#icarly reunion | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ishipthis · 11 months

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Igo all in - A reunion oneshot you never knew you needed.

“As we go on, we remember all the-“

“Carly, I swear to God if you sing ‘Graduation’ by Vitamin C one more time I’m going to graduate myself right back into the car.” He’s smiling as he says it, the same goofy smile that she’s been looking at for years, though now instead of just being the comforting familiar smile of her partner in crime, it’s the smile that has her knees wanting to buckle and her cheeks turning red. “Besides,” Freddie continues, smile widening as he wiggles his eyebrows at her. “It doesn’t even make sense, we’re not even graduat—“

She ignores him, a taunting smile covering her lips as she chooses to sing louder. “All the time we, had together!” This is her graduation and reunion all rolled into one damn it, and if that means making up for lost time by singing ridiculously nostalgic 2000’s pop, then she’s going to do it.

“I didn’t get to graduate with everyone, remember? You got your big moment, you got to wear the cap and gown and say goodbye to all your friends and I got-“

“Italy?” he cuts her off, smirk planted firmly on his lips.

“Shut up, you know it’s not the same, dummy. If I want to make up for lost time by singing the ultimate farewell to high school song, then I will.”

He laughs, his hand reaching down to take hold of hers, intertwining their fingers as he brings their joint hands up to his lips.

“Fine, go ahead, sing it then, babe. Tonight is your moment, you’ve earned it.”

Except it isn’t. The minute they walk through the double doors it becomes increasingly clear, the night is most definitely not her moment, not even close.

“Freddie! You’re here!” It’s the third person that’s come up to him in all of five minutes and while it’s amazing to see him in his element, it’s also disheartening the way everyone seems to glance past her like she’s just his plus one. She’s icarly, Carly Shay, she has 650 000 followers on Instagram and was the host of Italian QVC, surely she deserves more than a ‘I forgot you went here’, and then vague apathy.

“Hey Man, long time no see!” Freddie responds, greeting his newest long-lost pal with a secret handshake she’s never seen before.

He’s different here. Lapping up the attention in a way she’s never seen before. Still perfect, humble Freddie, but there’s something else there too, a sense of pride and twinkle in his eye she rarely sees aside from when he’s watching Millicent, or… Her. It’s interesting is all. He’s the same boy she’s known all her life; nothing’s changed, walking through those double doors didn’t alter reality, at least she doesn’t think so, but he’s also all together a different one entirely. Confident in a way he never was, electric in a way she’s never seen, and pulling people in as if he has some kind of gravitational pull that she never was informed he had.

It sit’s uncomfortably in her stomach. Discomfort that she has to share him, discomfort that he never shared this with her, and discomfort that at the bottom of all of this mixture of thoughts was a jealously she had no right to have. She was happy he was getting attention; she was happy he was being recognised for all the things she always knew him to be, wasn’t she?

“Wow, that’s some handshake” she volunteers lamely, because she’s not sure what else to say when she feels so out of place. 10 years ago she would have walked in here and been the one people flocked to, it would have been her gym, her friends, her secret handshakes that people looked enviously on. Now here she was an outsider practically hiding behind Freddie, which again, what? -like she no longer had a place in the room at all. It was as if the 11 years she’d spent with these people was all but wiped out when she decided to go to Italy. After the chat with Freddie the other day it just felt like another part of the move that was back to bite her in the ass.

Wait, was Freddie talking to “Rip off Rodney?” The words fall from her mouth before she can suck them back in, and the look on his face in response is again, interesting.

“I just go by Rodney now” He says, giving her a tight smile. “But man am I glad Mr Popular here decided to make an appearance tonight” Again, it’s back to Freddie and she’s fine about that, really she is fine.

Freddie laughs and it’s enough to make her knees wobble, because darn him and his cute little crooked smile. He seems so genuinely proud of himself, and it’s beautiful and guilt inflicting all at the same time. How had it taken her so long to realise how attractive he was? The way he nervously rocked back on his heels when embarrassed, the way he instantly looked to her to see her reaction. Was it always like this? How did she spend all these years seeing it, seeing him, and yet completely missing him all the same time.

