ALL I DO.
{ irl }

"rayne!" nick shrieks happily as soon as niola, rayne, and camille walk into the house. nick runs up to the girls, but he's quickly shoved out of the way when chris snatches rayne out of niola's arms and runs away with her — which makes the child giggle happily.

chris runs to his room, taking rayne with him. even from all the way in the living room, niola can still hear chris arguing with nick while rayne giggles her head off.

the sound of her sister laughing like this makes niola's heart happy. as much as she loves rayne — she feels like it's been a while since she has been able to relax without having to worry about her.

these past few weeks, she's been spending every single weekend with camille and rayne, babysitting and unable to get out of her house except for school. it's nice to be in a different setting, regardless of how queasy it makes her feel by knowing matt is probably right around the corner.

"c'mon." camille urges her after they've both taken off their shoes. "let's go find everyone!"

camille drags niola behind her as they walk in the direction that they saw chris and nick run off in. niola is hoping matt won't be there with them, but camille is hoping for the opposite.

camille turns a corner, entering chris' room.

he and nick are sprawled out on his bed, jokingly fighting over rayne just to make the girl giggle at their banter.

"no, she likes me more!" chris argues.

nick gasps dramatically, making rayne kick her little feet from laughing. "rayne! is that true!?"

rayne doesn't answer him. she's too busy laughing at the show they're putting on for her. nick grabs her under the armpits and hoists her into the air, pretending to be offended by what chris just told him.

"she told me at the ball! she said that i'm her favorite!" chris says.

niola and camille look at each other, confused. what ball? then it occurs to niola that rayne managed to make the triplets play her favorite game.

it's a game where rayne is the queen of the kingdom, with tons of powerful magic. but then, the beloved queen goes missing after her birthday ball, sending the whole kingdom into panic. the object of the game is to hunt for rayne and figure out what happened to her.

the game is super easy, though, considering it was created by a two-year-old. so after a few minutes of playing, it gets boring.

however, nick and chris don't seem to be bored. if anything, they look like they're having more fun than rayne.

"i can't believe it!" nick says, covering his eyes and pretending to cry. "queen rayne said that i'm her favorite! i-i feel so betrayed!"

rayne automatically stops laughing when she sees nick. she sees how sad he is and she immediately feels guilty, not understanding that he's faking.

she grabs his hands and pulls them off of his face, and nick looks at her with tears in his eyes.

niola nearly bursts out laughing. nick's face is completely red from the way he'd been straining to make himself cry.

"you're both my favorite!" rayne says with a wide smile.

it's so rare to hear rayne speak that even niola is taken by surprise.

rayne struggles to sound out words correctly, and her mispronunciation makes her insecure of the way she speaks. so rayne avoids talking out loud unless she feels like she really needs to.

"what about me!?" everyone turns and looks at matt who just bursted into the room with a distressed expression on his face.

he glances over at niola, making quick eye contact. but he quickly looks away and averts his attention back toward the childish game.

"you're not welcome here, duke david!" nick exclaims, pulling rayne into his arms to protect her. "everyone knows that you're the one who kidnapped the queen at the ball!"

"what if i told you that was a lie?" matt- duke david asks.

"if what you say is true, and you truly are innocent," nick says. "who would you accuse of kidnapping the queen?"

matt pauses for dramatic effect before pointing straight at chris. "prince paul!"

everyone in the room gasps.

"her own brother!?" nick shouts, standing up from the bed and carrying rayne far away from prince paul.

chris smiles wickedly, "i should've become king! not rayne! so i thought that if i got rid of my sister, i'd get the crown."

camille watches the game with her eyes wide and her jaw dropped, completely interested in the plot.

meanwhile, the only thing niola can seem to focus on is matt. even if he's under the alias of duke david, it's weird to see him laugh and smile like this after such a long time of avoiding him.

every few moments, matt would look over in niola's direction as well. frankly, he's a bit embarrassed of this whole show they're putting on. but he knows that he and niola both prioritize rayne's happiness over their own feelings.

