#and they have to still make sure to let him know he's invited to eid and stuff

[indigosabyss]

I would very much like the idea of a fic of Bruno being pseudo-adopted by the Khans from a young age and the way it would shape his understanding of their culture and such matters. And I would write it. But I have never met a white person so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[babyjakes]

I know you’re on a kinkmas grind (I’ve been loving it!) but I can’t help but think about Willa at the holidays! You may have done this before (I may have been the one to even suggest it even lol) but imagine Willa learning about the various holidays. Steve teaches her about Christmas and gets Thor to dress up like Santa. She learns about Hanukkah from Bucky and they light candles together. Idk I just love coming up with Willa fluff.

hey sweet friend, happy holidays! i was indeed very busy with kinkmas when i received this but i still wanted to give a little answer about willa's holiday season as you and a few anons sent in asks about it 🫶

note: i wanted to include willa learning about a wide variety of religions and cultures, but i'm not an expert on anything so if i got anything wrong or anything should be adjusted please let me know!! i will be so happy and grateful to learn more 💕

the end of the year is a crazy time for willa-bug, she's so busy! i didn't know bucky was jewish (and a quick google search wasn't very helpful on confirming this) but if he is, i love that!! and then yes he definitely does hanukkah stuff with her, lighting the candles and maybe she even makes him little presents for each night of hanukkah 🥺 she also wants some of the other friends (peter, thor, wanda, clint...) to come celebrate with bucky too, and bring gifts and participate in all the festivities with him!

i bet she and peter do advent calendars together, he gets her an avenger themed one and she finds him a spiderman one lol 🥺 maybe steve invites peter and wanda to stay over for the first 25 days of december and makes a big deal about them and willa getting to experience "christmas-time in a proper home" 💕 they do all sorts of traditional stuff that steve loves: baking and cooking, decorating the house, fun little crafts, putting up a christmas tree, etc. maybe the whole team comes over one night to help decorate the tree, and they all bring some ornaments to contribute so that willa and steve can have a nice selection for every year 🥺 christmas eve is super fun, she sets out cookies and milk for santa- then in the morning, steve and the kids all gather around the christmas tree and santa brought sooo many presents! (wanda and peter made sure to bring willa out to get lots for steve too ofc 🫶)

a silly little side note: willa's letter to santa is so precious 🥺 at five, she's just learning to write and can't spell yet, so she asks steve to write it out for her so she can copy it down onto her paper. the first part of the letter is just her talking to santa, asking how he is and how all the reindeer are and if he has to wear a bunch of coats in the north pole lol. she asks for a few things for herself but then she asks for a present for each of her friends too, bc thor told her that grown-ups don't write letters to santa and she wants to make sure santa knows exactly what they would like!! so if she's the only one writing to him, she's gotta put in a word for them herself 🥺 she also writes "please" after each thing so santa can see she's using her manners 😭 steve is already tearing up as he listens to her and writes it out for her in big, easy to read letters. then when he sees it written out in her own five-year-old script, he's practically clutching his heart he can't take the cuteness 😭 he definitely saves it, tucks it away somewhere safe to show her when she grows up

willa isn't ready for proper preschool but steve does bring her to an early childhood education program where parents stay and play 💕 she makes lots of friends, many who have different backgrounds that she gets to learn about! she gets to learn about ramadan and eid ul-fitr, as well as eid ul-adha from one classmate whose mom invites her and steve to come join them for iftar! another friend tells her all about chinese new year and shows pictures from the festival she went to last year with her family.

steve definitely raises her to be interested in and respectful of all other cultures and religions! he teaches her what traditions and holidays he celebrates, but also encourages her to find out what other important people in her life believe in and celebrate, and to value those things as well. maybe he gets her a big calendar to hang on the wall where they can mark all their holidays, and their friends' holidays too! so they can remember to celebrate along with them in ways they find meaningful 💕

[jellyluchi]

Celebrating Eid-al-adha with La Squadra

A/N: It's Eid today so I wanted to celebrate by making some HCs of reader having fun introducing their culture and religion to La Squadra! For those curoius, this is the second of the two Eids! Reblogs, feedback, and comments are much appreciate; I hope you enjoy!

—Warnigs: none

—Genre: fluff

All of them would love to know as much as they could about your culture!

Sorbet & Gelato:

When you became part of their relationship, they both delighted in enjoying your culture and being as domestic as they are, looked forward to celebrating Eid with you through cooking and decorating together

Sorbet gets kitchen duty and Gelato gets decoration. They make your sweet home smell and look absolutely perfect for the occasion!

Will make it very accommodating so that you're able to pray when you need and if you allow them may even join you

Risotto:

One thing good about Risotto during this particular Eid is that he's actually good butchering.

Don't ask where he learned it but he can actually find a space in your countryside home and a lamb or cow to sacrifice in your names.

If you request it, he's quite diligent in learning your cultural dishes, and he even may make fusion food between to mix in some of his Italian heritage

very patient in the way he lets you do henna on him and sits still s you both have matching henna tattoos

Prosciutto:

Given how he likes to plan, he's practically been prepping for this day since you first mentioned it

He might even get stressed if you only mention it a couple days before the actual event, he has so much preparation to do!!

And he will try to do it all by himself, the cooking, throwing a party, decoration, inviting guests, this is why he wanted time

This man lives to dress himself and others so he pipes up at the sound of traditional wear and wants to see you in it too, he'd love to be a fashionable couple together

Pesci:

Okay, he may not know how to butcher but he sure knows how to fish and that comes in handy for sure

Since he knows how to prepare fish and make various dishes with that, that becomes your main cuisine

Fear not, if you don't enjoy fish he can still cook amazing dishes, esp with lots of veggies

He's quite creative and can do some henna for you! And on himself too, if you give him some examples to follow

Ghaccio:

Similar to Prosciutto, he wants to prep very very ahead of time since he'd get stressed if anything goes out of line

Gets super flustered when you ask to do henna on him because you'd be touching his hands so much

He actually learned a lot of the prayers just for you so he could help you pray, he's very good at memorizing the surahs

He's a great taste test, when you're cooking he'll know exactly which ingredient is missing and how much

Formaggio:

Celebrations are part of his forte, if it's a party you want it's a party you'll get. He'll totally dance to all the traditional music.

He actually knows really good food places where you can cater from so that all your energy goes to throwing the party and not just making food

invites all his friends and family or as many people as he knows because he wants it to be a big celebration just for you

Takes a shit ton of pictures to keep them all as memories, especially when you come out wearing your Eid clothes

Illuso:

Even if he's not good at butchering himself, he can get a sacrifice to happen in the mirror world so u don't have to clean up

if you have trouble with styling your hair on Eid he's got you, his unending number of hair products comes in handy

Surprisingly loves henna a lot and allows you to give him lots of henna tattoos.

He's not the best cook but he does love helping you make sweets for the occasion

Melone:

He asks you so many questions about the entire celebration because he wants it to be exactly like how it was at home for you

Another amazing cook that will try his best to make the food taste just right you just have to worry about what dress you'd wear

If you're not sure what type of makeup you'd wanna do, he's great at giving advice on how your clothes can match

Also a henna tattoo enthusiast! He go so excited learning you can tattoo your legs with pretty designs as well

[muffindaddystyles]

Hearth.

A/N: I dunno if I've got any desi/brown/poc readers but if you're reading this I love you so much and you (us) deserve the same validation and representation others get.

Here's a blurb as to what it feels like celebrating Eid with Harry! Enjoy!

Warning: none — just loads of fluff.

More Inspos, Masterlist, Let's Talk

The night's pretty with murky clouds and thick layer of moon's brightness as Y/N cleans her flat, from scrubbing her Persian rugs to deep cleansing her vases back from her homeland. The flame evaporating from her candles scented like springs of Kashmir, flickers from her blowing sheer curtains due to the zephyr flurring outside.

She feels content, at peace waiting for Harry who promised that he'll be at her place by 11. He always comes an hour early helping her in setting the table before the iftari, they've been doing it together since the start of ramdan until today when he texted her he's busy along with a sad smiley.

It was fun. He fasted with her once or twice and would make sure she's hydrated enough once they break it, his love for rooh-afzah (it's a drink red in color made from essence of roses and some sweet herbs) will never fail to make her giggle as he'd demand for more after gulping two glasses already.

Then showing her his tummy along with his food pregnant jokes.

Her classes are online so it gave her time to experiment some cooking. They'd make samosas together and she always had an urge to hold back her cooes as his tongue used to poke out in concentration everytime his diligent fingers folded the samosa sheets skillfully.

"Did a pretty go'job here, innit?" He'd grin raising it like a summat trophy.

The moment he used to leave her flat (ofcourse after giving a tight hug before doing so) they both missed eachother terribly, y/n doesn't like the way her home falls into an abyss without his presence.

He's like a sunshine that warms her insides up.

The whistle of kettle and several raps of knocks on her door drags her from her fond memories of them together, she slings her feet down from the coffee table rushing to open it.

"Angel."

Harry says breathlessly prolly because he climbed three flight of stairs to get to her or that he's utterly flustered.

Her eyes remain struck at the thingies piled in his arms, a box of chocolates, many brown bags and stems of freshly blood ripped roses tucked between his knuckles.

He bought all of these gifts for her.

To make her feel like home.

To be her home.

What the fuck, nobody has ever done that for her —-- she just mighty cry.

Her mouths gupples like a fish too overwhelmed to react her emotions out and he gives her a sweet smile kicking the door shut with his feet -- gestures her to wait when she almost jumps like a cub to hug him and puts everything on the sofa knowing the things inside them's too delicate.

"C'mere, baby." He grins and she doesn't waste a moment falling in his embrace. Her cheeks smashes against his taught chest and she fists the hem of his shirt smiling too hard for her own sake as he sways them with his own rosy cheek squished against her temple.

"I love you so much, thank you." She murmurs gazing up at him with glinting eyes -- arms still lopped around his waist and his chin doubles adorably as he gives her his signature bunny grin kissing the tip of her nose, "Love you too bubba ... don't want ya homesick, at alllll."

The aggressive whistle of kettle parts them away, "Cuppa cha? Then we'll unwrap these pleasanteris." She points at the paper bags.

He nods flopping onto the floor cushions beside the large oak window of the balcony where they could bathe in moonlight.

"Thank you." He quips, kissing her fingertips while slipping his fingers under the handle of mug and takes it from her as she sits infront of him. He admires her for a second —- fawning over how she's looking so soft and cuddle-able wearing a baggy mauve kurta and some mismatched shalwar.

The tearing open of the stuffing tissue brings him back to focus --- this, he wanted to see this happiness dance over her features as she clutches the ethnic traditional dress he bought for her infront of her and when lifts it down he's met by overly excited eyes.

It's ethereal with golden details, handmade wire work and sheer fabric.

"It's gorgeous, pups." She squeezes his hand and he takes the sip of his cha smiling against the rim of the mug shyly, "Wasn't s' sure -- Sarah helped me in collecting stuff." Sarah's Y/N's bestfriend who was the only desi/brown in her filming class.

"No wonder she was being a lil sneak." Y/N chuckles already rummaging for what comes next.

He wanted to make sure he gets her everything they do traditionally in her culture and ate Sara's ears off to help him buy the most special thing and it's right there creating sweet noise when they touch eachother, dangling from her fingers.

"Churiyan .... " She whispers bitting down a smile. She loves glass bangles. Their colourfulness cheers her mood up and she'd always go with her Nani a night prior eid to select the most flamboyant pair of them from a bazar (market).

"This -— " She gestures to the gifts scattered around them, " —-- all of this and you, means alot to me." She sighs giving him a wet smile and he smoothes his thumb against her cheek like she's the most fragile thing to exist.

He watches her in a tad confusion when she stands up with a giggly squeal putting everything away and comes back with a tube of henna in her hand.

"It's chand raat t'night 'cos tommorrow is eid -- usually I spend it with Sarah and we apply henna to eachother, we're horrible at it honestly but now she isn't here 'm gonna bite yours ears —-" He cuts her off. Ushering her to sit back on her spot. He couldn't be more glad to spend all of his time with her whether it's just watching her make designs on her hand with henna.

"Your cha's waftin'." He shakes his head bringing it to her lips, "It's hot." She tells him drawing a circle on her palm and filling it with beautiful darkness of henna.

"Okie then ... " He blows at the hot beverage to cool it down and again brings it to her lips, "Now." He croons softly to her. She holds his wrist taking a sip from it -- he tucks the strand of her hair back and she smiles up at him making him chuckle when she takes a huge sigh as if her soul just woke up.

"What do we d'tommorrow?" He asks. Knowing most of the time they went to Zayn's house on Eids his mother used to fill the whole table with delicious dishes and the whole day was spent having fun.

"We do nothing but have loads of nice time -- I already made a dessert 'cos I know I'll be too lazy in the mornin', and invited your friends if that's okay?" She glances up at him done with her left palm.

"Perfect then," He nods, "D'ya need help with the other one?" He asks grabbing her right hand and the tube of henna from her.

"Yes, please." She shows him her hand covered with with henna and since it's wet she could do one thing wait or let him do it. The second options sounds more good.

"Not on me if it gets messed up." He warns her nonchalantly following the same pattern of her left hand. Stealing glances of her attractive face every now and then, dotting her moles with his intense gaze, he just thinks her brown eyes look more intricate – it's specks as if the forests soil on the first rains when they dilate with her racing heartbeat.

They're like an open book to him and at the same time mysteriously dark that he feels like burning a match to melt in them.

"You did it way better than me," She snorts examining it closely and turns the other way round to lay down on the carpeted floor and rest her head in his lap. He wipes his own hands watching the dark henna leaving a swipe of color on his fingertips.

He pets her hair, dimples milking into his cheeks when she raises her both hands infront of him -- blocking the moonlight that's falling on her, "When I was small I always used to end up getting it on my face and lemme tell ya. Having a yellow blotch isn't even a tiny bit fascinating on the only day you could dress up fancy."

His chest rumbles with giggles and he brings her hands closer to her lips blowing raspberries at them to get them dry early.

Comfortable silence envelopes them in to the point where they could hear crickets singing outside and moonlight sparkling on their skin —- she breaks it cuddling up into his chest.

"I really appreciate this, Harry." Her voice hushed whisper and her cherry stained lips couldn't resist but to patch kisses where his heart lays and she could sense it kicking a pace, "The fact that you did so much just for me -- is beyond my thought. I really feel like home." He let her speak. Squeezing her shoulders to convey the fierceness of his emotions he holds for her. His silken lips pressed to her temple and his eyelids flutters with each spurt of breath she inhales.

"I'll keep making you feel like home, till the day you'll allow me." Today. He for actually felt that his home was never a building or the luxurious furniture adorned inside it, but her. It's always gonna be her.

Because the moment he gets lost in those eyes all he come across is their shared laughter, their moments spent on this balcony right outside sipping onto their chas and watching the city wake up infront of their eyes, going to places he has never been to before, doing things he never thought he'd do in hundered years —- he isn't a big fan of spices but he still pretends like a big boi infront of her while eating pani puri she's oh so obsessed with.

The times she was never embarrassed to introduce him to her community or her friends, and getting soaked into rains even though they could've just used his car, having days planned to make him try new desi dishes, going to buy candles of many scent and shapes with him but then never feeling like leaving the store until he warns her that he'll throw her on his shoulder infront of everyone.

Going to Turkish markets together. He's a bread lover and so all this time he doesn't feel like leaving the shops filled with different kiln and tandoori breads. Eating Simit and drinking black tea in the amardu cups sitting outside the cafe –- he likes it with cheese while she might sound bland she just likes a bit of butter.

Them deciding for hours and hours which Persian rug to buy -- but never buying it apologising to the shop keeper.

Giving eachother head massages from the organic rosemary Morrocon oil that one of her friend gifted her, (Y/N) thinks she's one hell of a masseuse but Harry thinks otherwise —- though he would never ever break her heart so it's better keeping it a secret.

His nose creates a purring sound while he sleeps leaning against the wall, he doesn't even remember when he fell into the deep slumber with his large hand still wrapped around her wrist in a protective manner to keep her from moving.

It's cute.

Though when she stirs to regain consciousness with the birds chirping outside she feels remorseful finding him sleeping in such an uncomfy position just because of her and he wakes up with a loud wheeze —- blinking rapidly to see what just happened only to visibly relax back when she shushes him gently.

"Baby .... shit." He grogs out, knuckling at his eyes pointing at her jaw which's covered into a orangish streak, "Don't tell me." She groans bumping her head against his bicep.

A moment later they burst into fits of hoarse giggles and chuckles. She'd try to suck in air to not to snort and would do it nonetheless driving them more into belly aching laughter.

"Eid Mubarak, I guess?" He cackles loudly. Dimple coveting in to his velvet of skin. Rubs the tip of his nose against her's affectionately and swoons her in his arms to hug her warmly.

"Now -— go 'n dress up, c'mon." He cups the nape of her neck playing with the baby hair there and she whines smushing her face against his chest, "No. Lemme sleep some more."

"Heyyy none of that, c'mon sleepy girl you'll regret it later." He boops her nose smiling down at her fondly and she grumbles mumbling something in between you're so annoying or you're being so much like my mum.

He waits for her laying on the sofa with his arms folded and eyes closed. Prolly took a mini version of nap only to perk his head up grabbing the back of sofa when she returns with wet hair, soft clean face and lips tinted cherry wearing the dress and bangles he bought for her.

An enchantress from head to toe, he wouldn't even complain if she bewitches him.

He needs someone to pinch his bum because he thinks his eyelids might have struck. He takes a dramatic breather mischievously, pupils dilated cutesly and heart shaped lips parted with the sweet loving words in praise of her beauty burning at the tip of his tongue.

His fawning gives her butterflies. Expanding her chest with warmth and she does a three-sixty when he spindles his nimble in the air demanding her to show herself from every angle.

Her head falls back. An echo of happy giggles resonating in the room when he smacks his hand against his chest and flops into heaps of sofa cushions.

"You're fuckin' beautiful, a total knockout." He walks towards her with his hands spread open and takes her's to kiss the inside of her palms, "So are you." Her voice small with shyness. He sits on her on sofa and stays beside her with his chin perched upon his knuckles staring at her like she hung the moon -- as if she's a prayer come true.

"Did you get me ready to d'nothing?" She turns towards him. The curled up fringes kissing the apples of her cheeks same as his fingertips are dying to do so.

"I might sound selfish but it was a trap to get you ready early so I could admire you till everyone squeeze between us ... " He smirks and she huffs sinking deeper into the sofa throwing her limbs in air and his breath hitches when her bangles clanks together producing a beautiful noise.

"Harry!!" She whines.

"Okie, time to fill some grumpy kitten's tummy." He announces standing up to head to kitchen and she shakes her head with a silly smile trailing behind him.

All she knows is that. This Eid she'll have the best time of her life, as she could already feel his energy and love radiating in every corner of her home.

.

@harryforvogue idk why but everytime I'd sit to write this blurb you'd pop in my mind, hope so you're not hiccuping wildly.

[choices-ethanramsey-4life]

Meet my Mc: Dr. Samantha Valentine

Book: Open heart

Face claim: Ana de Armas

Full name: Samantha Rani Valentine

Nicknames: Sam ( Her cousin sis, sometimes friends) Rookie (Ethan) Fahima (her mom side of family)

Age/ bday: 1st October 1992, 27 years old...

Love interest: Ethan Ramsey (no flings at all)

Hometown: Seattle,Washington

Education: University of Washington school of medicine

Occupation: Junior Fellow of diagnostic team/ Medical resident

Family: Stephan Jones Valentine(dad, deceased in book2) Saira Rani Valentine(mom, no more) Jake Ahmed Valentine (older brother, no more), Rumena Rani( aunt, mom little sister) Amelia Emma Willow (older cousin sister, Rumena only child) Joseph Jones Valentine (uncle, ex husband of Rumena, Stephan brother)

Family heritage: Her mom is Muslim, Bangladeshi. Her dad is a Christian. She recognises herself more with her Bangladeshi heritage she’s in touch with her aunts and uncles in Bangladesh. Shes proud and bilingual (She speaks English and Bangla). She doesn’t know her dad side of family a part from her uncle. She grew up celebrating everything Ramadan, Christmas, Eid and Easter. She often prays as it helps her stay calm and gives her hope at times...

Inheritance: Her dad was disowned after he married her mom... he made his own hospital and became a successful businessman. Her mom was a doctor as well. They lived a simple life they didn’t spend their money on things that they didn’t need and they lived in a regular house, most of their money was given to charity and her family in Bangladesh during the flooding. Jake and Samantha were disciplined and worked and earned their own money by doing work experience. People often misjudge Samantha thinking she had advances in life when she didn’t.

Past: Her mom died when she was 8 almost 9. She found out her mom had cancer she walked in on her mom coughing blood. She became quiet and stayed in her room for a week...After her mom died her dad became an alcoholic but he hid his issues he also had anger issues. She started to draw and do art. Samantha and Jake were often abused by their dad everyday mercilessly. Samantha was abused more but Jake would make sure she wouldn’t be hurt but it wouldn’t work all the time... Her drunk dad came in her room to hit her like he always does, he pushed her out of the window and kicked her desk out of her window... she had emergency operation which she had metal implantation in her lower legs and some in her lower spinal area... she was temporarily paralysed from her legs down... she lost 4 years of being happy in her life. Her brother was her big support system during this dark time. When she was 16 she recovered but she was still abused. Her dad and Jake would often argue to a point where Jake would leave for a couple of hours and come back just for Samantha to make sure she was ok. He didn’t move out even though he wanted to because he didn’t like leaving Samantha alone with her dad after her serious accident. Her brother died in a car accident when she was 17. A week after she was discharged from hospital after her dad stabbing her, she didn’t expect things to blow up her dad and brother stopped talking to each other a couple years ago but he left the house angry and hours later his dead body was found by a bridge in the ruins of the car... when she was 18 she left home and left her dad many letters explaining why and sayings she’s sorry... she moved to England for a couple years and then LA and back to Seattle far away from her dad. Her aunt invited her to Boston where she came at the start of her intern year.

Present: she has many faded marks from her dad and uncles years of abuse. She’s a claustrophobic due to being beaten and abused for years and she feels at times her dad would be there to hit her in her sleep when he isn’t. She sleeps with the door half open. She doesn’t let her past effect her present at all. She loves to joke around and have fun. Her friends often joke of her height and the fact she’s the youngest, they treat her like a kid.

Characteristics: she has four things that she does...When she’s happy she’s like a child...innocent, happy and you can’t help but to smile and join in with her joy. When she’s angry she ends up breaking into Bengali, when she’s sad or feels alone she draws she’s a good artist. When she’s confused she questions everything. However if she’s really upset she locks herself in her room and sits quietly thinks about it. She loves nature and can find beauty in anything. Her friends often come to her when they are in need of advice she’s good at giving advice... she can dance but she doesn’t have confidence to dance. She can’t sing at all to save her life. However she can cook, her aunt taught her how to cook... both English and traditional Bengali food. she loves to do art it helps express her. She loves to read and spend her free time outdoors she enjoys the peace and quiet...and she can be quite philosophical at times...

Random facts: she’s the youngest child but treated like the eldest she does have a lot of responsibilities. Family is everything for her... she loves to spend time with her friends. Her brother in law often makes fun of her height as a joke as she makes fun of his, him being too tall. She suffers from panic attacks and takes medication for it... Art is sort of her coping mechanism. Her friends think she has too much sass and she reacts too quickly. She won’t start a fight but if anyone says anything about her friends and family she will fight them.

Just a little thing I did because not everyone knows my mc or her background... Thanks for reading and showing support.💕💕

[ayellowcurtain]

could you write about nico and his thoughts when Martino left their house? I can't imagine how much he will have suffered

I would like to know if you have some sort of talk between Luai and Nico in mind, maybe at Sana's during EID? or at the beach? about Marti perhaps?

Could you write something from the days when all the squads were camping (SkamIt) Preferably a Marti/Nicco fic

It was a long night. Stressed, anxious, and with little to no sleep. Nico opened Luai’s texts but didn’t have time to answer right away. Marti was all over him again, asking for the hundred time what was going on with Luai and they had another argument, Nico lost track of how many times they had one since the fight. Marti didn’t even look at him when he went to bed. He turned his back to Nico and stayed in that position the whole night, looking so small and tense. Nico was laying on his side, watching Marti’s back move as he breathed.

