"Wake up you lazy bum!" Amanda giggled, jumping onto my bed and landing on her knees, jostling me awake in the process. I cracked my eyes open to see my partner's face split in a huge grin as she excitedly bounced up and down, trying to wake me up. She had on a camisole and a pair of jeans, her face flushed from just getting out of the steamy shower.

"Five more minutes," I grumbled, giving her a lazy smile and then pulling the duvet over my head to shield me from the sunlight streaming through the windows.

"Ross Hornby!" she giggled, tugging back the blanket and pulling at my arm futilely, "We only have fifteen minutes before we have to leave!"

"But I showered before bed," I wined, grabbing her hand and intertwining our fingers together, "Besides, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"It's not my fault that you couldn't keep your hands to yourself," she teased, leaning over so that her face was hovering above mine. Her hair felt in wet strands around us, the ringlets dipping water onto my face.

I shrugged and pretended to act guilty, wrapping my hands around her small waist and pulling her on top of me so that her knees rested on either side of my hips. "This is the first time you've stayed over in almost a week," I defended, "I have a really weak constitution when it comes to that." I grinned, thinking about it; I could spend hours kissing and touching her. Everything about her was beautiful, even the bones that pushed against her skin as if trying to escape. Her tattoos, having one made me uncomfortable, now only added to her overall image. Amanda had even gotten a few more since she got here, including a bee on her wrist that was my new favorite.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, giving me a warm grin and running a hand down the side of my face and jaw.

"The beautiful girl on top of me," I mumbled contently, holding her hand with mine and kissing the palm.

"Aw, you're so sweet," she cooed, blushing, "But really Ross Hornby, we're going to be late if you don't get up." She giggled as she grabbed hold of both my wrists and tugged me into a sitting position. This only caused me to wrap my arms around her and bring her into an intimate hug, kissing her bare shoulder.

"We have a few minutes," I muttered into her skin, letting my lips wander around her neck and up to her jawline; I knew that would make her melt in my arms and silence her nagging.

"Don't tease me," she breathed, and then rolled her head back to give me better access. I could feel her hands running down my shoulders and back, her nails just barely grazing the skin to send bumps across it. I kept at it, suckling at her jaw until I felt the beginnings of moan rumbling through her throat.

Amanda suddenly jumped off of me, rolling across the duvet and taking a few steps away from the bed. "No," she said curtly, holding out her hands in front of her, "Ross Hornby? No! We're not getting started!" She tried to give me a stern look, but was quickly consumed by giggles.

"Now who's the tease?" I joked.

"Just get dressed," she grumbled, giving me a coy smile and throwing me a set of clothes I had set out the night before because I knew this would probably happen. Right as she was leaving the room she gave a quick, "I'll make us some tea," before disappearing.

I rubbed the short hairs on the back of my head as I leaned back on my other arm, looking towards the place Amanda had just left. I couldn't stop smiling as I thought about everything we had been through, and how much our relationship had progressed especially during the holidays. I had a feeling this would be a good trip, and if my plans went accordingly, our relationship should only get better from it.

———————————-

"Do you have whiskey?" Smith asked the flight attendant as she went around offering us all drinks.

"Of course, and for you miss?" she asked, looking over the ginger to address Amanda. Because of the way our tickets were arranged, Amanda had gotten the window seat and Smith was next to her, leaving Trott, Tom, and I next to them. I didn't particularly mind, since I wanted to catch up on Game of Thrones and Amanda, Trott, and Smith were all playing Hero's of the Storm together. Ever since she got the beta keys for it, the game has been slowly consuming the office.

"We haven't even gotten there and you're already getting drunk?" Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow at him and smirking.

"Yeah, you want some?" he asked, shoving the glass in her face and then snatching it away, adding "Oh that's right! You're like, what, seventeen?" Smith never seemed to get tired of that joke, but Amanda wasn't fazed by it anyone.

"I don't look like a teenager you bastard!" she laughed, turning to punch him in the arm.

"Would you two calm down?" I hissed, smirking at the guilty looks the two of them gave me.

"The match is starting," Trott told them, and quickly they all shut up; the only sound you could hear was the occasional swear under their breaths or a call for backup. The flight continued relatively the same, my only interruption coming from Amanda when she forced Trott to switch seats with her halfway through the journey so we could play a couple of games of hearthstone. She was an aggressive opponent, but I won four of the six games anyway.

Once we had landed and collected our things, I followed behind Amanda as we walked through the terminal, her hand loosely holding onto mine. She was more focused on her phone as we followed the flow of people into the main lobby. The plan was to take a shuttle to the hotel in the middle of Stirling once we found the other Youtuber, and since it was only 11 in the morning we would have plenty of time to look around and begin our vlog.

"Where's Nick?" Smith asked, both our heights giving us a good advantage to look through the crowd.

"His plane landed about half an hour ago," Amanda said, pulling out her phone again; I assumed she was texting him and asking of his whereabouts.

"We should go check when the next bus leaves..." Trott muttered, his voice trailing off into the din of the busy airport.

