Let You In

Patrick Kane giggled.

Straight up, girly giggled. He was definitely drunk and the other guys rolled their eyes at him. The girls though shot him dirty looks and crowded around Leia Roberts, who now wore the contents of the red wine Pat had been holding for his girlfriend down the front of her cream colored top.

"It's fine," Leia declared. "It just needs to soak. Do we have club soda?"

"Yes, I brought some," Whitney spoke up. "Come on, I'll help you."

"No, it's fine. I've got it. Be back in a minute." She stood from the couch and walked into the kitchen, not thinking twice and pulling her top off. She found the club soda and was pouring it onto the stain over the sink when Viktor walked in.

"What are you doing?!" He exclaimed. He began hurriedly unbuttoning his dress shirt, pulling it off to drape over her shoulders.

"Me? What are you doing?" Leia questioned.

"You're practically naked!"

"Um, I have on a bra that covers more than my bikini top."

"It's your bra. Those guys don't get to see that."

Leia rolled her eyes and laid the wet fabric on the counter to sit. She folded her arms under her breasts, unwittingly jutting them up. Viktor shifted and jerked his eyes to her face before they had another problem.

"If I wear your shirt, will you calm down?"

"Yes." She sighed but put her arms through, rolling up the sleeves just above her elbows. Viktor reached out and buttoned the shirt in place.

"Really, Viktor? I need it buttoned to the collar?" Leia shook her head, unbuttoning the top few buttons, exposing just a hint of her cleavage. She walked around him to rejoin the others and he followed her. The guys were playing cards and the girls were huddled on the couch.

"Nice shirt, Lei," Aria said.

"Somebody wouldn't let me parade around in a bra," she replied.

"Why the hell not?" Patrick asked. "That would've been awesome!" Aria and Leia turned, each chucking a pillow at him. He ducked and they hit Jonathan instead. Viktor picked one up and walloped Patrick over the head.

Three hours later, everyone started turning in for the night. Even though they weren't dating, Leia and Viktor were sharing a room after the last minute addition of Brandon Saad and his girlfriend Sarah to the weekend. They had mutually agreed that as two adults, they could share a king sized bed no problem. It had been Viktor's idea to build a pillow barrier between them (mostly for his own sanity) and it had worked for them.

Leia unhooked her bra and pulled it off through the sleeves of the shirt before unzipping and stepping out of her skirt. She climbed into bed in Viktor's dress shirt and boy shorts.

"You're gonna sleep in that?" Viktor asked.

"Is that okay? I'll have it dry cleaned when we get home."

"No, it's fine. I was just asking."

She pointed at the simple white cotton t shirt he had been wearing under his dress shirt as he took off his pants and pulled back the covers on his side of the bed. "You're gonna wear that?" She teased.
"If I took off my shirt you'd go crazy with lust," Viktor joked.

Leia rested her head in her chin on top of the pillow wall. "Yeah, I think I can resist," she told him.

(She couldn't. She knew she couldn't. He was one of, if not the best looking, guy she knew.)

"Good night, Leia," he said, flipping off the lamp beside the bed.

"Sweet dreams, Vik."



Whitney looked down at the image she had just captured on her phone, a smile on her lips. Anyone else that might have happened on the scene before her would think it was a couple in love. Viktor was on his back, the covers over his and Leia's bottom halves, his arm around her shoulder. Leia was curled beside him, her head on his shoulder, her hand resting on his chest. His face was turned down in her hair and the scent of her shampoo mixed with her perfume filled his mind with dreams. A pile of pillows were heaped in the floor at the foot of the bed.

They had left the door ajar and Whitney had come to wake them for the day. The start of the training camp was in a week and she planned the weekend getaway to the beach house she had found so everyone could be together and cut loose one last time before Jon went into Captain Serious mode and buckled down on the guys.

She had invited Leia along, knowing Viktor was deeply in love with her but unable to process his feelings aloud to her. It was obvious in the way he looked at Leia, and in the way he treated her, acted around her, touched her.... It was in his everything with her. She was Aria's best friend and Whitney had become close to both since Aria and Patrick had gotten together a month ago.

