Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Penelope Featherington is sitting with the other interns at Danbury's Lifestyle Magazine when she receives the hysterical call from Sophie, her roommate since year 1 at Cambridge University.

Penelope, who was mainly studying English, has wanted to be a writer her entire life. She pens a column for Danbury's Lifestyle, under the pseud Lady Whistledown, which mainly revolves around celebrity gossip, but she wants to venture out of just trivial gossip at some point in her life.

 "Sophie, are you alright?" Penelope asks, while her fellow intern, Honoria gives her an inquisitive look over the top of her laptop.

Sophie's shrill shrieks are nail biting.

"I'm going..." Penelope mouths and points to the door to the balcony.

Honoria nods and watches as Penelope disappears onto the balcony.

"Sophie, can you calm down? I can't hear a word you're saying!" Penelope asks of her friend who suddenly takes a few deep breathes before continuing.

Pen,i'vejustwonticketstoseethebridgertonbrothersliveinconcert!" Her words are jumbled, and rushed and still at a pitch that is hurting Penelope's ears.

"Sophie!" Penelope cries, but Sophie seems distracted on the other line, and then the line goes dead with a murmured "gotta go!", from Sophie's end. When Penelope tries to reach Sophie again, the phone just rings.

"What in the world?" Penelope murmurs to herself, staring at her phone for a few seconds before going back inside.

"What was that about?" Honoria asks, "I could hear Sophie's voice from over here." She adds.

Penelope shrugs, "I'm not a hundred percent sure, I'm pretty sure I heard something about The Bridgerton Brothers, but nothing else." Pen shrugs, "But Sophie's always talking about The Bridgerton brothers, it can't be anything serious, maybe she saw one of them downtown." Penelope adds, opening up her last column, written about the third Bridgerton Brother. His wild antics on a night out, leaving the club with two girls. Penelope rolls her eyes at her own writing. God, who even reads this rubbish?

Apparently, a lot of people, since Pen's column gets the most traffic in the office.

"Ugh, my father's tried to get us to open for them a few times, each and every time being declined, you would think he would get the hint, but no, he'll try again, bless him." Honoria tells Penelope, shaking her head in dismay.

Penelope lets a laugh slip, yet covers her mouth just as quickly, hoping Honoria didn't hear it. She's always appreciated music, but she can agree with Honoria wholeheartedly, her father should have let his dream of his daughter and nieces performing at the Royal Albert Music Hall in front of the Queen die years ago. No offence to Honoria but they were each as tone deaf as each other. Honoria was the only one who seemed to hear it though, and everyone else in Mayfair who had happened to come across them downtown performing Christmas Carols every year.

Penelope's phone rings again, Sophie's name flashes across the screen. 

"Sophie, what is going on, where are you?" Penelope questions, and Sophie who seems a lot calmer now, but still overexcited yells, loudly, to the point where Penelope has to remove her cell phone from her ear.

"We're going to meet The Bridgerton Brothers!" She's so excited Penelope can just picture her jumping up and down. 

"Wait, what?" Penelope asks, her brows furrowed in either concern or confusion.

"Friday Night! I won tickets to the concert, then they said because I won tickets I could enter another competition and I won that too, backstage passes! Oh my god Pen, I think I've died and this is heaven. This is heaven and I'm finally going to meet Benedict Bridgerton!" Penelope chuckles to herself, chuckles at Sophie's weird obsession with the brothers.

"So will you come with me?" Sophie asks then, a little calmer than before.

Penelope thinks for a while then shrugs to herself even though Sophie can't see her.

"Sure, why not." Penelope holds the phone away from her ear again as Sophie screeches in delight.

"Alright, I'll see you later, love you bye!" Sophie hangs up the phone and Honoria is staring at Penelope, inquisitively.

"Looks like Sophie won tickets to The Bridgerton Brothers concert on Friday." Penelope informs her and Honoria's eyes widen.

"Backstage passes too." Penelope adds and Honoria's eyes widen even further.

"Wild!" Honoria responds casually and Penelope laughs. 

"She's super excited." Penelope adds again and Honoria studies Penelope for a second.

"You don't seem excited though?" Honoria points out and Penelope looks up from her article that shows a picture of Colin Bridgerton stumbling into a cab with his arms around two blonde models. She shrugs and looks back down at it.

The headline screams: Boozy Bridgerton and his Blonde Brigade.

***

"God, this Whistledown woman is going to be the death of me!" Anthony moans, shoving his phone into Colin's hand.

Colin scans the article's title and laughs.

"She could've been a little more creative, I think she's losing her touch." He states, throwing the phone back at Anthony.

"Kate's going off. She says you're ruining the brand with nights like this Col. You could have at least only taken one back to the hotel out the back door like normal."

"Where's the fun in that?" Colin questions, a devilish smirk forming on his face, and Anthony only groans again.

"You know I have to deal with Kate right? With her being not only our manager but my wife? I'm the one that gets yelled at when you and Benedict pull these sorts of things!" Anthony reminds him.

"They were twins Ant!" Colin tries to justify, but Anthony shakes his head.

"Get your shit together!" Anthony warns him and Colin rolls his eyes but gives in to Anthony's persistence.

"Fine, I'll use the back door next time." Colin winks at Anthony as Anthony starts rubbing soothing circles into his temples.

"Now, do you mind?" Colin asks, pointing at the pizza delivery that just arrived and grabbing a slice.';

"We've got rehearsal in an hour." Anthony reminds Colin who nods, while chewing a cheesy slice of pizza.

"I'll be there!" Colin calls after his older brother who's just closed the door.

"Boozy Bridgerton." Colin scoffs, adding a dramatic eye roll before he takes another bite.

"Can't even have a fun night out without someone saying something." He says softly to himself, a little bit ticked off deep down by the Whistledown article but playing out like he didn't care at all.

Chapter Text

When Penelope gets home from her exhausting day at Danbury Lifestyle, all she wants to do is open a bottle of wine, sit on the couch and watch her favourite youtuber foodie Julia try all the food at different restaurants Penelope dreams of visiting. It's truly an escape from her entire day being filled with non stop celebrity gossip, pictures of Benedict Bridgerton out with his sisters Eloise and Francesca flooded her mail box, nothing of course Whistledown worthy but all entirely draining.

However, when she reaches the front door she can already hear The Bridgerton Brother's newest single and just like that blasting through the walls. 

Colin Bridgerton's voice is floating through the air while Anthony Bridgerton plays the guitar, and Benedict Bridgerton smashes the drums. At least she can smell Sophie's delicious Bolognese sauce wafting through the apartment.

"Sophie!" Penelope calls, putting her coat up on the coat rack, besides the door.

She appears, holding up two Bridgerton Brothers T-shirts.

"Oh my god Sophie!" Penelope chuckles, the one shirt literally only has Benedict's face on it.

"I'm trying to decide which one to wear to the concert!" Sophie moans, "And I'm cooking pasta." Sophie adds, before Penelope can interject any sort of quip regarding her slight obsession with the band. Only slight!

"I have this one too... perhaps you can wear it!" Sophie hurries back into her room and comes back out holding up the shirt with only Colin Bridgerton's face on it.

"I saw your latest article." Sophie adds with wink and Penelope frowns at the shirt, at the charming smirk placed on his perfect symmetrical features. His smouldering eyes actually making her want to drop her panties.  

Good god.

She looks away quickly.

"Perhaps lay off the merch?" Penelope suggests and Sophie gasps, scandalized.

Penelope makes her way into the open planned kitchen and stirs the meat sauce that's placed on the stove top.

"You know how upset I was when the tickets sold out. Let me live my dream, Pen?" Sophie asks of her and Penelope sighs.

"I'm just saying Soph, if you want to be noticed I doubt a merch shirt will do the trick? Perhaps a little black dress?" Penelope inputs and Sophie looks down at the shirt in her hand, a little devastated that she's actually starting to agree with Penelope.

"Fine." She groans dramatically and missions into her room again.

Penelope selects a bottle of crisp white wine from her and Sophie's collection and opens it up, pouring herself a glass and taking a leisurely sip from it when Sophie comes out of her room again.

"This one?" Sophie asks and Penelope studies the dress, it's a shimmery black fabric, knee length, a slit up the side, could potentially show off a lot of cleavage. Penelope nods.

"Perfect." 

Sophie holds the dress up in front of her and shrugs. "I'll think of something." She disappears again and comes out empty handed and starts to boil the water for the pasta.

"Pour me one?" Sophie asks, pointing to the wine and Penelope nods and pours Sophie her own glass.

"So the concert's tomorrow?" Penelope asks and Sophie nods.

"And then we get to meet them! Pen, Benedict Bridgerton." Sophie beams and sighs dreamily.

"I saw he was out in London with two of his sisters this past week, nothing Whistledown worthy though, don't worry." Penelope says and Sophie grins.

"I see." Sophie narrows her eyes suspiciously, "But Colin's been your top go to for the past three articles, is there a reason for that?" Sophie asks.

"He's literally the only one with stuff going on right now, interesting stuff that will get the readers attention." Penelope shuts down any speculation that Sophie is trying to get at.

"I especially loved the article about his juicy peach, that was very creative of you, and that thirst trap photo you added, absolutely riveting." Sophie adds, a tad sarcastic, seeing if she could get any reaction from Penelope, she thinks she spots a slight blush.

"Alright, that was more Danbury than me. She said it would get the readers attention and it did!" Penelope insists and if the risen eyebrow on Sophie's face is any indication that she's trying to prove a point, Penelope's doesn't register it.

"Oh god, I wish I never told you I was Lady Whistledown." Penelope groans, gulping down a mouthful of wine.

Sophie laughs, as she drains the pasta. 

"You can't take it back now, and besides I'm glad to be friends with the most feared gossip columnist in London." Sophie grins proudly, before serving up their Bolognese.

Penelope smiles at Sophie before taking a taste of the pasta. She groans in delight.

"This is amazing." Pen compliments before taking another swirl of pasta onto her fork.

"At least I know it's good when you make food porn noises." Sophie chuckles, before clinking her wine glass with Pen's. 

"Now come on, there's a Bridgerton Brothers docu-series I want to watch." Sophie states, picking up her plate of food and wine glass, making her way over to the lounge.

***

After finishing their last rehearsal before the big show, Colin's eager to get out of there. He and his sister Eloise are going to some big club opening. He's speaking to Benedict about it when Kate waltzes onto the stage from the side.

"Alright boys." She says to them, smiling.

"Just a heads up, you'll be meeting two fans tomorrow night after the show, uh..." She scans her phone quickly and looks up again.

"Sophie and Penelope. They're two young students and I need you all to be on your best behaviour." She pointedly stares at the Colin at the last part.

"Okay, and by young students you mean?" Colin asks, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"College students, Col." She advises and Colin smiles, happily.

Kate shoots him another glare before turning to Benedict.

"Benedict, you will make sure Boozy Bridgerton over here is on his best behaviour, yes?" Kate quips and Benedict laughs and slaps Colin on the shoulder.

When Benedict is met with Colin's icy stare he removes his hand from his shoulder.

"Can that nickname not stick please?" Colin asks, looking at Kate and Kate purses her lips in mock thought.

"Perhaps, but it's rather catchy, is it not?" Kate asks, a hint of sarcasm laced in her tone, then she looks at Anthony who has been watching the exchange quietly.

"Very catchy indeed." Anthony agrees with a curt nod before he continues packing his guitar away.

"I really preferred the juicy peach nickname." Colin murmurs, and Kate laughs loudly.

"She sure does have a way with words, but you would do best to stay out of her column Colin, for the bands sake." Kate adds with a nod.

"I shall see you all tomorrow, big day!" Kate disappears.

"It's not like I can control what Whistledown writes." Colin complains to his brothers after Kate has left.

"Yeah well you kind of can Col, just don't do stupid things like take home twins from a wild night out." Benedict tells him bluntly and Colin rolls his eyes.

"Where's your sense of adventure vanished to?" He asks and Benedict shrugs.

"You're almost as boring as Anthony since he got married." Colin adds, and Anthony shoots him a glare.

"Benedict is not boring Colin. You are just out of hand." Anthony reprimands his younger brother who stays quiet, having enough of being ganged up on again for his adventure for life.

"Whatever, I'm going to meet Eloise." Colin ends, getting up and marching off.

"Colin, we didn't mean it like that..." Benedict calls after him but is met with a slamming of a door.

***

When Penelope gets to work the next day she opens up her email which is filled with hundreds of images of Colin Bridgerton, his sister Eloise and what looks to be a huge fight at some night club.

"Whistledown, check this out!" One email read and she opens up the video that someone has filmed of Colin punching a bystander.

You can hear him yelling, 'that's my fucking sister you prick.' 

"Ms Featherington!" Agatha Danbury calls from her office and Penelope gets up from her desk and hurries over.

"Yes Mrs. Danbury?" Penelope asks, poking her head in the doorway.

"You're running the article of Mr Bridgerton in a fight at a club yes?" She questions and Penelope thinks for a second.

"Uh... I don't think..." She starts but is immediately cut off.

"Good, the headline should definitely include Boozy Bridgerton, that seemed to get a lot of attention, people making all those picture jokes about it, it's fabulous." Danbury nods and Penelope wants to inform her they are in fact called memes, but all she does is nod and head back to her desk.

God, she hates writing stuff like this, but this is a paying internship, and if she gets hired she could possibly start writing more meaningful stuff, not literally ruining peoples lives.

"Boozy Bridgerton again?" Honoria looks over at Penelope who sighs, and nods.

Boozy Bridgerton's Bar Brawl ends in Black Eye.

Chapter Text

They both decide little black dresses are the way to go much to Sophie's dismay and more to Penelope's coaxing.

Penelope doesn't even see Sophie sneakily pack in her Bridgerton Brothers merch shirts into her small black backpack.

Sophie's wearing her brown hair straight down her back while Penelope's red hair is in loose curls. Their make up is the same, a smoky eye with heavy liner and mascara and a red lip.

Penelope's eyeliner wing according to Sophie can literally cut glass.

"Quick selfie?" Sophie questions, while Penelope's putting on her black thigh high boots, her black dress a little less seductive than Sophie's, but her breasts are on full display. 

"Sure..." Penelope responds, after taking a quick sip of the pre-drink they made.

Sophie pouts her lips and Penelope smiles sultrily at the camera before Sophie snaps it with her phone. 

"Fine if I Instagram it?" Sophie asks and Penelope shrugs but nods.

The two get into Sophie's car and drive up to the stadium. It takes them about an hour to get there. 

Penelope's pre-gaming while Sophie's singing along to another Bridgerton Brothers song which must be new because Penelope hasn't heard it before.

"His voice is quite nice." Penelope's murmurs, listening to the different melodies coming from Colin Bridgerton's mouth.

"Did you just compliment Colin Bridgerton?" Sophie gasps, then chuckles.

"Of course his voice is nice Pen. Not everything about him is questionable!" Sophie cries before Penelope can retort.

"His actions are questionable according to Lady Whistledown and everyone else who reads her column." Penelope winks, a sly smile on her face. Then she laughs.

"Look, I don't ever really have a say in what Lady Whistledown writes. I get told what to write and just write it in a captivating way." Penelope shrugs and stares into the bottle of rum and coke sitting between her legs.

"Do you ever feel guilty about it? For slandering people?" Sophie questions and Penelope nods. "Everyday." 

Sophie glances over at her friend before looking back at the road, the stadium slowly coming into view as they drive further up the hill.

"However, if it wasn't for Whistledown, we'd probably not be living together right now, and I'd be back at home with that god awful woman I call my mother, and you would be going to this concert alone. It's a paying internship Soph, even you know how hard those are to come by." Penelope points out. Sophie grins slightly.

"I probably wouldn't go alone, but it would be pretty dull without you here that I'll agree on." Sophie nods in agreement.

"So, can we just get back listening to the guys." She gestures to the radio and turns it up again.

They arrive at the stadium and park in a designated parking bay.

"Wait, we're golden circle?" Penelope asks, as Sophie hands her her ticket.

"Yeah! Benedict even throws drumsticks into the crowd sometimes." Sophie says, a gleeful look spreading across her face.

"That sounds dangerous?" Penelope says and Sophie laughs, "Whatever Pen, come on." And Sophie's dragging Penelope to the waiting queue.

The girls grab some drinks before heading into the golden circle area, Sophie's sticking to water since she's chosen to be fully aware of her surroundings tonight.

Penelope's also grabbed a salt and vinegar potato twister for them to share. 

"Oh yes." Sophie says suddenly, digging into her bag and bringing out the two merch shirts. Around them there are dozens of people wearing their merchandise.

"Sophie..." Penelope groans as she hands Penelope the Colin one.

"Please, for me!" Sophie begs, her puppy dog brown eyes boring into Penelope's.

"Just put it over your dress." Sophie adds, thrusting the Benedict shirt over her head, her dress doesn't even peek through the hem of the shirt.

Penelope stares at Colin Bridgerton's face for a moment before groaning again, handing her drink and her twister to Sophie before putting it on too.

"Can I just..." Sophie asks, trailing off, gesturing to the neckline. Penelope looks down to Sophie's hands ripping the neckline further down, her breasts peaking through enticingly. Sophie smiles

"There we go." 

"You just ripped your shirt?" Penelope points out and Sophie shakes her head, "That's yours now." She says before pulling a potato chip off the stick and popping it into her mouth.

After a few more minutes, the lights dim, the sound picks up, and Sophie and Penelope are staring at the stage along with the hundreds and thousand other people who are attending tonight.

Colin's crisp voice cuts through the air before they can actually see them.

"Oh my god!" Sophie whispers, gripping Penelope's hand so tightly Penelope almost loses feeling in it.

Sophie's other hand, which is going white, is gripped on the barrier, the only thing blocking them from the stage, well besides the humongous security guards littered everywhere,

Some images of the brothers flash on the giant screens surrounding the stage.

And then, it goes even darker, and Anthony's guitar is heard, Benedict's drums, then the boys are on the stage and Sophie's jumping up and down singing along.

Penelope watches as Anthony picks at the guitar with such ease, Benedict plays the drums with so much enthusiasm, but as for Colin well, Penelope definitely thinks she's falling in love with him.

They play a song that Penelope actually knows next and Penelope and Sophie sing along. At one stage Penelope swears Colin looks right at her, not beyond her, not behind her, right in her eyes and they stare at each other for a brief moment before he's moving on again to the other side of the stage.

"Oh my god, he looked at you!" Sophie cries out, her fangirl side coming to a full on boil.

"Perhaps he was looking at the shirt rather... or like..." Penelope tries, looking around her but majority of the people around her seem to be agreeing with Sophie.

"That was a full on stare, girl." A boy next to Penelope agrees, with a curt nod.

"Penelope he looked at you! He noticed you!" Sophie claps her hands excitedly just as Colin comes back around to their side again.

Penelope tries not to look up, a weird fluttering happening in her stomach but she can't help it and when she does look up his eyes are locked with hers again and she feels like she's about to faint. 

She smiles at him and he grins back, a lopsided, devilish grin that Penelope can only assume he gives to every girl he looks at in the audience.

The boy next to her and Sophie practically swoon.

"You're his anchor!" Sophie cries out suddenly, looking at the boy next to her and his friend and they both seem to agree.

"His what?" Penelope muses and Sophie turns to look at her, while Colin makes his way to the other side of the stage again.

"He usually finds a girl in the audience and anchors himself to her, to keep him grounded, otherwise he can get pretty crazy up there." The one boy tells Penelope and Penelope feels kind of proud, a little weirded out, but also a little more flattered.

Up on the stage Anthony's murmuring something to Colin while he's playing, Benedict's singing now, and hitting the drums hard.

"See you found your anchor?" Anthony asks, and Colin winks.

"Her tits are fucking teasing me." Colin replies and Anthony tries his hardest to not roll his eyes.

"For fuck sakes." Anthony grumbles and Colin's bouncing off to the other side again, belting out another verse.

After the concert Penelope and Sophie are pumped with so much excitement and energy it's hard to control.

"Wait, we need to go backstage." Sophie reminds Pen who nods, a little in her own world after being the chosen one, as Sophie was now calling it.

"Hey, excuse me." Sophie is poking a security guard. 

"We've got backstage passes to meet the band..." Sophie holds up her and Penelope's hands with the wristbands given to them in the beginning of the evening.

"Alright, come with me." The security guard responds and leads Sophie and Penelope to a backstage door.

"Charles, two backstage passes." The security guard states to the bouncer who checks the wristbands too before opening the door and letting Penelope and Sophie through.

