Sky Full of Stars

She doesn't see Dillon at all anymore, which doesn't surprise her, but ever since Jamie mentioned off-handedly that he hadn't shown up at the diner when a bunch of the guys met up to have lunch, she's been feeling guilty that she's affecting team dynamics. She tries casually texting him about something off the wall just to get some interaction back between them and the asshole leaves his read receipts on so she knows he sees it but he purposely doesn't respond. Honestly she has no idea what to do next but she absolutely hates the way things are now. The guys haven't even really realized that he's being distant yet but it's only a matter of time before someone notices it and wonders why. They're not shrewd observers in social aspects most of the time but all it'll take is one time of Dilly and Calista in a room together to notice the tension and then they'll all start prodding until one of them tells the truth. She wonders what that will do to him and Tyler.

As if there weren't enough awkwardness going on in her life, Casey is flying in for the weekend to feel Tyler out, try and get a read on him and what exactly his intentions are with his baby sister, and Calista is excited to see him because she misses him all the time, but she is decidedly not looking forward to bringing him around Tyler. Despite the reasonable points Jamie made, she still stresses about it all week and the boys being on a three game road trip doesn't help because she can't physically be with Tyler or Jamie to help soothe her worries. FaceTime just isn't the same and, anyway, they really don't need to hear about her stupid problems when they have important games to worry about. They're still in a playoff race and need every point they can get, which means it's all the more disappointing when they have to start making their way home from Philadelphia with zero points out of a possible six. Coming off four straight losses since their awesome showing in St. Louis is no doubt going to put them all in bad moods and adding Casey to that is going to be a disaster. Still, she's happy to see her brother for the first time since Christmas so she does her best to get her apartment ready for his stay, including stocking her kitchen with all his favorite foods and making sure the sheets are washed so that he can have her bed while he's there. His six foot six frame and her couch are not a good match, and he'll insist on sleeping there anyway before she finally shoves him into her room and shuts the door in his face so he can't argue anymore.

Thanks to doing a whole bunch of extra work throughout the week, Mr. Ramsey Charlie gives his approval on her taking Friday off so she gets to sleep in until nine before she has to get up and shower to go to the airport. It's always busy on Fridays so she decides not to park her car and go in to find him, instead texting him that she'll be waiting outside at passenger pick up. Because of the terrible traffic, she doesn't make it there til about thirty minutes after his plane is supposed to be landing but it ends up working out because less than five minutes later, he's walking out the glass doors with his army green duffel bag and his dumb hipster backpack. He opens the door and tosses his bags into the back before he slides into the passenger seat, grinning, and leans over the center console to hug her.

"Hey, baby sis," he mumbles, pressing a kiss to her temple.

"I missed you," she says earnestly in return and the car behind them honks its horn so they quickly let go of each other to get moving. Casey puts his seat belt on as they pull away from the curb and then he spends the entire ride back to her apartment updating her on everyone at home, including her nephew, who just turned one on Valentine's Day. She'd sent him a card and a present but still felt bad she couldn't be there; luckily, her brother had come through and made sure to capture baby Oliver smashing his little cake all to pieces and getting green frosting all over himself in the process. Apparently he's walking now, which she tells him she's disappointed she didn't receive a video of, and at the next stop light when her phone chimes, she picks it up to see a new video message from her brother.

With all the crazy Friday traffic, it takes forever to get back to the apartment, and by the time they get him situated and his stuff all set up, it's lunch time and Casey is whining about his hunger pangs, just like all the other overgrown children in her life do all the time. He demands she take him to that Italian place he likes uptown and then suggests inviting her friend too. She's a little suspicious as to why he wants her to invite Felicity because he's only met her the one time when he was last in town but she reluctantly agrees and shoots Felicity a text on their way back out of the apartment. Equally as suspicious, Felicity accepts the invite enthusiastically and they agree to meet there in half an hour.

She honestly should have known.

The minute they're seated out back on the covered patio and the waitress leaves them to go retrieve their drinks, Casey leans forward, propping his elbows on the table and looking directly at Felicity. "So tell me about this boyfriend Cali's got," he starts seriously and Calista rolls her eyes at him.

"Case-"

"Boyfriend," Felicity repeats, brows arched over the tops of her neon pink wayfarers and a hint of amusement in her tone. "I didn't know you guys put a label on it."

