A/N: Hey, everybody! I hope you're all having a fantabulous week so far. Mine has improved a great deal since my internet got fixed at home, which is the reason for this story getting delayed (rat bastards!) As promised, this is an M-rated 3-shot (which was supposed to be a oneshot) for the follow-up to my Sharly fic, "Up Close With Shelby Marx". In case anyone's wondering, this story and UCWSM is set pre-iSaved Your Life for Freddie's specific response to Carly and Shelby's new romantic relationship. With that mind, I hope you enjoy this.
Disclaimer: I do not own iCarly or the various characters depicted in this story.
"Shelby, come on!" Carly pleaded impatiently.
"Just one more round, Carly…" Shelby chided with all the enthusiasm of a child waiting for her presents on Christmas Eve.
"No, you said you were wrapping up already!"
"And I will. Just give me 5 minutes."
"You said that 10 minutes ago!" Carly fumed in an annoyed tone.
"Alright! Someone's in a hurry to start the evening." Shelby retorted laughingly.
"Of course I am. It's not every day that I get to celebrate a 3-month anniversary with my girlfriend." Carly pointed out with a small smile on her face.
"I still wish you would've let me take you out to dinner to celebrate properly." Shelby grumbled lightly while smashing her punching bag with her boxing gloves.
"I told you, I don't need to go anywhere fancy; I just wanna be with you, Shelby. Besides, you're always doing thoughtful things for me. Tonight, I wanna treat you special by making you a nice home-cooked meal at my place." Carly answered truthfully.
Shelby stopped punching the bag momentarily and turned to face Carly while removing her boxing gloves.
"How did I get so lucky to find someone like you who loves me for me?" she asked in awe while stroking Carly's cheek lightly with her hand.
"We both got pretty lucky in that respect. But I am kinda awesome." Carly teased with a broad grin on her face.
"Really awesome." Shelby amended softly, her brown eyes focused on the love of her life.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Good. Now go take a shower so we can finally get out of here." Carly chided sternly.
Shelby chuckled at the scowl on her girlfriend's face and shook her head. It was true, Carly had already been at 'The Jungle Gym' for close to an hour now, waiting for Shelby to finish her training for the day. Shelby hadn't meant to keep Carly waiting indefinitely; working out was just an innate part of her schedule, of her life as she knew it. She spent nearly every waking hour at the gym in-between her fighting schedule, save for the past few months that she'd spent in her girlfriend's company while exploring their new-found romance. Shelby knew that Carly understood how important training was to her; but if she still wanted to have a relationship with the feisty brunette by the end of the night, then she was gonna have to stop working out in the next few seconds. As much as Shelby enjoyed her training sessions, she liked spending time with her beautiful girlfriend more. And she loved the days when she could coax Carly into working out with her for the day above all else.
"Okay, I'll go take a shower. But on one condition." Shelby stated in a mysterious tone.
"What's that?" Carly asked curiously.
"Take a shower with me." Shelby suggested playfully, her mouth curled into a mischievous grin.
In spite of her grimace, Carly's heart was practically thumping in her chest at Shelby's proposal. It wasn't like they hadn't showered together before. In fact, their early romance had once started with a shower that had quickly turned very steamy. In the first few weeks of dating, Carly and Shelby had taken things very slowly as far as limiting themselves to holding hands, hugging, kissing and cuddling for the most part. And they had finally reached that point where both of them wanted to do more. It had been building up slowly between them; every time they were together and things got just a little more heated than usual, one or both of them would break off before things went too far. But the more time they spent together, the more Carly found herself wanting to take that next step with Shelby.
"Any excuse to get me naked, huh?" Carly teased airily with a wide smile on her face.
"Get your head out of the gutter, Shay. Did you ever consider that I just like spending as much time as I can with you?" Shelby asked, feigning indignation as she moved closer to Carly.
"That thought didn't actually cross my mind at all," Carly murmured delicately, her fingertips dancing across the smooth planes of Shelby's shoulder blades.
"And what a beautiful mind you have," Shelby whispered slowly while kissing Carly's forehead.
"Hey! What about the rest of me?" Carly demanded with a pout with her hands on her hips.
"The rest of you is pretty damn good too," Shelby purred lightly before her lips connected with Carly's.
It wasn't long before Carly's hands had fallen limply to her sides while Shelby's lips moved feverishly against hers. She couldn't even remember what she had planned on saying or doing before Shelby kissed her. Carly's hands eventually wrapped around Shelby's neck, their lips meeting in a mutual duel meshed with the heat and desperation of the moment. When Shelby eventually pulled away, Carly was confused at the frown on her girlfriend's face.
