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eccacia · 7 years ago

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wonderful you came by [part 16]

Summary: Caitlin’s a no-nonsense science major. Barry’s the quintessential charming star athlete. When they’re paired off and forced to interact in class, Caitlin’s determined to resist his charms, but Barry’s also pretty determined to get under her skin… It all boils down to a battle between head and heart, and Caitlin’s not one to give in to her heart so easily. [College AU]

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, or read on ff.net

Rating: T

Notes: I know it’s been five months, but… Look! An update! Sorry I’ve been gone awhile. This chapter was tough, life’s been tough, being newly unemployed is tough, etc. etc. Anyway, I miss you all. This is more of a friendship chapter, since I want to wrap up all the loose ends and lay the groundwork for the last plot point. After this, I’m estimating we have 1-2 more chapters to go and then an epilogue (AAAAH! Can you believe it?!) so I hope you’ll stick around. :)

Some shout-outs: To Gaby, as always, for the encouragement, and in celebration of our three-year long friendship on this site. To @panalegs27, for the unwavering enthusiastic support and the messages that make me smile. To @purpleyin, who, to my great surprise and delight, left a review on all my stories and on every chapter in this fic (!!!). To Random Lurker, for leaving such a sweet review; it made my terrible day better. And, last but not the least, to Of Pencils and Penguins (formerly The Pickle System), who beta-read this chapter in a flash (pun fully intended)—he fixed all the pesky grammatical errors, cleaned up my dialogue, and pointed out the scenes that needed tweaking or rewriting. I can’t thank you enough. This chapter won’t be what it is without your help. :)

Disclaimer: Nope, I don’t own The Flash.

Barry parted ways with her outside of her dorm, and as she moved from the open, starry night to the closed, fluorescent-lit hallways of the building to her dark, unoccupied room, unease replaced the earlier sense of lightness she’d felt. She’d been harboring this sense of unease since her fight with Felicity yesterday, but her anxiety about the orals and about Barry had dominated such a large portion of her emotional landscape that this unease had receded into the background.

But now, faced with a Felicity-less room, which had been voided of the sounds of their easy companionship—the scrape of the wheels of her chair against the floor, the quick, light tapping of her fingers on her laptop, the rip of Swiss Miss packets at the end of a long day—Caitlin felt the unease return with a vengeance.

She slumped into her chair. How was it that she managed to push two people who were important to her away in the space of a week? For someone who’d always thought of herself as self-sufficient and fiercely independent, she was realizing how emotionally affected she could be when the relationships in her life went awry.

Well, at least she knew Felicity better than she did Barry. She knew, for instance, that her friend dealt with her hurt by avoiding its cause, and that while she was in this avoidance phase, it was best to give her space. But she also knew that approaching her first was already winning half the battle. So it boiled down to timing—intuiting when enough time had passed since the avoidance started, and intuiting when the best time was to approach her.

It was, she supposed, the same way Felicity would tiptoe around her when she was deep in work mode, hazarding guesses at the best time to disturb her. She had guessed wrong yesterday—had prodded her at the wrong time, in the wrong way—and much to her shame, she had exploded.

She grimaced. She could call Oliver right now to ask if he’d seen her, but she was already so tired. There’d been more emotions packed into this day than she’d had in her entire twenty-something years of existence, and even if some of those emotions were pleasant, she still felt incredibly drained.

Tomorrow, then, she thought, crawling into her bed. She’d apologize tomorrow.

The next day, Caitlin set about to look for her friend in all her usual haunts, but as expected, she couldn’t find her in any of them. She texted Cisco on the off-chance that he’d seen her, but he merely replied with, “? u can call her? and aren’t u roommates” and, a few seconds later, “OH wait r u fighting :( idk where she is bt i hope u make up soon”.

So she had no choice but to give Oliver a call, which, in the first place, had been the most logical thing to do.

…But also the most awkward, because she and Oliver weren’t exactly on calling terms. There was also the fact that she had been staunchly against them when Felicity had really started liking him. Sure, she’d been the one to dare her to talk to him, but she’d done it because she’d believed that her friend had more common sense than to fall for the shallowest rich boy on campus, and because she didn’t think that Felicity was Oliver’s type.

Needless to say, Felicity did not have as much common sense as she’d expected, and Oliver turned out to be decent under his party-boy exterior. While she was right in guessing that Felicity wasn’t his type, she hadn’t guessed that he’d fall for her anyway. He’d liked Felicity so much that, upon sensing Caitlin’s unspoken antagonism, sought to prove all her previous notions of him wrong—he cleaned up his act, stopped flirting with every leggy girl he came across, and stopped hanging out with the shadier cliques in the popular crowd—until she finally came to accept them together.

Still, that didn’t mean they would be besties, or that they’d take to each other the same way Felicity had taken to Digg and Barry and Tommy and the rest of Oliver’s friends. They were content to regard each other with civility.

Which brought her back to her current dilemma: She and Oliver were civil, but not on calling terms.

She sighed. Well, it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. They would have to be on calling terms now if they both cared about Felicity.

Having decided on her course of action, she sent him a short text to ask when he was free to take a call. His answer was immediate: “Now is good.” He picked up on the first ring.

“Hey. You’re looking for Felicity?” he said.

Well, if there was one thing Caitlin respected him for, it was his propensity for cutting right to the chase.

“Yes,” she said. “Did she stay over at your place?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But she left for class this morning, and she hasn’t been back yet. I thought she’d headed to the dorm.”

Caitlin frowned. “Well… she’s definitely not here.”

“Oh.” There was a pause. “She’s… been really down the past few days,” he ventured tentatively. “Said something about this being a replay of sophomore year, but didn’t go into the specifics.”

“Oh,” she said.

“Care to elaborate?” His tone was careful. “I mean, when my girlfriend and one of my best friends share a bottle of Smirnoff from my bar because of the same person, I feel like I deserve an explanation from the said person.”

Caitlin winced. “Can said person just buy you another bottle of Smirnoff instead?”

“Nice try,” he said wryly. “Spare me the details with Barry, I know way too much already. I just want to hear about the whole… sophomore year thing. If… that’s okay. She—she usually tells me everything, and I can’t—I don’t know how to talk to her if she doesn’t—talk. To me.”

When he said those last two sentences, Oliver sounded as if he was having a nail extracted for every word he spoke. She could almost see his grimace deepening the more he talked. Strangely enough, it comforted her, because this was something she could identify with. He was nearly as emotionally stunted as she was, stripped of that glamorous façade, and she imagined that she had the same expression that he had now whenever she talked about her feelings. Granted, this was the same reason they couldn’t be friends, and were instead friends with people like Felicity and Barry who were so open about their feelings that they were practically begging to be taken advantage of, but still. This kind of kinship was also comforting. Painfully awkward, but comforting.

So Caitlin took a deep breath and proceeded to tell him about sophomore year—the year they had their first real fight as friends.

It happened towards the end of their first term as sophomores. She’d been swamped with so many requirements and had been putting so much pressure on herself that she’d turned down all of Felicity’s invitations to parties, dinners, and even their hallowed Sunday lunches. Sometimes she didn’t even bother to acknowledge her in the room, because she didn’t want a break in her concentration. This went on for a month, until Felicity gave up trying to talk to her altogether. She avoided all their usual haunts and materialized in their room only to sleep. It was a miserable few months for both of them (and for Cisco, who’d shuttled back and forth between them), and it went on for as long as it did because, ironically, it had been easier to keep snubbing each other than to break their deadlock.

“Eventually, I just swallowed my pride and just went up to her during lunch. And even before I said anything, she burst out crying and hugged me,” Caitlin said.

He chuckled. “That sounds like her.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” she said. She decided to leave out the embarrassingly sappy things they told each other that time, like when Felicity told her, in between hiccups, You know, real talk—I’d get over a breakup with a guy faster than a breakup with you. Like, a friend break-up. Because guys are so… replaceable, you know? And there’s only one of you, and… where’ll I ever find another Caitlin Snow?

She didn’t think Oliver would respond favorably to that.

After their tearful reunion, though, they’d implicitly agreed never to talk about that time again. It seemed they both knew that the smooth continuation of their friendship hinged on completely burying that hatchet. So Felicity continued to tiptoe around her when she was busy, and continued to clam up when she was hurt. Maybe that was why she thought that her recent blow-up was an echo of sophomore year.

“She’s in Jitters, by the way,” Oliver said. “She told me not to tell you, but I don’t like seeing her miserable, and I don’t think I’m the person to cheer her up.”

“Oh,” she said. “Um, thanks.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Just… go talk to her. And make sure that she doesn’t steal too many drinks from my bar.”

Her lips lifted into a small smile. “The former, I can promise. The latter, not so much.”

. . .

In a way, it made sense that Felicity was at Jitters. Since she knew that Caitlin was avoiding Barry, and that Barry frequented Jitters, then she must have thought that there was a good chance that Caitlin would also avoid Jitters.

It didn’t take long to spot Felicity’s messy high ponytail in the crowd, and she was so deeply absorbed in her work that she didn’t even feel her approach.

“Hey,” Caitlin said, touching her shoulder, and Felicity immediately startled in her seat.

“Oh my God! Don’t scare me like th—”

When she saw it was her, though, she schooled her expression into a neutral one. The change was so dramatic that it unnerved her.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” God, she was terrible at this. “Can I… Is this seat taken?”

“No.”

This was agonizing. Any dim hope she’d harbored of this being like their first make-up was quashed.

“Felicity,” she said. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.”

Silence. And then, “Okay.”

“Okay as in…?”

She shrugged. “It’s fine.”

It was decidedly not fine. Felicity was not as adept at hiding her emotions as she thought, because Caitlin could see her trying to hide them. “Felicity…”

Silence. And then, softly, “I’ve been tiptoeing around you for years, did you know that?” she said. “No, wait—you probably never noticed, but I’ve been doing it since we started rooming together. Since our first year. When things would get busy—for both of us, not just for you—you would transform into this ticking time bomb. One wrong move on my part, and you’d explode.”

Caitlin sat very still. “I… never knew,” she said. “It’s just…”

She trailed off. She was about to say that it was a bad habit she’d picked up from her father, who’d regarded disturbances—a category which even his young, too-inquisitive daughter and his flaky wife fell into—with murderous intent, so everyone had always adjusted to him without question or complaint. But this sounded like an excuse, and in a rare flash of human insight, Caitlin saw that an excuse wouldn’t save their friendship.

So she held her tongue.

Felicity continued, “Every time you get like that, I have to worry about how to get you to eat and function like a normal human being without risking our friendship. Do you know how tiring that gets?”

Caitlin exhaled. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I never meant you to feel like…” She paused to gather the right words. “Like I’d only be friends with you if you never made me mad.”

“Yeah, but that’s how you come off sometimes,” Felicity said. “Would it hurt to say, ‘Hey, Felicity, I’m really stressed and I don’t want to talk about it now’? It’s not hard. I mean, I let you know when I’m about to binge-code so you’d know better than to expect me to clean my part of the room for the rest of the week.”

“Or shower, for that matter,” Caitlin couldn’t help saying. When she realized her misstep she quickly amended it with, “Sorry—”

“God, not relevant, Cait,” Felicity said.

“Sorry,” Caitlin said. She’d unknowingly slipped back into their usual easy banter at the worst possible time. “Sorry.”

Her friend’s expression was now shuttered, and Caitlin had the sinking feeling that she’d blown her attempt at reconciliation.

The silence stretched between them.

“Felicity,” she finally said, unable to bear it, “I’m sorry, I really am. Please don’t shut me out.”

“Oh, you mean like what you do to me?”

Caitlin winced. The accusation rang so true that it hurt. The silence grew more and more tense the longer those words hung in the air, and she frantically reached for something appropriate to say.

“I… It… was wrong of me… to do that to you,” she said quietly. “You didn’t deserve any of it.” A pause. “I’ve been an asshole friend. I’m sorry.”

Felicity fiddled with the keys of her laptop. She gave no indication of having heard her.

A crazy sense of desperation seized her. She felt like she would do anything—anything—to get Felicity to talk to her, anything to draw her out of that damning silence… It made her more painfully aware that this was the same emotional distress she put Felicity (and Barry, for that matter) through whenever she gave her the cold shoulder. She would never do this again, she thought vehemently. She would never make her friends—her best friend—feel this shitty ever again, if said best friend would still care to talk to her. No wonder Felicity had burst out crying last time the moment she approached… Any move to break this kind of silence would have brought on waves of delirious relief.

Felicity continued fiddling with her keys. She uncrossed her legs. She leaned back against her chair. She let out a breath, and since it was so quiet between them, Caitlin could tell that this breath was a beat longer than was normal.

Felicity seemed to be on the verge of speaking. Caitlin braced herself.

“You’re not an asshole friend,” she finally said. She still wasn’t looking at her, but at least she was talking to her. She was talking to her. “You just… revert to assholic behavior when stressed.”

Caitlin held her breath. That was it. That was Felicity’s olive branch. She would have sagged in her seat from sheer relief, but she had to play this right.

“Assholic behavior,” she said carefully.

“What, you’re not used to Feliciticisms yet?” her friend said, finally looking at her. A small smile stretched across her face.

Caitlin blinked. She smiled. Definitely a good sign. Definitely a sign to play along, to ease back into the usual banter of their friendship. “I still can’t figure out how you say that,” she said. “Felicisms would have been a lot easier on the tongue.”

“Yes, but I’m a Felicity, not a Felici,” she said. “Although, come to think of it, Felici sounds a lot chicer.”

