Little April Showers
AN- It's been a while for this story and after the way it ended a lot of people are probably wondering how on earth there can be a new chapter for this all things considered. I recently took part in a fandom wide auction called wildcatsgivebac which was trying to raise money for the tragedy in Japan. It was a wonderful cause and around $1000 has already been raised (and there are still auctions for various donated pieces of merchandise taking place so please check those out if you can) and a lot of fanfic writers took part in it. As part of the auction I was asked by the wonderful miltymouse to write an excerpt from TBOF, set before the car crash. She wanted to see Troy & Gabriella happy and get a little glimpse of them work on the map that Gabriella tore down to please her mother after the crash, and this is what I came up with. I hope it fits the description and that you all enjoy it.
As always – the part in italics at the start of the fic comes from the companion fic 'All The King's Horses' – if you haven't read it, I hope you check it out.
I wish we had jumped on a plane and went snorkelling in Hawaii or backpacking in Australia or jumped in your truck and broke down in every town as we travelled across America.
If there was one positive thing about living in California, it was that for the most part the weather was predictable. Sure, there were slight fluctuations in temperature but for the most part it was various shades of warm and dry. There would be rain showers on occasion, sometimes a little wind, but for the most part you knew what you were getting and Troy Bolton, creature of habit that he was, liked that.
Plus he wouldn't lie that the fact that his seasonal wardrobe didn't have to be particularly extensive was an added bonus - he was a student after all and was saving up to get married so naturally if he could save a few dollars then all the better. (Not that Gabriella bought that as an excuse and insisted it was his hatred of shopping that was stopping him as opposed to any pretence of saving money. He couldn't really disagree...)
Regardless of the reasoning, the end result was the same and it worked for him most of the time. Unless of course there was freak weather...like crazy rain-storms in April that were already creating mini ponds in the parking lot and with no sign of stopping. Freak weather not unlike the weather he was frowning at from inside his truck at that moment, even though he had been parked a full five minutes already.
"Stupid freak weather," he muttered with a shake of his head.
It wasn't that he had anything against the rain, but it was late and he was tired and clowning around in a downpour was infinitely less fun when he was on his own than when he was with his fiancée and since he was pretty sure that she would be snuggled up on their sofa with a blanket and a hot chocolate at that very moment, he was on his own and as there didn't appear to be any break in the downpour forthcoming he was just going to have to deal with it.
In hindsight he probably should have listened to Gabriella when she had told him to take a jacket with him when she left that morning. In hindsight it had been good advice, but it was April and sometimes he just couldn't resist. He grinned – if nothing else his impending sogginess was going to be funny as he watched her trying to resist saying 'I told you so' as she fought the deep rooted fear of becoming a nagging wife one day.
The fact that she was going to be his wife in any way was all he cared about, but she insisted she wasn't going to conform to the stereotype and who was he to argue? It just made it more fun to try and push her nagging limits every so often, even if it was difficult because she was infinitely patient with him so pushing her buttons even playfully was difficult and he'd never want to push her too far. They had survived nearly 3 years in California with only one major argument (two hours was a long time for them) and that was not a record that he was willing to risk now that they were engaged.
It was funny – they had been engaged for a month and he still wasn't over the buzz of it. Introducing his future wife, his fiancée still gave him a cheap thrill and it still amazed him some of the looks he got. People thought he was crazy at wanting to be 'tied down' so early (their own families shared that thinking at first) and he could occasionally see some people eyeing up Gabriella as though they were checking for pregnancy, which was frankly idiotic and insulting. Clearly they didn't get it, but it wasn't like that was anything new.
"People are morons. Kinda like you are, Bolton for sitting in a truck instead of cuddling up to your fiancée," he muttered as he took a deep breath, grabbed his bag and opened the door before diving out, slamming the door behind him and running through the vertical columns of rain, cursing the fact that he couldn't park closer.