"What's wrong?" Carly asked curiously.
"You're definitely gonna need a shower now that you're covered in my sweat." Shelby murmured sheepishly.
It was Shelby's turn to look confused when Carly began chuckling softly while biting her bottom lip.
"What's so funny?" Shelby questioned in bewilderment.
"You. Worrying about getting sweat all over me." Carly replied simply.
"Well, doesn't it gross you out?" Shelby queried hesitantly.
"I have a little confession…" Carly whispered slowly, being sure to wrap her arms even more tightly around Shelby's waist.
"I've kinda been fantasising about the idea of being covered in your sweat for the longest time." she continued tantalisingly.
"Seriously? How long are we talking here?" Shelby asked innocently, her fingers absent-mindedly trailing along Carly's forearm while she spoke.
"Pretty much since that time you hugged me when I came to see you here. When I asked you to help me pass Gym." Carly responded earnestly.
"Since then? I thought I creeped you out back then," Shelby mused seriously.
"You only freaked me out a little 'cause I thought you might still wanna punch me in the head. But you never creeped me out, not once." Carly admitted delicately while staring deep into Shelby's brown eyes.
"So being covered in sweat doesn't creep or gross you out in the least?" Shelby questioned in awe, her lips millimetres away from Carly's.
"As long as it's your sweat covering my body, I definitely don't have a problem with that." Carly replied smoothly, her lips brushing against Shelby's in a teasing manner.
"You are a super freak, Carly Shay." Shelby teased lightly with a wide grin before planting a chaste kiss on Carly's lips.
"If I agree with you, can we go please go shower so we can finally get out of here?" Carly questioned while tugging impatiently on Shelby's hand and dragging her towards the exit.
"Any excuse to get me naked, huh?" Shelby shot back cleverly, causing Carly to roll her eyes as they left the spacious room hand in hand.
It took a relatively short amount of time for the two of them to get undressed and step into the shower together. In spite of their previous flirty banter, both Carly and Shelby managed to keep their activities in the shower on a strictly 'cleansing' level for the most part as they soaped each other and rinsed off. Things only became light-hearted towards the end of the shower when Carly had Shelby in front of her while helping her rinse shampoo out of her hair.
"Hold still," Carly chastised playfully, directing Shelby's body underneath the shower nozzle to get rid of the shampoo residue.
"Wow, you're bossy." Shelby mocked lightly while smiling broadly.
"Someone's gotta make sure that all the shampoo gets washed out. You don't wanna be walking around with ultra itchy hair, do you?" Carly questioned reprovingly while her hands moved through Shelby's hair.
"That's what I love about you; you're always taking care of me." Shelby murmured sincerely, her eyes locked on her girlfriend.
Somewhere between helping Shelby rinse off, Carly's hands had unconsciously moved towards Shelby's cheeks, her fingertips running along the bumps in Shelby's cheek bones. The action reminded her of a recent memory that took her breath away. But it wasn't the memory of a fight where Shelby had gotten knocked out during one of the rounds. This concerned another fight which had occurred several weeks ago, causing a tight knot to form in Carly's stomach at the memory. Shelby noticed the subtle change in Carly's demeanour and her eyes reflected her worry.
"You okay?" she asked gently, staring intently into her dark brown eyes.
"Sorry, guess I just blacked out there for a moment." Carly responded with a sheepish chuckle, not quite meeting Shelby's gaze.
"Carly, what's wrong?" Shelby pressed in a more serious tone, her hands going towards Carly's shoulders and giving them a reassuringly squeeze.
Carly sighed loudly and buried her face in the crook of Shelby's neck.
"I'm just thinking about Freddie." She confessed dejectedly.
This announcement caused Shelby to sigh in response too. She was unsurprised that the conversation had taken such an unexpectedly serious turn; almost all of hers and Carly's conversations had somehow ended up revolving around Freddie of late.
"You can't keep punishing yourself like this. It's not your fault, Carly." Shelby answered genuinely.
"How can you say that, Shelby? He's my best friend and I've broken his heart in the worst possible way." Carly protested weakly.
"He'll get through this in time. He will get over you, Carly." Shelby countered in an unconvinced tone that didn't even fool her.
"You don't know that," Carly answered seriously, her face moving upwards to face Shelby once again.