His phone made a noise on the nightstand and he turned over his shoulder to look, just then remembering about leaving Luai on read. Martino was dead asleep but Nico moved carefully anyway, grabbing his phone and going to the bathroom. Luai had sent him an audio. Hearing his voice so clearly and first thing in the morning felt different than when they talked at the party, over loud music, and with the others around them.

I’m sorry for the mess at the party, I didn’t know your boyfriend was jealous, guess I should have known better, having one myself. Anyway, I hope we can talk and get over that stupid fight. Let me know if you wanna meet up, maybe Martino can join…

Nico sat down on the edge of the bathtub, hearing it again, not really knowing what to say or how to say it. The knock on the door made him jolt, looking at the locked door in front of him.

“Nico?” He quickly typed a message as he walked to the door, hearing in Martino’s voice his uneasiness.

to Luai NEW: Hey, it’s okay, I’ll call you later and we’ll talk, ok?

He put his phone down on the counter and unlocked the door for Marti, looking even more tired than when he went to bed.

“What’s going on?” Nico could see as it’s his reflection in Marti’s face that he wasn’t hiding well how he was failing at coming up with an excuse. “Were you talking to someone?”

And Nico took a deep breath in, knowing what was coming as soon as he said he was talking to Luai. Martino wasn’t going to settle for just what they were talking about right now. He wanted the full story, even the details, and Nico wasn’t ready to give it to him yet. It was a part of his past he was still trying to figure out and come to terms with and he didn’t want to give Martino a story he didn’t fully understand himself. 

He tried to explain as much as he could without hurting himself in the process, but Martino had made up his mind. Seeing him shove a bunch of clothes inside his school bag made Nico panic, asking time and time again for them to sit down and talk, but Martino wasn’t listening. He slammed the door behind him, crying like Nico had never seen before and he was gone, Nico didn’t know for how long, but this wasn’t what he wanted.

He tried calling Marti, but he didn’t pick up so he did the second best thing.

to Gio: hey

Can you text me when Marti gets to school?

We had a fight and I just wanna make sure he’s ok

It takes almost two minutes for Gio to start typing, and Nico can’t stand still as he watches the bubbles load a couple of times on his screen.

to Nico: okay?

What happened? Is the guy from the party?

to Gio: He’s an old friend, but Marti won’t listen

to Nico: Are you sure about that?

to Gio: Yes

to Nico: okay

I’ll let you know

And Nico tries to wait patiently, even though he knows he’s outnumbered. Gio is Martino’s best friend and they’ll have each other’s back no matter what, but he hopes Gio will at least be able to tell him if he’s with Marti or not.

Two hours go by like a minute, Nico is still home, waiting for news. There’s no way Martino and Gio haven’t met, but there’s no text yet. Nico tried calling Marti a few more times, but his phone goes straight to voice mail every time.

to Nico: hey

sorry for the long wait

he’s with us now.

They all hate you now. You could have just told him what happened with Luai and this wouldn’t be happening.

Nico puts his phone down, looking at it, running his hands through his face, picking the skin of his dry bottom lip. There’s no easy way out of this mess. He picks his phone again and reads Gio’s texts one more time.

to Gio: Is he okay?

to Nico: No, but I think you know that…

He’s just overreacting, give him some time

And yourself too

to figure out...whatever is going on with Luai.

Nico sighs, closing his eyes and he slips on the couch, putting his head against the back, looking up, trying not to freak out. Gio knows, everybody already knows and they’re making their own conclusions with the little information they have. His phone shakes on his hand and Nico rushes to see if it’s Marti, but it’s Sana, making everything worst.

to Nico: hi, how are you?

I just saw Marti and I had to tell him what I knew

He’s freaking out, Nico, was crying like a baby in the doctor’s room

He has no answer to that so he drops his phone again, letting himself silently cry now that’s alone, for Marti and for himself for making this mess.

-

“Hey…” Luai comes to sit next to him on the sand and Nico has to really look around them. Marti is still with the boys getting more beer, but his eyes are on them, not as insecure or mad as before, but obviously not too happy about the scene, acting like it’s fine.

“Hi…”

Luai follows his eyes and probably sees Marti quickly looking away, pretending like he wasn’t staring.

“How are things between you two?” Nico sighs, trying to focus on this conversation, hoping Marti will hear him afterward.

“Not the same, but I’m hoping we can go back to that with time.” Luai gives him a sad smile, nodding his head quietly.

“I’m sorry...I shouldn’t have just appeared at the party like that.”

“It’s okay. We would have to talk at some point, no?” 

“I guess so. I hope so. But I get it, I had some explaining to do myself with my boyfriend.” Nico looks at Luai, and he shrugs. Nico puts his arms on top of his knees, resting his chin against his biceps as Luai explains himself.

“We had a conversation when we were getting to know each other months ago, I told him...what happened before I left Italy, but just the general context, not about who you were or any detail. He knows now, of course.” Luai laughs and Nico feels bad for how they both made an even bigger mess of something that happened years ago, feels like a whole lifetime ago.  

“And how did he react?”

“He wasn’t too happy that we were hanging out again, but he knew about me knowing someone before so I guess it could have been worst. We’re still together so that’s good!”

It’s his turn to give Luai a sad smile, not really knowing how to help. He thought Luai’s boyfriend was coming, as another “friend” of them.

“Why didn’t he come?”

Luai sighs, clearly upset. “He made sure to create any excuse not to come, but we’ll meet later and we’ll go on holiday together…”

“Is he mad?” Nico raises his eyebrows, trying to imagine his own situation happening with Luai. He takes a second to answer, sighing.

“I think so. He’s just jealous and grumpy.” Nico laughs, he knows how that feels like. But at least Marti is here.

“But did you tell him about Martino? I would imagine telling him I also have a boyfriend now would make things easier.”

“He knows because, you know, the fight, but don’t worry. It’ll pass, he’s just too stubborn to listen right now.”

Nico looks away, not knowing how to go about this. They needed to have a conversation but now feels out of place. The timing is not right, they were supposed to have this months ago. To talk about their past feelings or whatever it was months ago, to put an end to it when it ended - against their will or not -, not now, when both of them have moved on.

“I love Martino,” Nico says without any sure this is the right thing to say but it catches Luai’s attention, “You know how it was with Maddalena, you obviously know about how I felt about you...but he’s different. You’re getting the worst of him, I guess, but I promise, he’s the best.”

Luai laughs and nods his head.

“You don’t have to explain to me, you know that, right? We’re friends, Nico.” If this was another time, Luai would probably shove him away for being so dumb, but they lost the playfulness that they had at some point. Nico is okay with how they are right now, but it’s an awkward adjustment. 

“I know. I know, but I guess we never had a proper end to things, at least not one that was in our control.”

Luai moves his body to properly look at Nico. “We were both confused and just trying to find ourselves. And we were best friends, there was no other option, actually.”

“Yeah, we trusted each other, and maybe things...evolved. I’m sorry for everything that happened to you, I wish I had done more to not let it happen the way it did.”

Luai sits up straight, frowning a little, almost interrupting Nico, clearly uncomfortable.

“Nico, stop, it’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t mine and it’s in the past now, ok? Don’t waste your time thinking about it. You’re happy, I’m happy, forget about it.”

They silent lingers around them a little and Nico thinks about going to Marti, hugging him and kissing him and telling him hom much he misses and loves him, but he needs to make sure everything is okay with Luai. That whatever they needed to know from each other right now is answered.  

“And you? How are you now?” 

Luai looks at him, really looks at him and smiles. 

“I’m good, happy. I’m glad me and the boys could come, your friends are cool for inviting us.” 

“I’m almost sure Rami invited himself, but yeah, I’m sure they are all happy to have everyone together one last time before college.” Nico laughs and Luai does too. They both know Rami too well, he wouldn’t miss a chance of a whole weekend partying without being called out for. 

“And I talked to Martino a little at Rami’s, he’s cool. I’m sure we won’t get too close, but he does seem like a really nice guy, Nico. I’m happy for you.” 

Nico smiles, feeling his whole body that was starting to get too cold with the sun almost gone instantly warm up and relax just with the thought of Martino, his stubborn face as Gio shoved him to go talk to Luai. 

“He’s the best. I wish you two could be friends, but I understand. You know a thing or two about stubborn-jealous boyfriends. I’m happy, never thought I could be this happy. He makes me happy.” 

Luai smiles and winks at him, nodding his head back, pointing to where Marti was went they looked at him. 

“Go be with him then. I’m gonna go soon too, meet someone.” 

“I’m happy for you, really.” Nico says as he gets up, cleaning his legs from all the sand. Marti is sitting on the balcony floor, drinking and talking to the boys, all of them. Nico walks up to them and sits behind Marti, kissing his naked and warm shoulder blades, already sunburned. 

[nothesc]

Week 7 Part IV. A Damira fic.

Here’s the last part that takes place on Saturday.

Part I here Part II here  Part III here

You can also read it on ao3

-----

SATURDAY 22:05

“Yes, I’m telling you, we were giving the gifts to the kids and one of them said ‘yeah the gifts are great but where’s the money?’” Amira tells Nora, Viri and Eva remembering what happened earlier today at the association.

“I mean, can we blame him? They’re not stupid” Eva says laughing

“They’re like little hurricanes but we love them” Dounia comments.

“I think it’s so cool what you guys do at the association” Viri says with admiration

Amira looks at Dounia, Elena and Noor and smiles, she’s very proud of the work they do at Labass.

“Amira” Nora says suddenly, pointing at something behind Amira.

She turns around and is shocked to see Kasim and Lucas entering the rooftop. Kasim never answered to her text and Amira was sure that they wouldn’t show up. She looks at Dounia to see if she knows something but she shakes her head and shrugs.

“Well, we’ll leave you alone” Nora says taking the rest of the girls with her and leaving Amira alone with Lucas and Kasim.

“Hi, I thought you wouldn’t come” Amira admits shyly

“So did I, not gonna lie” Lucas comments “But Kasim insisted and I couldn’t say no”

Amira nods and dares to look at Kasim. A wave of shame and guilt hits her.

“Kasim, I’m sorry, I’m really sorry for real. I…don’t know what to say”

“Well, that’s what the text was for, right? To apologize and explain yourself. And Amira, I’m not going to lie to you, I hated you so much when I found out you were the one that sent Dounia home but…the truth is I was shitty to you. I shouldn’t have used you or lied, I screwed up your friendship with Dounia and you didn’t deserve that, I’m sorry.

Amira nods and smiles awkwardly, knowing that Kasim forgives her calms her down but that doesn’t mean she’ll ever be proud of what she did.

“Thank you for coming” Amira looks from Kasim to Lucas and adds “both of you”

Lucas smiles and nods. Things will take a while to go back to the way it was between them but it’s a start.

Cris is late, very late, but this time is not because she wasn’t ready on time. The truth is she’s been ready for half an hour now but Joana and her are still in her room waiting for something that doesn’t seem is going to happen. Cris sighs and stands up to go, she had hope that her brother would come to Amira’s too, but he’s still in the living room with his laptop and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change.

“Come on, let’s go, we’re late” she tells Joana

The girls leave Cris’ room and go to the front door walking by the living room. Cris decides to give it one last try and stops by the sofa where Dani is.

“Hey Dani, we’re leaving for Amira’s now”

“Okay.” Dani answers, not looking up from his laptop.

Cris doesn’t move, she stands there looking at her brother waiting for a reaction. Dani can feel Cris’ stare and sighing he looks up.

“What do you want?”

“You’re really not coming?”

“Amira doesn’t want me there”

“Has she told you that?” Cris asks being fully aware of the answer for that question.

“She didn’t have to” Dani says like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Cris shakes her head and turns around to leave but, being Cris, she can’t hold back the words from spilling and turns back to her brother to tell him one last thing.

“What are you waiting for? I know you haven’t given up, Dani, I’ve seen the documents in your room” Cris sees how Dani opens his mouth to say something but quickly stops him “Don’t ever bother getting mad because I was in your room, that’s not the point. The point here is that I know you want to be with Amira, I know you haven’t given up yet and I don’t understand what’s stopping you from talking to her. Wake up Dani, before it’s too late”

Not waiting for an answer Cris, with Joana behind her, turns and leaves, this time without looking back.

“Oh my god Amira I’m going to come for dinner to your house every day. Seriously, can your parents adopt me or something?” Dilan says after trying every single dish Amira’s mom has cooked. Him, Hugo and Jorge have been eating nonstop since they arrived. Alejandro is a little bit more shy but that hasn’t stopped him either from trying almost everything.

“Hey, hey, hey, chill dude, if they adopt someone it’s going to be me, I got here first” Cris says approaching the group.

Amira turns around and sees Cris and Joana arriving together. They both greet the girls, the boys and the Labass. Finally they approach Amira. Joana and Amira greet with a fist bump like they always do. Cris on the other hand doesn’t waste a second before she jumps Amira to give her a hug.

“Giiiiiiiiirl, you’re so pretty, oh my god that gold scarf, you look like a goddess.” Cris says kissing Amira’s face everywhere.

Amira laughs and pushes her off herself gently.

“Yeah, yeah, but you’re late” Amira teases her, she’s used to Cris being late by now.

“I’m sorry, but it wasn’t my fault, we were ready but we were waiting for…” Cris stops trying to look for a good explanation that isn’t the truth. She looks at Joana for help.

“We were waiting for…” Joana tries with no success.

“Anyway, we were waiting, that’s it.”

“You have to try this, it’s amazing” Viri says approaching Joana, Cris and Amira and giving the first two girls a plate. Eva, Nora, Dounia, Elena and Noor come with her.

“Hmmm my goodness, this is incredible” Joana says after trying it.

“Amira’s mom is the best cook ever” Cris confirms. Suddenly she notices two people in the other side of the roof and frowns “Lucas and Kasim are here?”

“Yes, we talked and…well it looks like everything is good” Amira explains.

“Ahhh isn’t it nice? Celebrating Eid with all the people you love by your side?” Viri says with one of her brand smiles.

Amira looks around and smiles, it’s true that she feels lucky to see her friends and family together. But, she’d be lying if she said that her happiness is full.

“Well…all the people…not all the people are here, right?” Cris says, she doesn’t mean to put salt on the wound but she’s been quiet for the whole week and it’s about time she does something.

“Cris…” Nora warns her.

“I’m sorry Ami but…it hurts me seeing you both like this” Cris tells Amira whose smile has faded already.

“But Cris, you said it yourself, we were going to overwhelm each other, we were going to fuck up. Well, we did, you were right.” Amira doesn’t understand why Cris is talking about Dani right now, she’s already having a hard time with him not being here when she’s been telling him about Eid for weeks.

“But I wasn’t right, fuck it. I wasn’t right. I was…going through a hard time and I took it all out on you. I was afraid you would hurt each other because fuck, Ami, I love you both very much. I was trying to protect you so you wouldn’t suffer. But you’re still suffering anyway.” Cris makes a pause trying to put her thoughts in order “When you were together you were happy, my brother was always in a good mood, and it was because of you, Ami. And you were the same. And now? Now you’re both so sad all the time. Can you really tell me with full honesty that you’re better now than before?”

The rest of the girls stay quiet, waiting for Amria to say something.

“But it’s a very complicated relationship, Cris”

“Of course it’s fucking complicated, all relationships are. If I had run away at the sight of the first problem with Joana we wouldn’t be together now, and I wouldn’t be as happy as I am now.” Cris looks at her girlfriend and takes her hand smiling, then she looks again at Amira “and we will have more problems, because life is a bitch, but we will face it together, because that’s what you do when you love someone”

Amira doesn’t know what to say, a part of her wants to run to Dani and tell him she wants to be with him but the other part is afraid, afraid of suffering even more than now.

“Look, Amira, I don’t want to pressure you to do something you don’t want to but…I think you do want to be with my brother, and I know he wants to be with you. I don’t know…I think you should try to work on their issue together”

Amira looks at Cris, and Joana, and Nora, and Viri, and Eva, and Noor and Elena. All of them smile at her. Finally she looks at Dounia and, like the rest of the girls, she nods and smiles.

“I…I have to go” Amira says and without thinking about it twice she turns around and leaves.

When she passes by her mother she tries to stop her.

“Amira, where are you going?”

“To fight for what it’s worth it” Amira answers while she runs.

She can’t see it because she’s already left but her mother can’t erase the proud smile from her face.

Dani looks in the mirror one last time, he looks weird but it’s a good weird, he actually likes the way he looks in what he’s wearing. Not wanting to waste anymore time he takes the keys and goes to the door and opens it. He freezes when he sees Amira in the other side of the door, ready to knock on it. Dani can’t stop staring at her, he’s not sure if it’s because he’s surprised to see her after a week of because she looks gorgeous with her gold hijab. Dani sees how Amira looks him up and down smiling and biting her lip. Dani can feel himself blushing, maybe it wasn’t a good idea to dress up like this after all.

“What…what are you doing here?” Dani finally asks.

“Well…I came to invite you to my Eid celebration but…I see you’re already ready for it.” Amira says, referring to the black Panjabi that Dani is wearing. She notices some details on his chest and gently touches them with her fingers. Then she realizes what she’s doing and takes a step back “I’m sorry, I’m sorry it’s just…it’s…golden”

“Yeah I…I bought a couple of weeks ago, when you told me you were wearing a gold hijab for Eid…I don’t know I thought I could surprise you wearing something that matches it. I know it’s silly but…”

“No” Amira interrupts him “It’s not silly. I love it and…you look great”

“And you look beautiful” Dani can’t help saying.

Now Amira is the one that can feel the heat on her cheeks and tries to avoid Dani’s eyes.

“Do you want to come in and…talk?” Dani asks hesitantly.

Amira nods and Dani takes a step to the side so she can enter and go to the living room. He follows her after closing the door.

“Ami I…” Dani starts saying but then he realizes he’s missing something. “Wait a minute”

Not waiting for an answer from Amira, Dani goes to his room and takes the documents he has on his desk. When he returns to the living room he gives them to Amira who takes them and looks at them confused.

“Articles about Islam, passages from the Quran…Dani what’s this?”

“I’ve done some research…to learn and understand everything better…to understand you better. It’s the first thing I should’ve done when we started dating, I’m sorry”

“I didn’t explain anything to you either” Amira admits.

“Teaching me is not your responsibility”

“But it would’ve been easier for you”

“Ami I…” Dani tries to find the right words to express what he’s feeling. “I want to be with you, with everything that comes with it. I know is hard and I know that I have a lot to learn but, I want to try, for real. I know that you think I’m missing out on this to be with you, or that you’re going to overwhelm me or I don’t know, but that’s not true Ami, it really isn’t. I don’t want to be with any other girl, I want to be with you because no one can give me what you give me. And I don’t care if I can’t kiss you because everything else is worth it. Being with you is not an effort, it’s a gift. And I don’t know Ami, I love you” Amira widens her eyes at Dani’s last two words, it’s the first time he’s said it. Dani notices Amira’s reaction but he doesn’t take it back, he decides to say it again “I love you, Ami”

“But, do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Yes, I do now” Dani says pointing at the documents Amira still has in her hands “and I will continue learning. But I need you to trust me, stop thinking that I’ll get bored and leave. I still have a lot to learn and understand but I promise I will. I need you to trust me”

Amira doesn’t say anything at first, she’s trying to process everything. She’s still afraid, that’s for sure, but the part of her that wants to take a leap of faith and be with him is bigger than fear. She’s tired of denying herself happiness to stay in a safer place. She knows it’s going to be hard and that they’ll have to face a lot of things but, like Cris said, together it’ll be easier.

“I trust you” Amira says honestly. Then, even though her legs are shaking not only by admitting it to Dani but also to herself, she adds “And I love you too”

Cris sees them coming and leaves the conversation she was having with Hugo to approach Amira and Dani.

“So?” She asks them once she’s standing in front of them.

Dani and Amira look at each other and smile, then they look at Cris.

“Cris, I’m dating your brother” Amira says

“And I’m dating your best friend” Dani says.

Cris looks at them for a moment and her lips slowly curve up into a smile that gets bigger and bigger.

“Yasssssss!” Cris almost yells, jumping up and down and hugging them both. Once she lets them go she looks at Amira “We’re sisters in law girl, can you believe it?” not giving her time to answer she looks at her brother “And you, don’t you even think she’s going to love you more than she loves me because Amiris is the realest thing ever”

Dani and Amira laugh and shake their heads. They really like Cris’ reaction better this time.

“Anyway, I’m going to look for something to drink, do you guys want anything?” Dani says still laughing

“Yes, I’ll go with you” Amira replies.

After pouring themselves some juice Dani and Amira stand by the table talking, though they’re soon joined by Amira’s parents.

“Dani, how are you? You haven’t been to the house in a while, we haven’t seen you since you declared your love for Amira last time you were home”

Dani, who was taking a sip from his drink, almost chokes at the words.

“Baba!” Amira yells in shock, looking from her dad to her mom who can only smile.

“What? Was it a secret?” Amira’s dad asks confused.

Amira and Dani look at each other and they burst out laughing. Soon they’re joined by Amira’s mother while her father looks at them confused.

Later, Amira takes a walk around the rooftop and looks at the people there. ‘Now’ she thinks ‘all the people that I love are here now’. And she feels like the luckiest girl in the world.

[writingwithcolor]

British Bangladeshi Muslim 21 Year Old

I’m usually a lurker on this blog but, I’ve decided to send in a POC profile - mainly because it’s so rare for me to see someone like me represented in the media. In fact, I’m not certain I’ve ever seen someone Bangladeshi represented in mainstream media 

Beauty Standards 

Colourism is a very big thing still in the Bangladeshi community. My parent’s generation, despite liking to think that they’re very open minded still fall into the trap of the narrow minded view so present in the older generations. I’ve always fallen on the fairer side and as I grew up and developed mild iron deficiency, people would comment on how beautiful my skin was (and some people use the Bengali word for beautiful as being synonymous for fair), whilst my younger sister who is on the darker side but very rarely gets such comments. 

Clothing 

On a day to day basis, I wear casual English clothes or more casual Asian clothing around the house. But, for special occasions where I’m going to be with other Bengali people, I do tend to wear traditional clothing. Essentially, all the women in our house have two wardrobes; one with English clothes and one with Asian clothes. Although, nowadays, the English wardrobe seems to be growing more and more packed. A quick thing - traditional Asian clothes, especially those that are very flashy and embroidered, are heavy and so people don’t tend to wear them that often. 

But - it differs between person to person. My mum wears English clothes around the home but her older sister wears a saree - a plainer saree but a saree none the less. 

Culture 

Culture is an odd one for me because I’ve never felt as if I belonged to either one. Growing up, I didn’t fit into the typical English stereotype because I wasn’t Caucasian and I grew up bilingual. I’d also hear all these bad things about Bangladesh, and the experiences others had around me would mould the opinion I had of a country my family still refer to as their motherland. But, as I’ve grown older and actually started to make opinions for myself, I’ve begun to accept that I can be a part of both, I don’t need to be one or the other. 

Dating and Romance

In my family at least, ‘dating’ is done with the intention to marry. It all remains very chaste - with very little/no physical affection - until after marriage and almost all dates are with chaperones. The only ones that happen without chaperones are those in secret or those happening after the engagement. Nowadays, I feel like love marriages are the norm and most couples meet through being introduced by other people. 

Food

Food is a big part of our culture. In fact, if you’re invited to someone’s house, or if you pop in for five minutes, it’s considered rude to not sit down and have a cup of tea or even to have an entire meal. Food is one of the ways that we show affection for each other and, especially for important days like Eid, food plays a central role. Eating a meal together on a festival day like Eid is one of the few days of the year when all the adults and all the children gather together and spend time together. 

In my home at least, rice and curry is a staple. As Bangladesh is mainly riverine, fish is an important part of the diet. In fact, there’s a saying that if you can’t eat fish, you’re not really Bengali (which makes things a bit awkward for my uncle who is allergic to fish) and in some families there’s a tradition of a new bride cooking a fish curry on the second day of marriage. I’m not sure why, but it’s a thing. 

Home/Family life/ Friendship

I could talk about family for ages … 

My family is on the big side with my Mum being one of eight and my Dad being one of six. I’m one of three, but all of my cousins are considered like siblings - because we were raised as siblings. The familial bond is an important one and it’s often one that’s a burden to bear. For instance, as I’m the oldest granddaughter/niece/cousin I’m called affa by every cousin younger than me (Affa meaning older sister) and this burden is quite a heavy one to bear. It means that when the cousins experience any issues, they run to you to sort it out whether it’s something small or something big and it’s a burden I don’t mind shouldering. After all, it’s one I’ll likely have to carry for the rest of my life. 

