TWICE // D.S.

TWENTY-FOUR

aubrielle and daniel were currently at lunch; they sat across from each other on an outside seating arrangement. james was being babysat by both hailey and nicolette, even if it only required one of them, they both were free and couldn't pass up an excellent opportunity to babysit james.

"shortcake?" daniel asked, taking a sip from his cup of apple juice he had to ask for. something which embarrassed aubrielle and entertained daniel from her reaction. currently it might be a bad example, but aubrielle actually started talking to daniel more openly; just like she did with hailey and nicolette.

aubrielle continued to eat her salad, she hummed to an imaginary song bouncing her head side to side to the music. "did i hear something? no, must've been some fly" she brushed it off, looking right past daniel and never meeting his eyes.

"shortcake" daniel said, "i was only going to ask what you were doing for thanksgiving. since you clearly had nothing for halloween, i want to make sure you don't sit at home all day and be lazy" he explained, taking a fork to stab his salmon and plop it into his mouth.

aubrielle opened her mouth to retort but she didn't want to answer to his horrid nickname. she thought that if she didn't answer to it, he wouldn't call her it. makes perfect sense except daniel is going to be stubborn with this. all he wants is for aubrielle to accept his nickname for her, it was cute!

daniel let out a sigh, finishing his small salad he had as a side. "you know, shortcake. even with an injured ankle i still beat you down the hill" he reminded, bringing back a memory from one of their hikes a few weeks ago, "guess i'm just more athletic" he shrugged, eyeing as aubrielle got more tense. she clearly wanted to defend herself, "i'll just add it to the list, more athletic, more charming" aubrielle rolled her eyes, "more of a musician" a glint of mischief appeared in his eyes.

"you don't know anything about my music life" aubrielle spoke through gritted teeth, having enough of his cockiness.

"of course i do" he smile widely, clearly happy he had one the little competition, "i know you were almost signed by a label, i know you wrote your own music, i know you had a few songs out, let me see here, if i recall correctly one of them is called skin?" he smirked, looking right into the girls blue eyes.

something glistened in aubrielle's eyes, "you can try. to get under my, under my, under my skin" she softly sang, sending him a fake smile before going back to eating her salad. after a few minutes of his silence, she couldn't fight the urge to lock eyes with him. so she did, and there he was shocked that she so effortlessly sang beautifully, "what?"

"i-i didn't- why don't you sing anymore?" daniel asked, furrowing his eyebrows, and glancing to his right before internally groaning; paparazzi.

"i already told you, management dropped me because they assumed i couldn't handle both my careers and take care of james properly" she shrugged, looking at him again. her eyebrows furrowed in curiosity of his expression, "what are you looking-"

before the girl could fully turn around daniel blurted, "don't turn around!" immediately aubrielle halted and turned back around to daniel.

"well, why not?" she asked, she knew daniel wouldn't ask her not to do something if it wasn't serious. so she trusted him, plus his sudden reaction seemed to also levitate the tension of the situation.

"because, there's paparazzi, once they see you they're going to make a dumb article and it's probably going to be rumored that we're dating" daniel explained, "i know it's kind of selfish but i just don't want the world to know i have a kid, and another one on the way" he admitted, looking more down than normal and slumping into his seat, "it's nice having something so big such a secret. i eventually want to share it though, but not at this moment" he explained, while aubrielle nodded her hand in understanding. even if they did argue, it was more of a playful bickering. if aubrielle chose to retaliate with what daniel said, it wouldn't end up with a laugh or filled with one. so she kept herself silent until daniel chuckled.