“True.” Caitlin paused and took a risk. “Probably why it doesn’t suit you.”

“Hey. You were the one who proposed Felicism.”

She tried to contain her smile. “Because it would be easier to pronounce, not because you look like a Felici.”

“Same banana.”

“No, they’re not. And for the record, there are more than 1,000 discovered varieties of bananas in the world.”

“Okay, just, no,” Felicity said. “How do you even know stuff like that?”

“The same way you know who invented ramen.”

“Technically, Momofuku Ando invented instant noodles, not…” She trailed off. “…Right. Point taken.”

Caitlin nodded. “The internet is a dark place.”

“Ah, yes. Two young, impressionable women frequenting websites with lurid pictures of bananas and noodles—positively scandalous.”

They shared a smile.

“Just… give me that heads-up, okay?” Felicity said, sobering. “So I know how to help you. Like how you fix my bed and buy me takeout when I’m binge-coding, or how you let me interrupt you to whine about how hard troubleshooting a faulty segment is. Even if you have zero idea of what I’m talking about.”

“Okay,” Caitlin said. She would’ve agreed to anything at this point. “I can’t promise I’ll always be able to do it, but I’ll try. I’ll really try.”

“You better,” Felicity said, grinning. “We’ve been friends for almost seven years. I’d say it merits some amount of trying.”

“Well, seven years is only slightly longer than some marriages, after all. I can manage more than some amount of trying.”

Felicity’s smile softened. “So. Friends?”

“Friends,” she affirmed. “Seven years and counting.” She paused. “I think we’re supposed to hug at this point, but can I just give you a mental hug? I’ve reached my sappiness limit for the day.”

Felicity laughed. “Mental hug accepted. I knew there was something weird about you today.”

“Well, I was apologizing to you. I had to summon the appropriate amount of sappiness.”

“Have you been manipulating me with sappiness?”

“I wouldn’t call it manipulation,” Caitlin said primly. “It’s more like scheduling sappiness usage for a rainy day.”

“By scheduling sappiness,” Felicity said, her smile turning wicked, “do you also mean the Saturday night you spent with a certain Bartholomew Henry Allen under the stars?”

“That was an unscheduled and unintentional leakage of sappiness,” Caitlin said. “And how much do you already know, anyway?”

“Only that you kissed,” Felicity said with feigned nonchalance. “No big deal. It was only your first kiss, after all, which you kept a secret for almost a week from your best friend, your companion since girlhood, the sister of your heart—”

“Are you done with the melodramatics?” she said dryly.

“—oh, wait, I’ll have to call Cisco and Jax,” Felicity said, pulling her phone out. “They need to hear this. It’s more time-efficient, too, since you’ll only have to tell the story once.”

“Time-efficient,” Caitlin repeated. “You’re talking to me about time efficiency.”

“Yeah. What, think I haven’t learned a thing or two about your reasoning after seven years of being the foremost Caitlin Snow scholar? Although,” she mused, “it looks like I’ll soon have to relinquish that title soon, since a certain Barry Allen is proving to be a quick study—”

“Felicity, you’re rambling,” Caitlin said.

“That was hardly—oh, fine, calling them…”

“Can you tell them that we’ll meet in front of the library instead?” Caitlin said, casting a furtive glance around them. “Jitters is kind of—”

“His turf, right,” Felicity said. “Got it.” She tucked her phone between her ear and shoulder, and slipped her laptop into her bag. “Hey Cisco, any chance you’re free now…?”

. . .

“Ola, ladies,” Cisco said, making his way to their table with his usual grin. Even from afar, they heard him coming by the tinkle of the many keychains he’d hung all over his backpack. “Glad to see you two have reconciled. I thought I’d have to be your messenger again or something.”

“Yeah, well,” Felicity said. “Signs of maturity, I guess.”

“Boring,” Cisco said. “In a good way, I mean. No one needs drama all the time, am I right?”

“You sure? Because Caitlin has a lot of drama to tell.”

“Oooh, saucy. You sure are getting a lot of drama lately, come to think of it,” Cisco said. “Where was all this in high school? And in the last, I don’t know, two years in college—”

“I don’t know, Cisco, I don’t think one can space out the dramatic events in one’s life—”

“Rhetorical question, chica,” he said breezily, waving a hand. “I’m sure you know what that is—”

“What’s up, guys?” Jax said, sliding into the seat beside Cisco. He pocketed his phone and dropped his duffel bag to the ground. “Is this an update on Barry or what?”

“Well,” Caitlin said, “somewhat.”

“I am so excited,” Felicity said. “I can’t wait to hear your version of the kiss.”

“THE KISS?!” Cisco gaped. “Whoa, okay, slow down, this is too much—”

“I… haven’t even started yet…”

“Her version?” Jax interjected, looking at Felicity. “What other version is there?”

“Dude,” Cisco said. “I can’t believe that’s what you fixated on.”

“I heard it first from Barry,” Felicity said, waving a hand. “Anyway, long story, and not exactly relevant—”

“Not exactly rele—Felicity, what was his version?” Caitlin said suddenly. “What did he tell you?”

“Oh, pretty vague stuff,” she said. “Mostly it was about you breaking his heart.”

Cisco blinked. “Is it just me, or are things moving way too fast?”

“Last I heard you weren’t even sure if he liked you,” Jax said, also confused, “and now you already broke up? And if you”—he gestured to Felicity—“and Barry’re tight, why didn’t you just ask him for advice, instead of asking us?”

“Well,” Felicity mused, “a little Smirnoff goes a long way in solidifying friendships…”

“She and Barry shared a bottle of vodka between them the other night,” Caitlin clarified. “Well, technically, it was Oliver’s vodka, but anyway.”

“Dang,” Jax said. “Any chance I can get an invite to one of those in the future?”

“Yeah, it’d be nice to hang out at Oliver’s pad again,” Cisco said wistfully. “That sound system is to die for…”

“Wait,” Felicity said suddenly, turning to her, “that’s how you knew where to find me—you called Oliver and Oliver told you, that traitor—”

“Yes?” Caitlin said. “You thought I just guessed?”

“Well, I didn’t really—okay, never mind, we’re getting way off topic. So, Cait, tell us what happened last Saturday.”

“We all saw the sing-off,” Cisco said smugly. “And boy, you owe me big time for that—”

“It would’ve been better if you’d given me more drinks,” she muttered. “No chance kissing him if I’d passed out.”

Cisco ignored her. “—and we saw you slow-dancing to that weird Despacito remix,” he said. “Well, Felicity and I did. Jax probably didn’t.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yeah, to fill you in, they slow-danced to a Despacito remix.”

He gave Cisco a withering look. “Yeah, I grasped the concept, thanks.”

“You’re caught up, then,” Caitlin said, pleased. “So after the slow-dancing, we went up to the balcony—”

“The one for VIPs?” Jax said.

“Yes, the one for VIPs,” she said. “Anyway, I was slightly tipsy. As a result of faulty judgment, I leaned in to kiss him. I quickly realized it was a mistake, so I left and ignored him for a week. But we made up again just yesterday, so everything’s fine now.”

Silence.

“You know, you gotta brush up on your storytelling skills,” Cisco said.

“For a moment there I thought I was listening to a weather report,” Jax said.

“Well,” Caitlin bristled, “it’s not exactly something I want to recount in detail, so—”

“How did it happen? How did you let it happen? What did you feel?” Cisco insisted, accompanying his words with hand gestures. “What did he do? What did he say? What did you say? What were you thinking?”

“As I’ve already mentioned, I wasn’t thinking—”

“Okay, I think we’re overwhelming her,” Felicity said. “Cisco, ask her something again, only one question at a time.”

“Oh! Oh! I’ll start with this one,” Cisco said. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret asking this, but I am way curious, so here goes.” He took a deep breath. “Was there tongue?”

Caitlin squirmed. “Oh my God—”

“OH MY GOD,” Cisco said. “OH MY GOD, THERE WAS, WASN’T THERE?”

“OH MY GOD,” Felicity said. “THERE WAS, CISCO, THERE WAS—”

“…The hell is going on?” Jax said. “She hasn’t answered the question yet—”

“If you’re fluent in Caitlin,” Felicity explained, “you’d know that if it isn’t a direct no, then it’s a definite yes.”

“Huh,” Jax said.

“Damn,” Cisco said to Caitlin admiringly. “So you’ve finally lost your tongue-ginity. Welcome to the club.”

Jax scrunched his brow. “I never signed up for that.”

“Did we ever make that a thing?” Felicity said. “I don’t think we ever made that a thing…”

“We totally did. We made it a thing in high school, when I was with Kendra, remember? After we made out in the—”

“Okay, stop,” Felicity said. “I vaguely remember you breaking down that make-out scene, and I don’t want to remember more.”

“I second the motion,” Caitlin said.

“Third,” Jax piped up.

“Fine, this is Caitlin’s show anyway,” Cisco said good-naturedly. “It’s your turn to give us details.”

“No.”

They were all unfazed. “Did he lean in first?” Felicity said. “Or did you?”

Caitlin paused to consider it. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I think we—it was done at the same time.”

“And it lasted for some time,” Cisco prompted, “since there was tongue.”

“Well, it wasn’t unpleasant,” she hedged, “so we were there for some time, but I was the one who put an end to it.”

“Okay, let me get this straight,” Jax said. “You guys made out and you were really into it, but for some reason, you walked away and ignored him after that.”

“…It doesn’t sound very nice if you put it that way, but yes, basically…”

“What made you ignore him?” Felicity said. Caitlin recognized this voice—it was the one her friend used when she wanted to steer the discussion into a more serious direction. “I’d always assumed that he said something stupid, but…”

“Well,” Caitlin said, “he mentioned that we’ve only known each other two weeks.”

“Which is true,” Cisco said.

“Yes, I know,” she said. “Still, I lost it. I just didn’t think that it was possible—for me, at least—to like someone in such a short time. I was scared of it, of myself, so… I ran away. Ignored him. Pretended like ignoring him could reset me to before I met him.”

There was a pause as the statement hung in the air. It was perhaps the most honest she’d been since last week’s debacle, and they seemed to feel it, too.

“Okay, since things are getting serious,” Cisco said, standing up, “anyone want some food? Nachos, maybe?”

“Dude,” Jax said. “Way to ruin a moment—”

“No, I’m pretty sure Cait doesn’t want to talk about her feelings on an empty stomach,” he said, grinning at her. “Just like how you won’t study chemistry on an empty stomach.”

Caitlin smiled. “It’s fine, Jax. Nachos with beef and bacon bits please.”

“And extra cheese,” Felicity piped in.

“And Diet Coke with no ice,” Caitlin said.

“Same, but with ice and no straw for me,” Felicity said. “Save the environment and all.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know the drill,” Cisco said. “Hey, man, how about you?”

Jax looked at them. “You guys are hella weird.”

“But?” Cisco prompted cheekily.

He shrugged. “You’re not bad.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Barry does this thing where I’m not sure if he’s complimenting or insulting me,” Caitlin said. “Is that an athlete thing?”

“Way to stereotype us,” Jax said. “And I’m pretty sure that’s called a backhanded compliment.”

Caitlin snapped her fingers. “I knew there was a word for it…”

Cisco went to buy their snacks, and when he came back, the conversation—even with nachos and the best of intentions (particularly Felicity’s)—didn’t quite stay on track. It was, as usual, one-part insight and three-parts insanity, but Caitlin didn’t mind. It was good to be in their company again.

When Monday came around, Caitlin had the uncanny feeling, as she walked out of her dorm, that she was being stared at.

It wasn’t something she realized right away. After all, she’d spent most of her formative years in a state of near-invisibility. The only exception to that was when teachers announced the highest score in class (which, in science subjects, would almost invariably be her) and she would, for a few minutes, be the spotlight of the everyone’s awe and envy. But after class, she drew no more stares, elicited no more whispers. Smart wasn’t as valuable a currency as pretty or sporty was in high school, and she was perfectly content with that, as she never had to expend energy with the sort of self-conscious thinking that came with assuming that her peers were interested in her.

But today, something strange happened. As she walked down the near-deserted hallway of her dorm—it was still early, and the lone souls who were already awake walked around like zombies in their bubbles of half-sleep—she registered the sound of voices in the early morning hush. Out of idle curiosity, she looked around until she found the source of the whisperings—a group of five freshmen, two of whom quickly turned away when her gaze settled on them.

She blinked, wondering if she’d imagined it, and then concluded that she must have. Freshmen, she thought, were especially prone to sticking in groups like that and over-sharing noisily, in hopes that it might translate into friendship.

But then it happened again. When she passed by two more groups of girls outside the dorm and sensed the tickle of whispers in her wake, she wondered if maybe her intuition was right. It was disturbing to suspect that one was the topic of someone else’s conversation without knowing what, exactly, was being said, and without having the means to confront them about it.

So it was when, upon reaching the foyer and seeing Eliza and Bette deep in conversation before abruptly falling quiet when she approached, she narrowed her eyes and said, “Not you, too.”

Bette raised a brow. “Hi, Caitlin.”

Eliza said, “Good morning to you too, sunshine.”

Caitlin sighed and took her seat across them. With a cursory look, she ascertained that three of the boys from her block were there—no sign of Hartley yet—along with two other people from Applied Chemistry (or was it Chemical Engineering? She could never really keep track). Most of them were half-asleep, using their backpacks to pillow their faces from the cool granite surface of the tables.

