Okay, so this is my first Leyton fanfiction. Make that my first OTH fanfiction. Ever.

I've been watching the show for forever and a day and I finally decided to write some fanfiction about it! Fingers crossed it wasn't a stupid decision to make!

Apologies on any spelling errors or bits that don't make sense (I've been having a lot of trouble uploading my fics onto this account) / OOC-ness. It doesn't help that this is an American show with American people and I'm not TECHNICALLY American.

So the characters don't belong to me, etc etc- and I know that there is A LOT of Leyton fanfiction out there and some of it can be quite similiar but I am quite sure I haven't read a fanfiction like this one. If there's another fic like this then it is just a coincidence; anyway, I'll probably try and make it bizarre to make sure it isn't like any other. In other shows I write for, people can be pretty bitchy about stuff like this, so I just wanted to make it clear. :)

Okaaaayyyy...so this is set in Season 5 but it's kind of my version after the wedding. To make things clear- Lindsey left Lucas at the altar exactly the same as she did in the real events, but from then on I've kind of mixed things up so that I can set the story off. Well, I'll stop rambling and then you'll be able to see.

Hope you enjoy and please review- PM's are welcomed, too!

Peyton sat quietly in her office, cupping a glass of whisky. She had spent most of the last week here, working...trying to work, anyway. It was proving to be near impossible. She couldn't concentrate at all. But still she kept up the charade.

It had been a week since Lindsey had left Lucas at the altar, and Peyton had only spoken to him once, when he had been drunk in the bar. She was trying her best to forget that memory, but it was proving to be difficult. She had seen Lucas, too, briefly, when she was driving around town. It cleared her head, just driving along the roads, no music, just a world of infinite possibilities ahead of her.

Who was she kidding? She couldn't leave. What would be the point?

Look how well it worked out the last time.

Sighing, Peyton pushed the glass of whisky away from her, and picked up her pen. It was getting late, but this paperwork really had to be done.

"Peyton." Peyton jumped and dropped the pen loudly in shock. Lucas watched her from the doorway.

"How long have you been there?" She demanded.

"Not long. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

Peyton avoided his gaze and returned back to her work. "Forget it."

There was a long awkward silence. Peyton was increasingly aware of his presence. She could feel his gaze burning into her, but she stubbornly continued to scribble down figures on the paper in front of her, until the silence was almost painful.

It wasn't going to be her that spoke first. No way.

"What, so now you aren't even talking to me?" Lucas asked. Peyton looked up at him briefly, then returned her attention to her work.

"I'm kinda busy, Lucas, can we just...not?"

"Not...what, exactly?"

"This! Can we just not argue, please?"

"I don't want to argue." Lucas said quietly, and he suddenly sounded younger, defeated and lost. "I just want to talk."

Peyton hesitated. "Well, maybe wasting time running through your 'problems' isn't my issue right now. Did you think of that?"

"Whoa whoa whoa- what does that mean- my 'problems'?" Lucas demanded. "In case you've forgotten, Peyton, a week ago my fiancé left me at the altar. Does that sound like a problem to you?"

"Not one that you can't fix." Peyton muttered. Lucas stared at her in shock.

"Fix it? Okay. How would you fix it? By calling her, trying to find her and getting her answer phone every damn time? No, that's me. Your approach would be, I don't know, drawing a picture, locking yourself away, or nearly killing yourself by driving around town?"

"Stay out of my business, Lucas."

"Like you've stayed right out of mine?"

Peyton sighed. "Look, Lucas, you've come here to talk about Lindsey and how tragic all of this is and the truth is, I couldn't give a damn even if I wanted to. I'm really the wrong person- just go bug somebody else."

"I just want to talk." Lucas repeated quietly. Peyton almost cracked then. Part of her wanted to go over to him and hug him so tightly it hurt. But then she remembered his drunken words from a couple of nights before; it gave her the strength she needed to sit back down. She had been avoiding him ever since.

"We aren't friends, Lucas. We can't talk any more."

"Why?"

"Because you hate me, remember? You wish I had never come back because I ruined your life, right? Is this all sounding familiar to you now, Lucas?"

