When Katie walked into the Moon family home, she followed the sound of music into the kitchen. There, Luna and Prince were in their own world, laughing loudly as they tried to cook dinner together, chucking ingredients at one another and chasing each other around the island. They didn’t even spot Katie until they were about to kiss and she cleared her throat and waved awkwardly. She had to have the awkward conversation with them before going upstairs to Leo and suffering through that conversation, too. Luckily, the one with his parents went well so she made her way upstairs with high hopes. Maybe Leo could be just as understanding, too? On the other hand that could be wishful thinking but once her hopes were raised, there was nothing she could do to bring them back down again. Even though he may have heard her footsteps coming, she stopped abruptly outside his door. This was not going to be easy. She knew that night when they were on the beach arguing that Leo only said their beef was squashed to shut her up and get her inside when she was stubbornly trying to sit outside alone when he didn’t give her the answers she wanted. She took a deep breath, knocked softly, and entered. Here goes nothing. She raised her hands up and proclaimed she came in peace. She opted out of sitting next to him on the bed, choosing the desk chair instead. She sighed, cringing at the tension in the air. Did it have to be so awkward? “I’m sorry that you felt you had to leave, but I get it.” She hesitated, her body physically aching from the discomfort. She barely made eye contact with the boy. “How’s your leg?” She truly didn’t care about his leg but the awkward chit-chat was like a shield of armour before the tough conversation.
Prince had asked Matt to call over when he had a chance, so they cold talk. He hadn’t spoken to him much in the last few weeks, nor had he explained why he sent Pandora to stay at his. He’d had countless talks (and arguments) with Luna about his mother’s presence in his life but Matt and Panda had been kept in the dark. He hoped Matt didn’t mind how long he made Panda stay. When Prince went and rented his mother an apartment for herself, Pandora came home but he still wasn’t honest with either of them about what had been going on. It was so easy for him to turn the discussion into an argument or a sob-story with Luna, so he found himself wanting to talk to Matt about it. That was weird for Prince considering he didn’t really like to talk to anyone about anything. He trusted Matt, sure, but that didn’t mean Prince felt the need to open up about every little thing. Hence why he waited so long to share his relationship status with Luna. His front door was open, like it often was so he heard Matt come in and call his name. “Hey.” Prince called back from the kitchen. He was standing at the back door, smoking, blowing the smoke outside to avoid stinking up the kitchen.
❝ i don’t love you, okay? i never did. i never will. ❞, ❝ i think we should see other people. ❞, ❝ i’m sorry. ❞
I don’t love you, okay? I never did. I never will.
For the 100th time, Prince’s finger slammed the doorbell. It was going to break soon, but he knew Luna was home. Her car was here and several lights were switched on. She was ignoring him on purpose. He couldn’t say he didn’t understand. He really fucked up this time. He told her he didn’t love her, this was just sex and to add fuel to the fire he basically ignored her at Matt’s party last night and made a big show of talking to Sky instead. He rang the bell again and slammed his fist against the door. Finally, it flung open. Cass stood there, looking angrier than he’d ever seen her. In fact, he was never sure she could emote anger. Clearly she could. “She doesn’t want to see you Prince! Take a hint.” Prince did not take a hint. What he did take was the opportunity of an open door by pushing it further open and getting past Cassie. “Where is she?” Cassie yet again insisted he needed to leave. He ignored her. She was never going to be of any kind of help to him anyway. He found Luna in the living room. He couldn’t tell if she looked upset or angry, or maybe both. Either way whatever emotion it was was his fault.“You’re ignoring me.” He pointed out and the look she gave him in response really made him realise how much he fucked up this time. Cass was hovering like an irritating bug behind him, telling Luna to stick to her guns and trying to tell Prince to leave. “Jesus can you at least call off your fucking watch dog?” She didn’t tell Cass to go away, but she did tell Prince to and stood up to walk away from him. As she walked past him he grabbed her hand. He was starting to feel a little desperate and he didn’t like it. “This is a bit of an overreaction even for you.” Luna didn’t look at him. Instead she looked at Cassie. Everyone in their group wondered if these two could read each others minds and they confirmed it when Cassie finally left despite Luna not saying anything. About time, he thought. He was still holding her hand. Was this a good sign? He put his other hand up, brushing her hair behind her ear. This was always his way of apologising. He never used the word ‘sorry’ or admitted what he did wrong. He would show up, and be gentle to show how he felt instead of saying it. It worked every other time. This time however Luna shook free of his grasp and he brought his hands back to himself. He didn’t say anything, expecting her to. Instead she looked at him with these big sad eyes that were almost completely clouded by the anger on her face. He rolled his eyes. “Fucking hell, do you have to be so dramatic?” He wasn’t the most graceful person that was for sure. He stepped closer to her but she stepped away. Prince was confused. Normally their fights led to make up sex but that didn’t seem to be in the cards tonight.
