Summary: After the game of truth or dare, Mika can’t sleep.
Note: Not canon.
Drake is nearly asleep when she comes to him. Bleary eyed and confused, he pads to his door when he hears the gentle knock. He isn’t entirely surprised to see her standing there, but he knows he shouldn’t let her in, should tell her it’s late and she should get some sleep before their day of traveling tomorrow.
The look on her face is one of exhaustion and frustration, and he wants nothing more than to make her feel better, so he steps aside and allows her entry, closing the door behind him. Although he’d laughed it off at the time, she really is his one weakness. Especially now, with the memory of her whispering that she wants him, and her lips against his, so fresh in his mind.
She’s on him in an instant, hands gripping his hair, mouth pressed to his in desperation, pressing him into the door.
Stunned, he doesn’t respond right away, and she wrenches away from him. It’s then that he sees the tears flowing down her face. Almost like a reflex, he takes her face between his hands and brushes the tears away with his thumbs.
“Hey, hey. Talk to me. What’s wrong?” he asks, voice low and concerned.
She steps into him and slides her hands out of his hair and down his back to wrap around his waist. He mirrors her movements, sliding his arms around her back, then presses his cheek against the top of her head.
“Talk to me,” he whispers.
She takes a shaky breath and starts talking into his chest. “Are we just…not gonna talk about what happened last night? I kissed you. You kissed me back. I told you I wanted you. And now today…it’s like nothing even happened.”
She pulls back, and the look on her face is crushing. “I know you said we shouldn’t, but…I can’t pretend it didn’t happen.”
“Mika…” he trails off helplessly, unsure what to say. What is he supposed to do? She’s here for the prince, for his best friend, not for him. He’s just a commoner with trust issues and a cynical streak a mile wide. None of this was supposed to happen. He wasn’t supposed to develop feelings for her, and she definitely wasn’t supposed to start having feelings for him. Now he feels like he’s damned no matter what he does.
If he gives into her again, he’ll destroy Liam, potentially destroy House Beaumont, and cause a national scandal. He’s certain he’d be asked to leave Cordonia and lose Liam’s friendship forever.
But if denies her, tells her it was all a mistake and meant nothing…how can he do that to her, to them? The thought of never seeing her again causes his throat to tighten and he feels a sense of dread.
“I can’t do this,” he hears Mika whisper.
He whips his head up. “What are you saying?”
“I’m going to talk to Liam tomorrow,” she replies, voice shaky but certain. “I can’t lie to him, to myself, anymore. I’m going to drop out of the running and go back to New York.”
“But…what will you do?”
It’s not what he wants to say, and he berates himself for not telling her to stay, not telling her that of course last night meant something, not showing her exactly how much it meant.
She looks up at him with a sad smile. “Well, I’m sure my old job isn’t gonna want to hire someone back who gave a one hour notice, but it’s a big city. I’ll find something. I mean…there’s nothing for me here.”
“It meant something,” he finally manages to blurt out.
She furrows her brow and opens her mouth, but nothing comes out.
He takes her hands in his. “Just…listen?” he pleads.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“I don’t even know where to start,” he begins. He lets out a nervous laugh.
“I tried, Mika, I really tried, not to feel this way about you. I thought if I was just, well, myself, that you’d see me as this massive jerk like everyone else seems to. But you just kept pushing back and being…nice to me and making me feel like you wanted me there. Like you actually liked talking to me and being around me, and somewhere along the way, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about you in ways that I shouldn’t have been.”
He looks up and meets her gaze, bringing a hand up to her cheek as he notices tears threatening to fall from her eyes again. “I don’t want you to go back to New York. Not alone, anyway. God, Mika, I’m so in love with you.”
She cups his face in her hands and closes her eyes as she leans into him.
“Drake,” she whispers, and he shivers as her breath hits his neck. When she pulls back this time, the tears that had been filling her eyes are gone and have been replaced by a warmth that makes him imagine all the possibilities for them and think about a future with her.
Her eyes and her hands slowly travel from his lips to his jawline, down across his bare chest and stomach, lingering at the waistband on his pajama pants. “I want to be with you,” she whispers in his ear, rising on her tiptoes.
Pulling back slightly, she smiles and presses a gentle kiss to the side of his mouth. “I love you,” she murmurs, pressing a kiss to the other side of his mouth.
Drake can’t stop the smile that spreads across his face. And yet, he’s still somewhat in disbelief that she wants him, is choosing him, over the life that she could have here.
“Are you sure?” he asks.
She laughs and swats his side. “Shut up. Yes, of course I’m sure.”
Drake tangles his fingers in her hair and kisses her deeply, and can’t help but smile again as he feels her whimper into his mouth. “Stay?” he asks.
“Always.”