#flufffffffy

Here you bloody go, I wrote half of this whilst I was drunk and didn’t bothe proof reading so bloody ENJOY. 

Word count: 1952

——

“Hey, are you there?”

My head snapped around from my book tocheck my radio on my bedside table—I wasn’t sure if I was hearing things or ifSteve Rogers was paging me at 3am in the morning.

“Hellllooooo,” the radio crackled again—Iwasn’t imagining it.

“Hello?” I answered quickly, my voicefilled with curiosity—what the hell did he want?

“I knew you’d be awake,” I couldpractically hear him smile down the line—I didn’t have to see him to know that hisstupid grin was plastered on his stupid face.

“Well yeah,” I rolled my eyes as I set downmy book, “I literally told you this morning that I haven’t been able to go tosleep before 5am.”

“Meet me in the stairwell of level 12,” Hecompletely ignored the fact that I’d outed him.

“What?!” Why the fuck did he want to meetin the damn stairwell? “Are you joking?” There was no way he was being serious.

“I’m being one hundred per cent serious,five minutes, I expect you there.”

“Jesus,” I huffed down the line, “way to bepushy, but yeah okay whatever, see you in five.” I rolled out of bed and shovedmyself into my dressing gown, praying that whatever he had in store for me wasworth leaving the comfort of my sheets.

–

“You better have a good reason for doingthis Rogers,” I said monotonously as trudged up the stair with him. I’d met himon level 12 like he’d requested and he’d graciously let me know that we’d bewalking up two more levels because our stupid elevator was down.

“Trust me,” he stopped in front of the doorto level 14, “You’re going to love it.” He pulled out a key from his backpocket and I wondered to myself why the door was locked in the first place.

“So,” he turned to me as he shoved the keyin, “this is where I come when I can’t sleep and I want to share it with you.”He opened the door slowly before standing aside so that I could make my waythrough.

“Uh—“ I could feel my throat run dry as Ilost all sense of how to speak. “Um, yeah okay.” I was so nervous, I’d neverhad anyone share their safe space with me before and I didn’t know how I wasgoing to cope.

My heart began to race as I made my wayinside—I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it definitely hadn’t been anindoor garden. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Despite only being dimly lit bylanterns the garden was breath-taking. There were vines covering the walls,bushy ferns in the corners, garden beds filled with almost every flowerpossible and most importantly, there was a lily pond, right in the centre ofthe room.

“Holy shit Steve, this is beautiful.” Ijust couldn’t understand how what I was seeing managed to exist, how had he hadthe time?

“Your favourite flowers are lilies right?”He raised an eyebrow as he took my hand—I almost jolted away, I hadn’t beenexpecting it.

“Yeah, wait how do you know that?”

“What?” he said as he sat down on a smallbench in the middle of the room right next to the lily pond. “You think I don’tlisten to you when you ramble on in the kitchen?”

“Yeah!” I laughed lightly as I sat downbeside him, “No one ever listens to me when I ramble.”

“I listen,” he entwined his hand with mineagain and I gulped uncomfortably. “I know your favourite flowers are lilies,that you’re afraid of the dark AND the ocean. I know that your favourite bookis a tale of two cities and that you read it every night because you can’tsleep till early parts of the morning.” He used his free hand to nudge my facetowards his. “I know that when I wake up the first thing I think about is whatyour daily joke is going to be, I know I think about knocking on your doorevery night and asking you out to dinner—“

“You what?!” I didn’t think he realisedwhat he was saying, “Steve—“

“I’m being serious,” his thumb grazed overmy knuckles. “I’m not good at this whole dating thing you know?”

I nodded sincerely, he’d complained to meabout it a few times and I truly felt bad.

“But I want to try with you, honestly.”

“With me?” I swallowed the lump in mythroat. I’d never thought about Steve in that way. I mean I’d always thought hewas good looking, but I never considered dating him. It made me giddy to thinkthat someone actually listened to all the stupid things I had to say—everyoneelse just seemed to brush me off, Steve never had and I’d only just noticedthat.

“Yes,” he nodded, “with you.” He leanedover to fish out a lily from the pond. “So will you?” He held it out to me withthe most innocent eyes and I’d never been so mesmerised by a man before. I wasseeing someone in a whole new light and I honestly couldn’t believe I’d missedit.

