Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The day after Shelby heads back to New York, Toni walks into the Lynx locker room to get ready for practice with a goofy smile on her face, whistling happily as she makes her way over to her locker. She’s pulling open her locker and taking out her practice jersey and shorts when she notices the room has gone unusually quiet. Her whistling slowly trails off as she looks around and sees that most of her teammates are staring at her in various states of confusion and amusement. She darts her eyes around the room at all of them before scowling. 

“What?” 

“You’re whistling,” Carmen says suspiciously. 

“And smiling,” Lauren adds. 

Toni shrugs and pulls her shoes out of her locker. “So?” 

“Sooo,” Rachel drags out as she sits on the bench in front of the lockers and tightens her laces. “It’s barely 9am and you’re never this happy before double digits.” 

“Had a good couple of days,” Toni says simply as she quickly changes into her practice uniform. When she pulls her jersey over her head she sees her teammates all smirking at her knowingly. “What?” She asks again. 

“Do the pics we all saw of you leaving a certain blonde pop stars hotel room yesterday morning have anything to do with that?” Carmen teases. 

Toni rolls her eyes but says nothing, ducking her head and desperately trying and failing to hide the blush she can feel forming on her cheeks as she sits down next to Rachel to pull on her shoes. 

“Oh my god, look at those cheeks!” Lauren says around a laugh. “Someone definitely got laid.”  

“Oh, for sure,” Carmen adds, her smirk widening. “Is that a hickey I see poking out of the top of your jersey, Shalifoe?” 

There’s a smattering of hoots and whistles and Toni huffs and looks at her teammates in annoyance. “Seriously, what is this? A high school boys locker room? Grow up.” 

“Yeah, for real guys, knock it off,” Rachel chimes in and the women all quiet down as Lauren and Carmen both hold their hands up apologetically. 

“You’re right, we’re sorry. That was immature,” Carmen says with a sheepish smile. “We’re just happy for you, Shalifoe.” 

“Thanks,” Toni replies with a small smile of her own. Despite their annoying teasing, it does make her feel good to know people outside of Martha and the rest of the Blackburns care about her happiness. 

It’s quiet in the locker room before Lauren is not so subtly clearing her throat. “So…you think you could score us some concert tickets or…” 

“Fuck off!” Toni groans out as she tosses a towel at her teammate. There’s another round of laughter before their coach is coming in and telling them all to get their asses in gear and onto the court. Everyone finishes dressing and as they're all walking out, Rachel bumps her shoulder into Toni’s with a knowing look. 

“I’m gonna go out on a limb and say it’s safe to assume that I can now officially call Shelby your girl without you correcting me.”  

Toni feels her lips pulling up into a huge grin and she doesn’t fight it. “Yeah, I’d say that’s an accurate assumption,” she admits, feeling way too giddy about this recent development in her and Shelby’s relationship but also far too happy to care. She practically gushed to Martha about her feelings and her time with Shelby -skipping past the more sexually explicit details of course- over the phone for almost two hours last night and she still feels like someone has shot straight serotonin into her veins. 

Rachel smiles back and throws an arm over Toni’s shoulders. “Well then, like Carmen said, I’m happy for you, three.” 

“Thank you.” 

Rachel drops her arm before landing a playful punch against Toni’s bicep. “But don’t let that blonde bombshell girlfriend of yours distract you. Seasons not over yet. We still got work to do.” 

Toni laughs and nods her head. “I promise. My head is high school musical levels of in the game.” 

Rachel snorts. “God, you are such a dork. I can’t believe your fans actually think you’re cool.” 

“Hey! I’m fly as fuck!” Toni argues as they step onto the court for practice. 

…………

The next week passes by fairly quickly and has Toni and the Lynx darting all over the country for four away games in a row. They win the first three and if they can beat the Sparks in a couple days, they’ll be just two victories away from breaking the team’s previous streak record. It doesn’t really count for anything in the grand scheme of things, but Toni’s prideful side really wants this for her and her teammates and after their last practice -which went flawlessly- Toni is completely confident that they’ll be able to pull it off. 

They’re in LA for the game against the Sparks and just minutes after Toni sits down on the bed in her hotel room, her phone dings with a text. When she pulls her phone out she fully expects to see that it’s a message from Shelby. Her girlfriend seemed to always have some kind of sixth sense for when Toni was settled into her room. What she doesn’t expect is to see is the name Fatin Jadmani across the screen. The two of them exchanged numbers the first night she hung out with Shelby in person, but Fatin has never texted her and for a brief moment Toni panics, thinking maybe something has happened to Shelby. The panic quickly fades however when Toni realizes that if that were the case, surely Fatin would be calling and not texting. Assuming it still hasn’t something to do with Shelby, Toni is a little surprised when she opens the message. 

Fatin Jadmani, 6:14 

Ayooo baller babe! Heard from our lovely Martha that you were in the city of angels for a few days and it just so happens that so is yours truly. Was wondering if you would be able to get lunch with me while you’re here? Or dinner. I’m flexible 😉 I know you’re busy but a girls gotta eat right? 

Toni stares down at the message, her eyebrows furrowed curiously. She knows that Fatin and Martha talk pretty regularly, and that Martha and Shelby do too sometimes, but Fatin and Toni have never talked, much less hung out, without either Shelby or Martha around, so this random invite was just a little weird. Not that Toni would mind hanging out with Fatin alone. Her and Fatin have gotten along just fine so far, but something tells her there’s an actual purpose to this casual hang out and she’s interested to know what it is. 

Only one way to find out. 

Toni shrugs to herself as she types her reply.

6:17

hey fatin. i’m just gonna roll with the baller babe nickname cause something tells me complaining about it will get me nowhere. to answer your question though, yeah lunch is cool as long as we can do it tomorrow. i have drills tomorrow evening and then the next day is game day so that’s kinda the only time i’ve got

Fatin Jadmani, 6:19 

Lunch tomorrow is perfect. I know a place and it’s on me. 1:30 work for you? 

Fatin Jadmani, 6:20

Btw, I totally knew you’d be one of those lower case texters 

Toni rolls her eyes with a small smile, but completely ignores Fatin’s second message. 

6:21

1:30 is good

Fatin Jadmani, 6:21

Excellent! See you soon  

Fatin sends the address and Toni is thankful to see that it’s to a regular looking lunch place and not somewhere super fancy that probably only people like Leonardo DiCaprio and his inappropriately young dates eat at. 

Toni’s phone dings with another text a few minutes later and Toni once again expects to see Shelby’s name but instead, it’s Martha’s.   

Marty B 🐸😎, 6:29

Might have to take up kickboxing again T if you wanna keep your girl 😜 

Toni has no idea what the fuck that’s supposed to mean and she’s about to send a single confused question mark but doesn’t get a chance before Martha is sending another message. It’s a link to a tweet and Toni quickly opens it. 

@shelbob03

okay I know we all have evidence that Toni absolutely CAN fight but she can’t take us all

Toni’s jaw drops at the picture below the tweet. It’s a pap shot of Shelby that must have been taken earlier today as she was leaving the studio. In it, Shelby is wearing a black t-shirt with a black and white diamond patterned skirt, knee high white socks with plain white sneakers and she looks so stupid hot that Toni immediately pulls up Shelby’s contact and hits call. 

She answers after two rings. 

“Well hi there. Your timin’ is impeccable cause I was just about to call you.” 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Toni says, trying to sound as offended as possible. 

“Huh? What are you talkin’ about? What did I do?” Shelby asks with genuine concern and confusion in her voice. 

“What do you think you’re doing wearing something like that when I’m not around to do something about it?”  

There’s a long pause and Toni’s a little worried Shelby didn’t catch the teasing tone of her voice, but when Shelby speaks again, Toni can practically hear her smirking and she relaxes. 

“And how do you know what I was wearin’?” 

“Twitter. Apparently all your fans are ready to fight me for you,” Toni says as she leans back on the bed and rests her head against the pillows. 

“They’d be wastin’ their time.” 

Toni smiles up at the ceiling. “Good to know cause I’m not as scrappy as I used to be. I don’t know how long I could last if I had to Royal Rumble it out with your fans to date you.” 

“Now there’s an idea for a charity event. Fatin could commentate. She’d love it.” 

“Oh, I’m sure she would,” Toni agrees, putting the phone on speaker and rolling onto her side to lean her head against her hand. “Speaking of Fatin, she texted me earlier.” 

“Really?” Shelby asks, sounding just as confused and curious as Toni felt earlier. 

“Yeah, she didn’t tell you? I figured she would have.” Fatin keeping Shelby in the dark about their lunch plans has Toni even more curious as to why exactly Fatin wants to hang out all of a sudden. She’s a little worried she’s somehow ruined some sort of surprise that Fatin had in mind but surely if that was the plan she would’ve told Toni not to mention it to Shelby and would’ve at least said what it was about. Shelby doesn’t say anything in the brief silence so Toni finishes explaining. 

“She asked me if I wanted to have lunch tomorrow since she’s in LA too. She didn’t really give me a reason, but I figured maybe she just wants to hang out and get to know me better or something.” 

Shelby hums down the line but Toni can tell she’s only half listening. Toni’s pretty sure she can vaguely hear tapping, like Shelby’s typing on her phone or something, and then Shelby huffs and the tapping gets a little louder and more rapid. 

“Shelby?” 

“One second,” Shelby answers distractedly. There’s some more tapping and a heavy sigh from Shelby before she speaks again. “Sorry. I was just…textin’ someone.” 

Toni raises an eyebrow at that vague response. “Everything okay?” 

“Yes,” Shelby replies but she sounds annoyed. “Just…try not to take anything Fatin says too seriously tomorrow, okay?”

Ah. Toni gets it now. Fatin wants to give her the best friend talk. Makes sense, even if Toni does find it a little juvenile, but she likes Fatin and Fatin is very important to Shelby, so Toni can take having to deal with a shovel talk disguised as a hang out. She briefly thinks about Martha trying to give the same type of talk to Shelby and even though Toni knows Martha can be intimidating when she wants to be, her best friend is already so charmed by Shelby that any sort of “threat” that Martha came up with if Shelby hurt Toni would immediately be overshadowed by the two of them gushing to each other about god knows what and Marty telling Shelby all of Toni’s embarrassing secrets. 

Realizing she’s been silent for a bit too long, Toni goes for a joke, not wanting Shelby to stress about this. “Trust me Bee, I never take anything Fatin says too seriously.” 

Shelby lets out an amused hum. “Very wise of you.” 

“I’m full of all kinds of wisdom.” 

“You’re definitely full of somethin’.” 

“That’s it, I’m leaking it to TMZ; America's Sweetheart is a bully. ”  

Shelby laughs at that and the sound has Toni’s heart fluttering, but she’s also a little bummed she’s stuck hearing it through the phone for the next few days.  

“I miss you,” Toni confesses, picking at one of the feathers that is poking through the comforter on the bed. “Is that lame?” 

“If it is lame then I am too cause I started missin’ you the second I left and it’s only gotten worse. It’s kind of pathetic if I’m bein’ honest.” 

“Cool, so we’re both losers.” 

