Filles de Fleur

Sylvie was just taking the first batch of cookies out of the open when the door burst open to Marc, Sid, Kris, Geno, and the rest of the team. They all immediately smelled baked goods and stampeded over, grabbing them right off the cookie sheet in her hands and causing her to jump in surprise. She heard Margaux’s laugh at the display of savagery before finally the guys all stepped away, their mouths full of food. She heard numerous full mouth attempts at ‘thank you’s, causing her to giggle.

“Thanks for helping up move Margaux in, you guys must be exhausted.” She said, looking over to see her older sister struggling with a box before Sidney rushed over, grabbing it from her.

“There’s no motivation like helping beautiful girls.” Sidney said, smiling at Margaux. Sylvie smiled at the display, but her attention was drawn back to the mob in front of her as she heard Ollie Maatta’s voice.

“So tell me how you’re still single when you cook like this.”

“Oh you know, it’s mostly just baking I’m good at.” She chuckled, keeping her eyes on the countertop instead of the handsome defenseman.

“Well, I’d love to have you make me breakfast sometime.” He chuckled, winking at her. She blushed, her eyes moving to the empty cookie sheet as the entire room hushed, all eyes turning to Marc.

“Maatta, outside.” He said simply. The young blonde had no time to object before Marc was shoving him out the door, slamming it behind them. They all looked at the wood for a long time before Margaux clapped her hands together, trying to break up the awkward silence.

“So, are you guys going to help or just eat all Sylvie’s food?” She teased. The guys all smirked, thankful for the broken silence as they made their way back to the various boxes and bags they had dropped at the smell of food. But one stayed behind, walking over to Sylvie, his hands shaking.

“Hey.” He said, wondering if she heard his voice crack with nerves too, or if it was just his imagination. She slowly turned, her cheeks turning bright red when she saw Beau Bennett standing in her kitchen, mere inches from her. Her hands started shaking violently as she held the next tray of cookies, her eyes huge.

“H-hi.” She finally managed to choke out. He licked his lips, causing her eyes to fall to his perfect mouth before he chuckled and she turned an even darker shade of red.

“You um, you look good.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean, since I saw you at the family skate.”

“You always look good.” She whispered. She then winced, knowing she had just said that out loud. He chuckled, scratching the stubble on his chin and wishing he’d shaved that morning. He swallowed nervously, nodding to the tray in her hands.

“Do you need to put those in?” He asked.

“Right.” She said, laughing nervously as she turned around, popping the cookies in the oven before setting the timer. “Well um, we have twelve minutes.” She muttered, pressing her lips together. Beau just looked at her for a moment, smiling.

“Well um, how about a tour? I think the guys have got the moving in part covered.” They both turned to see the team crowded around her TV, watching the Senators take on Philadelphia. She chuckled at the sight, one that she was still getting used to since she moved down here for school.

“I mean, this is basically it, but okay.” She said, turning back to him. “Follow me.” Beau happily obliged as they made their way past the living room, unable to ignore the feeling of eyes on them and a few mutters of ‘about time.’ Sylvie simply flushed, pointing to a small door on the edge of the hall. “This is the guest bathroom.”

“Nice.”

“Margaux new room, formerly the guest room.” She added, pointing to the door before starting up the stairs. She popped open the door, unable to stop the shivers creeping up her spine at the thought that she and the boy she’d been pining over for two years were alone in her bedroom. “And this is my room.” He nodded, looking around at all the pictures of her, Veronique, Marylene, Margaux, and Marc. His eyes then moved to her desk where a fat pile of textbooks sat.

“You go to school?” He asked, walking over and picking up the first.

“Yeah, it’s my last year.” She said, walking over beside him as he thumbed through the fat communications book.

“What are you studying?”

“HR. I want to work with one of the teams in the league when I graduate.” Beau turned to her, both of them blushing when they saw how close they were.

“So, can I ask why you don’t live in a dorm?” He asked. “It seems a lot easier.”

“Well, Marc just, doesn’t want me exposed to all that partying and drinking. It’s him and Veronique’s goal in life to preserve my innocence for all time.” He smiled at that, causing her to beam proudly.

“You’ll never have any fun if you live life like that.” He said. He then smirked at her, that perfect smile in full force. “How about I help you?” She immediately started shaking her head, her eyes wide.

“Not unless you want to end up like Ollie.” She said sadly. “Marc is like the dragon that keeps me locked up in a tower.”

“Well then,” Beau smiled, looking at her with those stunning blue eyes. “I guess I’ll just have to be your knight in shining armor.”



"Knock knock."

Margaux looked up from the pile of parts in front of her and smiled as Sidney closed her bedroom door behind him.

"Everyone else has commandeered your living room for a strategy meeting, I just came to see what you were doing." Sid glanced around at what looked like it had once been a bed frame spread out on the floor around her.

"I was hoping to sleep in my own bed tonight, but I clearly underestimated the rocket science that is cheap Swedish furniture." She sighed, handing him the booklet as he chuckled.

"How hard can it be to just follow the diagrams?" he teased, sinking down to his knees beside her as he studied the parts.

"Do you hear that?" he asked, glancing over at Margaux before they both looked up at the ceiling.

