When I opened my eyes, I instantly felt warm. Tony breathed peacefully against the back of my neck, something that would normally warrant chills to litter my bare skin but this time it eased me, knowing he was there. His arms tightened a little around me, his hands flattening against my stomach. He nuzzled his head against the back of mine.

I reached down and strung my fingers between his. “Hi.”

I could feel Tony smiling. “Hey, there.” He lifted our hands up and I let mine slip out of his while he toyed my necklace with his fingertips. I bit my lip a little and stared at the guitar pendant, in Tony’s hands, finally with Tony.

“I can’t believe you still have this,” he murmured.

“Of course I do,” I said. I turned around in his arms and gave him a look. “Don’t tell me this is your way of saying you no longer have Terry the Turtle.”

Tony laughed, his eyes squinting. He tightened his arms around me. “Babe, he holds permanent residence in the band practice room.”

“That’s what I thought,” I snickered playfully. Tony just laughed lightly again and pressed a kiss to my forehead. I smiled and closed my eyes, leaning into his touch.

“Hey,” Tony said lowly. I picked my head up and stared at him, lovingly, kind of in awe still even after all these weeks of being together for real. “I love you.”

I curled my fingers against his chest and crawled them up to link my arms around his neck. I smiled easily, against his lips. “I love you too, Tony Perry,” I said with a kiss.

Tony breathed in and squeezed me a little, and then he let out a content sigh. I didn’t know how long we laid there for, but time didn’t seem relevant when I was with him. I used to rely on time so much, because that was the factor that stood between us meeting, but now that we were here I just wanted to waste away in it. I wanted to throw away all the clocks because I had nothing—no one—to wait for anymore.

“Do you have obligations today?” I asked after a while.

“Nahh.” He shook his head and buried his face into my neck. I giggled and untangled myself from him. “Where are you going?” he whined, pressing half of his face into the pillow and staring at me with puppy eyes.

I smiled softly and covered his face with my hand. He scrunched his nose up. “I’m putting this on,” I said, picking up a black shirt from the floor. It had a turtle with tattoos printed on the front. I held it up to show him, sort of hiding behind the shirt.

“That shirt’s going to consume you,” Tony chuckled. I put it on—and he was right, it went down halfway to my knees. It was warm and soft though. I hugged myself in it and crawled back into bed next to him.

“Like a dress. Just how I like it,” I grinned.

Tony kissed the side of my head and snaked his arms around again to hold me. I let out a sigh, almost in relief. I couldn’t get enough of him.

“Hey, this is love before glory, right?” I asked. He nodded. “You still have some of the company stuff?” I blurted out in a question. It was something that I found myself doing more and more these days: blurting whatever came to my mind. Especially since I was so comfortable with Tony, talking didn’t feel like a battle around him.

Tony’s face fell a little and I regretted bringing it up. It was stupid of me. I hadn’t spoken so freely in so long that I forgot how much of a big mouth I used to have. It usually landed me in trouble. Which was why I kept quiet for so many years…

Tony smiled and snuggled closer to me. “It’s okay,” he murmured, as if he could read my mind. “They’re comfortable shirts, anyways. Plus they take up, like, half of my closet,” he shrugged.

“And mine,” I giggled. Tony used to send free shirts all the time. When I was lounging around in my apartment or painting, they were all I would wear. The extra-extra large sized shirts, the remaining ones that they didn’t sell at the end of a design run. Sometimes he’d sneak in a few small shirts, too, that actually fit me, but I preferred the bigger ones.

“You never did tell me what actually happened,” I said slowly, curiously.

Tony ran his hand down the side of his face. “We sort of had a fall out. I think it was mostly my fault, though.” He stared at the sheets that were twisted around his torso and nibbled on his lip. My heart sank because I had an idea of what he was talking about—that six month span of time where we didn’t speak to each other. It ruined a lot more in his life than I imagined.

“Oh,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry, Tony.”

He shook his head and looked up at me with a small smile. “No, it’s okay, my fault, not yours or anybody else’s. Plus, I knew I was going to get really busy with the band and I wouldn’t be able to keep up with company obligations. And, I don’t know, I guess it got kind of weird living with his family. It was time for him to be on his own, I felt like I was trying to live his life, instead of my own, y’know?” He leaned back into the headboard. I snuggled up to his side. “Yeah, don’t mix business with friendship. It usually messes everything up.”

“That really sucks,” I said.

“Hey, one door closes and another one opens, right?” he said, kissing the side of my head. I smiled and crawled onto his lap, resting my hands on his shoulders. I kissed his lips firmly.

“Right.”

