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There was a boy in Cath's room.
She was very used to there being a boy in her room by this point, though she wasn't sure she'd ever quite get used to the boy himself. Levi. All gangly legs and eyes that sparkled when he smiled and floppy blonde hair (Levi himself always argued that it was auburn, actually, but Cath was having none of it- the boy was blonde.)
He gave her one of those dazzling, eye-sparkling smiles, with a hint of mischief behind them that told Cath that he was almost certainly plotting something. The couple had finished moving all their things into their own place together only the day before. That night had been their first night in their new home- an actual house, not an apartment- and Cath had been so exhausted from unpacking and setting everything up that she'd fallen straight into bed when they were done and slept until almost 11 a.m.
She was still in bed when Levi wandered in, a Starbucks coffee in each hand and that smile on his face. Her dad and Wren would be coming for dinner later, Cath remembered, thinking that she really should get up- and then she didn't.
They had both offered to help with the move, of course, but Levi swept away their offers sweetly, insisting that he was able to transport everything in his truck, and they didn't own anything particularly heavy anyways. Nothing that couldn't be handled between himself and Cath.
"She's stronger than she looks, y'know," he'd faux-whispered conspiratorially to Wren, that smile of his damn near taking up his entire face. "Could totally lift me up and throw me if the mood struck her."
"I don't think I wanna know!" Wren responded brightly, grinning too. Cath loved the way her family interacted with Levi, though she pretended she was weirded out by it.
"Alright, Levi, put the honey away before you send us all into a sugar coma," she teased, wrapping one arm around her boyfriend's waist. He'd simply beamed down at her in response.
Now, he stood in front of her with a similar smile on his face, but this one certainly meant he was plotting. "Cather!" He beamed when she rolled her eyes at the use of her full first name.
"Why isn't Levi short for anything?" she complained in response- their usual routine when he used the name.
"Same reason you and your sister have half of the same name," he shot back without hesitation.
"Our parents are unoriginal," Cath finished solemnly, humming as Levi sat beside her on the bed and handed her a coffee.
"Okay, hear me out for this one," he insisted before she'd taken a sip, "white chocolate pumpkin spice mocha. It's incredible."
Cath paused to think about the combination for a second before deciding to just go with it and taking a sip of the hot drink. "Wait, how do you do this? Are you some kind of Starbucks wizard?" she asked incredulously.
"I guess you could call me that."
Cath rolled her eyes, shifting to curl herself against Levi's side. "All right, out with it- what'd you do?"
Levi gasped dramatically. "You wound me, Cather Avery." He was still smiling. Very little could stop Levi from smiling- it was one of the things Cath loved about him.
"Out with it, fiend," Cath giggled, playfully swatting him with her hand.
"Okay, okay! I may have gotten us a little... or, uh, not so little... housewarming gift." Levi revealed.
"Oh? Levi, you didn't have to, I..."
"I wanted to! I really wanted to. And I think you'll love it."
"Where is it?" Cath asked then, sitting up a little straighter to take a sip of her coffee and once again mentally grumbling about how it had absolutely no business tasting as good as it did.
"It's... on the front porch," Levi admitted- another thing Cath couldn't quite believe- they had a porch. "I still have a couple bits left to set up, so why don't you finish your coffee, take a shower and get dressed, then I can show you?"
Cath nodded, smiling softly. Levi leaned over, carding one hand through her sleep-messed hair and pressing a feather-light kiss to the corner of her mouth. "I'll see you out there," she promised, giving him a small wave as he headed off to put the finishing touches on whatever this surprise was.
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Freshly showered and dressed- having thrown on an old Simon Snow hoodie and a pair of blue jeans, knowing Wren and her dad wouldn't mind- Cath headed downstairs. Levi was stood by the door, bouncing on his heels like an excited puppy.
"Hey! Cath, you're gonna love this, I swear." He insisted, that grin back and wider than ever- Cath had clearly been wrong when she'd thought it couldn't get any bigger back in their room. "C'mere, we gotta do this surprise properly." He moved to behind her, his large hands coming up to gently cover her eyes, before slowly and carefully guiding her out of the door of their new home and onto the front porch.
When he moved his hands away, Cath saw a porch swing, perfectly set up outside their house. She'd always wanted one... it sounded silly, but her dream was to curl up on a porch swing and read, or sit with a notebook and scribble down story ideas... and Levi had just made that dream come through.
She had tears in her eyes when she turned to look at her boyfriend. "Oh, Levi..." she whispered, overcome by emotion at this clearly thoughtful gesture.
"Do you like it? If you don't like it I can take it back, I just remember you telling me once how much you wanted-" Levi was cut off by Cath throwing herself into his arms.
"It's perfect. I love it so much."
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Cath's dad's car had pulled into the driveway that evening to find Cath curled up on the new porch swing, book in one hand and a thermos of hot chocolate in the other. She glanced up and smiled brightly at her family as they got out of the car, setting aside the book and the thermos and getting up to greet them.
"Hi! Welcome!" She beamed, hugging them both. "Levi's inside, getting dinner ready- I promise he's a far better cook than you'd think."
Wren laughed, taking in the environment- Cath seemed to be absolutely in her element here, especially with the porch swing setup, because of course she remembered the late-night conversations with her twin over that exact thing. "This place is gorgeous," she told her sister happily. The pride was obvious in her words.
The night seemed to pass by as quickly as it started, and before long it was time for Wren and the girl's dad to head home. They left the couple with long hugs and more compliments about how beautiful the house was and how well they'd done, to which Cath blushed and tried to brush them away while Levi simply grinned proudly.
Once they'd left, Levi took Cath back out to the porch swing, which was now illuminated by a lamp he'd set up so that they would be able to sit there even as darkness approached as it was now. They sat together, curled up in each other's arms, while Cath scribbled something in her notebook.
"Can you read something to me?" Levi asked softly after a moment of comfortable silence between them, his voice almost a whisper.
"Sure, let me find something," Cath whispered back, flicking through her notebook- Levi loved her reading to him, but he truly liked it best if it was something she'd written. "Okay, here..."
"What's this?" he asked before she started reading.
"It's about growing up, and not wanting to leave behind things that gave you comfort as a kid," Cath explained, before starting to read. She read a couple of pages to him before she felt her eyes grow heavy and close of their own accord, and she ended up drifting off to sleep in Levi's arms.
The last thing she was fully aware of before succumbing to sleep was strong arms lifting her up to cradle her close. She just barely registered the feeling of being carried inside, then soft lips on her forehead, then nothing else.