Viktor and Leia were dancing around what their relationship was. They insisted it was casual, going out when they were free. Whitney knew they weren't having sex; Viktor had confessed that to her. When they had met, Viktor thought she looked like a fun girl to know. He had been right. She was witty and charming, fun to be around and the more he was around her, the deeper he fell.
He has been straight up with her when they met. He didn't want a girlfriend, hadn't wanted something serious. She was fine with that; she didn't want serious or a boyfriend. She had only gotten out of a long term relationship a week before meeting him, an arrogant dick of a man, and she had no desire to leap back into anything.

So they embarked on a casual relationship, a friendship really. And even though he took out other women, they just don't intrigue him the way she did. He had learned so much about her, her secrets, her hopes, her dreams, every detail of her life, past and present, that he knew he wanted to be in her future too.

When he agreed to be a part of Patrick's hare brained scheme to get back at Whitney for the personal ad she took out to find Pat a girlfriend (a long story for another day), he went along only because he decided he would kiss Aria, thus ending the plan and forcing Whitney and Kaner to talk, but also to force a conversation between himself and Leia.

Sadly, that had not gone at all as Viktor expected. Leia had been calm and rational about his kissing Aria. "It was for the plan," she had declared, offering that it had been her idea to send Viktor on the "date" with Aria, knowing it would upset Whitney the most.

It was the very next day that Viktor sought out Whitney for advice (she having become one of his closest friends since the day they had met) and declared he was falling in love with Leia.
He had tried everything he could think to do. He brought her flowers once a week (pink carnations, no fuss, simple and sweet carnations, just like her, he had thought). When she had gotten sick, he brought her soup, the kind his mom used to make for him back home when he was a kid feeling under the weather. He had brought her every trashy gossip magazine he could find, the latest issue of Vogue, and had stayed up with her for hours watching every Nicholas Sparks movie ever made (there were seven out on DVD at the time. He took her to see the eighth movie at the theater as soon as she was feeling better).

When they had first met, their dates had been casual and expected. Dinner here, a movie there, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe he would stop by to take her to lunch, or on her days off they'd hang out with Whitney and whichever of his teammates were around at the beach. Once, right before Pat found out Whitney's scheme, he had gotten her to agree to be his "date" to a charity event, but she convinced him to take both her and Aria, turning it into a outing between friends. He still took them shopping for new dresses and shoes, sparing no expense to have the prettiest dates for the date. Well, date. In the end, Patrick had gone too and it had turned into an almost double date. But he had Leia on his arm all night and he felt like the luckiest guy in the planet.

The frequency of their dates picked up after what Viktor now referred to as "the incident"and the tone of them changed, Viktor planning the perfect scenarios out in advance. They usually didn't work out the way he intended, like the time they went to the Skydeck Chicago at sunset. 1,300 feet above Chicago, Viktor had been able to contain his tiny fear of heights until Leia dragged him out onto the ledge, the glass balcony extending four feet over the city. It was there that Viktor had started having his panic attack and soon after the hyperventilating started. He wasn't sure he had ever been more embarrassed, especially once people started recognizing him. Leia had been quick to get him out of there once people started taking his picture. Sharpy had yet to let him live that one down.

There had been the baseball game that Viktor had gotten beaned by a foul ball at (Sharpy wasn't letting him live that down either), the time a bird pooped on him while at Navy Pier, and oh yeah, the time had had tripped over his own feet, falling not at all gracefully into the river on a boat tour of the city he had taken Leia on.

Sharpy actually wasn't letting him live any of this down truth be told.

Whitney had silently danced a little jig in her mind when Brandon and Sarah decided to join them, leaving them a bedroom short and forcing Leia and Viktor to be roomies. It was too perfect. Lots of booze, shirtless Viktor, and now forced to share a room, how could Leia possibly resist Vik and all his charms? He was practically dopey around her, with his puppy dog eyes and the smile she always brought to his face.

Whitney looked up, hearing footsteps in the hall behind her. She held her finger to her lips and motioned Aria to join her. She stepped back and Aria peered inside. She looked at Whitney and grabbed the other girls hand and squeezed. They shared a look and then moved to the living room, sitting on the couch to whisper with each other.

"What do you think happened last night?" Aria asked.

"I hope he told her how he feels," Whitney admitted. "He is so in love with her."