Everyone older than you is treated with respect - even if you don’t want to respect them at all. For some reason, it’s an important thing.

Friendship between Bengali girls is … something else. Often we’ll break off and have our own conversation in Bengali as if it’s some sort of secret code and this usually comes in extremely handy when discussing secret birthday party plans in front of the person whose birthday we’re planning. Personally, my parents have never been strict that I can’t have any male friends - I honestly don’t think they care but I know of other parents who insist that their daughters can’t have male friends. 

Language 

To me particularly, the language was an important thing. I grew up bilingual because my grandparents lived with us and they couldn’t communicate in English. But, I don’t remember ever making the effort to learn it - it was something I picked up. I certainly can’t read or write in Bengali but I can speak it. However, this ability doesn’t seem to have transferred to my sister and most of the younger cousins. Most of my younger cousins can’t speak Bengali and so struggle to communicate with our grandparents and it’s sad to say but this isn’t strange at all. Many of the new generation British Bangladeshi’s can’t speak the language and in fact, they don’t care to learn it because they don’t see it as being worth passing along. 

Religion

As a Muslim woman, I find myself being constantly policed. Whether it’s by the media or by those around me. There seems to be a misconception that if a woman wears a hijab (the head covering) then she is the epitome of all things chaste and virtuous - but that’s not always the case. There are so many hijabis I know that don’t pray five times a day or keep their fasts or they drink etc. In fact, I’ve met a lot of muslim women who don’t wear hijab but their niyyah (intention) and their behaviour is inline with religion - my sister being an example. 

The basic 5 pillars of islam, the first of which is the shahadah which is the declaration of faith. This is whispered by father’s into their children’s ears at birth and is the last thing whispered into someone’s ear as they pass away.

The daily prayers are the second - with 5 prayers throughout the day and this is something I know many people struggle with, but I personally think that faith is a personal thing - you alone know your struggles. If you are praying 5 times a day and you are ridiculing someone who only prays once, you may think you’re doing the right thing. But for all you know - that person who prays once a day may be someone who reverted to the faith (revert being what we call converts) and they may be on the road to accepting Islam. Your two minutes of ridicule may even turn someone else away from peace they were hoping to find in Islam.

Zakat is the third which refers to giving alms to the poor and this is often done in the month of Ramadan. 

Fasting in Ramadan is the fourth pillar and during this month, Muslims fast from sun rise to sunset and we’re not allowed to drink or eat anything. (And yes - this includes water. Not even water? Is a question we always get)

The final pillar, the fifth refers to Hajj which is the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca. Everyone who is able to afford the trip and can make it, should complete it at least once in their lives. All my family who have been, have said that it is the most peaceful time they’ve ever spent in their lives. 

Things I’d like to see less of…

Muslim girls being ‘repressed’ by wearing the hijab and having a curfew and being secretly rebellious once they leave the home.

 Yes, I have a curfew but mostly it’s because my parent’s are terrified after hearing of all the stabbings and the acid attacks that happen to hijab wearing Muslim women

The overly strict father figure who is unreasonable and adores sons over his daughters. 

My father was on the strict side yes, but I realise now, after growing up and talking to him that it was all shaped on his own experiences. Yes, he might not have let me play in the streets until late like other kids but it was because when he was young, if he stayed out too late the racist teens would approach the Bengali children and attack them. My father was strict, but in the way that other parents in his position will be. (If anything, my mother is stricter … and the worst thing she does is text me a list of chores that she wants me to do whilst she’s at work)

That brings me onto the next point; the mother who stays at home being uneducated and relying on her husband for everything. 

There’s nothing wrong with that - but the issue comes when this character is used to put down Bengali women, to try and show how much better Caucasian educated women are. 

Another thing I absolutely can’t stand is the idea of a Bengali girl falling for some plain, boring Caucasian boy and he removes the wool from over her eyes, teaching her how repressed she was and how she should embrace this Western lifestyle. When a boy tried that on me in my first year of uni, I walked away from him the moment he told me that he has a hijab kink because Muslim girls are and I quote ‘untouched and I can teach them everything’.

Things I’d like to see more of…

Supportive family units. 

Whilst I might fall out with my parents every now and then, as is natural, they still support me. My father and I often head out for little ice cream cafe dates and my mother is teaching me to cook (although her cooking style tends to be put enough of this in and enough of that - there’s no measurements of anything) and my siblings and cousins and I gather as a whole every weekend. Those of us that live close enough to anyway. The 20+ of us that do gather, take over a house and all between the ages of 21 and 5 tend to be unruly and can go crazy but it’s a dynamic no one seems to want to represent.

The educated hijabi. 

Goodness, I can’t stand seeing the trope of a girl wanting to marry and pop out babies and etc - yes, it’s a valid trope but again, so many people use it to show how backwards we are. My eyes are even rolling now - Bengali Muslim girls are amongst some of the most driven people I have met and this is usually because the older women in our families weren’t given these opportunities and most people instantly assume that we’re not going to get far. 

Casual mentions of Islam - religion is a big part of a character. 

But I hate it being a controversial thing especially since Islam literally translates to ‘peace gained through submission to Allah’ and newsflash, Allah is the arabic word for God. That’s it. Why can’t we have characters who have to be home before sunset because they need to pray? Or hijabis needing to go shopping for a new headscarf or even phrases like 'this top would be so cute if it weren’t see through’ or 'if only this dress was floor length and then I wouldn’t have to wear leggings with it. I hate having to wear leggings in the heat’. These are things I regularly say! 

Wooow, this is long and I kind of ended up rambling. But I hope it helps someone! 

Read more POC Profiles here or submit your own.

[cakesunflower]

Serendipity [C.H. One Shot]

Summary: Peyton and Calum weren’t the closest of friends—or even friends in the first place—which makes the fact that their parents are best friends all the more irritating. And their constant desire of wanting their children to date unbearable. When their families take a trip together to Paris, Calum comes up with the ingenious plan of acting out a fake relationship to get their parents off their backs. Falling for one another was inevitable, wasn’t it?

A/N: this is a grand total of 17,629 words of god knows what. took me a hot minute but it’s finally done!!! happy reading!!!!!!!

Serendipity—Finding something good while looking for something else.

“Say hi to Calum for me!”

Peyton rolled her eyes at her mother’s words, not bothering to turn around as she lifted her hand in a half hearted wave before stepping out of the house. She ignored her twenty-one year old sister Edie’s snickering, or the giggles of Edie’s girlfriend Diana as the three of them left the house and walked up to the Uber waiting for them.

As they settled in, Diana leaned forward to look at Peyton from the other side of Edie, the amused expression present on her face as she asked, “Do you think your mom will ever accept the fact that you and Calum, like, hate each other?”

A scoff escaped Peyton, eyes on her phone as she scrolled through Instagram after texting Luke that they were on their way. “At this point I’m pretty sure she likes to remain purposefully oblivious.”

Edie snorted. “Ignorance is bliss.”

Peyton gave an amused shake of her head, locking her phone before leaning back and staring out the window. It was almost ten o’clock, the sun long since having set and lights from street lamps and buildings brightening their surroundings as the Uber took them to the bar. It was their friend Luke’s birthday and instead of having a big celebration, he wanted to just get together at his favorite bar, which Peyton was up for. She’s known him for about seven years, met when they were sixteen in high school, and still remain close after graduation and going to different universities. They had many mutual friends, but there was that one guy that Peyton felt like she could’ve gone her entire life without knowing.

Maybe it was just her being petty for all these years, but a bad first impression was enough for Peyton to groan at the mere mention of Calum Hood’s name. The first time they had met was at her high school graduation party that her parents threw, inviting her family and entire graduating class. Prior to graduation, they’d met Calum’s parents through a mutual friend and had immediately hit it off, inviting them and their son who went to a school on the other side of their large town to Peyton’s party as well, where within ten minutes of his arrival, Calum had managed to spill a drink down her dusty pink dress and then instead of apologizing, told her to watch where she was going when he had been the one to bump into her.

It was a cliche scene of a first meeting gone wrong, and it was definitely something that could’ve resolved itself quite easily, had it not been for Calum’s stubborn nature for refusing to apologize and Peyton’s pettiness of not wanting to let it go. His parents had forced him to apologize at the time and when he did, it seemed as though Peyton was the only one who could tell how insincere he sounded, their parents’ fondness for one another making them deaf to the sarcasm in Calum’s tone.

Ever since then, Peyton and Calum had never been on the same page.

To make things worse? Their parents thought they’d make the cutest couple. So for five years, that’s the one consistent kick they’ve been on. The only thing Peyton and Calum could agree on was how stupid and horrible that idea was because, really, what could possibly give them that idea?

Arriving at the bar, the colored lights and loud music were welcoming as the three girls immediately made their way towards the bar, ordering themselves drinks before spotting the group of people they were to meet. Luke and everyone else were settled on the couch towards the back, the table in front of them already home to many beer bottles and glasses.

Luke sat on the end of the L shaped couch, his profile to Peyton, and his obliviousness to her arrival was used to Peyton’s advantage as she quickly walked up behind him before wrapping her arms around his neck and exclaiming, “Happy birthday, Lu!”

The blonde’s hands went up to grasp Peyton’s arms briefly before letting out a laugh, glancing up at her as she moved to stand to his side, an arm still draped around his shoulder. “Thanks, P,” he returned, his arm going around her waist for a side hug. He then looked at Eide and Diana, greeting and thanking them as they chorused their wishes too.

Room was made and chairs were pulled up, with Edie and Diana settling on the couch and Peyton sitting on a chair opposite of the couch as she made conversation with Ashton. For the first few minutes, Peyton enjoyed herself with a drink in her hand and friends around her, until the empty chair to her right suddenly became occupied and not all the margaritas in the world were enough to let her deal with the likes of Calum Hood.

Peyton’s shoulders tensed as he sat down, leaning away from him as he settled with his back against the chair and legs spread, a glass already in hand. She could see him glance at her through her peripheral as Calum hummed over the music, “Ready to spend a week in Paris with me?”

Her jaw set at the reminder, grip on her glass tightening. Her parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary was coming up and had planned a trip to Paris to renew their vows. Only, they weren’t going by themselves—it would be Peyton, her grandparents, Edie, Diana, Calum, his sister and his parents as well. Her parents wanted those they were closest to there, which was all of them, since neither of Peyton’s parents had siblings. Of course, Peyton had been beyond thrilled over the idea of going to Paris—which soon became deflated when she realized she’d be in the company of Calum fucking Hood.

Huffing, Peyton didn’t even look towards Calum, right leg crossed over her left knee as she responded, “Totally. Can’t wait to go on top of the Eiffel Tower.”

She heard Calum snort, tone completely unimpressed as he retorted, “Why, so you can push me off it?” When Peyton pursed her lips, Calum added with a mockingly disappointed sigh, “Always so immature with your words. Are you sure you’re a literature major?”

Her jaw began to ache from how tightly she was clenching it, finally turning to throw a glare at Calum. But he was utterly relaxed, as usual, sipping his drink with his gaze straight ahead as the purple and blue colors of the club splashed against his skin. Instead of admiring the sharpness of his strong jaw and the sweep of his lashes like Peyton’s betraying mind wanted her to, she merely shook her head, deeming it useless, before looking away and sipping her own drink.

She was positive she’d be able to bite his head off more than enough during their week long visit of France.

Peyton ignored Calum from then on, which was perfectly fine as he was doing the same, keeping himself entertained by chatting with his friends while Peyton chatted with the others. It was the mention of her name that dragged Peyton back to the right side of the table, hearing Edie bring her up with a teasing tone. “Oh, Cal—Mom says hi.” And then she added, “Well, she told Peyton to tell you she says hi, but that wasn’t going to happen.”

Peyton glanced over, unfazed. “I’m not a messenger.” She scoffed, bringing the straw to her mouth as she added flatly, “Mom’s always saying hi to Calum.”

Calum smirked, easily picking up on Peyton’s annoyance she thought she’d hid. He wasn’t going to tell her that his mother would’ve told him to give her regards to Peyton had he seen her before leaving for the bar. “Don’t be jealous that I’m the favorite kid.”

Edie snorted, not at all insulted as Peyton shot him an unimpressed glare. “Oh, yeah, I’m burning with jealousy,” she retorted, sarcasm heavy in her voice before finishing her margarita.

Sighing, Edie mused, “You two are gonna be so fun to be around in Paris.”

Ashton snickered at their expense. “How much you wanna bet your parents picked the City of Love in hopes of you two getting together?”

He was only joking, but both Peyton and Calum paled, expressions dropping as their friends sprung into racacious laughter, well aware of their parents trying to get their kids together for years. Peyton shuddered, because even though it may be a joke, the fact that she wouldn’t put it past her parents to do something like that made her throat dry. “I need another drink.”

She left behind everyone’s laughter as she made her way to the bar, letting out a breath. Honestly, Peyton was well aware her parents, maybe even Calum’s, would be relentless about the two of them—they have been for years—especially in a place like Paris. It was ridiculous, how much her and Calum’s parents yearned for their kids to get together, almost weird in a sense. They were well aware that the two weren’t friendly with one another, but every time they got in a spat, they would be told they argued like a married couple.

Like. . . What?

Folding her arms on top of the bar, Peyton leaned against it as the bartender made her drink, lost in her thoughts. Honestly, she was thrilled to be going to Paris—who wouldn’t be?—even if it meant having to see Calum every day. Maybe she could sneak off and do her own thing, and the thought was uplifting until the annoying voice in the back of her head reminded her that her parents would want her to spend time with her sister and definitely with Calum.

Peyton sighed, settling on the empty stool and resting her chin on her palms, waiting for her drink as her shoulders sank. One would think dealing with the same shit for years would have Peyton get used to it by now, or just be able to ignore it altogether. And for the most part, she did, since she went to graduate school out of state and didn’t have to deal with her parents’ meddling face-to-face. It just got exhausting, especially when she and Calum managed to get on each other’s nerves within five minutes of being in each other’s presence. Peyton truly wondered if their parents were genuinely oblivious to the lack of friendship between them or just ignored it in hopes of keeping their ridiculous fantasy in mind.

“Hey, sweetheart—can I buy you a drink?”

Eyebrows furrowing, Peyton turned her head to the left to see a man, definitely older than her and tipsy, leaning against the bar facing her with a smile on his face he probably considered charming. Not at all in the mood, Peyton parted her lips to tell the guy she wasn’t interested when another body appeared behind her, warm and domineering without even looking. But the familiar forest-reminiscent scent had Peyton’s back straightening, especially when the person spoke up.

“She’s with me, mate. And not interested.”

Pursing her lips, Peyton watched as the guy’s eyes flickered towards Calum before his expression dropped and he pushed himself from the bar, walking away without another word. Rolling her eyes, Peyton looked ahead in time to see the bartender place her drink in front of her, thanking and paying her before taking the straw between her fingers. Peyton didn’t bother glancing Calum’s way as he replaced the spot the guy had been in, flatly saying, “Could’ve handled that on my own.”

The glass clattered against the wooden bartop as Calum placed his there. “Don’t care,” he returned in a tone that only proved his words. Rolling her eyes, Peyton sipped her margarita as Calum faced her, feeling the tequila run down her throat as she looked at Calum bemusedly. He was leaning against the bar on his left elbow, fingers from his right hand tracing the rim of his glass, gaze on his actions as he said, “I’ve got an idea.”

Peyton scoffed, her unimpressed expression returning to her face, a look she often wore towards Calum. “Tell it to someone who cares,” came her instinctive response. She moved to get up from the seat, sarcasm evident in her tone. “I’m sure it’s riveting.”

She’d barely gotten off her seat when Calum’s voice, irritated and edgy, sounded over the music playing. “Shut up and listen, will you? It won’t kill you.”

It just might. Peyton’s jaw clenched tightly, annoyance sparking through her veins as her eyes narrowed into a glare. One would assume the way Calum was looking at her was uncaring and indifferent, but Peyton had known him long enough to detect the impatience in his dark eyes and the way his jaw was set. She wasn’t at all fond of the way he spoke to her, the scowl on her face saying just so, and Calum rolled his eyes and released a heavy breath through his nose before relaxing himself and gesturing to the stool she’d been occupying.

This time Peyton exhaled sharply, begrudgingly settling back onto her stool as she pressed her lips together. Peyton wasn’t sure why she even listened, not one to extend any type of conversation with Calum, but there was a look in his eyes that made her stay.

“What?” she questioned, eyebrows raising to emphasize the bored tone she spoke with.

Calum remained leaning against the bar, and Peyton watched, sipping her drink, as Calum tilted his head innocently with a smirk that said otherwise when he easily, effortlessly, stated, “Be my girlfriend.”

It didn’t help that her drink was sharp enough as it is, but Calum’s words had Peyton immediately choking on the beverage as she haphazardly placed the glass back on the bar and coughed into the back of her hand. There was a mild sense of panic over the thought of choking, but Peyton felt a hand rub at her back to help her through the sudden coughing fit as she took a deep breath. No one really looked her way, too consumed by having a good time or her coughs drowned out by the music, which she was grateful for.

Be his what? Peyton was positive that she had most definitely misheard Calum; thought maybe she drank too much and she was hearing things or that the loud music misconstrued what he said. But there was a heavy, unsettling feeling in her sinking stomach that she had heard exactly what she thought she did.

Disbelief hung Peyton’s jaw as she straightened on the stool, hands flat on the bartop as she looked up at Calum with a wide eyed look that painted the perfect picture of her incredulity. His hand was rubbing her back to soothe her out of her coughing fit, and she ignored how warm, near electrifying, his touch had been as he pulled his hand away. All Peyton could focus on was the fact that Calum looked completely serious, as opposed to Peyton’s utter shock. The fact that he looked so at ease, as if he hadn’t just said the most ridiculous thing ever.

“Did you drink too much?” Peyton demanded breathlessly, leaning away from Calum as she stared up at the tattooed man. She was definitely struggling wrapping her mind around what Calum said, hoping he had some good explanation for it. “What the fuck, Calum?”

He rolled his eyes, finding Peyton too dramatic although he didn’t entirely blame her for her reaction. It was kind of amusing, honest. “Hear me out, will you?” Calum’s smooth voice said, finishing off the rest of his drink and Peyton pursed her lips as she smoothed down her blouse, averting her gaze from the sight of his working throat, which he cleared once he put the glass down. “Our parents have been up our ass for years ’bout gettin’ together, yeah?” Peyton only scoffed in answer. “If we pretend to be together, just for a little bit to make it through this Paris trip, maybe they’ll leave us alone.”

Peyton gaped at him, lips parting and eyes narrowed dubiously, unsure if he was serious or not. The fact that Calum’s expression was totally void of amusement or teasing had her bristling. “How does that remotely sound like an idea that would work?” she exclaimed questioningly, holding back her confused laughter. “If—if anything, they’d be even further up our asses.”

“Not necessarily,” Calum said, moving to sit on the stool his legs were bumping into, facing Peyton. When she shot him a disbelieving look, Calum let out a breath. “Look—they already try to talk us into goin’ on a date. A few days before we leave for Paris, we’ll pretend that we did, make up some shit story about it and make ‘em believe their years of pushing is finally paying off. We pretend in Paris, make it seem like we’re together, and then once it’s over we come up with some reason to break up and they’d have no choice but to respect that decision. They wanted us to date, we tried, it didn’t work out—the end.”

His words were followed by an old Drake song playing throughout the bar, and Peyton wondered if Calum genuinely believed this plan of his was fool proof or something. Her eyebrows were drawn together over scrutinizing eyes and Peyton felt as though she needed another drink after hearing Calum’s idea. It was so stupid and it would never work. Peyton was sure they would be even more relentless than they’ve been for the past few years, probably would be over the moon that their dreams were coming true or some shit. She just couldn’t see how this would work in the way Calum thought it would.

She let out a scoff, shaking her head at him. “So instead of having them hound us for getting together, you want to give them ammunition to talk about our relationship?” Peyton used her fingers to create air quotes around the last word, shooting him a bemused look. “That’s fucking dumb, Calum. They’d be even more annoying than they are now.”

Also—did Calum not understand what his plan would entail? If the two of them had to pretend to be dating, wouldn’t they have to hold hands or something in front of their parents to sell it? Physical contact between Peyton and Calum was extremely scarce and rare—she highly doubted they’d be able to hold hands without feeling extremely awkward about it. It wouldn’t seem natural. Was Calum forgetting that?

“Maybe,” Calum shrugged nonchalantly in response to Peyton’s words, not at all looking offended as she insulted his plan. “But there’s also a good chance they won’t be as bad. Think about it—” He paused, elbow resting on the bar top while his right hand gripped his knee, his brown eyes locked with Peyton’s own. “—All these years, they’ve only ever talked about how they think we’d be good together. Once they see that we are, sure, they’ll make comments about how happy they are and try to get us to talk about the relationship, but my folks know me. They know I don’t like to talk ’bout ‘em too much, and if I tell them you and I are just seeing how things go and want to keep it to ourselves, they’ll respect that.” Calum sighed at Peyton’s still dubious expression. “’M not sayin’ the comments will completely stop, but they’ll definitely ease up. Once we’re back from the trip, we wait a little bit and then break up.” He grinned, holding his hands out in a ta-da motion. “Their dreams will be shattered and we’ll be left alone.”

Peyton snorted, looking away from him as she shook her head. “You’re terrible,” she easily said. But even she had to admit, in some freaky, roundabout and absurd way, Calum’s plan had some kind of logic in it. They’d be fucking with their parents to get them to lay off, which Peyton still wasn’t entirely convinced would work, but it may be worth a shot. Only—that meant having to pretend to be Calum’s girlfriend, and Peyton wasn’t sure that was something she could pull off for even five minutes, much less a week.

Years of unfriendly hostility and heated glares were to be put on a shelf for the sake of fooling their parents.

It would only last a week or so, and while there was a good chance this ludicrous plan of Calum’s wasn’t even going to work, the thought of potentially being free of her parents’ endless pleading over her nonexistent love life with Calum was too enticing.

Maybe that’s why she said yes. Maybe that’s why she ignored the small, rational voice in her brain telling her this could definitely blow up in their faces.

*****

  When an arm draped over Peyton’s shoulder, she tensed as the familiar earthy scent engulfed her and instinctively, she moved to pull away. But the grip tightened, keeping her in place as Calum’s voice murmured, “Stay put, doll.”

Peyton pursed her lips, keeping her expression neutral as she lifted her chin and kept her eyes on the baggage claim in front of her. “Don’t call me that,” she grumbled under her breath.

Calum smirked, unfazed as he kept her close. “What’s wrong? Eleven hour flight got you cranky?”

She was quite well rested, actually, slept through a majority of it and was wide awake now, which was good since it was early in the afternoon in Paris. Her agitation came from Calum standing so close to her, arm around her and keeping her tucked into his side. It wasn’t the first time he’d touched her, but it wasn’t something Peyton was used to just yet. When they planned their first date, they had no intention of actually going on. Just put on a show of Calum showing up at Peyton’s parents’ house to pick her up, saying hi to her overjoyed parents before taking Peyton’s hand in his and leading her to the car, well aware of her parents’ gazes. When he had first grasped her hand, Peyton was about to pull it away when she remembered it was just pretend.

Their so called date included Calum and Peyton ending up in Ashton’s apartment to hang out with him and the boys. They had some explaining to do to the boys when they showed up together, a sight completely out of the ordinary, and the boys only guffawed at their ridiculous plan. But they were well aware of the two’s parents’ antics, so they didn’t entirely blame Calum and Peyton for their near desperate plan.

That was five days before they left for Paris, and since then Peyton’s parents, her mom in particular, were quite excited that she and Calum were finally trying to look at things from their perspective.

Peyton wasn’t sure if she was annoyed or relieved that Calum’s plan seemed to be working. After she’d faked shyness and told her parents they were just trying to figure things out and wanted to take things slow, they’d understandably backed off. Just like Calum had predicted.

Damn. If only they’d tried this years ago.

Peyton nearly cringed. Did she really just consider that?