I wasn’t sure completely, but the way hewas presenting himself made me want to try. “I mean,” I admired the flower fora second before plucking it gently from his hand. “There’s no harm in trying.”

“Perfect,” he grinned, “How about I pickyou up at 7pm tomorrow?”

“That sounds wonderful.”

–

Three knocks on the door let my nervousstomach know that Steve was at the door. 7pm had taken all day to arrive andI’d spent all morning feeling like I was going to be nervous.

“Hi,” I smiled as I opened the door to anervous looking Captain—who to my surprise was holding a bouquet of peonies.

“Hi,” he replied as he cracked his knucklesnervously. “I—um—got these for you.” He held out the flowers to me and Igraciously accepted them before planting a kiss to his cheek.

“Thank you—I might start my own garden atthis rate.” I motioned for him to come inside as I trudged towards my shelvesso that I could locate a vase.

He let out a small laugh as he shoved hishands into the pockets of his black jeans. “Don’t think I’m helping, I’ve got awhole one of my own to look after and barely any time.”

I laughed—really laughed and I had no ideawhy, because his joke hadn’t been that funny. It was clear that things were changingand I wasn’t complaining, because I knew it was for the better.

“It’s okay I might just get Bucky to helpout,” I teased knowing he would hate it.

He scrunched up his face “I mean sure, goahead.”

“Stop it,” it was my turn to place anencouraging hand on his shoulder, usually that was his job.

“I won’t lie,” he smirked, “that made meslightly jealous.”

I laughed lightly “I could tell.”

“You know what,” he looked towards my TV,“how about we forget the dinner reservations, we’ll order some take away and wecan watch any show you want to.”

“You’re kidding, I would fucking lovethat.” I’d never felt so relieved in my life—I hated dates, the thought of themmade me nervous to the point where I was almost sick—I was surprised that Ihadn’t already vomited.

“Perfect,” he grinned as he walked towardsmy sofa. It was times like these I was thankful that Tony had given me a masterbedroom.

“Do you mind if I change?” I asked, alreadyunzipping my dress, not waiting for his answer.

“Sure,” he gulped.

I smiled to myself as I flung the dress Iwas wearing back into my cupboard—I knew he was watching me.

I pulled on an oversized t-shirt and mademy way over to the sofa.

“So,” I said as I plopped myself downbeside him “have you watched stranger things?”

“No,” he shook his head, “but people keeptelling me it’s good.”

“Wonderful,” I grabbed the remote frombeside me, “you’re about to be shown a masterpiece Rogers.”

–

I’d fallen asleep at about episode 5 ofseason 1—I assumed that all the wriggling Steve was doing was because he wastrying to regain feeling in his arm.

“Shit,” I recoiled, “I’m so sorry.” Trustme to have fallen asleep on my date.

“No!” he quickly stopped me, “it’s okay!”

“Are you enjoying it?” I smiled as I lookedtowards the TV. I’d already seen season 1 which was probably why I’d fallenasleep—that and the fact that I hadn’t had a good nights sleep, despite beingshown Steve’s beautiful garden.

“It’s good—but,” he placed his knuckleunder my chin and I felt a shiver run through my body. “I think I would ratherbe spending my time doing this—“ before I could gather what he meant, he wasalready crashing his lips against mine and boy I wasn’t complaining.

Everything about him was gentle and I justcouldn’t handle it—I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer,eliciting a groan from him as his threaded his fingers through my hair.

“Shit,” I moaned against his mouth as hedecided to act with more urgency. We were like hungry animals—Steve Rogers wassomething that had been in front of me for so long and I hadn’t known I’dneeded him until he was shoving his tongue down my throat.

“Please don’t rip my shirt off,” he joked—Ireally was tugging hard, my brain clearly didn’t understand he was already asclose as he could be.

“I’m so tempted to,” I tugged hard again, justto show him I meant it.

“I don’t have expendable funds to buy moreshirts to take you on dates—“ he breathed before placing a trail of kisses downmy neck.

“Oh my god,” I sucked in a breath, “do notfucking do that again or I’ll literally rip all your damn clothes off.”

“Oh?” he had the audacity to do it again,but ten times slower.

“That’s it—“ suddenly I was struggling hisbelt buckle, but he was pushing me away.

“No,” he scolded as he pulled away. “No,no.”

“Why not?” I really didn’t see why it was aproblem.

