Scream Me a Dream

“Soya!” Ville called as he locked the door to the flat behind him, taking off his coat and laying it on the couch.

“In the bedroom!” Soya called back.

Ville walked over to the bedroom, watching as Soya hung up her new clothes looking over her shoulder at him. “Hey.”

“Have fun today?” she asked.

“I wasn’t lonely.” Ville said, giving her a small smile.

Soya frowned at him, hanging up the dress she had in her hand before walking over to him. “You sounded amused over the phone.”

“I still am.”

“No, you sound upset.” Soya said, frowning over him as she smoothed her fingers over his forehead over the frown lines. “What has you upset?”

“Nothing.” Ville said shaking his head. “I’m just…nothing. Are we making dinner or ordering?” Ville asked turning and leaving the room.

Soya sighed following him into the kitchen as he pulled out a water bottle. “I’ve already ordered some Chinese. Seriously, what’s wrong?”

“Linde decided to lecture me today and I’m annoyed by it, that’s all.”

“Lecture you? About what?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched Ville lean against the counter.

“Our relationship.”

Soya blinked. “Your relationship with him or your relationship with me?”

Ville looked at her before answering. “My relationship with you.”

“Why would he talk to you about our relationship?”

Ville stared at her, before sighing. “What’s your stance on marriage?”

Soya shook her head as she tried to wrap her mind around the jump in subject. “My stance on marriage?”

Ville nodded. “Are you for it, against it?”

Soya shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t?”

“Do you?” Soya asked with wide eyes. “Ville, the fact that I’m twenty eight and in a relationship that I got to choose is something that I never thought would happen; the fact that I’m in a relationship with you is something that constantly amazes me.”

“That you got to choose?” Ville asked.

“Had Josef and I not kept up our charade, my parents probably would have married me off to one of the eligible men they were always trying to set me up with. The point is, I’m here with you in a relationship I got to choose and I never thought that that would happen. Seriously, Ville, there was a point in my life where I thought I would have to marry Josef and stay a virgin forever, just so I wouldn’t have to marry a son of some diplomat that my parents thought were a good connection.”

“So that’s a ‘no’ on marriage.” Ville asked.

Soya walked closer, leaning against the counter across from him as she thought about it. “It’s not a ‘no’.” she said carefully. “Last week, we both agreed that we saw ourselves with the other in the future right.”

“Right.” Ville agreed.

“I…” Soya bit her lip. “I figure, that if I see myself with you, five, ten years down the line, then I’m in this for the long haul, so yes, marriage would be included.”

“Oh.” Ville said, frowning at the cap of his water bottle.

“That did not sound like a good ‘oh’.” Soya laughed.

“No, it wasn’t that.” Ville said quick to backpedal.

“Ville, I don’t expect you down on one knee right this moment, it’s just that if marriage is what we ultimately decide that we want, then yes, I’d like to get married.”

“And if it’s something that never gets brought up again? If this is the last conversation we have about marriage? You’d be happy about it?”

Soya raised an eyebrow, “Are you telling me you don’t want to get married?”

Ville sighed, as he heard a knock on the door. “Food?”

Soya nodded. “I’ll pay, you gather plates, and this conversation isn’t over.”

“Soya.” Ville groaned.

“Hey, you brought it up, mister and it’s obviously something that’s been bothering you, so we’re talking about it.” She said, pointing a finger at him before leaving the kitchen.

Ville sighed, regretting bringing the topic up as he set his water down and grabbed two plates while he heard Soya’s soft voice talking to the delivery person. Grabbing silverware and a water for himself and Soya, he went out to the living room, setting everything on the table as Soya tipped the delivery boy before turning with the bags in her hands.

“So, you’re the ‘no’ on marriage?” she asked as she set the bags on the table.

“I’m not a ‘no’.” Ville said carefully. So far, the conversation, while awkward, was going well, but he knew one wrong word from his mouth and he’d be sleeping in his tower alone for the next week. They sat on the floor, passing the cartons to each other, filling their plates. “You know how you told me last week when I asked you where you saw yourself in ten years, that you didn’t know.”

Soya nodded slowly, untwisting the cap of her water. “Because I didn’t.”

“But then that morning you told me you saw yourself with me.” Ville said slowly.

“I did.”

“What changed? I mean, I know you said that you couldn’t see yourself waking up any other way, but really, what changed?”

Soya chuckled softly, picking at her food. “It was like, watching you hammer this VHS to pieces, and be so proud of yourself afterward; that fog I’d been talking about that night, it just lifted.” She smiled at him. “Is it horrible to say it was like a moment of clarity for me?”

“How, though?”

Soya shrugged. “What is it that makes you see yourself with me ten years from now?”