“I didn’t know Chris Hemsworth transferred to Ridgeway?” she grins, interjecting herself back in the conversation as she looks around the room comically. “Where is he? If I’d known he was here, I might not have gone to Italy.”

Freddie laughs, his hand finding hers at the same time Rodney speaks. “Hemsworth? Nah, Benson over here had the school eating out of the palm of his hand senior year.”

And there it is, that beam again, that proud look that usually is saved just for her, except now apparently, it’s also held for senior year and whatever that entailed. “Freddie?” She says out loud, because she can’t stop herself and needs to clarify, because what? “This Freddie? Freddie Benson? Be real, how much did he pay you to say that?”

Rodney laughs and she watches as the expression on Freddie's face changes from pride to hurt then pride again as he hears her call him 'Her Freddie'. Has he always been this expressive, she wonders? Is this another thing she missed. Was this what it was like in Italy? He had said that he faked that emergency, and that he'd been heart broken, and yet she'd been there and not even noticed. He had got the text, given her an excuse, and literally run the other way and she had let him, which makes it worse. Surely it must have been obvious, right now she could read his micro expressions a mile away, and yet back then she'd not even known the difference when his smile didn't reach his eyes. What kind of friend was she? Even if at that point she’d be denying her feelings, she’d failed him. He was right.

She snaps back out of her thoughts and into the conversation at the sight of Freddie looking increasingly more uncomfortable by the second, which mean’s she’s clearly missed something. She may not have read the room back then, but right now it’s clear as day that he’s both embarrassed and internally panicking, a far cry from the pride he was showing mere moments ago. "Not a cent! Last dime I got from him was when he bribed me not to tell Principal Franklin he'd snuck out with Zoe, let's just say he wasn’t your Freddie in senior year that's for sure, he was Veronica's and Ashley's and Moni- oww!"

Freddie freezes, his hand reaching down to pick up Carly's again having skilfully socked Rodney in the gut. It's meant to be reassuring she knows, but right now all she can think about is the thought of Freddie with someone else. Veronica or Ashley or Monica-someone's who most definitely are not her. She thinks back. Sam had admitted to her years ago that she and Freddie had hooked up while she was away, but that was it. There was no mention of another girl, let alone three.

She looks at Freddie, her brow furrowing as he uncomfortably scratches the back of his neck with his free hand, a tell he’s both uncomfortable and guilty. Well that’s just great.

"Wow" she mutters, still trying to clear the mental imagine from her mind. "I sure missed a lot here!" And she did, clearly, she missed a lot.

She looks to Freddie, fingers untangling from his as they start to feel clammy. He visibly flinches, worry covering his features as he brings his hand to rest on her back instead. It’s a oh no you don’t, if ever there was one, the don’t run from me unspoken.

"As much as I'm sure Carly is loving this little walk down memory lane, I think I hear someone calling our name, but we'll catch up soon, yeah?" he says not waiting to hear the answer before gently manoeuvring her towards the direction of the wine. "He's exaggerating, I promise. " But she's not so sure. Ever since they walked through those doors it had been the Freddie show, and she’s seen enough movies to know that if someone is quote unquote popular, girls will follow. Besides, you don’t get two ex-wives without being somewhat of a ladies man, right? If she was being honest, she didn’t know what to think. What she did know though, she needed a glass of that wine, stat.

The night isn’t going to get any better. This was evident when she was stuck hearing another story about a Freddie she never got the chance to know from another mystery best friend, and it’s even more evident now as she stands with Rebecca Berkowitz talking about towels. TOWELS. If she knew endorsing a self drying towel would leave her stuck in this stupid conversation, she would have told the endorsement deal where to shove it. A life of post shower chills surely isn’t worth the pain of this conversation.

