Hello!
Happy Valentines Day! If you're in a relationship then I hope that you have a lovely day and if you're not then you can come and mope with me and pretend that you're in relationships with fictional characters. XD
Anyway, to make me feel better about being completely alone, I decided to dedicate the past two weeks or so to writing these one-shot type thing-ys. I got a few prompts that I filled to the best of my abilities but then I added some other shorter ones that were just my own little ideas. I'm so sorry that it's taken me this long to write them, I had a mild case of writer's block at the start and then I just couldn't get my momentum back, so I've been kind of rushing to finish them (I still have one left to write as I'm posting this XD). I hope that they're not too terrible though, I really didn't want to ruin your prompts because they were all so wonderful.
This first one that I'm posting is based on Kellyh's lovely idea for a Mack & Brady one shot, so I hope that I did it justice for you and I hope that everyone else likes it too! (Beware: This is a long one!)
Brady couldn't concentrate all day, his mind was too preoccupied. The thing on his mind: Mack. Well, more like coming up with ideas for Mack. You see, as soon as Mack had complained to him that she was all out of themes for the school's Valentine's dance, that she'd been dragged into heading the planning committee of, he knew that he had failed her as a boyfriend. He could understand it if the person heading the planning team had never been in a relationship before, but considering that it was his girlfriend who was lacking so much romantic inspiration, he couldn't seem to comprehend it. And he was not going to let this go until he helped Mack come up with a theme for the dance that would rival any other in the history of school dances. It was a bit of a long-shot but if he had low expectations then he was going to get nowhere. The only problem was, how was he going to drag Mack away from her textbooks long enough to take her out on a date? Or should I say dates?
It wasn't until that weekend though that Brady finally had everything planned out. And that's when this happened…
Brady – What are you doing?
Mack – Homework, why?
Brady – Can it wait?
Mack – Why? What do you want?
Brady – I want to see my girlfriend in a pretty date outfit
Brady – Not that you don't look pretty in everything ;)
Mack – Brady if you're outside the front door I'm going to kill you
"Is being outside your window any better then?" Brady chuckled, poking his head around the open kitchen window that just so happened to be directly behind Mack.
As a result of this, Mack may or may not have jumped out of her skin…and Brady may or may not have laughed his head off.
"Do you want to give me a heart attack?" Mack asked, pressing her hand over her chest as she turned in her seat to talk to the blonde through the window.
"Well you gave me one last week when you wore that bikini," Brady laughed.
"Which one?"
"You know which one," Brady smirked, which resulted in him getting a thump on the arm from the brunette.
"Why do you always insist on bothering me when I'm busy?" Mack asked, trying to keep the smile that kept tugging at her lips from completely taking over her face. It just so happens that every single time that she tries to be mad at Brady, she starts to giggle. She doesn't know what makes her start, but when she's started she can't stop, and Brady just finds it hilarious, which doesn't help matters.
"Because you're busy all the time and if I don't interrupt your algebra schedule then I'm not going to see you again until summer," Brady chuckled.
"Wouldn't that be lovely? A whole four months without having to see your ugly face," Mack teased, to which Brady replied with an expression mocking shock.
"You are so rude," he chuckled.
"It's a gift," Mack smirked, lazily leaning over the back of her chair as she gazed at the surfer boy.
"Are you coming or not?" Brady asked, holding his hand out to Mack and dazzling her with a warm, yet expectant smile.
"Not through the window I'm not," Mack laughed, playfully batting Brady's hand away. And after scribbling a quick note to tell her grandfather where she'd gone, she was out of the front door and sat in Brady's car within minutes.
One car ride of stupidly loud sing-alongs and Mack bugging Brady with questions of 'Where are we even going anyway?' later, the couple pulled into a parking space beside a road lined with quaint, little shops.
"Where are you taking me?" Mack asked, shooting the grinning blonde beside her an amused, yet curious look.
"You'll see," Brady laughed. "Stop asking questions and just let me surprise you for once."
"You know how much I hate surprises," Mack jokingly whined.
