for the holidays | rini au

twenty two

ricky wakes up long before his alarm was set to go off. he hadn't gotten much sleep, constantly tossing and turning, unable to stop thoughts from circulating through his head. as he sat up in his bed, he realized that it wasn't even eight yet.

deciding he could use this time to get some stuff done in order to make things move faster, he takes a quick shower and puts the final touches on nini's gift. he found an old bag and some paper, carefully wrapping the box and placing it in the bag. he leaves it on his bedside table and goes to the kitchen to make himself some breakfast.

red's sitting on the couch with a bowl of cereal, watching a show on the tv. he takes notice of ricky, placing his bowl on the coffee table and standing up to meet him in the kitchen.

"it's valentine's day," he says out of the blue.

ricky looks at him with an expression that he can't quite decipher, "i know. i'm going over to ninis in like," he pauses to check the time, "an hour."

"nini," red simply states, taking notice of the way he slightly smiled while saying he was going to see her.

"nini," ricky confirms with a firm nod, refusing to meet his friend's eyes.

"so when are you going to talk to her? were you planning on doing it today or in a week or maybe-"

"red," he interrupts, "we're doing so well right now. everything's fine and we're not fighting and i just don't want to do anything to ruin it right now. this talk is guaranteed to ruin it."

"ricky the thing you're doing right now is fake. you don't know what nini's thinking, she could be putting up a front to sell your relationship to her moms. for all you know, she could be counting down the days until this is over," red says, causing ricky to pause and think about what to say next.

"she's not doing that," he replies as if he's trying to convince himself. she wouldn't do that would she? he shakes the thought away and focuses his attention back on red, waiting to see what else he had to say.

"and how can you be so sure?" red presses, trying to open ricky's eyes.

"because i know nini. i know her better than i know myself, and i know those words aren't worth anything right now because we just got to know each other again, but i really do. being around her feels no different than it did in high school, everything's so easy. i'll talk to her red. just not today," he rambles in attempts to put everything he's thinking into words.

"you have until the end of the month or i'm locking you two in a room and not letting you out until you talk about it," red jokes, however ricky knows that he'd do it if he had to.

he laughs at red's comment, walking over to the fridge to figure out what to eat for breakfast.

nini had been up for an hour, running around in attempts to clean up her apartment before ricky's arrival. she had set up the teddy bear and chocolates she had bought for him on the couch, trying her best to keep it casual, taylor swift flowing through the apartment as she cleaned.

deciding to take a quick shower prior to his arrival, she finishes unloading the dishwasher and moves into her room to pick an outfit.

she picks out a simple sweater and jeans, figuring she shouldn't dress up too much, but wanted to be comfortable in case they decided to go out, hang out, outside of her apartment.

when she's done showering, she quickly blow dries her hair, once again listening to taylor swift. she gets dressed and moves to the kitchen to grab a quick snack, pausing when she hears her phone ding.

when she hears a knock on her door, she puts down the granola she was snacking on and quickly walks over to the door. she's met with a smiling ricky, who was holding a bouquet of roses and a gift bag. she opens the door further to let him in, careful to not reveal her gifts for him.

"hi," he smiles, placing his stuff on her counter, sitting on one of the barstools.

"hi," she replies, walking over to the couch to grab his gifts. she attempts to hide them behind her back, however fails when he gives he raises his eyebrow and points curiously.

she rolls her eyes and hands him the bear and chocolates, "it's nothing big, just thought it'd be cute. you don't have to keep them i-"

"nini," he laughs, "it's ok, makes me feel better about what i got for you."

she softly nods her head, eyes moving to the flowers he was holding, "you didn't have you get me anything, you know."

"well you got me something, so me returning the favor is only fair, yeah?" he responds, a teasing smile on his face.

he grabs the flowers which he had placed on the counter and hands them to her. she laughs and takes them from him, moving to find something to put them in.

"wait, let me take a picture, for your moms," he stops her from putting them in a vase, pulling his phone out.

when ricky felt he had taken enough pictures, he slides his phone into his back pocket and allows nini to place the flowers in the vase she had picked out.

"my turn," she says, grabbing her phone and walking into her room. he follows her and watches as she settles in front of her mirror. "just like, sit behind me and hug me or something," she instructs, ricky standing still.

he snaps out of his daze and complies to her request, settling behind her and wrapping his arms around her torso. he rests his chin on her head, softly kissing her temple. she leans further into him and lifts her phone up to take a picture.

once the picture was taken, she pushes ricky's arms off of her and stands up, leaving him on the floor. he quickly follows suit and stands up as well, following her into the kitchen. they post their respective photos and sit besides each other at the island.