"We didn't," Calista insists, shooting her brother a look. "He did."

"What, you stay at his place overnight and he won't even let you call him your boyfriend?"

"Oh my God, Casey, I told you it wasn't like that. I fell asleep watching the game and he didn't even get home until two in the morning. Besides, it's not that he won't let me. We just-....haven't talked about it yet."

"But you're going to?"

"Eventually, I guess? I don't know? He agreed to meet you after Jordie opened his big fucking mouth and you decided to spring a trip on him. Isn't that enough for now?"

Casey purses his lips at that but doesn't respond, instead turning his head to look back at Felicity for an answer to his original question. "So what do you know?"

Calista sits back in her seat and crosses her arms over her chest, sighing in resignation and Felicity smirks at her a little before focusing her attention on the man across from her. "We've only hung out around him a few times, but he seems like a good guy," she shrugs. "He came to me for advice before he asked her out on their first date and just from that, I could tell he really likes her. 'S why I helped him. Plus Jamie and Jordie are friends with him so that has to count for something, right?"

She might be blushing a little when Felicity finishes talking but she just ducks her head and hopes her sunglasses cover enough of her face that they can't see it. Casey seems too occupied thinking over that anyway and then the waitress is bringing their drinks over, interrupting the moment. Luckily, Felicity starts asking questions about baby Oli and then she and Casey break into a massive conversation about their children that lasts the entire meal, while Calista just eats her fettuccine alfredo quietly and pretends she knows anything about parenting. Her phone buzzes for the first time as their waitress is bringing over the check and Casey snatches the little black folder before she can as his phone goes off too.

There's about a ten second pause before both their phones start lighting the fuck up with an influx of texts and when they check their screens, they find the messages are from the Benns (and Tyler, on her part), who have just landed at the airport, finally home after a long, hellish roadie. Even Felicty gets a few dings on her own phone from Jamie inviting her and Nick over to his and Jordie's place tonight. He tells Calista that he thought it might be easier to ease Tyler into spending time with Casey by having them meet for the first time in a big group where Tyler can't be interrogated too thoroughly. He's convinced a couple of the other boys on the team to come simply by offering to supply all the pizza and beer and Calista can't even begin to explain how thankful she is for his thoughtfulness through a text message so she's just gonna have to throw herself at him in a hug when she sees him in a few hours.

They depart ways with Felicity until later on and head back to the apartment building, where Calista jumps out of the elevator on her floor and leaves Casey inside to continue up to Jamie and Jordie's. She makes her way down the hall to her apartment, smiling to herself when she sees the figure leaning against her door. Tyler looks up when he hears her approach, straightening immediately and pulling her into his arms as soon as she's standing directly in front of him. "Hey," she mumbles into his chest and he squeezes her a little tighter before loosening his hold to let her pull back to look up at him.

"Your brother made it in okay?" he asks, glancing over her shoulder. "Where is he?"

"Already sent him up to the Benns'."

"Did you?"

"Mhmm."

"Good." The hand resting on her shoulder comes up to brush a strand of auburn hair out of her face and then he's cradling her jaw with both hands and ducking his head down to kiss her. She's pretty sure she's never going to get used to the way he kisses; it's like even the normal, everyday ones are so passionate and breathtaking and dizzying and she loves how giddy she always feels when he finally breaks it to rest his forehead against hers with that little grin on his face. This time is no exception. "I've been wanting to do that all week," he mutters once they've pulled apart to catch their breath.

She smiles and pecks his lips once more as she grabs him by the lapels of his suit jacket and tugs him forward a little. "C'mon, Casey's gonna have a stroke if he doesn't meet you soon."

"Whoa, wait, now? I thought-...."

"Yes?" she prompts, looking up at him with raised brows.

"I thought it might be a good idea if maybe I took a nap first. We."

"You want to take a nap?"

"With you," he adds, and she chuckles a little as she clicks the home button on her phone to check the time before looking back to him.

"Just a little one."

