Brandon and Callie insist that it's over, and she returns back to The Foster's home. But is this really the truth? Can Brallie ever be 'over?'

1. Home Sweet Home

"Okay, here we are. You okay sweetheart?"

Callie was sat in the back seat of the car as Lena pulled up in the drive of The Foster's home. Stef was riding shotgun. It hadn't exactly been a choice of Callie's to return here. She wanted to come home, of course she did, but coming home meant breaking up with Brandon. She hadn't spoken to him since it happened. She snuck out of the group home late one night, for the third time, and met Brandon around the corner. He'd leaned in for a kiss, and she kissed him back so fiercely that he knew something was wrong. She was kissing him like this was going to be the last time, and for Callie it was. It had to be. She cried and he cried but he understood. It didn't stop him being bitter though. For Brandon Foster, Callie Jacob was the one. He'd always felt it, that she was different. They weren't related, and the family hadn't even adopted her. There was always hope, and there was always a way. It was a pity that only Brandon had that view point. For Callie it was over. She'd chosen her brother over her boyfriend, family movie nights over steamy make-out sessions. She'd chosen a family over a love story.

Callie snapped back to the present and silently sighed, forcing a smile.

"Uh- yeah. I just want to apologize again.. I-"

"Callie!" Lena stopped her mid-sentence. "We get what happened, but it's all in the past now. You don't have to keep apologizing." Lena smiled through the mirror and looked over at Stef, "right honey?"

"Right." Although Stef seemed less convinced than Callie, she still wore a smile. "Time for a clean slate. Callie Jacob, welcome to The Fosters!"

Callie managed a smile and opened the car door. She hadn't even noticed the whole family standing outside the house; she had her own welcome party. Jude was beaming at the front, and stood either side of him were Mariana and Jesus. And then, at the back, there he was. Brandon's eyes were piercing, burning into her, and guilt filled Callie from the bottom up. Their break-up had been so that Callie could get what she needed, but it was still hard. She'd thought she'd made the right choice, in fact she knew she had, but if that was the case then why did she feel as though she could easily throw up for days on end as she thought about coming home and living with him. Callie could barely even look at his face, unsure if it was lust or anger in his eyes, and neither one of those emotions were particularly good right now.

Jude ran down the steps as soon as she left the car, wrapping his arms around her.

"I'm so glad you're back," he whispered as he released himself from his grasp, allowing her to greet Mariana and Jesus. She gave them both a hug, Mariana's was definitely longer than her brothers, and then it was time for the inevitable. She had to hug Brandon. The Mom's didn't know the extent of their relationship. They knew about the kiss, and that was the only thing Brandon had told them. He'd declared his love for her, too, but Callie didn't know this, and he'd told them that he was just getting carried away when they asked him about it.

"Uh, welcome back." Brandon smiled awkwardly and held out his arms to hold her. Callie moved slowly, cautiously as she leaned into him and hugged him. As soon as their bodies met, Callie felt alight, and so did Brandon. Her hands grazed the back of his neck and found his hair, the same hair she'd grabbed onto as they made out on the floor after he serenaded her. She moved them down quickly and brushed the thoughts away from her mind. His arms were wide and stretched all around Callie's back, enclosing her completely. It was nice, it felt right, to be hugging him like this, but the hug was getting way too long and the whole family were gathered around the couple as they lost themselves in each other. The few seconds that had passed felt like minutes, perhaps even an hour. Callie was the first to pull away, though it was mutual, and she looked up at Brandon. His eyes were sad, and so were hers.

Jude grabbed her arm again, breaking her stare with Brandon, and he led her into the living room, where everyone had obviously been hard at work preparing snacks and refreshments. There was a banner on the wall which read Welcome Home, Callie! and there were a couple of balloons dotted around the place. Callie's eyes started to well up as she took everything in. She was really cared for here, and so was Jude. Had she actually made the right decision for once?

"Okay so I know it's not much but we just wanted to welcome you back. Mariana baked some cookies and Jesus helped Jude with the banner. Then we all made some snacks, and Brandon said he'd play something later on, we just wanted to make you feel at home -"

"Not much? This, this is amazing. Thank you." Callie was overwhelmed as tears brewed in her eyes. "I - I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. We all love you Callie, now lets eat!" Lena passed out paper plates and began to unwrap all of the food.

"So I haven't really touched your side of the room since you left. Mom washed your bed sheets a few times, oh and Jude slept in there once or twice, but apart from that it's pretty much how you left it."

Mariana smiled widely as she helped Callie unpack her clothes. She was back in her room after an hour or so of drinking and eating and catching up with what everyone was doing at school. The contact with Brandon had been almost non-existent since the awkward hug. There had been a couple of lengthy stares, perhaps too lengthy for their own good, and a slight hand brush as they both reached for the non-alcoholic punch. Brandon sat on one side of the room with Jesus and talked about sports, and Callie sat with Jude on the other, talking with the Mom's. They both glanced at each other, but quickly looked away before the other one could notice.

