"I'll miss you."

Rainy sniffed dramatically watching as her loving boyfriend let out a loud groan, he was busily preoccupied loading the truck up with their belongings. She had managed to pack enough for two weeks and more, and after careful consideration, she had decided to lessen her load.

Therefore, she had only four suitcases worth of stuff to take with her instead of five.

She was letting one of her cases go.

It was an extremely difficult decision for Rainy to make and one that she was currently deeply regretting.

Well, more like a decision she was forced into making. It wasn't like Elijah had laughed in her face when he saw the amount of bags waiting for him on his driveway or anything. He immediately told her that there was no way he'd let her take so many and that was the end of that.

Maybe having a suitcase just for heels was a little ridiculous after all.

Rainy moped, looking over at her lonely case. With her arms crossed over her chest, she stood there in her small summer dress with a pout.

"Babe, stop sulking. It's either the case or you, now c'mon we're gonna be late for the flight if we don't leave now." The comforting voice she adored greatly said. His words alone were substantial enough to make her stop in her tracks.

"Are you sure you want me to come?" Rainy fretted, her voice soft and full of anxiety. This was the hundredth time she had asked that same question.

Elijah rolled his deep blue-green eyes, he came around from the back of the car twirling the keys in his hands. As he neared her, she couldn't help but take all of him in. He had on a black T-shirt and fitted black sweats, since they'd be on a 7+ hour flight, he hadn't bothered with anything too nice. He had one full sleeve of ink which was on show, and a simple gold chain on.

She bit her bottom lip thinking about how good he looked.

He leaned against his car, his tempting eyes entirely on her.

His hair was black, it had been dyed black as his natural colour was a light brown. It was styled back with gel supporting his hold. She loved the way he was looking at her, his eyes skimming her own body before making the way up to her face slowly.

"They'll love you, now relax." He reassured, well as reassuring as he could be. "Why haven't I seen you in that dress before?"

He wasn't exactly the sentimental type, nor was he the most expressive. Elijah Banks was one of a kind, and she was grateful he was all hers.

Rainy felt her cheeks flush at his question and walked her feet over towards him when he didn't bother to make a move. "Because it's new. I bought it the other day, do you like it?"

Clenching his strong jaw, he tugged his black lip ring playfully. "Hm I do, you know what else I like?"

Rainy laughed, puckering her lips whilst she tiptoed up to place a kiss on his soft lips. "Me?" She battered her darkened lashes at him.

He snorted, smacking her ass playfully before pushing her off him and opening the car door for her. "I'd like it if we'd get a move on and be at the airport already. Now get in the damn car."

She grumbled at his lack of romance and got into the car begrudgingly. After buckling her seatbelt, she yanked the mirror down to look at her reflection. She had no makeup on, letting her natural skin breathe. Her long lashes and dark eyebrows made it appear as if she was wearing mascara and brow product. Pushing her tight curls up into a ponytail, she took the pale pink scrunchie that matched her summer dress from her wrist and tied her hair up.

As Elijah got into his side of the car and started the engine, she opened the glove compartment finding one of her many lip balms inside.

Though, before she could put any on, she felt a finger come up underneath her chin turning her head. Rainy sighed, glancing at her boyfriend and raised one eyebrow.

"What?" She snapped sassily.

"Oh it's nothing." He shrugged, faking innocence. "Just wanted to tell you something that's all."

She shyly met his eyes, her gaze dropping and wavering on his lips as he bowed his head toward hers. "What did you want to tell me?" She met him halfway, her mouth was drawn to his by an invisible force. His lips were soft, his kisses tender and teasing.

"Eli... What did you want to tell me?" Rainy quipped breathlessly against his lips. She leaned into him, wanting his mouth on hers as he held his lips just out of reach. His breath was warm; they breathed in tandem.

"I love you."

His hand stroked hers, his fingers tracing a path along her palm before he laced his fingers with hers, pulling her hand to his as his mouth found hers again. He squeezed her hand before releasing it to wrap one arm around her back, holding her close to him. Her hand lifted to cup his cheek, then slowly slid around to the back of his head, her fingers tangling in his dark locks.

She moaned against his lips, wanting something she couldn't quite put a name to, his touch was enough to cause a fever. It was so hard to think when he kissed her like that, alternating between light and teasing and hard and insistent. He kept her guessing, and with each kiss, her desire grew

Elijah was drinking his drink again, a hungry look in his eyes as he pulled back.

"Still mad at me baby?" He asked sheepishly, a smirk growing onto his lips as her eyes darkened with lust.

She couldn't believe he could tease her like that and act like nothing had happened.

