I had been running around all morning, making sure the flat was clean(ish), the pull out was set up, and we had at least a few vegan foods (ie. fruit and unbuttered popcorn) to sustain her until we figured something else out. We were going out to the pub tonight, so we didn't have to worry about dinner tonight anyway.

        "Trott," I groaned, "Would it kill you to throw away you're trash instead of just placing it down somewhere?" I bent down to pick up the recently finished beer can and sweets wrapper that littered the coffee table next to the couch.

        "Mate, would you calm down?" Trott asked, exasperated as he turned away from the computer screen to look at me, "You didn't seem to care about the state of this room a week ago."

        "That's because we didn't have someone sleeping in this room a week ago," I pointed out, straighten out the sheets that were spread across the makeshift bed. I wouldn't have minded her sleeping in my room, but I would at least offer her the pull out, not wanting to sound too suggestive or pushy. I needed everything to be perfect; if she was going to move to England this summer than she would probably be visiting like this a lot more often, and first impressions were everything.

        Trott spun around in his chair and laughed at me. "Smith, she's already you're girlfriend, you don't need to prove anything," he said, clearly amused by my nervous fussing.

        I stood up and faced my smug flatmate. "I need to prove everything," I insisted, feeling my stomach twist with nerves, "If this week is a disaster then how am I ever going to get her to come over again?" I looked around the computer room, surveying the area for more trash or anything else that may cause offense.

        "Alex, if she agreed to stay over here she already knows what she's getting into," he pointed out, laughing to try lightening the mood. I tried to chuckle along with him, but the sick feeling that radiated from my stomach persisted. This would be the second time I would see Amanda, and the first time didn't exactly leave either of us in a good state of mind. Still, unlike last time she was my girlfriend now; it would be an entire year this January, and yet this week was the first time I'd get to take her on a date, to talk to her in person, to do things a normal couple did.

        Almost a whole year, and she's still a stranger to me. Granted, a comfortable stranger, yet I was almost afraid for this visit. Maybe she's changed, or perhaps my emotions have changed, for I wasn't the man I was a year ago; maybe we wont feel the same as we did at Minecon last year. Even though we spent hours talking every day, they were never personal topics. We would discuss games or other youtubers or books and movies, anything that came to our mind really, but the subjects were always diverted away from each other. Besides the obvious ones, I didn't know her hopes and dreams, nor her goals or plans for the future. She never told me her loves or fears, never voiced her thoughts of the universe or creation. I was partly to blame, since I often shielded away from growing too close in case of complications or possible break up, but her arrival may change things. Our relationship could now be a tangible thing, if only for a week.

        I shook myself out of my negative and worrisome thoughts. I shouldn't begin doubting us before she even arrived, and I only needed to think of how I felt about her to discourage anymore such feelings. I got excited at just the thought of talking to her over Skype; and thinking about her smile on my screen or her giggly explanations that filled my headset whenever she got excited made me mad with love and desire. Suddenly, my anxiety was replaced with a gnawing trepidation and I didn't think I could wait another moment for her to arrive.

        "I guess you're right," I grinned, breaking out of my inner monologue. "I just need to..." I was cut off by my phone vibrating against my thigh. I quickly dove into my pocket, my excitement fulled by a new message on my Skype.

        I'm like...two minutes from you're house, it read, a simple smiley face ending the message as it's only indication towards how she felt.

        "She here?" Trott asked, looking over my shoulder.

        "Soon," I told him, hastily making my way out of the room and down the stairs. Trott following me, knocking on the door to Ross' room on our way to the door to notify him of her arrival. We all threw on coats and shoes, an almost frenzied elation traveling between the three of us at the prospect of seeing the bubbly youtuber after being so long apart.

        We all pushed our way through the door and into the cold afternoon air. The clouds blocked out the sun and colored the world grey, though everything seemed a bit brighter and I could only accredit it to the light happiness I felt welling up inside of me. Our breaths clouded around us as we all sat with our hands jammed in our pockets and waited as snowflakes drifted down sporadically every minute or so.

