Conor had been one of your best friends for about 6 years and it had been two weeks since he had answered his phone or his door. The only way he got away with it was because Jack and Josh had been in La for a convention and ended up extending their trip.
"Babe, answer your phone. If you don't call me back I'm breaking into your flat." You said into the phone.
You didn't want to talk to his flatmates about it because It felt like you were betraying his trust, but you had to check on Conor. Assuming the rumors were true, his girlfriend cheated on him. The boys were coming back in two days and you weren't going to let them find Conor like you knew he'd be. So you had asked Josh where the spare key was and you were on your way over with chocolate, wine, and Nandos.
Letting yourself into the flat, you realized it was as bad as you'd guessed. The trash hadn't been taken out, there were broken picture frames and broken glass by the front door, and the flat was absolutely freezing.
You spent about 20 minutes cleaning before heading upstairs, taking a minute to dump the trash and run the dishes as well. Walking up the stairs, you brought your bags with you.
"Conor." You said, sad to see your friend like this.
"Just leave." Was all he said, not moving from his blanket burrito.
"Babe, I'm not going anywhere." You said, setting your supplies and his food down on his desk.
"Well I'm not moving." He replied.
"You don't have to for a few minutes. I need to clean up in here, anyways." His eyes followed you around the room. You picked up trash and cleaned up more glass. Gathered his laundry and picked up his bathroom. "Why is it so cold in here?" You asked.
"It broke. Everything is fucking broken and I just don't care to fix any of it." Conor said, still acting like you weren't going to get him out of bed.
Seeing that one of the picture frames had blood on it, you started to worry Conor had stepped on the glass. "Love, did you cut your foot?"
"Yes." He said, wiggling his foot out of his blanket burrito knowing you weren't going to drop it.
"That's pretty bad. We need to clean it up." You said, gently running your fingers over the cut. Seeing Conor's foot flinch, you apologized.
"It's not you." He said, his voice cracking.
You absolutely hated seeing him look so broken. You crawled into the bed behind him and put your arms around his middle. You simply laid there with him until he had cried himself out of tears. "Please let me take care of you?"
Conor nodded yes, and then made you laugh by saying "God I need a piss."
"Go to the bathroom." You laughed, pulling his covers off of him.
When Conor went into his bathroom he didn't even bother closing the door. You quickly stripped his bed of its stinky sheets and duvet and ran downstairs to chuck them in the washer. When you came back into his room, he was just walking out of the bathroom. "You sneaky bitch." He half smiled at you.
"You knew it was coming. You stink, babe. You need to shower." You said, pulling out the wine and pouring you both a glass. "Come on." You walked him to his bathroom and started the shower, grabbing a few towels and his warm robe.
"Y/n, I just want to lay down." He said, sitting on the counter and drinking the wine.
"We'll lay down after you're clean. You're going to shower and then I need to clean your foot." You said, coming to stand between his knees.
Resting his forehead against yours, he sighed. "I don't have any energy to do anything."
"You have food and chocolate waiting for you." You replied, sitting his wine down and pulling him down off of the counter and pushing him into the shower fully clothed.
"Oh, you bitch." Conor said, pulling you in with him. "That's what you get."
Laughing, you were happy to see a smile on his face. "I'll take it. It got you in the shower." You said, pulling his shirt off of him and leaving him in basketball shorts. "Strip so you can actually get clean."
Conor's whole demeanor changed, his arms half covering his torso. "I'm good. I'll shower. I promise."
"Hey, what gives?" You asked, placing your hands on either side of his face and making him look at you.
"I just don't need another person judging me for how I look." he snapped, turning to face away from you.
"Was that what she told you? That she cheated on you because of how you look?" you asked, your blood boiling. When Conor didn't reply you knew you were right, so you decided to level the playing field. Stripping your shirt and bra off you chucked them on the bathroom floor. You ditched your jeans, just leaving you in your underwear. You slipped your hands around his sides, one coming to rest on his chest and the other across his tummy. "Conor, there's not a thing wrong with how you look."
"Fuck off." he said, sounding sad and not at all angry.
"Love, when have I ever fucked off when you told me to?" you asked, pulling him to rest against your chest. "You don't want to hear it, but sometimes you have the worst taste in women."
