enchanting | WN

not cry, baby

WEDNESDAY, April 24th
"Ava, look! Do you see who it is?"

I smile as my niece looks up from her painting, seeing me through the screen that Logan's showing her. "Ellie!" she exclaims, reaching a hand towards the camera.

"Hi baby," I smile, looking at the little girl.

I'm in an airplane, halfway to Boston. Steph and Naia fell asleep as soon as we found our seats, giving me time to call and FaceTime many people from home.

"Will you show aunt Elle your painting, Ava?" My brother asks, getting his daughter's attention as she fell back to painting before.

Ava glares certainly at her dad, making me smile. Her blonde hair is put into two ponytails, hanging loosely on each side of her small head. I'm sure Camila, Logan's girlfriend and Ava's mom, made her hair as my brother's always been terrible at such things.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Logan finally seems to catch on what she's trying to get out. "It's a secret, Elle. We can't show you."

I pout as he angles his phone away from the table where his daughter paints. Ava's giggle echoes from where they are and all the way to my phone speaker, she can probably see my expression from where she is.

I hear stamping and soon, my little niece is covering the entire screen. "Not sad," she tells me. "Happy."

I do as she tells me and smile as big as I can, she starts to giggle again.

After a couple of minutes of just making silly faces to each other, my brother gets impatient. "Right, I think it's time to sleep now, buddy."

"Noooo," Ava immediacy starts to whine. "Not sleepy daddy."

She starts crying as Logan lifts her up, placing her on his non existing hip. "Not cry, baby," he tries, glancing towards his phone to make me help him. "The more you sleep, the sooner you will meet aunt Elle."

His daughter stares blankly at him for a few seconds, trying to understand what he just told her, though she goes back to crying soon.

"Say bye to aunt Elle now," Logan continues, pulling the phone a little closer to Ava's red face. "Bye bye."

I wave to the camera and get a small wave back before the call ends.

06:40 PM
I watch lots of players pass us in the corridor, some greeting while others are way too concentrated to even look up.

Our original plan was to surprise the boys after the game, though Steph said that it wasn't the best idea if the game doesn't end as we hope. She also said that our arrival would be more support-like if they knew about it during the game and not just afterwards, so that's why we're here right now.

We've only been in Boston for a few hours, but the glimpses I've seen has been beautiful. I haven't traveled too much in my life yet, though I love to explore new places. It gives a perspective of how big the world really is, and how there's a lot outside of the bubble that I tend to live inside.

"What the-"

I look up as two players have stoped in their places a couple of meters away from us. Even though they're wearing the exact same white and blue equipment as the other guys passing by, it's not hard to recognize Auston and William.

I smile as I catch Willy's eyes, him shaking his head in disbelief and excitement all at once. He takes the last few steps to get to me as I hold my arms out, him lifting me up as soon as he's close enough to do so.

He's about 6 inches taller than me, and his skates aren't really making that gap smaller.

He holds my body tightly into his, or rather his not so comfortable protective gear. I place my legs around his waist, making our heads the same height without me being flattened in the process.

Putting my head up from his neck, his lips immediately lands on mine. My entire body fills with butterflies during the short time the kiss lasts for. As we pull away, I can't help but smile as my hand finds its way to his brown hair.

"Thank you for being here, Elle," Willy says, a worried look placed on his smooth and flawless face. "This day has really been so hectic. I feel this pressure within me and if I don't preform well tonight, I don't know-"

"Hey," I interrupt his babble lowly, pulling his head into my neck as he breathes out. "Don't worry, okay? You'll be fine, Willy. I promise you that people will love you just as much after the game as they do before."

He never answers my try to calm him down, just snuggling his nose into my hair as I smile softly. Sometimes he can really be the cutest creature ever, and it just makes me even more enchanted by him.

"My family is here," he suddenly whispers, obviously not as calmed as I was hoping for.

I furrow, not really getting why he sounded so concerned. Letting go of him, William makes sure that my feet land softly on the ground.

As I look up at him again, his eyes are shiny and it almost seems like the blue color has been changed into grey.

"Isn't that great?" I try, smiling a little. "They've been to games before, right?"

His gaze lowers slowly, as if he's ashamed of something. I have never seen him act this way, so fearful and unconfident.

I've heard that his game nerves are a bit like a pregnant woman's, but I never imagined that they would affect him this much.

"I just don't wanna disappoint them." He says it so lowly that I barely hear his sentence at all. Though as soon as I'm sure of what he said, I do the first thing that comes to mind.

I hug him, how uncomfortable that may feel due to all of his protective gear. "You won't disappoint them, Willy," I say, letting the volume of my voice match his as this seems to be quite personal to him. "They will be proud of you.. just like I am."

I look up to meet his eyes. Yeah, they're blue again. "You promise that you'll be by my side if I have to face them after a terrible game?"

I smile brightly as his normal and playful self seems to be back again. "I know that you'd never play that bad, but if it makes you feel better, I promise."

He smiles softly, pulling me into him again. "So can we talk about you not wearing my jersey?"

I smirk, looking over to where the others are standing. Even Naia's wearing a jersey, Auston gave it to her a few games ago and she's been too stubborn about her clothing to wear it until tonight.

"I'm from Montreal. I genuinely think that'd be illegal, Willzy."