Shayne got into the driver’s seat and started the car, heaving a sigh of relief once the cool air conditioned air hit his face. The sudden heat wave that had come to Los Angeles was insane and even the short walk from the store to his car was brutal. “Yeah, we can grab something to eat.” he agreed, pulling up his phone to look at what was nearby.

A buzzing sound from the door well compartment on the passenger side. Courtney made a confused sound and patted around until she pulled out a cell phone that definitely did not belong to anyone in the car currently.

“Shayne, whose phone is this? It’s a cute case.” She said, turning it over in her hands.

It took a second for Shayne to comprehend exactly what she asked but when he looked up, he felt his heart beat a little faster. “Oh, damn.” He mumbled, reaching out to take it from her. The screen lit up and he saw messages that he had sent earlier in the day on display. “Damien, man, lunch is gonna have to wait a little while longer.” He said as he put the phone in a cupholder and putting on his seatbelt.

Damien audibly groaned from his spot in the backseat. 

Shayne pulled out of the parking lot and after a moment, feeling her stare, he glanced to look at Courtney. “What?” he asked.

“Where are we going? Whose phone do you mysteriously have in your car?”

Shayne sighed and lifted a hand to gently push the hat on his head back slightly. He hadn't intended to have this conversation like this. “It’s… it’s my girlfriend’s phone and she left it in here last night so we are going to give it back.” he explained in a rush, eyes staring straight at the road ahead of him.

Damien made a question sound, “I beg your unbelievable pardon?”

“Your what?” Courtney asked, voice slightly higher and usual.

He didn’t want to answer. Part of him was yelling at himself for even starting this, but he knew that if Y/N didn’t have her phone by the time lunch rolled around for her, she’d be a nervous wreck. “My girlfriend.” he said simply, shrugging one shoulder.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Courtney twisting in her seat to look back at Damien while both of them made incredulous sounds, trying to find the words they were looking for. It seemed, that Damien had regained his ability to speak faster than Courtney. He leaned forward and placed a hand on the side of Shayne’s seat, staring at his profile.

“Who is this girl? Why have you never mentioned her?”

Courtney reached over and slapped Shayne on the bicep with the back of her hand, “How long have you been dating?”

Shayne groaned as he pulled off the right exit, hands gripping the steering wheel harder. “I have mentioned her just… not in this context. You remember that girl I told you about? That I met at the gym? She was wearing the ‘Turning my small might into All Might’ tank top?” he started, catching Damien’s eyes in the rear view mirror. Damien nodded his head.

“Right, well, we always work out at the same times and we just kind of started talking and hanging out and… I don’t know. She’s sweet, and funny, and a huge fucking dork.” Shayne laughed in spite of himself.

Damien was quiet for just a moment, “You mentioned this girl months ago.”

“You’ve been dating her for months?!” Courtney exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because you’d do this.” Shayne shot back. He sighed and shook his head. They were getting closer to where Y/N worked and he was starting to feel unbelievably anxious. “I liked having something private for a while. I was going to tell you, and introduce you, but we’re still getting to know each other and I wanted to wait before I threw Y/N to the lunatic wolves that are my friends.”

Courtney and Damien were quiet for a bit; Damien slid back and relaxed again in his seat. Shayne turned into a parking lot and sighed as he parked his car near the entrance of the building. “This is a preschool.” Courtney stated, leaning forward to read the sign above the door. Shayne nodded and shut off the car.

“She’s an after school teacher here during the school year, and she does camp during the summer.” he explained as he grabbed Y/N’s phone, shoving it into his pocket.

Before he could say or do anything else, both Courney and Damien had unbuckled their seat belts and were out of the car. Shayne closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and got out as well. He didn’t say a word but headed for the front door, his friends falling into step with him. At the door, Shayne pressed the doorbell button on the number pad. A loud clunking sound came from the double doors, signalling that they’d been unlocked.

Shayne opened the door and stepped into the front area of the building, smiling at the women seated behind the desk. “Hey, Shayne.” The taller of the two women greeted. Shayne nodded and grabbed a pen to sign in on the visitor’s log. “Hi, Kati. Hi, Jackie.” he replied, sliding the binder over and handing the pen to Damien.

“Does Y/N know you’re here?” Kati asked.

“No. She left something in my car and I’ve gotta give it to her. Is she in her room?” he asked.

Jackie looked up from her computer and shook her head, “No. Last I saw, they were headed outside.”

Shayne nodded and looked over to see Courtney finishing signing herself in. “Oh, this is Damien and Courtney. We’ll be quick.” he said. Courtney and Damien waved at the women who did the same in return. 

“Well, you know the way,” Kati said, going back to her work.

Taking a deep breath, Shayne nodded and motioned for his friends to follow him. He lead them through another set of double doors and down a hallway. Down the hall there were the sounds of babies crying, soft music playing, and adults talking. As they got closer to the door that leads to the playground that connected to Y/N’s classroom, they could hear children screaming.

Shayne pushed open the door and was immediately greeted by the sight of ten kids running around in their bathing suits. They had buckets and water balloons as they chased each other through the playground. He looked over and spotted Y/N in shorts and a tank top holding a hose and spraying the kids who got too close to her.

“She’s cute.” He heard Courtney say from behind him which just made him laugh.

One of the kids spotted them and stopped in their tracks, “Mr. Shayne!”

The call of his name caught Y/N’s attention and her head whipped around to see him standing there. A bright smile immediately found its place on her lips. “Hey, Ben, what’s up?” he laughed as he walked around the sidewalk towards the gate in the fence that closed off the playground. Y/N shook her head and stepped closer to the gate as well to greet him.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” She asked. She paused slightly, seeing the people behind Shayne. “Oh, Hi!”