“Sorry,” she sighed. “I’ve been having this strange sensation this morning that people have been talking about me. Paranoid, I know—”

Eliza and Bette exchanged glances. Like she and Felicity, the two had been friends for so long that they seemed to be able to communicate just by looking at each other.

Caitlin was immediately suspicious. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Eliza said innocently.

“That look you just shared. It’s suspicious.”

Bette, who was usually quiet and stoic—even more than she was, probably because she was always with the animated Eliza—said, amused, “Aren’t we allowed to look at each other?”

“I think we’re allowed to a few secrets,” Eliza added with a sly smile, “since you’ve obviously been keeping yours.”

Caitlin paused. She knew that these girls meant well—they had a pleasant relationship formed on the basis of their being stranded together in a testosterone-dominated course—but she wasn’t comfortable divulging her feelings to them in the way she had with Felicity, Cisco, and Jax. They were the kind of friends she’d complain on coursework with, not the ones she’d have a heart-to-heart with.

She said cautiously, “If this was about the sing-off…”

“Oh, the sing-off was last week’s news,” Eliza said.

“It’s already been dissected to death while you weren’t around,” Bette said, with an apologetic smile. “It’s common knowledge now that you’re Barry Allen’s new girl.”

Caitlin blinked, feeling strangely violated—or rather erased—by the term. “Okay, no,” she said. “First of all, I am not ‘Barry Allen’s new girl.’ I’m me. I’m still the same Caitlin Snow majoring in Molecular Biology with you.”

“Right, of course,” Eliza said, smiling at her while propping her face up in cupped hands. “But it’s already pretty obvious to everyone that you two are a thing.”

“We’re not…” Caitlin trailed off when she realized she didn’t have anything to say to that, because what were they? They hadn’t gone out on a date yet, so they weren’t dating, but they weren’t a thing, either. Or… were they? In the first place, why in the world did people invent a term as vague as ‘a thing’ anyway? What spectrum of togetherness did ‘a thing’ encompass? And why was it that even before she and Barry had defined what they were to themselves, other people were already clamoring to define their relationship with nosy collective authority? Couldn’t they just mind their own business and leave a budding romantic relationship unlabeled?

Caitlin resisted the urge to press a hand to her temple. She couldn’t deal with this. It was too early in the morning to puzzle out the confusing semantics of human romantic entanglements.

Instead, she said, “Never mind. Second of all, last week’s news? Was there news this week involving him and me that I, of all people, wouldn’t know of?”

“Oh, I’m sure you know this,” Eliza said, giving her an enigmatic look. Caitlin felt like that look was her cue to spill what she apparently knew, but since she didn’t know anything, she remained quiet.

“If you’ll remember,” Eliza went on, when her pause became awkward, “there was a commotion last night at the dorm. Specifically, outside our wing.”

“What commotion?” Caitlin said, furrowing her brow.

Now, Eliza and Bette exchanged looks that were as bewildered as hers.

“You mean you really didn’t hear the commotion?” Bette said.

“No,” Caitlin said. “Should I have?”

“Oh my God, she has no idea,” Eliza said. “One of the hottest guys on campus is courting her—”

“Courting—of all the sheer nonsense—”

“—and she doesn’t have a clue,” Eliza finished.

“That is ridiculous,” she said. “I don’t know what commotion you’re talking about, but he’s not courting me. All I know is that he left a note on my window with ‘Good morning’ written on it.”

That was the abbreviated version. The full version was as follows:

Good morning :) I know, I know, when I walked you back, you said one week of no texts or calls or voicemails, but I’m pretty sure you didn’t say anything about sticky notes on windows. I’m kind of a pain in the ass, as you can see, aside from being a mildly annoying campus cutie and an insatiable hug monster (only for your hugs, though). Just so you know what you might be getting into. Anyway, I lost my main point for this note sometime after the smiley. I think I was supposed to write a poem, but I got sidetracked, and now I don’t have enough space. Well, I’ll find my main point tomorrow. In the meantime, ‘I miss you’ is probably enough. Can’t wait for Saturday. – Barry

“Mmm,” Bette said. “So you’re telling me that clambering up two floors of the girls’ dorms in the middle of the night, with a bouquet of flowers, a gift, and a note in hand, doesn’t qualify as courting?”

“A bouquet of flowers? How is that even—”

“At first I thought it was Cisco,” Eliza said, “because he visits your room sometimes, right, and he always makes so much noise. But when I opened my window to tell him to tone it down, guess who I saw instead?”

“Oh, by the way, here you go,” Bette said, pulling a single, long-stemmed rose from her backpack and handing it to a dazed Caitlin. “Half of the flowers were crushed during his climb,” she added, by way of explanation. “The others that weren’t crushed lost too many petals. This was the only proper rose left.” She pushed a box towards her. “Also, a gift from him. Said it was fragile.”

“He was supposed to sneak the stuff into your room,” Eliza said, “but he didn’t know that your window would be locked. Obviously he didn’t think things through.”

“Yeah, he also wrote his note on the wrong side of the post-it. We had to give him tape so he could stick the written portion against the glass facing your bed,” Bette said.

“Oh, and to clarify, we”—Eliza said, gesturing to the two of them—“weren’t the ones who gave him tape. Someone from the room below did.”

“It became a sort of group effort,” Bette said.

“Although his best friend—can’t remember her name, the one who wrote that article about sexism on campus—”

“Iris West,” Bette said.

“Right, her. She clearly didn’t support it,” Eliza said. “Stormed out of the dorm when she caught wind of what was happening just to tell him that he was an idiot.”

“She wasn’t yelling, but it was so quiet out there that people could hear what she was saying, anyway.”

“Good thing our dorm mom sleeps like a log.”

“Yeah, and good thing everyone loves Barry, so no one’ll tell on him…”

“It’s really strange that you didn’t hear anything,” Bette said, looking puzzled. “He made so much noise.”

It wasn’t all that strange. She and Felicity slept through the commotion courtesy of the remaining contents of the Smirnoff that she’d brought back from her drinking session with Barry.

“Hello, ladies,” came a voice that Caitlin knew all too well. “Finally got to interrogate her, huh? Do I finally get my—is that a rose? Why the hell do you have a rose?”

“Language, Hartley,” Bette said. “As you can see, the subject is still in shock.”

“The rose is from Allen, isn’t it?” Hartley said, scoffing. “Jesus, how predictable. Even I can tell you aren’t the roses kind.”

“Thank you for your valuable input, Hartley,” Eliza said. “Why don’t you run along now and compare notes with Barry, since you’re such an expert on Caitlin’s botanical preferences?”

“Dial down the bitchiness, sweetheart,” Hartley said. “It’s not even nine yet.”

“The rose isn’t the worst of it, really,” Bette said.

“Oh?” Hartley said gleefully, smirking and pulling up a chair from the other table, seeing as Caitlin’s backpack was still occupying the space beside her. “Do tell. Does the worst of it have something to do with this box?”

Caitlin finally snapped out of the daze she was in. She was having difficulty processing all… this. She needed another coffee. Maybe three. “I’m having difficulty imagining how he moved from the staircase to the window holding all this…”

“He had the bouquet in his mouth,” Eliza said.

Hartley’s brows shot up. “What,” he said, “the fuck?”

“What he said,” Caitlin muttered.

“She was kidding,” Bette said, giving Eliza a stern look. “He had a canvas bag.”

Eliza laughed. “Fine, but you have to admit you can totally imagine it.”

Hartley rolled his eyes. “I actually find it more unlikely that he had the foresight to bring a bag.”

“Well, are you going to open it?” Eliza said, gesturing to the box. “Bette and I have been dying to see what’s inside.”

Caitlin gave them a look, and Eliza said, “Hey, you can’t blame us. We’ve been safekeeping it for the last seven hours.”

“This really is beneath me,” Hartley said casually, “but I am curious to see what sort of disgustingly sentimental gift he got you. Gifts are a reflection of the giver, as someone once said. Can’t remember who it was, though…”

“You know, you can admit you’re curious without having to insult anyone,” Caitlin said.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he smirked. “Well? Are you opening it or not? We don’t have all day, Frosty.”

Caitlin sighed and relented, if only out of weariness. She opened the box without ceremony—there was no wrapper so she simply had to lift the flap—and peered inside. Three other heads neared to peer in, too.

It was a cactus.

On the flap, it said, I already got the roses when I saw this, but this is way better. You’re more of a cactus person, I think. ;) – Barry

Hartley barked a laugh. “I take it back. Allen is a fucking genius.”

“I don’t know,” Bette said dubiously. “It sounds like an insult.”

“It’s definitely an insult,” Eliza said. “You’re more of a cactus person—does that mean you have the qualities of a cactus?”

“He’s not wrong,” Hartley said. “Caitlin’s botanical identity aside, though,” he added, “everyone still owes me money, because she obviously accepted his advances…”

Caitlin, on her part, had already tuned them out. Barry Allen was a hopeless romantic and a complete idiot, and he also possibly had a screw or two loose, but he meant well, and he really and truly seemed to like her, and he was…

He was hers to like back.

Still, he had to stop climbing walls in the middle of the night to give her… whatever else he was planning on giving her. She had no clue about what courtship entailed, but she was sure that it didn’t have to be as life-threatening as he made it seem.

Caitlin didn’t think to approach him right away about this, though, because she didn’t think he’d be sending any more gifts her way. She thought he would have desisted with the flowers and the cacti, opting to leave only sticky notes instead.

She was wrong.

Well, not exactly. The next day, she did receive another note on her window, but she also received a heart-shaped box of chocolates and another cactus (both delivered by Cisco). This was puzzling, because she had no use whatsoever for a heart-shaped box, and she had no strong feelings about chocolates. Not that she didn’t like chocolates, per se; she’d just never particularly craved for them or sought them out. She didn’t want them to go to waste, though, so she ate two or three pieces before welcoming Cisco and Jax to finish up the rest.

This, surely, she thought, would be the end of it. Surely he knew that giving her gifts every single day until Saturday, for no particular reason and with no particular occasion, was an absurd and costly enterprise.

But she was wrong again. On Wednesday, she received the requisite note on her window and a teddy bear named Beary—See what I did there? ;) he’d said in his note—sporting a cactus pin. (She must’ve forgotten to lock her window last night after Cisco and Jax had left, so he was able to slip them onto her bedside table.) Now, if the chocolates were mildly puzzling, the teddy bear was downright bewildering, because she had given up stuffed animals altogether at the age of five, when her father had introduced her to illustrated encyclopedias. If she had no use for a teddy bear back at five years old, she had even less use of it now at twenty-one. She was aware that it was common for other couples to give each other stuffed animals, but that was other couples. For some reason, other couples found it cute to give their significant others a reminder of a more infantile period in their lives. Or perhaps the intention was for the recipient to endow the inanimate object with some of the partner’s qualities, so that it could serve as a reminder of the partner when he or she was away…

This was all just conjecture, of course. She’d never quite understood it. Even now that she herself was the recipient of a stuffed animal, she still didn’t understand what she was supposed to do with it.

To be fair, Barry didn’t know that she didn’t particularly care for chocolates or for stuffed animals. But perhaps that was the point—he didn’t know what she liked, and had simply assumed she would enjoy this standard romantic fanfare.

This brought to mind something Hartley had said the other day, about gifts being a reflection of the giver. Irritating as he was, she had to agree with his assessment: These gifts were less a reflection of her than they were a reflection of Barry. They conveyed the sincerity of his intentions well enough, but they also conveyed a startling lack of knowledge of who she was.

Well, not exactly. She did enjoy the sticky notes, and the cactus symbolized an inside joke that only the two of them shared and understood. Everything else, though, puzzled her.

She didn’t want to discard them, because that would mean discarding Barry’s feelings, too. (And, on an aside, Beary seemed to grow cuter the longer she looked at it [him?], which made her more reluctant to discard it [him?]. She made a mental note to Google the evolutionary value of cuteness even in lifeless objects.) But at the same time, the sole function of the rose, the chocolates, and the bear was to convey Barry’s intentions, which had been fulfilled the moment she’d received the gifts. Ergo, she no longer had any use for them. Was she obliged to keep these things around as relics of his affection for her? Then again, she knew that he liked her anyway, so why did she need all these things to remind her of it?

She frowned. She was trapped in a symbolic deadlock. Clearly when she confessed to him she didn’t foresee that things would become this complicated—and this when they weren’t even ‘a thing’ yet…

She sat back to view the gifts on her now-crowded bedside table and considered her situation. The most obvious course of action was to tell him to stop giving her gifts, but she could already tell that it would hurt him. But she also couldn’t think of a nice way to say it. The truth—“Please stop giving me gifts, I appreciate the sentiment but I find them useless” was too harsh, while a white lie like “I don’t have space to put them anymore” was too unconvincing. She could give him a list of what she liked, but she didn’t want to make it seem like she was asking for more gifts. Then again, she could inform him that she simply didn’t make a fuss about gifts, but clearly he made a fuss about gifts, so…

Great, she was back to her earlier deadlock.

Maybe it was time to call a friend. Felicity might know what to do. And, even if she didn’t, she might know how to soften a sentence like “Please stop giving me gifts, I appreciate the sentiment but I find them useless.”

Right, talk to Felicity it was, then.

. . .

On her way out of her room, though, something unusual happened: She bumped into Iris West.

The fact that Iris was here on her floor was already unusual in itself. Iris lived two or three floors above her, and she didn’t seem to have close friends residing on the second floor, so Caitlin had never actually seen her in this hallway.

