𝙢𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙧𝙚 ~ 𝙝𝙨𝙢𝙩𝙢𝙩𝙨 (𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙞)

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟕.

"Not a dream Nins. Very much real," he sighed, while one arm stayed firmly wrapped around her, his other hand came up to caress her head against his neck. "I just had to see you. I know you've got a thousand things to do, but I just had to come. I promise I won't get in the way."

She choked on a laugh, "You get in the way? No. Never. Not possible" she whispered to him. Finally, she pulled back enough to actually see him. Ricky. Her Ricky. And, god, he looked terrible. But even crying and sleep-deprived he was the best thing she'd seen in months. Her heart leaped into her throat as her eyes flickered around his face, trying to soak him in. Finally, she lost the will to restrain herself, and she kissed her beautiful boy with every ounce of love and affection she felt for him. He kissed her back with equal intensity, but both of them pulled back all too quickly, realizing that they were very much in a public space.

Resting her forehead against Ricky's she beamed at him and giggled. She felt like a soda bottle, shaken up until it burst. "Ehem," Nini heard her friends theatrically clearing their throat behind her. After taking just one more moment to soak this moment, she disentangled herself from Ricky's grasp, his arm still hung loosely around her as she turned to face Faith and Gwen.

"So..." Nini said, face burning. "This is Ricky." She gestured towards him.

"Yeah." Faith deadpanned, "I would certainly hope so." All of them laughed as the tension eased out of the situation.

"It's so nice to meet you both, I've been dying to meet Nini's friends," Ricky said quickly introducing himself to the other girls, who both gave Nini devilish grins.

"Oh, so we're Nini's friends?" Gwen said with a wink, "All this time I thought I was friends with Nina, but apparently, my life has been a lie," she laughed.

They all moved to head inside, and Nini gently twined her pinky around Ricky's and she felt him look down at her. She didn't even need to look back at him to know exactly what kind of smile was consuming his face right now.

---

It didn't take long, but it certainly felt like a small eternity, to get back to Nini's room. As soon as her door was closed and locked behind her, Nini's heart rate picked up again. She turned back around to Ricky, who was looking around her small dorm room with a soft expression, before turning back to meet her eyes.

Nini's heart melted just looking at him. She dumped her book bag and coat on the floor, and quickly made her way over to Ricky, pulling him in by his jacket for a kiss. Nini felt some sense of desperation to be close to him. To prove to herself that he was real. She pushed his jacket off of his shoulders, and he helped in taking it off to drop it on the floor. Nini knew that he wouldn't be the one to take steps forward, this was somewhat uncharted territory for them. There would be no one coming in here to interrupt them, and there was nowhere else that either of them needed to be, and god she had missed him so much.

Nini sat on the edge of her bed, then, sliding back, pulled Ricky with her. Laying back, Nini ran her fingers through his curls, while he held himself above her, kissing softly down her neck. Nini was so content, she could still hardly believe that this was real. She just wanted to hold him closer and tighter and never let him go again.

"Nini?" Ricky asked, his voice and face were the definition of worry.

"What?" she asked startled. He gave her a soft look, before bringing one hand to brush her cheeks.

"Love, you're crying," He said gently.

Nini had to laugh, she truly hadn't even noticed. "I guess you're right," she said feeling almost hysterical.