“Hi, I’m Courtney, this is Damien.” Courtney introduced happily.

“Y/N. Nice to finally meet you.” Y/N smiled before looking back at Shayne.

He was staring at her for a moment, just taking her in. The smile on her face, the way the sun hit her, how she looked drenched in water but still so cute. He came back to the moment and leaned on the top of the fence with his arms. “You left your phone in my car so I brought it to you.” He answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the phone for her to see.

“Oh sh-shoot,” Y/N laughed. One of the kids ran up to her with an empty bucket, so she turned to fill it back up with the hose in her hand. “Thank you, Shayne.” She said, looking back at him with a wide smile that seemingly took up her whole face.

Shayne nodded, “I’ll put it in your closet in your room.”

“Thank you.” She said again before the kids grabbed her attention again.

Shayne, Damien, and Courtney stood there for a moment and just watched her run off with some of the kids, spraying them and laughing loudly. Suddenly, Shayne had an idea. “Hey, Jack,” Shayne called to one of the boys walking past. He had paid more than enough visits to learn the names of the summer campers and they all loved him dearly.

“Let me see your bucket.” He grinned. “I’m gonna dump it on Ms. Y/N.”

The boy didn’t need any more convincing and he immediately handed the bucket of water over to Shayne. He turned and handed his phone, as well as Y/N’s, over to Courtney. Both Damien and Courtney laughed softly as Shayne opened the gate and snuck into the playground. He crept up behind Y/N but one of the little girls spotted him.

“Ms. Y/N, look out!”

Y/N turned but was too slow and Shayne upended the water over her head. However, he wasn’t fast enough either and got hit in the chest with the hose. He let out one of his Shayne screams and wrapped his arms around Y/N in a hug before letting go and running off to rejoin his friends. “I’m going to get you back, Shayne!” Y/N shouted at him.

Shayne laughed and waved as he opened the back door to Y/N’s classroom and lead his friends inside. The cold A/C on his wet skin made him shiver but he made his way over to the closet and unlocked the door. Courtney handed him the phone and he placed it on a shelf with Y/N’s other belongings.

“So.” Damien started as Shayne shut the closet door. “She seems nice.”

Courtney laughed, “Yeah, for sure.”

Shayne took his hat off his head and ruffled his hair as they exited the room and made their way back up to the front. 

You hummed softly and reached to the side to grab another plate. “It’s not that I don’t want to do it. I mean, I’ve been on the SmoshCast before. It’s just… I don’t know. How are we qualified to give advice?”

Shayne chuckled lowly as he turned to put the first plate away before coming back to take the other from you. “Is that it, or are you nervous that the main topic is going to be us?” he asked, casting you a suspicious eye.

Unable to think of a witty response, you stuck your hand out under the water and flicked your fingers at Shayne, grinning as droplets landed on his cheeks and nose. Shayne laughed and rolled his eyes as he turned off the water and started the dishwasher. He walked over to you and stood between your legs, placing his hands on your knees.

“I know that it’ll be different since we don’t really talk about us or our relationship in the public eye but, I don’t know, I think it’ll be fun.”

You looked back at him and stared into his eyes for a moment before you watched the gentle smile spread across his lips. You took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “Yeah, okay.” you conceded as you leaned in to press a kiss against his lips.

Shayne hummed and kissed you back. “Awesome… cool. I’ll text Ian.”

-

Sitting at the SmoshCast table wasn’t a new occurrence for you. Sure, you didn’t work for Smosh, but you had your own following online and were around the office quite a bit so more than once Ian had asked you to be a guest. During your first appearance, it had been made obvious that you and Shayne were a couple. Even though you both had more than once mentioned each other on your own social media, from twitter to instagram, it still shocked some fans.

You preferred to keep certain facets of your life private - or as private as you could.

It wasn’t that you didn’t want people to know you were dating Shayne. You love Shayne. It was more so the fact that you didn’t want unsolicited opinions on your relationship. So, it was slightly unnerving to be sitting there with Shayne ready to take questions and give advice on relationships.

Ian introed the show and introduced both you and Shayne, and you could feel your heart pick up pace inside your chest. As if sensing it, Shayne reached out to grab your knee, his thumb brushing gently against the side while he gave a comforting squeeze. You dropped the hand closest to Shayne to rest on top of his.

“I have to say, if you hadn’t told me, I probably wouldn’t have realized the two of you were together.” Ian said with a slight laugh.

Shayne chuckled and shook his head from side to side. “A lot of people say that.”

“Is it because I threaten to shank you a lot?” you asked with a grin. “Or that your name in my phone is still Douche McGee?”

Ian let out an unexpected laugh and you turned to face him with a pleased smile on your face. You could feel your heart settling down into its normal rhythm. Shayne’s hand let go of its grip on your knee but he turned it over in order to grab hold of your own and lace your fingers together.

Ian shook his head as he looked at his computer. “Idiots. Okay… our first question here is a simple one. Someone on Twitter wants to know how you guys met and how you got together.”

“We met through mutual friends almost three years ago.” Shayne said as he looked at you with slightly squinted eyes, like he was trying to remember exactly.

You hummed softly and nodded, giving his hand a squeeze. “We have some mutual friends who were having a beach… thing. I didn’t really want to go but I got dragged along and in protest I sat under an umbrella reading. I was there a whole like… ten minutes when Shayne showed up, sat next to me and started talking about the book I was reading.”

“I didn’t want to be there either.” Shayne leaned back in his chair and let out a short laugh. “But I saw Y/N with a copy of one of the Game of Thrones books and decided I needed to talk to that girl. We talked for a long time, exchanged numbers, and parted ways.”

Ian looked at the two of your through slightly narrowed eyes but you only smiled at him as you felt Shayne give your hand another squeeze under the table. “But you guys didn’t get together right away, right?”

