Hey, guys! Thanks for being so awesome! Now here's…

PART TWO OF THE DOUBLE UPDATE.

Enjoy!

Summary: The stability of Chad and Sonny's relationship begins to waver as they face major decisions and Chad worries about what will happen if Sonny leaves him behind.

Disclaimer: Me no own, you no sue. (Anything you recognize is not mine. Anything you don't recognize probably is mine. Probably.)

Four Seasons

By EmbracingRain

Arc Three

Autumn

Chapter Eight

October 21st

2:11 p.m.

Condor Studios

Mackenzie Falls Set

Chad's Dressing Room

Chad stared blankly at the script in front of him, his hands fisted in his hair. He'd long ago given up on trying to memorize his lines and was instead stuck on the frightening fact that Sonny's stuff was all over his apartment. All. Over. It was like an invasion of girly products, girly shoes, girly clothes… Girly everything. And the entire place smelled like cookies twenty-four seven. Not because Sonny was baking cookies all the time or something, but because she had candles that smelled like cookies and she'd brought them over, too. There was a purple "throw" on his couch and Sonny's pajamas were in his dresser drawer. She made breakfast when she stayed over. She knew and befriended all the neighbors Chad professed to hate, telling him they were all very nice people.

Chad loved Sonny more than anyone from Mackenzie Falls should love someone from So Random!, but he didn't understand why she couldn't keep her "throws" and cookie candles, clothes and cooking at her apartment.

Well…maybe not the cooking. She was a phenomenal cook. But everything else belonged at her apartment!

Actually…he liked the cookie candles, too. Those could stay. And the clothes and shoes…that was only because Sonny had stayed over a few nights in a row. No harm there. Besides, Sonny often wore more than one pair of shoes in a day. He could forgive her the shoes. Especially because most of them looked painful to walk in.

The actor groaned, his face meeting the table.

Somehow, Chad Dylan Cooper had found himself in a very committed relationship with a girl he was very much head over heels in love with even though all traditions between their casts said he should have never fallen for her in the first place.

"It was supposed to be one fake date!" Chad bemoaned to himself. "I wasn't supposed to fall in love with her!"

Because all the relationships he'd had before he'd met Sonny dictated that Chad Dylan Cooper did not fall in love. Chad Dylan Cooper was a one night stand kinda guy. Not the kind of guy who liked his girlfriend's cookie candles because they smelled yummy.

And the more nights Sonny stayed over at his apartment, the more of her things showed up there when he wasn't looking.

There were chick flicks on his DVD rack.

She was keeping nail polish in his medicine cabinet.

All of a sudden there were plants and knickknacks.

And no matter how much Chad tried to care that girly things were invading his apartment, no matter how much he tried to make a big deal out of it in his mind, he just didn't care. Sure, he'd freaked out at first. He'd even slammed the bedroom door in her face after realizing what was happening. But now… He liked all of her stuff mingling with his. He missed her when she was at the place she shared with Nico and Grady. It was like his apartment was becoming their apartment and he liked playing house with her.

They were going grocery shopping soon because his fridge was almost empty.

Grocery shopping.

Chad almost couldn't wrap his mind around the entire situation and he knew he'd be having a meltdown soon if he didn't. Had anyone told him that fateful December day almost two years ago that he would fall in love with Sonny Munroe, he would've laughed right in their face and called them stupid. If anyone told him that he would be making love to her (oh yes. Chad made love to her. It wasn't just sex with Sonny), he would've laughed at that, too, because Chad Dylan Cooper didn't make love. And a mention of grocery shopping with her probably would've made his head explode.

Sonny Munroe was turning him into Hollywood's Goodest Good Guy.

And "goodest" wasn't even a word!

The door to his dressing room opened and he felt more than heard Sonny walk in. He could do that now. It was like his sixth sense. His Sonny Sense. He knew where she was almost anytime someone asked without actually knowing, he knew how she was feeling without seeing her. It was creepy.

"Hey, Chad."

"Mmmph."

Chad felt her hand rest on his back, heard her crouch down next to him.

"Are you okay, sweetie?"

"Mmmeph."

"You don't sound okay," she said skeptically. "In fact, you sound like you might be sick any second now."

"I'm fine," Chad said, lifting his head off the table and trying to think of a good lie. "These lines are just being a pain in the ass." Okay, so it wasn't the best…

Sonny snorted, a soft smile on her face. "You're having trouble with lines? Yeah. I seriously doubt that," she said. She picked up the script from the table, but Chad snatched it back. "Hey!"