"Sophie and Penelope?" A brunette Sophie can only know as Eloise Bridgerton looks up when the two girls enter.

Sophie nods.

"Oh, yes you're Eloise!" Sophie beams and Eloise smiles.

"Sure am, Kate's put me in charge of getting you guys to the band." Eloise nods and tells them to follow her.

"They're pretty hyped up, usually happens after a show, don't feel too overwhelmed, they're pretty normal guys." Eloise adds, as she opens another door into a room.

"There you go, you guys have about twenty minutes." Eloise says, looking at her phone quickly before eyeing Sophie and Penelope out.

"They're going to love the shirts!" Eloise muses, a chuckle escaping her.

"Oh my god." Penelope nearly forgot she was wearing it and tries to yank it off.

"No, I'm serious, they'll love it." Eloise quickly says. 

"You see, I told you!" Sophie sticks her tongue out at Penelope who laughs slightly.

"Hang on a sec." Eloise tells the girls before she sticks her head into the room.

"I've got Sophie and Penelope here for the meet and greet, are yous decent?" Eloise calls loudly and Benedict laughs.

"El, come on, we're always decent." Sophie hears Benedict's voice, she squeezes Penelope's hand quickly and Penelope's squeezes back reassuringly before Eloise is swinging the door wide open.

"Hello!" Anthony beams, his hair a mess.

Colin is opening a beer and Benedict is twiddling his drumsticks in his fingers as he looks up.

Benedict notices Sophie's shirt first and then laughs out loud, before he actually notices Sophie. His mouth basically drops to the ground and his words come out a mumble as he struggles to get up.

Anthony is looking at him perplexed.

"Colin!" Anthony calls to his younger brother who's taking a lengthy sip of his beer before missioning over to the girls.

He too notices Sophie first but then when his eyes move to Penelope he pauses. Anthony is looking from Colin to Penelope and also pauses, a grin forming his face.

"You." Colin whispers out loud and Penelope and Sophie glance at each other quickly before looking back at the three men standing in front of them.

"Well this should be interesting." Anthony muses, taking a seat on one of the chairs as if he's about to watch a movie, all that's missing is a bucket of popcorn.

Benedict is trying his hardest to not look at Sophie, she's fucking mesmerising him, but his brother's situation seems more intense.

"The Anchor." Anthony tells Benedict, who, being towards the back of the stage never actually sees Colin's 'anchors'.

"The Anchor!" Benedict repeats, his eyes widen, his voice a little hoarse. He then checks on Colin who looks unlike himself.

Chapter Text

"Col?" Benedict tries, but Colin is too transfixed on Penelope to even utter a response in return.

He never usually meets his 'anchors'. They're usually just random girls he picks out in the crowd, has a little bit of flirty banter with them, and then he moves on with his life once the show is over.

This is new. And her eyes are so blue, so hypnotizing, he finds he can't really look away. Like a weird magnetic pull is bringing them together.

But then she does look away and Colin is left feeling strange, almost empty, almost like there was a hole inside him that healed the minute the two of them met. 

He's almost willing her to look at him again, to see if what he is feeling is correct, it could just be the sandwich that he ate before the concert messing with his stomach... His thoughts fade when there's another knock at the door.

"Chinese is here!" Daphne and Francesca enter with the take out and place it on the table.

"Hey! Are you the fans?" Daphne asks, a smile on her face, while she takes in Sophie and Penelope. She laughs at their shirts. 

"Right, they're incredible, I didn't even know they were making shirts with our entire faces on them!" Benedict chuckles, and chances a glance at Sophie again, who smiles brightly at him.

"She's probably your biggest fan..." Penelope replies to Daphne's question, pointing at Sophie who blushes and laughs.

"Look, you guys are really great, I can't help it. But, since we only have like fifteen minutes left with you guys, can we get some pictures and autographs?" Sophie asks, always confident, always bold. Something Penelope had deeply admired about her friend.

"Yes, of course!" Anthony jumps up and grabs a marker that's being handed to him by Francesca.

"What about you?" Colin finally manages to say to Penelope who finally looks at him again, and there's the feeling again, of feeling whole, of feeling complete. Fuck.

She smiles, her eyes smile too. He remembers sharing that same smile with her when she was in the crowd.

"What about me?" Penelope asks him, as Anthony starts to sign Sophie's shirt respectfully.

"You say she's our biggest fan, what does that make you...?" Colin asks, his heart doing something weird, skipping a beat, as she laughs, awkwardly.

"I guess I'm just the friend that tagged along tonight." Penelope shrugs and turns to watch as Benedict approaches Sophie with slight caution. Sophie being Sophie, points to her chest, to show Benedict he can sign there. Penelope can see her shoot him a cheeky smile which he returns ten fold. 

Anthony jostles over to Penelope, moving in front of Colin. 

"And for you..." Anthony says, signing a sweet little message for Penelope. 

"Col, instead of just standing there, sign something." Anthony orders, before moving back and eyeing out Benedict and Sophie's close proximity to one another. Sophie giggles at something Benedict is murmuring.

"Are you writing an essay?" Anthony questions him and Benedict rolls his eyes in response which makes Sophie chuckle again. 

"Is he always the bossy one?" Sophie whispers to Benedict who nods, a grin forming his face.

"Do you think Colin and I listen?" Benedict asks her cheekily, and Sophie narrows her eyes slightly, a playful smile showing, she shakes her head.

Sophie looks over at Colin who is leaning down into Penelope's space, signing on his picture's forehead.

"Hey Col, we've got your favourite Egg Fried Rice!" Francesca calls from the other side of the room as she's dishing out the take out boxes.

She looks up, "I'm so sorry, we didn't get you guys anything!" She tells Sophie and Penelope. 

"No worries, we had one of those potato twister things. Pen loves them." Sophie replies just as Benedict reluctantly pulls away from her. 

"Which flavour?" Colin asks, just he also finishes his little message to Pen, she doesn't read it just yet, but she's noticed his eyes flicker to her chest every so often, while he was writing. She keeps it to herself though, the fact that she's noticed, but she stammers at the question. 

"What? Oh... salt and vinegar, nothing else!" Penelope tells him and he laughs.

"Not even some cheese and chives sprinkled over the salt and vinegar?" Colin questions, his eyebrow raised.

Penelope meets his eyes again, "That's only on popcorn!" Penelope replies and Colin chuckles, Penelope realizes that he actually is a normal person, they all are. Seeing them up on the stage makes them look untouchable, makes them look like other worldly beings, but here, right now, Penelope can actually see they're just like her and Sophie. Normal.

"Hey Ben, wanna go get one of those twisters?" Colin asks his older brother. as he takes a step back from Penelope.

"Your sisters have literally just brought you Chinese, Colin!" Anthony berates him a little bit and Colin rolls his eyes at the oldest Bridgerton sibling.

"Like I'll ever let egg fried rice go to waste, Anthony!" Colin cries out, feigning hurt, and Anthony folds his arms across his chest.

"And we've told you before if you want something, rather ask security to get it for you guys."

"Where's the fun in that?" Benedict pouts, and he glances at Sophie again.

"Pictures! Before you guys go anywhere!" Sophie orders and Benedict shares a seductive - well what Penelope can only assume as seductive- look with Sophie.

"You girls could always come with us?" He asks and Sophie's eyes widen in surprise, then she looks over at Penelope for permission. 

Anthony scoffs.

"You know that'll just cause complications!" Anthony tells them but, Penelope can already see Benedict completely ignoring Anthony while he tries with his eyes to get Sophie to say yes.

"I said no, I know what you're doing, Benedict!" Anthony tries again and then Benedict sighs.

"Fine... pictures?" Benedict questions, a mischievous glint in his eye as he looks from Sophie to Penelope then to Colin. 

They take the pictures, one big group one, then Sophie takes individual pictures with the boys, then she insists on snapping Penelope and Colin together because of the outrageous shirt Sophie made Penelope wear.

Colin feels quite relaxed with Penelope tucked under his arm, her hand is on his stomach and her other arm is wrapped around his waist, a semi hug. He shoots a grin at Sophie's phone lens and she takes the picture.

"So cute." Sophie coos out loud, after approving the picture, she chuckles to herself when she realizes that it was said out loud instead of her head, she tries to dodge all the stares by changing the subject abruptly.

"Alright... so I'm guessing our twenty minutes is up?" Sophie asks, a little sadness in her voice, then she looks over at Penelope who is still tucked nicely under Colin's arm, even though the photo was already taken.

She sends Penelope an inquisitive stare and when Penelope realizes that she and Colin are still holding each other she clears her throat and removes her hands from his body, stepping away from him.

Colin clears his throat too.

"Sorry." She apologises quickly and he shakes his head, looking slightly embarrassed.

Benedict can't help but stare at his younger brother in amazement. He doesn't think he's ever witnessed an even slightly embarrassed Colin Bridgerton. He's usually always cool, calm and collected with his undisputed charm at the ready.

"Why don't we walk you two out?" Benedict suggests, his gaze on Sophie again, a plan forming in his brain, because he really doesn't want the twenty minutes to be up but, with Anthony lurking, and his sisters here, he doesn't see any other way to get some time alone with Sophie.

Sophie grins at him.

"Sure!" She replies, but before they all leave, she and Pen turn to Anthony and the two Bridgerton sisters.

"It was lovely meeting you all. Thank you!" Sophie says and they all agree and before they know it, the four of them are out in the corridor, Benedict closing the door behind them.

"So, where did you say those potato twisters were again?" Benedict asks, mischief back on his face, his sole concentration on Sophie.

"Are you serious?" Sophie asks, her eyes dancing playfully, her smile pushing Benedict over the edge.

"Come on, before they pack up." Benedict grabs Sophie's hand and they run off, disappearing around a corner.

"Sophie!" Penelope calls after her, then sighs, then she looks up at Colin.

"I think my brother is a little enamoured with your friend." Colin tells Penelope, a lopsided smirk on his face.

"Yeah? Well is he anything like his younger brother?" Penelope asks, as she starts to walk in the direction Sophie and Benedict ran off in.

"Meaning?" He asks, curious, a bit annoyed at the implication he feels she's coming too.

"I see you on the news... the girls, the parties, the drugs and alcohol." Penelope says cautiously.

"Don't tell me you read Whistledown?" Colin asks and Penelope's eyes shoot up to his, her footstep mid air. Surprised that he's even mentioning Whistledown.

"She's got some weird obsession with me lately I'll tell you that, but I should just say, don't believe everything you read..." Colin tries but his voice fades as Penelope starts walking again. They reach the door she and Sophie had come through earlier, Colin checks the surroundings, making sure the coast is clear before exiting. Penelope just walks, she seems to forget that Colin Bridgerton is this famous celebrity that's being watched constantly.

"So you and the twins was what? You being a gentleman and escorting them to their car?" She asks, a snort emitting from her, he notices the jokingly manner in which she asks.

"And you and the bar fight? You're lucky fans can't really see you so up close on stage and that cameras can blur the lines, because that bruise is really poking through that stage make up."

"That guy deserved it, he wouldn't take no for an answer and Eloise was persistent." Colin whispers and Penelope looks up at him again, his expression concentrating more on the tiles in front of them than anything else.

"Alright, look I know I don't have much of a leg to stand on because everything is exactly as it seems, written, but you shouldn't hold it against me..." Colin adds after a moment of silence.

They find Sophie and Benedict eventually, with not many people still milling about, the Bridgerton Brothers go unnoticed, except by the vendors serving them the twisters.

Sophie is giggling with Benedict as she pulls a chip off the stick and gives him one.

"Pen, we're going to walk to the car? Can I meet you there in a few minutes?" Sophie asks, her eyebrows doing a suggestive movement which Penelope rolls her own eyes at. Knowing perfectly well what it all meant.

Benedict and Sophie continue their walk, they look much like couple goals, living in the moment, giggling and talking, with Benedict trying to hold her hand but she trying to feed him chips.

"Mr Bridgerton!" One of the vendors says softly in greeting, aware of Colin's status, and their surroundings.

"Good Evening, do you want one?" He turns back to Penelope and asks her, she shakes her head.

"I had one earlier." She reminds him and Colin eyes her out before he goes back to the vendor and orders one with salt and vinegar and cheese and chives spice sprinkled all over it.

Penelope watches Colin handsomely tip the vendor before he takes the chip twister from him and they're walking off, slowly towards the parking lot, giving Sophie and Benedict as much alone time as they need.

She's then studying him while he pulls a curly chip from the stick and pops it into his mouth. Her mouth slightly agape as she watches him close his eyes and enjoy the snack with a lot of enthusiasm. 

"You gotta try it." He states, pulling one off and handing it to her, "Everyone in this goddamn building should try this." He continues and Penelope smiles and takes the chip from his fingers, the spark hitting her sharply when their fingers brush together. She acts like she didn't notice it, brushing it off as static electricity, which it probably was.

"That's fucking great." She breathes out and he grins at her.

"Better than your plain salt and vinegar?" He playfully prods her and she laughs.

"Whatever, salt and vinegar still wins." She sticks her tongue out at him and the awkwardness from the conversation before seizes to exist.

When they reach the car she can't seem to see Sophie or Benedict hovering around. She attempts to peek through the windows and frightfully jumps when a hand slaps the window in an awkward position.

"Oh god." Penelope's eyes adjust and she can see Benedict and Sophie frantically kissing one another, she can also see Benedict's hand disappearing under Sophie's dress. It's Sophie's hand that's pressed against the window. Needing something to hold onto in her pleasure filled state.

"She's not serious..." Penelope moans, then in her annoyed state, she bangs on the window while Colin laughs behind her. 

"Well that didn't take long." Colin comments through his laughter. Penelope glares at him.

"He's supposed to be the different one." Penelope points to the window and Colin can only smile at her and shrug his shoulders.

"What I said, don't believe everything you read. We could be photographed right now and Whistledown will say something like Colin and Benedict's wild ride." Penelope purses her lips at his statement and looks around quickly.

There's a big group of teenagers walking in their general direction. Fans leaving the show. 

They're even singing one the of Bridgerton Brothers songs Penelope vaguely recognises.

"You should probably leave now..." Penelope says to Colin who looks up at the big group coming towards them.

"Not without Benedict..." Colin responds, his fist hitting the window.

"Ben, we've got company!" Colin calls, and Sophie's pressing the button for the window to slide down and the two frown at Penelope and Colin.

"What?" Sophie asks, at least Benedict's had the decency to remove his hand from in between Sophie's legs.

"We gotta go... there's fans, a huge group..." 

"Oh my god, is that Colin Bridgerton?" It was too late, one of them had already spotted Colin and was yelling at the top of her lungs.

"No... it can't be." Another muses and Colin narrows his eyes onto Penelope who's eyes are blown wide. 

"Get in the car!" Benedict calls out to Colin and Penelope, Penelope seems to have frozen.

"Oh my god it is him!" Another yells, and the group is running towards the car, running towards Colin and Penelope and Colin's opening the passenger side door, quickly.

"Get in." He orders Penelope who looks at Colin, shocked.

"Get in now or that happens..." He points to the group who is gaining speed, some are snapping pictures.

"Oh god." Sophie cries out, moving to a seated position, noticing the on coming crowd.

"Colin!" A fan calls out and he's handing Penelope the potato twister he hasn't finished yet.

"Pen, get in the car please!" He adds hurriedly, she nods, and something flutters inside her at the affectionate nickname that only Sophie really uses.

She scrambles into the car as Sophie scrambles into the front seat, Colin gets into the seat behind Penelope and slams the door shut.

"What do I do?" Sophie yells, as the group of fans closes in on them.

"DRIVE!" Both brothers respond and Sophie's hitting the gas like their lives depend on it.

Chapter Text

"Sophie!" Benedict cries out from the backseat as she erratically swerves to avoid a collision with another car.

"Yeah, Sophie, I uh think it could be a bit detrimental to both of our livelihoods if we actually kill the Bridgerton Brothers!" Penelope agrees, at Sophie's wild driving.

"You wanted a getaway car, well you've got one!" Sophie replies coolly, checking her rear view mirror.

"Do you think they're still following us?" She adds, and Penelope can sense the nervousness in her voice, even though she's not showing it.

"Probably not, speed racer!" Colin replies, swivelling his entire body so he can get a good look through the back window.

"Do we even remember what car they were in? It feels like we've been driving for hours?" Benedict questions, looking at the time ticking away on the screen attached to Sophie's dashboard.

"It's only been about twenty minutes." Sophie tells him.

"Well where are you even going?" Benedict adds and Sophie moves her rear view mirror so it's on him. 

"Just following the GPS." Sophie shrugs.

"You're taking us back to Cambridge?" Penelope cries out and Sophie shrugs again, "I kind of thought they wouldn't be prepared for the long drive, maybe run out of petrol or something?" Sophie tells them.

"You guys are from Cambridge?" Benedict blows out a whistle.

"Anthony and Kate are not going to be happy, don't we have a press release in the morning?" Benedict adds in a question to Colin who shrugs.

"Didn't check that far in the calendar bud. God I just hope Fran remembers to take my fried rice and put it in the fridge." Colin says, slumping down into the seat.

Benedict's blown out eyes lock onto him.

"That's what you're thinking about?" He questions and Colin blows out a puff of air in response.

"We're literally in a car chase right now, perhaps being kidnapped by fans..." He quickly sends the girls in the front a cautious look before he turns back to Colin, "And you're thinking about fucking egg fried rice?" Benedict puts his head in his hands. 

"You really need to get your priority's straight, Colin." He adds, but immediately jumps when his phone in his back pocket starts vibrating.

"Kidnapped by fans?" Sophie cries, outraged.

"You were fingering me like 30 minutes ago!" Sophie breaks harshly and the car stops on the side of the road, they're about fifteen minutes away from their apartment. Colin, Benedict and Penelope lurch forward.

"Sophie, look I've got to think rationally right now, this could all be an elaborate scheme to kidnap us, that's what Anthony and Kate are going to think anyway and I was fingering you while you had a shirt with my fucking face on it!" Benedict responds, his voice near a panic.

"God, this is Anthony right now!" He holds his phone in Colin's face and Colin shrugs.

"We gotta deal with it."

"And I don't think this is an elaborate scheme by the way." Colin tells the girls, looking at Benedict with a roll of his eyes.

"And Sophie, as much as I like to hear about you and my brother fondling each other, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it that way. I can see he really likes you." Colin tells Sophie sarcastically in the beginning, but becoming more sentiment towards the end. Sophie's frown softens a little as Benedict rubs his temples and answers Anthony's call.

"Where the hell are you two?" Anthony's voice can be heard through the receiver it's so loud.

"We uh... we're with Sophie and Penelope." Benedict doesn't provide any evidence that they are no longer on stadium property, but he doesn't need to, because Anthony knows already.

"You were ambushed by fans, weren't you? Charles said there was a commotion in the parking lot but he didn't get there on time!" Anthony berates Benedict who sighs impatiently.

"Look, I know we fucked up, Sophie drove us from the stadium and she's been following her GPS back to um Cambridge." Benedict winces when he hears Anthony nearly growl on the other end.

"How far out are you?" Anthony asks, as he tries to calm himself down, it doesn't help his blood pressure at all to get angry at his brother's dim-witted activities. 

"How far are we?" Benedict whispers, holding the speaker of his cell phone to block Anthony from hearing.

"Fifteen minutes away." Sophie replies dully, Benedict knows he has to apologise to her for his little outburst, fuck, his heart is practically breaking for the fact that she's pissed at him.

"Fifteen minutes away!" Benedict tells Anthony who says some colourful things Benedict does not wish to repeat before he takes in a deep breath and responds.

"Well, you gotta stay the night there, somewhere the fans will never think you'll be alright. Just be lowkey, mellow..." Anthony orders and Benedict sighs.

"Sure, we'll get a cab back to the hotel in the morning." Benedict informs Anthony who nods on the other end.

Colin gestures for the phone and Benedict gives Colin a warning look before giving it to him.

"Hey Ant it's Colin, did Fran..." Before Colin can even finish his sentence Anthony is sighing so loudly and so impatiently that Colin thinks he's lost signal, sounds like static. He looks at the phone then puts it back to his ear.

"She put your goddamn Chinese in the fridge." Anthony replies before hanging up on Colin once and for all.

Benedict sighs exactly like Anthony did, but Colin can only really hear Penelope chuckle from the front. Learning from a young age to block out his brothers when it didn't suit him.

"That must be some really good Egg Fried Rice if you're willing to get murdered for it?" Penelope asks, her head turns to look at Colin.

"It is Pen, it is." Colin nods, dreamily, and Penelope smiles at him and he grins back.

