LENNOX ▸ RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK

TWENTY-TWO • LUCKY

Lennox's schedule had only consisted of one thing the past few weeks: ballet. It was a major change from having watched Ruben play in the World Cup. It was a different kind of hectic schedule, a changed one which Lenny welcomed after participating in a different sport in an equally passionate manner.

After meeting up for drinks with a few of her fellow ballerinas, Lennox went straight to the hotel Ruben had booked for the pair for the day before her premier as Cinderella at the Royal Opera House. The first show was tomorrow night and as a type of pre-show gift for getting so far, Ruben had booked himself and Lennox the best suite in a hotel in the middle of London with the best view of the Thames.

She quickly hopped into the shower when she didn't see Ruben in the room, assuming he was still out hanging with their friends. She smirked when she was nearly done with her shower and felt a pair of muscular arms tighten around her waist. Ruben pecked kisses onto her shoulder blades as his bare chest pressed against her back, water splashing onto their skin.

"Hello, pretty girl," Ruben stated against her bright skin, allowing her to turn around in his arms only to wrap her own arms around his neck.

Lenny ran a hand through his hair, pulling slightly at the bits close to his neck. She leaned up on her tips toes to pull Ruben's bottom lip between her teeth, forcing a groan of ecstasy out of him. "Hi, handsome boy," she mumbled.

"Have I mentioned that I'm incredibly proud of you for having the lead in a ballet at the ROH, princess?" he asked, pressing kiss after kiss to her lips.

He'd started calling her princess after she got the part in the ballet. "Princess, get it? Cause you're Cinderella," he'd said when he strategically came up with it. To be fairly honest, it wasn't a nickname Lenny was opposed to at all; in fact, she thought it was pretty neat.

"Only a few hundred times," she answered his question, sliding a hand down his wet chest until she reached his v-line. Ruben's breathing hitched and Lenny looked up at him with her big brown eyes, a smirk growing at her lips. Ruben's eyes were glued to hers as Lenny tested the waters. "How long do we have until everyone gets here?"

A handful of Lenny and Ruben's friends were headed to their hotel room tonight, planning on having an eventful night before a big day ahead of them tomorrow.

"Long enough," Ruben sputtered our just before Lenny's hand raked down below his v-line, fingers grasping him. This led to an escalation of things, things getting much, much hotter.

Turns out, the couple didn't have long enough. And, as they finished up in the shower, Rebekah and Jesse were already banging at the front door of their hotel room impatiently. Lennox and Ruben opened the door together, which was probably not a great idea on their part as Bekah and Jess stared between the two, already having figured out what happened. Both were in their towels, their breathing patterns irregular. A blush adorned Lenny's cheeks as she took notice of the nail marks on Ruben's chest and back.

"So... we're just going to go get dressed and pretend this never happened," she told her friends, letting them in before teetering off to the bathroom and putting some sweats on.

Emma and Logan arrived soon after and Marcus brought his girlfriend along; Raheem and Trent arrived too; Ruben's brother Isaac even managed to make it. The group of friends spent the entire night together, all nine of them squishing around Ruben and Lenny onto the same king-sized bed as they binged some movies and played card games while music played in the background; a constant flow of alcohol between all of them kept the party alive.

It was a special moment then, at four in the morning when Lennox looked around at her sleeping friends sprawled all around herself and Ruben, their limbs entangled with one another's, their heads rested together, hair over all their face. She looked around the bed and unpremeditatedly, tears started to well up in her eyes. It really hit her then, when Jesse was clutching onto her waist and Marcus' head was resting on her leg.

I'm so lucky, she thought to herself. I'm so lucky to have found these friends, so thankful for whatever force in the universe brought them to me. I'm so lucky to be next to the man I love, the one I never stopped loving, my one true love. I'm so lucky to have Jesse drooling on the skin of my waist showing thanks to my shirt riding up. I'm so lucky to have had my leg fall asleep because Rashy's head is resting on it.

I'm so lucky to have the best of friends who genuinely care about me, who are with me through thick and thin, who support my dreams and never judge me for chasing after the rare dream of becoming a ballerina. I'm so lucky to have found an occupation that strays from the norms of society, a career considered unstable by some, a career that makes me happier than anything else ever could.

Lennox was brought back down to Earth when Ruben's fingers, which had been intertwined with Lenny's since they sat down on the bed, squeezed her hand. She looked over at him, a smile growing on her face as she saw Logan's face smushed into his side, her arm thrown over Emma, who laid on her other side.

"You okay, love?" he whispered over the hum of the TV playing a long-forgotten movie in the background.

I'm so lucky to have found my way back to Ruben, she thought. He's perfect; everything I've ever wanted in a soulmate. Now, Lennox was a dreamer in that way; she believed in old-school soulmates, the fact that one person had been put on this very Earth just for her and her for him, to spend the rest of their days with a love that could burn down an entire city.

It was a belief she'd stumbled upon in a book by Plato. According to Greek Mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate beings, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves.

And Ruben was Lennox's other half; there wasn't another thing she was more sure about.

"I love you," she mumbled to him, ignoring his question as she stared into the big brown eyes she loved so much.

"I love you," he repeated to her, leaning over hesitantly as Logan moved with him, and cupped Lennox's cheek in one hand as his lips softly pressed against her.

I'm so lucky, she repeated to herself.