Scream Me a Dream

Ville followed Soya up the stairs to the studio Isolde had rented out, his hand entangled with Soya’s as she hadn’t let it go since they’d gotten out of the car. Soya pushed open the door to the studio, smiling when a blonde turned to her with a grin.

“Hey!” She said coming over to them, “Glad you made it!”

“Of course,” Soya said with a kind smile. “Isolde, you know Ville.”

“Of course; it’s nice to finally meet you.” Isolde said with her own smile as she shook his free hand.

“Good to meet you too.”

“Thank you for agreeing to do this,” Isolde said, “And I’ve decided to do what I originally wanted to do.” She said, turning to Soya, “I got here, saw the couch and couldn’t help myself, so, Soya, you go change over there,” she said, pointing to a curtained corner to the right “and Ville, I have some wardrobe options for you there.” She said pointing to the left, though she looked him up and down, noting the black jeans he wore. “But keep the jeans and converse.”

“All right.” Ville nodded, letting go of Soya’s hand and watching as she walked over to her corner of the room with Isolde. Moving to his own corner, he tried to focus on the shirts that hung from the rod in front of him but found himself distracted as he kept thinking of the fact that his girlfriend was ready to have sex.

If she were any other woman, he wouldn’t hesitate on having sex with her on his bed on top of his Knight Rider comforter, on his couch, or on his kitchen counter, or his shower wall; all of which he’d imagined christening with Soya since she’d reentered his life. But the fact was Soya was a virgin and though they’d explored their sexual relationship, he wanted to make her first time special, unlike his, which he could barely remember.

Pulling off his black t-shirt, he was about to pull on the crisp white t-shirt that hung from a hanger only for Isolde to stop him.

“No shirt.”

“Huh?” he asked, looking over at her, her head tilted as she stared at him.

“Yes, definitely no shirt.” She said pointing a finger at him. She then turned and adjusted one of her lights before crouching down to open one of the three large black cases that lay on the floor.

“You don’t have any help?” Ville asked, noticing it was only him, Isolde and Soya in the studio.

“For my contracted photo shoots, yes, since I don’t pay for shit, the companies that contract me do, but when it’s something that I want to take pictures of, no. I’d rather just do everything myself, including lugging all of my shit up two flights of stairs. Go sit on the couch.”

Ville did as he was told, taking in the blonde as he sat on the red Victorian couch with the sloped back.

“Soya told me how you guys met.” Isolde said, taking a lens out of one of her black cases and putting it on her camera. “In your father’s store.”

“Ah, she told you the real version then.” Ville said absently, picking up the microphone that sat next to him, seeing that the wire attached to it fell to the ground, into a puddle in front of him.

“There’s another version?” Isolde asked, putting the camera up to her eye and focusing on Ville as he slouched on the couch, before taking a picture, testing her lighting.

“Hmmm, she was underage when she walked into the store, I should have told her to leave, but I couldn’t quite make myself do it. And since her parents would have had a fit if they found out Soya had been in a sex shop and my father would have had a fit when he found out I hadn’t kicked her out, we told our parents we met at a record store.” He shrugged. “Just seemed easier to lie.”

“Does your father know the truth now?” Isolde asked absently, as she looked at her laptop screen that sat on the floor next to her cases.

Ville snorted. “No. He still thinks we met at the record store, but I’m sure he’ll eventually find out how we met.”

Isolde grinned at him. “Not going to tell him, are you?”

“No, I’m not.” Ville chuckled as he looked over at the sectioned off area where Soya was changing, hearing the slight rustling of clothing and just barely making out her shadow.

“It’s a hell of an outfit.” Isolde said causing him to look back over at her. “Lots of pieces, she’s going to be a bit longer. Have you seen Soya dance?”

“On stage once, back in May.” He said shortly, watching Isolde as she stood and moved around the room, adjusting her lamps and the shades to correct her lighting. “Other than that, not really; she didn’t dance in front of us when we were younger.”

“Any reason why?” Isolde asked.

“You’d have to ask Soya.” Ville shrugged.

Isolde turned and smiled at him. “You really don’t want to talk to me do you?”

Ville sighed, leaning forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he looked at the blonde. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you in particular.” He admitted. “My relationship with Soya…” He shook his head. “It’s different.”

“Different how?” Isolde asked.

“More private.” Ville said looking at her. “With previous relationships, I was willing to share tidbits, talk about the time I spent with the woman I was with.”