She tilted her head to look up at Calum, his height always towering as his arm remained around her shoulders. An exaggeratedly sweet smile upturned her lips as she hummed, “You’re irritating.”

His smirk only widened, other hand lifting until the tip of his finger tapped the tip of Peyton’s nose as he mused back in an annoying voice one would speak to little kids with, “So are you.”

Peyton rolled her eyes, conveniently catching sight of her silver suitcase making its way over. Jutting her chin towards it, she drawled, “Why don’t you be a good boyfriend and get my suitcase, hmm? Wouldn’t want our folks to think you’re anything less than gentleman, would we?”

This time Calum rolled his eyes with a scoff, dropping his arm from around Peyton. He wasn’t one to do what Peyton told him to, but he didn’t bother arguing as he stepped up to the conveyor belt and waited a few seconds for the suitcase to come over. Peyton watched as Calum’s right hand gripped the handle on top, effortlessly lifting up a suitcase Peyton had trouble getting down the stairs as she clenched her teeth at the sight of his back muscles rippling through the soft material of his red tee.

He may be a dick, but even a blind man could agree he was a sight to be seen.

Peyton averted her gaze quickly, putting her attention on her phone as Calum turned and rolled her suitcase over, a tight lipped smile on his face. She scoffed once he was in front of her, her gaze flickering to where her and his parents stood, still waiting for a few suitcases. Meeting Calum’s eyes once more, Peyton said quietly, “If you keep that constipated smile on your face every time we’re together, we’re never gonna sell this. You’re a shit actor.”

Jeez—even she was better than him at this faking thing, and this whole plan had been his brilliant idea! If he couldn’t pretend, then what was the damn point?

There was a spark in his dark eyes which narrowed immediately at Peyton’s words, coming to stand in front of her in all of his towering height. He smirked down at her, wolfish and challenging that almost made Peyton bristle. “Oh, I’m gonna have fun makin’ you regret sayin’ that,” Calum mused, voice a smooth husky tone that Peyton disturbingly realized had goosebumps raising on her skin as well as her eyes widening under drawn together eyebrows.

What the fuck did that mean?

He casually wandered away from her after that, and Peyton took in a deep breath before exhaling slowly. One way or another, she had a feeling she was in for it.

Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long for the rest of the suitcases and eventually they were all piling into a few different taxis to take them to the hotel. Peyton excitedly entered her room, which was a single suite that she got all to herself, connected to Edie and Diana’s room. Since it was early in the afternoon, the plan was to unwind for an hour or so before freshening up and heading out to lunch with everyone, and Peyton was more than ready to dress in a cute outfit and explore Paris as soon as possible.

Knowing she most likely had to do so with Calum was a thought she was pushing away for now. No need to spoil her mood already.

An hour or so later, Peyton had showered and put on a pretty yellow floral dress, the weather outside permitting such an outfit as she did her makeup and slipped on her shoes, right before getting a text from her mother that they were all meeting in the lobby.

Grabbing her purse, Peyton opened the door of her hotel room, stepping out in time to see the door right across the hall opened and out stepped Calum. The both of them paused at the sight of the other, unaware of how close their rooms were, and Peyton noticed in mild frustration as an amused smirk tilted at Calum’s lips, regarding her coolly as the door behind her shut. Of course her parents booked their rooms right across from each other. She was surprised they hadn’t gotten them connecting rooms.

Peyton would’ve been pissed.

She felt Calum’s eyes trail over her, making her eyebrows twitch into a frown as she gripped the strap of her purse self consciously, eyeing him suspiciously as his dark eyes raked over her. It was unnerving that his stare didn’t feel invasive or creepy, having known him too long for it to be so. But what really got Peyton was the goosebumps she felt rise on her skin under Calum’s look, hyper aware of his knack of taking in every detail and stupidly conscious that he’d point out something that would definitely insult or embarrass her.

“Don’t you look pretty.”

His unexpected words had Peyton staring at him in a mix of dumbfoundment and surprise, maybe even a bit of suspicion because why was he complimenting her? She wasn’t entirely sure if she could pick up on any sincerity in his tone, unsure if he actually meant it or he was just saying it to be an ass, because that’s what her relationship with Calum was like.

So Peyton scoffed, stepping away from the door and beginning to walk down the carpeted hall towards the elevators. “No one is around us—you don’t have to pretend,” she responded with a roll of her eyes.

She heard Calum’s deep chuckle from behind her until he was right next to her a moment later, his legs allowing him to catch up with her in two short strides. “Just practicing,” he hummed as Peyton pressed the button for the elevator. “Apparently I’m a shit actor so I figured practice makes perfect, right?”

Peyton couldn’t roll her eyes harder if she tried, shooting Calum a bemused look as he stood next to her, tall and silently attractive in a fitted pale yellow tee and dark jeans. And it wasn’t until they stepped into the elevator that she finally noticed the color of his shirt, letting out a huff as she grumbled, “You couldn’t have picked a different color?”

Glancing down at himself, Calum scoffed as he picked up on the similar colors of their outfits, before shrugging uncaringly as the elevator moved. “We’re just meant to be, aren’t we?” Calum drawled, the sarcasm dripping heavily from his voice as he pulled out his phone and busied himself with it.

Peyton made a disgusted face at his words, face scrunching up at the abhorrent thought. The elevator then stopped two floors below the one they were on, the doors sliding open to allow a man to step in. Peyton’s gaze involuntarily flickered to the man, sporting a dark beard and appearing quite a few years older than her in age, probably mid-thirties, which is why a prickle of discomfort irritated her skin when she caught the way his dark blue eyes trailed over her figure.

It was startling how uneasy his gaze made her feel as opposed to Calum.

Like he was undressing her with his eyes. Peyton pressed her lips together as the man stepped into the elevator, her dropping when she saw the way his lips curled appreciatively before moving to stand with his back to her, getting just a bit too into her personal space as the doors shut. Swallowing slightly, Peyton shifted on her feet, moving a small step back and to her right, accidentally bumping into Calum.

She heard him click his tongue irritatingly, catching the brief annoyed look he shot her before returning his attention to his phone, but Peyton didn’t care in the moment. To be honest, she’d rather be pressed up against Calum than be anywhere near the creepy man who couldn’t keep his wandering gaze to himself.

When the elevator doors slid open and the guy walked out, Peyton let out a quiet breath, missing the raise of Calum’s eyebrows as they stepped out and walked towards where their families were. The lobby wasn’t too busy, and Peyton’s mom caught sight of her right away, a grin taking over her face as she and Calum approached the group.

“Aw, look at you two and your matching outfits,” she cooed, like one would to a baby, as Calum’s mom also joined in on the fond smiles.

Peyton bit her tongue, knowing this was coming as she forced a smile to her lips, ignoring the amused look her sister was sending her. Edie found this whole pretend dating thing way too funny, and Peyton would do, had it not been her as a part of it. “You know what they say, Mrs. D.” Peyton nearly toppled over the sudden weight of Calum’s arm around her shoulders, still not used to it as he tugged her into his side and now all she could smell was his cologne, forcing herself to relax in his hold. “Couple that matches together, stays together.”

Oh, my God. Peyton wanted to face-palm at Calum’s ridiculous words, sharing an exasperatedly unimpressed look with Mali—who was also quite aware of their plan. Practically everyone was, save for the people they were trying to fool.

Apparently Calum’s answer was enough for their parents, complimenting them before beginning to walk out of the hotel to head to whatever restaurant they’d decided on. Walking at the back of the group, Peyton let out an incredulous breath as she tilted her head to look up at Calum. “Are you serious?” she asked, voice quiet enough for their parents not to hear as she gazed up at him. She had a nice view of his stubbly and sharp jaw, but Peyton wasn’t going to focus on that as Calum raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s not even funny how corny that was—it was just sad.”

“Quit complainin’,” Calum rolled his eyes, his arm still a weight on her shoulders as they walked down the sidewalk. Their hotel was in a busy, touristy part of Paris, most of the main attractions within walking distance, including restaurants, which is why they all decided to go on foot. Peyton preferred it, allowing her to enjoy the Parisian scenery. Calum jutted his chin towards their folks, his right hand reaching for the sunglasses hanging on the neckline of his tee before placing them over his eyes. “Satisfied them, didn’t it?”

Peyton pursed her lips and inhaled deeply through her nose, gaze flickering to the sky with a shake of her head as they continued walking. They were at the back of the group—she didn’t understand why he still needed to have his arm around her shoulders. But arguing with Calum, while it could be fun at times, often proved to be exhausting and achieved nothing more often than not. It’s not like his touch disgusted her or anything—she just wasn’t used to it. Five years of knowing him and touches between them were nonexistent. So the feel of his warm arm around her bare shoulders, thanks to the spaghetti straps of her dress, was something to get used to.

She vehemently ignored the small, surprising voice in the back of her mind whispering how she liked it. Maybe she was delusional.

Instead of thinking about the situation she was in, Peyton let herself enjoy the sights they were walking by. She found herself mesmerized by some of the buildings, walking along the cobblestone pathway as the sun peeked out every now and then, passing by many cute cafes and boutiques. There was also lots of greenery in front of the stores, potted plants bright and colorful with some flowers in as well. She’d only been walking on the Paris streets for a few moments but Peyton was already in love. The sights they passed were enough to distract Peyton from the man whose side she was tucked into.

Eventually, they found a restaurant that had a fixed menu of salad, steak and fries, and since no one was a vegetarian or anything, they headed inside. It wasn’t until Calum settled on the chair to her right did Peyton realize the extent of their fake dating. For as long as they were here, she would have to sit with Calum, hold hands with him, make it seem like they were an actual couple. She’d understood that, to a degree, when they’d gone on their fake date at Ashton’s house, where they actually did take some time to discuss any details of their plan—which there weren’t that many of. They just agreed what they’d tell their parents about the so-called date like where they went and what they did, sell them on the fact that they actually had a good time and were genuinely interested in pursuing a relationship.

For years, the only time Peyton and Calum saw each other was when they were both home from school and their friends were hanging out or if their parents wanted their families to get together. And while they weren’t particularly fond of being around one another, it was somewhat tolerable. Even though Peyton had told Calum he was a shit actor in this whole pretending scheme they had going on, she was now wondering if it was her who’d be unable to keep this up. But really—would either of them be able to keep it going, even if it was just for a week?

Her legs were crossed under the table, right leg over her left knee, but her right foot was bouncing mid-air with nerves as her thoughts ran through her mind. And suddenly, despite being in a restaurant, all Peyton seemed to be able to smell was Calum and the cologne he wore, sitting right next to her and his presence was suddenly dominating her senses. Her heart seemed to be picking up its pace as well, and Peyton wondered what’s suddenly gotten her so on edge. It was just pretend. Surely she was capable of acting like she and Calum were a couple for a week or so, right?

There was a hand on her right thigh, fingers lightly digging into her skin as the soft material of her dress did nothing to allow the warmth from the hand to dig into her body. Peyton’s foot froze, as did her entire body, as she tried to keep her expression neutral while dropping her gaze to her lap, where Calum’s tattooed, ring clad hand was resting on her. Her heart thudded, completely astonished that he was touching her, yet. . . Not disturbed or disgruntled. Just utterly surprised.

Everyone was chattering amongst themselves, and Peyton took a breath as she ignored the heat she felt from Calum’s hand, leaning towards him ever so slightly and turning her head to face him. Automatically, while listening to the conversation his dad was having with Peyton’s grandfather across the table, Calum leaned towards Peyton.

“What are you doing?” she hissed, raising her eyebrows in alarmed question.

Calum turned his own head to face her, their faces inches apart yet neither of them paid that any attention as his dark eyes locked with hers. There was mischievous mirth dancing in his brown irises, looking like he was enjoying this way too much. “What, I can’t touch my girl?” he responded just as quietly, though the innocence in his voice was loud and clear.

Peyton pursed her lips, picking up on the way Calum’s gaze flickered to her mouth for a split second. Her heart jumped. “I’m not your girl.”

Looking back at her, an arrogant smirk curled at Calum’s lips, the kind that Peyton knew weakened all of the girls’ knees, the kind that was drying her throat without her consent. He leaned closer, his nose barely brushing hers, and Peyton suddenly felt as though her head was spinning because he was so close, face flushing warm. “In Paris, you are,” he smoothly replied, giving her thigh a small squeeze, smirk widening when he saw the way Peyton’s throat worked to swallow the gasp that nearly escaped and the pinkness in her freckled face. He was having too much fun. He ticked his head to the table. “Drink your wine, sweetheart.”

Peyton gaped at him, watching with slightly parted lips as he returned to listening to the other conversation as if nothing had happened, as if his hand wasn’t on her thigh and burning her skin. As if he wasn’t in the midst of giving Peyton some kind of fucking crisis.

She didn’t like doing what Calum said, but she still reached for her glass of wine. God knows how much of it she’d need to make it through this ridiculous plan.

Not like anyone could see under the fucking table anyway.

*****  

Unsurprisingly, summer nights in Paris were a bit busier than the mornings, which Calum noticed as everyone, save for Peyton’s grandparents, walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was their second night in Paris, and somehow they’d forgone visiting the prominent landmark their first night, spending most of their time merely walking around and shopping, as well as getting sweets to eat at practically every bakery they passed by.

There were loads of people out and about, walking under the clear sky and lamps as street vendors tried to sell small knick knacks they had spread out on the ground. When they got to the tower, Calum noticed the other side had a line for people to go to the top, since it was barely ten at night and going to the top was still open. He wasn’t surprised when the parents decided to do so, rolling his eyes when Mali went with them, leaving just him with Peyton, Edie, and Diana.

He watched, near disinterested, as the girls took pictures of the tower and of each other. Crouching down, Calum nursed his cigarette, taking a drag as his eyes wandered to Peyton. Diana was currently taking pictures of her and Edie, the two sisters posing in front of the tower with grins on their faces and laughs tumbling out of their mouths. Calum watched quietly, blowing out billows of smoke, eyebrows involuntarily drawing together slightly as his eyes took in the sight of her smile.

It wasn’t something he hadn’t noticed before—Calum would be blind to think Peyton wasn’t gorgeous. Voicing it was a complete different matter.

They never complimented one another. But Calum would be utterly lying if he didn’t let those thoughts flutter in his mind every now and then. Being friends had never been in the books for them, but God damn it, was she gorgeous.

And he found himself looking at her, slowly bringing the cigarette back up to his lips, remembering his little move under the table at the restaurant yesterday. It had been an impulsive mood—completely unnecessary in regards to the plan, since no one could see under the table. But her leg had been bouncing and she was practically radiating some kind of nervous energy, and his hand had moved on its own accord. But then he had some teasing fun with her, and the sight of her blushing face and wide doe eyes had made it worth it. He found himself smirking as the lights for the Eiffel Tower behind her started going off and glittering against the sky night sky. Peyton turned around to admire the sight, recording it on her phone before tucking her phone in her purse as Calum finished his cigarette and stubbed it out, flicking it to the trash just a few feet over before getting to his feet.

His movements seemed almost automatic as he took a few steps over, coming to stand next to Peyton as his gaze remained on the landmark in front of them, watching as the bright lights danced on it. The sight was mesmerizing, if he was being honest, watching with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket and lower lip pulled into his mouth absently.

But then a breeze blew by and suddenly, instead of smelling the nicotine he’d been taking in, all Calum could smell was floral mixed with citrus, and he instantly knew it was from the woman standing next to him. Unable to help himself, Calum glanced at Peyton, head turning towards her ever so slightly, catching the way her dark eyes glimmered and the gloss on her lips shone because of the lights. She was in a state of admiring wonder at the sight in front of them.

Then her body shivered slightly as another breeze blew by, strands of her dark hair flowing against the wind, and Calum’s gaze flickered to her shirt—a V-neck blouse tucked into her jeans. Calum pursed his lips for a moment, realizing that Paris nights seemed cooler than its mornings, before looking away with a slow blink of his eyes and licking his lips as he shrugged off his jacket. Peyton didn’t notice his movements, or did and didn’t acknowledge him, until Calum draped his jacket over her shoulders.

He watched her jerk in startlement—apparently she didn’t notice—head snapping to him as his dark eyes met hers while he secured the jacket on her shoulders. She frowned, though she couldn’t hide the surprise and wariness in her eyes. “What’re you doing?”

A wry smirk tilted on Calum’s lips, refraining to roll his eyes as he shoved his hands into the front pockets of his pants. He had on a full sleeved shirt which kept him warm enough, quirking an eyebrow at Peyton. “Actin’ like a good boyfriend,” Calum quipped back.

Peyton let out a breathless scoff, her hands coming up to grip the collar of Calum’s jacket as she kept it around her. She shook her head before asking, “Why do you do that when they aren’t around? The point is to be pretending in front of them, not when they aren’t here.”

She had a point, Calum knew. But in this case, he’d feel like an ass if he just let her stand there in the cold when he’s got a jacket on and doesn’t even need it. Regardless of the status of their lack of friendship and fake relationship. Besides, it’s not like they didn’t act like a couple in front of their folks; Calum just found it a bit amusing when he did so when they weren’t around and made Peyton bristle.

Raising an eyebrow, Calum inquired, “Does it make you uncomfortable?”

Peyton frowned at that, lips thinning as Calum waited for her answer. “No,” she muttered, and Calum felt surprised at himself for feeling a small sense of relief at that. Peyton shrugged, shifting so she could put her arms through the sleeves. “It’s just weird.”

Calum pulled his lips into his mouth at the sight of her in his jacket, feeling a kind of twist in the pit of his stomach that he was all too familiar with. The leather jacket hung off her frame, the broad shoulders of the apparel that fit him perfectly hanging off her smaller ones. It was a bit shaking, how appealing she looked in his jacket, a view Calum never thought he’d see and never imagined himself admiring. Peyton’s hair was tucked into the collar of the jacket, chin lifted slightly as she returned her gaze to the tower and the shadows of the lights accentuated the curve of her jaw.

She was glowing, Calum couldn’t help but notice. The glittering lights were dying down but there dull lamps around them gave her a soft glow that hid her freckles in her skin. Despite showing some level of agitation towards him, Peyton seemed fixed in a state of serenity, soft eyes taking in her surroundings and viewing them with quiet admirance. Calum’s throat worked as he noticed her long lashes and the subtle pout of her lips; details he never gave himself the opportunity to notice over the years he’d known her.

There was a severe twist in his gut, one that nearly knocked him breathless for reasons he hadn’t seen coming.

Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower with Peyton next to him, draped in his jacket, Calum found himself wanting to start the past five years all over again.

He wanted to laugh. It was only their second fucking day in Paris.

*****

“Smile, you two!”

A soft smile lifted the corners of Peyton’s lips, the smile coming to her a lot easier than she anticipated with Calum’s arm around her waist and hand resting on her hip. The wind had picked up where they were, at the top of the Arc de Triomphe, but it was pleasant against the early afternoon sun. So Peyton smiled, her left arm around Calum’s waist, her head leaning into his side as she ignored the thought that this didn’t feel half bad. It was an uninvited thought.

“Oh,” Joy cooed after snapping the picture, walking towards them and holding her phone out. “Look at how cute you look.”

Both Calum and Peyton looked at the picture, and Calum instantly felt the jump in his heart at the sight of it. The sun was shining against them, their eyes squinting slightly though the smiles on their faces were evident, their skin glowing in their own way against the sunlight. Calum chewed on the inside of his lower lip at the picture, taking note of how Peyton just barely came up to his shoulder, and how comfortable she looked tucked into his side. But that was just for show, wasn’t it? And the soft, fond smile playing on his mouth wasn’t genuine, right?

Suddenly becoming acutely aware of how his hand had gone from her hip to her lower back, Calum quickly pulled it away, as if Peyton had burned him, and subtly took a step to distance himself from her. He missed the way Peyton glanced at him as he turned around to face the city below, running his ring clad fingers through his curls as he let out a breath.

Calum would be lying if he said within the past two days, he began reconsidering the plan. Not because it wasn’t working—it definitely was, they had their parents fooled—but because there was something different. Calum didn’t understand how quickly a change such as that could settle in, how he could barely feel the sting of annoyance and exasperation whenever Peyton appeared into view like he was so used to feeling. He still felt it, no doubt, but it was nowhere near as intense anymore. The fact that a few days of faking a relationship could sprout such a change was fucking unsettling.

He was quiet for the rest of the time they spent up on the Arc de Triomphe, keeping to himself as he admired the view from the height they were at. Calum needed a moment to himself, needed to get his scattered thoughts together as he frowned at the cars driving around below. Since when did he let Peyton Dennis get under his skin in any way? Since when did he allow himself to look at her in any different way than how he’d look at her before?

Once they were done on the Arc, Calum and Peyton and their families walked down to the street before walking along the Champs-Élysées. There were many stores and restaurants on either side, and it seemed like their families wanted to go into every store whether they wanted to buy something or not.

At one point, as they walked, Peyton ended up walking next to her mother, their arms linked together as they went. “Honey,” her mom spoke up quietly, making Peyton hum in response. “Everything okay with Calum? He seems a bit off.”

Peyton looked away from the McDonalds they passed and glanced at her mom in confusion. But she was looking straight ahead at the man in question, and Peyton followed her gaze. Calum walked a little ahead of the group, broad shoulders rigid under the burgundy bomber jacket he wore. Peyton didn’t understand how her mom could notice something being off with Calum, but then she remembered how he’d acted on top of the Arc. One second they were smiling for a picture, and the next he was putting space between them like she was a fire he didn’t want to get burned by, all the while ridding his face of all expression.

Peyton knew Calum to be moody at times, and while normally she wouldn’t care, for some reason she found curiosity picking at her, especially when her mom pointed it out.

Snapping into the role of his girlfriend, Peyton shot her mom a smile and said, “I’ll make sure he’s good.”

Her mom smiled in approval, and Peyton was walking away from her and passed everyone else before stepping up next to Calum. But she made him aware of her presence by impulsively grasping his left hand in her right, feeling him jerk slightly in surprise even though she’s the one who felt the stark contrast of his cold rings against her warm skin. Peyton hadn’t expected herself to do that, her own heart jumping at her actions, but she was aware of their parents behind them and figured to put on a show.

When Calum glanced at her, a questioning frown on his face, Peyton shrugged. “Apparently something seems off with my boyfriend and I gotta make sure you’re good.” She noticed the way his jaw set, looking straight ahead but not pulling his hand from her grasp. Peyton frowned at the unusually hard look in his dark eyes. “What’s up with you?” she questioned, now genuinely wondering if there actually was something bothering him.

“Nothing,” Calum gruffly answered, not in the mood to talk to Peyton about the confused muddle that were his thoughts and feelings—not when he didn’t have a clue about them himself. Not when they had to do with her.

Peyton eyed him, easily picking up on the lie as they continued walking. Her gaze happened to drop to their joined hands. His silver bracelet was peeking from under the sleeve of his jacket, rings prettily decorating his fingers. Peyton chewed on her lower lip as she acknowledged how his skin felt warm, soft and inviting against hers. Let herself acknowledge the electricity shooting up her arm and sparking through her chest to leave her breathless. It almost had her gasping—that’s never happened before.

Peyton quickly looked away, alarmed gaze on the pavement they were walking on as her heart picked up its pace. What the fuck was going on?

“Let’s get ice cream,” Edie’s voice cut through Peyton’s panicked thoughts, her sister gesturing towards a small, quaint ice cream shop.

They all walked to it, and once her dad bought Peyton her chocolate cone, she walked over to where Calum was lingering on the street with his cup of ice cream, the shop too small with no tables or chairs for customers. He merely stood on the sidewalk, absently eating his treat, and as Peyton eyed him she found herself growing uncomfortable at how distant he looked. What was bothering him? Why was this bothering her?

She approached him, licking at her ice cream. “You look way too moody for someone eating ice cream in the middle of Paris.”

Calum let out a scoff, his plastic spoon scooping some more of the ice cream. “Am I supposed to smile every time I take a damn bite?”

Peyton rolled her eyes. “Wouldn’t kill you to act like you’re enjoying yourself.” She gave her ice cream a lick. “You’re in Paris, for fuck’s sake.”

This time Calum rolled his eyes, working on his own treat. “Right—with my girlfriend.”

Peyton shot him a look, glancing over her shoulder to see their families were out of earshot. To Calum, she jeered, “What, this relationship preventing you from hooking up with some French babe?”

A wry smile quirked at his lips. At least it was a change from the blank looks. Calum lazily waved his plastic spoon. “I’m nothing if not faithful.”

