Hero/Heroine

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Title: Hero/Heroine by Boys Like Girls
Content Warning: brief swearing

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 Michele sighed quietly as she adjusted her pillow. "Alex, do you have any spare cash?"

"Nope, not on me. A writer's salary is very slim, you know." he joked.

"Yeah but the rent's due this month, and I don't know if we can scrape up the cash and still be able to afford our anniversary presents."

"Well then, we can do other things for our anniversary. I can name a few right now, actually."

"Alex! Sweetheart, I'm being serious. I accidentally...overspent because I thought that Mark would be helping out with the rent this month," she confessed. "We have utility bills, rent, car payments; I don't know if we'll have leftover this month."

"And that's alright," he said comfortingly. "If we're barely getting by this month, we'll just save up more for the next. That's the blessing of not having kids; it's not like we'll have any medical emergencies or other immediate expenses that we'll need to pay this month."

"Yeah. You're right..." she trailed off. Michele turned her body to her side and stared intently at the alarm clock, not saying another word to Alex. He quickly picked up on her anxiety and gasped audibly.

"Holy shit, you're not pregnant, are you?!"

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 "I can't believe you're pregnant." Alex whimpered in disbelief. He was a coward and he knew it, but an unexpected baby would be enough to make even the most brave sim freak out.

"I might be pregnant, sweetheart. We still have about two more minutes until we know for sure."

"Can't you speed up time or something? Sometimes I wish there was a button I could push to make things go faster."

"Don't be silly Alex," she chuckled, "Magical buttons that fast-forward time don't exist. You spend way too much time with your computer games."

"Hey, those games are important research for my upcoming sci-fi. Don't knock the moneymaker."

"Well, moneymaker, guess who's pregnant?" Michele said mockingly.

"Who?"

"Not us!" Alex and Michele both let out giggles and sighs of relief. Maybe they'd have children one day, but not anytime soon. They were still trying to get used to the new status of their relationship, it wouldn't be fair to bring a newborn sim into an unstable environment.

"I'm so happy we still have a little more time left," she sighed.

"How about we celebrate this good news with some woohoo?" he grinned.

"You're kidding, right? I just got out of the red zone; give a girl some time to recover!"

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 "Alex," she begun sternly, "How's your story coming along?"

"Great, actually. I'm almost done! Now I'm just running spellcheck."

"I may not be a computer whiz, but I can tell you're not working."

"Sorry, I'm just really stressed out. My agent keeps pushing me to release something and I guess I'm kind of afraid of failing him."

"So because of your fear of failing, you're not going to even try? Don't you think that's more than a little pathetic, even for you?" she asked bewildered. Alex began to say something, but quickly stopped. His fear didn't make sense to him either, but that didn't stop him from being afraid.

"No, you're right babe, it's no excuse to not even try." he admitted. "I'll get back into it first thing tomorrow morning."

"Good, now go put some pants on! Our anniversary dinner is almost ready."

"How was your day at work?"

"Fantastic!" Michele beamed. "I went to my callback for Venezia la Paradigm yesterday, and my agent said the casting director called today. Guess what she said!"

"You got the part of Melodie?"

"Even better," she squealed, "I got the part of Venezia! I'm going to star in a movie alongside Luke DePeche!"

"That's great, honey! When do you start filming?"

"We start filming two weeks from now. I am so excited! My first big break..."

"Well, don't forget about us little people," he joked.

"Are you kidding? Never!"

 Alex became silent and quietly picked at his food. After five minutes, Michele became impatient and worried.

"You weren't serious, right? You know I would never forget you. Never." she reassured comfortingly. Alex smiled quietly and shook his head.

"No, it's not about that. I know it was just a joke. I was just thinking, that's all."

"What about?"

"Well, the 'almost' pregnancy, for one. What if you were actually pregnant? Where would we be right now? Dirt poor and looking for a new place to live. Here I am, slacking off at my job with a literary agent screaming in my ear while the love of my life is co-starring in a movie with some hunky celebrity." he whined.

"Really? You're jealous of me because I got the role?"

"No, that's not what I-" he sighed and put down his fork. "No, what I meant was...you don't need me as much as I need you. What if the director decides to relocate the movie and you'd have to leave? What would make you want to come back?"

"Alex...sweetheart I love you. And even though it may not seem like it, I do need you. And I promise that if the director decides to relocate the film location, I'll email, call, and text every day."

"But that's not enough..."

 "Alex..."

"Michele Louise Turner, I love you with all my heart. Will you please be my wife? Well, someday?" he chuckled.

"Are you serious? Yes! Yes, I will marry you!" she screamed. When he stood up, she practically leaped into his arms, sobbing and giggling uncontrollably.

Alex held onto his new fiancee as if she would float away the very second he let go. He wished life could stay this pleasant and simple forever.

But as anyone could tell you, life just doesn't work that way.

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Chapter commentary here.                                                        Season 1 Finale: Cosmic Love >>