[Sierra's POV]
About two days had passed since Ramin had his accident with Hadley, and Sierra tried to visit him but every time she did he was asleep. She would stay with him for at least an hour, but to her disappointment he was never awake. It was slightly unsettling, but Hadley told her he wasn't always like that. Apparently he happened to be awake quite often when she wasn't around. In the meantime she would be with Tam though, trying not to worry and distract herself instead since it was the weekend and their rehearsals didn't start again until Tuesday.
It was Sunday and the big event of New Years Eve was upon them. Hadley actually was having a party it turned out, and they were to arrive at anytime after 9 o'clock. It would be the celebration of the year 2010.
Tam came walking past Sierra without a shirt on, a towel draped on his head as he shook the water out of his hair. There were still little beads of water on his chest and stomach, both of which weren't as toned as Ramin but they were nothing to complain about. Dang it, why was she thinking about Ramin when her shirtless boyfriend walked past her?
"Remind me again why you're showering here and not at your place and then coming here?" Sierra asked as Tam pulled the towel off his head and picked up his shirt.
"Because I didn't want to waste time and be apart from you today." He had the sweetest, most innocent smile on his face before being swallowed up by a black long sleeve shirt. Once the clothing was properly on, he walked up to Sierra and planted a kiss on her lips. He obviously wanted to deepen it and got closer and closer, nearly lying on top of her while she laid on her own bed.
She pulled away and put a hand on his chest, trying to keep him at bay. "Tam, not now... You'll get plenty of kissing in later tonight." Tam merely groaned and complained for a moment before pressing his lips against hers again. "Tam-" Sierra could barely get anything out for the short time their lips would part and then join again. "Tam, really..." Finally she turned her head and moved off to the side, causing his lips to land on her jawline instead.
"Come on, it's not like anything is really going to happen... Besides, you drive me crazy." His lips gently pressed on her jaw again before descending down her neck with soft butterfly kisses. The feeling of his breath on her neck sent a tingling sensation down her spine that inevitably led to her giggling. Stupid natural bodily reactions.
Tam obviously decided on teasing her now rather than trying to actually get some kissing time in. His hands attacked at her stomach and sent her into a fit of laughter while his nose nuzzled against her neck. Sierra just couldn't help the fact that she was so ticklish. It felt more upbeat than before and she enjoyed herself rather than being in whatever mood she was when he first started kissing her.
The doorbell rang and Sierra immediately tried to sit up, but Tam seemed to ignore the sound and only tickled her harder. She exploded with laughter and was squirming to find a way out and exact revenge, but she was no match for him.
"Sierra?" The bedroom door creaked open and obsidian black hair popped through. Her expression dropped a bit and she managed to sit up, mostly since Tam had stopped tickling her now that he realized somebody else was there. A blush crept up her cheeks and she seemed unable to say anything but stare at the expression on the man's face.
[Ramin's POV]
Ramin stared blankly at the sight before him. His heart compressed and his hands seemed to go numb, the flowers in his hand nearly dropped out of his fingers. What had he just walked into... Just Sierra and Tam messing around or some strange set up before they would... You know... Just the thought of it was too much for his mind and heart to bare.
It dawned on him though that everybody was in an awkward staring situation filled with silence. He lips spread into a smile but he didn't really feel it in the rest of his face. "Oh uh, I didn't mean to intrude... I just thought I'd drop by and uh, give you these before I went to the party." He held out the bouquet of yellow roses and aimlessly looked around for something else to focus on.
Sierra had stood and taken the flowers, a warm smile awaiting him when he looked up. "Thank you, Ramin." Oh boy was Tam a lucky man to have her.
"Well um, I should get going then." He glanced down to the floor before stepping out of the room. Ramin's hand roamed his pocket for his keys, desperate to find them quickly and get out of there.
"Wait!" He froze and slowly turned to see Sierra at his heel. "You can stay and drive down to the party with us." Ramin could spot Tam not far behind Sierra, clearly disagreeing with her statement from what he could tell off his expression.
"No, it's fine. I have to go pick up Mandy and the boys anyways. I'm just sorry I interrupted you two." Ramin blushed from embarrassment as he thought of what they were doing and then imagining having someone walk in on him doing that. Actually, that had already happened when he was with Sierra and the whole cast walked in on them...
As Ramin pulled out his car keys, he felt another similar shape and metal and retrieved it too. "Oh," he held the key out and sighed, "and here's your spare key from under the mat." Clearly Sierra was momentarily confused before taking the key.
