#soy luna lutteo fic

[countessofravenclaw]

Oye, es Navidad, y es Navidad, y es Navidad otra vez

[🇫🇮] Kaikki vaan joukkohon leikkiä lyömään ja puuroa syömään kun joulu on! Kas, nythän on joulu, ja nythän on joulu, ja nythän on joulu taas - Nisse Polkka; Henning Koie & Jorma Ikävalko

[🇬🇧] Let's all get together to play, hit and eat porridge when it's Christmas Hey, it's Christmas, and it's Christmas, and it's Christmas again

Listen the song here... (You should, it is very good)

“And now, before we release you all, we invite the 8th graders to receive their leaving certificates.” 

Nina squeezed Gastón’s hand as they sat in the audience at the La Hoja de Roble comprehensive education institution. 

“Olinda Bezenty, Aurelius Flavius, Cassius Longinus, Gaius Octavius,” Headmaster started reading off the list. “Laura Perida, Quintus Pictor, Lucius Seneca, Publius Severus, Marcus Tullius, Sarita Urea…”

The eight graders lined up on the stage. Laura was easy to spot, in her glittering red dress. Hoja had actually quite a strict dress code, and the only time the students were allowed to be out of their uniforms was on their last day. 

Laura flashed a very charming smile as she accepted her certificate. 

“And after all that, we wish our students a very happy summer and Christmas and wish farewell to the eighth graders. We will miss you and good luck as you start your journey into upper secondary!” 

“Well, the ceremony hasn’t changed one bit from last year.” Gastón remarked as they were waiting in the lobby, since Laura still had to pick up her things from her homeroom and—even if she wouldn’t admit it—she wanted to say bye to her teacher. 

“Or from when Oscar finished here.” Nina noted, as she wrapped her arm around his, “Well, this was the last time…”

“Kind of makes you sad, if you think about it.” He nodded, pulling her closer, “Laura’s starting highschool, that’s scary.”

“Tell me about it.” Nina shook her head, “Where did the time go?”

“I guess we are getting old.” Gastón laughed, his voice getting sultrier, moving his hand to his wife’s waist, pulling her closer. “Just can’t let it stop us. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“You’re daring.” She laughed leaning closer…

“Uhm, can you not like…do this here?” They turned around and saw Laura standing next to them, arms crossed. 

“You being the one complaining is new.” Gastón responded. 

“I don’t care what you do, I’m not Aurora.” Laura shook her head, “I just wanna get out of here.”

“What’s the rush?” Nina asked. 

“You think I want to stay here any longer than necessary?” Laura continued. 

“Fair enough.” Gastón laughed, “Come on, show us the degree at least first.”

“It’s not a degree.” Laura shook her head—obviously at this point in time no school used paper report cards, everything was digital, but La Hoja de Roble carried a tradition of handing out out acrylic boards, that read the student’s names, grade point average, and the date when they had completed their comprehensive education—before handing her school-leaving certificate to her parents. “The GPA is 9,6; by the way, on the dot.”

“That’s amazing.” Nina hugged her. “Congratulations sweetie.”

“You are amazing.” Gastón hugged her as well. 

“Are you gonna put that thing on the shelf too?” Laura gestured to the board Gastón was holding now. 

“Why wouldn’t we? It’s gonna fit right in with Oscar’s and Aurora’s.”

“Okay, but can we go now?” Laura rolled her eyes, “I need to see if Ivory got out already.” 

“Ambar texted us, saying that the ceremony at Ruste´ks is taking a little longer. There are more students there.”

“Simon and Ambar should have let Ivory go here.” Laura grumbled, “I can’t believe that we have not been allowed to be in the same school.”

“Sweetie, you know that they wanted her to go to the school closest to their house.” Gastón explained as they got into the car. “You’ll get to go to the school together now, as you go to Blake… Which reminds me that we need to book the fitting for your uniform.”

“I don’t wanna wear plaid.” Laura grumbled. 

“Necessary evil,” Nina shook her head, “It’s kind of required. We survived, so can you.”

“Can we not talk about school any longer?” Laura whined, “I’m done now… I still need to do all my Christmas shopping. I haven’t even started yet and…”

“You have time. Don’t worry.” Gastón laughed, “Let's talk about that during dinner when Oscar and Aurora are back home as well. You all need to do those angel tree donations as well.”

The Angel Tree Donations was something Gastón had been doing with his parents since forever, buying gifts for families that couldn’t afford them themselves. It was something that had always been really important to Isla and Marco and Gastón had wanted to instill the same mindset to his own children.

***

“Now, take your tablets out.” Marvin Engelsó, the literature teacher and the teacher in charge of the freshman class at Blake said while writing on the digital board at the front of the classroom. “We are gonna do a fun Christmas activity, just something special for the last day.”

“Seriously?” Aurora rolled her eyes at Stella who was sitting beside her, “So we are allowed to acknowledge the holidays now?”

“I guess Mr. Engelsó woke up and wanted to be the fun teacher today.” Stella laughed. “Let’s see what he thinks is fun?”

“I want you to write a list of what you wish for Christmas…”

“Or this is actually going to be fun—” Stella’s eyes widened. 

“…and then detail under it why and how that wish would make your life better. What will bring into the…”

“Are we in philosophy class?” Aurora sighed, “Of course there is a catch. Who thinks about their Christmas gifts deeply.”

“Get to work.” Mr. Engelsó piped up. “You aren’t free yet, so this is still time for education.”

“Of course.” Aurora chuckled as she opened her tablet and picked up her pen. She sighed…as she was so notoriously bad at asking anything. Mom and Dad were somehow super good at reading her mind on that font, and so were grandma and grandpa too, and her godparents…

She always got what she wanted. Books, notebooks—yes, because she still wrote in those, hair care, cosmetics, golden jewelry, puzzles… Everything she liked. 

Mom and Dad were also pretty into giving experiences as gifts…

Aurora glanced at Stella, who was already totally engulfed in her own work, writing things down in a hurry. Obviously, Stella had a thousand ideas, as always.

Aurora carefully inched closer to what Stella was writing.

New roller skates… Of course, Stella was like her mother. Romance books, again, not surprising—

At the bottom…the last line caught Aurora’s attention. It wasn’t just a simple bullet point, but… Embellished with hearts? Stella didn’t do hearts. Stars were her go to motif. 

Aurora leaned closer to read what was written next to the hearts—

💗💗 I wish that the one who holds my heart would notice me 💗💗

“What?” Aurora stared at Stella.

“What are you snooping?” Stella whipped her head around with an alarming speed and hurried to cover the tablet. 

“Something you clearly haven’t told me,” Aurora stared at her best friend. “Since when have you had a crush on someone?”

“Since…” Stella’s eyes started growing desperate. “I don’t know when…you can’t determine timing for these things.”

“Why haven’t you told me?”

“Because…” Stella shook her head again. “I don’t know. Give me some grace here, please… And please don’t tell anyone—especially Mom and Dad.”

“Uh…” Aurora couldn't get a word out of her mouth. 

“Dad would start fuming and Mom would jump onto the walls and start planning the wedding.” Stella continued. 

“But who is it?” Aurora insisted, while looking around at class. “Don’t tell me it is anyone here.”

“No, no, not in our class,” Stella looked Aurora into the eyes. “…I can’t tell you.” 

***

“Hey. Did you see that the last grades have finally been uploaded to the portal?” Oscar glanced at his best friend Ethan as they were walking toward their lockers. 

“No. They usually take forever with them.” He took his phone out and opened the school portal that all of their course evaluations were always updated. 

“It’s not like you will have something surprising there.” Ethan snorted. “Mr. Straight acer.”

“I got few B:s this semester.” Oscar shrugged. 

“Let me guess, philosophy and social studies.” Ethan laughed again. “Well, I don’t think those will hinder your medical school applications. I got a B in chemistry, and C in philosophy.”

“You just need to really understand that substitution and addition are not the same thing.” 

“Well, I passed. That’s the victory here.” Etha shrugged. “B is not bad.” 

“It is not.” Oscar nodded as he pressed the touchscreen on the locker, and it popped open. “I don’t really get why we need to have actual classes on the last day. There is no use for this info.”

“We all know Blake would rather crumble down in ruins than let a good moment for education go to waste and let us have fun. We just need to hang in here for another two hours.” 

“Yep, then we can forget this whole thing until March.” Oscar nodded—

“I’ve been here for one and half months…” Suddenly the sound of lively Andino Spanish came from behind Oscar. The voice moved until it stopped next to him. “…they finally got me a locker.” 

Oscar turned around to look as Eliza had stopped next to the locker next to him—no one had been using that one since he had started at Blake three years ago—and was tapping the control screen. 

“Oh, hey boys.” She flashed a bright smile toward Oscar and Ethan—Let's be real, it was mostly toward Oscar—as she opened the door. “Helps me a lot to get this on the last day, but I guess I can leave some stuff here for over the summer.”

“Yeah, it’s really great to have a locker.” Ethan leaned over his locker on the opposite wall, “Ain't it great that she’s right next to you, right Oscar?”

Oscar shot a murderous look toward Ethan. 

“It is great. I’m so happy it did work out this way.” Eliza smiled at Oscar again. “I mean, it makes everything easier too, for next year.”

“Oh yeah… Next year…” Oscar tried to snap back into the moment, from the thoughts of the fact that he would need—or get—brush shoulders with Eliza every single time they went to the lockers. The hallway always got so crammed too, so there usually wasn’t much room for personal space— 

“Or are you planning on jilting me for a lab partner?” Eliza’s laugh snapped him back again. Get a grip Perida, please. “Because… Don’t you dare!”

“No no, of course not.” He shook his head. “Why would I? You’re the best partner I’ve had.”

“Good.” Eliza glanced at him again, before starting to go through her bag. How did she manage to make it look so radiant? “I actually have some books here that I could leave—Ugh.” She made an attempt to reach up for the upper shelf in the locker but was failing miserably. “Why am I so short?”

“If only we knew somebody who’s really tall.” Ethan remarked again. “Right Oscar?”

“Here let me help you.” Oscar grabbed the book and put it on the shelf. “You can’t get those down either now, though.”

“It’s fine.” Eliza shook his head, “I’m just leaving them here for the summer. You can help me again, in the fall.”

“Yeah, I can do that.” Oscar nodded and pushed his own locker shut, slamming the door maybe a little too hard. 

“We should probably head toward Mrs. Poncaer’s class.” Eliza also shut hers.

“She always comes up with the most useless things to do on the last day.” Ethan remarked. “Oral exercises or something.”

“I actually need those.” Eliza shook her head as they walked down the hallways. “Mrs. Poncaer doesn’t like me due to the accent.��

“Try having a Cordoban accent.” Oscar laughed, “Dad told me horror stories about how he was treated in English classes. Now he has a flawless British accent and a degree in that language. It's doable.”

“Good to know.” Eliza laughed back, “I guess I have hope then. And since you are good, you can help me…right?”

“Yeah, of course.” Oscar nodded while he swallowed involuntarily. He quickly turned toward Ethan. “When are you leaving, by the way.”

“Day after tomorrow.” Ethan answered.

“You’re leaving?” Eliza asked. 

“Oh yeah,” Ethan nodded, “We always spent most of the Holiday season there at home, in Virginia. To see family and such… It’s not summer, it's really cold, but it’s nice to experience the proper weather…” His face curled into a small smile, “But since I’m leaving Oscar alone for most of the summer, I can trust on you right to make sure he won’t get too bored.” He patted Oscar on the shoulder, while glancing between him and Eliza

They reached a small hall area with a couch and an armchair, which Ethan quickly claimed. 

“What do you usually do for Christmas?” Eliza sat next to Oscar on the couch.

“We?” He asked, “Well, the usual. We always get a proper real tree, from this farm just outside of Buenos Aires, and decorate it together.”

“Do not ask about those ornaments.” Ethan noted, “In that house, everything has a story, even Christmas decorations.”

“Super funny.” Oscar rolled his eyes. “But yeah, I mean, Mom is an author. Mom and Dad have gotten ornaments made out of photos they have taken and stuff. They also get a lot from charity foundations too. Like we have a lot of ornaments from the Rosa Ribbon foundation, because my great-grandparents died of cancer when my grandpa was in his early 20s. Then we always make those angel tree donations. Dad insists that we all do at least three every year.”

“That’s super amazing, that you do that.” Eliza tilted her head, “Helping others.”

“Yeah,” Oscar nodded, “It was something my grandparents started, as soon as they could, because they believe that if you can help, you should, to the people who cannot help themselves. They once were in that position themselves, so it’s kind of integrated into them on a really deep level.”

“Your grandparents were poor?”

“Yeah, they were.” Oscar nodded, “When they were kids, at Cordoba. They got scholarships to attend uni, where they met. They moved here when Dad was four and with a lot of work, they became who they are today. I guess they’ve never wanted to forget where they come from, I mean. Where we come from. Dad wants to continue the same thing I guess.”

“That is a really beautiful sentiment.” Eliza nodded. “Gives hope to the rest of us.”

“What do you do?”

“I guess I'm still figuring it out,” She lowered her head, “Now that we are here—and Mom and Dad are gone…”

Eliza Topacio had lived at Salta, her parents had owned a sugarcane plantation there…well until they had died, nine months ago. The 17-year-old girl had come to live with her aunt and uncle in Buenos Aires after they had sold the plantation, that’s why she had transferred into Blake one and a half months ago. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking…” Oscar started. 

“It’s okay.” Eliza placed her hand on his arm, which made him stiffen slightly. “I'd like to remember them somehow… We always used to go to church, but Auntie Ida and Uncle Rico aren’t really church goers…”

“We always attend the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar.” Oscar mentions, trying to sound casual. 

“You go to church?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a tradition.” Oscar ran his hand through his hair. He truly wished Ethan would wipe that smirk off his face, while looking at him and Eliza. “We do like mornings with my godparents’ family, they’re like Mom and Dad’s best friends since high school, and then we go to my grandparents for the evening—”

His phone rang suddenly with an incoming message. “Sorry about that. It was just my parents, from our family group chat. Sent a picture of my sister at her leaving ceremony. She’s gonna come here next year, so I can’t ever get rid of them.”

“I thought your younger sister was already here.” Eliza asked. 

“Aurora is, but Laura is my younger younger sister.” Oscar turned his phone around to show her the picture. 

“Oh, right, you had two.”

“Yep.” Oscar nodded, “Laura has been the one flooding my phone with pictures of accessories she wants to get for Kelvin. She’s a dog, not a doll you can dress up.”

“You don’t like that?” Eliza grinned. 

“Collar is enough “clothes” dog will ever need.” Oscar shook his head. “But in Laura’s opinion, she needs to look fancy for the party. She doesn’t need some glitter and sequin cardigan, she’s gonna overheat, and she’s already cute enough. We don’t need glitter. Don’t even get me started on the time when she wanted to dress Kelvin as all Taylor Swift Eras.”

“She is cute.” Eliza looked at a picture of Kelvin Oscar was showing her on his phone. “I love dogs… I always wanted them on the farm, but Mom and Dad said it would be too much. Can I meet her someday?”

“Yeah, sure.” Oscar nodded.

***

“Okay, go ahead,” Gastón said as the family walked into the Galerias Pacifico. “Have fun. Get all the presents you need. And remember, that I can see everything you buy on those credit cards, so don’t think you can slip something in there that you shouldn't. Meet us for dinner at six.”

“Bye!” 

“You say that to them every year, and they have never once misused those credit cards.” Nina laughed after the kids had departed, while wrapping her arm around Gastón’s. 

“It means it is working.” He shrugged, “I never misused that credit card Mom and Dad insisted I have for emergencies.”

“The one you tried to return about a hundred times before they actually accepted it?” Nina laughed. 

“I couldn’t really be over 35 and still have a credit card from my parents," he laughed back. 

“Okay, so which ones are we choosing here?” Nina said while looking up the tree. The Angel Trees still worked the same way as forever ago. Wishes of children were hung on the tree. 

“The oldest ones,” Gastón said. “They always get overlooked.”

“So 14 and up?” Nina nodded, “Do we start with five?”

“That sounds good.” He nodded back. 

“You know, I will never stop admiring you for this.” Nina ran her hand on his arm after they had picked out the first round of tags. 

“We’ve been doing this for years.”

“Yes, that doesn’t make it any less remarkable.” Nina shook her head. 

“I could have been them.” Gastón noted while looking at the tags, “If life had gone differently. Mom and Dad were them, my cousins would have been if they didn’t send a check back to Cordoba every December. I’m the one privileged enough not to know how it is like to struggle. Mom and Dad are right, I can’t forget that.” 

“And you haven’t.” Nina nodded. “I grew up pretty comfortable, but my main worries during Christmas was what Mom and Dad were going to fight over this time. I never gave any thought to anyone else, who have it worse.”

***

“What is going on here?” Simon was bombarded with a cloud of glitter as he came out of his music room. He had to blink at least two times before his field of vision cleared up. 

“Well, welcome back to the land of the living.” Ambar smiled at him as she crouched down to pull a tray of cookies out of the oven. “How’s the song?”

“Almost finished.” Simon nodded, while still wiping part of glitter out of his face, “Who brought a party cannon in here?”

“Oh, girls are just wrapping presents.” Ambar pointed toward the dining table. Simon looked over and saw it brawling all over with pink wrapping paper, silver ribbons, golden stars and other gemstones, and everything covered in glitter. 

“Hold this please.” He saw his older daughter Ivory cut a ribbon, and then hand it to her best friend… 

Was Laura here? Well, that explained the amount of glitter, because only those two together could create a pink glittering hurricane that Barbie herself would be jealous of. 

“Okay, now, after we tape it down, we fold it over, so it looks like a star.” Laura read something from her tablet, before they tied the ribbon in a way that looked like they were tackling a monster. 

“They said they wanted to try some new wrapping methods.” Ambar mentioned, before handing Simon a bowl, “Help me with this?”

“Yeah, sure.” Simon nodded and took the bowl his wife was offering him, “What is this?” 

“Just some Yule pudding. I found the recipe online.” Ambar explained while piling the cookies on the straight pile. “Come on Darling, where is your holiday spirit?”

“I have plenty of cheerfulness.” Simon chuckled. “Just I don’t need it in my face in the form of rough glitter.” 

“Necessary evil,” Ambar grinned, “You know how the girls are. Laura has gotten Ivory to try all sorts of artistic pursuits. She wouldn’t even be singing in the choir without her.” 

“Oky, now we just need to add the rhinestones.” Ivory said while holding a glue gun. She started tapping small drops on the wrapped present, while Laura pressed small diamonds on the row following the glue gun. 

“Hey Dad!” Ivory looked up after they had finished their rhinestoning pursuits. “Did you finish that Christmas song yet?”

“I did.” Simon grabbed a glass of orange juice and went to sit at the table, opposite of the girl’s mess. “Wasn’t that hard after Nina sent the lyrics. I sent the demo to Pedro. We’re gonna record on Friday and release it on the Eve.”

“Huh, fast process.” Laura remarked, while she focused on painting a twirl on silver on the side of the white package. 

“Sometimes it is.” Simon nodded as he put his glass down. 

“Wow, DAD! What are you doing?!!” Ivory shrieked. 

“What?” Simon stared at her. 

“No liquids at the table.” Ivory shook her head, so her blond curls swayed from left to right. “You’re way too close to the danger zone. Come on now. Back it up.” 

“Okay, okay,” Simon made a gesture of surrender and moved to the end of the table. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt your art project.” 

“Uuf, I forgot a few things in my room.” Ivory rolled her eyes, before getting up from the table. “I’ll be right back.” 

