The Best Day
--nick/stella

:) last night's episode was so cute. did you SEE all of the nick/stella moments?! they totally had MOMENTS and you know it.

anyways, i wanted to write something about them because i just thought they were so freaking cute.

x

It was Wednesday morning, and Nicholas Lucas was not looking forward to seeing one Stella Malone. He had taken every possible detour in the school simply to AVOID the brown-eyed blond, who probably had it in for him and his brothers. He'd even gotten to his third period class an entire TWO (count 'em, TWO) minutes later than usual, because he saw Stella turning the same corner as him!

Nick was walking to lunch, thinking he had gotten lucky and wouldn't see Stella for the remainder of the day, but alas. His luck did not hold out on him.

"Nicholas Lucas!" Stella exclaimed from down the hallway, looking at him darkly. "Get your scrawny little pretty boy rockstar butt over here RIGHT NOW."

Nick winced and looked down at his feet as he trudged toward her. He genuinely felt bad about ruining the beautiful jacket she'd created for him not once, but twice, and he wasn't looking forward to the lecture he knew was coming his way. "Hey Stella," he mumbled when he reached her.

Stella pursed her lips and looked at him, folding her arms over her chest and holding the same jacket she'd created, and then recreated twice. "I fixed your jacket last night, and if you ruin it again, I'm not fixing it again."

She handed him the jacket, and proceeded to walk away. No lecture. Nothing. Nick stood, dumbstruck by her lack of verbal abuse. And her history definitely preceded her. For example, she completely humiliated Joe in front of the queen for ruining their outfits to meet the prime minister, outfits that she'd spent hours and hours on. Nick anticipated he would face a similar fate, considering Stella had created this jacket because she believed in him, and stayed up until nearly 3 in the morning working on it for him.

"Stella, wait," Nick frowned and looked after her. "Come back. Is something wrong? Why aren't you abusing me, verbally or physically?"

The blond laughed airily, looking at him and shaking her head. "Why would I? Yeah, I'm mad that you destroyed my jacket twice, but it wasn't exactly your fault, and I've come to understand that over the past…24 hours," she said solemnly, as if she had grown wiser in one rotation of the Earth.

"So…you're NOT mad?"

"No, Nick. I'm mad that I had to repair a jacket I spent hours working on TWICE, but I'm not mad at YOU," Stella said simply. "I was. But I'm not anymore. See?"

Nick nodded, although he was hopelessly confused. Teenage girls were so complicated, and he didn't understand a single one of them, Stella included. Although she was one of his best friends, she was far from predictable, and she was always changing her mind about things.

Stella smiled easily and ruffled Nick's hair. "Don't worry about it. Just don't ruin the jacket again. I made it for you special."

At this, Nick couldn't help but blush a little. It was flattering, really, that she had made something for him for once. Most of her special little clothing touches went to Kevin and Joe, because they liked all of the extra scarves and whatnot. Nick rarely got extra things, and to think that Stella had put time and a lot more than a little of effort into something special for him was…really, really nice.

"Just for me?" Nick teased lightly, smiling.

"Just for you," Stella nodded solemnly and patted his cheeks. "Now get that silly grin off your face. Your compassion is showing."

Nick smiled sheepishly and looked at his shoes. "Sorry. It was just a nice thing to do."

"Nice things for a nice person," Stella said softly, looking up at him from under her eyelashes and biting her lower lip. Nick almost fainted. This was the look she gave Joe – the doe-eyed, flirty look that he'd seen her use a hundred times on his big brother.

Nick swallowed, his throat thickening. Suddenly, the way Stella's hair was curling around her shoulders, and the way her red lipstick made her lips look really pretty overwhelmed him, and he could feel his fingers starting to twitch a little like they always did when he got nervous.

Stella flashed him a smile, leaning in to press her lips to his cheek. "Have a GREAT day, Nicholas," she whispered into his ear before walking away, swinging her hips a little.

Nick swallowed once more.

He gripped the jacket in his hands.

This was definitely worse than abuse.

x

i can't write anything good anymore. :-/ sorry guys.

please review with more than "so cute" or "I loved it," thanks. :)