Peyton snorted, both amused yet unimpressed. “Is that why you’re so moody? You’re not getting laid?”

His smirk widened, cheekbones prominent as he took another spoonful of ice cream before he shot her a look, something akin to being dangerous dancing in his eyes. “Sure,” Calum shrugged, facing her as his height towered over her. “Wanna help me out?”

Jaw dropping, a choked and startled gasp escaped Peyton as she gaped up at Calum, not entirely used to sexual jokes from him. “Not your actual girlfriend, Calum,” she stammered out. “Pretending doesn’t go that far.”

Calum hated that he had to ignore a pang in his chest at Peyton pointing out that this was fake—hated that there was a pang to ignore in the first place. Fake, fake, fake. It was all pretend.

Why was he having a hard time remembering that?

He schooled his expression, dark eyes meeting hers. “You’re breakin’ my heart,” he smoothly commented.

Peyton rolled her eyes, unfazed by his words until she looked at his ice cream, eyebrows drawing together. “What flavor is that?”

“Pistachio.”

Her face scrunched. “Ew.”

Raising an eyebrow, Calum asked, “Have you ever tried it?” Peyton shook her head no. “Then how’re you gonna judge somethin’ you’ve never given a shot?”

Both of them purposely ignored how his words could definitely pertain to them, too. Eerily so.

Still, Peyton gave him an unconvinced look, and Calum rolled his eyes before scooping some up in his spoon. Then, to Peyton’s surprise, he held it out to her and before she could even question him, Calum nodded at the spoon before smirking, “Say ah.”

Peyton’s incredulous gaze went from the spoon to Calum’s eyes, feeling completely taken aback at the gesture and wondering if this was some kind of joke. Her mind blanked, not entirely sure how to react as Calum watched her, before bringing the spoon towards her mouth and Peyton acted without thinking, parting her lips so he could bring it to her mouth.

His eyes were on hers as Peyton’s lips closed around the plastic spoon, the cold treat melting on her tongue while her stomach turned at the sight of Calum’s gaze on her mouth. Suddenly Peyton couldn’t even focus on the taste of the ice cream, too distracted by Calum’s intense stare that seemed to be burning right through her, freezing her in place. His eyes. . . There was a look in them she’d never seen directed towards her. A look that would’ve robbed her of all her breath if Mali hadn’t interrupted them.

Seriously. What the fuck was going on?

Hours later, around ten at night after dinner, they found themselves at the hotel bar. Their parents were gone on a night out together, Peyton’s grandparents were off doing their own thing, and the rest of them decided to grab some drinks. It was a nice bar with dim lights, TVs playing different channels a long couch against the wall opposite of the bar counter, with tables scattered around. They’d been nursing drinks for a few hours now, and around half past midnight Edie and Diana retreated to their bedroom with hands all over each other and drunken giggles falling past their lips.

As Calum excused himself to grab a smoke, Mali and Peyton approached the bar and ordered themselves more drinks, settling on the stools as the bartender prepared their orders. “I seriously can’t believe you’ve got our parents fooled,” Mali giggled, shaking her head in disbelief as her dark eyes glimmered with amusement. She shifted in the seat to face Peyton, who sat to her right, grinning triumphantly. And a bit tipsily. “Like, they genuinely believe you two are in a relationship! What, do they think five years of them trying to force you together was finally paying off?”

Peyton laughed, her head feeling slightly heavy on her shoulders but the alcohol running through her system making her feel good about it, accepting the glass of Henny and Coke the bartender placed in front of her. “I think that’s exactly what we’re hoping for them to believe,” Peyton responded with a snort, lightly grasping the thin black straw between her fingers. With a smirk and a raise of an eyebrow, Peyton added, “Who knew Calum and I were such good actors?” before taking a sip.

Mali snorted, fingers wrapping around her own glass as she crossed her right leg over her left knee. “You and Calum are shit actors,” she countered, grinning at Peyton’s affronted look. “Our parents are just too happy to notice.”

Pouting, Peyton waved her off, dismissing Mali’s words and pretending that she and Calum were good actors and that’s why the plan was working. They’d been fooling their parents for a few days now and had yet to slip up. Peyton took another sip of her drink; she hoped she hadn’t just jinxed that.

After finishing her drink, Mali checked her phone and stood up. “Mm, my boy’s finally getting off work. Time for a FaceTime date before I crash,” Mali said, running her fingers through her blonde hair. “D’you want me to wait with you until Cal gets back?”

Peyton snorted with a shake of her head. “No, no. Enjoy your virtual date.”

Kissing her cheek, Mali bid her goodnight before leaving the bar, taking a few men’s stares with her as she went. Busying herself on her phone, Peyton took sips of her drink as she scrolled through her social media. She was able to keep to herself for a few minutes until the seat Mali had been in was suddenly occupied, and before even looking Peyton could feel the hairs at the back of her neck standing up. She may be tipsy, head fluttering slightly, but she could pick up on the unease her body felt at the presence of someone else.

And when she looked to her left, Peyton understood why.

Her back straightened slowly, stomach sinking considerably when she recognized the man as the creepy dude from the elevator from the other day, her skin prickling in sensational discomfort. The man sat facing her, elbow resting on the bar as he shot her a smile that he probably thought was charming but made Peyton’s throat dry uneasily.

“Ciao, bella,” he greeted, leaning towards her as he spoke in an Italian accent that wasn’t too thick. “What’s a pretty girl like you doing by yourself?”

Tipsy or not, Peyton wanted to roll her eyes at the ridiculously cheesy and overused cliche. Cheesy pick up lines were a universal thing, of course, but that did not mean Peyton wanted to hear them. Especially not from a man in his thirties who was already eyeing her like a piece of meat. And suddenly, all Peyton could think about was where is Calum?

“I’m not by myself,” Peyton answered, subtly leaning away from him as far as she could without falling off the stool.

She watched as the man sat up, exaggeratingly looking around as if he was searching for someone, and the pricke of annoyance intensified. For the first time, Peyton was grateful for her ability to not get drunk easily or her habit of reasonably controlling her alcohol intake. Being drunk around this guy was definitely not something she wanted to do.

Looking back at Peyton and grinning wolfishly, the guy mused, “I don’t see anyone with you.” His smirk widened. “But I can change that.”

He was getting too close, and suddenly all Peyton wanted to do was get out of here. For some reason, she couldn’t process the thought of getting the bartender’s attention to get this guy to leave her alone, not wanting to be here herself. She wanted to leave.

“Not interested,” Peyton muttered, getting to her feet and thanking God she didn’t stumble or anything. She wasn’t that tipsy, but enough to act before she thought it through. “I’ve got a boyfriend.”

She could feel and see him turn around to keep his gaze on her, calling out, “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, bella.”

Peyton held her breath as she walked, her pace quick, frowning when she felt as though she was being watched and when she glanced over her shoulder, feeling her heart jump to her throat when she realized the guy was following her. Mouth dry, Peyton didn’t go towards the elevators, not wanting to risk the chance of getting stuck with him in there. But as she left the bar and entered the lobby, her gaze flickered to the left where the windows facing the street were, her eyes catching sight of a familiar figure leisurely pacing about on the sidewalk right outside of the hotel, nursing a cigarette.

The guy was calling out to her, and Peyton moved impulsively.

She didn’t think.

But her steps were quick as she went outside, hearing the guy’s footsteps behind her, and with her breath held in her chest she approached Calum, who happened to just turn her way as smoke curled from his lips. He paused in his pacing at the sight of her, dark eyebrows drawing together as the cigarette remained between his fingers.

Peyton saw the confused look he was giving her, wondering why she was outside at nearly two in the morning, looking frazzled. But she ignored the look, was acutely aware of the man coming up behind her, felt goosebumps rise on her skin and wasn’t sure if it was because of the cool breeze or because of the situation she found herself in.

But the creepy Italian guy was approaching her, and suddenly Peyton’s feet were moving and she was throwing caution into the very wind that was chilling her skin, ignoring the way Calum’s bewildered gaze remained on her as she neared him. Her hands finding his cheeks, Peyton didn’t even think as she pulled Calum to her level and pressed her lips to his.

There was a mumble of surprise from his end, his hand automatically coming to grip her hip. And, God, at first the sole reason Peyton kissed him was to get away from the guy, to deter him. She hated that she needed to literally throw herself in the arms of some other guy to get a creepy one to leave her alone, but here she was, kissing Calum fucking Hood.

She could’ve definitely found some other way to get rid of the man.

The question was if she wanted to.

But as Peyton kissed Calum, she felt her skin firing up at the first touch, her heart racing a hundred miles a minute as Calum’s lips moved against hers after a brief moment of startled pause. Forget being drunk off of the drinks she’d consumed—the second Calum’s lips sucked on her lower lip, Peyton found herself immediately getting intoxicated by the kiss, her hands going from his face to allow her to wrap her arms around his neck and keep him close, feeling an intense flutter throughout her body that weakened her knees. She could vaguely feel his own arm around her waist, pressing their fronts together, and Peyton had to keep down the pleasured whimper threatening to escape when Calum’s tongue easily slipped into her mouth.

Calum. This was Calum she was making out with in the middle of a goddamn sidewalk in Paris—and she didn’t fucking care. Not when his body felt so lean and inviting pressed against hers, not when she felt as though every cell in her body was coming to life, and certainly not when his plump lips were kissing her as though that’s what they were made for.

He tasted like a mixture of what he had drank and nicotine, not the best of combinations but Peyton had kissed cigarette smokers before, so she didn’t mind. She most certainly didn’t mind that it was Calum—because it was Calum. Years and years of frigid behavior and cold attitude were being utterly disregarded as Calum’s tight arm around her kept her impossibly close, and Peyton found herself not wanting to let him go, either.

Their kiss slowed down moments later, becoming softer, almost sweeter, as Peyton’s arms unwinded from around his neck and her hands slowly came to lightly grasp the lapels of his jacket. Part of Peyton didn’t want the kiss to end, was hesitant on facing the aftermath of her stupidly impulsive actions because this was definitely not part of their fake relationship.

With that thought, Peyton pulled away with a small gasp, the air rushing into her lungs yet her eyes remained closed, trying to get the disarrayed thoughts in her raging mind together to form at least a single coherent line of thinking. She could feel Calum’s warm, slightly heavy breath fanning against her skin as their foreheads pressed together, her skin exceptionally warm from what just happened. Her lips were still fucking tingling from touching Calum’s, and Peyton had a sneaking suspicion that sensation wouldn’t stop any time soon.

She pressed her lips together, letting out a breath through her nose as her eyebrows furrowed together. Oh. Oh, God. She’d fucked up, hadn’t she? Kissing him definitely meant changing things between them, and Peyton wished for once, she thought things through.

It was alarming; she wasn’t as thrown off over the fact that she’d kissed Calum as opposed to the thought of how things would be between them now that it’s happened.

Peyton wondered if the hit of dizziness she felt was because of Calum’s kiss or because of everything happening.

Swallowing, Peyton pulled away from Calum, her hands still gripping his jacket and his arm still around her waist as she took in a shaky breath through her nose. As soon as Calum opened his eyes, Peyton glanced away, unable to meet his gaze as she looked over her shoulder and realized the very man she’d been trying to get rid of was nowhere in sight.

That had her shoulders relaxing a little, but her stomach could be mistaken for a butterfly garden in the moment. “He’s gone,” she muttered in relief, nodding once to herself.

“Who’s gone?” The dazed confusion was evident in Calum’s husky, breathless voice, clearly just as affected by the kiss as Peyton was.

She shook her head, turning her head back to face Calum, yet unable to meet his gaze. The fact that she’d kissed him was still trying to wrap its way around her mind. “There was this guy,” Peyton began, eyes on her blue painted nails against his jacket. “Followed me out of the bar even when I said I had a boyfriend so I—”

“Decided to use your fake one to fool him, too?”

There was a familiarly edgy tone in Calum’s voice that finally did have Peyton look up at him, her eyebrows drawing together as her dark eyes met Calum’s. His, though, were back to the unreadable state they had been all day, which Peyton irritatingly found frustrated her to no end. She couldn’t pinpoint the moment she began caring about what was going on with Calum, but she did, and it spun her head. Especially this change in attitude—an attitude she was used to over the years she’d known him, but still found surprising for some reason.

And uncomfortable, like it didn’t fit Calum. Peyton could already feel a headache coming on.

When Calum’s arm dropped from around her waist, Peyton frowned a she took a step away from him, watching as he brought his forgotten cigarette back up to his mouth. “I just wanted to get a creepy thirty-something year old off my back,” she defended, glaring at his tone, eyes feeling heavy. With a scoff, she added, “Sorry if I made you feel used.”

“That’s what we’re doin’ though, isn’t it?” Calum inquired sharply, dropping the finished cigarette to the pavement and snubbing it out with the heel of his shoe, dark eyes still on Peyton. He shrugged questioningly. “Usin’ each other, yeah?”

Peyton was fucking confused. She had no idea where this sudden hostile tone was coming from, why Calum was looking at her as if she’d just committed some kind of crime. She hated that her lips yearned to be touched by his again. “This was your idea, remember?” she reminded with a raise of her eyebrows. “Kissing wasn’t a part of it and I’m sorry if I crossed some line, okay? I wasn’t thinking.”

There was a heaviness settling in her chest at the thought of making things worse as they could be with Calum. During the years of their mutual unfriendliness towards one another, there had always been a line they wouldn’t cross, an insult or jab they wouldn’t throw because they knew it’d take things too far. The thought of crossing that line by kissing him made Peyton’s stomach twist and her body bristle in unease, guilt, and regret.

She watched as Calum shook his head, running his ring clad fingers through his curls and messing them up. His broad shoulders dropped, and the defeated look he sent her way made her heart stutter. Calum’s voice was low when he muttered, “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Fucking hell—why was she feeling tears burn her eyes? “I’m sorry.”

*****

There was definitely tension in the air. But it wasn’t like the kind that used to exist between them. Before, it used to stem from annoyance and exasperation and grievances with one another. Before, it used to be because they weren’t friends but were forced to see the person they couldn’t stand because of their friends and family. Now, though, the tension was different. Now, it stemmed from a moment shared between them that neither had expected, a moment they had thought about all night and got no sleep because of. A moment neither of them could stop thinking about—painfully yearning for it to happen again.

After that spontaneous, impulsive kiss, the two had retreated to their rooms in an awkward, heavy silence that still burdened their shoulders even once they split off to their separate rooms. Sleep hadn’t come easily to Peyton last night, making herself dizzy with thoughts over what happened, why it happened, how she could let it happen. It was just a kiss, it wasn’t too big of a deal; but this was Calum—they barely had a stable relationship already. Things were bound to teter even more off balance than they already were. And it was her fault.

The next day, she didn’t see much of Calum, which was a bit of a relief. She wasn’t quite prepared to face whatever aftermath there may be from last night’s event, truthfully feeling a bit embarrassed over what happened. He’d said you shouldn’t have done that right after she kissed him. How fucking mortifying was that? Instead, Edie invited Peyton to come with her and Diana to visit the Louvre, so the three girls spent more of their morning into afternoon at the museum. Of course, they had to leave in time for their parents’ vow renewal ceremony later that evening, which was taking place in a beautiful garden lit up with fairy lights and lanterns that provided a soft glow.

And as Peyton stood there, in between her grandmother and Edie as they listened to her parents renew a preexisting love, Peyton felt her gaze involuntarily flickering to the right. As her father spoke of his love for her mother, Peyton’s eyes landed on Calum, standing between his father and sister. Tall, broad shouldered and, for the first time Peyton wouldn’t feel hesitant on admitting out loud, extremely handsome. His attire of a white full sleeved button down with black stripes, black pants and polished boots made him seem ethereal, unfairly beautiful when he was doing nothing but standing there.

Peyton never let herself admire him before. Now. . . He’s all she could think about. And it was fucking with her head. She wondered if this was the universe playing some kind of cruel joke on her, because she didn’t think Calum had looked her way at all except for a brief greeting when they first arrived, catching sight of each other for the first time that day.

But even that had been forced. Peyton felt her insides twist at the rigid hug they’d shared. It felt wrong.

You shouldn’t have done that.

It made her wonder when things with Calum had started to feel right.

*****

They were in Paris. They were in a city full of art and culture and beautiful sights. Yet Calum was in his hotel room, binging on Netflix while everyone was out and about doing whatever. It had been a few hours since the Mr. and Mrs. Dennis’s ceremony, and after everyone enjoyed a nice dinner, they returned to the hotel in case they wanted to change clothes or just went off to do whatever the hell they wanted. Calum, for one, decided to stay inside.

Mostly because he felt as though he needed to get his head on straight.

Things had completely changed in a matter of days and Calum felt as though someone had pulled the rug out from under him. He, for the life of him, couldn’t understand or pinpoint when exactly he began developing feelings for Peyton.

He could admit that to himself now. He had feelings for her. He liked her.

Seriously, though—it baffled him how out of nowhere they came from. One second things between them were as they had been for years, and the next moment the sight of her smile had his heart soaring in his chest. It hit him so fucking hard, knocked him right off his feet and robbed him of all his breath, and Calum was dizzy with confusion as to how that could possibly happen. He wasn’t one to fall for someone so out of the blue, without even a single thought or consideration. But with Peyton. . . It just fucking happened and Calum had no idea what to do.

He wasn’t even paying attention to the show he was watching, laying on his side with his elbow propped up and head resting on his hand, a perpetual frown on his face as he lost himself in thoughts that weren’t making any sense. For fuck’s sake, this was Peyton Dennis; calling them friends over the years would’ve been a hard sell—and now he liked her?

Matters of the heart really made no fucking sense, did they?

Maybe if he’d never suggested the stupid fucking idea of pretending to date, then this never would’ve happened.

As soon as that thought creeped through his mind, a voice at the back of his head roared to life, telling him the idea was probably the best one he could’ve had. That falling for Peyton was the best result he could ask for. But Calum didn’t see any logic in that, especially when he doubted she felt the same way.

That thought had his heart sinking in his chest, his jaw clenching tightly in frustration.

Calum knew, without wanting to admit it too much, that maybe things had been changing for a few days now. But then she went and kissed him, and everything he thought he knew in regards to his relations with Peyton were gone out the window. Because, fuck, he’d never felt anything like it. Her lips had been so soft, so tantalizing that his own burned with the desire of kissing her again. The first touch of her lips on his had his entire body igniting in a fire that would make the sun jealous, head in the clouds and never wanting to bring it down. Holding her that close, kissing her like that—Calum was sure he’d never get enough.  

He was so lost in his thoughts that he barely registered the knocking on his door. Blinking out of his own head, Calum’s eyes flickered to the time on the bedside clock, frowning when he saw it was one-thirty in the morning. Who the hell was knocking at his door?

Not bothering to put on a shirt, Calum got out of bed, only wearing his sweatpants, as he wandered over to the door and leaned into check through the peephole.

His breath hitched in his throat when he saw Peyton standing on the other side. Calum pulled away from the door, frowning confusedly at nothing in particular as he ran his fingers through his hair. What was she doing here? And why did the universe think it was a good idea to send the very girl he was thinking about right to his door?

Licking his lips, Calum took a breath before gripping the door handle, the sound of the door opening catching Peyton’s attention as she looked ahead. Calum watched, allowing himself to feel a bit smug, as her dark eyes took in the sight of him without a shirt, chest and arms and tattoos on full display for her viewing pleasure. He watched as her lips parted to speak up, the words dying on her tongue as her eyes flickered to his tattoos and physique, and while he admired that she seemed to be enamored by the sight of him, he needed for her to stop looking at him like that. Or else there’d definitely be a repeat of last night.

“I—” Peyton spoke up, clearing her throat, and this was the first time Calum was seeing her nervous because of him. Normally she’d ignore him or shoot him looks of annoyance or work her mouth with some snappy comment. But this was different. Calum wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that. “Were you sleeping? I’m sorry if I woke you up.”

“No, I wasn’t,” Calum told her with a small shake of his head. At the reminder of the time, his eyebrows drew together slightly. “Is everythin’ okay?”

Peyton nodded. “Yeah.” Her throat worked, offering the smallest of smiles. “Can we, uh, talk?”

Calum felt his heart thud particularly harshly at that, unsure if this was a conversation he wanted to have. But he nodded anyway, opening the door wider and stepping to the side. “Come in.”

She entered the room and Calum couldn’t help but admire her as she walked past him, dressed in a jacket over a dark purple dress that had a V-neckline and hugged every curve she had, the sight of her in it making Calum regret not wearing any boxers under his sweats as he shut the door. He took a breath, squeezing his eyes shut briefly as her scent filled his senses, before turning around to face her.

Before Calum could ask her what was up, Peyton faced him and rushed out, “Are you mad at me?”

Calum blinked before a puzzled frown took over his face. “What?”

“Because you’ve been acting weird since last night and I told you I was sorry if I went too far but I can’t help but get the feeling that you’re still angry.”

Had she had too much to drink or something? Calum wasn’t even aware he’d given that kind of impression. “I’m not angry,” Calum told her truthfully. He was confused and in a daze and kind of really fucking into her, but he wasn’t angry. “I could ask you the same thing, doll.”

Peyton appeared taken aback. “Me? Why?”

Calum let out a small scoff of a laugh, feeling both amused and a bit disgruntled at the same time as he told her, “You’re the one that’s been off with your sister and Diana all day, Peyton.” He took a few steps closer to her, not a fan of the bit of distance between them. “Felt like you’ve been avoiding me all day.”

Her gaze averted as he neared her, rolling her lips into her mouth as she looked over to the side. She looked slightly guilty, but also hesitant. “I was just—” Peyton cut herself off, taking a deep breath before admitting with a near defeated shrug, “I was embarrassed.”

Calum’s eyebrows drew together in a frown, her words taking him by surprise as he ducked his head ever so slightly, trying to catch her gaze as his face scrunched a bit in confusion. “Emba—why?” he repeated, watching as Peyton pursed her lips. “What about?”

Her dark eyes met his, looking almost incredulous as her eyebrows drew together upwards and a humorless scoff escaped her. “What about?” Peyton repeated with a shake of her head. “Right after I kissed you, you told me I shouldn’t have done that. That’s just—I mean, that’s embarrassing!” She ran her fingers through her dark hair, pushing it back. “How else am I supposed to feel?”

Calum’s jaw was clenching as she spoke, realizing that his words probably made her freak out and feeling a pang of guilt for being the cause of that. Because the last thing she needed to be was embarrassed over what happened—and as much as it fucking confused the shit out of him, he didn’t regret it. “Not embarrassed,” he told her clearly, confidently, taking the last few steps between them to close the distance until he was standing in front of her. And, just like Peyton had the night before, Calum decided to throw caution in the wind, too. His hands came to cradle her jaw, thumbs brushing across her cheeks as her wide eyes met his. “I only said that because. . .” He let out a breath through a smile. “Because it was a bitter reminder that what I want for real. . . Was only pretend.”

Peyton’s lips parted with a shaky inhale, Calum’s heart thundering in his chest at his confession as her dark eyes stared intensely into his. “What you want. . .” she began, only to trail off with a breathless whisper.

Calum’s lips quirked up into a smile, leaning closer to Peyton as he finished her sentence with a confirming, “Is you.”

There was a moment of comprehension as Calum’s words settled in Peyton’s mind, his heart beating wildly in his chest as his words hung in the air, giving him a moment to process what he’d just admitted to. That he’d just told Peyton Dennis, the girl he more often than not got into bickering arguments with, he wanted her.

Just like the night before, Peyton made the first move of grasping his wrists, feeling the metal of his bracelet against her skin, and leaning her head up just enough to connect their lips in a heated kiss, one Calum returned instantaneously at the first feel of her soft lips against his. The desperation of the kiss had Calum groaning against Peyton’s mouth, her hands starting at his chest before sliding up to his shoulders and then eventually finding home in his hair, her fingers tangling with his curls as Calum wasted no time in licking at the seam of her lips before sliding his tongue in to meet hers.

His hands dropped from her face, his warm touch trailing down her body before placing his hands on the curve of her ass, smirking against her gasping mouth when he gave her a cheeky squeeze. Calum’s head was spinning as he tasted the strawberry chapstick she wore, kissing the taste off as he bent his knees a bit, his lips never leaving Peyton’s as his hands found the back of her thighs and lifted her off the ground easily, her legs wrapping around his hips as Calum nipped at her lips and settled himself on the edge of the bed, Peyton easily straddling his lap.