You laughed loudly and shook your head, lifting your free hand to cover your mouth for a brief moment while you collected yourself. “God, no.” you said through giggles.

“We’re both way too awkward for that.” Shayne said, joining in your laughter.

It took a few deep breaths but you managed to bring yourself back. “We’d hang out a lot when we had free time. It was nice. I remember when I first realized I had, like actual, feelings for Shayne. It was, like, a slap in the face of ‘why aren’t you doing anything about this?’. So the next time we hung out I asked him if he wanted to go on a date with me.”

Ian made an interested noise and you shrugged your shoulders slightly. “How’d you like that, Shayne?”

Shayne smiled broadly as he cut his eyes in your direction and you could feel your heart stutter in your chest as he looked back at you. “Oh, it was great. I loved that Y/N was, like, confident enough to go ahead and do that. And, obviously, I said yes.”

“How long did it take for you guys to be like official. Boyfriend-girlfriend official?”

You hummed thoughtfully and looked at Shayne as you tried to think. “We went on dates and stuff for like… two months? Two and a half months? And then one night we were hanging out at the pool at Shayne’s apartment and he asked if I wanted to be his girlfriend.”

“I was so nervous and so uncool.” Shayne laughed softly into the microphone.

You squeezed his hand and made a soft cooing sound. “You’re always nervous and uncool, babe.”

Both Ian and Shayne laughed loudly and you only grinned back at Shayne as he watched you, his eyes bright and shiny. Ian collected himself and cleared his throat as he looked back on the screen of his laptop. “Someone on Instagram said: I’ve recently moved in with my girlfriend and suddenly we’re fighting a lot more and things just feel harder. How do you deal with that kind of transition?”

“Well, we moved in together about a year and a half ago.” you said, crossing your legs under the table and trying to get more comfortable. “And we definitely had some growing pains for the first few weeks.”

Shayne nodded. “It’s hard. To go from being on your own and seeing this person for a few hours at a time to suddenly having them everywhere all the time. It took us a while to reach a point where we realized we couldn’t, and really didn’t want to spend every second of every day together.”

“It’s all about boundaries. There are days that Shayne will come home from work and I’ll be in the bedroom and he won’t come see me right away and I know it’s because he needs time on his own to decompress. And conversely, when I am really in my head and know I need my own time I will find somewhere away from Shayne to just… be. Like, it’s great that we live together and I love that we do but we are still our own people with our own interests and needs so we really had to find the balance of together time and personal time.”

Ian nodded. “Because otherwise you’d kill each other.”

“Exactly.” Both you and Shayne said, sharing a laugh.

The three of you powered through a few more questions, sharing anecdotes of your relationship and giving out whatever advice that the two of you found to work for you. For the majority of the podcast, you kept your hand clasped together with Shayne’s under the table. It was comforting to feel his warm hand cradling your own and giving you firm, reassuring squeezes as you spoke.

Ian seemed to be scrolling for something on the laptop but stopped and nodded. “How did you know you loved each other? How did you tell the other person?”

Immediately, you knew your answer and couldn’t help the stupid grin that spread over your face. “You should watch the video of this podcast just to see the look on Y/N’s face.” Ian teased softly. You laughed and rolled your eyes at him before straightening up in your chair. “Shut up.” you chuckled, shaking your head from side to side.

“For me… we had been official for a little while and I got very sick. Like, I was in the emergency room for six hours running tests sick. Shayne had been filming all day for The Goldbergs and when I finally got released, after being told I had pneumonia and was put on a crap ton of antibiotics, I went home and just passed out.” you started to explain.

You caught Shayne’s eye and could see the soft smile tugging at his lips. 

“I woke up to knocking at my door and when I finally shuffled out there, Shayne was there with flowers, and soup, and tea. He even brought over this super fuzzy blanket and he just wrapped me up and made me take my medicine and just… took care of me. I’d never had someone do that before, and he had been at work all day, so to just come over and do all of that blew my mind. Like, I remember curling up on the couch watching something on netflix and looking over to see him in the kitchen making me soup and just thinking… yeah, I really love him.”

It was quiet for a moment between the three of you and you glanced over at Shayne to see him watching you with warm, loving eyes. You grinned and lifted your joined hands to press a kiss to the back of his which just made him laugh softly and roll his eyes at you.

“I think, for me, it was probably around the same time. We were at Y/N’s apartment and she was playing Valkyria Chronicles, which is one of my favorite games. She got to this very emotional part in the story and I remember watching her trying to, like, subtling hide the fact that she was tearing up and I just put my arm around her and pulled her close and I kissed the top of her head and…”

You chuckled lowly, “And you said it.”

“I did. I said it without thinking,” Shayne nodded. “And Y/N just stared at me with these wide, teary eyes and I felt like I was going to shit my pants.”

Ian laughed. “So romantic.”

“After I composed myself, I told him I loved him too, obviously.” you clarified, giving Shayne’s hand a squeeze.

Ian pushed onwards and the three of you talked through quite a few more questions. You looked at your watch to check how much more time was left just as Ian sat up and cleared his throat.

“Okay, last question.” Ian said, taking a long sip from his water bottle. “From Twitter: I am seeing a guy who is very adamant about who I spend time with and wants to look at my messages all the time. Is he just jealous? How do I deal with it?”

At the same time, you and Shayne both leaned into your microphones. “Dump him.”

“Look. I dated a guy who was so sure I was cheating on him and demanded to see my phone messages to prove it. After a lot of cyclical arguing, I unlocked my phone and showed him there was nothing there. And then I broke up with him on the spot. If someone cannot trust me, then how am I supposed to trust them?”

Shayne nodded and adjusted the hat on his head. “On top of that, like, someone telling you who you can and cannot hang out with his just not the kind of person you need to be in a relationship with. At all.”