“Prince. I don’t love you, okay?” Prince scoffed but she didn’t let him speak. “I never did. I never will.”
Prince was a little bit lost for words. Every time feelings came up between them he always imagined he’d prefer to hear her say something like this. He was only now realising he preferred hearing her say she loved him, despite arguing with her every time she did. He wouldn’t say it out loud, mostly because he didn’t understand what he was feeling in reaction to her words, but there was definitely a sting there after hearing that. Prince could leave now and they could call quits on this whole thing. That would be too easy though wouldn’t it? He didn’t even believe Luna expected him to do that. So despite how he was feeling, he shrugged. “I don’t care.” That was a lie but he was trying to be casual. “I never expected you to love me. There’s nothing to love, really. Doesn’t mean we have to stop this, does it?” His tone was more of a whisper now and he stepped back into her space, wrapping his hand around hers. He lifted her hand to his lips and grazed a gentle kiss over her knuckles. He smirked, looking right into her eyes. He lifted her hand more, to his shoulder so it could fall there, his arm wrapping around her waist so they were closer together now, face to face. His lips went to hers, but he just gave her a peck. “If you don’t love me, it’s just sex right?” Last week she got annoyed with him for saying that but if she was saying she didn’t love him, surely he wouldn’t get in trouble this time right?
I think we should see other people.
Prince let out an exasperated sigh. He and Luna had been going at this for what felt like an eternity. They were having the same argument going around in loops, mostly about his inability to talk about his feelings, both parties thinking they were correct and both refusing to back down. Prince was tired. He was actually about to suggest they drop it and he go home, mostly to avoid reigniting the fight, but just as he went to speak Luna made a suggestion of her own. “I think we should see other people.” Prince simply blinked at her. It was as though she said it in her native tongue because he was struggling to understand what she said. He sat back and thought about it. Did he want to see other people? No. He hadn’t even looked at another girl since him and Luna started this thing up, even at the start when he did truly hate her and kept thinking ‘this time’ was the last time. They were a bit past that now though. It was a thing now. Thinking about it, he realised her idea pissed him off. The fight they’ve been having all day never once made him think he’d be better off with someone else.
“You can see whoever the fuck you want to, Luna.” He wondered if she already had someone in mind and that was why she made the suggestion. Well if that thought didn’t near drive him into a blind rage. “I’m not stopping you.” He stood up. It was definitely time to leave now.
Prince showed no interest in other girls. He practically became best friends with Nick to get any scoop he could which Nick would have gotten from Cassie because she couldn’t keep a secret. Nick was better at secret keeping but he swore blind he knew nothing about Luna. Days went by with Prince and Luna not speaking. Those days turned to a week and soon that week turned into two weeks. He hadn’t even seen her when he would hang out at Matt’s. He was hoping he would, secretly. Simply just seeing each other after a fight was normally their turning point to make up. Prince wanted to see her. He wanted to make up, even if he wouldn’t admit it aloud. Opportunity presented itself when Nick asked Cassie one night if she thought Luna would collect her, since he smoked more than he intended. Prince was dead sober and offered to drop Cassie home. He could tell she didn’t want him to but Nick insisted it was a fine idea and far be it for Cassie to argue with him. The car ride was awkward because, well, Prince and Cassie weren’t friends. Neither of them even knew how to make small talk with each other so they didn’t. Cassie was the one to eventually break the silence. “I know this is just your excuse to see her. But if you’re not serious about her Prince, leave her alone. Why shouldn’t she see other people? She deserves someone who’s going to love her, because she’s amazing and she’s worth loving. She doesn’t deserve your crap.” Prince scoffed because Cassie just didn’t understand. They pulled onto the street of the girls place and Prince hadn’t spoken since Cassies little lecture. “Is she actually seeing someone?” He was that embarrassed about his question that it came out in a quiet tone that made it twice as embarrassing as asking in the first place. Cassie didn’t answer. Prince decided to take that as a no and as they pulled into the drive he also got out of the car, much to Cassies irritation.
