One second, two, three...Leah didn't know how much time had passed, but there were too many aimless blinks, and not enough words.

"Annywaay," Tina drawled, in the prolonged silence. "I have to go, but I'll see you on Friday night."

Stood, she directed a friendly smile at Steven.

"That's your bag."

"Ah, muchas gracias, chica. Enjoy your date."

Apparently acquainted, Leah's boyfriend, though not strictly confirmed boyfriend, was indulging in some harmless nicknames, and her sneaky friend, whose title of best was still in a recovery phase, was leaving her for the second time in one day.

Turning away from the sympathising devil, professionally known as Steven Tyler, Leah scowled at the empty hallway.

"Justine!"

"Hey." Steven sat up a bit, hands defensively holding her in place. "Don't be mad at her. This was my idea too."

"Oh, I'll be dealing with you, Tallarico," Leah shot back, climbing off his lap. "Just you wait, sunshine."

She didn't care if Steven just smirked as if he enjoyed being put in his place, because she needed to stop the woman shrugging on her coat.

The result of arguably the best surprises ever, Leah couldn't forget about the distance and disregard that had consistently made her mood low and fight away stray tears at night.

"Justine."

"Ya."

"No, don't 'ya' me. Explain what's going on, right now."

Tina had the audacity to laugh softly, slipping on her shoes. At least the situation was amusing for someone.

"Steven will explain everything," she said, grabbing her set of keys, her back half turned to leave.

"No, y-"

Two hands landed on Leah's shoulders, stopping her lunge forwards.

"You're going back with him, because I know this is what you want."

"What I want?" Leah retorted, but her anger was fading into the desperation of being scared. "W-what about you? Or my job? Or my parents?" Then her rage plummeted completely, face falling in realisation. "Oh god, mum and dad..."

Tina dropped her hands.

"We'll all be here whenever you decide to visit. Well, maybe not your job, but you'll have one out there."

"I'll have to tell them," Leah muttered to herself, fingers rubbing the side of her gently agape mouth. Her eyes were unsteady and didn't land on the calm blues for very long. "Oh shit, they're...how-where-"

"Your parents? Yes, you do. I suggest Saturday because you'll be on a plane Sunday."

Leah put a hand to her forehead, looking around her flat. Luckily, Steven wasn't standing there with his precious smile, not that thinking about him and how she was going to explain her complicated relationship status to her parents was helping.

It was getting hard to breathe.

"Hey, don't stress." Tina guided her face back, the hint of a smile secretly overjoying the sympathy expressed. "All you have to do is go to work for the next two days, come out to party on Friday night with the girls, see your folks Saturday, and then you'll have Steven. Though really, you have him now."

"That's a lot to stress over!" Leah countered, eyes blown wide. "I...I have four days! And then I'm...I-I live in a different country!"

"Just relax, it's all sorted."

Relaxed was not how Leah felt. Not even close. It didn't matter if this was what she had been considering and constantly thinking about during their time apart, she hadn't been involved in the plan, and it was all too much to process being dumped on her in one go.

She shrugged half heartedly, voice drained from hope.

"Do I even get a say?"

A sympathetic press of her mouth, Tina had fumbled for the door behind, pulling it open.

"Would it be any different?" she returned, frowning gently. There was no time for a response. "I'll see you at work, Devvy. Don't look so scared."

The door closed, the air settled, and Leah was none the wiser.

"Wow, isn't she just great?"

Footsteps slowed, and hands registered on her hips. It shouldn't have made her shiver, but then she didn't have many clothes on, and Steven's fingertips touched high up the sides of her thighs on a subtle mission.

"You okay?"

Leah turned around, fingers trying to point at him, but they ended up loosely curling and twitching, and she didn't dare raise her floundering, squinting eyes above his chin.

"How?" she asked weakly, consciously sucking in a breath through her teeth. "I-I don't-"

"Shh, calm down," Steven hushed, cupping her face. Now Leah had to look at him, and blessed with how effortlessly handsome he was, was giving her another reason to break down into tears. "Let's sit."