"Yeah." he said bitterly. "No shit." His arms finally relaxing instead of trying to cover himself.
With him relaxed against you and his head leaning back on your shoulder, you grabbed his shower soap and started running your soapy hands across his torso and down his arms. "You know better than to believe anything that bitch says." Your hands crawling lower and starting to push down the waist band of his shorts.
"Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt." he replied, letting his boxers and his shorts fall wet to the shower floor. You kicked them out to join the rest of the sopping clothes. Turning Conor so his chest was leaning against yours, you started rubbing soapy circles into his back. "Y/n." he said softly, lifting his head.
"What?" you asked, still running your hands up and down Conor's back.
"I just..." he said, his hands coming to rest on your bare waist. "I didn't realize you had undressed is all." he rested his forehead on your shoulder, letting you continue. You shampooed and conditioned his hair and felt his arms start to tighten around you while he buried his face in your neck. While it felt wonderful, this wasn't how you wanted to take the step from friends to more.
"Think you can manage the rest while I switch over your linens?" you asked, not wanting to seem like he had done anything wrong.
Conor cleared his throat "Yeah. Of course. Thank you." He replied, leaving a slow lingering kiss on your forehead and watching you make your way to the stack of towels.
Wrapping yourself in a towel, you gathered the wet clothes in another towel so you could throw them in the wash. "I'm going to borrow some of your clothes. Make sure you get dressed and meet me downstairs since your bed won't be ready." you called, leaving the bathroom.
Dressed in some of Conor's sweats and one of his sweaters, you headed downstairs and handled the laundry. You re-heated the Nandos and filled water and wine glasses for both of you. The couch was full of pillows and blankets and you had a small first aid kit out so you could clean up his foot. Seeing Conor come down the stairs dressed but limping on his injured foot, you pointed to the couch. "Sit down here so I can clean your foot up."
Grabbing his glass of wine, he sat down on the couch, allowing you access to his foot. "Is this food for me?" He asked, his stomach growling.
"Eat up." you smiled at him. "And there are two more bottles of wine, so don't hold back." You had pulled a few small pieces of glass out of his foot before he started getting fidgety.
"That one really hurts." He said, his hand squeezing your shoulder a bit.
"I'm sorry. Just. This. Last. One." You said, finally grabbing the last little sliver of glass out of his foot. "It should feel a bit better now." you said, wiping the slices with antiseptic and bandaging them up. "I'm going to go get you some socks so this doesn't catch on anything.
Walking back up to his room, you made sure the bathroom was straightened again and that the towels made their way to the hamper. You grabbed some socks and headed back down. "I can do that." he said, when you knelt down next to the couch to put them on his feet.
"Oh, hush. Just give me your feet." you said, slipping the socks on.
"Aside from Jack, you're the only person that has ever seen my at my worst." he said, looking deep in thought.
"And now I've bathed you at your worst." you teased, trying to lighten the mood. Cracking a smile, he nodded. "What do you want to watch? Something bloody? Something funny?" you asked, throwing away the Nandos trash and filling his wine glass. You grabbed your glass and joined him on the couch.
"I want to watch Up, but I have a feeling you won't let me." he chuckled.
"Damn straight. None of this Notebook type shit. Why don't we watch Hot Fuzz?" you suggested, scrolling through his digital movies on the tv.
"Only if you cuddle me." he said, grabbing one of the chocolates.
"That's a given, love." You said, selecting the movie, and laying down on the couch, opening your arms so he could lay his head on your chest. You pulled the three blankets over the two of you and softly played with his still damp hair. You both continued to drink wine and eat chocolate while enjoying the movie and by the end of it, Conor was properly laughing along.
"Y/n." Conor said, watching the credits slowly pass.
"yeah?" you replied.
"I'm sorry if I got too handsy in the shower." he said, clearing his throat. "I didn't mean to take advantage of the situation."
"It's fine, Conor. I did get naked in your shower." you laughed.
After your response, he paused for a moment. "Why have we never dated?" he asked, like there was cute little clean cut answer to that question. When you didn't answer him, he lifted his head from your chest to look at you. "Y/n?"
