A/N: Okay, this is a Charlie Bone fanfiction. May I have the liberty of saying that book series is AWESOME-NESS. Anyhoo, Gabriel is just ZEE BEST, so I'm going to do a fanfic on him. And Emma. Oooh yes, G/E. Awesome pairing…to me. Ssh.

Disclaimer: None of these characters and places, etc. etc. belong to me. So stop tormenting me and leave it alone! GAWD.

………

"You're being stupid." Gabriel muttered to himself, pushing some of his scraggly, shoulder length black hair past his eyes. "This was a stupid idea, you're a stupid boy, and this will lead to a stupid and awkward ending…"

Something suddenly bit at Gabriel's ear, causing him to yelp in pain. He reached a pale hand to his ear and felt something fuzzy clinging to the hair on the side of his head.

"Gerty, how many times have I told you to stay out of my hair!" Of course the gerbil wouldn't answer. Gabriel didn't have Billy's talent after all. He just sighed and ripped the gerbil rather painfully from his head and stuck in the crook of his other arm, which was carrying about four other gerbils. Gabriel couldn't really tell.

All too soon Gabriel saw Pets' Café come into view. He sighed and stroked a trembling auburn gerbil. It was Gerty. She seemed to be having little fits lately and Gabriel had absolutely no idea why.

Why was he hanging out with a bunch of kids anyway? After all, Gabriel was twelve, almost thirteen. The other kids, (excluding Tancred and Lysander), were all eleven. But he just felt that these guys were too nice to leave, or to ignore. Ever since Charlie had given him his nice new cloak. The thought still made Gabriel smile.

Gabriel grinned at the bouncer, whose name was Norman, or-or Norbert or something like that. The man had constantly repeated his name, but Gabriel seemed to have the worst memory. So he just resolved in smiling at him when he walked in and nothing else.

There she was. Gabriel spotted her instantly, with her long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. They made Gabriel's own grey look dull and, well, kind of creepy. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. The conversation with her on Friday continued to repeat in his mind, no matter how much he wanted to push it away.

Gabriel was walking through the stone halls of Bloor's on his way to grab his things for the weekend, when he spotted a blond head bobbing in the crowd of people ahead of him. For no apparent reason, Gabriel got the most stupid, most awkward plan forming in his head, and two seconds later he dove into the crowd of people, trying to avoid their emotion-filled clothing, (which was quite a difficult task).

Finally he had reached the petite, rather pale girl by the name of Emma. He grabbed at her wrist and maneuvered her out of the crowd until the two were at the edge of the continuous stream of people.

"Oh, hello Gabriel." Emma said with a brilliant smile. "I was just off to collect my things."

"Yea…yea, me too." Gabriel said, biting on his thumbnail. A bad nervous habit…but all well. "Look, Emma, do you—er—wanna meet at the Pet's Café tomorrow?"

Emma looked at him closely, as if she were inspecting him. This thought caused Gabriel to feel sick.

"Will everyone else be there?"

Oh, he knew whom she meant by everyone else. Everyone else was BETTER than Gabriel. Everyone else was COOLER than him, SMARTER than him, BRAVER than him. No one ever noticed dreamy Gabriel. Harumph.

"Ooh, sure! 'Course everyone is going to be there!" He tried to smile, but was mentally kicking himself for bringing up such a lie. Emma smiled again. What a beautiful smile she had. He tried to remember when she was a lost, scared little soul…but he could barely remember that Emma.

"Okay then! I'll see everyone there!" She waved at him and seconds later was engulfed in the throng of people.

"Well. That went rather pleasantly." Gabriel whispered to himself, grinning nervously in spite of the situation. "Now, what do I tell her tomorrow when no one's going to be showing up but me?"

"Gabriel? Gabriiiieeeel! Hullo!" Gabriel was snapped out of memory lane by a waving hand in front of his eyes. He gave a small startled jump back.

"Huh? Oh. Hullo Emma."

She grinned. Wow, he didn't realize just how much she grinned now that she was back to normal. "You could be a little more enthusiastic!"

"I meant—OH! EMMA!" He said, plastering on a large grin. "Shall I wait on you hand and foot now, plucking grapes into your mouth and all that fun stuff?"

Emma giggled and motioned for him to come sit at the table. He did so, his knees knocking.

"How come no one's here yet?" She asked, biting her bottom lip in a nervous, thoughtful sort of way. Don't stare don't stare… Gabriel forced himself to think. So his eyes unwillingly left her face to gaze at her bird shrieking in the cage beside her.

"Oh—well—you see…" Gabriel coughed, wondering how to get around this uncomfortable topic. "I went round to Charlie's to meet up with him and—and Fido and Olivia were there, they said they were working on some…some project or something…" His eyes were shifting nervously from the front window to the counter at the back, wondering if maybe he could make a quick escape through either.

"Huh. That's weird. Olivia's not even in music…and when Charlie and that Benjamin character came round to the bookshop yesterday he didn't say anything about it." Gabriel noticed she looked a little put out. He couldn't help but think to himself bitterly,

Gee, thanks Emma. That makes ME feel loved.