Ville shook his head. “That’s easy Soya, there’s no one I would rather wake up next to, or come home to other than you. I can’t…imagine it and I don’t want to.”

“But marriage you can’t imagine?”

Ville sighed. “It’s not that I can’t, I’ve thought about it.” He admitted, looking at her. “Sometimes I’m excited about it, other times it scares me to death. I just…there hasn’t been the moment of clarity for me like you’ve had. I can see myself with you, I have no doubt about that, I just don’t know if I want to get married.”

“Ville, we’ve only been together three months, I can tell you that while I want to eventually get married, if you were to ask me now, I have no idea what my response would be.”

Ville laughed, “It would be ‘yes’.”

Soya raised an eyebrow. “How do you know?”

Ville shrugged. “I just know.”

“Look, I only have one request.” Soya said grinning at him. “If you were to propose, I want a ring.”

Ville chuckled. “A ring?”

“Yes, a ring.” She nodded. “While I haven’t been planning my wedding since I was five, I do want a ring, for purely girly reasons.” She looked over at him, to see him staring at her amused. “What?!”

“Nothing.” Ville chuckled, looking back down at his food.

“It’s not a crazy request.” Soya muttered. “I like rings.”

Ville nodded. “Don’t worry, I’ll get a ring.”

“All right, then.” Soya said picking at her food.

“So would you want a small or large wedding?”

“Small.” Soya said absently. “Hate the attention; just close friends.”

Ville snorted. “Yes, Soya, you haven’t been planning this since you were five.”

Soya looked up at him, before shaking her head. “Jerk. So, why did Linde lecture you?”

Ville felt the annoyance creep back in. “I told you I’ve have been thinking about…this.”

“Yes.” Soya laughed.

Ville shrugged. “And I happen to like looking at rings sometimes.”

Soya smiled. “So I didn’t have to tell you I wanted a ring.”

“Soya.” Ville sighed.

“Sorry, go on.” Soya said, trying to hide her smile. “What did Linde have to say about you looking at rings, did you go look at rings today?” Soya bit her lip. “Did you find one?”

Ville shook his head slowly. “I just went into the store, I was just looking; there’s no harm in looking.”

“Other than getting me excited, but go on.” Soya said with a roll of her eyes.

“Linde said that the reason why our relationship is…perfect right now is because we’re both on breaks, and because of that we’re able to act as a ‘normal’ couple.”

Soya nodded slowly. “Sure, I doubt if we were both touring, we’d actually be eating noodles on my coffee table so slowly. We also probably would have had sex by now.”

Ville blinked at her. “What?”

Soya nodded. “Yeah, I totally would have given in by now had we been on tour. Think about it, Ville, remember when we saw each other again back in August.”

“Sure.” He smirked.

“We weren’t even together officially then; imagine what I would have let you do had we not only been together, but only had a day or two to be together.”

“So, why haven’t we had sex then?” Ville asked.

“Because like Linde said, we are a normal couple right now and, unfortunately for you, we have time.” Soya smirked, pinching his cheek. “Linde has a point, Ville. Because we’re both on breaks, it’s easier for us, now, to have this relationship, it helps that we’re in the same city as well. What else did Linde say?”

“His concern over me looking at rings came from the idea that because we’re on breaks, me jumping into marriage may be us moving too fast, especially since we’re in what is considered a ‘normal’ relationship.”

“He worries.” Soya shrugged. “He’s our friend.”

“He questioned the strength of our relationship because we hadn’t gone through the separation of our tours.”

Soya contemplated Ville’s words before giving a slow nod. “I can see his point, but it doesn’t mean I agree with it.” She said after seeing Ville’s look of surprise. “I think our relationship is strong enough to survive the separation, no matter how long it is, I just don’t think we’ve had to think or worry about it because we’re not in that situation yet.”

Soya sighed. “I can see Linde’s point in being worried about you going into jewelry stores and looking at rings, but I can see why you’d be annoyed at Linde for being the one to lecture you about a relationship he’s not a part of and has no say in.”

Ville blinked. “I’m not annoyed at Linde’s worry; I can see he has some valid points.”

“Then, what are you annoyed at?”

“That he was the one that pointed out these flaws in our relationship.”

Soya scoffed. “I hardly consider them flaws, Ville.”

“Then what are they?” Ville asked.

“Things we’ve been avoiding?” Soya said, pushing her nearly empty plate away. “Things we’d rather not deal with until we have to part ways? Whether we like it or not, January is coming up fast, Ville, and really I don’t want to think about me going back to New York and leaving Helsinki; leaving you. I know that at some point we’ll have to talk about it, but now? I’d rather not, if you consider that a flaw in our relationship, then fine.” Soya shrugged. “I figure it’s more avoidance than a flaw.”

