A/N: Well, here it is guys. final chap. tell me what you think. and again thanks for all the reviews and insights, really appreciate it.
Carly is greeted with a surprisingly comfortable cold breeze. She finds Freddie leaning on the railing; he seemed to be just taking in the view, unmoving as he breathed calmly. Carly walks towards him, "Hey… uhmm, may I join you?"
Freddie turns toward Carly with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes, "Hey Carls. Yeah sure, I could use some company."
She almost winced when she saw his expression; Carly was however comforted when Freddie's tone sounded that he's genuinely glad to have her as company.
The two shared a comfortable silence as they enjoyed the comfortable breeze. "Carls?" Freddie utters after their moment of comfortable silence.
Carly turns her head towards her best friend standing beside her. A bit disappointed that he's now wearing that reserved and guarded look on his face. "Hmmm?" She hums out not taking her gaze from him.
"I'm sorry for what I said back there; I had no right to assume things about Steven's intention to both you and Tori. But I don't regret what I did." Freddie said with an even tone.
Carly internally winces just listening to her best friend's words, "No Freddie I… you don't have to… I mean…" She lets out sigh at the difficulty of trying to find the right words. "Sam would have gotten to him sooner or later and we both know how untrained Sam is at holding back."
Freddie smirks allowing the humor, "She couldn't have brought butter but there are always plenty of beer bottles in a party, and I'm pretty sure I saw her extra thick sock inside her purse earlier." He said adding to Carly's humor that made the brunette giggle and laugh.
Freddie turns to watch Carly fall into a fit of laugh and giggles, enjoying the sight of that glow in her eyes every time she laughs. It's always the little things about Carly that he finds amusingly lovable. As the brunette calms down from her laughter, she notices that ghost of smile gracing his lips and eyes as he intently looks at her.
They fall back into silence but Carly doesn't take her eyes off of Freddie this time, as he looked out into the view again. "Freddie?" she manages to utter after a couple minutes of deliberation. He responds with a quiet nod urging her to go on. She lets out a deep sigh, "I'm the one who should be apologizing… after your casts were off… I never came to you, to give you my answer if I still wanted to be your girlfriend… but I… wanted to make sure… the 'hero worship' did disappear, but I still felt something for you… I guess I put it off too long without taking you into account, I felt you moving on, pulling away…"
All throughout Carly's talk, Freddie didn't interrupt her but listened intently to each and every word. He then turns and weakly smiles at Carly, "That's not something you need to apologize for Carls. I could have done things differently myself if you really think about it but what's done is done." Freddie said as he wipes a single tear from Carly's eyes before it drops. She leans into his touch as she closed her eyes.
Carly reluctantly snaps back into reality when Freddie removes his palm from her cheeks. Freddie is now facing her, still with that expectant look; knowing that she had something more to say.
Carly stares back lovingly until she realizes that her best friend is waiting for her to say something more, probably to get it all out of her chest. She quickly takes on a guilty expression much like the time when Principal Franklin asked for them to his office without telling them why.
She drops her gaze and fiddles with her thumbs, "You're gonna stare at me like that until I tell you everything aren't you?"
Freddie snorts and smirks at Carly, "Since we're having this heart to heart talk, might as well get on with it right? Now c'mon Carls, I know something else is bothering you." He said soothingly.
Carly reacts instantaneously and tackles Freddie into a tight hug and buries her face into his chest, "Please don't ever think like that again… please don't… I… don't ever want to lose you Freddie…" she said in soft voice, she could have even cried again if she had any tears left for tonight.
Freddie was thrown a little off balance but he immediately steadies himself. He sighs as he knows what Carly is talking about and he proceeds to gently stroke her hair to comfort her, "Sam told you about the lock-in?"
Carly nods but still keeps her head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart, completely opposite to her own erratic heartbeats.
"I'm sorry. There's no reasonable excuse for what I almost did; all I can do is to promise you that I'll never think that way again."
Carly nods again acknowledging his promise. She breathes a sigh of relief but doesn't let go of her best friend and he doesn't protest either as he just continually gives her back and hair comforting strokes. Carly's heartbeat finally steadies and paces to match Freddie's causing her to get lost in the moment.
"Freddie?" Carly voices out after reveling in the moment, Freddie hums to let her know he is listening. "Is it…" she looks up to him to meet his eyes, "Is it too late for you to love me?" she asks in the sincerest tone she could muster.
Freddie chuckles a bit and smirks, "You asking me out Shay?"
Carly eyes grew wide realizing something upon hearing Freddie's own question, "Oh God… I… sorry… of course you're with Shelby… sorry, I don't know what came over me." She stutters out, but even then she only loosened her grip on Freddie but kept on her embrace.
"Aw Carly, you don't have to worry about me and Freddie." Shelby said after she silently approached the two, noticed only by Freddie, and casually leaning on the railing beside Carly.