"Well if life didn't have any surprises then it would be pretty boring, wouldn't it?" Brady chuckled as the couple merrily swung their entwined hands between them. No more than a few seconds later, Brady dragged Mack off the course of the pavement and into a musty, old record shop that smelled vaguely of mildew and cinnamon.
"What are we doing in here?" Mack asked, gazing around the store before her eyes returned to Brady's. The shop was pretty much dead apart from three people, one of whom was an employee sitting behind the register, sipping on a cup of coffee. The walls were dark wood and the ceilings were low, and along with the soft, glow of the lights, the store felt very cosy, almost comforting in a way.
"Well you've been saying how you've got no ideas for the dance, so I thought I'd bring you here to see if you could get some inspiration for the music," Brady explained, watching with glee as Mack's lips broadened into a smile.
"You're so thoughtful," Mack chuckled, bumping the boy's arm with hers as she bashfully averted her eyes to the intricately patterned carpet. She never knew how to react when Brady was this sweet to her.
"Not really, it took me a week to come up with this," Brady snorted, stepping behind his girlfriend before taking her by the shoulders and propelling her further into the shop.
After a few minutes of puzzling over the shelves to no avail, Brady came up with a game. Each person had to scour the many shelves of the record shop until they found a record that they believed fitted the other the best. So around half an hour of rifling through boxes and crates later, Mack and Brady met back up at the front of the store with their newly purchased vinyls.
"You go first then," Brady prompted, holding the faded cardboard sleeve behind his back so that Mack couldn't see what he'd picked out for her.
Mack brought out a record that was the soundtrack from an old-school 1950s/1960s musical (she wasn't exactly sure which since the cover was pretty tattered) and handed it over to Brady. "If you don't like this then you're not as predictable as I thought you were," Mack chuckled. And after the entire spiel of Brady gushing over the album and insisting that they watch the soundtrack's film as soon as physically possible, much to Mack's amusement, Brady handed over his.
"You're harder to buy for but I thought that you'd appreciate something like this," Brady said, handing over the vinyl record that he'd chosen. The album appeared to consist of relaxed love songs, which was actually a huge help to Mack considering that she needed a music theme for the Valentine's Day dance. And who knows, maybe with a music theme would come an overall theme. After Brady explained his reasoning for selecting the record and recommending a few songs (he was a total music connoisseur, especially when it came to more vintage-y music) Mack had to try to force her smile off her face for fear that her cheeks would start cramping.
One quick kiss and an impromptu giggling fit from Mack later, the couple were on their way again, journey down the row of old shops until they stumbled across a tumbledown book shop with a battered front door. Brady led Mack inside, much to her confusion, and spun on his heels to face her, once again about to lay down the reason for why he'd taken her into such a bizarre shop. This time the air felt thick with dust and it was almost like Mack could taste the scent of the old books' stale, faded pages.
"This time, instead of picking records for each other," Brady started to explain, still lovingly clutching his record under his arm. "We have to select a book that we think the other would enjoy. Rule is that we have to read it and tell each other about it once we've finished it. I know that you find crazy ideas in books all the time, because you always tell me about them, so maybe this will help you with ideas for the dance."
"Awesome," Mack grinned. Now that she knew what she was doing on this crazy date, she was starting to enjoy herself a lot more. "Let's get looking."
"Ok, just don't try to find the biggest book you can, I don't have that much free time," Brady chuckled.
"Darn it, now what am I going to look for?" Mack said sarcastically, hearing Brady's laugh rather than seeing him because she'd already disappeared behind a shelf.
Once the couple had finally selected their novels and had emerged from the world of stories waiting to be told, they paid for the books and met back up outside, relieved to be finally breathing normal air again. The books were exchanged like the records had been, each couple marvelling over their new reading material as it was presented to them. Mack had managed to find a copy of one of her favourite classics, which she distinctly remember Brady saying that he had never even heard of, let alone read. So at least now all of the references that she made to the story would actually make some sense to him. And Brady had picked out a slightly more modern book for Mack that was a typical romance novel where the protagonist was whisked off her feet by her knight in shining armour. But since he knew that Mack would find that very cliché, he'd picked out a story with a similar theme but a twist on it. Sure Mack wasn't very fond of full-on romance stories, but hopefully this one would give her some sort of inspiration for the dance without her vomiting over cheesy love poems every other page.