Shelby laughs again. “Guess so, pitstop,” she agrees. “But don’t worry, if all goes to plan, I’ll be able to be in Minnesota just in time to watch you kick Seattle's ass.” 

Toni hums happily. “Hopefully wearing that outfit you had on today.” 

Shelby tsks down the line. “Yeah, no can do, hotshot. I actually already have my outfit planned for that one.” 

“And what outfit would that be?” Toni asks, intrigued. Not that it mattered what Shelby wore, Toni just wanted to see her. She could show up in a damn potato sack if she wanted and Toni would have no problems, but the idea that she planned something has excited butterflies stirring in Toni’s stomach. 

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” 

“Ugh, fine,” Toni says with a small groan. “I guess I can wait and be surprised. Just promise you’ll at least pack that outfit you wore today to wear at some point.” 

“You really wantin’ to see me in it that badly?” 

“More like I really wanna get you out of it,” Toni admits and this time it’s Shelby who’s groaning into the phone. 

“ Lord, okay. New rule. You can’t say things like that to me when we’re this far away.” 

Toni snorts. “ Yeah, I can tell you right now that’s not gonna stick.” 

There’s a loaded silence between them and Toni just knows they’re both thinking about the same thing right now. About the night -and the morning- before Shelby left for New York again and how amazing it all was. Toni starts to get lost in the memory of Shelby leaving a particularly large hickey just above her hipbone -a hickey that just fully faded two days ago- but she’s pulled out of it by the sound of Shelby clearing her throat. 

“ Anyways, you obviously landed in LA safely. How was your flight? You didn’t have to fight through the paparazzi at the airport did you?” 

Toni shakes off her very non-PG thoughts and rolls with the subject change. Probably for the best. 

“It was good. No screaming babies are terrible turbulence so that’s always good. The paps were there of course, but it wasn’t a massive mob. Nothing I couldn’t handle. How was your day?” 

As Shelby proceeds to fill her in on the details of her day, Toni listens raptly to every word. They talk for over an hour until Shelby starts yawning. Shelby was three hours ahead and even though it was only just past 11 in New York, Toni knows Shelby pretty much always has to get up early and is probably exhausted. Toni counts five yawns before finally telling Shelby to hang up and get some sleep. Shelby fights her on it for a few more minutes, but eventually gives in when another yawn interrupts her protesting. 

“ Fine, I’ll go to bed.” 

Toni smiles in amusement at Shelby‘s cranky toddler tone. “Good. I’ll call you tomorrow?” 

“Yes, please.” 

“You got it. G’night, Bee.” 

“Night, Toni,” Shelby slurs back tiredly. 

Toni swears Shelby falls asleep in the two seconds it takes for her to end the call. 

…………

It’s 1:13 when Toni walks into the cafe to meet Fatin and sees her already sitting at a small table near the back corner, scrolling through her phone and sipping at some sort of brightly colored drink with a glass of water across from her. She’s dressed to the nines as usual -way nicer than Toni who’s just in a plain white T-shirt and jeans- with a face full of makeup, hair up in a sleek ponytail, her signature giant hoop earrings, a gold shimmery top, and leather pants that are undoubtedly way too hot for LA in the summer. She also has on a pair of ridiculously tall heels and Toni wonders if it’s some kind of intimidation tactic so Fatin can tower over her even more than usual. 

Realizing she’s kind of just been idling in the doorway, Toni quickly walks over to join Fatin at the table, ignoring the handful of stares she gets and the few people she sees that try -and fail- to subtly pull out their phones to no doubt take a picture or video. 

“Hey. Sorry I’m late,” Toni apologizes as she reaches the table and slips into the chair across from Fatin. “Forgot to take into consideration that we’re in LA and I’m a little more popular now. I got stopped for like 15 pictures on the way here.” 

Fatin puts both her phone and her drink down and gives Toni an easy smile. “No worries, baller. I haven’t been here long. I would’ve ordered you something besides a water, but I have no idea what the fuck you like.” 

Toni lets out a small laugh. “The water is fine, thanks. And I pretty much like anything but coffee.” 

The two of them peruse the menu as they make small talk about Toni’s game tomorrow and the perfume commercial Fatin is there to shoot and once the waiter comes and takes their orders, they both just sip silently at their drinks for a moment, Toni wondering how long it’s going to take for Fatin to bring up the point of this whole thing. 

“So, you’re probably wondering why I randomly asked you to hang out all of a sudden.”

Not long at all apparently. 

“I think I have some idea,” Toni replies knowingly. Fatin just tilts her head and raises an eyebrow so Toni decides to just bite the bullet and get the conversation started. “I’m guessing this is where you give me the speech about how if I ever purposely hurt Shelby you’ll leak all my deep dark secrets to every media outlet in every major city?” 

Fatin smirks and lets out a small hum. “As good of a threat as that is, Shelby would never let that happen. I’m also pretty sure that would just end with me being sued. Or worse, canceled.” 

Toni snorts and shakes her head. “Okay, so no secret leaking. But I’m sure there’s still a vaguely threatening conversation you wanna have with me.” 

Fatin hums again and leans her elbows on the table, folding her hands in front of her. “A conversation, yes. As for the vaguely threatening part…I don't think that's necessary in this case.” 

Both of Toni’s eyebrows shoot up a little at that, honestly shocked that Fatin’s not grilling her about her intentions or something as equally ridiculous but typical of a protective best friend. 

“No?” Toni asks and Fatin shakes her head. 

“No.” 

Toni’s face must do something cause Fatin rolls her eyes with a small smile. 

“Look, Toni…I like you. I know I don’t really know you but I know enough. Martha talks about you like you’re the greatest thing since the vibrator and I figure if that sweet angel of a woman is that fond of you then well, you must be a pretty great person. And Shelby has honestly been pretty tight lipped about the situation with you guys, it’s really annoying actually… but , even without all the dirty details, I can see how much happier she’s been since even the beginning of this whole thing between you two. Seriously, I’ve never seen her like this.” 

Toni can’t help the warm feeling that grows in her chest at both Martha apparently talking her up to Fatin and at the idea that she seems to be making Shelby as happy as Shelby makes her. Even if the latter is a little hard for her to believe. 

“I’m glad I make her happy,” Toni says sincerely. Although she can’t help but add, “Even if I think you are exaggerating just how much.” 

“I promise you I’m not,” Fatin assures her immediately, but it still seems impossible to Toni. 

“Come on, Fatin. She’s had girlfriends before. A couple of them for years .” 

“Exactly.” Toni just blinks at her so Fatin elaborates. “She’s had long lasting relationships and yet a few months talking and hanging out with you has her on a completely different level. She’s like a walking ad for serotonin right now.” 

Toni’s lips quirk up and she takes a sip of her water to keep herself from grinning like an idiot. 

Fatin’s face grows more serious as she stares at Toni. “And all that is exactly why I wanted to have a conversation with you.” 

Toni slowly nods her head. “Go on.” 

Fatin lets out a small sigh and taps her nails on the table. “I don’t know what all Shelby has shared with you, so I’m not gonna say too much, but in her past relationships, romantic or otherwise, Shelby has kind of always been an all in type of girl. For some people it took her a little longer to get to that point than others, but once she was in, she was all in. She loves hard and her heart breaks even harder when she finds out the people she spent so much time on weren’t as all in as she was or they just weren’t who she thought they were.” 

Toni’s own heart aches at the thought of all the ways Shelby has been hurt over the years by the various people that have filtered in and out of her life, but she doesn’t interrupt and Fatin keeps going. 

“There’s also the reality of how famous she is. It’s caused a lot of problems in the past. People always say they can handle it and some of them had this idea that it would even be fun at times, but when they realized it was a constant thing and Shelby couldn’t turn it off, they changed their minds real quick and a lot of her relationships ended because of something completely out of her control.” Fatin pauses and stares at Toni very seriously. “I don’t want that to be the case here. Shelby told me you guys are official now and that’s great and I’m really happy for you both, truly. But Toni… if this is something you even think you won’t be able to handle long term, I need you to pull the cord now. I’m not asking you to predict the future or anything cause I know real shit happens and maybe you guys won’t work out for a variety of reasons down the road, but all I’m asking is if you’re not all in on this or if you have any major doubts and concerns surrounding her fame, then please, walk away now. I know this whole speech probably seems overdramatic to you and very high school, but I don’t wanna have to pick up the pieces of her shattered heart six months from now if you decide this all is just too much for you.” 

Toni takes in Fatin’s words, letting them sink in and seeing the genuine look of loving concern on her face, Toni is all of a sudden very thankful Shelby has a best friend like Fatin. One who cares enough to have a conversation like this no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Given that, Toni decides to open up a little. She’s not usually one to share her feelings with people she doesn’t really know, but she definitely doesn’t want Fatin to think this is all one sided and that Toni doesn’t know exactly what she signed up for. 

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I was a little concerned about that at one point myself. I’m a pretty private person and I don’t like people all up in my business. Especially strangers. I wondered if I would be able to handle it and pretty much thought about everything you just said to me before I called Shelby the night I invited her to my game. After I invited her she pretty much gave me the same speech about her fame that you did. So, I’ll tell you the same thing I told her.” Fatin sits straighter in her seat like she’s really listening and Toni goes on. 

“I know who she is to the world, I know what she means to people and I know exactly what it means to be with her. Even now more so than I did then. Things have gotten a whole lot more intense after she came to that game and over the time that we’ve spent together just like she said they would, and I know it’s only going to get worse over time and that things will more than likely never be the same for me after this. Do I wish Shelby and I could just fly under the radar and be like any other everyday normal couple without all the fanfare? Of course I do. But I also understand that that’s not how things can happen for us. Is it annoying? Yeah. Is it a dealbreaker? No.” 

Toni pauses, letting Fatin take in all she has said so far before giving her a reassuring smile. 

“I promise you, Fatin, especially now after getting to know her better, there is nothing about Shelby‘s life that will ever convince me that she is not, without a doubt, 100% worth it. The fan frenzies, the media shit storms, the rumors, the almost complete lack of privacy…absolutely none of those negatives can even come close to overshadowing the positives for me.” Toni leans forward a little and looks at Fatin as seriously as Fatin was looking at her earlier. “I’m all in too, Fatin. I really, really, like your best friend and I think her and I have something real here. Something good. I wouldn’t have asked her to be my girlfriend if I didn’t. I know you have your concerns, and I completely understand that, and I respect you so much for having this conversation with me and looking out for your friend, but I swear, you have nothing to worry about. I know in hindsight her and I haven’t known each other very long, but Shelby means a lot to me, and I would never let any outside influences get in the way of our relationship.” 

The two of them sit in silence for a few moments, Fatin staring at Toni as if she’s trying to read her mind and Toni keeping her expression as open and honest as possible. She meant every word she said, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Fatin will believe her. In the grand scheme of things all that matters is that Shelby trusts her, but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t want Fatin to trust her as well. Eventually, Fatin’s lips curl up into a genuine smile, and Toni thinks she’s successful. 

She gets confirmation that she is when Fatin’s smile widens and she just completely changes the subject, as if everything she was worried about a moment ago isn’t even a concern for her anymore.

“So…Martha sent me some videos of you during your college days. You were great even then, but pretty aggressive. Are you an Aries? 