"She knows."

"Then why?"

"Are you kidding me? You've seen him around her. He's tongue tied and adorable. He takes her out for the most well planned dates imaginable only to embarrass himself one way or another. I bet she's eating it up."

"Wait...does Leia....does she love him too?"

"I don't know. She is carefully guarded about her feelings for Viktor but I do think she likes him a whole lot more than she lets on."

Viktor started waking up first, a dull ache in his right shoulder and an unfamiliar weight against his chest. His eyes slowly opened, first to her honey blonde hair, and then her familiar scent, her peachy shampoo mixed with the floral scents of her perfume. Instinctively he held her tighter, no longer caring that he could not feel his right arm. This felt right, Leia in his bed, Leia snuggled beside him, Leia in his arms. This was everything he wanted with her. If only he could just say so.

He also wondered what happened to all the pillows. He couldn't remember moving them but someone had. Maybe he had done it in his sleep, maybe she had. He really didn't care. She was beside him, fitting perfectly against him, and it was exactly where he wanted her always.

Leia began to stir, stretching beside him. He reveled in the feel of her lithe dancers body rubbing against him. She turned and burrowed deeper into him, her hand clutching a fistful of his shirt, inhaling a deep breath of his cologne, citrusy and woodsy. She did always love the Bleu by Chanel cologne he wore. It was also the moment Viktor's heart began to race and as he silently willed it to calm, it sped the beat of Leia's heart too.

She vaguely remembered throwing the pillows aside in a state of restlessness the night before. Viktor had been sleeping peacefully and she had watched him for several minutes before being overcome with the urge to cuddle with him. Without thinking, she had tossed all the pillows forming their little wall to the floor and slid in beside him. She had been out like a light within minutes.

She tilted her face up, brushing a kiss across the scruff of his chin. "Good morning," she said quietly, refusing to open her eyes, losing herself in the feel of him. Solid. Viktor was solid. Not just in the muscular way he was built (which she certainly appreciated) but he was just a solid man, there for her, whether she asked him to be or not.

She knew they had started out as nothing more than a casual fling and she was fine with that. She didn't want anything more than that anyways. But then she started learning about Viktor through the stories he shared and she started to share the same with him and their friendship took root.
And yeah, she had been pissed when Viktor told her he had kissed Aria. She was jealous as hell and mad. But she couldn't let on. They had agreed it was casual, had agreed they'd see other people. She knew he did so she did the same. It was no big deal.

Except that it was.

Viktor had wormed his way into her heart and she didn't know how to stop it. He was endearingly sweet but it was all those little things that made her fall more and more in love with him. She started to pull herself up but Viktor kept his grip around her. Solid. She should've known he would.

"Where are you going?" Viktor asked.

"To get dressed, eat something. Someone's cooking and it smells fantastic. I hope it's Sarah; she's a whiz in the kitchen. Brandon is lucky to have her."

"Or you could stay right here."

"Vik..."

"What?"

"We're friends. This is a little more than casual friends."

Viktor sighed, raking a hand through his hair. Oh his hair, Leia thought. She'd give anything to run her hands through it, to pull him to her by that beautiful hair. Jesus her mind really ran away from her when she thought about that hair.

She looked up at him, wide eyes as he continued to hold her. "Vik?"

"Yeah?"

"I gotta pee."

He released his hold on her reluctantly and Leia rolled away from him, climbing from the bed. Noticing the door ajar, she pulled it closed before walking into the attached bathroom and shutting the door behind her. She leaned against the sink and stared at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't believe how empty she felt without his touch and how desperately she wanted to climb back into that bed with him and declare open season on her feelings. But she couldn't. She didn't dare.
Viktor watched her until she closed the door, wanting nothing more than to chase her down and bring her back to bed with him. With the door now closed to their room, he had all the privacy he needed to have her. And god he wanted her. He just didn't know how to tell her. When he had kissed Aria, he knew it had meant nothing but still hoped to get a rise out of Leia. She had made it clear though; they were friends, people who went out from time to time and nothing else. The rejection had stung but made him determined to prove himself otherwise. Except every time he tried to say the words, something stupid happened and he never did get to say it.