He breaks out into a grin and says, "Deal" before pulling her back toward the elevator to go up to his floor. Marshall greets her enthusiastically even though she's the one who's been feeding and walking him all week since Tyler's been out of town, and Tyler's a little offended that his own dog went to her first before him but then he crouches down to pet him anyway and ends up getting a nice face full of big dog tongue for his trouble. He just laughs and wipes his face off with his sleeve before he stands up straight and heads for the stairs with both Calista and the dog trailing behind. While he's changing out of his suit and then washing off the dog slobber on his face in the adjoining bathroom, she takes off her flannel shirt and drapes it across the back of the chair in the corner so it doesn't get wrinkled. It's a little chilly in the room now that she's in just a tank top with no sleeves so she pulls the comforter and sheet down and slips under them, patting the space next to her so that Marshall jumps up onto the bed to curl up beside her.

Tyler just sighs and shakes his head when he walks back into the bedroom, seeing what's happened, but at least Marshall's on her left side, closest to the edge, this time so there's still room for him. He flips the switch to turn the light off before he goes over to crawl into his bed and she lets him slot himself right up against her back, throwing one arm over her body and settling his head against the pillow, the rosy scent of her shampoo filling his nostrils as he finally closes his eyes. She can feel when his breathing evens out against her shoulder mere minutes after he settled down behind her and she guesses he must be really tired if he can fall asleep that fast. She switches her ringer to silent and dims the brightness of the screen before she texts both Jamie and her brother to let them know about the delay caused by the spur of the moment nap and while Casey blatantly refuses to believe her (his exact words are "nap" yeah right), Jamie just tells her that it's fine because none of the other guys are there yet anyway and won't be for a couple of hours. With that said, she ignores her brother's text and reaches over Marshall to set her phone on the nightstand before she settles back in to try and take a short nap herself.

The next time she opens her eyes, the weight of the arm slung over her side is gone and when she rubs her eyes and props up on her elbow to sleepily survey her surroundings, she finds Marshall has disappeared from the room and Tyler has rolled over onto his stomach and is hanging halfway off the side of the bed, still dead asleep. She leans over to grab her phone to check the time, careful not to move too much because she's pretty sure even the most gentle of movements could send him crashing to the floor. Over two hours have passed since she sent those texts and Jamie has since texted her a few more times as people began arriving at his place thirty minutes ago. She sighs and tosses her phone on top of the covers by her feet and rolls over onto her other side, resting one hand on Tyler's bare chest and softly calling his name. He stirs a little and then his whole body jerks, suddenly fully awake as he realizes he's about to fall.

She can't help laughing at him just a teensy bit and he pouts about it but it's ridiculously cute, especially when the grumpy look is coupled with the wild bedhead and scrunchy eyes. She leans over to kiss the pout off his face before throwing the covers off her legs and climbing out of the bed to pull her flannel back on. "It's after 4:30," she tells him over her shoulder as she heads into the bathroom to check and make sure her own hair isn't as wild as his. It's a little too messy so she pulls it back into a low bun before shutting off the light and walking back into the bedroom and Tyler is lying there with his hands folded under his head like he doesn't have a care in the world or anywhere to be. He's smiling at her now though so when she hops back onto the bed on her hands and knees, she has to ask what the goofy grin is for.

Tyler shrugs. "No reason. I'm just glad you're here."

Her heart might do something cheesy like skip a beat and it might feel like some fucking massive butterflies flapping around in her stomach but somehow she actually finds the voice to say, "Me too" before she kisses his scruffy cheek, pats his chest, and tells him to get up. She grabs her phone and goes downstairs to get Marshall some fresh water and food while Tyler gets dressed and once he joins her in the living room, they both give the dog some goodbye rubs before they head down to Jordie and Jamie's. She stops him outside the door just before he goes for the handle and she takes a deep breath before looking over at him. "Just remember that he's only so protective of me because of all the Logan stuff so if he's an ass, it's not on purpose just to be an ass. He knows how much I-....Look, just keep that in mind, okay? Don't take it personally."

"Calista, breathe," he chuckles, grabbing her by the shoulders. "It's gonna be fine. I know he's protective, and I get why. I'm not gonna take it personally. Seriously, stop worrying."

She frowns, reaching up to brush her fingers through a section of his hair in hopes of taming it a little. "I just don't want him to get to you."

"I already told you, I'm not going anywhere. Okay?" She nods silently and lets him pull her into a quick hug before he releases her to grab her hand and open the apartment door.