To Love A Fighter |||| l.p.

Date

Stella's POV

"You're falling for him, aren't you?" Perrie declares as I watch Liam and Zayn close the balcony door behind them. "What do you mean? Of course I like him," I tell her nonchalantly. She smirks at me, "but you don't want it to be over after Miami right?" I stay quiet, look at Liam outside,  and look back down. "What's on your mind about it? You know he adores you too right?" Perrie pulls me out of my thoughts. I blush at the statement. I realize Perrie might be the best person to ask about what im thinking about so I confess. "I...want to be with Liam. But I don't want to stop fighting. I love being with Liam, but I'm worried that our careers aren't good for us to be together. We could both be traveling for months without seeing each other. I'm no musician like you guys, but I'm so close to going pro, and when I do I could have fights anywhere around the world. I'm not giving that up for anyone. And I was perfectly fine without Liam, but now that he's been around me....I don't want to not have him there. It's like life is good, but its great with him around!" I smile as I finish telling her my thoughts. Perrie gives me an understanding smile. "You kplease now when Zayn and I first started dating I had the same concern. We both loved our careers, but we loved being around each other just as much. I didn't want to give up either one. But we decided to just jump in and risk it anyway. I'll take that over regretting not doing anything at all," Perrie smiles as she thinks about the journey of her and her fiance. "We discovered that although we could be months without seeing each other, we really liked the fact that we were both off doing what we loved and that we had each other to go home to. And we would do fun things like support each other at concerts and surprise each other while traveling.  And seeing each other again each time was always the best. It worked for us, and I think it could work for you two as well," she advises me. I nod as I think about what she said. Would Liam be supportive of me and my career? Would I be able to handle being away from each other for so long? If its for reasons like that, well, I don't see why not...

The balcony door opens and Liam and Zayn walk back in from their chat. "Well, we have one more day here, how should we end it?" Zayn asks us. Liam is the first to speak up, "actually, if you guys don't mind, I'd like to spend the day with Stella. We haven't been alone since she got here, and I haven't taken her on a proper date yet." "Whoa well, we can't have that for much longer! We'll let the group know, you two have fun!" Perrie says excitedly and hurries Zayn out the door. Liam and I wave to them as they leave. The door closes and we look at each other and laugh.

We're both quiet for a bit, then he reaches for my hand and pulls me in for an embrace. I close my eyes and bury my face in his chest. I breathe in deep and smell his cologne. He feels so perfect. This feels like where I belong. My hearts start to ache, am I ready for this? How long has it been Stella, since you were truly vulnerable with someone? Are you ready for this? My thoughts start to make me dizzy.

"Stella, would you like to go on a proper date with me?" Liam asks me, yanking me out of my thoughts. I blush and manage to give a barely audible "Yes." He chuckles, "you're blushing aren't you?" "No!" I lie as I put my face in his chest again and hug him tightly so that he doesn't see me. "Let me see!" Liam exclaims as he tries to shimmy out of my arms. We both laugh and play wrestle as he tries to get me to make eye contact with him. He manages to pin me down on the floor, "there's that adorable rosy blush!" And he slowly drops down for a kiss. "Go get ready love, lets have fun today," he smiles as he helps me up.

Liam's POV

My heart's beating a mile a minute. I don't know where to go, but I don't really care. All I know is what I want the end of the night to look like. I sneak in a call to the hotel staff to prepare that for later today. In the meantime, I think that I'm just gonna take her to the beach. She'll like that, I call out to her "Stella! Make sure you bring a swimsuit!" I know I really don't have anything planned, but with her, every time we're together we have fun. I smile at the excitement of not really knowing what to expect for today, but just focusing on the adventure of being with Stella. 

She bounces out of the room in flowy sundress and pinned a flower in her curls. She looks so cute, as she bounces with excitement for what's to come. "What are we doing today?" she smiles widely at me. I feel myself start to blush, she's too cute, it's hard to restrain myself around her. I turn away a little and put my hand over my mouth pretending to think, but really wanting to cover up my cheeks so that she doesn't see me blush. "We're going on a picnic at the beach," I tell her once I calm down. Her eyes light up, "that sounds great!!" 

We go to the store, and start to buy supplies for our picnic, we run down the aisles, pick out a basket, and grab as much food as we love. Fruit, veggies, dressing, water, juice pouches, sandwich materials, chips, and sweets. We try on silly sunhats and funny sunglasses and take goofy pictures with each other. We strut around the store in the silly hats nonchalantly until the staff tells us to put it back, we apologize and laugh after they leave.

We take our things to the beach and Stella tells me about growing up in Puerto Rico and how that's the reason why she loves the beach. Her voice softens as she tells me about running barefoot in the streets and climbing trees and seeing the ocean every day. She tells me how time and time again her family would rebuild after a hurricane would ravage their tiny island, but she would speak happily about these things because she liked spending that time with her family and creating her home again. It was fascinating, we almost come from 2 different worlds, different languages, cultures, upbringings, lives, but yet, we understood everything we needed from each other. The connection was inexplicable. We took some time to play in the water, she let me get close to her, to hug her, to kiss her in the ocean as the sun set. Everything was just, perfect. Well, almost.

"I have one more surprise for you" I murmur in her ear. She smiles. I love that smiles. I love this, I love being with her. I love....her. I catch my breath as soon as it dawns on me. I love her. Wow! I love Stella! I pause to think. I'm going to wait, I need to ask her one thing first....to be my girlfriend.