nini wakes up with her eyes hurting too much and looks up to see ricky fast asleep with his arms wrapped around her. she buries her head in his chest, terrified of leaving their bubble of safety
a few minutes of silence and ricky shifts around, waking up to see nini fiddling with her charm bracelet, quietly looking up at the ceiling.
"how'd you sleep?" he asks
nini snaps her head up to him and she a cracks a small smile
"really good actually." she breathes
ricky nods "good."
he sits up and yawns as he stretches his arms and gets out of the bed
"i don't want to leave this room ever." nini mumbles into her pillows
ricky laughs softly "you're going to have to eventually."
nini smiles weakly and sits up to face him as she fiddles with her charm bracelet
"r-ricky?"
he looks up at her and nods "yeah?"
"i'm really sorry. for what i said the other day. i promise i didn't mean it ricky it's just-"
"we don't have to talk about it nini." he says shaking his head
"yes we do." she gets out of the bed and walks over to him "i really didn't think that our relationship meant nothing, and i know you have no reason to believe me-" she stops and widens her eyes in realization
"what?" he asks confused
nini takes a deep breath and crawls below her desk
"uh- nini i don't think-"
she opens the vent and takes out the box she's kept in there since she'd arrived to salt lake
"what is that?" he asks her as she places it on her desk
"it's my proof." she says hopefully
ricky raises his eyebrows and she takes the lid off, taking out the few things inside one by one
"what is all of this?" he asks her, seeing three of his favorite photos
"well, i had to leave so suddenly that i grabbed this box and tried looking for as many things that were about me and you as i could, but we did have a lot of pictures and-"
"i mean, why these?" he asks, stopping her from rambling
"oh!" she laughs nervously, "w-well, uh- this one-"
flashback
"ricky, don't you ever want to fly like a kite?" nini asks as she walks, dragging her kite on the floor behind her
"well, you know that you could." he says, an idea forming in his mind
nini laughs and shakes his head "no silly, we can't fly."
ricky laughs "well, you could have the same feeling. it's the wind and the speed- look i'll show you!"
he takes the kite from her hands and throws it up in the air before running around the large land
"ricky what are you doing?!" nini yells after him, trying to keep up
"just run and spread your arms out wide!" he laughs as he speeds down the hill
"i'm not running down that!" nini says in fright as she looks down at the steep drop ahead
"you want to fly don't you?!" he asks her
nini takes a deep breath and nods
"then come on!" he yells as he runs faster
nini forces herself to take another step and rushes down the hill, screaming in excitement while ricky yells and laughs
"we're flying!" nini squeals
end of flashback
"see the only problem with that was we weren't really f-"
he gets cut off by nini whacking his arm
"ow!" he yells, massaging it
"it's the imagination that counts ricky!" she scolds him with a laugh
ricky laughs as well and takes the next photo, groaning
"seriously? this one?"
nini giggles and takes the photo from him
flashback
"ricky we are so dead when we get back." nini sighs as she follows the boy through the grass
"calm down, my grandparents are cool-"
"they don't know we're gone and that we're sneaking onto another farm!" she exclaims
"you know, sneaking usually means that you have to do it quietly?" he smirks
nini rolls her eyes "ricky i'm serious. when we get back, i'm telling them that you're secretly a vampire and you compelled me to follow you."
"you watch too much 'vampire diaries.'" he groans
nini gasps "excuse me?! no one can get enough of it!"
"is it because of the plot or because of that old vampire guy that you're obsessed with?"
"damon? he's not old!" she defends
"he's a vampire and was seventeen in the 1940's neens. he's old." ricky laughs
"who cares? i love him. he's going to be my future husband."
ricky stops and looks at him "that dude? he's not right for you."
"then who's right for me?" nini asks with a smirk, folding her arms across her chest
"oh look a dog!" ricky exclaims nervously as he runs towards the wooden fence
nini laughs and shakes her head before following him
"come on." he climbs over it, and nini steps onto it quickly to stop him
"ricky i don't think that dog likes -"
"hello." he says in a baby voice, giving his hand for the dog to smell
"ricky it's growling-"
"OW!" he yells jumping back and holding his hands
"oh look, he bit you. if only someone warned you- oh wait! that was me!" nini giggles
ricky glares at her before rubbing his fingers over the bite "it hurts."
nini smiles and takes his hand to kiss the mark where he was bitten.
ricky feels the heat rise to his cheeks and she pats his hand
"all better?" she asks
ricky quickly puts his hand in his pocket and nods "uh-y-yeah. we should get back."
end of flashback
"-i still can't believe you watched that thing five times." ricky says shaking his head
"i'm rewatching the spinoff right now." she smirks "besides, you were the one who forced me to go to that dog farm thing, where you got bitten-"
"okay i've said this a thousand times before, i didn't force you to come. i would've gone anyway, but you came at your own will."
nini rolls her eyes "to make sure you wouldn't do something bad."
ricky takes the next photo and shakes his head "i hated this day."
"it was halloween!" nini exclaims with her eyes sparkling in excitement "you love halloween!"
"not this one." he says as nini laughs
flashback
"no. no way. no." ricky says shaking his head
"please ricky! please? pretty please!!" nini whines as she tugs at his arm
"nini, when i agreed for you to pick the costumes for the both of us this year, i wasn't thinking that you would pick the worst ones of all time!"
nini sighs "ricky, high school musical is an iconic movie! it's one of my favorites! plus, it works because we're dating and we're going to be troy and gabriella!"
"nini, i'm not wearing a justin bieber wig!" ricky groans
nini folds her arms and pouts
"neens." he sighs
the girl turns around and sits on her bed, ignoring her boyfriend
"nini."
she continues to ignore him and the boy looks back at the costumes, sighing loudly
"okay. fine. we can be freaky math girl and freaky callback boy."
nini squeals and jumps up from the bed, running into his arms
"thank you!" she exclaims
ricky takes a deep breath "boyfriend of the year over here."
nini giggles and nods while giving him his costume before kissing him
end of flashback
"we won the costume contest at school that year." nini says with a proud smile
"still hated every bit of that costume." he says
nini giggles and nods before putting everything back in
"anyway-i-i hope you do know that-"
"i do." he smiles "thanks for showing them to me."
nini puts the box away and when she stands up, she sees ricky smiling at his phone
"what is it?" she asks
"oh. it's just gina being gina." he laughs softly
nini forces a laugh and nods uncomfortably
"i have to go though, my dad needs me home." he says
she nods and leads him downstairs to her front door
"thanks for what you did. you didn't have to."
ricky nods "i wanted to."
she smiles softly at him and watches him walk away before closing her door and letting out a deep breath