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With Cory and Topanga away on their honeymoon, Heather and Shawn spent a lot of alone time together. When they were both busy, Heather spent time she would usually spend helping with the wedding, working on her brand. The first collection was a hit, for a small company ran by Heather alone. It felt rewarding seeing other women in her clothes, and for her hard work be appreciated. Especially the paycheque she received, money she made on her own.
"I don't know what I should do for my next collection, for Fall/Winter should I release the same items but in cooler tones, or make a completely new design?" Heather asked. It was 8 in the morning, as Shawn sipped his morning coffee. He was barely awake.
"Yeah, that one," He groaned, rubbing his eyes.
"You're right, recreating the same design in cool tones is just lazy. I need to make silhouettes of new designs now!" Heather replied. She was over in her head, she gets too overwhelmed and paranoid when it comes to her art.
"Thank you so much for your help," Heather thanked Shawn as she grabbed the coffee from his hand, took a sip, and planted a kiss on his lips before rushing off to her studio.
"Anytime," Shawn replied. He didn't really wake up until he heard the door shut loudly. "Hey, where did she go?" He muttered to himself, looking around.
Rachel came down the stairs, and opened the fridge to grab a carton of milk. "She went to her studio, dummy."
"Of course, she talked about it last night," Shawn replied.
He let out a stretch, and a loud groan to fully wake himself up. The front door swings open, and Cory and Topanga walk in after staying in Hawaii for their honeymoon. They had a glow after spending time in paradise.
"It's Mr. & Mrs. Matthews!" Rachel cheered.
"How was the honeymoon," Shawn asked with a smirk. He knew what really went down on their honeymoon. Cory couldn't stop fantasizing it to Shawn.
"It was beautiful. I will never forget it," Topanga answered with her hand on her chest.
Cory rushed to the fridge, and searched but was disappointed to not find what he was looking for. "Where's the salami? Topanga, I come home from my honeymoon and there isn't a welcome deli spread. I mean, we are moving here!" He exclaimed.
"Moving in?" Rachel questioned. She thought it was already assumed Cory and Topanga would get their own place when they get married.
"Uh oh," Shawn said.
"I mean, we are moving in here right?" Cory asked, once he noticed Rachel's and Shawn's facial expressions.
"I thought once you guys got married, you would get your own place," Rachel brought up.
"I know, and we will. Eventually," Topanga replied unconvincingly.
"Oh boy," Shawn stated. "Why did you say, oh boy?" Topanga asked startled. "Oh boy," Rachel joined Shawn.
Heather stormed in and rushed to the kitchen table where she forgot her binder. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I left it on the table! Please don't be wet," She wept as she opened through the binder to find out that it is completely dry. She sighed and relief and held it tight to her chest.
"Hey guys! You're back," Heather beamed once she noticed Cory and Topanga.
"Heather, you live here now?" Cory asked confused.
"Yeah, well Shawn told me you guys were moving out, and we thought it would be great for us to live together," Heather replied slowly, she couldn't help but notice how unhappy Cory was.
"You guys took away my stuff?" Topanga scoffed, she saw her belongings all in a corner.
"Wow, okay we get it now," Cory said as he flailed his hands in the air. "The honeymoon is over."
✄
"I feel bad, Shawn. Our friends are homeless," Heather stated as they both walked back to campus.
"They're not homeless, they just don't a place to live!" Shawn replied, as if he didn't say an oxymoron.
Heather felt guilty moving into the apartment. She couldn't turn down the opportunity to live in with Shawn. She genuinely thought Cory and Topanga knew they weren't going to live in the apartment once they got married.
"Still, we need to help them," Heather sternly stated.
"Debbie shot Mike, over a salad! I told you women are crazy," A voice annoyingly gossiped to another student.
"Faferman? The married couple?!" Another guy asked.
"Yeah, she gonna be locked up pretty soon." The man replied with a chuckle.
Shawn and Heather were shocked to hear such a crazy story, but at least something great came out of it.
They rushed back to the student union, and luckily Cory and Topanga were already there.
"Guess who has good news!" Heather chimed with a smile.
"Mike and Debbie Faferman got into a fight. She shot him over a salad," Shawn exclaimed happily. Cory and Topanga couldn't see how this story would be beneficial for them. If anything it made them more depressed. They just got abandoned from Alan and Amy, they refused to let them move in.
"How is this good news?" Topanga asked concerned.
"Because she's gonna do time. And that means, there's a marriage dorm available for you guys!" Heather explained excitedly.
Cory and Topanga thanked Heather and Shawn for the tip. They had nowhere to go. Cory's old dorm was occupied with Jack and Eric who were quick to remind them married couple were prohibited to live in regular dorms. Their parents didn't want to them. The marriage dorms were all they have left.
