lips act far more passionately as he unintentionally pushes her down on her back as he collides into her. Her arms wrap around his back as his mouth continues to meet hers, he wants to explore her mouth with his tongue but he worries that it would be too much. Surprisingly, his worries are for naught as she feels Polly’s tongue brush against his teeth as if asking for permission to enter.
He’s missed this sort of intimacy in his life.
As they continue to make out like needy teenagers that have somehow just discovered the pleasures of the opposite sex Hero subconsciously begins to grind his hips into hers. He’s too focused on the kiss to even realize that he’s doing it, only becoming aware when Polly pulls her face away from his.
“You know…” she says. “If you wanna do more, I would be so happy to.”
“Oh.” Is all that Hero is able to say as he lifts himself off of her and sits back up on the couch.
“Is that a yes?” Polly asks as she leans against his shoulder.
“Uhm. Yeah.” Hero says as his face becomes flush with color. “I’ve just never… you know?”
“Well, this will make your birthday extra special then, relax let me take care of you.” Polly leaves the couch and places herself kneeling in front of Hero as he sits.
He gets the message immediately and awkwardly fumbles with his belt as he goes to remove his pants. His eyes remain closed as he mentally prepares as he reassures himself that he in fact is not a terrible failure of a human being for wanting this. He knows that he shouldn’t feel guilt like this, he was perfectly fine kissing her just before. This just is a step up that is increasingly more difficult to rationalize as okay even if he desperately wants it.
Polly will understand if it’s too much and you need to stop. It will be fine, he thinks as an attempt to soothe his worries.
When he opens his eyes again he is met with the sight of Polly helping him remove his pants, revealing himself to her in a far more intimate fashion than he would have imagined when he first saw her at the bar.
Polly wraps her fingers gently around the tip of Hero.
The new sensation of someone else touching him there for the first time sends a chill down his body causing Polly to stop as she notices his reaction.
“You okay?” She asks.
“Yeah, just… felt better than I would have thought.”
“Good,” she says as her hands return to him.
Hero has the same reaction once more but this time Polly doesn’t stop, her fingers begin to softly glide down his shaft while her thumb lightly massages the tip.
“G-god~” Hero softly moans prompting a smile from Polly as she takes pride in her work. It doesn’t take much longer before she decides to escalate and begins to use her mouth as well, lightly peppering kisses and small licks upon him.
Oh my god he’s *whimpering* just from me touching him, it’s so freaking adorable, Polly thinks to herself as she continues. Hero told her that he was a virgin but none of the sexual experiences she had with guys back in high school had them reacting like this, virgin or not. A soft warm feeling in her chest encourages her to play with the boy in front of her even more.
Hero gasps as Polly takes him in her mouth. The warmth of it, the feeling of her tongue tickling his dick, the wetness of the saliva, it’s enough to make him grip the side of the couch tightly.
Polly lightly chuckles at this response to her, the soft vibrations of such only causing Hero’s adorable display to escalate.
He moans her name when her head starts to bob up and down on him, “Polly…”
Him and Mari never had the courage to get this far, and now here he is receiving pleasures previously unknown to him from a woman that he just got to know in earnest only a couple of hours ago.
Would Mari be disappointed in him? He hates that his mind has returned to that nagging thought as soon as he grows accustomed to the new sensations but unfortunately that’s what it tends to do. His guiding principle in life has been choosing the actions that would make her the most proud of him. To honor her memory with every step he takes.
Isn’t this just directly contradicting that entire ethos? Kel has tried to convince him otherwise before. He quickly tries to pivot away from that thought as thinking of your brother while receiving life-crisis inducing head is probably not the best thing to do so.
But he’s right, Hero decides once again. He hates how many times he is having to justify his actions here but the mental road block that Mari truly would want him to be happy and thrive in spite of everything that’s happened is hard to overcome.
Hero lets his body relax and allows himself to fully enjoy what Polly is doing, but his new found tranquility is interrupted when she takes him all the way to the base for the first time this night.
“Jesus!” He whines as he places his hand against the back of her head, running his fingers through her pretty brunette hair.
Another smirk forms on Polly’s face as she picks up the pace, escalating the speed and intensity that she sucks him with.
“Polly, I think I can’t last that much longer,” Hero whimpers out as his grip on the couch tightens.
To his surprise Polly removes herself from him, looking up with a smile as his expression grows confused, “W-what?”
“It’s your birthday, I want you to last so we can go all the way,” she answers.
“Oh, oh? Oh!” Hero stutters. “But, are you sure that you don’t want me to, like, return the favor first? I don’t mind it’s—“
Polly interrupts him, “Hero. Darling. Let me focus on you tonight. If it makes you feel better you can satisfy me next time we do this.” She winks as she says that last part.
“Next time…” Hero says under his breath without realizing.
“If you want that of course! I kinda just assumed that you didn’t want this to be a one night thing, if that’s what you want no that’s perfectly fine and—“
It’s Hero’s turn to be the reassuring one, “Polly. Of course I’d be open for more. Can you just take the lead tonight, I don’t fully know what I’m exactly doing.”
Polly beams, “I prefer to be the forward one if you can’t tell. Just sit comfy and let me blow your mind!”
“You kind of just finished doing that,” Hero chuckles.
“Quiet! You know what I mean!”
Hero answers her with a sarcastic salute, “Yes ma’am.”
Polly gets back up on her feet after kneeling for a while and begins to remove her panties, tossing them on the floor next to her once she’s finished. She begins to hike up her dress and goes to straddle Hero’s lap.
