Dani

I thought I’d post my fic here too. It’s also on AO3 if you’d prefer to read it there. It’s kind of cringy, I guess, but it’s just really practice for me to dust off my writing skills.

Hear me out, what if they met at a party when Scott was a rookie. He hadn’t even admitted to himself that he was gay, although he knew. He still dated girls to try and pretend to be straight.

He met Veronica because she bumped into him. She laughed, apologizing profusely. He just laughs it off.

I saw someone on TikTok say that Scott would be friends with Taylor Swift, so Veronica is kind of based on her I guess. Loosely, anyway. She’s a singer/songwriter.

His friends suggest he ask her out. And, wanting to be “normal,” he does. She figures out pretty quick that he’s gay. They have a long conversation like Rose and Shane’s.

They agree to be friends, best friends.

When he meets Kip, she’s the first to know. She’s the one who he tells everything to. She’s his voice of reason, so to speak.

She knows how scared he is to tell the world the truth about him. It’s a heavy truth to tell.

On some days, he feels like she’s the only one in his corner.

She encourages his relationship with Kip, tells him to be honest with himself. He doesn’t have to be honest with anyone else, but at the end of the day, he’s the one who has to live his choices.

That’s when he decides to bring Kip on the ice. Veronica was in the studio, but she saw it on tv. She called him after to freak out.

Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Happy holidays if you don’t. Hope you’re all doing well. ❤️

1. Nick says ‘I love you first.’

He had refused to even say the word ‘love’ for the longest time, and it made Layla insecure. So he called his sister who called him an idiot. Then one day, he just blurted it out, and Layla says it back.

2. Layla loves little snacks.

After being a ballerina for so long, and being on a fixed diet for most of her life, she just loves to snack on things now that she’s not on said diet. Nick often keeps mini packs of cookies in his pockets for her.

3. Layla loves Christmas, Nick is neutral on it.

Christmas is Layla’s favorite time of year, her love language is gift giving. Nick isn’t such a big fan of the season, he finds it a little annoying. But he puts up with it for her. He even wears a Santa hat for a photo, but he makes her promise not to show anyone.

4. Nick is the jealous type.

(Okay, this one isn’t really a headcanon, it’s basically canon since it’s in line with his personality, but I wanted to put it here anyway.) Whenever a guy talks to Layla, or stares at her too long, Nick just wants to fight. Thankfully, Layla is more levelheaded and will talk him down.

5. Nick proposes on accident.

Much like when he said ‘I love you,’ he hadn’t actually meant to propose. They had been talking about it for a while, mostly just to get out of the barracks, but they were seriously entertaining the topic as well. So, one day, he stole a ring pop for her, and she made a joke about him proposing with it. It went a little something like this:

“Are you proposing, Solvacek?”

“Maybe I am.”

6. And with that last one in mind, they got married in a pretty lowkey way.

They didn’t have a lot of money, being low ranking marines, so they couldn’t have a big wedding. But they wouldn’t have wanted one anyway, they’re both pretty simple people. They just invited their friends to the courthouse, had an afternoon ceremony, and then spent their money on a big party afterwards. Their honeymoon was a weekend stay at a nice hotel in the city that their friends paid for. They spent most of it in bed.

7. When they finally do get to move into their new house, it’s hectic. They argue the whole time.

Move in day is chaos for anyone, but add Nicholas Slovacek into the mix, and things get loud. It never gets violent, he’d never allow himself to be violent against her. However, they do yell at each other after the fourth time of dropping boxes on each other’s feet. They apologize by eating ice cream on the floor because they haven’t brought in the sofa yet. They don’t even have bowls for the ice cream, they’re just eat it out of the container.

8. If they have kids, Nick is a nervous wreck the whole time.

He doesn’t want to be like his dad, who wasn’t really around. Most of his memories of his dad include fists. Then there’s the whole thing with his stepdad, who’s the whole reason Nick almost went to prison. So, yeah, needless to say, he’s terrified he’ll be like this father. Layla has to spend countless nights shushing away his fears.

9. But when the kids finally come, Nick is the best father ever

He’s a very attentive father, the kind who you’d be surprised to find out was a good dad. He knows each of their likes and dislikes, he plays with them, and he only minimally complains when he has to change a diaper. And when the kids are school age, all the other moms on base want a piece of him. Unfortunately for them, he’s loyal to Layla.

10. Nick gets their names tattooed on him.

Yes, he’s the kind of husband/father to get his family’s name tattooed on his body. And he proudly shows off the tattoos whenever anyone asks. He knows he isn’t exactly the stereotypical father, but he’s proud of his kids, and he’s proud to be married to Layla, so he brag about them all the time.

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One day, Nick is walking from the gym back to the barracks. He spots Layla by the vending machine.

“Ah, if it isn’t the little ballerina.” He says, grinning at her. She only laughs.

“And if it isn’t the big bad criminal.”

“Low blow.”