He had barely been outside for thirty seconds before he was inside and heading towards the elevator, glancing at his watch and mentally congratulating himself on his time. It was always a difficult time of year when the basketball season had just finished (without a national title, again) and he didn't have training or games to look forward to. He had ways of burning off energy – he and Gabriella went running most mornings and there was other things he still loved to do, but he was a competitive person by nature and sometimes that involved even competing with himself...or in this case, competing with a weather system.
When he got to the 7th floor he got out and went to their apartment but as soon as he opened the door he knew that instead of charming his fiancée into hopefully spending the stormy night snuggled up in bed (stormy weather did something to her and he was not going to complain...) he had to instead wonder where the hell she was. The house was in darkness, and there was no sign that anyone had been here since they had left earlier that day, which as it was nearly 10pm, was not normal as she always got home from her shift at the coffee shop before 7pm on Tuesday.
"Gabriella?"
He ran a hand through his wet hair and dropped his backpack at the door as he turned the lights on and looked around to see if there was a note about a last minute study session or something that came up because there was no way that she would be this late without letting him know, especially on a night like this. Realistically he knew that more than likely she went to the library and lost track of time, but still...all he had was images of her losing control of the car in this weather and ending up wrapped around a lamp-post or worse...
Shaking those thoughts out his head he went to his bag to grab his phone but before he could even open it up he heard keys in the door and he exhaled deeply, visibly relaxing at her presence as she walked through the door.
"Gabri..."
She lifted her sodden head, and for the first time Troy got a close look at her and felt his eyes widen at her appearance. Her clothes were shrunk into her body, parts of her shirt almost translucent due to how wet it was but, thankfully, most of it being covered by a thin jacket that was now dripping and leaving puddles on the floor at her feet. He could hear her shoes squeak as she walked over to drop her bag down and her hair was stuck flat to her head as she shivered and walked further into the room, offering him a small smile as she did so. As bad as the weather was, it would have been physically impossible for her to get so wet just by walking from the car to the apartment, so he was confused as to why she was looking like that, even as he immediately walked to the sofa and grabbed the nearest throw to wrap around her shivering form. "What happened to you?"
"What do you think?" she asked as she accepted the throw with a shake of her head but ended up sitting it on the chair beside her. "Why didn't you answer your phone?"
He blinked in confusion and shrugged. "I had it in my bag and forgot about it, why?"
She kicked off her shoes before attempting to peel the jacket from her body, her face scrunching adorably as she did so. "My car broke down outside the library," she shivered and shook her head. "I called a breakdown place, but they were going to take hours and said it would be an extra charge because it was after 6 and a Friday so I told them to leave it. I was going to catch the bus home, but I could only get one to Morrison..." she sniffed as she offered him a small smile. "It wasn't raining when I got off there, so I figured it was only a couple of miles so I'd walk."
"At night?"
"Troy," she giggled as she shook her head and gestured to her drenched body. "The time was the least of my problems. I had barely walked anywhere when the sky opened up and it still hasn't stopped. I tried calling you from the library and again on the bus and when I got off..."
Suddenly he felt awful. Most days he carried his phone around with him, but he had been so entrenched in what he had been doing that he hadn't wanted to give himself the distraction possibility. He hadn't even thought anything of it. "Babe, I'm so sorry – I was working and I just didn't even think to check. Are you okay? What happened to the car?"
"I don't know. The engine just won't turn over – it's like the battery just died on me. I have no idea what the problem is. I've never had any problems with my car."
She pouted slightly as she spoke and Troy could hear the half of the sentence she didn't say of 'if it had been your truck I would have expected it...' but let it slide. It was true that she had a very reliable car and that had been something he had insisted on just in case something like this happened. "I'll have a look at it tomorrow – it probably just needs a jump-start or something."
"Thank you, Wildcat," she smiled as she stepped towards him, but stopped before she reached him as she peered at his wet shirt. "You didn't take a jacket?"
He shrugged, but couldn't disguise the smirk that crossed his face. "My truck didn't break down, so I didn't really need it."
"I'm ignoring your bad attempt at gloating and going to get changed," she said as she leant up and kissed his cheek. "Since I'm the one plagued by car problems tonight, you can console me my making something hot to drink while I jump in a hot shower."