"You're right, I don't know that for sure. But I have to hold onto that hope, for you, and for me." Shelby offered sincerely.
"I wish I could believe that was true." Carly murmured morosely.
Ever since Carly had told Spencer, Sam and Freddie about her feelings for Shelby from the get-go, she had been surprised when Freddie had taken the news that she was in love with another girl really well. He'd even made an effort to try and accept this new development in Carly's life by getting to know Shelby better. Carly had been sure that everything and everyone in her life would begin to fit together.
So naturally, Freddie's melt-down at Gibby's birthday party a few weeks ago came as a surprise to everyone, especially Carly. She should've seen it coming, especially after he had walked in on her and Shelby kissing one day in her bedroom. He had been so flustered and embarrassed, and then the avoidance had begun. Carly barely saw Freddie after that save to rehearse for iCarly. But not at school, not even at the Groovy Smoothie, their favourite haunt.
Sam obviously didn't care as much about not having to put up with Freddie's company, but it worried Carly to no end. Then Carly saw Freddie drinking out of a flask in a corner of the room at Gibby's apartment; naturally, she confronted him about it and all hell broke loose at the party. All of his resentment and sadness about her falling in love with a girl (and Shelby Marx no less) suddenly came spewing out in noxious amounts: confusion about Carly's sexual orientation, teasing and ridicule from the other guys at school; the loss of the love of his life.
Carly hadn't known that Freddie was feeling all of this. So all she could do was stand there and take all of Freddie's accusations and insults. And that's when Shelby had stepped in to defend Carly and things had gotten ugly. Gibby and Sam had intervened at that particular moment, but not before Shelby had knocked Freddie flat onto his back for telling Carly that she's a tease who's always looked out for number one and takes other people for granted.
Freddie had left soon after and much of the euphoria from the party had been ruined. Carly broke down not too long after and went back to her own apartment. She ended up crying in Spencer's arms after relaying the sad affair. Spencer hadn't said much, only whispering soothing words in her ear and reassuring her that Freddie would come around eventually.
Carly remembered that night all too clearly; she could hear the rain pounding on her window while she lay in bed staring morosely at the window. Then the soft pitter patter of pebbles thrashing against the glass pane had come soon after. She leapt out of her bed and went to open her window to reveal Shelby standing on the carpet a few seconds later, completely rain sodden from head to toe having climbed up the fire escape while the storm raged on outside. Nothing could've prepared Carly for Shelby's remorse for hitting Freddie, going so far as getting down on her knees and gripping Carly tightly around the waist, begging for her forgiveness and not to leave her.
Carly had eventually pulled Shelby to her feet once more, wiping away Shelby's tears with her fingertips while looking deep into her eyes. She had never been angry with her girlfriend for defending her against her best friend, even though she didn't like that things had gotten out of hand the way they had. But she couldn't blame Shelby for standing up for her, even though the possible loss of her best friend was killing her inside. But she couldn't lose Shelby either, otherwise she was sure she wouldn't make it through any of this. After tending to the gash on Shelby's cheek where Freddie had accidentally hit her during the scuffle with Gibby and Sam's intervention, Shelby had ended up staying the night, lying in Carly's arms till the sun came up.
The response to their new romantic relationship had been mixed so far. Most people in both Shelby and Carly's everyday life hadn't known what to make of it in the beginning, unsure of whether they were just experimenting or in earnest. Some people like fans of Shelby's and iCarly had openly come out and denounced their relationship from the start, calling it disgusting and unnatural. The loss of iCarly viewership had been minimal (with a few negative comments on iCarly's website) and some of Shelby's sponsors had pulled out of their contract with her. And then there had been others who openly congratulated Shelby and Carly and were overtly accepting of their relationship. The rest merely took to staring and stopping whispered conversations midway whenever either Carly or Shelby entered a public place or school.
Shelby had acted nonchalant about the entire affair; it had taken Carly a lot longer to finally realise that people were going to think whatever they liked no matter what she did, or who she did it with. It was lucky that they lived in Seattle, renowned for its tolerance of its large gay and lesbian community. So in the end, Carly had decided to revel in her new-found happiness, even going so far as to flaunt it on occasion. And now because of it, she may have lost someone she really cared about. How could she have been so stupid? Even if Freddie had said that he was cool with it in the beginning, she should've known better. Of course Freddie would never accept hers and Shelby's relationship, he's in love with her, or at least he used to be. She tried to put herself in his shoes and imagine what it must be like to lose the one person you've ever fallen in love with.
