Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Whatever it Takes

TW: assault

Lin's fingers danced around Pippa's back, tracing the lacy cutouts on the back of her dress.

"What are you doing?" Pippa giggled, tilting her head back to look at her fiancee.

"Nothing." Lin joked, kissing right near Pippa's shoulder blade.

The party had been dead for a while, and the two had a hotel room upstairs. That's where the entire wedding party was staying, afterall.

"Why don't we go upstairs?" Lin whispered into Pippa's ear, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves.

A smile broke onto Pippa's lips, and her smile was still bright, though her lipstick had faded away hours ago.

"Sure." Pippa whispered back with a wink, stealing a kiss from Lin's lips before he could respond.

He helped her out of her chair, giving her his hand to hold onto as she stood up on her tall high heels. Lin could never understand how in the world Pippa could deal with those kind of shoes! In his opinion, they were just flat out dangerous!

The two made their way to their hotel room and were very quick to relish in the comfort of a soft bed, and not having to wear dress shoes anymore.

"C'mere." Lin coaxed, pulling his bride-to-be into his arms. Lin pressed a passionate kiss to Pippa's lips, pulling her in impossibly closer to himself.

Pippa giggled sweetly into the kisses, only stopping to take a breath. She gently started trailing kisses down Lin's neck and towards his collarbone. Her fingers worked at undoing the buttons of his dress shirt.

"Mmm..." Lin hummed as Pippa started focusing her kisses in the crook of his neck.

He shrugged off his now undone shirt, taking his fingers and weaving them into Pippa's hair.

Suddenly, Lin picked Pippa up in a bridal-style hold, carrying her and propping her back up against the hotel room wall. They were now standing, still kissing and taking small moments in between breaths to remind each other just how much they loved each other.

"Wait, stop." Lin backed himself away from Pippa, making her instantly feel self conscious.

"Did I hurt you? I'm sorry, I--"

"No, no, it's not you, it's just...I can't." Lin started, rambling slightly as he threaded his belt back through the belt loops on his dress pants, and searched around for wherever his button down had ended up.

"Lin...Baby, what happened?" Pippa asked gently, reaching out her hand, but getting a flinch in response. She frowned. "Lin, we're going to be getting married soon. You can trust me. What's the matter?"

Lin slowly turned around to face Pippa. "When..." Lin cleared his throat, looking down at the floor.

"Let's sit down." Pippa led Lin to the fluffy, white hotel mattress. She took his hands into her own and rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles. Something to keep him grounded.

Lin frowned, his eyes scanning Pippa's face as if she could tell him the right words to say in that moment. "How do I begin?" There was a pause. "When I was in college, I was...um...I was raped."

Pippa's concerned look immediately became one of shock. "Oh, Lin..." She coaxed, pulling him into a brief and gentle hug.

"It was finals week, and it was late...I was in the library studying a whole lot later than I probably should've been." That last comment forced a rough, and painful, chuckle to fall past Lin's lips. "And, um..." He looked down and fiddled with the hem of his pants as he sat cross legged on the mattress. "Um, this girl from my film history class approached me. We...we'd never really talked much before, but um, she said that she saw me studying alone, and offered me a place in the group study session over at her apartment. So I agreed, thinking that studying with other people might be beneficial. So, I followed her back to her place, and--"

Lin began to get choked up, as did Pippa. Tears were pooling in both of their eyes.

"And when we got there, nobody else was there. She didn't have textbooks on the table, nothing. Um, and then she proceeded to...you know..." At this, Lin completely broke down, starting to cry against Pippa's shoulder.

"Hey, hey it is okay, I won't hurt you. Did you think I was her?" Pippa asked, and her breath hitched when Lin timidly nodded against her skin.

"It's just..." Lin continued. "I didn't know how far we were going to go, and you're the first person I got that close to having sex with since, and I just got scared. It all started coming back, and--"

"Breathe, Lin, I'm not her, my love, and I'm never going to let anyone hurt you like that ever again." Pippa interrupted her fiancee, but she saw it as for the better before Lin threw himself down this spiral. "I love you."

"I love you too, Pip." Lin looked up, brushing his tears away. "We can..." He forced his throat to clear once more. "We can go continue if you'd like, I'm sorry about--"

Pippa shook her head. "No, Love. Not tonight." She gingerly kissed his forehead. "Not tonight." She repeated, still shaking her head as she gently rocked Lin in her embrace.

It was from that moment forward that Phillipa Soo was determined to make sure that absolutely nobody ever hurt her future husband like that again. And she would do whatever it takes.