"You never console me when my car breaks down," he said as she backed away. "You just laugh, make fun and threaten to sell parts of it for scrap."
"I never threaten to sell parts of it," she defended as she stood in the door towards the bedroom. "No one would be stupid enough to give us money for it."
Before he could respond, she ducked away and closed the door, giggling loudly as she did so. He couldn't help but grin at the sound, even as he tore off his own soaked shirt and headed to the kitchen to heat some milk and gather some food for them. He wasn't going to count his chickens, but he wasn't going to lie and say that he was unhappy that Gabriella seemed far more playful than pissed off with her car troubles and as such he felt quietly confident that turning on the lights in the lounge wouldn't be necessary.
It was barely fifteen minutes when he went, locked the door and took the mugs of hot chocolate and the bags of marshmallows and the junk food they generally stored for nights like this into the bedroom and sat them down beside the bed only to see that she had left the window open.
"Is there a reason why you left the window open, Gabriella?" he called into the bathroom as he walked over to the window and closed it. "Years of having a house with a balcony has given you claustrophobic tendencies."
It was true – she would leave the window open in all weather and no matter how many times he shut it, she would invariably sneak out of bed and open it again.
"Sorry, Wildcat? I didn't hear."
He turned around at the sound of her voice as she ran a brush through her hair with a shy smile as she looked at him, her face still flushed from the heat of her shower. "What is it?"
"Damn," he said as he shook his head. It was almost unfair how she could render him a stuttering mess sometimes. She didn't even have to do much either, which was the really amazing thing but having her stand there, fresh out the shower with some ridiculous Sesame Street pyjama set that in no universe could be classed as pyjamas he was floored. "Is that Oscar?"
She grinned at him and nodded as she gave a playful whirl. "They're new. I found them online! Do you like? You can almost never get Oscar stuff anywhere."
He nodded. "He should look happier than he is if he's going to be on clothes like that."
"Oscar's a grouch," she said with a pout as she walked over to him and ran her hands up his chest. "He's never happy."
"Is his grouchiness contagious, because if so I could help you take them off...?"
She shook her head, biting her lip and he counted slowly to keep himself calm. "Only you would try and turn something as innocent as Oscar into a reason for getting into my pants."
"In fairness, they don't really count as pants," he teased as he leant forward, pressing his lips to her neck. "It's almost unfair."
"I knew you'd like them," she sighed, tilting her head and he couldn't help but grin against her skin. "Mmmm, Troy...not that I don't love where this is going but our drinks are going to get cold."
"Uh-huh," he said distractedly as trailed his mouth down to her shoulder and nudged the green strap of her vest off her shoulder slightly. "You should wear more green..."
"You..." she pulled back, flushed and looking outrageously tempting and dishevelled as her strap hung around the top of her arm and she raised a hand to halt his advance. "You do not play fair, Wildcat."
"All's fair in love and..."
"Noooo," she said as she took a step away and righted her clothes and her hair. "We're turning into one of those couples again."
"What couples?" he asked but he knew exactly what type of couple she was talking about. It had been a 'problem' when they had first moved in together a couple of years earlier, and it was a problem again since the engagement. Not that either of them particularly minded, but they did occasionally take turns at trying to be responsible while the other took it as a challenge to try and convince them of how stupid that stance was. He wasn't embarrassed to admit that when it was his turn to be the 'sensible' one that she generally changed his mind in about a minute. She was extremely persuasive when she wanted to be, it had to be said...
"Those couples who spend so much time in bed that they forget what the outside world looks like and don't care what the rest of the civilised world is up to."
"It's raining so the outside world is wet and miserable tonight and everyone, if they are smart, will be doing what we're doing," he said as he took a step closer. "Problem solved."
"That's lousy reasoning, Wildcat."
He saw her bite back a smile and shake her head. He knew he could probably talk her round relatively easily but he knew how to pick his battles and since he knew the pay-off would be worth the delay he could play nice. "Fine, what would you like to do?"
