Waking up, it took the woman a second to remember where she was. Oh right, they moved into their new place two days ago and didn't sleep until last night to get as much unpacked as possible. Not just any place, but a freaking house that they owned. They weren't renting it, they bought it, for a pair of twenty three year olds that was impressive. Only last month they were dreaming about having a house, now here they were after a lot of little things lined up just right so they could afford it. It wasn't much, just a small starter home with a spare room they hadn't decided what to do with yet, probably get a fold out couch or something in case someone stayed the night, but she honestly didn't care. Neither did he, both were happy having a place to call their own. No more annoying landlord or people in the next apartment over banging down their door for some noise complaint because they were having an argument (read: screaming match) or threatening to evict them if Vicky set off the smoke detector for the fifth time in a month. Nope now they could do all of that in peace. Well they might get the odd noise complaint. At any rate it had been an exciting couple of days. Took several hours for them to realize they never went to bed the first night while they unpacked and got everything put away. A few boxes of clothes were still sitting in the closet but those could wait until later.
Sitting up, she ran a hand through her pixie cut hair making it stick up at odd angles, and looked around for her boyfriend. How he always woke up before her was a mystery, the only time she saw him sleep was if she fell asleep after him or he took a nap before she got home from work. Some weird thing he had about waking up before all the alarms that were set to get her lazy self out of bed. The redhead was annoyed that he wandered off to do who knows what instead of enjoying her not quite awake affections he was complaining about never getting enough of when she smelled the telltale aroma of a large breakfast. Eggs and toast was typical for them but once in a while the brunette went all out. Good, might as well put his wife skills to use since she wasn't allowed to use the stove or oven without Timmy supervision anymore. Even with the lessons he insisted on since Valentine's Day she hadn't improved much.
Running her other hand through her hair she felt the other new addition that she'd stumbled across while unpacking, a gold band with a diamond flanked by a pair of small emeralds. His face when he saw her holding the box had been priceless and she considered opening it but instead asked if she could. What followed had been a mixture of sappy cliché romance, ridiculous amounts of stumbling over words, and finally having the small box thrown at her by a flustered Timmy. Watching him squirm was her favorite pastime, well it might be tied with another activity, but she enjoyed herself all the same examining the ring on her finger for several minutes while he worried himself. Poor man turned green when she took it off and walked over to him, took his hand, and slipped the ring onto one of his fingers.
"Want to be my wife Turner?" Took her an hour to calm him down enough to get it back and tell him yes, she'd let him have the honor of having her as his wife.
Much as she wished she could deny it, it made her feel sappy romance feelings. Brat knew how to bring out her better side.
The smell of coffee brought her back to the present and after pulling the shirt he'd had on yesterday on, she went to the kitchen to get a cup of bitter, energy boosting sludge. Only to be distracted by the sight of her now fiancé wearing only a pair of pajama pants and his hair in a little ponytail. Since his boss let him work from home he'd taken full advantage of being able to neglect his appearance although he was more than ready to get a trim but protests from the redhead were enough to convince him to put it off for a little while longer. Girly looking as he was, having longer hair was a good look for him, gave him a less clean cut appearance especially when he forgot to shave for a couple days. Damn she was too sappy after waking up, something she would forever blame on him.
He must have heard her because he didn't jump like he usually did when she hugged him from behind, resting her head on the back of his neck.
"Well look who's affectionate this morning." Timmy gave one of her hands a gentle squeeze before returning to his task.
Slightly annoyed with the early morning teasing she went to pour some coffee, feeling smug when she caught the pout on her lover's face. While she was busy doing that he slide the plate he'd been putting the cooked sausage on towards her. To show her appreciation the redhead refilled his coffee cup despite how much she hated ruining perfectly good coffee with a bunch of sugar and creamer. Patience is not her thing, especially when waiting for food to finish cooking. Sitting on the counter, she nibbled on the links between sips of coffee and took up on of her favorite activities that she would never admit to.
See when her boyfriend cooks his mind goes somewhere else and it leaves him relaxed and content. It's nice seeing him get out of his own head for a little bit rather than worry and fret over stupid little things all the time. He'd worry about his friends, if someone was feeling down he'd think about them for the rest of the day, were his parents taking care of themselves, would he come home to find his kitchen destroyed again, were they going to have enough money to take care of x, y, and z? Something about cooking let all that go away, she noticed it a few years ago and ever since started…encouraging him to do so more often, not a hard thing to convince him to do when the alternative was letting her cook. Maybe one day she'd let him in on it, if he didn't know already, the brunette could be perceptive once in a blue moon when you wish he'd stay his normally dense self.
And there she goes being all mushy again. Fifteen years ago when her sister dragged her along to some babysitting gig to watch a sheltered boy she never would have dreamed he'd turn her soft. Well it was more of a soft spot, a little spot, or so she told herself. Mostly for him, although her nieces were doing the exact same thing in a different way…Had they really known each other that long? Decade and a half, nine as friend-enemies, and seven as a couple, jeez did she even remember what life was like before he was dropped into it? The answer was not really, there were vague memories of school friends that she never spoke to outside of class, being the difficult younger sibling, but not much else. God she hated feeling so sentimental.
A pair of bright blue eyes brought her out of her thoughts, their owner smiling at her. Still suffering from half awake affection she leaned into the hand on her cheek, covering it with her own.
"I love you." There was no embarrassment at having so suddenly voiced the three words that she hardly ever said without some coaxing, no surprised look from Timmy, no teasing, just blue meeting pink. Neither was sure why but everything just seemed right, like everything was perfect and in place right then. It was one of those moments you hold onto to make it last as long as possible.
So the redhead kissed the person who'd weaseled his way into her heart. Sleepy, lazy kiss and light touches that made them both feel like they were in heaven.