“Well, I really like your other friends, anyways. Your band mates,” I said, changing the subject. I felt bad for bringing the Jaxin thing up. Tony looked pretty upset about it still, even though it was months ago.

Tony grinned. “Yeah, I guess I keep good company, don’t I?”

I giggled and nodded, peppering kisses around his face. “The best.”

---

Tony and I spent the rest of the day lounging around lazily. We planned on exploring San Diego tomorrow, or maybe the next day. For now, though, we just wanted to be together.

I didn’t really care about the city itself, aside from the fact that Tony was in it.

“I like your apartment,” I commented, my eyes dashing around the small space. It was nice, quaint. And it was only a few blocks away from the beach. I couldn’t wait to see the ocean. Phoenix was so dried up compared to San Diego. “To be honest, I don’t really want to go back,” I added, nuzzling my head into his neck.

Tony chuckled a little. “You don’t have to go back if you don’t want to,” he said easily. I separated a little from him and reached over to the coffee table, where boxes of Chinese food sprawled out. We ordered in tonight. I twirled some noodles onto my fork. It felt nice to be on a regular eating schedule again.

“I just want to be wherever you are,” I said quietly. I didn’t want to sound clingy or desperate, but we went through so much trouble meeting each other. Why would we want to separate ever again?

Tony hummed and pulled me closer. I put my fork back down and leaned into his embrace, his arms wrapped around my middle and my back against his chest. He kissed the top of my head and laughed a little.

“What’s so funny?” I smiled, tilting my head up to look at his face.

Tony shrugged a little. “It’s just… I dunno… funny. I would always imagine what it would be like with you here. I always thought of it to be just like how we are right now,” he said with another small laugh.

“Aw, Tony,” I said, resting the side of my head on his chest and lying on my side, “that’s cute.” I closed my eyes contently. “But me too.”

Tony squeezed me a little and kissed my head again. “So basically we don’t have to be productive until Vic says so,” he said. It made me laugh for some reason.

“What do you mean?”

“Well Vic is off being Vic, but once he has his stuff together we can start recording and finalizing the new album. But until then, there’s not much for any of us to do,” he explained.

“Ohhh, right,” I said. “And then you’ll go on tour?” I asked. I shuffled around so I was facing him. Tony lifted his exposed hand and ran his fingers through my hair.

“Yes, depending on how he does. Might go on tour before the album comes out, I’m not completely sure,” he said.

I tried not to frown. Tony smiled. “But it’s okay. We don’t have to worry about that right now.” I nodded.

“Well, speaking of band things, when can I hear you play things in real life?” I asked with a little grin. “Play me a song?”

Tony’s cheeks heated a little. “You want me to play you guitar?”

We sat up together. I linked my arms around his neck and nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, please.” I pecked his cheek.

Tony chuckled. “Okay then.” I slid off of him and sat patiently on the couch, watching as he went back to his room to grab his acoustic guitar. He held it delicately in his hands when he returned. Just by that I could tell how much the instrument meant to him. I toyed the guitar pendant in between my fingertips and smiled.

“I don’t sing, I guess I’m not the perfect boyfriend,” he said, half joking from what I could tell. I laughed.

I laughed as he sat down next to me, turning to face me with the guitar in his arms. He was looking down at the frets shyly.

“You know you’re perfect for me,” I mumbled. Tony looked up at my face, smiled broadly, and then focused back on his hands.

“Okay, well, I really like playing this song. I wrote the guitar for it actually. Vic and I used to play it together, back when we were a smaller band. It’s a sweet song, I’d sing it to you if I could,” he rambled and shook his head.

I smiled and bit my lip, letting him continue. He looked up at me one more time, smiled softly, and then started to strum.

I felt myself literally fall in love with Tony even more, watching him play. He was so gentle yet firm, his eyes opened and closed throughout, his body radiated passion.

I would have this song stuck in my head for a long time.

I would have him stuck in my head for even longer—in the best way possible.

Tony finished playing and held his hands delicately against the strings to stop them from ringing. His fingers were shaking. I leaned forward and carefully put my fingers through his.

“Tony, you’re so good,” I said quietly. He looked up at me with shy eyes. “Amazing. I could fall into the best sleep ever listening to that,” I said. “And I don’t mean because it’s boring, um, I mean, because it’s so lovely, and you’re so talented, and you make me feel so safe, and I love you so much,” I added.

Tony smiled and leaned in and we kissed and I melted into his touch and his comforting aura. So safe. Finally, I was safe.

Notes

hello !! sorry this took so long. i am basically the worst.
also I am no good with fluff and that this is short ((but sweet yeah??)) and for that I apologize. But I hope you enjoyed this nonetheless. I also hope u enjoy this


i enjoy this gif a lot


have a wonderful day
i love you all very much