Sophie eyes out Penelope and Colin quickly before sighing.

"So, we're dropping you off at a hotel then?" Sophie asks, still mad about Benedict's accusations.

"Wouldn't want Anthony to think we've kidnapped you!" She says, pettily, rolling her eyes.

"Sophie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, and look Anthony didn't think that at all... I was just panicking, I tend to dig holes for myself when I panic." Benedict tells her, honestly, putting his one hand on her shoulder.

Sophie glances out of the corner of her eye at Benedict's hand on her shoulder and starts the car again.

"Perhaps you two should have gotten to know one another first, before any sexual activities." Penelope pokes fun at the both of them and Sophie rolls her eyes playfully.

"Don't mind Penelope, she's just old fashioned!" Sophie jokes, with a little playful nudge.

"Anyway..." Penelope continues - as if Sophie hadn't said anything, as if a blush hadn't started rising in her cheeks - turning her head to the boys in the back.

"Do you guys wanna just stay at our flat? The fans won't think to look there, and we can sneak you in the back exit?" She suggests, and Colin and Benedict agree instantly. Hotels would cause too much of a stir.

Sophie starts driving again and before they know it they're outside the back of the building, parking the car and ushering Colin and Benedict inside, up the stairs, and into their two bedroom flat which is located on the second floor.

"Sleeping arrangements?" Colin asks, looking at his brother and the two girls who were removing various items of clothing right there in the living room. Penelope takes the shirt off first and Colin's eyes nearly bug out of his head. God, she really has got perfect tits, that god awful t-shirt was blocking this from him, all this time? He better burn that thing. The little black dress she's wearing underneath is hugging all of her delicious curves incredibly. His mouth waters a little.

She's then removing her thigh highs and Colin finds himself studying every inch of her legs. God, he better not be making it too obvious. He coughs and removes his eyes from her and rubs the back of his neck when he notices Sophie staring at him with narrow, judgemental, eyes.

"Perhaps Pen and I should share my room and you guys sleep in hers?" Sophie suggests and Penelope looks up, rather surprised at Sophie's suggestion. Colin opens his mouth to retort but Benedict beats him to it.

"I was hoping we could talk, so I can apologise properly." Benedict tells her, grabbing her hand affectionately.

Sophie seems torn by Penelope's bare legs and Colin's raking eyes, and Benedict's puppy dog ones.

"I can sleep on the couch!" Colin tells her, he doesn't know why he says it, but he senses Sophie doesn't seem to trust him alone with Penelope. Perhaps Sophie's old fashioned statement means something more?

"Nonsense, you can share my bed, that couch is not comfortable!" Penelope responds, Sophie's wondering when Penelope started becoming so oblivious to men's intentions, but the fact that Colin's suggested he'll sleep on the couch provides some sort of comfort to her, maybe he won't try anything. She doesn't want Penelope getting hurt.

"Come through." Penelope beckons and she pads off down the hallway and shows Colin her room. 

"Sophie and I share a bathroom which is over there." She points and Colin nods.

"Make yourself at home, I just need to..." Penelope starts, she's then grabbing pyjama's out of a cupboard before joining him back out in the hallway, and pointing towards the bathroom, and Colin nods and heads into the bedroom.

He sits on the bed and looks around, she's got a desk in there with a laptop on it, she's got a small TV mounted to the wall, she's got a double bed shoved into the corner.

She comes back and he's got his sweatpants on still, which he changed into after the show but he's shirtless.

Penelope pauses in the doorway and stares at him. God he's beautiful. They sure don't make men like him for just regular people.

He looks up, from a magazine he had been studying, Danbury lifestyle.

"Sorry, I'm not sure which side you sleep..." Colin sits up further, attempting to get off the bed. Penelope shakes her head.

"I usually starfish in the middle." She chuckles and so does he.

She's in a matching green shorts and tank top set and Colin can slightly see her perky nipples poking through the fabric. He breathes in deeply, controlling himself, before placing the magazine on the side table.

"See anything you like in there?" She asks, a smile forming on her face.

"I intern at that magazine..." She adds quickly when he looks a bit confused.

"Working with the devil, I see." Colin chuckles and Penelope's eyebrow rises, she being the confused one now, as she climbs into the bed.

"Lady Whistledown, she has the online gossip blog? The one we were speaking about earlier." Colin reminds her and Penelope tries to swallow, but the lump is stuck there.

"Oh yeah..." Penelope plays cool, she's done it for sometime now.

Penelope doesn't push the conversation further.

Silence ensues until they both hear Sophie's headboard start banging on her wall adjacent to Pen's room.

"Is that..." Colin starts, his eyes on the wall then they're searching Penelope's face.

Penelope chuckles.

"Yeah, uh, the walls are pretty thin." She tells him.

"Earplugs?" She asks, and Colin starts laughing more in disbelief that this is how the evening had turned out, but she joins in, thinking the exact same thing! 

Chapter Text

When Penelope wakes the next morning she nearly forgets that she's actually sharing a bed with someone. 

Turns out, Colin Bridgerton starfishes too, they're in a tangle of limbs with his heavy arm draped around her waist as if they always sleep like this.

She tries to carefully lift his arm off of her, but it only makes him stir, and he turns onto his side, from being on his stomach, and pulls her into him. Wrapping his arm around her body tighter, his palm spread wide on her belly.

She squeaks quietly, and then giggles softly.

"Colin..." She whispers, prodding him on the arm lightly. She really needs to pee.

He must think she's someone else. He'd not once tried to make a move on her last night, but this? A full on cuddle where she can... oh good lord.

"Colin..." She pokes him again, this time her voice is louder.

She can hear him hum a response, wiggling closer to her. His hard on pressing into the small of her back. 

Oh...

He feels...

Big. 

Bigger than what she's experienced before at least. Yes, Ignore Sophie's comment from the previous evening regarding her being old fashioned. She's not old fashioned, she just won't sleep around. Her number one rule is she must at least get to the know the guy first before jumping his bones. Oh yes, and always use protection. Always!

It doesn't matter that Colin Bridgerton is some super famous singer. In her bed... Shirtless... Gorgeous...

She tries to pull away again before her thoughts turn dirtier. But, he just pulls her back, his hand right under her breasts. He's practically cupping her under boob.

It's riveting what this is doing to her body. Goosebumps.

His hand ghosting the underside of her boob, as if he wants to cup it, squeeze it, tweak a perky nipple.

Fuck she wants him to tweak a nipple... Maybe suck it, lick it, trail his tongue further, lower, lower until...

"Colin." She calls to him, shaking her head of the thoughts.

"Penelope..." He murmurs back. Well at least he knows it's her and actually remembers her name.

"You're ruining perfectly good cuddle time..." He continues in a sleepy mumble.

"Well, I need the loo..." Penelope whispers and he groans. 

"But the minute you get up it won't be the same..." He whisper moans and Penelope smiles to herself.

He seems very different in the current moment. He seems relaxed, vulnerable unlike his superstar presence on stage the previous night.

"Give me five minutes." Penelope tries and Colin chuckles softly. Then his stomach rumbles.

"I'll make breakfast..." She adds and he seems to perk up at that. Seems to decide to let Penelope go so she pads off to the bathroom only to bump into Sophie coming out of it.

"Oh my god!" Sophie cries out in a whisper, when she sees Penelope.

"So you had a good time then?" Penelope questions, speaking in a low tone.

"Best sex of my life." Sophie swears with a nod and Penelope chuckles.

"Yeah, we heard." Penelope deadpans and Sophie snorts loudly.

"Oh shit, I forgot about the walls!" Sophie giggles into her hand and throws an apologetic look at Penelope.

"Did anything happen with you two?" Sophie questions and Penelope shakes her head.

"You're kidding? He didn't even try feel you up? I could see the way he was staring at you last night Pen, like a kid in a candy store." Sophie tells her and Penelope rolls her eyes.

"You're delusional. He was a complete gentleman, well until..." Sophie's eyes widen.

"Until what?" She asks.

Until his huge penis was digging into my back.

"Until he held me hostage in morning cuddles..." Penelope jokes and Sophie's widened eyes narrow.

"He only cuddled, that doesn't sound right... not the way his eyes were roaming up and down your body." Sophie informs her and Penelope rolls her eyes again.

"He's not interested in me like that..." 

"Penelope Anne Featherington I swear you're completely blind sometimes." Sophie states, her voice louder than needed.

"Blind and old fashioned... apparently." Penelope replies, going to open the bathroom door.

"Pen, I didn't mean it like that!" Sophie says quickly, "I just feel like he's the type of guy who'd hurt you..." Sophie adds and Penelope sighs.

"It's fine Sophie, nothing happened. You know I wouldn't have let anything happen anyway." Penelope tells her and Sophie nods, understandingly.

"Can I use the loo now?" Penelope asks, her bladder's about to burst and Sophie nods just as her bedroom door opens and Benedict sticks his head out.

"Sorry... did we wake you?" Sophie asks and Benedict shakes his head. 

"Is Col up?" He asks Penelope who shakes her head, before disappearing behind the door.

"Ant called, we have an interview this afternoon." Benedict sighs, pulling Sophie towards him and giving her a quick kiss.

"It'll take about an hour to get back to London." Sophie tells him and he nods.

"We could drive you guys back?" Sophie adds and Benedict grins at her.

"Anthony says he's sending a car, with security." Benedict tells her and he kisses her lazily again.

Penelope's done using the bathroom and comes out to Sophie and Benedict kissing in the hallway.

"I'll make breakfast." Penelope tells them, and Sophie pulls away and smiles just as Colin pokes his head out of Penelope's bedroom door.

"Breakfast? Does that include Hash Browns?" Colin asks, an eager grin spreading on his face.

"Does that mean you're helping?" Penelope asks him, a smile on her face.

Sophie watches the interaction closely.

"Sure..." Colin replies, throwing his shirt on and moving to the kitchen.

***

The smell of bacon lingers in the air as the four tuck into the breakfast Colin and Penelope made.

"So you two had a rather loud night." Colin deadpans, popping the last of a hash brown into his mouth.

Benedict chokes on his coffee. Sophie chuckles.

"Thin walls." Sophie tells him and Benedict barks out a laugh. He can't say anything more because his phone is ringing again.

"Ant?" Benedict answers and Anthony grumbles something on the other line.

"Alright, we'll be ready in twenty minutes." Benedict replies before hanging up the phone with a curt bye.

"Does he seem pissed?" Colin asks and Benedict shrugs, "He seems annoyed, not pissed." 

"Shower?" Sophie asks Benedict, a sparkle in her eye that Penelope catches.

Benedict nods and the two disappear down the hallway.

"Don't use all the hot water!" Penelope yells, before she hears the door slam.

"I've never seen him so smitten before..." Colin tells Penelope as he clears the plates up from the table.

"Do you think it'll turn into something more?" Penelope asks him and Colin ponders that question for a moment.

"Possibly. He seems completely whipped already." Colin says and Penelope nods in understanding.

"What about you?" Colin asks and Penelope knits her brows together, confused.

"What about me?" 

"Think you'll slide into my DM'S one of these days?" Colin jokes and Penelope laughs.

"If you want an extra follower you should slide into mine." Penelope winks and he feigns hurt, hand on his heart.

"You don't even follow me?" Colin asks.

Penelope opens her mouth to respond but closes it again, doesn't know what to say.

So, she opens up her Instagram and types in Colin Bridgerton and he pops up, blue tick and all.

She clicks on the follow tab and shows it to him.

"Are you happy? You probably don't even control your own account, Colin." She deadpans and Colin chuckles.

"Actually, my sister, Hyacinth, she does the socials." Colin tells her and Penelope nods.

"See, so you're basically saying you would never have known if I did follow you or not." Penelope replies and he sits down on a stool right in front of her and grins.

"But you didn't and now you do, so feel free to slide into my DM's any day Pen..." He winks at her cheekily and Penelope chuckles.

"So your sister Hyacinth can send a generic reply to me?" Now it's her turn to feign hurt, enjoying their banter.

"She's usually very creative, you would generally think it was me replying." He tells her, with a wink.

"I'm sure she is..."

Penelope's phone rings at that moment and when she sees who's calling she sighs.

Agatha Danbury.

"I have to take this, it's my boss." Penelope says and Colin nods and Pen answers, moving into the lounge area.

"Mrs Danbury!" She cries and Agatha clears her throat.

"Ms. Featherington! I do believe your next Whistledown article is due! I hear big talk about something that happened at The Bridgerton Brother's concert, something about the two bothers and two fans, I suggest you read up on it, get some more enticing information and I better have the article in my inbox by tomorrow.

"Of course..." Of course Penelope didn't want to spend her Saturday writing an article about Colin and Benedict and possibly Sophie and herself, two people who in the past twelve hours, she's gotten to know more about personally, but it was part of her job, no matter how much she wanted to make an excuse as to why she should give the article to Honoria and not her.

"Why do you sound hesitant Ms. Featherington?" Danbury asks, and Penelope looks up from her seated position on the couch to Colin, in her kitchen, washing their breakfast dishes.

"If you have plans, change them, this column is good for business!" And with that, Danbury hangs up the phone, and Penelope stares at it for a few seconds.

"Everything good?" Colin asks and Penelope sighs, but before she can reply, Benedict and Sophie dash into the room.

"Colin, the car's here. And for you my dear..." He kisses Sophie goodbye and Colin pulls Penelope into a hug.

"I'll see you in my DM's then?" He jokes softly and Penelope chuckles, nudges him playfully, but Colin sees some sort of worry behind the happiness shining through her eyes.

"Thanks for the adventure, ladies!" Colin salutes playfully, giving Sophie a quick hug before Benedict says goodbye to Pen. 

"Sophie, I'll call you!" Benedict tells her and Sophie smiles, bashfully, as the two make for a quick exit.

Penelope watches Sophie for a moment, she's currently in some sort of dream land.

"Colin says Benedict is smitten with you." Penelope tells her and Sophie beams.

"He told me the same, he says he hasn't felt this pull to someone before..." Sophie squeals and Penelope smiles.

"Well I hope it works out for you guys." Penelope nods and Sophie squeezes her.

"What are you plans for the rest of the day?" Sophie asks, and Penelope groans.

"Whistledown..." Penelope groans and Sophie's eyebrow rises.

"What's caught Danbury's eye?" Sophie asks and Penelope sighs.

"Colin and Benedict... and us." Penelope tells her and Sophie's eyes widen.

"How's that going to work? Surely you're not going to write about them anymore Pen?"

"I have to, what Agatha Danbury wants she gets." Penelope cries out and Sophie bites her lip.

"You can be pretty ruthless..." Sophie tells her and Penelope sighs again but says nothing more. She's tired of having to defend herself, and her job.

"The best I can do is try leave us out of it..." Penelope shrugs and Sophie frowns, but decides to keep her mouth shut.

The next morning after Penelope has sent Danbury the article she buries her head in her hands, in self pity. Then she opens up her Instagram account for distraction, and notices the little icon in the corner. A direct message.

It's a wink following a 'this isn't Hyacinth' from Colin Bridgerton, he's followed her too, and liked Sophie's picture which she posted. Fuck!!

***

When Agatha Danbury opens her email she sees Lady Whistledown's newest article.

The headline reads.

Bridgerton's Gone Wild

She frowns at the headline. It's definitely missing something. Something which she specifically told Penelope to use more of since the public find it amusing.

So she edits it herself. She is the boss after all.

Once it's posted it reads

Boozy Bridgerton's Gone Wild

Danbury smiles to herself.

Chapter Text

When Penelope arrives to work on the Monday she sits down in front of Honoria who is already there, already peering at Penelope over the top of her laptop, already scrutinizing Penelope's every movement.

Penelope shifts in her seat and their eyes meet.

"I know it was you two." Honoria tells her cryptically and Penelope's eyes shoot to Danbury's office door which is thankfully closed.

"You didn't tell Danbury you were going to the concert did you?" Honoria asks her and Penelope sighs. Shit, she'd forgotten she told Honoria about Sophie winning the tickets. So much has happened since. Except one thing: replying to Colin's direct message on Instagram.

"You know she'd have an absolute field day with this information." Honoria adds, beckoning her over to her side of the table.

Penelope walks over, her eyes widen in surprise at the picture of she and Colin standing next to Sophie's car.

"I'm surprised Danbury hasn't come across it already. What the hell happened?" Honoria questions, her eyes searching Penelope's face for any sort of information that she'd seemingly forgotten to write about in her article. Since the article itself was pretty bland.

"Can you delete it?" Penelope asks Honoria, meaning the picture she was currently staring at, of she and Colin staring directly at the camera lens of one of the fans who had ambushed them. You can see Sophie slightly, her dishevelled head of hair poking out of the window.

"Penelope, what exactly happened?" Honoria asks again. She can see Penelope is anxious.

"Nothing." She snaps, "I just didn't feel right about putting Sophie and I in the column so I decided to lie rather than belittle my best friend." She adds in the same breath.

"So, can you delete it, please?" Penelope asks her colleague who sighs and hovers over the trash bin icon and clicks it.

"If any others come in, please do the same, if Danbury gets hold of this it's going to ruin my life." Penelope begs and Honoria nods in agreement.

"God, I can't believe I ever agreed to do this stupid column in the first place!" Penelope sighs, as she sits back at her own desk, her head in her hands.

"You never knew you'd meet your target of the month... is he nice?" Honoria asks, feeling slight sorry for Penelope and Penelope sighs again. Defeated

"He's astonishing." Penelope tells her honestly and Honoria smiles.

"Did something more happen between you too? Something more than you're letting on?" Honoria asks, "Because that's one hell of a way of describing someone?" Honoria adds, an eyebrow raised.

Penelope shakes her head quickly which only earns Honoria to raise her eyebrow even more.

"Nothing happened, he's just really nice, and I feel like a complete bitch for ever assuming other wise." Penelope tells her colleague, adding a in a shrug towards the end.

"The media can do that to you..." Honoria says to her and Penelope shakes her head, "Danbury and Lady Whistledown can do that to you!" She adjusts and Honoria sighs.

"Do you have a little crush on the third Bridgerton, Pen? A crush you're willing to basically ruin your career over?" Honoria asks hesitantly and Penelope's eyes narrow in contemplation.

"He's already famous, people already love him. I'm pretty sure your one column won't destroy his career, but this crush? This crush could destroy yours!" Honoria adds, determined to get through to Penelope.&

"I don't have a crush on him!" Penelope snaps back, and Honoria rolls her eyes.

"Super quick defence for someone without a crush..." Honoria presses and Penelope groans, and puts her head in her hands.

"Whatever! I have no chance with him anyway, you saw those twins... that's his type!" Penelope finishes and Honoria studies Penelope for a moment then her lips turn up into a smile.

"So you do like him then?" Honoria continues and Penelope laughs uncharacteristically and stares Honoria dead on.

"He is incredibly charming. I think anyone would fall for him if they could have a conversation with him." Penelope replies, then ends the conversation abruptly by putting in her earphones and blocking Honoria out.

***

In London, Colin is lounging on his sofa scrolling through Penelope's Instagram as if he hasn't already done it three times already.

She doesn't post much. Mainly of her and Sophie. Or of some aesthetic pieces. Nothing too fancy. She has a few followers, seemed to have moved up once he started following her, which is  what happens, normally.

But she still hasn't responded to his DM. And it's driving him fucking crazy. He even had to bribe Hyacinth into giving him his account back.

Girls generally threw themselves at him, mainly wanting either a quick fuck or a quick rise to fame, but something about Penelope proved otherwise. She seemed to genuinely listen to him when he talked, even though majority of the time he was trying to flirt with her, his main goal: to see if she would be one of those girls. But, it seemed that he may have found a friend in an unlikely place.

Yet, now that she was practically ghosting him he felt that it riled him up the wrong way.

***

"Colin!" Benedict's voice booms into the room and he looks up at his older brother who is standing in the doorway.

"Sophie has agreed to go for drinks tonight and I was wondering if you would be willing to come and keep Penelope company? Sophie insists that she needs to come too. That Penelope works too hard and needs to get out and have some fun."

Colin perks up at the last part. Perhaps that's why she's been ignoring him? Maybe she's just really busy?

He nods. "I'll go, as long as we get a Kebab after, I'm dying for one of those greasy things." Colin adds and Benedict rolls his eyes playfully at his brother.

***

"Pen?" Sophie calls as Penelope enters their flat after the long day that Monday was.

She sighs.

"Yeah?" Pen calls back, and Sophie hurries into the room looking like she's heading for a night out on the town.

"You need to get dressed!" Sophie orders and practically throws garments in Penelope's direction.