✄
It had been a couple of days since Cory and Topanga moved into the marriage dorms. It was nothing what they were used to. It was tiny, dirty, it was practically falling apart. The pipes were busted as well, they didn't even have clean running water.
In the meantime, Heather and Shawn were incredibly happy. Waking up in the morning, seeing each when they first wake up, and the last thing they see at night. It felt right.
Heather was worried that moving in together would make things worse. Like Shawn would get tired of her, but it was the opposite, he couldn't get enough.
Rachel noticed it as well, despite the fact they were completely in love, they never excluded Rachel or bombarded her with their intimacy. Everything was perfect.
Shawn thought it would be a great idea to meet up with Cory and Topanga to see how their lives have been since moving in together. Heather hoped Cory and Topanga were just as happy and in love she and Shawn were.
But as they sat down together at the table, Heather was saddened to see how miserable Cory and Topanga looked.
"So, how are the married dorms? Pretty sweet set up, I'm guessing," Shawn asked enthusiastically.
"We have bugs," Cory replied bluntly.
"So, everyone's got bugs," Shawn shrugged. He wanted to make it seem like it was no big deal.
Not us, Heather thought. She was horrified at the thought of living like that.
"Our bugs have cars," Cory stated.
Heather and Shawn shared a concerned look. This was not the conversation they were expecting, they wanted to hear good things. Heather didn't know what to say. She never had to deal with such problems, and thought it would be best to remain silent.
"Well, bugs should be your worst problems," Shawn brought up. He was hoping that was the only negative aspect of the marriage dorms.
But Cory's and Topanga's silence scared him.
"Can we please not talk about it anymore. I don't wanna hear about the plumbing, the crying babies, or the fact that a guy was shot in our apartment over a salad! The remains are which are still on the wall," Topanga vented out of frustration.
"The man or the salad?" Heather questioned seriously.
"I don't know, I ate it anyway," Topanga confessed ashamed. "Our place is a stink hole," Topanga wept.
"Okay, so it's a bit of a fixer upper, it can't be that bad." Heather hoped. All she wanted to do was to enlighten the situation. But it seemed like a lost cause.
"Not that bad, huh? Come, see yourselves," Cory got up from seat, and everyone followed him.
✄
Shawn and Heather stepped inside the dorm cautiously. It is that bad, Heather thought. The wallpaper were peeling off, the yellow undertones were probably from cigarettes. The appliances were outdated, dusty, there was even a cobweb inside of it. It was also pretty tiny. Their complaints were valid, Heather couldn't imagine coming home after a long day to this place. Factoring in with the noisy neighbours, it was horrible.
"It's good," Heather lied with a fake smile on her face.
"Liar!" Topanga pointed out. Heather joined Topanga on the couch and hugged. "When you said it was a stink hole, I thought you were being dramatic. But it's stink hole, I'm sorry," Heather admitted.
"Your walk in closet has more square footage than this dump," Topanga pointed out.
Shawn came back after checking out the bedroom and washroom, and after seeing everything he still believed the place was salvageable.
"I think this place has possibilities," Shawn concluded.
"What possibilities? Grease fire? Wrecking ball? Or the place just falls down on its own cause it knows it should," Cory miserably wondered.
"Cory, c'mon. You can put a little bookshelf in this space right here!" Shawn walked towards the empty space, trying to get Cory to open his mind.
"Guys, c'mon we're not gonna fix this place up, okay? It's not like we're gonna live here," Cory explained.
"Well, where are you going to live?" Shawn asked.
"We found this cute little starter house... with a nook!" Topanga brought up.
"Oh, well are you guys gonna get it?" Heather wondered. Maybe things are looking up for Cory and Topanga.
"It's $80,000." Topanga bluntly stated. Her mood shifted once she realized she and Cory won't be able to afford that house anytime soon.
"That's a reasonable price," Heather replied, but by the expressions on Topanga's face, she immediately felt bad. Not everyone had the same wealth status as her, but Topanga and Cory were upper middle class. If their parents helped, they could afford it.
"And I'm gonna get that house, with or without my cheapskate dad," Cory got up from his seat. Heather concluded that Alan refused to help out Cory so that's why they couldn't get the house.
"Cory, you got a great place to start right here!" Shawn responded, but with a little bit of anger. He felt as though his friends were bit selfish, acting as if they had nothing at all.
"But this isn't a great place, Shawn." Heather joined in.
"Thank you!" Cory exclaimed, finally validated in feeling upset for living in a stink hole.
