Runaways

If there was one thing Paul truly hated about recording an album, it was getting up early. Well, that and the arguments that normally occurred at some point or another. Six guys with their own ideas and wants were bound to clash at some point.

But really, getting up at seven in the morning just to record was never fun. At least he wasn't listening to some moron of a producer rant at six in the morning two days in a row. So there was that bright side.

"Good morning," Oliver chirped as Paul walked into the studio.

"Why are you so chipper this morning?" He grumbled. It was far too early to be that cheerful.

Oliver simply grinned at him and held out a rather large cup of coffee. Paul was quick to grab it and take a seat beside his fellow guitarist on the couch, who was also cradling a large coffee cup between silver tipped fingers like it was a gift from God. Though to most people it probably was.

"Morning Richard," he mumbled.

A grunt was uttered and a large gulp of coffee was had before Richard spoke up. "Too early. Why do we have to make music before twelve?"

"In the morning or afternoon?" Oliver asked with a small grin, knowing his friends sleeping habits. He received grunts and rolling eyes from both guitarists. He chuckled and sipped at his own coffee. While he wasn't always so happy and awake in the morning, today he was already on his second cup of coffee. And that helped. A lot.

The room remained silent after that, save for the occasional gulping and slurping noises of coffee being consumed. Almost an hour later they finally began working on some guitar and bass lines they planned on recording today. Their recording process itself lasted for three hours before they paused for brunch when a producer's assistant brought in food. After everything had been consumed and the packaging thrown away, the conversation picked back up.

It wouldn’t hurt to extend their break for a few more minutes. It wasn’t like they didn’t already have hours worth of music recorded.

“I have some news,” Paul announced with a grin. His friends immediately looked at him curiously.

“Well?” Richard prompted. “What is it?”

“Lydia and I are dating.” As soon as those words left his mouth, the room exploded into question after question, his band mates voices blurring together at one point when they couldn’t seem to talk fast enough. “One question at a time!”

“When did this happen?” Oliver asked after they both calmed down.

“Last night, after dinner. We were sitting on the couch and,” Paul shrugged, “it suddenly happened.”

“Who made the first move?” Richard questioned, voice both accusatory and teasing. He was beyond happy for his friend, but that didn’t mean he’d refrain from teasing him. His fellow guitarist had teased him relentlessly when he announced his relationship with Jet. It was only fair that he repaid the favor.

Paul fell silent at that, face becoming pink with embarrassment. While he truly did not have anything to be embarrassed about, that didn’t stop the feeling from flaring up. He’d always been the one to make the first move in all of his past relationships and normally spent more than a little bit of time bragging to his friends about it. This time he didn’t exactly have anything to brag about. At least not like in the past. Though something told him it would feel wrong to brag about Lydia in such a context if he had done such a thing. Like he’d betrayed her in some way. “It’s the modern day! There’s nothing wrong with women making the first move.”

Laughter filled the studio.

“Nothing wrong with it at all,” Richard agreed before turning teasing once again, “So why are you getting defensive?”

“I am not.”

“Oh but you are.”

“I am not defensive!”

“Then why are you shouting?”

"Oh you...you...fucker!"

Oliver watched the two with growing amusement. They didn’t argue much anymore but when they did it was normally playful and very rarely escalated into anything else. That being said, it didn’t stop him from closely watching them in case he needed to intervene. He didn’t particularly like having to do that but he’d done it enough in the past to know exactly what to do without causing them further harm.

"Are you two done yet?"

The two men paused in their arguing to stare at him in surprise for a moment before looking back at each other and starting up again. This time there was more laughter and teasing to their words instead of a somewhat playful defensiveness that was starting to border on actual annoyance. Their poor bassists groaned in his own annoyance but continued to watch and listen to them.

Eventually the play argument came to an end with all three laughing, as the pair were able to drag their friend into the conversation.

"I'm glad you two are together," Oliver said after they were able to calm down from their laughing fits. "You seem like a good match."

"And how do you know that?" Paul chuckled. "You haven't met her yet."

"And whose fault is that?" Richard interjected, voice once again full of teasing.

"It'll happen eventually," Paul assured with a slight flush. "I don't want to overwhelm her and scare her off." That was the one thing he ever wanted to do.

"And yet she has met Till," his fellow guitarist said with a grin.

"I think she'll meet you last."

Oliver chuckled as they began teasing each other again. Even if it developed into another playful argument, he much preferred this to how they'd all been in the past. Sometimes stress brought out the worst in people. Eventually he spoke up again, "Regardless of who she meets after Till or how that goes, I honestly think she's good for you, Paul. And I'm only going by what you have told me! She seems like a wonderful girl."

A grin instantly spread across Paul's face at his friends words. "Thank you, Ollie. I really appreciate that." He stood up from the couch and pulled the bassist into a warm hug, catching the other man off guard and causing him to flush a light shade of pink, but he otherwise happily returned the hug. After sitting back down he continued, "Lydia makes me happy in ways I haven't felt in a long time. I think we might have a future together. Or at least I hope we do."

"I think you do too," Oliver agreed. "Just make sure to care for her. I think Lydia needs someone in her life besides her friend to show her that they care about her. The way you talk about her," he shook his head and sighed, "well, she sounds very lonely and like love hasn't given her a fair chance. Maybe it's up to you to be that person for her. To show her what it's like to be with someone who won't hurt her."

Such words of advice caught Paul off guard for a moment because that was what he felt as well. Lydia had been through a lot in this life and he was determined to make it count when it came to her. He wanted her to know that not everyone was like her ex and that love was possible. Not only that, he wanted her to believe it. To believe that there was someone out there that not only truly cared but wanted her to be happy as well, no matter the circumstances. "Thank you."