"I was wondering how you got in." She laughed a bit and forced Ramin to actually smile a little. But the image of her and Tam playing around on the bed were still imprinted in his mind.
"Well uh, I need to go." Ramin turned and was about the open the door when her hand grabbed his arm. When he looked over his shoulder, he could tell Sierra was concerned. Gosh, he couldn't bare to see her eyes look so saddened. Especially when he was most likely the cause.
Sierra's mouth opened to say something before she wrapped him up into a hug. Ramin wasn't exactly expecting that but gladly held her in his arms, his eyes flickering over to Tam again. He was staring very intently at them, it made Ramin move away and actually open the door this time.
"I'll see you two in a little bit. Good seeing you both." Ramin faintly smiled before leaving, trying not to make eye contact with Sierra or Tam. Especially Tam. He didn't seem to be too keen about their friendship.
~ At the party ~
It was official. Hadley Fraser was crazy. There was a rather large amount of people at his apartment with a rather large amount of drinks to celebrate the event. Great place to bring kids, right? Not only that but he was yelling about who knows what and was probably already fairly drunk. Otherwise he was hyped on sugar and it was hard to tell which would be worse.
Ramin sighed as it hit him that most of the night would be him and Mandy switching off to watch the kids and entertain them before they would eventually and inevitably fall asleep. Honestly staying home seemed like a better option but Mandy said they should just enjoy themselves.
"Alright, I'll watch the kids first and you can go off with Hadley and Sierra and your other friends." Mandy was already guiding the kids in the opposite direction of the drinks, to a less crowded and rambunctious area.
Ramin wasn't fine with that though. He had been away for quite a while and she had to deal with the kids the whole time so it would only be fair that he stayed with them. "No, it's fine. I've got them, you can go have fun. Besides, I missed hanging out with my two little boys." Mandy seems reluctant at first but gave in and slowly slipped away into the crowd.
There was already giggling coming from behind him and Ramin became confused. He attempted to turn around, but two pairs of arms wrapped around and tackled him. Thankfully he braced himself well enough for impact, and didn't hit too hard into the carpeted ground. Realizing who it was, he couldn't help but laugh.
Jaiden poked his head over Ramin's shoulder with an innocent grin while Hadley just giggled more, his little arms gripping his legs. Again they fell into a spell of laughter, it just felt good to be with his kids again. Just seeing them made him feel better.
"What in the world is going on here?" Ramin looked up off the ground to see Sierra staring at them all on the ground. It must have looked strange to have two kids latched onto him while he was on the ground, but she started to laugh a bit too.
"We captured our dad." Jaiden said in an overly proud tone. Apparently if was a big feat to take him down for whatever reason. Kids had the strangest logic, but he loved it.
"Yeah! Now he can't escape anymore!" Hadley also seemed quite proud, and it was only necessary for Ramin to foil their plan.
Ramin pushed himself up, Hadley backing away while Jaiden decided staying wrapped around his neck was better. "Oh yeah? Well I think it's tickle time for someone!" He took a few steps towards Hadley and then he bolted off towards Hadley Fraser's bedroom. Jaiden felt it a fitting time to leap off his father's back and join his younger brother. They made it too easy.
It took him a second to remember Sierra was there and he flashed her a toothy smile. "You coming? I can't deal with both of them without getting jumped on." Sierra giggled a bit before following in the direction of Hadley's bedroom.
"Your kids are too adorable. I want some like that." Sierra didn't seem to break focus on the door as they walked, apparently they were trying to be sneaky now and remaining as quiet as they could as they walked.
"It's not all sunshine and rainbows with kids, you know. The first two years are like hell, you never sleep and it's always noisy. Sometime afterwards it slowly gets better. I get the feeling Jaiden is gonna get worse when he's a teenager though." Suddenly Sierra had turned to expression at him with the strangest look he couldn't figure out. It wasn't bad, he just couldn't tell what she was thinking at the time. "What? Did I-"
Sierra's hand darted up to his mouth and took him by surprise, silencing him and making him perplexed. What had he done? He came to realize Sierra was holding a finger up to her lips to indicate them being silent before slowly creeping the door open. Finally her hand moved from his mouth, although he wouldn't have minded a few more seconds of it being there. Wait, yes he would. Well, he was supposed to mind, but he didn't...
There was no longer time to think about all the conflicting thoughts and feelings bouncing around his head and his whole body. Sierra seemed more onboard with surprising his kids than him and in a second she was bursting into the bedroom. Oh yeah, he was supposed to do that too!
"Gotcha!" He yelled as they both practically jumped through the doorway. But nothing happened. Wait, did they go to the wrong room?
