A/N: How good was 'Clark raving mad'? Our HBIC owns this season. I mean what more do you want from an episode; we got shirtless Matt Lanter, Naomi being Naomi, Ade not pining for Navid or doing drugs, I'm actually warming up to Silver/Teddy (though I'll never be over Ethan/Silver) and we were pretty much Ivy-less! My only complaint is the random Annie/Liam interaction, which has no basis whatsoever other than Annie can't keep it in her pants. So before the writers screw up in an attempt to try and make us sympathise with Annie 'I-ran-over-a-guy-and-we're-more-than-halfway-through-the-series-and-I-STILL-haven't-admitted-to-it' Wilson and try to make us dislike Naomi (never, CW, never), I give you another Liam/Naomi oneshot. Review, darlings, review!

Hearts and Minds

I'm under that night,

I'm under those same stars,

We're in a red car,

You asleep at my side,

Going in and out of the headlights,

Could I have saved you?

Would that have betrayed you?

I wanna burn this film,

What you couldn't do, I will

I'll forgive you,

I forgive you.

- 'For Blue Skies' – Strays Don't Sleep

She understands everything about him so completely it would scare him if he wasn't totally in love with this girl. Really, really, probably too much, in love.

There's a reason, he muses, looking her peacefully whilst she's reading one of those trashy gossip rags that he loathes, but it doesn't matter, because the girl who's holding it, right now, is his everything. He has to admit, landing at her home unannounced unnerved him, because it's only their beginning, and he knows he has something special, and he can't afford to lose that. He lost it before, he knows, and there's no conflict within his mind anymore. In comparison to Naomi Clark, every other girl is just going to fade.

"You're staring," she says, her eyes still on the page.

"Well I can't be blamed completely," he replies playfully. He still hasn't got a shirt on his back and its well into the evening, but he enjoys playing the tease. "And well, you're staring back." He adds with mischief.

He's never been the guy that makes the right choices, but if Liam Court ever needed an immoral compass to guide him in the right direction, it's her.

They spend the night inside, in their own cocoon, away from the drama and delirium of Beverley Hills. It's what brought them together in the first place, she knows, but she is so happy that this is one of those rare nights in which the world decides to leave them alone. She can't lie – she saw Annie's number flash on Liam's cell, but she didn't pick it up. She looked down at it, agitated, but still, it's okay. Right now, everything is okay, and maybe they can't have that forever, but they have it right now and she's savouring all of it. Something, (someone, and it scares Naomi) may come between them again, but she's making a point to outline the path so if they don't work out now, he can always remember his way home again.

"I'm so glad you came straight to me Liam," she says, and he smiles with earnest, "I'm so happy you're here." She adds, and it's one of those rare moments when she allows her guard to fall. It's a privilege reserved for a few, and you'd better believe he knows how lucky he is to have that again.

"I'm happy I stayed and that you let me." He replies, sitting behind her, letting her bask in his embrace. He presses a delicate kiss to her shoulder and he feels her breath catch for a second. Then she lets out one of those little content sighs. "I still can't believe that bastard tried to make a move on you."

Her eyes fall to the floor, and she's sure that if he could see her face right now, he'd know. He'd know she's lying, because he doesn't have to analyse anything she does. He just knows her, without reason. And sometimes having someone like that didn't make you stronger at all; it only makes you more fragile.

"You know what ever happens, I love you. I'm in love with you. And I don't mean in the petty high school way." She knows saying it, makes it more real, and she can hardly take it back, not that she even wants to. But this boy has broken her heart before and he was also the only one ever able to heal it.

"I know. And I love you too." It's not an elaborate declaration for them; it's quiet and understated, uncharacteristic of them both. But then, it's just another change for the better since they've had each other in their lives.

They've come a long way since you like me, don't you?

"Tell me what happened with your mom." She asks, her tone exuding a sense of understanding.

"It's just...it's always been like this, she finds a guy, sweeps her off her feet, and it always ends the exact same way: he cheats on her. And she just doesn't deserve that. I know now that no one deserves that, because I've done it and I've been there." He lets his head rest on her shoulder, and she rubs his arm.

"You worked for my forgiveness. Worked for me. You know I wouldn't have taken you back otherwise." She turns around so that she's facing him. "This time last year, my dad was cheating on my mom and she stayed, because not having my father meant having no status or money basically, not being welcome in this town. So when I say that I know what you're going through, it's not a cliché I'm saying because I can't think of anything else. I'm saying it because I mean it, Liam."

Impulsively, he hugs her, wraps her in a warm embrace, and she's never felt this secure.

"Come on, let's go inside. You must be freezing after I've kept you shirtless all day," She smirks, in all her innuendo.

"Babe, I knew you fell for my body, not my mind." He kisses her fleetingly before swooping her up, bridal style, and running inside with her.

