A/N: songs to set the scene:

- Sign of the Times - Striped by Steve Homer (throughout the beginning prior to hanging out with Sarah's family)

- Sweetest Thing by Allman Brown (played for Sarah's family)

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Sarah's POV

Throughout my birthday dinner with my family, I kept a hand on AJ's thigh under the table. I let my fingers creep up slowly to continue my teasing from earlier. Watching AJ try to hold it together in front of my parents and sisters was quite comical. Let's just say that once we got back to the house, AJ made sure to make me pay for my actions from dinner. It was a bit hard staying quiet, but I enjoyed every minute of my so-called "punishment."

"Did you enjoy dinner tonight?" AJ asks stroking small circles on my bare back. I cuddle closer into AJ's side. I sigh enjoying the silence surrounding us. "I did. I'm glad we came here this weekend," I peer up at her through my eyelashes and see her eyes closed. "Babe?" I ask and she hums, "Yes." I smile and lift my hand up to her cheek stroking it with my thumb. "Are you tired?" I quietly ask and she turns her head to kiss the palm of my hand. "Just taking everything in," I roll a bit to lay my head on her chest to see her better. "Did you enjoy dinner?" I trace small patterns on her bare chest. I hear her hum, "I think I enjoyed dessert a lot more." I smile and kiss her skin. I look up and find her watching me, "Me too." I lay my head on her chest and quickly fall asleep from her rubbing my back. 

~~

The sun warms my face and I hear a muffled groan from behind me. AJ tightens her grip around my waist and pulls me closer to her. I feel her kissing my exposed shoulder and my smile grows. "Good morning," I whisper and turn onto my back. "Mornin'," AJ muffles into my neck. I rub my fingers over the side of her face as I look up at the ceiling. "What ya thinking about, beautiful?" AJ props herself up on her elbow. "You. Me. Us," I roll my head and meet AJ's eyes. "What about you, me, and us?" AJ kisses my forehead and I take a deep breath. "Just thinking about what my future with Charmed and if it's even going to last that long. I'm worried about if any opportunities are going to come up for you, and if they don't what will happen to us. Will we be okay?" AJ sits up and turns her entire body towards me. I sit up too and pull the blanket up more to cover my bare body. 

AJ keeps her gaze on me, "Sarah," she pauses and takes my hand into hers. "Sarah, nothing will take me away from you. I'm here until you tell me it's over," I search her eyes and see the truth in her words. "Even if you get an opportunity that pulls us thousands of miles away from each other?" I feel tears developing. AJ wipes the tears before they fall and pulls me down with her so I'm lying on her. "Millions of miles could come between us, but I'm certain we will do our best to make a long-distance relationship work," she rubs her fingers along my spine and I breath in her unique scent of citrus, ginger and musk. "What happens if it doesn't work?" I say barely above a whisper hoping my words get lost in the room. "If it doesn't work then we communicate that we're feeling that way, and we go from there. Okay?" AJ kisses my hairline and I let a tear escape my eye. "Okay," I kiss under her jaw and settle back on top of her. 

"Babe?" I ask and she hums. "Are you worried about not finding any work after Descendants wraps?" I zone out waiting for her response, which doesn't take as long to come as I thought. "Actually," she holds out the word, "I might have a job lined up later this year. Depending on if Kenny's future project gets approved, then I might have two." I perk up and straddle AJ's hips. "Wait! What?!" I squeal and throw my arms around her neck and kiss all over her face. "Kenny called me yesterday morning just to let me know about the possibilities. I was waiting to tell you since nothing is set in stone yet," I pull back and cup her face in my hands. "I don't care. That's amazing!" I lean down and kiss her lips. I heat the kiss up quickly and feel AJ's hands sliding to sit on my ass. 

The room fills with moans as we get lost in each other's lips. We slowly pull apart and I rest my forehead against hers. Trying to catch our breaths, I hear my sisters faintly talking through my closed door. "We should probably get up," I continue heavily breathing. "Probably. Don't want anyone barging in on us," AJ smirks and runs her hands up my sides. "AJ that tickles," I mumble inches from her lips. She squeezes my waist and kisses me one more time, "Alright, let's get up." I roll off and grab clothes from my bag. 

