Summer of 1994
Darren was never going to forgive himself for that day. Ever.
It had started innocently enough; Stevie's parents were working so his best friend was staying with the Criss family for the day. Stevie had entered the Criss house, beaming madly, only to be nearly-knocked over by the whirlwind that was her best friend.
"Did you bring a swimsuit?" Darren asked excitably, bouncing up and down on the spot. Stevie nodded. "OhMyGod, you've got to get in the swimming pool! It's so fun, and it cools you down when it's hot and-"
"And I think you just woke me up," Chuck muttered, coming down the stairs and rubbing his eyes. He turned to Stevie, looking sort of surprised. "How can you let him yell in your ear like that?"
Stevie giggled. "I'm used to it."
"I'm not that loud!" Darren protested loudly, contradicting his own point. "Go away, Chuck, she's my friend!"
Chuck laughed, ruffling his little brother's hair. "'Kay. If you say so." Chuck sniffed the air slowly. "Hey, hasn't Mom started breakfast yet? Being woken up by an insane seven year old makes me hungry."
Darren grumbled something unintelligible and punched his brother light-heartedly on the arm. Chuck laughed. "Come on, don't be like that. Okay, today if you guys go in the pool I'll sit and play you music, just for the fun of it." Darren's expression softened and he nodded hopefully. "Right, now I need breakfast."
"BET YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!"
"YEAH I CAN!"
"NO, YOU CAN'T! YOU'RE A GIRL!"
"I thought children stopped screaming as they got older," Chuck muttered to his mother, strumming on his guitar strings.
Cerina laughed slightly. "They're overexcited, Chuck. I mean, you were at that age. And don't tell me you don't yell while playing in the pool."
"DARREN, LET GO OF MY HAIR!" Stevie screamed, splashing him with water. Darren spluttered, releasing her hair from his grip reluctantly.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're gonna be so sorry!"
"Kids!" Cerina called to them, and both children looked up from their game. "I'm going inside for a minute to get some more drinks. Try not to drown each other!"
Darren grinned cheerfully, nodding his head. Chuck stood up too, carefully placing his guitar down on the chair. "I'm going in too," Chuck decided. "I'm too hot out here, so I'm gonna go put my shorts on."
"Join us for a swim!" Stevie requested, kicking her legs happily. "Come on, it's fun!"
Chuck grinned. "Alright, I'll go and get my swim trunks then."
"No," Darren rolled his eyes at his best friend slightly as his brother retreated inside. "We don't want him playing with us – it's just our game!"
Stevie blinked at him, long lashes fluttering slightly. "But I like Chuck – he's nice and fun."
"I know...but you're my friend," Darren pouted adorably. Stevie giggled. "It's not funny!"
"Yeah it is!" She laughed, swimming over to the ladder and climbing out of the pool. "You're getting jealous!"
"No I'm not!" Darren protested, following her out of the pool. Stevie took a long sip of her lemonade, gasping as she did so. Darren took a long swig of his too, and glared at her. "I'm not jealous! Just...you're my friend, okay?"
"I know," She said, looking somewhat bemused. She went to stand by the edge of the pool, grinning at him. "But admit it; you're jealous!"
"Am not!"
"You are!"
Darren was getting annoyed now. "I'm not! I just don't want you to be friends with him and decide he's cooler!"
That was when it started to go wrong; Darren turned around to take another drink of his lemonade, not watching Stevie anymore. Stevie was laughing and giggling one minute; and then the next...she wasn't. Darren didn't realise until he put his glass down and turned to see that she wasn't there.
"Stevie?"
Panic started to course through him. "STEVIE!"
2011
"So, who's the brunette?"
Darren looked up at Naya, who had come over to talk to him. He blinked slightly before he realised what she was asking him. "Oh. Stevie?" Naya nodded. "She's...an old friend of mine."
Naya smiled slightly. "I see..." The smile soon became quite mischievous. "Just friends?"
Darren laughed slightly. "Yes, just friends." Well, now we are...
"That's why Ryan excused you from the first half an hour of dance rehearsal," Naya muttered subtly. "I take it you didn't know she was coming."
"Not at all," Darren agreed, feeling a bit lost by the whole thing. "I'm...shocked. I haven't seen her in about six years."
Naya blinked, understanding as best she could. "That sounds hard," She sympathised. "Really. What happened between you two?"
Darren shrugged, not sure he really wanted to disclose the real reasons. "I guess we just...grew apart."
More like couldn't handle long-distance...
1994
"STEVIE!" Darren started to scream, tears stinging his eyes. He carefully raced to the edge of the pool, and gaped in horror at the sight he saw.
Stevie was struggling at the bottom of the pool, spluttering for air but unable to swim up to the surface. Darren guessed that it was the shock of falling in that had hit her, and she'd lost all her air from gasping out in surprise. He started to panic, not knowing what to do; should he get his Mom and Chuck? Should he dive in and save her himself?
All he had to do was take one look at Stevie and he jumped into the pool.
Suddenly, his eyes were starting to sting from the chlorine; he held his breath as best he could, and started scrabbling to grab at his best friend. He pulled at her arm, heaving as best he could. He knew, however, that if he took too long trying to save her, then he'd be stuck down there too.
Suddenly, hands grabbed under his armpits, and he felt himself being dragged towards the surface. His grip on Stevie tightened, and he pulled her with him. The second his head rose out of the water, he took a big gulping breathe of the air, blinking the chlorine out of his eyes.
"Jesus, Darren!" He heard his brother saying in a rather high voice. "What the..." Chuck stopped, finally noticing Stevie. "MOM!" He turned back to the two children. "Don't worry, I'm gonna get some towels...MOM!"
Chuck raced to the garden table, pulling two towels off of the chairs. He quickly hurried to wrap his brother and brother's friend up, still yelling for his mother.