Ian took it upon himself to wrap up the show as both you and Shayne waved at the camera. Once all of the equipment was shut off, you removed your headphones and relaxed back in your chair. “How was that?” Ian asked with a slight laugh as he got to his feet.

“Not as bad as I thought.” you said, checking your watch again. “Damn, I have to go though.”

Shayne stood up just as you did and you grinned at him before pressing a quick kiss to his lips. “I’ve got some errands to run but I’ll be home around the same time you are. Do you want me to make something for dinner?” you asked as you gathered up your stuff.

Shayne shook his head and kissed you again. “Don’t worry about it, babe, I’ll pick something up on my way home. See you then.”

You nodded your head and smiled brightly. “I love you.”

For a Saturday night, the two of you were keeping things pretty low-key considering that, when given the chance, you both had a propensity to have a little too much fun. Work had been kicking both of your asses and you’d made the mutual decision to stay in for the night and just watch Netflix. That had been the plan until a sudden thunderstorm had kicked up and momentarily knocked out the power. The lights had returned fairly quickly but the internet had yet to return.

So, while Shayne had run off when the power first went out, you managed to find your way to his liquor stash to make the both of you a drink. One drink turned to several, so now they both of you were feeling just a little giggly and restless - trying desperately to find something else to occupy your time with until you could resume your Netflix marathon. 

“We should play a game,” Shayne said as he got to his feet.

You quirked an eyebrow in his general direction, “What sort of game?”

“We should play Mario Kart so I can kick your ass again,” he laughed, walking over to the entertainment center. He seemed to be rummaging through the different consoles and games that were set up underneath the television. You scoffed softly and rolled your eyes as you lifted your cup up and took a long swig of the mixed drink within. Shayne was always one to try and prove his prowess when it came to certain games and ever since he’d beaten you by two points in the last Mario Kart tournament you’d played together he was lording it over you.

With a small sigh, you leaned forward to rest your elbows on your knees and watched Shayne for a moment. He was pulling out what looked like the pro-controllers for his switch which made you let out some sort of disgruntled nonsensical grunt. Shayne looked over his shoulder with a very confused look on his face. “Can I help you, cave person?” he laughed as he stood up straight. You, however, could only roll your eyes at him as you shakily got to your feet.

“Fuck that weak ass Switch shit,” you mumbled.

You gingerly placed your cup down onto the coffee table and made your way over to where Shayne was still standing. You put a hand on his shoulder and playfully pushed him out of the way so that you could bend down to look for what you wanted. “If we’re going to play Mario Kart, we’re going to play it my way,” you mumbled as you started to pull out controllers, “And we’re going to make it interesting.”

“What do you mean interesting?” Shayne asked from beside you, “Like a bet or something?”

Finally, you managed to unwind the controllers you needed and located the game cartridge from the drawer at the bottom of the unit. “Or something,” you chuckled lowly. Shayne gave up on waiting for you to finish setting the game up and went back to the couch, propping his feet up onto the coffee table. You hummed softly to yourself as you switched on the television and inserted the game into the console itself before standing up and grinning back at Shayne.

He swallowed a mouthful of his drink and raised an eyebrow at you, “Mario Kart 64?”

“Not just Mario Kart 64,” you said, walking over with two controllers, “Strip Mario Kart 64.”

Shayne very nearly choked on his drink. He slapped a hand against his chest and let out a loud cough to clear his airway before he looked up at you with a slightly incredulous look upon his face while he attempted to collect himself once again. However, that look quickly melted into a slightly smarmy smile. “If you want me to take my clothes off you could have just asked,” he laughed as he shook his head from side to side slowly.

You rolled your eyes and tossed him a controller, “Shut up and play.”

Shayne reached out to take green controller from you and you sat next to him, holding the bright yellow one in your own hands. “So what exactly are the rules for this?” he asked as he entered the character select screen. You chuckled softly to yourself as you selected Toad while Shayne picked Yoshi. You grabbed you cup again and drained the remaining liquid from within. “If you lose, you take something off,” you said, setting your cup down, “Socks are not individual, so if you’re taking socks off you have to take off both.”

The Grand Prix started fairly civilly with the two of you only really being upset at yourselves or the CPU characters for messing up or screwing you over. You’d both won and lost two of the races which resulted in you losing both of your socks and sweatshirt, while Shayne removed his socks and t-shirt. However, by the second Grand Prix both you and Shayne had had a little more to drink and were getting just a hair upset with one another. 

“Fucking…  Fuck you, T-Tippy Topp,” you grumbled under your breath as Shayne hit you with a red shell and sped by.

He laughed loudly and glanced away from the screen to look over at you, “What did you just call me?”

The momentary distraction was enough for Shayne to not see that a turn was coming and he ran right off the track. He let out an annoyed shout and started to bounce both of his legs impatiently as Lakitu seemed to be taking his sweet time in fishing him from the depths and returning him to the course. In the meantime, you flew past Shayne and let out a gleeful laugh. “Suck it, Tippy-Topp,” you giggled, turning the corner to see the finish line in sight.

“Stop calling me that,” he shot back with a laugh of his own.

You didn’t pay attention to him and quickly crossed the finish line, getting a first place finish. You held both of your hands above your head in triumph as at least one CPU finished before Shayne had the chance to. Shayne angrily dropped his controller to the ground and kicked at the floor. You set your own controller down next to you on the couch and reached out to grab hold of your drink from the table. “Take. It. Off,” you laughed, taking a sip and raising your eyebrows at Shayne over the rim of your cup.

