Hi5 Love

Chapter 9

         I woke up and felt Tanner's arms around me, I wasn't sure if he was awake, but I didn't want to wake him. I carefully got up and walked to the kitchen and made pancakes. I hope the boys will like these. I thought while finishing setting everything up.
      "Tanner." I whispered as I began shaking him. He didn't wake up, so I walked to Gunner's room and woke him up. "Gunner, I made pancakes. Wake up." I said, shaking him awake.
      "You didn't have to." Gunner said in a sleepy voice. "I should've made the food." Gunner began getting up as he said it.
       "I can't get Tanner up." I said walking out of the room. "I'll try again." I said, approaching Tanner. "TANNER!" I screamed, shaking him, which woke him up. "Finally." I laughed grabbing his hand and pulling him into the kitchen.
       "Good morning to you too." Tanner said while laughing at how ridiculous I am. "I see you made breakfast."
       "That is correct, I hope you like pancakes!" I kissed his cheek and we sat beside each other.
"Why aren't you eating?" Tanner asked a couple minutes after him and Gunner started eating.
"I never eat breakfast, or lunch." I laid my head on his shoulder.
"That's not good, you should eat more." He placed his hand on my stomach. "It feels like you're under weight."
"I am." I kissed his cheek. "I need to get ready." I looked around "But I don't have any of my clothes, or makeup."
"You can wear something of mine." Tanner said, finishing eating. We got up and he helped me to walk to his room.
       I grabbed his lavender hoodie and a pair of his jeans, which were too big. "Adorable!" Tanner exclaimed before he kissed my forehead and gave me a hug, we walked into the kitchen.
      "Who's the real Tanner?" Gunner jokingly asked.
"Not me!" Tanner yelled. He grabbed his keys. "(Y/N) I can drive you to your house to rest or you can stay here, your choice."
"The studio?" I gave him puppy dog eyes, "please." I wrapped my arms around him and leaned my head against his chest.
"But...." Gunner cut him off.
"You can go but you can't do anything active." Gunner responded for Tanner.
"Thanks!" I hobbled over to Gunner and gave him a hug.
"I still don't think that's a good idea." Tanner wasn't agreeing with us.
"Tanner, you can head off, I'll get her situated and then go to the studio."
"You sure?" Tanner seemed confused.
"Yep!" Gunner responded and Tanner left. "Don't worry, I'm taking you to the studio." He was like my best friend already!
"Thanks!" I smiled. That's all I could do. I was so happy with everything, well, almost everything. But we all already knew the problem. "Gunner, I hope that the fact that I'm dating Tanner won't affect our friendship." We were walking towards the door to leave.
"Of course not!" Gunner flashed me a friendly smile. "Let's get going."

—Time Skip to Red Base parking lot—

"Thanks Gunner!" We got out of the car and were walking in, when we noticed Tanner in Paul and Connor's office, "Well, how do we get around him?" I curiously asked.
"I'll go in and ask a question about Rekt, once he is detracted sneak into Joey's office and then you carry on with the day. I'll come back at 4:30 and take you back to the apartment." I nodded. "3, 2, 1, ACTION!" He whispered and walked to the office, the plan had begun!
I waited until I heard him talking to Tanner. Then I walked to Joey's office while staying low to the ground. I sat on the chair and let out a sigh of relief.
"HEY (Y/N)!" Joey yelled, scaring the crud out of me. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He laughed a little. "I thought you weren't coming in today." He motioned towards my casts.
"I wanted to come in. Tanner didn't think it was a good idea, and Gunner snuck me in." I chuckled a little, I realized, I already fit in, with friends that want to help me. I felt a small smile creep onto my face.
"Well, I'm glad that you wanna come in, and that you already made friends." He smiled and gave me a hug. "Hey, I know we just met but I'm glad you weren't too seriously injured. I like having you around." Was he flirting? No, it's me, no one like me like that. Expect Tanner. He leaned in, it seemed like he was leaning in for a kiss but I wasn't sure.
"Joey!" Bryan walked in. Thank God! Joey let go of me and I stood beside him. "Shoot time!" He looked at me, "I thought you weren't coming in for this we—" I cut him off.
"That was Tanner's plan. But I'm strong enough to come in!" I struck a superhero pose. And we all laughed.
"Tanner's plan?" Bryan asked, I forgot we didn't tell everyone.
         "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, we are...umm...dating?" I looked at he ground and rubbed my hand on the back of my neck.
       "Two things. One, you didn't sound convinced. Two, you seem ashamed." Bryan sounded sincere.
      "Well, we were going to go on our first date yesterday...but this happened." I looked at my body. I felt a hand on my face wiping away tears that I didn't even know were there. It was Joey. "Thanks." I weakly said. I was crying for sure. I felt Joey lead me to the couch and sit down with me. "Why me? Why did this have to happen to me? I thought I could finally be happy, but no, I can't." I was sobbing at this point. I heard Bryan leave and he came back a couple minutes later.
         "(Y/N)! What's wrong?" It was Tanner, I felt him sit beside me. He pulled me into a hug. I put my head on his shoulder and cried. I wasn't sure how long I was crying. But I cried until I had no tears left. "Babe, I love you. Just know that." He broke the silence and kissed the top of my head.
          "I-I-I l-l-love y-you t-t-" I couldn't stop crying.
           "Let it all out babe." Tanner held me tighter.