pingyu-in-wonderland - Tumblr blog

pingyu-in-wonderland · 2 months ago

Text

I WANT YOUR MIDNIGHTS / NICO HISCHIER

SUMMARY Jack and Luke find out that Luisa's in town for Nico's birthday.

WORD COUNT 2.6k

WARNINGS/TROPES Same warnings & tropes as those in OSMIACR.

AUTHOR'S NOTE This is part two of Our Secret Moments in a Crowded Room, so I highly recommend reading that first to better understand the dynamic of everyone's relationship. As always, italicized dialogue is in Swiss German. This goes out to the biggest Luisa and Nico fan, @sleepretreat <3

It's instinctive to lower the brightness of his screen when Nico scrolls through the notifications accumulated on his phone during practice. He sees a few reels from his friends back home and texts from his family group chat, but it's the Amazon delivery notifications that make him smile.

He hasn't bought anything recently, especially because Christmas has already passed.

But he thinks he knows who the culprit is.

A nudge on his arm forces Nico to turn his phone off as he lifts his attention to the affectionate thorn in his side.

Jack invites him for lunch.

Nico spares a quick glance at his phone like he's considering it before uttering something about having food at home.

Jack almost accepts the excuse without a second thought, but he notices the expression on his captain's face as he types away on his phone. It's a familiar one that goes unnoticed by anyone who doesn't know any better, but Jack likes to think that he does.

The softened edges on his face, the wide and dimpled grin that no one here can seem to draw out from him, the subtle flush of his face that he can mask under the guise of working out. They all point to a certain brunette who lives across the Atlantic in the country he calls home.

Of course, that's nothing unusual. Jack frequently sees the expression on Nico's face now that he knows about their relationship (though a part of him believes they tied the knot recently without telling anyone, so there's a chance he starts referring to their relationship as a marriage). It paints everyone else a fool for never questioning the lovesick gleam in their captain's eyes that has him walking around the locker room with a smile and a bounce to his step.

But he knows now, and he knows that Luisa likes to visit New Jersey when she can, and he thinks about the times Nico has turned down invitations in a very probable move to spend time with her—after all, she did say she tries to avoid intruding on his time with the team.

With Christmas recently behind them and Nico's birthday coming up, maybe she's in town.

Not that her social media would ever tell anyone. Last he saw, she posted a summer photo dump that he, Luke, Timo, and Jonas managed to squeeze into. He has better luck tracking her activity through Nina's account, but even that's a rarity; she's like Luca in that sense—private, rarely online, if ever.

But his suspicions are through the roof.

And perhaps Nico senses it, for he parts with an innocent smile.

Jack turns his head to find Luke's face equally steeped in confusion. They don't say anything, but they share a thought, and that alone should send everyone in the vicinity running away.

Nico looks over his shoulder with a quiet chuckle before climbing into his car. The drive home can't be any more onerous, and he wishes it passed by in the blink of an eye. But he finally reaches his apartment and picks up a few packages from the mail room, none of which are addressed to him.

He takes the stairs instead of the elevator because he's uncharacteristically impatient.

Approaching his door, a small laugh shakes his shoulders. Music faintly permeates through the walls as he struggles to open the door with his hands full, but he manages and walks straight into the kitchen, lowering the boxes onto the counter.

An affectionate gleam dances across his eyes as he leans against the counter, watching Luisa spin around with a marmalade-covered butter knife-turned-microphone to sing along to Best I Ever Had while pointing at him, the sunlight pouring through the large windows glinting against the gemstone of her grandmother's ring.

He thinks he might've just fallen in love all over again.

"You the fuckin' best," she sings, lowering her accented voice an octave or two to match Drake's. "You the best I ever had."

Nico pushes off the counter to close their distance. "I'm the only one you've ever had."

Luisa barks out a laugh. "You wish you could say the same about me."

There's a roll of Nico's eyes as he smiles, his palm finding the familiar dip of her waist. "You the best I ever had," he jokingly adds, his thumb rubbing circles over the button-up shirt she stole from him. "I'll need this back one day."

"You can have it back right now if you want," she says, reaching for her phone to lower the volume of the music to a gentle hum. She raises the butter knife to Nico's lips as he undoes the first button, and he pauses to swipe his thumb over the glob of marmalade that didn't make it onto her toast.

He hums in delighted surprise. "Orange."

"You should check your pantry one of these days," she says, the butter knife clanging against the counter.