"Hmmm," she said as she eyed him suspiciously while he did his best to keep an innocent look on his face. "Let's just...sit down, have out hot chocolate, talk...maybe watch a movie..."
"That's not going to let us see what the rest of the civilised world is doing, you know," he said as he walked closer to her and leant down to her ear. "But I'm not going to complain."
Before she could even say anything he jumped onto the bed, smirked at her and popped a marshmallow in his mouth.
"It isn't going to work," she said as she straightened up and walked around the other side of the bed and sitting down on it, her legs folded up underneath her.
"What?" he didn't even feign innocence this time as she narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. "You're paranoid."
"Uh-huh," she rolled her eyes before giggling and batting his hand away from her leg before sinking down beside him, putting her head on his shoulder. "Behave so we can cuddle or else I'm going to go call Taylor."
"Oooh, blackmail," he murmured as he kissed her damp hair. "Fine - I'll be good."
"Good," she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face against his chest and sighed. "I love the rain."
"You didn't love it so much an hour ago," he responded as he rubbed her barely covered shoulder. "I guarantee when you were walking in it you weren't thinking you loved it."
He felt her laugh against him and knew he caught her. "What were you thinking, Gabriella?"
"At first I was thinking about East High and dancing on the roof with you," she placed a kiss on his neck. "That was the last time I remember being caught in a rainstorm like that. I remembered dancing and thinking that it was the best feeling ever and that it would be impossible for me to be as happy ever again. Little did I know that it would be nothing to how happy I'd feel once we came out here."
He smiled down at her and cupped her cheek tenderly. He could remember that day in High School clearer than just about anything. They had both caught cold after spending a day in wet clothing, but it had been more than worth it. "I think I still remember how to waltz a little."
She beamed at him. "Really? Maybe we should waltz at the wedding."
"I might need a few more lessons so I don't completely embarrass you, but I could probably agree to that," he agreed as she leant up and kissed him. "You said at first you were thinking of that. What were you thinking afterwards?"
She giggled at him and shook her head. "Well, after I thought about that and how perfect it was, I then realised that this time I still had another mile to walk before I could get dry and I started thinking how much I would love to vacation somewhere dry right about now instead of dealing with more rain."
He laughed and shook his head. They didn't have a real vacation planned for this year and instead they were saving up for an elaborate month long honeymoon after they graduated. It was a work in progress, but that was going to be their foray into going on having an adventure. "We could go on a vacation this year, you know - even just a few days somewhere. Or we could always..."
She lifted her head to look at him. "Could always what?"
"Bring the honeymoon forward. You know it's not that far between here and Vegas..."
"You want to elope and have me killed before the school year's out."
"I would never let our parents kill you," he assured her. "If anything you'd have to protect me because they all know that I'm the bad influence in that regard."
"I'd protect you, but they'd probably just take me out to get to you then."
"At least we'd be together," he joked with a shake of his head. He was mostly joking about eloping. It was a fact that more likely than not their parents would kill them, or at the very least guilt trip them for the next twenty years and as appealing as it was to marry Gabriella right away, he wasn't going to pretend that their reaction wouldn't put a dampener on the occasion. Still thought, it was nice to dream sometimes. "We could give them a call from Vegas and tell them to fly in. Best of both worlds."
"You need to stop, because one day I will agree with you," she said as she finally sat up and grinned at him and he mimicked her pose as he handed her the rapidly cooling drink he had made for her. "I just can't help but think how good it would be to avoid all the stress."
"We could get married in May, be in Europe in June..."
"Need to be careful of the May date – we have basketball tickets at the start, so you'll need to plan around it."
"This is why I love you," he said as he raised her hand and kissed it. "You are as smart as you are beautiful. So yes, new plan – we watch the Lakers, we celebrate by eloping and then we go travel around Europe. Sound good?"
"Sounds amazing," she agreed with a sigh. "Of course...our parents still kill us in that scenario unless we just move to Europe full time."
"We could be on the run, like in the Bourne movies," he laughed as he lay down on his stomach and looked up at her. "We could send cryptic postcards so they would know we were okay, but quickly leave the country so they couldn't trace us."