"I've picked it out for you! Freshen up, put it on and meet me back here in fifteen minutes!" Sophie rushes back into her room.

"Mind explaining what's happening here?" Penelope calls and Sophie sticks her head out of her room, a powder brush in hand, blotching out any shiny marks on her face.

"We're going for drinks with Benedict and Colin!" Sophie cries out excitedly and Penelope's stomach does some weird bouncy thing that she can't decide if it feels like butterflies or if she wants to vomit.

"We're going all the way to London for drinks?" Penelope questions and Sophie nods.

"Yes we are, and I know you only start work later tomorrow morning so don't start with your excuses!" Sophie adds.

"Oh by the way, thanks for keeping me out of your article!" Sophie adds, a beaming smile on her face.

"And how exactly are we going to keep ourselves out of the news again if we're meeting them?" Penelope asks while pulling the skirt Sophie had chosen over her curvy hips.

"Benedict assured me that the place we're going to is super VIP." Sophie reassures Penelope.

"Uh, he also said he'll send us security... whatever that means?" Sophie shrugs and just as Penelope is pulling her heels on Sophie's phone starts ringing.

"Hey babe, so security and the car should be there by now..." Benedict says and Sophie's grins.

"You got us a car too, you shouldn't have! I mean really, you shouldn't have, I don't mind driving!" Sophie tells him and Penelope watches how she interacts with him.

"It's added safety protocols created by Anthony and Kate since our little adventure." Sophie can practically hear the eye roll in his voice, but she continues to grin. A finger twirling in her brown hair, newly dyed from being blonde most of her life.

"Well, they're not here..." Sophie's voice trails off when they both hear a knock on the door. Penelope and Sophie look at each other and then at the door.

"Who is it?" Sophie calls, a little bit nervous.

"Uh, Bridgerton security." A man's voice replies and Sophie's eyes widen towards Penelope who shrugs.

"Now this won't cause for speculation at all!" Penelope says sarcastically, walking over to the front door and opening it up, standing face to face with a man dressed in a dark suit and sunglasses.

"Miss Featherington?" He asks and Penelope nods before looking over her shoulder at Sophie, an I can't believe it kind of look and Sophie chuckles.

"An immaculate suit with sunglasses?" Sophie answers Benedict's obvious question. Penelope can hear Benedict chortle over the phone.

"It's Theo, he's one of our newest recruits but he's good at the job. He should have you with us shortly." Benedict tells Sophie who nods curtly before saying goodbye sweetly and hanging up the phone.

"Ms Featherington and Ms Beckett this way please!" Theo orders and the two grab their jackets and head out the door, following Theo closely.

"Well this is strange..." Penelope whispers to Sophie and she shrugs.

"I think it's quite cool actually, I feel like I'm going on some sort of secret mission!" Sophie chuckles and Penelope snorts, "A sexssion!"

Sophie elbows Penelope in the side, playfully and the two giggle.

"Alright, in you go!" Theo directs and opens the door of the range rover and the two get in.

The drive is uneventful and eventually the girls and Theo reach the bar called Will's Pub. It doesn't seem anything special from the outside but when Theo leads the girls up a few flights of stairs they reach a landing with a red velvet rope stretching across the doorway. He stops by the counter, speaking to the hostess.

"Bridgerton." He says and the lady looks up at Pen and Sophie standing awkwardly next to each other, unsure of what to do.

"Ah yes, Mr. Bridgerton described her perfectly. You may go in they're waiting for you." She gestures her arm widely and Theo nods in encouragement.

"Why do I feel like I'm being led into some sort of sex dungeon, Sophie?" Penelope hisses, slightly worried, slightly intrigued. Sophie looks over her shoulder at Penelope, a serious look on her face.

"Pen, you're being ridiculous, we're on like the fourth floor, it's going to be fine!" 

Chapter Text

Behind the velvet rope was anything but a sex dungeon and when Benedict bounds over to them, picking Sophie up in a hug and planting a huge kiss on her and twirling her around to make it even more magical, Penelope's eyes begin to wander around and they immediately find Colin who is speaking to a female rather animatedly.

She recognises the female from the concert, from backstage.

Eloise was it? His sister.

"Pen!" Benedict cries out and hugs her too after eventually letting Sophie go. He really does seem into Sophie and Sophie seems to be on cloud nine herself, practically floating over to Colin to greet him.

"I know this all seems a bit extreme, what with the security and exclusivity, but it's Kate's call and Anthony agreed so here we are. Welcome to Will's!" Benedict beams at Penelope and she smiles back.

"Is Anthony here? I would like to apologise for the other night..." Pen starts as Benedict leads her over to the bar. He shakes his head.

"Ant and Kate tend to stay in a lot, considering paparazzi follow us constantly and with their new baby they don't feel it's safe to venture out just yet." Benedict tells her.

"Penelope, you remember Colin and this is one of my many sisters, Eloise." Eloise smiles at Penelope and nods.

"I remember you two from the concert. Who knew these two would end up being all loved up by the end of it, right?" She motions her head over to Benedict and Sophie who are giggling with one another.

"And by the way Benedict, I think you mean favourite sister, not one of your many..." Eloise rolls her eyes in her brothers direction and he just grins widely before turning back to Sophie.

Penelope chuckles at Eloise's brashness.

"Pen." Colin greets her casually, with a nod.

"So what is your poison?" Eloise asks, gesturing her arm in slow motion to the bar, before Colin can even get a word in.

"Uh, usually Rum and Coke but I think tonight I'm thinking champagne?" She shrugs and sends Colin a smile before she turns back to Eloise.

Eloise nods, "Good call."

Eloise shows Penelope her champagne flute and the two have a weird bonding moment with one another. Well, that's what Colin can see anyway.

"So what turned you into a raging fan of the Bridgerton Brothers?" Eloise asks curiously, just as Colin tries to open his mouth to ask Penelope how she's been to see if she has in fact been too busy to respond to him his DM. Fuck, he never DM's people and here he is internally killing himself because she hasn't responded to his message. 

Penelope eyes Colin out cautiously as she thinks of what to say, not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings when she tells them she's not really the fan, it's more Sophie. That their music is fine, but she's just not that into it the way Sophie is.

"Uh..." Penelope stammers, her eyes dart to Colin who is watching her carefully, a hint of amusement on his face at her floundering. He remembers quite clearly that she said that Sophie was more the fan, not her. He remembers quite clearly because that's when he realized he quite liked her brazen attitude. 

"I seem to remember you saying Sophie was the fan, and you were just dragged along kicking and screaming." Colin's head tilts to the side as he studies Penelope.

"I thought I'd be able to redeem myself from saying that, except I know you added in that last part to make it look worse than it is." She says playfully, pointing a stern finger at him and he laughs.

"Just teasing, just so you know we won't kick you out of here just because you don't like our music but, I do think you may be stuck with us for a while..." Colin's eyes flick over her head and she turns to see Benedict and Sophie making their way over to a secluded booth area.

"Ah, let them have their fun, brother." Eloise grins at the two of them, "But, what shall we do?" Eloise adds, a look of mischief in her eyes.

"Shots?" Penelope suggests. Eloise nods her head, "But also, how about a game of True Britain?" Eloise asks, her eyes glimmering with excitement and Colin barks out a laugh.

"You nearly killed Francesca the last time we played that." Colin reminds Eloise, a serious tone in his voice.

"Well, it's a good thing she is not here then, isn't it?" Eloise tells him, and Colin rolls his eyes.

"One thing you should know about the Bridgerton's is that we're all highly competitive, but this Miss Eloise, right here, is the most competitive out of us all!" Colin whispers to Penelope while Eloise is busy organizing the drinks for the game. Colin hands Penelope her champagne.

"Well, how does this game work?" Penelope asks him, and as he starts to explain, something about the floor is lava, and you shout out dates and names from the aristocrat times, and as he went on Penelope kind of lost track after that.

 "Benedict, True Britain?" Eloise yells over the bar and Benedict pokes his head up from the side of a booth.

And that is how Penelope finds herself balancing on a barstool, holding onto Colin Bridgerton for dear life. 

"LORD LUMLEY, 1814!" Eloise yells from somewhere on the other side of the bar. The amount of chaos they were causing and no phone in sight really impressed Penelope. Also, the fact that Colin was excruciatingly close to her again, she didn't actually mind this game. Sure she hardly knew what was going on, and she's about three Prosecco's in, and Benedict keeps passing around a bottle of tequila, it's no wonder she's holding on to Colin so tightly. He doesn't seem to mind though, which is nice.

"LORD MACCLESFIELD, 1815!" Sophie calls and Benedict cheers her on.

"Nice!"

"So, how have you been?" Colin asks Pen casually, as if they weren't both balancing on a high bar stool, one falls and they crack their necks, and Colin wants to know how she's been.

"LADY NEALY, 1816!" Benedict yells, jumping onto a stool closer to Penelope and Colin.

"God, Penelope you better get one right, all three of us aren't going to fit on that stool." Benedict calls to them.

Penelope can hear Colin groan slightly, he looks a bit annoyed.

"Uh, Lord Sheffield?" She suggests and Colin laughs, and the three others groan.

"Penelope, the floor is lava! If Benedict doesn't make it onto your stool and falls to the ground he will die!" Sophie cries out dramatically, taking a sip of beer for her social support.

"LORD ORWICH, 1817!" Colin calls out.

"We jump together?" Colin tells her and Penelope looks up at him questioningly.

"What?" 

"Unless you want to die?" Colin asks in the same dramatic tone as Sophie and Penelope laugh.

"We're jumping on the bar." Colin tells them, and he goes first and pulls Penelope with him.

"That's cheating!" Eloise yells out and Colin waves his arms about, frustrated.

"She doesn't understand the game! I'm just helping her out!" Colin calls to her and Eloise rolls her eyes.

Benedict jumps onto the stool and passes the bottle of tequila over to Colin. He stretches his arm out, takes the bottle and hands it to Penelope.

Penelope takes an unnecessarily large gulp of tequila and hands the bottle back to Colin.

"Maybe I should just cut out? I mean, I'm ruining the game for you..." Penelope looks around as Sophie shouts some other name of a lord or lady. 

" Or we could both cut out?" Colin suggests, and Penelope looks at him, stunned.

"But you seem to be enjoying it?" She adds and Colin genuinely smiles at her.

"In all honesty, I'd much rather binge drink normally... So you ready to die?" Colin questions, a cheeky smirk on his face, and Penelope chuckles. God why is he so nice?

"Colin your turn!" Eloise shouts at him, annoyed that he's taking so long.

"Uh right..." Colin thinks for a moment, says a name and a year and pulls Penelope with him to jump but he purposefully pushes the stool over and he and Penelope are tumbling to the ground. At least it's not a hard fall, for Penelope, considering she landed directly onto Colin's chest.

"Oh no..." Colin says, rather sarcastically might Penelope add, and he winks at her. She grins at him, her heart flutters a little.

"Are you alright?" Sophie gasps, trying to get down from her perch to see if Penelope is okay.

"Sophie, the floor is lava! Penelope and Colin are dead, they're out! If you step down, you're out too..." Eloise reminds Sophie sternly, a pointed finger in her direction.

"I'm fine!" Penelope calls to Sophie.

"Don't get down!"  Penelope adds, quickly shaking her head, while she presses a flat palm onto Colin's chest to push herself up. Once she's up she helps Colin up with a tug of his hand, he doesn't let go of her hand though while she tells Sophie they're going to drink in the booth.

Colin grabs the tequila bottle, eventually letting go of Penelope's hand. 

"Hey!" Benedict cries out, pointing to the tequila bottle.

"You're dead, you don't get tequila." Benedict adds and Colin rolls his eyes.

"I'm bruised. I think I need tequila." Colin tells him, making a groaning sound while feeling his back.

"You are, are you okay? Shit!" Penelope fusses around him and he tries to catch her eye when he does the lopsided grin only tells Penelope that he's lying, to try and get Benedict to give them the bottle.

"Benedict, leave them, they were only slowing us down!" Eloise calls, and Colin rolls his eyes. He doesn't say anything more because he knows how Eloise gets with this game. 

"Come with me." Colin says, taking Pen's hand in his and leading her towards the other quieter side of the pub, ignoring Benedict's protests about the tequila.

Colin sits next to Penelope which she finds strange, but she realizes it's probably because he wants to watch how the game ends.

"So, True Britain?" Penelope asks as Colin pours tequila into two tumbler glasses that he had asked the bartender for on their way to the booth.

He chuckles, hands her the glass and takes a gingerly sip of his tequila, wincing a little as it burned his throat.

"Eloise and my other sister Francesca made it up one Summer when they were sixteen, and here I am now, twenty-four years old and still don't know all the rules. Might I add that Eloise and Francesca continuously add new rules in their favour... it's a very biased game." Colin laughs, it reaches his eyes and Penelope can't seem to look away, they're so green, and glistening. 

"So, my turn..." Colin turns to her as she takes a sip of the golden brown liquid swishing away in her glass, she raises an eyebrow.

"Question for question?"

"Oh right, go ahead..." She waves a hand suggestively and he places his left arm casually on the edge of the seat, he leans in closer to her, his entire body angled towards her. She can smell his cologne, it's definitely something expensive yet subtle, and it's definitely delicious. God, how she didn't smell him earlier is beyond her.

"Pen?" He questions, an eyebrow quirked.

She opens her eyes, and they widen when she sees the quizzical look on his face. Almost amusement.

"Sorry..." God, that was weird. She slides back slightly and considers him with a tilt of her head.

"Are you going to answer the question or actually break my heart and ghost me in real life?" He asks her, a devilish half grin on his face, one that definitely makes her squeeze her legs together.

Fuck Penelope pull yourself together. This is just how he is, charming, abso-fucking-lutley charming. It's his quirk, his thing, his trademark...

She gulps. She hasn't heard a goddamn word he's said. Too busy smelling him like a lunatic. She isn't really a lunatic? Is she? 

"Have you checked your DM's recently?" He's so casually cool while asking the question. Even going so far as to pick at an imaginary piece of fluff off of Penelope's sheer blouse.

Fuck, she never responded to his DM!!! She was too busy worried about concealing her and Sophie's identities for the Lady Whistledown column!

She shakes her head. "I've been really busy with work, why did something change in the app?" She asks, opening her phone, pretending that this was her first time actually seeing his message.

"Oh..." She looks up at him and smiles. He seems to have a relieved look on his face which quickly changes once he realizes she's looking at him.

"Had to bribe my sister, Hyacinth, to get it back..." He says, slightly ashamed. "She's crafty, that one." He adds.

"All that just to send me a DM? What about a text message?" She asks and he laughs, almost as if he's embarrassed.

"Thought it could be poetic..." Colin shrugs and sends a grin her way, "I'm all about the poetry, you know." He adds, with a wink and Penelope laughs. 

CHARMING! DO NOT FALL FOR IT!

God, he's closer than before. Isn't he? He seems it. His cologne is definitely going to linger in her nostrils for longer now. 

And what is that look? Why the fuck is he licking his lips like that? 

Penelope bites the corner of her bottom lip as he leans in. 

Fuck!

Is he going to kiss her? Colin fucking Bridgerton from The Bridgerton Brothers is going to fucking kiss her?  Her?  Penelope Featherington? 

Her eyes flick to his lips and then back up to his eyes. He moves in closer, blocking her between the wall and his body.

"Is this okay?" He whispers. She didn't realize he'd be the considerate, caring type. Fuck his smell...

"COLIN!" He pulls away, a groan escaping his lips as Penelope puffs out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in.

"What now?" Did someone die?" He asks, his tone annoyed, from being interrupted.

"Well yeah, Sophie won the game, and Eloise is not happy, but we have bigger problems..." Benedict shows his phone to Colin.

"Whistledown..." Colin murmurs under his breath aggressively, and Penelope looks up at that.

"Excuse me?" She questions and Colin sighs.

"You may not want to look..." He warns her, but she grabs the phone anyway and her eyes widen at the article headline.

BOOZY BRIDGERTON BROTHER'S BROTHEL

Underneath is a picture of her and Sophie from the concert. You can see Sophie clear as day, looking completely dishevelled with Benedict poking his head out of the window beside her. There's another photo where you can slightly see Penelope's butt, which is no longer concealed by her dress, as she climbs into the car with a wild-looking Sophie next to her and Benedict and Colin poking their heads in the middle of the seat ordering them to drive.

She closes her eyes, inhales, exhales, and hands Benedict his phone back.

"Excuse me..." She says, gesturing her hand for Colin to get out of the booth.

"Penelope, Kate's already on damage control..." Benedict advises her and she gestures her hands again.

"I need to get out." She states again, more harshly this time and Colin nods and pushes himself up and out of the booth, looking at her worriedly.

"Excuse me!" She says again before marching off, her phone already out, already dialling Honoria's number.

Because, seriously? 

What the actual...

FUCK!

Chapter Text

Penelope double checks her surroundings before continuing. 

"Honoria!" Penelope hisses into her phone speaker when Honoria answers.

"What the hell is going on?" She adds, in the same angry whisper.

"Pen, Danbury found the pictures, she was livid. She yelled a lot then threw them at me and told me to publish a new article. She removed your old one to replace it with this one."

"I'm so sorry." Honoria adds and if all the blood hadn't been draining from Penelope's face she probably would have accepted the apology, considering she sounded really sincere.

"She's going to fire me..." Penelope whispers.

"She's not going to fire you. She's going to want some answers, and probably some juicy gossip, but I doubt she'll fire you, not after that show. She'll think you have an in with The Bridgerton's, get all the gossip first hand. If anything this is going to boost your career." Honoria tells Penelope and when Penelope sighs, feeling absolutely dejected Honoria clears her throat.

"I don't think I can do that, Hon. I've gotten to know these people, they're real people, with feelings and emotions and..." Honoria cuts Penelope off.

"And your little crush is what's going to ruin your career. Penelope, get a hold of yourself! You've never been like this. Why the sudden change?"

"I do not have a crush!" Penelope snaps before running her hands through her auburn curls, frustrated. She sighs at Honoria's quietness on the other end. Before she can respond however she hears a throat clearing behind her. She peers over her shoulder and sees Sophie standing there with one hand on her hip. She doesn't seem angry, more hurt.

"Penelope, you've worked too damn hard to throw it all away for what? A one night stand? He's Colin fucking Bridgerton. He doesn't fall in love especially with fans or groupies or whatever..." Honoria rambles on, trying to screw Penelope's loose head back on. "And you know that if you do decide to stop writing the column Danbury will just give it to one of us to do it, right? It's not like Lady W is going to just disappear if you stop writing."

"Yeah well, at least I won't be the one writing it..." Penelope retorts softly, before adding, "I gotta go... please just give me heads up if there's anything else?" Penelope asks and Honoria hums a response that Penelope doesn't understand as a yes or no. She just stares at her phone once Honoria's hung up before Sophie clears her throat again.

"Do you mind explaining the post?" Sophie questions, her voice above a whisper.

"Sophie, all I can say is I had nothing to do with it!" Penelope says to her, her face a feature of sorrow.

"Danbury found out about it, you have to believe me! I've been doing my best trying to keep us from being found out, I swear to you I..."

"You always say that!" Sophie interrupts her, her voice shaking slightly.

Penelope looks taken aback by Sophie's outburst.

"You always say that it's not you it's Danbury but Penelope, you're the one that's writing the words, you're the one who's thinking of all the witty, hurtful sayings, she's just giving you the material! You can't blame this one on Danbury!" Sophie reminds her angrily, and Penelope can feel the prickle of tears at the corner of her eyes. She tries to blink them away, but one tear slips down her porcelain cheek. 

"But I didn't..." She starts, but stops as another voice interrupts them.

"Is everything alright?" Colin asks from the doorway which leads out into a hallway where Penelope and Sophie are currently standing. Penelope wipes at a fallen tear quickly so he can't see it, but he has and his facial expression changes from curious to concern. He steps forward.

 "Everything is fine Colin. Penelope is just upset about the article, she wants to leave." Sophie tells him evenly, a bit of an edge to her tone, perhaps Colin didn't notice.

"Let me come with you, make sure you get home safe?" He asks, and Penelope shakes her head, wiping at another tear.

"I'll be okay, stay." She replies and he shakes his head this time.

"With the article out it's not safe for you to be alone right now, paparazzi lurks everywhere." He says to her and she sighs.

Sophie rolls her eyes, super annoyed and angry, but she feels like Colin won't take no for an answer.

"You're staying?" He asks her and Sophie nods in his direction, folding her arms in front of her chest.

