Title: Photo

Warnings: Nope, none that I can see… just watch out for some fluff and absolutely no plot…

Words: 1,774

Summary: A picture's worth a thousand words, ain't it, Princess?

Duncan walked around Courtney's room with wide eyes. This was the place he had always said he would get- and now, alas, he was here. In her room! The place she said he'd only get to see if hell froze over. Duncan snickered. The devil must be cold.

It was odd, Courtney's whole house was. Not that it wasn't beautiful and overly huge and expensive looking, it was just that something was obviously missing from the mix. He hadn't been able to pinpoint it his whole time here. Ruffling a hand through his Mohawk, he sat on the bed with his lab partner. She had a cold stare designated only for him. He smirked back. If this wasn't going to be twice a fun as he had anticipated…

Opening the zipper to her backpack and digging through, Courtney began to mutter something to Duncan in hushed tones. "You are an ass. Stop staring at everything like something's wrong with it." She began to wonder exactly what had possessed her to invite Duncan over to work on the assignment that had been stuck with for biology. The surprise had been evident in his eyes, but she hadn't dropped the offer. Why was she so happy when his lips curled into a smirk of agreement? Gross.

Of course, she never would have invited the pig had her parents been home. Her father wouldn't have let him step through the door without a thorough inspection, and once that inspection was over, well, there was a good chance they wouldn't let Duncan in anyway. They would probably find his pocket knife or a condom in his wallet or something like that. Wasn't that what delinquents like Duncan did?

He yawned, laying back on the bed and tangling his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. "Nothing's wrong with it, I just… something's missing." The way he said it sounded so honest that Courtney didn't question it, staying silent as she opened up her laptop and slid on the power button. Things were quiet for a moment. She peered at Duncan from under her lashes. She hated to admit it, but he was very attractive. Though for other reasons than most people pointed out. A lot of people loved Duncan's muscled chest, but Courtney preferred his chiseled arms. Many people liked Duncan's piercings, but she preferred his sharp jaw line. Girls were always talking about how delicious he looked with that bad boy Mohawk, but Courtney really liked his blue eyes and the way they would soften when he looked at her.

Not that he needed to know any of that. She quickly looked away and put her attention back on the small portable computer. After a few more minutes of silence, she scratched her head and look at him again. "What's missing?"

"Hmm?" He mused, slightly dazed.

She scoffed, snapping her fingers in front of his face. There was something about Duncan that seemed to make her on edge, something about his voice and the way he never seemed to care about anything, the way he was always calm and cool and collected and made damn sure that she was thoroughly pissed all the time. "What's missing from the house? You said something was missing. Tell me." She didn't mean to sound demanding, but it was in her nature. Demands were made without thinking through them very much. She muttered a simple, "If you can."

That seemed to make Duncan even more inclined to tell her his opinion. Duncan could do anything, he could beat anyone, and he was cocky and knew it and made it known that he would take on any challenge. Courtney, he thought, knew how to play him like a harp. Not that he really minded. "Pictures." He flicked his stared at her to see confusion played out across her face. Duncan tried to explain further. "You know, like photos of you. There aren't that many. There were only about two in the living room."

"So?" And that was when Duncan realized she was starting to get uncomfortable. Whenever Courtney resorted to her rock bottom retorts (one of them being 'so'), he knew she was about to get frustrated.

Yeah, this was going to be as fun as he anticipated, he thought with a smirk.

"So why don't you have any pictures around the house? Hmm, Princess? Picture shy, much?" Duncan could tell that he was getting under her skin by the way her fists were clenching and unclenching beside her laptop keyboard, her eyes a darker shade of brown than they were before.

She hissed at him, "I'm not picture shy, you idiot. My parents just never took pictures of me, and… I… I-I don't have any pictures, that's it, okay?" Courtney cursed herself silently for stuttering around Duncan as she looked down at her hands in anger, not catching the surprised and wide-eyed look Duncan was giving her. "Why don't we just drop it for now?"

Duncan nodded slightly as she went back to starting on their project; he started feeling worse and worse as time went on. Courtney wasn't herself for the rest of the evening and Duncan couldn't find it in his heart to tease her. She sounded genuinely upset about not having any pictures from when she was younger, and it made Duncan feel like a total jackass for pushing it. He was right, though- there weren't any pictures around except for a few of Courtney winning some awards and stuff. At his house, his mother had a million embarrassing pictures of him which he was always begging her to take down. Now that he thought about it, it'd be kind of sad to not have anything to be embarrassed, to not have any photos to make the memory permanent.