Shayne grumbled nonsense under his breath and got to his feet so that he could undo his belt, he slipped it from the loops and dropped it to the floor. You watched, expecting him to continue on with his jeans, but he merely sat himself back down onto the couch. You made a very dissatisfied noise and looked over at him with a very dejected look upon your face. Shayne only laughed and reached down to pick his controller up off of the floor.

“You never specified anything about belts,” he shot back, getting ready for the next race.

You narrowed your eyes at him before tearing them away to look back at the screen again. Your hands gripped tighter to the controller as you focused on the race at hand. It took a banana and a well timed green shell to knock Shayne out of first place, a position he had somehow managed to hold for the entire race. He let out a shout of anguish as you drove past him and over the finish line, leaving him behind.

A peel of laughter fell from your lips and you looked over at him with an excited expression on your face. Once he had finished, Shayne allowed his controller to topple out of his hands and to the floor. It landed with a slight clatter on the wooden floor. Without another word, Shayne stood up on his feet and popped the button of his jeans loose before he undid the zipper. A smirk slid over your face as Shayne worked his jeans down his legs and kicked them off to the side. He sat back down on the couch in just his underwear.

Absently, Shayne groped down along the front of the couch to grab the bottle of whiskey that he had sitting there. He twisted the cap off and lifted it to his lips to draw in several rather large gulps of the brown liquid within. You laughed softly and lifted your legs up to sit with them folded beneath you. “Feeling the deep sting of defeat there, Toppers?” you teased with a smirk. Shayne lowered the bottle and looked over at you with a nearly angry expression on his face.

“I’m going to beat that smile off of your face,” he threatened as he grabbed his controller.

It seemed that Shayne took those words very seriously as the next two races he very deftly beat you, leaving you to remove your shirt and your jeans. You very grumpily slumped back against the couch and glared at the screen in front of you. Shayne chuckled and slid closer to you, slipping an arm around your waist to pull you just a little bit closer to his side. He turned his head and nuzzled into the sensitive skin where your shoulder met your neck. A shiver rippled up your spine at the feeling of his facial hair scratching at your skin and you huffed softly as you attempted to push him away from you.

“We’re both down to our skivvies… maybe we should call it a night,” Shayne suggested with a chuckle, pressing a kiss to your collarbone.

You gritted your teeth and shook your head from side to side. “One more,” you suggested, selecting Rainbow Road, “All or nothing.” 

Shayne quirked an eyebrow at you as he pulled away, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. He tightened his hold on his controller and let out a low sort of chuckle. “If you say so, babe,” he said, turning back to face the screen. Growing up, you actually loved playing on Rainbow Road despite the constant complaints from family and friends. It was a beast of a course but you had, at some point, mastered the shortcut at the very beginning of the race, so you felt a little more than confident going against Shayne.

Your acquired a sort of tunnel vision for your portion of the screen, completely ignoring whatever it was that Shayne was doing on his half. “What the fuck, Toad,” you shouted as Toad missed the track completely and fell into the void. You heard Shayne laugh loudly from beside you and you let out a grunt while Lakitu brought you back up onto the course. At this point, you were determined to make the jump but for whatever reason, you couldn’t land it and landed in the darkness time after time.

Finally, you cast a glance over to Shayne’s screen and saw how far ahead he was and you had to make the decision to bail on the shortcut. You had to focus intently but you managed to make it up to the front just as Shayne finished, leaving you to finish behind two CPU characters. You groaned and dropped your controller to the ground.

“Stupid fungus piece of shit. Can’t jump to save his own god damn life,” you ranted, pushing your hands through your hair.

When you finally looked back over at Shayne, he was reclining back into the cushions of the sofa and watching you with a smug, teasing smile on his face. He lifted his brows in your direction and gestured with his hand through the air as if commanding you to continue. “I believe we made a deal,” he said, his voice slightly lower than usual.

Begrudgingly, you got to your feet and reached behind your back to start to unclasp your bar. Before you could do that, however, you noticed Shayne get to his feet and stand very close to you. His hands grabbed hold of your hips and pulled you closer to him until you could feel his skin brush against your own with every inhale. Shayne made very deliberate eye contact and slowly slid his hands up your sides, sending shivers down your spine. You exhaled heavily and when you felt his hands gliding towards you back, you allowed yours to move and grab hold of his shoulders.

His fingers made quick work of your clasp and he very easily removed the article from you body, letting it drop to the floor beside the two of you. You swallowed hard and bit down gently onto your lower lip when you felt his hands slowly begin to slide back down your body. His fingers just barely dipped into the band of your underwear before they moved behind you to grab hold of your ass, which they squeeze tightly.

“Shayne,” you very nearly whispered, staring back at him.

He smirked and ducked his head to place a heated kiss against your lips. You inhaled sharply through your nose and grabbed tighter at his skin while his hands used their grip to pull you even closer and lift you enough for him to gain some leverage in the kiss. His lips worked relentlessly against your own and it was all you could do to keep up. Almost without you realizing it, Shayne’s hands managed to push your panties down to about the middle of your thigh; a fact you were oblivious to until you felt his hands grabbed at the bare flesh of your backside.

You gasped and pulled away from the kiss to stare up at him with wide eyes. Your chest heaved as you tried to regain control over your breath. He took the pause to take a small step back and crouch down. His gingerly slid your underwear down your legs, the barest touch of his skin on your leaving what felt like a trail of fire, and carefully removed them completely to drop them with the rest of your clothes.

When he returned to full height, you looped your arms around his neck and pressed closely to his torso. You could feel your entire body straining within itself, begging for more, and you were sure that Shayne could tell. He let out a low chuckle and ducked his head to press kisses along the side of your neck until he reached your ear. “Y’know, if you want me to fuck you there’s just one little thing you need to say, Y/N,” he breathed against your ear, his hands slowly gliding over your body.

“W-What’s that?” you whispered, your eyes falling shut.