"They'll have enough trouble finding us as it is!" she giggled before she shook her head. "We still don't even have a proper route ourselves, Wildcat."
"That's part of the adventure! We're being badass!"
"We are not being 'badass' about our honeymoon. You know, since we have time to kill tonight that might be a good idea of something to do. Give me a second," she said as she stood up and almost ran out the room. He had a pretty good idea where she was off to so didn't bother moving much as he waited on her, and sure enough less than a minute later she came in clutching the board that they liked to hang on the wall most of the time. It was a simple construction – a paper map pinned to a message board, complete with pushpins and post-it notes but for more than a year it had been their shared post graduation dream. "I always forget how many places we plan on visiting."
She sat the map on the bed and he sat up beside her and couldn't help but smile as he looked at it. To most people it would be chaotic to even make sense of it, but it was pretty obvious to them. Gabriella, on the day he had asked her to move in with him, had been the first to mention having an 'adventure' before they joined the real world after college and he had bought her a map as a moving in present along with a dart that she had fired randomly to find out where this adventure would take place. She'd hit Europe and the world map had then been replaced by a European map and every so often they would hear of a place, or a city or a relic and add it onto the map. That was the reason it was now filled with pushpins and post-it notes and diagrams as they would randomly add places they'd be interested in visiting. There was even an accompaniment notebook with subsections for places to visit within individual cities they were going to. It was going to be an adventure, but an organised adventure.
"The problem we have with this map," he squinted at it. "Is that we aren't hitting anywhere that we can be guaranteed good weather even in the summer. We could be going from Californian rain to European rain, which is pretty much the same only colder and greyer."
"But it's European, so that would make it better," she bartered as she leant into him. "Imagine, walking along the Seine in the rain..."
"We have lots planned for Paris already," he said as he pointed to the map, and he couldn't help but laugh as he saw the little stick figures with joined hands and a rain cloud above their heads. "When...? Gabriella," he grinned as he turned her head to look at him, his fingers holding her chin as he leant in and kissed her. "We can't guarantee the weather you know even when you deface the map with your crazy requests. You know, most people want sunshine on honeymoon – it guarantees fewer clothes will be worn."
"One day won't make a difference," she giggled. "We'll get sunshine in Italy."
He frowned at her then. "I'd like the Italy plan more if I didn't know the Italian stereotype was based on fact. I propose we skip Italy and add in somewhere like...Switzerland."
"We can't go to Europe and skip Italy – it would be like skipping Britain," she said as she turned back to the map. "Who knows if we'll ever get the chance again? Besides you shouldn't believe everything people tell you, Wildcat. If stereotypes were accurate we would never have even met each other."
"Fate loved us so it would have happened eventually. Gabi," he whined as he looked at her, even as she was looking at the map. "Would you not rather go somewhere more exciting? Italy is so...historic and boring and you know Casanova isn't the competition any guy wants on his honeymoon."
"We'll skip Venice if it will make you feel better," she turned to look at him. "Besides, you know you want to go to the Parthenon so you can pretend to be Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator and do that thumbs down thing you always do when it's on TV."
Her accompanied 'thumbs down' gesture made him laugh. "I think that would make us look like tourists, don't you?"
"Only if you randomly start quoting it. I mean seriously, Troy..." she held up a post-it and raised an eyebrow. "'It vexes me, I'm terribly vexed'? I don't know what's worse – that being on the map or that I recognise what it's from. I half expect you to get an outfit in your quest for realism."
"I'm not opposed to dressing up," he said as he plucked the post-it out her hand and re-attached it to the side of the board before sliding in behind her so he could rest his head on her shoulder. "Just generally not so publicly."
"We could do it for the Halloween party," she giggled. "But if you were Commodus I'd have to be Lucilla and I'm not sure that would be morally sound all things considered unless you could keep your hands to yourself."