Laura nodded as Ivory left. She then flipped a tab open on the tablet on a page she had doodled something on there

“What is that?” Simon leaned closer, because it somewhat looked like guitars. 

“Oh, just something I’ve designed.” Laura turned the tablet toward him. “I mean I’ve bejeweled the guitar I have, and have gotten so many other ideas, but Mom and Dad say that they won’t buy me any more guitars, which is a bummer—” Her phone dinged. “—and now they are telling me to be at home by six.”

“That's in like forever,” Ivory came back behind them. “Tell them we still need to wrap these and that you need to help me pick the jewelry for my choir recital tomorrow.”

“I can drive you back if that’s the issue.” Simon explained. “Those guitars look really cool, by the way. I wish mine looked like that.” 

***

“Thanks for carrying the bags to the door,” Laura said to Simon as they walked to her house’s door, Simon trying to keep his balance under the bags of elaborately wrapped presents.

“Oh, no.” Laura suddenly stopped in her tracks. “I forgot my keys.”

“Well, is someone home?” Simon asked. 

“They should be.” Laura shrugged and rang the doorbell. 

“Hey. Did you forget your keys?” Gastón opened the door. 

“Apparently.” Laura shrugged and skipped in. 

“And you brought luggage I see,” Gastón looked at Simon, who was carrying the bags. “Come on in.”

“Thank you.” Simon sighed as he finally let the bags onto the floor. “I don’t know how they make these so heavy.”

“Glitter is weightier than you would believe,” Gastón laughed. “Laura, you can move these to your room yourself.”

“I gotta say our house will be the most festive one on the block, because we will never get rid of all that glitter.” Simon shook his head after Laura started moving upstairs. 

“Thanks for taking the mess at your place.” Gastón grinned at Simon. 

“No need to thank me.” He shook his head. “By the way, does Laura need a ride to the choir concert tomorrow?”

“We bribed Oscar to drive her.” Gastón responded. “In the end he loves his sisters, no matter how much he likes to complain that we use him as a personal chauffeur.”

“Well, I live with three women.” Simon chuckled, “I am the personal chauffeur, so I can relate. Oh, I thought I’d ask because I saw that Laura has designed guitars.”

“Oh yeah, she does that.” Gastón nodded. “She decorates her guitar more than actually plays it. She’d paint and bejewel a collection of guitars if we’d let her.”

“That’s what I mean. Would she like making me one?” Simon asked. 

“Uhm, no. Absolutely not.” Gastón’s expression froze. “Look, it’s really good that you asked me, because it is not that she wouldn’t want to do that or that we wouldn’t want her to do that, but it’s not that simple. Unless you are willing to have a guitar on stage made by an anonymous artist.”

“Anonymous?”

“I am not having her name out there in any circumstances.” Gastón shook his head. “Our name is not common. The moment they hear Perida, it’s linked to me and Nina and my parents. I got to have a normal life because the press didn’t know I existed until I was 23. I am not having my children out there either; they get to decide it themselves when they are 18.”

“Okay I get that.” Simon nodded. Gastón and Nina had kept intensely private, even though both of their careers and Gastón’s family legacy was keeping them in the public eye.

“She’s immensely talented.” Gastón continued, “Nina would love to have her illustrate her book someday, but right now her safety is more important. Sorry.”

***

“Sit.” Oscar placed his backpack down on the ground and looked at Kelvin, who sat on the ground, her blonde tail wagging. “Good girl.” 

He checked his watch and then ran his hand over her silky head, before unclipping her leash. “Okay, you know the rules, don’t you dare to run away from me.” 

Kelvin tilted her head and gave him a look that appeared to say: “I am not an idiot”.

“Don’t glare at me.” Oscar laughed, “Come on. Give me a high five.” 

Kelvin’s eyes glimmered as she threw her right paw up to meet Oscar’s hand. 

“Wow.” Oscar turned around to see Eliza behind him. 

“Hey, you made it.” 

“Of course.” She nodded, “Kind of what you do when you’re new to town, so you have nothing else to do than come to meet your only friend’s dog.” 

“I’m glad you came.” Oscar nodded, “No matter how you put it. Kelvin, are you not gonna say hi?” 

Kelvin padded over to Eliza and sat in front of her and offered her left paw.

“Well, look who is the proper lady I see.” Eliza laughed and took the paw that was offered and shook it. “You are so pretty.”

“Don’t flatter her too much, it’ll go to her head. She is the most spoiled dog in the whole world as it is.” 

“Well, someone this adorable better be.” Eliza crouched down and scratched Kelvin behind her ears. 

“Okay, Kelvin, get the ball.” Oscar commanded. Kelvin hopped over to his backpack, pulled on the ribbon in the zipper and got out a ball that she now held toward Oscar. “Good girl.”

Oscar took the ball and threw it across the park.

“Wow, nice curve.” Eliza remarked as Kelvin bolted after the ball. “If the whole med school thing doesn’t mellow out, you got promise as a baseballer.”

“In the words of both my sisters, I don’t do ball sports.” Oscar shook his head. 

“What kind of sports do you like then?”

“Climbing,” Oscar shrugged, “Everything that gives my mom a heart attack. The ball’s just for Kelvin.”

“She seems extremely smart.” Eliza noted. “Have you trained her yourself?”

“More or less.” Oscar nodded, “We got her when I was 13, and Mom and Dad wanted me to take care of her as much as possible, especially after…”

“After?”

“She’s not our first dog.” Oscar shook his head, “Her grandfather actually, was a dog Mom and Dad got on their first anniversary. His name was Newton. I don’t really remember everything anymore, but they told me that we were very close, ever since I was born. He had to be put down when I was 7 or something like that.”

“I’m sorry.” Eliza ran her hand on his arm. Oscar tried to ignore the way his skin tingled after. 

“It’s fine. That’s life, right.” He nodded as he threw the ball for Kelvin again. “You’ve figured out what you’re gonna do for the holidays yet?”

“Well, I guess we are just gonna be following what my aunt and uncle have always done.” Eliza shrugged. “My cousins want to go the Chrismast market.”

“That's really pretty there.” Oscar noted. 

“Oh… And I did get this invite, for 23rd.” Eliza looked at her phone, “From Mandy Ezénois to this eve’s eve party…but I don’t know.”

“She is in our class,” Oscar noted, “She has been doing those for years with the girls.”

“I know she is in our class.” Eliza nodded, “But…”

“You’re not gonna go?”

“I don’t know any of them.” Eliza shook her head, “I mean we’ve talked sometimes and they’ve seemed kind of nice, but only people I actually know are Ethan and especially you. I don’t want to be the pity invite just because I’m the new orphan farm girl from nowhere.”

“Salta’s not nowhere.” Oscar shook his head. “You have a farm. That’s pretty cool.”

“I used to have a farm.” Eliza corrected, “Now it’s my school and college fund and the plantation has new owners. I’m not mad about that, I wouldn’t have time to run it once I’m in med school anyway.”

“You should take the leap and go to the party.” Oscar noted. “According to Mom and Dad, I used to be so shy, until we started going on Disney Cruises and I started loving the kids’ clubs and made so many friends there. Sometimes you just have to try.”

“I’ll think about it.” Eliza smiled at him. “I honestly can’t imagine you as shy. You’ve always been so confident at what you do, and so admirable. How could someone not like you? It’s impossible.”

“Uh. Anyone would be so lucky to be your friend. You really should just let everyone see the person I know…” Oscar realized that they were standing pretty close, and as the sun was starting to go down, the remaining light reflected from her eyes. 

At that moment Kelvin crashed into his feet, wagging her tail and holding the ball upwards again. 

***

“Where is Oscar?” Nina asked as she pulled an ornament out of a box. 

“Still out with Kelvin I think.” Gastón said while walking out of the kitchen, “Don’t worry. He has probably just decided to take a longer route. Let's give him 20 minutes and then call him.” 

“Typical,” Aurora rolled her eyes as she was hanging an ornament on the tree, “Oscar starts ditching the time-honored family tradition.” 

“Pass me the pink ball,” Laura said from the other side of the tree? “Oh, Mom, Dad, did you already sign all the stuff for that camp?” 

“You are signed in there now,” Nina responded, “We still have over a week before you go, so there’s time.” 

“Nina,” Gastón suddenly gestured to her, when the girls were engulfed in tree decoration. “You need to see this.”

“What?” She got up from the couch and walked to the foyer, where Gastón was looking out of the front window. 

“I think I found out the reason why he is taking so long.” He pointed toward the outside. “Would you look at that.”

Nina looked through the window and saw it. Oscar was standing in front of the gate, Kelvin’s leash in hand, but that wasn't what they were actually looking for. He was smiling and there was that certain glint in his eyes as he was talking very animatedly to a girl with deep red hair. 

“I am willing to bet my Ph.D. that that is that girl he has been talking about…Eliza, right?” Gastón continued. 

“It has to be.” Nina nodded. 

“If I am being honest, I never fully understood my mom’s comments about the light in my eyes that I got from Dad.” Gastón looked outside again, “Until I am seeing it myself in front of my eyes.” 

“Your mother does have an eye for these things.” Nina chuckled, while glancing outside again. “I’ve never seen him look like that before…”

“Well, we should have seen this coming,” Gaston laughed, “Given how much he has talked about her, his laboratory partner… Well, we’ll be having a daughter-in-law candidate probably during the next fall.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, men in my family have a problem,” Gastón shook his head, “We are completely idiots when it comes to women we like. Getting out of that idiocy takes time.”

“How were you an idiot?” Nina looked at Gastón amused.

“You probably remember all the idiotic stuff I did chasing you around,” He looked at her back, “and then I was an idiot some more, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten, it is not just me either, it’s generational. Dad held out on Mom for five months, and even then, it took his father to die for him to act on anything.”

“And if I recall we all ended up married,” Nina added, while grabbing Gastón’s arm. “Five months or not, you parents have been blissfully happy for almost 50 years now. We are also very happy. Better to follow your family cycle than mine, since that doesn’t know the word happiness.”

“I guess we just have to let Oscar run its course and hope he will get there on his own.” Gastón shook his head. “He’s almost 18 after all.”

***

“Today was fun.” Oscar said to Eliza, as he leaned on the gate of his house.

“It was.” Eliza nodded, looking up, “Also, nice house.”

“Dad built it when Aurora was a baby.” Oscar shook his head, “I know it looks fancy, but…”

“It is fancy,” Eliza laughed, “But there is nothing wrong with that. I wouldn’t expect anything less for you, Perida.”

“Name comes with territory I guess.” Oscar shook his head. 

“I am still glad to know you.” Eliza continued, before opening her bag. “Uh… I have something for you.” She pulled out a wrapped box. “Ehm, merry christmas.”

“Wow, thanks. You didn’t need to…”

“I have always had a way with presents.” Eliza laughed, “I guess, I just keep adding people on my list, so it won’t seem so empty now—and I always get gifs for my friends…but right now I don’t have anyone else—”

“Well, I am honored.” Oscar nodded before opening his own bag. “And I actually got something for you too, just didn’t know how to bring it up…didn’t know if you’d find it awkward.”

He handed her a small box, tied with a sapphire blue ribbon. 

“It would have never been awkward.” Eliza laughed. “Thank you.”

They just stood in silence for a moment. 

“Oh, it’s getting late.” Oscar checked his watch suddenly. “We were supposed to do the tree today. Mom and Dad are probably fuming at me right now… Uh, are you able to get home alright?”

“Yeah, it’s not that far.” Eliza tapped him on the arm—a gesture that ended up being a tad bit clumsy. “Good night.”

“Good night. Merry Christmas.”

“Where have you been?” Oscar was greeted by Aurora’s voice as soon as he got through the door. 

“On a walk with Kelvin.” He just shrugged and dropped his backpack down. He looked at his parents who were sitting on the couch. “You weren’t worried, right. I’m sorry, I should have texted or something.”

“It’s okay.” Nina nodded. 

“We do hope that this won’t mean that you will start skipping on the tree.”  Gastón remarked. 

“Oh, nooo.” Oscar shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. Just lost track of time.” 

“Good. You can help the girls finish up.” 

“Yeah.” Oscar nodded and moved to the living room. “Is Newton’s paw somewhere?”

“On the coffee table.” Laura pointed. “We all know that you’d kill us if we put it on the tree, because it’s yours.”

“Well, good for you to remember.” Oscar laughed slightly, before picking up the ornament from the table. It was a plaster cast of Newton's paw that his parents had gotten made on his last Christmas. Apparently, he had gotten quite upset as younger a few times when it had almost gotten lost. 

“Kelvin.” He called the dog, and she padded over to him and boobed her nose against the ornament, like he had taught her, before hanging the ornament on the tree. 

“You can handle the higher branches.” Aurora dropped a box of stars in his hand. “I don’t wanna get the step stool out, and you’re the only one of us who actually is tall as a tower.”

*

Later that night, Oscar dropped his bag on his bed. The time was nearing midnight soon and Kelvin was already curled up at the foot of the bed. He opened the bag and pulled the gift Eliza had given him out. 

He looked at it for a moment. It was the 21st of December. Christmas was in four days. Surely, he could open it… And he really didn’t want to open it in front of everyone else in the hassle of Christmas morning anyway. Luna, Matteo, Stella and Milo were coming over and it would be usual festive chaos that it always was. 

He made a split-second decision and pulled the ribbon off the package. 

There were two items there. The first one was an ornament. 

As Oscar raised it to his eye level, he realized that it was a glass pipette. Inside of it, it looked like there were crystals of some sort. 

Luckily a card was hanging on it. Oscar detached it from the ornament and read it. 

You said that your family likes to collect ornaments with meanings. I tried my best. 

Oncotrix-1 (C₂₅₀H₃₇₅N₉₅O₁₄₀P₅₀, but you know that) was the first non-harmful cure for cancer developed in 2030. Nowadays it has become ineffective, but it still was the first important steppingstone in the treatments we have today. 

There is one Oncotrix-1 molecule stored in each one of those crystals.

 I remember what you told me about your great grandparents and how their fates influenced your grandparents’ path, which is super admirable. 

E. 

“Wow.” Oscar mouthed as he looked at the ornament. She had not been kidding. She really did have a way with gifts. How did she even remember all those details that he had told her in a passing conversation… 

She was good. 

Too good, as he found himself taking a few deep breaths. He still wasn’t quite prepared for the sensation that started overtaking him. 

He looked at the other item, to distract himself for a moment. It was a deep scarlet red collar that looked like it was velvet or something similar. It was decorated with a small row of pearls. 

There was another note hanging on it. 

Okay, hear me out here. I know you said you don’t like to dress her up, but… 

Come on now, every girl deserves something to feel pretty in during the holidays. Also, this is a collar, not an accessory and you said those were fine. Hopefully Kelvin likes it. 

E. 

Oscar chuckled. Leave it to Eliza to find a loophole from what he had said. “Kelvin, come here.” 

The dog jumped in front of him on the bed wagging her tail and was actually looking at the collar quite curiously. 

“Let’s see how this looks.” Oscar put the collar around her neck. It fit perfectly. Kelvin’s eye’s sparkled and she wagged her tail some more and slurped his face with her tongue. 

“Okay, I see that you like it.” He laughed as he pushed her furry snoot away. “Calm down now girl.” He traced the collar with his finger. “I like it too.” 

He reached for his phone. It dinged as soon as it was in his hand. 

He froze for a moment as he realized that it was from Eliza. 

Eliza: The complexity and endlessness of the celtic knots honor the idea of legacy — that a person’s life and contributions are woven into the lives of those they leave behind, like an eternal tapestry of memory. I see what you did there ;). It is beautiful. I never took you as a guy who has the chops for jewelry shopping, but always nice to be surprised.

Oscar stared at the message for a moment, while he felt the heat rise in his face. He had gotten Eliza a bracelet woven from celtic knots. The endless loops of Celtic knots symbolized the idea of eternity and the continuation of love and memories, even after someone had passed. It suggested that the love shared with the deceased endures, binding the living and the departed together in an unbroken connection.

He had felt like that was something that would be good for Eliza. So, she could keep the life she had lost always close. 

He had taken a bit of a risk, by going to buy jewelry on his own. No way he would have asked either Aurora or Laura for advice. Mom was out too, and Dad…Dad was probably the best at buying jewelry in their house—over half of Mom’s jewelry collection was courtesy of him—but Oscar didn’t want anyone to know. It would raise all sorts of questions and…

…he had already been afraid that the gift was little too forward or overstepping or something. 

He looked at the text again. It hadn't been the case. She liked it. She loved it−

His phone dinged again. 

Eliza: And yes, I did open it up. 

Oscar smiled and started typing. 

Oscar: I never said you couldn’t. I'm glad you liked it. Eliza: Where have you learned to buy jewelry? Oscar: That’s classified Eliza: How classified?

***

“That’s the last one.” Gastón said as he hung up the last stocking on the railing on the stairs. 

“I wonder how long they are going to allow us to keep doing this?” Nina smiled at him from the couch. 

“Well, Oscar hasn't expressed anything that he won’t want a stocking after he turns 18, which he isn’t yet.” Gastón remarked as he sat next to her. “I doubt the girls will either, anytime soon.”

“I guess you’re right.” Nina leaned her head on his shoulder. “You know, with all the chaos, quiet like this is really beautiful.” 

“I know.” He pulled her closer, kissing her head. “Kind of reminds me of all the times we spent at the Villa, even if we didn’t often do Christmas there.” 

“Those sound magical,” Nina smiled, “I am always so happy to always hear about that. You truly had a happy childhood. We can’t all say that. Well, we don’t want to even get to the Christmases I had growing up,” She laughed slightly, “I don’t want to think about those…even at the time I thought I could never have a happy Christmas, so thank you.”

“I told you that you will never have to go back to that.” Gastón ran his hand over his arm.  “I’ve kept my word for 23 years and counting.” He leaned closer to her. “I also hid mistletoe somewhere around here.

“Where?” She looked at him questiongly. 

“Not going to tell you.” Gastón grinned, “So better keep on your toes.”

***

“Merry Christmas!!!” Luna exclaimed as soon as Gastón opened the door. “We brough so many presents.”

“Good to hear.” Gastón nodded, and looked over to the driveway, “Matteo, need help?”

“No, I am fine!!!” Matteo yelled from the car, where he was getting a huge bag out of the trunk. 

“Sure.” Gastón nodded, before turning around. “Oscar… Go help him.”

“Sure thing Dad.” Oscar nodded and walked outside. 

“How’s our goddaughter?” Gastón hugged Stella, whose blonde dyed curls were tied on two pigtails, tied with glittering ribbons. 

“I’m hungry.” Stella jumped. 

“Good thing we have a lot of food.” Gastón laughed. 

“Hey.” Nina appeared at the door. “Come on in.” 

“It is so pretty here.” Luna hugged her. “I mean, we decorated too, and Matteo called our house a glittering mess.” 

“There is nothing wrong with that.” Nina laughed. 

“Hey!!!” Stella stepped into the living room where Aurora and Laura were sitting on the couch. 

“Hi!” Aurora got up and Stella tackled her into a hug. “You’ve been avoiding me.” She whispered into her ear. 

“No I have not.” Stella whispered back. 

“Yes you have.” Aurora continued. “I can’t believe you won’t tell me who you have a crush on—”

“Aurora, have you seen this before?” Laura suddenly interrupted.

“What? She turned around. 

“Look at Kelvin’s collar.” Laura pointed out. “That’s new?”

“There is no way Oscar got her a new collar,” Aurora looked at it closer, tracing her fingers on the beading on the collar, “Especially one that looks like this.”

