Don't Be Afraid to Give Your Heart to Me

Darcy was sitting on top of the kitchen counter, her eyes following Jon as he moved around the kitchen.

"What're you staring at me for?"

She shrugged at him. Her face was expressionless.

"You hungry?" The question came as he pulled a carton of milk from the fridge and gestured towards the box of Rice Krispies.

"Not really," she shook her head, her eyes not even moving to look at what he was pointing to. He put the milk onto the counter beside her before he stood in front of her and started rubbing his hands up and down her thighs.

"What?"

Darcy shook her head as she looked him in the eye, leaning forward to press her lips lightly against his. She smiled at him as sincerely as she could; there was no point in ruining the few hours they had left before he got on a plane.

"Are we going to talk about it?"

"There's nothing to talk about," she told him in her calmest voice, her hands moving to cup his cheeks. But only lightly, ghosting the shape of his face. "I don't want you to go but you have to."

He closed his eyes and his expression softened. It was different. She'd seen a caring look in his eyes before but this one was different. This one had an added longing and a small dash of heartache.

She let her head drop slightly to the side, tugging her lip ring into her mouth. Jon stooped his head and kissed her. Darcy broke the kiss and breathed in deeply.

"If we fuck right now do I have to be worried about you leaving without a word?" She meant for it to come out as a joke but her voice, without any effort, had turned sour.

Jon frowned but it was only for a split second as he wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her off the counter effortlessly. He carried her into his bedroom and dropped her onto his unmade bed. She watched him carefully as he knelt into the mattress and wasted no time in reaching to the back of his shirt and pulling it over his head.

"What did I tell you yesterday?"

Darcy shook her head, mumbling that she didn't know, as he fell forward, hovering over her. His arms were pressed right against the sides of her body, pinning her to the spot. He repeated the question as he lowered himself down so that their lips were barely touching. Darcy shook her head again and leant upwards only to have him pull away.

"Not until you tell me."

"You'll never let me go," she said with a slight whine. She reached her hands up to grasp at the hair on the back of his head, pulling him down so that he would kiss her again.

Never in her life had she wanted to believe something so badly. She did, to a certain extent, but there was the ever-present reminder that he was leaving. Again. There wasn't anything she could do to make him stay – it would be stupid of her to think for even a second that he'd give up his dream just for her. Who was to say that he would come back? What if he panicked again and never returned? She didn't think she'd be able to handle it if he didn't.

Jon, still kneeling over Darcy, moved his hands underneath her shirt, desperately trying to touch every inch of her that he could reach. As soon as he pulled her shirt up over her head, his hands were running down her chest causing her back to arch enough to make their bodies touch.

He moved backwards and his hands made quick work of her buttons and he began to pull her jeans off but not before he kissed her pelvic bone, making sure to suck on the skin. Darcy gasped, her hands immediately reaching to make fists in his hair. She pulled him up so their mouths were connected before quickly letting go of his hair and moving down to remove his own jeans.

It wasn't lost on her that he didn't bother taking his jeans off properly, they were below his knees and creating a somewhat awkward position as he slid inside her slowly, but when he wrapped one arm around her and pulled their bodies as close as physically possible the thought quickly slipped her mind.

When her lips met his collar bone Jon let out an animalistic growl which caused her to smirk against his skin. He began to thrust harder, quicker, deeper and, despite her best efforts she was unable to match his pace.

Her head fell backwards as she came closer and closer to her climax and she opened her mouth to speak. She was only seconds away from telling him that she loved him. Seconds. The words were lost, though, when her orgasmed rolled through her body. Jon came almost immediately after, his arm tightening around her and his teeth sinking into her shoulder.

She looked up at him, barely able to move let alone speak, as he loosened his grip and sat back on his haunches before he moved off the bed entirely and pulled up his jeans.

Love? He knew well enough already how she felt – she'd made that pretty clear when she was yelling at him not two days ago – but actually saying it? Well, that could wait for a more convenient time.

Darcy sat up against the headboard and kicked at the sheets that were bunched up at the end of the bed. She eyed Jon carefully as he moved around the room collecting their clothes.

"You just going to stare at me all day?"

"I can't later so I have to make up for it now," she told him quietly, her head dropping to the side. "Long distance relationships suck. Like, one hundred and thirty percent suck certified monkey penis."

"Certified monkey penis? Is that much different to uncertified monkey penis?" he asked her seriously, tossing her shirt back to her.

"That's really what you're taking from that?"