"Keep away from the script, short stuff," Chad commanded, holding it out of her reach. "This is for my eyes only."

"Oh, come on!"

"Check the blogs like everyone else," he teased her before tossing the script in a drawer and throwing his arm around her shoulders. "I thought we had somewhere we needed to be."

"Well, we don't need to go to the grocery store right now. We could totally take some time to read the script through!"

"Sonny?"

"What?"

"No."

"Ugh! You're so mean to me! I can't believe you deprive me of Mackenzie Falls."

"Yeah, well," Chad said, shutting off the light as they exited the room, "call me stupid, but I don't want work coming between us. This relationship needs to stay as unrelated to work as possible. Besides, you like Mack too much for my taste."

October 21st

3:46 p.m.

Hollywood, CA

A Grocery Store

They were arguing about Oreos in the middle of the grocery store. Chad almost couldn't believe it. He could see the entire thing splashed across headlines on all the worthless tabloids tomorrow: "Chad Dylan Cooper and Girlfriend Argue in Grocery Store!" "Chad Dylan Cooper: Junk Food Aficionado!"

Sonny was insisting that buying six packs of Oreos was a waste of money. Chad was insisting otherwise. Those cookies were never a waste of money. He always kept them stocked up in his cupboards.

"Chad, they are going to go bad before you even get to the third package!"

"No they won't!"

"Oh, so you're going to eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day?"

"Maybe I will!" he said defiantly.

"Don't be stupid. You need healthy food. Oreos are not healthy for you!"

Chad wrinkled his nose, studying the shelves of assorted cookies before him. "Fine. Four packages," he said."

"Two," Sonny insisted, folding her arms over her chest.

"Three. And that's as low as I'm going."

"Fine. Whatever. Eat three packages and watch all your teeth fall out of your head. See if I care!" Sonny muttered something that Chad didn't quite catch as she left the aisle with their overflowing grocery cart. After a moment's hesitation, he grabbed only two packs of his precious cookies and followed her to the dairy section of the store.

"Where's the other one?" Sonny asked when he placed the cookies in the cart.

Chad shrugged. "I love you more than I love Oreos."

Sonny stared at him for a few seconds before grabbing a jug of milk and some butter then making for the cash registers. "You're lucky I love you," she told him. "Otherwise I might find some other guy who doesn't say cheesy things like that to me."

"You love the cheese," Chad said with a smile, hugging her from behind as they stood in line. "You love the cheese and you love me more because of it." He nipped her earlobe affectionately and she twisted away with a giggle.

"Chad! We're in public!"

"So?" he said, grabbing Sonny by the waist and pulling her back. She sighed as they locked eyes and shook her head. "What?"

"I'm just wondering what happened to the guy who used to make fun of me and mock my friends. Y'know, the guy who stuck a plunger to my butt and made me apologize to his blender?" Sonny pondered aloud.

"Oh, I know what happened to him," Chad assured her. "He fell in love with you."

The actress rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Can you say 'cheese'?" she said teasingly.

"Cheese," Chad deadpanned.

And then he kissed her.

Right in the check out line at the grocery store.

October 22nd

7:03 a.m.

Baldwin Apartments

Chad's Apartment

Bedroom

Chad was right about the tabloids. Only it wasn't the Oreo Argument the paparazzi covered. It was the kiss he'd planted on Sonny in the check out line. The one the cashier had so rudely interrupted like they were holding the line up or something. (They had been, but that was beside the point.)

The idiots at Tween Weekly had an up close shot of the kiss plastered on their website. The other gossip rags had pictures as well, but Tween Weekly was the only one capable of damaging his reputation in one fell swoop, so that was really the only one he cared about. Not that Chad thought Sonny would ruin his reputation. It was just an old habit. And old habits died hard.

He tossed his phone back to the nightstand and looked back at Sonny. She was fast asleep on her stomach with her head to the side. Pieces of her hair were stuck to her mouth and she was snoring quietly. Chad smiled as he watched her sleep. Even with morning breath and sex hair she was still beautiful. The covers were only pulled up to her hips and he started doodling random designs across her bare back. Chad loved Sonny's back for some strange reason. It had to be the most beautiful back he'd ever seen. He liked the scar on her left shoulder blade and how it stayed smooth and pink against the natural color of her skin. She said it was from an ice skating accident when she was little. He liked the light dusting of freckles across the back of her neck, too. They amused him.

Sonny stirred beneath Chad's fingertips and wrinkled her nose as his fingers brushed across her ribcage.