“Jonna.” Isolde said, causing Ville to wince.

“But not with Soya, she’s different, she’s…just…more.” Ville said not finding another way to describe what he felt for his…fiancé. The thought made him smile. “It’s bad enough that our friends know way too much about our relationship.” Ville said with an amused shake of his head. “Our friends take too much interest in it.”

“Your fans are curious, you know?” Isolde pointed out. “Some of them are ecstatic that you’ve found someone to make you smile the way you do.”

Ville nodded, knowing he had two kinds of fans: the fans that wanted him happy, even if that meant having a girlfriend, and the fans that hated seeing him with a woman on his arm, even if that woman was a friend. “I always appreciate our fans, love that they take in interest in our music and when we do something new.”

“Like the remix.”

Ville nodded. “Yes, like the remix, but my private life is my own.”

“He just likes keeping me to himself.” Soya said emerging from behind the curtain, causing Ville to turn and straighten when he caught sight of her.

Her long brown hair was pulled tightly into a bun at the back of her head, a white headband framing her face. The outfit she had on was all white, a corseted top was tightly tied at her back, making him wonder how she had done it by herself, while the white tutu lay at her waist, standing stiffly at her sides. White tights encased those long legs of hers while matching ballet shoes, which he know knew where called pointe shoes, were on her feet, the ribbons tied around her ankle.

“Josef said you know Odette’s solo?” Isolde said, capturing a picture of Soya.

“Mmm, parts of it.” Soya admitted. “I’ve never actually played Odette, but Josef would humor me and dance with me when I felt like practicing something fun.”

“You and Josef have a weird definition of fun.” Isolde laughed, adjusting the last of her lamps. “For me, fun is a good romp in bed with a beautiful man, while fun for Josef is dressing up in tights and twirling around.”

Soya laughed. “The twirling is what matters really.”

Isolde grinned at Soya before she opened another of her black cases, producing a small set of iPod speakers and her iPod. She connected the device to make slow classical music start echoing around the room.

“Ville, just lay the microphone over your leg, just like that.” Isolde said when Ville did as he was told. “Soya, whenever you’re ready.”

Ville watched Soya, having never seen her dance up close, as she listened to the music for a minute and closing her eyes, before she started to move. Her legs moved effortlessly, kicking one leg up as her arms rose above her head, lowering and doing the same with the other leg. He watched her feet in amazement as she lifted to her toes moving across the wood floor, her arms lifting slightly and quickly at her sides.

Each move she made was precise; each lift of her arms, each kick of her foot, every pirouette was done with such grace that it left Ville struck in amazement. He’d known she was talented, hell, he’d witnessed her talent in May when he’d seen her dance on stage, but to witness it right in front of him, to see the actual strain of her arms and legs yet see how her eyes stayed closed and her face stayed relaxed, not showing that a bit of that strain, was astonishing. He couldn’t help but feel pride to be able to call Soya his.

He didn’t hear the clicking or shuttering of Isolde’s camera as he watched Soya dance around him and the couch, his mind going from pride to lustful as he noticed just how high her leg could go and couldn’t help but wonder just how flexible the woman would be once he had her in bed.

The song came to an end, Soya turning slowly towards him, opening her eyes and catching his gaze. A slow smile appearing on her lips as she leaned down, her leg kicking up slowly as her hands rested on the arm of the couch next to him.

“Kiss.” She whispered.

“Amazing.” He whispered back, leaning forward to kiss her lightly.

“What were you thinking so hard about?” she asked against his lips.

Ville smirked slowly. “Would you really like to know?”

“I really would.” She nodded, resting her forehead against his, their noses brushing.

“How your legs would feel wrapped around my waist.” He whispered, having the pleasure to watch her blush fill her cheeks. “It’s your own fault for dropping that bomb on me today.” He teased, causing her to pull away with a laugh.

“Do not blame your dirty mind on me.” She warned with a grin as she backed away from him on her toes, doing a slow pirouette.

“All on you.” He laughed before turning to Isolde, who was still taking pictures. “Soya told me that Jussi invited you over to my place tonight.”

“Ah, yes, Vuori.” Isolde said with a roll of her eyes, dropping her camera from her eye and moving towards her cases, crouching down in front of her laptop and moving the mouse to look at the pictures she’d just taken.

“You’re welcome to come out.” Ville offered, while Soya took a seat next to him, the tulle of her tutu rubbing against his side.