He groaned and climbed from the bed, pulling sweat pants over his boxer briefs and not bothering to change his t shirt. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen. Aria and Whitney were huddled on the couch together and both looked up at him at the same time wearing matching sad smiles. He ignored them, walking into the kitchen where indeed Sarah was hard at work making breakfast.
Viktor poured himself a glass of orange juice and turned to Sarah, offering his help with making breakfast. She smiled and accepted his help, passing him an apron to wear. He frowned but she pulled it over his head anyway and tied it behind his back.

"It has a ruffle,"' Viktor complained.

"At least it's red," Sarah countered.

"It's girly."

"I'm sorry I don't have something more manly for you. I'll work on getting you something. Now add two cups of flour to that bowl," she pointed.

Leia frowned when she walked back in the bedroom, finding Viktor gone. She dressed quickly, discarding his dress shirt and laying it carefully amongst his luggage. She pulled on jeans and a v neck t shirt and headed out to join the others. She sat with Whitney and Aria in the living room as Viktor busied himself in the kitchen helping Sarah. She couldn't help but smile at him in the red and white damask printed apron. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and snapped a picture of him, changing the one in her contacts for him so it would pop up every time he called.

Viktor had laid his phone on the counter and he grabbed it when it vibrated, wiping his hands on the apron first. Unlocking it, he found a new text from Whitney.

I think Leia thinks you look cute in your apron. Come talk to her.

Leave me alone, Whit. I am very busy.

I'm sure Sarah can manage; make Brandon help her. Or Patty Cakes.

Peeks would surely start a fire.

Probably. So....you looked cozy this morning.

I thought Tazer had a conversation with you about meddling.....

C'mon on Viktor! You two looked happy. You both had the same sappy smile on your face.

I don't believe you. We were sleeping.

Really? That's not what this looks like.

This looks like two people very much in love with each other, perfectly content being in the company of the other.

I'm telling Jon that you're sneaking around taking pictures.

I didn't sneak! You left your door open. I was coming to wake you guys up.

Save your explanation for your boyfriend.

VIKTOR!!

Viktor smirked as he ignored Whitney's last message. He busied himself on his phone, changing Leia's picture in his contacts to the one Whitney had just sent him. They did look a couple, two people that just fell into bed and slept, happy to just be with each other and not need to be physically together. He could hear Whitney huffing across the room. He sent Jon a text and he appeared moments later and stood in front of Whitney.

"I hate you Viktor," Whitney said.

"Why?" Jonathan asked.

"Because he told you!"

"That you needed coffee but were too lazy to get it yourself?"

"Oh." She sent a puzzled look to Viktor who winked at her. "Yeah. Vik won't make me coffee but look at how cute he is in his apron. I even told him so."

"Nice look, Stalberg," Jonathan teased, looking up and seeing him for the first time. Viktor flushed.

"Whitney is meddling again," he replied.

"Vik!" She shrieked.

He shrugged. "Shouldn't have brought up my apron. I'll have you know that this is a very masculine look."

"Yeah, the ruffle is the height of masculinity," Sarah added.

"And the red looks amazing with your tan," Aria added.

"Jealous is not a good look for you, Jon," Leia said. "Viktor can't help it he makes everything look like sex."

The room spun at her words and Viktor was pretty sure he died in that moment. Had she really just used his name and sex in the same sentence?

"Why is Viktor wearing an apron?" Patrick asked as he came into the room. Sharpy and his wife followed and he immediately began to laugh.

"Oh man, this is even better than the time you got the nose bleed when you tried to kiss Leia!" Sharpy shouted. Abby slapped his arm and shot him with a death glare. He ducked his head and followed his wife to the table.

Viktor calmly took off the apron, handing it to Sarah and escaping the room. He pulled on his flip flops at the door and went outside, venturing down to the beach and plopping down in the sand, staring out at the ocean.

No one said anything for a long minute and slowly they all turned to face Leia. "What?" She asked.
They all gave her the same look but she didn't move.

"Oh my god!" Whitney finally exclaimed. "This is ridiculous!"

"Whitney," Jon said firmly, leading her from the room. Patrick took a seat beside Aria and he nudged her in the side.

"You should go talk to him," Aria said.

"Why me? You're all his friend, not just me."

"You're the only one of us that Vik is in love with though," Patrick answered.