“I just—“ he turned away, “I’m sorry—shit,this is gonna sound so stupid, but I’d really just like to wait, I want this tomean more.”

I grabbed his hand, “stop it Steve, it’snot stupid at all, I get it I promise.”

“Yeah?” he turned back towards me.

“Yes.” I wrapped my pinky around his,“look, why don’t you sleep—we can finish the series tomorrow.”

“That sounds like a plan.” He pulled myhead towards him and planted a kiss against my forehead, “goodnight.”

“Goodnight Steven.” I stole a quick kissfrom his lips, my head feeling somewhat giddy at the fact that I was seeing himthe next day.

“Oh wait,” he fished for something in hispocket and finally picked out a key. “This is for you,” he held it out to me, “yourpersonal key to the garden for when you can’t sleep.”

Attached to the key was a small lily keyring and I swear I felt like crying.

“Get out,” I scolded as I grabbed the key, “hurrybefore I kiss you again.”

She was convinced that she met her soulmate 3 years ago to this very day. They had met at a bookstore while she was shopping for a birthday present for her best friend, Riley. She was shopping in the fiction section, on her hands and knees, because Riley had already read practically everything on the top shelf, when suddenly she felt a leg hit her side and they both toppled over. “What the-”

“Oh God, I’m so sorry. I’m sorr-” They were both attempting to stand up, brushing off the dust and dirt that somehow managed to get all over them during the fall. He cut off when he saw how her hair seemed to glow and her eyes sparkled a little bit. It sounded like it would be out of some cheesy fanfiction, but it was true.

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay. I don’t know what I would have done if I had hurt you. The bigger you are, the harder you fall.” He was stumbling over his words, blushing like mad. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew that it was because of this girl.

“I’m Maya.” He just wanted to know what was going through her head. It was almost as if he could see the gears turning in her head.

“Lucas.” It came out strange, like it wasn’t really his name.

“Nice to meet you Lucas. Now if you’ll excuse me-” She bent down to get back to her books, but stopped when she heard his voice again.

“Let me take you out to coffee.”

“What?” Her eyes became squinty, and her right eyebrow raised like he had somehow just asked her an impossible question.

“I want to get some coffee with you.” The astounded look didn’t look leave her face.

“Why?”

“I-you-um. I knocked you over and I want to make up for it.” The blush continued creeping, traveling up his neck and onto his ears.

“Like a date?” She said, smirking.

“I mean, only-only if you want it to be.” She could tell he was flustered, but she found it absolutely adorable.

“Sure, here’s my number. I’ll pick you up at 7 tomorrow. Just text me your address.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her purse, wrote her number on it, winked, and then strutted away.

“Wait- where- I’ll see you tomorrow?” That was the first and certainly not the last that Maya Hart would leave Lucas Friar speechless.

She had left him speechless 6 other times since then.

The next one was that next night. He texted her not 20 minutes after she left the store, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Minutes felt like hours and hours passed like days.

She picked him up at his place at 7pm sharp. She got out of her car, and walked to his front door. She didn’t even have to ring the doorbell, he opened the door right as her heel hit the last step coming up to his porch.

She was wearing a red t-shirt dress, with black chunky wedges, and he was wearing a blue polo and pressed tan khakis

“Hey babe.” she said with a wink.

“Hey,” he said, trying to keep a cool persona (and failing). He had never been called “babe” before.

Her red lipstick matched her outfit perfectly, and her eyeliner could kill. He couldn’t say anything more for several minutes. Which provided perfect material for her to tease him with later.

The 2nd time was when she kissed him (later that night), the 3rd when she showed him her art, the 4th when she sang for him, and the 5th was when she cried in front of him after telling him about her dad.

The 6th was last night.

They had moved in a couple weeks ago after dating for almost 3 years. He had asked her to move in with him after she had already been staying with him for a week. They had been talking about it, so it wasn’t totally out of the blue, but she still smiled every time he said “our apartment”.

“We need more milk,” she said groggily. She was never a morning person, but for some strange reason, Lucas was. To him, it was just natural to get up and do something like shop or workout, but Maya would rather sleep in, and do everything productive around 11 pm. That doesn’t always work for every couple but it never seemed to be a problem with them.

“I feel like we are always out of milk?”

“Huckleberry, we both eat cereal every morning. Unless we get a cow that lives in the living room,” his eyes perked up, and his eyebrow raised in attention, “no,” she interjected, “we are going to run out of milk.”