“I wouldn’t want to intrude on a gathering of friends.” Isolde said absently with a wave of her hand.

Ville shrugged. “We’ll just be fucking around, I doubt Soya and the girls really want to cook for all of us, so we’re ordering in.”

“Why did you assume it would just be us girls cooking?” Soya asked looking at Ville with a raised eyebrow.

“Do you really want everyone to eat my cooking, Soya?” he turned back to Isolde. “You can even take pictures, though if Linde brings Olivia, he’d probably prefer it if you didn’t take pictures of her.” Ville paused. “And of Aida, Soya’s little sister.”

Isolde sighed standing. “Any picture I would take would be for my own collection and copies would be sent to the people in the pictures. I don’t like to share candids.”

“All the better.” Soya said with a smile. “You should come, Isolde, unless you have other plans tonight.”

Isolde sighed, thinking about it before nodding. “All right, you’ve convinced me, I’ll go. Free food, free drink, nothing better than that.” She teased, “All right, both of you up from the couch, I want to take a few more shots before I let you both go.”

An hour later, he was sitting on the floor cross-legged, Soya changing out of her outfit behind her partition as Isolde started packing up her equipment. He’d offered to help Soya, but she had laughed at him, patted his cheek and left him standing in the middle of the room, then he’d offered to help Isolde, but she claimed she had her own way of putting things away and he’d just fuck it up, though she’d grinned as she’d said it.

So now, as he sat on the floor waiting for Soya and Isolde to finish; he started thinking about what he could do during his and Soya’s vacation to make her first time special, without it being overly cliché.

“Soya, how do you feel about candles?” He asked, leaning back on his hands and tilting his head back to look over at the partition.

“For what?” Soya called.

Ville sighed, “Never mind.”

Isolde looked over at him as she took the lens off her camera and stuck it into her case between the padding. “You are thinking about something pretty hard over there.”

“I’m distracted.” Ville admitted with a shake of his head as he looked at her.

“Why?”

Ville chuckled. “Soya has me in a permanent state of distraction.”

“Soya was telling me you guys were going out of town for a bit this next week.”

Ville nodded. “Jyrki and his girlfriend Rosalind invited us out to Berlin for Halloween; we’re going to go see The Fuzztones at a club down there, then Rosalind asked us to spend some time in Barcelona; she invited us to her daughter’s last soccer game next weekend”.

“God, that sounds so normal.” Isolde teased.

Ville laughed. “Soya now hates the word ‘normal’. We were actually talking about this the other night, we both travel for work, so right now that we’re both on breaks we’re able to act…domesticated.” Ville laughed at himself. “It’s been nice.”

“Like playing house.” Soya teased as she came out from behind her curtain. Ville stretched out his legs, patting the space he’d made, signaling Soya to sit. She did, bringing her knee up to put on her converse.

Ville nodded as he lent forward to kiss her cheek before turning back to Isolde who was watching them. “Very much so.”

“So, do you guys live together?” Isolde asked.

“We might as well.” Ville snorted. “We take turns in where we sleep, one week at Soya’s one week at mine.”

“And what makes you guys…domesticated?” Isolde asked tilting her head curious.

Ville shrugged. “We enjoy being with our friends, don’t get me wrong, we both have the moments were we tire of each other and just want…”

“Time with the girls or guys.” Soya finished for him, knowing that some days she would prefer Elli and Inka’s company over Ville’s just as Ville preferred hanging out with his guy friends than with her. She took no offense to it, just as he never did, only because they knew that at the end of the night they would come together, both knowing that the time apart did them some good. As much as she loved her fiancée, he could drive her crazy at times.

“And we both still work; Soya’s working on reopening her studio, having just finished the construction.”

“And Ville’s finishing up the remix and I can tell he’s starting to get ready to lock himself in his studio at home to work on some new things.” Soya grinned as Ville leaned back on his elbows grinning back at her. She turned back to Isolde who was still watching them. “But in between the chaos of our work schedules, which are going to get even crazier once January rolls around, we still find time to be together at night, fixing dinner, helping my little sister with her homework.”

“We read aloud to each other from whatever book we’re reading, we watch TV just before bed.” Ville shrugged. “Just…blessedly normal.”