Shayne nipped at your earlobe and you could feel his grin, “That I’m better than you at Mario Kart.”

You froze momentarily before you felt your eyes roll. You lowered your hands to playfully slap at Shayne’s bare chest and push him away slight. “God, I hate you,” you laughed, looking up at him with a smile. Shayne returned your smile and shook his head before ducking enough to very nearly throw you over his shoulder. He laughed loudly as you let out a surprised squeal of a scream and began to head off towards the bedroom.

“It’s a good thing I love you so much then,” he laughed, pushing open the door to your room.

You sighed and pinched him lightly on the side, “I demand a re-match.”

Shayne chuckled and laid you out on the bed, very quickly climbing over you to stare down at you with dark eyes. He smiled brightly and slowly lowered himself so that he was pressing you down into the mattress. His hand came up to card through your hair and you sighed softly at the contact, your eyes fluttering shut.

“Later,” Shayne murmured, kissing at your collarbone.

You gently tossed the ice pack you had grabbed from the actual medic from hand to hand as you watched Shayne open the back door to the van. “Is my bag still in here?” he asked, climbing in just enough to peer around the seats.

“Worry about the bag later, let me see your wounds.” You laughed.

Shayne nodded his head, turned around, and in a flash he had his shirt off, which he dropped to the desert ground. You really couldn’t help your sharp intake of air at the sight of his chest and upper arms. “Poor thing,” you cooed, walking over to inspect the welts closer. Very carefully, you raised the ice pack and pressed it against a particularly bad looking mark on Shayne’s chest near his collarbone; at the contact, Shayne shivered and you watched as his muscles flexed and small goose pimples appeared on his skin.

Slowly, you lifted your eyes up to Shayne’s face and you could feel your heart and your stomach do some strange maneuvers at the way he was looking back at you. That was nothing new, not really. Shayne had the uncanny ability to go from having a completely normal conversation to looking like he wanted to rip your clothes off. You didn’t always mind it.

“Babe,” you breathed as you languidly moved the ice to a different spot.

Shayne merely made a sort of interested noise in response as he took a step closer so that you could just nearly feel him against you. It was strange that despite being together for over a year and having known each other for longer the way his eyes shifted from sky blue to a stormy ocean in moments like this made your knees slightly weak.

It didn’t help that all you could think about was how Damien had interrupted the two of you the previous night before you could do much of anything.

Without much thought, you dropped the ice pack to the ground and rolled up onto your toes to press a firm, heated kiss against his lips.

“Let me blow you,” you panted against Shayne’s lips, your hands gingerly trailing down his chest, “Please, Shayne, I need to.”

Shayne moaned lowly and pulled away from the kiss to look back down at you with wide, lust blown eyes. You watched the way that his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard and you really couldn’t help but grin just a little bit. Shayne took in a deep breath and nodded as his hands found and squeezed tightly at your hips, “Right here or…?”

You shook your head in a dismissive manner and placed your hands on Shayne’s shoulders in order to turn and push him down to sit on the floor of the van with his feet planted on the hot ground outside, the force behind it obviously startling Shayne judging by the look in his eyes, but you didn’t care; you had this deep desire growing inside of you and you needed it.

You needed to do this, needed to have this; being essentially in the open while everyone else was taking lunch be damned.

You quickly settled on your knees between Shayne’s legs. The ground hot and slightly painful on your bare skin but it was easy to ignore. You hummed softly and laid your hands on Shayne’s knees before pushing them slowly up his thighs; your fingers made quick work of the button and zip of Shayne’s shorts. You grinned and leaned in as you pushed the sides of the closure open and lowers your head to mouth wetly at the hard line of his cock through his underwear.

Shayne let out a slow breath and allowed the fingers of his right hand to slide into your hair in order to rest against the back of your head. “C’mon, baby girl,” he encouraged, lifting his hips a little to get more friction. You lifted your head and blinked back up at Shayne with wide eyes.

 “Hold still,” you reprimanded with a grin.

Your fingers tucked into the waist of Shayne’s pants and boxers and tugged on them to get them down, Shayne lifted his hips to help, and you slowly licked your lips as Shayne’s cock slapped against his stomach; you grinned to yourself before you leaned in and licked a stripe from the base of his cock to the tip. You wrapped a hand around the base of Shayne’s cock and circled your lips around the head; your tongue swirling lazily around the tip.

You moaned lowly in the back of your throat as the taste of Shayne’s pre-come hit your tongue. Your lips tighten around his cock as you slowly started to bob your head up and down, taking more in with each down stroke. You hummed around Shayne and let your tongue trace patterns along the underside of his dick, making Shayne tighten his hand in your hair as he started to breathe harshly.

“Oh, god. Oh fuck. You’re so – ahh – fucking good, Y/N,” Shayne babbled as he started to help guide your head. 

You allowed Shayne to lead you, to show you what it was that he wanted or needed in that moment. You kept your lips tight and allowed your tongue a few teasing passes just to hear the gasps that would escape from Shayne’s mouth. While Shayne eagerly assisted your head, your hand began to quickly jerk him from the base of his cock in a quick and steady twisting motion that you knew from experience made him weak in the knees – sometimes literally.

Shayne flopped back to lean against of the first row of seats and the hand in your hair tightened more as he pulled on it. “Fuck, Y/N… I’m gonna… fuck,” he managed to gasp and moan, his hips canting up slightly.

If you were physically able to, you would have smirked. You knew just how to tear this man down. A moment later, or so it felt, you heard Shayne let out a long moan and felt his hot cum hit the back of your tongue. You moaned around his length and slowed down enough to be able to swallow all that he could give you before you pulled off of him with a wet popping sound.

“Well, fuck,” Shayne laughed, pushing a hand through his hair.