Their kisses were desperate, fueled by a fire neither of them wanted to put out, but eventually Calum pulled away, smirking at the protesting whine that escaped Peyton, only to transform into a beautiful moan as he kissed his way along her jaw, fingers digging into her hips. Peyton’s head tilted as Calum’s sinful lips worked on her neck, quickly discarding her jacket and dumping it somewhere on the floor as her left hand tangled itself into his hair once more and her right gripped his bicep, nails digging slightly into his skin as he found that spot that had her breath hitching. The sensation of his lips, tongue and teeth working on her skin in addition to his scruff scratching at her had Peyton’s heart threatening to burst out of her chest.

He marked up her neck, collarbones, and the tops of her breasts peeking up from her dress as Peyton made a mess of his hair, raking her fingers through. As Calum’s lips found hers again, his hands went to her back before finding the zipper of her dress and pulling it down hastily, impatient and desperate to get it off.

And, fuck, what a sight she was.

Calum didn’t even remember moving his laptop off the bed or even retrieving a condom, only that once Peyton was completely bare in front of him, for him, he’d tugged her back to the bed until she was lying down and his lips were on her again. Every fucking kiss sent an electrifying spark shooting through his body, warming him to his very core as he felt Peyton’s hands ran down his chest, as if committing him to memory.

“Fuckin’ beautiful, y’know that?” Calum was rasping against her lips, his right hand finding home between her legs as Peyton moaned against him as he slid a single digit in between her slick folds. He groaned. “Beautiful and so wet for me.”

Peyton’s head tilted back as his finger, soon joined by a second, worked her open as the metal of his rings had every coherent thought flying out the window, a whimsical sound escaping her and her own fingers threading through his hair as Calum moved himself down a bit, catching a nipple between his lips. She arched her back at the sensation, pushing herself into him, and Calum fucking adored the sight of her; head back and mouth dropped open in silent gasps as she tried to catch her breath with his fingers inside of her.

He continued like that, watching her lose herself thanks to his fingers while he gave her breasts the attention they deserved, his eyes never leaving her gorgeous face and taking in every pleasured expression that flashed across it. Feeling the familiar clench in her stomach, the coil forming and burning, Peyton clenched around Calum’s fingers while her dazed eyes met his. The sight of him with his kiss swollen lips wrapped around her nipples, peeking up at her through dark curls, had Peyton making sounds that were music to his ears.

“Calum,” she gasped, one hand in his hair, the other on his shoulder, and her breath robbed by his fingers and the rings that shot shivers up her spine. Her nails dug into his shoulder as she felt the cool metal of his necklace teasingly drag across the bare skin of her torso. “Oh, my God—I can’t—”

Releasing her nipple, Calum leaned up and captured Peyton’s lips with his once more, fingers never slowing down their pace as he mumbled against her lips, “Come on, sweetheart.” He pulled away from her mouth as she tilted her head back, his eyes never leaving her as an adoring yet smug smirk took over his lips, the sight of her one he wanted to picture in his head forever. He brushed his nose against her cheek as he encouraged, “Let me see you fall apart around my fingers, yeah? C’mon, baby.”

As if his fingers weren’t enough, Calum’s words were all it took for Peyton to do just as he said, her eyes clenching shut and eyebrows furrowing as her orgasm shook through her a lot more intensely than she thought. The sounds she made had Calum’s lips parting before rolling his lower lip into his mouth and biting down at it, the way she tensed before coming around his fingers a sight to be fucking seen.

Peyton was breathing heavily by the time she was done, a soft whimper escaping her as Calum pulled his fingers out, coated in her release. Smirking and already out of his sweatpants, he kneeled between her legs, grabbing the packet of the condom as he brought his fingers up to Peyton’s mouth, her lips already parted as she tried to catch her breath and he didn’t hesitate in placing his fingers in her mouth.

And she didn’t even pause in closing her lips around his digits as her hand came to grip his wrist, his stomach clenching excitedly as she sucked them clean while he tried to get his wits together and used his other hand and teeth to rip open the condom packet before rolling it onto his hardened cock. He was desperate to be in her, and lining his tip to her entrance, Calum slid into her easily and desperately, breath hitching yet still managing to smirk as Peyton moaned around his fingers, eyes shutting with a frown and her jaw dropping at the sensation of him filling her.

The sight of her, so flushed and covered in darkening hickeys with kiss swollen lips, looking so breathtaking and perfect. . . It was definitely one to behold. One he would never get tired of.

And the image of him above her, with curls brushing across his forehead and plump lips looking deliciously kissable and tattooed arms she wanted to dig her nails into. . . He looked like a god.

He was definitely answering her prayers tonight.

*****

Now that they no longer had to pretend, their remaining days in Paris were that much more enjoyable. The morning after they’d slept together, Peyton and Calum had looked at each other, mesmerized by the sight of the other laying in bed with them, wondering if it was real.

And then, Peyton asked, “No more pretending?”

To which Calum had smirked and pulled her closer and said, “This is the real thing, sweetheart.”

And that was that.

It was baffling—in the best way—how easily things went from there. How natural it felt for them to hold hands when they went out, even so far as share a kiss when they were around their families. Which had completely shocked Mali, Edie and Diana before the two had to explain to them, away from their parents, that they were an actual couple. Their sisters and Diana had been justifiably surprised and almost disbelieving, just as floored as Calum and Peyton that this was real and no longer pretend. But it was good. They were happy.

Besides—they got to have an official first date in Paris. It was kind of fucking amazing; dinner, then some dessert from a cute bakery before walking along the Seine, never once letting go of each other’s hands. It was perfect.

Undoubtedly, both still found themselves giggling over how natural it all felt. How easy it was to just forget about their years and years of cold attitudes towards one another and fall into this new dynamic that felt so wonderful and blissful and full of a kind of happiness neither of them had expected to find in one another. A kind of happiness that now that both of them had gotten a taste of, would never want to let go.

The minds of their friends back home would explode.

Sunday night, they were to go back home, their boarding time around eleven-thirty that night. It was a late flight, no doubt, but nobody seemed to mind too much since it gave them a whole day to spend in Paris for the last time. But around 9:45 that night, rushed knocks sounded on Peyton’s door, startling her from gathering all of her toiletries.

“What’s up?” she laughed in amused confusion as she opened the door to reveal a jittery Calum, bouncing on the heels of his feet as he looked at her with a grin.

“Put on your shoes,” he told her quickly, gesturing to her feet impatiently. “We gotta do something before we leave.”

She was going to question him as to what could be so important, but Calum was shooing her back into her room and Peyton rolled her eyes, walking in to slide on her Converse. Pocketing her phone and wallet, Peyton shot Calum an amused look as he grasped her hand, fingers intertwining with his as he led her towards the elevators. “Are you gonna tell me where we’re going?” she questioned once they were inside. “We have to leave for the airport in, like, half an hour.”

“It won’t take that long,” Calum reassured her, a happy glint in his dark eyes that itched at Peyton’s curiosity.

He took her out of the hotel as they began making their way down the sidewalk, walking in a comfortable silence. At one point Calum took their joined hands and raised them so he could drape his arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side as she changed hands to hold his right one in her left, hanging over her shoulder, so her right arm could wind around his waist as they went.

Eventually, they were at the Eiffel Tower, and Peyton shot him a questioning look as she pointed out, “We’ve already been here. A bunch of times.”

Calum rolled his eyes, though his smile remained. “I’m well aware, doll,” he said, digging something out of his pocket.

Just as Peyton recognized his phone, the lights of the tower went off, glittering against the night sky as a bunch of tourists ooh and ahh’d at the sight. Peyton watched as Calum stepped away from her, raising her eyebrows as he walked up to a woman standing idly by as he spoke to her. When Peyton saw her nod as he handed her phone to her, she let out a small laugh as she understood what he was doing, grinning fondly at him as he quickly made his way over.

They stood, right in front of the tower, as Calum grasped her hands in his. “C’mere,” he murmured through a grin of his own, and Peyton easily complied as his hands familiarly grasped her face and he pressed his lips to hers.

Peyton couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, her eyes closing and arms winding around his waist, adoring how fucking cheesy and cute this was, her heart pounding that this was something Calum wanted to do. Over the past few days of them actually being together, she’d come to realize just how sweet he was, how thoughtful and considerate he was when it came to others. Always wanting to hold her hand or keep and arm around her, kissing the top of her head or her temple, buying her whatever treat he found her eyeing whenever they passed a bakery, and just generally being the kind of sweet she didn’t expect from him.

It was a wonderfully pleasant realization, and Peyton hated that it took five years for her to see that.

They pulled away moments later, foreheads pressing together and breathy giggles escaping them both as she commented, “That was so freaking sweet.”

Calum pressed his lips to hers once more before pulling away with a cheeky wink. “Not as sweet as you, doll.”

Her cheeks hurt from how widely she was smiling.

A few hours later, Peyton was in the bathroom at the airport, washing her hands as her mom stepped out of the stall and came up next to her. They were about to board soon, everyone else seated in the waiting area for their gate as Peyton put some soap on her hands.

“I’m glad you and Calum finally saw what the rest of us were seeing,” her mom hummed as she turned on the tap, catching Peyton’s attention. Casually, her mother added, “A bit ridiculous that you had to see it after your attempt at trying to fool us but, hey, whatever does the trick.”

Peyton froze, hands unmoving under the running water as her head snapped up, eyes going to her mother through the reflection of the mirror in front of them. Her thoughts had ceased out of complete shock. Through a startled laugh, she asked, “What?”

Her mom chuckled in amusement, washing her hands before shooting her daughter a knowing look. “Come on, honey, you think you could play your own mom? Please,” she scoffed with a roll of her eyes, turning off the tap. “It wasn’t hard to figure out you two were only pretending.”

Peyton couldn’t believe what she was hearing, absently turning off the tap and gaping at her mom with wide eyes and a slackened jaw. She was deaf to the other women in the bathroom, to the water running and toilets flushing and the automatic hand dryers roaring as she followed her mom to one of them. She knew? Peyton was in a state of complete disbelief. “If—If you knew then how co—why didn’t you say anything?” she stammered out, unable to totally get her thoughts together.

“Because I knew what would happen if I stayed quiet,” her mom answered with a laugh, looking quite smug. “I knew you two would eventually see how well you work together and would stop pretending on your own. I just waited for it to happen. I’m happy it didn’t take you too long, though. It was only a matter of time until you realized you were no longer pretending.”

“Oh, my God,” Peyton scoffed out a laugh, her wide eyes and disbelieving smile still on her face as she shook her head at her mom while drying her hands. “So we were just pretending for nothing?”

Her mom clicked her tongue. “Not for nothing,” she reminded with a smile. “You got quite a handsome boyfriend out of it, didn’t you?”

Peyton pressed her smiling lips together, the disbelief still leaving her in a state of bewilderment, yet she couldn’t stop the grin from forming as she thought of her tall, dark haired and tattooed boyfriend. A boyfriend she dizzyingly adored. “Yeah,” she relented with a sigh that could be only described as blissful, her cheeks warming at the thought of Calum. “I did.”

Her smug mother winked. “Told you so.”

Peyton scoffed again, pressing her tongue to the back of her teeth in wonderous awe as her mom left the bathroom, shaking her head to shake the shock off. Although she doubted that would happen any time soon. She couldn’t believe her mother knew this entire time, letting her and Calum believe that they had their parents fooled. Peyton wondered if anyone else knew, too, but then figured that it wasn’t important. Not anymore. Not when she and Calum were actually together with no scheme up their sleeves.

By the time she returned to where their gate was, they were already lining up to board and Peyton smiled when she saw Calum standing amongst their families, her travel backpack hanging off one of his shoulders from the strap. She took it from him once she came to stand next to him, and Calum smiled, “Got Mali to switch seats with you.” His arm found home around her shoulders as he leaned he tucked her closer. “You’re mine for the next eleven hours.”

Oh, man, she was his for as long as he’d have her.

Peyton grinned at that as the line shuffled forward. “Calum.” He looked at her, raising an eyebrow, and the incredulous smile was on her face as she quietly told him, “My mom knew. She knew about the plan this entire time.”

She watched as dumbfoundment flashed across Calum’s face, eyebrows drawing together and eyes widening, mirroring the expression she must’ve had in the bathroom upon hearing the same thing. “What? Are you kidding?” he asked through a confused, deep chuckle.

Peyton rolled her smiling lips into her mouth as she shook her head before letting out a laugh. “No, she just told me in the bathroom. I’m just as shook as you are.”

Calum looked ahead with the incredulous expression still painted on his face, lips parted before he looked back at Peyton. “How come she never said anything?”  

Peyton shrugged, but still smiled as she recalled her mother’s words, her dark eyes meeting Calum’s as her smile turned soft, her tone quiet. “She said it was only a matter of time until we realized we weren’t pretending anymore,” she told him, feeling her heart flutter when a smile graced Calum’s lips as well after a small scoff of his own.

“Guess she was right,” Calum hummed as they took a few more steps forward. He gazed down at Peyton, taking in her pretty face with dark eyes and long lashes and pink lips and adorable freckles. Took in how stunning she was, and how much he found himself just absolutely adoring her, infatuated with her, in a matter of days. How quickly just pretending transformed into something so fucking real and how the girl Calum hadn’t gotten along with easily became the one he couldn’t stop thinking about.

He grinned, boyish and charming as he completely pressed her into his side, head tilted down to keep his gaze locked on her warm one. “I think we can both agree this plan of mine was riveting, huh?”

At that, Peyton let out a laugh, head tilting back as Calum grinned, knowing she picked up on the reference to the night when he first told her about his idea, how she’d rejected it before even listening to it. Peyton shook her head, a happy grin lighting up her face and her eyes, shaking her head up at Calum as she asked, “Are you gonna play that card a lot? Let me know now.”

Calum pressed his forehead to hers, uncaring that they were in a public place, loving any kind of closeness he could get with Peyton. Her left hand came up to grasp his right that was hanging off her shoulder, intertwining their fingers. “Of course I am. It’s the best plan I’ve ever had.”

Mirth danced in her dark eyes, leaning away from him ever so slightly as she teasingly asked, “Oh, so am I just a plan, then?”

Calum’s smile lessened a bit, a serious expression falling over his face yet the fondness for the women he was holding never diminished from his eyes. “No,” he said, tone quiet and just for her, pulling her back into him. Calum lightly brushed his nose against hers, pressing a soft kiss to her inviting lips, smiling when she tried to chase his lips once he pulled away. “You’re my girl. You’re the real fuckin’ thing.”

tags: @crownedbyluke @angelbbycal @irwinkitten @captain-what-is-going-on @astroashtonio @caelumhood @softforcal @hotmessmichael @meetashthere @glitterprincelu @valentinelrh @flannelpunkcalum @old-zeppelin-shirt @roselukes @kinglycalum @heavenlyhemminqs @slimthicccal @wrappedaroundcal @calumhampton @ohhmuke @lipstickstainfading @calumsmermaid @cals-babylons @inlovehoodx @5secondssofssummer @paqueretteash @fucking5sos @sublimehood @hereforlukescruff @ghostofch @cliffordcntrl @hoodcentral @asht0ns-world @soulmatecashton @babygirlcashton @invisiblexcth @calumh-excess @cal-pal-cuddles @lovelettercalum @checkeredcalum @empathycth @calntynes @jetblackyoungblood @gigglyirwin @hearts-to-the-sky @poppedpins @xhaileyreneex @5sos-stan4lyfe @cosmixcalum @lifeakaharry @complete-trash-101 @calistheloml @romanticalumhood @cathartichaoss @sunnysidesblog @cxddlyash @akacalciumhood @calumthoodsyonce @gorgeouslygrace 

[renee-writer]

Temporary Home Chapter 27 Gellis Meets Jamie

Jamie opens his door to a lady with chestnut colored hair pulled back in a french braid and startling green eyes.

"James Fraser? I am Gellis Duncan. Fergus' new case worker."

"Right. Claire told me you would be taken over. Come in." He opens his door wide inviting her in. Gellis is thinking his picture doesn't do him justice and, that if she was into guys, weel, she isn't and that is good. Since her best mate is head over feet for him. She can see why. "Fergus is in his room doing his homework. Should I call him?"

"Not just yet. I need to talk with you first. May we sit?"

"Aye, sorry. I am not usually such a clodheid. I just wasn't expecting you today."

"We do make unexpected visits. But, there is a reason for today's."

"Oh?"

"Let's do the routine stuff first." She knows as soon as she tells him that he will not be able to concentrate on nothing else. He nods and takes a seat across from her. "How is Fergus adjusting, any discipline problems?"

"He is doing very well. I did have to put him in a time-out a few days ago."

"Tell me about it."

"Weel he didn't wish to put his toys away and get ready for bed. I had given him a ten and then five minute warning as the parenting books recommend. But, when I told him it was time, he threw a fit. Threw himself down on the floor and rolled around in a full tantrum. I tried talking over his yelling. No go. So, I lifted him up and sat him on the chair designed for the time-out. I took his face and told him he was in a time-out for throwing a tantrum and that it would start when he was quiet."

"You knew to wait until then?" She is impressed.

"Aye, I read a.lot of parenting books. It took close to qn hour. He is a stubborn lad," said with a bit of pride," but he finally sat quiet for five minutes. I then told him that I loved him and explained again why he was placed there. Hugged him and brought him back to the toys that he picked up without farther issues. He then went to bed. The poor lad was asleep by the second page of the book." He chuckles remembering.

"Wow Mr Fraser, would you like to teach a parenting class on how to give an effective time-out." She is dead serious.

"Nae, I just did it how the books taught." He shrugs. Twas nae big deal.

"How is school?" She moves down the list.

"He is struggling some. They say he is behind in arithmetic and reading. He is a wiz in science. No issues with conduct. He has two good mates, Charlie and Ethan. We are working on helping him catch up, the teachers and I."

"Very good. I will get an official report from them. Bit, it sounds like you are on top of it."

"Aye. It is part of the responsibility of being a.parent, foster or otherwise."

"It is. But, a lot of our foster parents are less involved."

"That is a true shame."

"It is. Any signs of sexual abuse?"

"Nae. And I am carefully watching. Any info on his mam?"

Here goes. He is so good with him. She would like to clone him. And now she has to tell him this. She takes a deep breath. "Thst is actually why I am here."

"Ye have found her?"

"We've news of her and his possible father. We found a birth certificate." She pulls it out of Fergus' file where she has been taken notes. She hands it across to him. And he reacts just like Claire had. His face loses it's color and he looks over at her with his mouth hanging eide open.

"Is this for real?" He asks in a choked voice.

"It is. I understand that Jarod is your cousin?"

"Aye, I spent some time with him in Paris between upper school and uni. He is 15 years older then me."

"Do you know Leery?"

"Nae, though the last name is familiar. My own mam was a Mackenzie. But, there is a lot of Mackenzie's in Scotland. How sure are you that Jarod is Fergus' father?"

"That document is all we have, that and that he was here in 2013 when Fergus would have been conceived."

"Right but, his mam is a..I mean..his father could be anyone."

"We aren't accepting it as gospel. We will still be investigating. But, she had taught him french."

"Oui' but...I am not saying Jarod wouldn't have 'paid for company' but, I just don't know."

"Does Fergus' resemble him?"

"Nae!" Said instinctively by someone who didn't want it to be true. But.. " weel my cousin has dark curls. And eyes. But so does a lot of people. It doesn't mean.."

"No it doesn't. This is what is next. Since he is named on his birth certificate, we will be trying to get him here to take a DNA test.."

"If it..if he is his..?"

"If he is Fergus' father..Jamie our mandate is to keep families together."

"I am family if Jarod is!"

"I know. But if he is the father and is willing to step up and be thus."

"And if he is and isn't willing?"

"You are family and he is thriving here. We will not move him unless we have to." He let's out a breath.

"Do you need to see Fergus?"

"Aye just for a moment. I won't be telling him about this unless I must."

"Good. I will go get him." He starts to step out and the lad runs into him. "Oof," he says grabbing his arms. "Are ye to be running inside?"

"No da. I am sorry." He looks up at him with those huge dark eyes and a surge of love for him takes Jamie over. He crushes him to his chest holding him in a bear hug for a moment.

"It is okay a' leannen. There is someone who wants to see ye." He leads him into the living room. "Fergus, meet Miss Gellis Duncan. Miss Duncan, Fergus "

"Nice to meetcha'," Fergus puts his hand out as his da had taught him. Gellis shakes with a smile.

"Nice to meet you. You have veera nice manners."

"Thank you ma'am."

"Miss Duncan is yer new case worker."

"But, no Miss Claire is my case worker. Doesn't she like us anymore?"

"She likes us a lot. To much to keep being yer case worker. So she has her mate, Gellis doing it for her. But, she will still see us. I promise." Jamie holds him in his lap and the bairn immediately relaxes. Gellis smiles and notes this.

"I've just a couple questions Fergus and then yer da and you can get back to what you were doing."

"Okay."

"Do you like staying here with yer da?'"

"I love it. Even when he makes me eat my veggies. I do cause I want to grow up strong like him."

"Verra good. One more. How is school going?"

"I don't like the arth- metic. But da is helping me get caught up. Him and Miss Sara."

"What about reading?"

"I like to read. It just is sometimes hard to. But, da is helping. He writes books, ya know."

"I do. Verea impressive."

"Aye. He is teaching me the Ghaildhig too. Says it easier to learn when I am young."

"He is right. Thank you Fergus for talking with me."

"You're welcome. When will Miss Claire be back?"

"I bet you see her today."

"Cool. Da I finished my reading. Can I play a game?"

"Ye may. Thank you." He jumps off his lap and hurries to his room. "Claire ken's?"

"She does. She wanted to come with me but, that isn't her role now. I would imagine you will see her today. I am sorry Jamie. We will do all we can." She gets up and Jamie walks her to the door.

"Thank you." He watches until she makes it to her car before calling Claire.

[worldsentwined]

The Key To Your Heart

For this week’s @synchronisedscreaming flash fiction challenge.  Prompt:  Aksel/Sigrun L - why did you lock the door?  (Note: This is a 5 + 1 times story of a sort, and the fifth time involves a minor character death)

I.

The latch clicked behind him, and Aksel nearly jumped out of his skin. 

“S-sigrun? What are you doing?”

He generally tried to avoid being alone with her. Not because she liked to make fun of him--she did that anyway, no matter who was around to hear--but because he’d been harboring a massive crush on her for months. It had been hard enough before this Rash business forced them all into close quarters. With winter closing in and no one able to set foot outside the walls, it felt as though the two of them were constantly flung together.

Part of Aksel was all right with that. But the rest of him worried that one of these days he’d blurt out something stupid, and Sigrun would know. She’d never stop teasing him then.

So finding himself locked in the storage room where he’d been sorting supplies, and locked in with Sigrun, was a source of both joy and terror. 

Did she find out somehow? Is she going to call me out on it? Is she...is she going to kiss me? Aksel had to shake his head at that last thought--Sigrun’s scowl didn’t invite kissing.

“I’m locking the door, stupid,” she said, answering the question he’d nearly forgotten. “If I have to listen to Ingrid and Gøran have one more argument about newspapers, I’m going to stab someone. At least in here I can get a little peace.”

“Oh.” Relief washed over Aksel, though he had to admit to a certain amount of disappointment.

“Why, what did you think?” Sigrun asked. She settled on the floor and leaned back against a box. “Worried I was locking you in here for a makeout session?”

“Shut up,” Aksel grumbled. Lucky for him the room was dimly lit. She couldn’t see his blush.

II.

“Did you just lock that?”

She propped herself against the door in question and met his gaze with a satisfied smirk. “Yeah, I did. So?”

“But...” Never mind that it left the two of them alone again--Aksel had faced plenty of fears in recent days, but he still couldn’t overcome this one. So instead he said, “Aren’t Gøran and Ingrid still out there? They were on guard duty tonight.” Which was poor planning, really. The two of them couldn’t stop bickering long enough to even notice a charging troll, let alone shoot one. Hopefully the foul weather would keep trouble at bay.

“Sure. And when they get back, they won’t be coming in. I swiped Ingrid’s key.”

“Umm...” He knew it was probably a stupid question, but he couldn’t help asking. “Why?”

