Once Fiona had dressed and headed back downstairs, the two of them left her house and got into his truck, making their way to his apartment.
She couldn't help but wonder just what she would be walking into. Since she had known him, Julian's distant family had been wealthy, from the north side, but he had never been one to feed into their ideals of success or take handouts from them. He preferred to work for what he had. Still, if he was a part club owner and manager of that club, she'd consider that fairly successful.
Julian looked over at Fiona every so often as he drove, noting the thoughtful expression on her face with ease. It was the same expression that she always had when her mind was running wild, trying to process things just as fast as she could think of them. Reaching over, he set a hand against her thigh, squeezing gently to get her attention before allowing his hand to find hers, lacing their fingers together.
Fiona was torn from her thoughts at the squeeze to her thigh, finally allowing herself to look over at Julian, giving him a little smile as she did. He had a way of calming her that she hadn't experienced in a long time. She wanted to take her time with him, yet they had already lost so much that she wondered if it was better to just give in to her impulses.
"Almost there?" she asked him, squeezing his hand lightly.
He nodded, his thumb rubbing absently against her hand, "Almost there."
After a few more minutes of driving, he pulled into a parking space upon reaching his apartment. He allowed a second for her to get out, then did the same and locked the car, starting up to the apartment with her. They walked side by side into the building, rode the elevator upstairs, and then made the way through the hallway to his front door.
"Alright, here it is," he spoke, teasingly building suspense as he unlocked the door and pushed it open, allowing her to step inside first.
Fiona made her way past the threshold, looking around and taking it all in. Apart from the fact that he still had boxes from his move scattered about, she could tell that the place would come together well. It wasn't as high dollar as she was expecting, but it was definitely very nice. She supposed that could be because of the way Julian lived. He'd never been one to brag about his money or be too frivolous with it, and she assumed that hadn't changed.
"So, this is how the better half lives, huh? It's nice," she smiled over at him, slipping her shoes off near the door and walking further inside.
Julian laughed at her words, shaking his head lightly, "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Gallagher. I'm not officially your better half yet," he teased her.
Fiona's eyes rolled automatically as he teased her, reaching over to shove him lightly, "You know what I meant, dick," she said with a laugh.
He nodded and laughed once more, slipping his shoes off as well. As he started to move toward the kitchen, he took her hand in his, guiding her to follow along with him. "I'm renting this place for now," he explained. "Once the club is placed and opened here, I'll probably try and buy something more long term."
She listened as he spoke, allowing him to use her hand and guide her along behind him. "I see. Well, this place isn't half bad. Once you get everything unpacked, I'm sure that it'll look really good," she nodded.
"Thanks," he replied, releasing her hand once the reached the kitchen. "Okay, so.. in one of these boxes is my waffle maker and a skillet for the bacon and eggs. The question is, which box?" he spoke with a little chuckle.
"I guess I should have labeled them more than just 'kitchen', huh?"
Fiona arched her brow as she looked around to see several boxes scattered over the kitchen. "Yeah, probably so," she laughed quietly. Pursing her lips in thought, she looked at the different boxes, finding the box that seemed to be one of the biggest. She walked over to it, humming softly, "This should either be dishes or appliances."
Peeling back the tape, she opened the box, grinning as she spotted some pots and pans and a few small appliances. "I think it's in here."
Julian watched her closely, smiling as she said she'd found what they needed. "See? What would I do without you?" he asked teasingly, though there was also a genuine tone behind the statement.
Fiona took a skillet from the box, placing it on his counter as she smirked a bit at his question, "Let's hope that you don't have to figure it out any time soon."
He nodded to agree, moving to sort through the box with her, putting things to the side and out of the way as they went. "Aha! Here we go," he spoke, finding the waffle maker toward the bottom of the box. "I was worried for a second that we'd have to make pancakes instead," he joked.
She rolled her eyes light heartedly at his joke, grinning softly. "Oh, the horror," she teased him in return.
Julian's smile grew as she kept up with the joke, moving to grab the ingredients for the food and setting them out so they could begin to cook everything. He washed his hands and then moved toward the stove, getting everything started.
"So," he spoke as he mixed the batter for the waffles, looking over at Fiona as she seemed to absent mindedly begin to organize the things they'd taken out of the moving box.
"So?" she questioned, waiting for him to continue.
"Should we talk about what almost happened last time we spent time together, or..?" he trailed off, curious if they should discuss what it meant for them.
Fiona let out a little sigh at his question, fighting a groan that was threatening to leave her lips. "What is there to talk about? We made out, it could have went further, but it didn't.. it seems pretty black and white to me," she spoke with a soft laugh.