“Or maybe he just has a good taste in collars,” Stella suggested, which was kind of uncharacterized for her. 

At that moment, Matteo, Oscar and Milo came in with the gift bags. “Thanks lads.” Matteo sighed and the bags went down. 

“And I thought you said you could handle them by yourself.” Luna laughed at him.

“Never mind that.” Matteo shook his head. 

“Oscar,” Aurora piped up, pointing at Kelvin’s collar. “What is this?” 

“You always get mad at us when we get her accessories,” Laura continued, “but now she has a new collar. Where did you get it?”

“I didn’t get it.” Oscar shook his head. “It was a gift from a friend.”

“There is no way Ethan got that.” Laura shook her head. 

“Because it wasn’t Ethan.” Oscar sighed. “She—”

“She? So that lab partner of yours, Eliza?” Aurora asked. 

“Yeah, her.” Oscar nodded, “And Kelvin gets to wear it, because she has actual taste.”

“Yeah, sure…” Aurora remarked sarcastically. 

“Hey kids!” Gastón interrupted, whatever the conversation was becoming. “Food’s done in 10 minutes, so help Matteo get the packages out of the bags.”

“Yeah, sure.” Oscar nodded while grabbing a bag. “Stella, catch.”

“Huh?” Again, something that was not very in character for Stella, she froze in surprise and wasn’t able to catch the bag in time. 

“Sorry. You okay?” Oscar laughed as the bag hit Stella and the contents spilled on the floor. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” Stella laughed nervously. “Now we need to pick these up.”

Aurora had grabbed the last present from the bag she had been emptying into a neat line when she looked around after hearing a giggle. She furrowed her brow… It had come from Stella’s direction but… Stella did not giggle like that. 

Aurora looked at her best friend again. She was gathering packages off the ground and at the same time brushing a non-existent lock of hair behind her ear. She had that same kind of puppy face that Kelvin used to beg for treats. And worst of all, Stella was looking at—

“Would you excuse us for a second?” Aurora went to grab Stella’s arm and started pulling her down a hallway. 

“What are you doing?” Stella asked after Aurora had pulled her into the library. 

“The better question is what are you doing?” Aurora stared at her. “Please please tell me that I am wrong—even though I am never wrong—and you don’t have a crush on Oscar.”

“I—” Stella stuttered and unmistakably started blushing. “This is why I couldn’t tell you.”

“Why? How?” Aurora almost pleaded, “Scratch that. I don’t want to know. You can’t like him.”

“Why not?” 

“Million reasons.” Aurora shook her head, “You are my best friend, he is my brother, your parents are his godparents, our parents are your godparents…” Aurora pointed toward a picture at the end of one of the book cases, which had been taken a few days after Luna and Matteo had brought Stella back from the hospital. In the picture, Oscar, who was almost three, almost one year old Aurora, and Stella as a newborn were lying on the carpet in a circle. “We have known you since you were born, he has known you since then… That is like Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker -weird, and they didn’t know!!!” 

“It could not be weird.” Stella tried to suggest. “What if…”

“There are no what ifs…” Aurora looked at Stella concerned, “It’s impossible. This not the Christmas present I thought I’d be getting…”

{}

Well, Merry Chrismas!!!! So, I feel like I pretty much nailed the Chrismas fic last eyar, so I had super hard time thinking what I could do for this year. This year's theme has kind of been the SL next gen year for me, so here's the Christmas of 2046 for you. It ended up being more of a slice of life kind of story, just during the holidays. So there was no real plot, but just some holiday scheningans and some set up for future stories. I mean I can say that this alsmot work as a prologue for a story that I have not even started yet, but the story focusing on Oscar, because he is going to get his own story. Aurora has gotten her time travel escapades, Laura is going thorugh he wons stuff right now, so we are not sweeping their older brother under the rug. I love Oscar Perida as a character, and he is gonna get his spolight–and you can probably guess what's that story will be about. Happy holidays everyone!!! And I absolutely have taken it as my mission to educat you all on Finnish Chrismas song every holid days season, because we have bangers.

[missroller15]

see, this is why i can’t get nostalgic over my first ever fandom…. because then i’m LEGALLY obligated to write a chaotic insane fic for it so here’s to the soy luna fandom and every single amazing beautiful wonderful person i’ve met bc of it!!

[purple-fireflies]

gastina au based on tis the damn season (by taylor swift) where both nina and gastón went their separate ways (nina went to college in the US), nina is this world renowned author but known to be tight lipped about her private life, gastón is a photographer that travels the world, and they both come back to argentina for lutteo’s wedding during christmas time and things start happening 👀👀

[putonmyfavoriteshow]

Here's my DCLA Gift Exchange <3

and right under the wire 😬

I know you're probably asleep but hopefully you'll wake up to this gift in a few short hours @countessofravenclaw :)

Enjoy this time-travelling Disney World adventure with the fearsome foursome of Luna, Matteo, Nina and Gastón! For some musical accompaniment:

[mylutteoheart]

Playing Cupid (chapter 10)

New chapter out now! There are only 2-3 left before the end of this fic. The edited version will be out tomorrow on ao3. Also keep your eyes open for a little simbar in this chapter. Luna and Matteo have been building their lives together slowly. Fresh out of college, they’re planning their future. But by planning this, they have an underlying plan no one knows of. Bringing their best friends together after 4 years of not being happy without the other. How well will their plan of playing Cupid work?

Prologue | chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | find my other fics here

"So nothing happened?" Luna insisted as she and Nina were walking to the bridal shop for the last dress fitting before the wedding.

"Well, I wouldn't say nothing," Nina answered as she looked down at her feet to hide her blush.

Suddenly, out of excitement, Luna took Nina's arm and pulled it to make her stop. She asked excitedly: "What? What happened? Tell me!"

"You remember the day we went scouting for locations?", Nina said carefully.

"Right, the location you found was even better than the one we initially had," she said, already imagining her and Matteo standing there on front of all their friends.

"When we started talking about you two loving the location, I started imagining the romance that comes with marriage on that venue and there was this moment, where it was just the two of us and we were this close to kissing," Nina gestured with her thumb and pointer finger close to one another to indicate the distance there was between them.

Luna jumped up and down at the news and said: "That's great! That must mean he feels the same way about you."

"I don't want to get too excited. It was just the spur of the moment. It meant nothing," she tried to deny, not wanting to get her hopes up.

"Don't say that, you have to keep hoping," she rested her hand on her best friend's arm in support.

"Let's just get going," Nina said, not wanting to think about it.

Luna understood and together, they started walking again to go to the bridal shop.

***

"I'm talling you, she likes you," Matteo said to Gastón, also on their way to the bridal shop.

Every bridesmaid and groomsman had to come to the fitting today. The suits were also tailored in the bridal shop.

"I just think she got swept up in the heat of the moment. There was a romantic side to it all," Gastón said airily, not wanting to show how much that moment meant to him.

"And I always thought me and Luna were bad at communication," Matteo shook his head in disbelief.

"What are you on about?" he took a look at Matteo to see him roll his eyes.

"We all see they way you look at each other and it's still the same look you had when you were both so in love in senior year at Blake," Matteo explained, "It hasn't changed in six years."

"Really? I haven't noticed," Gastón frowned, trying to picture what his best friend is saying.

"Of course you haven't. You know, this all reminds me of the time I was so dumb to see how Luna truly felt about me when that guy Michel appeared," he said with a fond smile, he did frown when he said the name Michel. He would never like that guy.

"Oh, I remember you complaining a lot about that guy. I would have loved to be there to witness your idiocy and to talk some sense into you," Gastón chuckled at the many phone calls with Matteo during that time. He really was hopeless when it came to Luna.

"Well, now it's my job to do that," Matteo became serious and continued, "What you need is one clear conversation with Nina and everything will be cleared up."

"You make it sound so simple," he sighed, not believing a word.

"That's because it is," he just answered, "And I'll make sure I'll prove you right. I'll just have to convince Luna, Ámbar and Simón to leave you two alone in a way where you can't do anything but talk."

Matteo held his chin in thought, already trying to come up with dozens of ways to make this happen.

Gastón's eyes widened and said: "You're going to do this now?"

"The sooner the better, weddings are all about happiness and romance so I'd love to see you and Nina being happy and together at our wedding," he said.

"You really want us to be together?" Gastón said in surprise.

"Of course, I want you to be happy and you've never been as happy as you were with Nina. I know that wouldn't have changed a bit," Matteo said as if it was the world's most known fact.

"Thank you for being such a good friend," Gastón smiled and gave him a quick hug, "Now, let's get this fitting over with."

***

"I see you've already started on the champagne," Matteo said with a smile as he entered the bridal shop with his best friend.

"You were just taking too long," Ámbar said with a smirk.

"Is Luna here yet?" Simón asked as he appeared and stood next to his fiancée.

"She was coming with Nina, she's probably running a little late," Matteo answered, "While we wait for the other girls to appear, we can already try the suits for me and the groomsmen."

"Oh, Simón in a suit, I can't wait to see that," Ámbar said as she sat down on the sofa in front of the fitting rooms with her glass in her hands.

"I'm sure you would look radiating in your bridesmaid's dress as well," he flirted and pecked her on the cheek. Getting into the fitting room.

The other guys followed but not before he sent a text to Luna that they needed to talk as soon as she came in.

"Hey, sorry we're late. We ran into some issues on the way," Luna apologized as soon as she came in the shop.

"It's fine, we already got started," Matteo greeted her as he walked out of the fitting room and taking Luna in his arms as he gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Don't you look handsome," Luna said as she looked him up and down.

"I always look handsome," he answered her with a fond smile.

"Let's look at the other before your ego grows too big," Ámbar interrupted their sweet moment.

"Here we are," Simón said as he appeared in front of the four people in the room.

"I'm definitely not disappointed to have come here," Ámbar said as she looked at the guy she loves so much.

"I'm sure I can't compare with you by my side at the wedding," Simón said while he gave her a big smile.

"Alright guys, let the girls put on their dresses and wait with the flirting when you have a room on your own," Matteo said as he put a hand on Simón's shoulder, showing them he's just teasing.

"Let's go Nina, the bride will put on her dress after Matteo left," Ámbar said and took Nina by the arm to lead her to the fitting room.

"Hold on, Ámbar, I'd like to ask you something first," Matteo stopped her before she was gone, Nina already disappeared.

"What's going on?" she frowned, having no clue why she was pulled apart.

"Yeah, your text sounded urgent," Luna interrupted.

"It's time we do some more matchmaking with the two lovebirds that aren't together but really want to be," Matteo said with an excited smile.

Simón turned to Gastón to confirm who they were talking about, Gastón just rolled his eyes and shook his head in exasperation.

"Is that why you two have been so secretive lately? Because you were playing matchmakers?" Ámbar raised an eyebrow.

"Sadly, yes," Gastón sighed.

"Come on, you agreed," Matteo said with a frown.

"I did and I think I'm starting to regret it," he answered.

"You don't," Matteo said without blinking.

Gastón answered: "You're right."

"Okay, what's the plan?" Luna interrupted, wanting to get back on track.

"We need to get them to talk alone without interruptions," Mattteo started to explain.

"Easy, just lock them in the fitting room, it locks from the outside," Ámbar simply said.

The four others look at her with a frown.

"What? I might not pull that stuff anymore but that doesn't mean I don't notice things," she said in a flat tone.

"You're brilliant, bonita," Simón said and gave her a kiss on her crown.

"Okay, now we just got to figure out how we get Gastón in that fitting room," Luna said, thinking out loud.

"That's easy. He just walks in," Matteo said.

They all start to think for a moment and couldn't find a better alternative. They ended up nodding and agreeing with his plan. It was the best they could do.

"Alright, let's get this crazy plan started," Gastón sighed and gave in. Getting ready to finally have the conversation he and Nina had to have.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

This is the final one I wrote in the "If Luna had a little brother" drabble bundle. I thought about eventually writing more, right now specifically one where Simbar babysits him, and some more creepy scenes with Sharon, but we'll see. Either way, enjoy the last one I've written (so far) titled:

Sharon is creepy and Matteo gets vomit on himself

Sharon knew that Luna was Sol Benson. She spent all her awake time making sure Luna didn’t find out. 

She was sitting outside drinking her tea. The Valentes were further away, Monica talking to Amanda as Luna was sitting on a blanket, playing with her baby brother.

Suddenly, little Alonzo started crawling away, making his way up to Sharon. But not before Luna gave chase.

“No, no!” She picked him up right before he had gotten up to Sharon. “Sorry, miss…”

“It’s okay, Luna…” Sharon said slowly. “Your little brother is… a cute child…” She stared at him for a moment. 

Luna got slightly unsettled by her staring. “Okay… Well, I’m… gonna go. Excuse me.”

Alonzo reminded Sharon of Sol when she was a baby. So full of smiles and energy. You always had to keep an eye on her as she loved taking off. Especially as she started crawling and walking.

This evening she sat in the living room, thinking about memories of Sol. She would never admit to anyone how much she missed the little baby. 

Suddenly, she heard a whining. A baby’s cry. 

“Sol…” she whispered, as she slowly walked towards the sound.

In the kitchen, Alonzo was lying in his bassinet. He had just woken up from his nap.

“I heard something…” Sharon mumbled in a rather unsettling tone. She walked up to the bassinet. 

Alonzo glanced at her as he started sucking his thumb.

“Hello… you’re here alone, in the kitchen? No one is here… it’s just you… and me…”

“Aah…” Alonzo gurgled.

“No one should leave a baby alone… lucky I’m here to give you some company…”

She was about to lift him up, when she heard footsteps. Immediately, she got out of the kitchen.

A few seconds later, Luna and Simón came inside the room.

“Are you sure you don’t want to compete in the singing competition?” Simón asked.

“I love singing, but no,” Luna said. “But I’m gonna support you!”

Alonzo let out a shriek.

“Oh, someone has woken up from his nap!” Luna exclaimed, walking up to the bassinet. “Hi, buddy!”

“It’s been days since I last saw you,” Simón said, “Let me get a good look at you, little man!” He held him up. “Woah! You’ve grown so tall!”

Luna giggled, and so did Alonzo.

“Do you think he’s gonna be a musician?” Simón asked.

“Maybe.”

“Next time I’ll bring my guitar and we’ll sing for him.”

“He’ll love that. But he’s a hard judge.”

“Are you now?” Simón blew raspberries on him, causing him to laugh. “But you love me! Yes, you do!”

Suddenly, Ámbar came into the kitchen. “Simón! I thought I heard you here.”

“Hi, Ámbar, what’s up?”

“I need your help with something…”

“Alright! What is it?” As Simón talked to her, he bounced Alonzo around, which Alonzo thought was really entertaining.

“Well, maybe you’re busy with…”

“No, I’ll take Alonzo,” Luna said. “If you need to speak with Simón alone…”

“It’s okay…” Ámbar said. “Or, well, I kinda need your help. Would you mind coming with me to the living room?”

“Oh, er…” Simón was unsure if he was gonna give Alonzo to Luna or bring him with him. In the end, he gave him to Luna. “I’ll be back soon, little man! Aah… have you ever babysat him, Ámbar?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“You haven’t? Aw, you gotta! Luna, me and Ámbar should babysit your brother sometime!”

“Would you like that?” Luna asked her brother. Alonzo shrieked. “He does!”

Everyone laughed.

“Well, I’ll be back soon,” Ámbar said, dragging Simón away.

Luna put Alonzo in his high chair and gave him a bottle. “You’re probably hungry after your nap.

“Hello! Special delivery for chica delivery!” 

Luna turned to the kitchen door to find Matteo standing there. She lit up.

“Chico fresa! What are you doing here?”

“Just wanted to visit. What’s going on with you?”

“Not much…”

“Ooh, is this your brother?”

“Right! You haven’t met him! This is Alonzo!”

Matteo leaned in. “Hi!”

Alonzo glared at him with a judgemental look.

“He doesn’t look too happy…”

“It’s just because he doesn’t know you,” Luna explained. “This is my boyfriend, Alonzo! I’m sure you two will get along!”

Alonzo just drank from his bottle and glared at Matteo as if he found him suspicious. 

“Anyway, I also came to tell you I’m signing up for the competition!” Matteo said. 

“You are! Way to go!” Luna gave him a hug. But as soon as she did, Alonzo made a whining noise. 

“What is he doing?” Matteo asked. “He seems so grumpy, it looks like he’s trying to lay a cable.”

Luna started laughing.

“What?” Matteo asked.

“No, I just wasn’t prepared for you to use that expression. Anyway, no, he’s not doing that.”

“How do you know?”

“Cause I know all of his facial expressions. Trust me.”

She picked Alonzo up. “You’re done with your bottle?”

“Where are your parents? Why are you alone with a baby?”

“Mom and dad had to run some errands. He was napping and they told me to give him a bottle when he wakes up.”

“Seems unfair that you have to do that much work.”

Luna frowned. “Giving him a bottle when he wakes up is not much work, chico fresa.”

“Still…”

Alonzo kept staring at him as if he was an impostor.

“He doesn’t look like he likes me…”

“Nonsense,” Luna said. “Would you like to hold him?”

“Uh…”

“Maybe if you hold him, he’ll see that you’re a really nice person. Use your chico fresa charm on him.”

“Well alright, you boosted my confidence! Let’s go, give me the baby!”

Luna handed him over. Alonzo was not too thrilled to have Matteo hold him, although he did not cry. He just stared at him. 

“Heey, buddy… you’re a cute one… has Luna been a good sister?”

“Oh, I’ve been the best sister!”

“Nah, I think you haven’t,” Matteo joked. “Luckily, I’m here! Tell me, you like me more than her, bambini?”

“Mm!” Alonzo grunted.

“Come on, you do!” Matteo laughed. He held Alonzo right in front of him. “Is that a smile I see on you? Come on-”

“BLEEEUGH!”

There came baby vomit all over Matteo’s clothes.

“Oh my god…” Luna said, taking her brother. “Are you ok?”

“He really does hate me, huh?”

“No, no!”

“What’s going on?” Simón and Ámbar came into the kitchen.

“Why are you two here?” Matteo asked.

“I live here?” Ámbar asked.

“What happened to you?” Simón laughed.

“Alonzo threw up on him,” Luna said. 

Simón and Ámbar started laughing. Alonzo himself started to kick his legs and giggle, which only caused them to laugh more. Luna couldn’t help but laugh herself.

“It’s not funny,” Matteo said.

“Aww, but he’s just a baby,” Simón said. “Come on, I'll clean him up.” He grabbed Alonzo from Luna. “Did you throw up well? You must feel all better now!” He turned to Ámbar. “Come on, Ámbar.”

“What? Where?”

“We’re gonna clean him up, you and I.”

“We are?” 

“Yes. Come on, let’s go!”

Ámbar was unsure about this, but followed Simón.

“He did it on purpose, I’m sure…” Matteo sighed, as Luna got him a towel.

“No! He’s just a baby.”

“No, he hates me.”

“Babies throw up all the time. It doesn’t mean he hates you.”

As they talked in the kitchen, they didn’t know that someone watched them.

Sharon. 

She had been getting to her senses some more, but she still had a desire to at least… have a chat with Valente's youngest child… the question was only how.

[hide-in-imagination]

Hi, have you wondered how would Simón react if Luna had confessed her love on s3? Do you know if someone ever wrote a one shot about this? 😭.

Perdón por mi horrible inglés, español es mi lengua materna. Me encantan muchos tus fics de Simbar (la mejor pareja) y espero que disfrutes tú viaje a Argentina!