Sigrun tossed the key into the air and caught it. “Because when they can’t get in here, they’ll have to find somewhere else to argue. Like Gøran ‘s room. Where Ingrid will have to stay all night.” She tossed the key up one more time, then hung it on a hook by the door. “Hopefully they’ll finally jump each other’s bones and sort out all that tension.”

“Oh my god.” Aksel hid his face in his hands. Then something occurred to him. “Wait. Sigrun, I live with Gøran. I don’t want to be there if they’re--if you think they’ll really--” he couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Don’t worry, I planned for that,” Sigrun said. She waved him toward the bedroom. “Ingrid’s bed is free. We’ll say you stayed here late talking, and didn’t want to go home in the awful weather. The storm was so loud we didn’t hear Ingrid knocking.”

Aksel swallowed hard. “Oh. Okay, yeah. Sure.” He allowed her to push him toward Ingrid’s bed, and managed to return her “good night” after she extinguished the candle. But it was a long time before he managed to sleep.

III.

“Sigrun! Why are you locking--”

“Shut up Aksel!” She hissed the words out through clenched teeth and gestured for silence. Aksel shut up and listened hard, heart hammering.

On the other side of the wall, something moved. The door shuddered; Sigrun backed away slowly, careful not to make a sound. Aksel tightened his grip on his gun. 

They couldn’t go back the way they’d come in; a leaky roof had rotted a section of the floorboards, and Aksel would have landed in the basement if Sigrun hadn’t caught him just in time. And now their way forward was blocked, too.

“What do we do?” he breathed. 

Sigrun didn’t bother to answer, still focused on the locked door. It shook again; the hinges creaked. Thump. Thump. Thump-CRACK-- 

“RUN!” Sigrun shouted. She darted sideways just as the door flew off its hinges. Aksel’s bullet missed her--it missed the troll too, but he hadn’t really expected to hit it--and then she grabbed his arm and shoved him through the window.

They hit the ground in a shower of broken glass, dazed but unharmed. Sigrun didn’t let go of him until they’d gotten far, far away.

IV.

Sigrun sank onto the bed across from Aksel’s.

“Everything locked up?” He asked. It was hardly a question. The people in charge of quarantine would make sure they couldn’t get out until it was safe.

“Yeah.” For once, Sigrun didn’t have a snarky comment. She looked tired, and she was still a little pale from blood loss. The medic said her wound would heal fine, as long as there weren’t any...complications.

Aksel’s own scratch was hardly noticeable by comparison, but they both knew it could kill him just as easily. Or it might not. There was only one way to find out.

“I think the waiting is gonna be worse than the pain,” Sigrun said. She ran her fingers along her bandaged arm, then winced. “Or maybe they’ll both suck.”

“Well don’t touch it,” Aksel said, rolling his eyes at her. His grandmother had always told him that messing around with injuries just made it harder for them to heal.

Evidently Sigrun had heard the same lecture. “God, you sound just like Berit. If you’re going to go all grandma on me, at least come make yourself useful.”

At her direction, Aksel sat down beside her and settled against the headboard. The bed was short: his feet stuck off the end. It would be a long two weeks.

Sigrun leaned against him and rested her head on his shoulder, propping her arm on a spare pillow. “There. At least now I can get comfortable. Don’t move, I’m going to take a nap.”

Aksel had no intention of moving, possibly ever again. Maybe the two weeks would go faster than he’d thought.

V.

“That’s the last of them. I’m locking the door now.”

Aksel only nodded. There were words he should say, some phrase to express his appreciation for all Sigrun’s help over the last few miserable days. He tried to say them, once, twice, but even on the third try he couldn’t get them past the lump in his throat. 

In truth, no words could encompass what he was feeling, just like there were no words to soothe him. The constant stream of visitors had said them all:

“She went out the way she would have wanted. She was a fighter to the end.”

“We never would have lasted this long without her. Your grandma left a legacy to be proud of.”

“She was so proud of you, you know.”

“Saved my life. Saved all our lives. Here’s to Berit!”

“Here’s to Berit Eide!”

None of it helped. The words were a wave crashing against the wall of his grief, and there was no escaping. Just when he’d thought the pressure would undo him, Sigrun had sent the last of the visitors away. Now it was just the two of them.

Aksel didn’t look up, but he marked her progress across the room by the sound of her steps. She settled beside him. Any moment, she might break the silence, and then Aksel would break.

But Sigrun didn’t offer any words of comfort. “I suck at this,” she said. “Even if I wasn’t sad too, I would still suck at it. So get over here.” She pulled him down--it wasn’t as far to go as usual, not with the way he hunched over--and tucked him against her chest. And she didn’t say another word, just let Aksel cry all over her.

+1

“Sigrun?” He hardly dared to ask the question. “Why are you locking the door?”

She settled the bolt into place and turned to face him. “Because I don’t want to be interrupted.” Two steps brought her close enough to kiss--two steps, and tiptoes, and a hand on his jaw to bring his mouth to meet hers. “That okay with you?” she murmured, sinking back on her heels.

“More than okay,” Aksel agreed. It seemed like his turn to kiss her, so he caught her around the waist and lifted her up to reach. She laughed against his mouth, and brought her arms up behind his head. 

“You planning to put me down?” Sigrun asked, when he paused for breath but made no sign of letting go. “Not saying you have to. This is nice.” She pressed another kiss to the tip of his nose.

“It didn’t seem fair to make you stretch,” he said. “I’m too tall.” Plus he didn’t really want to put her down. Holding her close was much nicer. Just like kissing her was better than not kissing her, and also better than he’d ever imagined kissing Sigrun Larsen would be in the early days of his silly crush on her. Then, thoughts of kissing had been all fluttery nerves and wistful hoping. Now, years later and with countless adventures shared together, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

Sigrun smirked. “Well, there is a reason I locked us in your bedroom.” She leaned forward to whisper in his ear. “Height won’t matter much if we’re lying down.”

Aksel laughed, and kissed her again before carrying her to the bed.

[evenshands]

i was thinking about an even clip (plisplisplis @julie) and this sort of happened….it involves me wilfully ignoring the existence of episode 8, and pretending that jealous isak was actually isak seeing even being uncomfortable talking to mikael, so bear that in mind hehe, enjoy!

*

Even wakes up with Isak’s arm flung around his chest, keeping him held tight. He turns his head to the side and smiles lazily at Isak’s sleeping face, then lifts the arm from over him and begins to get up.

Isak lets out a high pitched whine and tightens his grip on Even.

“Five more minutes,” he says.

“I’m not making you get up, baby,” Even says. “You can sleep a bit more. I’m just gonna make breakfast.”

“But I wanna cuddle you,” Isak grumbles, and Even smiles fondly at him. Isak’s eyes are still closed, his brow furrowed in a frown and a pout on his lips. He pulls more at Even, tries to drag him back into bed, but Even manages to wriggle away, and Isak whines again.

Five minutes later, he’s in the middle of making pancakes, when Isak shuffles into the kitchen, moving behind Even to wrap his arms around his waist.

“Good morning, baby,” he mutters.

“Are you gonna fall asleep on me again?” Even asks, grinning. “Because I don’t wanna burn the pancakes again.”

“I’ve never fallen asleep on you in my life.”

“Mhm,” Even replies, voice disbelieving.

He flips the pancake, then turns to face Isak.

“Halla, baby,” he smiles, and moves forward to give him a good morning kiss. It lingers, perhaps for longer than it should, when Isak pulls back.

“I’m not falling asleep on you, and you’re still gonna burn the pancake,” he points out, teasing, and Even turns quickly to inspect the food.

“It’s fine,” he tells Isak. “I know what I’m doing. I know my timings.”

“No you don’t, you would have kissed me for three hours if I’d let you.”

Even hums. “That sounds nice. Is that the plan for today?”

“I want my pancakes first.”

“After that, though,” Even says, turning round to give Isak another quick kiss.

“Yeah, after that,” Isak grins.

They’ve barely finished their pancakes when Even’s phone buzzes with a text.

He moves to get it from the bedside table, and stands, reading, and rereading the message, with a mixture of emotions going through his mind.

Elias Hey Even, how’s it going? Just wanted to invite you to eid this saturday, me and sana are inviting all of our friends and we’d love if you came along! All the boys will be there, Mikael says he’d love to see you, and mamma is making chebakia, everyone knows how much you love it. Bring Isak too! Hope to see you there :D

“What is it?” asks Isak. Even hadn’t noticed him walkinng up behind him and placing a comforting arm around his waist.

Even thinks for a moment, then shows him the phone. Isak reads it quickly, then looks back up at Even.

“Do you want to go?”

Even hesitates, biting his lip. “I’m not sure.”

“Would you like to see them?”

“Yeah, but…” he trails off, pressing his lips together in uncertainty of what to say.

“Is it Mikael? He says he wants to see you.”

“He said that at Syng, too, and we all know how that turned out.”

Isak pulls a guilty face. “Maybe he’ll be more chill this time.”

“Mm.”

“Do you want to see him?” Even doesn’t answer. “Even, I know you miss them.”

Even looks down at the floor. “It’s just - with what happened-“ He leaves the rest of the sentence unsaid, and Isak moves to stand in front of Even, brings his hands up to rest on either side of Even’s face, tilting it upwards to look in his eyes.

“Whatever happened,” Isak speaks slowly, clearly, making sure Even hears every word. “It’s in the past. And I don’t know what it was - and I don’t need to,” he adds when Even opens his mouth to speak, “but maybe it would help to try and, I don’t know, move past it? They miss you. It could be good to see them again.” He moves forwards, bringing their foreheads to rest together. “It’s up to you, but whatever you decide, I’m with you.”

This time, Even smiles, that soft smile he reserves for the times when Isak knows exactly what to say.

“How did I get so lucky to have you?” he muses quietly, and Isak gives a shy smile.

“I could say the same about you.”

Isak pulls him in close, then, and wraps his arms tight around him in a warm embrace, and Even feels so safe, and loved, and thankful for the boy who is holding him.

They stay like this for a few minutes, until Even makes a decision.

“I want to go,” he tells Isak, and Isak tightens his arms around Even. “And I want you there with me.”

“Always,” replies Isak. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Even smiles, and buries his face into Isak’s shoulder.

“And about our plans for today,” he says, voice lighter now, and muffled by Isak’s shoulder. “Where we kiss for three hours?”

“That’s still happening,” confirms Isak. “Didn’t think you were getting out of it, did you?”

Even lifts his head from Isak’s shoulder to look at him. “Do you think I’d want to?”

Isak flicks his eyebrows up with a grin, and Even closes the gap between them.

[elizabethsharmon]

Now life is smiling

 "Why?" Vilde asked Chris, Noora and Eva. The four of them were sitting outside the school, enjoying the sunny afternoon after one of their last days of school.

"Why, Vilde? Because it's Sana!" Noora said "We need to do something special for her!"

"I know that, Noora, but this is special" Vilde tried to defend her idea although she already knew that girls have already decided.

"Yes, it is" Eva agreed. She tried to do everything to keep the peace among them. "But we're not saying we won't do this, right Noora?"

"Of course not. I already started thinking about what to write, I think I might even actually start writing it tonight. And I agree that it's going to be amazing and heartwarming to say in front of everyone how much we love Sana, but I'm just saying that we have to buy her something, too! Just so she could always remember us and this day, even after many years go by."

Vilde knew that Noora was right. She wanted to give Sana something, too, but she was completely broke right now, she already had to borrow money from Chris or otherwise she wouldn’t be able to pay the rent and she and her mother would be kicked out of their apartment. Money - or more like no money - were the only thing that stopped Vilde from buying anything for Sana. She saw that Chris is looking at her and when their eyes met, Chris smiled and it seemed as though she was silently saying "I got you, man. It'll be alright." Vilde smiled back at her and hesitantly looked at Eva and Noora.

"So what would you like to give her?" she asked.

"Aaaah, that's the thing." Noora sighed "We have absolutely no idea."

"We only know that it has to be something really cool." Eva said "Something that would remind her of us."

"I know this store that makes custom-made bracelets." Chris remarked while eating her yogurt "Like you can for example pick a charm in the shape of the heart and write something on it."

"Wow, that's cool! We could write there something for her and she could always wear it. That's such a cool idea, Chris!" Eva said excitingly and high-fived her. "What do you think?" she asked Noora and Vilde

"Yeeeaaah, but how long we'd be waiting for it? Will it be ready for Saturday?" Noora asked and the girls could hear the doubt in her voice.

"I don't know, I'd have to check it." Chris said "But I think it's doable? It should be."

"Yes, but is it appropriate to give jewelry for Eid?" Vilde asked

"Why wouldn't it be?" Eva frowned

"I don't know, I'm just asking."

"Well, you are the one who did the research so ??"

"Yes, but there wasn't anything written about it so I don't know."

"Aaaah, see and that is why we need to ask a Muslim to tell us." Noora said and it seemed as though she wanted the conversation to go into this direction from the beginning

"But who should we ask?" Eva asked. All the girls started to think about it and suddenly Noora clapped her hands and exclaimed:

"I know! Vilde, write to Sana's brother!"

"Elias?"

"Yeah!"

"But I ... Magnus and I talked and..."

"You said you explained everything to him? And that you trust each other completely?" Eva asked. She was genuinely concerned, especially that she knew how trust issues can ruin the relationship.

"Yes, we’re fine, but still I'm not sure if Magnus would like me to chat with other men..."

"Vilde..." Noora started "we're doing it for Sana. No one says you have to chat with anyone ever again if you don't want to, we just need you to ask him what we can buy her. Or if you can't do this then just give me your phone, I'll do this. You can tell Magnus later that I stole it from you or something."

They were staring at her, waiting for her to finally do something. Vilde again looked at Chris and after seeing her reassuring smile, she took her phone out of the bag and started typing a message to Elias.

"Okay, I did it" she said while pressing the button ‘send’.

The girls were impatiently waiting in silence. After a minute or two, they heard a signal indicating that he replied. Vilde looked at her phone and frowned.

"Is it Elias?" Eva asked her

"Uhmmm yes..."

"And??? What did he say?" Noora asked, but Vilde was still staring at her phone "VILDE!" She looked at them and finally said:

"Yousef"

Now it was Eva and Chris that had the same look on their faces as Vilde had a moment ago.

"What does he mean?" Chris asked

"But isn't Yousef in Turkey?" Eva inquired just as Vilde got another message from Elias.

"He says: ‘just kidding, you don't have to give her anything. The only thing she wants is you to be there with her.’"

"Okay so we're in the starting point again." Eva muttered. They were all upset again. All except Noora, who was smiling from the moment Vilde read Elias' first text. When Eva saw the look on her face, she frowned and just said "No. Noora no. You're not serious, are you?"

Vilde and Chris didn't have a clue what was going on and just looked at the other two with a strange look on their faces:

"What is it? Noora?" Vilde asked

"I've got to go!" Noora shouted excitingly. She grabbed her things and started walking towards the street. When she was about to leave the school area, she looked at girls and screamed: “Don't worry, I got this!"

After Noora came back home, she did the research and it was just as she thought. She was right, it's totally possible. She made a new group chat with the girls and the boy squad and the balloon squad. She also added Eskild and Linn to the chat since she knew how much they both love Sana, especially Eskild who could go around talking about her for ages since Eva’s birthday party.

She told them everything and even though some of them doubted it's even possible, somehow she managed to convince them that indeed it is. Now all she had to do is convince one more person... a person without whom this whole plan simply wouldn't work. She asked everyone to keep quiet for a minute, she needed to talk with him alone for a second. Obviously the small icons indicating there are over 10 other people in the chat weren't helping at all, but she hoped he wouldn't find it unusual. After all, the group chat's name was GIFTFORSANA.

Noora: hi!

Yousef: halla

Noora: so have you heard Sana is doing an Eid party on Saturday?

Yousef: yeah, she wrote to me about it. It's gonna be pretty cool, I think

Noora: yeah and we wanted to give her something special and we were wondering if you'd like to chip in?

Yousef: of course!!!

Noora: great, but we need 273 kr*

Eva: We know it's a lot but that's for Sana

Vilde: and well, you're soulmates and we are sure this gift would mean a lot to her so pretty please ❤

Yousef: what? What are you talking about? NOORA

Noora: oh my god, I told you to be quiet! can't you just let us talk alone for a minute??

Yousef: Noora I can't believe you told them

Vilde: awww don't worry, we all think it's very cute

Mikael: awwww yes we do

Yousef: does everyone know now?

Elias: yup bro

Mikael: your life is totally over now

Yousef: does Sana know????

Vilde: yes but she thinks the same about you! Don't worry!

Noora: okay, everyone shut up or I’ll remove you from the chat!

*Adam Malik has changed the group chat name to YOUSEFHASASOULMATE*

Noora: I’ve warned you!

‘God, I knew making a group chat with these children is a bad idea’, Noora thought and removed everyone from the chat except Yousef.

Noora: I’m so sorry for them.

Yousef: that’s okay… but Noora, does Sana really know about it?

Noora: Yes. But don’t worry, she’s okay with it. She feels the same about you.

Yousef: Are you sure?

Noora: Oh my God, of course I’m sure. And more importantly you should be sure about it. She is always on the phone chatting with you these days. We hardly ever saw her this week.

Noora: So Yousef. How is Turkey? What are you doing there? I never asked you this and Sana hasn’t told me either.

Yousef: I'm looking after kids on the summer camp

Noora: that’s so cool! so you must be really busy L you work there 24/7 or you have some breaks?

Yousef: no, I work there from Monday to Friday, I managed to get my weekends off so I can go sightseeing 

Noora: oooh that's so cool!

Noora: okay, so here you go: you have a flight to Oslo from Istanbul at 10:25am on Saturday. You'll be in Oslo at 1:30p.m., we'll have someone to pick you up from the airport. You're going back on Sunday, you should be at 7p.m. in Istanbul so you'll have enough time to go back to the camp and tell the children goodnight

Yousef: Noora what?!? 

Noora: what do you mean: what?

Yousef: I don't understand a thing

Noora: what don't you understand? 

Yousef: the gift for Sana...

Noora: you are the gift for Sana. See you on Saturday?

Yousef: YES OF COURSE

Noora: ❤

                                                             ***

Sana has never realized that something like this might ever happen to her. But it did. After years of being bullied, having trouble with fitting in in the society, always thinking she is not good enough, she finally had it all. She looked around and saw all her friends laughing and chatting in her backyard. Her brother and his friends were talking to Magnus and Mahdi; next to them Sana’s father was grilling vegetarian skewers for her friends. He was saying some things to them from time to time and now he must have told them some joke because all the boys were dying from laughter. Eva, Jonas and Emma were standing awkwardly next to each other; not so far away from Sana so she could hear that Emma literally just started talking about weather. Sana thought that William and Penetrator Chris will also come, she knew that Noora and Eva invited them, but they were nowhere to be seen. Noora and Chris were hanging out on the swing set and they were having fun with Linn and Eskild. Sana was so surprised when she saw these two: Linn, wearing a beautiful, light green dress and a veil, and Eskild in a beige kurta. It was such a small gesture, but it meant the world to Sana. Eskild has told her that he also wanted to wear a veil because it looks so pretty, but when he found out that he shouldn’t, he didn’t. But Sana said she doesn’t see a problem with that and decided to borrow him one of her veils and now he was walking around, wearing her dark green hijab. She saw with the corner of her eye that Even and Isak were talking with her mother and Jamilla, while eating chebakia. Only Sara and Ingrid didn't seem to have fun, they were standing in the corner of the backyard silently judging everyone and everything, but Sana couldn't care less about them. She didn't know why the other Pepsi-Max girls didn't come, but she certainly didn't miss them. She only missed one person. And she is going to miss him for the next six weeks until he finally comes back to Oslo. She took her phone and sent him a message: "I wish you were here ❤" After a minute she got a reply and smiled. "I wish I was there too". She wanted to video call him and show him the party, she was talking to him about it all week and he gave her some ideas how to decorate the place, but he wrote to her yesterday that one of his co-workers got sick and now he has to work today as well even though Saturday was supposed to be his day off.

But still she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She was still looking at her phone, reading all the messages they sent to each other during this week, when she heard Noora and Vilde were calling her name. Abruptly woken up from this daydream, she saw Noora, Vilde, Chris, Eva, Isak and Even standing in front of everyone.

"Dear Sana" Noora started "first of all we would like to thank you for inviting us to your Eid party."

"It really means a lot to us and I think I'm speaking for all of us now." Eva continued and everyone nodded

"We should have probably said it more often, but we cannot go back in time, so here we are now and we just wanted to tell you how much we all love you." Vilde said and Sana could see that she was already barely holding back her tears.

"And what an amazing friend you are." Chris added

"What an amazing BEST BUD you are." Isak corrected her and smiled at Sana

"That's why we wanted to honour you, our friend, today." Noora said "I'm not a science person myself, and you know it, but today I would like to tell you a few things about the butterfly effect. For those of you who don't know what it is, the butterfly effect is a concept which says that small causes have large effects. And that's why I don't think it's the right name for it. Because for me it should be called ‘the Sana effect’." Sana couldn't believe in what was happening. Is this really happening? Are they really doing this? She looked at Jamilla and Elias, and at her parents, holding each other and smiling, happy that Sana finally has friends like that.

"Because if you think about it" Noora continued "none of us would be here today if not you, Sana."

"And Chris" Vilde added silently and the girls laughed

"And Chris." Noora agreed "Without you we wouldn't be Russ, Los Losers wouldn’t exist, we wouldn’t even be friends! Who knows if we would know each other at all? So I wanted to thank you for this. Thank you, Sana, for joining the bus, thank you for always supporting me and thank you for speaking to my senses when I was losing my mind."

"Thank you for fighting the battles with us and for always standing by our side" Eva added

"Thanks for being such a cool friend, Sana" Chris said smiling at

"Sana" Vilde said, wiping the tears from her face "I wanted to thank you for joining the bus. I know that the beginning of our friendship wasn't the easiest one and I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for being ignorant and disrespectful so many times. I have no idea how you managed to put up with me, but I will be forever grateful to you for sticking up with my, for forgiving me and for being my friend. You're the most amazing human being I have ever met and I love you from the bottom of my heart."

Sana knew that there’s no point in holding back her tears anymore she wouldn't be able to contain her tears anymore. She walked towards Vilde and hugged her. She whispered in her ear “I love you too, Vilde” and tried to wipe the tears off her face. Then she hugged Chris and Eva, and when she was about to hug Noora, she said:

“Uh uh, not now! Go back on your place, we haven’t finished.”

Sana laughed and went back to the place where she was standing a moment ago. Now it was Isak’s turn.

"I want to thank you for being my biology buddy. You’re the best biology partner ever, even though you don’t realize the hard truth that I’m so much better in it than you." he said, making Sana laugh again "Thank you for teaching me so many things and for sharing with me your points of view and your understanding of the world. I'm sorry if I was ignorant some times, but I never intended to hurt you, I hope you know that. And most importantly thank you for forcing me to go to that Kosegruppa meeting because if not for you I would never meet Even." while he was saying the last sentence, he squeezed Even's hand even tighter and the boys smiled at each other.

"Thank you, Sana, for inviting boys to the SYNG party and to Eva's birthday party. I don't know how much time we would go without talking to each other if we didn't meet." Even said and the balloon boys started cheering.

"Okay!" Noora said excitingly and clapped her hands "But that's not all the surprises for tonight, Sanasol! We love you so much and we know the true you. We know how you always wanted to be the real 'Norwegian party girl'..." Wait what? Sana couldn't believe in what she was hearing. Did Noora really say that or did Sana mishear it? No, she did, she really did. And while she was saying this, she and all the girls gave Sara and Ingrid the evil eye. Sana never realized that they heard Sara’s words then, but apparently they did.

"... and because of that" Noora continued "we have one more gift for you!"

Just as she finished saying this, William and Penetrator Chris started pulling out of Sana's house a huge, pink pop out cake. Sana couldn't believe her own eyes. She looked at girls flabbergasted, almost asking them with her eyes "what is it?? Guys, you know my parents are right there??"

"Come on, Sana! Open your present!" Vilde encouraged her. Sana looked at everyone and slowly approached the cake. She really really really hoped that nothing inappropriate would be inside. But girls wouldn't do anything like that... they wouldn’t, right?

Just as Sana was almost touching the cake with her fingers, suddenly it exploded and everyone started to shout: “SURPRISE”. As inside the cake was no one other than...