        "That might be her," Ross said, nodding towards a yellow cab that was making it's way down the street towards our roundabout. My stomach flipped and I felt like I could run to her right now with the great surge of energy that accompanied it.

        We all stood bouncing on our heals as we watched the car pull up in front of us. A flurry of movement through the dark windows caught my eye as I watched her bend forward to hand something to the driver. The figure twisted in the back seat and the click of the door rang through the empty apartment complex as it opened.

        The first thing I noticed was her hair, which tumbled from under a winter hat that sat on the back of her head and was long enough that it reached her breasts now. Her eyes were next, which seemed to shine with their own light independent from the weak sunlight as they caught mine. Her lips pulled back in a huge smile as she slung a backpack over her shoulder and stepped out from behind the cab door. She had on a black pea coat and blue jeans, a pair of dark boots poking out from under the fabric to complete the outfit.

        "Hey guys!" she squeaked, quickly running over to us and throwing her arms around Trott as the driver got out to pull her luggage out of the boot.

        "Hey Amanda," Trott chuckled, wrapping his arms around her and trying to regain his balance after being barreled into. They shared a breath of silence before she pulled away and held out her arms for Ross.

        "Hello," Ross laughed, bending to the side to wrap one arm around her shoulder and the other around her waist in one of those friendly hugs.

        "Hi Ross," she shrilled, practically bouncing with excitement. My flatmate leaned his chin into her neck, bringing them closer and almost transforming their embrace into a more intimate one. I felt a spark of jealous in the back of my mind, wondering when she had gotten so close to the other two. 

        "How are you?" she asked to no one in particular as they pulled away from each other. There was a collection of goods and fines from all of us, and the jealousy was practically knocked out of me as a small figure threw her arms around my neck and pulled me into a bone crushing hug. I warped my arms around her waist and was surprised at how much they overlapped; I had forgotten how skinny she was, and it was only one of the many things I had to re-accustom myself to during the week.

        Her curls ticked my cheek and neck as I pulled her closer to me, relishing in the waves of electricity that sparked between us, even through all the layers of clothing. I had also forgotten how much I loved holding her; it was as I was made for her to fit in my arms. "Hey Amanda," I muttered quietly, closing my eyes for a brief second to take it all in before we pulled away. I desperately hoped that we could continue that later, away from the cold and our two friends. 

        Trott and Ross walked over to help with her luggage, giving us a brief moments privacy. She looked up at me as she took a step back, her eyes crinkling at the sides as her grin widened. All the memories of Minecon came flooding back to me as I stared into those hazel eyes, and for a moment it seemed like we were the only two on the planet.

        She shiver and broke me out of my trance. "Ugh, lets get inside," she said, rubbing her arms and bouncing over to grab one of her bags.

        "I guess this isn't exactly Tampa," Trott laughed as he held the front door open for her.

        She pulled off her jacket and hung it up on top of one of mine, brushing out the few snowflakes that had collected in her hair during the little amount of time we were out there. "No," she said, shaking her head and rubbing at her arms again, "We don't really get cold weather down there." 

        I felt slightly bad for her, since she must have zero tolerance for the cold, especially with the little body fat she has on he as well. I grabbed her hand and lead her into the hallway once we had finally rid ourselves of the bulky layers. A shiver ran up my arm as her cold skin brushed my wrist, but I still held firm and began pointing at the different closed doors that surrounded us. "That's Ross' room, toilet, kitchen...." I told her, opening the door to the kitchen to show her what it looked like.

        "You'll be sleeping in our living room," Trott called down to her as he lead us up the stairs, dragging her suitcase behind him.

         He opened the door and she looked at the mess that was our computer set up, only nodding with an amused look on her face. "Quite the living area you have here," she noted, motioning to the mess of wires, soundboards, and consoles that littered the room, "Looks just like my dorm..." she turned her attention back to us. "I'll feel right at home," she assured, making me smile at the joke.

        "Were not going to kick you out," Ross continued, "but the only thing we ask is that you're quiet during recordings so our mics don't pick you up." I was glad that he explained it, because I was dreading such requests that might come off as rude or coarse. However she just smiled at him and nodded, not seemingly offended.

