𝟎𝟖𝟗.                  𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, 𝐬𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞

stuck with you ── ariana grande & justin bieber

warning: mature content

✩ 𝐣𝐣'𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐯

𝖡𝖱𝖮𝖮𝖪𝖤 𝖠𝖭𝖣 𝖨 𝖧𝖠𝖵𝖤 𝖳𝖮 𝖲𝖯𝖤𝖭𝖣 𝖳𝖶𝖤𝖫𝖵𝖤 𝖧𝖮𝖴𝖱𝖲 𝖨𝖭 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖧𝖸𝖯𝖤𝖱𝖡𝖠𝖱𝖨𝖢 𝖢𝖧𝖠𝖬𝖡𝖤𝖱．We didn't put up much, if any, of a fight when the doctors shoved us into the room, demanding we get into the chamber. We couldn't fight, we were in agony, the pain unlike anything I've ever felt before in my life. Seriously, Pope wasn't kidding.

The moment the chamber began to work its magic, I watched Brooke wave a goodbye to her brother before she flipped me off. I laughed, watching as the twins smiled at one another, that earlier concern replaced by relief. Not sure if he feels the same relief for me as he does for his sister, but I know he loves me deep down. He might be a little mad at me for not protecting Brooke better, but we're now both okay, right?

In fact, I think we're better than okay now that we're in here.

We're in this chamber for twelve hours to recharge and to make sure there's no more bubbles in our blood or whatever the fuck, I don't know. I barely listened to the doctors or my friends after I realised that I would be spending a solid twelve hours in a chamber with Brooke.

Hello, I'm living the dream.

It doesn't matter that we're trapped in here for twelve hours, not when we have each other. Sadly, I'm scared the time will fly by, and I don't want it to. Staying with her is where I'm safest, it's where I know nothing bad can happen if we're just here together, existing.

I tilt my head, peering at her as she breathes steadily, looking as beautiful as ever. You have no idea how relieving it is to just see her breathe, to see her chest move up and down steadily, showing me that she's very much alive.

Earlier, I thought that I was going to lose her when that fucking bastard put his hands on her and pushed her away from me. He took her oxygen and tank, left her there to die. Fuck. Thinking about it now, I wish I had done more than just jab him in the arm. I wish I'd killed him for laying a hand on her, for leaving her to die.

The minute I found her tank and oxygen mask were gone, I did the only thing that made sense. I pushed my oxygen mask onto her, not caring if I died as long as she made it to the surface alive.

I nearly lost her.

This girl laying beside was too close to not being by my side anymore, and that thought shakes me in a way I don't like. I feel sick at the thought── at the thought of losing her to something like that, to someone like that.

She's the best part of my life, the brightest part. She's the sun, the Earth, the moon, the stars, the air in every breath I take. She keeps me alive. She keeps my head from spiralling, keeps my heart from letting go.

Brooke's fingers push against mine, our hands threading together. She must have been able to hear the rapidness of my heart as I think back on how close I was to losing her. She calms me, soothes me in a way nobody else can, and all she has to do is place her hand in mine. It's so simple yet so comforting.

I exhale a heavy breath. "Hey, Sunshine."

I catch the corner of her mouth tugging upwards as she whispers, "Hey, JJ."

"You almost died," I voice, feeling my chest tighten at the thought of something like that happening to her.

I brush my thumb over the golden ring that sits on her index finger, swallowing thickly at the thought of not being able to move that ring to the finger it belongs to in the future.

I don't care how young we are. I don't care how insane it may seem and sound. Just hear me out.

She is the one.

She always has been. She always will be.

In the back of my mind, throughout the ten years I've known her, she was always the one I was supposed to end up with in the very end. She is my happy ending, my ticket to all things good. She's the reason I'm living and breathing, the reason I'm able to do everyday.