He didn't think that was likely if their previous Halloween's were anything to go by. He could still remember the first Halloween they were in California. Before they left Albuquerque she had joked with him that she would dress in leather for Halloween to fulfil his 'badass' fantasy and he had honestly forgotten about it...until he had shown up at her door on Halloween and was greeted with her in skin-tight leather pants, a vest top and the darkest makeup he had ever seen her wear. She was the perfect 'bad girl' and he'd pretty much kept his promise that he wouldn't let her out the apartment that night and most of the following day. Subsequent Halloweens had seen similar scenarios, although occasionally they did hit the odd Halloween party albeit briefly.
"You could be a nameless Roman woman..." he helpfully offered. It probably wouldn't beat the leather, or the superhero theme they went with the year previous, but it would be pretty close. "I'm easy on the specifics."
"We'll see...maybe it'll get your historical fascination out your system for next year."
"You know you'd make a more convincing argument, Ms Montez if I didn't know you want to do the balcony thing in Verona – which isn't very honeymoon like it has to be said."
"Romeo & Juliet is the ultimate romance – how is that not suitable for a honeymoon?"
"Um – they both die in the end. Not exactly the fairy tale – 'once upon a time two people met, fell in love, overcame all obstacles and then died tragically before they could even enjoy the happily ever after. The End.'"
She sat up then and slapped his arm gently. "They were together forever. Happily ever after doesn't have an expiration date – it lasts beyond lifetimes so although they couldn't be together in Verona, they could be together afterwards. That's what's romantic about the story."
He paused and looked at her. "You are far too smart to fall for such cheap dramatic tricks. Romeo was an asshole and Juliet was a drama queen. We're already more romantic than any cheap Shakespearian crap even without the rhyming couplets and tights."
He turned her around so one of her legs was swung over his and stroked a finger down her cheek. "And, I already have climbed on your balcony..."
"You have," she agreed as she sighed happily, her eyes closing. "I loved it when you did that..."
He smiled against her head. He knew that, and if there was one thing he regretted about their apartment is that she was deprived of her balcony. He knew it had been a dream since she was a girl, and the fact that it brought them together... "Hmm...maybe Romeo did have the right idea. Maybe I should woo you more..."
"You woo me more than enough," she sighed. "If you were any more romantic I might just give up college and live in bed with you."
"You say that like it's a bad thi..." he began but stopped as she spun around laughing and pushed him back.
"Maybe I should woo you, Wildcat," she teased, her eyes dancing with laughter as she looked at him. "It is the 21st century after all and I am a modern woman."
He grinned at her as he lifted his head so he could kiss her. "You woo me plenty. Your various Sesame Street regalia definitely helps."
"Good, that's the idea," she whispered. "So...we agree on France and Italy...do you still want to go to Switzerland?"
"You know you could get me to agree to pretty much anything just now," he muttered as her hands trailed up his arms. "But no...no Switzerland. I want you in fewer clothes, not more. Let's find somewhere hot and dry and with a beach, no rain, just you and me and no historic significance. The European equivalent of snorkelling in Hawaii..."
"Hmmm, funny you should say that, because I was thinking..."
"If this is something I'm not going to like I am never discussing anything with you in bed again, because you never play fair."
"I think you might like this. I was thinking that we might start of honeymoon off and then have our vacation."
He squinted in confusion. "You don't want to travel next summer?"
"No, I do but I was thinking that before we go...everywhere else, we could maybe have a few days...just us and then leave from there to go travelling."
"Really? Where?" he asked, already liking the idea of having a couple of days just to enjoy being married. "I think it's a great idea, but would you want to hit somewhere in the US and then head to Europe, or fly to Europe via somewhere else or..."
"I was thinking somewhere in Europe. Maybe Greece," she murmured. "We could spend a few days in Kythera – it's where Aphrodite was supposed to have come to earth. It's the perfect honeymoon location with beaches and sun and caves and it's not a big tourist place and it would be perfect."
She pulled back then and he sat up so he could look at her, his hand landing on her bare leg. "I've never heard of Kythera."
"It's not the Parthenon, or walking along the Seine in the rain, or even snorkelling in Hawaii but..." she bit her lip. "It looks beautiful and romantic and I think you'd like it..."