Nico raises an eyebrow, slowly making his way down the buttons of her shirt. "How much did you bring?"

"That was a question for your mom when she was here. I merely brought what she couldn't fit into her suitcase."

He shakes his head with amusement before capturing her lips in a sweet kiss.

"Thank you for picking up the packages," Luisa tells him between kisses, fingers playing with his freshly washed hair.

"How many more can I expect?" he asks, slipping his shirt and sweater over his head and tossing them aside.

"That might be the last of it," she says earnestly, tracing a line of goosebumps down his torso with her hand and eyes until she reaches the trail of hair beneath his navel. "Promise." She meets his gaze again with a soft smile. "Just needed a few things I couldn't find at Boesner."

Nico brushes the comment off because he has never been one to fuss over what Luisa does—with her (or his) money, who she surrounds herself with (they share most of their friends anyway), or what occupies her free time—but he appreciates the short explanation anyway.

Instead, he weaves his arms around her and brings her flush against his chest like he can't bear to have any distance between them—not when they spend most of the year apart.

Luisa melts into his muscular grasp, sighing contentedly, eyes fluttering shut with his comforting heartbeat thumping against her. She's certain nothing rivals this feeling—a kind of safety like she knows she can sleep the rest of her life away and not a single hair on her body will be misplaced.

"New perfume?" Nico asks.

"From when Nina and I went shopping a few weeks ago."

Nico kisses the scar splicing through her eyebrow, his scruff scratching her skin in a way that has the voice in her head cheering giddily. "Smells good."

Luisa's skin flares with heat when she pulls back slightly, finally taking in his tender watch that gently cradles her soul. How lucky she feels to know she will get a lifetime of this.

It makes her want to freeze this moment in time so she can capture his stare and all its little details on a canvas to be immortalised—so people will know that this type of affection exists and that it belonged to her.

"What?" she asks, pushing his hair out of his eyes.

Nico pouts his lips and shakes his head in a way that tells her he's been around Jack and Luke for too long. "Nothing."

Luisa doesn't question it because he's never given her a reason to press beyond what he tells her—perhaps why he can get away with his frequent defence of 'You never asked.' Instead, she pulls him in for another kiss, her heart skipping one, two, three beats when he easily lifts her onto the counter, careful to avoid her abandoned plate of toast.

They savour this moment—one that comes as rarely as an eclipse—and it's easy to lose themselves in one another. Limbs tangled, hearts pounding, breaths shared, lips exploring the ever-familiar landscape of their bodies.

Their spell dissolves when a series of heavy knocks bombard the front door.

Nico pulls away with a sigh, his head hanging against her clavicle, fingers digging into her hip over her jeans. He begrudingly removes himself from Luisa and grabs his discarded shirt off the floor, slipping it back on in what Luisa considers the greatest tragedy the world has ever witnessed.

He offers his sweater to a confused Luisa, but she shakes her head, so he drapes it over a barstool.

Something about the relentless knocking starts to put the pieces together in her head until amusement flits through her eyes. She hastily buttons up her shirt, appreciating that Nico lingers by the door for her signal.

"I wasn't aware they were so involved in your love life," she teases, nodding at him as she slides off the counter.

Nico opens the door, and two sets of footsteps trample into the apartment.

"I'm offended neither of you told us you were here," Jack says when he spots Luisa casually biting into her cold toast in the kitchen. He prefers not to acknowledge the way Nico adjusts his pants or the fact that Luisa's shirt isn't buttoned correctly—a fact she seems to realise when wiping crumbs off her chest.

"Why wouldn't I try to see my fiancé for his birthday?"

Nico's eyebrows lift with mirth when Luisa grabs his sweater from the barstool. "No, huh?"

Luisa narrows her eyes at him, slipping the sweater over her head to cover the mismatched buttons on her shirt. His lingering warmth and scent swaddle her in a way she can briefly illusion herself into thinking she's still in his arms.

"You know, I thought we were better friends than that," Jack continues, lamenting dramatically through the comforting revelation that she still calls Nico her fiancé (ergo, no secret wedding).

Luisa looks at him sympathetically. "If it makes you feel any better, Timo and Jonas have no idea I'm here either."

"We have to get you out with the team one day."

Luke arches an eyebrow when he spots the sneaky glance Luisa and Nico share as she walks up to him and his brother to plant greeting kisses on their cheeks.

They accept it with much less fluster than the first time.