The second unusual thing was that Iris was alone. Caitlin may have only glimpsed her on campus a few times, but she had no recollection of Iris being alone—she was always either surrounded by her friends from the school paper, or she was with a tall, clean-looking guy—her boyfriend, presumably.

The third unusual thing was that Iris was walking towards her now. Caitlin resisted the urge to look behind her to see if Iris was walking towards someone else, and instead she pasted on a tentative smile, the sort she reserved for people with whom she knew only vaguely, and so wasn’t sure if she should greet or not. If the person noticed the smile and greeted her, she’d return the greeting with relief. But if the person didn’t notice the smile, then she’d look like an idiot, but not as big an idiot as she would have had she uttered an ignored ‘Hi’.

Iris, as it turned out, returned her smile. “Hi, Caitlin,” she said, slowing when she reached her.

A greeting and a slowing down. Clearly she was about to engage her in conversation, but what did Iris have to talk with her about? Did Barry send her to deliver a package, or to do some reconnaissance? But if she was going to do reconnaissance, wouldn’t it be wiser to approach someone closer to her, like Felicity?

“Hi?” Caitlin said.

“I’m glad I caught you on your way out,” she said. “I would’ve messaged you first, but Facebook says you haven’t been online in three days, so…”

“Sorry,” Caitlin said. “I don’t go online often.”

“No, no, don’t apologize,” she said. “I mean, I’m the one asking for your time. Not because I’m spying on you for Barry or anything,” she added hastily. “I just wanted to talk, that’s all. If you’re busy, though, I could—”

“I’m not,” Caitlin said. Her curiosity was sufficiently peaked. “My next class is in two hours. What did you want to talk about?”

“Great,” Iris said. “Could we… talk somewhere more private, like your room? Or my room’s fine, too. Gossip spreads pretty fast around here.”

“My room’s nearer,” Caitlin said. “It’s a bit of a mess, though. Well, Felicity’s side is a bit of a mess, so we could stay on my side…”

They both headed back to her room, and while Caitlin felt like the silence was awkward, Iris seemed completely at ease. She did look out of place in the shabby dorm room—with her red chiffon top, black leather skirt, and knee-high black boots, she looked like she’d stepped out of the pages of Vogue rather than a classroom—but she carried herself with the relaxed confidence of a person who made and followed her own rules.

“I know this is weird,” Iris said, “but Barry has also been acting weird lately, so I felt like I had to do something.”

“Weird, how?” Caitlin said, silently asking Felicity’s permission to borrow her chair. She pulled it up beside hers in front of her desk. She gestured for Iris to sit. “I haven’t known him long, but this”—she pointed to the items on her bedside table—“doesn’t seem too uncharacteristic of him.”

“Yeah, well, that’s true,” Iris said, sitting. From the direction of her gaze, Caitlin noticed the way Iris catalogued details carefully with her gaze: She scanned the usual school supplies on Caitlin’s desk (a plain white mug for writing materials, another one for highlighters, and a tray for bond paper), glanced at the stack of printed journal articles with notes and post-its, and lingered on the books on her shelf—The Double Helix by James Watson, Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox, What Is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger, Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks—all with yellowed pages. Those books were the only memorabilia she kept on her desk.

“Why do I feel,” Caitlin ventured when Iris reached the end of her quick survey, “that you’re already mentally writing profile of me?”

She was aiming to sound amused, and she supposed it succeeded, because Iris gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry,” she said. “Guilty as charged. Had to convince myself that I’m doing the right thing, and after seeing this”—she gestured to her Spartan desk and the books on display—“and that”—she gestured to her cluttered bedside table—“I’m pretty convinced. I’m guessing—no, I’m one hundred percent sure that you’re not the romantic type.”

“Not at all,” Caitlin said. And then, upon realizing that Iris might report all this to Barry, she added, “I do appreciate the sentiment, though.”

“Right,” Iris said, “but not the gifts.”

“Well…”

“Here’s the thing,” Iris said, sensing her hesitation. “I thought about talking to you back when he pulled that crazy stunt in the middle of the night, but for once, I stopped myself from meddling. Which is difficult for me, since I meddle in other people’s business for a living,” she added with a self-deprecating smile. “But I managed. ‘How bad can it be?’ I thought. ‘Who knows, maybe she likes flowers.’ When he gave you the chocolates, I thought, ‘Okay, fine, maybe she likes chocolates, too. Flowers are tricky, but chocolates are pretty safe. A lot of people are nuts for chocolates.’”

Caitlin was about to say that was nuts for neither flowers nor chocolates, but Iris seemed to be on a roll, so she let her continue.

“But when he gave you that teddy bear”—she gave the poor innocent Beary a dirty look—“and named it after him, that was the last straw. I said to him”—she made the phone gesture with her hand and brought it to her ear—“‘You gave her a teddy bear? Are you crazy? Do you even know if she likes teddy bears?’ and he was like, ‘But teddy bears are cute! Who doesn’t like teddy bears?’ and I was like, ‘Barry, if Eddie’—Eddie’s my boyfriend—‘gave me a teddy bear, I’d either donate it to charity or tell him to return it to the fricking store. Honestly, how old do you think she is? Five?’”

At this, Caitlin couldn’t help smiling. She was starting to like Iris. Iris made sense. “My sentiments, exactly.”

“Shit, I knew it,” Iris sighed. “I should’ve stopped him earlier, but it’s too late now. There’s no stopping him once he gets into planning. Although if it’s any consolation, he hasn’t gone this all-out since… Well, since. And there isn’t even any occasion. Can you imagine what sort of production number he’ll come up with if there is an occasion?”

“I’d really rather not,” Caitlin said, wincing. “If it’s going to involve a grand public display of affection, it’s going to be a nightmare.”

“Not a fan of PDA, huh?” Iris said. “This must be really uncomfortable for you. I mean, people have been talking nonstop about what he’s doing. I’ve lost count of how many times someone came up to me to ask about”—here she made quotation marks in the air—“‘Barry’s new girl.’”

Caitlin must have made a face, because Iris nodded sympathetically and said, “Yeah, I know. I was ‘Eddie’s new girl’ for some time, too, although for some reason he was never ‘Iris’s new guy.’ Ingrained sexism, that’s what it is. Really subtle, too, and harder to root out, but since women empowerment is having a moment—right, I’m ranting. Sorry. Bad habit.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “I’m used to ramblers.”

“Ranters,” Iris corrected with a smile. “Wouldn’t want to be lumped in the same category as Barry. At least I don’t lose my main point while talking.”

Caitlin smiled. “He is prone to that.”

“Don’t I know it. Sometimes I just tune out until like, three hundred words later, when he finds it again. Come to think of it, I shouldn’t have tuned him out when he was spouting all those nonsense ideas… I might’ve been able to stop him from doing all this…”

“Is there really no way to ask him to stop with the gifts?” Caitlin said tentatively. “The sticky notes are okay, just not… this production number, as you called it.”

Iris paused. “I could try to talk to him again,” she said. “And anyway, isn’t he supposed to be giving you space?”

“Yes, well. Obviously he failed. I even have less literal space in my room now.”

Iris laughed. “That’s true.”

They fell into a brief, comfortable silence.

“Hey, Caitlin,” Iris eventually said, “thanks for being honest. I know it sounds like I’m selling my best friend out, but it’s just, he really likes you, and I don’t want him to screw himself over. He can be really eager, you know? When he’s excited he just jumps into things without thinking. Loses all sense of timing and subtlety, too.”

Iris paused as if debating whether or not to continue, but before Caitlin could come up with a response to fill in the silence, she went on. “His mom and dad were also really big on romance,” she said. “We grew up watching them trying to out-surprise each other on their anniversary and on Valentine’s Day. It was crazy, the things his dad did. Once, he decorated their whole house with flowers, because his mom absolutely adored flowers. This other time, he ordered chocolates from France, Sweden, Belgium—you know, places where those fancy chocolates come from—and made it look like a chocolate buffet from around the world. His mom was like that, too. She used to throw him these themed surprise parties. There was one party where she invited everyone—his former patients, his students, his colleagues from the hospital, his colleagues from whatever medical association he was part of—and she had someone from each group give him a toast. He was so teary-eyed at the end that he couldn’t give a proper thank-you speech.” Iris sighed. “His parents had something really special, you know? Even my dad thought so. Everyone who knew them thought so. The happiest couple in the world, people would call them.”

Caitlin absorbed all this in silence. “He does look like someone who grew up surrounded by that kind of love,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” Iris said, smiling. “He was such a happy kid. Still is, actually. And I think—and this is pure speculation,” she added, “but I think that more than having a great career, more than being rich or famous or successful, more than anything, really, Barry wants what his parents had. I’m not telling you should fulfil that,” she added quickly. “I just want you to understand where he’s coming from.”

“I understand,” she said slowly. “This is a lot to take in, though. I’m the antithesis of that picture of his parents you just described, as you can see.”

Iris laughed. “Yeah, that’s pretty clear to me. And honestly, I don’t think he’ll want you any other way. Just give him time to adjust.”

“Alright,” she said. “Thank you for… talking to me. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to proceed with all this.”

“Oh, no problem,” Iris said, waving a hand. “If you need help with Barry—or anything, really—you can message me any time.” She stood up. “Anyway, I should go. You have class, right?”

“In an hour, yes,” Caitlin said, accompanying her to the door.

“Hey, maybe in the future, we could do a double date or something,” Iris said. “You and Barry and me and Eddie. I’ll take you to all the best hole-in-the-wall places. A lot of the owners know me already, so I get discounts, too. It’ll be fun. What do you think?”

Caitlin blinked. “Okay,” she said.

“Great,” Iris smiled and squeezed her arm. Caitlin tried not to shy away from it. “I’ll go talk to Barry before he brews tomorrow’s disaster. See you around, Caitlin.”

When she left, Caitlin returned to her desk. Well. That was strange, but not entirely unwelcome, especially since Iris herself had offered to talk to Barry. She also found herself relieved that she could get along with Iris. She wasn’t exactly the friendliest of people, but Iris had enough friendly in her for the two of them.

“Now,” Caitlin muttered, staring at Beary’s placid smiling face, “what to do with you? You’re going to want to stick around, huh? A real nuisance you are, just like your namesake…”

She stopped abruptly when she realized that she was talking to an inanimate object, and then squinted warily at Beary. She was beginning to be gripped by this whole stuffed-animal craze, and she wasn’t sure what she felt about that…

. . .

“Cait? Hey Cait, bananas!”

Caitlin looked up from her laptop. “What? What’s happening?”

“Ha, got you to look!” Felicity grinned triumphantly. “You ready to sleep? I’m going to kill the lights now.”

Caitlin gave her friend an odd look, but, being used to such antics (or Felicitisms), she merely saved her file and slipped her laptop onto her table. “Yeah, sure.”

The lights went out. Felicity shuffled to her bed, and Caitlin heard her fold her glasses and place them on her bedside table with a soft thunk.

A few moments later, Caitlin ventured, “Hey. Are you sleepy?”

“No, not really.” Felicity turned to face her. Her face was blurry in the moonlight. “Are you?”

“No.” She paused. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah, okay. Shoot.”

“Remember that story I told you, the one Iris told about Barry’s parents?”

“Mmm. What about it?”

“It bothers me.”

“Why?”

Caitlin curled further into her side. Had she been talking to Felicity during the day, with Cisco and Jax with them, she might not have said this out loud. But now, wrapped up in her blanket and enveloped by the warm, inviting darkness of their room, filled with the well-worn and well-loved things they had shared for over two years, Caitlin felt brave enough to be vulnerable.

“He wants a happy ending,” she said. “I’m clearly not his happy ending. He needs someone who can match his… exuberance, I guess. His generosity. Someone who’ll give him what his parents had. I don’t think I can. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”

“You don’t know that,” Felicity said. “You haven’t even started dating yet.”

“I think that’s the point. We haven’t started dating yet and we’re already incompatible,” she said. “At first, I thought admitting my feelings was a bad idea because I didn’t want to get hurt, but now I think it’s a bad idea because I don’t want him to get hurt. I don’t want to disappoint him.”

“Ah,” Felicity said. “So you don’t think you’re good enough for him?”

“Well,” Caitlin exhaled, “more like I’m not right enough for him.”

“Yeah, I get that. I still feel that way with Oliver sometimes, you know.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Well, we haven’t been together for long, but still. I was terrified, remember? And you were terrified for me, too. Told me that if I had any common sense, I’d walk away from him right this instant, before things got too serious.”

Caitlin smiled. “Fortunately for Oliver, you had zero common sense.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sometimes, when I’m with him and I’m feeling really happy, I get hit by sheer panic. Like, I start thinking, It’s impossible for anyone to be this happy. He’s going to cheat on me one day, or else he’ll get bored with me and break up with me… Oh my God, if he does, I’ll never find someone like him again, I’ll never be this happy again… and so on.”

“You still think about that?” Caitlin said, incredulous. “Have you seen the way Oliver looks at you? When you’re in the room he literally cannot focus on anything else.”

“Yeah,” Felicity said, with a modest shrug, “but I guess sometimes we sabotage our own happiness.”

Caitlin moved to lie on her back. “I think I’ve felt what you’ve felt with Oliver,” she said quietly. “I just feel… so light with Barry. Or happy, I suppose. I’m not sure. But I know that when I’m with him, I don’t want the moment to end. And when I saw him with Patty—I told you about that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“When I saw him with Patty, I was devastated. But there was this small part of me that was almost… gleeful about it. It’s hard to explain, but that part of me seemed to be saying, You knew this would happen. You were right, he’ll never like you. Good thing you didn’t get too attached.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Felicity said. “Sometimes I hear that voice in my head, too.”

