There was a lot more to Blithe Alan Crayle than met the eye. Any average person,upon spending five minutes with him, would instantly come to a conclusion about his personality:  ignorant, perverted, cocky, immature and narrow minded. Ghetto.  A negative conclusion, but Blithe didn't mind. He actually liked it that way. They automatically wrote him off without delving any deeper, because if they did they would see the truth of him. Blithe was very observant, smart and he had a big heart. He was very protective of his family, especially his little brother, even if he didn't seem the type. 

The people Gjynntoren hung around, were good people, and they loved him almost as fiercely as he and his grandparents did. So most of the time Blithe didn't have to worry about him, that didn't mean he still didn't keep an eye out. Just as he was now, idly watching his brother play his girlfriend  on the Xbox. As far as girls went Alex was well ... she was cute, he'd give his brother that. And quick tempered, with a mean left hook, tomboyish but she loved GJ with all that she had in her and protected him just as completely. And that made that chick alright in his book. Still pissing her off had become somewhat of a pastime for him. One he relished, despite the ass-kickings he got for it.

Blithe could feel Gran's steady gaze on him. and he turned his attention to where she was shucking peas at the dining room table. Sure enough he was getting THAT look from his grandmother. He narrowed his eyes at her. Although he loved the woman to death, Gran was nosy as hell, and she was one of the few people that saw right through what Blithe pretended to be.

"What?" Her response was a knowing grin as she focused her attention back on the vegetables.

"Jealous, mijo?"  Blithe jerked back in almost disgust but more shock than anything.

"What?" Surely she wasn't denoting that he had any interest in his twin's girlfriend?! Alex was cool, don't get him wrong, but that- that was just sick.
"Maybe it's time you found a nice chica and settled down." She stated  matter of fact in Portuguese, One of the languages he had bothered to learn and spoke fluently, where as Gjynn still had trouble with it.

He sent her a sly grin and responded back in kind.  "I've found a nice chica. Several of them."

Gran gave him a chiding look and he rolled his eyes. Like he said she was nosy like that. Settling down was fine for someone like GJ, (Hell the moment he brought Alex home when they were 6 he could see the out come of that union.) but Blithe couldn't even see himself going in that direction. well maybe in a few years but right now he still had some run in him and dammit he was going to use it.

"You know that's not what I meant. Those floozies you bring home don't count at all." Blithe's eyebrows raised. Floozies?!  Who used that word anymore? 
"They are not nice girls. " She huffed before pausing with her hands on her hips, "Why do you even hang around girls like that. We both know you aren't that kind of person." She looked to him for an answer and he immediately found his Pepsi can  fascinating. Fast girls were only after dangerous guys with fast money. Blithe fit the description and that was fine by him.
He only wanted one thing from girls like them anyway but he was sure his grandma didn't want to hear that. To her, her grandsons were gentlemen. Both of them.  How wrong that was.

He looked up and met her gaze in silence. Gran was looking as if she could see straight through him and he had no doubt she could do just that.

"Blithe you're handsome, you're smart. You've been on the principals list two years running. You have a heart. You actually care about something more than yourself so i cannot for the life of me understand this need you have to act like you don't."  She waved a hand in his direction.  "Skipping classes, hanging out with these... matones. you are better than that mijo."
Yeah keep telling yourself that, Gran. Blithe tossed his half consumed drink in the trash and kissed his grandmother on the forehead. He knew his behavior was killing her, but she just wouldn't understand.

"I love you Gran." he said in the flawless Portuguese before switching to English. "I'm gone you guys, be back whenever." Gjynn glanced in his brother's direction just in time to see the door shut behind him.

Ryan’s eyes fluttered open to a cool damp sensation trailing across her forehead. Her throat felt like fire, sore, bruised and burning, she doubted she could speak without being in intense pain. As her vision cleared, a pair of sympathetic hazel eyes came in to focus. The young girl tending to her looked to be no older than seventeen or eighteen. She pulled back as soon as she saw Ryan’s eyes flutter open, retracting the cool cotton cloth she was using to mop her brow.

“Are you okay? How are you feeling?” she asked her desperately. Her voice was soft and she had a slight accent that reminded Ryan of some eastern country back home.  The redhead make a croaking sound in response before wincing at the pain that caused her and reaching up to touch her neck tenderly.

“Wait a second.” The hazel-eyed brunette rushed to the side of the table next to the bed she was on and grabbed the iron water pitcher. Holding it up for her to see, she gently poured some of its contents down Ryan’s throat, causing her to sputter slightly from the pain of swallowing it.

“Better?”  Ryan nodded before attempting to sit up as the girl sighed in relief, “I’m glad. I thought he’d killed you for a minute there. I’m Abrielle, by the way.” She straightened her posture and smiled prettily.

“Ryan.” Her voice came out as a burning half gasp and the brunette winced.

“I sincerely apologize for the Prince’s behavior towards you, Miss Ryan. He’s usually not so,” she fished around for an appropriate word, “careless.”  Ryan gave her a droll look. She didn’t believe that for a second. ‘Yeah, he so carelessly forgot to finish me off.  Wait a second…’

“Prince Sable?” she croaked in disbelief as that thought sank in and Abrielle’s face contorted to one of horror. Her hands flew over her mouth, eyes widening.

“You know his name? He told you?”  The incredulous way she said it made Ryan feel like the man would be more apt to get on his knees and beg her forgiveness than tell her his name. And she got the feeling that Sable didn’t beg for anyone.

“No, there was a man in a bar that- addressed him by name and I overheard.” She clarified, grabbing the pitcher out of the young girl’s hands.  Sadness shone in the girl’s eyes as she averted her gaze.

“Rush… ön idióta...” she murmured under her breath. Ryan took a sip of water, her throat feeling slightly better from being lubricated and glanced at the brunette over the rim of the pitcher. She couldn’t exactly say she was sorry for her loss being that whoever he was had tried to kill her.

“I’m sorry,” the red head cleared her throat and lowered the water container, “but where am I again?” Abrielle blinked her eyes, snapping herself out of whatever reverie she was in, and looked up at the human woman she was tending too at her Prince’s request.

“You’re in the guest wing of the royal palace, fifth bedroom on the left.” She gestured outside of the room door as she eyed her warily, “Why? Was there something that you needed, Mistress?”  The brunette’s sweet words didn’t detract from the tiny strains of gold that were slowly seeping back into her irises in annoyance, which in turn annoyed Ryan. It seemed that her care taker, as nice as she would like to appear, was less than happy about having to babysit her.

“Why do they do that?” she quirked her head slightly at Ryan’s curious question.

“What?”

“Your eyes change colors. Gold in particular…” Her grey eyes narrowed at the younger woman and she glanced back at her and rolled her eyes in amusement before grinning at her.

“You don’t know anything at all do you?”She giggled, leaning forward to observe her human charge. Ryan suddenly got the inexplicable urge to slap the hell out of this girl. It was as if she thought of the redhead a puppy she’d found outside in the rain or something. And how dare she? Ryan was a pre-law student. She knew plenty.

“Why don’t you enlighten me?” she ground out through clenched teeth, which only amused Abrielle more. Smiling widely she twisted her spiraled curls over one of her shoulders and let it hang there.

“We are all deamons here. Our eye color shifts over when something upsets us and gold eyes are a trait to our species. They do that often. Being what we are, we really don’t have much self-control.”  She admitted with another giggle.  Ryan blinked at her. She looked normal enough... but a deamon? Large scary, ruthless mythical killers? Those kinds of deamons? She never was one for fantasy and fairy tale, being a fan of hardcore facts.  She could count the amount of non-fiction books she’d read on one hand. It was a wonder she ended up with such a vivid imagination and all these crazy dreams. There was that one world mythology class she’d taken freshman year…Abrielle’s brow furrowed at the redhead’s blank expression.

“You don’t look so well.  Are you ill?” At that precise moment the door opened to admit the last person she wanted to see. Sable. Ryan visibly paled. Appearing much calmer than he was before, he locked his green gaze on hers and she fought the urge to glare at him.