“This is not my fault.” Cassie motioned towards Prince trailing behind her. He knew Luna was confused because Prince hadn’t yet showed his face to Luna, but as he strolled into the kitchen he watched her face go from confusion to irritation. He wondered if that meant they would argue. That would at least be more normal than the not speaking the last few weeks. He almost smiled when Luna demanded to know why he was here.
“Nick asked me to drop Cass off. Just making sure she gets in okay.” His voice was dripping in sarcasm, proven by Cassies scoff and her insistence that Prince wouldn’t care if she dropped dead. Princes eyes didn’t leave Lunas once though. He could barely even tell Cassie was still in the room nor did he notice her leaving. He just felt that suddenly him and Luna were alone. He did look around to confirm because he sometimes felt like they were alone even in a crowd of people. Prince made a bold move and walked over to Luna. She was leaning against the counter so he rested his hands on either side of it, practically wrapping around her from behind. For some reason, she let him when he pressed his lips to her neck. Her daze didn’t last very long when she pulled away from him and moved his hands so she could get out of his grasp. Prince didn’t need pushing, if she wanted away from him he wouldn’t stop her, and took two steps back. “This is so fucking stupid Luna. You’ve made your point.” He sighed. He should have saved his exasperation though because she began ranting and raving about their last fight and how she stood by what she said.
“What?” He snapped, annoyed now. “About seeing other people? Fuck that. I’m not going to go near anyone else.” He walked back over to her. They were now both annoyed at the other being annoyed, funnily enough. “I don’t want anyone else.” Bravely, he kissed her. When it felt like she was letting him, or more that she wanted him to, he placed one hand on the small of her back to pull her closer and the other under her jaw. He smirked and pulled his head back. “You really need to see other people to feel like this?” His lips went to her ear to whisper. “I know I don’t. It’s only you.” They kissed again, slower this time, softer. And because Prince is Prince, he dropped both his hands and despite being amused by the back and forth, he completely removed himself from her personal bubble. “Think about it.” And then he left.
“I’m sorry.”
Love was a funny old thing. One day Luna and Prince were just fuck buddies who hated each other and were so mortified about continuously going back to each other that they would leave as fast as possible. Now, they wanted to know every thing about each other and spend every waking moment of their free time together. “I don’t have a dating life.” Prince retorted when asked. “You’re the only person I’ve ever-“ he didn’t finish his sentence because he still found it difficult to admit he had feelings. She seemed to take him up wrong and thought he was talking about sex and considering she knew him for a while before they got together she knew that wasn’t true. He chuckled lowly when she said as much. “No you’re not the only girl I’ve shagged.” He confirmed with a smirk. “You’re basically the only one I’ve dated.” He hated that word, visibly cringing as he said it. Dated. It felt so American. He didn’t know how else to label it. He was in love with her, sure, but the boyfriend girlfriend thing wasn’t a regular conversation for them, more of a regular fight. So they limited themselves on bringing that up. Luna decided to dig deep with her curiosity asking about his first time. Prince chuckled again, because thinking about it felt so silly. “It was in her bedroom when her parents weren’t home and I’ve watched music videos that lasted longer. Happy now?” He groaned when she asked who the girl was. “Stacey.” He confirmed, when asked if she knew the girl. He was so embarrassed that he slept with her but also afraid of Lunas reaction. After that it was awkward for reasons Prince could barely understand.
