Under Normal Circumstances

Kiss and Tell

"Hey, May?" Grace piped up as she examined a photo. "I've been meaning to ask you, what were you guys promising here?"

Slivko had me locked in a hug and I peeked out from under his chin as she held up the picture of us making a pinky promise right before we all nearly died trying to cross the most dangerous part of the island. Slivko heaved a defeated groan as he buried his face in my hair. I held him a little tighter.

"Whatever it is, I'm guessing you broke it," Matt ventured.

Slivko nodded against my collar bone.
"More than once and I kick myself for it every single day."

"Awe, no," I squeezed him extra hard and stroked his hair. "Don't do that!"

"No, it's the worst," Slivko countered, pulling away and looking at me with a sad puppy expression. "Whenever we split up everything bad happened."

"Bad things were happening no matter what, it was a terrible place," I reminded him touching his cheek.

"So you promised not to split up?" Grace interrupted.

I nodded to her.
"We were crossing a really dangerous part of the island and Slivko told me to stay close-"

"But I didn't stay close to her, wound up unconscious and she had to rescue me," Slivko finished. "But it gets worse."

"Slivko," I tsk'ed. "Was this really bothering you that much?"

"Yes!" He adamantly stated. "I wish I had disobeyed my orders and stayed with you after we found out about Jack. That's what I should have done."

My heart hurt so bad. I didn't know he felt like that all this time. I sighed and it came out shuddery.

"I know at the time I was literally hysterical," I told him. "But I'm not mad at you for doing your job, I understand. I don't want you to feel bad about it. I don't mind rescuing you every once in a while too, you know."

"That's - that's when you took the.. the Ploat back for everyone?" Grace questioned, trying to recall what I'd said before.

"At least you got a girl who can drive anything. Are you proud, Dad?" Matt threw in to try and lighten the mood.

Something finally clicked in my brain about Matt. If he was so much like Lily and Slivko took after his dad, that now made Matt the odd man out. His quips between Slivie and Peter had some kind of purpose, I knew that much, but I didn't know what the purpose was yet.

"I'm always proud of both of you boys," Peter was saying. "To be honest though, Maybelle does exceed all my expectations- err, not expectations, that's the wrong word."

He backpedaled calmly for a moment.
"I always knew Reg would find a really nice girl, but until today I didn't know a girl as nice as Maybelle even existed."

"Well now you've set the bar too high for any girl I bring home," Matt said to me, feigning indignation. Just like Slivko he had that telling playful smirk.

"Oh I'm sure either of you could do way better than me," I said, unable to handle the praise and the teasing anymore, my cheeks warm and pink.

"Nope, no, nuh-uh, mm-mm," Slivko made every word and noise in the English language to denote his disagreement with me as he also wrapped his arms firmly around my shoulders. "There is no 'better than you'. No one, no thing."
He punctuated this point with a kiss to the side of my head, a very loud one.

"Well thank god for you," Grace said, gaining everyone's attention. "At least you see how amazing she is and you're not afraid to tell her. Maybe she'll start believing you. I never could figure out the right way to say it to her, she never seemed to believe me or take me seriously. Somehow, somewhere I guess I stopped trying, which I never should have done."

This was news to me, I had no idea how to respond so I just sunk farther into Slivko.

"Maybe we can talk about someone besides me for a while?" I offered. "I don't know about the rest of you, but it's been an emotional whirlwind the past few hours and I'm kind of exhausted."

"Maybe we can talk about the adorable scene in the living room," Penelope offered.

We all looked to see Billy and Peaches cuddled together fast asleep.

"Oh the poor kid," Grace said as she pushed back her chair. "I've neglected him all this time."

"Oh, he's alright," Penny assured her. "He's so calm and self entertained. And Peaches kept an eye on him just fine."

She suddenly turned to Slivko's dad.
"Peter," she said cooly. "You're not planning to let them stay in the basement, are you?"

Peter's eyes were the only feature that betrayed him.

"Oh no," Penny said, placing both hands on the table. "I have a perfectly wonderful guest room that Grace and Billy will stay in and that's that."

"What about May?" Slivko asked her.

"Oh, like we could tear you two apart," she dismissed him.

"Ooh sounds like we're bunking together," Slivko jokingly cooed in my ear.

"No!" Grace and Peter adamantly stated simultaneously, making Slivko and I giggle.

"Too bad we don't have a hammock," Slivko added.

"What's That now?" Grace asked, a brow raised suspiciously.

"Oh nothing," I said innocently as I covered Slivko's mouth with my hand. I gave him a mildly scolding look and felt the weirdo kiss my palm.

"Maybe we should get some coffee and take it in the living room. I see you have the albums out," Penny suggested.

"Good idea," Peter said as he got up and headed to the kitchen.

"I'll put the little guy in my room if that's alright with you," Matt offered to Grace.

"Oh, yeah. That'd be great, thanks," Grace followed him out, leaving the photos on the table.

Slivko wasn't moving aside from twirling a lock of my hair around his finger, but Penny noticed a corner peeking out of the folder. She reached over and pulled out the very last one, the blurry picture of me tip toeing to kiss Slivko goodbye in the rain.

"Oh my," Penny's hand went to her mouth. "This is lovely."

"What's that one?" Slivko asked and she handed it over to him.
He turned pink as a smile took control of his face. He was flustered.

"You little instigator," he down right giggled. "Oh I want to keep this one."

"Well it's mine for now," I told him sassily. "That's what you get for calling me an instigator."

Slivko was losing his mind, his smile so big as his eyes widened too.
"You would just grab me and kiss me whenever you wanted-"

"I only kissed you twice out of all the times!" I cut in. "And they don't even add up to what you did at the airport."

He looked like he was about to repeat what he'd done at the airport, or possibly even out do it, this very moment and I kind of wished he would.

"Exactly how much kissing have you two done?" Penny asked slyly, startling us both as we'd quite forgotten the rest of the world existed.

"Oh god," I mumbled, covering my red face and giggling. "How embarrassing."

"Mmm I'm pretty sure we're up to 9," Slivko answered nonchalantly causing me to snap up and stare at him.

"You know that just off the top of your head?" I asked surprised.

"Yeah, because I thought about it practically all the time when we were apart."

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Hey guys! I just love it when we talk in the comments so I had an idea.
1) tell me something you'd like to see happen in the story and I'll pick a few to try and work in.
2) I will be writing a few special chapters for you to request character reactions, ask questions, write up scenarios whatever you want! Comment here what you'd like!

BTW!!! Matt in my mind is TOTALLY Chris Evans, now you know. Enjoy him even more. Honestly he's so fun to write, like, he practically came alive and writes himself it's crazy. I love that y'all love him too 😂