"Come on," Darren pleaded, throwing the towel over Stevie. "Breathe!" He thumped Stevie's back, and she started to cough and splutter, water coming up. Cerina came out of the house, looking slightly annoyed as to why her eldest son was yelling – and then she saw.
"Stevie!" She cried, racing over to help. "What happened?" Stevie coughed some more, face bright red. Cerina turned to her sons. "What? What happened?"
"Stevie fell in the pool," Darren explained, starting to shiver. "A-And I went in to help her."
Cerina gave her son a pat on the back. "Thank You, Darren. That was very brave of you."
Darren felt awful about it though; he shouldn't have turned his back on Stevie. Sure, she'd been the one mucking around...but she was a guest as his house...and she was a year younger than him...
No matter how many times in the future Stevie would tell him it was alright, and that it was her fault, he'd just shake his head and protest that he should have been looking after her. Sometimes...well, he'd have nightmares about the whole ordeal; what if he hadn't fished her out?
He never forgave himself for it.
2011
Stevie seemed to be able to make friends quickly with the Glee Cast; by lunchtime the next day, Darren noticed that Stevie was talking a lot to Heather and Vanessa, giggling and chatting as if they'd known each other for years. Darren felt kind of warm and fuzzy that his old best friend was getting on so well here.
"I like her," Chris muttered the day after Darren noticed this. "She's sweet...I'm just waiting for Hollywood to change that." Darren scoffed slightly. "Anyway...have you read the script for the next episode?"
Darren shook his head. "Not yet. I'm just trying to remember this episode's lines, 'cause if I fuck them up we're screwed."
"Looks like we're going to a gay bar," Chris mentioned slyly, and Darren's eyes widened slightly. "I'd also break out the chapstick if I were you, judging by the title of the episode."
"What?" Darren asked desperately, like a little puppy.
The younger man chuckled. "The First Time."
"Holy shit," Darren muttered. "Does that mean what I think it means?" Chris nodded, grinning. "Holy fuck. We really are changing the world, aren't we?"
"Hmm..." Chris half-agreed, looking slightly weirded out by Darren's reaction. "One step at a time; gay kissing, gay dancing, gay love proclamations..."
"Gay sex," Darren finished, grinning like an idiot. "This should be fun."
By the time filming for "The First Time" had started, it was obvious that Stevie had been accepted as part of the "Glee family", as the actors on set called it. Maybe his fellow co-stars were only talking to her because they knew she used to be friends with Darren now (Naya was very much a gossip sometimes) or it was because she was being all friendly to them; Darren didn't know.
One thing he did realise, though, half way through the dance rehearsal for "America" in the studio was that Stevie really did know how to dance now; this kind of perplexed Darren, especially since the last time he saw her she was pretty much average at dancing. However, he lost that train of thought seconds later as his brain suddenly started to register the way she was moving...okay, maybe it wasn't a sexy dance...but God did those legs bring back memories...
Darren coughed, flushing as he realized what he was thinking about. It was wrong for him to objectify her like that...and he had a girlfriend. It wasn't like he didn't see sexy women all the time (both because of the girlfriend and because of his female co-stars), so Darren brushed it off. It was probably just the shock of seeing her – seeing her dancing of all things – that was making him think like this.
Of course, he also soon remembered that Stevie was a huge Glee fangirl; this was more than clear when she was listening to Darren describing what scenes he had to do and she kept giggling with giddy excitement. He kept raising his eyebrows at her in question, and she flushed slightly. "Sorry...I'm a Klainer."
"Thought so."
1994
"I'm really sorry," Darren repeated meekly, still wrapped up in a Finding Nemo towel.
Stevie sneezed before answering. "I-It's fine," She sniffled. "Really. Actually, you saved me." She grinned slightly. "You're like a Prince Charming, Darren."
Darren grinned, slightly cheered up by the idea. "Really?"
The girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah!" She beamed. "If you're a Prince Charming, can I be your Princess?"
The curly-haired boy paused slightly. "But...don't the Prince and Princess always get married?"
"You don't want to marry me?" Stevie asked, slightly hurt.
Darren started to panic and ramble worriedly. "No, I do! B-But I was just saying we're not grown-ups yet, so we can't." He also paused. "Do you want to marry me?"
Stevie giggled excitedly. "I-I guess so." She fluttered her eyelashes at him. "You're an excellent Prince, so...yeah."
"Wait!" Darren decided. "If we're going to get married, I need to ask you properly...you know, all the "down on one knee" stuff that the movies tell you to do."
"And a ring!" Stevie reminded him, suddenly not feeling cold or ill anymore. "Ooh! Ooh! We need to invite all our families and stuff!"
"My brother can play music while we dance together!" Darren planned excitedly. "A-And then we can go and live in a big castle somewhere-"
"With horses and lots of different pets." Stevie paused for a moment, considering. "But no disgusting creepy crawlies."
Darren nodded in agreement. "And then...we'll start a family!"
Chuck happened to walk in at that moment, and he stared at his brother oddly. "Dare, that's a bit...far away in the future." He chuckled, teasing his little brother. "And, who knows, maybe you'll marry different people..."
Darren looked at Chuck, and suddenly decided to do something. He grabbed his best friend's hands, squeezing them in his. He stared into her eyes, hoping she'd get the message. "Stevie," He muttered under his breath so only she could hear him. "You have to be honest with me..." He eyed his brother one last time before staring at her again. "You have to promise to love me and only me...and if any other Princes or non-Princes ask you to marry them, you can't."
Stevie nodded, silently swearing on her heart. "Yes, of course. But you can't marry any other girls as well – you're my Prince."
"Agreed."
Hehe...cute baby fluff at the end :)
Review please!