Fanfic: Tommy and Annika: Insulating tape, Pippi Longstocking

At Annika's house, the wallpaper is peeling off the walls, and so she glues them back with colored tape.
Anna, coming to visit, of course, her lips curl over the electrical tape - she, in her opinion, does not look stylish enough, but personally Annika seems to be doing just that. No, seriously, but what else can you grab from breaking up scraps of? Gift ribbons? Bows for hair? Shiny thread?
Nobody remembers such a banal option as glue. Who needs it, in fact.
In fact, Annika is very worried. She bites her lips, standing in front of the mirror and looking at her reflection: blue eyes, pink skirt, yellow T-shirt. She was uneasy at the mere thought that she would have to go out, but she really needed to go out.
Tommy is waiting for her in a cafe nearby.
And her lips are crooked, like Anna, but not because Annika has the whole room in electrical tape, and not even because her yellow T-shirt is a little longer than necessary and three times more dented than in a decent society is permissible ... No Tommy doesn't care about that.
"Again," she says, when Annika, looking around, gets to the table.
- What now? Annika asks, even though he knows the answer.
Tommy is furious because Annika is unsure of herself. She hates her frightened gaze, guarded lips, hunched shoulders and fringe, behind which she hides from others.
Annika nervously crumbles a napkin.
"You constantly look as if I dragged you here by force, not paying attention to the fact that you would rather stay at home."
"But I really would rather stay home," Annika replies quietly and wants to add something else so that Tommy is not offended, because she hates it when she is offended, but then the waiter comes up to them and Annika has to shut up.
Tommy places an order for two: a large latte, a large cappuccino, a classic cheesecake and three balls of pistachio ice cream.
- How are you? Annika asks before the Tommy has time to ask her anything.
The question is frankly stupid, and they both hate it equally, but to be silent while waiting for the order would be stupid. Besides, Annika is not at all against long conversations, especially if she does not speak.
Or she, but nobody is near. Well, from those with whom she is unfamiliar.
And Tommy's eyes shine and cheeks flush.
- Willie? says Annika, feeling a jab of jealousy, and the Tommy nods.
A bit of attentiveness and observation, a drop of listening, seeing and noticing, a lot of love for your friends and a complete lack of your own personal life - that's ready, you are amazing!
No details are heard, and so Annika decides to try again:
- You are now ...
Tommy seems to get what Annika means.
"No," she shakes her head frantically, so that rainbow-colored hair whips her cheeks herself with a waterfall. - Not. No, no, no, no, that's not what you thought!
- Really?
Annika knows how seriously Tommy is about the Wonderbolts, the flight crew. The sky, clouds, pilots' leather jackets and thick glasses that make her look like a fly, everything is as it should be. The dream is rather strange, if not fucked up, but ...
The sense of relief that covers Annika with her head is much stronger than the thought of the adequacy of someone's dream, so for a second she forgets to breathe.
- Of course! "They get an order, and Rainbow launches the fork on the cheesecake, but then pushes the saucer aside, because it's too excited to eat."
- And then what? - Pistachio ice cream melts on the tongue, light and weightless.
Like the sky.
Like the sky in which Willie flies. He has blue shabby jeans, a leather pilot jacket that he doesn't take off even at parties, huge glasses, pushed back and holding back the mane of golden-red hair. He has dark eyelashes and a look as if you had already slept and now he is wondering if it is worth continuing.
Annika would give half her life for "standing."
- He remembered me! - Tommy whispers enthusiastically, and Annika's heart falls somewhere into the basement.
There he is chained to the wall and going to beat with hammers until it breaks.
To make matters worse, Annika has no idea who is more jealous - Willie to Tommy or vice versa.
Somehow, having gathered all her strength, she says:
- That's lovely!
The intonation comes out pretty fake, but the Tommy doesn't notice it.
"Yeah," she smiles. - He remembered me, and invited me to their show this Friday. Are you with me?
Annika is frightened by any prospect of leaving home.
Annika hates and fears a world on whose walls there is no colored electrical tape.
Annika, of course, agrees.