"Pen, come on. Theo will still be with us but I have to make sure you get home okay." He reassures and Penelope bites her bottom lip to stop it from wobbling. Sophie can't even look at her.

"Come with me." He takes her hand and pulls her down the flights of stairs, out a back door where she sees Theo standing next to the blacked out SUV.

"Colin, you don't have to do this..." Penelope shakes her head, still nibbling her trembling bottom lip. "I feel like I'm just ruining your evening... I" She tries but Colin only pulls her along to the car, ignoring her protests along the way.

Once the two are seated in the backseat Penelope leans her head on the head rest but Colin has other ideas. He moves closer to her, her head now leaning on his shoulder, his arm around her shoulders, comforting her. 

She looks up at him, smiles thankfully as he looks down at her, he softly wipes a tear away that has fallen again. He kisses her temple.

And then their eyes lock again and Penelope's gazing at his lips, her bottom lip having been tugged on by her teeth juts out all plump and pink.

His eyes flick down to her lips, then to her eyes. 

He lifts her chin delicately, and leans down closer, closer, closer, until their lips meet with such a sweetness Penelope can't even begin to describe it. She sighs into the kiss, almost melting into him, 

The kiss is almost euphoric to her. An epitome of everything she's been missing in her life and when he swipes his tongue across her bottom lip, tempted to enter she doesn't hesitate, wanting to taste all of him. A sense of bliss washes over as she moves her entire body to face his, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling at his thick chestnut coloured hair. 

A animalistic groan vibrates at the back of his throat as he grabs at her thick thighs and hoists her onto his lap. His fingers digging into the flesh there. Her skirt lifting so it's bunching up by her waist.

Forgetting for a moment that they are not alone. That Theo is trying his best to ignore their desperate moans, ignoring the sound of Penelope groaning as Colin nips at her neck soft, gentle.

Penelope wants nothing more than this right now. An escape from her crumbling life, her career, her friendship with Sophie.

His nips get lower and lower until he's biting the sensitive flesh above her breasts, pulling her blouse down further so he can get better access to her ample chest area. His two hands leave her thighs and cup them both, squeezing softly, kissing, licking.

"Fuck..." Penelope breathes the word, her panties already soaked because of what he's doing to her. Her clit throbbing as she starts to grind on his lap, on the bulge forming in his too tight jeans.

"Fuck Pen, you're soaked..." He whispers, jutting his hips up so his cock is pressing against her there.

"Touch me." Penelope whispers back, a desperate plea. Colin's eyes are blown out and dark, the green no longer visible as he searches for any apprehension from her. Too eager to make her cum right their and then but also weary of the fact that she was upset just now.

"Are you sure?" He asks her and she nods, and kisses him with such passion, fervour that he's succumbing to her wishes, dragging a finger to move her panties out of the way, a slow and soft movement against her folds, gathering her wetness at the tip of his finger.

Theo's trying his best not to peak at them through the rear view mirror. Trying his fucking best to keep his own dick from hardening. The sounds are just too much. He needs to put a stop to this. Perhaps he needs to get them to a hotel. He clears his throat, loudly. When that doesn't work he slams on the fucking breaks because clearly these two are in their own world.

Penelope nearly flies off of Colin but he grips her lower back, pulling her closer to him, his finger sliding deeper inside her.

"Theo?" Colin calls, "Is everything alright?" Penelope's eyes roll back as he finds her sweet spot.

"Uh, just a dog, Mr Bridgerton. A dog ran across the road. Can I take you two back to your place, since it's uh." He clears his throat, "closer..." His eyes flick up to the mirror and meet Colin's. Colin can see the embarrassment clear as day on his face.

"We can go around back..." Theo adds quickly, not daring a look at Penelope who's face is half buried in the crook of Colin's neck while he's so clearly still fingering her, considering her breathing patterns and the look of pure bliss on her face, well of what he can see, while her eyes are closed. Fuck why did he look?

He swallows hard.

Colin stops moving his finger inside Pen and feels a little guilty for not being able to control themselves in front of Theo, who's still new to security. God, Anthony will probably hear of this.

Colin nods then. He ever so slowly removes his finger from Penelope's pussy, hearing the squelch come from his finger and her juices as he removes it.

"Why'd you stop?" She asks, looking a little dishevelled and splendidly flushed.

"Uh, we're going to my place, if that's alright?" He asks her and she nods and then she giggles an embarrassed giggle when she remembers they are not alone, that someone is definitely driving the car. 

Poor Theo!

They're safely in Colin's condo when he's already grabbing Penelope's thighs and she's throwing her legs around his waist and he kissing her again, and she's trying to take off her shirt. He places her on his bed and she removes her shoes and skirt and he does the same.

When she's delightfully naked on his bed he takes her in, the curves of her hips, her fucking great tits, her perfect little pussy ready for him.

He crawls onto the bed, over her, like a prey ready for the kill and he devours her, her nipples first, perky and pink. He kisses her stomach, a row of kisses leading to paradise.

The obscene slurping sounds make Penelope mewl, they make her tighten the grip in his hair and push him down harder. Fuck.

They fuck three times that night. Three of the best fucks Colin realizes he's ever had in his entire life, as he holds her after their shower. Holds her close to his naked body as her breathing steadies. As she's loses to slumber.

Fuck he feels like he's in trouble.

Chapter Text

He watches her breathe steadily. Watches how her naked chest rises and falls with each breath she takes. She looks peaceful and beautiful.

His heart flutters slightly. He rolls his eyes to himself. 

He knows after last night, probably after their first night sleeping in bed together that he liked this girl more than he would've liked.

He especially knew when he felt utterly worried when he saw them fighting. He could see Penelope on the brink of tears after the Whistledown column came out and all he wanted to do was cuddle her in his arms and make everything go away because this was his fault. His fault that she was in this mess. God, sometimes he wishes he wasn't famous. Of course he loves what he does but it comes with a price and that price is privacy.

She stirs.

He hopes he doesn't wake her. He's hardly moving. Just gazing.

She moves her body, and now her head is resting on his chest. An arm around his waist. He feels like he can stay like this forever.

He wraps his own arm around her body and hugs her closer to him. 

He thinks back to last night. To how fucking amazing she tasted on his tongue. Sweet, but not too sweet where it becomes unbearable. He wants to bury himself between her legs again. Now that would be a nice way to wake up wouldn't it? But he needs to manoeuvre her body around so she's on her back. He looks down at her again. So peaceful.

Perhaps he shouldn't disturb her. There'll be plenty more mornings like this where he can wake her up with a tongue to her beautiful nub.

He twiddles his fingers around one of her perky nipples softly. Fuck he's making himself hard. 

He thinks back to the noises she was making last night. God, that feral moan she made in the shower when his dick slid into her, so slick, so smooth, so tight.

The way her nails dug into his back while he fucked her into the tiles. The warm water cascading down their bodies. The way she bit into the sensitive flesh of his neck. He probably has marks.

He groans to himself. Not expecting it to come out as loud as it does. He can feel himself tent under the sheets. Fuck it, he's definitely hard again.

Penelope can feel his soft touch to her nipple, sending goose bumps down her body. She can feel him getting harder by the second against her leg that's draped over him.

She doesn't let him know that she's awake though. Only because if she does she'll have to wake to the reality that this relationship, friends with benefits, whatever it is they decide on, won't work out. Not with how her career is going at the moment.

But she can also feel her slickness building again. She wonders if he can feel it too, considering the position she's in, she can practically rub her clit against his leg.

When she hears him moan she only gets wetter.

Dammit. He can feel her getting wet against his leg. And that's when she starts to move. She starts moving her clit up and down the skin of his thigh. 

"Penelope?" He whispers, wondering if she's maybe dreaming, maybe dreaming of him being deep inside of her, fucking her g-spot until she's raw and cumming hard.

She doesn't say anything, but he knows she's awake by the way her hand slides down under the sheets and wraps around his throbbing cock.

She starts pumping his dick, up and down, but her own rhythm of getting herself off on his leg has exceeded.

He throws his head back, unable to think anymore. Eyes rolling back too at the dreamy sensation he's beginning to feel in his lower belly. Then she suddenly stops and moves slightly so her mouth is hovering over his dick. She sinks down low and he groans even louder. He opens his eyes and she's smirking around his dick. The little minx.

She releases his dick with a small wet pop and she grins at him.

"What do you want?" She asks him and he can't fathom a sentence right then. The tingling far too powerful. God, she must fuck him. Ride him until he cums into her tight little pussy.

"Ride me..." He chokes out, "But first come up here quick." He tells her and she nods. Awkwardly crawling and kneeling in front of him as he motions for her to sit on his face.

He licks one long stripe into her folds before suctioning onto her clit. She gasps and moans and grinds down on his face even more. His tongue doing wonderous things before she lifts off his face.

"I want you to cum..." He tells her and she shakes her head, surprising him.

"I want to cum with you." She tells him, hovering her body over his dick. She sinks down onto him and they both moan together. Then she's lifting her body again and sinking again. Then she's doing a steady rhythmic bounce on his dick and her boobs are bouncing in front of his face. He grabs onto them and kneads, and presses, and sits up so he can put a nipple in his mouth.

She's wrapping her hands around his neck and pulling him up for a kiss.

He's so goddamn deep inside her now at this angle, she's clenching around him. Moaning into his mouth as her clit rubs against the light dusting of his hair down there.

"Fuck... Colin... I'm..." She can't speak, her breath hitches up a notch and then she's cumming. Hard. Colin feels it gush around his cock. Fuck.

She buries her face into the crook of his neck but he's not done. He thrusts up into her, chasing his own orgasm. Possibly giving her another one. But fuck it, he's definitely not selfish when it comes to pleasure.

His strong arms are holding her hips as she continues to sit on his dick. But he's doing the work now and she's nearly sobbing. Her nails are digging into his chest. 

"Col..." She breathes and then her legs shake again throwing her into a second orgasm. 

"I'm gonna..." He breathes, but she's too busy riding out her orgasm to realize he's cumming inside her. 

"Fuck!" She cries out falling on top of him. She lifts her pussy so his dick slips out of her. He can feel her leaking onto his stomach but he finds he doesn't actually give a shit. He pulls her up and flips her to the side and cuddles into her.

"God, you're ridiculous." She states, as her breathing tries to get back to normal.

"Me? How about you?" Colin smirks and kisses her cheek quickly.

"I'm not usually like this... you've turned me into something wild." Penelope laughs and he laughs too.

"Well I'm glad to be of service." Colin responds, a cheeky grin on his face.

"I guess I've just never had it like this before." Penelope tells him, nibbling her lower lip, slightly embarrassed.

He tilts her chin up so she's looking at him.

"Old fashioned?" He questions, a grin and leans up onto her elbows. Her elbows digging into his skin. He winces.

"Just because I don't sleep around..." Penelope rolls her eyes before lifting herself up off of his body entirely. He tries not to show the disappointment he's feeling at her abandoning their cuddling time... again.

She shuffles herself to the edge of the bed and grabs her purse, fishing out her cell phone. 

"Shit!" Penelope curses, when she sees the missed calls, the messages, and the time.

She gets off the bed and looks around the room for her clothes.

"Is everything okay?" Colin asks, leaning on his elbows, looking at her rush around the room.

"My boss wants to meet with me." She says, bra first, the her shirt, then skirt.

"Pen, we need to call you a car, from security." Colin tells her and Penelope shakes her head.

"I don't have time for that. I was supposed to meet her a few minutes ago, I'm already late." She whines, while she searches for her other shoe. Colin remembers the shoe falling off when he carried her up the stairs last night.

"Where the fuck is my other shoe?" She cries out, frustrated and Colin, who is butt naked, gets out of bed, leaves the room for a short while before returning with her missing shoe. She opens her mouth but is distracted by his beautiful body.

"Theo is on his way." Colin says, leaning down to give her a sweet peck on the lips, in all his naked glory.

"Oh god no..." Penelope shakes his head. Too embarrassed to ever look Theo in the eye again.

"He practically watched you finger me last night." Penelope whispers and Colin chuckles. "If it's something you're into..." Colin shrugs, earning a slap on his shoulder from her.

"How am I supposed to be normal in front him?" She asks, as they make their way down the steps. Colin is still naked.

"Ask him if my technique was good." Which earns him another slap. He chuckles.

"You'll be fine. He won't say anything, he's not allowed too. Contracts." Colin tells her, leaning down to kiss her passionately. He'd preferably go with Penelope himself, but he knows that's out of the question so Theo is second best.

There's a knock on the door and before Penelope can open it Colin does, and pokes his head out the door, greeting Theo. If Theo is shocked at the way Colin is displaying himself he doesn't show it. It's not like he can actually see Colin's dick, but he can use his imagination.

"Colin." Penelope hisses at him and tries a less than awkward smile Theo's way.

"Get her home safe for me please." Colin tells him and Theo nods.

"I'll see you later beautiful." Colin throws his arms around Penelope's neck quickly and kisses her softly. 

"Later?" Penelope asks, an eyebrow raised. She didn't think there would be a later. 

"Yeah, at the show? Ben said he gave Sophie tickets..." Colin advises and Penelope nods slightly. Fuck, she wonders if Sophie's even going to talk to her after the Whistledown column brandished them whores. She seemed pretty upset last night. But the one thing Sophie should believe is that she didn't write that specific column. 

She smiles and nods, and pecks him quickly on the cheek before she follows Theo to the car.

***

Penelope gets home to Sophie sitting on the couch with a text book laid out on the table and a pen in her hand. She's a rush because she needs to change but Sophie delays her longer.

"Where were you?" Sophie questions, eyeing Penelope's walk of shame outfit.

"Colin's." Penelope responds, swiftly walking passed Sophie.

"Did you sleep with him?" Sophie calls and Penelope sticks her head out the door.

"Do you still believe I wrote that column?" She counters, not wanting to respond to her question, and she winces slightly, she doesn't mean for it to come out so snappy, but it has and she can't take it back now.

Sophie studies Penelope for a moment. Considers her carefully.

Sophie chooses not to reply to Penelope's question because she doesn't know what to believe so instead she says something else.

"Be careful Pen. I know you. Just don't put all of your eggs in Colin's basket." 

"You need to stop watching Love Island Soph, and I'm not putting all of my eggs in his basket, it was a one time thing. I'm done and satisfied and now I need to get to work. Danbury's requested a meeting with me..." She says and Sophie's eyes widen. They widen because she's surprised to hear Penelope say Colin was basically a one night stand, something Penelope never does, and also more surprised by the fact that Penelope seems to be in trouble at work.

"Why?" Sophie asks and Penelope shrugs.

"Probably because I tried and failed miserably to keep us out of the spotlight." Penelope sighs and shrugs on her jacket.

"So you really didn't write the column?" Sophie questions and Penelope sighs again and looks at Sophie sadly.

"No, and it hurts me to know that you think I'm capable of that." Penelope replies, fluffing her hair up in the mirror.

"I've seen you write terrible stuff about people before Pen, including the guy you're currently sleeping with." Sophie states bluntly and Penelope studies herself in the mirror.

"Slept with... it won't happen again. It was a mistake on my part for letting it get that far. The lines can't be blurred" Penelope informs her and Sophie sighs sadly.

"What if Colin doesn't feel that way? You're just going to hurt him too?" Sophie asks as Penelope opens the door. Sophie can see Theo standing outside in the hallway.

"Colin can have anyone he wants. He doesn't care about me and I know for a fact he wouldn't settle for me, Sophie." Penelope replies, a little hesitantly towards the end but she nods her head, mildly confident that what she was doing was for the best, before she closes the door behind her.

"He's got fucking security for you Pen. Of course he cares." Sophie sighs, once the door is closed and she is alone.

***

Sophie is right. She shouldn't put all her eggs in Colin's basket. No matter how much she wants too, she can't. Fuck, having mind blowing out of this world sex with him was the wrong thing to ever do.

She'll keep her distance. That's what she'll do.

Theo opens the door for her and follows her to the building where she works.

"Is it okay if you wait down here? I'm already in trouble with my boss and I feel like your presence is just going to make it worse." Penelope asks Theo who nods.

"No problem Penelope. I will I wait down here for you. If you need any help just shout." Theo says and Penelope smiles at him. 

"And I'm sorry... about what you witnessed yesterday." Penelope grimaces and Theo chuckles.

"What Mr Bridgerton gets up to and with who is none of my business." Theo responds with a curt nod in Penelope's direction.

She smiles at him before making her way up to the floor she works on.

She scurries to her desk, plops her bag down before looking up and seeing Honoria walking out of Danbury's office. All smiles.

"Penelope!" Danbury practically yells.

"My office. Now." She adds and Honoria sends a sheepish smile Penelope's way before Pen is entering the office. Closing the door behind her. 

Chapter Text

"Sophie!" Penelope cries, out of breath from running up the stairs to their shared apartment. Theo keeps up with her pace, yet she still slams the door in his face as Sophie perks her head up from her social studies homework.

Her eyes widen at the sight of Penelope, and she stands.

"Pen, what happened?" She asks, running over to her as Penelope tries to catch her breath and regain her composure.

She then leans against the wall and her body sags.

"Penelope?" Sophie questions, trying to get something out of the girl.

"What happened with Danbury?"

"She gave me an ultimatum." Penelope breathes, staring at her hands rather than Sophie.

"She was highly annoyed that I never told her immediately that we were meeting them. She's refusing to let it slide. She basically wants me to work from the inside. Get all the best gossip for the column or it's my job." She looks up then, a worried look in her eyes.

"You have to tell them." Sophie states abruptly and Penelope's eyes widen in surprise.

"Sophie think rationally here. If I tell them, I lose my job, we lose the apartment, and you potentially lose Benedict because he can't stand to be around someone associated with the infamous gossip monger." Penelope rationalizes in a near panicked tone, and Sophie actually listens to her.

"What am I going to do?" She sinks to the floor, defeated and Sophie watches Penelope carefully.

She then sits down next to Penelope and takes her hand in her own. 

"Lady Whistledown is a serious problem now, isn't she?" Sophie sighs and Penelope nods.

"I don't want to ruin this for you and Benedict, Sophie. You guys really seem to have something special." Sophie smiles and squeezes Pen's hand.

"Don't forget about you and Colin. You two seem drawn to each other?" Sophie points out to her.

"And the sex was so good." Penelope groans, her head in her hands.

Sophie raises an eyebrow in amusement, her lip quirks slightly lopsided too. Surprised, because Penelope, not really one to ever indulge anyone in her secret rendezvous, was indulging.

"He made me cum four times." Penelope whispers and Sophie nearly chokes.

"Penelope!" She cries, before falling into a fit of giggles.

"How judged would I be if I lost my job and became homeless for amazing dick?" Penelope asks, she's seems serious yet Sophie, who is now holding her belly from laughing too hard, laughs even harder.

"Pen stop please." Sophie begs, trying to catch her breath.

"I'm trying to stop thinking about it and rather think about this god-awful situation I'm in, but it keeps creeping back into my mind. I gushed on his hand. He fingered me in front of Theo! And I gushed on his hand." She squeezes her thighs together just thinking about it and Sophie stops laughing and her brows knit together.

"Wait, he did what in front of Theo?" Sophie questions, her eyes wide then.

Penelope brushes it off, "What am I going to do?" She asks then, looking at Sophie seriously.

Sophie purses her lips together, her eyebrows knitting together once more in concentration as she tries to think about what they were going to do.

"Okay, so I'm thinking we go to the show tonight." Penelope's eyes grow wide, and she shakes her head.

"What Lady Danbury doesn't know won't hurt her and perhaps if you see Colin again you can decide whether you want to tell him about your little secret? If you decide not too, I will cut ties with Benedict, you can tell Danbury that we are no longer involved in their little circle and therefore you won't be able to write about them and no one has to find out. I do not think we would survive if we had to live on the street sweet Pen." Sophie tells her reassuringly and Penelope feels like crying.

"I can't let you do that." Penelope sobs and Sophie pulls her into a hug.

"Let's see what happens." Sophie says and Penelope nods, wiping a tear away and leaning into her friend in comfort.

~~

"Pen and Sophie, over here!" Eloise calls just as Theo has taken them backstage after the show. 

"Thanks Theo, we will see you later." Sophie waves and they both rush over to Eloise and give her a quick hug.

Before Sophie can even ask, Eloise is rolling her eyes and pointing to a closed door, "My brother is in there." 

Sophie beams and walks over to the door and knocks and truth be told Benedict opens the door and pulls Sophie in for a sloppy, sweaty as much as it can be romantic, kiss.

Pen can see Colin deeper in the room and her fanny flutters, and the butterflies in her stomach soar.

