skinny love | daltonverse
julian/sophia (in this part), julian/cameron and julian/logan
julian realized that despite of all his flaws and imperfections, sSophia was the always the one who stayed.


A/N: There's a small reason why Cam and Sophia are the other two people aside from Logan. I originally intended it to be Clark (in Sophia's position) and Derek (in Cam's position) but I have no idea who to useas a playby in the GIF that would accompany this (which is posted on my Tumblr). And since I knew who was Soph's playby (well, because she's mine) and who Cam's playby was too, well...this happened. And yes, I intended from the start that Logan would be at the "who will fall far behind" part. Logan is always a given when Julian is involved.

With this one, Julian and Sophia's (who is my OC for my other Dalton fic, The Red Queen) already have an established friendship. And no, the love that Sophia has for Julian does not progress any further than it does. She loves him, but not in a romantic sense.

Disclaimer: I don't own Julian, Cameron or Logan. They are Miss CP Coulter's. I only own Sophia and she's already a handful enough as it is. I also don't own Skinny Love by Bon Iver / Birdy which inspired these series of one-shots. And when Sophia calls Julian lonely angel, I may or may not have borrowed that from Doctor Who. (It's what Reinette calls the Doctor in the episode The Girl in the Fireplace.)


Julian was surprised at how much fondness he held for the the younger girl. She stormed in his life with her unflinching honesty and her unending compassion. She was all light and brightness - smiles and laughter. She held her ground whenever Julian was being particularly difficult yet had always offered an ear to listen to his woes. And sometimes, they would just sit in silence and just...enjoy each other's presence.

He always asked her why she was so kind to him. She only smiled fondly at him and stroked his cheek affectionately. Because you have such sad, sad eyes,Sophia murmured quietly. Too sad, lonely angel.

Sophia, in the few weeks he had known her, had been the one of the few constants in his life. At first, he had always questioned why she had always went out of her way to help him - sneaking in Dalton after curfew (granted, she did it for the twins too but still), climbing trees to reach second-story balconies, rushing to the Dalton cafe after a particularly grueling dance rehearsal just to hang out with him...the list goes on, actually. But as time passed, he had come to accept that it was just the way she was.

She was one of the few people who saw past his charade of indifference, which had always frustrated him. Not because he had to let his walls down when he was around her (he was quite grateful for that opportunity because, contrary to popular belief, it was quite tiring to keep up the charade) but because here was this girl, who he had known for a few months (at most) yet was so capable of actually seeing him - so unlike the one Dalton boy, who had been his friend for nearly three years, yet had always failed to see him. Life was too cruel to him sometimes.

One time, while they were doing their homework in his room after curfew - like he said, she liked sneaking in his room after-hours much like she liked sneaking in Windsor for the twins (she scared him with the amount of trust she placed in him) - and he had been so tired (again) of pining after Logan, he had asked her if she loved him. It was a very impulsive decision. He didn't even try to think about it when he asked her and he panicked soon afterwards, worried that she'll take it the wrong way. She didn't even look up from her history essay as she responded with a simple of course I do.

"Why?" he asked her, a little startled by her nonchalance.

She briefly looked up from the draft of the essay she was working on to stare at him. "You don't question love, Julian."

"Wouldn't this...get in the way of our friendship?" Julian asked her, abandoning his math homework (he hated math anyways) to settle into a sitting position to properly look at her.

Her brow furrowed, as if she was trying to understand what he was trying to say. Then her eyes widened as she realized what he was implying. "Oh! No! I don't love you that way."

"Then what way do you love me then?" Julian asked, not really knowing that there were different ways to love a person.

"The platonic kind. The kind of love that a sister has for a brother - the kind of love that's enough to want you to be happy," she said it so simply, as if it was no big deal at all. He knewSophia though, and he knew that she didn't take things like love lightly. When he opened his mouth to ask another question, she held out a hand. "And don't ask me how I know. I just feelit. I know we've only known each other for...a few months or so but I don't know. I just love you. I'm not in love with you but I love you, Jules. Why else do you think I stick around?"

"Because of my charm?" Julian asked cheekily, settling beside her again to resume his homework.

She snorted at that. "Yeah, right." She paused for a moment. Julian was startled when she spoke again. "I think it would be unfair, you know? If I actually fell in love with you, I mean. It would cause so many problems. It'll be a waste of a friendship." She paused yet again. "And to be honest, I don't know if I'm not in love with you because I'm restraining myself from being in love with you because I know it's going to pose some problems I don't want to face or because that's all I'm ever going to feel for you. But I try and not to dwell on that because I'm happy with our friendship, Jules. I don't think I'll ever want more. Let's try not to jinx it, okay?"

Sometimes he thought she wasn't real with the way she expected nothing from him in return. Sometimes he felt that he didn't deserve her. Sometimes, he feared that he was taking her for granted. She had always assured him that she didn't care.

Julian realized that despite of all his flaws and imperfections, Sophia was the always the one who stayed.


A/N : Next up, Cameron for the line who will fight. Oh and by the way, if you want me to write the Clark and Derek counterparts for the lines that Sophia and Cameron took, just tell me.