“Why does it do that?” Caitlin said, confusion and frustration seeping into her tone. “Why does our mind do that? Why is it that when we’re happy, our first instinct is to be skeptical of happiness?”

Felicity was quiet for a moment. “Maybe our mind is trying to protect us from getting hurt,” she said. “Maybe we only open a little part of ourselves up to happiness so that when it leaves, it doesn’t take all of us with it.”

Her words sank into the darkness of the room.

“Or, wait, no,” Felicity said. “If Oliver… breaks up with me, yeah, I’ll be devastated, and I’ll probably cry for days, and the part of me that was only me around him will be gone. But I don’t think that means I’m less of a person if he leaves. I won’t be left with like, only a few pieces of my heart or something. Pretty sure I’m stronger than that.”

“You definitely are.”

“Thanks,” her friend said, smiling. “So I guess what I’m trying to say is... we try to protect ourselves from that one painful moment we think we won’t be strong enough to withstand. For me it’s Oliver breaking up with me for whatever reason. For you it’s disappointing Barry. And we sort of obsess over it, that painful moment, because we want to do anything to prevent it. And when we do that we forget to enjoy whatever’s happening now. Or that even if that moment does happen, we can and will survive it.”

“Like having tunnel vision,” Caitlin murmured. “Being scared of the pain is like having tunnel vision. You stop seeing possibilities around you.”

“Yeah,” Felicity said. “Yeah, something like that.”

“You’re saying that I should give this thing with Barry a real chance, aren’t you?”

Felicity grinned. “I’m saying that, or you are?”

“Touché.”

“I’m not saying it’ll be easy,” she said. “You guys have a lot to talk about. I mean, flowers and chocolates and teddy bears are sweet, but they’re just not your thing.”

“So I heard. Apparently it’s common knowledge for everyone besides him.”

“You’ll think of something,” Felicity said. “I think he’s just excited now so he can’t think straight, but he means well. He really wants to make you happy.”

“I suppose so.”

“And if he can’t see you behind all those romantic notions of his, believe me, I’ll be the first one to tell you to stop trying.”

Caitlin gave her friend a smile. “Thanks.”

There was a lull in the conversation.

“Think we should go to sleep now?”

“Yeah, we probably should,” Felicity said, pulling her blankets to her chin. “Oh, before I forget, Oliver says thanks for the Smirnoff.”

“Tell him he’s welcome.”

“You traitors,” Felicity yawned. “Scheming behind my back.”

“Good night to you too, Felicity.”

Her friend smiled and buried her face in her pillow. “Good night, Cait.”

#snowbarry #snowbarry fic #snowbarry fanfiction #barry x caitlin #wonderful you came by #my fic #barry allen #caitlin snow #felicity smoak #iris west #cisco ramon #hartley rathaway #jefferson jackson #oliver queen

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penguinsocksworks · 8 years ago

Text

How to Win a Tsundere’s Heart (18/20)

Read on AO3 or FF.net Read on Tumblr: Chapter 1-5// Chapter 6// Chapter 7// Chapter 8// Chapter 9// Chapter 10//Chapter 11// Chapter 12// Chapter 13// Chapter 14// Chapter 15// Chapter 16// Chapter 17//Chapter 18// Chapter 19

Main pairings: Usuk, Dennor, Spamano

Summary of chapter: i love their siblings so much

Chapter 18: Siblings and Domestic Fluff AF

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. I HAD SO MUCH STUFF BUILT UP AND THEN I WAS GOING THROUGH SOMETHING... BUT I PROMISE THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY SLIGHTLY MORE WELL WRITTEN THAN THE LAST CHAPTER OF CRAP! I HOPE U LIKE IT!

New Years was approaching faster than anyone realized. Christmas was great but since everyone was always broke because of school and stuff the only gifts that were exchanged were the ones that were organized via secret santa. Of course there were a few exceptions, close friends and couples exchanged in addition to the secret santa.

New Years was exciting because they had the whole week from Christmas until the seventh of January to do whatever they wanted. And most people chose to go home since the break was so lengthy and the campus would be completely empty otherwise.

With two days left before New Year's Eve, students all over the campus were packing a small bag to get ready for the new year. Arthur peaked under his bed, looking for a novel that he had borrowed from his mother months ago, “Lukas! Have you seen my copy of pride and prejudice?”

“Have you looked in your desk?” Lukas neatly folded a blue shirt before placing it in his bursting case, “When was the last time you even touched that thing?”

“Ah ha! Here it is,” Arthur held the book up triumphantly, “how did it get wedged between the mattresses?”

“It wasn't me,” Lukas struggled to close his suitcase, “When did they say buses were leaving?”

“Um,” the other blond pondered for a moment, “I think Mrs. Calliandra said three.”

“Yeah three o'clock sharp as the bitch put it,” a voice walked in and plopped on the bottom bunk face down, “I can't believe you losers are actually going home.”

“You've been showing up here lately,” Lukas rolled his eyes and picked up the shirt that Lovino has knocked off the bed, “why?”

“Why? Cause we're friends.” Lovino pretended to be offended by the question, “Don't friends hang out in each other's dorms?”

“We're about to leave though,” Arthur remarked, shoulders deep in the closet, “Alfred, Matthew and I are leaving at three thirty in order to make it for an early dinner.”

“You guys live like, fifteen minutes away from here. Why are you guys going to fucking early?” Lovino mumbled, his head still buried in the plush comforter.

Arthur zipped up his final bag, “Because our parents want to see us before they head out to go to Hawaii together. Alfred and Matthew should be back sometime later today, but I'm staying to watch Peter.”

“None of your brothers are coming back?” Lukas quirked an eyebrow, “Don't they usually?”

Arthur sighed, “the twins are out with college friends and Dylan can't cause a plane ride home from Cambridge would be to costly. And Allistor is spending it with his fiancé’s family, they actually might drop by but not for long.”

“I'm trapped here all break,” Lovino complained, “What about you?”

Lukas picked up his suitcase and raised the rolling handle, “I'm catching the bus back home with Matthias, Tino, and Berwald.”

“Oh, Emil must be happy that you're visiting,” Arthur smiled, finally being able to plop down next to Lovino, “does he know?”

“Yeah,” Lukas rolled his eyes, “He's so happy. The grumpy little fourth grader thinks I'll embarrass him in front of some friend he's bringing with him.”

“Oh?” Lovino peaked his head up.

Lukas started to roll his bag towards the door, the wheels making a weird noise as they dragged across the floor. They could hear his voice that was damped by distance, “He called me yesterday to beg me not to come back. Said he was bringing someone important to stay over and that i would be the death of him, I have to go. Bye.”

The door shut and Lovino turned to Arthur, “so dinner?”

“Yeah,” Arthur waved his hand, “Were going out somewhere since we’re all family friends. You're really not going to head home?”

Lovino clicked his tongue, “Sit on a train for a day and a half? That's way to fucking long. Plus my grandpa is away and Sebastian wanted to come see us at the castle or so he calls it.”

“Sebastian is your youngest brother right?” Arthur feigned any real interest. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t absolutely invested in Lovino’s story… okay it was that. But to be fair, Lovino looked bored by his own words.

Lovino nodded, “Yeah. He’s as old as Emil and he wants to come here when he’s older. He’s ridiculous, thinking that far ahead. The brat is bound to get homesick if he comes here.”

Arthur was about to reply that little Peter was only about two years younger than Sebastian and he was already talking about wanting to go to the magical looking high school. His younger brother would constantly grate on him, telling him that he would easily get into the private school if Arthur had been able to. But he was never able to express his annoyance because there was a heavy knock on the door, “Arthur! Are you ready? Mattie’s got our stuff in the car and we need your bag!”

Lovino smirked, “Go on princess. Your knight is waiting.”

“Very funny Lovino,” Arthur deadpanned, “I hope you enjoy your break in this solitude.”

Arthur left Lovino on his bed, closing the front door with a slam.

___________________

“Ah! I am so excited to see my family again!” Tino chirped in front of Lukas, “Were supposed to be eating a special dinner tonight, aren’t you excited?”

Berwald had a small smile on his face, wrapping an arm around the fin. Though his good mood was interrupted as Matthias reached over the bus chair and clapped on him on the shoulder, “Ya excited to tell your parents? Tino, what was your dad’s dating policy again?”

“Hehe…” Tino’s expression seemed to dim a bit and he turned to pat his boyfriend on the shoulder, “Good luck sweetie.”

Matthias let out a howl, “You’re gonna need it Ber!”

Lukas tsked, turning back to his book. Tino’s dad wasn't very fond of Berwald. Never was from the very beginning. Fathers intuition? Call it what you will, but no matter how pleasing or kind Berwald was to the guy, all he received in return were pointed glares.

“Don't worry,” Matthias laughed again, “You can come over to my house if it gets to be too much.”

Since Berwalds family had moved closer to the high school when Berwald was older, the swede would have to stay with one of them if he were to go back to his home town. Which was ideal since he wanted to spend a lot of time with Tino, but scary considering the boy's father was an ever looming presence. Lukas let out a huff, mumbling under his breath, “In Laws can be scary.”

To which all three of them caught, and only Matthias found terribly hilarious. Tino smiled, wishing it weren't true while Berwald seemed to sink just a little bit farther into his seat.

The rest of the three hour bus ride wasn't very exciting. They eventually ran out of ways to poke fun at Berwalds obvious issue with Tino’s dad and settled into sleeping.

Matthias stretched his arms out moments before they had to get off the bus, nearly hitting Lukas who was peacefully sleeping beside him. He had a strange crick in his neck and his legs were numb from not standing for a while, but he didn't seem to mind as he looked over at his companion.

Lukas looked smaller when he slept. Not younger though, like everyone often said, just tinier. His breathing pattern was soft and steady, his hair falling over his face and framing his naturally rosy cheeks. Lukas wasn't analyzing everything when he slept, he wasn't constantly on guard. He looked content and Matthias just couldn't find it in him to wake the guy. He chose to stare a bit longer, deciding to wait until the last possible moment.

“You should take a picture,” Tino turned around in his seat, “it’ll last longer.”

Matthias just smiled, “no picture could ever capture something as beautiful as this.”

________________

Lovino ended up taking a nap in Arthur's bed before he left the room. By the time he finally awoke he had a few missed calls from Feli and a stream of worried texts. Kicking himself off the bed, Lovino went to go find his brother before he worked himself into a panic and called the police. Feliciano was a handful sometimes, meant well, but was a handful. He was slightly glad that the worrisome guy would be out with Ludwig, and the german’s brother and boyfriend for New Year's day. Now the only ones he had to worry about were his pesky roommate and youngest brother. At least he had two days to come up with a game plan.

When he opened the door to his dorm, he wasn't expecting to see his other brother. Sebastian was fiddling on his phone not even bothering to look up when he heard the door open, “Gramps dropped me off and I think Feli is gathering a search party for you. I dunno why though, there’s no one here. Its lame.”

“You’re in fourth grade, go outside and kick a ball or something,” Lovino deadpanned, “Why did grandpa drop you off so early?”

“Because I was buggin him or something like that!” The boy giggles and puts his phone down, “Long time no see Lovi!”

“I can’t possibly see why he would think that you were annoying,” Lovino mumbled, “And don’t call me that Sebastian.”

“Awe, I know, I know,” Sebastian laughed as he attempted to throw an arm around his brothers shoulders, giving him a wink, “It’s a special name reserved for your boyfriend .”

Lovino sneered as he watched the nine year old collapse into a fit of giggles, “Shut up you fucking brat! You know thats not whats going on.”

“Lovino’s gotta boyfriend! Lovino’s got a boyfriend!” Sebastian sung as he continued to roll around on the plush bed, “Haha! You’re all red!”

Lovino was about to pounce on the guy before he heard the door open and a panicked voice call out, “Lovi! Are you here? Feliciano called and said that you were missing!”

“Well well, look what the cat dragged in, perfect timing,” Sebastian said low enough for just Lovino to hear before cupping his hands around his mouth, “Yeah he’s in here!”

Antonio beamed as he walked in and Lovino sighed. The spaniard seemed to notice the younger italian and smiled, “Sebastian! I didn’t know you were supposed to be coming, I would have gone out to find our monopoly game.”

In the past, whenever Sebastian would visit, Antonio would go and find his old monopoly game that he brought from his home. It wasn’t often that the young boy would visit, but the two of them would often spend hours playing while Lovino caught up with his grandfather. Sebastian secretly reveled in time he got to spend with his brother’s roommate. Hanging out with his brothers was fun, sure. But neither of them liked to do things that Sebastian liked to do. Antonio would take him outside to play catch, or soccer, which his brothers did indulge him in once in awhile. The two Vargas twins were on the soccer team. But most of the time they were too preoccupied with their grandfather to want to play outside. And the both of them didn’t know how to play baseball that well.

Sebastian supposed that Antonio didn’t really know how to play the game much farther than being able to catch and throw. The spaniard mentioned something about a friend named Alfred teaching a whole bunch of them in a short amount of time. Sebastian really liked the sport and played it for their town.

But other than playing sports outside with Antonio, Sebastian liked playing board games with him. When he was really young and visited when his older brothers were only freshmen, Sebastian knew that Antonio would let him cheat. Whether they were playing cards or chutes and ladders, Antonio always let him win. It was a nice gesture that he appreciated, yet when he was around seven he asked him to stop.