Holaa! Ya que tu lengua materna es español, te contesto en español👍🏻❤️

Muchas gracias por el elogio y los buenos deseos 🌸 La pasé muy bien en Argentina, realmente fueron experiencias que no voy a olvidar. Tuve muy mala suerte en que justo uno de mis conciertos fue suspendido por lluvia (casi nos da pulmonía con mis amigas jajjaj) y tuve que comprar otro vuelo de vuelta, pero al final todo valió la pena🫶

Y volví más cargada de Simbar que nunca !! La última noche la pasamos con una amiga viendo todas las escenas de esta pareja y creo que se me reconfiguró el cerebro jajajaj. Los amo tanto, incluso tantos años después :')

Con respecto a tu pregunta, desconozco si alguien ha escrito algo al respecto (IF ANYONE HAS SEEN A FIC ABOUT THIS TOPIC, PLS LET ME KNOW! 🙏🏻🙏🏻) Solo tengo el capítulo de Caminos Que Se Cruzan en que Luna le confiesa a Simón que en algún momento gustó de él. Asumo que la reacción de Simón habría sido algo parecido si Luna se le confesaba antes, tipo, "Estoy halagado pero no siento lo mismo." Además, Simón a esas alturas ya era un ferviente defensor de Lutteo, así que yo creo que si Luna se le hubiera confesado, Simón habría tratado de decirle suavemente que estaba confundida, que solo creía sentir cosas por Simón por la cercanía entre los dos, pero que a quien realmente amaba era a Matteo.

Incluso si Simón se tomara en serio la confesión, no le quedaría de otra que rechazarla (amablemente claro) porque desde el segundo 1 de la tercera temporada que se nota que está re enganchado de Ámbar 😂💜 No la podía olvidar, pobre.

En general, me habría gustado que Luna le dijera dentro de la serie porque así Simón habría sabido que fue algo que le pasó a los dos y no solo a él (me da mucha bronca que al final de la serie cuando hablan al respecto Luna no dijo nada). Pero me consuelo con la cara de Luna cuando Simón le dijo que estaba enamorado de Ámbar 😂😂😂 Top 10 Soy Luna Moments.

[iridescentis]

I just wanna say, yeah, it surprised me too how little gay fics they had of Soy Luna! The way the fandom at least seemed to agree on some, I thought, there must be a fair amount? But nope!

I remember when I finished S1 of SL for the first time back in 2021, I went to ao3 to briefly check out the fandom there and being so SHOCKED there were no Jim/Yam fics. People seemed to agree they were gfs but then they ship Yam with PEDRO before Jim in fics (like not even with Ramiro, with PEDRO)? I was like "Do I have to do all the work myself" and then wrote a bunch of fics with them as gfs just to fill out the content I was lacking. I think I'm still the only one who has written about them romantically (checked now, and yep!)

Also, yeah, I really thought Sitteo (and Gastteo, people LOVE pairing up Matteo with men) would have more fics. But I guess ao3 writers focus on canon ships, and/or non-canon ships that are M/F (which is kinda funny because Violetta, a show that takes place in the same universe, has like 85% gay fics)

yeah! when i first started watching soy luna i immediately went to watch fan edits as i usually do and there was SO MANY gay ship edits i even saw yam/delfi at one point?? i just naturally assumed that all of these ships would have just as many fics but not at all

the thing that surprised me the most is so many people seemed to love the idea of an AU where the love triangle is focused on matteo and he has to choose between luna and simón and i expected that there would be tons of fics with that concept but there isn't any??

and yeah jim and yam felt like an obvious goldmine for adorable fics but apparently not?

i definitely noticed how much there is for canon ships though a huge majority i came across had lutteo simbar and gastina usually all in the same fic regardless of the main pairing

[sapphire374]

When Stars Align

“Is this the second time we’ve both gotten stuck in the same elevator?” 

Wattpad Link

I would like to give a special thanks to @silver-inked for helping me when I went through writers block with this idea. I was able to figure out an idea cause of your help so thank you. :)

Background: The gang are at a Roller Skating competition. It’s sort of an AU that would take place in season three but there are no spoilers or mention of anything that correlates to season three. A character does mention Mitchel but nothing specifically about him is said. Ships included are Lutteo (with angst)  and Simbar. 

Luna and Matteo both entered inside the elevator to head upstairs since it was their turn next to compete. They stole glances from each other and it was just pure silence in the air. They both couldn’t help but stay angry at each other for their own reasons. 

“C’mon Emilia hurry up,” Ámbar demanded outside of the elevator.

“Can’t you see I’m trying!” Emilia replied. Emilia was frantically unscrewing the latch that contained all of the buttons of the elevator outside. She pulled out her scissors from her back pocket and snipped at one of the cords. The elevator stopped.

“It stopped..” Matteo noticed.

“Chico Fresa, what do you mean it stopped? Can’t you just press another button to go up.”

“None of them work. The elevator is stuck,” Matteo stuttered whilst frantically pressing all the buttons at once.

Luna covered her face in astonishment. Out of all the days and all the times it had to be now, right before it was their turn to perform and nonetheless with Matteo. The one person she didn’t even want to look at right now or even be with. Luna pulled out her phone. 

“Ugh there’s no service. What are we going to do?” Luna anxiously asked. 

“It’s ok, calm down Chica Delivery. Someone is bound to notice and try to use the elevator. They will let us go and we’ll be fine.”

“Clearly you’re forgetting one very important event. We were up next to skate and now we won’t be able to make it on time! Plus how are you able to stay so calm? You must not care so much about this, only your album is all you worry about.”

Matteo rapidly turned towards her. “Of course I care, it’s just in matters like these it’s important to stay calm. Plus you’re not so perfect either Luna. You haven’t stopped holding a grudge on me for what happened with the album and Bruno. You know I’m not like that anymore and I already apologized countless times,” Matteo rebutted.

“Ok maybe I went a little too far there but lately you’ve been just so distant from me and the gang. Whenever we talk about competitions you lose interest and the closer I try to get to you, the farther you move away.” Matteo stayed silent at her response. 

Luna broke the silence and said, “Well I’m going to try to call for help.”

“How?” Matteo questioned.

Luna yelled whilst banging at the door with her hand as a fist “HELP HELP! WE’RE TRAPPED IN HERE! HELP!” Matteo decided to do the same thing. 

“Aww hear that Emilia, they’re trapped. Poor things, well I guess they have to figure it out all on their own.” Ámbar and Emilia cackled together. Emilia picked up all of her tools and placed it in her backpack after screwing back the elevator button latch so there will be no evidence that it was them. 

“C’mon let’s get out of here so no one thinks it’s us.” Emilia ran out the hallway and so did Ámbar till she bumped into someone. Her black, fringe shoulder bag falling to the floor alongside her phone. “Watch where you’re goi- oh Simón! Uh what are you doing here?” Her mood and tone of voice quickly shifts when she notices it’s Simón.

Simón bends over to pick up Ámbar’s stuff like the gentleman he is. Ambar always loved it when he was nice to her but now wasn’t a good time. She had to hurry quick before the others suspect it was her. “I’ve been searching for Luna and Matteo. They’re needed now at the rink, they’re up next to skate. Have you seen them?”

Ámbar rapidly shakes her head, “No no I haven’t, sorry. Don’t worry too much about it though, they're bound to be found soon. In fact, they’re probably at the rink tying up their shoes, you know they’re never late to a performance.”

Simón scratches his head. “Yeah I guess you’re right. Hey, what are you doing here?”

Ámbar quickly makes up an excuse. “I was just… looking for the vending machine! I wanted to eat something before I prepared skates.”

“Oh say no more.” Simón stuffs his hands in his pockets scavenging for something. He pulls out two granola bars and smiles. “Here you go. You can have it. It’s not much but it’s something you can eat and not have to buy or waste your money.”

 Ámbar couldn’t help but smile at this sweet gesture Simón made. He always helps her, without thinking. Ámbar couldn’t help but wonder maybe there is somebody in this world who cares about her, could it be Simón? Would life be better if she just let her guard down to him, for him.

“HELP! HELP!” The staring contest between Ámbar and Simón spontaneously ended. “Do you hear that?” Simón asked Ámbar. “No no. Must be some kids playing outside.”

Simón immediately ran to the dressing room hallway. Ámbar changed her mentality on a “what if she did change” cause she feels at the end of the day he will always prefer Luna and the others. “Stupid Lunita always ruining everything. Plus, what’s the point of changing if he’s alway going to care for those losers and ignore me or leave me at the sidelines. I’m tired of being thrown to the side,” Ámbar wondered. 

Emilia dashed to Ámbar. “I came back. I thought you were right behind me running. If we stay any longer they will figure out it was us.”

“I know we have to hurry but our plan sort of backfired. Simón was able to hear these two idiots yelling from the elevator.”

Emilia puts her hand over her head. “No it can’t be. Well, fixing that elevator shouldn’t be easy and it's their turn now meaning they’ll miss it. We’re just going to have to hope that the judges don’t give them a second chance.”

Ámbar and Emilia escape the scene. Simón runs into the hallway. He notices the closer he approaches the elevator, the louder he hears the screaming for help. “Guys are you ok? Who is this in the elevator and what happened?”

“Simón! Simón! It’s us, Luna and Matteo! The elevator randomly stopped and there’s no service. Ever since then we’ve been trapped in here,” Luna announces.

“Oh I’ll go get Juliana now! Don’t go anywhere ok?”

“Guitarrista, where would we go, we’re trapped,” Matteo answered. 

“Oh yeah that’s right. Whoops.” Simón replied.

Simón runs off to go let the team know. Now it’s just Luna and Matteo…. alone. Luna sits down, bends her knees and lays her head on top with a gloomy expression plastered on her face. Matteo can’t help but stare at the way Luna feels depressed. He hates seeing her the opposite of her usual happy, cheery self. “Cheer up Chica Delivery, they’re coming soon to fix the elevator. We’ll be out of here in no time.”

“But Matteo, we missed our turn to skate and what if the judges don’t give us another opportunity. What if, cause of us, our whole team misses out on performing as well. We don’t know how severe the elevator issue is nor how long it will take and -”

Matteo cuts Luna off and tries to comfort her. “And everything will be okay. Look if those things do end up happening then we’ll have another opportunity in a future competition. Some things are just out of our hands, like this elevator incident in this case.”

“You’re right but we worked so hard for this competition.”

“And we'll work even harder for the next one,” Matteo being optimistic, hoping this would make her feel better. 

“Yeah you’re right.” Luna sighs.

The elevator turned to silence again. They couldn’t help but steal glances from one another. Oh how it was so hard to just speak to the other, they’re constantly overthinking and worried to put their heart out on the line. “Why do we always end up in arguments with each other,” they wondered. Matteo inhaled a large gulp of hair, tried to put his nerves on the sidelines and his courage to the test. 

“I’m sorry for avoiding you these past days.”

Luna’s head shifted towards Matteo now. All her attention is now on him.

“It’s just I didn’t know how to react when seeing you constantly with Michel and I was worried there is something more between the two of you. I thought there was and tried to give you space, you deserve someone who truly loves you and cares about you. I didn’t want to get in the way of that but at the same time it hurt seeing you with him so I always tried to leave. Sorry if I ended up hurting you in any way from doing that. I would never want to hurt you or cause you any pain.”

Luna's lips slowly curved into a little smile. “Chico Fresa, thank you for being honest with me. Me and Michel are just friends, I can guarantee that. I also would like to say I’m sorry for being harsh and upset. Your  music deal was very important to you and I shouldn’t always prioritize these competitions, I should’ve been there to comfort you when Bruno cancelled it at the time. You were my boyfriend and I really did care about you, and still do. I think it was just I didn’t want to see you lose sight of yourself and care solely about your album and your success. Life is much more than that but I should’ve expressed myself better. I did notice though you have changed ever since you apologized. You now make more of an effort to get along with Simon and are even friends, which is so cute! I know it has been tough for you ever since Gaston left as well. Just know I will always be here for you, whenever you need me.”

Matteo smiled widely now. Luna’s words couldn’t have been any more comforting. He hates arguing with her but he loves these intimate moments, maybe it wasn’t so bad after all to get trapped in this elevator. Maybe it was meant to be, maybe it was their time for the stars to align.

Matteo and Luna both got up. Juliana and the gang were outside with an electrician fixing the buttons to the elevator. Luna and Matteo were so wrapped up in their conversation they barely even noticed. “Let’s make a deal Matteo. I will try to focus some more time in helping you out with your music if you will do the same with these competitions and actually get excited for them, and train with me.”

Matteo chuckled. He was beaming with joy and anyone who knew him could tell. “It’s a deal.” Luna took out her hand and Matteo shook it. Right after, while holding her hand shaking it, he pulled her in closer. They were only centimeters apart now. The air felt like it escaped their lungs and Matteo knew exactly what he was doing when he did it. “So Chica Delivery, is it true what you said about me? You still care about me?”

Luna looked up. Their faces were so close to each other, their noses touched. “Chico Fresa, you still have doubts, on me?!” Luna joked.

“Do you still have feelings for me too?” The sparks were reignited again and floating in the air. Luna tried to breath and her nerves couldn’t stop from taking over her. Great, now she forgot how to breath. Matteo caressed her cheek and now her skin feels like it’s on fire. Her heart couldn’t stop racing. She wanted to answer but she already knew he knew the answer as they kept leaning closer...and closer… and…

BING

The automatic doors have opened

Everyone stared at Luna and Matteo’s almost kiss. Luna and Matteo frantically moved their faces and stared in shock. They were not expecting the elevator to get fixed so fast. Jazmin had her tablet in hand and exclaimed, “YES I GOT IT ALL ON TAPE! Ja- Jazmin fans you all are in for a real treat this week!” Luna face palmed herself and couldn’t believe Matteo was laughing, even if he was trying to hide it.

[clockwork-fayz]

The Most Perfect Proposal

Alternate Title: A Very Disney Telenovela Proposal

Or the fanfiction that came to me in an actual dream I had and I had to write it. 

Matteo, Simon, and Gastón all get the idea in their heads that they need to propose to their significant others. A chance encounter at a jewelry store leads our three boys helping each other out to orchestrate the perfect proposal. Can they pull of three proposals? Not without totally unrealistic issues arising of course!

READ ON AO3

Or Keep Reading Here

Matteo stared at the rings in the case, his eyebrows furrowed. Before this moment he had thought that it would be easy to pick out a ring for Luna. He knew everything about her down to her favorite font to use on posters. He figured that he would be able to walk into a ring shop and one would just scream Luna to him. But this was the fifth shop he had been in, and nothing seemed to fit.

Matteo had been thinking about proposing for quite a long time before he decided to make it a reality.

In fact he could remember the day that he realized he was going to marry her.  It had been a year after they had started dating (the second time around).  Luna was sitting with Matteo in first class on their way to Spain to start off Matteo’s first international tour.

Months before, in the planning stage of his tour, Matteo had gotten the brilliant idea of having skating be a part of the concert and having Luna be one of the dancers. It was perfect for Luna; not only did she get to go on tour with her boyfriend but she was getting paid to do it. She had been in charge of the choreography and Matteo had to admit it was her best work yet.

Luna had never been to Europe before and to say she was excited was an understatement. She had spent an entire night researching every place that they were stopping and created a list of everything she wanted to do. Some more realistic than others.

“Mi amor, I don’t think that we will be able to do all of this.  Stalking the royal family will take a couple of days at least and we are only in London for a night.”

“But what’s the point of going to England if I don’t get to see one royal Matteo.  Honestly, why are we going on this tour then.”

Matteo shook his head at her amused. “You are right. Forget performing in front of sold out crowds, let’s get arrested for breaking into the palace.”

“That’s the spirit!”

It was the middle of the night on the plane, and Luna was fast asleep snuggled against him. The movie they were watching was still playing on the TV, the fast paced action sequences unable to awake her from her dead sleep.  Matteo wasn’t tired, but he was perfectly content watching her breathe.

She looked so peaceful, the blanket pulled up to her chin, her hair falling into her face. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was midnight in Buenos Aires. It was officially their one year anniversary.  Not that Luna would remember that it was their anniversary, she was terrible at dates.  But Matteo was never one to forget things like that.  He could still tell you the date and time it was when he first ran into her in Cancun all those years ago.

Who would have thought he would be here now with her? When he met her for the first time, there had been an immediate spark between the two of them, but he never considered that one day Luna would be asleep on him while they flew off on an adventure and with hundreds of memories behind them.  He thought of the first time he kissed her; how he had been secretly dying to do it for weeks and how right it felt when he finally did. He thought of every kiss afterwards, how even now kissing her made him feel like he was flying. Of how her walking in the room still made his heart beat faster.  Of how she knew him better than anybody.  Of all the walks in the parks, the scary movies watched, the jokes they shared.

It was an overwhelming feeling. It felt like he had hit a tidal wave of thoughts.  Once the thought was there, he couldn’t think of anything else.

He had to spend the rest of his life with Luna.  He was going to marry her.

The thought enveloped him as he watched her sleeping. It was an excitable feeling.

He knew he wouldn’t propose until far in the future. She would kill him if he proposed when they were so young. There was no rush. But from that moment on, the fact was in the back of his mind that she was his forever.  Even when they argued, even when the fights got so bad she was screaming at him and he would walk out slamming the door, even then he knew that Luna was the only girl for him.

Luna shifted, jarring him from his thoughts and making him jump just a little.  She woke slightly, murmuring “Everything ok Teo?”

“Si, mi amor,” he said, rubbing her arm, “Everything is perfect.”

Now it was five years later. She was 24 and he was 25. They had spent six years together, full of adventures, fights, makeups, and him adoring every moment with her. It was time to make forever official.  

As he stood at the case pondering what Luna would prefer, he heard a voice behind him.

“Matteo?”

“ Gastón ?”

……

You could say that Simón always thought he was going to marry Ámbar .  Even before they were together, and she still guarded herself with sharp words and poor decisions, he could only imagine a future where they were together.

There was one moment that really cemented it in his mind though.  He remembered it fondly. He was walking up to the apartment that they shared and could hear music blasting from the doorway. They had only been living with each other for a month or so.  It was a big step for Ámbar , who had always lived in mansions, to move into a one bedroom apartment in the city. She had been adjusting to things like having to buy your own groceries and cook for yourself.

Simón opened the door and Ámbar didn’t even notice.  She was standing at the mixer, spatula in hand and a mess surrounding her. She was swaying to the music and singing softly along as she read from the cookbook.

Simón closed the door loudly as not to scare her and she turned down the music when she noticed him.

“What are you doing mi amor?” he asked, taking in the scene in front of him.

Her eyebrows furrowed. “I thought you weren’t supposed to be home until later, it was going to be a surprise!”

“Pedro had to leave for an appointment so I came home early. Are you baking?”

She gestured towards the counter. “Clearly. Though it is much harder than it looks. I’ve called Monica three times already.”

Simón chuckled, approaching her. “You have some flour on your cheek,” he said, brushing it off gently with his finger. “And your forehead. And all over your shirt.”

He leaned over to give her a peck on the lips. She smiled, before pushing him away.

“Well now that the surprise is ruined, you will have to help me. I can’t figure out how to add flour without it flying out of the mixer and all over!”

“For starters,” he said, assessing the situation, “You should start it off on a lower setting.”

Her eyes grew wide. “There are settings?”

Simón laughed.  “Here, let me show you.”

Ámbar watched closely as Simón taught her how to run the mixer properly. It was a lot easier now that Simón was showing her.

“It looks like we just need chocolate chips,” she said, grabbing the bag.

“But we have to hand mix those in, or a mixer will break.”

Ámbar looked back at him. “What would I do without you?”