Lucas looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry- Peyton, you know I was drunk. I didn't mean that at all."

"I don't know that, Lucas; maybe some part of you has been wanting to say that to me ever since LA three years ago?"

A wave of annoyance washed up over Lucas, and the lost, apologetic expression on his face became hard and angry.

"You know what, Peyton? Maybe you're right. But if you're unhappy with the way things turned out, you've only got yourself to blame."

"Me?" Peyton exclaimed, "It's my fault you ambushed me with that stupid proposal?"

"No." Lucas told her in a low voice. "It's your fault for saying no."

"I didn't say no!"

"Well, you didn't exactly say yes, did you?" Lucas spat. "Things could have been so different..." His voice trailed off and for a second or so, he looked right through her, lost in thoughts of what could have been. Peyton bit her lip, as the same thoughts flashed through her own mind. Her and Lucas. Together. Happy. A world where Lindsey was just his editor. The wedding yesterday could have been their wedding, had things turned out differently; only, of course, she would have said' I do' and they would have lived happily ever after.

The End.

"I would have given you forever, Peyton. I could have given you always."

"You want to know how you get always, Lucas?" Peyton's voice was dangerously low. "When the vicar asks you whether or not you take the other woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, you don't say 'I do'!" She lifted her fingers and pressed them against her temple, as if her sudden out burst had given her a headache.

Lucas stopped his pacing, and his eyes focused on the woman in front of him, who was now stubbornly trying to avoid his gaze.

"That's-that's what this is all about?" He asked in disbelief. Peyton looked down at her hands. With a growl of anger, Lucas's hand shot out as he threw her whisky glass against the wall in one smooth movement. Peyton jumped, and stared as the glass shattered, sending fragments and the contents cascading down onto the floor.

"Is that what this is about, Peyton?" Lucas demanded furiously. She didn't reply. He took a step forward and repeated the question. "That's why you've been avoiding me and not coming to work and- and driving like a maniac around town?" There was still no reply. Peyton couldn't look at him, but she could feel the anger radiating off his body and he watched her and waited. I can't give you the answer you need, she thought, I can't afford to give you anything right now.

But her silence only made him want the answer more. "Look at me." Lucas said evenly. "Peyton, look at me!" Peyton could hear the desperation in his voice, and it made her stomach turn. In a second, before she even knew that he was going to do it, Lucas had moved forward and grabbed her upper arms tightly. Immediately, Peyton stiffened. His skin was touching hers, but his grip was far from gentle, and his touch was bruising. Even so, it took everything Peyton had left inside her to stop herself from collapsing into him.

"Is that it, huh, Peyton?" Lucas repeated. He shook her fiercely. "Look at me!"

This time, the urgency in his words was too much for Peyton to simply ignore him. She finally met his gaze and held it silently for a few seconds. She could see the fire raging in his eyes and she was scared. Not scared of what he would do- scared of what he would say. There's more than one way to hurt a person, after all.

"Let go of me."

"Not until you give me an answer."

Peyton voice was quiet, but steady. "Let go of me. You're hurting me, Luke."

Lucas loosened his grip until his hands were barely making contact with her skin. He didn't move away from her, though, and the message was clear; he wanted to talk about this. Needed to talk about this.

"Please...Peyton. Just answer the question."

And for reasons she didn't know, she did answer it. Maybe it was because he was pleading, maybe it was just because he was Lucas Scott, and she owed him the truth. Maybe she just couldn't say no to him.

"Yes." She whispered. Lucas turned away from her and sighed as he ran his hands down over his face. Peyton hugged her arms around her body, and shivered without even noticing.

"Jesus, Peyton." He sighed. "Why couldn't you have said something?"

Peyton laughed bitterly. "Yeah. I should've. How do you think I could have worded it, huh, Lucas? And when? Right after the ceremony?"

Lucas turned to her.

"You're angry at me because I actually agreed to marry my fiancé?"

"Ever since I got back, you haven't exactly made it easy for me, Luke. Sure, you're with Lindsay but then...God, you're so confusing to be around!"

"And you're simple?"