"That tickles," she mumbled, cracking open one big, brown eye.

"Sorry."

"S'okay. Feels kinda good."

Chad leaned over and kissed the scar on her shoulder blade and then pulled her close. She wrapped an arm around his stomach with a deep, contented sigh.

"I don' wanna go to work t'day," she confessed into his chest. "Le's just…stay here all day. Like this…"

Chad chuckled, tracing her spine. "It's Saturday, Sunshine. We don't have to go to work for two days."

"Good."

The couple was silent for a few minutes as Chad amused himself with drawing nonsensical designs across Sonny's back. The room was slowly brightening as the sun passed upward through the sky outside. Chad looked around the room, noting the frenzied way their clothes had been tossed last night. Sonny's bra was draped across the television and his shirt was hooked over the headboard. Their pants were in the doorway. "Frenzied" seemed almost too tame a word.

"I can't believe you stuck a plunger to my butt."

Chad's fingers froze as he stared down at her head. "What?" he asked.

"You stuck a plunger to my butt," Sonny repeated, bringing a hand up to point at the offended object.

"Oh." The blond shrugged. "In my defense, it was only 'cause I liked you so much."

"Well you sure had a funny way of showing it." She wriggled closer and hooked one of her legs over his. "I'm hungry."

"What are you hungry for?"

"Oreos."

"Are you serious?"

"Very."

"I'm sorry, but weren't you the one lecturing me in the middle of the grocery store yesterday about how Oreos are 'unhealthy'?"

"Hey, I can do unhealthy. Even for breakfast."

Chad rolled his eyes and then got out of bed and pulled on a pair of pants.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm making pancakes," he told her pragmatically.

"With chocolate chips?"

"If you want."

"Okay. Good. Those sound better than your stupid cookies."

Laughing, Chad bent over and kissed her cheek. " God knows I love you, Sonny Munroe," he told her quietly before leaving the room.

October 23rd

3:03 p.m.

Kimball Acres Apartments

Grady, Nico, and Sonny's Apartment

Living Room

Sonny hummed tunelessly to herself as she flipped through the newspaper, searching for the section she wanted. She pulled it from the other pages with a little, "Aha!" as she discovered it. She fished a marker out of her purse and began to read through the section, the cap of the writing tool between her teeth.

The door to the apartment opened a minute or two later, accompanied by the sound of Grady and Nico's laughter. Sonny looked up with a smile and a wave as Nico shut the door.

"Hi, guys!"

"Well, well. Look who's home," Grady said boisterously. "Long time, no see, Miss Munroe!"

"Yeah," Nico said, dragging the syllable out as he headed for the kitchen. "How was yo visit to Chad Land?"

Sonny laughed. "Fine."

"Watcha readin'?" Grady asked, flopping down next to her on the couch. "The newspaper? Yeesh!"

"I was just looking through the apartment listings," Sonny told them, circling an ad for an apartment complex that looked promising. She heard the refrigerator door shut and saw Grady's mouth drop open out of the corner of her eye. She glanced up from her paper and looked from dumbstruck boy to dumbstruck boy, confusion written clearly across her face. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Yo doin' what now?" Nico demanded, setting his drink on the counter and moving back into the living room.

"What did we do?" Grady questioned, looking hurt.

"Whoa," Sonny said. She capped her marker and set both it and the newspaper aside before standing up. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Is this 'cause we said we're uncomfortable with Chad sleeping here? 'Cause we can take that back if it is."

"Wait a second," Sonny said, holding up her hands. "You guys knew that me moving in here was temporary. I told you that I would move out as soon as I could get my own place. I still have boxes that aren't unpacked! What do you mean what am I doing?"

"Yo seriously gonna move out?" Nico said, moving into her line of sight. "I mean, me an' Grady…we thought ya liked livin' here wit us!"

"Well, I do," Sonny replied. "But c'mon. You guys don't want to live with me. I'm a girl!"

"No you're not," Grady told her. And then explained after seeing the look on Sonny's face: "I mean, not in that sense. Y'know, the one where I know you're a girl. But in a roommate sense. You're just Sonny. We don't see you as a girl roomie."

"Yeah, Sonny-girl. We like livin' wit ya. We don't want ya to move out," Nico agreed.

"You don't?" Sonny asked, moved by their words.

"No way! You're too much fun!"

"Yeah, we were just talkin' 'bout how there ain't anythin' to do when ya vanish off ta Chad's place for days at a time."

Sonny placed a hand over her heart, touched by the moment. "You guys…! That's, like, the sweetest thing you've ever said to me!"