The sad part, Naomi thinks, is that sure, she wouldn't have been intrigued in the first place if he didn't look all dark and mysterious and beautiful, but it's becoming so much more than it started out as.

"I've fell for both, sadly." She murmurs, and he hears her smile.

He lays her down on silk sheets, leaning her against the pillows. He settles on top of her, and they just stay like that, picking up where they left off during the afternoon before the trio united to take down the creep head of the blaze.

Lips, collide, hands roam, but it doesn't go any further, and they silently decide not to question it. She says he should never wear a shirt again, and he tells her to follow her own advice when he peels off her shirt. Then something terrible races through Naomi's head, because this type of happiness only happens once, and all she can see is Annie Wilson. Her number on Liam's cell, Annie in the passenger seat of his car and her lips on Naomi's boy. Her boy.

And she pushes him away, and for a brief, confused few seconds he stares at her with worry. "Naomi?" He asks, voice shaking slightly.

Her sits upwards and draws her legs into herself, and runs a hand through her hair. Maybe it the fact that she's lying and she is, with reason, concerned about Annie Wilson in more ways than one, it's probably both, but she's stressed. She runs a hand through her blond mane, sighs, and says "I'm sorry."

"What's wrong? Look all you have to say is you don't want to –

"It isn't that," she reassures him, her hand finding his. "Liam, I have to tell you something and you're not going to like me for it."

His blue eyes become somewhat of a storm, and she hates herself for what she's about to do. Everyone in his life has been disappointing him lately, and she's about to do the same. But staying true to herself, always, even if it's a bit late, is something Naomi Clark has to do.

"Mr Cannon didn't demand that I sleep with him." She says, and she can already feel her lie wedge a heartbreaking distance between them. He breaks eye contact and shakes his head. "He took me off the blaze, and I said I would do anything he wanted to get back on the blaze, and he took it as me offering a sexual favour."

He gazes out the huge bedroom window that treats them to view of the bright lights, in all their glory. It won't be the last time they have issues to work through. Yet it isn't the first time that one of them has forgave the other, because in the end, it's them, and it's more than worth it all.

"I understand," she begins tentatively, "That I've disappointed you, because I've disappointed myself. I am sorry."

He looks her again, not judgementally, but sympathetically.

"You told me the truth." He states, as he tucks a blond curl behind her ear.

"You at least deserve that." She replies, every bit of her fragile strength gone.

"The bastard still insinuated that you were putting out, Naomi." He says bitterly.

"I took it too far, though...it's just, I told Ade and Silver and even they sided with this guy, I felt like no one understood –

"No matter what it is, you know I'm the one to come to. Why didn't you come to me?" He asks in disbelief.

"I didn't want to disappoint you. After your mom and everything..."

He cups the back of her head carefully in another embrace. "I think you still have a while to go before you reach the level tat I disappointed you on." He voice is tight with total honesty. He hasn't forgotten his mistakes and truth be told, neither has she, but before either one of them had time to seal their hearts, they became each other's kryptonite.

"You know that I forgive you, Liam." She replies, one tear falling faster down her cheek before she had time to anticipate anything, almost as forcefully as he stormed into her life.

"And I love you so much for that. It means I forgive you too, Naomi." He rubs her arms comfortingly.

She could say several things, like thank you, but it wouldn't mean anything more than holding him right here.

"I'll be here through everything. You're being here right now for me." He states so simply, so earnestly. He's reached this point of maturity, and she couldn't be prouder in this moment. Barriers have been broken, and she had expected Liam to be like one of those little Russian dolls – to have another protective layer underneath the on he's already shed. Letting his forehead rest on hers though, she knows she may just well be right at the core. It frightening, but he's clearly as invested in this as she is.

Investment. It either brings nothing, crash and crave something, or you get one hell of a reward.

There will never be an in-between with them.

They fall, somehow really softly, onto the bed again, staring up the ceiling. "I want to sleep under the stars tonight," she says, pulling the duvet off, leaving him laughing, "It's too gorgeous not to take advantage off."

"A lot like yourself," he replies, injecting some much required flirting between them. (As if wasn't always required.) "Sorry, baby, too obvious to miss."

They drag out the duvet and sleep under the stars, holding each other, mocking their respective door-mat mothers and mourning for them, but it's always better when you have someone to mock or mourn with. They're glad, that out of all their friends, his Dixon or Teddy, or her Silver or Ade – that he gets to reach out to his girlfriend the way she reached out to him, and that she's being touched by him the way she touched him all those months ago. At first sight, somehow.

And before she lets her eyes open in the morning, he is the first person she thinks about. She I the first person he sees. And he hopes, against everything, that some things will truly, never alter.

When she retrieves him his shirt with a wicked grin on her face, he knows this – they, never really will.