She just laughs again. They go off together, sitting under a tree. She looks really pretty in this light, like an angel or some cheesy shit like that.

Listen, he’s no poet, but he knows a pretty lady when he sees one. It’s just the way the sun hits her hair, the way her eyes sparkle when she laughs. He can’t get enough of her.

He wonders what it would be like to kiss her. Are her lips soft? They look like it. Is her body soft, or hard? Is she more muscle or curves? He wants to find out the answers for himself. So, maybe he does something stupid, like reach out to hold her hand.

He expects her to pull away, but she doesn’t. She just squeezes his hand back. They look at each other for a long moment, and just for a second, he thinks she might lean in.

“Hey, love birds! Get off your lazy asses and get to your barracks!” The shout of the drill sergeant pulls them out of their haze. They say their goodbyes, and separate for the night.

But then, he dreams of her again. He imagines just loving her. Coming home after a long day, holding her in his arms.

Maybe it’s too soon for all that, but he’s never done things slow. He’s always lived his life in the fast lane, and his romantic life is no different.

Although, to be honest, he doesn’t know if he’s ever even had a romantic life. Sure he’s had hookups, and girlfriends, but they were only momentary distractions. They never lasted long.

He’s by no means a virgin, but he’s never really done the whole ‘love’ thing. He thought he was in love, once, but it ended poorly. So, he’s swore off.

The next day, they have some momentary free time. Something about a day off because the DIs are busy talking to NCIS or something.

All the others have gone out to a bar for the night, Nick stayed back. As terms of his deal, he’s not allowed to drink while doing his time.

Layla is here too. She manages to sneak away from her own platoon to come sit with him. They just sit on the floor, eating shitty vending machine food and talking about life.

“You ever been in love before?” She asks, looking over at him, sipping on some soda.

“I thought so, once. We used to fight like crazy, and makeup by having sex. I thought that’s how love was, you know? Bruises and sex, all the time. Eventually, she got sick of my shit, and left me. I never really fell in love again after that. What about you?” He returns the question.

She shrugs, “Yeah, I’ve been in love, or what felt like it, at least. After I had my injury, I was dating this guy, Brandon. He promised to be there for me, but we started fighting. He said he didn’t sign up to be the boyfriend of a cripple. Long story short, I broke up with him. When I healed, he tried to come crawling back, but I didn’t let him.”

“That’s shitty. You deserve someone who’d treat you well.” He doesn’t say that he wants to be that person. She picks up on it anyway.

“You’re pretty cool, Nick.”

“You’re pretty cool too, Layla.”

They stare at each other again, and this time, they do lean in. There’s no annoying drill sergeants to interrupt them now.

Their lips touch, and it’s like an electric current going between them. He puts his hand in her hair, pulling her close. She’s everything he imagined she’d be and more.

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Nick is having a very bad day, to say the least. First, he tried to swipe some of Ochoa’s gear, but then Santos snapped at him for it.

Long story short, he’s in a bad mood. So when Layla approaches him with a “What’s up?” he isn’t very receptive.

“Leave me alone.” He says, crossing his arms.

She scoffs, “Fat chance, Slovacek. After what you told me, no way I’m leaving you alone.”

He just rolls his eyes and tries to ignore her. He walks away, but she follows after him.

“Nick, come on. Don’t be like that.”

He stops, and turns to her. “I don’t need your pity. I’m a grown ass man, I can handle myself.”

“I never said you couldn’t handle yourself. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

He just walks away. She doesn’t try to approach him until lunch.

“Hey, no hard feelings about earlier. You had a bad day, I don’t blame you.”

He grunts in response, eating his disgusting food. He sighs, and glances over at her.

“This is some gross ass food.” It’s kind of like an olive branch, something to bridge the gap between them.

She laughs, “Yeah, it is. I think they’re trying to kill us.”

So then, the conversation just flows. They talk and laugh, acting like nothing’s wrong.

So here they are, in the middle of boot camp, eating some truly revolting food, laughing like they’re little kids.

He’s never had this before. All his friends from the city are criminals, not the type to just freely laugh. But he finds that he enjoys having a friend who can just make him laugh harder than he’s ever done before.

It doesn’t hurt that she’s so pretty. He doesn’t quite know what his feelings for her are, but he knows they’re less than friendly.

As she talks, he can’t help but watch her lips move. Seeing the way they form the words, the way they move when she laughs.

He shakes that off, he can’t think like that. So, instead, he just flings a piece of, what appears to be, chicken at her.

She laughs, “Don’t do that. I’ll get you back.” She flings some of her own food at him. One of the DIs yells at them to stop that, but they only laugh.

I like writing this, it might not be the best, but it makes me feel good to use my own creativity to make something. I haven’t done that in a while, just for fear of being made fun of, so this is fun. Anyway, here’s the next chapter. Hope you like it.

No warnings, maybe grumpiness but that’s just par for the course with Slovacek, lol.