“I think…” Soya looked over at Ville, before turning back to the blonde. “We enjoy both sides of our lives, and we’re not complaining now because this is all we know, this routine we’ve made for ourselves. I think if you visit us in the summer when Ville’s working with the rest of the guys here in Hels, and I’m in the states dancing we’ll have something different to say.”

Isolde shook her head. “I could never imagine myself in that type of relationship….hell, in a relationship in general.”

“Really?” Soya asked with a tilt of her head.

“I hate commitment.” Isolde said with a shrug. “Can never see myself tied down to one person for any long period of time; fuck, I don’t even settle in one place for too long because I hate being bored, but I’m not afraid to admit that I do envy those who can do it and even enjoy it… and you two seem to enjoy it.”

“It’s what happens when you find the person you love.” Soya said, wrinkling her nose teasingly at Ville, causing him to laugh as he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Soya’s waist, her back settling into his chest comfortably.

“Oh, trust me, I fall in love way too much.” Isolde laughed, lifting her camera just as Soya leaned back to kiss the bottom of Ville’s chin. “I just don’t see myself in that forever type of relationship.” She grinned at them. “But I see that in you two.”

“We need to go pick up Aida.” Ville pointed out. “It’s nearly time.”

Soya nodded as Ville got up, extending his hand and pulling her up with him. Soya turned to Isolde as she took the lens from her camera off and put it in one of her black boxes. “So you’ll come then?”

Isolde nodded. “Sounds like fun, and I’m always one for a good time.”

“Great!” Soya grinned as she looked at Ville for permission, at his nod, she turned back to Isolde, telling her how to get to Ville’s tower before assuring her they’d see her later and left the studio to pick up Aida.

XxxxxxX

Isolde strapped her messenger bag that doubled as her camera bag over her shoulder as she stepped out of the cab that took her to Ville’s tower, paying the driver and thanking him before walking up to the stone tower. She walked to the door, thoroughly amused by the yellow sign Ville had on his door, announcing to anyone who came up, that he wanted to be left alone. She was about to knock but paused when she heard the low beat of music and the sound of both female and male laughter.

She decided knocking would be useless and started to walk around the tower, only to pause again when a male figure rounded the corner, she kept her hand near the clasp of her bag, wondering if she would get the shot she wanted as she took the figure in. His head was tilted towards his shoulder as he nodded, his hand was near his mouth just as a spark ignited and a puff of smoke escaped his mouth.

“Yes, I know, I’ll stop by tomorrow.” He laughed, talking around his cigarette. It wasn’t until he looked up and smirked at her that she realized just who had rounded the corner. “Hey, let me call you back later, but I’ll be sure to stop by. Tell mum, yeah?” he hung up his cell phone, stuffing it in his pocket before taking the cigarette out of his mouth, the smoke billowing out in a light haze. “You came.”

“I was invited.”

“By me.”

Isolde rolled her eyes. “By Soya and Ville.”

“Were you going to knock?” Jussi asked.

“I was planning on it.” Isolde admitted, still staring at him. “Who was on the phone?”

“One of my brothers.” Jussi shrugged before bringing the cigarette back to his mouth, “Just got loud back there and I couldn’t hear what he was saying. Come on, Soya’s been wondering when you would get here.”

“I had some things I had to do before coming.” Isolde said, catching up with him and walking next to him.

“You’re lucky there’s food left.” Jussi smirked, leading her around the tower towards the back where all his friends were congregated. Isolde looked around, and couldn’t help but see pictures upon pictures in the making as she took everything in.

The back door to the tower was open, letting the loud music pour out into the backyard. At the moment, Led Zeppelin was echoing around the yard, though she could have sworn KISS had been playing when she’d walked up. Three white plastic tables were pushed together; empty and half filled plates of food were filling the surface.

She watched as Soya settled on Ville’s lap, talking to Toni as the red headed danced over to her fiancée, placing a plate of food in front of him and kissing his dreadlocked head before grinning at whatever Soya said. Vedrana, Mige and Linde themselves were in the midst of a conversation while Ville laughed with Jyrki over something. In the midst of everything, two little girls were running around the yard, screaming and laughing as they played tag.

“Soya’s little sister Aida.” Jussi told her, leaning towards her, as Isolde watched them. “She’s the dark haired one; the little blonde is Linde’s daughter, Olivia.” He looked over at her as she started to reach for her bag causing him to chuckle. “Let’s introduce you to everyone before you start snapping pictures.” Jussi told her, leading her towards the tables. “Look who I found wandering in the yard.” Jussi said taking a seat next to Jyrki.