Leia scoffed. "Viktor is not in love with me. We're friends."

Sharpy snorted from the table. "You don't actually believe that, do you? I mean, you're obviously in love with him, he's obviously in love with you. How have you two not put this together?"

Leia glanced at Aria who only nodded. "Whitney!" Leia shouted. "Get in here!"

Whitney came running from the bedroom she and Jonathan were using. "Yes?" Jonathan appeared behind her, leaning against the wall in the hallway.

"Is Viktor in love with me?"

Jon put his hand over Whitney's mouth before she could respond. "You need to talk to Vik," he prodded her. "You two should be having this discussion, not any of us." He shot a pointed look at Sharpy who only shrugged.

"I'm trying to be helpful," he said.

Leia sighed and walked to the front door, not bothering with shoes and walking outside. She headed for the beach and immediately spotted Viktor sitting with his head in his hands.

She took a seat beside, sitting close so their shoulders touched. "Hey," Leia said softly. She wrapped an arm through his and squeezed his upper arm. "Viktor, I..." He cut off her words with a kiss, a heart stopping, fireworks exploding behind her eyes kiss that made her forget everything in the world but him and her, in this moment, every second of it.

"I love you," Viktor declared, staring into her eyes after they came apart. "I've been in love with you for weeks. I know I said I didn't want serious but I lied. Because once I started to get to know you, you were the only person on my mind. But you didn't feel the same so I've been trying to make you feel the same with all these romantic dates and everything just gets screwed up."

"I love you too,” she smiled.

"Wait...what?"

Leia smiled and touched his face, tracing her finger down his cheek and along his jaw. "I love you, Viktor. The first time you brought me flowers at work, I fell in love with you. When you brought me soup and stayed with me while I was sick and looking a mess in a bedful of crumpled tissues, I fell head over heels. For that boyish smile and the shy look in your eye, for everything you are, for everything you shared with me, for everything I want to share with you."

"You didn't care that I kissed Aria though."

"I was pissed," she admitted. "But you told me, no strings, casual, I'm seeing other people."

"God I'm an idiot."

"Me too."

"I didn't think you felt the same. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn’t know! You were still seeing other people.”

“I wasn’t.”

“But Patrick told me...”

“I lied to Kaner. I never went out with anyone else after that night we went to the art institute. I knew then you were the only girl I wanted. I thought kissing Aria would make you jealous and you'd say something. But you weren’t so I told him I had dates because I didn’t want to admit how hard I fell for you but that you didn’t feel the same. That’s when I started taking you out on real dates. I wanted you to love me as much as I love you because I couldn't stand the idea of being alone in this and I didn’t know what to do if you didn’t love me.”

“I was rather enjoying your embarrassing yourself. I wanted to see what happened next. I especially liked the time you nearly took out our table at dinner. Or the time you spilled beer on that guy at the bar and tried to help him clean it up, never realizing you were dabbing away at another dude's crotch. It only got better when he asked for your autograph."

Viktor groaned. "Please don't tell Sharpy about that. It's like the only story he doesn't know."

"Sharpy has a big mouth. But it got me out here."

"So I should thank him?"

Leia thought about it for a minute. "Jon," she finally announced.

"Jon?"

"Mm-hmm. You should thank Jon. He's the one that said I should talk to you and none of them."

"Do you want to get out of here?"

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Anywhere else?"

"Don't want to face your friends, do ya?"

"I'd rather have you to myself, hear more about how I make everything look like sex."

Leia blushed. "Like you don't know how handsome you are."

"You're gorgeous," Viktor said before kissing her again. Her hands sought his hair and she ran her fingers through it before pulling him to her, turning the kiss to a hungry passion that couldn't wait to be explored, opening her mouth, teasing her tongue across his lips until they parted and he met her caresses with his own.

"Viktor," Leia breathed out. "I miss you when you're not with me."

"I feel exactly the same. We can make this right now, undo all the hiding."

"I like the sound of that." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and held her against him. They watched the waves crash in silence for several minutes before Viktor stood, offering his hand to Leia and helping her to her feet.

"No more fighting this," he promised. She nodded in agreement and he brought her hands to his lips, kissing her knuckles. "I'm yours so lets begin."