Sierra seemed confused too and kept turning to look around before opening a closet door. Empty. "Um... Can your kids turn invisible or something?"
Ramin chuckled softly and kept looking around. "Honestly it wouldn't be surprising. I think this time we just went to the wrong place."
"No, they definitely ran into here! I've got a mind like an elephant, I never forget!" Sierra seemed very certain about that but Ramin burst out laughing. "What? You think I don't have a good memory?!" Ramin only laughed harder, scooting backwards towards the bed. "My memory is not THAT bad!"
Ramin was finally able to get control over himself, thankfully too otherwise he might have suffocated. Breathing is a hard task when you're laughing. "Ok ok, fine, you have the memory of an elephant! Although it's not the only thing like an elephant..." He mumbled he last part with a grin, which immediately made Sierra's mouth gape open and her eyebrows raise.
"Ramin. Karimloo. Did you just call me fat?" Sierra was making the same face his wife made when he made the horrible mistake of saying something wrong. But in this case he did it on purpose and didn't mean it whatsoever. Sierra had the opposite body of an elephant, she was so- stop. Not again. Just keep joking around.
"So what if I did?" He was doing everything in his power not to explode into laughter again, which probably meant he was making the stupidest face. At that point he was basically holding his breath, the veins in his neck started to pop out and his face going red. If he opened his mouth he wouldn't be able to contain himself.
Sierra was giving Ramin the death glare, but he couldn't tell if it was for real or she was joking too. "If you did mean it, I'm going to kill you!" The next thing he knew, she had basically jumped on him. His legs collapsed and he went sprawling across the bed. Ok, that was it, he couldn't hold it in. He belted out in laughter, Sierra joining in with him.
[Sierra's POV]
Of course Ramin was joking. She wasn't an elephant, although she felt a little self conscious afterwards. Who wouldn't? But Sierra found herself laughing instead and still on top of Ramin for some reason.
Just as she was about to roll off and lay next to him on the bed, something flew onto her back and was tugging her to the side. "Get off our daddy!" Sierra nearly had a heart attack as small arms clung around her neck and another pair was wrapped around her waist.
She could still hear Ramin laughing, but her vision was compromised as she flipped over because of the little attackers on her backside. Although she accidentally over flipped and landed on the floor, face down again. A groan escaped her lips and she didn't even attempt getting up. "Ramin, I found your kids..."
The deep, sweet chuckle she adored filled the room as she felt the weights on her back being lifted off. She sighed and rolled onto her back before sitting up. "You alright?" Sierra looked up at Ramin, who had one child in each arm.
"Well..." A small grin formed and Sierra waited till Ramin put the kids down on the bed. After he did so, she grabbed his leg and yanked it out from under him, but not strong enough to flip him right away. He went backwards, but he was fully aware of it and managed to turn and fall in his hands. "A lot better now!" She laughed and was joined by Hadley and Jaiden, Ramin eventually chuckling with them.
"Ok, how about no more jumping on or tripping anyone else tonight?" Ramin seemed to want to get that out of the way since they still had three hours until midnight. Three whole hours until they were allowed to all crash and fall asleep.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-" Hadley was dragging out the word almost endlessly until Jaiden cut in. "But that's not fun!" The two boys were jumping up and down on the mattress while giving Ramin the same puppy eyes he would give Sierra occasionally. Yup, they definitely were his sons.
Sierra looked at Ramin like, "go on, do your daddy magic on them," but was returned with a "what am I supposed to do" expression. She rolled her eyes and turned to Jaiden and Hadley. "How about this. You two can jump on and trip your dad all you want, as long as you don't hurt him too much or do any of that to me."
Ramin's face dropped and his sons got extremely excited about the conditions. Sierra just stared at Ramin with an evil smirk before mouthing "have fun" to him. Immediately the two boys grabbed their father and pulled him into the bed with them, giggling and screaming with delight. Sierra laughed and was nearly bent over because of it. And then...
A hand reached out and grabbed Sierra's arm, yanking her down onto the bed too. She went from amused to utterly shocked and worried about losing a limb or cracking a rib. Her hands were planted down on a firm chest and little arms wrapped around her neck. Ramin had a devilish grin on his face that made him look so childishly happy yet so se- nope, handsome- wait, no not that either. Uh, cute! Like a child, yes he was cute and childish!
"You never said I couldn't do anything to you." Wow, Ramin found a way around the weak rules she made because she thought they were gonna focus on the kids. Nope! She stared into his big, shining brown eyes, almost in a daze before she found herself laughing loudly with him and the boys.