Ville watched as she stood up, picking up her plate and going to the kitchen.

“So are we done with this conversation!?” Ville called, causing Soya to come back out, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked at him.

“I don’t know. Have we covered all the bases that got you annoyed with Linde in the first place?”

Ville stared back at her, as he thought back to his conversation with Linde, remembering how Linde had pointed out that he and Soya weren’t the only ones in danger at being hurt if their relationship went sour. Sighing, he shook his head. “Yeah, I think we covered them.” He murmured with a frown, looking back at his plate. It was an issue he’d rather deal with by himself and not have Soya worrying about it and analyzing in that head of hers.

“Ville, are you sure?” Soya asked with a raised eyebrow, coming to kneel next to him. “I can still see you thinking.”

Ville chuckled. “I’m sure, Soya.”

Soya sighed. “I think we should go out tonight.”

“Why?” Ville asked, surprised that she’d be the one to request they go out; usually he was the one having to convince her.

“Because if we stay here, you’re going to sit on this couch and think about this conversation all night.”

Ville nodded. “Probably. What did you want to do?”

“Toni and Vedrana invited us out tonight.”

“Linde did too.” Ville said with a nod. “Did you want to go out with them?”

Soya bit her lip and gave a nod. “I sort of did.”

Ville smirked at her. “You just want to put on one of those dresses you got the other day with Rosalind.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not at all.” Ville laughed. “I’ll give Mige a call to see where they’ll go and we’ll meet with them.”

“I’ll go get ready.” Soya said getting up and going to her room as Ville got out his phone.

“We’re going to Helsinki Club.” Mige answered.

“How did you-“

“Vedrana said that Soya sounded really excited about coming out tonight, and she has you wrapped around her finger; we knew you’d end up joining us. Helsinki Club at ten.”

“We’ll be there.” Ville chuckled, hanging up his phone, tilting his head back when he heard the shower start running. Though tempted to join her, he turned back to his phone and dialed his mother.

“Hello, Ville.” His mother answered, causing a smile to appear on his lips.

“Hi, mama.”

“How are you doing, son?”

“I’m fine.” Ville chuckled. “I was actually wondering if you’d be willing to do me and Soya a favor.”

“What type of favor?”

“Soya and I were thinking of going out of town at the end of the week, but we can’t just pull Aida out of school to have her follow us. We were wondering if you’d be willing to take care of her for a week.”

“Of course I would!” Anita said excitedly. “I’d love to have that little girl for a week.”

Ville chuckled. “I told Soya you would say yes.”

“Where are you and Soya headed?”

“Berlin for Halloween with Jyrki and Rosalind then Spain the rest of the week.”

“I think that’s a wonderful idea.” Anita said.

“Really?”

“Get some alone time with Soya, take a bit of a vacation.”

Ville laughed. “Not sure how much alone time I’ll get with her with Rosalind around.”

“True, but then again, if you’re in Spain, that means Rosalind’s working or with her daughter. That should give you and Soya a bit of time.”

Ville chuckled. “Good point.”

“Now, you call me later and let me know when you plan on dropping that little girl off.”

“I will. Talk to you later, mama.” Ville said, hearing his mother’s goodbye before hanging up. He left the phone on the table before closing the take-out boxes and putting them back in the bag, transferring them from the table to the refrigerator. He went back to Soya’s room, opening the bathroom door, allowing the steam to billow out before he leaned against the door jamb.

“Ville?”

“Who else would come into the bathroom?” he teased.

“Since all of our friends have keys and no qualms in entering without knocking, the list is endless.” Soya said, as she turned off the water and opened the door slightly, her hand sticking out. “Towel?”

Ville walked to the rod grabbing her towel before handing it to her. “What’s the point in being modest if we’ve already showered together?”

“Other than coming in to tease me...” Soya said the shower door closing as he watched her outline in the shower door as she dried off. “Did you need something?”

“We’re meeting the group at Helsinki Club at ten. Do you want to take a cab or drive?”

“Probably a cab; there’s no telling how parking will be.” Soya said, opening the door and coming out wrapped in the towel, her hair clipped at the top of her head.

“I also talked to my mum,” Ville said leaning against the counter as she rummaged around her cabinets. “She said she was fine with taking care of Aida for a week, so if you still want to go to Berlin…” Ville trailed off.

“Are you sure she’s fine with it?” Soya asked, Ville watching as she placed a bottle of lotion on the counter.

“She’s perfectly fine with it, excited even. I’m positive that she’s already fixing up a room for her.”

