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Brandon had been trying to focus on his battle history textbook for the last hour with no real success. He had an exam coming up and was dreading the long essay he would have to write on the 20 years war between the matriarchs’ council and the liberated men party on Lynphea. He wasn’t like Timmy, who pretty much had a photographic memory, or worse like Sky, who had an unholy interest in history and obscure conflicts that no one in their right mind cared about anymore. A quick glance at his watch informed him that he had at least another hour to go before he could allow himself a break and hit the gym like he had planned. He let out a small sigh and picked up his book again when he heard a loud bang, followed by an angry scream and a lot of cursing. Too happy to have an excuse to abandon his revisions, he promptly left his desk and opened his bedroom door, just as a shouting joust began and he recognised the voices.
“Why don’t you fucking knock next time.” Riven snapped at Stella. He was standing in front of the front door holding his nose, which looked suspiciously swollen behind his fingers.
“Oh I am not in the mood for your stupid comments!” She spat back and tried to walk passed him but he blocked her path.
“The least you could do is apologise you rude little brat.”
“HA. That is rich coming from you, you big egotistical sociopath!”
Before Riven; who was now openly growling; and his girlfriend could rip into each other any further, Brandon quickly covered the distance separating him from the front door of their dorm. Ignoring his squad mate, he firmly grabbed the blonde’s arm and pulled her towards his room. Once inside, he released her gently and closed the door behind them.
“How you can even tolerate his presence sometimes is beyond me!” Stella said exasperated.
“Hello to you too.” The brunet replied with a smirk, crossing his arms over his chest. “I wasn’t expecting to see you for a few more hours?”
“Oh Brandon, I have had the absolute worst day. Everyone is against me today!” She threw her arms in the air dramatically and started pacing the room.
“Right.”
He turned towards his desk, opened the top drawer and started ruffling through the mess.
“It all started when I informed Musa that she really needed to change out of those trousers she was wearing because my god not only are they anti-fashion but they are simply not flattering. Anyway. Can you believe she started yelling at me? For trying to help her?! Then she stormed off somewhere with Layla and I bet you the two of them have just been bitching about me all day-“
“Uhuh” Why was it that he could find anything in this drawer but what he was looking for. He abruptly closed it and started to rummage through the second one while continuing to listen to Stella. Or at least the main parts of her story.
“- then I tried to tell Tecna about it and she basically told me to sod off, because apparently revising for a tecnomagic exam is more important than talking to your friends! Obviously Flora was nowhere to be seen because she was probably in the greenhouse talking to her plants and Bloom had the audacity to shut me down to start telling me about her own problems which-“
“Ahah!” Brandon exclaimed triumphantly. He had found it. He turned around to face the Solarian Princess who looked royally pissed.
“Have you even been listening to anything I’ve just said?!” She asked almost hysterically, her right eye twitching dangerously.
“Yes I have.” He grinned, throwing an orange anti stress ball straight at her chest, which she caught clumsily. “You were telling me about Bloom talking about her own problems instead of listening to yours.”
“I know! The audacity right?!” She started pacing again, this time repeatedly crushing the squishy ball mercilessly in her hand.
The brunet straddled his desk chair so that he could rest his chin and arms on the back of it while he watched his girlfriend get her anger out of her system. It wasn’t the first time she had burst into their dorm in a foul mood and he had developed strategies to appease her faster and efficiently. She carried on ranting for a few more minutes, explaining how she had decided to go to the mall, and the bus driver had been rude, the smoothie she had ordered was too sweet, her favourite shop was too crowded, etc…
“And then, I stepped out of the fitting rooms with this amazing dress on, just to see that the girl in the one next to me was also trying it on. She looked at me and turned to the store assistant and asked her who suited it the best and do you know what she said?!” She had venom in her voice.
“No?”
“She said the other girl wore it better because she had bigger boobs than me!”
“Ah.”
Stella finally stopped pacing and just stood in front of her boyfriend looking completely deflated. So that’s what all of it was about. Or at least one of the real reasons for her mood. Brandon knew how touchy Stella could be about her appearance despite how much she would shout and brag to anyone willing to listen how fabulous she was. He could never fully understand her insecurity because as far as he was concerned, she was the most beautiful girl in existence, period. Makeup, no makeup, party gown or potato sack, no one could outshine the princess in his eyes. So it always broke his heart when he saw her struggling with her image, particularly because of a tactless comment that didn’t even mean anything was wrong with her.