She was blushing for some reason and he had no real idea why that would be until he grabbed the map from beside her and looked closely at it and saw a push-pin in near Greece and a couple of hearts already drawn above it. "You've been researching?"
She shrugged and grabbed his arm, pressing a kiss to the top of it. "My mom wanted to pay for our honeymoon as a wedding present, but we had so much of it already planned and I explained to her that we wanted to pay for our own vacation. She understood that but then suggested that perhaps, as a compromise, we would let her pay for a few days honeymoon before we went travelling – just so we could relax and enjoy being married first. I was going to say no, but when I thought about it so much of what we were going to do was travelling, and I'm looking forward to that so much but I think I'd kinda miss the days in bed honeymoon thing as well where we don't need to worry about trains and plane times. I know it's greedy to want both but..." she looked down and played with his hand, her face flushed. "It's the beginning of our forever, right? So let's go all out. We might never get the chance to do any of this again – in a few years we'll have a family and jobs and responsibility...let's go all out now while we have the time and the means to afford it."
He looked again at the map and nodded, his smile widening almost painfully on his face at the way she so easily talked about their future together – no question, no doubts, just facts. It made him feel ten foot tall and bulletproof, knowing that she was as clear about it as he was. "It sounds pretty much perfect. Let's do it. It sounds perfect and I have to admit, as much as I look forward to travelling with you, a few days just being married, with no sightseeing, no interruptions of timetables sounds perfect. Let's do it."
"Really?" she couldn't disguise the excitement in her voice as she looked at him and she jumped up and kissed him. "Thank you! I promise you'll love it and I figured we could leave from there, to mainland Italy or Bulgaria, or anywhere else. I just..." she kissed him again quickly before she turned back towards the map and sighed. "I can't wait to marry you, Wildcat. Part of me almost wishes we were really eloping. This year is going to be so long."
"And you're really sure I can't convince you to come to Vegas with me?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Mmmm," she sighed as she leant back against him. "I meant what I said you know, one day I'm going to say yes and our parents will end up killing us both before we even get the chance to go anywhere."
"Ah, but as you so accurately said about Romeo & Juliet – happily ever after lasts beyond lifetimes so..." he smiled against her neck as she started laughing. "If that's true then we've nothing to lose my provoking the ire of our parents."
She shook her head and turned round so she was kneeling in front of him. "Using my own words against me. How can I argue with that?"
"You can't," he said as he reached around her and grabbed the map and slid it on the floor beside the bed. "I win due to your use of romantic logic. You want to fly or should we just jump in my truck – since my truck is the only one of our cars that is working just now..."
"Making fun of my car is not the way to encourage the happily ever after, Wildcat," she said indignantly, fighting against the natural pout she wanted to give him.
He burst out laughing at her tone. For years he had been forced to listen to jibes and jokes about his car and although he wasn't going to tempt fate too much by boasting, he couldn't help but enjoy this a little too much.
"That's it – we're not eloping anymore," she said with a dramatic sigh as she stood up and picked the map up and set it down on the dressing table. "I think a year's worth of grovelling should put me back in a marrying frame of mind again."
He lay down and grinned at her, even as she stifled her own laughter. "I bet I convince you to elope with me before Christmas. A summer at home with our mother's planning everything will convince you."
She shook her head and slowly began walking over. "What would be the terms of the bet?"
He reached over and grabbed her hip so she was standing right in front of him. "If I win, you're my wife quicker...and if you win, I'm your husband as soon as you want."
Her face broke into the most beautiful smile then and all signs of the teasing vanished as she brought her hand to his face and stroked it. "Sounds like a no lose situation to me. I accept your terms."
"I feel like I should tell you that I don't plan on playing fair," he confessed as she came up to lie down beside him. "I'm going to encourage everyone to be as obnoxious as possible with you until you have to cave in."
"Hmmm," she hummed as she wrapped her arms around him again and leant her head against his chest. "We'll see. It gives me something to look forward to after my finals."
He laughed and brought his hand to her hair, stroking it softly as he closed his own eyes, just enjoying having her lying against him. "Always happy to provide an incentive."