“Isolde!” Soya grinned, “We were starting to think you’d decided not to come.”

Isolde shook her head with a smile. “No, I just had some phone calls to make back at the hotel room. A five minute check in with my manager turned into a two hour argument over something I can’t even remember.” Isolde said with a shrug.

“Everyone, this is Isolde,” Soya said, before turning to Isolde with a smile. “Isolde…everyone.”

Isolde laughed. “Good to meet you all.”

“We’ve told them you’d have a camera with you.” Ville said, his arm wrapping around Soya’s waist.

“We’re all fine with you taking pictures.” Linde assured with a smile. “But uh…Olivia.” He started.

“Anything I take I’ll send to you,” Isolde assured. “These types of pictures are usually just meant for my own enjoyment of taking them, and very rarely do I publish them. If I take anything of Olivia or Aida for that matter, I’ll send them to you or Soya.”

Linde nodded. “Thank you.”

“There’s still some food in the kitchen.” Vedrana smiled at her. “Help yourself, we ordered way too much food.”

“Oh I’m…” Isolde cut off as Aida ran straight into her, ignoring that she’d just run into something and starting to chase after Olivia again, only for Ville to grab her arm before she took off again.

“Hey, hey, you and Olivia both need to slow down.” Ville warned, for at least the fifth time that night. “You just ran into someone.”

“Sorry!” Aida said, looking up at Isolde before looking back at Ville. “There, I apologized, can I go now?”

Ville shook his head, before letting her go. “If you get hurt don’t come crying to me.” Aida shrugged before taking off again.

“Sorry.” Soya laughed. “She hasn’t really spent much time with other children, so she’s really excited to have someone her age to play with.”

“It’s fine.” Isolde assured.

“So, want me to fix you a plate?” Soya asked starting to get off Ville.

“No, no, I ate at the hotel.” Isolde said only for everyone to turn when they heard a crash then one of the girls start crying.

Linde sighed, wondering what his daughter had broken this time. “I’ll get it.”

“No, no,” Soya said with a roll of her own eyes. “I’ll go.” She got up with Ville following her, only for her to frown at him. “I’m pretty sure it’s a one person job.”

Ville shrugged before smirking. “I just want to tell Aida I was right.”

“Horrible.” Soya said with a shake of her head as they went inside.

“Take a seat.” Jyrki said waving at the seat Ville and Soya had just vacated.

Isolde took a seat, setting her bag on the ground before turning to Linde. “Aren’t you worried Olivia got hurt.”

Linde shook his head with a grin. “It wasn’t her crying; it was Aida.”

“And we’ve been warning them all night that if they kept running around like that they’d get hurt.” Vedrana said. “Sounds like one of them did.”

“And if it was Aida,” Jyrki grinned. “Ville’s lecturing her now.”

“Sound’s very…paternal.” Isolde pointed out.

“We tease him.” Mige grinned. “He’s really taken to Aida, treats her like his own little sister.”

“Aida’s just as taken with him.” Jussi pointed out. “The little girl adores Ville.”

“Soya was telling me that while she’s working at the studio, Ville will pick Aida up and he’ll take her to lunch and help her with her homework.” Toni said with a teasing smile. “I’m telling you, Ville is definitely ready to be a daddy.”

Linde shook his head before turning back to the blonde. “Ville was telling us about the pictures you took of them earlier, and about some of the questions you asked them about their relationship. Anything you want to ask us?”

“We hold all the dirty little secrets they won’t tell you.” Mige said with a wink.

Isolde laughed. “Well, how did you guys meet Soya?” she asked, “I know Ville and Soya met when they were younger, did you guys meet her around the same time Ville met her?”

Linde thought about it. “We met her about…what?” he asked turning to Mige. “Two, three months after Ville met her?”

Mige nodded. “Sounds about right.” He turned to Isolde. “He was running late to a lot of our practices, even cancelled a couple of them; Linde and I were worried that he had changed his mind about wanting to be in the band.”

“Mostly,” Linde stated. “because when he was at practice he was distracted, only really gave us half his attention. So one Wednesday, we decided enough was enough and we followed him.”

“Find anything good?”

“Well at first we thought the rumors of him being gay were true.” Mige laughed. “Since we followed him to a dance academy; he didn’t go in though, he waited outside on the steps until all these girls rushed out.”

