Chapter Text
Dani checks the time on his phone for the fifth time in the last minute. He’s not as nervous as he was on Saturday with the list in his pocket, or yesterday when Amira touched his hand, but that doesn’t mean he’s not scared about his heart being about to get out of his chest right now. He knows he can’t wait much longer or he’ll be late so he finally decides to get out of his room.
Cris is on the sofa, she’s been there since they had lunch. Dani is not stupid, he knows that his sister is not okay. Something is going on with Joana and their relationship, but he also knows that Cris only tells stuff when she’s ready to do so and that if you pressure her, in the end you won’t get anything from her so he decides not to ask her about it, thought he won’t stop looking out for her.
“Are you going to stand there the whole afternoon or are you going somewhere?” It’s not until Cris speaks that Dani realizes that, in fact, he’s been staring at her for a while now, not saying anything.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just…I want to talk to you”
“I can’t now, I’m studying “ Cris says not looking up from the book. She actually has spent more time looking at her phone than studying but she’s trying.
“It has to be now, Cris” her brother insists.
“Dani, we’ll talk later, alright? I have to study”
“Cris, please”
Cris notices something in Dani’s voice that makes her realize that her brother really wants to tell her something important.
“You’re scaring me, what happened? Is it Joana? Did the hospital call? Is she worse? Why haven’t they call me instead?”
Cris is talking so fast that Dani is finding it difficult to understand her, but he does. He watches his sister standing up from the sofa ready to run but he stops her, putting his hands on her shoulders.
“Relax, it’s not Joana, nothing’s happened, nothing bad”
“You asshole! You scared me” Cris goes back to sit on the sofa, calmer this time. When she looks up at her brother who’s still standing in front of her she frowns at his face’s expression. “Dani, what’s wrong? What do you want to tell me? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this serious"
“It’s just…I don’t know where to start.”
“Start from the beginning”
Dani smiles shyly. From the beginning, that’s how his speech through the door to Amira began just a week ago, and the truth is it didn’t go bad at all, so he decides to obey his sister and start with the basics.
“I’m dating someone”
Cris has always been known for having big and expressive eyes but Dani can swear he’s never seen them as wide as they’re now.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Cris sits on her feet to be a little taller so she can almost reach Dani’s eyes since he’s still standing “When you say you’re dating someone, what do you mean exactly? You’re hooking up with someone or…”
“I mean I have a girlfriend”
Dani can’t see himself right now but he’s sure that he’s blushing as if they were at 45 degrees in the room. It’s the first time he’s used the word girlfriend to refer to Amira and he’d be lying if he said he’s feeling a kind of happiness he can’t even explain.
“Girlfriend? You?” Cris can’t help but laughing a bit, this is the last thing she expected from her brother.
“Yes, girlfriend, me, so what?”
“Nothing, fuck, nothing, it’s just that…I’m surprised. You’ve never had a girlfriend before”
“Well, you neither until Joana and now look at you”
“I mean, I know, but my relationship with Joana is super serious”
“So is mine”
“But…how serious?” Cris doesn’t want to look like she doesn’t believe him but she didn’t even know her brother liked a girl and now he has a serious girlfriend.
“The most serious a relationship can be”.
“Fuck, Dani, it’s not like you’re getting married” Cris says laughing at her brother’s seriousness when talking. When he doesn’t say anything Cris looks at him and sees him biting his lip. For a moment Cris panics. “Dani, tell me you’re not going to get married”
“No, shit, Cris, no, I’m not getting married” Dani sees how his sister relaxes but decides to add: “for now”.
Dani was wrong, Cris’ eyes could, in fact, get wider, like they’re right now.
“What the fuck, Dani? How long have you been dating this chick that you’re already thinking about marrying her in the future?”
Dani doesn’t get to answer the question because suddenly someone’s knocking at the door. When Dani doesn’t move to answer the door Cris stands up and goes to the door, stopping to warn her brother that he’s going to answer her question when she gets back.
“Amira? What are you doing here? Were we meeting today?” For a moment Cris panics when she sees her friend at her door thinking that maybe she screwed up again and forgot that they were meeting.
“No, no, don’t worry, we didn’t agree to meet” Amira assures her, hiding her hands behind her back so Cris doesn’t see that she’s shaking.
“Well, don’t stay there, come in” Cris turns around and leads the way to the living room where Dani is. “You’ve come just in time, Dani was telling me about his girlfriend. And hear this, he’s planning on marrying her and all. I can’t believe this”
“Fuck, Cris, I didn’t say I’m going to get married” Dani says quickly, more to calm Amira who looks like she’s about to have a heart attack, than to make Cris understand. “I’ve just said that my relationship with this girl is serious and that, well yeah, in the future I’d like to marry her, if she wants to”
“Do you understand any of this? Because I swear I don’t get it” Cris asks Amira who all she can do is shrug, not knowing what do say. “Well, then, when am I meeting this wonderful girlfriend my brother is in love with?”