"Just one reason why I love you," she said as she kissed his chest softly. "I don't think the rain's going to go off tonight."
He waited a moment for her to say something else, but she just kept quiet, watching out the window while her fingers made non-descript patterns over his chest. It was blissful and calm and everything he loved about being with her and he could picture years of laying like this with her during storms, he could see them both age, and children jumping on top of them to interrupt and everything about the images just made him more and more desperate for all those things to happen. He wasn't quite ready to wish away the present for the future just yet though, not when the present with her was as good as it was.
"Okay, get up," he said as he gently sat up, bringing her up with him. She shot him a confused look and he smirked as he got up from the bed and walked over to the closet and grabbed a shirt, before grabbing a sweatshirt and firing it onto the bed for her.
"What..."
"You might want to put some clothes on, Ms Fiancée because Oscar will just get more Grouchy if you don't."
She didn't question him and just pulled on the sweatshirt and he quickly sent over a pair of her sweatpants as well which she put on without question. Once they were dressed she stood up, looking beautifully dishevelled but perfect and he couldn't help but take a step over to her and kiss her.
"Do I want to know what's going through your mind, Wildcat?"
"I was just thinking that since we're getting married soon, I'm going to need to brush up on my dancing. Care to give me another waltzing lesson, Ms Montez? Looks like the perfect weather for it."
Her face lit up and she immediately nodded and he let her grab his hand and pull him from the room, almost giddy with excitement as they both grabbed their already soaked shoes and their jackets and headed to the door. Before they could go out it though she stopped him and smiled up at him. "This is why I will always love you - you indulge me in my silliness sometimes."
"You indulge me with plenty, so I figure it's only fair," he replied with a smile. "It's also going to give me serious brownie points for when I start my earnest attempt at winning the bet."
"We'll see about that, but I hope so," she responded with a grin. "Now come on, before the roof gets flooded and we end up doing our best Gene Kelly impersonation instead of Fred Astaire."
He watched her head almost giddily down the hall towards the elevator and smiled to himself. That day back in High School, as a love-struck teenaged boy he had hoped but not really believed he would be standing here like that, yet here he was – watching his fiancée, planning a wedding, a honeymoon, a vacation, and a life together. He had gotten so lucky and although there had been the odd set-back, he could hardly believe this was his life.
"Are you okay, Troy?"
"Just thinking," he replied as he brought her hand to his lips. "About happy endings."
She reached for him and shook her head. "No, don't think happy endings. Endings aren't happy – think...happily ever afters. They can always be achieved because they are works in progress."
He laughed. "I didn't know there was a difference."
"Oh yeah, it's very complex," she said with faux gravity. "I'd explain it to you, but I worry if we delay it much longer the storm might actually get worse before we can even have one dance."
"Meh, let it rain, let it pour," he joked causing her to giggle and wrap her arms round his neck. "What we have is worth fighting for."
"You know I believe, we were meant to be," she sighed as he laughter vanished. "I really did believe that you know, even then with so much going on, so many worries and so many questions. I believed you were it for me."
"Me too," he agreed. "I'm glad we were right."
She nodded her agreement and he kissed her forehead softly before pressing the call button on the elevator and pulling the hood on her sweater up over her still damp hair as he prepared to go learn a dance he knew realistically that he probably wouldn't have to know for a year. It didn't matter though, just seeing how happy she looked, and knowing how happy he felt, he would happily spend hours reliving that perfect moment from High School over and over again.
He might not know the difference between Happy Endings and Happily Ever Afters, but at that moment he honestly didn't even care. They were just happy and as long as they were together, he knew they would stay that way and at the end of the day, whether they were dancing on a roof at 11pm on a Friday in the middle of a freak weather system or being one of 'those couples', that was all that mattered. She was right, after all, this wasn't an ending - it was just the beginning. The start of their forever.
Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed this. Again, there are still auctions running on the wildcatsgivebac LJ group if anyone wants to make a bid for something.
Thanks again to miltymouse for the donation – I hope this is kinda what you were looking for.