“Soya was one of the last girls to come out…” Linde frowned as he thought back. “I think she was with Elli and Inka that day too, talking to them. They all talked for a few minutes before Ville and the girls parted ways, Soya going with Ville.”

“We had no idea who this girl was.” Mige said. “Ville had never mentioned her, not once, we didn’t know if he was seeing her and just didn’t want to introduce her yet, or if she was some relative.”

“He took her bag.” Linde laughed. “But not once did they hold hands so we ruled out the dating theory.”

“They avoided touching each other.” Mige pointed out. “First five months of their friendship, they only hugged.”

“So finally, they settled outside this coffee shop, and we just kept looking around this corner where we were hiding.”

“Linde had long hair back the too, only it wasn’t dreaded.” Mige started up again. “Soya says she kept seeing this wave of blonde hair that kept disappearing around the corner and pointed it out to Ville; Ville finally gave in and waved us over and we met her.”

“What was your first impression of her?” Isolde asked.

“That she was painfully shy.” Linde said with an amused shake of his head.

“Painfully innocent.” Mige put in with a grin. “She really didn’t talk to us much when we first met her, she said a quiet hello and every time we asked her questions, she just gave one-worded answers. When she got picked up, Ville assured she was like that with him when they first met.”

“She opened up eventually and soon became one of our best friends.” Linde finished.

Isolde nodded, thinking about the few things she’d heard about Soya then, from both Soya herself and Josef, and Soya now, “Ville said that when you guys all reconnected it was like starting back up from where he left off thirteen years ago, was it the same for you two?”

Mige nodded slowly, looking at Linde who was also nodding. “I think…” Mige shrugged. “It’s easy for us to just accept Soya back into our fold because she was such a huge part of our lives back then. We knew instinctively she hadn’t changed at all.”

“Still the kind hearted, shy, young girl that just wanted friends to accept her for who she was.” Linde shrugged. “We missed her too much to hesitate in accepting her, picking up where we left off was the only choice we had, the only one we really wanted.”

“And how do you guys feel about two of your best friends dating?” Isolde asked.

Toni tilted her head in question. “Why does it matter that two best friends are dating?”

“Well, sometimes, when two friends start dating and they all tend to have the same group of friends, if the relationship sours, so do the remaining friendships. Do you guys worry about that?” Isolde asked.

Mige laughed shaking his head. “Not at all.” He said without hesitation.

Linde shrugged before sighing. “I don’t worry about their relationship because we’re all friends. Really, Mige and I are surprised it took them as long as it did for them to get together this time around, only because they spent a year and a half dancing around each other before Soya left, then nearly three months flirting, they were practically in a relationship, they just didn’t make it official until they saw each other again in August.”

“What do you worry about then?” Isolde asked.

Linde blinked. “What?”

“You said you don’t worry about their relationship because of the friendships, but you worry about something. What is it?”

“I don’t worry about anything.” Linde said with a shrug.

“Liar.” Mige smirked before turning to Isolde, having no qualms about sharing. “He worries they’re moving too fast. Ville, when he falls in love, he falls deep, and this is Soya’s first real relationship.”

“What my husband is trying to say…” Vedrana said with a roll of her eyes. “Feelings are deep, and Linde worries that they’re going to jump into things without really thinking about the consequences.”

“And you don’t think that?” Isolde asked.

“Not at all!” Vedrana said. “For Ville and Soya, their pace is perfect! They have all these…pent up feelings, nearly thirteen years of wondering what could have been. Of course feelings are going to be strong, and things are going to go fast, but I think for them it’s perfect.”

“How do you guys feel?” Isolde asked looking over at Jyrki and Jussi, though she turned towards the back door, wondering what was keeping the couple.

“They’ll be a while.” Jussi told her, causing her to turn back. “They’ve already patched up Aida; I saw Aida and Olivia settle into the living room. Ville and Soya are probably just getting a few minutes to themselves.”

“You asked us how we felt?” Jyrki asked.

Isolde nodded. “Yes, how do you feel about their relationship?”

Jyrki smirked. “I think it’s a long time coming, Jussi and I met Soya back in May when she stayed at Bam Margera’s house with Ville. Turns out Ville and Soya have had a lot of missed chances in meeting up again; they’re both godparents to Impi.”

“Impi…” Isolde tapped her finger against her chin “Little girl, right? Black hair?”

Jyrki nodded. “You’ve met the little runt?”