"i love you, rayne!" chris says dramatically, making rayne giggle even louder. "even though you probably think that i'm evil and cruel, and you don't quite understand why i act the way i do, i'll always love you."

matt and niola look at each other again.

even though rayne and chris are siblings in their game, the eye contact between niola and matt makes butterflies errupt in both of their stomachs.

niola knows that she's supposed to be avoiding matt — she supposed to be distancing herself to figure out where her heart lies. but no matter what she tries, she always finds her way back to him. one way or another, they end up in this position. where nothing in the world matters besides the other person.

to matt, he knows that niola is ignoring him. but he doesn't know why. part of him thinks that she hates him, that he did something wrong to ruin what they had. but when their eyes met, everything around him seemed to fall into place.

after staring at each other for far longer than they should have, niola breaks the contact and turns to camille — who is still watching the game being acted out.

"i'm going to get something to drink." niola tells her. "i'll be right back."

camille nods, not really comprehending what niola said. she's too distracted by the fact that nick revealed a huge plot twist.

niola leaves the room and walks down the hallway, toward the triplets' kitchen to get a glass of water. she's been to their house plenty of times when she and matt were working on their project. and even though it's only been two weeks since she's been here, it feels like it's been an eternity. so much has happened during that time.

she became good friends with camille; and became strangers with matt.

niola enters the kitchen and flicks on the light. she looks around at the room before noticing the window. it's dark outside — but she's unsure if that's due to the dark storm clouds, or if it's actually night time.

she walks over to the cabinet with the cups and grabs a glass before shutting it behind her. when she closes the cabinet door, she jumps at the sight of someone standing in the doorway. the silhouette of a man is leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest.

niola almost drops the glass out of her hand from how badly the man scared her. but she caught the cup before it hit the ground. from the doorway, the figure laughs at her. immediately, niola identifies the stranger to be matthew. she could recognize his laugh anywhere.

"i didn't mean to scare you, silvers." matt says, walking into the light and standing in front of her.

even all the way in the kitchen, they can still hear laughter coming from chris' room. the sound of rayne giggling warms niola's heart. she feels like it's been ages since rayne has had so much fun.

"well, you did." niola replies dryly to matt, turning around and pouring herself a glass of water from the faucet.

"you don't need to use the tap," matt reminds her. "we get filtered water from the fridge."

niola's cheeks burn red from embarrassment. how had she not remembered that?

niola's family can't afford anything more than the sink water. she's aware that it tastes horrible. but after so long of dealing with it, niola can hardly tell the difference.

when she came to their house to study, she almost always mixed this up. and every time, matt would remind her of her mistake. back then, they would laugh together and move on. but now, niola feels like an idiot.

"right," she says before dumping the water back into the sink and replacing it with filtered water.

nothing else is said as she leans against the edge of a counter, drinking from the glass. matt grabbed a can of root beer and leaned against the counter across from her.

matt felt the urge to just stare at niola, admiring her beauty and appreciating the fact that she's not running away from him anymore. he feels like it's been years since they've been in such a small proximity.

"it's pretty outside." matt finally says, trying to ease some of the tension.

niola raises a brow at his awkward comment. "yeah?"

"yeah." matt responds, taking another sip from his soda to cover up how embarrassed he is.

it's pretty outside? who the hell says that? matt thinks to himself, replaying the sentence over and over in his head. the more he thinks about it, the more he cringes.

"it is." niola agrees. "i love how the sky darkens right before it rains."

she noticed the way he instantly regretted his words and she felt a tang of pity for him. niola hasn't been able to shake the guilt of knowing that she's never explained the reason behind her avoidance.

and she knows matt pretty well, so she knows that he's probably beating himself up trying to figure out what he did wrong. but he doesn't know that it's not his fault. at all. niola's just not ready to admit her feelinsg to him yet. she needs time to think, time to decide, time to just relax. but to be honest, she feels the most relaxed when she's with matt.

"do you want to, uh-" matt hesitates, not wanting to ruin the moment. "do you want to go outside on the porch to get a closer look?"

niola smiles, "i'd love to."

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a/n : i write these chapters ahead of time, so you guys won't read this chapter for another two weeks but i can't WAIT to see your reaction to some of the scenes in this chap 🫣🫣
also, CARDIGAN WAS PLAYING WHEN I WAS WRITING THE EYE CONTACT PART
i'm literally  fangirling over my own writing 🤭
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