He got up from his chair and reached out for her hand. “Come here”
She took his hand and he pulled her into a tight embrace, her face nuzzling into his neck, one hand against the small of her back and the other stroking her soft hair tenderly. She dropped the ball on the floor and wrapped her slender arms around his torso. As she started to sob quietly, he whispered in her ear about how much he loved her, how beautiful and incredible she was, how he’d never seen her wear anything that didn’t look amazing on her, how her body was perfect and he wouldn’t dream of changing anything about it.
“Plus if your boobs were any bigger then they wouldn’t fit so perfectly into my hands like they have been made for me to hold them you know?”
She snorted against his collarbone and let out a reluctant giggle.
“You are perfect okay? Please don’t let a silly comment ruin your day because the opinion of a random salesperson really does not matter. And it would be boring if everyone had the same taste now wouldn’t it?”
“I guess.” She admitted reluctantly but he felt her smile against him.
He pulled away from her just enough to be able to grab her chin and angle her face towards him. She let him do it but avoided his eyes. He knew she would feel self conscious about her runny mascara and smudge contouring. But he wanted her to see how beautiful she was in his eyes.
Cupping her face gently, he wiped the remaining wetness from her cheeks and gave her a loving kiss. Finally, she met his gaze and offered him a small smile.
“Thank you, I love you Shnookums.” She said between sniffs.
He nodded then enquired “Was there something else?”
She looked away again and shrugged, which suggested that there was something else on her mind, but that she did not want to talk about it just yet.
“What were you doing?” She asked, eyeing the open textbook on the desk in front of her.
“Er just trying to revise for my exam on Monday.”
“Oh. Did I interrupt?”
“Well yeah you did,” he laughed, “but to be completely honest I wasn’t getting anywhere with it anyway.”
He detached himself from her in order to grab the box of tissue and the emergency makeup bag that lived on his bedside table.
“So what were you going to do before seeing me?”
“Um, I was just going to study, workout and shower before coming to get you.” She was now sitting on his bed so he passed the two items along and sat next to her.
“Then you should go to the gym!”
“Babe, I’m not leaving you when you’re upset.”
She blew her nose as gracefully as she could before retorting, “But I’m not upset anymore! And I know that you always feel amazing after you workout, so go please. I’ll just chill in your room and order some food for when you’re done.”
He did really want to go to the gym but he was still uncertain about how she was feeling. “Are you sure Stell?”
“Yes. Come on, you know how much I love how pumped up your arms get when you lift weights, that’ll cheer me up pronto!” She encouraged him with a sly grin and made him chuckle.
“Then I’ll be sure to oblige.” He grinned back, kissing her on the temple before putting some fresh clothes in his gym back. He was already in a vest and tracksuit bottoms, so he would just need to change after his shower. “I won’t go crazy though, so that I’m not gone too long.”
“Sure.” She smiled, holding a wipe and a pocket mirror to her face to start correcting her makeup.
The gym was never too crowded on late Saturday afternoons, and Brandon preferred it that way. As much as he loved people, working out was a way of releasing tension or push yourself hard, and if he had to share that moment he only liked to do it with Sky or Riven. He usually worked on whatever he felt like at the weekends, depending on how sore his muscles were after his week’s routine. No muscle group was particularly stiff, so he decided to touch a bit of everything. Deadlifts, squats, bench press, pull ups, bicep curls, shoulder press. He did not go anywhere near his heaviest lifts, but it was just good to move his body like that. He finished it off with 20 minutes on the rowing machine, just to properly break out a sweat.
He made his way to the shower blocks, picked an empty cubicle and washed as quickly as he could. It was the evening now, and he felt guilty for leaving his girlfriend on her own for so long.
When he finally got back to his dorm he was not surprised to find a large bag of food on the common room table, a note reading ‘food for everyone!’ attached to it. That was; no doubt about it; her way of subtlety apologising to Riven for earlier. That and he knew she liked spending money on her friends at any occasion she got. He peeked inside and saw that it contained various assortments of sushi. Grabbing a couple of containers, he stepped towards his room where he could hear a couple of voices joking around.
Stella was sprawled out on his bed, sushi in hand, animatedly telling a story about some royal court drama. On the opposite side of the room Sky was sitting on his own bed, his mouth full, trying not to spit out his food while laughing wholeheartedly. He knew they had their differences sometimes but it always warmed Brandon’s heart when the two people he loved the most got along so well.
“Brandon!” The princess shouted with delight. She beckoned for him to join her on the bed so he did.
“What were you two gossiping about then?”
“The latest royal decree on Oppositus.” Sky replied with watery eyes following a painful swallow.
“Do I really want to know?” The brunet asked, making a start on his own dinner.
“Yes!” Stella was casually feeling up her boyfriend’s arm, enjoying the feeling of the still pumped muscles underneath her fingers.