Oh no.

He looks up when Sophie squeals and he can see Pen over Benedict's shoulder. He grins at her and she nervously, smiles back.

"Go on, he literally hasn't been able to stop talking about you." Eloise ushers her in and Pen smiles.

"We'll chat later?" Pen asks and Eloise nods.

"Well, we're going to move this to my room." Benedict grins wickedly and Sophie giggles into his neck.

"Ugh, just go." Colin waves him off and Penelope stands watching awkwardly as Sophie and Benedict act like complete teenagers in love, as they close the door to what she's assuming is Colin's backstage area. God, she can't let Sophie lose that, can she? What kind of a friend would she be?

"Hey." Colin says then, a smile on his face as he takes a step closer to her so he can lean down and kiss her cheek. Penelope moves her head awkwardly as he leans, and he kisses her lips instead.

He grins at her cheekily as she apologises. He then shakes his head and leans back down again and kisses her slightly more passionately and then whispers, "I was just trying to be a gentleman." 

Penelope can't help but giggle at that.

"I was worried you wouldn't come tonight since you didn't answer my text." Colin tells her, pushing her straight hair to the side, and trailing soft kisses down her neck, she stretched her neck into his lips and moaned, gripping the back of his neck with her small hands.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about you." Colin whispers into her ear and kisses her just below her earlobe.

Penelope gulps. She wasn't expecting that from him. And she tries to think when he sent her a text? Did she even see it?

He grips his hands onto the fleshy skin of her bum, as her skirt rides up, and pulls her up.

She yelps and immediately wraps her legs around his waist, and tightens her arms around his neck, hoping not to fall, and looks at him in his eyes. She can feel his bulge poke her through his pants.

She needs to tell him.

As he leans forward, she stops him.

"Colin, wait!" She states and he looks at her, a little confused.

But she's distracted by the intensity of his eyes. By the way he's gripping her like he's desperate for her. Like he needs her to survive.

She bites her lower lip and he raises an eyebrow.

"You don't want to?" He asks, sounding a little defeated.

She sighs.

"Of course I want to, but I need to tell you something first." She starts but he's back at her neck and she's forgetting what she needs to say.

He's gripping her and then he's placing her down on one of the couches in the room and he's kissing her fervently, and his fingers are trailing under her skirt, up her thighs, into her panties, finding her soaking wet for him.

He groans and twirls her clit with his thumb for a few minutes and she's mewling.

"Tell me later." He whispers and his fingers are removing her panties and then his head is in between her thighs with her skirt bunched up at her waist and she's gripping his thick head of hair as his tongue does wonders to her clit, making her legs shake as she cums in his mouth.

Then he's rushing to remove his pants, just enough that his hard dick springs out and he's entering her slowly and kissing her on the mouth passionately.

Penelope moans into his neck, something incoherent, scratching his back through his white t-shirt.

"Pen..." He groans himself, as he hits his peak, climaxing, emptying himself into her.

He collapses onto her, and she hugs him close, breathing him in.

"You're fucking incredible." He breathes out, kissing her again softly this time, almost lovingly and she feels her heart clench.

He's resting his head on her still clothed breasts and she can feel that their breathing is in sync.

She could stay like this forever. She really could. But she knows the minute she tells him about Whistledown he'll want nothing to do with her.

God, she can't tell him now.

She's tickling his back as he continues to lie on top of her. She's pretty sure he's asleep but then she's pretty sure he's not when he clears his throat and looks up at her.

"You wanted to say something?" He asks and she shakes her head quickly. 

"Another time." 

But there wasn't another time.

Sophie calls it quits with Benedict a few days later when Penelope confesses that she hadn't been able to tell Colin.

She pleads with Sophie to continue seeing Benedict but Sophie rejects Penelope's pleas again stating they would not survive without the column. Sophie understands that now as Penelope makes more money than she does writing it.

Sophie hauls herself in her room for a few more days after that and Penelope feels like utter crap about it. But Sophie understands.

Danbury is furious when Penelope tells her that they are no longer mingling with the elite Bridgerton Brothers, but lets Penelope continue writing the column under the supervision of Honoria, making sure Penelope doesn't blindside them again.

Penelope blocks Colin's number and removes him from Instagram so he doesn't have a way of contacting her.

A few more weeks later Penelope comes to the realization that her period is overdue, but Danbury has her on a mission to find out some information about a socialite who seemed to have a breakdown a few days ago and is hanging around a coffee shop telling people she saw the light - whatever that means.

So, Penelope is standing outside a coffee shop with her cell phone in one hand and a brown paper bag in the other, a slight sliver of a white and blue box sticking out at the top when Colin notices her as he drives by with Theo.

"Theo, hang on a second." Colin states, making him stop the car and Colin gets out and puts his sunglasses on. It'll only be a couple of minutes before he's recognised, hopefully the socialite waving her arms about in front of the cafe continues to distract everyone on the street.

Theo is trailing behind him, and Colin only wishes he could do this alone. Find out why the hell Pen fell off the planet? Why Sophie suddenly broke Benedict's heart? Benedict who has been wallowing in self-pity ever since then. Wishing they were never famous to begin with then hopefully Sophie would come back. Since that was her excuse for leaving him. The fame. Colin somehow doesn't believe that's why Sophie ended it with Benedict.

The only good thing to come from that is a heart break song Benedict wrote which makes Colin's stomach churn every time he hears it.

He doesn't know why it does that, but he feels he could've probably fallen hard for Penelope if there had been more time, but he was left in the dark and all he wanted to know was why? It was eating him up inside and seeing her, half crouched down just besides the cafe with her phone out as if she were recording a video? Well, that confused him even more. She had something else in her other hand, but Colin couldn't decide what it was.

He approaches her with caution, but also so he won't be recognised himself.

Once he is secured behind her, he takes note that she is recording the socialite and her antics.

What the hell?

He reaches out to her and touches her shoulder. She jumps and the contents of the brown paper bag that he now can see in her other hand fall out onto the floor.

She looks down at the floor quickly first before she looks up at him. He looks to where she looked too.

He studies the box, and his eyes widen as he realizes what it is. A pregnancy test?

"Penelope?" He whispers and she swallows, hard. Her face turning pale.

Her phone forgotten about, yet still recording, live streaming in fact to the Whistledown page where Penelope publishes the column.

Chapter Text

"Penelope?" Colin repeats, staring at the pregnancy test on the ground then back into her eyes.

She's frantically trying to end the recording with her phone behind her back, without him realizing what she is doing.

"Penelope!" Honoria interrupts out of nowhere, her eyes widening at the sight of Colin Bridgerton standing before them, but she grabs the phone from Penelope's hand anyway and shuts down the recording as quickly as possible.

Penelope stares at Honoria for a moment, an irritated look fleeting across her face.

"You're following me now?" Penelope questions, irritation laces her words, and Honoria looks back at her sheepishly.

"Danbury's orders." Honoria replies defensively, then she too spots the pregnancy test on the ground and looks back at a still staring in curious shock, Colin Bridgerton from the Bridgerton Brothers.

"What is going on?" Colin asks quietly, after seeing Honoria pocket Penelope's phone and take a step back.

"Sophie ends things with Benedict and I never hear from you again, and now this?" He points to the pregnancy test, thinking that is a more pressing matter than the suspicious phone stealing from the other lady.

Penelope's eyes dart to the pregnancy test then back up at Colin.

"I'm not..." She starts and his eyes flash darkly.

"It's sealed, I can see it!" He says it almost condescendingly and Penelope inhales sharply.

"Who even says it's yours, if I even am?" She bites back and he narrows his eyes at her, slightly angry.

"Um, I'll leave you guys to whatever this is," Honoria gestures her hand around to the mess in front of her, "you guys might want to keep it down though, you're starting to attract attention." Honoria whispers, and takes her leave, taking Penelope's phone with her but Colin's eyes shoot up to check their surrounding and Penelope's friend is correct, a few people have started to look there way.

"Oh my god, is that Colin Bridgerton?" He hears one person squeal in a high-pitched tone, and he's bending down in a flash to grab the blue and white box and stuffs it into his jacket pocket before grabbing Penelope's hand and pulling her towards him. 

"Come on." He tells her yet she's trying to struggle out of his grip.

"Colin, I don't need to go anywhere with you!" She yelps, his grip tightening.

"I need to keep you safe if you are..." He absentmindedly touches the box in his pocket and Penelope manages to get out of his grip at this point.

"I'm fine. I may not even be..." She tries and her eyes flicker to the box tucked away in his pocket..

 "We need to go somewhere safer." Colin tells her and he looks around.

"Somewhere without prying eyes or would you like to be on the front page of a gossip page, tomorrow morning?" He asks, a warning in his tone. 

"It's..." She tries and the look he gives her makes her pause. It's one that's filled with passion, and protection (if protection was a look) and caring and all those other wonderful things and her heart skips a beat.

"Penelope." He demands in a worried tone.

"Oh my god it is Colin Bridgerton!" Another screams and Penelope looks around at the crowd looming closer towards them. She realizes it was the socialite who had yelled first, and she can see Theo getting slightly anxious a few feet away from them.

"Penelope please!" He starts to beg, not really in the mood for fans right now, not with Penelope may or may not being pregnant with his child worrying him.

Yet, she reluctantly takes his hand and they run off towards the car, him pulling her along to keep up with his longer legs.

"Get in!" Theo yells, as the fans move in on them. Shrieking like banshees.

Colin yanks the door open and picks Penelope up and sets her down on the seat before shoving his body into the car next to her almost like a shield. He falls onto her, and she grabs his neck and upper arm and drags him in as Theo starts the engine and they're driving away from there.

Their faces are so close to one another and their eyes searching the others for answers. She finds herself caressing the back of his neck and squeezing his arm while they continue to stare at each other. Penelope catches the longing stare he gives her, and she smiles sadly at him.

"Why did you cut me out? Why did Sophie cut Ben out? What's going on?" He asks her, pleadingly.

"Ben's been a mess although he's written a few good songs about heartbreak but if I hear one more of them Pen I..." She squeezes his arm and closes her eyes.

"Would it be mine?" He whispers then trying to get all his questions out at once before she runs again.

She opens her eyes at that question and inhales slowly before exhaling. Then she nods and tears well up in the corners of her eyes.

"Is that why you cut me out?" He asks, but she shakes her head quickly, her hand stilling at the back of his neck.

She needs to tell him.

She wants to kiss him first though, so she does and it's full of raw passion and heat and possibly love and she feels her stomach soar. His hands are in her hair pulling lightly at her curls, then they're running down her back and to her sides and gripping her on the hips.

Then she pulls away just as abruptly as she had kissed him and he's studying her carefully, trying to suss out her next move.

"I need to tell you something." She says softly and Colin nods, his eyes softening a bit as he waits patiently for her to start speaking again.

"We can't be together." Penelope tells him and he pulls away slightly, looking a little rejected.

"You won't want to be with me," Penelope corrects and he moves back into a proper seated position and stares at her, "When you hear what I have to say." 

She has to tell him now. What if she is pregnant? What if he wants to be a part of the child's life? She knows he won't want anything to do with her once he knows about Whistledown, but he deserves to be a part of his child's life.

He looks confused. She can't blame him.

She slips her hand into her back pocket of her shorts, and she pulls out her cell phone.

Colin looks even more confused. He swears he saw that other lady take Penelope's phone away? Which he would still like answers too but now this?

She's typing away and then she's showing him her screen. He can see Whistledown's name headlining the front page and then she's showing her a video of where they just were, of the socialite parading about her woes of time and space. He's watching carefully yet then something happens and he's hearing his own voice calling her name and the screen starts to shake, blur. Then he hears that other lady's voice calling out Penelope's name too and the video stops.

"What is that?" Colin asks, his brows furrowed, looking back up at Penelope, and Penelope takes her phone away in her shaking hand and looks up at him.

"That was me, being Lady Whistledown before you interrupted." She tells him and he pulls his entire body away from her. She can see a million things running through his mind and then he looks up at her again.

"You're not serious?" He questions softly and Penelope sighs.

"It's good money, it's paying for our flat, it's paying for our food, it's..." She pauses because the way he's looking at her now is a far cry from how he was looking at her before. He seems to be distraught and disgusted and perhaps a little hurt even?

"And the reason why Sophie ended it with Ben was because of me. Because I couldn't tell you who I really was because I didn't want to have you looking at me the way you are now." She swallows the lump in her throat, pushes back the tears that are threatening to escape the corners of her eyes. 

"The reason why I cut you off was because my boss wanted me to be a spy from within your circle, publish things first, before they got out. I told her I couldn't." She shakes her head vigorously and a few tears spill down her cheeks. "Sophie and I came up with a plan to cut ties with all of you so I wouldn't have to betray you." She ends and she's been staring at him the entire time, but he's been staring straight ahead.

"What about before? Boozy Bridgerton?" He says, his voice slightly hoarse.

"I didn't know you then." She tries to grab his hand, she doesn't know why but she does, and it hurts tenfold when he snatches it away. 

"I was told what to write I just put my own spin on it. It was never meant to be cruel, just poking fun." Penelope adds, wringing her hands together nervously in her lap.

She's starting to feel the all too familiar cramps in her lower stomach but she's trying her hardest to not let him know.

Perhaps it's being brought on by stress? Stress of the situation?

"Well, it hurt Penelope." He says then, finally looking at her.

"Your words hurt people!" He states angrily and another cramp strikes her stomach, and her hand is immediately there, pressing firmly to stop the pain.

"Pen." His attitude changes drastically at her sudden reaction and he's holding her upper arms. 

Her eyes are squeezed shut as another jolt of pain cuts through her stomach and that's when Colin notices the blood trickle down her leg.

"Something doesn't feel right." She manages to wheeze out, grabbing his arm now and squeezing so hard but Colin doesn't care.

"Pen, do we need to go to the hospital?" Colin asks, panicked but there's no response from her. She's passed out, the pain unbearable.

"Pen." He's slapping her cheek lightly but nothing, his eyes shoot back to the blood and his eyes widen as everything becomes crystal clear to him. 

"Theo, we need to get to the hospital!" He cries out.

"Now!" He adds in a yell as Penelope flops onto him. 

Chapter Text

Colin sits on a mostly uncomfortable chair in the hospital reception, leaning forward. He's absentmindedly twiddling the pregnancy test that was still in his pocket.

He lets out an agonized sigh and leans back in the chair.

He wanted to be alone but with Theo hovering by closely and the few beady eyes he can feel staring at him, his option for alone time was limited. He probably should have opted somewhere quieter to be alone, but it was too late now, he'd just have to endure the annoyance gnawing at his gut. Half the hospital knew he was there considering he'd come in rather wildly with Penelope passed out and bleeding. He'd even forgotten who he was at a point in his panic and had created quite a scene to where there were now probably a dozen paparazzi hovering outside the hospital. And considering how loudly Anthony and Kate were talking, well that wasn't helping either.

"He should be allowed in the room!" Anthony states, his patience wearing thin.

"Anthony, Sophie is with her. Sophie knows her best." Kate's eyes dart over to Colin who is staring at the pregnancy test now.

"I need to get on the phone with Simon. We will have to cancel the show tonight." Kate adds and Anthony nods as he too looks over at his younger brother.

Kate leaves, and then Anthony is approaching Colin cautiously. He slowly sits down in the seat next to Colin who hasn't even looked up at him yet but can obviously feel his presence besides him.

"Where is Eloise or Benedict with the coffee?" Anthony asks casually, looking around the reception area as if hoping to find Eloise or Benedict hiding behind a potted fern.

Colin just sighs again and leans his head back against the wall.

"Do you want me to take that?" Anthony asks softly, pointing to the pregnancy test and Colin laughs in a sort of way that shows he can't believe what's happening but hands the test to Anthony anyway.

"Yeah, guess we don't need it anymore." Colin states blandly, as Anthony grabs for it yet Colin keeps his grip tight. "Colin?" Anthony questions, trying to tug it out of his grip. Eventually Colin let's go and breathes out frustratedly.

"Why do I feel like this?" Colin asks Anthony who looks at him in concern.

"Like what, Col?" "Like I've lost something. But how can I feel this way if I didn't even know I had it in the first place?" He asks, looking at Anthony with a pleading look in his eyes.

Anthony clears his throat in a way that shows he's delaying the answer, poking around his brain for one.

"Well, do you remember when Kate had that horrible accident?" Anthony asks him, his tone of voice soft and caring.

Colin nods, remembering it well. Anthony and Kate couldn't stand each other at that moment in time. She was their new manager and according to Anthony she was bossy and controlling and he couldn't stand for it.

Anthony and Kate would fight constantly and eventually Kate resigned as their manager and was in a terrible car accident on her way to the airport right after that.

Violet Bridgerton the matriarch of the Bridgerton brood was the one who called Anthony to inform him, and Anthony was inconsolable. Colin and Benedict had tried everything but eventually it seemed as though Anthony had given up because as it turned out, the reason the two had fought all the time was because they were secretly harbouring feelings for the other, they didn't want to act on those feelings because Kate was their manager.

Colin remembers Anthony sobbing by Kate's bedside telling her he was sorry for how he had acted. That she can't leave because he loved her.

"I felt the same way. It's only human to feel that way Col. You and Penelope created something that was yours, something that you didn't even know about yes, but it was yours and you lost it. But don't beat yourself up about it though, it's no one's fault. Shit happens."

Anthony squeezes Colin's shoulder in comfort.

"I can't even see her!" Colin complains, his head flopping into his hands. "And where the hell is Sophie with an update?" He cries out, and as if Sophie heard him she runs into reception, Benedict hot on her heels and spots them.

"She's awake and she's asking for you!" Sophie tells him in a flurry of words. Colin jolts up yet his feet are glued to the floor.

"Colin! Go!" Anthony presses, just as Kate comes back from her phone call with Simon.

"What is happening?" Kate asks, seeing everyone staring at Colin as if he were on display.

"What do I say, what do I do?" Colin whispers then, his eyes wide, staring at Sophie and Sophie nibbles her lip and looks at Benedict for help before she looks back at Colin.

"Just be there for her. Even if you're angry with her Colin, you just need to be there for her." Sophie encourages him and Colin nods.

"Why would he be angry with her?" Kate questions, her eyes flickering from Colin to Sophie in curiosity.

"Not the time, Kate." Colin shakes his head and although his feet are heavy, so heavy, he picks them up and follows Sophie to Penelope's room.

"Where's the coffee?" Colin hears Anthony ask Benedict then before Kate can say anything else and Benedict groans, "I asked Eloise to get it. I've been standing outside Penelope's room waiting for Sophie!"

"Well, where the bloody hell is she?"

~~

Sophie taps on Penelope's door softly and Penelope looks up and notices Colin and Sophie standing in the hallway.

"Uh. I'll go help Benedict look for Eloise, to give you guys some time." Sophie says with a nod and Colin watches her venture back down the hallway.

"Eloise is here?" Penelope asks, surprised.

"Yeah, and apparently missing with Ant's coffee." Colin chuckles slightly before clearing his throat and entering the room. A solemn expression gracing his features.

He sits in the seat beside her bed, the one Sophie was sitting in before and takes note of Penelope's state.

"How are you?" She asks him in a soft tone and he's the one who's surprised now.

"You're the one lying in a hospital bed and you're asking me how I am?" Colin asks her, he's stunned, she can see that much.

"How are you?" He asks her, emphasising the words, hesitating before taking her small hand in his.

"Don't you guys have a show tonight?" She asks him, her voice still soft.

Colin's eyes widen and he chuckles in disbelief.

"Pen, how are you?" He asks again, ignoring her question, squeezing her hand.

"I'm fine Colin!" She snaps, and immediately lowers her head.

"Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say it like that." She apologizes and Colin only squeezes her hand harder.

"I think I'm as fine as one person can be after losing a baby they didn't even know they had." Penelope mutters truthfully and Colin scoots closer to her, the chair scraping on the tiles.

"I think I'm feeling the same..." Colin nods, his grip on her hand strong and comforting.

Penelope looks at him, a sadness in her eyes that he feels through her touch as she squeezes his hand.

"I didn't even know. I thought, but I didn't know and now this... I feel..." She pauses, swallows the lump in her throat.

"Helpless?" He asks and she nods as the tears well at the corners of her eyes.

"Useless more like." Penelope whispers and Colin's moving even closer to her because he can't bear to see her this way.

Lady Whistledown or not they were both going through it now. That conversation will have to come at a later stage.

He nods and leans over and kisses her on the forehead before leaning his own forehead against hers.

"I'll be here for whatever you need." He tells her quietly and he hears her sob and then she's throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

They stay like that for a while.