Peyton lifted her hands to her face. "I got back and I told myself to pretend that everything was okay, and I screwed up with Lindsey, I know- but you didn't make it easy for me! Like- like when Brooke's store opened, and you said- you said the bartender wasn't good enough for me, like you actually gave a damn! And then I kissed you, and you kissed me back, and then I find out that you proposed to Lindsey-"

"And she said yes, Peyton! Yes, not no! Is that the part that bothers you the most?"

"For the last time I didn't say no!" Peyton shrieked. She breathed and tried to calm herself back down. "You knew how I felt about you and you- you said yes to Lindsey. You're right, you did nothing wrong there. But if you really think that I can be around you after watching you agree to marry her without a moments hesitation, then-"

"If it bothered you that much, why didn't you say something-?"

"I wanted to!" Peyton shouted. Lucas watched her as the words began to pour out. "I wanted to stand up there in that church and tell you how much I loved you in front of everybody but I couldn't. I should have. But I couldn't." A single tear glided down her pale skin, and she brushed it away impatiently. "There was...some part of me...a tiny part that just thought...'He isn't going to go through with this.'"

Peyton paused, then exhaled. "Guess I was wrong."

"What happened to letting go, Peyton? Guess I was wrong to think you were being honest then." He took a step towards her and spat out his next words.

"People always leave, huh, Peyton? Your mom, your dad, Ellie...Did you ever consider that maybe it's you that drives them away? Maybe people are happy to get away from you."

He had crossed the line and he knew it. Eyes blazing, Peyton's palm curved and slapped him hard across the face. Lucas closed his eyes as the regret of what he had just said hit him just as hard as she had. The hand that Peyton had just used to slap him hovered in the air as Lucas met her gaze and something passed between them.

"Luke..." Peyton whispered brokenly. The next thing she knew, he was right in front of her, and then somehow, they were kissing; chaste kisses, tentative, exploring kisses, because they had only kissed once in almost three years, right before Lucas proposed to Lindsey, but that was different. It felt familiar, but so good- it tasted like better times, it tasted sweet despite the bitter words that they had just thrown at each other. But the innocence of it couldn't last. It had been too long, and their desire was unbearable. The kiss became faster and deeper and fiercer. Peyton wrapped her arms around Lucas to pull him closer to her, and shivered as she felt his fingers slip underneath the back of her shirt, and it felt so right even though it was so wrong; but if this would get her sent to Hell for all Eternity, is was worth the risk for Peyton Sawyer.

"Peyton-" Lucas whispered. She continued to kiss him.

"I don't hate you." Lucas gasped as they quickly pulled apart for breath. Their eyes met and Peyton nodded, lost in the daze of his kisses. She pulled him back to her, and his hands cupped her face as he kissed her; kisses that were bruising, yet somehow gentle at the same time. Gentle wasn't a word some people would use to describe this scene, though. The only sound in the room was the sound of their loud moans. Peyton groaned as Lucas moved down to kiss the part of her neck that he knew was especially sensitive.

"God, Luke." She moaned, but no matter how good it felt, she missed his lips against hers. They stumbled over to the wall. As Lucas slid his cool hands underneath her shirt, her back made contact with the wall, and in one movement, she pulled herself up, wrapping her legs around his waist, and kissing him harder than ever.

In life, there will always be something that is forbidden; something that you can't have. The trick is to figure out whether you want this thing so badly because of a deeper meaning, or just because it's forbidden. Because once something is forbidden, suddenly, it appeals to a person a lot more. It will always be there, lurking in the back of their mind. Temptation will grow and grow. Eventually, their only option will be to take it, to snatch up what is forbidden. But what happens afterwards? If something isn't yours anymore, even if you were so sure it meant nothing to you before this was stated, afterwards you will want it. It's a law of life. You always want what you can't have; always. But sometimes, people get so caught up with the temptation, that they don't think about the Afterwards, the making or breaking. If there was something deeper, then giving in will not mean the end. But what if the whole attraction was based on how good it felt because you knew it was wrong?

Then it all ends.

Some people can never be sure. Understandable, really. Why risk losing so much when you don't have anything concrete to gain? Also a law of life.

And another law of life? Sometimes you just need to give in and screw the consequences.