        "Yeah Amanda, shut up," Trott laughed, "I don't think I can take the constant screaming all week."

        She laughed at his joke. "But this is a house tour, arn't we supposed to be screaming?" she asked, referencing a video we had done when we had first moved in. All three of us laughed at the innuendo, remembering the stupid idea Trott had come up with.

        "It's kind of disconcerting that you watched that," Ross said, grinning down at her.

        "You'll be doing a lot of the recordings with us anyway," I continued after the laugher had died down, "so I wouldn't worry about bothering us too much." I gave her hand a reassuring sqeaze to emphasize my point of having her as a guest in our series and doing bulk recordings of feed the beast. It will be so much easier now that all the streams are being recorded in one place, might as well take the opportunity.

      "Where can I put my stuff?" she asked after looking back in the cramped living room and holding up her backpack. 

        "Oh, right," Trott exclaimed, apparently the unofficial tour guide; he shifted around us and dragged her suitcase into the room across the hall, placing it on the spare blue couch. "This is the green screen room," he said, though it was pretty obvious with the green wall in the back, "We really arn't going to use it much this week, so you can use this room if you need any privacy," he told her. It was a good idea that Ross had come up with, since none of us really wanted to walk in on her accidentally when she was indecent or needed privacy. We spent most of the day on our computers after all, and even though we wanted to be courteous we still needed that space for work.

        "Perfect," she chirped, setting down her things.

        Ross looked between Amanda and I, seeming to debate something in his head. "Well we'll give you a little time to settle in," he said, raising his hands towards her luggage, "How does 5:30 sound for dinner? I hope you're alright with going out tonight?" 

        Amanda looked at the time on her phone; we would have about an hour before we left. "Um, yeah that's fine, I don't mind," she hummed, rocking onto the balls of her feet.

        "Alright," Ross smiled, "We'll be down in the kitchen if you need us." He pulled Trott away with him, giving me an indiscernible look before closing the door behind them.

        It was just me and Amanda now, and I felt slightly awkward as I shuffled my feet, wondering what I should say. There seemed to be some sort of tension in the air once the other two left, and it made me uncomfortable.

        "This is a nice flat," she said, looking around the room as her voice cut through the silence. "It's really closed though," she continued when I didn't make any comments, "The dorms at Ringlings are so open and airy, I guess I'm not used to it..." She trailed off, not knowing what to say next.

        I don't know why I felt so awkward, but I blamed the months of hiding behind the camera and talking through Facebook and Skype's messenger; I had forgotten how to talk to her, and she looked as restless as I felt. I guess the first obstacle was this: learning how to talk to each other in person again.

        "Uh," I started, gaining her attention, "you're welcome to use my shower when you need it... it's, uh, upstairs... second door on your left..." This was going horribly, I hadn't planned on not even being able to talk to her alone, and suddenly I felt like I needed to get out of there and collect myself before I could do anything productive towards our relationship. "I'll be across the hall if you need me..." I told her, grabbing the doorknob to leave.

        "Wait, Smith," she called, running towards me and pulling me into another hug, this time closer and much more intimate. I gladly accepted her offer, running my hands under her arms and up her back, familiarizing myself with the broad muscles that stretched between her shoulders. I felt the bumps of her spine as my palm slide up to wrap around her, and I felt her hands lace a crown around my neck.

        I buried my face in her curls, the smell of her hair bringing me back to Las Vegas. "I missed you," I muttered, sounding a lot more pathetic than I had intended.

        She pulled away, cupping my jaw with both her hands. "I missed you too," she said, giving me a heartmelting smile, "Will you stay with me until we have to leave?"

A/N Sorry it was so long and poorly written and rushed, and sorry it took me so long to update. I've kinda felt discouraged about this story lately, and I can't tell if it's really stupid or not. But anyway, it also took so long because I wanted this week to be planned out perfectly and I wanted all the details correct before I started writing it (seriously, I made a schedule); it's going to really be stretched out since it's so important for character development, and will probably span 10 or so chapters, hope you don't mind. I promise I'll go back through and edit this chapter in the next few days, I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting anymore. Thanks for all the views and votes and just general support, happy reading.