"So, when's the wedding?" Luke asks as Luisa returns to the kitchen.

"We better be invited," Jack says.

Nico turns to Luisa, ready to remind her where the scissors are when she pierces through the tape on the boxes with her sharp fingernail. "Uh, still figuring it out."

Luisa snickers. "You also have to tell the team you're engaged before you send out the invites, and yes, you two are invited. Don't be stupid. Nico talks about you guys more than anything."

She bites back her smile when Jack and Luke exchange a high-five, but her attempt sees failure when Nico sends her a look that lacks any sort of animosity.

"You're not helping," he says.

A teasing glimmer shines in Luisa's eyes as she shrugs. "You did that to yourself, Schatz."

"So, do you have a new girlfriend, Jack?" Luisa asks as she unpacks the art supplies from the box. "Your style's gotten better."

Luke cackles away at the blunt observation he's come to love from her—and frankly, hasn't been on the receiving end as much, which he likes to credit youngest sibling solidarity. His amusement deepens when Jack's jaw drops, though his brother grumbles out a confirmation.

"Would you like anything to drink? Maybe something to eat, as well?" Luisa asks, but she doesn't hear their response before Nico sends her out of the kitchen with her toast—not that she objects anyway. Instead, she gestures for Jack and Luke to join her in the living room, still decorated for Christmas and likely will be for a bit, while Nico cooks something up.

"What's all this for?" Luke asks, jutting his chin toward the coffee table filled with small gift bags that leave no room for anything else—a single perusal is enough for them to guess that there's enough for everyone on the team.

"Is it okay if I show them?" Luisa asks over her shoulder.

Nico shrugs. "You decide, Lu. You put it all together."

"Yeah, but you're their captain, and this is for your birthday."

"You're the Missus," he points out smugly.

Luisa hums in objection. "Close. Not quite."

Still, she rests her plate on the couch and rifles through the bags, looking for the tags with Jack and Luke's names written neatly in her cursive, nearly calligraphic handwriting. She hands them the gift bags, warily watching their reactions as they fish through the meticulously scrunched tissue paper.

Jack pulls out a canvas, small enough to fit in one of his hands. His lips part when he finds a picture of him and his brothers grinning under the summer sun, and he almost doesn't think it's a painting until he recognises the familiar L.B. etched into the corner.

"Do you like them?" she asks.

"Like?" Jack's eyes widen. "I love it. These are amazing."

"Thanks, Luisa," Luke says, fingers tracing the silhouettes of his friends from college. "Do all of these bags have one?"

She nods. "They're for Nico's birthday party, so if you could pretend you're seeing them for the first time again, that would be great."

They salute her, and Luisa can barely fight off the endearing smile on her lips. She's always been fond of them from what she's learned through Nico over the phone, and the more time she personally spends with them, the more she understands why.

"This means you'll be there, right?" Jack asks. "Are you gonna be at the New Year's party, too? Because that leaves two different times to tell everyone you're together."

The two brothers begin listing off what appears to be a million different ways to drop the news—even suggesting that they don't drop that they're engaged the first time around, that they should ease into the topic first—like two excited, gossiping teenage girls.

Luisa meets Nico's gaze. Mirth twinkles in their eyes—an unspoken language that Jack and Luke have stopped trying to decipher because they know they never will.

Nico notches his head, and Luisa subtly slips away without Jack and Luke knowing, for they're too embroiled in their devising. Their arms brush together as she comes to his side, and he feeds her a piece of broccoli from the pan.

"Again, I wasn't aware they were so involved in your love life," she says quietly.

Nico laughs, and Luisa's expression softens.

"It's worse when you're not here," he tells her.

Luisa rubs his back, fingertips appreciating each dip of his muscles over the soft fabric of his shirt. "I don't think it'll get better after New Year's."

Nico connects their gaze. "I think it's time, though."

"Are you sure? You can still do it another time."

"Has to happen eventually."

Luisa shrugs. "People have secret families all the time."

Nico gives her a sidelong glance. "Yeah, usually when they're having an affair. Also, you were never a secret. They just—"

"Never asked," she finishes with a toothy grin that softens with each passing moment. "I know."

Nico affectionately rolls his eyes before kissing the side of her head. She squeezes his shoulder, assuringly.

They're ready to pop their sweet little bubble to make way for a larger one. One filled with more of their friends.

"Hey, where'd she go? Luisa, come back!"

188 notes · View notes