"Will it make you stay?" Grady asked causing the comedienne to roll her eyes.

"Of course! I mean, had I known you guys liked living with me I wouldn't've even thought of looking for another place. I like living with you too!"

"You're not gonna change your mind when Nico leaves the pizza box on top of the T.V. again, are you?"

Sonny smiled. "Nothing's gonna change my mind. I promise."

"Not even if - I don't know - Chad asks you to move in with him?" Nico tried to pose the question like it was the most absurd scenario in the world. To his surprise, Sonny actually laughed.

"You don't have to worry about that. Chad and I sat down, had a very grown up conversation, and decided that we're far from ready to move in together. Our relationship just isn't there yet. Moving in together is at least another year down the road."

"Ya sure 'bout that?" Nico asked her, finally sitting down. He studied her with skeptical eyes. "I mean, you're over there an awful lot. This is the first time ya been home in 'bout a week."

"I am absolutely positive." Sonny picked up the paper from the coffee table and threw it away in the kitchen trash as she spoke. "Moving in with Chad is the last thing on my mind right now, just like moving in with me is the last thing on his. And if for some bizarre-o reason, he's sitting in his car on his way to see his parents and he's thinking to himself, 'Oh, hey! I think I'll move in with Sonny!' then that would be some great situational irony, let me tell you."

Nico asked for the drink he'd left on the counter and Sonny tossed it to him, then she sat down on the couch next to Grady again. The three roommates sat in silence for a few minutes, Nico nursing his drink, Sonny fiddling with cap of her marker, and Grady staring blankly at the television.

"That would be some pretty great irony," Grady finally said with a chuckle. "I mean, I could totally see Chad thinking that. Ironic things don't happen to him enough."

"Hey, that's my boyfriend you're talking about," Sonny said, giving Grady a playful shrug.

"And we will never understand what ya see in him, Sonny-girl," Nico told her.

October 23rd

3:17 p.m.

Somewhere in California

Mr. and Mrs. Cooper's House

Chad watched as his mom set about slicing up a freshly baked cake topped with frosting at least an inch thick. No matter what he said, she always insisted on feeding him absurd amounts of food when he was over for a visit. Between his mom's cooking and Sonny's as well, he could feel himself getting fat. He was definitely going to have to lay off the junk food for a few days after this visit. The blue-eyed actor glanced over at his father who was sitting at the kitchen table with a number of spheres and tins of paint.

"What's that you're working on?" he asked, not interested in the slightest. Physics had never seemed fascinating to him. Too much math and science.

"Scale model of the universe," his dad replied shortly and Chad snorted.

"What are you doing? Working on sixth graders' science projects now? I hope they're paying you for it."

Mr. Cooper rolled his eyes. "Shut up and eat your cake, Son."

Thanking his mother quietly for the slab of cake she set in front of him (the slice was almost as big as the plate itself!), Chad dug in, trying to ignore the way her eyes were boring into his head. She flicked some of her long red hair over her shoulder and began to tap her fingers against the table in an impatient beat. Chad slammed his fork to the table.

"Whaa?" he demanded around a mouthful of cake.

"You said you had important news, Chaddy Bear!" she replied.

"Let the kid eat his cake, Nellie," Mr. Cooper said placidly. "He didn't drive all the way here for you to pester him."

"He told me it has to do with Sonny."

For the first time in his life, Chad witnessed his workaholic father actually look away from a project and then set down what it was he was working on. It was unnerving and so completely out of the blue that both his wife and his son stared at him with open mouths.

"Did you get her pregnant?"

Chad spluttered. "What? No!"

"Then what's the news?" his mom asked with wide eyes. She'd obviously been expecting the pregnancy thing too, though why she would take that well, Chad had no idea. He'd always thought she was the type of mom to get seriously upset about something like that.

He sighed and dragged his fork through the frosting on his piece of cake, trying to put off the moment altogether. Right now, the soap actor was thoroughly wishing that he hadn't mentioned anything at all.

"I think I'm going to ask Sonny to move in with me tonight," he finally said, the words tumbling out of his mouth in a rush.

His parents' reactions were lost to him as he thought about the decision. It was a big step to be sure. But after a few days of freaking out and a few weeks of Sonny's stuff slowly accumulating in his apartment, Chad was ninety-nine percent sure he wanted to live with her. He figured it was the natural next step. True, they'd only been together just shy of a year, but other couples, normal, not famous couples, moved in together way before that on a daily basis. And if there was a couple who could live together in complete happiness, Chad was positive that he and Sonny fit the bill.