We're supposed to be old together, living happily and harmoniously inside our treehouse with a cat and a dog. She's going to be one of the greatest artists this world has ever seen, going from city to city, country to country. I'll follow her, beyond proud of her and all that she's accomplished. I'll be her biggest supporter── her cheerleader, if you will. She'll go and open a gallery, maybe more than one, and I'll hopefully still have the bait shop. We'll take the waves, travelling all over the world. We'll do it together. We'll be together.

It's safe to say that I want a whole life with her, and once this life is over, I want to travel into my next one and find her all over again. I want her in every universe, in every world, and in every scenario. I want Sunshine for eternity.

I want to wake up to her every morning for the rest of our lives. I want to go to sleep with her beside me for the rest of our lives. I want to rest my head on her chest, listen to her heartbeat and breathe her in. I want to kiss every inch of her, love every part of her, and cherish every single moment with her.

That's always been the truth, even when I didn't explicitly know it.

I nearly lost that future── that picture I've built in my head of her and me, of our lives together. Our future nearly slipped out of our fingers because of me, because she followed me into that dangerous water and I didn't stop her.

"I didn't," she breathes out. "I didn't die."

"You could've died, Brooke." The firmness in my voice has her lips pressing together. "I should've never let you go down there." I should've been more insistent on doing this alone because then she wouldn't have been in harm's way. Then again, I know there was no fighting with her once she had her mind set on something.

I just wish her mind wasn't set on me all the time.

"And you could've died too, JJ." Her head tilts, and our eyes meet in a dazed flurry of brown and blue. "Had I not been down there, you would've been alone and..." She inhales sharply, likely thinking of the worst case scenario like I am. "I'm glad I was there. I had to save you. I don't even want to think about what could've happened if I wasn't there. I can't..."

"Hey," I whisper, fingers squeezing against hers. "I'm okay, Sunny. We are okay. You saved me."

"I'll always save you."

I believe that to be true because in one form or another, she's been saving me my entire life.

Whenever my dad would hurt me, she would be there to turn the pieces he'd broke into a piece of art just like when she drew shapes and patterns on my wounds. Whenever I tripped or fell, she was the one that was either falling with me or pulling me up to safety. Whenever I did something stupid, she was still the one protecting me from making it worse. So I can't be surprised that she saved me again, that under the water, when she didn't have any oxygen and she was close to drowning, she still made the selfless decision to save me.

"It was too close," I say, thumb pushing over the ring again, needing to keep myself grounded. I shouldn't dwell on her nearly dying, not when she's here beside me and she escaped death. That's what matters.

"We've both been too close to death, JJ."

"Yeah, but that was way too close. I-I mean, that guy could've killed you or──"

"Hey." Now it's her turn to reassure me. "I'm okay, JJ. We are okay," she speaks, repeating the same words I did. "It's okay."

"It's not okay." I take my eyes off her, looking away, feeling this immense guilt clawing at my throat. "I'm sorry, Brooke."

"For what?"

"We wouldn't be in here if it wasn't for me," I say, continuing to stare up rather than at her face because I know that if I look at her, I'll only feel more guilt for not protecting her better── for not doing right by her when all she's ever done is protect me.

Her head shakes frantically. "JJ, that's──"

"If I hadn't bet most of our cash on the house, if I hadn't taken the last of the gold, if I hadn't..." I sigh, swallowing the harsh truth. "If I hadn't done any of that, we wouldn't be here right now, Brooke, and I wouldn't have nearly lost you."

Her mouth gapes. "JJ..."

"You were right to be mad at me," I continue, letting the weight build up on my shoulders as I tell her the truth. "You were right to be mad that I spent all that money when we needed it. Our home wouldn't be in trouble right now if it wasn't for me, Brooke, you know that, so..."

"That's crap, JJ, and you know it."

"How is it, Sunny?"

"Look, things happen for a reason, alright? Yes, maybe you shouldn't have spent all that money, not on the house or on the race, but we're going to figure it out, JJ." I feel her hand squeeze mine, reassuring me, but her touch isn't enough to wash away the guilt I already feel. "You got the freaking amulet, JJ. That is going to help us, okay?"