"I'm sorry." She whispers to him, she doesn't know what she's sorry for exactly, there's was a whole list of things to be sorry for, for lying about Whistledown, for cutting him out, for the loss of their child, but she just knows that she's sorry and she feels him nod his head which is buried in the crook of her neck.

A little while later Sophie returns and watches them from the door.

They're still cuddling one another, and Sophie thinks it's darn cute. She smiles to herself as Benedict joins her.

"So that's Lady Whistledown, huh?" He asks in a hushed tone and Sophie's smile turns to a frown as she glowers at him.

"I told you that in confidence!" She hisses and pushes him away from the door.

"You told me that because you couldn't keep away from me." He smirks and leans his one shoulder against the wall, all casual.

"I told you that because you couldn't keep away from me, no matter how hard I pushed. And you asked me to marry you out of the blue, and I thought you deserved to know what you were marrying into." Sophie bites back and Benedict grins even wider, pulling her towards him with a gentle tug.

"Well, I don't care what I marry into as long as you're there." Benedict kisses her softly and Sophie sighs.

"Earlier, you mentioned Colin being angry at Pen, what was that about? Because I know my brother and he would never be angry at her for this so it's definitely something else, right?" Benedict questions, raising an eyebrow at Sophie

"When she woke up before I came to call you guys, I asked her why she didn't tell me about the pregnancy, and she said she didn't know that she was pregnant, that she was going to take a pregnancy test after the job Danbury put her on but then Colin found her, on the job. She also warned me that she'd told Colin who she was, and that he wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of his baby's mother being someone who he despised."

"But it seems like he's okay with it now?" Benedict gestures his head towards the room and Sophie shrugs.

"Perhaps his feelings for her are more than what he realizes." Benedict adds and Sophie narrows her eyes at him.

"Are we still talking about Colin here or are we back to you now?" She questions in a joking way, poking him in the stomach softly.

"Oh no, I already know what I feel, that's why I asked you to marry me." He pulls Sophie closer to him and she chuckles.

"Which I still haven't gotten an answer to by the way." He reminds her and she sighs.

"Colin and Penelope will be bound together because of us, what if he hasn't fully come to terms with her being Whistledown?" Sophie asks and Benedict groans.

"Sophie, can you think about you for once, you're always putting other people first. I don't care that Penelope is Lady Whistledown and if my brother has an issue with it then he needs to deal with it, but please can we just think about us!" He cries out dramatically and Sophie's eyes widen at his outburst, a small smirk playing on her lips.

"If anything, what's happened with Colin and Penelope today should push you to fight for your own happiness." Benedict tells her, his eyes shining with hope.

"To me, seeing Colin so distraught from thinking he might lose Penelope, it's made me want to marry you more." He continues, kissing her on the skin of her neck, trailing her jaw, peppering to her lips.

"I don't think I would survive losing you again." He concludes, after pulling away from the kiss.

"So please Sophie, will you marry me?"

Sophie stares into Benedict's eyes for half a second before she's nodding her head quickly, and her face is glowing with a smile so bright that she can't even help it.

He laughs gleefully before picking her up and spinning her around in a small circle.

Chapter Text

"Pen, are you nearly packed?" Sophie calls, entering her friend's bedroom, pausing in the doorway to see Penelope sitting on the bed staring at a pile of clothes on the floor.

It had been a month since she lost the baby and even though she didn't know that she was pregnant it still hurt to think about it. Colin had checked up on her every few days, yet kept his distance slightly, obviously still reeling from the news of her being Lady Whistledown. 

"I don't think I should go." Penelope says softly, before looking up at her best friend.

Sophie shuffles into the room and sits down on the edge of the bed, next to Penelope.

"It's their last show for this tour Pen, and it's in Vegas!" Sophie reminds her, a little bit exasperated.

"You can't miss it. You and Colin should be supporting each other right now." She adds and Penelope sighs.

"How is he supposed to support me when he dislikes what I do for a living?" Penelope cries out suddenly.

"Do you know, not once has he brought up the subject. It's always just how are you, Penelope? Are you feeling okay, Penelope? Like enough. We need to talk about this. We need to see if there's anything worth fighting for in this relationship."

Sophie grins slightly and it distracts Penelope.

"What? Why are you grinning at me like that?" Penelope questions, folding her arms across her chest.

"It's the first time you've actually described it as a relationship." Penelope rolls her eyes at Sophie's optimism. 

"Situationship." Penelope tries to cover up her blunder.

"We're not in a relationship, Sophie, not like you and Benedict." Penelope points out and Sophie sighs.

"Well, you could be if you two actually talked." 

"I've been preoccupied."

"You've been throwing yourself into Lady Whistledown as a distraction."

"I've been busy. Danbury is killing me softly. She still holds a grudge against me for the whole Bridgerton Brothers fiasco. It's like she thinks I need to be punished for it." Penelope whines and flops down onto her back.

"There was no Bridgerton Brothers fiasco. You were living your life which just happened to clash with your career. She can't hold that against you and if she does, I will march into that office right now and tell her to back off." Sophie's slight aggressiveness, something which Sophie never showed pulled Penelope's lips into a soft smile while she looks up at the ceiling listening to her friend rant.

"I'll be fired for sure." Penelope says, then, as if something new has dawned on her, as if a lightbulb in her brain had switched on, she rises and stares at Sophie, wide eyed.

"You want to be fired?" Sophie presumes, from Penelope's facial expression. Penelope quickly shakes her head.

"If I tell everyone that I am Lady Whistledown it'll ruin the fun of the blog. Lady Danbury will have to let me write as me instead, then no more slandering people on the internet and I get to write what I actually want to write!" Penelope rubs her chin in thought.

"Why have I never thought of this before?"

"Because you were too far up Lady Danbury's arse to do anything for yourself and perhaps you weren't in love with someone who you were writing about?" Sophie ponders and Penelope narrows her eyes in Sophie's direction.

"I am not in love with Colin Bridgerton." 

"Love makes you do crazy things." Sophie nods as if she was the wisest woman in the room. 

"I am not in love... Fuck Sophie stop looking at me like that!" Penelope grabs a pillow and tosses it towards Sophie, and Sophie chuckles.

"Ok come help me set up the video." 

"Pen, surely you should think this through first. What if Danbury fires you because you outed yourself? You know she is more than capable of that!" Sophie cries out, rushing after Penelope who is making a beeline for the living room.

"Surely you should talk to Colin first?" Sophie adds, hoping that may spark something in Penelope's sudden determination to end Whistledown once and for all but no it didn't.

"You're the one who said loves makes you do crazy things!" Penelope yells then from across the room as she drags the circular light into the middle of the room.

"Wait, so you are in love? What the hell is going on?" Sophie's worry kicks in when she watches Penelope, Sophie's confusion also kicks in when she hears Penelope repeat what she said earlier.

"Fuck Sophie I don't know. Just help me before I change my mind!" Penelope cries out fixing the phone into the light ring before sitting down on the couch and pointing to Sophie to start the recording.

Penelope breathes deeply as Sophie connects to the Whistledown page and hits record.

"Hello everyone..."

~~

"What's going on?" Colin asks one of his younger sister's Hyacinth, who is sitting on the couch in their mother's living room. Colin was there for afternoon tea, visiting the family before they made their way to Vegas for their last show.

"Hyacinth?" He asks again as her jaw drops, and she's rendered speechless, staring at her phone as if something was about to crawl out of it.

"Hyacinth!" He calls, more loudly, realizing that she's probably got her air pods in. He's right, because as he waves his hand in front of her face she looks up, startled, and whips one of the earphones out.

"Penelope is Lady Whistledown?" She shows him the phone, Penelope's face is on the screen, but he can't hear what she's saying.

"Turn it up?" He requests from her, and she does, and he takes the phone and watches Penelope confess to being Lady Whistledown.

"What is she doing?" He queries out loud and Hyacinth eyes him suspiciously.

"I thought you would have been more offended, brother? Seeing as you despise Whistledown for all the things she's written about you?" Hyacinth points out. 

Colin looks at her and purses his lips slightly before looking back at Penelope on his screen. His brows knitting together before Anthony and Kate rush into the room, followed by Benedict and Eloise.

"Colin!"

"Brother!"

"Are you alright?"

"Why do you look surprisingly well?" 

"Did you not see Whistledown's latest?"

"Perhaps he is having a mental breakdown?" Eloise quips from the side, a slight hint of worry in her voice but only the slightest.

"Colin?" Kate questions again and Colin hands Hyacinth her phone back.

"I am quite well. Um I've already known Penelope was Lady Whistledown."

"What?"

"Now if you excuse me, I think she and I need to talk." Colin bids goodbye before anyone can say anything else.

"He knew?" He hears Eloise gasp as he leaves.

~~

Colin pounds on the door to Penelope and Sophie's flat. He left Theo to stand outside the building.

"Colin!" Sophie cries out when she opens the door and Colin bursts into the room.

"Has she lost her mind?" Colin asks Sophie and Sophie nods frantically.

"And now she's on the phone with Danbury." Sophie adds, and sure enough Colin sees Penelope pacing around the room on a call.

Chapter Text

Colin and Sophie watch Penelope carefully as her frown ebbs away as she ends the call with Danbury. She lets out a soft sigh and falls onto the couch, almost as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders.

"Penelope?" Sophie asks her friend wearily, moving closer to the couch, she can feel Colin following her lead.

Penelope leans her head to the side and notices her best friend and then she notices Colin for the first time too.

"Is everything alright?" Sophie asks again, curiously. 

"I've been suspended." Penelope tells the two of them, nonchalant, and Sophie gasps. She's slightly confused though because she doesn't understand why Penelope is so calm about it all.

"Danbury says I'm suspended until everything dies down. She thinks outing myself has got to do with some post-traumatic stress from my miscarriage. She says I must take time off and recuperate." Penelope sighs again, stares at the ceiling then. Then she laughs manically.

"Can you believe it? I can't believe it. I was sure she would fire me!" Penelope adds.

"Perhaps she thinks you're too good of an asset to lose and if I were you, I'd take this time off as a blessing Penelope. You've been working yourself crazy these last few weeks. You need a break." Sophie says in a comforting tone that calms Penelope down even further.

Penelope smiles at her friend who's sat next to her on the couch and then she looks up at Colin and nibbles her bottom lip nervously.

"Is crazy Lady Whistledown still invited to Vegas?" She asks him and he moves to sit down on her other side.

"It's our last show for a while, and of course I need my anchor there." Colin tells her, grabbing her hand and giving it a peck. Penelope smiles at him, really smiles at him and Colin feels his heart swell. 

"Perhaps we can have a short conversation on the plane though? There's some stuff I need to get off my chest?" Colin asks her and Penelope nods, a little worried.

"Are you packed?" Sophie queries, "You know we're supposed to leave for the airport in," Sophie checks her watch and cries out, "An hour!" She scrambles up and Penelope gets up too, her mind still on the future conversation with Colin.

"Well, are you?" Sophie cries out, when Penelope takes too long to respond, and Penelope shrugs, "Sort of. I got distracted at a stage."

"Oh my god, Penelope! Sophie cries, running into Penelope's room and throwing anything and everything into her friend's suitcase at lightning speed.

"Should we help her?" Colin questions, a lonely eyebrow quirked in amusement.

"I'm sorry." Penelope tells him then, ignoring his question and turning to face him, the lingering thought of them having a future conversation taking over her brain and wanting to do it now rather than later.

"I'm so sorry. Your family must hate me... I, I didn't mean for things to get this carried away." Penelope tells him, yet he remains calm and collected.

"In all honesty, my family was rather surprised that I knew about you before they did. And I'm sure they'll have plenty of questions for you when they do see you, but for now, for now I want us to concentrate on us, Pen." There it was the affectionate nickname. 

"I can't help the way I feel about you even if you are someone I recently despised very much but I understand now, it was, it is your job, it's not who you are as a person, hell it's not even what you wanted to write and I can't help the way my heart beats ten times faster whenever I see you, I want us to try. I don't want us to run every time something gets hard, I want us to be honest with one another, no more lies, no more secrets." He tells her, his hand gripping hers like he never wanted to let it go, let her go. 

Penelope can't breath. She's stopped breathing because of the way he's looking at her.

She tells herself to take a breath, to remember to take air into her lungs but she can't because he's staring at her so intensely that it's hard to breathe.

So instead of breathing she leans into him and presses her lips against his, soft at first. So softly it barely feels like they're even connected but then, his hand is at the back of her neck and his tongue is sliding into her mouth as the kiss deepens. She's never had someone say all those things to her before, let alone it being a super famous musician who she used to slander on the internet for being him. God, she was a jerk. A total jerk who didn't deserve Colin Bridgerton but for now she would take it because he wanted her, wanted her so bad he'd maneuvered her so she was straddling him and she could feel him harden in his jeans at the friction from her rubbing down on him.

A throaty groan escapes him as she rolls her hips again and he breaks away from her, his lips leaving hers as he studies her again.

"You are okay right?" He asks and she feels her own heart swell in her chest because right now she was more than okay, and she would leave Whistledown alone for a while just to be okay with him.

She nods and breathes, finally.

"I'm okay." She says, more honest than she's been to herself and to the people around her for a long time, and he kisses her again.

"Penelope, you are not taking... Oops!" Sophie walks right into the two of them having a moment and grins behind her hand as they look up from their passionate kiss at what Sophie is holding, it's a giant sun hat.

Penelope looks back at Colin and pecks him on the cheek before swinging her leg off of him and getting up.

"You are not getting rid of my sun hat!" Penelope warns Sophie as she follows her into the bedroom. 

Colin grins to himself as he hears the two of them bicker about the hat. This trip was going to be interesting.

~~

"Lady Whistledown!" Benedict bows to Penelope jokingly as they enter the private plane taking the group to Vegas. 

"Benedict..." Colin tries to warn him but Penelope shakes her head, advising him it's okay.

"Mr. Bridgerton." She curtsies, "You better be nice to me or you'll end up on the front page in some scandalous situation." She adds as a joke, ending in a wink and Benedict gasps in mock horror.

"You wouldn't dare." He cries out, but Penelope can see the mischievous glint in his eye.

Penelope only winks at Benedict again before Colin is ushering her further into the plane.

"She wouldn't dare, would she?" Penelope hears Benedict ask Sophie who chuckles and whispers something back to him that's out of earshot for Penelope to hear but when Benedict laughs out loud Penelope can only wonder what Sophie whispered to him.

They spot Daphne and Francesca huddled together reading something and Anthony and Kate seem to be trying to sort out something with the hotel when they do eventually get there.

Then Eloise, who is in the far corner, curled up with a book.

"Hey El!" Colin calls to her cheerily and even lets out a snort when Eloise blatantly ignores them.

"She's annoyed that I knew you were Lady Whistledown before everyone. She's always wanted to be the first to crack the case." He laughs again and rolls his eyes at his sister and offers Penelope a seat. 

Penelope turns back to look at Eloise who glowers at her over the edge of her book before going back to reading.

"She'll come around. She's not mad at you exactly, more me." Colin advises and Penelope nods her head in understanding but slightly wishes Eloise wasn't mad at him because she actually enjoyed Eloise's company when they had hung out.

"She's actually mad at Anthony because he found out about her secret affair with Theo." Benedict whispers to Colin, clearly having no respect for people's private conversations.

"Eloise and the bodyguard?" Colin whistles lowly and then chuckles.

"Always a scandal with the Bridgerton's." He jokes to Penelope who laughs, a little guiltily, but a laugh nonetheless.

"When did it happen?" Colin asks his older brother and Benedict's smile widens and he laughs boisterously.

"It's been happening. Turns out we were all just to oblivious to notice it or we're too self involved? Anyway, Anthony advised Theo not to come on the trip and they would talk about it when it was over. Ant wants to find out what his true intentions with El are." Benedict laughs some more at that comment and Colin can only roll his eyes at how brotherly Anthony was. 

"Who wants champagne?" Daphne calls to the group and they all nod as she hands out the flutes of bubbly goodness.

~~

The flight was long and tiresome and when they arrived at their hotel everyone was too tired to even think of going exploring, everyone except for Sophie and Benedict who made sure to ditch everyone at some point to go off on their own.

"You have your own room." Colin tells Penelope, handing her the key card and Penelope nods, ready to take the key card from his grip, but notices the smile play on his lips.

"Or you can share mine?" He adds, lifting the key card away from her so she couldn't reach it. And touché' because he was a tree and she would have to climb him to get the card but she really did not mind because he was a rather fetching tree, solid trunk and all.

She giggles out loud at the thought and he quirks a brow.

"Something funny about sharing a room with me?" He asks her, sounding serious and Penelope shakes her head quickly.

"No, no, not at all I be-leaf it will be a good idea." She says, laughing even more at her own pun but when he looks at her, confused she can only chuckle more.

"Come on Mr. Blacksmith." She looks at the name on the card and raises her brow in question, trying to distract him from her previous attempt at a joke that he wasn't in on.

"Fake names, for the fans, you know?" He says quietly and she nods, understanding.

They eventually make their way to the hotel room, a room they share.

They decide they need to take things slow this time so nothing happens on their first night in Vegas, mainly because they're too tired for anything. They cuddle and it's nice and normal and Penelope appreciates it.

~~

The concert is everything anyone would wish it be. Loud, entertaining, and Sophie's lost her voice from singing all the songs except a new one that tugs at Penelope's heart strings, a song about losing something you never had. But then it's back to the loud vibrations and thumps and the crowd singing and an encore. 

"That was brilliant!" Benedict pumps the air once the show is over and they're making their way over to the others in the chill area.

"Well, it's not over yet!" Sophie reminds him cryptically and they're surprised to see Hyacinth, Gregory, and Violet standing in the backstage area looking excited.

"Now tell me why you've flown us all out here? Hyacinth and Gregory are not even of age to be in Vegas!" Violet scolds her second eldest child and everyone's looking confused but excited to find out what's going on.

Everyone gathers around after being ordered by Anthony. Even Daphne's husband Simon is there, along with Francesca's boyfriend Michael. 

"We have an announcement to make!" Benedict calls everyone to order and as everyone quietens down he looks at Sophie and they both grin in glee.

"We're getting married tonight!" Benedict proclaims and he and Sophie watch everyone's reactions at once and it's utter chaos.

Chapter Text

"I can't believe they're getting married..." Colin glances over at Penelope as they ride the elevator up to their suite to get changed for the wedding.

"Why can't you believe it? They're madly in love with one another. I've honestly never seen Benedict like this before, it's refreshing." Colin says with a nod, sidling up closer to her and Penelope nods, looking up at him too.

"I think I can't believe it more that Sophie kept this from me... I mean I told her about Whistledown..." Penelope feels Colin stiffen beside her at the mention of her. There it is, the elephant in the room.

They haven't spoken about Lady Whistledown since they decided to concentrate on their relationship instead. Even though Colin had reassured her he was fine with her being who she was considering it was her job, she knew that it would eventually come between them at some point, but just a mere mention of Whistledown and he's clenching his jaw, says something else to her and it has her worried.

She was going to have to go back to work eventually. He did realize that, didn't he?

"Is everything okay?" She asks him, and he nods, answering with an almost too breezy, "Yes."

"We haven't spoken about her, you know?" Penelope points out when the awkward silence becomes too much to bear.

Colin clears his throat and nods.

"I know, I guess I was naive into thinking we were done with her, right?" He turns to face her straight on and Penelope sees his entire body deflate.

"It's my job, I thought you were fine with it?" She asks him, while he sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

"How are you going to continue being her when you outed yourself to everyone? I just don't see it happening." Colin shrugs, content with not having to talk about it further, they should just enjoy the rest of the evening, it's Sophie and Ben's night after all, not their night to talk about Whistledown.

"Can we talk about it tomorrow? Let's just enjoy tonight for what it is." He adds and Penelope's pending frustration boils over before the elevator dings open, she hits the break button, and it comes to a jerky halt.

"Pen." 

"You don't approve of my job and if you don't approve of my job there is no way we can be together." She tells him, even though she can feel her heart protesting against her words. 

"Can you not just get another job? You don't even like being Whistledown from what I hear!" He retorts, a hint of anger lingering in the proposed statement rather than a question.

She looks over at him and sighs.

"This has been a disaster from the beginning, hasn't it?" She whispers, not even wanting to be petty and childish regarding his statement of her getting another job. She didn't have his luxuries, his fame, his money, she had Whistledown and it helped her pay her bills, and he clearly didn't understand that.

"Yes, I suppose it has been but is it not worth fighting for?" He asks her, his eyes soft and sincere.