Toni rolls her eyes hard and groans out, “God, Fatin, who the fuck cares ?” just as the waiter brings over their food. 

Fatin cackles loudly and nods her head. “Definitely an Aries.” 

The rest of the lunch passes by without any of the seriousness of the first fifteen minutes and the two of them spend most of the time talking about Martha and Shelby in between friendly bickering about the importance -or lack of- of astrological signs. Fatin actually pulls Toni in for a short hug when they’re leaving and gives her an only slightly insulting pat on the head along with a “Good luck, baller. Hope you kick some sparkle ass tomorrow.” 

Toni laughs but doesn’t bother correcting her on the name, just thanks her and heads back to the hotel, feeling relieved that she seemed to earn some sort of stamp of approval from Shelby’s best friend. 

She absolutely does not spend fifteen minutes before getting ready for practice looking up the compatibility of Aries and Scorpio relationships and she absolutely does not have to clear her recent search history afterwards out of sheer embarrassment. 

She still believes astrology is bullshit, but after reading the words ‘strong sexual chemistry’ and ‘intense adoration’, she can’t help but think that maybe the stars are a little bit onto something. 

…………

The Lynx are victorious in their game against the Sparks and two days later, Toni is back home, skittering around her apartment like a mad woman trying to clean up some of the clutter she left behind. It was just after 7pm and Shelby’s plane had landed in Minneapolis about half an hour ago and she would be there any minute. Shelby had the next three and a half weeks almost completely free and the two of them planned to spend as much of that time together as possible. Which is why they decided over the phone the other day that since Toni’s next two games were home games -with a four day gap in between- that Shelby would just stay at Toni’s for now instead of a hotel and if they needed to figure something else out later then they would. Shelby had obviously shared that information with Fatin cause yesterday Toni had gotten a text from her that was just a screenshot for the number and address for a local u-haul rental place. 

A series of middle finger emojis was Toni’s only response. 

She’s just finishing organizing the mess of mail she had left on the kitchen island into a neat pile when she hears three quick knocks against her apartment door and it takes everything in her not to full on sprint out of the kitchen to answer it. She manages to hold herself back from running, but she does do a fast shuffle-walk that has her sock covered feet slipping a little against the hardwood as she comes to a sliding stop in front of her door. Her hand quickly reaches for the deadbolt, fumbling just a little in her excitement, but she successfully gets the door unlocked and her face breaks out into a massive grin when she pulls it open and sees Shelby standing on the other side, two large suitcases at her feet, a small bouquet of red flowers in her hands, and a smile on her face that rivaled Toni’s own. 

“Hi.” 

Toni’s smile turns softer as she takes Shelby in. She’s wearing loose light wash jeans and a bright pink cropped t-shirt that shows off her toned stomach -along with that damn piercing that has been constantly in the back of Toni’s mind ever since she first saw it- and her hair is pulled back in that half up/half down way that Toni has always thought looked super attractive on girls and that was especially true for Shelby.

 “Hi,” Toni finally says as her eyes meet Shelby’s. “You look amazing.” 

“Thank you,” Shelby replies, biting her lip around her smile as she looks at Toni. “You look very cute.” 

Toni glances down at her outfit -faded Bruins t-shirt, blue sweatpants she has haphazardly cut into shorts, and Lightning McQueen socks on her feet- before quirking an eyebrow at Shelby. “I don’t, but it’s sweet of you to lie.” 

Shelby just rolls her eyes and presses her hand against Toni’s chest, pushing just a little. “Whatever, pitstop, you gonna let me in or not?” 

Toni happily steps out of the way with a small laugh, grabbing Shelby’s two suitcases and rolling them in once Shelby is past the threshold. She nods at Ronan and Kane when she sees them posted up outside her door and the two of them politely nod back. 

“Miss Shalifoe,” they both say in unison and Toni groans good naturedly. 

“I swear, someday I will successfully get you guys to call me Toni.” 

The two men just smirk at her and after checking they don’t need anything, Toni gives them another nod and a wave before shutting the door. When she turns around, Shelby is barely three feet away, flowers held out in front of her.  

“These are for you.” 

Toni ducks her head a little with a shy smile, not at all used to being on the receiving end of romantic gestures. “Thank you,” she says, gently taking the flowers from Shelby and looking them over. “These are really cool looking.” 

“They’re called Mingus Toni Dahlias.” 

Toni’s eyes widen and her jaw drops just a little. “No fucking way.” 

Shelby nods enthusiastically, looking just as excited by the idea of Toni is. “Way. After you got me those bee lillies I took a shot and googled ‘Toni flowers’ and boom, there they were. They’re usually pink, but sometimes, very rarely, they can be red and I just happened to find some.” 

“Happened to find some?” Toni repeats, knowing that probably wasn’t the case. 

Shelby gives her a look before letting out a small huff. “Okay, so maybe I looked all over for them for  weeks until I found some.” 

Toni slowly shakes her head, incredibly touched at the effort Shelby went through just for some flowers. She sets the flowers down on the small table by the door where she usually drops her keys and reaches out to pull Shelby in by her hips. “I’m gonna kiss you now.” 

“Bout freakin’ time,” Shelby breathes out, not even giving Toni a chance to lean in before she’s wrapping a hand around her neck and pressing their lips together. 

Toni hums against Shelby’s lips, wrapping her arms around Shelby’s waist so they’re fully pressed together. In turn, Shelby’s arms wrap around her shoulders as she tilts her head, changing the angle of their kiss and teasing her tongue along Toni’s bottom lip. Toni happily meets Shelby’s tongue with her own, both of them moaning a little and what was meant to be a ‘hello/thank you’ kiss turns into a full on teen movie worthy make out session in front of Toni’s door. 

They both manage to keep their hands in relatively PG territory, Shelby’s tangling in Toni’s hair and cupping her jaw while Toni’s stay on Shelby’s exposed hips, only sliding up around her ribs just once when Shelby bites at her bottom lip. After a few mind blowing minutes, they both reluctantly pull back, breathing heavily and looking at each other with hooded eyes and swollen lips. 

“I’m gonna take a guess and say someone missed me,” Shelby whispers, her fingertips lightly tracing over the back of Toni’s neck. 

“And they say blondes are dumb,” Toni replies teasingly, laughing when Shelby narrows her eyes and slaps her shoulder. “Obviously I missed you, Bee.” 

“Good,” Shelby says, softly pecking Toni’s lips. “I missed you, too.” 

Toni jerks her head towards the flowers on the table. “Thank you again for those. No one has ever gotten me flowers before. Well, besides Marty and her mom, but I think that’s a little different.” 

Shelby smiles and caresses Toni’s cheek with her thumb. “You’re welcome. I’ll happily get you flowers anytime you want.” 

Toni moves in to kiss her again, the two of them very quickly getting lost in it and when Toni starts to walk them towards the couch, they bump into Shelby’s suitcases and Toni has to quickly plant her feet and tighten her arms around Shelby’s waist to keep them from tumbling to the floor. 

Shelby muffles her laugh against Toni’s shoulder before raising her head with a small sigh and glancing to the suitcases at their feet. “Guess we should get those out of the way, huh?”  

Toni hums in agreement, giving Shelby one last kiss before stepping back and grabbing one of the suitcases. She hesitates a moment, scratching the back of her neck and clearing her throat. Shelby tilts her head in question and Toni gestures to the other suitcase. “So, I don’t wanna be presumptuous but…did you wanna put these in the guestroom or…or in my room?” 

The corner of Shelby’s lips quirk up just a little. “What do you think?” 

Toni purses her lips and drums her fingers against the handle of Shelby’s suitcase like she’s really thinking about it. “I’m gonna take a guess and say…my room?” 

“And they say jocks are dumb,” Shelby jokes, grabbing her other suitcase and rolling it down the hall towards Toni’s room, Toni following behind her with a laugh.  

Toni flicks the light on as they enter and they roll Shelby’s suitcases over to the massive walk-in closet. Toni opens the closet door and flicks that light on as well.   

“Okay so, this closet is fucking huge and my stuff barely takes up half so feel free to use the space in any way you want to. I highly doubt you want to be digging through your suitcases the whole time you’re here so you can hang up some of your stuff or use the drawers or whatever you need to do.” Toni points her thumb towards the master bathroom. “Same goes for the bathroom. It’s huge and has plenty of free space which I’m sure you’ll need cause I just know you probably have tons of makeup and fancy skin care products in one of those suitcases.” 

“Skin care is important, Toni,” Shelby says, very matter of fact. 

“Yeah yeah, I know,” Toni mumbles with a fond roll of her eyes, having been subjected to the sunscreen lecture one too many times from Martha. She grabs one of Shelby’s suitcases and hoists it up onto the bed with a massive grunt. “Jesus Christ, Shelby, what do you have in here?”  

“Stuff,” Shelby answers simply and Toni snorts. 

“Yeah, I can feel that. How much stuff is the question.” 

“I packed a perfectly adequate amount, thank you very much,” Shelby says, grunting a little herself as she places the other suitcase on Toni’s bed next to its twin. 

Toni hums unconvinced but doesn’t argue. “Okay, well, I’m more than happy to help you unpack but first, are you hungry? I made some of Momma B’s famous Indian tacos earlier and I can heat you up some if you want. Or I could cook you something else. I don’t know how much I have in there to work with cause I’ve been gone a while, but I can figure something out. Or we could just order food if you want.” 

Shelby smiles gratefully but shakes her head. “Thank you, but I’m fine. I ate on the plane.” 

Toni nods and looks down at the suitcases on the bed. “Okay then. Let’s see what you consider an adequate amount of packing,” Toni says only slightly mockingly as she unzips Shelby’s suitcase. She’s met with the sight of a black garment bag on top of all Shelby’s other clothes but when she goes to grab it, Shelby’s hand is immediately slapping hers away. 

“Ow!” Toni whines, grabbing her hand and pouting at Shelby. “What the hell was that for?” 

“No peekin’,” Shelby replies, picking up the bag and holding it to her chest. “You’ll see it at the game tomorrow.” She presses an apologetic kiss to Toni’s cheek before moving through the closet and hanging the bag up towards the back. 

“Fine, be mysterious,” Toni grumbles, secretly thrilled that Shelby apparently planned to wear something special to her game. 

They spend the next hour or so unpacking Shelby’s things and it dawns on Toni about halfway through that this is the first time in years that she’s ever shared her space with someone in this way. Growing up in foster care she pretty much had to share everything her entire life and there always seemed to be someone around, whether it was her foster parents of the month, another foster kid or social workers, alone time was nearly impossible to find. And even though she loved living with Martha and the Blackburns those couple of years, their house was also pretty hectic with Martha’s siblings and all the pets running around. College was a little less chaotic, but she still had a roommate which meant never having a space that was just hers . 

When she graduated and got her first apartment all on her own, she cherished her own place and her solitude more than anything, so, temporary or not, she expected it to feel a little more daunting having someone in her home like this for the first time but it just…doesn’t. It’s quite the opposite actually. She likes the idea of having Shelby in her space and as she watches and helps Shelby fill her closet with some of her clothes, it honestly doesn’t feel like she’s invading it at all. She kind of just fits in ways Toni didn’t think someone ever would. 

