Completed • First Draft - not edited. || "You gonna sit there all night?" Luka glances at me, smirking. I glare back. "I was enjoying the last few seconds of peace before having to spend an evening pretending to like you." "That's funny," he says, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Why?" I snap. "Because I was thinking the same thing." || The rules? Easy enough. 1. Pretend to be the perfect couple. 2. Keep it professional. 3. And whatever you do, don't. catch. feelings. Simple, right? Sofia Calloway never planned on going viral for throwing a drink in Luka Mikhaylov's face. But one video, one pissed-off hockey star, and one furious university later... she's suddenly stuck in a fake relationship with the guy she can't stand. He needs to clean up his image before the NHL draft. She needs the free tuition that comes with the deal. All they have to do is smile for the cameras, hold hands at the games, and act like they don't want to strangle each other. Then come the late-night arguments that last too long. The stolen glances that feel too dangerous. The moment where "pretend" starts looking way too real. Because when you break the rules, someone's bound to lose. And this time, it might be both of them.

Join Me - An Aaron Warner Fanfiction I have known duty longer than I have known freedom. I have worn expectation like a second skin. I have been alone. But I was not always. Before her, before this, before I became Commander Warner, there was a time when my life was not only my own. I was given a wife. A contract. A partner. Mara was never meant to be more than an obligation. But she was- She was everything. Sharp mind. Steady hands. A quiet strength that rivaled my own. She met me as an equal, fought me as a challenge, stood beside me as if it had always been meant to be this way. We built something together. Something neither of us expected. But war does not make room for softness. And love does not always win.But it's about time it did.I will stop at nothing to regain what I lost however brutally I might have to play. This is the story of before. Of what was lost. Of what still lingers. Of what will be retrieved.