𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒. 𝙨𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙩

Dylan

"Shit!"

The mattress moved heavily as Cole jumped out of bed, releasing a river of swears while he flung open the wardrobe doors and grabbed the first shirt and jeans he could reach.

Lili sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes: "What's wrong?"

Cole pointed at the alarm clock: "I'm so fucking late."

She looked over. 9 a.m. His call time was 9:45. The location he was supposed to be filming with all the Serpents was about 15 minutes out of town. Which meant he had about 30 minutes left. He was really fucking late. She had a free day, the first one in what felt like months.

"How did we not set the alarm?" Lili mumbled, swinging her legs out of bed, while grabbing a hair tie from the nightstand and tying her hair up into a messy bun. She saw Cole stop in his movements through the room for a second, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Save it Sprouse and go get a shower. I'll make some breakfast." she said, while rolling her eyes and getting up.

He chuckled and disappeared into the bathroom. Lili shook her head a little. Sometimes she really wondered how he was able to switch from "grown-ass-man" to "ridiculously-laughing-at-the-most-childish-shit-pre-teen" in all of three seconds.

A few minutes later, she was searching through their notoriously understocked fridge – "seriously, we need to do something about that when we come back for next season" she thought - and hitting buttons on the very oversized coffee machine – "It's literally just one person, drinking pitch black coffee, why do we need a machine with three thousand functions?" – when Cole's phone started to buzz on the kitchen counter.

"Babe, someone is calling you." she yelled.

"Who?" she heard the bathroom door slam shut and Cole hurrying across the corridor, back into the bedroom.

She gazed at the screen.

"Dylan. And it's actually a facetime call."

"Can you take it and ask him what he wants? I'll call him back later."

"Sure."

She grabbed the phone from the kitchen counter and accepted the call.

"Hi Dylan." she said, waving at the screen.

"Hi Lils." Dylan said. "Where's my baby brother?"

"Currently stumbling over his own feet because he is late for work."

Dylan laughed out loud: "That sounds a lot like him."

"You need something specific?"

Dylan shook his head. "Not really, just a little bored and thought I was going to annoy my little brother a bit. But you might be better company actually."

"I heard that." Cole said, suddenly entering the kitchen, half running, pulling a black hoody over his head.

"Babe?"

"Huh?"

"You are wearing your hoody inside out." she said, while putting spread cheese on some bagels.

"For fucks sake." he breathed out, pulled the hoody back over his head again, turned it around, put it back on and grabbed the steaming mug she'd placed next to the coffee machine.

"Take care it's still..." Lili yelled after him, when he left the kitchen again.

"Ouch... shit."

"... hot." she rolled her eyes and turned towards the phone, that was now propped up at kitchen counter.

"Has he always been like that?" she asked.

"Yeah, mostly." Dylan, who seemed fairly amused, answered.

"I can't believe you actually exactly knew he was going to burn his mouth and warned him."

Lili shrugged: "He always does when he is late. The funniest thing is him trying to drive and drink coffee at the same time. I think I never laughed as much as that morning we almost missed our flight back to L.A."

"And now imagine him doing that with flying, long and blond hair in New York traffic."

The mental image made Lili giggle. "How many New York taxis drivers received death threats that day?"

"Probably all of them." Dylan chuckled.

"I'm getting roasted here, aren't I?" Cole, now fully clothed and ready to leave asked, entering the kitchen and looking around. "Where are my...?"

Lili held up his keys and threw them towards him. "Here."

"God, you are an actual angel, do you know that?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine with you saying it again."

Cole strode over to give her a lingering good-bye-kiss. They broke apart when Dylan cleared his throat behind them.

"I'm still here you know? And weren't you late, Romeo?"

Cole gazed at the clock on the wall.

"Shit yeah. See you tonight, babe. I'll call you later Dyl okay?"

"Yeah. Sure, see you later." Dylan answered.

"Bye babe." Lili got on her tiptoes, kissed Cole's cheek, he grabbed one of the bagels and hurried out off the kitchen.

Lili looked after him for a second, until the front door closed, sighed a little and turned around again.

"You know, I've never seen him like this." Dylan said, after a little pause.

Lili winced, she'd almost forgotten he was still there.

"What do you mean?"

"So... I don't know... loved up... genuinely happy. You are really good for him Lils."

She felt a blush creep up her neck. "Thank you, Dylan. That means a lot."

"Just stating facts." he shrugged. "Hold on, wait a minute..." he added. "If I'm still talking to you and I called him..."

"Shit, the phone." Lili groaned, the moment the front door flung open and Cole ran in again.