Sebastian remembered the face that Antonio made, like a dad finding out that his child knew all along that he was really the one putting money under his pillow when the tooth fairy visited. He let out a flustered laugh and just said, “You caught me!”

“Lovino didn’t tell you that I was coming?” Sebastian pouted, “Why didn’t you tell Toni, Lovino?”

Lovino sighed at the boys whining, “I’m a busy person Sebastian. It slipped my mind okay? I'm sorry.”

“You’re saying sorry?” Sebastian looked shocked, “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

“I’m allowed to say sorry once and awhile brat.” Lovino crossed his arms as his roommate let out another laugh.

“I’m going to go call Feliciano so he can stop freaking out,” Antonio wandered outside, “Sebastian, I’ll go find the game too!”

Lovino groaned as he watched his brother cheer and call out, “Wait for me! I wanna go too!”

____________________________

Dinner with their parents hadn't been all that exciting. It was actually more like a late lunch than anything, meaning that they were all hungry again by six o'clock. Alfred had imagined it to be a little worse than it was. His parents were open minded, so we're Arthur's, so it didn't bother them when Alfred fake gushed for his brother about Gil, cooing, “They're so cute all the time. Gil's real sweet to him, I approve.”

His little comment raised a few eyebrows. Both families knew Gilbert, it was hard to miss the kid when Alfred and him hung out almost everyday during freshman year, back when the boys were too frequently homesick to stay in the dorms. Alfred knew that his parents liked Gilbert too, he was always polite even though his shouting was a bit much at times. Matthew had just shrunk lower into his seat, both him and Arthur kicking Alfred in the shin under the table as punishment. When Alfred lurched forward with a yelp of pain, His brother smiled, “Gilbert is great though.”

“So, why didn't you bring ‘em here!” His father had laughed. The rest of dinner had been boring. It was the usual catch up chatter that occurred between people who haven't talked in awhile. It had gone smoothly without a single hitch. Which was the weird part.

Arthur knew it was too good to be true, his parents whispering to him as they hugged goodbye, getting ready to drive off to the airport, “So love, how are you doing? You'll be okay?”

He nodded, “I'll be fine. Peter probably won't cause that much trouble while you're away.”

His mother nodded and laughed, “Mm, and those two are staying to help you?”

“Ah. No I think they're going back to the academy.” Arthur didn't like the look his mother gave him when she sighed, looking years younger than she actually was and just as mischievous.

“My poor baby, won't be with his beloved boyfriend for New Year's?” She laughed as Arthur squeaked in protest, “It's okay darling, there are many couples who have to separate for holidays right?”

“I'm not dating anyone mother,” the blush crept up Arthur's neck as he clenched his fists, “you know that.”

Letting out a wistful sigh, Arthur's mother kissed him on the cheek, “Let a women dream Arthur. You and I aren't getting any younger and your brothers…”

“What? But, Allistor and his fiancé, not to mention Dylan is dating that fellow. The twins are both older too, and Peter is well...” Arthur scrambled, “Why? What's wrong with them?”

“Ah nothing,” Arthur watched as his mother's shoulders drooped, “I would just love an in law as sweet as Alfred.”

“Mum!” Arthur let out an irritated huff.

The Brit started to pinch at the bridge of his nose as his mother laughed, “I'm sorry sweetie, he's just so cute though. Watching you two grow up, ah my heart! Fiona is nice, but you know she's just not my type of person.”

“Vile and soul sucking? With a personality like that I can't possibly come up with a reason for you not to like my dear brothers fiancé.” Arthur rolled his eyes.

His mom sighed, “I just want what's best for you honey. Oh! I also promised to pass this along.”

His mother poked around her bag before producing a tiny slip of crumpled paper. Arthur took it from his mother, unfolding it, “A number?”

“A friend at bridge has a son who saw your picture-”

“You said you'd stop showing that around!”

“-and he said you were cute. Just think about it, I worry about you Arthur.”

“Moments ago you were gushing about Alfred and now you're handing me the number of a stranger.” Arthur grumbled, stuffing the paper into his pocket, “I don't understand you sometimes.”

His mom laughed as she pulled him into a hug, “call and invite the guy over one of these days! New Years is only two days away and don't you want to have someone with you when the clock strikes midnight? I love you sweetie, we'll be back next week.”

“I love you too,” Arthur hugged her back. He understood her worry for him. Honestly he did. When his brothers were his age they had already gone through a few boyfriends or girlfriends. They had always asked to either go somewhere or bring someone back home for the holidays, so Arthur's mom was a little worried when he hadn't turned out anything like them.

Even Peter claims to have a girlfriend, and he was in third grade. Weren't cooties still supposed to be a thing for kids that age?

Arthur watched as his mother and father pulled away with the mr and Mrs. William-Jones, the car bound for the airport.

Waving excitedly, Peter turned to run into the house, “Are all of you coming?”

___________________

“Emil!” Matthias yelled as he walked through the door of the Bondevik-Steilsson household, placing the hide-away key on the front table to be put back later, “Buddy?”

There was a thumping noise coming from the general direction of the stairs, “Matthias?”

“Hey!” Matthias was taking off his shoes when the little boy jumped up and wrapped his arms around his legs, “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay…” The boy backed off, a little shyer now, “Why are you here?”

Matthias laughed, “My parents said they were going out of town for a while, so I’ll be in and out of here for a few days, is that okay?”

The dane only lived a block or two away, so he was able to travel between the two houses easily. His parents also decided to go on vacation, and not tell him. Instead they left a note on the kitchen counter and a bottle of champagne for him in the fridge. Matthias loved his parents, but sometimes he wished they were a little more… parent like.

“Yeah.” Emil gave him a small smile, his eyes wide and curious.

Matthias ruffled his hair, “Where’s your brother?”

Emil turned wordlessly and ran through the house, Matthias trailing slowly behind him. Emil had ran into the kitchen, gaining his brothers attention.

“Emil? Where’s your friend?” Lukas who was cutting something up, turned around with the knife in his hand.

The knife didn’t change the fact that Lukas was absolutely adorable. The blue and brown striped apron was hanging on his frame and his hair was pinned back with a few extra clips, fuzzy and fluffy socks on his feet. A loose shirt and sweatpants hanging on his smaller frame. He looked a little surprised to see Matthias there instead of whoever Emil had over.

“Matthias?” Lukas raised an eyebrow, placing the knife down and abandoning the pepper he was cutting.

Emil rolled his eyes and pattered back up the stairs, probably back to his room where his friend still was. Matthias scratched the back of his neck, “What are you cooking? It smells good.”

“Its stew, and what are you doing here?” Lukas walked over to the stove and picked up the spoon, stirring whatever was in the pot.

“My parents went on a trip or something… left me a note. So I figured that i’d come see my best friend in the whole world!” Matthias walked up beside him, “Where are your parents?”

“Mor’s went shopping for the New Year’s party they’re going to, and mom’s still at work. She and mor are having a date night since I'm here to watch Emil, they probably won't be back until morning.” Lukas filled a spoon with the reddish looking food, placing the end on his lips own lips. After nodding to himself, Lukas held out the utensil, “Try this?”

It was more like a command than a question, but Matthias would have tried it anyways. He smiled as his mouth filled with the warm liquid and sighed in contentment. As always, Lukas was amazing at cooking. Matthias gushed, “it's really good, what's in it?”

“See I told you.” Emil’s voice cut Lukas’ Possible answer off, “Gross right? Sometimes they’re worse than my parents.”

Matthias and Lukas both turned to the two little boys now sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen. Emil was smirking while the boy beside him smiled politely. Lukas just rolled his eyes and went back to cooking, but Matthias placed both hands down on the counter, “And who are you?”

“My name is Leon, nice to meet you sir,” the boy said with confidence.

Emil shook his head mumbling something along the lines of, “kiss up.”

“Mmhm. And Leon,” the Dane walked around to throw an arm around the tiny Asian boy, and there was some bite in his tone, “What are your intentions with my little Emil over here.”

“Matthias!” Both brothers snapped imminently. Lukas had whipped around with the spoon, nearly splattering food everywhere with a murderous look and Emil looked up at him with the biggest pout he'd ever seen. Leon seemed to be the only confused one.

Emil was sat mortified, maybe it wasn't his brother that he had to worry about being embarrassing. Sure his brother would probably try to pull out the photo albums, maybe send some glares that Leon would be oblivious to. But he never anticipated for Matthias to pull the whole overprotective, ‘daddy's little girl’ act.

Emil wasn't even a girl! He was a man. A manly man that could take care of himself. Elizabeta had taught him all he knows.

“Matthias, Emil is in fourth grade!” Lukas scolded him, he placed the spoon down on a napkin and shook his head, “They’re kids. And just friends for that matter.”

“You’re not freaking out about this? Lukas, this is Emil we’re talking about…” Matthias was shocked that the norwegian wasn’t fretting over his brother, tilting his head, he added, “I knew who I was going to be in love with forever when I was around that age. Why shouldn't I be suspicious?”

Lukas turned red and Emil started to snicker, “You two are ridiculous, C’mon Leon, I can still build a better Lego dragon than you!”

The two ran up the stairs, their playful bantering fading away as the thumping grew louder. Emil’s door slammed with a bang.

______________________________

After a while of playing board games the three boys decided to call it a night. They had to be wide awake to stay up the next day, since it was New Years. Well they had to be able to stay up until midnight which wasn't too late. Well. For the older boys anyways.

Sebastian had thrown all the pillows and blankets onto the floor so all three of them could be together. Of course those weren’t enough though, so Antonio had to go and nab pillows from Francis’ room.

He may or may not have broken a thing or two in the process.Francis wouldn't miss that lamp right?

When Sebastian snuggled in underneath the pile of blankets in their little nest, Antonio wasted no time following. Lovino sneered at the two, shaking his head, “You two are stupid.”

“Aw come on Lovi! Join us!” Antonio wrapped his arms around Lovino's waist, dragging him down as the boy protested, “We can read that story book that we always do!”

“Ah! I have it right here!” Sebastian pulled it out from underneath his pillow, “We can all read it together this time.”

Lovino stopped fussing and slid into the spot to the left of Sebastian, peering at the beaten up cover. It was one of Lovino and Feliciano’s old picture books, the spine was worse for ware and there was some water damage on some of the pages. But the story was one that they had enjoyed, no matter how old they got.

Sebastian particularly liked it when Antonio would read though. Lovino would sometimes come back to the dorm room early enough from late night talks with his grandfather to catch the last few bits of the story that Antonio could get to before Sebastian was knocked out. It was sweet, the only source light coming from Sebastian's night light. He could hear his brother giggle happily as Antonio used a funny sounding voice for a character. Lovino would always wait until the boy was asleep though to sneak in and go to bed, not wanting to break the magic that the two had created.

So this is to say that this would be the first time that he was experiencing the story up close and personal. Like. Really though dude. He had so many opportunities to but he was more of a chicken than he let on.

Antonio settled in on the other side of Sebastian, watching as the boys little hand flipped the page. He grinned brightly as Sebastian looked up eagerly at him, looking much younger than he actually was.

“Once upon a time, in the world of outer space, great evil loomed,” Antonio read as Sebastian flipped the page, “We must defeat the star defenders! Said the evil overlord.”

Lovino couldn't help but crack a smile at the fake nasally voice. Sebastian was already reduced to a fit of laughs.

“A million light years away, in the star defenders ship, captain Uran was briefing his team,” Antonio looked over at Lovino's, nudging him on the shoulder.

Lovino rolled his eyes but spoke anyways, “Alright crew! We must defeat the menosmen bases before they can grow!but before then, no more ice cream !”

Sebastian couldn't help it. He fell over, laughing into his pillow, at his brother's attempt at a deeper and authoritative voice.

Antonio watched as Sebastian's face absolutely glowed with pure happiness. And Lovino's own wasn't that different. The Spaniard liked times like this, where the only thing they had to worry about was who was going to read what and how much their stomachs were going to ache from laughing. The ever so rare innocent smiles from Lovino were always a plus too. It was a nice break from the usual mayhem.

“But commander!” Sebastian could barely get through his line without breaking down, his voice purposely pitched high for the character, “How are we supposed to do that?”

With the dim lights and warm blankets around them, the three grew tired as they continues to flip through the pages. Their laughter died down and turned into content smiles and small chuckles at particularly funny moments. It was so warm, both from the blankets and the sweet atmosphere in the room. It was relaxing. Sebastian had stayed awake through the vast majority of the book, which he has never done before.

When Lovino was soundly asleep beside him, Sebastian figured that it would be safe to whisper to Antonio, “Toni can I ask you something?”

Antonio stopped reading, placing the book down, “of course Sebastian. Do you want a different story?”

“No it's not that,” Sebastian rolled over to face the taller boy. Placing his hands under his right ear like a pillow, Sebastian yawned, “Do you really like my brother?”

Antonio looked a little shocked, “of course I do.”

“That's good! Cause I really like you… Ludwigs a nice guy but he can be kinda scary,” Sebastian's eyes started to close, “Promise that I'll get to be the best man?”

“Hm?” Antonio smiled, “I promise. Buenos noches Sebastian.”

“You have to love him forever you know,” Sebastian was practically mumbling now, “He may be grumpy but he's my brother. And I know he needs it.”

Antonio chuckled at the small boys concern, pulling the blanket over the both of them. As he settled back in, he felt a smaller finger wrap around his pinky, “gotta promise.”

“I will definitely love him forever,” Antonio squeezed reassuringly, “I promise.”

Soon the two energetic souls were out like a light, both snoring lightly, but Lovino couldn't seem to sleep anymore. The tips of his ears a brilliant red.