Shelby's sudden appearance and words made Carly remove her hold on Freddie, turn around and scream as she took cover behind Freddie fearing for the worst. "Shelby! This isn't… this isn't what it looks like… Freddie's not doing what Steven did… he's uhhh…" Carly stutters out in one breath; she then steps off from behind Freddie, "Oh, just get it over with, please don't hit the face…" She said as she covered her face with both her hands, waiting for the pain to come.
Carly did not expect however to hear the two almost keeling in laughter; Freddie had his back on the railing as he clutched his stomach in laughter while Shelby practically rolled on the tiled floor laughing her head off.
After calming down from their fit, Shelby spoke first, "Carls, you are so adorable!" she said giggling a bit in between. "But seriously though, if you wanna take a shot at Freddie this time then go for it." Shelby added in an encouraging tone without a hint of negativity.
Carly meets Shelby's eyes, "But I don't want to get between you and Freddie." She said in a defeated tone as she looked at them both.
"We always knew where we stood Carls. Our physical relationship aside, we're basically best friends." Shelby said as she stood up and walked towards Carly to lead her back to stand beside Freddie by the railings.
Lost for words, all Carly managed to say was, "Really?"
"Hey you gotta give up the best friend title sometime if you're gonna be his girlfriend." Shelby flippantly said earning a chuckle from Freddie.
"I suppose…" Carly said. "Then Freddie, will you please go out with me…" she said with her puppy dog eyes.
Freddie snorted out a short laugh and smirked, "I don't know, I'm feeling pretty hard to get at the moment…" he said and laughed when he sees Carly wear a defeated expression, "Kidding Carly… geez you'd think I earn a little pay back." With that he took a step away from the railing and held both his hands out for the Shelby and Carly, "Why don't we just enjoy the rest of the party tonight, I think I hear Sam rapping."
"That reminds me! C'mon, those Hollywood arts kids are awesome, plus I wanna tease Tori again." Shelby said as she pulled Freddie along with Carly to walk faster.
Seattle WA
Shay's Apartment
June 25, 2011
Two week after their LA Road trip. Things went well for the most part, for both the Seattleites and Hollywood arts students, having an extended group of friends not more than two thousand miles away makes things far more interesting after all.
Settling back after their long drive from LA late that Saturday afternoon and arriving Sunday around a little over lunch, Carly felt on cloud nine to put it subtly. Of course it may have something to do with Freddie finally agreeing to go out with her after spending their whole daylight covered Saturday with their new LA friends showing them around and basically just having fun.
Now two weeks into their relationship; they have been taking things slow, well Freddie is much to Carly's dismay. When she had some girl time with Sam and Shelby; Carly talked to them about it and Shelby went along the lines of "You have to remember Carly; this is Freddie we're talking about, and whatever physical relationship we had doesn't have to be compared to what both of you have."
When it was Sam's turn to share her profound wisdom, her blonde best friend went with, "Shelby's right Carls, besides there's no need to compete, I mean you're one of those typical slim bodied pale skinned type that will most probably burn instead of tan on a beach, while our good friend Shelby over here is just over all smoking hot and hey I'm not gay but c'mon, you can tell why Jade liked her than her singer counterpart." Suffice to say that Shelby proceeded to face palm herself.
"I wasn't competing! And was that suppose to make me feel better?" Carly frustratingly countered.
Sam snorted a chuckle, "Nope, but it had the desired effect." She said with a wide grin. Shelby finally lay flat across Carly's bed while the two best friends went on to have a preemptive pillow fight with their fighter friend just softly laughing at their antics.
Carly is pulled from her musings of last Friday night's girls' night after the show while Freddie and Brad went off to hang with some of their AV club buddies namely Shane, Reuben, Jeremy and Gibby. Brad was saying something about their 'wimpy' members getting a little bit intimidated to be in the same club as Freddie, Brad and Shane thinking they might turn jocks on them.
Understandable from Carly's point of view seeing as all of the cute, handsome, hot and douchey guys she and most of the other girls used to fawn over couldn't possibly compete with three of the hottest dorks that's ever graced the school quoting (Sam in the process).
As Freddie parked his car on the parking lot, he opted to exit the vehicle first so that Shelby could get out from the back while he rounded towards the passenger side to assist his tired brunette girlfriend, "Hey, second week of martial arts work out; tired?" he greeted.
"Not much, but can I get a piggyback ride?" Carly hopefully asked.
"Aw… Nope…" Freddie chuckled when Carly playfully slapped him and caught her hand then planted a kiss as from a gentleman to a young lady, "Now Miss Carly, will you please step out of the vehicle so that we can go enjoy your brother's cooking."
Carly did as told and noticed Shelby hand Freddie his sports bag while the fighter held hers; she went on to ask, "what about your bag Shelby?"
"Nah, I left it in the car; I pretty much borrow her every night anyways." Shelby said as the three of them strode towards the service elevator that could take them straight to the Shay's loft.