The next day Prince texted her but got no response. He didn’t think much of it as he had a busy day anyway with work and schoolwork and driving Pandora from one place to the next. By the end of the day, she still hadn’t replied so he sent her a Snapchat. He struggled to fall asleep, constantly checking if she replied and if his phone had accidentally been turned on to do not disturb. She opened his messages and still no reply. He wracked his brain to try figure out why she was ignoring him but he couldn’t think of anything. That conversation about Stacey occurred to him but he couldn’t actually believe that was reason enough for her to go ghost. She’d told him the story of her losing her virginity too and he didn’t care. Why would she? It had to be something else. He just couldn’t think of what and no doubt it pissed him off that he had turned into this person checking his phone dying for a text back. A few days later at school Prince very dramatically threw himself down on the seat next to Luna at lunch. She didn’t even look at him, despite the weird glance he got from Valerie and Matt. He was going to make her look at him though. He glared at the pair sitting across from Luna as a kind of silent way of telling them to mind their own business, then he leaned in super close to Luna. “I’m not invisible. I know you can see me.” She finally looked at him and he nearly punched the air in triumph. A look. At least it was something. He was about to start questioning her when Nick decided this moment to have the worst timing ever when he and Cassie arrived with none other than Stacey. Nick sat down next to Prince, Cassie next to Luna and Stacey across from Prince, because of course. Princes body was already fully turned in the direction of Luna anyway so he didn’t even spare Stacey a glance even when she greeted him. He did spot Cassie looking between Luna, Prince and Stacey. He furrowed his eyebrows. Was Stacey really the reason Luna wasn’t speaking to him? Why would Cassie have given them all that look if Luna hadn’t spoken to her about it? He rolled his eyes and leaned in to her. “Is this why you’re fucking blanking me? Really?” He was whispering because nobody needed to hear them half-arguing. She’d gone back to not looking at him, probably because he got distracted by the others arriving. Definitely didn’t help his case that he looked up and away from Luna upon Stacey’s arrival but in his defence he didn’t know she was there before he looked, it had been Nicks voice that made him glance over. He grabbed a hold of her hand, a big deal when they were in school with all their friends considering he was normally very private about all of that. “This silent treatment is pissing me off. At least tell me what the fuck I did.” And what he did was sitting across from them and decided to interject herself, teasingly asking what the two of them were whispering about. “Fuck off Stacey.” Prince snapped. It was if she knew she was what they were fighting over and wanted to make it worse on purpose. Him interacting with her was apparently the last straw for Luna who got up and left. Prince sighed and rolled his eyes. “Trouble in paradise?” Stacey smirked and Prince didn’t even look at her. He caught up with Luna at her locker.
“I think I used the wrong words, when we talked last week.” Prince was mortified. “You’re not just the only girl I’ve ‘dated.’” He could see her attitude was about to get worse. “You’re the only person I’ve ever had feelings for. And you’re the only one I ever lied to about it being just sex. If we had this four years ago then there’d be no other girls at all in my past.” He placed his hand under her chin to make her look at him. “You ignoring me has made me feel like fucking shit, just so you know.” He cleared his throat and announced he was done sharing now. It was getting to be a bit much for him. He went to drop his hand but hers covered his so he kept it there, his thumb looping through one of her fingers. He kissed her. “I’m sorry.” She said as he pulled away and he shrugged, as if he hadn’t spent the last few days losing his mind trying to figure out what he did wrong this time. “We’re good.” He confirmed and kissed her again. Besides maybe Luna was right to ignore him, the universe should have punished him a long time ago for ever even getting into bed with the worst person he knows.
katie was excited to get away for the twins birthday. she’d never been abroad without her dad and she couldn’t think of better people to have the first trip with. she was sure this was going to be the first of many. she didn’t have a drink in the airport bar because, first of all, she was still the only underage one but mostly because she was incredibly nauseous. she had extreme flying anxiety and she didn’t think alcohol would help. when they were boarding the plane, it was hard to focus on anything but finding her seat and strapping herself in, demanding the aisle seat so she couldn’t see outside. beside her, leo was yet to take his seat after she’d asked him to double check that their luggage was far enough into the overhead bin that it wouldn’t crash down on top of them. on her other side, across the aisle, the twins were sat and she was ignoring any mocking. even though she was the one who asked him to get up, she looked up at him, stressed. “can you please sit down?”
things with katie and leo had been good lately, amazing in fact. she couldn’t even remember what their last fight was about unless it was something stupid like teasing each other’s pizza toppings. it was nice for things to have gone back to normal for them. it had been difficult for katie, moving to cambridge. she was only seeing her daughter two days a week, at most. going to see leo wasn’t as easy as getting in her car and driving ten minutes and staying in constant touch with him was difficult with their conflicting schedules. if she had a cancelled lecture, she couldn’t phone him and chat because he would be working. it was hard to work around, but they figured it out eventually. when she talked about him, or just mentioned him, to people who hadn’t met him she would say “my boyfriend” but he didn’t know that. it felt endearing but she thought if she told him he would question the nature of their relationship and that was something she didn’t want, not now, not while things were so good. they were hanging out with the twins but katie had decided she just wanted to be with leo so she dragged him upstairs. she was sat on his lap, giggling between making out and seducing one another when she pulled back a little bit just to look at him. her hands were on his chest, his fingers in her hair. she chuckled softly. “i'm, like, really happy you’re here.” she whispered. “i wish you could just live here with us all the time, then it’d be perfect.” katie understood why leo couldn’t have joined them but that didn’t stop her dreaming.