God, if Fatin could hear her thoughts right now she would definitely be pulling out more u-haul jokes. 

“What are you smilin’ at over there?” 

Toni looks up from her place on the bed to see Shelby staring at her from the doorway of the closet, head tilted curiously with her hands on her hips.

Toni shrugs and leans back on her elbows. “Nothing really, I’m just…happy you’re here.” 

Shelby looks pleased by that answer as she flicks the closet light off and steps towards the bed. “Yeah?” 

Toni nods. “Yeah.” She smiles as Shelby joins her on the bed, her knees on each side of Toni’s thighs and her hands planted firmly on the mattress by Toni’s elbows so she’s hovering over her. 

“I’m happy I’m here, too,” Shelby whispers, brushing her nose softly against Toni’s before bringing one hand up from the mattress to cup around her jaw and kissing her. 

Toni immediately melts into it, lying back flat against the mattress and moving her hands to grip at Shelby’s hips. It doesn’t take long before both of them are parting their lips to let their tongues meet as Shelby slides her hand down from Toni’s jaw to the bottom of her shirt, pushing up underneath it and lightly scratching her nails along Toni’s stomach. 

Toni's hips jump a little and she groans into Shelby's mouth, feeling goosebumps rise on her skin from the sensation of Shelby’s nails scraping against her abs. She feels Shelby’s satisfied smirk against her lips and not one to be outdone, she drops her hands from Shelby’s hips and slides them into the back pockets of her jeans, squeezing and pulling Shelby’s hips down at the same time that she grinds her own hips up. Shelby’s lips stutter against hers as she releases a moan and things heat up quickly from there. 

They both end up losing their shirts, Toni’s shorts and Shelby’s jeans following quickly after, leaving them in just their bras and underwear with Toni now hovering over Shelby and both of them more in the center of the bed. 

“Should we be doin’ this when you have a game tomorrow?” Shelby pants against Toni’s lips as Toni’s right hand slides down and teases at the band of her underwear. 

Toni’s eyebrows furrow and she pulls back to look at Shelby in confusion, having no idea what her having a game tomorrow has to do with them having sex. “What do you mean?” 

Shelby blushes a little, like she’s embarrassed to say what she’s thinking. “I just…don’t want you messin’ up your wrist or arm or something and not being able to play to your full potential tomorrow.” 

Toni can’t help it, she laughs, and when Shelby’s blush deepens, she leans down to press an affectionate kiss to her cheek. “God, you’re cute.” 

Shelby huffs but there’s a small smile on her face. “Are you ever gonna stop usin’ that word to describe me?” She asks, tucking a couple of loose strands of Toni’s hair that have fallen out of her ponytail behind her ears. 

Toni shakes her head. “Nope. It’s an accurate descriptor.” At Shelby’s eye roll, Toni grins and leans down to pepper kisses along her jawline and down her neck. “I appreciate the concern…” she starts, sucking at Shelby’s pulse point, her stomach tightening at the sound of Shelby’s breathy moan in her ear. She releases the skin of Shelby’s neck and kisses her way along Shelby’s collarbones. “But I’ll be fine.” 

Shelby’s breathing picks up again and she nods. “If you’re sure.” 

Toni grins, nipping at Shelby’s collarbone and moving up to press their lips together again, kissing Shelby deeply before sliding her hand fully into her underwear. 

“I’m sure.” 

…………

Toni wakes up the next morning about half an hour before her alarm with a dead arm and a face full of blonde hair. 

She smiles to herself, in a great mood and absolutely buzzing with energy despite the early hour. Normally when she wakes up this jazzed she would go for a quick run outside to burn off some energy, but given that it’s game day and she’s a little more popular these days, using the gym in the building would probably be a better idea. 

She’s careful not to wake Shelby as she slowly slides her arm from underneath her head, wincing at the numbness and massaging her muscles to try and get the blood flowing quicker. She waits until the god awful tingling sensation subsides before rolling out of bed and quietly grabbing a sports bra and some running shorts from her dresser drawer. 

She changes in the bathroom, tying her hair up and trying to be as quiet as possible while washing her face and brushing her teeth - smiling a little at the sight of Shelby’s pink toothbrush in the holder next to hers. When she comes out of the bathroom, she’s happy to see that Shelby hasn’t moved an inch. She writes her a short note in case she wakes up, letting her know where she would be and that Shelby should make herself at home and was welcome to anything and everything in her apartment. She leaves it on the bedside table underneath Shelby’s charging phone and when she looks back at Shelby sleeping so peacefully, she can’t resist leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. 

She can practically hear Martha squealing in the distance at the gesture. 

Rolling her eyes at herself, Toni grabs her phone and quietly exits the bedroom. 

…………

When Toni comes back to her apartment about 45 minutes later, Shelby is sitting at her kitchen island with her back to Toni, laptop open and her phone held up to ear. Toni bites back a grin when she sees that Shelby has put on one of her old favorite sweatshirts from high school, the one with yellow patches on the elbows and the most comfortable thing Toni owns. 

Shelby looks over her shoulder at the sound of Toni’s footsteps, a sexy smile spreading across her face as her eyes slowly rake over Toni. “Fatin, I’m gonna have to call you back.” There’s a short pause and Shelby bites her lip, gaze practically glued to Toni’s body as she enters the kitchen. “Because my girlfriend just walked in here all sweaty and glistenin’ and I’m not listening to a word you’re sayin’.” 

Toni chuckles under her breath, sliding onto the stool next to Shelby and raising an eyebrow when she sees that the TMZ website is pulled up on Shelby’s laptop. Shelby hangs up with Fatin and Toni jerks her head towards the screen. “So what’s the story this time?” 

“Oh, it’s a good one,” Shelby informs her, sounding more amused than annoyed. “Before we get into that though,” she reaches forward to cup Toni’s face in her hands and pull her into a kiss. “Good mornin’,” she breathes out against Toni’s lips. 

“Good morning,” Toni repeats, reaching over and tugging at the hem of her sweatshirt. “I see you’re wearing my shirt.” 

Shelby looks down at the shirt and shrugs. “So I am. It’s very soft, I’m afraid I’m gonna have to steal it from you.” 

“That so?” Toni asks, not at all mad at the idea. 

“Mm hmm,” Shelby hums with a nod. “Consider it payment for me waking up alone after we spent the night together… again .” 

Toni ducks her head sheepishly. “Sorry bout that. Last time was Marty‘s fault, but this time I just woke up super buzzed and needed to burn off some energy.” 

Shelby raises her eyebrows and slowly runs her fingers underneath the straps of Toni’s sports bra. “I can think of more fun ways to burn off some energy.” 

Toni’s stomach swoops at Shelby’s suggestive tone and she grins, reaching out to grip Shelby’s hips. “I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” she whispers against Shelby’s lips as she leans forward to kiss her. 

“You do that,” Shelby says when they part, giving Toni one more chaste kiss before turning to her laptop and scrolling until a photo of Toni and Fatin that was obviously taken when they had lunch is displayed on the page. She turns the laptop more towards Toni and points her thumb at the screen. 

“So apparently you’re cheating on me with Fatin. You were just using me to get to her.” 

Toni shakes her head as if disappointed. “Damn gossip tabloids, exposing my plan before I could execute it. I was playing the long game here.” 

Shelby rolls her eyes and exits the website. “Lord, you’re annoying, I don’t know why I like you.” 

“Maybe it’s my glistenin’ abs,” Toni replies, mimicking Shelby’s accent and getting a slap to the shoulder for it. “Hey! I got a game soon, be gentle with me.” 

“That’s not what you were sayin’ last night,” Shelby says with a smirk, eyes raking over Toni’s body again. 

Toni swallows thickly, the memory of Shelby’s nails digging into her back and her teeth biting into her shoulder immediately filling her head.

“I need to shower,” she blurts, voice coming out just a tad bit on the squeaky side. 

Shelby laughs, blinking up at Toni innocently as Toni stands from her stool. “I’d say save some hot water for me, but somethin’ tells me that won’t be an issue.” 

“Shut up,” Toni grumbles playfully, pressing a kiss to Shelby’s cheek as she exits the kitchen, the sound of Shelby’s giggles fading behind her. 

…………

The hours pass quickly and Toni and Shelby spend most of them curled up together on the couch, the two of them discussing everything from Shelby's favorite tour stops and Toni’s favorite teams to play against, to how the hell in-ear monitors work and how odd it is that the Lynx are the only WNBA team with an animal name. 

Soon enough, it’s almost time for Toni to leave and she's opening her apartment door to Martha and Marcus, the latter who is there to drive her to the arena while Martha stays behind to hang out and get ready with Shelby, the two of them being escorted to the game later by Shelby’s security team. 

Martha barely spares Toni a glance as she enters the apartment, just presses a fleeting kiss to her cheek along with a mumbled “Hi,” before practically running over to Shelby to give her a hug, the two of them immediately starting up a conversation. 

Toni shakes her head, glancing up at Marcus with a faux disappointed frown. “I remember a time when I was her favorite person.” 

Marcus snorts, crossing his muscular arms and leaning back against the door. “How do you think I feel? Pretty sure I’m in fourth place now that she’s so close with Fatin too.” 

“I can hear you two ya know,” Martha calls from the couch, looking around Shelby with narrowed eyes.

“Love you, honey,” Marcus calls out before whispering to Toni, “You’re on your own, tiny, I’ll see you down at the car,” and exiting the apartment. 

Toni laughs as he leaves, grabbing her gym bag from the floor and walking over to lean her elbows against the back of the couch behind Shelby and Martha. “Alright you two, I’m out. Marty, please try not to tell every embarrassing story you know about me.” 

“Bold of you to assume we waste our time talking about you,” Martha says teasingly and Toni clutches her chest as Shelby laughs. 

“ Damn, Marty B, that was a solid burn. I’m impressed.” 

Martha rolls her eyes and lightly punches Toni’s shoulder. “Get outta here,T, before you’re late.” 

“Yeah yeah, I’ll see you guys later.” Toni replies, adjusting the bag on her shoulder. 

“Yes you will,” Shelby says, tipping her head back against the couch and puckering her lips. 

Toni smiles and leans down to kiss her, keeping it chaste with Martha sitting less than a foot away. She pulls back and presses another quick kiss to Shelby’s forehead. “Bye,” she whispers, sharing a fist bump with Martha before leaving. 

…………

The next time Toni sees them is when they’re sitting courtside as she comes out for warm ups. When Toni’s eyes lock onto Shelby, a massive grin immediately splits her face when she sees what she’s wearing. Jogging over to them, Toni shakes her head in amazement as Shelby stands in front of her with a self satisfied look on her face. 

“Okay, I know damn well that did not come from the official Lynx shop,” Toni says, reaching out to gently grip the bottom of the obviously custom made Lynx varsity bomber jacket Shelby is wearing over her plain gray t-shirt. The jacket has all the Lynx colors, the torso portion a navy blue, a bright green 3 stitched onto the arm of one of the gray sleeves, a green and blue WNBA logo on the other, and the Lynx logo displayed in the front on the left side. 