Pushing his hair out of his eyes, you replied in a slightly sad voice. "Conor, you've never asked."
His eyebrows knit together as he considered your answer. "If I had asked would you have said yes?"
"In a world where sober, not on the rebound Conor asked me out? Absolutely." you replied. He laid his head back down, closing his eyes and snuggling against your chest.
"I want to watch Up." he said, downing the last of his wine.
Not having a clue what was going through Conor's mind, you decided to just go with it. "No problem, love." You selected the movie and resumed playing with his hair. You weren't 20 minutes into the movie before you were both sound asleep.
Being woken up by a banging noise, you sat up and realized Conor wasn't with you on the couch. "Con?" you called out, wiping the sleep from your eyes and running your fingers through your hair. You noticed it was fully light outside meaning you slept through the night.
"In here." he replied, yelling from the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" you asked, walking into the kitchen and laying your head on his shoulder.
"I'm making us food, love." he replied, his hand coming up to rest on your cheek.
"I'm supposed to be taking care of YOU." you said, trying to take the spatula from him.
"Uh, uh. Nope. You did take care of me, now grab those two glasses of orange juice and take them up to my room." he said, continuing with the fry up. "I even made the bed and switched the laundry over."
Kissing him on the cheek, you couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad to see you up and about." you said, walking the glasses up to his room. He had, in fact, made the bed. He had also brought the rest of the wine and chocolate up. You even saw your phone plugged into the charger on his bedside table.
Opening your phone, you saw that you had about a thousand twitter notifications. Closing them all out and opening the app, you saw why. Conor had taken a photo of you asleep on the couch. Hair wild across the pillow and around your face, your body bundled up in his sweater. He had tweeted the photo saying "I have the best people in my life." You screenshot his tweet and then replied to the tweet with "You deserve the best people in your life."
Conor made his way up the stairs with two full plates of breakfast fry-up. "Put a movie on." he said, setting the plates on the bedside table and pulling the Duvet back so you could crawl in.
"What has gotten into you?" you asked, laughing at how the roles had reversed.
He stopped bustling about and stood by the bed. "You." he stared for a second before pointing over at the tv. "Pick something funny." He walked around the bed and crawled in. "The landlord is sending someone over to fix the heat, so we may hear someone downstairs."
"Thank god. It's freezing in here." you replied, starting the movie Super Troopers and starting to eat. "This is delicious. Thank you."
"Breakfast is about the only meal I can cook." he laughed.
You two spent the day watching movies and being lazy. You ordered in dinner since you had eaten breakfast so late. You finished off the rest of the wine and a better part of the chocolate. Conor didn't mention the break-up once. He didn't mention the shower again or that he had asked why you hadn't dated. He was just happy Conor. That night you both fell asleep on separate sides of the bed watching an episode of Stranger Things, but you woke up wrapped in Conor's arms. Wriggling out of his hold, you made your way downstairs knowing the boys would be home any time now. You straightened the flat up and had just started looking at your breakfast options when Conor joined you downstairs.
"You left me, love." he said, his arms circling you from behind. "The boys should land in about 20 minutes, so they may want us to meet them for breakfast."
"I need to shower if I'm going out in public." you laughed, folding your arms over his.
"I don't know. You smell quite nice to me." he said, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck.
"I smell like you." you laughed, breaking out of his hold.
With a grin on his face, he tucked your hair behind your ear. "I know. I like it." he replied. "You can have first shower and I'll make coffee." he said, shooing you out of the kitchen. "Your clean clothes are folded on the bed."
"You are in rare form, Maynard." You replied, walking up the stairs to shower and get ready.
Hearing the blow dryer, Conor knew you were finished in the shower, so he knocked. You opened the door, unplugging the blow dryer so you could move to the boys bathroom. "Sorry, I'll go downstairs."
"No need." He said, plugging it back in and pecking you on the cheek. "Their bathroom is disgusting." He turned the shower on and started stripping. "Plus, it's not like you haven't seen all of this before." He said, striking a dumb pose in the mirror.
You couldn't help but laugh. "You really are back to your old self."
"Not exactly. I think I'm a better version of myself. I was stupid to spend my time and energy on shitty people when I have amazing people already in my life." He said, climbing in the shower.