Steven had changed clothes- she noticed that as he helped her sit on the sofa- into these white, drawstring cargo trousers and an AC/DC t-shirt. He looked like a normal guy with long hair, a classic taste in music, and the rising rockstar in him was bouncing in his personality instead.

Leah also saw the rest of his Valentine's suit was next to her, just to remind her about the sexual endeavours she had endured not that long ago, and didn't react when a pair of her Soul Cal joggers were outstretched towards her.

"Would you like a drink?" Steven asked, but he retracted his offer with a glance towards the kitchen. "Well, I uh...I don't really know what you have, so I guess you'd end up getting something yourself."

Absently, Leah accepted the item of clothing, too overwhelmed to address the kindness to find her something to wear, and fumbled her right foot in first. And because her head was beginning to go into overload mode trying to piece everything together, she barely noticed Steven's rambling and nervous laugh.

He just ended up perched on the coffee table opposite her, and wrung his hands out between his knees.

"Listen, I'm-"

"I need food," Leah interrupted, standing up. She looked at him curiously. "You want food?"

She wasn't mad, and she wasn't about to reject him, she was just genuinely hungry. Because ordinarily, she would come home from work and eat dinner, whereas today she had been served with a round of sex, and a change of life.

"Uh...sure?" Steven shrugged his agreement. "Whatever's going."

"Leftovers. Gimme a sec."

Crouching in front of the freezer, Leah rummaged through the second drawer. She wasn't expecting to eat with anyone other than Tina, especially on Valentine's Day where she had assumed she would be alone, but here she was, container in hand, and shoving the freezer drawer closed with her knee.

"Cajun chicken and rice. Paprikari flavour- that kinda thing?"

Once more, Steven delayed a response. He looked uncomfortable, something she gathered from the rubbing and cracking of his knuckles.

"Yeah, sounds great."

With their dinner confirmed, Leah took off the lid and stuck it in the microwave. She took a couple of moments then, in her zone where her back was turned, because she knew Steven was taking a seat behind her.

"If you...don't wanna live with me, I do understand. I-I know I'm asking a lot."

His voice sounded so heart-broken and dejected, and all because of her inability to say she loved him too.

It struck a nerve like lightning, and her silence shattered.

"Steven, no!" Leah crumbled, ridden with guilt, and rushed to sit next to him. She took his hands in hers, big and warm, and was in despair seeing the disappointment in his eyes. "I just need you to tell me how. I need an explanation."

She didn't have to plead, though her face probably was, because Steven was allowing their knees to touch perfectly, like a huge weight had just been lifted off his shoulders hearing that.

"Yeah, that's fair." He feathered a smile to himself, nodding. "Yeah, of course you do. Sorry."

"Hey." Leah squeezed his hands, and then separated them to slot her fingers between his knuckles to comfort that way. "I've been thinking about it too. I just...didn't expect it to be sprung upon me in this way."

It was the truth, and she needed him to see that. And judging by his questioning frown and the careful shape of his lips that kept pressing to talk, his rejection was being cured too.

"So you're saying you'll come back with me to MA?"

Leah twisted a ring on his finger.

"If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I want to be with you, all of the time. I don't want to live without you, Steven. I don't think I can."

That smile, like he didn't quite believe it, was picture perfect.

"You do?"

Leah went shy, returning the smile in the same nature that confirmed the reality of their life change.

"I do."

Steven was the one to initiate a kiss, leaning in and making a peculiar angle to gauge if she was lying, and it remained all smiles when they broke apart.

"So, tell me how you knew when to be here," Leah said, running her hands up his bare arms in a way that wasn't very innocent. "Or I'll change my mind."

Steven must've been about to rat out her lie, but the microwave pinged and put an end to the intending kiss that promised to be longer, and deeper than the first.

Saved by time, Leah heard the constrained hum escape his throat. A noise that told her she'd left him wanting more.

She was surprised he didn't make a further comment, but maybe he was happy looking at her backside- she did vividly remember calling him out as he admired the view before. But still, imagining the long tongue dragging over his top lip, or a lustful squint, was a nice image to have as she plated up their dinner.