“You’re conscious.” He stated. His voice was controlled and diplomatic. Ryan yielded to the urge and narrowed her grey orbs at him. She wasn’t going to sit here and let him act all nonchalant as if he wasn’t trying to choke her to death just a while ago.

“Surprise.” She let enough sarcasm drip off the word to drown a fish. Abrielle immediately whirled around to face him with a devious grin, revealing her small set of fangs. “She is positively charming! Where’d you find her?”  Anger blazing, Ryan shot to her feet and glared evil death at the both of them.

“I want to go home.” She demanded, “I want to wake up.”  Abrielle’s look of mild amusement was starting to get on her nerves as the woman smirked at her. Sable narrowed his green gaze at her and bit back the warning growl that was threatening to spill over.

That was so not what she wanted to hear. Abrielle stood and smoothed out her gauzy burgundy and black leather dress with that coy grin of hers, that made Ryan want to hurt her.

“Well since you’re here now,” she addressed Sable, “I guess my services are no longer needed, your highness.” She curtsied to him before turning to face the redheaded human. “It was nice to make your acquaintance, Mistress Ryan. I do hope to see you around.” Shooting one more devious glance at them, the brunette girl made her exit, leaving her alone. With him…

Ryan pressed herself up against the wall and eyed him warily. He narrowed his eyes into two intimidating green-gold slits. “As long as I am obligated to let you stay here, these are your rooms. You do not leave them for any reason. You speak to no one and you do not address me in public. Do I make myself clear?”

What was this, prison?! Pushing herself away from the wall she glared right back at him. Although she was terrified out of her mind she had never been a pushover. “No we are not clear!” the redhead hissed, “And just so you know, your diplomatic skills suck, your majesty! Do you try to choke all your visitors to death or am I just special?”

He couldn’t look less amused and his unusual green eyes bored into her unceasingly. “Only the ones that can’t seem to learn their place.” His calm words, surprisingly, held more of a threat than anything he’d growled or snarled at her previously. Ryan sucked in a calming breath before releasing it and pushing herself away from the wall as she fixed her stern gaze on the man before her.

“You don’t scare me, deamon.” She growled out. This was a dream. None of it was real and this person- thing- couldn’t hurt her no matter how much he threatened to. In the end she would wake up and be back in her room, in her bed, perfectly safe and unharmed. Eyes glinting gold, Sable cocked his head to the side as if he was listening for something as a slow psychotic grin stretched over his face.

“You just keep telling yourself that, human.” The redhead stiffened, wondering if maybe he could read her thoughts. Who knew what kind of freaky powers Deamons had? Curiosity getting the best of her, she approached cautiously stopping 3 feet in front of him. Okay, it was time to reanalyze the things she knew about him.

His name was Sable. His eyes changed color when he was upset. He was deadly, a murderer. He was a deamon. Scratch that-He was Prince of the fucking deamons. Just great, Ryan how in the hell do you get caught up in these things? Well at least she had found out those all important facts. Dr. Amirez would be proud, she thought sardonically.

“Okay,” she breathed messaging her temples in offense of the headache that was developing there. She could approach this diplomatically and maybe the two of them could come to some type of understanding. One that hopefully didn’t end in her being killed or imprisoned. Ryan didn’t realize she was pacing until she plopped back down on the bed and looked at the other occupant in the room that had his gaze trained on her. There was a terrible throbbing between her eyes and it was getting hard to focus on anything because of it. Her vision started to swim and she vaguely wondered if that Abrielle chick put anything in her water. Sable cocked his head to the side in observance. It seemed that whatever she had taken was finally wearing off. Not that he wasn’t relieved. Being Prince, he had more important things to do than watch over some squeamish human woman that just happened to fall into his world. If he attempted to push her out of her dream again, he would probably succeed but she was tottering so closely to consciousness that he figured, why waste the energy.

Ryan leaned forward, the room spinning around her while her head pounded, before reaching out and clutching the fabric of Sables shirt in her fists. It was soft and cool, like cotton and she could feel the hard abdominal muscles underneath, his body heat soaking into the skin on her hands. She managed to look up at him as her vision folded in on itself, the last thing her brain registered was the color gold, that was seeping into the vibrant green of his eyes.

---

Ryan’s eyes opened blearily against the streams of sunlight that were filtering though her bedroom window. Daylight? Blinking she sat up and looked at the clock on her night stand that proudly displayed that it was 7:17am. She groaned and snuggled back down into her pillow not ready to get up just yet. She needed to think. The image of narrowed gold-green eyes bored through her thoughts. Well the Daitamine chose to give out at an opportune time but not before she’d been a witness to a brutal murder, nearly choked to death and then left alone with that… monster. Wasn’t there some kind of power of the subconscious thing where she should be able to control the direction her crazy dreams went in? She highly doubted she found intense and malicious murder appealing in any form of consciousness.

It was just her luck that she had to spend over 12 hours there. Her head shot up in a flood of red strands as she swore colorfully and kicked the covers away from her body. 12 hours?! She hadn’t really slept that long had she?! Her body felt lighter, more energetic, and for once she didn’t feel fall-on-her-face tired.

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit…”

Ryan took a brush to her hair, pulling it up in a ponytail, before rushing off to the bathroom to start running her shower. Ryan Parks prided herself on not being late for anything. Her mother had taught her that punctuality was 20% of presentation. She could almost hear the woman in her head now.

‘People still care about these things Ryan, it’s their first impression of you and you know what they say: First impressions are the best impressions. Do you really want them to think of you as some unreliable, unorganized slob that can’t even take enough consideration for others to be on time and-’

And it would be around that time that Ryan would roll her eyes and start alleviating the migraine that always seemed to pop up around her mother, and her father would give her a stern look and go ‘That’s enough, Susan’. Making a frustrated noise in the back of her throat, Ryan rushed back into her room as the phone starting clattering in that loud obnoxious ring that it did, making a mental note to get a new phone and go at this one with a bat as soon as possible. The phone was old and considering she’d had it since middle school, that was a complete understatement.

Tripping over the clothes she’d recklessly thrown on the floor in an effort to get to bed last night, (her parent’s would be appalled) she grabbed the neon purple phone off the hook, placing it between her ear and shoulder.

“Hello?” She asked in annoyance.

“Ryan Avery Parks, you are 17 minutes late for a very important breakfast meeting.” Her mother’s voice hissed through the earpiece. Speak of the devil. “You knew that we had this planned for weeks, all of your father’s business partners are here and you are deliberately making him look bad because you can’t be on time.”

Ryan fought to keep her temper under control. Susan Parks was a very condescending woman, which made her a headache to deal with even on a good day. “Don’t tell her that! She’s not making me look bad. It’s fine.” She could hear her father chastising her in the background.

Ryan stuffed the dirty clothes on the floor in her laundry basket before fishing though her drawer for underwear. “I’m sorry. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I just woke up and I didn’t set my alarm so it didn’t go off-”

“Those are all horrible excuses, Ryan. You know better.” Mrs. Parks hissed back before greeting one of her father’s cohorts with false enthusiasm.

“What did she say?” her father asked as her mother obviously tried to cover the receiving end to answer him and failed miserably. Ryan still heard every word as clear as day.

“She just woke up, her alarm didn’t go off. If that isn’t a cup of bull…”

“So what if she just woke up? That’s a good thing, isn’t it? It means she’s sleeping now. You know she has trouble sleeping.” Her father implied.

“I know about her sleeping problem, William, you don’t have to tell me. That’s why I pay a Psychiatrist and that has nothing to do with Ryan being late. Now are you on your way, or not?” She addressed her daughter on the other end of the phone.