We stood off to the side, waiting for a few minutes before we heard someone saying "Romeo, oh Romeo," very close behind us.

Amanda gave a tiny exclamation and ran over to her old room mate, flinging her small arms around his broad shoulders. "Wherefore art thou, Romeo!" he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her waist and spinning her in the air as if it were nothing.

"Nick Valentine!" Amanda chirped, "It's so nice to see you again." I watched as she pulled away from him, but unfortunately kept her hands on his shoulders, her face turned up to smile at him.

"Hey sweetheart," he cooed, his hands traveling down her back to rest on her waist. I could have sworn his arrogant smile had faltered for a moment as he smoothed away the deceiving layer of her coat. My perceptions were proved right when he continued, "How have you been doing? Have you been eating?"

I tensed at the question, and saw Nick's eyes flicker over to mine so quickly before returning to hers that I was half convinced I had imagined it. As much as I didn't want to admit it, if this guy knew anything about Amanda's horrible relationship with food I could use his help. It's possible that she was going through this before she moved to England, and he might know how to handle it better than I could if they really had known each other for so long.

"Of course," she said, brushing off his question with a wave of her hand. She did, however, pull away so that his hands were no longer on his waist, and I knew her well enough to notice the tense way she stood as they continued to exchange formalities. I felt my blood boil as Nick continued to run his hand down Amanda's arm or touch her shoulder. She seemed used to it, and I worried this would be a regular thing all weekend.

"You okay mate?" Tom asked, startling me as he clasped a hand on my shoulder, "The next bus leaves in 10 minutes." I saw Trott and Smith weaving back through the crowd and realized that I had been standing by myself and glowering at the two friends catching up for quite some time.

Blood rushed to my face, and I tried to quickly cover it up by saying, "Right, we should be leaving then," as Amanda and Nick took a few steps towards us to join the group.

"Hey guys!" Nick grinned, reaching over to shake Trott, Tom, and Smith's hand. When he turned to me he retracted his hand and rubbed the back of his neck, giving me a forced grin and not even bothering to hide his contempt. No one else seemed to notice though, so we quickly made our way towards the exit. Amanda noticed my discomfort quite easily, and made it a point to stay by my side and include me in the conversations while we traveled to the hotel.

————————————————————

"I just can't get over how beautiful this landscape is," Amanda muttered as we walked out the doors of Stirling Castle after the tour. She picked her way across the snow towards the cannons, where she could peak out through the crenelations on the wall. "I mean look at that... oh look, they're digging a grave..."

"That's a bit morbid," Tom muttered, pausing to look at us before adding, "let's film it!"

"I don't think we can do that," I mumbled as our camera man happily pointed his camera towards the backhoe and serviceman.

"No, but I think we should do another vlog," Trott said, carefully stepping onto the snow with his trainers, "the cannons make a good backdrop."

"Nick, you're welcome to go first if you have anything to say," Smith said, motioning towards one of the cannons with a hand.

Nick turned to Amanda, who was his unofficial cameraman for our trip. "I think we got enough footage for today," he said, speaking more to the girl next to him, "What do you think?"

"Yeah, I've got enough of your ramblings to edit," she giggled, elbowing him in the side. He dashed away from her and scooped up a small pile of snow, flinging it at her.

"Watch the camera!" she squeaked, shielding it with her body as the snow hit the back of her windbreaker, causing her to giggle again.

Meanwhile, the three of us were positioning ourselves around the cannon to get the best shot. I tried to ignore the other two as they walked away quietly to let us vlog, and tried to put on my happiest attitude for the fans. We exchanged our regular banter about the grave digging and the tour, and once we were done me and Smith started throwing snowballs at Trott. He remained passive until Smith launched one at his head, and it quickly escalated as he ran back to the parking lot and started packing the snow in his hands.

Smith let out a yell as something hit him in the shoulder, and we looked over to see Amanda already forming another snowball in her hands. Preemptively, I threw the one in my hands at her, which sailed over her head.

"Ha!" she taunted, throwing another one and hitting my shin. While she was busy scooping up more snow I ran over and grabbed her, wrapping my hands around her arms so she was incapacitated.

"Quickly!" I yelled, Amanda laughing and gasping for breath as she tried to break free. Smith, Trott, and Nick all fired at her. They all hit her, but from this far away they didn't have a very hard impact.

"Ross Hornby!" she laughed, dodging another one from Trott that hit me on the arm.

I noticed Tom walking over to us, and realized he was still recording our fight. "This is our newest content creator by the way," I added calmly as she wiggled in my arms.

"Please help me Tom Clark!" she pleaded.

"It's like a firing squad," he muttered, not bothering to help her, "I think this is a bit inhumane."

"This is the initiation," Smith shouted through clenched teeth, throwing another one that hit her in the stomach.

"I... didn't... sign up for this," Amanda grunted as she finally slipped through my grasp and ran away from me.

"They always think they can run," I told the camera as Tom shoved it in my face. I shook my head for a few seconds, knowing that would be a good place to cut the video.