“So my little sister is obsessed right? So of course she has to have the Carly towel and I tried to explain to her you’re just paid to talk about them, but she just doesn’t understand how us influencers work, it’s -“ her voice becomes completely muffled as Carly zones out again, scanning the room for Freddie while trying not to laugh at the idea of Rebecca being an influencer. The only thing she was influencing right now, was a headache. Where was Freddie?

"I’m actually surprised you came to this thing” Rebecca continues, because clearly she is not getting the hint. “Even more surprised who you came with, but I guess it’s nice you came to support him at his reunion, you guys were always such cute little friends.” Carly shudders. Friends. While it was true, they had always been just friends and only recently started transitioning to more, the way Rebecca says it sounds kind of pathetic. ‘Cute little friends’-it’s pointed as if it’s insignificant and she wonders not for the first time if that’s how she used to make Freddie feel; small and childish. And wait, what did she mean Freddie’s reunion?

She’s about to respond when Rebecca cuts her off again, hip bumping her in the process, which is annoying, because they are not at a hip bumping level of friendship, not even close. “Now tell me, girl to girl, it’s just for the views, right? That set up of the webcam was totally gold, Carly, but I know a good PR move when I see one. I assume it’s only a matter of time before the breakup is going to happen? The big fight on camera for the viewers, the controversy. It’s rating’s gold. I’ll give you that!”

Wait, what? what the hell was any of that supposed to mean.

Carly flinches, her cheeks tinting a nice shade of red as she feels a wave of genuine anger roll over her. 1. This is her freaking reunion, and 2. Nobody talks about her man like that. She had realised the second point was an especially tense one since just a few weeks prior, when Neville targeted her sweet, defenceless man with a deep fake, and- no, just no! She was pretty good at playing nice, but apparently insulting the love of her life is where she draws the line.

“Firstly, girl.” She repeats, a frustrated tone slipping from her mouth. “It’s not a PR move. I’m not sure where you got that idea, but he’s my… Freddie, and there will be no break-up. I adore him, nay, love him, not that any of that is any of your business anyway. And secondly, this is my reunion too. Did you not forget that I went here for from grades K through 11? Seriously, we had classes together, why is that so hard to remember?!” The second point comes out more pointed than the first and she’s not sure why it matters so much that people realise she belongs, but it does, it just does.

She’s missed out on so much, all of the fun senior year experiences, senior ditch day, senior prank day, the parties.. And worst of all, she missed out on Freddie. If she’d been there maybe there wouldn’t have been a Veronica or Ashley or Monica, it would have just been…

“Carly” Rebecca is still there. An annoyed look now etched on her face as she looks Carly up and down, and wow okay, she’s got this mean girl thing down pat. “You’re giving off a lot of negative energy right now, like your aura is not good, but it’s okay, I get it, if I hadn’t graduated because I failed gym, I’d feel a little pathetic being here too”

“I don’t feel pathetic” Carly cuts in before she can register the rest of Rebecca’s words.

“Wait, what did you just say?”

“Oh my gosh, you don’t know, do you?”

It feels like the room is suddenly dead silent, the only noise audible the creak of the gym door swinging open. Of course she graduated gym? She’d gone to a little bit of college, you can’t go to a little bit of college if you haven’t graduated high school, that’s like impossible, right? Right?

“I. Went. To. College” she states, a bite to her tone as she brings her hands to rest on her hips. “So you’re clearly mistaken. Girl.”

“Babe? You good?” She feels the arm wrapping around her waist before she sees him. Freddie. Sweet, beautiful, Freddie. His brow is furrowed, a nervous look etched on his face as he looks between them a few times before resting back on her. ‘You okay?’ he mouths silently, tightening his squeeze on her waist.

“She’s fine, Freddie, I was just telling Carly here about the unfortunate mix up with the office senior year and from the looks of things, I don’t think she’s taking it very well.”

He’s confused. Heck, she’s confused. None of this makes any sense. Did Freddie know something she didn’t?

“Mix up?” he responds, the question evident in his voice. And nope, phew.