As they rode the elevator up to the apartment, the three of them proceeded to discuss the progress of Carly's workout so to speak, and Shelby complimented on the web show host's fast and steady improvement attributing it to having some of her father's military background and skill to have passed down to her since it's clearly not seen on her older brother Spencer.
Exiting the elevator, they are greeted with an unusual scene. Two blondes, one ponytailed wearing a bright yellow sundress to compensate for currently happening mild heat-wave brought about by the closeness of summer, and wearing a wide welcoming smile. The other with her usual locks fell rather elegantly on her back, black fitting tank top and short-shorts, obviously for the weather, and wearing a mild death glare towards the only male gender stepping out of said elevator.
Carly stood a bit shocked at the scene, while Shelby went ahead to the kitchen to serve herself some lunch; whatever it is that's about to go down, she'd like to enjoy it with a full stomach.
"Well Freddie, Melanie here told me some pretty interesting things this morning while you three were out." Sam said in a disturbingly familiar tone that their raven-haired gothic friend usually used when she is trying to get under Tori's skin.
"No wonder that every time Mels visited, she's always in hurry to be somewhere else, I figured. Let her do what she wants as long as she's not bothering me." Sam continued.
Melanie promptly cut in, "To be fair Carly, we didn't spend most of the time making out as much we did talking about you and I constantly nagged him to just tell you up front." She addressed to Carly who looked sympathetic and even looked at her best friend's twin with immense gratitude.
"Shut up Sis, I know Carly will be okay with it, but…" Sam didn't get to finish what she was about to say when Freddie blew past her as he ran towards the stairs up to the iCarly studio with a wry smile plastered on his face.
"DUDE, COME BACK HERE!" Sam shouted at Freddie as she ran after him.
Freddie laughed loudly and shouted back, "NAH, I THINK I'M SAFER HERE WITH BRAD!"
As the two disappeared up the stairs, they could only assume what's happening while Melanie hugged Carly then they proceeded to catch up and introduce their fighter friend as the brunette got herself some lunch with Shelby.
Meanwhile
As soon as Sam has picked her way through the locked iCarly studio, she walked right past Brad who's working on the tech cart and made a bee-line towards Freddie who's leaning casually on their prop car hood. When she got to him, no words were said when she took a swing at Freddie and the next thing she knew; her arms crossed in front of her locked in place by Freddie's gentle yet firm grip and she had been turned around causing her back to press against their tech producer's chest.
Freddie teasingly breathed in her scent and slowly breathed out deliberately hitting Sam's neck, "My, my, Samantha, no wonder you like to smell your own sweat." He teased.
"Dude… what the… ohhh… I mean what the hell Fredward! Brad's right across the room!" Sam exclaimed.
This caught their blonde intern's attention, and they both looked at him, Sam more cautiously then Freddie. Brad just smirked and chuckled at his girlfriend's predicament and went back to finishing up his work. This made Freddie bark out laugh and release Sam.
As he walked off to head back downstairs Freddie asks, "Sam, we good?"
Sam rolled her eyes and let out heavy sigh and said, "Fine, but I'm still dealing with you later."
Freddie chuckled and said with finality before walking out the door, "No you won't."
Sam groaned in defeat, "When did things change?" she asked her boyfriend.
"Well…" Brad was about to answer.
Sam cut him off, "Don't answer that, c'mon let's head down if you're done." Brad signaled for five more minutes, so she flopped down on a bean bag and started munching on her emergency fudge-balls much to her boyfriend's amusement.
When the three of them heard Freddie descend the stairs, it was Carly who met him at the steps and asked what happened.
"I teased her a little bit." Freddie casually said.
"Oh, Sam didn't faint did she?" Carly concernedly asked.
Freddie amusedly chuckled, "Sam's not you Carls…" he teasingly said to his girlfriend, hinting on the time they had first kissed, well again; and when things got heated as he was planting kisses on her neck with all intention of giving her a hickey, Freddie was surprised when Carly slightly shuddered and sort of fainted.
"Hey, I fainted one time! Ok maybe two…" Carly defiantly exclaimed after playfully slapping her boyfriend.
"Three times Carly," Shelby reminded which had the immediate effect of turning Carly's face and neck flush red with heat.
Melanie who was also listening in giggled at Carly automatic body responses that betray the brunette's words perfectly.
Sam and Brad had join them shortly after, and the two boys served their selves up some lunch while the girls talked and planned on what else to do for the day, top of the list were Groovy Smoothie, Galini's Pie or pool. Picnic at the pool made sense to the girls when the guys put it together. Sad to say that since they put the choices together it's their idea, their treat even for Shelby and Melanie.
A/N: oooh, by the way. I'd like to know what you guys prefer, since I'm planning to write a new fic, I'd like you guys to choose between Harry Potter and iCarly cross, or iCarly with powers, kinda like heroes or x-men but no cross and definitely not too strong like DC. Make that three choices, I'll add Supernatural and iCarly cross but this may just a short story, well shorter than this one, not over 10k words not counting the notes. Pm me your choices. :D