October 23rd

7:19 p.m.

Baldwin Apartments

Chad's Apartment

Living Room

Sonny sniffed, wrinkling her nose in disgust as Chad let her into the apartment. Lurking there under the heavy scents of Chinese takeout was an even heavier scent of burned…something. She kicked off her shoes and followed him to the kitchen where the source of that God awful smell seemed to be. There, sitting on the counter in a pan that was now looking a little worse for wear, was a hunk of charred meat that was still smoking slightly. Chad turned bright pink and moved the ruined thing out of her line of sight, causing her to smile.

"Chad?"

"Yeah?" he asked gruffly.

"Did you make me dinner?"

"Well… I tried," Chad confessed, turning to the little boxes of food scattered across his counters and beginning to open them up. "But then I burned everything so I had to go get Chinese."

Sonny grinned and leaned up to plant a kiss on his cheek. "You're absolutely adorable."

"It's the curse of being me," Chad said with a sigh of mock disgust.

"How are your parents?"

The actor shrugged and set to work putting some food on two plates. "Fine, I guess. My mom misses you. Every time I go over there she asks if you're coming with me next time."

"Is that a hint, Cooper?" Sonny teased.

"Nope. Just a fact." Chad handed her a plate and shooed her over to the couch, forgoing the dining room table. Chinese takeout did not scream, "Fancy table," to him. "How was your day with Nico and Grady?"

"Awesome!" Sonny gushed, tucking her legs under herself and digging into her food. "I was reading through the apartment section of the paper when they got home, right? And you know what they said to me?"

Chad shrugged, trying to look interested while biting back a grin and shoving food in his mouth. It was harder than it looked. Sonny was looking for her own place! And that meant she would be open to moving in with him.

…Wouldn't it?

"No idea."

"They told me they don't want me to move out!"

Chad froze, a forkful of chicken halfway to his mouth. He cleared his throat, trying to get his heart out of the pit of its stomach where it had fallen to at her words.

"Isn't that just the sweetest thing?" Sonny continued on, oblivious to the look on his face. "They said they like living with me and that there's nothing fun to do when I'm not home. So I threw that paper right in the trash and…"

As Sonny babbled on, Chad chewed his food and nodded along as she spoke, wondering if she'd be seriously upset if he killed her friends. Because now all his plans were out the window and it was all Nico and Grady's fault! Chad speared another piece of chicken violently. Vengeance would so be his.

Hey everyone!

So there was part two of your double update. I hope you liked it! And for those of you that reviewed between these two chapters: Thanks! You totally rocked my world!

You guys have officially made this my third most reviewed story on the site and I honestly would not have kept going with this story if it weren't for all of you. Reading your reviews makes my day, especially when you guys quote my own writing at me. It's the coolest thing ever to know you like my story that much to actually do that.

For those of you who asked how I liked "Falling for the Falls": I liked it a lot, but I can't decide which part I like better. Both had their strengths and weaknesses. However, I'm leaning toward the first part because it amused me more. If any of you want to discuss the episodes with me, PM me or mention something in your review so I don't have to leave any spoilers here in my note!

I'm working on the next chapter already, but if there's a delay in posting, I feel you guys should know that my time is currently consumed by the book I'm planning. It's a long, tedious process and I'm right in the middle of it so I don't have as much time as I usually do. If you start to wonder where I am and when I'm updating, send me a message and remind me!

For those of you who want tips on writing your own stories: Write what you know. Using your own life experiences when creating a story is a great place to start. Not to mention the fact that it makes your writing a million times stronger! There's also a bunch of sites that help in beginning a story. Just Google "story ideas" and go from there. Also, you should take the time to free write every day (thanks, Stephen King, for that idea! I live by it!). Whether you're writing in a diary or writing a short story, free writing will get your creative juices flowing and writing will become easier over time. Also, there is no such thing as writer's block. There is always, always, ALWAYS something to write about!

Thanks, you guys, for being such amazing reviewers! You're honestly the coolest, best ones I've ever had on the site and I love each and every one of you!

Love,

EmbracingRain

P.S. Did you guys catch all my SWAC references? There were quite a few of them. I believed I ref'd "Legend of Candy Face," "Falling for the Falls," and "With a Chance of Dating" (and also Twelve Months. It was kind of two references in one). If I referenced anymore, let me know. I lost track!

P.P.S. Oh, the situational irony! And now Chad's hell-bent on revenge! Oh no!