The change in Conor's attitude and mood had taken you by surprise. "Babe, you can't be philosophical with your willy hanging out." You said, starting the hair dryer up again. You could hear his laughter over the noise of the dryer.
Finishing up your hair, you left the bathroom to find your make-up and to get dressed. Not long after you were both ready, the boys text Conor's phone telling you to meet them at a cafe down the street.
You got a table and ordered drinks waiting for the boys. When they finally strolled up, Conor went outside to put their luggage in his truck and then they met you back in the cafe, both giving you hugs and ordering food. Jack and Josh both kept eyeing Conor and he finally cleared the air. "Guys, I'm fine."
"What are you talking about?" Josh asked, trying to act like he hadn't been worried about Conor.
"Yes, I was cheated on and treated like shit. No, I don't give a shit what she tells people or posts online. Yes, I'm perfectly fine." He said, placing his hand over yours for a moment. "This one kicked my ass and made everything better." He teased.
"I saw your picture of her on the couch. I was happy she found a way into the flat." Jack said.
"How did you get in?" Conor asked, considering it for the first time.
"Josh." You laughed. "He told me where the spare was. I'm not giving it back, by the way."
"Keep it." Conor told you. "And thank you for telling her about it." He said to Josh.
The rest of your brunch was normal, but the boys definitely kept eyeing Conor. You were all shocked he was acting so normal.
The following two weeks proved that Conor wasn't going to relapse into his blanket burrito phase which made you and the boys relax a bit. He had gone out drinking and dancing a few times with the rest of his buddies, but he never brought a girl home or went home with anyone. The nights he convinced you to come along, he stayed with you and danced with you and took you home where you would fall asleep watching whatever movie you picked.
One day while you were at work scrolling through your phone on your lunch break you saw that Conor had tweeted out that he had a new cover up. *"I've sang about a lot of girls in my life, but I don't think I've ever meant it like I do now."* he wrote, with a link to the song.
Closing your phone, you sighed and put it in your purse. You had accepted a long time ago that you were never going to be that girl. You weren't even upset about that. He was the best friend you could have asked for, but knowing that you were going to be second in line behind another girl again made you a bit sad.
You stayed late in your office catching up on work and made your way home around 8:30 pm. You knew your phone had been going off, but all you wanted was to pour yourself a glass of wine and sit in your bathtub listening to music.
Feeling sleepy and relaxed, you dried off and picked something in your kitchen to cook for a late night dinner. Setting everything up to cook you finally picked up your phone. More Twitter notifications that you could count. A load of Facebook requests. Tag notifications from more people than you actually knew. About 20 missed calls. You decided to ignore the social media and open your texts.
Conor - "*The link to the video*"
Josh - "Did you watch Conor's new video?"
Jack - "Omg, I should have known."
Conor - "Y/n, are you okay?"
Conor - "Please just tell me you're okay? No one can get ahold of you."
Jack - "Conor is freaking out. You should come over."
Josh - "Do you not feel the same?"
Conor - "Too soon?"
Jack - "Conor is in his blanket burrito upstairs. Please come over."
"What the fuck is happening?" You said out loud in your empty flat. Clicking on the link, you saw the cover was of "Count On Me" by Bruno Mars. You watched the video, unable to keep a smile from forming on your face. You loved watching Conor do what he loved and he was one of the best.
"You can count on me like 1 2 3
I'll be there
And I know when I need it
I can count on you like 4 3 2
And you'll be there
'Cause that's what friends are supposed to do, oh yeah"
Half way through the song you clicked open the description where he normally rambled a bit about why he picked the song and such.
"This one has been a long time coming. I met a very pretty girl years and years ago. That girl grew up to be an incredibly kind, capable, and beautiful woman. She has helped me through every one of my hard times and has been there to kick my ass when I needed it. (Not joking. Just a few weeks ago she pushed me into the shower fully clothed. I almost died). I don't know why I never pursued her. I think it's because she's the kind of woman you marry, and I was busy being a pop star twat that wasn't ready to commit to a favorite drink let alone a relationship. She's watched me date some girls that treated me like absolute shit (not all of them were bad, but some of them were horrible) and she was always there to pick me up. It's about time I treated her like I should have been treating her all along. Y/n, you make me a better person. Even more, you make me WANT to be a better person. I would be honored if you let me call you mine."