Even though he’s been talking to her for a couple hours, has already made out and received oral from her, not to mention the years of small talk that have led up to this point, Hero only truly recognizes the quality of her fashion sense when she begins to remove her clothes for him.
It’s perhaps the most stereotypical “straight-guy” thing that he’s done in a long while and he’s not exactly proud of that revelation, but wow this woman is beautiful. In hindsight whenever he’s visited Basil she’s always dressed well, it’s probably a point of pride for her. He makes a mental note to try and make sure to compliment her more about it in the future.
He’s too busy bracing for what’s about to come to really start that New Year’s resolution immediately.
“Okay, I’m gonna start slow and allow you to get used to the feeling before getting really into it,” Polly reassures as she begins to line him up against her entrance.
“Isn’t that normally what the guy says in this sort of situation.”
“Oh boo hoo, I care about you. What a crime,” She responds while playfully rolling her eyes.
The sensation of him merely brushing up against her is already driving him wild. It’s a slightly similar sensation to her lips yet the anticipation and knowledge that it’s going to quickly feel much better is causing his heart rate to rise.
Even with this minimal contact he can already notice how wet Polly is.
She wasn’t kidding when he said that she enjoyed being forward, huh.
Polly instructs Hero to put his hands on her hips and she begins to lower herself down upon him, his dick pushing its way through her folds as she does so. Polly only allows him to get just the tip inside before stopping, allowing him a moment to adjust to the sensation.
A moment that he apparently didn’t need as his hips began to lightly thrust up into her.
“Mmm~, I see you like how I feel, pretty boy?” Polly teases.
“Y-yeah, you feel… really good,” Hero mutters as he tries to maintain his breath.
“Well,” Polly answers as she begins to bounce up and down, allowing him to penetrate her further. “You don’t have to be so gentle with me for my sake, have as much fun with me as you want.”
Hero’s face goes flush with color as he sheepishly nods, trying to muster up the courage to give Polly the pleasure that she deserves. His hips continue to move upwards and with every stroke the feeling only grows more enjoyable for him, is this really what he’s been missing out on all this time? There’s another small part of him that is debating something stupid like just dropping out of school or something to stay here with this girl instead. It’s been what, only a couple of hours and he’s already grown delusional like this, has he really been depriving himself of enjoying life this much?
Hero decides to take some further initiative and allows his hands to wander across Polly’s body, feeling the curves and valleys of it as he explores. The feeling of her dress is probably not as good as feeling raw skin but perhaps that’s for the best, anything to limit the extent of his silly yearning seems smart. Eventually his hand reaches upwards and gently grabs hold of Polly’s breast.
Polly lets out a loud moan as he squeezes it, her hips begin to gyrate with increased intensity as Hero feels her up. “You really like that, huh?” Hero asks, prompting Polly to babble out a semi-coherent response.
“Y-yea-yes… Please, don’t–do not stop that, please.”
Seeing her get all worked up like this only causes Hero to get more adventurous. His fingers play with her nipples between the fabric while he allows his hips to fuck into her with the force and intensity that he desires. He’s no longer holding back for either of their sakes, simply allowing him to maximize the carnal enjoyment that the gorgeous woman on top of him has been generous enough to provide.
They continue to indulge in each other like this until Hero feels an all too familiar sensation begin to well up from inside him. “Polly, I think I’m gonna–” he says as he tries to lift her off of him.
“Inside.” She demands as she sits back down onto him in a way that fully allows him to penetrate her.
The sudden stimulation with what she said is enough to send Hero over the edge, his hands grip tightly onto her dress almost tearing it with his deathgrip as he begins to unleash the built up supply of cum deep inside of her. Polly’s legs begin to vibrate as her body reacts to the feeling of him pulsating within her as she feels increasingly more full by the passing second. When their orgasms subside Polly collapses on top of Hero as they lay together on the couch.
When Hero catches his breath and his vision regains focus he can’t help but look at the TV playing in front of him that he has completely ignored during the duration of the act that just transpired. He sees the fireworks and celebrating as he looks at the time, 12:07 it reads.
“Dang, we missed the ball drop,” he says looking over to Polly who is currently resting her head on his shoulder.
“I think we had more fun with this just now… Happy Birthday Hero,” Polly says as she places her lips onto his own.
Hero wakes up to the sound of the front door creaking, as his eyes adjust to the daylight he quickly realizes that he and Polly have passed out on the couch together. Neither of them fully dressed as they continued for at least a second round late in the night, his current fatigue resulting in the memories being kind of hazy.
“Hey Polly, I realized that I forgot the cake for tonight–” Basil says as he enters the room and is met face to face with a very embarrassed Hero attempting to quickly cover himself and the sleeping girl next to him.
“Nice…” Basil awkwardly says as he shoots two finger guns towards Hero. Through the normal display of anxiety on Basil’s face Hero can read that he looks proud of him beneath it all. “I’m just gonna leave you to it…” Basil says as he quickly grabs the cake and departs with a wave.
Hero lets out a loud sigh as he hears the door quietly close behind him. What a weird way to start your birthday.
“What was that?” Polly groggily asks as she awakes.
Hero decides to spare her the panic of learning what just transpired for now and simply says “Nothing” before a question pops in his mind.
“Hey, do you wanna come to my Birthday with the gang later? Don’t worry about intruding, my parents always make way too much food for these kinda things and you already know everybody so…”
“Yeah,” Polly answers with a yawn. “I’d love to.”