"I was wondering if you could do a flinching prompt. Like we never get to see Toni's background but from the sounds of it her uncle was very abusive, and with all the fighting that's been happening on the show I figured one time Cheryl would talk to much with her hands and Toni would flinch or something idk I'm not a writer haha that's my prompt anyways :)"

Thank you for your prompt idea anon and yes I absolutely do take prompts! Thanks for yours, I loved it! Please feel free to send more in!

TW: mentions of past abuse/violence

This is set fairly early on in their relationship (end of season 2, before the road trip).

...

Cheryl was leading another Vixens practice, trying to get the girls to learn the new routine before their next performance.

"No" she yelled, walking between the girls and trying to correct them as they made mistakes.

"It's not like this" she demonstrated what the small blonde in front of her was doing with her arms. "It's like this.." she modeled, the girl nodding as she tried to take to in.

Toni was stood nearby, trying to perfect the moves herself. Cheryl noticed that she seemed a little on edge but couldn't quite put her finger on why.

Cheryl continued to yell, the complicated arm sequence needed before a big lift clearly causing problems for more than a few of the girls on the squad.

Cheryl continued to pace, eventually coming to stand in front of Toni, watching as she performed the routine.

Cheryl reached out to move Toni's arm to the correct position, but Toni flinched away, her arms quickly moving to protect herself before dropping to her sides.

"T.T?" Cheryl's eyes were wide as she realized what had happened.

"Sorry.." Toni mumbled, her cheeks flushing red as she scuffed her foot against the gym floor, avoiding Cheryl's gaze.

"Did you think I..?" Cheryl was horrified at the thought that Toni could even think she would hurt her, nothing was further from

The truth.

"Can we just drop it please?" she went back to practicing and was grateful that Cheryl moved on to someone else without any other word about it.

...

After practice, Cheryl hung back after she was showered and changed, waiting for a quiet moment to talk to her girlfriend.

When they were finally the last two there, she checked the door was firmly closed before approaching her girlfriend.

"Can we talk about earlier please?" Her eyes searched Toni's as she guided them both to sit down on the bench.

"It was just a reflex, i'm sorry Cher.."

"It was more than that T.T.." Cheryl whispered softly, her slender fingers moving gently across Toni's forearm.

"Look..I know you'd never hurt me okay? When your hand was coming towards me earlier, some part of my brain reacted before I had the chance to be rational about it.."

Cheryl nodded, waiting for Toni to continue.

"My uncle..he'd sometimes.." she trailed off, her voice quiet.

"Hit you?" Cheryl supplied, even the thought of anyone hurting Toni upsetting to her.

"I guess it was just old muscle memory.." she confirmed with a nod. "I'm sorry."

"You don't ever have to be sorry. We all have our own demons we're dealing with" Cheryl knew that better than anyone. "Thank you for being honest with me.."

"Always" Toni leaned in to kiss her girlfriend, pulling her closer as their foreheads met. "Thank you for understanding."

Cheryl understood more than Toni realized, but that was a talk for another time.

...

This collection of one shots will be based on the various Choni prompts I am sent by you lovely readers! You can leave a prompt in the comments or use the "Ask" feature on my tumblr (theauthenticme2019).