Honestly, I was lucky that I had grabbed it. I hadn't had the chance to tell her I'd found it as she was then attacked and that's all I could focus on. I would've traded that amulet in a heartbeat if it meant not getting Brooke hurt. I don't even understand the importance of it, only knowing we need it to get money. I'm sure our friends will go and figure that out the weight of the amulet while we're in here.

"You should blame me," I whisper, needing her to understand what I'm getting at. "If you want to be mad at all this and blame somebody, I should be the one you blame."

"I don't blame you," she speaks, her voice so, so delicate. "I don't blame anyone, not for any of this because, even though things have been messy lately, look at what we have, JJ. Look at our life."

"Oh, yeah. It's going great at the moment."

"Are you saying you don't like the idea of being stuck in here with me for twelve hours?"

"Of course I like the idea of that, but come on, Brooke." Removing my hand from hers, I lift myself up. She watches me as move so my body faces hers. "We wouldn't be in here if it wasn't for me."

"Why do you want me to blame you, JJ?"

"Because this is all is my fault." I've known that for long enough, I just struggled to accept it. Although, to Brooke, I'm not so afraid. "I got us into this mess, Brooke. I nearly got you killed."

Her head shakes. "JJ, that──"

"I know how much you hate all this treasure hunting shit, and now I've pushed you right back into it." She hates treasure hunting, and for good reason. She lost her brother because of it. She lost her father over it. Twice. She's nearly lost me a handful of times because of it. She's lost so much because of the gold when I know she was always content with what we had before the gold. I'm the reason she now has to face it all over again. "We finally had a break. We finally had a win, and now we've lost again and it's my──"

"Stop." She lifts herself up onto her elbows. "Stop blaming yourself, JJ. I-I don't blame you. I don't blame anyone, okay? Sure, treasure hunting was never something I particularly enjoyed, but I'm not mad, alright? You know why?"

My head drops, a heavy breath releasing from my mouth. "Why?"

"Because I got something far more valuable than gold, JJ." Her hand reaches out, sliding against my knee, the touch encouraging me to meet her gaze again. "I got you."

I tilt my head. "You've always had me."

"I didn't always have you like this, JJ, but because of this stupid treasure hunting, I did the one thing I was terrified of doing..." She lifts herself up, body leaning into mine. "I stopped being afraid because of you, because of all that you showed me. I would've never done it, JJ, had we not been caught up the treasure."

My eyes close, breathing her in. "Sunny..."

"Shh." Her finger presses against my lips, silencing me. "I need you to understand that I will never, ever blame you, JJ. I might not always agree with you, but I am on your side completely. You can trust that. I love you."

"I love you," I whisper back, feeling her thumb push against my bottom lip. "I really love you."

"Not nearly as much as I really love you."

"We're not fighting about this." Not when I will win. My love for her is unlike anything I've ever felt in my entire life. My love for her is loud and big and bold. I feel sick in the best possible way whenever I'm around her.

Her hand slides under my jaw, a small laugh bubbling out of her. "No more blaming yourself, okay? Pinkie promise me."

I open my eyes, finding her to be holding out her pinkie finger. It's been a long time since we made a promise like this, but they're the most sincere of promises in our books. I exhale loudly, meeting her intense gaze. "Sunshine..."

"Pinkie promise me, Maybank, or you ain't getting any."

I huff out a laugh. "I ain't getting any?"

"Nuh-uh, not until you pinkie promise me that you'll stop blaming yourself."

I lift my pinkie, wrapping it around hers and squeezing as tightly as I can. Our thumbs touch, our pinkies squeezing tightly in a silent promise. As per her instructions, I shouldn't blame myself anymore even if I want to, even if I know it's the right thing to do.

Her forehead rests against mine as our hands fall away slowly. "Hey, JJ."

I breathe her in, beyond relieved that she exists in my presence, that I didn't lose her. "Hey, Sunshine."