Julian shrugged his shoulders lightly, tilting his head. Sure, it was pretty clear what had happened. That wasn't the part that he was confused about, it was what would come after that remained unclear. "Well.." he spoke, thinking about how he wanted to phrase his words. "I guess I just wanted to know if it was something that you'd want to keep doing."
Her brow arched at that, a small smile upturning the corners of her lips. She didn't want to get her hopes up for anything, just incase everything fell apart, but if she were to have a second chance with him, she knew that she would be stupid not to take it. They had just been kids when they were together before, yet he'd still managed to treat her better than anyone that she'd been with over the years.
"I mean, I'd rather not do it that same way.." she started, allowing him a moment to think on what she was saying.
"Okay.." he started, biting down on the inside of his cheek as he waited for her to continue. He didn't want to allow himself to be too happy about all of this if it wasn't something that she wanted.
"If we're going to keep doing this, we're going to have to eventually not stop at just making out," Fiona finished, smirking mischievously, having seen the change in his expression before she'd continued.
Julian began to smirk along with her, shaking his head as he set the waffle mix aside, letting out a laugh and moving closer to her, "You're terrible, has anyone ever told you that?" he asked teasingly.
Fiona hummed, pretending to think about his question, "Only every day of my life," she spoke with a grin.
His arms slid low around her waist and he pulled her in close to him. Leaning in, he pressed a soft, lingering kiss against her lips, and as she kissed him back, her arms moved to wind around his neck. Their lips moved in sync, just as they had so many times before, and with each moment that passed, Julian found himself more and more grateful that he'd returned to Chicago.
After several more moments, he reluctantly pulled back enough to speak, "You know we're never going to have breakfast at this rate."
Fiona giggled softly against his lips, fingers weaving through the back of his hair to gently massage against his scalp. "I know, you have a real obsession with me. It might be a problem," she joked.
Julian let out a half-scoff, half-laugh at her words, shaking his head. As he was distracted by what she had said, Fiona reached over, dipping her finger in the waffle batter and then running it down along his nose, leaving a stripe of batter over his nose.
He gasped at the feeling of the batter against his skin, surprised that she would do something like that, knowing that it would cause him to retaliate. "You did not just do that," he spoke, keeping his tone calm. He backed away from her and as he did, she took her opportunity to get away from him, dashing across the kitchen.
"Actually, I think I just did," she replied, pacing herself from the other side of the kitchen island to make a run for it again.
Julian took the spoon that he'd been using to mix the batter and gathered some of the mixture onto it before flicking it at her, then going back for more.
"Julian!" Fiona let out a little yelp as the mixture hit her in the face, her voice almost a squeal and causing him to laugh as he took in what he'd done. He flicked the second spoonful at her, causing her to run at him, instead of away, in attempt to get more to hit him with.
"I only put it on your nose, so not fair!" she spoke, reaching her hand into the bowl and flicking what she could of the mixture onto him.
"Hey, you knew when you did that you'd start a war!" he replied, tossing the spoon aside and taking handfuls of the mixture, flinging them at her.
Her hands grabbed for the bowl, and she did what she could to wrestle it from him, finally doing so and using it to splash a larger quantity of the mix onto him. He let out a little yelp as he did his best to avoid it and failed, causing Fiona to laugh that much more.
As Julian tried to take the bowl back from her, she turned her back to him, trying to move away, though she didn't get far before he had wrapped his arms around her from behind and took hold of the bowl. She did her best to keep hold of it, yet he still managed to wrangle it from her grip, dumping the remaining contents over her head, causing her to scream as it spilled over her head.
Julian dropped the bowl, laughing as she wiped at the mixture that had dripped from her hair down into her face. He turned her to face him and she hit his chest lightly, "I'm so going to get you back for that," she threatened, though it was light-hearted.
"I'm sure you will," he spoke, using his thumbs to wipe the mixture away from her eyes, making sure it didn't drip into them. "To be fair, though, you did it to yourself," he smirked.
Fiona glared at him playfully, though she knew she probably didn't look intimidating at all while covered in batter. Shaking her head, she let out a little sigh, smiling up at him. "So.. no waffles. I guess bacon and eggs will have to do."
"Bacon and eggs it is," Julian nodded.
"I'm sure you'll want to shower first, though. You're really dirty."
"Me?" he replied a little incredulously. "Look at you!"
Fiona laughed, nodding, "Yeah, I should probably shower too because this dries up into my hair and becomes a real nightmare," she said biting the inside of her cheek as she waited for his response.
Julian nodded slowly, wondering if she was implying what he thought she was implying. Reaching down, he took her hand in his, "Let's get you cleaned up, then," he spoke, gently tugging on her hand to pull her toward the bathroom.