"Thank you."

Leah offered a modest smile, handing him cutlery.

"S'alright."

After a final trip to grab the remaining bag of prawn crackers and drinks for them both, she was sitting down to her Valentine's meal with a hot date.

"Prawn crackers?"

Leah nodded, undoing the clip.

"Trust me, they go really well with this."

Steven took one from the bag that was presented to him, and then pushed a mixed forkful of food onto the cracker.

"Oh wow, yeah." He nodded profusely, munching away. "That's divine."

The smugness from knowing she was right, Leah grabbed the bag and shook a few onto her plate. She was happy to eat slowly, considering they needed to talk, but she wasn't expecting to see Steven wolfing down his food when he hadn't been that enthusiastic for a meal a few minutes ago.

A bit of rice was already caught on the corner of his mouth.

"Oi!" she laughed, knocking his elbow.

"Hm?"

"Tell me what happened!"

"Sorry." Steven put his other hand over his mouth. "It's m'just really fuckin' good."

Leah rolled her eyes, scooping a cracker into the mixed rice and chicken.

"Okay, so-" She could tell he was trying to finish his mouthful. "-so, when you were with me on New Years, it was that morning I asked you for the video I took- the one you found. You gave me your phone, even though I meant for you to just send it to me, and then after I sent it to myself, I had an idea and copied Tina's number into my contacts. That's how I got her number."

Leah looked at him, halfway through chewing, and probably a lot more accusingly than she intended to.

"I swear that's all I did! I-I turned your phone off right after, but you just gave me your phone unlocked and then disappeared!"

Unfortunately, it was true. Looking back, she could blame the stress of the flight she had to catch, but that wasn't an excuse. She either wasn't thinking, or she just wanted to trust him with things like that, and something told her, it was the latter of those two options.

"Are you mad at me?"

Steven had stopped eating, steam from his food making wispy clouds off his plate.

"Not mad," Leah corrected, amused with the belief of her actions. "I can't be mad."

Assurance received, Steven started up again.

"Well, a couple days after you were home, I messaged Tina. I told her this plan I had to surprise you, and how I needed someone who knows you to know when would be convenient to make my appearance. It also had to be kept secret, so, ideally not made obvious."

"You lost points on the obvious part," Leah chuckled, scraping the rice into the centre of her plate. "I guessed it was about you, although I didn't actually get confirmation out of Tina. Not a peep, which is impressive."

"Yeah, she took a lot of convincing to do it. She actually didn't want to because she didn't want to lie to you, and then she said the only way to not spill was to ignore you whenever I was mentioned." Steven caught himself with a hum before he shovelled another forkful of food into his mouth. "But hey, if I had that Mark Wahlberg dig, I could've used that against her."

Leah tugged a smile at the suggestion, but it faded fast. There was still the biggest part of the explanation to hear, and she knew it wasn't going to be easy to listen to.

"You know what I'm going to ask next, right? When was my life decided?"

"Well..." Steven took a breath, predictably not intimidated by the question. "That was Tina. She uh, asked me a couple questions regarding how I felt about you, and that's how the whole living so far apart came up in conversation. We decided there was a strong possibility you could move in with me and get a job somewhere local, and that was...it."

Leah rested her fork down gently, staring hard at the packet of prawn crackers that was in front of her. Supposedly reading the tiny font, but really just staring through it.

However correct Justine was, what she did remained to be presumptuous and done secretly, and that was majorly influencing Leah's body language.

"I did think about it from your perspective, Leah. I mean, I can show you the messages if you really want."

A couple of moments after his voice ended, it appeared again.

"Do you want me to eat over there?"

Glass in hand, Leah prolonged her sip of water, the rim resting under her lip.

"If my occasional glances at you whilst I try to figure out 'what the fuck Tina?' freak you out, then yes, you can go eat on the sofa."

Dynamic returned to normal, Steven relaxed. He understood she believed him, and there was a deep appreciation for considering her feelings beneath the jokey comment.

"Y'know what?" He wagged his fork in the air. "On second thoughts, I think I'll be just fine."

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