Flight shows are held at the stadium, and Annika has no chance at all in this stadium not to get nervous. She hides behind high sneakers, tight jeans and a voluminous, wide black sweatshirt, packing in her hood, like in a bag, and crowns all this with dark glasses on a half-sleeve, but her fringe is knocked out from under the hood, sticks to her lips, reaches into her mouth .. .
Tommy holds for hand and smiling.
The sky is clear and blue, like her skin-tight sweater. Anna really wanted to go with them, even whipped up something like a pilot's jacket, only in white leather and with sequins, but in the end she stayed at home, because ...
She said that on Monday she was given credit for the history of costume in Europe, but Annika is sure that this is due to electrical tape.
Fortunately, she wrapped her bracelet in a yellow stripe, although she had originally planned to take a skein of purple with her.
Well, sometimes things go wrong.
Tommy even bounces when the Wonderbolts appear in the stadium. In the same helmets it is difficult to guess where anyone is, but if Annika notice an orange splash of long hair, and the world becomes brighter. And colder.
As if you can count on the dude from the cool team to turn his head in her direction.
"Oh," the Tommy screams. "You're breaking my arm now!"
Annika obediently unclenches her fingers, and an alien hand slips out of her wet palm. However, his own palm is also like a stranger now.
Glasses put pressure on the bridge of the nose and on the temples, they are too narrow, Annika took them from Anna three weeks ago when they went to the beach, and honestly she is not going to give them away, because with a headache, but undercover, it's much better than vice versa . But when the headache becomes unbearable, it still relieves them.
And Willie turns in their direction and waves his hand in greeting.
The stadium howls in fascination, the Tommy waves in response.
"He doesn't care about me as a guy," she whispers hotly in her ear when the fans fall silent for a couple of seconds, "but ...
It is easy to guess what this "but" means.
Annika knows perfectly well that for the sake of her dream, Tommy is ready for anything. She loves to compete and wants to be the best, but at the same time she is so unsure of herself that she is ready to cheat for the sake of victory. Or make a romance for the sake of victory. Or just to sleep with someone.
For heaven's sake, but why with him?
The aircraft of the Wonderbolts team take off into the air and start making barrels and dead loops there. Once Annika flew on her own And then it was scary, but now even worse ... Each dead loop binds Annika around the arms and legs with smoky electrical tape, tightly squeezing the throat with air fingers. Each dead loop is stuck in her heart with a steel needle with a thread of self-hatred and despair threaded into it.
Annika almost in reality hears Anna inside her head in an indifferent voice telling her that she fucked. It's so easy and simple, as if it's a little thing like the fact that the green color does not suit her at all.
Annika wraps herself in her arms and looks at the sky.
Tommy smiles.

- No, I won't go anywhere! - For the first time in her life, she is trying to be decisive and insist on her own, but this predictably does not bother anyone.
What an irony.
"Come on," Tommy makes big eyes and impatiently shifts from foot to foot. - Please, please. You know how important this is to me ...
Annika wants to tell her that she looks like a completely maddened fan, like a crazy group girl who will be put out the door right after being put in and pulled out, but she certainly doesn't say anything. She's too shy for that.
The electrical tape on the bracelet begins to slightly recede, and Annika tries to pick up her sticky tip with her nails.
"I won't go anywhere," she repeats, although she feels that she is just one step away from giving up.
Tommy grabs her sleeve and drags her down the street to where the sign shimmers with bright lights.
"I don't even want to know where you got your pass from," Annika mutters along the way.
- If you were going to your dream, I would do my best to help you, do you know? - on the run throws her Tommy. She obviously expects exactly the same from her. - What do you want?
Nothing smarter than "I would like to become a tree" Annika never comes to mind, so she goes silently. Well, that is, trying to go, not run.
Speeds, to be honest, are a little scary.
Before entering Rainbow, Tommy stops so abruptly that Annika crashes her nose into her back, and then turns around and arranges a spontaneous hug.
"Thank you," she whispers, kissing Annika on the cheek, "thanks, thanks, thanks."
"I want to be a tree, but you can't help me with this," Annika says out of place.
Tommy steps back.
"No, I can't," she laughs briskly, and her eyes sparkle in the light of the night lights. "Moreover, I'm going to prevent you from taking root." You need someone who will constantly move you.
"Rather, stick a stick at me to check if she's dead."
- Well, if you like it more ... - Tommy opens the door and after a second they are already inside the club.

Annika's main argument - that she is not dressed for the club - is quickly turning into her main advantage.
In something other than a sweatshirt and jeans, it would be disgustingly uncomfortable, and even though uncomfortable, and disgusting, but still almost tolerable. She takes away her glasses in her pocket and hides in the far corner, at the table.