Turning off the stove, you threw on leggings, a baggy sweater, and shoes. You grabbed your bag and your keys and made your way, quick as you could, to Conor's flat. You didn't even bother knocking, you just let yourself in. "Conor!" You called, running into the flat.
"He's upstairs. Why did you ignore us?" Jack asked, sounding upset and standing in front of the stairs.
"I didn't look at my phone. I was at the office until almost 9 and I saw he posted about a girl and I just wanted to be alone. I didn't know it was me." You said, out of breath and looking a mess.
Jack smiled, realizing you hadn't actually hurt Conor. Standing aside, he clapped your shoulder. "Go get 'em."
You ran up the stairs and felt along the wall for the lightswitch. "Conor?" You called, but didn't get a response. Turning the light on, you saw Conor. Rolled up in his damn blanket, fast asleep. Pulling out your phone, you snapped a picture and opened Twitter. You retweeted his tweet with the link and added "This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me." and then opened a new one. "I can't believe I get to call this adorkable burrito boy, mine." And added the picture.
Setting your stuff down, you went into his bathroom and started the shower. Peppering his face with kisses, you woke Conor up. "Come on." You said, kissing him on the lips before walking into the bathroom.
"Y/n?" Conor called behind you, obviously a little confused. You stripped out of your clothes and got into the shower, holding your hand out to him when he joined you in the bathroom. He stripped and hesitantly stepped into the shower.
Like before, you lathered up your hands and ran them over his skin, a huge grin on your face. "Will you sing it?" You asked, pulling him to you, bare chest to bare chest and rubbing your hands in circles across his back.
A small smile formed on Conor's face as he started quietly singing. "If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea, I'll sail the world to find you." His hands found their place on your waist and you tucked your face into his neck. "If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see, I'll be the light to guide you." He continued on, the two of you swaying back and forth under the warm water.
"I thought you rejected me." He said, slipping his arms around you and pulling you tight to his chest.
"Not at all. I didn't even watch your video until I got home from work and saw my phone blown up with texts." You said leaning back to look at his face.
"I'm an idiot for not realizing I had already found you. I've spent the last few weeks trying to prove that you weren't a rebound." He laughed.
"You don't need to prove anything to me, love. Even if your video was about someone else, I would have been here taking care of you when you needed me to." you said, leaning up to kiss him.
"Mmmmm, I'm so glad I get to do this now." He said, deepening the kiss.
"Me too." You replied, your hands coming up to sit on either side of his face. "I may or may not have posted a picture of you in your burrito."
"Oh, God." He laughed. "It's okay, I'll get you back. I'm great at posting unflattering photos of the people I love."
You couldn't help but smile at that. "Oh, I know what I signed up for. I'm also pretty sure you just said you loved me."
"And I'm pretty sure you should know that by now." He said, resting his forehead against yours.
"You ready for bed, love?" You asked, rinsing the soap from you both.
"Only if you stay. I've been an anxious wreck all day and I'm exhausted, but I don't want to go to bed without you." He said, pressing a kiss to your lips.
"Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere." You replied, turning off the water and pulling him out of the shower.
Conor looked you up and down as you dried off, making your cheeks go pink. You went to throw your leggings back on for bed, but Conor stopped you. "Come on, blushing beauty." He pulled you into the bedroom, shut the lights off, and climbed into bed without redressing. He opened his arms and waited for you to join him.
Climbing in and laying against his chest, you felt him tuck the blanket around the two of you. "I could definitely get used to this." You said, closing your eyes and slowly running your fingers up and down his side.
"I think I'm already past used to it. I don't think I could live without it." He said, kissing the top of your head and trailing his fingers in designs on your back.
"Sing it one more time?" You asked, knowing it was the cheesiest thing you could do.
You could feel Conor's chuckle in his chest. "Of course, love." He said, starting the song over. You never thought you'd be the girl Conor sang to sleep, but his voice was the last thing you heard before you gave in and fell asleep, the rythym of his voice and the rise and fall of his chest serenading you into slumber.