“I’m really not needed for dad to show up his little business friends. We all know I’m just a prop in all of this so feel free to start without me and I’ll get there as soon as I can.” The redhead ground out, annoyance bleeding through her voice. In all of her father’s assorted meetings she was only there so that everyone could coo over how pretty she’d gotten and how she was in law school and all her various accomplishments. Really, she wasn’t five years old but her mother insisted that it gave off the impression that they were still interested in one another’s daily lives and if she cared anything about her father she would attend them when asked. That was the kicker.

Gave the impression? Why the hell would they have to ‘give the impression’ that they were a family. Either they were or they weren’t. Unfortunately though, where Ryan could care less what other people thought, Susan Parks lived by it.

“What did she- she’s not a prop!” William Parks wrestled the phone away from his wife, “you’re not a prop!” he told his daughter. Ryan started rubbing her temples, the headache already starting to form. She let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding and summoned some patience.

“I know, dad. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just hold down the fort until I get there.” She softened her voice at her father. He’d had a heart issue last year that scared them all half to death, she and her mother tried to lower his stress level as much as possible since he refused to quit his job as senator. Ryan loved and respected her father greatly and it would break her heart if anything happened to him.

“Alright, sweetheart. Your mother and I are going to go ahead and get a table and you call us when you get here.” Mr. Parks tone was absolute. Ryan quickly agreed despite her mother’s angry venting on the other end and hung up before tossing the cordless phone on her bed and glaring at it. She had minimal time left to get dressed and be prepared to face both of her parents and their colleges and all of their nosy questions. Grabbing up her underwear from the corner of her bed, She glanced herself In the large mirror that hung over her dresser and did a double take, moving closer for a better look.

Faint, angry red marks ran around her throat like some distorted necklace and she could even see some finger prints. She brushed her fingers gently against them in awe and shock. It didn’t hurt at all but they were visible. Ryan sucked in her breath and met her gaze in the mirror as the image of gold rimmed green eyes flitted through her head.

Sable.

“You, son of a bitch…” she growled softly, still fingering the bruises. So the Prince of Deamon’s could leave his mark on her reality, after all. She’d have to be more careful in the future. She narrowed her granite colored eyes at herself in the mirror. In the future?! She hoped she never saw that pompous, green-eyed bastard again, because if she did…

“I’m going to kill him.” Her parents would freak if they saw this, which threw the outfit she had planned to wear right out the window, so she would need to find something else. How much more time would that take? Groaning she made her way back to the bathroom, where her shower had been running nonstop and was probably cold by now.

A cold shower, delayed to an important event, angry parents and a ring of bruises around her neck. She was starting to like insomnia better than a full nights rest. And to hell with the benefits.

Altmega flipped the light switch in the one bedroom suite in the fancy downtown hotel room that he’d spent almost five hundred dollars on for him and Arrianne. It was a lot of money, and of course she raised a fuss and demanded that they go to a cheaper hotel, but he didn’t mind spending it on her because she deserved it. Besides he liked the view from here. They were in the room on the edge of the sixth floor. And there was a balcony that gave them a gorgeous view of the skyline and the battery below. After a little bit of coaxing she gave in to him. He thought it was cute that she raised Cain over 500$ when there was plenty more where that came from, not that she needed to know that. No one needed to know that. (As if the fact that a seventeen year old boy had somehow saved up 36,000$ and growing wasn’t suspicious enough...)  Hyper moved around him into the room and practically gaped.  It was large and extravagant, stylishly done up in hues of white, navy blue and accents of gold. There was a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall opposite of the California King sized bed.  The right half of the wall was done up in complete floor to ceiling mirrors, the balcony with its gauzy white curtains drawn, was just beyond that. There was a blue pull out couch big enough for two, positioned catty-corner next to it.

“Wow…” She breathed dropping her bag in the middle of the floor before moving to the center of the room, turning in slow circles to take it all in.

“Impressive.” Altmega agreed, setting his bag on the bed.  Hyper turned to face him her brow furrowed in confusion, eyes scanning the room.

“Where’s the bathroom?” she voiced. He blinked, only Hyper would think of that. Moving past her he pushed in the marble panel imbedded in the center mirror and it slid aside revealing the bathroom. In complete awe, Hyper went in to explore while he made his way to the mini-fridge in the corner. Inside there were two wine glasses as well as a complementary bottle of Champagne. Taking out the champagne, Altmega examined the label before setting out the glasses.

“Holy Cow!” came from the bathroom before his best friend exited, eyes sparkling and grinning like a kid on Christmas. He couldn’t fight the amused grin that was pulling at the corner of his lips as he looked up at her.  Arrianne grabbed the front of his shirt and tugged him in the direction of the bathroom.

“The tub is a Jacuzzi! And I swear you can fit like, eight people in it!” she exclaimed in excitement before the bottle in his hand caught her attention. “And we get Champagne too?!”

“Sure, why not?” he shrugged, “I vote we get completely drunk off of our asses, dance around in our underwear all night and wake up tomorrow in bed together, completely naked and covered in cough syrup.”  Arrianne’s grin stretched wider as she quirked an eyebrow at him. Well if he wasn’t a man with a plan…

“Cough syrup? What the hell did we do with cough syrup?”

He shot her another one of his dangerous grins as he popped the cork off of the bottle. “In situations such as that, it’s imperative not to ask questions.” Hyper laughed as he filled their glasses and handed her hers.

“To us.” He raised his glass to her and it clinked with hers and she reciprocated.

Altmega turned over again, trying to get comfortable on the blue sofa bed and failing miserably, not that it wasn’t comfortable in itself. He usually had a hard time falling asleep in places other than his house and tonight was no acceptation, even though he was tired as all hell, fighting to keep his eyes open. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand that blared 3:46 AM in bright red numbers and groaned audibly.

Arrianne sat up on the bed and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, turning in the direction of the couch her best friend was stretched out on. She had no idea when she’d fallen asleep but was sure the champagne had something to do with it. They’d finished off the bottle, watched a little Tv, joked and laughed before she started feeling the pull of sleep and Altmega had promptly tucked her into bed where she’d happily drifted off … and he had not.

“Mega?” she called softly into the darkness. He stiffened before turning to face her.

“hn?” Hyper blinked her eyes, trying to get them to adjust to the darkness only to find her best friend wide awake and staring at her when they finally did. She’d forgotten about his problem sleeping in foreign territory. In the silence between them she could hear the soft tones of music drifting up from the clock radio on the stand next to the bed. He had apparently turned the radio on in a futile attempt to get some sleep.(because Altmega always slept with music on at home.) Arrianne pulled the duvet back off of her body.

“Come to bed, Mega.” She said softly a slight grin adorning her features.  He sat up and gave her a wary look , trying to ignore the way she looked in his T shirt and panties and apparently nothing else, asking him to join her in bed…

“Are you sure?” he heard the words tumble out of his mouth unconsciously before she nodded and motioned for him to come to her. He was way too tired to resist and he could always blame his malfunctioning – sleep deprived brain for this and whatever situation he found himself in come morning, he moved over until he was at the edge of the bed and slowly crawled over her until he could look into her wide grey eyes.  Arrianne grinned and gently pulled his head down to rest on her chest, and he let her without so much as a word of protest. He was just that damned tired.  He got comfortable on top of her as she raised her knees to cradle his abs between her thighs.

There was something extremely intimate about this, but oddly, it wasn’t sexual at all. His weight felt natural and comfortable on top of her. Hyper ran her fingers through his hair, picking at individual strands as he made a sound of contentment.

“Comfy?” she teased and he nodded, causing him to snuggle down deeper into her chest, the vague realization that she wasn’t wearing a bra flitting past his brain.

“You make a damn good pillow.” He murmured and she laughed, the sound reverberating through her chest, beneath his ear, “You are so soft and warm.” Altmega reveled in the feel of her soft curves underneath his body and how they just seemed to naturally fit there.

“You are sooo tired.” She replied back. Altmega wouldn’t dare say anything like that while awake. He was too cautious but she would be lying if she said she didn’t find his semi-conscious honesty, completely charming.

