Stevie was woken up by something very soft tickling over her lips and nose. Narrowing her eyes, she decided that it was way too early to wake up yet. So she turned around, hoping that whatever had caused her to wake up to stop. But it didn't. Instead she felt the gentle tickling now on the curve of her neck.
"Lindsey."
She muttered incoherently, bringing her hand up to brush this irritating thing away. By the time her hand was there, he was chuckling slightly when Stevie let out a frustrated huff.
"Good morning, Angel." Lindsey whispered against the skin of her neck now, slowly kissing up to her ear. "It's time to wake up."
"No."
"There's something waiting for you."
"Sleep."
"You're really not a morning person." He laughed at her grumpy and one worded replies.
"Lindsey, for the love of God, go back to sleep." Stevie turned her head as much as she needed to glare at him. "Cause I don't want to murder you today of all days."
Tomorrow maybe, she added in her thoughts.
"Okay, then sleep."
He knew when he should better back off, and let her sleep. He usually knew better than waking her up before noon. They had gone to bed early, not that they had slept. But after some lengthy love making session, Stevie had fallen asleep in his arms two hours before her usual time. So Lindsey had thought it was halfway safe to wake her up two hours earlier as well. He should have known it wasn't.
Feeling her turning back around to face him, nuzzling her face against his chest and hearing a content sigh fall from her lips, he thought that maybe letting her sleep a little bit longer was worth it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stevie was woken up the same way two hours later, only that she felt Lindsey staring at her by then as well.
"Don't." She told him, pulling the sheets up higher.
"What?"
He asked, now tickling what little was uncovered of her cleavage. Why she always felt the need to cover up completely was beyond him. To him she was perfect, and from what he had experienced over the last few months she finally thought so as well.
"Don't look at me like this."
"Why not?" He tried to push the sheet down a little, but to no avail. "I thought you don't give a fuck anymore?"
"I don't."
"Then why...?"
"That's why!"
She squealed when he finally succeeded in pulling the sheet down, beginning to once more tickle her, though that hadn't been his intention at all.
"Don't tell me it's that bad."
"It is." Stevie reached out, taking the object of this torture out of his hand. "But thank you."
She brought the single red rose up to her nose, smiling at the sweet smell. But it wasn't the rose why she was smiling. Right now she couldn't care less about it. The reason why she smiled was simply because this was the first time in years that she didn't spend Valentine's Day alone. What made it all better was that she spend it with Lindsey.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
During the day Stevie had received a few more roses, always finding them in places she would have never expected them. He had really made an effort. What now shocked her completely was that Lindsey was approaching her with a rose, on stage.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Angel."
He leaned in a little, kissing her cheek. He hadn't done that when handing Christine a rose as well. And she wasn't sure how to respond to this.
As if in trance she held onto the red rose, still not able to form a coherent sentence, or thought. Trying to focus she momentarily ignored the rose in her hand, simply following the motions, gathering with everyone, bowing, letting Lindsey lead her backstage.
"What?"
Stevie didn't come further questioning him what this had all been about when she felt herself being turned around, and then Lindsey kissing her. Only after they broke apart, she noticed that they hadn't come far, they were barely hidden from view. If someone in the audience had looked their way, they would have been seen.
"Are you mad?"
She hissed, finally back in presence and able to think clear. Reaching for his hand, Stevie pulled him off the stage, and into her dressing room. There she couldn't help but smile. In addition to the one rose that had already been there before the show, there was another one, being fastened to the mirror of her vanity.
"I don't know."
"We could have been seen!"
"Stevie, we said we wouldn't exactly hide. And we don't. Everybody around us knows."
He was right, of course he was. They weren't hiding, the band and crew knew, having caught them more than just a couple times stealing kisses backstage. And it wasn't as if they stayed in separate suites anymore, or having them booked to begin with. They shared, officially.
"I know. But that's something different."
"Why would it be different?"
"Honestly?" She asked, thinking about how she would feel about it. "I don't know."
"So why are you mad now?"
"I'm not mad."
"Then what is this all about?"
"Lindsey, I... I don't know."
"You know that we're running in circles?" He wanted to know, by now laughing about this whole situation.
"Oh shut up about these damn circles." Stevie slapped him playfully on the arm. "I swear there were times I was this close to kick your ass back to the beginning of whatever circle you were talking about if you hadn't stoped talking about them."
"You know where that had brought me?"
Realizing what she was talking about, and where exactly this had brought Lindsey, she joined in, giggling like mad.
"Okay, how about this." She suggested when she had calmed down again, and they had sat down on her couch. "We're not releasing a statement or something. But the next time either of us is asked about the other, we'll just say how it is?"
"So no more I narrowed it down to no one?" Lindsey wanted to know.
"No more. Next time I say that I have the best man at my side I could have thought about." She turned, her lips hovering over his, but not kissing. "And now, Mr. Buckingham, let's get back to bed."
