Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to the first person (besides me) to have fallen in love with Cherish and Seven, and the first person ever to have read their entire story. Thank you, Dani, your reactions, suggestions and support have meant a lot to me. <3
Cherish groaned as the bed shifted beside her leaving her suddenly cool, and rolled towards the warmth instinctively. Once again the bed shifted and this time she held tight to the warmth as it tried to slip away.
She was determinedly ignoring the ringing. It wasn't really bothering her much, as she was technically already awake, just not so keen on moving. But, she was sure now, the ringing was the reason for the sudden cold shiver that ran down her back.
"What?"
Without opening her eyes, she listened as Seven growled angrily at whomever was calling. His hand dropped carefully down onto her head, an attempt to block the noise from her ears. His thoughtfulness was appreciated, but she lazily swatted his hand away, rolling over and curling into him.
"No, we're not," his tone was annoyed, clipped. "Seriously Ian, I'm on the fucking couch."
Cherish couldn't say that she'd ever done an eye roll with her eyes closed before; Ian was insufferable!
"She's still sleeping, E... Now?" Seven shook her shoulder gently, and Cherish could only imagine why he was waking her up 'now'. "For fuck's sake, E, of course we're clothed! What the hell do you thin- Fine. See you in a few."
Dropping the phone, Seven let out a frustrated sigh, before flopping back down beside her, "You might want to wake up and get dressed, Rish. They're on their way here. He said 10 minutes."
"They?" Cherish inquired opening one eye. Seven was disheveled and still as shirtless as he'd been the night before; clothed, he'd said!
Waking up beside him hadn't been as awkward as she would have thought, in fact, she'd been enjoying how comfortable it had felt. How she'd felt tucked under his arm, her back pressing against his body, his breath against the back of her neck. She would have liked to lay there longer, but as Seven deadpanned his answer she knew she'd have to move.
"Ian and the rest of our fan club. I told them we're fully dressed and on the couch..."
Curse you, fanclub! Cherish thought as jumped from the bed, "Shit! Where's your shirt?"
She stumbled, realising she was still wearing one of her shoes and simultaneously tugged it off and hopped across the room toward Seven's shirt. He would have laughed as she tossed both her shoe and his shirt at him, but there was no time for amusement.
Their friends had killed what should have been a nice, though maybe slightly awkward morning for them. If anything, he had a feeling they'd made it exponentially more awkward. He didn't relish his friends noticing the coy skittishness they'd both undoubtedly have every time they looked at one another. He made a mental note to thank Ian later.
Cherish blindly yanked clothes out of a drawer and ran out into the hallway, huffing as she passed him. "There're snacks in the kitchen, and the blanket's already on the couch! I'll be down in a few!"
Seven couldn't help but chuckle at the frazzled way she slammed the bathroom door as he pulled his shirt over his head. Once downstairs, he tore open a couple of the bags in the kitchen, letting the contents fly everywhere and took what was left to the living room.
As he rolled the blanket on the couch around himself, he carelessly let more food spill out. Poking one of the bags into the cushions, Seven finally leaned back and flicked on the T.V., picking pretzels out of the bag in his hand.
It wasn't too long before he heard shuffling outside and a face appeared in the window. He rolled his eyes at Juss peering in, but waited till the knock sounded to get up.
"Where's Cherish?"
"Good morning to you too," he drawled sarcastically in response to Ian. As Delia ran upstairs, he felt a tiny surge of panic, but brushed it aside as Juss and Harper laughingly took in the debris of his food hurricane.
"We thought you were maybe lying. I was personally against Ian calling you... What the hell happened here?"
"Food fight," Seven said, thankful that Ian had called. He could only imagine the disaster had they simply shown up as Harper had said. "So what, you thought we were just... I'm not even going to try and figure out what you thought."
"She's in the shower," Delia announced as she bounced into the living room. "Seriously, Sev, did you guys actually eat any of that?"
-.-
Cherish sighed as she turned the water off. She hadn't wanted to be downstairs when her friends had arrived, and so had opted for a quick morning shower. They would have taken one look at the two of them and known something had happened.
It would be too easy, because she was sure she wouldn't be able to help grinning stupidly every time she looked at him. That in itself, wasn't the problem. It was what they would assume happened, that made the idea of being among them at this moment fiercely flustering.
Without their arrival, she might have had the tiniest bit of morning after jitters to deal with. Then again, she and Seven had lived through several morning afters already, though not quite with the same circumstance. She had planned on taking the morning slow, cuddling, talking, maybe- maybe- some more kissing, and then going out for breakfast.
Instead, the morning had turned into a mad dash that she would look back on as an embarrassing one. It's not like they'd done anything! It's not like they were- as Ian had so thoughtfully called ahead to ask about- naked!
All they'd done was kiss. Okay, so it was a little more than just a kiss. With the release of all their pent up want, things had gone well beyond kissing and fully into making out. But that was all! She had been comfortably happy when she'd pulled his arm around her and cuddled into him, telling him not to sleep on the couch like he'd been so intent on doing.