~~

When we finally make it downstairs, we might have gotten sidetracked in the bathroom and became a bit handsy, my nephews come sprinting towards us. I see AJ prepare for Carter and Lewis to come barreling into her. I hear Will excitedly yell and I look over seeing Axel licking his toes. After Carter hugs AJ, he comes over and I pick him up into a big hug. "Hiya bud," I squeeze him. "Hi Sarah," Carter mumbles into my shoulder. I put him back on the ground and he takes off towards the backyard. Lewis throws his arms around me and squeezes me. As quickly as he gives me a hug, he quickly takes off after Carter. I chuckle and take AJ's hand leading us to the kitchen. 

I hear some of my family talking. I turn the corner and see my aunt, Aisha. I quickly go over and throw my arms around her neck. "Well, hello there," she happily greets me. "Hi," I pull back and sit on the stool next to her. "Happy belated birthday!" Aisha hands me a card and I give her another hug thanking her. I open the card and see she had the boys sign it. I chuckle and put the card back in the envelope, "Thank you." "Sarah, how's everything going?" My other aunt, Bobbi, asks. "It's been a bit exhausting, but fun," I take the glass of wine Nyla hands me. "Hi AJ," Bobbi greets AJ, and AJ makes her way over to give her a quick side hug. "Hello," AJ greets back and makes her way back over to me. 

~~

AJ didn't last long with talking with us in the kitchen. I could tell she was getting antsy as she kept fiddling with her anxiety ring. She excused herself when my uncle, Jeff, came into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. She kissed my cheek and followed him out to the backyard where the kids, my dad, and uncles were hanging out. 

"Sarah?" Hannah nudges my arm and grabs my attention. "Yeah, sorry," I turn my attention back to the women around me. "We were just asking if AJ was okay. She seems a bit on edge," my mom asks and Bobbi nods along. "Yeah, is everything alright?" Bobbi adds. I shrug, "She's been working hard and a lot on her mind. She's making a few career moves, and I think it's starting to stress her out a bit." "I'm sure she'll get everything figured out. She's a smart and determined girl," my mom rubs my back and I lay my head on her shoulder. I hadn't noticed but AJ's stress was starting to affect me too. 

"What kind of career moves is she looking at making? I thought she enjoyed her job at CW," Aisha asks as she takes a sip of her water. "She's always wanted to work on more music-based projects since music is her first passion. The CW just doesn't have those projects, so she wouldn't be upset to part ways with them," I don't want to tell my family she was let go from the company. It's not my information to share and AJ doesn't even want everyone to know about it. "Has she thought about working for a record label or a music producer? Or does she like working on music tied to a movie or show?" My mom asks questions I don't think I've even talked to AJ about. Would she rather completely change her career and focus more on producing music with a record label? 

"I'm not sure," I shrug and fiddle with the wrapper on my water bottle. "She loves writing and playing music, but I don't know if she'd want to do that all the time. She really loves being on sets and watching scenes develop," I add and feel a hum leave my mom's throat. "You think she'd play a song for us? I've never heard her play before. None of us have actually. Think she would play us something?" I look up at my mom and she's got a big smile on her face. "I can ask her," I smile and put my head back on my mom's shoulder. 

~~

Conversations between all of us in the kitchen continued until my dad and Jeff came in to ask us if they should start dinner. We all let out a collective 'yes' and left them in the kitchen to get started. We went to the backyard, and I saw AJ being chased by Wyatt and Chase. I chuckled seeing Axel chasing after the two boys too. "Sarah save me!" AJ yells running towards me. "I'm being hunted by pirates," we both laugh as Chase makes a hook with his finger and does his best pirate impression. AJ tries hiding behind me the best she can, which makes everyone laugh since I'm shorter than her.

I put my hands up like I'm putting invisible shields around us and yell, "No pirates are a match for my magic. One snap of my fingers and you'll turn into frogs!" Both boys stop dead in their tracks and look at each other, "Should we risk it?" Wyatt looks up to Chase and shakes his head, "She isn't worth it. Let's capture that dog instead!" They both turn and start chasing Monty around the yard. AJ wraps her arms around my waist and kisses my cheek, "My savior. What do I owe this powerful witch for saving my life?" I smile and turn in her arms, "A kiss will do as payment." AJ pecks my lips a few times and we walk over towards the couch. AJ sits next to Hannah, and I sit on AJ's lap since there was little room for both of us. 