“You like it?” Shelby asks, eyes sparkling as she turns around and pulls her hair to the side so Toni can see the green letters spelling out SHALIFOE across the back, a giant Lynx logo just below them.  

Toni’s grin widens, something about Shelby so proudly wearing her last name on her back making her heart squeeze in her chest in the best kind of way and she finally understands why all the guys in high school were always so pumped to let their girlfriends wear their letterman jackets. 

“I love it,” Toni replies genuinely, tracing the letters of her last name on the back. 

Shelby turns back around with a proud smile, quickly squeezing Toni’s hand before letting it go. “Good.” 

“Don’t forget about the earrings,” Marty pipes up and Toni focuses on Shelby’s ears, laughing in delight when she sees the small silver Lynx heads dangling from each of Shelby’s ears. 

“Where did you get those?” 

Shelby just shrugs. “I have my ways.” 

Toni just hums, wanting nothing more than to grab Shelby by that dope jacket of hers and pull her into a kiss. She resists the urge, not knowing if Shelby would be okay with that given their audience, and leans forward to kiss her cheek instead. “Thank you.” 

Shelby tilts her head. “For what?” 

Toni gestures to the jacket and her earrings. “All this. It’s very sweet and you look incredible.”  

Shelby blushes a little and shoves her hands in her jacket pockets. “Thank you and it’s no problem. I mean, I gotta represent right?”  

“Damn right,” Toni agrees with a serious nod. She and Shelby share a smile before Toni is looking to Martha and nodding in approval at her Lynx t-shirt and zip up hoodie. “You’re looking good too, Marty B,” Toni says, holding her hand out for a high five. 

Martha slaps her hand against Toni’s with an affectionate roll of her eyes. “Yeah yeah, whatever you say, T. Now get your butt out there and warm up.” 

Toni gives them both a quick hug -her and Shelby’s lasting a little longer and Toni trying to suppress a shiver when Shelby presses a subtle kiss against her neck and whispers “Good luck, hotshot,” in her ear- before jogging out onto the court to join her team. 

She catches the ball Rachel tosses her, bounces it a couple times before throwing it up from behind the arc and watching it smoothly swish through the net. 

A small, childlike voice from the sideline yells out “Go Shelby’s girlfriend!” and Toni can't help but laugh, her teammates who were close enough to hear and some of the crowd laughing too. 

Toni gives a thumbs in the general direction of the voice, winking at Shelby when she catches her eye before grabbing another ball and sending it sailing through the net. 

…………

The game is going great…until it isn’t. 

Everything goes smoothly for the first half, Toni and the Lynx playing incredibly well and they all go into the locker room feeling good about the slim lead they have when the second quarter buzzer sounds. When they come back onto the court for the second half even more in the zone than they were before, Toni is confident they’re walking away with the W. 

That confidence quickly disappears when disaster strikes half way through the third quarter. 

Seattle has the ball, one of their players shooting a long jumper that clangs off the rim and bounces towards the sidelines right past Rachel and another Storm player. The both of them go diving after it and Toni doesn’t see how it happens, but she does hear Rachel’s yell of pain and she does see her lying on her back, face contorted in pain as she cradles her right wrist against her chest. 

The whistle blows and the arena goes quiet as Toni and her teammates run over to Rachel, helping her sit up and asking if she’s okay, only to be gently pushed aside moments later by the team doctors. 

Toni anxiously chews on her thumbnail, sharing worried looks with her teammates as the doctors examine Rachel’s wrist. Toni hears the word ‘it’s broken’ along with Rachel’s bitterly muttered ‘ Fuck!’ and she feels like a rock drops into her stomach, sees the forlorn faces of her teammates around her and knows they’re feeling something similar. A broken wrist almost guarantees Rachel’s out for the rest of the season, and not only is that devastating for Rachel, it’s also devastating for the team, the loss of their star forward no doubt going to have a major impact on their gameplay. 

Rachel eventually gets to her feet, the entire arena clapping when she does, and she gives Toni and the rest of her teammates a weak smile, mumbling “You got this guys,” as she’s escorted off the court. 

Toni’s coach calls her players over once Rachel’s off the court, taking a few minutes before the game starts back up to try and get all their heads right again. 

It doesn’t really work and they never get back in their groove, too shaken up by watching their teammate sustain a season ending injury. Seattle takes full advantage of the situation and is able to pull ahead quickly, much to the frustration of Toni and her teammates. 

As Seattle pulls further and further ahead during the fourth quarter, Toni can feel herself starting to lose the control over her anger she’s worked so hard to have over the years. It takes everything in her not to shove one of the Seattle players away when she pushes up on Toni unnecessarily close, and she gets a warning look from the ref when another Seattle player swishes a three over her head and she grumbles a ‘ motherfucker’ just loud enough for him to hear. 

Her coach calls a time out after that and Toni makes her way over to sit without a word, already knowing she’s getting subbed out. She scrubs aggressively at her face with a towel before resting her elbows on her knees and clenching it tightly between her hands. When she looks up, her eyes lock onto Shelby and Martha sitting on the other side of the court and she immediately feels herself relax a little at the soft way they’re both looking at her. 

‘ Breathe’, Shelby mouths and Toni nods, making a show of taking a couple deep breaths. Shelby gives her an encouraging smile and Toni  returns it as best she can. 

Toni gets put back in for the final few minutes of the game, manages to land a few threes to lessen the gap between the Lynx and the Storm but it ultimately does no good in the end and she sighs heavily when the final buzzer sounds, the final score reading 105-90 in favor of Seattle. 

Toni shakes hands with the Seattle players and staff before quickly rushing back to the locker room, wanting nothing more than to shower and get out of the building as soon as possible. 

…………

When Toni exits the locker room, Shelby and Martha are both waiting for her, sympathetic looks on both of their faces. 

“Hey,” Toni rasps out, feeling both physically and emotionally exhausted. 

Martha and Shelby share a look before both of them are stepping forward to wrap Toni up in a small group hug. 

Toni lets out a breathy laugh, feeling some of the tension leave her body as she wraps her arms around both of their shoulders and leans her head against Shelby’s. 

They seperate after a few moments, Shelby not really moving away, reaching down to lace her fingers with Toni’s and grabbing onto her arm with her other hand, softly stroking the skin along Toni’s bicep with her thumb. “Tough game, huh?” 

Toni looks at Shelby with a sad smile and squeezes her hand. “Yeah. I’m not even that mad about the game though, honestly. I mean, I hate losing and I am upset that we lost but, I’m mostly just worried about Rachel.” 

“Have you heard anything?” Martha asks, eyes full of concern. 

Toni nods and holds up her phone. “Yeah she texted and said it was broken like they thought but the good news is she doesn’t need surgery. The bad news is she’s out for the rest of the season regardless and she’s really upset about it. I offered to come chill with her while she’s getting her cast on and stuff but she said she just really wanted to be alone for now.” 

“Maybe you should go see her anyway,” Shelby suggests sweetly but Toni shakes her head. 

“Nah, I’m gonna give her her space for now. Rachel‘s kind of the says what she means type and if she says she wants to be alone then you should probably leave her alone. I’ll check in with her tomorrow.” 

Shelby nods in understanding and the three of them stand in silence for a moment before Martha’s phone dings and she sighs as she reads the message. “It’s Marcus. We were gonna see if you guys wanted to grab dinner but,” she looks at Toni sadly, “after everything tonight I’m guessing you just wanna go home?” 

Toni scrunches up her face apologetically. “Yeah, sorry Marty. You know normally I would love to but…” 

Martha waves her off with a small smile. “Toni, it’s fine. We’ll do it another day, no big deal.” She types on her phone for a moment, presumably texting Marcus back before pocketing her phone and then reaching out to pull Toni into another hug. “I’m sorry, T. You’ll get the next one though, don’t worry.” 

“Thanks, Marty,” Toni whispers, giving Martha an extra squeeze before she pulls away. 

“And you,” Martha says, pulling Shelby into a hug as well, jerking her head towards Toni when she pulls back. “Try and cheer her up okay?” 

“I’ll do my best,” Shelby replies, taking Toni’s hand again and squeezing her fingers. 

Martha nods in approval, bidding them both goodnight then heading outside to where Marcus was waiting for her. 

Toni blows out a breath as she watches Martha leave, turning her head towards Shelby and pouting a little. “Sorry we lost the first time you got to wear your badass jacket.” 

Shelby laughs lightly, dropping Toni’s hand to wrap her arms around her waist. “It’s okay. I’m sorry you guys lost and that Rachel got hurt. And that you lost your streak. I know you were really wantin’ to break that record.” 

“S’cool, Bee,” Toni says with a shrug, trying not to show how disappointed she actually is even though she knows Shelby can probably see right through her. She brings her hands up to lace her fingers behind Shelby’s neck, rubbing her thumbs along her jawline. “Rachel’s tough as hell. She’ll heal up and we’ll try to get it next year.”  

“You will get it next year,” Shelby corrects her. “Positive affirmations go a long way, Toni.” 

Toni laughs and nods in agreement. “My bad, you’re right. We will get it next year. It’s a guarantee.” 

“That’s my girl,” Shelby says, winking cutely and Toni’s whole chest warms at those three words and at the way Shelby is able to effortlessly make her feel better. 

Unable to resist anymore, Toni leans forward and presses a grateful kiss to Shelby’s lips. “Thank you for being here.” 

Shelby gently shakes her head. “You don’t have to thank me for that. There's no place I'd rather be.” 

Toni smiles, pecking Shelby’s lips again before pulling back and taking her hand. “Come on, let's get out of here. We can pick up some food on the way and eat it on the floor in front of the couch just the way you like to.” 

“Sounds good to me,” Shelby says around a laugh, her security team surrounding her and Toni as they leave the building. 

…………

Toni’s mood sours again a little later when -despite Shelby telling her she probably shouldn’t- she turns on the TV to watch some of the post game coverage. 

She’s practically glaring at the TV from her spot on the floor, food long forgotten and pushed aside on the coffee table as the 3 male sports anchors on the screen talk about the events of tonight's game and all the ways Toni ‘failed her team’ .”

“All I’m saying is, Toni Shalifoe is usually the type of player who can adapt to any situation and help lead her team to a victory no matter the odds, but we just didn’t see that from her tonight. If I’m being honest, she looked a little off the whole game. Like maybe she was out of sync with her teammates.” The anchor shoots the camera a sardonic smile before shrugging. “I guess that’s what happens when you spend your off time fooling around with pop stars in hotel rooms and going to lunch with models instead of hitting the gym with your team.” 

“Oh come on, Kenny.” Another anchor scolds and Kenny holds his hands up defensively, that same smug smile on his face. 

“Hey, I’m just saying.” Kenny looks to the anchor on his left. “Mike, back me up here.”  

Mike shakes his head. “Actually, I’m with Greg here. This is Minnesota’s first loss since any of this hype with Shalifoe and the Goodkind girl started, so I don’t think it’s fair to say their alleged romance has anything to do with it.” 

Greg nods his head in agreement. “Exactly. I also don’t think it’s fair to put the outcome of the game all on one player. Even a player as talented and integral as Shalifoe doesn’t win or lose games by themselves. It’s always a team effort.” 

