Fantasy World

All he could think to do was try to make her smile again. He had no other plan or way of aproaching the situation. He was desperate. No, he was beyond desperate.

He'd taken her back to his place to get her away from everyone there. People knew where she lived and when she didn't show up at the club, they came looking. Steven turned away four people before pulling the small girl off her bed and making her leave.

"I think I should become a singer," he decided casually after he stopped singing along to some pop song on the radio.

He heard her snort out a laugh. "I don't think you should quit hockey to pursue that. You'll be broke in no time," she mumbled.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Whatever. You're just jealous of my amazing voice," he retorted.

She gave him an expectant look, to which he started laughing. He turned off his car and turned to look at her.

The tears had stopped flowing now, but she still looked upset. He wanted to say something to make her feel better, anything. He just wanted to make her be okay.

He hesitantly reached over the center of the car and took her small hand in his. "You going to be okay?" he whispered out.

She gave him a weak smile and gave his hand a soft squeeze. "Yeah. I'll be fine," she assured him.

He gave her a wide grin. "Good. Besides, Steph will kill me if she knows I let you get hurt under my watch," he added on.

She let out her first laugh of the night. Her head slowly turned to face out the front of the car. "I don't want to call her... I'm scared to tell her," she mumbled.

Steven prepared himself mentally before lacing their fingers together. When she didn't pull away or flinch, but held on tighter instead, he felt his courage build up. "I'll call her. I'll tell her to give you a little bit of time to get your feet under you before she calls you, okay?"

She gave him a greatful smile and held on tighter to his hand. "Thank you, Steven," she said sincerely.

He gave her a kind smile in return. "Let's get inside. You're welcome to help yourself to anything in there," he told her like always.

Maci nodded her head. They climbed out of the expensive, black car and filed inside the house. He led her up the stairs and seperated to step out onto the balcony to call his little sister.

Steven bit his lip as he stared at her contact info. His thumb hovered over the call button. Just as it was about to touch the screen, a call appeared from non other than Stephanie Stamkos herself.

He groaned and answered. "Hey, little sister," he greeted with as much happiness as he could muster.

"Good job! I got up early just to watch the game! A hat trick!" she exclaimed right away, oblivious to his less than excited mood. "And not even throughout the game, in like six minutes!" she screamed out. "You know, that's got to be a record."

He ran a hand through his short hair. "No, I think the record is less than four minutes or something," he mumbled.

She paused for a moment. "Something's up... What happened? Everything okay over there?"

Steven pinched his eyes shut. "Listen, I have to tell you something..." he began slowly.

"You didn't sleep with Maci, did you?" she asked in a dark tone.

He almost groaned. Way to go and get that thought planted in his head, he muttered in his mind. "No, of course not," he responded quickly. After what Maci told him earlier in the night when she was crying on his shoulder, he knew that day would never come.

"Good. That would just ruin her relationship with Kyle. You know they've been together for almost-Oh God, please tell me they didn't break up..." she begged.

Steven wanted to slam his head against the wall he was leaned against as he faced the street in front of his house. At this rate, his little crush on the brunette would be the death of him. Everyone seemed to be rooting for her and Kyle to be together, except maybe Kyle himself. "Because she didn't want to sleep with him," he finally mumbled.

He pulled the phone away from his ear as a stream of screamed curse words flowed through the ear piece. "You better not be joking right now, Steven. This is fucking serious," Stephanie snapped.

"You know, I wish I was," he snapped back. "After showing up at her dorm at almost midnight and seeing her bawling her eyes out on her fucking birthday..." His voice had risen in irritation.

Stephanie stayed quiet. "Poor Maci... You're looking out for her, right?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, of course. She's at my place right now. I figured I'd try to find a way to make her feel better or something," he mumbled as he ran his fingers through his chopped off blonde hair. He wasn't quite used to it being short again.

"Good... When do you think I should call her?" she asked sadly.

Steven looked down at his suit, looking at the spot on his chest that had been ruined by her tears. He couldn't care less, though. "I'd give it until tomorrow night or the next day. Just give her a little time to get used to it, you know?"

"Yeah... I'll let you go. Make my best friend feel better, okay?" she asked.

"Absolutely. I'll talk to you later, sis. Love you," he told her.

"Love you, too. Bye."

Steven slid his phone into his pocket as he walked back inside his house. He glanced around, not spotting Maci anywhere. Before he could call out to her, though, she walked back into the living room.

Her head was down as she rolled the band of a pair of Steven's sweats so they didn't trip her as she walked. She was wearing a Lightning's sweat shirt of his over the top. Steven swallowed hard as he looked her up and down. He quickly tried to push away the idea his sister had planted in his head.

Maci's head popped up when she realized he was in the room with her. Her cheeks ignited right away. "You said help myself and I was hoping you wouldn't mind and I promise I'll wash them-"

"No, no. It's perfectly fine," he quickly cut her off. He gave her a smile.

She weakly returned it. "Thanks," she mumbled out. She ran her hand through her long hair. Her eyes drifted down to his suit. Her mouth dropped in horror. "Oh God, I ruined your suit! I am so sorry! You should have told me to stop!" she exclaimed as she ran up to get a better look at the ruined suit.

Steven's eyes dropped to where her hand gripped the waist of the sweat pants to hold them up. She stopped right in front of him, her hands now going to his suit. She lightly ran her fingers over the spot, her grimace increasing.

He couldn't keep his mind away from the damn thought of her...

Her hands came to a rest, flat against his chest, as her eyes drifted up to meet his blue ones. She looked so innocent. She looked almost scared.

In a moment of complete loss, his hand came up to cradle her cheek. She leaned into it slightly, honestly loving the feel of his big paw holding her face. He was so much bigger than she was.

She felt herself leaning up, bringing her face closer to his. Her eyes flickered down to his lips. Her mind was blank. Only a faint whisper of the fact that she was about to kiss Steven flittered across her mind.

He met her half way, though.