This wasn't the end of their date though. Despite going back to Brady's car and driving back to Mack's place, their date accidentally carried on for another 24 hours.
The couple spent the rest of the afternoon listening to their new vinyls (and some that Brady had brought over from his place too) on Mack's grandfather's record player, lazily chatting and doing the occasional homework question. They were both just sprawled out around Mack's bedroom, sometimes switching places from Mack's bed to her desk or even to sit by the window. They were too lazy to bother making any dinner for themselves so they just ordered a pizza and watched the film that Brady's soundtrack fitted with after managing to find it on Netflix (what are the odds?!). But around forty minutes after the movie had finished but just after they'd reached a conclusion to the deep, yet stupid, conversation and character analysis that they'd initiated as soon as the credits had started to roll, Mack glanced up at the clock on the mantel piece and to her dismay saw that it was almost eleven o'clock.
"What are you looking at?" Brady asked, noticing that something had distracted his girlfriend. But as he followed her line of sight, his eyes fell on the time as well. "Shoot, I'd better get home."
"Is it really worth it?" Mack asked with a yawn, oddly relaxed.
Brady had expected her to be jumping off the couch to help him gather his things, but nope, she had snuggled back down underneath the blanket they had been sat with. "What are you talking about?"
"Is it worth going home? Would it be easier for you to just spend the night here?" Mack asked, thinking nothing of her comment, too tired to be thinking rationally.
"Seriously?" Brady asked, almost choking on his chuckle.
"Seriously," Mack replied with a smirk.
"Are you offering me your couch to sleep on?" Brady asked, raising one of his eyebrows as he glanced across at Mack.
"Well yes, unless you'd prefer to sleep in the bathtub that is," Mack said sarcastically, moving into a more upright position. But that wasn't for long because pretty much immediately afterwards she pushed herself up off the sofa and grabbed Brady by the hands. After dragged him off the couch the couple strolled down the hallway to get ready for bed. Considering that all of Brady's clothes, apart from a stray sweatshirt that had ended up at Mack's house after a water fight got out of hand, were at his house, he had to improvise when it came to finding something to wear to sleep in so that he didn't scare the living daylights out of Mack's grandfather. The best thing that he and Mack could come up with was one of Mack's loose night shirts (which was more like a t-shirt for Brady) over his boxers. It might not be incredibly fashionable but that was all that they could actually fit over his torso, so it would have to do. The fact that it had a big pink heart sprawled over the chest did amuse Mack immensely though.
Fast forward to a little bit later, when Mack and Brady had decided that starting to read their newly purchased novels was a great thing to do before going to bed. Now it seemed like a good idea at first, with the couple snuggled up under Mack's duvet, each one lost in their respective fictional worlds. But when Mack reach the end of a chapter and heard a loud snore coming from her left, the plan didn't sound so great anymore. Brady had drifted off to sleep without her realising, leaving his book limply propped open in his hand and the tiniest trace of drool starting to escape the side of his open mouth, which was happily emitting snores much louder than Mack would have liked. At first she let out a chuckle at how stupidly adorable he looked, but then it hit her with the problem of: she had a deep-sleeper boyfriend in her bed that she had no way of moving. Either she went to go and sleep on the couch, or she bit the bullet and just went to sleep where she was…
Oh, who cared? It's not like anything bad was going to happen and besides, she didn't have the heart to wake him up anyway. So a very sleepy Mack made her decision and wriggled further down under the covers. But apparently Brady wasn't such a deep-sleeper after all, because just as she was reaching over to turn off the bedside light she could have sworn that he said something. Mack stopped and took a second to look at him before whispering, "What?" But she got no decipherable answer, just another sleepy mumble. But it was a sleepy mumble with a dopey, yet oddly charming smile that was too adorable to handle and left Mack with a stomach of butterflies and an undeniable smile fixed on her lips as she let herself drift off to sleep to.