Like a barricade. Tommy pulls off his sweater and stays in a blue T-shirt, so short that it's even a little embarrassing, but ... Tommy has a great figure, she can afford it.
They drink vodka and tonic, and Annika is already a little dizzy.
The music here is too loud, it bangs on the ears, and the drummer also plays sucks. He lies in almost every square, and the guitarist indignantly looks back at him, but the public does not pay attention to it.
"Would you be able to?" - shouts Tommy.
They both know well that they don't, but Annika still clarifies:
- How?
"Sing like her," Tommy nods to the stage.
There is a fragile girl with curly raspberry hair that appears spotty in the light of the spotlights. With one hand she supports the guitar, which she does not play now, with the other she clings to the microphone, and her small nails would look like stars, if the stars could be crimson in the middle of the white sky. She is wearing a crazy dress and boots with a tall platform, she has so much energy that Annika would have burst from a hundredth share ...
Annika answers:
- I could. Well, only if it is to sing, and not in the sense of going up on stage.
She would never dare to go up on stage.
Tommy nods, and then everything turns into a firework. Or in the rainbow. In something with something, in short. She is pulled into a string, pushing her hair back, and gracefully bends, raising her hand up. Her palm rushes to and fro like a wound, and at first Annika thinks that Tommy has completely fucked up, and then she realizes that she is simply calling someone.
You don't have to be well-read, like Twilight Sparkle, to guess who.
Annika nervously tears off a piece of electrical tape from the bracelet.
When the Wonderbolts are seated at their table, there is suddenly nowhere to put their hands on. However, there's nowhere to put your hands on - this is not the biggest problem, because you don't have anywhere to put yourself, and that's exactly what the fucker is all about.
"This is Annika," Tommy chirps, and Annika's attentive gaze makes Annika even more uneasy.
Saorin winks at her cheerfully, and Willie ... Willie sits opposite and this is enough to forget his name.

- What?
Annika is sure that she misunderstands something or even fell asleep and all this is just a game of imagination, but Willie is standing nearby. And repeats:
- Let's Dance?
Tommy went to the dance floor half a minute ago - by the arm with Saorin, and Annika tries to think that Willie simply has no other options, but she must be a fool to not guess that Willie has the whole club.
Anyone will go with him anywhere - even on the dance floor, even at the door of the toilet cubicle, and this awareness nails to the sofa.
"I don't dance," Annika says stammering.
She slouches, crosses her arms over her chest, climbing inside her shell. She wants to run away from here and lock herself at home, play there with her rabbit, Anna, who peels the wallpaper off the walls, and then glue them with colored tape, and talk only with Anna and only on the phone, because Tommy will be too reminiscent of everything, and live communication ...
- Really? - Willie squints, and from his smile in the dark club it becomes light, as if in the afternoon.
Annika wonders how others are not blind.
"Seriously," her voice trembles.
He was very close, went down from the platform on which their table is located, and now they are almost flush with each other. Annika can see sparkles in the depths of his eyes, as if the glare of the light music is tangled in long eyelashes, and his red hair is carelessly thrown back under his arms, and he wants to touch the leather jacket.
She even tries to reach out, but then pulls herself.
The electrical tape has almost completely left the bracelet.
"Hey," Willie says and leans forward, resting his hands on the sofa on either side of her. - Come on, I'm not biting.
Annika looks around, but the Tommy is not visible in the crowd. All that is visible is his arms and the folds of the sleeves of a leather jacket.
Before she can answer something, Willie touches her chin with her fingers.
"I saw you at the stadium." And earlier, at parties. But you seem to be one of those sitting in the corner.
Annika twitches, looking away, trying to act as if she was not mesmerized by his eyes, like a rabbit with a boa constrictor.
"And you ..." she opens her mouth, and this in itself is a success, but she still cannot say anything clever.
Nothing at all.
- Are you afraid of me? Do I look like a dragon? Although ... Dragon - that would be even funny.
"There is nothing funny about dragons," Annika whispers, and this is her longest phrase since the Wonderbolts were brought to their table. - It's terrible, but not funny.
"But I'm not a dragon."
And she has nothing to object to.
Sparkles are dancing in his eyes, as if the glare of the light music had tangled in dark eyelashes, and Annika sees how these sparks add up to her reflection.
Willie smells like sky and skin, freedom and wind, and when he kisses her, Annika feels like she's been in space without spacesuit.
Pretty scary, but nothing more beautiful has ever happened to her.

Fin ~

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