“Mmm” she hums, a smirk planted on her lips. “Remember when we all got in trouble for bringing vodka into the pep rally that one time?” He nods. And seriously? Carly thinks, What the heck kind of senior year did they have? And in what world would Freddie sneak alcohol into anything. His mother was obsessive at the best of times, there is no way he could have snuck anything by her.

“Well, it was my second offence or whatever, so they made me do community service for the school” She rolls her eyes “I was stuck helping out in the office, and I just happened to hear that one of the temps signed off on your credits, without actually checking, because like, who fails gym? Anyway, apparently you do.” Rebecca laughs like it’s a funny story, like she’s telling the punchline to a joke and she guesses it is, because from the minute Carly walked through those doors, it’s been evident that the only punchline happening tonight, is at her expense.

“That’s…?” Freddie starts, a confused look reflected on his face before he looks over to her to assess where she’s at. He doesn’t like what he sees, that’s the only explanation for the next words out of his mouth.

“That’s quite a story, Rebecca. If you’ll excuse us, I think it’s time for a refill, but please do say hi to your 25 followers for me. Great seeing you.” Who is this Freddie and why does the sight of him going all grizzly bear on her behalf leave her wanting to drag him out of here and into their own kind of cave?

“So what you’re telling me” Freddie asks, clarifying again for the third time since they’d walked up to principal Franklin “Is that Carly never graduated? Like never?”

“That’s what I said”

“But..”

“We sent letters, Miss Shay” Principal franklin says addressing her again as he ignores Freddie, who currently is tightening his hand against her waist as if grounding her to the conversation and to him. “We even emailed, but when we got no response, I suppose it just never got followed up?”

“Followed up?” She spits out, anger evident in her voice “My future and my eligibility to viably enter college was just something that you never followed up?” How? How did she never find out? And more importantly, what does that even mean? Did she even graduate any of her classes at college? Was everything for nothing. Was she a high school dropout, oh god she was a high school drop out!

“IT’S ALMOST PHOTO TIME PEOPLE!”

The announcement is made over the speakers and damn if it doesn’t just put the soul-crushing cherry on top of the already rotting cake. This was not supposed to be the night. None of this was supposed to happen. Now, not only was she a high school drop-out, but she was a high school drop-out that would forever be forgotten because her face would never be included in the class photo, nor her name. Okay so maybe she was being a little melodramatic, maybe it wasn’t all that big of a deal to be in a simple photo, but to her it was more than a picture. It meant something. Especially if she was next to him in it. It was like righting a wrong maybe.

“Freddie, we’re having some issues with getting the camera working properly, you think the former captain of the photography club would be happy to come and give us a hand?”

Freddie looks at her, doubt clouding his features as he takes her in. “I’d love to guys but-“

“But nothing” Carly cuts him off. “He’ll be right over.”

It’s not what he wants to hear, she can tell, but this is his night, these are his people and apparently this is his memory to make, so who is she to step in the way of that? “it’s fine, sweety” she says, plastering a smile she knows he can see is lacking as best. “I’ll sort things out here with principal Franklin, and you go do what you do best, the nerdy tech stuff, then when you come back, we’ll take the picture and I’ll give you that dance I owe you after all those years of the friendzone.” She wiggles her eyebrows as a small smile plays on her lips, not quite reaching her eyes. If anything has come from pretending she didn’t have feelings for Freddie for the past few months, it’s the ability to make a jokes in tense situations and evade the truth. “

You sure?” he asks her once again, before finally dropping her side. She nods. “Totally, get out of here.” “You’re the best babe, I’ll be right over there, back before you know it” he kisses her cheek, and she shivers as the familiar feeling of butterflies comes over her. Even when she feels like drowning, he makes her knees want to buckle. But he’s always been saving her, long before she realised it.

“I’m sorry, Carly” Principal Franklin cuts in again, and she’s pulled back instantly into the feeling of chaos. Into swirling feelings and confusion and regret and… Freddie. “If it’s any consolation, you’re a smart and successful girl who’s made something of yourself, I wouldn’t be too concerned over what a piece of paper says.” And she’s not. That’s not the problem, she thinks. The problem is that without that piece of paper, she can’t make it right. She can’t give Freddie back the only thing he ever wanted in highschool, her heart. She’s failed him again.