"Sylvie must be in her room." she shrugged but Sid shook his head.

"It sounded like two people."

"Marc's probably giving her a talking to, how she shouldn't encourage your teammates to think about her like that, blah blah blah. I've heard the speech so many times, I think I could give it to her." Margaux rolled her eyes as Sidney studied the instructions again.

"As a big brother, I understand where he's coming from, if Olli said something like that to Taylor, I wouldn't hesitate to kick his ass." Sidney shrugged, "Can you hand me one of those screws?"

"If I were Taylor and you did something like that, I wouldn't hesitate to kick your ass." She argued, holding out the parts bag for Sid as he pulled together the first two pieces, "Big brother's always think they need to protect their little sisters, and it's sweet until high school's over and we don't need to be protected."

"You say that like there aren't any douche bags out there after high school." Sidney countered, moving to the other end of the bed frame as Margaux followed.

"Of course there are, but there comes a time when girls need to become women who can stand on their own two feet. You can't baby your little sisters forever or you end up with a world of self-entitled spoiled brats like Kim Kardashian. Personally I'd rather live in a world of Beyonce's, you know independent Sasha Fierce kind of girls."

"A world of Beyonce's…doesn't sound half bad." Sid smirked, chuckling as Margaux shoved his shoulder, "I'm kidding, you know she's not my type."

"No one knows what your type is, unless it's invisible."

Sidney bit his lip, turning back to the half finished bed frame before he could blurt out, you're my type.

"So you think Flower is babying Sylvie?" He asked, prompting her to go back to the safer topic as he grabbed the last side board and set to work.

"He bought her this apartment because he doesn't want her any where near a frat house, I'm pretty sure Vero talked her into coming to school here so they could be sure of that. He's never been this overbearing to Marylene or myself, but I think that's because we've both been dating the same guys since high school, granted Rick and I were a bit more on again off again than Marylene and Pier-Luc."

"Understatement of the year." Sidney scoffed under his breath but Margaux still heard.

"I was fifteen when Rick and I got together, I guess I'd always thought we were going to end up like Marc and Vero." she sighed, glancing down at the carpet as Sidney looked over at her, his heart dropping as he caught the flash of hurt in her coffee brown eyes.

"You deserve someone who loves you the way Marc loves Vero - and you're going to find that somebody when the times right." he assured her, resisting the urge to add, I'll be that somebody.

"You've always been too good to me, Sid." Margaux smiled, reaching over, squeezing his arm.

"I wouldn't say too good-" he shook his head, turning back to the bed frame, hoping she'd drop it.

"You volunteered to drive five hours from Rimouski to go to prom with me when Rick and I broke up senior year."

"I rented a tux and everything." he admitted, not looking up from his project, "But then you got back together three days before."

"I wish I had gone with you," Margaux frowned, swallowing hard, "We would have had more fun and who knows, if I had you might have been the one running off with a flight attendant."

Sidney looked up at her surprised, his heart hammering in his chest at the idea Margaux had considered what them being together would be like. Up until that morning he was sure he'd lost to the pilot, he'd steeled himself to the idea of going to the wedding - and for the sake of Margaux's happiness - never mentioning that he desperately wanted her to be with him. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that it wasn't the time or place for a confession just yet.

"If I was lucky enough to be the man you wanted to marry, I would never embarrass you like that. Cheating on you was bad enough, but waiting to call off the wedding until everything was booked and the invitations were sent out was cowardly."

"I think I'd be the lucky one in that arrangement." Margaux smirked at the thought of it as the door flew open and they turned to see Marc Andre in the doorway.

"Sylvie isn't in here with you?" he asked surprised and they both shook their heads confused.

"We thought she was upstairs with you." Sidney admitted and Marc's shoulders fell as he turned and tried the bathroom door. His heart dropped when he found it empty and he turned on his heels, taking the stairs two at a time.

Margaux jumped over the bed frame, running after her brother, hoping to catch him before he embarrassed Sylvie, but she reached her little sister's room a moment too late. Beau and Sylvie jumped apart in surprise when Marc threw the door open and Margaux felt for the poor girl as she turned bright red.

"What are you two doing?" Marc asked, brows furrowing in a surge of anger as Margaux put a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax, they were probably just talking."

"Stay out of this, I'll get to you in a minute." he brushed her off and Sylvie's eyes widened as the older girl's eyebrows raised.

"Pardon me?"

"Oh like you didn't think we'd be having a chat about you and Sidney alone in your room together." he scoffed, turning away from his teammate and youngest sister.

"Oh my god! I'm 26 years old, up until last week I was living alone with a guy. As much as you'd like to think this is 1950 and we had two twin beds, I can assure you that we had a very comfortable king sized sleeping arrangement, not that there was much sleeping-"

"Margaux!" he protested and she shook her head.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot in your little bubble of delusion Vero is the only filles de fleur déflorée, but I can assure you Sylvie is the only-"

"Margaux!" Sylvie yelled, turning a darker shade of red as Marc threw his hands up.

"I agree! Just stop!" he shook his head, not wanting to think about his sisters sex lives as he shot Beau a glare, "I'll talk to you later."