As imaginable, they spent the next few hours goofing around and entertaining themselves inside Hadley's bedroom, and guest room occasionally when the kids would run off. At last they were all tired out and flopped onto the bed.
Sierra tried to keep a safe distance from Ramin and not lead herself into situations that would slip into her thoughts for the next few weeks. Something warm grabbed against her shoulder and slowly she was pressed into Ramin. Um... Alright then.
She slowly looked up at him, but he seemed to not pay attention to what he just did and was gently brushing hair out of Jaiden's face. He had the sweetest smile and his eyes, they shimmered with what she could only think of as love for his children. That special light in his eyes weren't always there and something swelled inside her when she saw him like that.
Sierra caved in and let herself lay her head on his chest, her hand resting there as well and finding such nice, warm comfort radiating off him. She looked down at little Hadley, curled up on Ramin's lap and clinging to him. Finally she let her eyes close, completely ready to fall asleep.
"Sie, it's almost midnight." Ramin cooed softly, stroking a stray strand of hair away and tucking it behind her ear. Oh come on, not now! But, it was New Years Eve and she could crash right after everybody stopped celebrating.
"Five more minutes..." She mumbled, curling closer to him and starting to gently hold onto his shirt. Then he shifted, the sheets beneath them moving around before big, strong arms wrapped underneath her and hoisted her up. Sierra's eyes shot open and she stared at Ramin in confusion. Why was this such a big deal to him? "Come on, just five more minutes to sleep."
"In five minutes you will have missed New Years." Ramin said with a half smile as he carried her to the door. Then he definitely struggled to open it, since holding a person usually does that.
Sierra carefully slipped out of Ramin's arms and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't hurt yourself big guy, it's just a door." She giggled and turned the doorknob, pushing open the door and waiting for him to go through.
"You try doing it while holding somebody in your arms! It's not that easy!" Ramin was highly defensive over the subject as guys seemed to be like that. Finally after nearly shoving him out of the room, he got out and allowed her to step into the hallway.
"Fine, it's a hard task. Is your masculinity still intact?" Sierra gave him a very fake concerned expression. "It would be horrible if anything were to happen to it!"
Ramin tilted his head from side to side and half grinned. "Yeah, I guess it is alright. I might have to go drink some beer and hammer up some dry wall though just in case." They both chuckled as they reentered the "party area" and looked out into the large group of people assembled to watch the countdown on a huge tv screen mounted on Hadley's wall. Was that always there?
A familiar face stuck out in the crowd as Tam flashed a toothy smile at her. She looked to Ramin to see he was staring at his wife, who was waving him over. That was right, they both had someone. But friendship is forever, nothing could beat that.
Ramin turned to Sierra, giving her a questioning look as if he were worried to leave her. "Go on, Mandy's waiting and I've got a tall handsome Tam waiting for me." They smiled to each other before parting, going to their respective partners.
Tam immediately swallowed Sierra into a gigantic hug that nearly fused the two together. There was a slight hint of alcohol in his breath, which reminded her that she didn't have any since she was busy with Ramin and his kids. "I missed you, love."
Sierra gave Tam a quick peck on the cheek and kept her hands wrapped around his neck. "I missed you too, baby." The couples attention was stolen by the crowd chanting out numbers. The seconds ticked away and the New Year was coming closer and closer.
"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3..."
Sierra snuck a glance over at Ramin and Mandy, seeing the two of them resting their foreheads together.
"2...1... HAPPY NEW YEARS!"
She watched the married couple tenderly kiss one another, and it was soon proven to be her turn as Tam was wishing her a Happy New Years and leaning in. Sierra pulled him close, practically smashing her lips into his. Love gives people pleasure and love brings people pain, so to override the pain she decided to engross herself in the pleasure. Tam had no objections whatsoever and backed up into a wall, starling both of them.
Parting lips, they both giggled and Sierra held herself against Tam's chest in a tight grip. She closed her eyes in fear of spotting Ramin with Mandy again and simply soaked in every bit of Tam that she could. Yeah, she was definitely getting used to holding onto Tam like so. It finally brought peace and comfort to her, but maybe it was just the situation. Either way, she stayed that way for as long as she could.
She couldn't have him. He wouldn't be hers. He never was hers. She was being silly... It wasn't love... Just stupid hormones giving her a hard time with a really big crush. Just some infatuation, no biggie. She could get over it. She had to get over it.
Sorry for not really posting much, but school and anxiety hit me like a train so that was fun. Just trying to keep my motivation up to keep writing and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!