 "I don't know..." And if they hadn't been trapped in the elevator with just the two of them, the surrounds so quiet you could hear a pin drop, Colin wouldn't have heard her, but they were in the elevator, the air thick with tension, and when he heard her say that he gave up entirely.

He nods. "Fine." He hits the break button again so hard it makes Penelope jump and as the elevator starts moving again Penelope watches Colin wearily.

Fucking hell he was pissed off and she understood why. But he's being entirely unfair, and her stubbornness is seeping out of her, reeking the small space they've been in for the past fifteen minutes.

The door dings and Colin doesn't even look back at her, he walks forward in long strides and enters their room, grabbing some stuff, and the extra key card before Penelope sees him leave the room again and walk down the hallway before she's even managed to get to it.

"Col..." She tries but he's gone and she's alone and she doesn't know what to do about it.

~~

She sees him again in the lobby. He's in a tuxedo and he looks excruciatingly handsome. 

Why the fuck must she be so stubborn? Why the fuck does she need to be so proud? She understands then why Pride is part of the seven deadly sins because her pride will probably kill her one day.

He looks up from fiddling with his cufflinks and as if they are magnetically drawn to one another, their eyes lock. He takes her in, her blue dress hugging every single curve deliciously, her half-pinned hair cascading over her shoulders. She's surprised that he's even waiting for her after her admittance in the elevator and after he stormed away from her. Perhaps it's got to do with security because they have only got one bodyguard between the both of them, although she's not sure why she needs one, although Colin would most likely say it's because people are angry that she's Whistledown, that she needs all the protection she can get.

She hasn't had any issues since she outed herself but anyway...

"Ms. Featherington." The bodyguard calls her, and she shuffles over, and they do indeed make their way through the kitchen, and out of the back of the hotel to avoid the cameras and avoid being followed.

The car is waiting for them and they both get into it in silence.

"We'll need to do a couple of loops, Mr. Bridgerton was very specific about not being followed." Their new bodyguard who had replaced Theo for this trip says to them.

"Look Col..."

"We'll just..."

They both look at each other, one slightly frazzled the other one sheepish.

"You go first..." Penelope suggests and he sighs emotionally before stopping himself from running his hand threw his newly styled hair.

"Can we just get through tonight for Sophie and Benedict, let tonight be tonight and tomorrow be...?" He pauses, and swallows the lump in his throat before continuing, "Tomorrow you can decide whatever you need to..." He finishes and Penelope stares at him for a moment, or two, or three before she nods. 

~~

When they reach the chapel, on a corner street near the Vegas strip they enter it from a side door, undetected.

Fairy lights have been strung up from the beams sweeping across the roof, and flowers have been placed with precision along the aisle leading up to the altar. A huge wedding cake had been placed on a table in a corner near the front where Hyacinth and Gregory were trying to sneakily taste the frosting.

Francesca, Eloise, and Michael are already sitting in a pew next to each other. Violet and Daphne are fussing over some decorations that still need to be placed. Simon is talking with the priest near the front. 

"Oh great, you two are here! Penelope, Sophie was asking for you." Penelope nods and follows Violet to a side room where she opens the door and sees Kate fussing with Sophie's dress.

"Penelope!" Sophie cries out excitedly when she sees her and shrugs Kate off before running over to her and embracing her in a hug.

"You look wonderful. Blue really is your color!" She praises before Kate nods in agreement.

"Me? Sophie look at you! You look gorgeous!" Penelope says honestly while taking Sophie in.

"You really think so? We've been running around all day I feel like I'm about to pass out." Sophie whispers to her and Penelope nods her head.

"It's probably nerves, you need to eat something." Kate interrupts, "I'll go see if I can get you anything." She adds before leaving the two alone.

"I can't eat, I'm too excited." Sophie grins widely before she realizes Penelope's matched smile doesn't meet her eyes.

"Is everything okay?" Sophie questions her and Penelope nods quickly.

"Fuck, I'm okay, sorry, don't worry about me, this is your time Sophie." Penelope hugs Sophie again before pulling away.

"Where are you going, you're standing up there with me." Sophie hisses to her as she tries to leave before Sophie susses her out. 

"Oh?" Penelope asks and Sophie nods. "Benedict is asking Colin, he would ask Ant and Colin but then he fears that Gregory might feel a bit left out." Sophie puts her hand on her heart.

"Bless him." She adds.

When it's time to start the ceremony Penelope stands next to Sophie and Colin next to Benedict and the rest of the family gathers in the pews. The priest, to Penelope's horror, is dressed up as Elvis, but this was Vegas, she shouldn't expect anything less.

Once the two lovebirds exchange their vows, their love, even though short-lived, shines right through. Blinding Penelope.

She tries her hardest to not sneak a glance at Colin but when she inevitably does, she sees him wipe a tear away from the corner of his eye before noticing her own on him. He smiles at her, it's a sad knowing smile as if he knows she's already made up her mind to leave him, to leave them, to give up on them after everything they've been through.

Then Sophie and Benedict share the most natural, loving kiss with one another, and the ceremony is over. 

The Bridgertons and Penelope applaud. Penelope realizes she's also crying, happy tears for her best friend of course. She wipes them away as she and Colin share one more look with each other. She wipes at her tears while Sophie pulls her into a hug, laughing happily with Benedict still holding her other hand.

The music swells and cake is served much to Hyacinth and Gregory's delight. Penelope sips champagne from a flute while the cake is passed around. That's when Eloise approaches her cautiously.

Eloise smiles and Penelope smiles back.

"So, will you tell me how you managed to do it?" She asks, her own glass of champagne is brought to her lips.

"To do what?" Penelope asks, an eyebrow raised.

"Whistledown of course. It's a remarkable feat if I do say so myself, and I'm interested to see how you got away with it."

"I thought you didn't like me because of it?" Penelope questions Eloise and she chuckles before responding.

"Well, you got my brother to forgive you somehow, you know he hates Whistledown, and you did pretty much slander him any chance you got and besides, I'm no longer mad at you, my rage is all for Anthony right now since he banned my boyfriend from coming on this trip!" Eloise shoots a glare at her older brother before continuing.

"So, enlighten me." 

Penelope splutters because she doesn't know what to say. 

She feels uncomfortable all of a sudden. Really uncomfortable. Like what in the actual fuck was she actually doing there?

"Could you excuse me?" That is all she's able to say and Eloise studies her carefully, concern in her eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"I just don't feel very well." And she doesn't. She feels sick to her stomach really. She gets up, champagne still in hand as she hurries out of the chapel, big gulps of air reaching her lungs when she arrives outside.

She hadn't really known the repercussions of being Whistledown. She would just write, her writings would be published, and she would be paid and that was that. She hadn't realized that she was hurting people, okay she did think about it occasionally considering the pseud she had to go under but, but the guilt hadn't consumed her how it was consuming her now, she hadn't met anyone she'd ever written about, she hadn't written about people she'd grown to care for, and she couldn't go back to it either and she knew Danbury wouldn't be pleased with her about it, she'd probably get rid of her and let Honoria do it instead because Honoria wasn't weak. 

Lady Whistledown was the column with the most traffic at the magazine Danbury wouldn't dare cut it out, probably just replace her and then she'd be jobless...

Panic rises within her. 

She'd have to go back and live with her mother!

Oh god.

She needs to go home and speak to Danbury immediately. 

Chapter Text

Sophie looks around and smiles at her new family, smiles at how happy they are for her and Benedict, smiles at how she feels in this moment, wanting to bask in the happiness with her best friend. She then frowns when she can't pinpoint her best friend out in the group. 

She glances over at Colin who is standing with Michael and Francesca, they seem to be sharing a laugh about something, Penelope should be there next to Colin, but she's not.

She hurries over to Colin, her eyes wide.

"Have you seen Penelope?" She asks curiously, glancing briefly at Francesca and Michael before turning her gaze back on him.

Just as Colin is about to answer it seems that Eloise has overheard Sophie ask the question. 

"We were having a conversation and she stepped out for some air."

"And what were you two discussing?" Colin asks her, his eyes narrowing at her suspiciously.

"Whistledown. I just wanted to find out how she got you to forgive her since you've hated Whistledown since she started slandering you!" Eloise replies, a nonchalant shrug ending the conversation.

Sophie notices a flicker of panic in Colin's eyes at Eloise's admittance. He doesn't say anything more. he makes a dash for the door, pulling it open roughly and tumbling down the stairs of the chapel.

"Wickham..." Colin breathes when he catches sight of their new bodyguard, and when Wickham notices Colin's look of distress he starts apologizing profusely.

"She threatened me, Sir... I - my job..." He stammers...

"She wouldn't let me..." Colin nods in understanding, a considerate look on his face before he pats Wickham on the shoulder.

"It's alright, will you drive me back to the hotel, she can't have gotten far..." Colin asks Wickham who first smiles appreciatively at Colin not getting mad at him for letting Penelope out of his sight, and then he nods.

Sophie hurries after Colin at this moment.

"She's gone Sophie..." Colin tells her and Sophie gasps and then looks at him questioningly, he groans because they're wasting time, but he tells her anyway, his words rushing out as Wickham brings the car around. 

"We had an argument about Whistledown, I asked her to leave it for tonight since this was about you and Ben, but my sister must've rubbed salt in the wound which is why she's left." Colin sighs then, forgetting about his styled hair and ruffling it a bit with his hand. An anxious tick, Sophie noted.

"Colin, do you not forgive her for being Whistledown, after all you two have been through you're still going to hold that against her? She's only ever pointed out the obvious, it wasn't like she made things up, or lied." Sophie argues.

"I do forgive her, I love her for crying out loud I just..." Realizing what he just admitted to Sophie, he blinks and pauses.

Sophie gasps and her mouth gapes open.

"God, what am I doing?" Colin says aloud, looking at Sophie as if she has all the answers, when he realizes that Sophie is still in shock and not able to help him with his new dilemma, he turns to look at Wickham.

Wickham doesn't say anything either, he's just waiting for the next orders.

"You should tell her..." Sophie manages to get out, grabbing hold of Colin's elbow.

"You need to tell her you love her despite Whistledown, despite her flaws, she's probably feeling like she's not good enough because of it, she's probably spiralling again..." Sophie tells him desperately and Colin nods, his feet moving towards the car, he yanks the door open and climbs in and orders Wickham to drive to the hotel. He doesn't spare another glance at Sophie, they just drive off.

~~

She was pacing around the hotel suite, her cell phone burning her ear as Danbury yelled at her regarding the time difference.

She knew she would never be able to make it to the airport no matter how hard she tried but she also knew that she needed to speak with Danbury before she made any hasty decisions.

"I apologise Agatha but I needed to speak to you, it's about Whistledown I don't..."

"I know what you're about to say, it's about the Bridgerton boy isn't it?" She asks and Penelope chews her lips nervously before she responds.

"I don't think I can write that stuff anymore..." She hurries out, her words nearly jumbled over one another.

"You're really giving up your life's dream for a man that is only interested in a tumble in the sheets, you've seen what he's like Ms. Featherington, you've written what he's like..." Danbury points out to her and Penelope stares at herself in the mirror over the fireplace, as she catches her reflection as she walks by.

She takes a deep breath in and continues.

"It's not about him, it's about the people we write about. I want to write meaningful stuff, stuff that doesn't hurt people..." She's proud of herself for finally saying it but she knows it's just going to go downhill from here.

Danbury scoffs.

"Ms. Featherington..." She pauses before Penelope's hears her sigh.

"I am flawed but I am no monster. You are an exceptional writer, and I will hate myself if the magazine loses you..." There's a pause again, as if Danbury is fighting with her decisions.

Penelope holds in a breath, nervous of Danbury's next words.

"You are a hundred per cent certain that you do not want to write the column anymore?" She asks again, her voice a lot calmer than before.

"Y-yes..." Penelope stammers but all she hears is Agatha Danbury sigh dramatically on the other end of the line.

"Alright, when you're back in London we'll have a meeting to discuss your future at the magazine." She says to Penelope's utter surprise.

"And Penelope... I see a lot of my younger self in you, which is the only reason why I'm keeping you on the team. I like determination and I enjoyed being in love with my late husband, so I only hope the same happens for you..." With that she hangs up before Penelope can even say anything.

Penelope stares at the phone, to stunned to speak.

A loud knock on the door brings her out of her stupor.

"Penelope!"

She looks up at the sound of Colin's worry-stricken voice. 

He knocks frantically again.

She pads over to the door and opens it and he sighs in relief. He then pulls her into a hug. She takes note of how Wickham takes a few steps back from them and turns around, giving them privacy.

"Can we talk, please?" He asks her and she nods, and lets him in, Wickham waiting outside for them keeping guard.

He then takes her in, she looks different, almost relaxed and he points it out to her.

"You look different, dare I say... relaxed?" He asks her and she nods but shrugs her shoulders at the same time.

"I think I'm relieved. I quit Whistledown." She tells him honestly and his eyes widen.

"I love you." He blurts out without warning and a nervous laugh leaves her, not sure if he was meant to say that or not.

Then he nods as if seeing her made everything clear.

"I do, I love you." He tells her again, more earnestly this time. He grabs her hand.

"I love you for you and I shouldn't ask you to find a new job and you didn't have to quit your job because of me... It's what makes you, you. On my way here I figured that I've been scared to tell you that I love you because of me and my flaws not yours." She squeezes his hand as she tries to hold back the tears that are willing to escape.

"You don't have to say it back but just know that I love you and I'm going to be here no matter what." He ends, and when a smile as bright as the sun lights up her face he can't help but smile too. 

She pulls him down closer to her so their lips meet, a gentle touch, a kind of touch you yearn for. 

"Just to clear the air I quit Whistledown for us, more for me..." He chuckles at that after he's given her a hesitant look.

"I don't want you resenting me for it..." Colin tells her with the most honest look in his eyes and she shakes her head.

"No resentment, I promise you. I actually feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders." She replies and he grins at her, a cheeky thing that melts her heart.

And with the weight lifted off her shoulders she knows that she can tell him what she's been feeling for him too.

"I love you, too." She adds, and his grin widens even further and then he's kissing her with every ounce of his being, every inch of his soul, every bit of his heart and she can only match his energy. 

When the back of his legs hit the bed, Colin falls back, bringing her down with him. She straddles him, her kisses growing even more desperate than before. 

"I need you." She whispers sensually into his ear before grinding down on his cock.

"I need you too, baby girl." He murmurs back, nipping her earlobe before pecking down her neck.

Penelope whines as his kisses get lower to her breasts, his teeth grazing the skin so lightly, goosebumps tickle her skin. 

"Colin, please touch me..." She moans, her voice throaty and sexy Colin can do only that. His fingers trail the hem of her dress, tickling the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs, before he softly tickles her clit through her knickers. She presses down on his hand and whispers again, "More."

"Wait, wait, wait, let's take this off." Colin motions to her dress and she nods, frantically removing it over her head revealing her tits still in a black lacy number, with matching panties that Colin wants to remove with his teeth.

But there was time for that later, for now he needed her, and she needed him and that's all that matters.

After removing her garments, he flips them over in one swift motion. His fingers gliding down her thighs so agonizingly slow that Penelope can't help but moan when he eventually touches her, slides his fingers through her folds, threw her slick, over her clit. 

She arches her back as he starts to make circular motions there, soft and tender before adding some pressure. When he adds a digit to her leaking pussy she nearly comes right then. He slides her panties off, the lacy fabric in the way of his main goal - making her come. His name on her lips a little medal.

When his finger touches her g-spot she moans again. A throaty sound that makes him grin into her pussy. He continues until her legs start to tremble, until she squeezes his finger, until she reaches her peak with an arched back. She's panting when he removes his finger, a gush of slick leaks out of her and he laps it right up with his tongue.

"Oh god, too... too sensitive." She manages and he lifts his head and sees her leaning back on the bed, her chest heaving, her eyes closed, a smile on her lips.

He crawls up her body and lifts her slightly so he can take off her bra. When she's back down on Earth she assists him with taking off his clothes, admiring his chest, her hand snaking it's way down his chest, in the light dusting of chest hair, down to his now free member.

She ogles it, remembers how good it feels inside her and takes it in her hand, a few soft pulls and he's moaning her name in a whisper.

He pauses her just as she's about to rub his mushroomed tip. 

"I need to be inside you..." He breathes heavily and she nods, her lids heavy, her mouth slightly open in awe at how beautiful he looks. 

He slides his dick through her slick, her folds, rubs it onto her clit a little bit and her hips jerk. He grins at her before he slides into her, she fits like a glove, so tight, so warm. He's missed this, he's happy she's his now, in love with her, with her body, with her mind, with her soul.

Once they both reach their climax, lying in the afterglow of their love Penelope hears Colin humming something whilst he tickles her tits, twirling around the sensitive pink peaks.

"What is that?" She asks him in a whisper.

"Hm?" He murmurs back, too entranced by her tantalizing breasts.

"That tune, you've been humming it since we finished..."

"Oh, it's been stuck in my head since I first sucked your clit." He grins sheepishly, two fingers twiddling around a nipple.

"It's nice..."

"It was you, it was you from the very start..." His melodic voice sings the words so softly to the tune he was just humming.

Penelope watches him mindlessly string words together. Impressed.

"You are the one, the sun, the light of day..." He's still playing with her nipples when he sings this to a different but still similar tune, and she chuckles quietly.

"Have I given you inspiration to write a new song?" She questions him playfully and his eyes flick up to hers and he smiles this time, an adoring smile.

"Hang on..." He gets up off the bed in search of his phone.

He hits record and sings some of the words he just put together to the tune he had been humming.

"What can I say Ms. Featherington, you inspire me." He says to her after getting back into the bed next to her.

Penelope giggles before burying her head in his chest.

~~

EPILOGUE

TEN YEARS LATER

After a small hiatus the Bridgerton Brothers reunite for one show only.

"Ten years ago, I wrote this song for my beautiful wife Penelope, but today we have a special guest joining us on stage to sing the song with us since she's recently found all of our hidden gems and has become obsessed with this song in general." Colin tells the audience while Gregory softly plays a melody in the background. Ant decided to pass on his baton to Gregory, the youngest brother, after he realized he was getting on in years and was unlikely to be able jump around on the stage like he used to.

"Aggie?" Colin calls to his daughter over the microphone and a shy little girl with flaming red hair and the greenest of eyes walks onto the stage, beelining for her dad because it was all too much.

Colin gets down on his knees so he's eye level with her and he sends her the goofiest smile to calm her down, because he can tell she's nervous.

Penelope watches on from the side of the stage, Sophie, Kate, Eloise and Theo, standing next to her.

"Oh my god she's too cute." Eloise cries out excitedly, holding Penelope in a side hug, Theo holding Eloise's hand on her other side. 

"She's going to cry. She's going to cry and we're going to look like terrible parents!" Penelope cries, peaking through her hands that are covering her eyes.

"Hey sweet girl, you ready?" Colin asks Agatha who squints at him, her eyes adjusting to the light then as if she realizes that she's with dad now and everything will be okay, she grins and nods and Colin stays where he is, level with her, the microphone hovering between them.

Greg and Ben start up with the music and when Colin starts to sing Agatha joins him and the crowd cheer on in excitement.

"You are the one, the sun, the light of day
You are the wings I need to fly away,
When you give me love..."

Penelope uncovers her eyes when she hears Agatha's little voice through the speakers.

"Oh my god!" Sophie squeals, her phone shaking in excitement while she recorded the two.

"It was you, it was you right from the very start..." Colin sang to Agatha, his eyes flicking over to where he knew Penelope was in the wing, picking her up in his arms eventually as they continue to sing.

"Charles is next." Sophie tells the women around her and Eloise rolls her eyes.

"Although I love my nephew, he is as tone deaf as his mother." Kate jokes and Sophie gasps, her hand on her heart.

Eloise and Penelope giggle together.

"Oh, if only Danbury could see this, it would melt her heart right down to a puddle." Penelope beams at her daughter and her husband as they finish off their song.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll show her on Monday, you can even let Honoria post it in Whistledown." Sophie gestures to her phone and Penelope squeezes Sophie's other hand in thanks, but chuckles at her suggestion with a headshake. 

Colin runs over to Penelope with Agatha still in his arms when they finish the song and gives her their daughter, giving Penelope a quick kiss on her lips and mouthing I love you to her before he's back on the stage in front of the few thousand people in the audience.

Penelope smiles at Agatha and whispers to her that she's so proud of her and Agatha is so excited and chattering away about how fun it was and how amazing daddy is.

And as for Penelope...

She couldn't be happier.