“I- Thank you” she stutters, a wave of emotion that’s been laying dormant suddenly coming alive inside. “I- I’ve got to excuse myself, I’m sorry.”

“I thought I might find you here.” Freddie says gently as he walks toward her, his brow furrowing as he takes in the sight of her folded figure against the lockers they’d spent the better part of their teens stumbling around, and It’s fitting, she thinks, that they would end up back here again, back at the place where for all intents and purposes, they kind of began. She doesn’t even know how she got here, not really anyway. It’s not like she intentionally chose to run to his old locker, in all honesty it wasn’t a decision at all, more muscle memory, her legs taking her to the one place where she felt like she could breathe. And isn’t that ironic? The one place that feels like freedom, is the one place that reminds her of him? It’s not the first time this evening that she finds herself wondering if it has always been that way. Just another thing she was too blind to see.

“Am I that predictable?” she asks him, voice muffled by the fabric of her shirt as she hugs her knees tighter to her chest.

This was not how the night was supposed to go. The night was supposed to be about her getting to rewrite history, getting to take back the time she lost. They were meant to walk through those double doors hand in hand and she was meant to make the wrong of walking out of that school without him, right. She was meant to give him what he always wanted. Freddie had said at the start of the night that it was hers for the taking, but she had realised as the night went on that it wasn’t, not really, it should have been theirs; and now it felt like just another moment she’d inadvertently stolen from them.

“Only to me” Freddie says with a smile, bending down to sit next to her, his body mirroring hers as he rests his head back against the lockers.

It’s her first real smile of the night, his words wrapping around her heart like a reassuring hug, I know you, they whisper, it’s me and you, always. She’s silent for a few moments when he continues. “Are we spiralling?”

“A bit” she admits, resting her head back against the metal door as she blows out a breath.

“Okay” he nods, like her answer is the most simple thing in the world, and maybe to him it is? There has never been a moment where he hasn’t been there for her, and as he slips his hand under her arm so he can entwine their fingers together, she realises there probably will never be one.

“I shouldn’t have gone to Italy” she blurts out, instant relief at the feeling of finally- finally getting it off her chest. It’s a feeling she’s been renumerating on ever since they found their way together a few weeks ago, and coming here, hearing the stories, seeing him in his element and knowing she missed all that, it just makes the feeling more intense. Living with her dad, getting to spend the time they’d lost was the right choice, it was the only choice back then, but the feeling of regret that came up every time she thought about what she’d missed out on, that made it feel like maybe there had been another one.

“Babe-“ he begins, but she cuts him off as a wave of anxiety rolls over her.

“It’s not fair.”

He squeezes her hand three times, a code they’d created days earlier as a way to say I love you without having to worry about Millicent, Spencer or Harper gagging. I. Love. You.

She squeezes back four times. I. Love. You. More.

“Is this about what Rodney said?” She shakes her head. “No. Well maybe, but no, not only that”

“Because he was exaggerating. I didn’t like-, I wasn’t a sexual deviant or anything. He really did make it sound worse than it was.”

She cracks, a smile spreading across her lips as she dares to look up at him for the first time since they started the conversation. He’s smiling too, a lightness in his eyes that instantly makes her feel safe. “The last thing I would ever think is that you could be a sexual deviant”.

“Hey!” He grins, bringing her hand up to his lips to kiss her knuckles. “I might surprise you, I had moves.”

She shakes her head laughing but then the picture of him making ‘moves’ on one of those girls plays in her mind and her smile drops and she looks away.

“Where’d you go” he asks, in tune with her in a way she never realised he could be.

“I’m not mad you kissed them, I know that you had a life outside of me, you had a whole world that I was not part of, that’s never been a problem before.”

“is it now?” She hears the unspoken question in his words. Is my past too much? He’d asked her a similar question a few weeks ago, fearing his baggage was going to scare her off.