"Yousef!!!" Sana couldn't believe her own eyes. Is it him? Is it really him?

"Happy Eid party, Sana!" he said and smiled at her.

"But what are you doing here??? You're supposed to be in Turkey, the camp, the ill co-worker, the..." Sana started mumbling, she couldn't really express herself, she was so surprised that this is happening.

"Well, it turned out that I can have the weekend off after all" Yousef said and smiled at her. Sana couldn't think straight when he was looking at her like this, she couldn't do or say anything, the only thing she could do was to just smile back at him. She turned back to look at Elias, but he was just standing there shaking his head, smiling, and looking at her as he was almost saying "It’s not me, sis. It’s all them." She looked back at Yousef, who was still standing inside that giant cake, still smiling at her.

"So are you going to help me get out of it or what?" he asked but she didn't want to give him satisfaction.

"Naaah, I think it suits you. You can stay there." he started laughing and finally managed to get outside on his own. They were standing in front of each other, just looking into each other's eyes in complete silence. They were standing like this for a minute, although for them it seemed like eternity. Out of the sudden, Yousef broke the silence.

"Fy faen, it's so hot today! I'd better take this off"

Sana was staring at him as though she wanted to kill him with her look. Her eyes seemed to be screaming "stop, what are you doing??? My parents are right there!" But as soon as he took off his black jacket she understood what it was all about and started laughing as he was wearing a blue, Stephen Curry Warriors t-shirt.

"Aaaah, better." he said and smiled at her with one of these smiles that could almost melt her heart.

"So Stephen Curry, huh?" she asked pointing to his t-shirt.

"Yeah. I thought I’ll give him a chance. You know what they’re saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer." he said and Sana laughed again.

Soon the sun went down and they broke the fast one last time during this ramadan. The feast has really began, her mother was serving everyone harira and chebakia, while her dad was making more skewers on the grill.

Sana was standing next to Yousef, Noora, Eva, Elias and Eskild. Yousef was about to tell them about Turkey, but Eskild thought it’s a good moment to tell them about his summer fling from two years ago and was just telling them how he and Mesut went skinny dipping and later it turned out they were sunbathing on the private property of one of the Turkish ministers.

Sana looked around once again. She noticed that Emma, Ingrid and Sara disappeared, they must have left the party when Yousef came in. Vilde and Chris were taking selfies with Jamilla on the swing set. The boy squad and the balloon boys were playing the basketball together with William and Penetrator Chris. Her parents were cleaning the dishes, she reminded herself to remember to thank them for that later. Her mom noticed that she is looking at them. She looked at Sana’s friends, at Yousef, and finally she looked back at Sana. She smiled and said something and although Sana was standing too far away from her and couldn’t hear her she knew that she was saying “I love you, habibi”. Sana smiled back at her and looked at her friends again. She couldn’t believe that they really brought Yousef back for her party and that he was really here now with her. She knew that he has to leave again in a few hours but she wanted to cherish every single moment they have in the next couple of hours. She remembered the words Noora told her last week and realized that she was right. Everything is falling into place now. Now life is smiling.

                                                         ***

First of all: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING, it means a lot to me <3 It’s my first real fanfic, I really hope you enjoyed reading it <3

I guess that the first part is from Vilde’s POV, the second is from Noora’s, and the first one is from Sana’s - I haven’t planned it, it just happened like this when I was writing it.

I really hope that I didn’t make any cultural/religious mistakes, I did my research before writing so if I wrote anything that seems to be incorrect then I just want you to know I didn’t do it on purpose and please let me know asap so I can change it.

* I was trying to make it realistic so I searched some possible flights; the ticket both ways would cost around 4295kr which is around $580/€520 so they would have to pay around $32/$29 per person (I counted 18 people: the girl squad + the boy squad + the balloon squad + William + P-chris + Linn & Eskild)

[itsskamfyfaen-blog]

thantophobia

(n.) the phobia of losing someone you love

chapter 1

Chris has been with a plethora of girls in his short lifetime. Some he’s just hooked up with, others he dated for a few days or even weeks but mostly he didn’t get too attached. Eva was different. Somehow this redheaded girl who pretended to be interested in politics just to turn him off, has managed to do the opposite. At first it was because she pushed him away that he was interested in her but the moment these two kissed for the first time he was completely infatuated by her. She was fun, she was clever, her body curved in all of the right places. She knew exactly where to touch him to drive him crazy, but the fact that he wouldn’t even mind if they just talked or fooled around a little was the most peculiar to him. That just wasn’t him. Not the side of him that he and the people around him were used to at the very least.

Eva has just gotten out of a relationship and although Chris wasn’t one to date, he thought that perhaps they could give it a go. He didn’t have much time on his hands to party as he’s just gone to the army, but he was home every other weekend, and those were usually the days he spent either with his family or Eva. Eva didn’t think much of it because for the most part it was just sex, or netflix and chill as she liked to call it, while Chris has been trying to gather the courage to make things official.

He hardly slept that night. Although he usually got a pretty good night’s sleep when he was at Eva’s, he just couldn’t bare the thought of her saying anything but yes. She didn’t seem to mind it when he cuddled into her before she fell asleep, and even when his arm started to go numb he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. Her hair tickled him and even her barely audible snoring seemed cute to him then.

She felt his soft breath dangerously close to her face before something tickled her out of the very light sleep. Chris’ face was so close to hers she could count every little freckle on his face and closely examine the pattern in his sleepy eyes. He looked like he’s been awake for a while, but she could swear she didn’t feel him move before only a couple minutes ago. Eva didn’t know where he was going with his little story but it was funny. Funny because she’s had a feeling Chris would come up with something as silly in order to make his move. But it was Penetrator Chris they were talking about. Penetrator Chris who used to hook up with three girls in one night. Penetrator Chris whose hoodie half of her class proudly wore. That same guy was now sloppily asking her to be his girlfriend and her first reaction was to just laugh. Vildd’s call came in handy. The whole time that she was talking to her, she was thinking about what to say. Honestly, the thought of being in a relationship hasn’t even crossed her mind. In any relationship not just one with Penetrator Chris. So when Vilde finally let go of the topic neither of them had much knowledge of, she turned back to him. Between kisses she gave him the first excuse she could think of. One that had very little to do with the fact that it was really her that was the problem here.

Chris could hardly hide the disappointment. How could she so easily kiss him back and then in the next breath call him a fuck-boy? Was this still just … fooling around to her? When clearly it was much more to him. Luckily Chris has always been a resourceful guy. If things got in his way, he found a different path. If people said no he tried and tried and tried once again to sway them. And he was going to get this girl. He made it his number one priority to not just tell her but to actually show her that he’s changed. It didn’t go quite as planned when someone barged into her room. Eva tried her hardest to push him off her bed and into hiding, but he was done hiding. He was done playing games and being known as the hook-up. He wasn’t exactly planning to start with her mother, especially not completely naked, but Chris has never been exactly self-conscious about his body, so that worked out just fine. If you take away Eva’s blushing and utter embarrassment, his meeting her mother went quite well.

Eva didn’t know whether she should be pissed at him or to just let it go. It’s not like her mother would see him again anytime soon. Not only did she spend very little time at home, but Eva didn’t have a plan to invite Chris over in the future either. Especially not after this awkward encounter. She told Noora all about it the moment Chris walked out the door (and yes, her mother did look at him through the kitchen window for an uncomfortable amount of time). About the dream he supposedly had. About him wanting her to be his girlfriend. About him meeting her mother wrapped up in nothing but her duvet. Needless to say Noora laughed like a maniac.

Chris felt weird. The unexpected encounter didn’t embarrass him, not in the slightest, but it definitely wasn’t the ideal way to meet your future girlfriend’s mother. In his mind the perfect meeting went along the lines of him bringing a rather expensive bottle of wine to one of their dinners. While being fully dressed of course. But with the way Eva brushed him off when he indirectly asked her about becoming his girlfriend, he realised he had quite a way to go. Chris never would have thought he would be googling ways to impress girls. The first that came to mind was buying flowers, but that seemed so old fashioned, and so did taking her out to dinner. For a minute there he considered messaging Chris or asking William to prod Noora for some useful information, but in the end he did something much more brave and out there. He messaged her ex boyfriend. He didn’t have to wait long but the answer he got just wasn’t what he was hoping for. It seemed way too specific and the last thing he wanted was for Eva to see him as Jonas 2.0.

Eva was studying for her last final exam when the doorbell rang. Her mother’s flight has just gone so it couldn’t possibly be her, and she wasn’t expecting anyone else either. Sana was trying to convince Chris that studying could in fact be super fun, Noora hasn’t stepped foot out of William’s apartment in days, and Vilde was most likely busy questioning people about ideal Eid-celebration gifts. It was because of those reasons that she was completely taken aback by the image she walked into. None other than Penetrator Chris with a bouquet of flowers in his hand, leaning on the doorframe looking as dreamy as ever. His hair was immaculate and he was wearing a white shirt that clung to his body like a glove. He’s always been one of the most attractive 97’ guys, but ever since he’s gotten into the army … she truly was left speechless.

His heart was beating like crazy. What would she say? Does she even like peonies? And what were those small white ones … baby breath? A funny name for a flower but they seemed cute. When Eva opened the door her facial expression was like a code he needed to crack open before he could actually understand what she was thinking. Did she think he was being stupid? Did she actually like his gesture? Was it too much? Was it not enough? There were so many things going on in his head that all he managed to mumble out were a few confused words. And then (thankfully) she cut in and invited him to that party William’s been going on and on about. Apparently boyfriends were invited so perhaps that was her way of letting him know that they could try.

When he left that night Eva was beating herself up for inviting him. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t want everyone to look at them and their minds immediately go “Why did Eva bring her fuck-boy to Sana’s party”. But the damage was done. It’s not like she could un-invite him. In these past few weeks she’s seen him go out of his way to please her, she’s seen him do things that were nothing like the things Penetrator Chris would do, yet she was still wary and scared. She was scared to going from one relationship into the other. She was terrified of it being considered a rebound relationship. She wanted to be confident and a hundred percent sure before starting to date again. Did she like him? Yes! God, yes! Has he changed for real? She guessed so. Even Christina agreed and she was the last person Eva expected to take Chris’ side in this. Did it feel good when he was around? Yes! Was she ready to make it official? Probably not … but perhaps … perhaps they could just do it anyway.

Chris was nervous. Rightfully so, too. He’s never been to Sana’s before and the parties these guys usually attended looked nothing like this Eid celebration or whatever it was called. The food was great, though. Nothing like what he’s tasted before, but still incredibly delicious. Eva looked a little spaced out. He knew he wanted this to work out, he was a hundred percent sure he wanted to be seen with her and to eventually be introduced as her boyfriend not as someone she sleeps with every here and there. But the way she carried herself around him, how unsure and careful she was not to make any physical contact with him … it made him feel like his invitation was passed on just because he forced it out of her by surprising her with a bunch of peonies. It made him feel like he’s just lost something beautiful and important and he was left to wander alone in the dark. It felt like the whole world just started to fall apart an there was nothing he could do to stop it from collapsing on top of him. He needed to get away. Away from her and away from the person he’s become. Because he didn’t like that Chris. The Chris that could get hurt so easily. The Chris that shopped for flowers and fell in love. And instead of pushing those dark thoughts away, he embraced them. He was done trying. He was done pretending that anyone would ever see anything but a fuck-boy in him.

[iamacolor]

So when does Sana tell Yousef about the time she got jealous and emailed William and how does he react?

Ithappens when Yousef is back from Turkey on Sana’s first day ofschool.

Youseftextsher when she getsback home from school asking her if she hasfinished school already, saying he doesn’twant to call her if she isn’tat home. Instead of replying, she calls him

“Hello!

-Hello! Are you done with school yet?

-Yes I’m at home right now, just arrived.

-Ah good! I wanted to know how your day had been, did it went well?

She’stouched that he thought of calling her, made sure she wasn’t atschool and is genuinely curious about her day. She starts telling himabout her different teachers, her timetable and before she knows itthey’ve been on the phone for 30 minutes and are now telling eachother stories about high school and their classmates.

Heistelling her the story of a girl in his class who during the last yeargot a revenge on her crush, who had kissed another girl at a party,by putting rotten fruits in his locker every day for a week as wellas the locker of the girl he had kissed .

-The guy had no idea who had done it and when he found out it was herand confronted her, she dragged him in front of the whole school!

-Oh wow

-Yeah, it’s crazy the things that jealousy makes you do

-Jealousy eats you up from the inside until you have to let it allout. And you don’t even realise what you’re doing. Trust me, I know.

Whenhe doesn’t reply right away, she realizes what she just said andbites her lips.

-What do you mean by that Sana?

Sheisn’t sure that she’s ready to answer that question. Maybe it is timeafter all. She doesn’t know how to start

-Sana? Are you ok?

-Yes, I just…

-What is wrong?

-Remember what we talked about the evening before you left?

-Of course I do

Shecan hear that he is getting worried and is lost

-I told you I hadn’t been good during Ramadan. I told you aboutgetting bullied when I was younger and having troubles dealing withmy anger when things like that happen to me. Well the bad things Idid weren’t only related to that. Some of it had to do with jealousy.

-Ok… Sana, can you come out now?

-What?

-Yes, can you come out so we can talk about this face to face?

Afew minutes later, she iscoming out of her building and he iswaiting for her outside. He smilessoftly and she isn’treally sure what to say. He proposesto go to the nearest park. They walk in silence as she triesto prepare her words. She looks at him regularly and he seemsconcerned even if he smiles ather.They reach the pitch and sit down in front of each other, legscrossed. She takes a deep breath as he says :

-Alright, tell me everything, I am listening.

Butwill you understand? she wonders.

-I first got jealous of Noora at that first party we all went totogether. The one where you brought the balloons remember? I went topray in one of the rooms and when I came out and arrive in the livingroom you were sitting next to each other and you looked like youreally enjoyed each other company. That’s when I first got jealous ofNoora. Because of you.

Shecan see him trying to remember the party and realizingwhat it means about how she felt about him back then. She continuesbefore he can say anything.

-It happened a few times again. When she mentioned you and said youwere nice, when the girls said you were cute and that you’d be greatfor Noora,when we brought Elias at her place and you were laughing together.

-But Sana…

-Please let me finish.

Henods

-Before I tell you what happened next, I am going to tell you whathappened with the girls that you saw at that party at my house.

Sheexplains everything to him. The story with the Pepsi max squad andthe girls, the fact that Vildewas bus boss, how she herself became boss and how things were goinguntil that evening at the karaoke. She hesitates before telling himabout the pictures she took of isak’s conversation with Sara and theInstagram account that she made, aswell as theone made against Vilde. She didn’t plan on telling him all thesedetails and yet, here she is pouring her heart out to this boy who islistening so intensely to her, brows furrowed and tension in his jaw.He doesn’t interrupt her flow of words. She doesn’t think she everexplained the situation in asmany details as she does now. He is angry she can see, angry becauseof her pain, because of what she had to go through. He doesn’tapprove of her actions but she knows that he understands.

Whenshe is done, she takes a deep breath, preparing to tell him aboutwhat happened with noora. Before she talks, he says :

”-What you did was not good Sanabut what they did, Sara, as well as the other girls, it was awful. Ihope you realize that you are not the bad one in this story. I am soangry at them right now and I can’t believe you invited them to yourEid party. You’re too good Sana,you truly are “. He says these words so softly, to make surethat she understands. He doesn’t blame her, he supports her andthat’s all she needs tocontinue.

-Thecrazy thing I did because of jealousy, was using Noora’spassword to hack her email address and send an email to Williamasking him to come back even if she didn’t want to send it. I diditat a time when I was in a really dark place and I know it wasn’tright, even if she is happy now. I should not have gone behind herback. And the reason why I was feeling so bad, wasn’t because I hadseen you laugh with her but because of what happened at the karaokebar.

Shecan’t say it. She just can’t. It’s hard enough to think about it evennow. He understands after a few seconds what she is referring to andhe looks terrified at first. Then remorse kicks in and he puts hishead in his hands.

-This is the thing I regret the most Sana I promise, I…

-I know it didn’t mean anything. Noora explained it to me. But backthen I didn’t and it hurt me so much. And from that moment, I justcouldn’t get it out of my head. The idea of you two being together,added to what hadjust happenedwith the girls for the bus. It was too much and so when the boys saidyou were on a date with her, rightafter she told me she had good news, I lost it and emailed William.And I didn’t regret it at first because I just wanted her to.. Idon’t know what I wanted really, to separate you I guess. I’m gladshe’s happy with William now, but I still feel bad about doing it.

Shewaits for his reaction.

Insteadof talking, he stands up and come to sit down next to her. He slowlytakes her hand from her lap and holds it between his own hands. Hebrushes his thumbs softly on her palm sending shiversall over her body. She can see that he is having trouble finding hiswords. He locks eyes with her and says:

-Going behind your friend’s back was a bad thing to do. And you knowthat. After hearing all the things you had to go through, it’s awonder you haven’t done anything worse. Actually it’s not, becauseyou’re a good person, no,you’re a great person and you’re one of the best and most interestingperson I’ve ever met. Knowing I caused you that much pain, it…burnsme inside. I apologizefor all the pain I’ ve caused you and I’ll keep on apologizingfor a long time. I regretted itassoon as it happened. But I want you to know that I never thoughtabout anyone else the way I think about you. You’ve been on my mindfor so long it’s like you’ve always been there. But this isn’t aboutme. This is about you. You and how strong you are. What you did waswrong but you came out of it. And you are so good to your friends andso kind. You reacted badly, yes. Sometimes you can be really sharpand harsh but it’s because of what happens to you, it is not who youare. You are not what happens to you. And I…I wouldn’t changeanything about you.

Shedidn’t realizehowmuchshe needed to hear him say these things to her before now. How muchshe needed him to apologize,to tell her that he regretted what had happened, that he understoodher pain, that he didn’t think she was a bad person, that hesupported her and that he accepted her. She feels asthougha weight is lifted off her shoulders. She doesn’t think she ever feltmore connected to him that she does in this moment after going backthrough the pain together. She takes a deep breath.

-I wouldn’t change anything about you either.

-Really?

-Really. Thanks for making me talk about this.

Histhumbs are now tracing patterns on her hands. The tension is slowlyfading away as they smile at each other.

-You’re dangerously close to being a hacker though, you’ve got skillsgirl.

-Shutup or I’ll hack you.

Asthe sun sets, they keep on laughing and talking. Simply enjoying thefact that they have each other now.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello Anon! I don’t know if you were asking for my thoughts or headcanons or a drabble or a fic but as soon as I started thinking about this I knew it’d be a one shot so I hope you like it! I’m not used to writing these two with a little bit of angst but this is a really important moment

[dreamilymagicalhideout]

Sprained Ankle

Keanu Reeves You

(I imagine him in Donaka Mark style, but not evil)

Keanu just sat on the bed, you straightening your feet because both of them got sprained. At first, you just sprained one of your feet, but just now you sprained the other one. Your husband, Keanu is the agile one, he played in so many action movies. So injury is not a new thing for him, neither did you, not because you also played in action movie, but because you are too clumsy. That’s why you both match in a way that in a way that is same, but also different.

You got the first sprained feet when you come to Keanu’s Man of Tai Chi movie shoot. You also want to try to be like Everyone in there can do some martial art or a kung fu, you want to try too, so you practice with them, unfortunately you step on something and that make you lose your balance, you try to stand, but it was too hard, you ended up sprained your ankle. It hurts so bad, Keanu and crews were coming to you and help, you feel embarrassed, you really are ridiculous, and childish. Actually at that time, Keanu is not finished with his shoots, but because of you, he got home. You feel bad, but chose to go home by yourself is not an option.

Keanu is already take a shower, and it seems like he is ready to sleep, you sighed in relieve. This means he won’t know about your new sprained ankle, your new sprained ankle is happend today, this afternoon. You should be rest at the bed, but the cookie jar is on the living room, you can’t help it. So, you try to walk with your cane, when you just two meters from your bed you lose your balance and fall and sprained your ankle. Luckily, the cookie jar is not broken, so you try to sit on the bed while eating cookies and praying the pain is your ankle is not a sprained ankle, but turned out it is.

“Have you eaten?” Keanu is now looking at you with messy hair, fresh scent, deep husky voice, and intense contemplative gaze. “I have”

No, you don’t. You are hungry, and now you should wait for the next ten hours to eat. The last time you eat is six hours ago, you need to eat, but you still don’t want to tell him.

“Sleep” he takes your hand, inviting you to sleep with him, you carefully lying your body, trying not to make your feet hurt, but in the end it still does. You think you already hiding the wince expression on your face, but turns out you didn’t hide it very well.

“Your feet still hurt?”

“Uhuh” you lay in bed, looking at him.

“Aweee come here” he said while pulling ,your hand. You hug him and pretend your feet didn’t hurt, he smiles and pinch your cheek, you are thin, but you’re chubby. “How did you grow this?” He still pinch it, it’s not that hurt.

“I’m kinda miss your beard” because he was shooting for his new movie he has to cut all his beard.

“I’ll grow it later after the movie”

“Goodnight”

“You seriously want to sleep?” He asked in disbelief. Now it’s 11.45 pm. “Yes” you look at him quizzically, it is normal for someone to sleep at this hour.

“I just thinking to go with you to somewhere” he tries to open your eyes which already closed. “Right now? At this hour?”

“Yes”

“It’s too late isn’t it?” Isn’t he tired?

“Yes” he knows it’s late but still want to go somewhere “let’s go tomorrow, i need sleep right now”

-

You wake up with a dry mouth, Keanu is gone and you heard rustling from the bathroom. It must be Keanu. You just think about going to the kitchen to drink a glass of water when you realize my feet is sprained. You haven’t told Keanu yet. You try to move your feet and the it hurts, a lot. You cringe and hid your face on your pillow, what should you do?

You hear the bathroom door open, you don’t care, you just hid your face and not moving an inch, thinking about how should you spend the rest of your day with a sprained ankle. Well, you shouldn’t think about that, you should think about how to tell Keanu, but your brain is focused on the pain on my ankle, you can’t think of anything else.

“Hey, you can’t breathe if you sleep like that” his hand gently moved your shoulder, but you’re to lazy to move.

His body landed at your back, you can’t breathe. Your 5'1" is not a match for his 6'1" you’re one foot apart. He lifted his body and lay beside you.

“Come on wake up” You face him now, his hair is wet and he smells good. You have no intention of get out of this bed. “Keanu”

“Hmm?”

You didn’t say a word after that, and thinking for a seconds about what to say. “I don’t feel like doing anything this day, let’s just stay in the bed”

“I’m going to take you to the pet store today” You really really want a puppy, you have been telling Keanu to get you one, but he was too busy with his work so he didn’t have enough time. You are exuberant because he wants to buy you a puppy, just thinking about that enough to make you feel giddy.

You forgot about your ankle, you want a puppy more than anything, you sure that you can endure a few steps until you can get a puppy. You moved slowly, trying not to bump your feet into anything, Keanu chuckled because you are so eager to have a puppy until you forgot your laziness in the morning and started to get ready.

You put both of your feet on the floor, it’s still morning, so it colds. You take a deep breath while chanting on your mind ‘don’t fall don’t fall don’t fall’. You stand up and fall instantly, both of your ankle stung so bad, it even more hurts now because you force it. Keanu is now beside you, looking at you up and down and ask if you’re alright. He carried you then put you on the bed, straightening your feet and examined your ankle.

“I don’t recall you have two sprained ankle” You look at him sheepishly, there’s no point of denying that, both of your ankle is already turned purple, no wonder it hurts. You rry to come up with explanation, but you didn’t have one.

“Yeah” That’s the best you can do. “I’m sorry, I’m thinking about telling you this-” he already sensed thhe ‘but’ and looking at you, waiting for you to explain. “but” You run out of ideas so you just shrugged your shoulder.

“Next time, if something like this happend you have to tell me” You nodded at him, but still looking at him, hoping he still thinking about going to the pet store. He feels your gaze on him, suddenly understand what you’re trying to say. “We get a puppy after your feet heal”

“Now, like you said, today you just stay in bed, being a good husband that I am. I’m going to accompany you stay in bed so you don’t feel lonely” You smile then kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you”

-

I'm thinking about making a sequel of this one shot. Sorry for not update about my baby Keanu for too long, and Happy Eid Mubarak everyone!♥♥♥