Rainy jabbed him back roughly, settling back into her seat with her arms crossed. "Just drive."

And with that, the journey began.

The drive to the airport was short-lived; not long after, they were unloading their things and passed through security and baggage. They were waiting for his family members to arrive so that they could board the plane together.

Eventually, they started showing up one by one, she greeted each family member and much to her surprise it was smooth sailing. However, she had yet to meet his parents who were already in Palm Springs. They had gone early in order to get the house ready and prepared.

So far she had met his nephew Cairo and niece Kaya and Aunt Felicity and Uncle Rick, who were the lovely parents of his two little cousins. Next was his crazy Aunt Lisa, who had introduced herself before making herself scarce talking animatedly about how it was up to her as the eldest in the group to find the alcohol for the plane ride.

All that was left for her to meet was his sister and his uncle. Both people he spoke highly of so she absolutely did not want to mess either introduction up.

Rainy tapped her feet nervously against the floor, the sounds of the kids running around and playing with one another could be heard in the background.

Busy searching the crowd of people, Elijah let out a holler, bouncing up from his seat. Rainy imitated his actions by also standing up.

"Hey! Hey ugly, over here!" Elijah yelled over to a pink-haired girl that had her back to them.

She instantly turned at the sound of his obnoxious yelling, lifting her black sunglasses up to rest on top of her head. Dressed in a comfy-looking matching loungewear set; pink shorts and a cropped sweater, she hurried towards them gripping onto the pink neck pillow around her neck.

Rainy took a wild guess speculating that pink must have been the girl's favourite colour.

She looked exactly like Elijah minus his piercings and tattoos. Same height, same face, same enticing smirk.

"Ugly? You better watch that mouth of yours!" The woman with brightly coloured hair bit back shoving her brother's arm. She stuck her tongue out at him teasingly tackling him in for a big hug. Once they pulled apart, she looked over at Rainy who waited patiently for an introduction.

"This is my little sister Eliza." With a pause, Elijah cleared his throat. "El, this is Rainy." He already seemed more on edge then he had been introducing her to his aunt's and uncle.

She had heard all about Eliza, she knew she had to impress his sister as he had the utmost respect for her. He spoke about her all the time so she needed to make a lasting impression.

"Little? We're twins, and I'm two minutes older than you dipshit." Eliza bickered. She looked at Rainy and grinned brightly. "Rainy! How are you? I've heard so much about you that I feel like we've known each other for years."

She couldn't react in time because before she knew it she had been pulled into the tightest hug.

Rainy laughed briskly, feeling the breath being knocked out of her lungs as the welcome hug became tighter by the passing second. "Oh please, Eli speaks about you all the time... Wow, I just love your hair!" She rambled.

They fell into a comfortable conversation gushing over one another, it wasn't long before Elijah shouted at someone else.

"Finally, why are you always so late?"

Calling yet another person over. Finally. Last but definitely not least.

She didn't know how many more introductions she could take.

Eliza unexpectedly let out a boisterous chortle, having joined Elijah, both of them were busy speaking buoyantly to whom Rainy could only presume to be their favourite uncle. The only relative that was closest in age to the twins and the one that let them do whatever they wanted.

Rainy remembered Eli telling her that this was the Uncle that had given him his first cigarette and his first sip of alcohol. He clearly meant a lot to him since he saw him as the fatherly figure in his life as his relationship with his own father was unfortunate.

She wasn't sure whether she was excited to meet his father or if she was scared. She had no idea what he meant by 'unfortunate.'

"Babe come over here." Elijah mentioned, motioning for Rainy to come over. "I'd like you to meet my Uncle."

Rainy smiled radiantly as she lifted her head up to look at the last family member.

"Rainy this is my Uncle Silvester, but everyone calls him Silver. Silver, this is Rainy, my girlfriend."

"-Did you just say Rainy?" A deep voice asked in confusion, only now zoning into the conversation. He looked across to see the familiar face and stopped in his tracks.

Rainy's eyes widened but she didn't make a scene, she knew her bulging eyes did enough talking. She could barely fathom what was happening at that moment watching the way his face changed from calm to pure disbelief.

He was wearing a white t-shirt that she was surprised to see displayed defined muscles underneath. His curly dark hair had sunglasses in them and he seemed to look a lot more relaxed and at ease.

Surely this had to be a joke right?

Professor Rivera.

That was his freaking favourite uncle?

Opening her mouth to let out an amused laugh and elucidate the fact that she was already well acquainted with the man standing in front of her, Professor Rivera cleared his throat, beating her to it.

"Never heard of a name like that before, nice to meet you Rainy."

He had extended his hand out, waiting for her to take it.