Slowly, you drifted your way into consciousness. And then promptly back out. The world was a dull blur, and random images seemed to float aimlessly around in the pool of your thoughts, as though they were being blown about viciously by a hurricane. A gentle hand placed on your stomach momentarily brought back your consciousness and returned your thoughts to the outside world, but after a brief second you were once again lost. 

Sleep had, very recently, begun to elude you as you entered the later stages of your pregnancy. Any rest that you managed to grasp ahold of was fragmented and easily interrupted by your own body, whether it be cramping, restlessness, the baby moving, or your own incessant need to urinate. Every night you found yourself dreading the thought of having to go to bed, knowing full well that it would be a miracle if you would be able to sleep more than an hour at a time. The constant up and down had started to weigh on you and you were feeling more than a little irritated every time that you woke up to see your fiance sleeping peacefully beside you.

The feeling tonight. however, was somehow intensified with the nagging back pain and stomach cramping that had started towards the early evening.

However, as you were swimming through your drowsy state of sleep and wakefulness, you could feel the gentle pressure of a hand gliding over your swollen stomach. You slowly opened your eyes and blinked a few times to adjust to the darkness, but your gaze quickly settled on the man sitting beside you on the bed. Shayne was staring, almost transfixed, on your belly as he carefully ran a hand over the curve. His face was close and you could hear him speaking softly to the baby within.

“Hello little one,” he whispered, smiling dopily, “We can’t wait to meet you… I know your mama is more than ready for you to come into the world.”

An effortless smile found its way to your face and you allowed your eyes to close once more and just focused on Shayne’s voice and the way his hand felt running over your skin. He chuckled softly in the dark and his hand stopped momentarily, his thumb brushing gently where you knew he must have felt the gentle kick at the same time that you did. You took a deep breath and shifted ever so slightly to try and move in such a way that would not disturb Shayne but move the baby enough to keep them from using your insides as a punching bag.

“You know, little bean, your mama has taken such good care of you and she doesn’t even complain. You keep her up all night, and, man, for the first month or so you didn’t let her eat anything… but she never said anything bad about it. I’m sure she wanted to, ‘cause she certainly found things to say about me,” he laughed light-heartedly as his hand resumed its circular motion, “But whenever you’re ready, we are too. You are already so fucking loved… shit, sorry. I know I shouldn’t swear in front of you. I’ll work on it.”

You couldn’t hold back the chuckle that bubbled up inside of you at his words and you opened your eyes to look up at him. Shayne’s face appeared a little sheepish but he kept his hand on your stomach as he watched you through the dark. “How long have you been awake?” he asked softly.

“Long enough,” you answered.

You reached a hand out to lay over top of his and gave his fingers a squeeze as you smiled up at him. “I love you,” you whispered, suddenly feeling the tell-tale sting of tears in your eyes, “And I know that they’re gonna love you too. You are going to be such a great dad.”

Shayne leaned forward, ducking his head down to press a soft, lingering kiss against your lips. He pulled back slowly and used his free hand to push his hair back and hold it there as he hovered ever so slightly over you, his eyes all but sparkling back at you through the darkness of your bedroom.

“I love you too, mama,” he replied grinning.

You wanted to roll your eyes at him but decided to just lean in again to press your lips to his. Just as your lips met, and the familiar scratchy feeling of his light facial hair pressed against your skin, your eyes snapped open and you pulled away with a gasp. Shayne sat up and looked down at you with a bewildered expression, unsure as to why you were suddenly struggling to sit up with a hand pressing to your abdomen. 

Shayne eyed you carefully, “Y/N… what’s wrong?”

Before you could answer, there was a painful twinge in your stomach and you let out a soft groan as you felt a wetness begin to pool under where you were sat. “I think my water just broke,” you whispered, closing your eyes tightly at the pain. Shayne made a very strange, high pitched sound as the bed shifted and when you cracked open your eyes you spotted him rushing around to your side of the bed.

“Okay, c’mon… Let’s get you cleaned up and we’ll go to the hospital,” he said, pulling back your blankets.

As he helped you to your feet, you gripped onto his arm as you attempted to steady yourself. He placed a protective hand over your stomach as he began to lead you to the bathroom and you could hear him let out a soft chuckle. “What in the fuck is so funny right now?” you snapped, cutting your eyes in his direction.

Shayne only smiled and shook his head, “I just told them we were ready… looks like they just needed a little motivation.”

He was also the person whose bed you would sometimes wake up in.

That part of your relationship was never really discussed. There were times when you were both feeling the less than gentle pluckings of loneliness at your heartstrings and it was easier to push that away with each other. But no matter how many times it happened, it never seemed to adversely affect your friendship in any way.

Or, that’s what you told yourself.

Spending time with Shayne in the context of just friends was becoming increasingly difficult in your own mind. But as you sat perched on his kitchen counter waiting for dinner to arrive, you desperately tried to push those thoughts away. Shayne emerged from his bedroom area, looking down at his phone for a moment but quickly put it away in his pocket.

“So, what do you wanna do tomorrow?” he asked, walking over to stand in front of you.

You shrugged a shoulder, “I’m not sure. But we should definitely go somewhere. I’m tired of just sitting at home every weekend.”

“Alright,” Shayne hummed softly, setting his hands on your knees, “Any ideas?”

You looked at him and, for just a moment, you found it difficult to focus on what he had asked you. Swallowing hard, you shook your head to refocus yourself on the question at hand. An idea popped into your head and you let out a soft laugh at the thought. “Take me to art museums and make out with me,” you said simply, flashing him a teasing smirk.

“But they said not to touch the masterpieces.”

There was a rush of heat to your cheeks but you simply rolled your eyes. “You’re a dork,” you laughed, slipping off of the counter. You patted Shayne on the cheek and attempted to scoot past him to head towards the living room where the movie the two of you had been watching earlier sat paused on the screen.