"I love our life," she promises, her voice below a whisper. "I love our life together, and I can't wait for the rest of it, JJ, so don't ever blame yourself for giving me everything that I've been dreaming of my entire life. You give me inspiration. You give me light. You give me so much. You've made nearly all my dreams come true."

My lips part, eyebrows raising. "Nearly all?"

"Well, we still need to travel..." Her hand drags down my chest, and I watch the movement of her fingers moving across my shirt. "We need to live in another country, build a shack on every beach we visit. We need to take the waves, JJ── that's our next dream."

"You really think we can do it now? Without any money?"

"I'd sleep on park benches as long as you were beside me," she tells, and nothing has ever sounded so perfect to me. "Like I've said before, money or not, we're making all our dreams come true, okay?"

I trust that she's right. I trust her. "Okay."

"They'll only come true though, if you stop blaming yourself for things that are out of your control."

"But──"

"No buts," she interjects. "You couldn't have predicted that other diver being there. If you had, I would've been a little freaked." She laughs, sounding so completely free. "I promise you, JJ, that I'm not going anywhere, that I'm yours one hundred percent, twenty-four seven. We took a vow, remember? We ain't dying."

I nod along, hearing her. "We ain't dying. I remember the vow, Sunny."

"Good." Her lips turn upwards in a sly smile. "Now..." She drags her hand down, fingers hooking into the waistband of my shorts. "Do you remember our game?"

I swallow thickly, realising what we're about to do. "Yeah."

"You found the amulet..." she drawls, two fingers popping the button. "...which means that I need to reward you, don't I?"

"Y-You don't have to."

Her head tilts, a teasing glint in her eye. "You've never turned me down before."

"I'm not turning you down, Sunny, I──" Her hand pushes under my shorts, my words dying in my throat as a groan slips out. "Fuck."

She bites down on her bottom lip, fucking grinning at me like she's not torturing me with those fingers of hers. "What was that?"

Lustful brown eyes greet mine, her fingertips dragging back up and dancing underneath my shirt and over the muscles of my stomach. My God, she's a vision, I swear.

"Is this about to be the strangest place we've had sex?" I ask because, of course, I can't just shut up.

But come on, we're in a hyperbaric chamber, for crying out loud. This has to be the strangest.

"Hm. I don't know." Her lips brush over mine softly, torturing me to the brink of insanity. "The school was quite strange. The treehouse was also a little strange but really cool. The Twinkie was..." She breathes out a laugh, my favourite sound playing in my ears like a symphony. "...well, that was just fun."

No, you sick bastards reading this don't know about the time in the Twinkie.

For good reason too.

"We nearly got caught," I breathe out, teeth catching her bottom lip.

"We've nearly been caught dozens of times, JJ. Hello, we don't use that sex shell thing when we're in the house..." Which leads us to having fun elsewhere like the Twinkie which we don't discuss here, but it was very fun.

"Doctor Roberts to room forty-three. Doctor Roberts to room forty-three," is spoken over the PA system, alerting us to the fact that we may get caught in this very hospital.

Then again, being reckless is just what we like.

Brooke leans back, retrieving the pillow she was lying on. "Yeah, I ain't letting anyone ruin this." She places the pillow against the small window that overlooks the hallway where doctors and nurses walk back and forth.

Little do they know what we're about to do in here. 

Brooke turns back to me and her lips immediately find their home on mine.

I thread my hand into her hair, pushing harshly against her mouth as she attempts to be cute and sweet right now. She kisses gently, tongue brushing against mine easily, and her hands gripping my shirt tightly.

That sweet and soft feel of her only lasts a moment before she pushes me back, going to swing her leg over my body so that she's now straddling me. Instantaneously, I reach out to grasp her hips as she bends down, keeping her lips attached to mine.

I pull back, gliding my knuckles up and down her waist. "You really wanna do this?"

She nods, passion in the way she watches me. "What else are we gonna do for twelve hours?"