He watched Courtney with a frown that grew into a small smile as an idea formed in his mind.

The next few days at school went by quickly, and Courtney had to wonder what Duncan was up to. Not that she bothered to watch him all the time! But he was different. He seemed more nervous and jumpy and he was staring at her more than usual (not that she noticed because that would require her staring back to notice and Courtney didn't stare at Duncan. No, no, no). He wasn't talking to her as often, though, his teasing had stopped after than evening at her house a few days prior. She wondered if maybe she had said something to genuinely upset him, but the last thing Duncan seemed to be was upset over something. In fact, he seemed to be in a great mood, but he wasn't sharing that with Courtney. She was overly suspicious, but her pride kept her from jumping on it and questioning him.

She was surprised to find Duncan leaning against her locker after school, and, though she would never admit it, she was kind of relieved to see him. "What are you doing here, pig?" Her voice sounded too happy to be angry though, and Duncan caught on.

"Miss me?" He mused, looking to her with bright blue eyes that made her mouth dry. She tried to stutter out a few words but instead faced her locker quickly turning away from him and working on the lock. Duncan picked up his phone and began pressing a few buttons, Courtney couldn't believe he had the courage to text in front of her and just leave her hanging. She didn't say anything but shoved her history text book in her locker, earning a startled jump from Duncan. She then proceeded to slam the locker door in his face as she stalked off. She was a bit upset that Duncan didn't follow her, much less that he had never given her an explanation as to why he was hanging around at her locker. She was confused but also a bit jealous of whoever Duncan was texting.

Sighing to herself, she decided to get over and get home already. Nothing good could come out of whining to herself. She really needed to get some friends, she thought mindlessly.

The walk to her house was cold. She wished she had brought a heavier jacket that morning, remembering what had stopped her thoughts from doing so. She had peering in her closet, looking at the blankness of it, wondering where her character was in this household. "Where are all your pictures?" Duncan's question still rang in her head after three days, and she had stomped off in a mad rage, slamming her bedroom door shut, totally forgetting about her winter coat.

As she walked up to her doorstep, she was surprised to see a small package there. It didn't have any labels, except that it was addressed to her. She didn't think it was a regular mailing package… Maybe it's a bomb! She had been watching too many crime shows. She shrugged that thought away and picked up the package, slipping her backpack off as she set the box down on her bed as she tried to open it.

There was duct tape on the sides, so she grabbed a pencil from her desk to slice through. After the pack was finally ready to open, she took the sides and peered inside. There were three smaller boxes on the inside, which left her perplexed. While still wondering who had sent this, she opened the first box, revealing a small, dark brown, wooden picture frame. She looked at it in amusement before opening another box. This one contained a small recyclable camera. As she was starting to understand, she slowly opened the third.

It was a tiny photo album, with a black cover that said in light blue: 'pictures'. She looked through it, seeing it was blank, but then stopped at the first page.

She saw a picture of herself, standing beside her locker, an angry look on her face as her eyebrows were scrunched up and her mouth twisted into a frown. She saw herself shoving something in her locker- her history textbook. This was a picture from after school today, when she was with Duncan…

So he hadn't been texting.

She smiled lightly as she pulled the picture out of the plastic cover of the photo album, twirling it around in her fingers. The back had something written on it, she noticed. In messy black scrawl, someone had written a note.

A picture's worth a thousand words, ain't it, Princess?

-Duncan

Softly, she let out a small smile, feeling her insides warm up instantly. She was going to have to start taking more photo's.

Authors Note:

D'aww, am I right? Dammit, Duncan, you sap, you… I miss this Duncan! :)

And, well, I wrote this because I feel bad… I've been writing Total Drama but I haven't read any stories from this fandom in a long time… *sighs* I really need to get back into it, huh? So far I've been reading Fruits Basket and Percy Jackson, but no TDI… hmm…

Well, anyway, I'd like to thank everyone for spending time reading my stories! It means so much to me. Last night, I was sitting there, thinking about all my writing and everything, and I just felt really grateful to you guys. I don't know… the inspiration is so comforting. :D

Thanks so much for reading!

First Draft Finished: 1/11/2011
Final Draft Finished: 1/11/2011
Published: 1/11/2011
Fandom: Total Drama series
Disclaimer: Total Drama Island and all its characters are property of their respective owners.
©2011 Cereal-Killa