Cherish remembered, with a blushing smile that she'd even told him that she'd missed him. As if there were any other way for him to read it, but that she'd missed him sleeping by her. But she'd said it, and fairly confidently at that. The thought brought such an intense blush to her face that she hid it in her towel. She peered at her reflection in the mirror, feeling stupid for hiding when no one was there to see her.
Yeah, she'd missed him, and she was sure he'd missed her too. It wasn't like in telling him that she'd suddenly let him know how she felt about him. He'd known for some time now- they both had- and after last night, they were... they weren't anything, at least in the sense of a label. Cherish was well aware that the reason for that rested solely on her.
Schooling her face into something less blushing and giddy, she left the confines of the bathroom. She could hear Juss lecturing Seven about wasting so much precious snack food on a food fight and Seven's grumbled response to shut up and help clean the mess. As she quietly made her way down the stairs, she debated how to treat the situation. The way she saw it, she had two options.
One, act as if they'd simply hung out and done nothing out of the ordinary. Two, act as if they'd had some significantly huge conversations. The former would be hard, she knew, because her face would probably crack goofy grins every time she looked Seven's way. Then again, the latter would yield the same results. Cherish took a deep breath as she reached the end of the stairs and came to choice.
"So, where are we going to eat? And will someone get Cherish already?" Juss asked, with a typically hungry sounding whine.
Taking a deep breath, Cherish made up her mind and walked into the kitchen, "Good morning, guys! Thanks for cleaning up in here!"
"Finally!" Juss- and even Harper- enthused, as Ian and Delia babbled greetings and breakfast choices at her. Cherish listened with little to no interest as she sauntered across the kitchen, and leaned against the counter beside Seven, grinning madly.
"Good morning, boyfriend!"
The looks on her friend's faces were indeed something to remember, but it wasn't that that had captured her attention. With gleeful amusement, Cherish watched the slow grin spread itself on Seven's face. He dropped his arm over her shoulder like he'd done so many times before, with an easy casualness, and kissed the side of her head.
"Good morning, girlfriend."
Cherish felt like her grin was trying to wrap itself right around her head as she turned toward him and placed a quick peck on his mouth. They remained briefly in a bubble, ignoring the presence of their friends, enjoying their moment. Seven's forehead rested against hers as he pressed a kiss to her nose and then her mouth. All too quickly, as they separated, the quiet was gone.
"So, this is, uh, new?"
"God! You guys are insufferable!" Cherish threw her arms up; it had been the first time they'd seen them kiss. "Yes, this is new! It's happening! You guys can write an official fan club letter about it! But first, Ted's for breakfast."
Cherish paid no mind to the smirks and side-eye looks she and Seven were getting as everyone clambered out of the house. Instead she focused on the feeling of Seven's fingers laced through hers. It felt the same as it always had. Yet somehow everything felt different than she expected it to.
She snuck a glance at Seven as she stuffed her feet into her shoes; she supposed that difference could be calked up to him. He was special, making all the rational fears she'd built her walls from fall away as if they were irrational and founded on insignificant scraps of tissue. It was in his patience, the way he cared, the way he let her drive their relationship.
As Cherish bounded out the door after Ian and Delia, she found herself pulled back inside.
"You forgot something, Rish."
"What'd I forge-?" Cherish stumbled into Seven when he tugged her forward.
"This." Seven dropped her hand and brought his hands up to her face. Melting into the intense kiss Cherish locked her arms around his waist.
"You're so lame, Bunny!" she giggled against his mouth when her mind returned to her.
He shrugged, "I just wanted a minute with you."
"And you didn't have enough last night?" She flushed, realising what she'd said, "Uh..."
Seven chuckled, "About that. I don't think I can hang out with you anymore."
"Why?" Cherish narrowed her eyes at him, waiting for the stupid thing he was going to say.
"Because I have a girlfriend now."
Cherish smacked him and rolled her eyes, "Seriously, Sev."
As she drove, she debated taking a wrong turn and going anywhere but Ted's so she could be alone with him. But she quashed the feeling; she didn't want to be that girl, and their friends were like family to them. Turning into the parking lot of Ted's, she realised Seven was staring at her,
"What?" she asked, as she got out of the car. Seven braced his arms on either side of her and leaned down kissing her long, hard and slow. Her knees turned to water. Still, a small part of her mind remembered when being backed up on the side of a car sent her into a panic so all consuming her body had shut down. But as she tangled her fingers into his hair, she found that Seven was steadily edging that memory off it's foothold.
"I'm so happy right now, Pumpkin." Seven mumbled before he stepped back from her, laced their fingers together again and headed into the restaurant.
Happy. SO happy. Cherish chewed her lip to stop the smile that was suddenly controlling her face. She resigned herself to the fact that her face would hurt by the end of the day. The butterflies she felt at those words threatened to fly away with her head as well as her heart. She closed her eyes and leaned her head on his arm as they waited for a table with their friends.
Happy. Yeah. She was so happy too.
-Fin-
* Title song by The Eisley Brothers