Mack woke up to early morning sunlight filtering through the curtains and casting sunspots around the room, which was admittedly very nice. But the one thing that was especially lovely was that somehow during the night Mack had found herself enveloped into a hug courtesy of the blonde goofball she suddenly remembered that she'd shared a bed with. As Brady's chin rested on her shoulder and his arms looped around her stomach, she felt his heavy breaths tickling her cheek and couldn't help the smile that instinctively sprung onto her face. After attempting to slide out of his grasp, Mack discovered that with every move that she made to exit the bed, Brady's grip on her tightened and the mischievous smile she'd just noticed tugging at his lips broadened.
"Good morning," she said, trying to stop herself from letting out a laugh as she spoke.
"Morning," Brady mumbled sleepily, still not having fully woken up. Although being sleepy didn't stop him from pulling Mack even closer to him than before.
"Brady, come on, I've got to get up," Mack said, trying (and failing) once again to get out of bed.
"No, stay and cuddle," Brady whined almost childishly, his mischievous smile not seeming to leave his face the entire time he spoke.
"Brady," Mack started as one of the chuckles that she'd been trying to supress escaped her lips. But she couldn't protest any longer because the cheeky, yet surprisingly persuasive, kiss that he pressed into her shoulder was more than enough of an invitation for Mack to stay and cuddle for a little bit. And it was an offer that she just simply couldn't refuse.
During their 'morning cuddle', Brady came up with the fabulous idea of going on a picnic for lunch. When Mack questioned him and seemed reluctant to tag along, Brady came up with a rather convincing explanation of how it would help her plan the food for the Valentine's Day dance. And once again, Mack couldn't bring herself to turn down the invitation, so after Brady made a quick journey back to his place to freshen up and make himself look half decent, the couple were stood preparing food in Mack's kitchen.
"Brady, I think that I've cut enough tomatoes now," Mack said, although it was more like she was trying to persuade him rather than just stating a fact.
"Believe me, you can never have too many tomatoes," Brady said, before grabbing a whole cherry tomato from the bowl beside the brunette and popping it into his mouth.
But what was supposed to be Brady goofing off to make Mack laugh turned into Brady goofing off and distracting Mack from what she was doing, which resulted in the knife that she was holding clattering onto the chopping board and Mack hissing a rather colourful word out between her teeth.
"What did you do?" Brady asked, doing a double take and furrowing his eyebrows before settling his gaze on his girlfriend. But Mack just mumbled out an excuse that made no sense considering that she'd started sucking on her finger to cope with the pain and staunch the flow of blood. "I told you to cut the tomatoes, not your finger," Brady said, taking on a tone half way between joking and sympathy.
"Well it's not like I meant to do it," Mack whined.
"You're just lucky that I know where your first aid kit is," Brady said, opening a cupboard door and sliding the first aid box off the top shelf.
"Hey, I can't help being clumsy," Mack said, her words muffled by her finger, which was still firmly lodged in her mouth.
"Now what type of plaster do you want?" Brady asked whilst rifling through the assortment of plastic packages that had been haphazardly thrown into the box.
"Do you think I really care?" Mack asked, raising one of her eyebrows.
"Well in that case you can have a lovely little dinosaur one," Brady chuckled, selecting the childish plaster from the pack before tending to Mack's cut. After removing the plastic backing and laying the adhesive bandage over the miniscule gash he placed a soft kiss on her finger. "Better now?" he asked, lifting his brown eyes up to meet hers.
"Much better," Mack giggled before raising her finger to inspect her new plaster. "Nice choice on the design," she added sarcastically, rolling her eyes as she noticed a tiny cartoon triceratops walking over her skin.
"Thanks, I heard that t-rex are very stylish this season," Brady shot back, replying to Mack's challenging glance with an impish smile.
The rest of the preparation continued without a hitch and before they knew it, Mack and Brady were sat cross-legged on a beach towel on the stretch of sand around a hundred metres down the beach from Mack's house. Despite the cloudy sky that seemed to keep getting darker, the pair decided to keep optimistic and unpacked everything anyway. But they were barely halfway through their miniature turkey club sandwiches when fat, drops of rain started to fall from the heavens.