A few days after the incident at Gibby's party, Carly found out that Sam had been going round to Freddie's apartment to check on him from time to time. Things had been icy between her and Shelby since the party, since Sam happened to think that Shelby shouldn't have hit Freddie. She agreed that Freddie had been out of line, but that his response was understandable and shouldn't have been that surprising to anyone, especially Carly of all people given their history. Carly accepted Sam's stance for the time being, even though she didn't agree with it entirely. But in spite of everything, Sam had proven her loyalty as a friend by standing behind Carly throughout everything in recent weeks and Carly couldn't have been more grateful for her best friend if she tried.
Things finally came to a head with Freddie when he winded up in the hospital after a car accident. Through some coincidental meeting, Freddie had ended up at a house party of a friend of Griffin's, Carly's ex-boyfriend. Freddie had ended up drinking and smoking goodness knows what during the course of the night before taking a joyride in a car belonging to a fellow party-goer and crashed it into the wall of a house down the street from the party. He'd been very lucky, having sustained a few injuries like a bruised Adam's apple and a broken arm. As for the destruction of property, the car owner hadn't tried to sue Freddie or have him arrested since he was a drug pusher who wanted to avoid any trouble with the cops.
Carly visited Freddie in the hospital every single day after the incident. He apologised about what he said to her at Gibby's party and Carly had said that she forgave him. But things were far from okay yet. Freddie had been going for counselling in recent days to get to the bottom of why he had acted out the way he had. He had told Carly in so many words that he wanted to be accepting of hers and Shelby's relationship, but he didn't know if and when that was even possible at this point. Carly had appreciated his honesty, but it had still hurt, knowing that their friendship may never be the same again after this.
"Carly…" Shelby murmured, bringing Carly out of her deep reverie.
Carly blinked several times while staring long and hard back into Shelby's brown eyes. Things weren't perfect now, but she knew one thing for certain. All of these obstacles of late had brought her and Shelby closer together instead of pushing them further apart. And Carly was determined to make their anniversary a night that they wouldn't forget for a long time to come.
"Hey, where'd you go?" Shelby asked lightly, her hands caressing Carly's neck.
Carly felt millions of goosebumps erupting on her body at Shelby's touch. It was hard to focus on anything constructive or otherwise when Shelby touched her, or even just looked at her most days. She sincerely hoped that the sensation would never fade away over time.
"Not too far, just strolling through the last few weeks in my head. But I'm back now, promise." Carly affirmed seriously with a small smile on her face.
"Good, 'cause I don't know what I'd do if I lost you. I know these past few weeks have been hard on you with Freddie and everything else going on. I just need you to know how much it means to me that you've given this…us a chance." Shelby murmured earnestly while running her index finger along Carly's jaw line.
"There's no other way for me now, even if I could choose. I can't imagine not having you in my life in any capacity. I have to be with you, Shelby." Carly answered truthfully while resting her forehead against Shelby's.
"I feel the same way about you; it's like choosing between breathing and not breathing. I just wish I could do more to make this easier on you." Shelby whispered while closing her eyes.
"You already do, just by being here with me throughout everything. That's all I need to get by on." Carly whispered back, her hands cupping Shelby's cheeks.
Carly finally moved her forehead away from Shelby's to place a searing kiss on Shelby's mouth instead. Shelby reciprocated eagerly, deepening the kiss while her lips glided urgently across Carly's. She sucked in a shuddering breath at the feel of Carly's hands in her hair, her lips pressing tiny kisses along her collarbone and her chin before finding her mouth once more. Carly in turn moaned softly at the combination of water from the shower nozzle overhead and the soft touch of Shelby's fingertips grazing against her stomach while Shelby's tongue flicked against her lips. When they finally broke apart, Shelby pulled Carly closer and hugged her wet torso while they stood together in the shower.
"Then I don't wanna waste any more time. Let's kick-start this anniversary into overdrive." Shelby whispered softly in Carly's ear.
"I like the way you think, Shelby Marx." Carly murmured gently before planting a small kiss on Shelby's shoulder blade as they continued holding each other.
Author's Note: So that's the end of the first chapter. A bit of a long-winded explanation for Freddie's sudden change of heart about Carly and Shelby's relationship, but I hope it made sense. A big thank you to sockstar for giving me inspiration to write that in. Now that Shelby's cheered Carly up again, how will the rest of their anniversary night go? Stay tuned for chapter 2...