Simón showed her how to fold the chocolate chips into the cookie dough with the cookie spatula.  

Ámbar tried a bit of the cookie dough and moaned in delight.

“Babe, you have to try this. I did so good.”

Simon let her feed him a bit off the spatula. “Mmm very good. Best cookie dough I’ve ever eaten.”

Ámbar stared at the spatula and then looked up to him with large doe eyes.

“I should bake more.” Then she turned to get the cookie sheet. He went to sit on the bar stool as she scooped the dough into balls on the pan. She was humming to the music again, focusing on making sure the balls were spaced evenly. And then it hit him.

He could suddenly see years from now what their life could be. Simón would still be making music, Ámbar would have risen in the ranks at Vidia. They would live in a house together with their kids. And although they would live busy lives, they would always make time for their family.  They would spend weekends making cookies, roller skating in the park, going to the beach. It would be a chaotic but perfect life.

Ámbar looked back at him staring at her.

“Don’t tell me that I have flour all over the back of me too?”

Simón smiled and went over to her, pulling her in for a kiss.

“No mi amor, I was just thinking of how much I love you.”

Ámbar looked at him confused but not complaining.

“I love you too.  What brought this on?”

“Nothing.  Let me help you get these cookies in the oven.”

It was thinking back to that moment that made Simón realize that it was time for him to propose to her.  He went to the jewelry store that day, not expecting to see two familiar faces inside.

…

…

…

Gastón knew he was going to marry Nina not long after they had gotten back together.

Breaking up with her was the biggest mistake he had ever made. He thought that he was helping her. He was on an entire different continent. They never got to see each other and the time difference was killer. He had convinced himself that it was for the best. It hadn’t taken him too long to realize that he was wrong.

He had tried to go out with other girls, but they were no Nina.  There was this one girl that lived down the street from him. She was gorgeous and she was obviously into Gastón . He had asked her out to a movie with him.

He should have known things weren’t going to work out when she wanted to see the latest crude humor movie. He agreed to go, to give it a chance. It was just as awful as he thought it would be.  

“Wasn’t that so funny?” the girl asked as they sat at a diner afterwards.

Gastón hesitated. “It wasn’t really my taste. I prefer sci-fi movies actually or movies that make you think. My gir- uhm my friend from back home and I used to watch old mystery movie marathons. It was lots of fun.”

“Hmm, I don’t think that I’ve watched one of those.”

“They are really good.”

An awkward silence fell over them.

“So what books do you like to read?” Gastón finally asked, trying to break the tension.

“Oh I don’t really read.”

Gastón nodded. “That’s alright. What about music?”

“Anything that’s on the radio.”

Why is this so awkward, thought Gastón . It was never this awkward on dates with Nina. With Delphi maybe, but Nina could have conversations about anything with him.  He remembered that one time they talked for an hour ranking every mainstream Shakespearean play.

No matter how many times he tried to focus on what the girl was saying, he could not stop thinking about Nina. And the girl noticed.

“ Gastón , I really like you but I don’t think we feel the same way.”

Gastón was snapped out of a memory of Nina learning to skate to surprise him.

“Que?”

The girl smiled sweetly and put a hand on his shoulder.

“What’s her name?”

Gastón looked ashamed but told her “Nina.”

“How long have you been broken up for?”

“I broke up with her a couple months ago. She lives in Buenos Aires and I am here.”

The girl sighed. “That is tough. But I can tell that you must really love this girl.  And if you love this girl that much,  you should try to make it work.”

Gastón took those words to heart and almost ran home that night so he could call Nina.

She told him that she had met someone. Gastón broke inside.

For the next few years, Gastón went on many dates but everytime that he got close to someone, he realized that he did not love them.  He started to wonder if he would ever find someone he loved as much as he did with Nina.

It had been five long years since he had last seen her when she came walking into the restaurant in Buenos Aires. It was like he had been sleeping for the past few years and seeing her had finally awakened him. The sky was brighter, the air fresher. She filled up his thoughts that night and into the next day. He had to tell her that he still loved her. He had to.

And he did. And she loved him back.

It was a few days later when Gastón had the thought that he had to marry Nina. Luna had called in the morning saying that Simón and Gastón were at the Jam and Roller and that they were going to meet them at ten and Gastón had no choice but to come with them.

Gastón was over at Luna and Matteo’s apartment in ten minutes to meet them. Nina answered the door wearing a sundress and her glasses and Gastón had thought it had been a long time since a girl had taken his breath away like this.

The four walked to the Jam and Roller, Luna rambling on about the changes Ámbar had made since she had become the head of Vidia.

“Honestly I was afraid when she said she was going to redecorate,” Luna said, “But Simón kept saying that I needed to trust her vision. I’m like oh yeah Simón , I really trust her vision. Did you ever see her bedroom in the mansion? Anyways it turned alright of course.”

The familiar exterior of their old home away from home came into view. It gave Gastón a warm feeling as he saw the sign.  

Luna was literally bouncing, Matteo holding her hand and giving her a look. It was obvious a surprise was waiting inside.

Gastón reached out and interlaced his finger’s with Nina’s.  The two walked inside.

A cheer arose as they did, and in front of them was not just Gastón and Simón , but all of their old friends. Jim, Yam, Ramiro, Pedro, Nico, and Delphi were there. Delphi was holding up a laptop with Jazmín on it. Immediately their friends noticed Gaston and Nina holding hands.

“GASTINA’S BACK?” Jim and Yam shouted at the same time.

Nina nodded, and the girls shrieked in happiness going to tackle Nina in a hug. Delphi dropped Jazmín on a table going to join, Jazmín shouting in protest.

After hugs and greetings, the gang settled in the cafeteria for juice.

“Are you back for good?” Yam asked, “Both of you?”

Gastón turned to Nina and smiled. “At least for a little while.”

Yam clapped. “You can be models in my fashion show next month! I’ve already recruited the rest of our friends too! It will be perfect!”

Nina paled a little, but Gastón squeezed her hand reassuringly.

“Ramiro, shouldn’t you be touring?” Gastón asked, “I thought you’d be in Europe.”

“I thought you would be in Europe,” Ramiro laughed, “I’m taking a break to train a team for the internationals. I get to skate and be here with the love of my life.” Yam smiled at him, grabbing his hand.  

“It is so perfect that we are all here!” Simón said, “The Roller Band recording their next album. Delphi managing the Jam and Roller. Jim being a dancer in music videos. Nina is writing her book and Gastón is taking a job here! It’s perfect!”

“Ahem,” Jazmín coughed from the laptop, “I think you are somebody.”

“Perdón Jazmín , I could never forget you,” Simón laughed. “Maybe you should come back too!”

Jazmín scoffed. “And give up this job in LA working for E! I can’t.”

Pedro raised his glass of juice.  I’d like to give a toast to the last pieces of our puzzle back together! To Gastón and Nina!”

“ Gastón and Nina!”

Gastón looked over to Nina. She was turning a little pink in the cheeks from all the attention, but Gastón could tell she was so happy.  He instinctively leaned over and kissed her hair, eliciting awws from their friends.

“I always knew that you would find your way back to each other,” Jazmín sighed. “Gastina was like the third most popular ship on Fab and Chic.”

Ámbar raised an eyebrow. “Who was first and second?”

“I’m glad you asked, I still have all of the statistics-” Jazmín started, but Simón cut her off.

“Why don’t we talk about this some other time Jazmín .”

“Agreed,” Luna said, grabbing Nina’s hand. “Nina, you need to look at Yam’s designs for the fashion show. They are muy muy chic!” Nina let go of Gastón’s hand, giving him an apologetic smile as she went to gather around Yam’s tablet.

Gastón watched her for the rest of the night, trying hard to pay attention to Ramiro’s tales of tour and updates on Roller Band, but he could not stop his eyes from drifting to wherever she was.

“Hermano, I don’t think I’ve seen you this bad since, well since you were with Nina last,” Matteo said while putting a hand on Gastón’s shoulder.

Gastón grinned. “There hasn’t been anyone else besides Nina.”

“Well make sure to not let her go this time,” Matteo said as he walked away.

Those words hit Gastón hard. He couldn’t let Nina go, ever again. She was the shining light in his world.  He wouldn’t be able to survive if she was gone again. This is why less than a year later, Gastón found himself walking into a jewelry shop one day in November, unexpectedly running into his best friend standing at the counter.  

[countessofravenclaw]

Like the Red Rose blooms in the Oxford Garden: Chapter ten

Sometimes when your heart breaks… it feels like there is no way to fix it. No matter what you try. All the memories get left behind as something unfinished… But maybe, there is to way to fix it, A second chance. Some way to finish the story you two started writing because it was never the end, but just a part of the story… even if you have to travel far to achieve it.

You can say "Goodbye", you can say "Hello". But you'll always find your way back home.

“Was that your phone?” Nina asked as Gastón’s phone dinged. 

They had been studying at the library on the evening as the term finals closed in on them. There only was about a month left before the exams, and the summer would begin.

“Oh, yeah I think it was,” Gastón reached for his phone and looked at it. “It was an email… from Renishaw.” 

“What does it say?” Nina closed the book she had been browsing through, “I thought you already got the job.”

“I did,” Gastón opened the email. He would be continuing the internship he had done at Renishaw last summer, this summer. “It must be just some information.”

“He opened the email and read it through. “Huh?” 

“What is it?” Gastón looked up and saw Nina’s face growing in concern.

“Oh, nothing bad,” he reached her hand in reassurance, “Just the email said that I don’t need to do the three-week intern training period there, because I was there last year.”

“Is that a bad or good thing?”

“Good,” Gastón laughed while playing with Nina’s fingers, “It means that I have three weeks free at the start of summer. So, what do you wanna do?”

“What am I supposed to want to do?” Nina looked at him. The look of slight confusion on her face was way too cute, and Gastón had to try his hardest not to get distracted. 

“Well, it would be a waste if we just sit here the whole summer. There are lot of different things we can do.”

“I don’t know how to come up with something. You choose.”

“Well, if you want me to.” Gastón grinned at Nina, “We already were at Kent, but there are lot of other places here as well.” Gastón stopped to think for a moment, “but, honestly, we can just do that during the weekends if we want, so… How about we go back home?”

“Home?” Nina looked up at his eyes, “You wanna return to Buenos Aires?”

“Well… Yeah.” Gastón reached to take both of her hands to his and ran his thumps over them. “I have been thinking that for a while now. I mean, I didn’t come back last year, and honestly kind of regret it. Matteo really tried to get me to come. So, you’d like that, if we did go back? We could stay at mine.”

“Yes, I really would love that,” Nina smiled at him, “Your parents would be fine with us staying there?”

“Of course. I am not sure about their schedules right now, but if we get to be by ourselves, I’m not gonna be upset.” Gastón got up from his chair and moved to one on the other side of the table next to Nina.

“Luna will be so excited,” Nina smiled, “It would be so great to see everybody…and we can tell them.”

“Right, they don’t know,” Gastón laughed, “Almost forgot about that. If Luna and Matteo have kept their mouths shut, which I think they actually have. Jazmin would have flown across the ocean to make a video about this.”

“She’s probably never going to change in that aspect,” Nina laughed, “At least Delfi shut Fab and Chic down, but Jazmin is never going to stop.”

“We’re never going to live to see that day,” Gastón agreed, “How about we just call Matteo and Luna now, and let them know, so we can plan accordingly? And make sure nothing has actually leaked and they are just waiting to ambush us.”

“That's a good idea.”

“Well, lets not waste any time.” Gastón took his phone out and called Matteo.

“Hey!!!” Matteo appeared on the screen after a moment, “Nice to see you fancy school people. I was beginning to worry that you are beginning to forget how to speak Spanish.”

“We spoke yesterday,” Gastón snarked while changing his phone to his other hand, while wrapping the other around Nina. “Is Luna there?”

“We want to talk to you both.” Nina continued.

“Yeah, she is here… somewhere.” Matteo appeared to look around, “I think she went to the kitchen.”

Nina and Gastón looked as Matteo got up, from Mansion’s living room from the looks of it, and started walking around. 

“She’s with Simon in the kitchen,” Matteo whispered to them, “Do you want to…?”

“Just don’t show the screen,” Gastón said, while their view on the video call got quite crooked as Matteo lowered the phone.

“Chica Delivery,” Matteo entered the kitchen where Luna was sitting with Simon and Ambar, “Can you come with me for a moment?”

“For what?” Nina and Gastón heard Luna’s voice question. 

“We, uhm, have a phone call,” Gastón felt half bad for kind of finding Matteo’s stumblings in the attempt of hiding who he had been talking, kind of funny.

“From who?” Simon’s voice rang, “Why the secrecy?”

“There is no secrecy. It is my cousin, wants to meet my girlfriend,” Matteo continued, “And its none of your business anyway.”

“You know, if you wanna make out, you can just say so!” Ambar’s voice yelled as Luna and Matteo walked to the mansion’s stairwell.

“What does your cousin want from me?” Luna questioned as they entered her room. 

“It’s not my cousin,” Mateo huffed and sat on her bed, flipping the videocall’s camera back to the front and spoke to Nina and Gastón. “I hope this means we can stop this act at some point soon.”

“Oh my gosh!!! Hi!” Luna jumped next to Matteo on the bed. “You could have just said that it was them.”

“Actually, your performance was very entertaining,” Gastón laughed. 

“Glad you enjoyed it,” Matteo rolled his eyes sarcastically. “So what is up with you two?”

“Well, we want to talk with you two about something,” Gastón started talking, “You’ll probably be happy about that, since you like to complain.”

“Uuuuuu, about what?” Luna leaned closer, excited.

“We were talking about the summer, and Gastón’s internship doesn’t start until in a few weeks from starts of the summer—” Nina started explaining, “—so we thought we’d come back, for a couple of weeks.”

“REALLY!?!” Luna started jumping, “OMG! You are really planning on coming back?”

“Yeah, I think we both miss all of you there,” Gastón responded, “Plus, maybe it is time to let everyone know, about us I mean. You two haven’t told anybody right?”

“Of course not.” Matteo scoffed clearly smiling, “Everyone else is in deep darkness about you two, even if it really should be really obvious, if they just saw your faces.”

“Well, thats the plan, we want to tell everybody.”

“So, when exactly are you coming, on what day?” Matteo asked, “Because, uhm… actually, I have an idea. We’ll be at Italy for a couple of days at the start of summer, so what if we fly to you after that and then we fly back to Argentina together.”

***

“I wonder what Matteo bribed Luna with to get her on this early morning flight,” Gastón said to Nina as they were walking towards Luna and Matteo’s arrival gate at 9:35 the morning at Heathrow.

“I honestly don’t know, or do I want to know,” Nina shook her head and turned to look at Gastón’s watch, “When is it landing?”

“In ten minutes,” Gastón said pulling her closer by the waist as they sat down. “We better enjoy the quiet while we can.”

“You know you miss them,” Nina rolled her eyes at him before leaning her head in his shoulder, “But it probably will take a while until they can get off. I can’t imagine Luna and the baggage claim conveyer belt are good friends. Remember when she was convinced that she had lost her bag at Cancun during Roda Fest?”

“Good times,” Gastón laughed before brushing a strand of hair back behind Nina’s ear. He looked like he was about to lean in to kiss her when a burst of people started coming out of the arrivals gate. 

There was no sign of Luna and Matteo until the crowd started dwindling. 

“¿Estás seguro de que esta es la dirección correcta?” A bubbly voice all a sudden was heard at the terminal.

“Yes, this is the right direction.”

“But are you sure? We need to find them.”

“I have been here before… I am sure.”

Nina and Gastón raised their heads to see a couple walk out of the gate. Luna was hard to miss in the crowd while she was wearing a flagrantly bright rainbow summer dress. 

“But are they here?” Luna was jumping on her tiptoes on the platform sneakers she was wearing, “What if they went to the wrong gate?”

“They didn’t,” Nina and Gastón saw Matteo and Luna’s heads turn towards them and they got up from the bench they had been sitting. “They’re right there.”

“AAAAAAAaaaaaahhhh!” Nina felt Gastón detach his arm from around her, just a few moments before she was tackled into an extremely tight hug. Wasn’t Luna just at the other side of the terminal? Well, maybe she had finally actually learned to fly. “I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!”

“I missed you too.” Nina hugged Luna back, and Luna tightened her grip, so it got hard to breathe for a moment. 

“You look so good!” Luna still kept jumping up and down after she had released Nina, “You have not fully turned into a “posh English lady” on me?” Luna joked.

“No, never,” Nina laughed. She turned to look at Gastón who was just coming out of his own hug with Matteo.

“I honestly can’t believe this! You’re together again. True love really conquers all!” Luna gushed after tackling Gastón in a hug as well. 

“I am with her,” Matteo laughed, “I honestly needed to see this in person, so now I can fully believe it.”

“You need a demonstration?” Nina saw Gastón smirk before his arm wrapped around her pulling her into a kiss. 

***

“So, you are looking very well,” Matteo nudged Gastón with his elbow. They had separated from the girls at first when they had arrived at campus because Luna had wanted to see Nina’s room. “Such a different tune from the fall.”

“Well, it is hard to mask how happy she makes me.” Gastón smiled as he opened the door to his room. Oliver and Jacob had left to their homes earlier during the week.

“And everything that comes with it?” Matteo raised an eyebrow suggestively as he sat down.

“Well, I don’t have any reasons to complain,” Gastón nodded his head, “She’s amazing, in any way imaginable. Even though I do sometimes fear that Nina’s mother is getting ready to wring my neck for what we have been doing, like she probably would have when Nina was 17.”

“Are you in a relationship if you are not scared of your in-laws?” Matteo laughed, “Oh, I can finally say this in person. Congratulations, you’re no longer acting like an idiot!”

“You been waiting for a long time to say that huh?” Gastón punched Matteo lightly on the shoulder.

“Yes!” Matteo punched him right back, “I have been watching you to be the biggest mess in your life when it has come to Nina for FOUR years now… it’s finally over! I am just so happy about you two being happy.”

“I mean, I could say the same about you and Luna—” Gastón was interrupted by the door opening. Had he not locked it and the girls were coming… No, they would have heard them afar.

“I thought you left in the morning?” Gastón asked as James suddenly walked through the door.

“Series of unfortunate events… because I don’t have a car,” James leaned on the doorframe, “Dad’s picking me up…” James moved his eyes in the room and finally noticed Matteo, “...I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had company. Wait… are you Matteo?”

“En vivo y en persona.” Matteo got up from the bed, while eyeing James verily. Gastón had not really considered how this meeting would go down before this moment. Matteo out of principle wasn’t the biggest fan of Gastón’s other friends —whom he had never met until now— because he was a bit territorial about their friendship. On the other hand, Matteo did know that what he and Gastón had was never going to be broken. 

“Matteo, be nice.” He said in Spanish.

“I am always nice,” Matteo rolled his eyes before offering his hand to James and switching to English, “Matteo Balsano, Gastón’s best friend.”

“James Wilson,” James shook Matteo’s hand, “Nice to finally meet you, since I have heard a lot about you. Plus, I have heard you multiple times, but never understood what was being said.”

“Yeah, Spanish can be a hard language to master… But I managed to do it once upon a time.” Matteo deadpanned. Gastón found this scene purely comical.

“So, you are flying to Buenos Aires in the evening?”

“Yeah,” Gastón answered James, “Matteo and his girlfriend flew here from Italy, so we can go back together. Nina’s showing her around.”

“Oh yeah, you finally got to meet her,” James directed his words to Matteo who threw Gastón a side glance. “I am sure you have heard all about everything to do with Nina, so you definitely can agree that it definitely was such a relief that Gastón stopped being an idiot.”