"Imagine having some pride and taking care of this place! You want to live in a house, you got to work for it," Shawn argued. He couldn't believe he was the only one in the room with imagination.
"Like you and Heather who worked so hard to get the apartment you lucked into!" Cory shouted in frustration.
Heather felt uncomfortable, Cory was right. Things did come easy for her, she never had to worry about finances or residency. But she felt the need to defend herself.
"We do work hard," Heather argued as she stood up.
"Oh, with your fashion brand that was funded with daddy's money? Not all of us are trust fund babies, Heather!" Cory called out.
Heather froze once she saw how angry Cory was. She couldn't believe he said that. Heather paid for her studio, fabrics, and materials with her trust, which was technically her father's money. Cory's right, but she shouldn't have thrown it back in her face.
"And you guys aren't even married! How fair is that?" Cory spat. Not only was he upset, he was envious.
"I think we should go," Shawn let out. He didn't want to continue the conversation, he didn't know what else to say. Heather got up from her seat, and turned over one last time, and said, "Thank you for having us."
✄
"I can't believe you didn't have my back in there!" Shawn said once he stormed back into his apartment. Heather followed him inside, closed the door gently, and looked at him confused.
"I was being honest! They had every right to be that upset, their place is shitty," Heather responded frantically. Now that she and Shawn were alone, she could speak her mind freely.
"Yeah, but what if that was us, huh?" Shawn argued.
"That will never be us. We won't have those kind of problems," Heather nonchalantly, as she shrugged her shoulders.
Shawn remained quiet for a second, he slumped down on the floor, with his back against the couch. Heather joined him, and for a second, she couldn't read his mind.
"I don't get why you're upset, tell me," Heather wondered softly, as she brushed Shawn's hair back.
"We're sitting down in our beautiful apartment, we drink coffee together every morning and read the newspaper. But we don't deserve this Heather, not yet," Shawn opened up.
"Why not? Because we didn't work hard enough?" Heather questioned.
Shawn nodded, and looked at her with his puppy blue eyes. Heather adjusted herself, and levelled her eyes with Shawn's.
"We don't have to struggle in order to deserve good things. My parents went through it before my dad got his big break. I was once not rich a long time ago," Heather stated, bringing up her childhood with Shawn. It wasn't until Heather was a teenager she became super rich, before then she was middle class in Philly. "My parents never wanted me to go through what they went through, and I don't my future kids neither. I'm just saying, you shouldn't have to feel guilty for the good things that come to you."
"But this is not real, this is not like Cory and Topanga," Shawn insisted. He shook his head, and sat up straight.
"Because we are not Cory and Topanga! Why do you always have to compare our relationship with them," Heather raised her voice, and sat up straight as well.
"Because, they're the first example of love I ever witnessed," Shawn answered.
"That doesn't mean it's fair for you to bring them up whenever you're unhappy with our relationship. How do you think that makes me feel?" Heather argued. She couldn't believe it, that Shawn wasn't fully happy with their situation. It was like a dream, but he wanted to wake up out of it.
"Heather..." Shawn spoke softly, trying to calm her down.
"You knew what to expect when dating me. You knew that money will never be a problem. But I thought after we got together we agreed that we are a unit. What yours is mine, and what's mine is yours." Heather added.
"I know. I know. It's just that I would like to provide for you too. Bring something to the table," Shawn admitted. He hated to say it, but he wanted to feel masculine. He would feel like a freeloader if Heather was the sole provider.
"So, what are you saying," Heather thought softly.
Shawn placed his arm around her shoulder, and laid back down on the floor, and cuddled Heather. He rubbed her arm, and used his other hand to hold hers. Before he spoke, he caressed her thumb, and glanced over at her brown eyes.
"We should get our place, just you and me. But I wanna be able to pay the rent as well. It's gonna take some time, but we're in it for the long haul." Shawn proposed.
"We could split things equally, like I can handle the rent and you can pay bills? It's truly equal that way," Heather counter-proposed. It made sense to split things equally through percentages of income than split the price in half for bills. Shawn and Heather knew from the start Heather would be the breadwinner, he was okay with that, as long he can provide in different areas.
Shawn smiled at Heather, and her a kiss on the forehead. "Okay."
"And would this be after we get married or?" Heather wondered. She didn't want to live without Shawn anymore, she was already used to their morning routine.
"Preferably after we get married and graduate," Shawn answered honestly. "But we're a unit, married or not. Remember, wherever I go we go..."
"Whenever you go, we go," Heather continued. She smiled widely when she realized Shawn remembered their promise from when they got back together.
"I can't wait to make you my wife," Shawn whispered in Heather's ear. "I can't wait for you to be my husband." Heather spoke back.
✄