"Huh. No idea." He said rather hastily. The two sat in a rather uncomfortable silence that Gabriel had been dreading would happen. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know Emma that well. He hadn't been a big part in the rescue and finding of the true Emma. He rarely went into their bookshop either! He made a mental note to go there more often…

"Err—Gabriel? One of her gerbils is nesting on your head." Emma gave a small giggle as Gabriel hand flew to the top of his head. He patted around, his eyeballs looking up at his forehead until he felt something soft and fuzzy. With a triumphant hold on the gerbil he pried it off, realizing its claws had been dug deep into his skin.

"Ouch. This one's a little bugger. Her name's Gerty." Gabriel said, setting the gerbil on the table. She kind of just sat there, sniffing at the metal table. Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at his pet and decided to dump the rest on the table.

"Before they make me their permanent home." He added to Emma as he sat the rest down. "This yellow one here is Kitty, the little scraggly brown one is Muddy Morton, the albino one is Rhino, the grey one is Smokey and the black is Raven."

Emma looked at them in a fascinated sort of way. "How many do you have?" She asked in a sort of whispery voice. Gabriel shrugged. "I had 53…but one died just the other day."

Emma's mouth fell open, and Gabriel felt the same way he did everytime he told the amount of gerbils he owned.

"F-F-Fifty-THREE!"

"Actually, 52." Gabriel corrected her with a small smile. Emma just gulped.

"Wow. My aunt would have a fit if I had that many animals."

"Yea, well, my house is kind of in shambles anyway so having it filled with little rodents isn't really a big deal to my mum." Gabriel caught Kitty just as she was about to fall off the table, and Smokey as he plummeted towards Gabriel's lap. Emma only giggled.

Hey, we're having a real conversation! Gabriel thought brightly. Well…sort of. Okay, not really, but hey it's better than nothing!

He suddenly noticed something long and silky looking lying on the ground beside them. Gabriel realized it was a hair ribbon and bent down to pick it up. Unfortunately, he had momentarily forgotten about his endowment. And something happened this one time that had never happened before.

Something like happiness burst through his veins, rising to his head, making him feel rather lethargic. Wow, whoever owned this had been quite happy. And then it happened.

He heard a voice. Not just emotions, he heard a voice. It was Emma's.

"Oh Olivia! Look, look at this!" Mumbles were heard. "Yes, yes! Charlie gave it to me! Isn't that great? I just know he likes me, he has to—"

Gabriel dropped the ribbon back on the floor as if it had burned his flesh. Did that just happen? No, no, it couldn't have. That was impossible, he was imagining…he had to be…

"Oh, that's mine." Emma said in a whispery sort of voice. Gabriel felt his stomach plummet. Okay, this officially stunk.

"Oh-uh-" Gabriel quickly grabbed it on the edge with his fingertips as if it would poison him. He flopped it on the table haphazardly before he could hear Emma's overjoyed voice again.

"Um…Gabriel?"

Gabriel looked up to see Emma watching him intently. "Are you okay?"

"Huh? What—oh. Yea." Gabriel lied again. He felt nothing near okay. He felt sick and stupid, alone and like a loser once more. Of course she liked Charlie. Why wouldn't she?

"Did you hear anything?"

Gabriel's head snapped up again from looking at his pants. "Huh? What…oh. No. Just emotions. Just—just emotions." He paused. "What made you so happy about it?"

Emma gave a small, sort of relieved giggle. "Oh, someone special gave it to me. Someone very special…"

Gabriel felt like he was going to puke. "Er—look. Emma. I need to—uh—need to go. Leave. Yea. Sorry. Bye." After Gabriel's fumbled sentence, he grabbed his gerbils and ran from the Café, completely ignoring the bouncer and the shocked expression on Emma's face.

Soon he was down the pavement, breathing heavily. GREAT. Just peachy. Emma liked Charlie. CHARLIE. Not Gabriel, the lonely, dark-haired, gangly, dreamy loser. No, it was brave and daring, irresponsible and roguish Charlie.

"Life sucks." Gabriel muttered, kicking at a pebble. He knew he shouldn't have fallen for Emma. She was too pretty to go unnoticed by people like Charlie. And maybe even Fido! The thought of the two liking Emma just made his blood curdle.

"Why does it always have to happen to me?" He thought glumly, shaking his shaggy mop of hair. Gerty was on his head again, but this time he could care less. All he could think was, Emma likes Charlie. Emma probably LOVES Charlie. The feeling from the ribbon made me nearly jump out of my seat it was so happy. And hearing voice—that's a first. But still, she likes CHARLIE. Not me…Charlie.

Gabriel knew he could never wear this same pair of t-shirt and jeans again—they would forever be filled with such a sorrowful, painful emotion he knew he'd have to burn them before he'd ever want to feel the pain he was feeling now again.

A/N: Awww! It broke my heart to do that to Gabriel! –sobs- But, I dunno, I just roll with my fingers. CURSE THESE FOUL BEINGS! –glares at fingers- Harumph. Well, I STILL think they'd go awesome together, and I still love Gabriel! Please don't think I meant to hurt him. They'll get together in the end. Once she comes out with more books.

And yes, this is a year later just to let you know. Gabriel's probably actually thirteen when they're ten, but hey. We can let that slide, right? Review please, I would LOVE that!

PS: Yes, this was an unbearably long one-shot. Shut up, I get carried away.