______________

“Mattie tell Arthur to stop,” Alfred whined as he and Peter were shooed out of the kitchen, “he's going to poison us all.”

Peter pouted like the older male, both of them crossing their arms like petulant children. Well. One of them was a child so he had an excuse.

“Sorry Al,” Matthew shrugged, “not my house. And I'll be the one cooking so just go.”

Peter gave up, his attention span giving out, “Alfred can we just go play now?”

“Yeah,” Alfred sighed and a smile adorned his face again. He ruffled the boy’s hair, “What do you wanna do?”

“I got an idea! Follow me!” Peter tugged on his sleeve, pulling them towards the family room. The couch was big and placed across from an equally impressive tv. Peter had instructed him to sit on the sofa before he ran towards his room. Alfred could hear his footsteps on the floor and a concerning heavy thump before the frantic patterning resumed. When Peter re-emerged his tiny arms were filled with blankets and a few pillows balanced on top.

Alfred instantly got what he was going for, “Ultimate pillow fort time?”

Peter nodded excitedly and threw all the items in his arms to the ground, “we can make a big castle and play dragons!”

The two of them started to construct the pillow walls, making sure that they were sturdy enough to hold up nicely. When they started to run out of materials they ripped the couch cushions off and Peter sneaked into his siblings rooms. It wasn't like they were home anyways.

The fort was simple, it used the couch and three chairs for the back support, where they draped a nice blanket for a roof. But the majority of it has no roof, it was almost like an open courtyard. The wall wasn't that tall, but if Peter kneeled he would only be able to peer over the top of it. They decided to use Peter's Giant sea turtle plushie as a door, trying to make it seem more magical.

Peters laughter only grew as the tower of pillows Alfred had been working on toppled on top of the older boy. Alfred's stunned countenance only added onto the humor.

Alfred soon joined in, the child's laughter infectious. Both of them heaving on the ground by the time they calmed down. Peter breathlessly let out, “This is fun!”

Alfred smiled and turned to look at the happy look on Peter's face. He felt bad for the kid. All his brothers were much older than him, and he was usually trapped at home by himself. Alfred had always had Matthew growing up. His built in buddy.

“What in the world are you two doing?” Arthur was puzzled, looking down at the two figures lying on the ground.

Alfred peered up, “Pillow fort. Wanna join?”

“Um…” Arthur looked at the pillows then back down to Peter's content expression, he didn't want to ruin the fun, “I don't know if that's such a good idea.”

Peter offered an oblivious smile, “C’mon Arthur! You're always too busy to play.”

Which was true. Arthur of course never meant to be extremely busy whenever he had a chance to see his youngest brother, he just was. Peter understood to some extent, but he was still just a kid. Arthur felt guilty though.

“Okay…” He reluctantly joined them in them pillow fortress, “What are we playing?”

Alfred placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, “Lighten up dude! I think we were just about to play knights right?”

“Yeah!” Peter crawled into the hooded part of the fort, “Wait right here!”

As Peter rummaged through the tent Arthur turned, “This is… rather impressive.”

“Thanks,” Alfred had a proud smile on, “I try.”

Peter re-emerged with three different things in his hands; First was a tail that could be worn as a belt, second was a foam sword, and lastly there was a flower crown looking headpiece. It had nice ribbon intertwined with the flowers, the ribbon extending and flowing freely in the back.

Taking the sword for himself, Peter handed Alfred and tail and placed the crown on his brother's head. “I'm going to be the knight!”

Arthur reached up to touch the object that had been placed on his head while Alfred strapped the tail on. Arthur glanced around confused, “How do you play this?”

“Well, you're the princess,” Peter smiled at him, oblivious to the indignant squawk that Arthur let out. It was one thing to let Feliks embarrass him by making him play such a girly part, but his own family?

Alfred laughed, practically reading his friend's mind, “Or you can be a very pretty prince.”

“Yeah!” Peter cheered, “and I gotta rescue you from the dragon!”

“Why can't I be the dragon? Don't you want to stab me Peter?” Arthur raised an eyebrow. His brother gave him a puzzling look, obviously trying to come up with a reason.

“Because beginners aren't allowed to be something cool.” Peter settled on, crossing his arms.

Alfred nodded, “now go to the tower prince. I must keep the noble knight from getting you.”

Sighing, Arthur obeyed and sat on the staircase between the kitchen and living room. Alfred gleefully followed, standing at the base of the stairs. Alfred and Peter used to play this a lot more when they were younger. They would usually use dolls though, waiting for Arthur to stop doing whatever it was that he had to do before they did something else.

Peter began to count down from twenty. With the dampened numbers from the living room echoing around them, Alfred leaned closer to Arthur “So basically, you have to just stay here until Peter slays me.”

“It's quite self explanatory Alfred,” Arthur rolled his eyes.

Alfred huffed, “Well you were the one that wanted to know how to play before.”

And before Arthur could retort Peter came barreling in, foam sword drawn. Alfred was prepared for it though, quickly blocking it with his arm.

“Die dragon! Let the prince go!” Peter went to go slash again. Arthur let out a fond laugh at the scrunched up and fox used look on Peter’s face, the tiny kid was taking this game extremely seriously.

Alfred let out something akin to a roar and turned to face Arthur. For a split second, Arthur was able to raise an eyebrow, giving him a questioning look. But Alfred never responded, instead he just wore a devious smirk before throwing Arthur over his shoulder.

“Alfred! Put me down this instant!” Arthur wriggled as Alfred made a mad dash for the living room. Peter stood there stunned for a moment. Carrying the princess was never part of the game.

Peter tilted his head before laughing, dashing after the two, “Come back here dragon! Give back his highness!”

Surely running in circles with someone hoisted on his would tire Alfred out, but five minutes later and he was still trying to dash away from Peter. The little boy himself was giggling hysterically, trying to keep himself from toppling over with laughter. Arthur could feel Alfred’s grip on his legs tighten, the warm grip readjusting as they ran in circles around the staircase.

Under different and not so jostling circumstances, Arthur would have been embarrassed and extremely flushed. But instead he was laughing along with them. Alfred was absolutely thrilled to feel the soft vibrations coming from his friend.

Arthur could see Peters amusement from his position on Alfred's shoulder. The little boy was happier than Arthur had ever seen him, which made Arthur's smile just a little bit wider. He cared about his younger brothers happiness, and if playing these silly games with Alfred and himself would offer his brother just that, then he would gladly give his time to watch his little brothers face light up. Of course he would never say this out loud, peter would protest that it was too mushy or something.

But as they were making another lap around the staircase, the front door opened. Peter bumped into Alfred's legs and stumbled backwards as Alfred stopped moving in his tracks. Arthur tried to crane his neck to see what had made the game pause so abruptly,but he couldn't see past.

“I see you're having fun,” came the light yet gruff tone that Arthur recognized and couldn't really tell if he loved or not. His mother did mention something about Allistor coming by.

“Hi Allistor!” Peter chirped, poking his head out from behind Alfred’s leg. Alfred seemed to unfreeze and Arthur felt himself being lowered to the ground. Alfred had wrapped an arm around the shorter blonde’s waist when his feet touched the ground since he had stumbled a bit. After regaining his posture, Arthur turned to his eldest brother

“Hello Allistor, Fiona. I see that Cecillia is doing…” Arthur looked at his soon to be sister in law and her swelling stomach, “Well.”

Fiona narrowed her eyes and Alfred could feel the two youngest Kirkland brothers cower a little, Peter’s grip on Alfred’s leg tightening and Alfred’s grip on Arthur’s waist tightening as well. Fiona rubbed at her stomach, “Yes, Cecillia is doing fine. She is due in two months after all, Arthur.”

“Play nice,” Allistor hissed before clapping his hands together, “So how are my two underlings?”

Peter just nodded, still eyeing Fiona’s long and sharp nails. Arthur just sighed, “We’re good. Mum and Dad just left a little while ago and Matthew is making cookies in the kitchen.”

Allistor nodded before toeing off his shoes and wandering towards the kitchen. As Fiona trailed after the older Kirkland, the three left visibly relaxed, letting out a sigh.

“How about we just go wait in the fort for the cookies to be done!” Alfred tried to get Peter to smile again, “I bet I can beat you there!”

Peter just nodded excitedly, taking off before Alfred could even register the conformation, “Hey! That’s cheating!”

Arthur smiled warmly, walking after Alfred, who started to sprint. The tower of pillows jostled a bit as Peter and Alfred ran full force towards the canopy part of their fort, diving on the couch. Alfred pulled Arthur down by the waist underneath the blanket top once the brit wandered close enough to be snatched. Breathing hard, Peter held something in front of all of them, it was glowing weird colors.

“Look! I got this for christmas!” Peter watched amusedly as the color changed from blue to green, “Its a bright lite!”

He held the fluffy pillow close to his chest, and let Alfred wrap and arm around him as well. Held close to the warmth, Peter could feel his eyes starting to droop down and a small smile grace his lips.

“It’s great Peter,” Alfred mumbled as he and Arthur were left to watch the lights change underneath the dark tent, “It’s really cool.”

In the kitchen, Matthew was rolling out dough and using cookie cutters to make fun shaped cookies. He didn't even look up when he heard someone come into the kitchen, “Alfred! I told you they will be done in one second, I’m taking them out now! Calm your fatass!”

“Wow… I never thought that I would hear little Mattie say something like that,” Matthew lifted his head up so fast that he thought his neck snapped, “Hey.”

“Allistor! What are you doing here?” Matthew sheepishly laughed, “I mean this is your house and all but… ”

Matthew almost jumped backwards at the woman’s appearance. She was sickly thin except for her pregnant stomach, “Hi. I’m Fiona.”

What in all mighty demons hell is that-she. She's a… female. I think. Matthew forced himself to look at Allistor, “Well this batch is done.”

The piping hot chocolate chip cookies looked delicious. The three of them wanted to eat the whole tray by themselves. But they wouldn’t. They couldn't. To stop temptation they let the cookies cool and started to walk towards the living room.

“Al! Peter! The cookies are re-” Matthews voice died in his throat as he peaked into the tent.

Allistor chuckled behind him, Fiona letting out a huff, “Well I’ll be damned.”

Alfred had both of the Kirklands laying on his shoulders, a content smile on all of their faces. Peter was drooling a bit though, the glowing pillow clutched to his body for dear life, and a spot on Alfred's T-shirt darkening with the liquid. hand was caught under Alfred’s, close to his hip and his hair messed up in a funny but cute looking way. All three looked like they had just passed out from exhaustion. Which was extremely possible.

“We should probably let them sleep,” Matthew let the flap of blanket fall from his head, “More cookies for us though!”

_______________________________

They ate dinner about three hours ago, Leon left two hours ago, and Emil was tucked into bed less than an hour ago. Matthias practically melded with the couch after popping a random movie into the dvd player. Lukas wasn’t in any better shape, looking tired as hell from making sure that the two fourth graders were entertained all day. That meant eating, some messy arts and crafts, saving a vase from breaking during an intense nerf war (That vase almost knocking over was sooooo not Matthias’ fault… it was who ever decided that it would be a good idea to place a vase in the corner of a room’s fault.), and an bedtime story that dragged on for an hour or two.

Lukas didn't even protest when Matthias threw a blanket over them and pulled him into a side hug. He greatly accepted the gesture, tiredly leaning into the touch, “Kids are hard work.”

“Yeah…” Matthias chuckled, “I don't remember ever being that accident prone. Not to mention they’re attention spans are practically non-existent.”

The dane could practically feel Lukas rolling his eyes, “You don’t remember that because you still haven’t grown out of that phase.”

“Hey!” Matthias shoved him over a little, “I’m still as adorable as a kid too.”

Lukas just hummed, “Sure.”

It was quiet for a few more milliseconds, Lukas and Matthias finally letting out the desperately needed sigh of relief. The day had turned out to be a more stressful one than either of them had anticipated, fun, but stressful. Just as they had settled in, both their eyelids becoming heavy with sleep, there was a small tug at the blanket. Reluctantly wrenching their eyes open, Matthias and Lukas sat up.

“Emil! Whats wrong?” Lukas looked at the fidgeting boy standing in front of them, Emil’s white nightshirt and dinosaur pants were rumpled and his silky white hair was knotted, “Can’t sleep?”

Emil just shook his head and wedged his way into a spot between the the elder boys, Matthias lifted the blanket for him to crawl under. There were no more words spoken, Emil just fell back asleep after being wrapped up and surrounded by warmth. When Matthias could hear Lukas’ faint snoring he turned to look at the boys next to him. Emils head was snuggly fit in the crook of Lukas’ neck and Lukas’ head rested nicely on top of Emil’s. Matthias reached over, praying to god that he wouldn’t wake them as he placed a small peck on both of their foreheads. He sighed contently, letting himself get pulled in by sleep.

______________________________________

Lovino woke up by someone pouncing on him, laughing in his face. He tried to blink open his eyes, “Lovino! Wake up!”

Lovino’s first instinct was to panic, “What? Sebastian what happened?”

“Nothing! But today’s new year’s eve and were making churros!” Sebastians cheery voice filled the room.

Lovino’s next move was to throw the pillow back over his head, “Where is Antonio? Ask him to help you.”

“He is! We need you to come too!” Sebastian was already trying to tug him out.

Lovino sighed, knowing that it was only a matter of moments before Sebastian would start to throw a fit. But before he could feign sleeping for a few more moments, he was being lifted off the ground. An arm hooked under his legs and back. Squeaking in shock, Lovino glared at Antonio’s bright smile. It was only… what? Nine am?

