freya!

At restaurants, he made sure to order something he knew you both liked, even if you didn’t mention it to him, because you always ended up swapping dishes anyways. For instance, if you ordered the spaghetti and meatballs, he’d order a sandwich. You’d eat in silence for a couple minutes before the halfway point and then excitedly switch plates so the one could get a taste of the other’s food. It made the waiters who attended to you two quite dizzy to see the plates in a different spot everytime they glanced at the table, but it made you happy.

The clothes sharing was more prominent than anything else. Macklin had a vast collection of warm hoodies and free clothing he’d gathered over years of brand deals and packages, leading to a delightful selection of comfortable clothes for you to choose from. One time, Bauer sent him a longsleeve in the wrong size, giving you a warm and vastly oversized shirt to wrap around yourself when the weather got chilly. You never asked to borrow his clothes- Macklin would just come home to see you with one of his beanies tugged over your forehead. He always thought you looked like one of the bad guys from home alone in his your oversized clothes and dark beanie, but of course he kept the joke to himself with a muffled chuckle and sufficed to walk over and kiss you on any bare skin he could find.

He would steal your clothes too. He regularly wore your caps and hats, didn’t matter what they had on them. When he was in a rush, Macklin got used to yanking a baseball cap out of your closet and shoving it on before running out. He never realized you had a black One Direction hat until he wore it out to the grocery store on an emergency run and got the pictures sent to him by everyone he knew.

You nodded along as he stood to answer the call. He walked as he greeted his family, finally settling by a desk he had in the corner of the room, where you were out of the frame.

His brothers made jokes and called Quinn a workaholic for staying behind during the summer break, in reality, he stayed in Minnesota to spend more time with you. Naturally, he lied saying he had some partnerships and promo he had to sort through for the first couple of weeks. Considering it was not out of the ordinary in the slightest for Quinn to be attached to work, neither his brothers nor parents saw anything wrong with the excuse.

After a couple of minutes of Luke and Jack recounting their adventures in New Jersey, his mom quieted them down and begun her usual questions.

"Are you eating well?"

"Yes, like always, mom."

"Don't be on the ice all the time, Quinn. You need to rest."

"I haven't skated since Wednesday."

"Oh, and," she smiled a smile that Quinn already resented before she could even speak. "When are you going to bring us your nice girlfriend?"

Quinn's heart stopped. You were literally cuddled up into his sheets a couple feet beside him.

"What?" he laughed nervously, sparking loud laughs and jokes from his brothers.

"Let him be," his dad chided with a chuckle. "Quinn's got a lot to deal with. He doesn't have to worry about finding a girlfriend."

"Well it doesn't worry some of us that much," Jack laughed and poked at Luke. "When are we seeing your girl, Lukey?"

Quinn rolled his eyes at his brothers' jokes, which earned scoldings and smacks on the arms from their mom. He let out a sigh of relief as he glanced to his bed, seeing you stirring slightly now that it had been a bit of time on the call. Your back was to him, but he could see a sliver of skin that poked out from your slightly lifted sleep shirt.

He continued along with the facade, shallowly answering his family's questions and occasionally yawning in hopes that they would get the hint. Of course, they didn't get the hint. Jack pressed Quinn persistently to come out to the lake house a couple days early because Luke was too scared to go see a new horror movie with him. In response, Luke began poking at Jack and calling him names that their mom had to silence again.

After a couple of muffled shuffles on the bed, Quinn could see you out of the corner of his eye moving to the edge of the bed. You stretched before stumbling out of the bed, feet padding into his bathroom with such tenderness that he wanted to slam his laptop closed and tackle you with a hug. God, if he could only get off this call. He was so selfish, but he adored you too much for his own good- he really didn't care if it affected his relationships with others.

While you were in the bathroom, he spoke with his parents about his plans for the day, hoping the seemingly busy day would be the best way to hint that he needed to leave. Unfortunately, he had previously spent almost an hour on call with them, never really being the one to initiate hanging up- doing any different now would raise suspicions.

His laptop buzzed with a low battery notification, so he moved to rest on his now empty bed and rummaged through his bedside table drawer for a charger. He told his family to bear with him for a second and kept listening to their rambles while he ducked out of view of the camera. He rested the laptop on his pillow, which now showed his family a blank wall.

For the life of him, he couldn't find the damn charger. The stupid thing was probably still in his suitcase from the last roadie. He groaned loudly in exasperation. As he closed his drawer, he heard you slowly open the door beside him. Seeing as he was out of the frame, he flashed you a soft smile, watching as you slide out of the bathroom and had shrugged on one of his favorite shirts already.

"Oh my god!" Jack's voice suddenly interrupted his mom's rant. Commotion hailed from the computer with multiple gasps and "What the fuck"s.

Your eyes shot over the bed and caught on the laptop, which had slide off the pillow and was showing a clear view of the bathroom door. You squeaked and jumped out of the frame, stumbling so fast that Quinn stood and called your name.

"Quinn!" his mom gasped, reverting both yours and Quinn's eyes toward the video call that was portraying his family rampaging in shock at Quinn's mystery girl.

"Shit," Quinn groaned as he rubbed his eyes in exasperation.

"It's okay," you laughed softly, hearing his brothers hooting in the background. "I'm fine with them knowing."

His eyes bore into yours for a minute, with lips pressed into an uneasy line. "You sure? We don't have to."

You shrugged and smiled, trying to ease your boyfriend as you kissed his cheek. "Fuck it, C'mon."

He stood with a hand on the small of your back, raising his other hand to motion at his family to settle down.

"Okay, okay, shush," Quinn mumbled, now having to meet his families eyes. "I guess the cat's out of the bag now."

While they had been silent, Luke muffled a giggle at Quinn's comment. "Who the fuck actually says that?" he snickered to Jack.

"This is my girlfriend, y/n." he turned to you with a smile, earning a wave and a small "hello" from you.

The family exploded into cheers and curious inquiries, rejoicing like Quinn was expected to never find anyone. The excessive cheers made you giggle to yourself, while Quinn rolled his eyes at the extremities.

"Aw!" his mom gushed, waving back at you. "You're just so sweet!"

You thanked her and buried yourself into Quinn's side sheepishly, both of you somewhat sighing in relief.

Quinn was about to say something else when he zeroed in on his brothers, who were rummaging behind his parents, seemingly looking at each other's hands.

"What the-" Quinn stepped closer as he saw a flash of green. "Were you two betting on us?"

Jack and Luke stopped in their tracks, while your parents moved to open up to them. Luke's fingers were still intertwined in the folds of the twenty dollar bill he was slipping into Jack's hand.

"We didn't bet on you two," Jack said as a matter of factly. "We bet on just you."