Jon stared back at her before a smile broke out on his face, "Don't worry about it, alright?"

He walked towards her and dropped a kiss to her lips as he sat down on the side of the bed. He told her, his hands moving to hers, that it didn't matter if they had a label or not because he wasn't going to fuck up again. He was done fucking up.

Darcy just nodded continually as he spoke. Her eyes never once left his. She could feel her heart starting to swell just a little and if she stopped biting the inside of her cheek she was afraid she might cry.

"Hey," he frowned when he noticed a small quiver of her lower lip. "Hey, it's not bad. There's nothing to be sad about. I'm coming back and we'll hang out and even do dumb couple shit if you want that, okay?"

"I don't want that," she told him with a sad smile. "No dumb couple shit. Just pizza."

"I can do pizza," he nodded at her, kissing her forehead softly. "We'll fucking regret it but when I get back we're going to binge on pizza and it's going to be great and gross at the same time. Sound good?"

"No," she shook her head at the thought of having to work off more than a slice of pizza, "but yeah, it's sounds good."

On the way to the airport Darcy had groaned out loud and forced her face into her hands as a distressing thought crossed her mind.

"Fuck you," she swore at Jon when she finally looked up again.

"What'd I do now?"

"You get to go have fun with your buddies while I get to go back to developmental and deal with Bo fucking Dallas."

"It's not my fault that you agreed to go on a date with him."

"It was, actually," she said matter-of-factly before continuing with a sigh. "I also get to deal with the fallout of Ray and Matt. They fucked and it got weird."

The explanation caused Jon to burst out in laughter but he quickly forced himself to stop when he realised that Darcy was glaring at him.

"I don't know how to help with that."

"I'm not allowed to. I tried and Ray told me off so I have to butt out of it."

"Let me know how that ends up," Jon said just as they were pulling into the short-term parking lot, "Graves and Paige? Probably the best thing I've ever heard."

She raised an eyebrow at him; the laughter that was accompanying his voice confused her because, as weird as it was to here that anyone had slept with Matt, she could see them together.

That didn't matter though. What mattered was that she was about to say goodbye to Jon for however many days. As they exited the car and walked towards the terminals she realised that maybe it would have been easier if he'd just left her in bed. Not that had done any good last time.

Jon noticed that she was lagging a little and moved his suitcase and carryon so that he was holding them in one hand. With his free arm, he reached over to her wrapped his arm around her back, gripping lightly into her biceps, pulling her into him as they walked towards check-in.

She spotted Colby and Leighla almost immediately – if his stupid hair wasn't enough of a giveaway, then Leighla's bright red skirt was a huge 'look at us' beacon – standing off to the side, wrapped up in each other's arms. She screwed up her face a little at the blatant PDA.

"I guess this is sort of a blessing in disguise," Darcy stated as they approached the couple. "I don't have to see you two do that all the goddamn time."

Colby looked at Darcy and did not hesitate to hold up his middle finger at her – she responded in kind. She felt herself blush as he raised his eyebrows and pointed between her and Jon. Jon saw it too and simply squeezed her arm.

Joe appeared with his fiancée and daughter a few minutes later and the men all lined up to check in to their flights, leaving the women to stand with their carryon luggage.

"Welcome to the line-up. I'm Galina, this is Joelle."

Darcy nodded at Joe's fiancée and let her eyes wander down to the small child holding onto her pants. She reasoned with herself that it must be worse for Joelle with her father going away for work all the time. Hers might not have been the most reliable but she was grateful that he had been around when she was a young child.

"Darcy."

Darcy didn't say anything else; she just let Leighla and Galina speak to each other while they all waited. Most of her attention was directed towards Joelle. Darcy didn't like children – well, more that she knew she would be a bad parent. They were needy, clingy and dependent. Getting a pet dog made much more sense – they didn't talk back.

The guys walked back over to them. Darcy sighed. Jon stood behind her, his arms over her shoulders. His arms were heavy but she couldn't find it in herself to tell him to get off. She overhead both Leighla and Galina telling their partners to call them when they landed. Tugging at Jon's arm, she hoped that it was enough to convey the message that he should do the same.

"Got it," he responded. "Don't crash my car, okay?"

Darcy felt the cool metal of his car keys in the palm of her hand. She stepped forward, Jon's arms falling to his sides, and turned around to face him. He looked down at her, expecting her to say something but instead she stood on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. It wasn't dramatic or showy. Just a quick kiss goodbye.

"Don't do anything stupid, okay?"