Kenny rolls his eyes. “I think you guys are too scared to get Twitter trolled by that insane tween fanbase Goodkind has to speak the truth. But I get it. Teenage girls can be quite terrifying.” 

All three anchors laugh at that and Toni’s grip on the remote tightens before she’s aggressively pressing her thumb against the power button, effectively shutting off the TV. She tosses the remote on the coffee table and presses the heels of her palms against her eyes, trying to ignore the headache she can feel coming on. 

“Sexist fucking asshole,” Toni mumbles angrily, wishing she’d listened to Shelby and not even turned on the TV. 

Honestly, douchebag Kenny’s criticism of Toni’s game isn’t even what’s upsetting her. Even though said criticism was objectively wrong. Toni was playing just fine, great even, before Rachel’s injury, fuck you very much. It’s the fact that he was trying to subtly blame Shelby for it that has Toni so angry. Tons of professional athletes have significant others and those significant others never get blamed when all the other athletes lose or allegedly play poorly, but apparently, the sports world held a different standard for Shelby. The media seemed to have some sort of deranged obsession with unfairly criticizing absolutely anything and everything to do with her girlfriend and now some of the so called ‘sports experts’ seemed to be jumping on that fucked up bandwagon. 

Toni feels Shelby’s hand on the back of her neck and drops her hands, turning her head and shooting Shelby an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re allowed to be upset, babe,” Shelby says, gently tangling her hands in Toni’s hair at the back of her neck and comfortingly scratching her head. 

Toni’s heart flutters and her lips quirk up a little at Shelby calling her ‘babe’ for the first time. Normally she’d be a little embarrassed that something as small and mundane as a pet name from her girlfriend affected her so easily, but it’s Shelby, and Toni has accepted that the rules are just different with her. 

Focusing back on the conversation, Toni jerks her head towards the TV. “I meant that. All the dumb shit they were saying.” 

“Toni, you don’t have to apologize to me for what other people say. You have nothing to do with that.” 

“I know but I still feel bad,” Toni replies, ducking her head and picking at the fabric of the rug underneath the coffee table. 

“Well don’t,” Shelby tells her sincerely. “The media has been talkin’ shit about me since I was 18 years old. I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me anymore.” She reaches over and tilts Toni’s chin up with two fingers so she’s looking her in the eyes. “Don’t worry about it, okay? It’s nothing you or I can control and stressin’ about it will just drive you insane.” 

Toni sighs but nods, knowing Shelby is right. “Yeah, I know. It’s just hard for me not to get upset when people talk bad about someone I care about. Even if it is idiot sports announcers who clearly don’t know shit considering that all three of them once claimed that LeBron was better than Jordan.” Toni scoffs at the absurdity of that. “I mean, be fucking for real.”  

Shelby laughs and leans over to press a smiley kiss against Toni’s cheek. “I truly don’t know enough to have an opinion on that, but I’m automatically on your side.” 

“I appreciate the back up, Bee.” 

They share a smile before Shelby is standing up from the floor, grabbing the remote from the coffee table and laying down on the couch, her head propped up against the arm. She pats her chest as she turns the TV on. “Come on. You can be my weighted blanket and I’ll watch Space Jam with you. The Michael Jordan version.” 

“Oh, hell yeah,” Toni says excitedly,  immediately moving from the floor to the couch, carefully settling her body over Shelby’s with her head on her chest and her arms tucked underneath Shelby’s back. “Is this actually comfortable for you?” she checks, feeling like she’s squishing her.  

“Mm hmm,” Shelby hums, finding the movie and hitting play and then wrapping her arms around Toni. “Very,” She says, pressing a kiss against Toni’s head.  

Toni smiles into her chest and doesn’t argue. Just enjoys the sound of Shelby’s heartbeat under her ear and the feeling of her fingertips stroking her back. 

…………

The two of them spend the next two days holed up in Toni’s apartment -Toni only having to leave for a team meeting and practice- and Toni learns several little things about Shelby in that time. 

One being that Shelby gets cold easily. It makes sense, she is from Texas after all, but given all the winters she’s spent in New York, Toni thought for sure she would be used to the cooler temperatures. 

Apparently not. 

Toni keeps the apartment at what she thinks is a comfortable 68 degrees, but Shelby spends both days walking around in sweatpants, fuzzy socks, and oversize hoodies that she definitely steals from Toni’s closet even though she packed her own. Toni could just turn the thermostat up a couple degrees, but Shelby looks way too cute in her hoodies and Toni really enjoys the way Shelby’s stays cuddled up to her on the couch, keeping them both comfortably warm. 

Another thing is that Shelby hums a lot. Toni first noticed it when she was helping Shelby unpack, but she didn’t realize how constant it was. She hums when she’s cooking, scrolling on her phone, getting dressed, and even while she brushes her teeth. When Toni points it out to her, Shelby ducks her head and apologizes, tells Toni she knows ‘ it can be real annoyin’ sometimes’. 

Toni immediately pulls her in for a kiss after hearing that, saying how she actually finds it really cute and not annoying at all. 

The smile Shelby gives her warms her from the inside out.  

Toni also discovers that Shelby is very good at putting together clues. At one point they end up binge watching five episodes of some old crime show and Shelby is always able to figure out who did it before it gets revealed. Toni compliments her on her detective skills and that’s how she learns that Shelby was basically an escape room legend when she was a teenager, earning the title of All-Star Escaper at six different escape rooms. 

Something else Toni finds out about Shelby, and it honestly surprises her, is that Shelby isn’t afraid of spiders. 

Toni on the other hand, very much is. A fact that Shelby finds extremely funny, laughing the entire fifteen minutes Toni spends huddled in the corner of the living room while Shelby searches under the couch for the spider that had just crawled across Toni’s foot. Shelby finds it eventually and, much to Toni’s shock, lets it crawl into her hand and gently encloses it in her fist before instructing Toni to open the window. Toni does so, not knowing whether to be impressed or horrified as she watches Shelby open up her hand up and allow the spider to crawl safely down the side of the building. 

Toni’s favorite thing she eventually discovers however…is that Shelby loves aquariums. 

Toni is just finishing loading her and Shelby’s dinner dishes into the dishwasher, Shelby sitting at the kitchen island on her laptop returning an email from her tour manager, when Toni gets a series of texts from Martha. 

Marty B 🐸😎, 8:14

Okay so, you can totally say no to this but I just wanted to put the invite out there 

Marty B 🐸😎, 8:16

Marcus and I are watching his two nieces for the next couple of days while his sister is recovering from her shoulder surgery and we’re gonna take them to the aquarium at the mall Friday and then mom wanted us to come over for dinner

Marty B 🐸😎, 8:17

Maya is home so she and Monica are gonna go too and I thought maybe you and Shelby would like to come 

Marty B 🐸😎, 8:18

Maybe to moms too? I know you told her you and Shelby are officially together now and she might’ve mentioned wanting me to ask you to bring her around 

Marty B 🐸😎, 8:18

No pressure though. Honestly. Just thought I’d ask 

Toni stares down at messages, as she taps her thumbs against her phone screen. 

It’s not that she doesn’t wanna go, she definitely does and Shelby already talked about Toni needing to see the Mall of America, it’s just that she doesn’t know if Shelby can go. Shelby’s safety is her number one concern and something tells Toni that Shelby wouldn’t be able to just randomly take a trip to the mall aquarium without some sort of frenzy breaking out. But maybe they could at least go to Bernice’s for dinner. 

Martha’s parents lived on a small patch of land pretty much out in the middle of nowhere without another house around for miles, so Shelby getting swarmed by fans wasn’t really a concern there. Plus, her security team would definitely be around no matter what. Toni’s main concern with dinner was that maybe Shelby wouldn’t wanna meet the rest of Toni’s so called family so soon in their relationship. Granted, she met Martha and Bernice before she and Toni had even spoken in person themselves, but that was something that couldn’t really be avoided. This would be different. 

Obviously needing to talk to Shelby first, Toni texts Martha back. 

8:22

let me ask shelby and i’ll get back to you

Martha sends back a thumbs up and Toni pockets her phone, pressing the few buttons to start to dishwasher before moving over to the kitchen island, pulling out a stool just as Shelby is closing her laptop. 

“Everything okay?” Shelby asks, turning fully towards Toni as she sits down. “I heard your phone ding like five times in a row.” 

Toni nods, leaning an elbow on the countertop and resting her head in her hand. “Yeah it’s all good. It was just Marty. She had something she wanted to ask me.” 

When Toni doesn’t elaborate, Shelby raises her eyebrows with a small smile. “You gonna fill me in or is it somethin’ I’m not allowed to know.” 

Toni laughs a little and shakes her head. “Nah, you can know. It was a question for both of us actually.” Shelby tilts her head curiously and Toni continues. “Apparently her and Marcus have to babysit his nieces the next couple of days and Friday they plan on taking them to the aquarium in the mall and then Momma B’s for dinner after. Marty’s younger sisters are gonna go too and she was wondering if we wanted to come. To the aquarium and to dinner.” 

Shelby’s eyes light up and her whole face brightens. “I absolutely love aquariums.” 

“Yeah, that seems pretty on brand for you,” Toni says with a smile, not at all surprised by that information. Shelby is definitely very clearly an animal person -evident by her love for random pigeons and the fact that she won’t even so much as kill a spider- so it makes sense that would include aquatic animals as well. 

“Do you like them?” Shelby asks and Toni shrugs. 

“I don’t know. They seem dope but I’ve actually never been.” 

Shelby’s jaw drops. “Are you serious?”  

Toni shrugs again. “Yeah. I just never went. My third grade class went to one for a school trip, but…I didn’t really have anyone around at the time that cared enough to sign the permission slip so…” 

Shelby’s eyes grow a little sad at that and she reaches out for Toni’s hand and laces their fingers together, resting their joined hands on her thigh and rubbing her thumb against Toni’s knuckles. “Well, do you wanna go on Friday?” 

Toni bites her lip and looks at Shelby hesitantly. “Is that something you can do? I don’t wanna put you in an overwhelming or dangerous situation, Bee. I know you usually have to give everyone a heads up before you go practically anywhere and a day isn’t very much notice.” 

Shelby chews the inside of her cheek, tapping the nails of her free hand on the counter. “Let me call some people in the morning and see what I can work out. If it ends up being a no go then we can tell Martha we can at least have dinner with everyone at her moms.” 

“You’d be okay with that?” 

Shelby’s eyebrows furrow. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” 

“Just didn’t know if you’d be up for basically meeting the fam so soon,” Toni replies with a forced laugh.

“Toni…” Shelby smiles and squeezes her hand. “I’ve already met two of the most important people in your life, before I actually met you, might I add, and I adore them both. I've also met pretty much your entire team. Trust me, I’d be more than happy to meet a few more of the people you consider your family.” 

Toni looks at Shelby warmly, hooking her foot underneath the bottom rung of Shelby’s stool and pulling it closer. She sits up, dropping Shelby’s hand and moving both of her to Shelby’s hips, tugging until Shelby’s is sliding off the stool and straddling Toni’s lap. Shelby looks incredibly happy by this change of position, crossing her own arms behind Toni’s shoulders. 