The conversation slowly died down after that and they went back to recording, eventually losing themselves in the music and not coming back up for air until six that evening. And had it not been for Paul's date later, they would have continued on into the night. When they got into the right groove it was easy to spend hours just making music with no real perception of time. But this time they were determined to stay on schedule.

After exiting the studio building, Richard turned towards his band mates. “Same time tomorrow?”

“And for the whole week,” Paul said with a laugh. They were scheduled to spend the rest of this week and possibly the next recording just guitar and bass tracks before moving on to vocals. Again. There were a few songs that Till was now insistent on rerecording. And they all blamed that damn producer for it too.

“Any idea what you’ll be making for dinner?” Oliver inquired. He’d been more than a little happy at the idea of his friend learning to cook more. And making a date out of it sounded like a fun idea.

“Nope,” Paul chuckled. “I’m just fine with following her lead on this.” He glanced down at his watch and grinned, “Though we might figure it out together tonight. I bet Lydia is still painting. She’s been talking about trying to tackle a difficult painting when she got back from Paris.”

“Does she let you look at her art?” Hs fellow guitar inquired.

“She does. I’ve seen a lot of them but I haven’t got to see her actually paint yet.” He grinned again and shrugged, “Maybe I will tonight.”

“You might,” Oliver chuckled while pulling out his buzzing phone. He grinned widely at a text from his wife and looked back up at his friends. “I have a small grocery list to buy before I go home. I’ll see you both tomorrow.”

The pair said their goodbyes and waved him off before turning to each other and doing the same. Both were eager to get home, Paul more than a little ecstatic for his date with Lydia and Richard was excited to call Jet, as he'd promised earlier that morning to call her if he didn't get out of the studio too late.

Before actually going home, Paul made a quick stop at a local flower shop. While he wasn't entirely sure what Lydia's favorite flowers were, he hoped it was the thought that counted in the long run. While he was tempted to just call and ask, he didn't want to ruin the surprise. In the end he went with red roses. It was considered a classic, after all. And in his mind, he’d yet to do an actual romantic gesture and thought perhaps doing so on the second date would make up for it.

Little did he know, Lydia thought just about every sweet thing he did was a form of a romantic gesture.

Even after all this time it still took Paul a minute or two to work up the courage to knock on her door. It didn’t take her long to answer, only pausing to set down a paint brush and turn the music down a bit. The look of pure surprise and the sweet smile that followed was well worth the uncertainty of the flowers.

“You brought me flowers?” Lydia asked slowly, unable to bite back to steadily growing smile as she slowly took the small bouquet from him.

Paul nodded and said, “I didn’t get to on our first date. So I thought I’d make up for it.”

She shyly leaned up and kissed his cheek before letting him into the apartment, a blush slowly warming up her face the longer she started at the flowers. No one had ever bought her flowers before.

Noticing her starting, he quickly asked, “Are roses alright?”

She nodded and walked into the kitchen to look for something to put them in. “Roses are just fine. Thank you so much.” After finding a large glass that would work well enough as a makeshift vase and carefully putting the flowers in it, she confessed, “I’ve never gotten flowers before.”

“Never?”

“Nope. Most of the people I had to date believed that acts of romance were silly.”

Paul frowned and privately vowed to bring her flowers from now on. “Do you have any favorites?”

While scrubbing some paint from her hands she replied, “I like roses and lilies. I’ve always been fond of sunflowers too. And tulips are pretty.”

He nodded and walked up to her, slowly wrapping his arms around her waist as to not scare her. Despite his careful attempts, Lydia still stiffened at the contact before slowly relaxing into his embrace. She wasn’t quite used to physical contact and affection unless it was from her Grandparents or Jet. And while her and Paul have hugged and held hands in the past, it was still something she needed to get used to.

“Is this okay?” Paul whispered in her ear.

His breath fanning against her skin and the deepness of his accented voice made Lydia shiver pleasantly and her eyes to flutter shut. It took her a moment to gather herself and whisper back, “It’s okay.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, not entirely sure if the little shiver he felt from her was good or not.

“Yes. I’m just still getting used to this,” She admitted with more than a bit of embarrassment.

He nodded and hummed softly in understanding. “That’s alright. Promise me something?”

“Okay.”

“If I do something you don’t like or if it gets to be too much, please tell me?”

“I promise. But only if you do the same.”

Paul grinned and gently kissed her cheek. “Deal.”

Even while settling herself against him and relaxing, a blushing continued to darken across Lydia’s face. Even the tips of her ears were red now. Despite this, she was content. It wasn’t something she felt often and having that feeling with Paul made it even more special. “Can we stay like this for a little bit longer? I know we need to make dinner, but...”

He gently kissed her temple and murmured, “We can stay like this for as long as you need, Sweetheart.”

“Thank you, Paul,” she whispered. “This means a lot to me.”

He pulled her tighter against himself and nuzzled into her. “I’ll always be here for you, Lydia. Even if I can’t physically be here, I will still be there for you in any way I can. I swear it.”

Despite everything raging in her mind, all the words of her mother and ex-husband screaming in her head about how unlovable she was, about how she would never be enough or find happiness, something deep inside her soul believed him. Every last word was taken as truth. Because Lydia believed Paul with all her heart. The love blooming between them was slowly silencing all the doubts and lies, bit by bit. And while the chances of all the trauma she’d lived through completely going away were slim, the chances of her healing were much higher. It wouldn’t be easy, but having a support system and knowing there were people out there that truly care about her would go a long way.

“Thank you.”