“Yeah, I have a lot of experience with him being an idiot when it comes to girls. Nina’s no exception” Matteo started saying, his side eye towards Gastón growing “But yep, I have met her… for the first time.”

“Don’t oversell it,” Gastón said to Matteo in Spanish so James couldn’t hear. “We should probably go find the girls.” 

“James, I see you at the fall.” He patted James on the back as he and Matteo walked out of the door.

“How long are you gonna keep this up?” Matteo questioned as they were walking down a hallway, “These guys still don’t know about your crazy quest for the invisible internet girl?”

“Or that I knew her before at all,” Gastón shook his head, “I even told them that Luna’s name is Sol, because otherwise, it would look quite weird that my best friend's girlfriend has the exact same name as Nina’s best friend.”

“You do know that you need to tell them someday,” Matteo continued, “You can’t lie to save your life, so I am surprised that anyone has ever bought this. They’ll find out during the wedding anyway.”

“When have you become this wise?” Gastón nudged Matteo with his elbow.

“I have always been like it,” Matteo shrugged laughing, “But don’t change the subject. They need to know before the wedding.” He looked at Gastón smirking, “What? We both know that that’s the endgame here. Not like you haven’t thought about it.”

“Of course, I have.” Gastón smiled. He had thought about it, maybe a little too much for only being 20, but he couldn’t help it. That was the only future he saw in his mind. “But, we've only been together again for a little over a month. We can’t just pick up where we left off and were young. Nina’s 19. Ana would actually kill me. I guess there is no rush, if we're being realistic here. It’s not like you have any proposal plans yet either.” 

“Hey! We were talking about you!” Matteo pointed a finger at Gastón.

“It’s really good to have you back!” Gastón started laughing.

“You too,” Matteo hugged him suddenly, “I honestly missed you, a lot.”

***

“Are your roommates here?” Luna asked while skipping ahead of Nina in the stairwell.

“No, I told you, Marlee and Ariana went home earlier this week.” Nina explained as she opened the door to the level where her room was located. 

“Awww, thats sad.” Luna hung her head as they walked on a hallway, “They sound awesome, I would like to meet them.”

“I am sure you will,” Nina said as she opened her dorm room’s door.

“Uuuuuuu, this room is nice,” Luna gushed as they walked into the room. It was a little more bare than normal as Marlee and Ariana had taken most of their things home. “But have you been staying here alone now that they’ve gone?”

“No, I haven’t been staying here,” Nina said as she sat on her bed. “Gastón’s roommates are also gone, so I have been spending the night there.”

“Oh, right,” Luna said while jumping next to Nina, “So, do you need any help with packing?”

“I got everything sorted out yesterday,” Nina said while pointing to the suitcase next to the bed. That had been one of the only times she had actually been back in her room after Oliver and Jacob had been gone. Staying in separate rooms with Gastón didn’t make any sense when they weren’t forced to do it.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. 

“Are we going to eat or what?” Matteo and Gastón appeared through the door, “I am starving.”

*

Nina and Gastón were sitting at the table with Ana. They had arrived in Buenos Aires the morning the day before and stayed at Gastón’s house. Nina’s mom had insisted that they come to have lunch with her as soon as they arrived. 

Ana knew about them already, Nina had told her parents pretty soon after they had talked to Gastón’s parents. Their friends at Buenos Aires on the other hand… still had no idea, but they had a plan… or part of it. After they were done with Ana they were going to meet with Luna and Matteo at the mansion. 

According to their plan, Simon and Ambar would be the first ones to be told. Luna and Matteo had told them that Nina would be visiting. After that, they would figure out how to tell the others. 

“Isla and Marco must be happy to have you back,” Ana said addressing Gastón. 

“Well, they would be,” Gastón laughed, “If they were here. They’re in Columbia. They were actually quite mad, that we were coming back while they were gone. But they’ll be back next week, and I will get no peace.”

“Well, I understand them quite well,” Ana turned toward Nina, “I would be the same way if you came back while I wasn’t here.”

“Well, you never travel anyway,” Nina rolled her eyes, “So you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Why would I want to travel? Ana continued, “There is plenty of justice in need to serving right here in Buenos Aires. Not like your father, who seems to be very at home at Miami.”

“You know Dad’s very happy there,” Nina responded, “What would he need to be here anyway? I’m not here. Oh, did you get those boxes I asked for?”

“Yes, I did.” Ana said, “What do you need them for?”

“I need to sort out my stuff so I can ship some of it over.” Nina answered. She had thought she had already explained this to Mom. “I am not going to be gone forever. We talked about this. Just until I am done with my degree. If you feel lonely you can just say so.”

“Actually, have you talked to Mora lately?”

“No, not really,” Nina furrowed her brow. 

“Well, she’s coming back from Milan.” Ana smiled.

*

“What are you looking at?” Nina asked as she walked back to her room after grabbing couple things from downstairs. Her mother had left to meet a client so Nina and Gastón had been left alone. They had few hours before they had agreed to meet up with Luna and Matteo. 

Gastón had been standing in front of her nightstand looking at something. Nina walked behind him. He was holding the framed picture from her graduation with everyone, in his hand.

“You were very beautiful,” His head turned towards her for a moment. There was clear sadness in his eyes. “I should have been there.”

“No one can blame you for not being,” Nina wrapped her arms around his shoulders, hugging him from behind. “You were across the ocean and had a lot of things going on. Renishaw is more than a formidable place to have an internship at as a freshman and look where it has gotten you now.”

“That's what I said to Matteo, but I was lying,” Gastón put the photo back down, “If I would have tried, I could have come to see your performance live at the River Live Fest, Luna’s party, and to your graduation. Mom and Dad have miles for the rest of my life… I just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t have been fair to you and… I couldn’t have borne to see you, with him.”

“I can’t blame you for that either.”

“He’s not in this picture.”

“I broke up with him the day before,” Nina explained. She still felt guilty when she thought of that. “So, he obviously didn’t show up. I don’t know what happened with him afterward, except that he doesn’t work at Roller anymore. Maybe it’s for the best that we don’t see each other, I hurt Eric way too much for it to be fair for us to be friends.”

“You could never hurt anybody.” Gastón turned around and ran his finger on Nina’s cheek. 

“But I have, and probably will in the future.” Nina shook her head before looking into his eyes, “Why are we even talking about my ex? There’s no point to that, he’s gone, and I am in love with you. I only hope that he is happy, the way I am.”

Gastón pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around Nina as she leaned her head on his chest. Her mind turned to peaceful almost at once. 

“So, I am pretty sure your stuff isn’t going to pack itself,” Gastón said looking around in Nina’s room. “Are you taking those photos?”

“Should I?” Nina asked looking at her nightstand, “Did you pack the ones you have from your graduation?”

“Yes. I thought I’d take that whole album.” Gastón nodded, “It’s just something nice to have. Those are good pictures.”

“I agree,” Nina said, turning her head, “I’ll look through some of the books I have here, see if I wanna take any.”

She was leaning forward on the bookcase when she felt fingers trace down on her spine. 

“What are you doing?” She turned around and Gastón’s arm grabbed her tight around the waist. 

“Well, just a thought. I did some calculations, and we have more than plenty of time on our hands and your mother’s gone…”

“We were supposed be packing.” A smile formed on Nina’s lips as his hand moved to her hip, caging her against the wall next to the bookcase. She had no actual intention of fighting his intentions, she had truthfully thought about it herself. Gastón was just the one who acted on more daring impulses faster.

“We can 100 percent get it done, but now that we’re alone, and will probably be hounded by everyone the rest of the day when we get to the mansion.”

“Aha.”

***

“Welcome!” Luna and Matteo were waiting for them at the mansion’s gate when Gastón drove his car up to the gate.   

“Is everything in order?” Nina asked Luna as they started walking across the garden.

“Yes,” Luna was practically bouncing. “Simon and Ambar are thinking that just Nina is coming.”

“Pedro’s not here,” Matteo continued, “He’s out with Delfi, house hunting. Or not house hunting exactly but looking for an apartment so they can move in together.”

“Oh, I just love surprises!” Luna jumped up. 

“Lets just hope it’s a good one,” Gastón ran his hand on the back of his neck. He had been detached from the rest of the group, you couldn’t get around that fact, so he was a little nervous. 

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Luna looked at him. “When has love not been good news?”

“Well, it will be a surprise,” Nina reached to take Gastón’s hand, “No one knows that we even ended up at the same campus.”

“I can’t wait to see Simon’s face,” Matteo laughed. 

“I’m excited!” Luna jumped again as they got to the door.

“Here we go,” Gastón shared a look with Nina and tightened his grip on her hand as Luna opened the door and four of them walked inside the mansion. The hall was empty. 

“Hey!” Luna yelled inside the house and winked an eye to the others, “SHE’S HERE!”

After a moment, footstep started approaching them.

“Nina’s here already?” Ambar, wearing pastels once more, emerged from direction of the kitchen, Simon behind her. “So great that you’re back…”

Ambar’s voice trailed off as Gastón felt both of hers and Simon’s eyes focus on him. Amber clearly was attempting to minimize the shock on her face.

Simon on the other hand did not even try: “What?”

*

“You need to tell us everything,” Ambar said once everyone was sitting down at the mansion’s living room. “I mean, we knew nothing about this at all.”

“Well, it’s a long story,” Gastón said looking at Nina, “We will probably never know how this happened, but someone somewhere was clearly on my side. I have mentioned my friends before, Jacob, Oliver, James, but important to this are Ariana and Marlee.”

“Who just happened to be my roommates,” Nina continued, “So it was kind of impossible to avoid each other.”

“We bumped into her on the first day, not that I knew that Nina was there, Matteo.” Gastón shot a side-eye towards his best friend, “So I thought I was hallucinating for a second. But that being said, it was just impossible to stay away from her. Should have known that from the other times I tried that. It’s impossible.”

“We all know that fighting against something that is inevitable has no use,” Simon said draping his arm around Ambar. 

“But you kept this under wraps really well,” Ambar continued, “I mean, I am gonna be honest here, many of us, me included were curious of what would become of you now that Nina had come to Oxford, but then we heard nothing.” Then she suddenly turned toward Luna and Matteo, “I also can’t believe that you two knew about this and somehow kept it secret.”

“I can keep a secret.” Luna protested. 

“Well, yes, you can, but I thought you would have been bouncing off the walls.”

“She was, trust me.” Matteo remarked, “Not like they told us right away either, though.”

“It was two weeks,” Gastón rolled his eyes, “And you were the first to know before anybody else.”

“How did your other friends react?” Simon asked. 

“Well, thats the thing,” Gastón smiled shortly, “They do not know. I mean they know that were together and I had to deal with month of nagging about needing to ask Nina out, not just from Matteo. All they know that I had a girlfriend in Buenos Aires who I left… they don’t know that Nina’s the same person.”

“Seriously?” Simon and Ambar looked astonished, “That kind of secret is almost impossible to keep.”

“They don’t speak any Spanish, so we don’t need to worry about saying something and being overheard,” Nina started talking. Gastón slid his arm on her waist, lacing his left-hand fingers with hers. “We know that we need to tell them at some point, but don’t exactly know how. Yet anyway.”

“It is one step at the time, right now.” Gastón continued, “Right now, we need to tell you all that we’re back together. You we’re the first ones after Luna and Matteo, then there are the rest.”

“Do you have any plan for that?” Luna asked, “Because Ramiro took Jim and Yam to Chile.”

“Thats the problem, not everyone is even here.” Nina breathed.  

“I might have an idea,” Ambar perked up suddenly. 

“All the help is welcomed.”

“Okay good,” Ambar continued, “Unlock your phones and give them to me.”

“Okay…” Gastón and Nina handed their phones to Ambar. 

“So, I trust, when the case is two of you, that you have pictures.” Ambar looked very focused, “Preferably one where you are kissing.”

“Yes, we do.”

“Perfect. Now everyone else, mute the group chat.” Ambar chucked her own phone to Simon. “So, I have your permission to do this?” She looked at Nina and Gastón. 

“Yes.”

“Great,” Ambar smiled and handed them their phones back. “Now everyone will definitely know within the hour. If I have learned anything from Delfi and Jazmin, it is that news travel quickly.”

“Well, now that thats done, tell me everything about Oxford.” Ambar continued, “It must be so beautiful.”

“It truly is,” Nina started saying, “I feel like I have learned more during this year than I have in my whole life. The language was a bit challenging at first, but I am starting to get the hang of it.”

“She is already showing signs of a British accent,” Gastón turned to look at her, “So she is definitely getting the hang of it.”

“Those two won’t speak any Spanish anymore once they return to us for good,” Matteo laughed. 

“Well, we’ll see in four years.” Gastón rolled his eyes again toward Matteo.

“Four years?” Simon questioned.

“Until I graduate,” Nina explained. 

“Are you coming back then too?” Ambar looked at Gastón. “I thought you’d be doing a PhD.”

“Oh no, I am not doing that,” He shook his head, “I did think about it at some point, but no. It would be way too much effort right now and masters in science and technology from Oxford will get me way ahead in life already. I can get that doctorate later if I want, but I don’t wanna spend all my twenties studying. There are other things I want out of life.”

“I am just going to sit here and pretend to know what you are talking about,” Simon laughed, “I was talking to Mom the other day and happen to mention that two of my friends go to Oxford and for a moment she did not believe that I have winded up in the such sophisticated crowd, especially with Ambar at law-school. Rico and Julio, my brothers, flat out didn’t believe me.”

“Well, everyone has their own paths,” Nina nodded, “How are you doing with Pedro and the band?”

“Still figuring it out,” Simon grimaced, “But we’re optimistic. It is really not the same with no Nico.”

“Nico still having fun at New York?” Matteo crossed his arms, “We haven’t heard of him in a while.”

“Thats the thing,” Simon continued furrowing his brow, “I am not sure… He and Ada have not worked out.”

“Maybe he’ll come back then!” Luna piped up. 

“We can hope that.” Simon shook his head smiling. 

“Lot of people are coming back now,” Ambar said looking down, “I mean I came back from pretty much oblivion… and honestly I should thank you.” She turned to look at Gastón. “You don’t need to be this nice to me, last we saw each other I was skating for the Sliders.”

“Actually, it was during the Open,” Gastón responded. Honestly, he didn’t see any reason to be mad at Ambar. He had heard many good things about how she had turned things around. 

“I have been trying to compartmentalize the Red Sharks out of my mind.” Ambar closed her eyes.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. We’re fine. I have known you for a long time, and honestly proud of you.”

“How long have you known each other?” Simon leaned forward, curious.

“Since third grade?” Ambar counted with her fingers, “I am not doing the math right now. I went my whole comprehensive schooling at La Hoja de roble.”

“And I started there when I was nine,” Gastón added, “So yeah, third grade checks out. If I remember correctly both Delfi and Jazmin both started there in the fifth grade.”

“Did you go to that school as well?” Luna asked Matteo.

“Yep, I started there at eighth grade. Probably like a week or two after the semester actually started, because Dad’s moving schedule of course couldn’t possibly let me start school like a normal person.”

“Yep, I saved your skin during the chemistry class.” Gastón laughed. 

“Thats not what happened!” Matteo countered. “I had it under control.”

“It didn’t look like it,” Gastón shook his head, “You were absolutely lost with Mr. Patrena’s whiteboard.”

“He was the worst,” Ambar huffed, “How anybody ever learned anything from his classes, is beyond me.”

Suddenly they heard the noise of mansion’s door opening. 

“Have you seen this—??!!” Delfi walked through the door, Pedro trying to keep up with her pace behind her, her phone in her hand. They both stopped in their tracks as they saw everyone at the living room. 

“Yes, we have,” Ambar spoke first, “Live, actually.”

“It really is true?” Delfi and Pedro turned to look at Gastón and Nina. 

The Team of Jam&Roller

Ramiro: What?

Jim: IIIiiiiiiIIIIIiiiiIII!! 💗💜💚💙💛

Yam: Omg!!💙💙💙💙

Ramiro: Cool

Jazmin: I need an interview now!

Gastón: No.

Nina: No

{}

Hey! Has anyone been missing the Roller Crew? Well, don't worry, we got them back for a chapter because I miss them too. The reason why I made Simbar to be the first to find out about Gastina is because they will have a strong friendship with each other in my canon. This was the start. Little spoiler here, but you'd know this if you've red SI: Simon and Ambar will come to attend Gastón's graduation, and they will eventually become the godparents to Gastón and Nina's second child. Plus, Simbar with Lutteo are the ones who have had to face the odds when it comes to their love, and they are the Holy Trinity of Ships, who need to be a trio. You know how I feel about that if you read MOT. Also Gastón and Ambar, having known each other the longest, is a nod to Aliados, a show which Agustin and Valentina were both in before Soy Luna (They actually played love interests, and yes it was trippy).

And for my Swifty readers, I know that you always find a way back home is technically not a Taylor song, but she did write it so fair game

[antqsdxti]

“Hey, I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve turned your entire living room into a blanket fort and I have no plan in taking it down any time soon.”

Just to give some context, this fic takes place where Matteo and Luna never broke up in s2 episode 70 something. Along with the fact that  Ámbar never went evil and Simon never found out that she burned the rink. Also obviously Gastina is still going strong.