“If you’re sure you’re up for it,” Toni starts, brushing the bridge of her nose against Shelby’s, “then I’ll text Marty and tell her dinner is a yes and the aquarium is a maybe.” 

Shelby nods. “I’m very sure. Besides, Bernice promised to tell me more teen Toni stories the next time I saw her and I’m really looking forward to hearing them.” 

“Oh, well in that case I changed my mind, we are definitely not going.” 

Shelby rolls her eyes but she laughs. “Whatever, pitstop.” 

Toni huffs lightly and runs her hands up Shelby’s sides. “Okay, new deal. I’ll stop calling you cute if you stop calling me pitstop.” 

Shelby hums and tilts her head like she’s thinking about it. “Hmmm. I’m afraid I’m gonna have to decline. That nickname is definitely sticking around, babe.” 

Toni grins, leaning forward so her lips just barely brush against Shelby’s, hands sliding underneath the hoodie Shelby is wearing to press against the warm skin of her back. “I like babe much better.” 

“Noted,” Shelby whispers before bringing one hand up to cradle Toni’s jaw and leaning down to kiss her. 

…………

The next morning Toni watches and listens as Shelby spends about two hours on and off the phone with several different people until her team is able to work something out with the Minneapolis police department and mall security to where Shelby can go to the aquarium. The plan is apparently to have the police department and mall security block off that section of the mall and the aquarium will be closed to the rest of the public for a few hours until Shelby, Toni, and the rest of them are out of there. Shelby feels a little bad about it, telling Toni that she always feels like such an entitled asshole when people basically have to shut things down just for her, but they both know she doesn’t have a choice. 

Toni makes Shelby feel better about it by cracking the lamest joke in the world, saying that if Shelby just showed up at the aquarium randomly, then she would become the main attraction and all the little sea animals would be jealous that no one was looking at them and it would hurt their feelings. Toni immediately hates herself for it, visibly cringing and shaking her head after the words leave her mouth, but Shelby laughs like it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard before affectionately calling Toni an idiot and kissing her. 

When Toni gets back from practice that evening, Shelby is on the couch with her laptop open to the aquarium's website. She immediately pulls Toni down to sit to her, greeting her with a quick kiss before the two of them spend the next 45 minutes looking through and discussing the exhibits they’ll get to see tomorrow, Shelby practically vibrating with excitement as she talks about how happy she is to have Toni’s first aquarium experience with her. Toni is honestly pretty damn excited herself and the two of them end up spending the rest of the night watching some ocean life documentary on Netflix and talking about what kind of fish they each think the other would be. 

It’s a ridiculous conversation for two fully grown women to be having but Toni can’t help but love how Shelby makes her feel like a dorky kid sometimes. The two of them can bounce between serious and silly seamlessly and it’s one of Toni’s favorite things about their relationship. 

Later, when they’re cuddled up in Toni’s bed, Shelby falls asleep against Toni’s chest halfway through a sentence about sharks and Toni laughs quietly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before closing her eyes and following Shelby into sleep a few minutes later. 

…………

“Have you met Marcus’s nieces before?” Shelby asks, looking over her shoulder at Toni who is propped up on her elbow on her side, the curve of her body acting as Shelby’s own personal backrest while she does her makeup on Toni’s bedroom floor. 

Toni nods, absentmindedly stroking her free hand in random patterns across Shelby’s back. “Yeah, a few times. They’re cute kids. Hyper as fuck , but cute.” 

Shelby laughs as she rummages through the cluttered pile of makeup in front of her, flicking things out of the way before seemingly finding what she’s looking for, picking up a tube of eyeliner and uncapping it. “How old are they?” 

“Lexi is eight and Kaylee is five.” Toni replies, taking her hand off Shelby’s back as she expertly applies her eyeliner, not wanting to accidentally mess her up or cause her to poke an eye out. “They’re also pretty big fans of yours too, so you know, just be ready for that. Martha sisters are too, actually.” 

“Maya and Monica, right?” Shelby asks as she switches to line her other eye, adjusting the medium sized circular mirror in front of her a little.

“Yeah,” Toni mumbles with an affectionate eye roll. “Those two drove Marty and I absolutely nuts growing up.” 

“Oh, I bet,” Shelby says amusedly. “Maya is the older one who’s at U of M and Monica is the youngest and will be starting her last year of high school right?” 

Toni gives her a soft look, forever touched and impressed at the way Shelby remembers pretty much everything Toni has told her, even if she’s only mentioned it once. “Yeah, you got it. Maya is getting her degree in forestry and Monica says she wants to go to school to be a vet after graduation. They’re both like Marty when it comes to that kind of stuff. They’re big on the environment and they’re huge animal lovers. Hence them wanting to tag along to the aquarium.” 

“I think that’s sweet,” Shelby says with a smile as she drops her eyeliner back into the makeup pile and picks up a tube of mascara next. “Have Marcus’s nieces ever been to an aquarium?” 

“Yeah a couple times. I think Kaylee was a little too young to remember most of it, but Marty said they watched Finding Nemo and Finding Dory for the first time recently and now they’re obsessed with it and begged to go back to the fish place again.” 

“I get it,” Shelby nods understandingly, uncapping her mascara. “I watched Spirit for the first time when I was like six and I was obsessed with horses for the longest time after that.” 

Toni can neither hold back her small snort of amusement or keep the smirk off her face at that information. “Of course you were a fucking horse girl.” 

Shelby scoffs, looking offended and pausing with the mascara brush halfway to her eye. “Okay, why do you gotta say it all derogatory-like?” 

Toni lets out a low laugh, leaning forward to press an apologetic kiss to Shelby’s arm. “My bad, Bee. I didn’t mean it in a negative way.” 

“Uh huh,” Shelby mumbles, sounding unconvinced, but she leans back more into Toni anyway. “Can’t believe this is how you treat me when I never tease you about being a space nerd.” 

“Space is fucking cool, Shelby.” 

“Horses are cool!” Shelby argues defensively and Toni laughs again, curling her arm around Shelby’s waist and squeezing. 

“Maybe. But not as cool as aliens.” 

Shelby just rolls her eyes, fighting a smile as she continues to do her makeup. 

…………

To keep things simple and easy for Shelby’s security team, they all decide to meet up at Toni’s apartment and ride over to the aquarium all together before heading to the Blackburn’s house for dinner. 

Toni pulls out her phone and checks the time as she waits on the couch for Shelby to finish getting ready in the bedroom, seeing the numbers 5:17 displayed on the screen. 

She hears Shelby’s footsteps coming down the hall a few moments later, but doesn’t look up as she sends a text to Martha to see if they’re on their way.  

“What time are they getting here again?” Shelby asks as she enters the living room. 

“I’m texting Marty now to see if they left but she said they’d be here around 5:30, so hopefully they’ll be here pretty soon,” Toni replies, eyes glued to her phone. “Although if they have to wait on Maya, they’ll probably be at least fifteen minutes late. That girl is never ready on time.” Toni adds and then finally looks up from her phone. Her phone immediately falls out of her hand and hits her lap, her mouth dropping open slightly as her eyes slowly rake up and down Shelby‘s body, taking in the exact outfit Shelby was wearing in that Twitter pic Martha had sent her a week ago, knee high socks and all. 

It’s silent for several moments, Toni just staring while Shelby stands in front of her with a sexy smirk on her lips. “You alright there, hotshot?” 

Toni stutters, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she throws her head back against the couch with a groan. “ Shelby,” She whines, dragging out Shelby’s name and looking up at her with a grumpy expression. “Why, why, why, would you wear that knowing we have to be around kids and my family for hours?” 

Shelby’s smirk widens as she steps directly in front of the couch, leaning over Toni and planting her hands on each side of Toni’s head. Toni feels her whole body get hot as Shelby straddles her lap, flipping her hair to one side and cupping the side of Toni’s neck as she moves her mouth by her ear on the opposite side. Toni sucks in a breath and holds it, fighting to hold back a shiver as she feels Shelby’s lips brush against the shell of her ear. “Payback for the horse girl comment,” Shelby whispers teasingly, nipping Toni’s ear and then quickly standing back up before Toni can even really react.  

Toni breathes out shakily, looking up at Shelby with narrowed eyes and crossing her arms. “You’re mean,” she says with a pout and Shelby just giggles at her, which is both annoying and adorable. 

“You’ll live,” Shelby assures her with a sweet smile, smoothing her skirt back down from where it got bunched up from her brief moment in Toni’s lap. 

Toni’s saved from having to come up with a reply to that by Martha texting her and informing her that they’re fifteen minutes away. 

When everyone arrives, Marcus’s nieces are completely starstruck the second they see Shelby, despite knowing she would be there. They do both manage to contain themselves a little -with the help of Marcus’s hands on their shoulders- politely asking Shelby if they can give her a hug instead of just rushing her like Toni can tell they want to. 

Shelby of course agrees, and then after that what little self-control the two girls have pretty much goes out the window. Both of them end up asking Shelby a million questions, talking a hundred miles an hour and looking up at her with wide eyes and even wider smiles. Marcus apologizes but Shelby just waves him off, very used to the situation and handling it all like a pro. Smiling brightly as she lets them hang all over her, answering all their questions and giving them compliments. 

Martha sisters are no less starstruck, but they handle meeting Shelby much more maturely than the tiny terrors with no impulse control. Their voices however, do get a little higher and faster than normal when they talk to Shelby and Toni definitely makes sure to tease them about it as they’re leaving her apartment and heading down to the cars. 

They have to take two SUVs because of the extra security Shelby has to have and Marcus’s  nieces look up at him with pleading eyes, asking if they can ‘pleaseplease please’ ride with Shelby and Toni as they each cling to one of Shelby’s hands. Marcus gives them permission after getting a nod from Shelby, and Toni spends the entire ride to the aquarium watching fondly as Shelby sits between the two little girls, all three of them excitedly talking about everything from their favorite colors to their favorite Disney princesses and what animals they’re most excited about seeing at the aquarium. 

Toni chimes in every now and then with her own opinion when asked, but she mostly stays quiet, smiling to herself when Shelby rests her arm over top of hers along the back of the seat behind Kaylee and Lexi’s heads, her fingertips stroking against Toni’s shoulder. 

…………

Getting into the mall goes smoothly, Shelby’s security team escorting them in through the back entrance that leads directly to the aquarium. The police blocked off the whole back section of the parking lot so there’s not even a visible crowd gathered as they enter like Toni thought there might be. 

The workers welcome them as they enter the aquarium, their eyes lighting up with excitement at the sight of Shelby but they all remain professional, giving the group a quick rundown of the exhibits before telling them to have fun and going back to their business. 

Shelby’s security team gives them some space, half hanging back and the others going ahead of them, and Marcus’s nieces, seemingly more excited about the animals now, both drop Shelby’s hands and immediately start excitedly making their way through the rainforest exhibit. Marcus and Martha quickly follow after them, Maya and Monica right behind them, leaving Shelby and Toni to themselves in the back of the group. 

Shelby turns to Toni with an excited smile and grabs her hand, bouncing on her toes a little. “Are you ready?”

Toni laughs, feeling a childlike giddiness bubbling up in her chest. “Hell yeah, Bee.” 