"AJ, Sarah was telling us you're thinking of making some career changes. Have anything lined up yet?" Of course, my mom jumps out of the gate with the big questions. I watch AJ's demeanor and she's calmer than earlier. I guess my nephews wore her down and she's feeling calmer. "Yes ma'am. I'm looking at working long-term with Walt Disney Studios or finding a director or producer who has some projects lined up. Kenny actually wants me to work with him on an upcoming project, but he doesn't have a lot of details yet. We'll see though," she runs her hand along my calf and keeps her eyes focused on my mom as she answers. "That's great, AJ. I hope everything works out for you," my mom smiles at us. 

"Babe," I lean over and whisper into AJ's ear. "What's up?" She turns and her bright hazel eyes captivate me. They take the words away from me for a second until her thumb rubbing my calf. "Do you think you could play us a song?" I watch her think about it for a second and her eyes light up. "I actually have a song I recorded on my laptop," she pats my legs and I move. "I'll be right back!" AJ hops off the couch and we watch her dart into the house. "Where is she going?" Hannah looks at me. "She apparently recorded a song of hers on her laptop, so she's going to grab it to play us," I look at my phone to mindlessly open apps. 

AJ comes through the sliding glass door with her laptop in hand. I lift my legs up and she sits back down. I'm small enough to fit between the arm of the couch and her body, but most of my body is still sitting on AJ's thigh. I watch her open up her laptop and pull up the file. It's the song I found in her lyric book and showed China. "This might not be my best work, especially since I only used my laptop to record it, but here you ladies go," she presses play and the strumming of a guitar fills the air around us. I focus on the sounds leaving the laptop, and the song is beautiful. 

I feel a tear fall down my cheek, and I don't know if I'm crying because I know the song is about Sofia or because it's such a beautiful song. I feel AJ's thumb wipe the tear away and kiss my forehead. The song finishes and we all clap. "That was beautiful, AJ," my mom says wiping at her eyes. "Yes, very beautiful," Aisha and Bobbi say at the same time. We all laugh at them saying the same thing. AJ closes her laptop and leans sideways into my body. "Can we talk later?" I whisper into her ear and she nods. 

~~

My dad and uncle finished making dinner and we all ate continuing to catch up. After Aisha, Bobbi and Jeff left with the boys, AJ and I headed upstairs to start packing our stuff up. While we were packing our clothes up, I decided now would be a good time to talk to her. "Can I ask when you wrote that song?" I continue packing my dirty clothes into my bag. AJ clears her throat and neatly folds her dirty laundry into her bag, "I wrote it while in Florida actually. Why?" I take a seat on the bed and fiddle with the hem of one of the AJ's sweatshirts I stole. "It just sounded like a love song, and we weren't exactly talking while you were in Florida," AJ sighs and I'm timid to look at her. "You think I wrote it about Sofia, don't you?" I finally draw up enough courage to look at AJ who's ceased all packing. 

I slowly nod and feel a few tears brimming my eyes. "I won't hide the truth. I did write it about Sofia. The day I wrote it, we had talked about everything from the moment our engagement ended to the past five years we were out of each other's lives. Emotions I thought were gone had bubbled up and I needed an outlet," AJ makes her way around the bed and stands in front of me. She hooks a finger around my chin to force me to look at her, "Just like all of my other songs, it stems from something. You've inspired songs in that notebook too. I really liked the words of this song and that's why I recorded it." 

I nod and a few tears escape my eyes. She wipes them with the pads of her thumbs. "It is a beautiful song. Can you play one of the songs you've written about me?" I look into her eyes and I see stress overcome her. "I don't mean right now. Just sometime, I want to hear your other songs," I see her eyes calm at my words and she smiles. "Of course, I can. I would've done it sooner. You just have to ask," she kisses my forehead and goes back around the bed to finish packing. I stand up and finish packing up everything. 

I stand next to AJ as she finishes up and watch her methodically put her things in her small bag. I put a hand on her shoulder to grab her attention, "I'm sorry if I came across upset earlier. The song truly is beautiful, and I shouldn't have cared who it was written about." She gives me a smile and pulls me into her grasp. She kisses my temple and goes back to putting her toiletries bag away. She zips her bag up and turns back towards me, "Sarah, I love you and only you. Nothing or no one will change that, okay?" I nod and lean my head against her chest.