"Oh, I don't know. Talk?" I watch her eyes roll in response to that stupid comment. Do I want to talk? Yes and no. There's more important things I'd like my mouth to be doing.

"JJ, we've got our entire lives to talk."

"Are you saying we don't have our entire lives to have sex?"

"You really wanna be going at it when we're old?"

I laugh, fingers pinching her waist. "Sunny, I plan to spend our last moments like this."

"We'll be all wrinkly and... loose."

My face scrunches, disgusted by how she just described it. "Loose?"

"Yeah, we're gonna be all saggy and..."

"Brooke." I inhale, literally feeling the moment die as she keeps speaking. "I love you, but you're killing the mood."

"Oh. Well, I can fix that."

Her mouth crashes over mine again, her head tilting as she kisses frantically and passionately. My hand slides around to back of her neck, pushing up and cupping the base of her skull where I tug on her hair.

I loved her long hair, don't get me wrong, but I can't deny how fucking pretty she looks with her hair this short. It's the perfect length for me to grab all of it.

Our kisses turn faster, needier and more desperate, and I take the moment to slide my hands down from her face, choosing to grab the hem of her shirt. Understanding what I'm doing, she aids me in peeling her shirt off, disregarding it and revealing the simple baby blue bikini top.

I reach my hand out, dragging it from between her breasts to her stomach. Travelling down towards her shorts, I hook a finger into her belt loop, but I don't have the chance to do anything more as my hands are pulled away entirely.

Her lips pull off mine, instead attaching to my neck as she tugs at my hands, lifting them up and pinning them at either side of my head.

Fuck me.

Her mouth, warm and pliant, glides over the pulse point in my neck, sucking harshly. My body jerks, a grunt slipping past my lips as her hands push into mine, keeping me perfectly still as she continues her assault on my neck.

I don't fight against her hold on me, knowing full well that I like her when she's this demanding and assertive. Being on the receiving end of Brooklyn Routledge when she's like this isn't something you run from. No, ma'am. You welcome it, you cherish it, you love it.

As her hands begin to slip from mine, I watch with great fascination as she descends, her hands now pushing my t-shirt up. Her lips attach to my chest, dragging down and kissing a path across my stomach. I lift my hand, pushing it into her hair so I can just watch her.

"God, Brooke. You..." It feels unreal to me that I get to call this girl mine. "Come here."

She falls back into me, her lips attaching to mine once again, and I feel as though there's no better feeling than this. Lifting myself up, her arms hook around my neck as I hold her down on my lap. Giving her a taste of her own medicine, I drag my lips away from her mouth, moving south to brush over her cheek, collarbone and neck, sucking harshly at the skin where her pulse beats below.

A breathy moan crawls out of her, her body reacting to my touch and grinding against mine. My mouth opens against her neck, a noise of my own falling from my lips as she does it again, taunting me in the most magical of ways. I grip her hips harder, needing to feel her forever.

"Sunny..."

"You okay, Maybank?" I pull my face back, shaking my head at her while a twinge of a smile tugs at my mouth. "What's wrong, babe?" The toying tone in her voice has me reacting in a way I know she likes.

Quickly, I move us so that she is the one below me instead of the other way around. Don't get me wrong, I love having her on me any day of the week, but I won't deny how much I love having her below me like this.

Her eyes flare in heated surprise. "B-But you won the game. I..."

"Sunshine, I've already won."

I've won in life, in love, in everything that revolves around her.

I don't say anything more, I just tug on my t-shirt and pull it off before my forehead touches hers and my lips take hers. She deepens the kiss quickly, knowing what to do as her hands drag down the length of my torso.

Just outside, we can still hear the faint shuffling and moving of doctors and nurses who have no idea what we're doing in here. That's what makes all this a little more exciting, to know that we're going to have one another while people are just outside this room.

Her fingers drag over my arm, her touch circling the tattoo I have on my bicep. I smile as she touches it. She knows that her name is signed on my body for the rest of my life, and I like that thought.