“And you smell nice.” He continued drowsily, “I like it when my shirts smell like you.”  Arrianne smiled at that as she continued to run her fingers though his hair. “But it drives me completely crazy…”

She paused at that. “I drive you crazy?” She strained to listen for his answer in the dark but was met with silence. Did he really fall asleep that fast?! She could hear his calmed evened breathing and wiggled her hips a bit in an attempted to shift his weight. Altmega growled in warning at her, his voice measured.

“If you don’t stop moving I will seriously consider foregoing the cough syrup and strip us both…” Arrianne burst out laughing at that.

“What is with you and cough syrup all of a sudden?”  She felt more than saw, the grin stretch out across his face, but he didn’t answer her.  Instead she felt his fingers brush gently against her sides and she was overcome with the overwhelming need to wrap her legs around his torso but she resisted as his breathing evened back out, asleep again.

This is nice, Hyper mused placing a chase kiss on the top of brunette locks. It would be nice to sleep like this every night, with Altmega, to wake up to him every morning. She sighed, reveling in the smell of her best friend. She loved his soft ‘soap and fresh rain’ scent, his smile, that devious grin of his, his voice, his laugh… She loved waking up in his arms, the sound of his soft breathing when he slept; she loved the way her name sounded when he said it. She just loved him. All of him. Completely. Arrianne froze in stroking his hair. Wait… what? When the hell did this happen?

Altmega scrunched his face in his sleep, disgruntled at the fact that she’d stopped playing in his hair, and came off looking every bit like an adorable six year old. She bit back a grin as he visibly relaxed again, and ran her hand over his bare back, heart pounding. The skin felt cool and smooth under her palm.

She loved him. She loved Altmega.

“I love you.” She murmured in complete awe and Altmega made a content sound in his sleep. Arrianne grinned widely, suddenly feeling deliriously happy. Wow… She was taking this well. Usually when you came to the conclusion that you were in love with your best friend at four in the morning, weren’t you supposed to freak out or something? But it just felt so natural to love him, like it didn’t take any effort at all. It didn’t require any thought. It just was. Is that how it was supposed to feel? Could she have loved him this whole time and never have known?  She cradled his head to her chest as she bit her lip in thought.

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YAY!! LOL almost there and it's about damn time! *glares at Arrianne* XDD yay fluffy goodness up next! >.> man... does anyone else notice how more and more Altmega and Hyper are acting like an old married couple? Oh well...*zombiefied*sleeeeep...

Altmega shut his car door before walking out into the rapidly dwindling twilight. After Veronica had practically dragged Arrianne out of his house earlier no one seemed to be in the partying mood so they just sort of dispersed and went back to their perspective houses. He waited a while for his temper to disperse before he went to find her. Not that he really had to look, he always knew exactly where to find her when she was upset. There was a ‘park’ of sorts towards the end of their subdivision. It was a grassy area with a small pond in the center surrounded by trees and Hyper like to go there to think whenever she had a lot on her mind and usually he’d join her. The pond was something of their secret meeting place.

Currently she was curled up at the water’s edge, sobbing every so often and hugging her legs to her chest as she stared at the surface of the water as if it held all the answers. She didn’t even turn to look at him as he silently sat down next to her.

“Hey.” Her voice was soft, her eyes never leaving the pond. Altmega focused his gaze on her, resting his elbows on his knees. He could tell that she had been crying not too long ago but, didn’t comment on it.

“Hey.”  She wiped at her face before turning those pain filled grey eyes on him. He felt his heart clench at the sight of them.  Reaching out he wiped away a tear that she missed, that was rolling down the side of her face.  Hyper sniffled and turned ever so slightly into his hand before breaking down in another fit of tears. Gathering her up in his arms, Mega held her as if his life depended on it.

“What did I do that was so horrible that my own family can’t love me?” She sobbed into his chest as she balled her fists into his shirt. He clenched his teeth overcome with the sudden urge to go off and kill her sister.  He’d already been to jail for her once. He’d be more than happy to do it again if it meant he would never have to see her cry like this.

“Nothing, if they can’t love you for who you are then they truly don’t deserve you.” He told her sincerely pulling away from her and holding her face in his hands so that she could look at him and know he meant every word of it. “Arrianne, you are the most beautiful person I have ever met, both inside and out. You have so much strength in you. I swear sometimes you are even stronger than me. I couldn’t put up with half of the things you do, couldn’t put up with them.” He growled softly,” They give you absolute hell and yet if they asked you to you would move heaven and earth for them.  If they can’t respect that, admire that, then why would you need someone like that to love you?”

Arrianne swallowed thickly. There were times, times like these, when she loved this man so much that it literally hurt. She couldn’t have been that bad. She obviously did something right for him to care about her like he did.  “Why?” She asked, grabbing his wrists with her hands and squeezing ever so gently.

“Why what?”

“Why do you care so much?” His eyes caught the light and the absolute resolve there stunned her. He caressed her cheek with his thumb before dropping his hands all together. Because I love you. I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you and I continued to love you every day since… Gods how he wanted to tell her the truth instead he fought to swallow the words that were fighting for a chance to be heard.

“Because I know you enough to know that they never really knew you at all. You’re important to me Ari. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like you’re not.” Arrianne felt her heart lighten a little bit. She knew that her friend loved her, sometimes she just needed to hear him say it. She smiled at the intimate way he shortened her given name before glancing around helplessly. It was getting late.

“I can’t go back home tonight.” She admitted. And going to his house was out of the question too. It’s not like they wouldn’t expect that.

“Okay.” Altmega leaned back in thought before shooting her one of his token grins, “You want to get a hotel with me?” The corner of Hyper’s lips twitched in amusement as she let out a slight chuckle.

“Altmega Springs, are you hitting on me?”  She teased as she lightly elbowed him in his side. He shot her a wicked grin that made her stomach do flips and her face heat up before shrugging. What was that? Since when did Mega’s grins do that to her? He picked himself up of the ground before reaching down for her hand.

“You want to?”  She nodded silently, placing her hand in his, and allowing him to pull her to her feet.

“Where?”  She asked curiously.  Altmega moved behind her and steered her towards his car, chuckling. He didn’t know where this night was going to take them but he already knew he wasn’t going to let her go back to her place tonight anyway, not that he was going to tell her that. He was glad he had thrown their overnight bags in the trunk before he came.

“We can go anywhere you want.” He told her, his breath falling against the shell of her ear.  Altmega leaned forward and opened the passenger side door for her.  Hyper focused her attention on the dashboard as her best friend closed the door behind her. For some reason her mind was running amuck with these weird feelings. Did that last sentence hold a bit too much promise? Was she just loosing it? Quit it. She mentally commanded herself. You are emotionally distraught and being your best friend and all he’s just trying to cheer you up. That’s it. Don’t read too much into these things unless you want to get your feelings hurt.

“Where to?” Altmega asked as he turned the key in the ignition. The engine cranked up smoothly.

“Downtown.” She responded almost automatically. She needed to get as far away from here as possible.
____________
Ugh.. had lots of insperation a while ago but... it died... never the less I will be continuing it...
 

Altmega turned and shot a grin at his twin as he continued to chop up bell peppers for dinner. As it turned out, Nikki was in DC for the weekend and had taken Hope with her, on the admonishment that the boys behave themselves. In Kai and Altmega's book behaving meant 'nobody die while I'm away. No one gets arrested. No drugs. No weapons and for the love of God leave the house in one piece.' Abiding by those rules of course the two figured the only safe course was to throw a sleepover.

Currently, all the guys were in charge of dinner and the girls were setting up the living room with sleeping bags, blankets and pillows being that the twins cleared the furniture out before hand. Gjynn glanced over his shoulder and glared at where the older Springs’ twin was chopping veggies.

"That's still not minced. They have to be smaller." he advised as he stirred the pot in front of him. Mega growled at his friend.

"If I hear the word mince from you one more time, I'm coming over there..." he warned pointing the knife in GJ's direction.

 "Fine then switch with me." he admonished, obviously having some special interest in the size of the veggies.