Who the hell was up at nine am during a break?

“Lovi! We gotta get ready for the new year!” Antonio dropped him on the mattress, “Get dressed! Sebastian and I have already prepared the batter!”

“Lovino! Lovino! Hurry! Were going to go to the kitchen!” Lovino huffed as he removed the shirt that was thrown at him from his vision, “Antonio! I bet I can beat you there!”

“I’ll give you a head start! Count to ten,” Antonio stood, hands on his hips laughing as the boy squealed with giggles before running away, “You better run!”

Lovino rolled his eyes at their childish behavior, “You two are ridiculous.”

There was no malice behind his words, only a faint trace of fondness. Antonio smiled, wrapping him up in a hug, “Get dressed, we have a lot of things to do today!”

Antonio screamed out “Ten!” even though Sebastian was probably already half way across the campus and heading towards a home ec. Room. He ran out after them and Lovino started to get dressed a little faster. Wanting to join in their game.

__________________________

When Peter shook himself awake, he was in his bed. He didn't remember ever going up to his room, but he figured that he must have been transferred there at some point during the night. He had also been changed into Pjs. But not his cool ones, the old shark ones. Must have been his brother, Arthur still thought he was only five. He could smell something good coming from downstairs, which meant that Arthur was not cooking, which meant that Alfred or Matthew had stayed over. And his stomach growled.

Peter was hungry.

As he stumbled into the kitchen, Alfred was plating pancakes and bacon for three. He paused as he saw Peter enter, “Good morning!”

“Good morning Alfred! Happy new years eve!” Peter plopped in a seat at the island.

Alfred laughed, “It’s going to be a good new year, right? Why don’t you go into the living room, we can watch TV while we eat breakfast!”

Peter nodded, smiling wide, he loved sunday cartoons. He hadnt been able to watch them in a while, his parents hogging the TV to watch the morning news. He climbed back down the chair, and padded towards the living room. He tilted his head, confused when he saw that the castle had been dismantled, but he didnt mind. Instead, on the couch Arthur sat and the television was spewing news about the new years party in new york and whatnot.

“Here Peter,” Arthur reached over and passed him the remote, “I think Spongebob or something should be on.”

Peter gleefully took the remote, sitting down on the floor in front of the couch so he didn’t disrupt Arthur’s careful folding. Wait. What? Why was his brother folding laundry?

“What are you doing Arthur?” Peter looked up at his brother.

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, “What does it look like I’m doing Peter? I’m folding the laundry that I did this morning.”

“Yeah… but why did you do the laundry?” Peter watched as Arthur carefully folded a pair of pants, “Aren’t those... my... clothes?”

Arthur just nodded, “When I went to go get your clothes ready for today I couldn’t find one pair of socks. Peter, tell me, where are all your socks going? You lose them almost all the time.”

“Are you harping the kid about his socks?” Alfred came in with a tray of food and plopped down next to Peter who reached for a strip of bacon, “Arthur, everyone knows that the sock monster eats them. He’s a hungry guy.”

Arthur rolled his eyes as Peter nodded along, “Yes. I bet his appetite is as large as yours right? And that’s why even after doing all of Peter’s laundry I still can’t find a single pair?”

“We can go buy him more socks when we go get the stuff for the party tonight,” Alfred waved him off before continuing to cut Peter’s extra large pancake up into triangle slices, “Easy fix.”

Arthur shook his head, starting to put all the folded clothes back into the laundry basket to be put away later, “If he keeps just getting new socks, he’s never going to take responsibility for them. And what party are you talking about?”

“He’s a fourth grader Arthur, his socks are bound to disappear,” Alfred held out a fork with a bit of pancake on it for Arthur, “And I am talking about our party of three for New Years eve. Duh. Mattie and Gil are doing something with Feliciano and Ludwig and your brother left for Fiona’s parents house, remember?”

Arthur took the bite of pancake, carefully slipping off the couch, “What a hoot that party will be.”

Peter was absorbed in his cartoons, laughing to himself as the character did something particularly stupid. Alfred stuffed another pancake bit into the distracted boys mouth, “It’ll be the best one of the new year!”

_______________________

“Matthias! No, a little lower!” Emil watched as Matthias wobbled a bit on the chair he was standing on, “It has to be perfect!”

The dane streched as far as he could to hang up the banner, “Is that good?”

Emil made a frame with his fingers, connecting the two L’s that he made, “Just a little more to the right, no my right...Down a bit, up!”

“Desserts 's almost re-” Lukas came in, his apron dusted with flour and chocolate, “What are you doing?”

Matthias huffed and just tied the string where it was despite Emil’s glare, “Decorating!”

“Isn’t it a little late for that?” Lukas looked towards the cable box, “It's five minutes to midnight. New Year’s eve is almost over.”

“Ah is it really that late already?” Matthias hopped down from the chair that he was standing on, scooping Emil up with one arm, “Turn on the countdown! We’ll be there in a second.”

Lukas sighed as the two of them disappeared up the stairs. He went back into the kitchen to grab the ice cream and cookies they had prepared for the count down. Lukas tapped his foot as he impatiently flipped through the channels to find the one the NYC countdown would be best broadcasted. There were only a minute left and he could still hear Matthias and Emil giggling over something above him. They were going to miss it.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

There was a distinct pop noise and Lukas was showered with Confetti. Lukas turned his head and saw his brother smiling, holding a mini confetti cannon, and when he turned the other way-

Lukas didn’t register Matthias’ lips on his own until he heard the dulled out, “Ew! That’s gross!”

Though Emil’s giggles and protests were lost once Matthias placed one hand to the back of Lukas’ head and the other on the small of his back. It was soft and light, nothing intense, but it was still just as sweet.

“Okay… You can stop now,” Emil wedged himself in between them.

Matthias laughed and Lukas just stat stunned, Emil just pouted. Hugging both of them, Matthias cheered, “Happy New Year!”

______________________________________________

“Turn the music up more!” Sebastian cupped his hands around his mouth, “There’s no one here!”

“Sebastian the countdown is going to start soon!” Antonio screamed above the music, “Were never going to be able to hear it!”

Sebastian didn’t listen, instead he wandered over to the speaker system and tapped the plus button until the music was at an ear splitting volume. He grabbed his brother’s hand and Antonio’s, moving around and swaying, “Dance!”

“Five seconds!” Lovino shouted, looking at the small Laptop screen. Sebastian was still jumping up and down as fast as his little body could.

The youngest italian smiled, “Five!”

Sebastian held on tighter to both of their hands before loosening considerably, “Four!”

“Three!” Sebastian pulled his brother’s hand and the spaniards together, linking them, “Two!”

“One!” Pushing his brother on the back, the two older boys crashed together, Lovino’s head on Antonio’s chest.

The taller male just smiled, cupping Lovino’s cheeks and leaning down. Lovino gasped a little and closed his eyes as he sunk into his New Years kiss.

“Lovino’s kissing someone! Lovino’s kissing someone!”

Lovino broke away, hugging the boy so tight that Sebastian was starting to hit his brothers arm, “Shut up you little brat.”

________________________________

“And I think that one’s the big dipper!” Alfred pointed up towards the sky, “And that one’s orion's belt.”

“What about that one?” Peter gestured to a cluster of stars.The air was cold outside, since it was January, and the grass in the Kirklands backyard wasn’t very warm. Peter didn’t mind it though, he was in his fluffiest winter coat and wedged nicely in between the two teens.

Arthur squinted at the stars, “I think thats Canis Minor.”

“Oh! Guys, I think it’s almost time!” Alfred looked at his watch, “Where’s the radio?”

Peter shuffled a little bit, producing a small device from under him, “I have it!”

Alfred took it from the younger boy, pulling out the antenna and playing with the dials until they found a channel. It started playing broadcasting some station in New York.

“Alright folks!” the radio crackled, “Let’s start our countdown into the new year! Grab that special someone and pull them close. It’s time! Five!”

Peter started to laugh and cheered, linking his arms together with his brother and Al, he started to scream along with the radio people, “Four, three, two, on-!”

The little boy stopped when he felt his brother and Alfred kiss his cheeks, pressing hard enough for Peter to have to make a fishy face. Smiling contently, Peter held onto both their hands, pressing them close to his chest.

Arthur’s face was hot and red, from the cold or embarrassment, and Alfred’s smile was brighter than the stars. They held their foreheads together, Peter still wedged in between them and cheering, “Happy New Year!”

________________________________

Domestic af/Siblings side

Alfred (entered 7:28 am) : 24 points

Matthias (entered 12:37 pm) : 22 points

Antonio (entered 3:39 am) : 23 points

_____________________________

Awesome F. Jones changed the chat name to Tsundere’s + kids = my heart is shot x3x

Awesome F Jones: So. How did the plan go for you guys?

Antomato: great! Muy bueno, Sebastian came to visit!

Awesome F Jones: Lovino’s youngest brother came???

Antomato: yeah! I had no idea! It was so fun seeing him o3o

So you got to spend time with the other one. :Me

Well, I guess you didn’t have to worry about Feliciano running off to do something else :Me

Antomato: Yeah! He ended up spending most of the break with Ludwig somewhere so I would’ve failed the plan if Sebastian didn’t show up

Awesome F. Jones: Kids are so cute

Tru o3o :Me

__________________________________

“Emil were leaving now!” Lukas called up to his brother, Matthias already pulling their suitcases out the door.

The boy thumped down the stairs, “Wait! Lukas!”

“Whats wrong?” Lukas looked a little panicked at his brothers flushed face.

Emil just smiled up at him, “Ya know Lukas… Matthias is really cool.”

“Mmhm?”

Emil just gave a smirk that made him look a lot older than he was, “He’s a great guy. And he’d make a great boyfriend~”

“Emil!” Lukas tensed, face bright red.

The younger boy just laughed, “He’s practically family already, why not just make it official?”

Lukas couldn't get his brother’s smug expression out of his head the whole way back to Hetahigh.

______________________________

Sebastian Vargas

Sebastian: Big Bro!

Sebastian: I forgot to tell u!

What is it Sebastian? Did you forget something here again?: Me

Sebastian : U no… Antonio is a very good looking person. He’s like a movie star and I think tht I overheard the lady at the park say smthing about his butt and greek gods.

Sebastian! : Me

Sebastian : Ok ok

Sebastian : Point is, he’s not going to be ‘on the market’ forever

Sebastian : I rly like him 2. I will kill u if he doesn’t come over for vacay in cali

Sebastian, California is supposed to be a family reunion: Me

Sebastian : ur point is?

Sebastian : He’s like my bro 2 its fine

Sebastian just mind your own fucking buisness: Me

Sebastian : I may b stupid sometimes, but he’s not gonna b single forever Lovi!

Sebastian : Go get em bro

SEBASTIAN!: Me

_________________________

“Alfred!” Peter whined, “You’re going to come back soon right?”

Alfred ruffled the boy’s hair, smiling, “Of course buddy! Just tell your brother when.”

And although Peter tried his best to be upbeat, as soon as Alfred went to start the car, Peter started to cry. The tears streaming down his face was a giant contrast to the happy expression he had been wearing all week, and it made Arthur’s heart break slightly.

“Peter… Why are you so upset?” Arthur knelt down to eye level with the boy, “Were going to come back soon…”

Peter furiously swipped at his eyes, “But… I don’t want you guys to leave!”

“Peter… you have to be a big boy now okay?” Arthur pulled the boy into his chest, carding his hand through the boy’s hair, “Why are you so upset?”

“Because… What if Alfred is like Alli?” Peter wiped his snot on his brothers shoulder.

It took Arthur a moment to realize what his brother was talking about. A little while ago, about seven months to be exact, Allistor was still living at home. Allistor worked only a block away, as a manager of a restaurant and it was easier for both of Arthur’s parents and him to stay in the Kirklands house to watch over Peter when he could. Though that all changed when he found out that his girlfriend, Fiona, was pregnant. Suddenly it was all proposals and moving boxes.

And Peter was left alone…

“Oh Peter…” Arthur rubbed circles on his back, “Alfred’s not going anywhere sweetie…”

The sniffles started up again, “But! But! What if he gets a benancy like Allistor! Then he’s gonna have to move away and not visit for a long time.”

“It’s a fiance honey… and that’s part of growing up. You fall in love and get married,” Arthur swallowed a lump in his throat, “But Alfred and Allistor will always love you.”

“But! I don’t want Alfred to get married! Cause then he’s not going to be around,” Peter pulled away to look into Arthur’s eyes, “You can’t let him okay!”

“What?” Arthur tilted his head.

“Promise?” Peter’s voice was hard and serious.

Arthur smiled, “I can’t guarantee that Peter. You marry who you love and you can’t stand in the way of that.”

“Then…” Peter furrowed his eyebrows and stared hard at the ground, “You marry him! Promise me that you’ll marry him! That way he’ll be my big brother too for real and… and… You guys can come visit me more. Together!”

“Peter…” Arthur’s pupils were blown wide, “I…”

The boy just stuck out his littlest finger, “Pinky promise me Arthur? You love him, don’t you?”

Arthur had to leave, he couldn’t be sure if he would be able to keep that promise but he wrapped his pinky around his brothers and kissed his forehead goodbye.

Im posting chapter 19 right after this and then going back and editing all the links! Chapter 20, the last one, should be coming soon! Im so sorry for not updating on here!

#usuk #spamano #DenNor #how to win a tsundere's heart #striped penguin socks #penguin writes

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