“I’ll grab some on my way home from work.”

“Thank you,” she said before she blew him a kiss. “Remember that we have date night tonight at Murphy’s.”

“Steakkk.”

“Yes, you can get steak.” She got out of her chair, her messy bun bobbing as she trudged over to him. “I love you babe. Have a good day at work.”

“Love you too.” He kissed her on the forehead and walked out the door.

She immediately perked up. “Time to prepare,” she muttered to herself. Lucas was under the impression that it was just a date night and that she would be heading into work in about a hour, but she had requested the day off, and was planning a special night. She had been thinking about it for a while, but had finally decided to propose. Nontraditional, maybe, but when had they ever been traditional?

She still had a few things left on her to-do list, she had to pick up the rings, grab some sunflowers, and pick up her dress from the dry-cleaners. She went around the city, almost in a trance, just imagining what she’s gonna say. She had never been great with words, but for some reason, everything just flowed when he was around.

She got everything ready at the restaurant, one of her best friends owned the place, and it was their date night destination every 2nd Friday of the month. They got a discount, which she liked, and he got steak, which was his favorite. She wanted to make everything seem as normal as possible, so she just texted him that “hey, work is running late, so I’ll meet you at the restaurant at 6. I brought clothes with me. hope you’re having a good day. love you.” This wasn’t really unusual, sometimes working in an art gallery made you run a little late. He sent her back a “k love you <3” and her plan was set into motion.

She started getting ready at 4:30, doing her makeup and slipping into her dress. At around 5:15 she headed over to the restaurant, arranging the sunflowers and her rings to where they needed to be. At 5:45 she went into the bathroom to give herself a pep talk.

“He loves you. You love him with all of your heart. Just follow your plan and say what you feel and everything will be alright.”

She headed back to their table, and texted him that she was there a little bit early, and that they were at their usual spot. He arrived about 5 minutes later, and walked over. He was wearing a black suit that perfectly matched her red dress that was snug around her hips, and matched her lipstick once again.

“Hello Maya Penelope Hart. You look gorgeous tonight.” He had a smirk in his eyes.

“Why hello Huckleberry McBoingBoing. You look quite dapper yourself.” They sat down at their table, and their usual waiter came over.

“The usual?” she said.

“Of course,” Maya said, giving the waiter a wink. The waiter walked away to the kitchen, and Lucas started talking about his day. Everything was going to plan.

Soon the waiter was back with his steak, and her pasta. “Here’s your meals. Hope they taste delicious.” Another wink was exchanged. Lucas raised his eyebrow at her as the waiter handed her a book along with their food.

“You might wonder what this book is. It’s the book I was grabbing when you first fell for me.” She giggled at her own pun. “Ironically, it was ‘How to Fall in Love in 10 Easy Steps’. I came back to that store later that night and bought it. I’ve been paging through every page since then. Marking it up and writing in our stories that matched all of their steps. I’ve loved you for a long time now. I haven’t needed to pick up this book in over 2 years. I picked it up last week to read through what I wrote in it, and started laughing and crying at how much we’ve learned and grown. We still argue about buying milk, and laugh at how sappy ‘The Notebook’ is, but now we live together, and I want to spend every single day with you for the rest of my life.” She got on one knee, pulled a box out of her purse, and wiped a tear out of her eye (good thing she put on waterproof eyeliner and mascara). “Lucas Friar, my Huckleberry, will you marry me?”

And for the 6th time after first meeting her, he was speechless. He could only say one word. 

Alison buried her head into Beth’s chest, letting out a soft sigh as she closed her eyes, relaxing against the warm body that was wrapped around her. “I love you.” She murmured, squeezing the cop gently. 

Beth smiled softly, pulling the woman closer. “I know, I love you too.” She replied softly, resting her chin on top of Ali’s head. 

It was moments like these that they lived for, moments where neither of them had to worry about anything other than themselves. No Paul, no Donnie, no families to ask questions, just Beth and Alison and a nice warm bed. 

They stayed like that, content in their silence, until Alison pulled away slightly. “We could run away together.” She said softly, biting her lip. “I could take the kids and we could just go somewhere nice.” 

As much as Beth loved Alison, there was no way she could tear the Hendrix family apart. “Ali, you know we can’t.” She murmured, bringing a hand up to cup the other woman’s cheek.