Only to be rudely interrupted by the fire alarm going off as the neglected black mess on the stove that had been eggs burned.
In the year that followed they had to endure the pestering of parents, some friends, and the woman responsible for introducing them . Everyone wanted to know when they were planning on getting married, how many people would they invite, trying to convince them this season was best or this venue would be perfect. Only Chester knew they planned on going down to the courthouse at some point to make it official. As long as Tootie didn't find out before it happened it would be fine. Why people were pushing for them to marry a.s.a.p. was beyond them, they were twenty three when the 'proposal' happened, what harm would a year or two between that and the wedding cause?
Besides there were a few matters they both wanted to get squared away first. One unexpected item added to that list came a few months after moving into their house. At first it wasn't much of a problem since they'd been fighting ever since they met but it wasn't quite the same. While the redhead was somewhat more stubborn her fiancé rivaled it with his patience even if there were times it went out the window. Apologies were more his territory too. Ninety eight percent of the time he was the first to try to rectify the situation, apologizing if he was at fault (often even when he wasn't). However it was different after those first few months. For a while she let it slide, let him go off to seethe thinking that was what he wanted or maybe even needed with all the prying loved ones were doing. It was what she preferred doing anyway and since he didn't voice any different she did nothing. Just to be clear she wasn't happy about doing it, it felt wrong to see someone as caring as him shutting himself up. But he'd eventually say what he needed to, he always did.
Well, he used to. Months went by without him returning to his normal self. Little things set him off; she left a mess, didn't clean up after herself, he took offense to teasing. Yeah she did all of that, regularly, ever since they'd first started sharing a living space, he would ask her to help more and she wasn't anywhere near as bad anymore. It'd annoyed him but starting fights over it? That wasn't normal. The first few times she didn't say a word about his outbursts instead she went and cleaned up whatever set him off or apologized. After that she made comments about him being uptight, asking why it was such a big deal now, and about a year after they moved in she started snapping at him for it. Didn't help matters much so a couple weeks of snapping back and forth the redhead tried getting him to talk to her about it. Took a few tries to word it so she didn't sound like she was accusing him of being a prick about it, this was his territory not her's after all. That was when she really started to worry, because he downright refused to talk about it. The brunette would drop the topic or change it.
Six weeks later he started sleeping in the spare room, offering no explanation as to why. Vicky tried for a month to get him to open back up to her before reaching out to their friends for help. Unfortunately some of them had drifted too far apart over the years to be of much assistance. A.J. said he seemed like his normal self when they spoke over the phone. Blondie gave her a similar report although he did add that the brunette no longer spoke about her. According to the blonde that wasn't normal, his friend would ask the blonde's opinion on how to deal with her latest tantrum, if his date idea was too cheesy, retell one of their misadventures, it surprised him how much his friend talked about her until Timmy stopped. Of course after a while of gentle coaxing and friends (and once her sister) she straight up asked about the shift in his behavior. Forget giving her the cold shoulder, all she wanted was to see him back to his old self. After the thousandth 'I don't know' she stopped asking. It killed her to see him going through this and having no clue how to help. All she could think to try was imitating him; did little things to show her affection, got help with cooking dinner a few times, said she was there for him if he ever wanted to talk.
All of it dragged on for months with him growing more and more indifferent to her, not quite cold but something similar to it. They didn't act like a couple anymore, hell their interactions couldn't even be classified on level with friends, more like roommates who never got past introducing themselves. She screamed at him one day, releasing months of repressed emotions, hoping for a reaction from him. Timmy's expression didn't change even the slightest bit.
His best friend did his best to help bring him out of it, at the same time keeping Vicky from having a break down. Five months of it was wreaking havoc on her mentally and emotionally, before she could bear it because there were little glimpses of him from time to time. It'd been a long time since she last saw it. So the blonde sat her down a month ago to give her his honest opinion on what could be done. There weren't a whole lot of options at that point but she tried them all, putting off telling him that nothing worked. Last week she finally told him and after several hours of convincing, she was going through with the final option, one she prayed to avoid. Two outcomes, one of which would break her heart but, as Chester pointed out, it was as much for her health as his to go through with it.
And that's why she's sitting on the couch in their living room, toying with her engagement ring when he came home.
"Hey."
"Hi Vicky." There was no emotion in his voice; she wished it hadn't become the norm.
"We need to talk."
"I need to –"
"Timmy Turner you'll sit you ass down and listen to what I have to say or so help me I will tie you to a chair."
That seemed enough to convince him to sit on the coffee table across from her. The closeness would have been welcomed any other time, but not with what she had to say now. Why didn't she choose to stand so there could be a bit more distance between them?
Taking a deep breath she looked at him, glad that he was for once maintaining eye contact with her.
"You won't tell anyone what's been bothering you or why you've been giving me the cold shoulder. I want to help, you know I do but I can't if you don't give me some hint about what's wrong. And…" great, that burning in her eyes could only mean tears were on their way. She didn't want to cry. "On the advice of a third party looking out for both of us I'm going to ask you a question and I expect an honest answer. This, this is killing me so I need to know, do you still love me?"
Several minutes of silenced followed, Vicky made herself stay quiet in the hopes he'd respond. However there was none, not even a change of expression. What was worse, those blue eyes that had been so full of life were now dull, almost dead looking.
"You don't love me anymore." The words hurt; they cut deeper than any other infliction ever had. Please, please show me something, anything, just let me know you're still there.
No hint of emotion, no denial. Damn Blondie to hell for finally getting her to go through with this. To her surprise the threat of tears was now gone. Quietly she slipped the ring off of her finger to lay it on the cushion next to her and then she had to do the hardest thing she has ever done in her life. Vicky walked away from the love of her life.