“Well, you’ll see…” Dani looks at Amira waiting for her to say something but she looks as lost as he is so he decides to keep talking himself. “The thing is…you already know her”
“Really?” Cris frowns thinking for a second about who her brother might be talking about when suddenly something hits her and she almost jumps in surprise. “Tell me it’s not Eva, please”
“What? No, no, no, no, no. I mean, no. Eva and I, we’re nothing. We never were. What happened at Lucas’ party was a mistake. I thought the girl I liked didn’t like me back and when Eva kissed me I just went along with it but I realized instantly that I was screwing up and stopped her. It didn’t mean anything. I even texted her to tell her that and apologizing. It didn’t mean anything” Now Dani is the one talking too fast and, looking at Amira, he repeats, “anything”.
Amira bites her lip trying not to laugh at Dani’s panic. She’d be lying if she said that what happened with Eva didn’t hurt but, in the end, they weren’t together so she can’t blame Dani.
“Alright, alright, relax. Well, Eva is a very nice girl, just so you know” Cris says defending her friend. “Well then, who is it?”
Both Dani and Amira know they can’t keep running in circles for much longer, it’s the moment to tell the truth. Still, neither of them dare to say anything and all they can do is looking at each other, not realizing that’s a big mistake since, once they lock eyes ,they just can’t look away.
It takes Cris a few seconds to put two and two together and, when she does, all she can do is scream:
“No fucking way! Amira? You’re dating Amira?” Cris, who now has both Amira and Dani’s attention, looks from one to another without stopping, trying to understand what’s going on. “Are you dating my brother? What the fuck? I mean, I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this. I mean yeah, I’ve spent my whole life saying that you guys are goals and that you’re getting married but fuck I didn’t think it would become true. I’m just…what?”
At this point, Cris is more talking to herself than to Amira and Dani, who can only look at her waiting for the end of her monologue.
“What the fuck? I mean, since when? I mean, wait, wait, wait, because now I’m realizing some stuff. That’s why you wanted to leave the party so fast?” She’s asking this question to Amira who tries to answer but Cris doesn’t let her, she keeps on going with her rant. “Because you saw my brother hooking up with Eva and it bothered you. Of course, fuck, now everything makes sense. Oh god and I was an asshole to you and left you alone and you were robbed. Fuck, what a night you had, Ami. And you…” She turns to Dani who’s not sure if he should be concerned or amused by her sister’s reaction, he’s never heard her saying so many words in a row “That’s why you were so annoying with the damn rugby, right? ‘Cris I want to do something good, Cris I want to help’ Fuck you, you wanted to have an excuse to see Amira. Oh my god, but, how did I know realize sooner? Well…since when are you two together?”
Dani and Amira look at each other, not knowing if they should answer or not.
“Well, are you going to say something or…?”
“Fuck, sis, you started ranting and it’s not like you let us add anyting” Dani says laughing.
“Well, I just found out that my brother and my best friend want to marry each other, I’m sorry if I let myself be shocked for a while”.
“Oh my god, we’re not getting married. I mean, we are. Or I don’t know. That’s not the thing”. Dani takes a deep breath and looks at Amira, instantly he feels like he can deal with this. “The thing is that Amira and I like each other, and we’re dating, and it’s not a hookup and that’s it. No. We’re serious about each other. Very serious. And well…we want to have your support.”
Now Cris is the one that takes a deep breath. She looks at her brother, then at Amira and then back at her brother.
“Do you even know what you’re getting yourselves into?
“That’s what I asked your brother before we started dating” Amira says for the first time since they entered the living room. “And the truth is we probably don’t know what we’re really getting into but…” Amira looks at Dani and what she feels in that instant is enough to make her finish the sentence. “we’re willing to try”
“We’ve talked about this, we know what we want and we need. And we know that together we can handle anything” Dani adds, repeating what it seems like it’s his favorite sentence.
“But we want you to support us Cris, because you’re one of the most important person in our lives.” Amira takes a step forward and takes Cris’ hand. “Please tell us what you think”.
“Are you happy?” Cris asks Amira who nods with a smile. Looking at her brother she repeats the question. “And you?”
“More than ever” Dani affirms.
“Then I don’t have anything else to say. I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t think this is going to be easy. I think that…you’re going to have to work a lot in this relationship. But every relationship needs work and, if you guys love each other, that’s what matters.
Amira can stop herself and hugs Cris as tightly as she can. Cris’ hugs her back and when they pull apart she goes and hugs her brother who kisses her forehead.
“One thing though”, Cris says warningly pointing at them with her finger. “Damira might be real but I’m still Amira’s favorite”
Amira can’t help but laugh and hug her friend again. “Of course, Amiris is the realest thing ever”.
“Hey, hey, hey, what about Crisani?” Dani says trying to look offending, but the truth is that seeing his sister and his girlfriend hugging he feels like his heart is about to explode with happiness.
“Crisani?” Amira scrunches her nose in disgust.
“My god, bro, thank god you’re not in charge of names”
Dani rolls his eyes and messes with Cri’s hair.
“Hey! Stop doing that” Cris fixes her hair and after a few seconds of looking at her brother and Amira she can’t stop herself from saying. “OH MY GOD! My brother and my best friend. We’re sisters in law Ami! Oh my god!”