Tyler shook his head at the two as Altmega moved to the stove and Gjynn took his place at the cutting board. "Are you OCD when it comes to food or what?"

 "Seriously Gjynn, it's all going in the same place." Kai pointed out from over the sink where he was seasoning the chicken.

"You guys have things you're picky about. Altmega and Kai's is Music. Mine is food." GJ commented back calmly as he chopped. Kai laughed at that. He had a point there. Cooking and eating food had to have been Gjynn's favorite past time.

"Don't even try to argue that point, Kai." Alex piqued from the living room with a grin, "no one can tell him anything when it comes to food."

"Damn straight." Gjynn concluded, spoon in the air. Once the girls had finished setting up the living room, Sunny promptly drug them all upstairs, leaving the boys to finish dinner.  Kai watched them as they stormed up the stairs to do lord only knew what.

“What do you think they talk about when they run off like that?” he asked curiously.

GJ shrugged as he pushed the peppers to the other side of the cutting board and started on the onions. “Could be anything from us, to ‘Fashion Weekly’ and Classes; one can never tell with girls.”  Altmega shot him a look as the doorbell rang incessantly.

Kai moved from the sink to answer it. “I’m pretty sure they find us just as complicated.” He tossed over his shoulder before throwing the door open. The atmosphere in the room immediately turned tense as the brunette saw who was standing on the opposite side of the door.

Grey-green eyes burned in rage as they narrowed on Kai and he had to force himself not to glare back. Veronica Kenyon, at first glance, was absolutely stunning. She was the type of girl that turned heads wherever she went. Always impeccably dressed Veronica could capture any mans attention and hold it. That was until she opened her mouth. The insults that came out of that girl’s mouth would shock an electric fence and were enough to leave anyone limping. As it was, she had a special dislike of the Springs’ twins so Kai always tread carefully around her. Altmega, on the other hand, wasn’t so cautious. Sensing his twins discomfort the older twin turned towards the door only to let out a caustic growl at the woman he saw standing there.

Ty and GJ were beside themselves in absolute confusion. Whoever the girl was that was standing on the other side of the door, they got the feeling that she wasn’t exactly welcomed.

“Uh…” Gjynn turned to Mega for an explanation but he just kept his heated gaze focused on the girl in the doorway.

Arrianne stiffened as she heard her sister’s voice downstairs and Sunny caught the action out of the corner of her eye as she paled.

“Are you okay?” she asked standing up from where they were all seated on Hope’s bed. Hyper tightened her grip on the edges of the Vanity chair she was sitting in and shook her head while shooting a pleading look at the rest of the girls.

“No matter what she says please don’t say anything. Just stay quiet, okay?” her voice was soft and panicked and the girls immediately took notice.

“What?” Jen asked while pulling herself to her feet, “Who are you talking about?” Hyper didn’t get a chance to answer her as the door flew open to admit an apparently pissed off older, darker-skinned version of herself.

“Get up!” Veronica hissed irritably as she yanked her sister out of the chair roughly by her arm, “We’re leaving!”  Jade narrowed her gaze on her and took a step forward but stopped as Arrianne sent her a quick pleading glance. She didn’t want her sister’s anger to backlash on her friends.

“I promise I’ll come home in just a few minutes, Ronnie. I want to stay for just a little bit longer.” Hyper pleaded.

“I could give a fuck less what you want. We are going home now.” She stated measurably. “I refuse to put myself in jeopardy because you want something. You really need to grow up, Ari, I’m tired of being responsible for you.”  The words, instead of pleading, were cutting and laced with disgust. Not that Hyper expected anything more from her sister.

  Ever since their parents’ divorce a couple of years ago, Veronica had been pushed to step up to the plate and help support the family at the tender age of fourteen. She was forced to forfeit her teen years while Hyper got to revel in hers and she had always resented her for it, putting more strain on their already strained relationship.

Arrianne avoided her sister’s gaze and straightened into a standing position. Alex and Jen were stunned at the way this girl was speaking to their friend and Sunny and Jade looked like they wanted nothing more than to deck her. She shouldn’t have to put up with being treated this way.  Hyper cast a warning look in the girls’ direction.

“They’re my friends, Ronnie…”  She begged her sister to relent in her humiliation.

“You’re so stupid, Arrianne. Look around you. You really think these people give a damn about you? These rich white people taking pity on the poor little black girl and like some pitiful child you hang on to their every word. You are just an amusement to them, a charity. And they will piss on you, the moment they’re done, like the trash you are.”

It hurt Arrianne to hear her sister talk about her like that, to hear her downing her friends’ generosity. ‘Like the trash you are.’  She choked back the sob that was ready to spill from her throat at a moment’s notice. What did she do that was so horrible that her sister couldn’t even pretend to love her?

“It’s not like that.” Hyper kept her tear filled gaze on the ground. Her voice sounded pitiful even to her. She hated being broken like this.

Green eyes glinting, and still holding on to her arm tightly, Ronnie pushed her forward to face her friends.  Arrianne winced, her arm twisting painfully, as she fell on her knees before the other girls.

“Really? Do they have something different to say?” she challenged. “What about it, ladies?”

Jade’s jaw clenched and Jen was seeing red as Sunny’s fists were balled so tightly that her nails were biting into her palm. Oh they definitely had something to say but Hyper’s desperate pleading gaze stopped the words on their tongues. If they were to retaliate against Veronica, Hyper would probably get it twice as bad and if anything they didn’t want to cause their friend more pain. Arrianne winced unconsciously. Even though it was what she wanted, something about their silence still stung her.

“That’s what I thought.” Ronnie sneered before dragging her sister out of the room, into the hall and down the stairwell, never relinquishing her hold on her. Hyper wiped at the tears that were escaping down her cheeks as she stumbled behind her older sister.

Downstairs the guys tensed as they saw Veronica manually hauling her down the stairs. Gjynn and Altmega’s eyes narrowed and the older of the two growled, making a move towards his best friend but was stopped by Kai, who shook his head at him.  Altmega was just about to tell his twin to ‘fuck off’ when Hyper pushed a grin on her tear streaked face and aimed it at him.

“Looks like I have to go home, you guys.” Her voice was strained but she tried to make it sound as cheery as possible, not wanting them to worry or worse, to do anything rash. “I’ll see you all later, have fun.  Tell me all about it at school, Monday, okay?”  The girls were racing down the hall after them only to reach the top of the stairs just as Veronica pulled the front door shut behind the two of them with a finality that shook the house. In the complete and utter silence that hung between them, they heard the car door slam shut outside before it speed down the street, taking Arrianne with it.

“What the hell just happened?” Gjynn demanded as Kai pushed his fingers through his hair and let out a slow breath, trying to ignore Altmega’s intense glare. Silence answered his question.

“Screw this,” Sunny snarled, fishing her car keys out of her pocket, “I’m going to go get Hyper back.”

“I’m coming with you.” Jade stated following her friend down the stairs.

“No.” Kai snapped at them.

“Excuse me?!” Jen demanded, whirling on him so fast that her long red hair whipped out behind her, Turquoise eyes sparking fire. Kai sent her a pained look.

“Look, if you guys go over there you’re just going to make it ten times worse for Hyper. She’s going to get punished because we stuck up for her, is that what you want?”

“Then what are we supposed to do?” GJ asked desperately.

“Nothing.” Altmega finally spoke up keeping his eyes trained on the white carpet, “We do nothing.”  Jade glared at him from the stairway.

“Like hell…” She growled before being cut off.

“How long has this been going on?” Alex asked quietly, “How long have they been-” Abusing her. Although they never laid a finger on Hyper as far as they knew. It was still abuse, mental abuse, and who knew how long it would be until it did turn physical.

“Middle school,” Kai swallowed thickly at the admittance of that fact. “Like fifth or sixth grade.” Jen sank down to a sitting position due to the utter shock. That long?! And she never let on at all? Their poor Hyper.

“Listen,” Mega glared at each of them pointedly, “Come Monday none of this ever happened, got me?”