Unexpectedly, his hand reached out and grabbed hold of your  hip. It settled there and pulled you closer. You inhaled sharply. You were suddenly against his warm chest. You splayed your hand against it, intending to push him away, but instead your left it there. His breathing quickened as did your own. He began nuzzling your neck with delicate kisses. So faint, they were whispers.

You urged yourself to push away, but couldn’t. Your limp body began to tremble in his hold and mentally you scolded yourself. This was not how you intended to spend the evening but both your brain and your heart were conflicted in what to do. His head was angled slightly to the side as his lips came closer and closer to yours. You were surprised to find your own lips parted, as if on their own. Your breaths mingled. Your heart fluttered inside your chest. At first, it was a delicate butterfly of a kiss. Then his arms encircled you. His grip tightened at your hips, pulling you into him, pressing himself into you. Your hungry mouth melded into his, situation that led to this moment completely forgotten. The tip of his tongue brushed your lips, insisted, and you opened to let him in, welcomed the urgent thrusting that sent a wildfire of searing flames racing through your body.

The loud knocking at Shayne’s front door pulled you from the moment and back into reality, forcing you to pull away from the kiss and stare back at him, panting, with wide eyes. Shayne’s eyes were seemingly unfocused and his lips were reddened while his expression was more than a little confused. There was another knock, and it seemed to bring Shayne back as well.

He moved through the living room and to the front door leaving you standing there, trying to figure out what just happened. It had never happened like this before. There were no impromptu makeouts in his kitchen on a Friday night. You turned around to see Shayne setting the food down on the table and he looked back at you with hooded eyes and a smirk tugging at his lips.

“So, about the museum?”

At least the curtains were still closed, you were always adverse to bright light when you were hungover. You thought that maybe you could sleep it off. You curled up into a ball and closed your eyes. You wanted to be nineteen again when you didn’t get hangovers, now with each passing year they got worse. This must be why so many older folks didn’t get drunk anymore, they’d learnt the hard way.

From beyond the doorway, you could hear the sound of shuffling feet and assumed that Shayne was already up and moving around. You cracked a single eye to see him making his way into the bedroom. He looked better than you felt, that was for sure. He murmured a soft greeting and made his way around the bed to lay down behind you.

“You alive?” he asked with a soft chuckle.

You groaned lowly, “Just barely.”

Letting out a slow breath, you rolled over onto your side and draped an arm over your eyes. The movement made it feel as though there was now a slowly inflating balloon on your skull, pressing against the boundary and making your head pound painfully. You carefully lifted your arm and peeked across the bed to see that the comforter was kicked to the bottom of the mattress.

“Shayne,” you whined softly, “Can I get some cover?”

He was silent for a moment but then in a move too fast for you bleary mind to comprehend, he hopped up and launched himself at you. “Get down,” he shouted as he draped himself over your body. He clasped his hands together in a finger-gun, pointing at the doorway. He made an array of ‘pew-pew’ sounds as he pretended to shoot his gun.

You groaned and whined and attempted to push him off of you but he was too heavy.

“Oh, my god, Shayne. It’s 8:30, I have a hangover and you’re annoying me,” you complained loudly.

Shayne stopped and sat up on his knees, looking down at you. His hair was in every direction and he looked down at you with a furrowed brow. “It’s almost ten,” he said, a smirk tugging at his lips. You huffed loudly and rolled over onto your side, your back to him. “You’re still annoying me,” you murmured, all but shoving your head underneath your pillow.

“FIne then. See if I order you breakfast tacos,” he said almost petulantly.

You felt the bed move as he tried to get up, but you shot a hand backwards to grab at his wrist, holding tightly. “Please, I love you. Feed me tacos,” you said, voice muffled.

In all honesty, part of you felt a little silly. You’d never really done this before so you weren’t sure of the protocol. Was there really a protocol for this, anyway? You shifted the bamboo cube into your hand non dominant hand so you could raise your hand and knock on the red door in front of you. Nervously, you shuffled your feet as you waited patiently for the door to open. Inside the apartment, you could hear some sort of rustling inside before you were jolted slightly by the sudden movement of the door opening quickly.

“Y/N!” Shayne greeted happily, slightly out of breath.

You couldn’t help but smile widely back at him. Looking over him, you noticed that his hair was damp and a little wild while he was wearing just a pair of grey sweatpants paired with a Cowbae shirt from Summer Games. “Hey, Shayne,” you replied, your nervousness fading at the sight of your boyfriend.

Shayne chuckled softly, and pushed his hair back from his face before he stepped aside, “Here, come in.”

Nodding slightly, you stepped inside the apartment and as Shayne shut the door, you toed off your shoes to set them beside the rack of his own shoes by the door. When you turned around to face him, Shayne smiled at you and stepped closer to press a kiss to your lips which made you hum softly in contentment.

“Oh,” you said as you pulled away, “This is for you.”

You held out the cube you had been holding to present him with a bouquet of peach roses, white asiatic lilies, peach miniature carnations, and white stock accented with pitta negra, dusty miller, and a green echeveria succulent. You had been out running errands before you were going to go over to Shayne’s apartment and this bouquet just caught your eye.

He was silent for a moment and in concerned you slightly but his smile grew exponentially and you watched as his eyes softened just a bit as he looked from the flowers to you. He reached out and took them from you before leaning in to kiss you again, a little longer than the first time. “These are amazing, Y/N, really. Thank you,” he gushed. He walked through the living area to place them down on the shelf next to his television.

“I know you really like flowers, and I was out getting stuff earlier, and while I was getting ready to head home I saw that and I don’t know, it reminded me of you,” you said softly, feeling your cheeks heat up.