“No” she whispers reassuringly. “Never, I’m all in. -I just feel like I missed out. Like maybe if I hadn’t left, It would have been us, these would have been our memories, it wouldn’t feel like my place in your life was erased.”

“Carly, look at me” His voice is sure and steady, reassuring as he coaxes her to really listen.

“You were not erased.” She bites her lip.

“You’re missing the photo, we can do this later, you should go back.”

“Babe.” He says again before emphasing every word. “You. Were. Not. Erased.” She shudders. “If you think there was ever a day where I didn’t miss you, or wish you were by my side, then you’ve got it all wrong. And if you think that I care about a photo, or a reunion, or-“ He lifts her hand again, pulling it over to rest against the cotton of his shirt right over his heart. “-or I can about swapping stories about moments where I was missing a piece of my soul because it was half way across the world in Italy, well then you don’t understand how much this, you, us, means to me. You were the best part of my high school experience, Carly. No one will ever erase that.”

She buckles, or at least she mentally buckles as her body turns to jelly. His words, his reassurance, the look in his eyes, it’s all completely overwhelming and heart stopping in the most wonderful way. He loves me, she thinks, and even though he’s said it before and she’s known it, each time they have these moments where he reassures her, it becomes something she not only knows, but something that she knows. She wants to bring her walls down, she wants to give him all of it, all of the worries and doubts and love, the overwhelming all-encompassing love that she has, that she’s probably always had but never been able to verbalise or understand, not until now.

“I love you” she whispers to him, picking up his hand and bringing it to rest over her heart much the same way he has hers. “I love you so much that it feels like I’m going to burst with it sometimes, and I-“ she takes a breath, choking on a sob she didn’t know was there. “I’ve never felt it in my bones, I never thought I could. It’s new to me… This is new to me.”

He takes a breath swallowing heavily and she feels his hand slightly trembling against her chest. Hers is too, she is sure. “It’s new to me too” He admits, his voice cracking. “I haven’t felt this either. Which is just, yeah”

It’s unspoken the rest of his sentence, but she gets it. She gets the words that he doesn’t speak. Just because you marry someone doesn’t mean you give them your heart, much the same way running from someone doesn’t mean they don’t have yours. It had taken them years, but they were finally here, they finally had it. The 'it' that could not be erased.

She slides her hand from his chest around to the back of his neck threading her fingers through his hair as she pulls him forward, her lips delicately brushing over his. “All in” she whispers.

“All in” he repeats before pulling away from her lips with a grin .”Wait, I’ve got an idea!”

She blushes, unable to wipe the smile off of her face as he reaches into his pocket pulling out his phone.

“We’re not live streaming again are we?”

He smirks. “Not a chance. I just thought maybe we could take a photo of the only moment here I’m going to want to spend the next 10 years reminiscing on.“

“100” she cuts in.

“100?”

“Yeah. All in, remember?” He grins.

“Okay, the next 100 years looking at.”

He swipes on his phone pulling up the camera app before positioning his hand in a way that the shot captures not only them, but the locker behind them as well. “Full circle” he explains while smiling at the camera and she follows suit, unable to stop herself from beaming.

Click.

Before he can stop her, she tilts his chin catching his lips with her own.

Click.

“There you are!” Rodney yells from the top of the hallway. “I’ve been looking for you guys for five minutes. Are you coming to take the photo or what?”

“Photo?” Carly says, a confused expression etched on her face.

“Oh, crap” Freddie says sheepishly. “Did I forget to tell you I talked them into signing over your gym credits?”

“You what? How?” And really, how?

“I may have agreed on Spencer’s behalf to make a generous donation to Principal Franklins retirement fund”

“You bribed him?!”

“All in, baby”

FIN.

#creddie #icarly #carly x freddie #carly shay #freddie benson #carly and freddie #otp: you're everything i've ever wanted #otp: you're still my hero #fanfic #oneshot #drabble #fluff #light angst

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