“It’s positively hilarious.” His best friend conceded.
The trio carried on chatting and eating for the best part of the next hour before Sky excused himself to the living room in order to give them some privacy.
The couple exchanged a knowing look before Stella climbed into Brandon’s lap and started kissing him passionately. He let his hands roam freely over her bare legs while she draped her arms around his neck, one hand playing with his hair. He could feel his arousal start immediately, like it always did with her, and he pulled her in a little closer. She ran her fingernails along his scalp, sending shivers down his spine, so he broke the kiss and started sucking methodically under her jaw. He could feel her only clutching his top loosely but he carried on until she let out a long irritated sigh.
Confused, Brandon pulled away from her and shot her a questioning look. “Something wrong?”
“Aarrgh, I can’t focus!” She replied, clearly annoyed by the whole ordeal.
“Okay”
“But I want you!”
He wanted her too, but there was no joy in having sex with someone who was thinking about something else.
With a smile, he gave her a chaste kiss then set her next to him, her legs still flung over his own. “Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind?”
She exhaled sharply and looked away, but that wasn’t enough to deter him. “You can tell me anything, anytime, you know that. If you’re not willing to then that’s okay, but if it’s important enough to get in the way of a very good make out session I believe you are gonna have to find a way to get it out of your system somehow.”
She met his gaze with uncertainty and he squeezed her thigh affectionately.
“It’s just- it’s so stupid.”
“No matter what you are feeling it is valid babe. No emotion is stupid, or clever, or justified over another. Emotions don’t need to meet any standard to be deemed acceptable, they just need to be felt and dealt with.”
She inhaled deeply before attempting to speak again. “I just feel like- sometimes I’m not sure how I fit in with the rest of the girls you know…”
“What do you mean?”
“Well I always seem to say the wrong thing, or rub them the wrong way, or piss them off somehow! What if they just tolerate me because- I don’t know. Because I’m their dorm mate or something?”
He looked away for a second, trying to prevent the pang he felt in his chest from reaching his eyes. He did not want to look at her with pity and she would not appreciate it either. He truly hated it when she doubted herself so deeply. Meeting her gaze again, he grabbed both her hands and his.
“The girls love you and you are an integral part of the group. I know that because I see the way they smile when you say something funny, how they look to you when they need unconventional advice, how they hurt when you hurt.”
“Hmm”
“You guys live together 24/7, do you really expect to never get on each other’s nerves? Gods I know we argue all the time here and we don’t have to deal with periods at the same time!”
She let out a short giggle.
“Musa was probably already annoyed at something else and that’s why she blew up at you when you made an unwanted comment about her outfit. All it takes is for one or more of you to be on edge and all diplomacy goes out the window. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you or don’t want you around. You all have your selfish moments and that’s okay too. It just means that you can’t all get along all the time.”
She shuffled closer to him and buried her face in his chest. “Thank you.”
“Anytime Princess.” He said while kissing the top of her head.
She looked up at him, her eyes shining brightly. “You are the most amazing boyfriend and I don’t know what I did to deserve you.”
He felt his throat tighten with emotion and just rested his forehead against hers. Truth be told, he still couldn’t believe that they were together after everything that had happened between them. After the lies and the identity switch and all the drama that ensued. She had forgiven him and given him a second chance a while ago now, but not a single day went by that he didn’t feel blessed to have her in his life.
“Are you sleeping here tonight?” He asked softly. They occasionally stayed over, and he knew that Sky wouldn’t mind. All they had to do was make sure the teachers didn’t catch them.
She turned him down with a guilty smile. “I would, but I feel like I really need to get back and speak to the girls. Would you mind driving me back?”
“Of course not.”
They continued to cuddle for another few minutes before getting up and gathering Stella’s stuff. When they came into the common room, Sky and Riven were silently watching tv together, the latter with a large portion of sushi in front of him.
“Goodnight Sky, bye Riven!” The blonde greeted jovially, which the prince reciprocated.
Without looking at her, Riven let out a simple “Night” and Brandon knew that the two were on friendly terms again. He exchanged a knowing smile with Stella then took her down to the garages to get his wind rider and take her back to Alfea.
They were now kissing goodbye in front of the gates of the fairy castle.
“You know, I think you should sneak in a couple of hours before curfew tomorrow night.” She said against his lips.
“Oh yeah, why is that?” He replied, smiling against hers.
“We really ought to make sure my boobs still fit so perfectly in your hands...”
He let out a deep chuckle and squeezed her body to his tightly, drawing an adorable squeal out of her.
“We certainly do.”