“Fuck that,” Gjynn growled, “I’m not going to sit here and pretend like-”

“Altmega’s right.” Alex fixed her gaze on her friend. “She’s not going to want to talk about this. If she wanted us to know about what she was dealing with at home she would have told us. And she’s not going to want our sympathy either. ” Kai and Altmega had firsthand knowledge of this. They were the only ones who knew exactly what Hyper had to put up with. Everything the group was suggesting they’d tried it and it only resulted in her pushing them further away.

“That was Hyper’s sister, right?” Ty asked and Kai nodded silently.

Sunny shivered as she sat down on the step next to Jen.

“The things she was saying to her... about her. I have never heard anyone talk to their family that way and mean it!” She shook her head, “We should have said something.”  It was kind of late for that now…

Ashleigh Valentino pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, her face contorting into a pained expression, as she glanced from one end of the gymnasium to the opposite end. The cheerleaders were taking a few minutes break from drilling their newest routine and were all consequently plopped down amid the bleachers. Even though it was barely spring, the unpredictable Charlestonian weather had blessed- or cursed depending on how you looked at it- them with a particularly scorching 92 degree day.  Christian Lincoln being the drill sergeant that she was wasn’t excusing them just because Hell had conveyed all of its excruciating heat in their hometown’s general direction.

“I give up,” She declared, “I’m completely and 100% torn.”

“Over what?” Karen Wilson piqued, leaning forward from her seat on the bleachers so that she could see the shorter girl’s wistful expression.

“Football…” The entire squads gaze flew to the left side of the gym where James Island High School’s Varsity Football team were engaged in pre- practice stretches, to Donnie in particular, who had his blonde tresses held off of his neck with a hair tie and was already glistening in sweat. On the sidelines Hunter Kloud lifted up the hem of his sleeveless T and fanned it out so that he could catch a bit of breeze, meanwhile showing off his toned midsection. Ashleigh let out an audible groan as she turned to the opposite side of the gym.

“Or Basketball…” The girls gazes followed to the basketball team who was practicing lay ups on the right side of the court, just in time to see Gjynn shoot a particularly awesome 3 pointer, biceps bulging and covered in a sheen of sweat.

“Good Lord!” C.T exhaled breathlessly, “What a problem to have!”

“Tell me about it,” Christian Lincoln swooned as she swallowed thickly, “Although I am, through and through, a football girl…” She eyed her ex, who was doing sit ups on the gym floor, appreciatively while Ashleigh quirked an eyebrow at her. “When have you not been a football girl?!” she demanded, “ I was all about the pigskin too, you know, until that joined the basket ball squad.” The short haired brunette eyed GJ like he was the last chocolate chip cookie at lunch as he joked with a teammate on the side lines.  “Gods, I wanna do things to that boy that’ll make seasoned hookers blush!”

“Ashleigh!” Sierra Medlee looked sent the girl a look, appalled by her friend’s crass.

“Oh what?! Like you weren’t thinking it?” She accused as Medlee dug her water out of her book bag.

“Well he is prime…” Christian stated with a grin, swirling her own bottled water, “and single…” Karen whimpered, pulling her red hair into a ponytail as she practically salivated over the gorgeous hunks on either side of the gym.

“I am sooo glad I transferred here…”

C.T laughed at her while reapplying her lip-gloss, turning, she fixed the redhead with a sly grin. “And let’s not forget about the drop dead gorgeous Adonis... Football definitely has its perks.”

“Seriously!” Sierra agreed, eyeing the blonde as he started doing chin-ups with Lance. Every so often flashing them abs that were raked with appreciative glances, “Don’t you just want to tie him up in a backroom somewhere and spank him?” Ashleigh made a tisking sound as she grinned wickedly.

“Donnie Phillips you naughty boy, you… Go to my room!”

The girls burst out laughing at her antics.

“What about that dishy Hunter Kloud? I would jump him sideways!” Karen declared.

Christian snorted at that as her eyes narrowed speculatively. “You and half the female population of this school. I swear I saw teachers eying him…”

“Well unfortunately for them and for us he’s now off menu.” C.T stated dejectedly. They had all heard of the hot assistant football coach’s devastating hook up with Jade Oba.

“Well we’ll always have the Notebook..” Ashleigh disclosed making the group groan in unison.

“Kaiotai and Altmega Springs…” Medlee sighed wistfully, “I’ve been having dirty threesome dreams about them since freshman year.”

“If I ever get my hands on them, I’ll ride them 3 feet into the ground!” Ashleigh declared, “Especially that Altmega. All he has to do is look at me with those eyes of his and I orgasm. Swear. To. God!”

Karen wrinkled her nose at the brunette’s graphics. “Ewww… TMI, Ash!” C.T laughed at that. Altmega Springs was intense in a way that most girls found hard to resist.

“And don’t even get me started on that Tyler Kudo.”  C.T whimpered, “What I’d pay to be that guy’s surf board!”  Medlee snickered as she fixed her with a grin.

“Oh take a number babe! I’d ride that out to sea!” she crooned.

“Personally I wouldn’t mind riding a certain brunette guitarist..” Karen purred, “Kaiotai Springs… Ooh baby..”

Christian Lincoln made a choking sound in the back of her throat as the other girls made sounds of agreement with Karen. She was not going to sit here and listen to them schmooze over how hot her math tutor was! Not that the guy wasn’t sixteen types of delicious but she did have to see him in 30 minutes! Study sessions required eye contact and she couldn’t do that with pictures of him in compromising positions running through her head.

“Gods above!” Ashleigh declared, “I’d strip him naked, rub him down and give him a thorough-”

“Alright ladies! Back to practice!” Christian interrupted Ash’s, most likely very promising and descriptive tirade with a clap of her hands, her voice near panicked. That was one mental image she did not need! She had a hard enough time fighting off rampaging hormones when it came to him. The girls all made various sounds of agitation before they begrudgingly stood to resume practice, making their way down from the bleachers to the gym floor.

Jade had barely knocked on the white wooden door when it swung open to reveal the person she was here to see.  Dressed in a red T shirt that plainly read in white lettering ‘Save a Drum, bang a Drummer’ with a long sleeved white shirt underneath and a pair of dark wash blue jeans, Altmega’s hair was mussed and he was wearing that devilish grin of his, eyes dancing although the effect of it was completely lost due to the stick of Pocky that was sticking out of the corner of his mouth. As it was he came off as looking completely adorable. She had a slight flashback to third and fourth grade. She quirked an eyebrow at him, knowing his ‘up to something’ look.

Altmega took the Pocky out of his mouth and grinned at her. “I swear to God, Jade Oba, you are going to love me.” He declared.

“Who did you kill…”  She asked in a droll voice.  Leaning to his left, he picked up a box from one of the chairs on either side of the door, and held it up for her to see. Her eyes widened as she read the print on it. The complete fourth season of House M.D.  Jade literally snatched the box from him and gaped at it.

“Holy Shit! How in the hell did you get this? It’s not released until next week!” Mega grinned at her.

“Not quite done yet…” he reached over to the other side of the door and pulled out a gallon container of Hawaiian Punch, holding it up with a cocky grin. The curly haired brunette completely blissed out as she moved towards the jug and embraced it, clutching it to her chest. Making a cooing sound, Jade looked up at Mega in reverence.

“You’re right. I love you.” He chuckled as she stumbled through the door, all the while cuddling the juice.

“Well that makes two of us.”  Jade looked around the living room, which he had turned into a mini theater room.  There were bowls of snack foods lined up on the coffee table, everything from popcorn to Cheez-it’s and soda.  Altmega springs jumped the couch and settled down on one of the cushions in front of it.

“I’ve got any and everything you’re heart desires, kiddo, all the way down to the bad snack foods and the insulting but witty sentiments of one, Gregory House.”  Jade smiled down at him. He was the only one she would ever allow to call her kiddo. Altmega was essentially the annoying older brother you never asked for but was often glad he was there anyway.  She took her place next to him and he handed her a red plastic cup to which she immediately set to filling with punch while he put in the first DVD. Altmega grabbed his box of Pocky from the table and resumed munching on the individual sticks.