Soya sighed, leaning her hip against the counter. “I have yet to talk to Aida about this, Ville.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want her to feel like we’re…” Soya trailed off, biting her lip and looking at the ground.

“I doubt your little sister is going to feel like we abandoned her, Soya.” Ville said, reading her thoughts. “Especially if we explain to her that we’re going to be back.”

“I don’t want her to feel like she can easily be shipped off from one home to the other just because I want to go do something.”

“You’re not your mother Soya.” Ville assured her, tilting her chin up. “And Aida knows that. If she doesn’t, then what better way to prove that than to leave and to actually come back?”

“Or not leave at all.”

“Soya.” Ville sighed.

“We’ll talk to her.” Soya said. “Tomorrow when she gets back from school, we’ll sit down and talk to her; one sign that she’s not okay with it and we’re not going anywhere.”

Ville stared at her and knew there was no talking her out of it, she was set in her decision and knew that it was because Soya wanted the best for her little sister, especially when it came to loving her. “Fine; one sign.” Ville narrowed his gaze on her. “But we both have to see it.”

“Fine.” Soya nodded she poured lotion on her hands, running her hands up and down her arms as she turned to the mirror. “I talked to Isolde today.”

Ville blinked, taking his eyes off her hand movements to look up at her. “Isolde?”

“Josef’s friend.” Soya said, turning slightly to look at him. At his confused stare, she shook her head with a laugh. “We talked about her on our date; she wanted to take pictures of us…talk to us about our relationship.”

“Right, right, I thought we said we weren’t going to talk to her though.”

“But you agreed to the pictures.” Soya pointed out.

“I did, on the condition that she comes back here.”

“Which she is, on Thursday.” Soya pointed out, running the rest of the lotion on the back of her neck. “So, are you busy?”

Ville shook his head. “Not that I know of. Did you talk to her about doing the interview?”

“Briefly.” Soya nodded, moving away from the counter to set her foot on the top of the toilet, pouring lotion into her hand again and rubbing it on her leg. “I told her that we still hadn’t agreed to do it, but she said that she at least wanted to talk to us, even if she didn’t publish what we talked about. So really, it’s up to you.”

Ville blinked, looking away from her hands and up at her face. “What’s up to me?”

“The interview, Ville, the interview is up to you.” Soya set her foot down to frown at him. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Why is it up to me?” Ville asked, shaking his head to clear it. Sometimes the fact that Soya had no idea what she did to him got him even more ramped up than when she knew exactly what she was doing.

“Because I don’t care either way.” Soya said with a shrug, lifting the other leg.

“Can we finish the conversation, before you do that?” Ville asked, stopping her as she lifted the bottle.

“Okay.” Soya said slowly, dropping her leg and placing the bottle back on the tank.

“So, you don’t care?”

Soya shrugged. “Not really. I mean, our relationship is already out, we’ve already confirmed it, at least if we did the interview we’d be the ones talking about it and not ‘close sources’”

“True.” Ville said with a slight nod.

“But if you still don’t want to talk about it, then I understand and respect that and I won’t talk about it either.” Soya shrugged. “Really all up to you, love. Can I continue now?”

“Sure.” Ville muttered, leaning against the counter again, looking back at Soya as she lifted her leg again and started rubbing her hands over her leg. “Do I have to decide now?”

“No.” Soya said, her hands moving up her thighs, before setting her foot down again and moving to put the cap back on the lotion. “You can-oh…” Soya looked up nearly running into Ville.

“You really have no idea what you do, do you?”

“Do?” Soya asked.

Ville smirked. “I really do love how innocent you are, Soya.” He whispered, before leaning down to kiss her. Soya dropped the bottle of lotion, wrapping her arms around his neck as she kissed him back, his hands spanning her waist, lifting her up and leaning her up against the wall.

Soya groaned as she wrapped her legs around his waist, tightening her hold on him. Ville smirked against her lips, skimming his lips down her cheek, nipping her neck lightly before sucking lightly on the skin where her neck met her shoulder.

“Ville.” Soya moaned, tilting her head to give him more room.

“Hm?”

“You better not be leaving a mark.” She muttered, as Ville let go and returned to her lips.

“Of course not.” He whispered back, his hand moving down to her thigh under the towel, spanning the inside of her thigh. He felt Soya move her hips, causing him to smirk as his fingers came ever so close to where she wanted them. He felt her whisper his name against his neck, causing him to chuckle and do what was probably the hardest thing he had to do. Move away.

He dropped her back onto the floor slowly, before moving away and starting out of the bathroom. “Consider us even Soya.”

Soya blinked, at his retreating back before blowing out a breath and sagging back against the wall. “Rotten bastard.” She muttered.