 Luna couldn’t believe it that the Jam and Roller had won the Rodafest. After celebrating all afternoon, Luna had decided to play a nice little prank. “No, no, I am not doing that Luna,” Nina explained nervously. “Why not Nina?” Luna whined. “Gastón only gave me the key to his and Matteo’s room because he’s forgetful that’s it,” Nina whispered. “Also if Juliana finds about this, we’re going to be in serious, I mean SERIOUS trouble,”. Nina said sternly. “But that’s only if she finds out,” Luna said, smirking. “Alright fine let's do this,” Nina grinned. Luna clapped her hands and jumped up and down in joy. Both of them opened the door to their boyfriend’s room and walked in. “Quick, take everything you can and build a pillow fort,” Luna said, grabbing pillows and blankets. Nina froze in confusion, “I thought you said we were scaring them?”. “We can do that too,” Luna laughed. Nina chuckled and got to work building. After 20 minutes of rearranging and building, both of them had finished building one of the biggest pillow forts they had ever seen. “We really do make a good team Watson,” Luna giggled. Nina laughed and said, “I could say the same thing Sherlock,”. Luna and Nina heard noises coming from outside of the room. “Quick, Gastón and Matteo are coming hide,” Nina hissed. Luna and Nina dived under one of the beds and sat there silently trying their best not to laugh. Matteo opened the door laughing at something Gastón had said. Both of them walked in and noticed that something was off. “Hey someone moved my stuff,” Matteo said. “You’re probably imagining stuff,” Gastón snorted. “Then how do you explain this?” Matteo asked, pointing at the pillow fort. “Literally no one else has our key, how did this happen,” Matteo asked. Luna gulped in laughter. Nina was trying so hard not to make a noise. “Well, not really,” Gastón said. “I gave our spare key to Nina in case I lost it,” Gastón confessed. “You did what?” Matteo asked. “If Juliana finds out we’re gonna be in so much trouble,” Matteo said. “Okay now,” Luna whispered. Nina and Luna both jumped out of the bed scaring the boys. “What are you two doing here?” Gastón and Matteo yelled. “We wanted to prank you,” Luna said bursting with laughter. “And I only did this cause Luna made me,”. Matteo and Gastón pulled their girlfriends over and simultaneously said, “Why don’t you just stay the night with me?” Luna looked at Matteo like he was crazy, “You really thought after all of this I wouldn’t?” Luna laughed. Matteo blushed at this. Meanwhile Nina nervously said, “What if Juliana or anyone else finds out? We’ll be in so much trouble with our parents,”. “It’s not gonna happen, trust me,” Gastón reassured her. For the rest of the night, both of the couples sat in the pillow fort and watched horror movies. Matteo and Luna we’re being crazy like always, bickering and having pillow fights. At one point Luna had hit Nina with a pillow, therefore causing her to jump after dozing off on Gastón’s shoulder. Nina then took the pillow and hit Luna back laughing as Matteo then attacked Gastón. The four of them then started to hit each other with pillows as Nina and Luna were crying of laughter. At one point Matteo put on a slow song and stuck his hand out at Luna, “Can I have this dance chica delivery?” “Of course chico fresa,” Luna said, smirking. Both of them started dancing and well, kissing. Gastón took this opportunity to ask, “Can I have this dance Felicity for now?”. “How could I say no to Roller Track?” Nina smiled. Gastón grinned as Nina took his hand. Nina but her hands on Gastón’s shoulder as his hands went to her waist. Both of them swayed to the music, their foreheads and noses touching the whole time. “At least this time I know who I’m dancing with,” Gastón chuckled. “And I don’t want it to be anyone else,” Nina smiled. Both of them leaned in and kissed. When Gastón and Nina kissed, it’s like the world could end and they wouldn’t care. Nothing could separate them. At one point they had lost track of time as all of them had fallen asleep. Nina was sleeping on her side as Gastón was behind her, his arm wrapped around her while Luna had fallen asleep on Matteo’s chest. Luna felt like something was off. A loud pug came from her phone as she groaned and opened the text. It was from Simon, Luna, Juliana’s searching for you and Nina. She knows you are with Matteo and Gastón,''Shit!” Luna screamed. Luna jumped off the bed and shook Nina awake. Nina groaned, “Five more minutes,”. “Nina Juliana’s looking for us, we have to go,” Luna urged. Gastón and Nina both shot up and gave each other a glance. “We have to take all of this down,” Gastón said, pointing to the pillow fort. “Right!” Luna cursed. Matteo was still in a deep slumber not taking in a single word. “He needs a little wake up call,” Gastón said slamming the pillow down on Matteo. “Hey what was that for?” Matteo groaned. “You dingbat, we have to get rid of the evidence that the girls were here,”. “Right,” Matteo said, shooting up. Luna could hear footsteps approaching, it was Juliana. Luna cursed under her breath as she grabbed Nina’s hand and opened the door to the next room. Before they knew it Jim and Yam were staring at them in shock, “Why didn’t you knock on the other door,” Jim said pointing to the main door. “No time to explain,” Nina said breathlessly as they opened the next door. “Simon? Ámbar?” Luna screamed as she saw both of them cuddling. “It’s not what it looks like,” Ámbar started but Luna cut her off, “I don’t care right now. Simon, you and I need to talk later,” Luna said sternly. “Luna we don’t have time for this,” Nina said, dragging her to the next door and opened it. It was their room. Both of them sighed in relief. A knock from the door came as Juliana said, “Girls, open the door right now,”. Nina and Luna stared at each other nervously as Luna opened the door. “Hello Juliana, we’ll be right down for breakfast,”. “Good, I see you two didn’t sneak off anywhere last night. I appreciate the maturity from you two,” Juliana said. Luna froze but Nina played it off, “Yup that’s us,”. Juliana smiled as the two of them waved goodbye to her. Luna and Nina let out a sigh of relief. Both of them got a text message from the team group chat

El Equipo

Jim: So I heard that Nina and Luna snuck out last night to see their bfs, is it true 😏

Matteo: Why do you care, also how do you know?

Yam: We’re not dumb Matteo, we heard all of you through the night

Simon: I don’t know how I should feel about this

Ramiro: typical...typical teenagers

Gastón: shut up Ramiro

Nina: yea guys it’s not really your business

Yam: HA so you are admitting to it

Luna: Well I saw Simon with Ámbar today morning, it's obvious that you guys spent the night together so why can’t we talk about that?

Ámbar: And what are you gonna do about it Lunita?

[purple-fireflies]

try to slip past his defense (without granting innocence)

A/N: Soy Luna Grey’s Anatomy au -- some plot devices will be the same, others may differ. (This is just an excerpt, I'll post the full chapter on ao3 & tumblr when I'm done with it!)

Other notes:

The title is from The Fray’s “How To Save A Life” which is basically the show’s anthem song (that and chasing cars)

Sometimes, certain dialogue may be verbatim from the show (this is only for medical-related plot devices, ie meeting patients, assigning lab reports, establishing exposition, etc) so I’m stating here right now that that specific dialogue belongs to Grey’s Anatomy, and the characters belong to Soy Luna, but everything else belongs to me

Juliana never had the last name given in the show, so for story’s sake, it’s Bahiense.

She’s referred to as “The Nazi” but that’s not meant to offend anyone at all, it was the nickname given in the show, so I’m transferring it here.

In Soy Luna, Ámbar is one year older than Luna, but here she’s the same age as her

In Grey’s Anatomy, there are only 5 people in each group of interns, but for plot’s sake, there are 7 each

In the show, Benicio’s name was never mentioned, so for writing purposes, his last name is going to be Calisto

Luna sits up quickly—bad idea.

She winces at the light coming in through the window and groans at her headache.

And someone stirs next to her.

Exactly how much did she drink?

Enough so she doesn’t remember the name of the smirky boy staring at her, pulling on his boxers.

She is never drinking again.

And he needs to leave.

“You are?” He asks, grinning the grin that probably got Luna into this mess.

“Humiliated on so many levels,” She mutters, “And I’m late, as well. So if you could just, I dunno, leave, that would be perfect,”

“Or we could pick up where we left off?” He asks, with a grin that tells Luna he isn’t used to being rejected.

“No, seriously. I’m late. Which I shouldn’t be on my first day of work, so?”

Take the hint.

“Wait, so you live here?”

Jesus Christ, she’s going to be late.

“Huh? Oh yeah, it was my aunt’s house, but I’m selling it so technically, not for long.” She rushes out.

“I’m sorry,” He replies, actual emotion in his eyes.

“My aunt is still ali—you know, we don’t have to do the thing,”

“We can do whatever you want,”

Really?

“No, the thing. Where you pretend you care or ask me nice questions or whatever. Listen. I’m going to go upstairs and shower, and when I get back, you’re not going to be here, uh…”

What was his name?

He laughs softly, “Matteo.”

“Luna,” She replies, shaking his hand.

“Bye, Luna,” He says winking at her.

She smiles in response and jerks her head towards the door.

“Bye, Matteo,”

And that’s the last she has to see of him.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

“Each of you comes here hopeful. Wanting in on the game. A month ago you were in med school being taught by doctors. Today, you are the doctors. The seven years you spend here as a surgical resident will be the best and worst of your life. You will be pushed to the breaking point. Look around you. Say hello to your competition. Eight of you will switch to an easier specialty. Five of you will crack under the pressure. Two of you will be asked to leave. This is your starting line. This is your arena. How well you play? That's up to you,” The chief, Tamara Rios, says as Luna stumbles into the room, causing everyone to stare at her.

Great job, Valente.

Luna walks around the room. She sees Ámbar, avoiding her gaze as if it was poisonous. She sees another girl, a brunette, looking around the room with wide eyes. She sees Simón, looking back at her, and resists waving at him as a kindergartner would. She walks around the OR a little more and sees two girls so close they might as well be stuck together, one a blonde and the other a redhead. She bumps into another boy, who just huffs softly and brushes her off.

Rude.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

The resident takes 3 more interns, leaving Luna with the brunette she saw at the orientation.

“Only 6 women out of 20,” She says, sighing, as if mad at the statistic itself.

“And I think one of them’s a model. As if that would’ve helped with the whole respect thing,” The redhead interjects.

Luna and Ámbar share a look.

Luna turns to the brunette.

“You’re Nina, right?” She says, smiling.

Nina nods, “Which resident did you get assigned to? I got Bahiense.”

“The Nazi? Me too,” Luna replies.

The guy who bumped into her says, “You got the Nazi? So did I. At least we’ll be tortured together,” He says, trying to lean into Luna’s space.

Luna and Nina exchange a quick look saying, God, can you believe him?

A doctor comes up and calls out “Smith, Valente, Ponce, Simonetti, Medina, Sánchez, Álvarez,”

Ámbar walks up to the guy and asks, “Bahiense?”

He points down the hall.

The seven look down to see who he’s pointing at. It’s a woman slightly shorter than them, using a cane to stand up, ordering some other resident around.

The guy who bumped into her says, “I thought the Nazi would be a guy,”

Sexist much?

“I thought the Nazi would be...you know, the Nazi,” Luna mutters.

“Guys seriously? Maybe it’s just professional jealousy. You know, maybe she’s just brilliant and they’re so jealous so they call her the Nazi. Maybe she’s nice.” The redhead says, and Luna sees her nametag saying Jimena Medina.

The blonde next to her, Yamila Sánchez, Luna supposes, nods.

Which means the only one left that she doesn’t know would be...Luna cranes her neck to see his nametag.

Ramiro Ponce. Who is currently staring wistfully at Yamila.

Please.

“Let me guess, you still have hope left in your heart,” Ámbar says to Jimena, rolling her eyes as if it’s what she was born to do.

Jimena shoots Ámbar a dirty look (wow, Luna wishes her luck with that can of worms) and proceeds to try to shake Dr. Bahiense’s hand when she walks over.

Dr. Bahiense looks at her hand as if it’s infectious.

Jimena, undeterred, continues to say, “Right, well. I’m Jimena Medina, but you can call me Jim if it’s easier,”

Yamila, who seemed to jump out of thin air, says, “And you can call me Yam,”

Bahiense looks so unimpressed Luna thinks that if contempt alone was enough to murder someone, Bahiense would be a serial killer.

Luna shares a quick look with Simón, who gives her a reassuring nod.

Bahiense looks them all up and down, evidently annoyed with being stuck with their group (ouch).

"I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number one, don't bother sucking up, I already hate you, that's not gonna change,” She starts, then moves to a bench, filled with different objects, “Trauma protocol, phone lists, pagers. Nurses will page you, you answer every page at a run. A run, that's rule number two. Your first shift starts now and lasts forty-eight hours,”

Everyone rushes to grab their pagers, studying them before Bahiense starts talking again.

“You’re interns, grunts, nobodies, bottom of the surgical food chain, you run labs, write orders, work every second night till you drop, and don't complain!”

Bahiense opens what Luna supposes is an on-call room, “On-call rooms. Attendings hog them, sleep when you can, where you can, which brings me to rule number three, if I'm sleeping, don't wake me, unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number four, the dying patient better not be dead when I get there, not only would you have killed someone, you would have also woken me for no good reason, we clear?”

Luna rushes to nod, writing furiously on her notepad, and then goes, oh.

She raises her hand.

Dr. Bahiense looks extremely pissed at Luna for having the audacity to have a question.

“Yes?”

“You said five rules. Those were only four.” Luna says, trying not to wilt against Dr. Bahiense’s gaze.

“Rule number five. When I move, you move,” She says after her pager beeps.

That’s some TV show shit right there.

They break into a run and watch as Dr. Bahiense runs down a couple of doctors.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

The helicopter—yes, a helicopter—lands, and a doctor pulls out a teenager on a stretcher.

This is way too much for Luna on her first day.

“What do we got?” Bahiense asks, and Luna hears Nina correct the grammar under her breath.

As the paramedic puts the girl on the stretcher (while she’s seizing) he says, “Katie Bryce, fifteen-year-old female, new-onset seizures, intermittent for the past week, ID lost en route, started grand mal seizing as we descended,”

Bahiense stops, leaning on her cane for a second, and then it’s all business.

“All right. Yam, put her on the side, 10 milligrams diazepam,” Bahiense groans when Yam does it incorrectly, “No, no, the white lead is on the right, righty whitey, smoke over fire, a large-bore I.V. don't let the blood haemolyse, let's go!”

Yam injects the diazepam and Katie stops seizing.

Luna releases the breath that she wasn’t aware she was holding.

Another doctor, in dark blue scrubs, another doctor comes up in stark contrast to what she and the other interns are wearing. Luna catches his name very quickly. Gastón Perida.

Nina sucks in a breath as he walks past them, Luna realizes with a start.

“So I heard we got a wet fish on dry land?” Dr. Perida says, and Luna catches how Nina stares at him with intent.

Dr. Bahiense, her sudden brashness gone, replaced with respect as she says, “Absolutely Dr. Perida,”

Dr. Perida nods, his eyes brushing over the intern group, stopping at Nina, and he then continues.

“All right, Dr. Bahiense, I’m gonna shotgun her,”

“That means every test in the book, CT, CBC, chem. seven, a tox screen, Nina and Ámbar, you're on labs, Ramiro and Yam, patient workups, Luna, get Katie for a CT, she's your responsibility now,”

Wonderful. Her first day and she gets the really hard patient.

“What about me and Simón?” Jim asks.

Bahiense looks so tired when she stares at Jim, “Right, you two, uh. You get to do rectal exams. Okay?”

Jim and Simón have faces that say no, not okay.

Luna makes a face gloating at Simón and he just glares at her in return.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Ámbar peeks into the OR where Dr. Bahiense is. Bahiense comes out and looks at her expectantly.

“Um, Katie Bryce's labs came out clear, there's nothing in the results that explain her seizures,” She says, hoping to catch Dr. Bahiense to ask her what she really wants to ask her.

“And…?”

“ I heard every year the attending on-call picks the best intern and, and lets them perform a procedure, during the first shift?” Ámbar asks, glaring back at Dr. Bahiense when she tries to stare her down.

Ámbar Smith does not get stared down.

“Go away. Now.” Dr. Bahiense says, and Ámbar groans internally.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Yam sighs at yet another ill-tried joke Ramiro attempts.

Flirty in med school and flirty now.

Why should she even bother?

“We have one more patient to work up,” She mumbles and he nods, walking slower to keep up with her pace.

She places her stethoscope and hears for a heartbeat. “Everything seems to be in order,”

“So he’ll be fine?” The woman next to him—presumably his wife—asks.

“If you don’t count that my bacon days are over, sure,” The patient replies.

Yam shares a smirk with Ramiro.

“You'll have surgery tomorrow with Dr. Perida, I hear he's good, and after that, you can have all of the bacon-flavored soy product you can eat,” Ramiro interjects, speaking easily with the patients.

“Please, kill me now,” the patient jokes.

“Wish I could, but I took the Hippocratic Oath for a reason,” Yam replies absently, going over and signing his charts.

She blushes at the weird looks she gets and rolls her eyes at Ramiro’s never-ending smirk.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Katie. Won’t. Stop. Talking. Which isn’t helping Luna find her way through these halls.

Did she just miss the last turn?

“You’re lost,” the kid says, grumbling.

What do you think I’m trying to fix right now? Luna thinks to herself and just about stops herself from saying.

“I’m not lost.” Luna insists, then remembers she’s a doctor, “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m missing my pageant. How do you think I feel?”

“Right. You’re missing your pageant.”

This poor girl is in the hospital with seizures and the only thing that she can think about is her pageant.

Luna feels sorry for her.

“The Spokane Teen Miss? I was in the top ten after the first two rounds. This is my year. I could've won,”

Luna absently hums and realizes that they’re going the wrong way. Again.

She turns around and pushes Katie back the same way.

“You are so lost. What are you, new?”

Luna chokes back a laugh. Yeah, something like that.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Yam watches Ramiro try to give their patient a central line. It’s not working.

And it’s visibly hurting the patient.

She groans and pushes past him, about to put the line in when Dr. Perida waltzes into their room and raises his eyebrows.

“Out.” He says, his nice demeanor replaced with annoyance.

Do all of the residents and attendings just hate interns on principle?

Yam glares at Ramiro and pulls him out, watching from the window as Perida puts the line in perfectly.

“Bet you used to mess up a lot when you started out,” Ramiro tries to joke with Perida.

Yam just winces and nods at Dr. Perida as she leaves.

Ramiro at least has the decency to look sheepish.

This is going to be a long shift.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Luna sits, taking Katie’s patient history and generally listening to her incessant babbling.

“I twisted my ankle. I do rhythmic gymnastics, which is like, really cool. Nobody else does it. And I tripped over my ribbon, and I didn't get stuck with someone this clueless. And that was like, a nurse,” Katie says.

Luna bites back a retort.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Simón groans at the plate of food in front of him. The number of rectal exams he and Jim had to do was enough to take the appetite away from anyone.

“This shift is 80 hours long, you have to eat, Simón,” Ámbar mutters, her gaze hardening after leaving Simón’s eyes.

“I can’t.”

“Eat.” Ámbar insists, pushing Simón’s plate towards him.

“You try eating after performing 17 rectal exams. The Nazi hates me. I want to puke.” Simón says, his face contorting.

“Just don’t puke near me,” Ámbar mutters.

“The Nazi’s just a resident. Attendings hate me,” Ramiro replies.

“Did you know Luna is inbred?” Nina asks, and all heads whip to her immediately.

Partly because no one expected the shy ingenue to say anything.

And partly because Luna being inbred is very surprising.

Simón hurries to say “It’s not uncommon to be the kid of a doctor,”

“I mean royally inbred. Her mother is Lili Benson.”

“Shut up. The Lili Benson?” Jim asks.

Nina nods.

“Who’s Lili Benson?” Ramiro asks.

“The Benson method? Where’d you go to med school, Antarctica?” Yam says incredulously.

No one notices how Simón and Ámbar tense up as Yam continues talking. “She was one of the biggest women surgeons. She practically invented th—”

“She won the Harper Avery. Twice.” Jim says, rolling her eyes at Ramiro.

“So I didn’t know one thing.”

“I would kill to have Lili Benson as my mother. Scratch that, I’d kill to be Lili Benson.” Nina says, her eyes alight.

“Katie Bryce is a pain in the ass. I swear if it wouldn’t get me fired, I’d strangle her with my bare hands.” Luna says, walking over to their table, sitting next to Nina.

She seems to miss the wistful glance Simón throws her way.

She does seem to notice the way everyone’s staring at her.

“What?”

Nina opens her mouth to say something but stops immediately when Dr. Perida walks over.

“Good afternoon interns. It's posted, but I thought I'd share the good news personally. As you know, the honor of performing the first surgery is reserved for the intern that shows the most promise. As I'm running the OR today, I get to make that choice,” Dr. Perida says, and Luna feels a rush of hope.

Or. Felt. Seeing as Dr. Perida is clapping Ramiro on his back (it was kind of worth it to see him choke a little on his salad) and saying, “Ramiro Ponce. You’ll be scrubbing in on an appendectomy this afternoon. Congrats.”

Luna deflates.

She wanted that surgery.

She wanted it really badly.

“Me?” Ramiro asks, not quite believing it. Or maybe he’s just wilting under Yam’s intense glare.

“Enjoy.” Dr. Perida says, nodding to everyone.

Luna doesn’t fail to notice that he’s staring at Nina while he says that.

Nina doesn’t fail to notice either, if the blush on her cheeks has anything to say about it.

Ramiro looks like he’s still in shock.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

“I’ve seen his file. Ramiro Ponce barely even made the cut to get into the program. He’s not your guy.” Juliana says to Gastón, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh, he’s my guy alright,” Gastón responds, absently checking the labs.

Juliana sighs, “Every year you pick your guy, and every year your guy suffers most.”

Gastón smiles. Everyone who knows him knows his easy nature, his inclination to being on the side of less serious.