"Are you serious?" Brady asked no one in particular, glaring up at the sky. "We're kind of trying to have a romantic moment here." And that's when a drop of rain found itself falling straight into his eye.
The rain was coming down thick and fast within less than a minute and it was a mad scramble of squeals and fumbling hands to stuff everything back in the picnic basket before it got completely ruined. Mack took the basket whilst Brady reached for the picnic blanket and attempted to use it as a shelter for them both until they reached the canopy of Mack's grandfather's surf shop. Between breathless laughs, Mack and Brady finally made it up the steps to safety, instantly slumping against the wall as they reached it.
"Well that was successful," Mack sighed sarcastically. "And now we've got all this left over food."
"Hey, who said picnics inside aren't fun?" Brady asked, standing over Mack with a playful grin. He managed to tuck a wet strand of hair, which was determined to stick to her cheek, behind her ear before softly caressing her lips. Who knew Brady could be so persuasive?
Even though the couple's 'inside picnic' had been incredibly amusing (what with the endless games of 'who can catch the most grapes in their mouth?' and the blindfolded 'what item of food am I touching?' and not the mention the pointless conversations that had somehow become a theme whenever they hung out) Brady still felt bad that his date idea had turned out to be a flop. So once he got back home, his mind started to tick over again and before long he managed to come up with a plan.
Brady – Mack?
Mack – Brady?
Brady – Please don't tell me you've had dinner yet
Mack – I haven't, why? Don't tell me that you've sent a surprise pizza delivery to my house again.
Brady – Look outside ;)
Mack – Brady, I swear to God…
But when Mack poked her head out of her bedroom window, she spotted none other than her goofball of a boyfriend stood below it. He was stood on top of a picnic blanket that was laden with even more picnic-esque food than they had prepared that morning and the little area had been surrounded with candles and sets of fairy lights that had been strung up in the nearby trees.
"Are you coming to join me or what?" Brady called to her. Although he already knew Mack's answer from the way that her eyes had lit up.
Sure enough, Mack hurried outside and was at Brady's side within minutes. "You did all this for me?" Mack asked as Brady slotted his arms around her waist.
"Of course," he grinned before greeting her with a tender kiss.
"You really didn't need to, spending the day with you yesterday was more than enough," Mack started.
"Hey, I'm allowed to spoil you a little bit, aren't I?" Brady chuckled. "It's almost Valentine's Day after all."
"What did I ever do to deserve a boyfriend like you?" Mack sighed, her brown eyes melting into Brady's.
"I don't know," Brady shyly laughed, having to tear his gaze away from hers before his cheeks burst into flames.
It wasn't long after that that they tucked into the food, which Brady had spent all afternoon preparing for them, and soon later they were wrapped up in more pointless conversations. Their entire evening was illuminated by the unreliable flickering of the candles that filled the night with every scent from roasted marshmallows to wild roses considering that Brady had 'borrowed' them from his older sister. But as their candlelit dinner came to an end, their evening together didn't. They both laid side by side on the beach towel, gazing up at the sky and listening to the distant lapping of the ocean on the shore. Although having stupid conversations was a favourite pass-time of theirs, just being in each other's company was enough to fill their entire being with tiny flames that warmed them from the inside out. And as their hands silently entwined and Mack's head found its place in the crook of Brady's shoulder, everything seemed to slot into place. This is what perfection felt like. And perfection was the goofy, yet adorable surfer that they had fallen for.
"You think you've got enough ideas for the dance now?" Brady asked.
"Yeah, I've got a few," Mack sighed as both her and Brady's lips twisted into content smiles. These past two days had benefitted them in more ways than they could count.
There you go! I hope that you liked it!
I know this was super long and it was focusing on what they were doing more than the dialogue but I had so many ideas that if I went through each one in detail then it would take hours to read. XD I promise that the others aren't this long!
So this was Mack and Brady's Valentines Day (sort of), next will be the ones that I've written for the Wet Side Story characters. I'll be back with the next installment in an hour or so when I've read through the next chapter, I've gotten more of the not-yet-started chapter written and I've spent a sufficient amount of time fantasising about fictional characters being my boyfriend. XD
See you soon! Thank you for reading!
-cherrygorilla