| Brielle tapped her fingernails against the orange chair in the airport out of boredom, waiting for Steve's plane to land. Colby was with her, signing autographs for a few fans that were in the airport. Soon enough, he came back and sat down next to her, stopping her tapping by placing his hand over hers. His mouth opened to say something, but Brielle said it first. "Steve won't hate you." Colby shook his head. "You know I don't like it when you do that," he muttered. Brielle snickered. "Why, because it scares you?" she asked, amused. "Yes, it scares me," Colby said, tapping his foot against the leg of the chair. "And your brother scares me, too. What if he doesn't-" "He will love you," Brielle said, rolling her eyes. "He'll love you because I tell him to. Colby, don't worry about Steve, please. He's gonna bust you, you know that, but he's just an overprotective older brother. Surely you've dealt with those before." Colby frowned as Steve's flight was announced. "All of my ex-girlfriends were either only children or the oldest." Brielle wrinkled her nose as she stood up. "Then all I have to say, is good luck." Colby paled as he stood up next to Brielle. "Good luck?" he asked, walking beside her toward the gate. "Yep," she said, stopping and standing near a pole. She looked at Colby. "You are gonna be fine. Just don't mention the fact that we slept together, or Steve will hand your ass to you." "I won't," Colby said, looking to the ground and praying that Steve wasn't as tall as he was. After a few moments, he said, "Ellie, do me a favor and don't send me to the NHL for a while." Brielle looked at Colby, confused. "Why? I thought that was what you wanted." "Your brother plays for the NHL, right?" Brielle nodded. "And Pittsburgh plays Anaheim, right?" Again, Brielle nodded. "If you send me to the NHL, and we play Anaheim, I'm gonna get my ass knocked into the boards so many times by your brother, I'm going to be completely black and blue and you won't recognize me by the time the game is over." Brielle sighed. "Sweetie, relax, please. Steve won't do anything to you, believe me." She turned toward the gate, where she saw Steve walking out of the tunnel. "If he does, his ass will be hanging from a tree," she muttered, walking toward the gate. "Elle!" Steve shouted as soon as she came into his sight. "Oh God, he is bigger than me," Colby whimpered. "Stop that," Brielle whispered, elbowing him in the stomach as Steve walked up to them. "Hey Stevie," she said, giving him a hug. "I missed you," Steve said, still hugging her. He looked up at Colby, who was standing behind Brielle, his hands in his pockets, obviously nervous. "Can I assume that you're the guy dating my sister?" Steve asked, raising an eyebrow at Colby's discomfort. "Um, yeah," Colby stammered, trying to get ahold of himself. He stuck out his hand for Steve to shake. "Colby, right?" Steve asked, shaking his hand. "Yeah," Colby replied. Steve leaned over to Colby and grinned. "I won't hurt you, I promise," he whispered. "Don't let Elle think that though, she likes that I'm so protective." "She's also standing right here," Brielle said, crossing her arms over her chest. "And she's not deaf." "She's talking about herself in the third person again," a voice said from behind her. Brielle spun around to see Marc Chouinard standing there, grinning, his arms open for a hug. "Awe come on, tell me you missed me," Marc said. Brielle gave Marc a half-smile. "Yeah, I guess I did," she said, giving Marc a quick hug, and immediately going back to Colby's side. "Let's go and grab the baggage," Steve said quickly, turning toward the baggage claim. As they were walking, Steve turned to Brielle and whispered, "I'm sorry, but he wanted to come along. I don't think he has such a huge crush on you anymore, he supposedly has a girlfriend." "Has that ever stopped him before?" Brielle hissed, keeping Colby's hand in a death grip. Steve frowned and turned toward Marc, keeping his voice low as he spoke to him. Colby didn't like the looks Marc was giving Brielle, and said to her, "Who the hell is this guy?" Brielle bit her lip. "He played with Steve for the past two seasons. He's a year younger than me, we went out for a few weeks during his first season. I broke up with him because I was sick of the media hounding both Steve and I about it, and he didn't take it too well. He's liked me ever since, it never mattered if he or I had a significant other; he was just always there." She paused and watched Marc grab one of his bags. "And now he's here. Fucking peachy." "Don't worry about him," Colby said, giving Brielle's hand a squeeze. "If he goes near you, I'll hurt him." Brielle giggled. "Baby, he's about three inches taller than you and he weighs about fifty pounds more than you. He could probably hand your ass to you within a few seconds." "You're not supposed to say that," Colby said, giving her a face. "You're supposed to say, 'You're absolutely right, sweetie, you can kill him now.'" Brielle laughed. "Is that right?" she asked. Colby nodded. "Okay, you're absolutely right, sweetie, you can kill him now." Colby smiled. "Do you want me to? Cause I will if you want me to." "No, not yet," Brielle said. "Only if he pisses me off. Then you can kill him." Colby smiled. "Okay. You know I'm gonna hold you to that." "I know, honey," Brielle said as Steve handed Colby one of his bags when Colby put his hand out to grab one. |
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