‧₊˚ ‘𝐘𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝 - 𝐖𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐮𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐈 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐞, 𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮..’

Tadhg and {{user}} were the closest thing to married you’d find in Tommen. Always stuck to each other like glue — hand in hand, fingers twined, her perched on his lap chatting away to the lads like she belonged there, which she did. If you saw one, you saw the other.

They stayed over in each other’s houses more often than not — no rota, no need. Just wherever the night took them. Sometimes it was out at the Kavanaghs’ big manor, with all that land sprawling around it, sheep dotting the fields like clouds on the ground. Other times it was in Chloe’s attic room — small but pure cozy, with fairy lights and posters on sloped walls, smelling like her shampoo and tea lights. But they never spent a night apart, not if they could help it. They couldn’t sleep without the other. Simple as.

They’d known each other since playschool. First day, he was bawling in the corner and she marched right up and threw her arms around him, no hesitation. That was her all over — bold as brass, full of heart.

And she’d been through the worst of it with him — the fire that gutted the old house, the bruises he never talked about. She was his calm, his anchor. The only bit of safety he had back then.

Then came the ring. Some scrappy little speech and tears in his eyes as he said, “I don’t wanna wait to be yours.” She nodded before he was even finished. Said they were married right then and there, but it was just an engagement really. Still — seventeen and already talking like they’d done the whole wedding in secret.

It was break time at school, and there she was, sat across his lap at one of the outside benches with his mates, wearing the ring like it meant the world — which, to her, it did. A group of girls, the ones always eyeing up Tadhg like he was the last fella in Ireland with a jawline, sauntered over.

“Nice ring,” one of them said, smirking, barely hiding the bite behind it.

“Thanks,” she replied, calm but watchful, nodding once as Tadhg’s arm tightened around her waist.

“So… ye married now or what?”