“No, never had the pleasure.” Isolde laughed. “But Josef has so many truly amusing stories of her and her mother.”

“Of course he does.” Jyrki chuckled. “Turns out they missed each other by a day when Impi was born.”

“We toured the same cities at the same time.” Linde pointed out.

“Sometimes only a day apart.” Mige put in.

Jyrki shrugged, the movement causing Isolde to look back at them. “I think that because of all those missed chances, the feelings run even deeper.”

“There’s a lot of ‘what if’s’ in their relationship.” Jussi said, causing her blue eyes to meet his own light blue eyes. “They make a good pair though, work well together.”

“They loooove each other.” Toni giggled, causing Isolde to grin at her, only to turn to Vedrana when she spoke up.

“And really that’s all that matters in the long run.”

XxxxxxX

“I think Isolde got some good pictures tonight.” Soya said later that night as she and Ville cleared the mess in the backyard, Ville dumping empty plates into a trash bag as she wiped the tables.

“She seemed to have fun.” Ville nodded. Everyone had left just a few minutes ago, and Soya had insisted that they didn’t need help cleaning up. Ever the hostess, his Soya, he thought with a smile. “Aida had a blast with Olivia, skinned up knee and all.”

Soya laughed. “You know, when we have kids, you can’t tell your kids ‘I told you so’ the way you did to Aida tonight.”

Ville rolled his eyes. “I told her that if she kept running she would get hurt, but run she did, and hurt she got. That and my parents told me ‘I told you so’ all the time!”

Soya shook her head, only to frown when she heard voices nearby. “Are you sure everyone left?”

Ville nodded. “Yeah, Jyrki was the last to leave after Isolde; I saw his car drive off. Why?”

“I hear someone out front.”

Ville dropped the trash bag and started around the tower. “Probably one of the neighbors coming to complain about the music we had on.”

Soya followed after him. “You’d think they’d complain as we played the music not after.” She pointed out, nearly running into his back when he stopped.

“Jus?” Ville called, Soya peeking out from behind him to see Jussi standing very close to a woman, who she recognized as Isolde.

“Isolde?” Soya asked.

“I thought you guys had left.” Ville said as they walked closer to the two.

“I was about to leave.” Jussi said with a smirk, leaning away from the blonde who was looking very annoyed. “I saw Isolde waiting out here, turns out she took a cab out here. I offered her a ride but she’s refusing me.”

“Where are you staying, Isolde?” Soya asked, wondering if Isolde was declining Jussi’s offer because she didn’t want Jussi to go out of his way.

“I’m staying at Torni, but really, it’s fine, I called the cab and they said it would be here soon.”

Ville frowned. “Torni is close to Jussi’s apartment, and trust me, Jussi wouldn’t offer a ride if it were an inconvenience.”

“Told you.” Jussi muttered.

“Isolde, I’d feel a lot better if you got the ride from Jussi.” Soya admitted. “It’d be a lot cheaper too. Taking a cab from here into town, it gets up there.”

“Trust me, I don’t mind the fare.” Isolde said, glaring at Jussi. “I’m fine with a cab.”

“Why take a cab when I’m offering, I’ll even let you control the radio, how many cab drivers let you do that?” Jussi asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“None.” Ville pointed out. “And I take a lot of cabs.”

“Isolde, really,” Soya smiled kindly, causing Isolde to inwardly groan. “It’s no use fighting, we’ll stuff you into that car if we have to.”

“Fucking porcupine bastard.” Isolde muttered glaring at Jussi. “Fine, asshole, you got what you wanted.” She huffed before stalking off the yard and towards Jussi’s car.

“What did you do to her?” Soya asked, looking at her friend wide eyed.

Jussi smirked. Clearly, he wasn’t upset by the names he’d just been called. “That woman is half way in love with me already.”

Ville and Soya watched as their friend turned and walked to his car.

“He likes her.” Soya muttered, causing Ville to snort.

“Or he wants to sleep with her.”

Soya smacked his arm. “Such a man…come on, we still have the rest of the yard to clean.”

Ville sighed as he watched his fiancé, looking back as Jussi’s car pulled out before starting to walk back towards his backyard. Only two more days before he and Soya got some time alone, and hopefully the plans he’d made would fall into place without any interruptions from their friends. He scoffed at himself. Of course there would be interruptions, Rosalind would be with them, and God only knew that he couldn’t separate the two once they were placed in the same room with together.