college had always been katie’s number one goal. even when she got pregnant, her first concern wasn’t her dad or jake or leo’s reactions, it was wondering what she was going to do about college. maybe her passion for college was why her dad offered to basically raise cheryl in the meantime. when she got there, she knew she hadn’t been over-hyping it. she loved it. it was also the perfect distraction when leo got a girlfriend and she couldn’t focus on her own self-pity considering she’d done the same thing a few years ago. she just hoped he didn’t end up the same way she did. through keeping her focus on college, and college only, she was doing really well. she had always done well but she was now miles ahead of her peers and that led to some amazing opportunities. she wanted to share her good news with leo, so straight after college she got in her car and drove the whole way to london city. usually she waited until after rush hour or to go with the twins or even saturday morning but she couldn’t wait this time, skipping her last lecture of the day to go. she just wanted to see leo. she barely parked like a normal human being as she was switching off the car and running up the drive. she knocked on the door with all her energy. she was honestly beyond excitement, and could barely stop fidgeting. the door opened and she smiled brightly when she saw luna. she greeted and hugged luna and looked around. if katie had calmed down a bit she might have noticed leo’s car not in the driveway. “is leo-valentin here?”
katie had had fun on her trip away with her friends. it was the longest she’d been abroad and she was beyond grateful that her dad had assured her it was okay to actually go and that he’d mind cheryl. all of that being said, she was delighted to return home and hug her child. she was also looking forward to seeing leo. she’d talked to kendra one late night when kendra noticed she was moping and she’d come to the decision that leo was right when they argued about the status of their relationship. her freedom-- flirting with random european men, just didn’t feel worth sacrificing her relationship with leo. she wished he was there with her whenever something funny happened or when she got too drunk she wanted to hop on his back and have him carry her to bed, and so on and so forth. she planned on telling him such when she returned home. she spent the first day back recovering and spending time with cheryl. today, she had checked leo was free and asked him to call over when he said he was. she felt like her dad had softened to him since her pregnancy but she was still grateful he wasn’t in when she heard leo’s car pull up outside. she went to the door to greet him, smiling brightly. they hadn’t really been alone much since the day they fought at her place in cambridge but she had texted him enough to feel, on her part at least, that they were on okay terms together. “missed me?” she beamed.
when it came to discipline, prince wasn’t exactly the strictest parent. often, he only put on a scowl and acted annoyed just to be on lunas side whenever leo or sage did something bad. most of the time he didn’t actually care. it wasn’t that he didn’t care what his kids did but he just trusted that they could learn from their own mistakes. prince assumed he and luna didn’t know the half of what leo got up to but what they didn’t know didn’t hurt them. he half hoped the not knowing continued when he found out what had been bugging leo. he had been in the house a few weeks prior when leo and katie had been yelling at each other but he hadn’t heard anything they were saying and neither leo or katie seemed to be interested in sharing so prince just let it go. after that, it appeared leo wasn’t interested in sharing anything considering he just flat out stopped talking to prince. for prince, that was devastating. he tried to give leo his space by not forcing him to talk but prince couldn’t deny it killed him when his son would enter a room he was in and either leave or just ignore him. when it finally seemed to be coming to an end, eli made the decision to share why all that was. what he also shared was information on the fight katie and leo had had in leo’s room recently. prince initially let the information go un-acknowledged but he couldn’t help but grow concerned the more he thought about it. the thought of leo being purposefully cruel to the girl he liked didn’t sit right with prince. it reminded him of him too much and if there was one person he didn’t want his kid turning into, it was him. he was going to need to confront leo about it. when leo got home, prince called him into the kitchen. he nodded for leo to sit down, telling him that they needed to talk. “i’m just going to ask you once, so be honest. what happened between you and katie that day you stormed out of here, when you guys were shouting up in your room?”