The curly haired brunette tossed him a sideways grin. “I swear you’re addicted to those.”

“I blame Jen.” He snorted, “I didn’t even know what Pocky was until she started carrying it around by the case loads.”

She chuckled at that. There was a period of time in eighth grade where the redhead was obsessed with Pocky and as a result by the end of the year the entire band was hooked on it. Her attention returned to the flat screen. Within the first few scenes of the episode Jade was leaning forward eyes wide.

“I love this episode! Frickin’ hilarious!”  Altmega tossed a smirk at her before returning his attention to the screen.  “Oh!” Jade exclaimed suddenly as her eyes lit up before rummaging in her bag for something, “Before I forget again, I finished that song I was working on finally. I mean the damn thing took ages, so look it over and tell me that it’s not complete garbage and I wasted all my time.” Digging out a green spiral notebook that was the worst for wear, Jade tossed it into her friend’s lap. Sitting up straight he flipped through the notebook until he came to the most recent page. Quirking an eyebrow at her in question of its accurateness he scanned over the written lyrics while Jade bit her lip in anticipation. He met her gaze finally.

“You’re right. It’s complete garbage. You wasted all your time.” He stated with a serious expression. Jade was dumbfounded at his bluntness for a split second before she saw the grin that was threatening to spill out over his face.  Fuming she hit the brunette, who was now chuckling like a mad man, across the head with one of Nikkoa’s white throw pillows.

“You, bastard! I put a lot of effort into that! Don’t just write it off!!” she yelled jokingly at him as he snatched the pillow from her and bopped her on the head with it playfully.

“I was just joking. Really, it’s good. Your best yet. I’d just think about changing this line and the fourth one in the stanza.” He pointed out, “Too many syllables. It disrupts the natural flow of the song.”  She glared while making a mental note of that. Although he could be infuriating at times, one didn’t shake a stick at Altmega Springs when it came to all things music.  Growling at him as he handed her back her notebook, Jade stuffed the book back into her bag.

After a while things settled back down and before long the two were sitting intensely focused on the episodes of House that were featured in the disk set. A smirk spread across Jades face as she trained her gaze on the screen.

“So.. When are you going to tell Hyper that you’re head over heels in love with her?” The question couldn’t have come at a better time in Jade’s book. Altmega immediately started coughing as the Pocky stick he was eating went down the wrong tube.  It took all she had not to snicker. Altmega pounded on his chest, forcing the food to go down before looking at her in complete disbelief.

“What?!”  Jade grinned at him as he reached for a bottled water. How in the hell did she know that?! He had a hard time believing he was that transparent.

“You heard me.” She admonished.

“What makes you think I’m in love with her?” he asked in between sips of water. So he was going to play this card was he? Jade had hoped her friend was smarter than this.

“I don’t think, love, I know. It’s not like it’s the code to the lock at Fort Knox or something. It’s no secret, I mean just the way you look at her when you think no one else is looking is a dead giveaway.” She picked up her cup of juice and raised it to her lips, “you’re blushing by the way.”  Mega stared at her seriously while trying the calm the rush of heat that was climbing its way up his face.  Well there was no point in hiding it now.

“How in the hell did you even know that?”His voice held a quiet reverence. The only one who really knew how he felt about his best friend was his twin and being that they were twins he could accept that Kai would have picked up on it but this…  

Jade quirked and eyebrow at him over her cup. “You apparently missed the whole ‘all knowing, all seeing Jade-chan’ intro…”

“Which is creepy as hell.” He interjected and she grinned at him in that knowing way of hers.  “It’s seriously not a big deal. I know, Kai obviously knows.. Sunny knows, and maybe Jen. You can never tell with her-” Altmega visibly paled at that.

“Sunny knows?!” Oh hell…

“Calm down, she’s not going to tell anyone. Contrary to popular belief she can keep a secret when it matters.” She tried to placate him but Mega couldn’t help the feeling of absolute doom that was creeping over him.

“How the hell did she find out?” Jade gave him a sheepish grin and he knew the answer. He shot her a glare.

“I didn’t mean to, it just kind of slipped out.” She admitted.

“Jade!” he groaned and buried his face in his hands. This was a nightmare. He was going to wake up with the urge to strangle her only to find that none of this had ever happened.

“So when are you going to tell her? You practically have to now, half the band knows.”  Lifting his head up he gave her a serious look.

“I wasn’t going to tell her. She can’t know, Jade. So promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”  Jade’s eyes spit fire at him.

“What do you mean you weren’t going to tell her?!” she demanded

“I mean I’m not going to tell her. It’s complicated.” He huffed back at her. Trying his best to end the conversation he turned the volume to the TV up a little more but the curly haired brunette snatched the remote and just about stabbed the pause button with her index finger before hurling it on to the couch.

“Complicated?! What the hell is so complicated about this? Go over there, grab her up, kiss the living daylights out of her and tell her how you feel! She deserves to know!” she raved.

“No.” he stated a little more calmly than he felt as his friend openly gaped at him. Shooting to her feet, Jade glared before doing a 180 towards the door.

“Fine then, I’ll do it!” she threatened. Altmega shrugged and shot her a look, as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the couch.

“Be my guest. It’s not like she’s going to believe you. Besides,” he smirked, “ I’d pay good money to see you kiss the living daylights out of Hyper. Mind if I tag along?”   Jade wanted to grab him and shake him. He was joking about this?! Seriously?! Although he probably wasn’t lying about Hyper not believing her, convincing that girl of anything was like trying to get into  the presidential suite on Air force one. Near in-friggin-possible, especially something of this nature.  Unless Altmega told her himself, she’d never believe a word of it.  Jade made a strangling motion at the older twin as he looked at her as if he didn’t find her threatening in the least.

“You are an idiot! King of the fucking idiots!” she huffed at him, “ I’ll stay out of it, but damn it, if you don’t tell her some lucky son of a bitch is going to snatch her up and you are going to be absolutely miserable knowing that the person that’s making her happy could have been you!”  Mega didn’t respond except to turn un-pause the DVD.  Jade plopped back down next to him, trying to control the urge to beat the living snot out of her friend.  They watched the rest of the first disk in silence before Altmega went to switch it out for the second one.

“Jade,” he sighed at her with his back turned, “Don’t be mad okay.  One of these days I’m going to be strong enough to tell her how much she means to me, I promise. It’s just not right now, not today.”  Jade hurled a pillow at him and it hit him dead on, in the back of his head.

“Hey!” he demanded as he whirled around to face her.

“fucking idiot!” she pointed at him.

“Yeah, okay, I got that part! When the hell did the pillow come into play!?” As if to answer his question she stalked up to him, grabbed said pillow and started beating him over the head with it. Altmega grabbed another pillow and hit her across the back with it while sweeping his arm under her shins, effectively making her lose her balance. Going on the offensive he smothered her with it but it didn’t take long for Jade to completely turn the tables on him. Pretty soon the random scramble turned into an all out pillow fight that practically ended with jade perched on top of Altmega battering him with both pillows.  He laughed as he grabbed her wrists and she made a frustrated noise in the back of her throat.

“Do you feel better now?” he asked grinning up at her from his position on the floor.

“No.” Jade grabbed at one of the pillows and smothered his face with it. “There. Now I feel better.” She sighed as Mega knocked the cushion away and pushed himself up on his elbows making her slide back. “What are you afraid of rejection or something?”  She asked returning to the subject at hand.

“Maybe.” He responded with a shrug. “Once you go off and do something stupid there’s no going back. I would know. Apparently I’m the prince of stupid.”  She snorted at that. He had a point there… or maybe not. Mega did some off the wall things at times but he always had a good reason for it.

