Chapter Text
“Excuse me! Hi! Does the cup in ‘menstrual cup’ refer to the shape or the volume?”
Jonah looked at Amy puzzled, still reeling from what had just happened, before turning to look back at the woman holding a menstrual cup box in her hands. “I - ur - I think -”
“The shape. It’s the shape.” Amy interjected, clearly eager to get this woman away as quickly as possible.
“The shape?” The woman pondered for a moment. “So what is the volume?”
“I don’t know ma’am, it probably says it on the box somewhere.” Amy continued, exasperated and desperate to go back to kissing Jonah.
Finally the woman turned around slowly and grumbled “On the box? But I don't have my damn reading glasses”, while trotting back down the aisle.
Amy quickly turned back to Jonah. A smirk spread across his face. She fell deeper into his eyes and felt the warm, safety she had missed so much all those months. She had a sudden thought, and quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the back of the store. “Follow me” she ordered. Jonah almost tripped over his own feet as she swept him away.
Before he knew it they were through the double doors of the Staff Only area and walking quickly towards Glenn’s office, almost at a run now. Amy jimmied the door open and pulled Jonah in, recognising the familiar scent of her old office, looking to the open window at the back, she saw the loading dock was now bare and lifeless.
“You know we can’t just make out in here like we used to? This is Glenn’s office now.” Jonah grinned, like an excited little boy. Losing patience he went to grab Amy saying “Well, it’s not really anyone's office anymore, so I'm sure it's fine.”
“Actually” Amy stepped away from him, turning to the cabinet on the left wall and pushing it swiftly aside to reveal the door to the underground tunnels they had discovered 3 years ago. “I was thinking somewhere a little more private.”
“Ah yes, the rat-infested tunnels!” Jonah remarked, sarcastically.
“Trust me.” Amy pulled him through the door and dragged him down into the underbelly of the store.
“Should I be worried? You’ve not taken up cannibalism in California have you? Or, oh God, was it you leaving all those severed feet around St. Louis? It was rather suspicious that you were here the 1 day we found a whole bag of feet in the store.” Jonah teased Amy, and she grinned at him in the familiar way she always had when he mocked her. His heart filled with warmth, he thought of the nights he lay awake thinking about seeing her face, hearing her laugh.
Finally, they made it. “Ta da!” Amy exclaimed, waving her hands towards the room of recalled merch they had once spent the afternoon in.
“Wow, the recalled merch dungeon! I forgot about this place.” Jonah looked around in awe before turning back to Amy. “I do think it's a little risky to have sex in a room full of objects deemed too dangerous to sell.” He raised an eyebrow at her.
She rolled her eyes. She could barely form words, shaking from the feeling of butterflies in her stomach. “I didn’t bring you here for sex." They walked around the room slowly, circling bins of recalled merch. "I just - I wanted to see it one last time.” She looked around thoughtfully, grabbing at some disfigured doll from one of the bins. “I think about this place all the time” she said.
“You do?” Jonah looked at her thoughtfully as they stopped walking around and met in between 2 bins in the centre of the room.
She took a breath. “You remember how we sat over there -” she pointed “- and we played that racist border control game?”
“Border hopper.” Jonah interjected. “Of course.”
“Do you remember what you said to me?”
“I believe I said that your border tunnel had caved in, but I’m not sure what the relevance of that is?”
She smirked at him. “You said that I hated you when we first met -”
“You called me naive and useless.”
“Which was accurate.” They chuckled slightly.
Amy continued. “You said that one day I might actually like you.” She looked back at the spot where they had once sat. “And it was in that moment that I realised I did like you.” She realised that it had come out wrong and clarified “Like liked you liked you! God I sound like a teenager.”
Jonah looked over at her unable to control his smirk, she wasn’t one for sentimental speeches or reminiscing.
“And I thought" she said "‘Oh shit! He’s been right there in front of me this whole time.’” She touched a hand softly to his chest. “I was stupid enough to let it take me 3 years to realise I needed you the first time and I was stupid enough to let myself lose you when I went to California.” She held back tears as she looked up at his face. It was softer now, his smirk had melted leaving a tender gaze, his eyes looked straight into hers. She broke eye contact, feeling a tear roll down her cheek. “I will never take you for granted again, Jonah. I’m in this, I want to be in this. With you.”
Jonah could see the guilt and sadness that gripped Amy’s body. For a moment he could feel every emotion of each moment he had shared with her, joy, pain, excitement, worry, thrill, pure, unadulterated love. When he had kissed her just 10 minutes ago, he was overcome with that love that had kept him at Cloud 9 for 6 years. The warm glow that radiated from Amy. The flutter in his heart every time she smiled his way. The soft touch of her skin when they made love. He knew she was right when she implied he was there to be with her. He knew that despite the days of heartache, the wakeless nights without her in his arms, that they were still tracking the long winding road towards each other. Despite what he had said when Amy apologised, despite telling her he didn't know what he wanted, he knew. He knew he couldn't hold himself back from her. He could see she had finally realised what he’d always known - they were fated to love each other.
He touched his forehead against hers and pulled her into a kiss. It was slow, gentle, filled with the moments of beauty they had shared every single day since he stepped into the store. The feeling of her lips softly grazing against his was electric, they were cosmically intertwined. The whole world - from the recall room all the way to Palo Alto slipped away leaving just them and this kiss.
He brushed a hand against her neck and slipped his lips away from hers, their foreheads still touching. “I knew the moment I saw you.” he admitted, finally. It felt like a heavy weight off his shoulders. She grabbed him in for another kiss, this time more desperate. They clung to each other as tightly as possible, wishing they could get closer and closer until they were one.
“I love you” she breathed into the kiss.
“I love you too.” Jonah replied.
Jonah pushed Amy up against one of the bins of recalled merch, he smiled into their kiss and kept smiling until their skin wrinkled and hair greyed.