Shelby legit lets out a small squeal, pressing her lips to Toni’s cheek before basically dragging her through the first exhibit.   

As they make their way through the aquarium, Toni lets herself get completely swept up in it all, not caring about acting her age or containing her excitement, enthusiastically interacting with everything. She freaks out when they go through the first rainforest exhibit and she sees that there’s a fucking tarantula there. Staying a good 10 feet back when one of the workers let Shelby hold the thing. There’s crocodiles too, which Toni thinks is really dope, and she and Shelby take their first ever picture together from inside the pop up tank, lizards crawling all around them as they smile at Shelby’s phone. 

They end up taking several more pictures as they go. Some with the others -one of Toni’s favorites being of her, Shelby and Marty in front of Seemore the rescued sea turtle- and some of just the two of them. Toni’s favorite -and the one she ends up immediately making her lock screen later- being the one Martha takes of them in the shark tunnels, their arms wrapped around each other, Toni smiling brightly while Shelby kisses her cheek and sharks swim over their heads. 

When Martha walks away, Toni pins Shelby up against the glass and kisses her, keeping it short but making the most of it, sucking Shelby’s bottom lip into her mouth and scraping it with her teeth, smiling against Shelby’s lips at the slight whimper she lets out. When Toni pulls back, Shelby‘s eyes are a little hooded and she’s breathing a little heavier. 

“What was that for?” 

Toni raises an eyebrow, slowly dropping her gaze down Shelby’s body. “Payback for that outfit,” she replies, pressing one more lingering kiss to Shelby’s lips before stepping back and grabbing her hand, pulling her the rest of the way down the tunnel. 

…………

“So, how’s it been having her around constantly the past few days? She sick of you yet?” Martha asks from her place on the bench next to Toni, the two of them watching Marcus and Shelby with Lexi and Kaylee over by the rock pool, Maya and Monica at the gift shop. 

Toni snorts. “I don’t think so. I hope not.” 

“Well I know you’re not sick of her, considering the way you two have been hanging all over each other all day,” Martha says with a teasing smile. Toni ducks her head sheepishly and Martha laughs, bumping her shoulder with Toni’s. “Seriously, though, I’m really loving how happy she seems to make you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this.” 

“Yeah, it’s great.” Toni says, chewing her lip thoughtfully and looking over at Martha. “But also kind of… weird .” 

“Weird?” Martha asks, her eyebrows furrowing a little. 

Toni shrugs. “Yeah, I don’t know. It’s like I expected it to be harder than this or something but it’s just…not. Being around her, being with her, it’s so easy, Marty. I mean, I know we haven’t been together very long but everything is just so fun with her. Whether we’re doing something like this or just sitting on my couch watching Netflix. I just feel better just being in her presence, ya know? And there’s all the fanfare about our relationship and stuff, but that all fades into the background when I’m with her. I know it’s a thing obviously, and we’re both aware of it but…when we’re together, she’s just Shelby and I’m just Toni. And I feel totally comfortable just being myself with her.” 

Toni looks back over to the rock pool, smiling at the sight of Shelby holding Kaylee on her hip as the two of them look at something in the pool. She lets out a soft sigh through her nose before looking at Martha again. “She just makes me feel safe. And that’s new, so ya know, feels a little weird. Good weird, but weird.”  

Martha stays silent, just staring at Toni with a soft expression on her face. When she doesn’t say anything for a solid 30 seconds, Toni sits back a little and tilts her head curiously. “What?” 

Silence. 

“Marty, what ?”

Martha laughs lightly and shakes her head. “Nothing, T.” She stands from the bench and looks down at Toni with a gentle smile. “I’ll let you figure it out on your own.” 

Toni stares at Martha’s back as she walks away. 

What the fuck is that supposed to mean? 

…………

When they arrive for dinner at the Blackburn’s, Bernice greets Shelby with a big hug just like she does Toni, pulling her into the house with an arm across her shoulders, the two of them immediately launching into a conversation much like Shelby and Martha had a few days prior. Toni follows behind with a smile, watching as Shelby gets introduced to Martha’s dad Russell and her brother Jordan, the latter blushing and stuttering a little through their introduction.  

She feels an elbow connect gently with her side and looks over to see Marcus standing next to her. He jerks his head at Jordan. “Looks like J might have a thing for your girl.” 

“Him and millions of others,” Toni mutters and Marcus laughs, clapping a large hand against her back. 

“Good point. Guess you better hang onto her then huh?” 

“That’s the plan,” Toni says, the two of them sharing a smile. 

Bernice comes up to them a few moments later, and places her hand on Toni’s shoulder. “So, dinner still needs about twenty minutes in the oven, how about you give Shelby a tour while the rest of us go out to the back and get everything ready?” 

“You sure you don’t want me to help?” Toni asks and Bernice shakes her head with a warm smile.

“No, it’s okay. We’ve got it handled, you show her around.” 

Toni nods, squeezing Bernice’s hand on her shoulder before moving over to where Shelby is talking to Jordan. Feeling like messing with him, Toni comes up behind Shelby and places her hands on Shelby’s hips, looking at Jordan over her shoulder. “Hey, J. You’re looking a little pink, did you get some sun?” 

Jordan’s cheeks pinken even more as Shelby reaches back to lightly slap her thigh. “Stop it.” 

Toni laughs as Jordan mumbles out something about helping with plates and scurries away, not making eye contact with either of them. Shelby turns in her arms and shakes her head in playful disapproval. “That was mean.” 

Toni shrugs and wraps her arms around Shelby’s waist. “He deserved it. He locked Marty, Maya, Monica and I in the basement for two hours once because he had snuck over his high school girlfriend and didn’t want us to bother them.” 

Shelby’s jaw drops a little. “Okay, yeah, maybe he did deserve that then.” 

Toni hums in agreement before stepping back and holding a hand out to Shelby. “Come on, I’ve been instructed to be your tour guide while they all get everything ready for dinner.” 

“Shouldn’t we help?” Shelby asks, but takes Toni’s hand and lets her pull her along. 

“Nah, Momma B said they got it,” Toni says, leading Shelby to the stairs. “We’ll start at the top and work our way down.” 

“A familiar pattern of yours,” Shelby murmurs lowly and Toni nearly trips on the first stair. 

She looks over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes at Shelby. “Behave.” 

Shelby curls her lips in and bats her eyes innocently, giggling when Toni rolls her eyes and pulls her up the stairs. 

Toni takes her through the whole house, ending in the basement and pulling Shelby down to sit next to her on the large red futon in the corner. “Look up,” she says, wrapping her arm around Shelby’s shoulders as she curls into her side.

Shelby does, smiling at the sight of the glow in the dark sticky stars and planets on the ceiling. “Did you do that?” 

Toni nods, rubbing her thumb against Shelby’s arm. “Marty and I, yeah. Took us forever cause the sticky stuff was shit and they kept falling down. We ended up just sticking folded up pieces of duct tape on the back.” 

Shelby rests her head against Toni’s shoulder. “Surprised your short, tiny self was able to reach all the way up there.” 

“First of all, it’s called a ladder, and second of all, you’re no giant yourself, Texas.” 

“I’m 5’7.” 

Toni’s jaw drops and she leans away to look at Shelby in disbelief. “You are not 5’7!” 

“Yes I am!” Shelby argues and Toni just blinks at her, not able to believe she isn’t kidding. 

“Bee. You’re maybe two inches taller than me and I’m like 5’3…and a half.”  

Shelby huffs and pulls out her phone. “Here, look,” she says, typing on her phone for a minute before turning the screen towards Toni, a pic of the two of them standing courtside from the second game Shelby came to displayed on the screen. “I’m practically towerin’ over you.” 

“Shelby,” Toni scoffs with a laugh. “You’re wearing heels in that photo. Trust me, I remember.” 

Shelby huffs again, pocketing her phone and standing up. “Here, get up.” 

Toni smirks, happy to prove her point and stands up, stepping close to Shelby so they’re basically eye to eye, the top of Shelby’s head just an inch or so above her own. “See. Like I said. Barely taller.”

Shelby’s hands immediately shoot out against Toni’s shoulders, effectively pushing her back down onto the futon. Toni lets out a small grunt at the impact, opening her mouth to complain but quickly snapping it shut again when Shelby straddles her lap -much like she did in her apartment earlier- and presses herself as close to Toni as she can get so Toni has to crane her neck back to look up at her. 

“How bout now?” Shelby whispers, her hands coming up to cradle Toni’s face, one of her thumbs stroking along Toni’s bottom lip. 

Toni tries to focus, tries to remember that they are in Bernice’s basement with a house full of people, but all she can really pay attention to is that familiar intoxicating smell of vanilla and the green of Shelby’s eyes. “Uh…wh-what?” 

Shelby bites her lip around a smile, leaning forward and barely brushing her lips against Toni’s. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re very easily distracted?” 

Toni huffs through her nose. “You’re very distracting,” she retorts, bringing her hands to Shelby’s thighs and rubbing her thumbs against the skin exposed between the edge of Shelby’s knee high socks and the hem of her skirt. 

Shelby lets out a short hum, raising her hand to run her fingers through Toni’s hair. “You know, you never did tell me if you liked the aquarium.” 

Toni gives Shelby a look. “You know I did,” she says, fighting to keep her eyes open at the feeling of Shelby’s nails against her scalp. “I especially liked the shark tunnel,” she adds with a wiggle of her eyebrows. 

“Oh, I bet you did.” 

Toni squeezes Shelby’s thighs affectionately. “Did you have fun?” 

Shelby nods. “I always have fun with you.”  

Toni brings her hand up to wrap around the back of Shelby’s neck, pulling her down for a kiss. “Ditto, Bee.” 

They end up making out on the futon for the next ten minutes, both of them blushing deeply and Shelby nearly falling off Toni’s lap in her haste to get up when Martha comes down and catches them. 

“Well this feels very high school,” Martha comments with a laugh as Shelby straightens her skirt and Toni smoothes out her hair. “Dinners ready you horn dogs.” 

“Right behind you, Marty,” Toni says, her voice coming out a little raspier than normal. 

“Uh huh,” is all Martha says before heading back up the stairs.

Toni blows out a breath as she watches Martha go. “Guess we should get up th-” Toni cuts herself off when she looks at Shelby and sees that she has her eyes closed, a small smile on her face as she mumbles something under her breath. “Uhh, Bee?” 

Shelby opens her eyes, blinking at Toni and shaking her head. “Sorry. Dinner right?” 

“What were you doing?” Toni asks, growing even more curious as a slight blush spreads across Shelby cheeks.  

“Nothin’,” Shelby replies quickly, grabbing Toni’s hand and pulling her towards the stairs. “Come on, let’s get up there.” 

Toni raises her eyebrows at Shelby’s back but doesn’t question her, just follows her up the stairs and out to the backyard for dinner. 

As dinner goes on, Toni feels an overwhelming amount of happiness as she looks at everyone sat around the Blackburn’s giant picnic table, all of them smiling and laughing as Shelby tells a story about how she got every single one of her family members with the Saran Wrap on the toilet seat prank in the same day. 

The sound of Shelby’s laugh in her ear and the feeling of Shelby’s hand on her thigh is something Toni hopes she’ll get to have for many dinners to come.