“Hyper would have to be out of her mind to turn you down. And although she has her random bouts of insanity she’s not quite there yet so I’d say you’ve got a good chance. For crying out loud look at you! ” Altmega blinked at her in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”  Jade glared at him, seriously considering smothering him with the pillow again.

“Oh like you didn’t know you were fucking sex on a stick?!” She seethed at him, “Do you even own a mirror?”

“Sex on a stick? What the hell?” he blinked at her in disbelief, “I’m not that attractive. Not that I don’t think I’m attractive but you are seriously blowing it out of proportion. And get up! You have no idea how disturbing it is to have you talking to me like this while you’re sitting on top of me.”  Jade clamored off of him but not before slamming the cushion in his face one more time.  Mega glared playfully at her before rolling over onto his stomach.

“Seriously though, lay off the Hyper thing. I have my reasons.” He looked around warily, “Look today is just supposed to be the two of us, can we just enjoy it minus getting pummeled to death with couch pillows?” jade tossed a satisfied smirk at him.

“What’s not to enjoy? I personally like beating the snot out of you, pillows or no.”

“Who said you beat me?” he growled playfully at her. Jade quirked an eyebrow and lifted her pillow in an unspoken challenge.  
-----------------------------------------------------------
Expounding upon the relationship between Mega and Jade.. it was a fun scene to write and I hope you all enjoyed. Jade.. that T shirt was for you..LOL so yay...lol

Kaiotai Springs sat on his brother’s bed, flipping through his note books, while Altmega was tuning one of the three guitars that hung on his bedroom wall. The red leather bound journal was old but still in excellent condition. He had actually bought it for Mega when they were 12, as a birthday present. He had run out of pages time and time again, luckily it was one of those reloadable ones. Even though it was stuffed to the brim with loose leaf lined papers from where he’d had lyrical inspiration at times he couldn’t exactly get to his favorite notebook, also there was an unholy amount of sheet music (some printed, some hand written) stapled inside to random pages.

He turned page after page, eyes quickly scanning the lyrics. Their Friday line up was a little short and they needed another song to lengthen it up a bit. It was unanimously agreed that something new would be best and his older twin was always happy to supply. Kai stopped at one particular page. It was fairly recent and as soon as his eyes fell over the first verse he knew they had their song. He flipped the page over, his brow wrinkling in confusion.

“Hey, Mega?”  The older brunette lifted his head to look at Kai as he held the book up for him to see, “Where’s the sheet music for this?” Altmega stiffened as soon as he saw the title of the song on the page.

“You won’t need it because there’s no way in hell you’re playing it.” His voice made no argument. That one was a little too personal and hit a particularly tender nerve. Most of his writings were just him venting his feelings and frustrations out. He would have never written that song if not for an extremely rare moment of weakness.

Kai put on a pained expression. “C’mon we have to play it the lyrics are awesome and it’s a great song. I know you have the music to it.”  Mega nodded as he went back to tuning.

“Yep for Bass and electric guitar, drums and keyboard... But you’re not getting it.” Kai frowned. His brother was being extremely difficult to day. He would have to play his ‘little brother’ trump card. He slightly winced at that thought. He hated doing this but the band really needed that song. He took a deep breath and but on his best puppy dog face just as his twin looked up at him.

GJ looked stricken at the news as Altmega glared evil death at an incredibly smug Kaiotai. It was the second practice before the homecoming pep rally, they had a new song to learn and he was just finding out that he was going to be the only drummer in it.

“What?! Tell me you’re kidding…” He looked desperately at Mega, “Why aren’t you playing the rally?”

Kai pulled his guitar out of its case before calmly answering his friend’s question.  “Altmega’s going to play the rally, he‘s just not playing that song.”  His twin nodded in agreement as he started retuning his guitar.

“That was the deal. You guys get the song, I don’t have to play.” Gjynn looked as if someone had sucker punched him.

“You guys are not seriously going to make me play solo are you?” he was almost to the point of begging. He hated being put on the spot at the last minute and this was no acceptation.

“Don’t worry Gjynn.” Kai grinned, “I’m gonna be playing the drums with you…” he turned to Mega who was already getting suspicious, “And Mega’s going to sing it.”

 If his twin could tear him to shreds’ with a single look, at that moment there wouldn’t have been enough of Kai to feed through a sieve. “What?” the growl was low and threatening as the room fell silent. Kai handed his twin his electric guitar.

“You are going to sing.” He said calmly and adamantly.

“The hell I am! That’s not what we agreed on!” Kai passed his brother a shit- eater’s grin, not intimidated in the least. “We agreed you wouldn’t have to play... And you don’t if you don’t want to. But you do have to sing because technically you’re voice is not an instrument.” Altmega wanted so badly to rip him a new one but before he could get a word in edgewise, Hyper ran up to him with the largest grin on her face.

“You’re going to sing? That’s great!” She looked up at him with those eyes and the anger drained right out of him. God Damn it! When this was over he was going to skin Kai alive... He grabbed his notebook and Kai’s guitar out of his twin’s hands. If he had to sing anyway he might as well play.

 “Mega’s being really secretive about this song. We don’t even know what the lyrics are. He hasn’t sung at any of the practices.” Jen whispered to Kai as they set up on the platform in the middle of the gym.

“He practices a lot at home. It’ll be great trust me.” He assured her. The music was as awesome as the lyrics and he doubted anyone but Altmega could do it justice. It was his song after all. The entire student body cheered as one of the teacher’s announced them.

It was the first song in the lineup and before long the up tempo beat was evenly flowing around the gym. Mega took a deep breath before he started to sing into the microphone. He had the lyrics memorized. How could he not? He practically lived them every day.

I’ll bet you can tell that I’m running away. Because I die inside when you look at me that way.

I keep telling myself you’re not the one, then you smile at me, and I come undone.

Let’s breathe, unwind and give it a little more time.

Waiting for you to submit to my demand.

I know that this can never be but I can help but stand-

The beat picked up a little for the chorus, whipping the audience into frenzy.

Heart wide open, mouth sealed shut

When will I ever get a chance at us?

I’m running out- running out of words to say

Well that’s a relief; words just get in the way

And maybe there’s a chance of magic happening for us

So keep your heart wide open, mouth sealed shut.

 

Let’s keep this silence; I think we’ve got a good thing going

So I’ll keep making eyes at you and you keep ‘never knowing’.

It’s a love hate relationship when it comes down to matters of the heart.

I’m tired of standing at the finish line waiting for you to start

With my-

Heart wide open, mouth sealed shut

When will I ever get a chance at us?

I’m running out- running out of words to say

Well that’s a relief; words just get in the way

And maybe there’s a chance of magic happening for us

So keep your heart wide open, mouth sealed shut.

The music slowed until it was just the bass guitars, the drums and Mega. Everyone was stunned at his voice and the lyrics. No wonder he didn’t want to sing it. It was practically for Hyper although with how completely oblivious to it she was he really had nothing to worry about.

One of these days I’ll walk right up to you

With all the wrong words and all the right moves

Ready to tell you friendships not enough; let’s do this the right way

But it won’t be tomorrow and it won’t be today

I’m holding my breath, promise you won’t turn away

While I’ve got my-

 

Heart wide open, mouth sealed shut

When will I ever get a chance at us?

I’m running out- running out of words to say

Well that’s a relief; words just get in the way

And maybe there’s a chance of magic happening for us

So keep your heart wide open, mouth sealed shut.

The music started to fade out with the last few lines of the song...

Friendships not enough, let’s do this the right way, with our-

Heart wide open…

But it won’t be tomorrow and it won’t be today-

Mouth sealed shut…

I’m holding my breath-

Heart wide open…

Holding my breath…

Mouth sealed shut…

Mega backed away from the mike, panting, as the crowd cheered and tossed a longing look at his best friend, who was reveling in it before she turned and tossed a proud grin at him. He turned away and shut his eyes tight, clenching his fists. The cheering drowned out until there was just the sound of his heart pounding and the girl who he would give his life for, none the wiser.

He felt like a complete idiot.

Damn you, Kai…