Call me obsessed, I don't care.

I am.

Her hands then drop, fingers pushing at my shorts, wanting them down, but I want hers off too.

Getting back at her for earlier, I pry her hands off me, my hands wrapping around her wrists so I can pin her hands above her head. She moans against my mouth, hips lifting to greet mine which has my mouth stuttering open too.

I feel her smile, and I bite it away before I drag my mouth down the length of her neck, my tongue darting out to taste the skin between her breasts. With one hand, I keep both her wrists pinned above her head. I feel her attempting to push against me which is cute, applaudable even, but she ain't breaking away from me, not yet.

I drag my mouth over the material of her bikini top, feeling her body jerk up into mine as my tongue swirls over a sensitive part of her. I smile, using my other hand to push my fingers under the material so I can place my mouth over her nipple.

She whimpers, her hands continuing to push against my hand. "JJ, please..."

I loosen my hand against her wrists. "Keep your hands above your head," I instruct, knowing that she won't listen to me that easily, not when I can see the defiant look in her eyes.

"Or what?" she challenges, dragging her tongue across her teeth.

I scoff, pinching her nipple. "Really?"

"Y-Yeah, what are you──" I do it again, watching her eyes squeeze shut and her mouth fall open as pleasure wrecks her body, her back arching to greet my touch. "Fuck you."

"Aren't you sweet?"

She offers me a slanted, agitated smile that I love. "Only for you."

I lean down, placing my mouth over hers. My tongue traces the seam of her lips before plunging in, a moan catching in her throat. The kiss goes from fleeting and simple to hot and frenzied as I work on getting her shorts off.

Her hands remain above her head, but they don't need to stay there for much longer. Although, I do admire her listening to me and my simple instructions.

The moment her shorts are gone, I pull on the knot that's keeping her bikini top on and I throw that to one side too. I then drop my head, working my mouth across her skin, kissing every available inch of her body, travelling all the way down to the most intimate part of her.

"JJ," she breathes out, thighs pressing into me. "You found the amulet, you──"

"I don't care about the game, Brooke. I just want you right now, is that okay with you?" She stares at me, her eyes wide and soft.

She nods mindlessly. "Yeah."

I push my fingers into the band of her bikini bottoms. "Good, because we've got twelve hours."

Meaning, we've got plenty of time.

Just as the final pieces of clothes are stripped from us, I lean into her and kiss her. "I love you," I tell her even though she already knows that. "Thank you for not blaming me even though──"

"Stop," she urges. "I love you too, so much."

"In every lifetime?" I ask it like I don't know the answer, and maybe a sinking part of me doesn't know if she would love me in every lifetime, in every universe, in every story.

Then again, I think I'm just an idiot who doesn't realise the simplest of things.

"Oh, I love you in every lifetime, I promise."

This time when I kiss her, I push into her, my arms coming to rest under her back. She doesn't take her eyes off me, not for the duration, and I'd be a fool to take my eyes off her.

She can count on me loving her now, tomorrow and everyday following that. She can count on me loving her in every lifetime, every universe, every story. She can count on me. She can count on us.

She can also damn well count that I'm going to love her for these next twelve hours like I've never loved her before.

──────────────────────────

❀ soph speaks

i get all red faced and embarrassed when i write stuff like this AH like i can't take myself seriously haha

i hope you enjoyed this chapter bcos i don't know when they'll next get busy as things r gonna start getting a lil hectic

the FEAR i have of not knowing how i'm going to end this story is insane like i have a few ideas in mind but i have no idea which direction to go in the more i write these chapters

jj's pov is always fun to write thou :) you'll definitely see his pov more in this act bcos this season is focused on him

i've just written out my plan for emory and her character so i'm very excited for you guys to read about what i have planned . . . i know some of you have theories and you may be correct in saying that there's more to her than just being kiara's love interest

i acc can't wait hehe i'm excited

anyway,, thankyou for reading!!