Unless of course, it has to do with work.

“Terrorize one, and the rest fall in line, Bahiense.”

“I get it. I respect it. But Ramiro? Ponce is a puppy. A cute little puppy that is waiting to be killed. He can’t take the pressure. Think about it, Perida.” Juliana says, walking away.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Luna watches as Katie’s parents stumble into Katie’s room.

The look of pure worry and fear on their faces makes Luna warm to them immediately.

A couple of hours ago, their kid was supposed to go on stage and wear a sash and be a kid.

Now they’re scared that their kid could be dying.

“Katie?” The mom asks, trying to hold her hand.

Luna falters, not wanting to break their little window.

“They gave her a sedative for the CT scan, so she’s just a tad groggy,” Luna says, standing up.

“Will she be okay?”

“Does she need surgery?” The parents ask at the same time.

Their urging faces make Luna wish she had an answer.

“Uh. You know, I’m not her doctor, I am a doctor, just not hers. Anyway, I’m not Katie’s doctor. I’ll go find him.” Luna rambles.

Luna finds Bahiense, “Katie’s parents have questions. Should I get Dr. Perida to answer them?”

“What? No. Perida’s off the case. The case is the new neuro attending’s case, Dr. Balsano. He’s over there.” Bahiense says, pointing to…

Oh god.

Please.

Not today.

This is not happening.

Matteo turns and stops dead in his tracks, his eyes clicking in recognition.

This is not happening.

Luna is not dealing with this.

She turns away from his gaze and walks away. What is she going to do?

She walks towards the stairwell and gets grabbed in.

She stumbles and Matteo catches her, running a hand through his hair, which Luna grudgingly admits looks not bad.

No. Luna. Stop it. Luna. No.

“Dr. Balsano. Did you need anything?” Luna asks, trying to not look at flustered as she is.

Matteo looks positively ecstatic at this turn of events. “Dr. Balsano? This morning it was Matteo. Now it’s Dr. Balsano.”

Luna dearly wants to slap that smirk off of his face.

“Dr. Balsano, we should pretend this never happened,”

“What never happened? You sleeping with me last night or kicking me out this morning because I don’t know about you, but both are memories I’d dearly love to keep.”

This guy really can’t take a hint.

“No. No. No. This is not happening. There are no memories of anything. I’m not the girl in the bar and you’re not the guy in the bar. I am your intern, Dr. Balsano.”

“I see how it is. You took advantage of me last night and now you want to forget about it.” He says, smirking incessantly.

“I most certainly did not,”

“I was drunk and vulnerable. Not to mention, insanely good-looking,”

“You’re not that good-looking,” Luna says, while her traitorous brain says Liar over and over.

“Sure I’m not. But last night, I was wearing my red shirt and I was extremely good-looking and you took advantage,”

He’s not entirely wrong about the red shirt.

“I didn—”

“Want to take advantage again? Say, Friday night?”

He’s smiling again, only this time it’s a smile, not a smirk.

Maybe Luna wouldn’t have said no if he wasn’t an attending.

“No. You’re an attending. I’m your intern. And I would seriously appreciate it if you stopped looking at me like that,” Luna says, glaring at him. It doesn’t seem to deter him.

“Like what?” He asks innocently as if he has no idea what he’s doing right now.

“Like you’ve slept with me,”

Matteo smirks.

“Dr. Balsano. Have you ever considered the fact that this is inappropriate?” Luna breathes.

He doesn’t say anything.

Luna sighs and leaves, the door slamming behind her.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

“Open. Identify. Irrigate. Close.” Jim instructs, and Yam sighs.

“Jim, I think he’d know,”

“He looks like he’s going to puke,” Jim shoots back.

Yam looks at Ramiro and says, “We have to go to the gallery now. Don’t screw it up.”

They walk up and take a seat behind Luna and Nina.

The intern above them says, “He’s going to faint. He’s a fainter.”

Yam fights back a if you only knew.

“Nah, I’m guessing code brown. Right in his pants,” another intern snickers.

Yam and Jim share a look.

Sure, she’s not a huge fan of Ramiro but he helped her a lot in med school. He helped Jim a lot in med school.

This is just savage.

“He’s going to sweat himself unsterile,”

“10 bucks he’s messing up the McBird,” someone says.

Oh god, they’re betting on Ramiro.

“20 says he cries,” Ámbar says, and sends an apologetic look at Luna.

“I’ll put 20 on him melting down completely,”

“50 says he pulls the whole thing off.” Yam hears herself say.

Luna grins at her, “That’s one of us down there. The first one of us. Where the hell is your loyalty?”

Yam breathes out.

The entire gallery, while it was buzzing before, is now silent.

“75 he can’t even ID the appendix,” Ámbar says again.

This time it’s Simón shooting her the look.

“I’ll take that action,” someone says.

Eric, Yam realizes.

The idiot from their bio class.

Nina elbows Luna when Dr. Perida says, “Okay, Ponce, let’s see what you can do,”

Jim breathes in quickly and Yam also holds her breath.

Do it right do it right please do it right.

“Here it comes,” Simón says.

“Scalpel,” Ramiro says and the nurse hands it to him, echoing the word.

Ramiro takes it and everyone cheers.

Perida motions for them to shut up as Nina says, “God, he’s quite a bit of trouble,”

Ramiro gets ready to cut as Perida instructs, “More pressure.”

Ramiro manages to do it without any mishaps and then proceeds to say, “Pickups.”

The scrub nurse echoes the command and hands him the instrument.

They go on for a little bit, and Yam thinks he might actually pull it off.

Until it goes downhill after Ramiro takes out the appendix.

Perida mutters an angry remark as all the interns in the gallery call him Double O’7.

Jim shares a worried look with Yam and asks Luna, “What does 007 mean?”

Luna sends them an apologetic look.

“License to Kill.”

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

The cool air rushes into the basement that Bahiense’s interns have settled into.

The majority of them pile onto the gurney as Nina goes to the vending machine looking for some chocolate.

Luna winces at the whine that Ramiro makes as he walks into their “hideout”.

“They’re calling me 007 aren’t they?”

Luna groans and shoves Simón’s head off of Ámbar’s lap so she can fall asleep in it.

She’s too tired to deal with any human interaction that requires her to, you know, have any sort of emotional security.

“No one’s calling you 007,” Jim and Yam lie (but they do it in unison so like, props).

Ramiro shoots Yam an annoyed look, “I was on an elevator and Eric whispered 007,”

Ámbar pushes Luna’s head off of her lap and glares at Ramiro, “How many times do we have to go through with this? 5, 10, 15? Please tell me soon or I’m going to rim your head off.”

Ramiro sits on the gurney and groans “Eric whispered 007 in the elevator and everyone laughed,”

Luna picks her head up from where she’s trying (unsuccessfully) to fall asleep and actually feels sorry for the guy for a second but the aching limbs and pounding migraine make it kind of hard to console the poor guy.

“They weren’t laughing at you,” Jim says.

“You sure?”

“Would we lie to you?” Jim asks.

“Yes,” Ramiro, Ámbar, Simon and Luna say.

“007 is a state of mind,” Nina yells from the vending machine and throws a packet of chips at Luna as she walks back.

“Says the girl who finished first at freaking Stanford,” Simón yells at her.

Nina just rolls her eyes in response.

Just as Luna finally feels the call of sleep, her pager beeps.

She just wanted 5 minutes.

“It’s 911. Damn. I gotta go,” and Luna takes off at a sprint.

“I should’ve gone into geriatrics. No one cares if you kill an old person.” Ramiro continues after Luna leaves.

“Yes. Yes, they do care if you kill an old person. Plus. Surgery is hot. Geriatrics is… Well, it’s for freaks who live in the basement with their mom,” Simón replies.

“I have got to move out of my mom’s,” Ramiro mutters.

Nina and Ámbar share a grin.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Luna’s out of breath by the time she gets to Katie’s room.

She really has to go to the gym more.

“Finally,” Katie mutters.

Luna looks around, seeing if anything’s wrong.

Oh god, please tell me she has a good reason for this. She has a good reason. Maybe. Hopefully.

“Are you alright?” The nurse paged me 911.”

“Ha, it took me forever to get her to even pick up the phone. I had to go full Hulk.”

“Wait. So there’s nothing wrong? Nothing medically wrong?”

“I’m bored.” Katie shrugs.

Luna likes to think she’s a nice person. A little absentminded at times, but a nice person nonetheless.

Katie, however, is really testing the whole “do no harm” thing.

“I am not your babysitter. I am not your cruise director. You can’t just page me for anything.”

“Don’t be so overdramatic. My pageant is supposed to be on cable, but it’s like this hospital lives in the ’90s. I can’t find anything. If someone who’s not me gets the crown, I should at least get to see it.”

Luna takes a deep breath. She’s a teenager. You were also stupid as a teenager.

“Okay. This is a hospital. There are sick people here. Go to sleep and stop wasting my time.”

“I can’t sleep, my head’s all full.”

“Those are called thoughts. Run with them.” Luna says in a fit of anger.

She’s been working for almost 24 hours and she just wanted 2 minutes of rest.

But maybe she shouldn’t have snapped at a patient.

But that’s a lesson for another day.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

Luna and Nina are in the ER when they hear a loud voice.

“4B has post-op pneumonia. Let’s get her started on antibiotics, okay?” An intern says to a nurse.

Someone didn’t tell the newbie not to piss off the nurses.

“Are you sure it’s the right diagnosis?”

“Oh gee, I don’t know. I’m only an intern. But here’s an idea. You go and spend 4 years in med school and then talk to me. She’s got shortness of breath and fever. It’s post-op pneumonia. Start antibiotics.” He sneers.

Luna rolls her eyes.

The same guy walks over to her and Nina, “God, I hate nurses. I’m Benicio. I’m with Jeremy. You guys are with the Nazi, right?”

“You know it doesn’t have to be pneumonia, right? It could be splinting. Or she could have aPE.”

He sneers again (does it ever leave his face?), “As I said, I hate nurses.” and walks away.

“Well, he’s an absolute idiot,” Nina says, shooting daggers towards Benicios across the room.

Luna’s about to respond, but her pager beeps again.

“Dammit, Katie.”

This time she walks.

𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅮

[putonmyfavoriteshow]

putonmyfavoriteshow's master fic writing post on-going ~ Violetta the heart of pretending (future franletta/leonetta reverse fake-dating au dramedy; my passion project) Soy Luna ...and they were roommates (post show jazmilia/delfma; self-indulgent rom-com chaos for side-characters who deserved more) BIA the celestial goat & her cosmic fish (platonic-for-now chiarleste's great astrology debate; a dynamic exploration between my favorite kind of bickering sidekicks) finished multi-chaps ~ Violetta a perfectly perfect gift (luty ft. franletta - my first official dcla multi-chap!) luty month (daily prompts from @iristhedeadflower) franletta month (daily prompts from @weirdthoughtsandideas) finished one-shots/two-shots ~ Violetta no boys, no problems (right?) (franletta s2 alternate ending to italy arc) an unexpected evening (jadangie fix-it fic - dcla gift exchange 2022 + bonus dcla pride month chap) midnights (a ludmila pov luty fic + bonus luty month chap) playing murder (and all that jazz) (violetta gang halloween fic - canon pairings) go figure (a naty pov luty fic) the mistletoe experiment (a natila story based on a dcla advent calendar prompt from @countessofravenclaw) welcome to new york (christmas version) (violetta gang xmas fic - canon pairings) it is what it is (luty - angsty ficlet) the deadfast club (violetta gang horror two-shot - luty focus ft leonetta/camcesca)

Soy Luna elevator goes up, elevator come down (simbar s3 missing scene - tumblr soy luna fic week 2021) unlock my heart (when lutteo got locked in the dressing room, except it's jazmilia aka the best non-canon ship ever made by a random wheel) there's a great big beautiful tomorrow (lutteo/gastina tomorrowland adventure - dcla gift exchange 2023) BIA losin' sleep (thiana s2 missing scene inspired by @assim-eu-sou) dream date (romantic chiarleste debut to ao3) non dcla ~ my sorta friend's sister's funeral (victorious - jori - angst/fluff one-shot) even crows have wings (six of crows - kanej - sl/roller skating au one-shot) page 55 (the villains of valley view - hartmy - missing scene drabble) if we were a horror movie (the villains of valley view - hartmy - hartmy watch jennifer's body)

other fan content: my tumblr edits tag my tumblr gifs tag

[mylutteoheart]

Playing Cupid (chapter 9)

And finally a new unedited chapter. I'm sorry it took so long. The edited version of this one will be posted on ao3 tomorrow. I'm determined to finally finish this so expect updates every 2 weeks from now on. I don't know how many chapters are left but things are finally happening with gastina in this chapter. Also, at the end I was inspired by a certain creddie scene in the icarly revival so if you've seen the last episode of the show, you might recognize it. Luna and Matteo have been building their lives together slowly. Fresh out of college, they’re planning their future. But by planning this, they have an underlying plan no one knows of. Bringing their best friends together after 4 years of not being happy without the other. How well will their plan of playing Cupid work?

Prologue | chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | find my other fics here

Chapter 9: A Bump in the Road

This was a bad idea, Nina knew it but she had to go through with it. She promised Luna to spend the day finishing up the details for the wedding. Gastón would help and that's the part that made her the most nervous.

They decided to meet at the Jam & Roller. Being in a public place might make this meeting less nerve-wracking. Plus, Luna was closeby, training for the next skating competition with the team. If they needed help with anything, she could be here soon.

"Hey, sorry, I'm late. I was discussing some details with Matteo about the duet we're doing," Gastón said in a way of greeting.

"I heard about that, Luna said Matteo was very excited about this," Nina answered, "He's really happy you're back."

"Me too, I have to admit that I missed Buenos Aires. England isn't quite the same," Gastón said quietly.

Nina smiled and answered: "I imagine so."

Gastón felt the awkwardness and changed the subject even though he wanted to say so much more.

"So what do we have to do today?" he asked.

"Well, Luna and Matteo have everything booked and sorted out. We just need to check that the things they ordered will be delivered on time," she said as she looked through all the papers with all the orders on them, "We have to make some phone calls then."

Gastón nodded in answer and said: "Sounds easy enough. What's their wedding date again? I want to make sure I get it right."

"It's exactly 4 weeks from now," Nina looked down at the date.

"Then we better hope everything is okay because arranging anything on such short notice would be impossible."

"Let's get started then."

That's what they did, for the next few hours, they make phone call after phone call. Nina was relieved to know that everything was going smoothly so far. With something else to focus on, there wasn't any awkwardness between them. But sooner or later, they'll have to have a serious talk.

***

"Are you sure this is true?," Gastón asked the lady on the phone.

"I'm afraid so, the venue was destroyed by a heavy storm. We can't repair it in time," the owner of the venue answered patiently.

"Is there any alternative?" he asked a little panicked and turned around to look at Nina to show how he felt.

"If there is, I'm afraid you need to find it yourself. We have to put all our resources in the repair of the venue."

"Alright, we'll have to find something then, thank you," he answered, disappointed.

"What's wrong?" Nina asked, clearly in panic.

"We have to find a new venue," he sighed. Feeling hopeless this problem will be solved.

***

"Finding a new venue on such short notice is going to be impossible. We're never going to find the perfect place again. How on earth will we pull this off when we don't even have time to breathe until the wedding?" Luna said exasperated, pacing back and forth in the locker room.

Nina and Gastón stood near the counter, looking worriedly at their friend while Matteo is rubbing his neck. He clearly didn't like seeing his fiancée in distress.

He gently took her hand when she waved with them and pulled her in for a hug.

"I know this wedding is stressfull, chica delivery. It doesn't help the skating competition is close but just take a breath. We can solve this, I just need you to calm down," Matteo said while rubbing her back in soothing circles.

Her shoulder fell at his words and she started to relax.

"Okay, we can do this. No worries, it's going to be fine," Luna said to no one in particular.

"Listen, you don't have to worry, okay? Gastón and I will take care of this. We'll find the perfect venue for you. We're your best friends, we know you two well enough to know where you'd like to get married. Leave it up to us to find a better location," Nina interrupted. Wanting to help her friends as much as possible.

"We will do this?" Gastón said surprised.

"Yes, we will. We can definitely do this," she answered confidently.

Luna leaves Matteo's arms to give Nina a bone crushing hug and said: "Thank you so much, Nina. That means the world to us."

When they pull apart, Matteo lays a hand around her waist and said: "Yes, thank you. I know we made the right choice when we chose you to be in the wedding."

"I don't want you to regret it," Nina just said with a shy smile.

Gastón didn't answer, he just stood there frozen. Looking for a venue for a wedding could imply so much. It could bring his feelings to the surface due to all the romance that comes with wedding shopping. This day isn't going to be as easy as he thought.

"We should get started as soon as possible, I'll go get my computer to check out some locations," Nina said, "Gastón, are you coming?" 

She looked up at him and he just nodded. She was waiting for him to come.

"Do you mind if I talk to Gastón first?" Matteo interrupted and put a hand on his best friend's shoulder.

"Sure, I'll get started without you then," Nina answered and left the room.

"I should meet up with the team to discuss some things," Luna excused herself and left the room as well.

"Are you sure you're okay with doing this? You'll be spending a lot of time with Nina this way," Matteo asked.

"I am. Of course I'm nervous about this, I know my feelings will surface but that just might be the push I need to really talk to Nina," Gastón said, confident.

"If you're sure, I trust you know what you're doing," Matteo said with a smile, "I should get back to Luna, make sure she's okay."

***

"Okay, so we have a few location sightings lined up for today. It wasn't easy to find many locations available that day but I think we managed just fine," Nina said, looking down at the list of venues they made together.

"It's mostly because of you. We wouldn't have found so many without you," Gastón smiled at her.

Nina looked down, trying to hide her blush.

"We should get started right away," it was all she said.

So they did, they planned to visit 5 locations today and they couldn't find a good one until they arrived to the last one. It was next to the Japanese garden that Luna and Matteo knew all too well.

"This was one became available at the last minute," Gastón said while looking around.

They had a great view of the stream with the red bridge over it.

Nina looked around in awe and said: "This looks beautiful."

"Yeah, it's magical," he said while looking at Nina.

"I can already see it. Right here," she said as she stepped near the edge of the grass the place where the best view of the stream is, "Matteo and Luna should say 'I do' right here. It's a perfect place. I can already see it. It would complete the circle."

"Yeah, it couldn't be more perfect," he smiled at her enthusiasm.

"Imagine this...," she said and took his hand so he could stand right in front of her.

He was surprised by her sudden touch and felt the warmth radiating of off her. He reluctantly let go and put both his hands in his pockets to avoid giving in to his want to touch her again.

"The bride and groom standing here, face to face. Both radiating with happiness. It would be so romantic. They'll start their life together right here. Matteo saying I never expected to fall for you, you came out of nowhere. Then Luna would say she can't wait to spend the rest of her life with him," she said with a faraway look on her face.

Gastón could do nothing but stare at her. While saying all of this, he was imagining them standing here. Her walking down the aisle.

When Nina opened her eyes, she saw him staring right at her and she said breathless: "Isn't that romantic?"

"It truly is," he said quietly and looked down at her lips. 

She noticed where his eyes landed and started leaning in.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

I curiously went to fanfiction.net to see what dcla fics they have there, but I have absolutely no idea how to navigate that site.

So, the only Violetta fics I found were either holiday one shots or Tomletta fics, and due to me not knowing how to navigate, when I wrote "Soy Luna" I just found non-related stuff with a character named Luna. For some reason a lot of Thundermans fics. I did find a Lutteo collection tho.