Now Callie was unpacking her things, making herself at home, again. Mariana had offered to help, and she was glad to spend the time with her. It hadn't been that long, but it seemed like forever since she last sat in this very room, since she watched her make decorations for her Quinceanera and rolled her eyes at all of the boy talks she and Lexi would share. She'd missed it, and she was glad to be back.

"Thanks.." Callie had always felt awkward accepting help. "You know you don't have to help me. I don't exactly have that much to unpack, and I know you probably have plans."

"Pfft, nah. Don't be silly. I don't really have many plans these days now that Lexi's gone." Mariana folded a shirt and quickly moved away, placing it into the drawers by Callie's bed.

"Yeah.. Brandon told me about that." Callie paused and turned to face her. "Mariana I'm so sorry."

Mariana shrugged, but silently thanked her with a smile as she resumed unpacking. With all the shirts done, Callie began putting her shoes in a line on the floor.

Mariana put down a blue blouse and turned to Callie. "I missed you, you know. I'm glad you're back."

"I missed you too. It's good to be back."

"We have got to talk though..." Mariana's tone became more hushed. "I can't believe you kissed Brandon!"

Callie's face dropped but she laughed slightly.

"Yeah.. I, uh, it was very much an 'in the moment' kind of thing -"

"Mariana! Can you come and help me with something?" Lena's voice echoed up the stairs.

Mariana sighed. "I'll be back later.. This isn't over!" She gave Callie a wink and skipped off, closing the door behind her.

Callie carried on with what she'd been doing, thankful for the silence. She repeated the process of moving her clothes from her bag to her drawers, but couldn't shake the thought of Brandon telling everyone about their kiss. How had he told everyone? How did Mariana find out? Had he blurted it out, unable to keep it to himself? Was he forced? Did he just tell one of them, but word got around? Callie suddenly become paranoid. Their kiss at the wedding seemed so long ago now, but she still thought about it daily. She knew she should probably regret it, but she couldn't. It was all down to her. If she hadn't of led him away from everyone, hadn't thanked him, would he of ever made a move? If she hadn't, would he have leaned in and kissed her? It was only when she relealised she'd been folding the same pair of pants for the last 5 minutes that she shook the thoughts from her head and tried to think about something else.

There was suddenly a knock at the door and Callie spun around.

"Come in."

The door opened, and the knock had been so quiet that she had expected to see Jude, but she didn't.

"Brandon." Callie hadn't expected to see him alone so soon. He gave her a small smile.

"Can we talk? It won't take long, I promise. But Mariana's unloading the groceries and she's usually down there for a while. She has to have everything perfect and then the Moms get started for dinner and Mariana has to help out with it all. I thought that -"

"What do you want, Brandon?" He was waffling like he did when he was nervous, and she sighed slowly, running a hand through her hair. It had come out ruder than she'd intended it to, but she remained silent.

"I just need to know." He closed the door quietly and walked over towards her, keeping his distance. "What are we?"

"Brandon -"

"No, Callie, I need to know. I can't go from being in- from being your, ugh I don't know, your..." he paused, struggling to label what they were, something that Callie often had trouble with herself, "your... boyfriend to just the guy who lives across the hall from you. It doesn't work like that."

Callie listened to the accuracy of what he was saying. "But that's how we started.. living across from each other... Besides, Brandon, you're my brother -"

"Foster brother," he corrected, as he walked even closer towards her. "We're not related, we don't share DNA. You can't use that as an excuse, and you can't deny what you feel."

"No, I can't. You're right. I don't know what we are. I know what I'd like us to be, but unfortunately that's the one thing we can't be."

She was getting aggravated.. it was almost as if he didn't understand how hard this was for her. She turned back to her bag, but Brandon had moved yet again, and was now only inches away from her. She turned around and was met by his face directly opposite hers, his breath hot on her forehead.

"So... what is it that you'd like us to be?" he breathed.

Callie didn't know where to look. It would take just one move, one swift upward tilt of her head to join her lips with his. She contemplated that thought, and she moved her head upwards, her eyes directly looking at his.

"I think you know," was all she whispered, her voice full of what sounded like lust, but she definitely hadn't intended it to. It was as if she had no control as she blushed slightly, and turned around to carry on unpacking her clothes, but not before she saw a faint smile spread across Brandon's lips. Oh he knew alright, he knew.

tbc

Note: I know I usually only write Ezria, but just lately I've been having SO MANY Brallie feels and I just need to let them out. I hope you don't mind! If you didn't know, Brallie is a ship on The Fosters (such a good show, same channel as PLL and you should 100% check it out) and I love them so much. They're very much like Ezria with the whole forbidden romance thing :)

Also, I know that I did start a new Ezria fic, Discovery, and I'm kinda undecided as to what I should do with it. I haven't forgotten about it though, I'm just feeling a bit unsure about how to move forward with it, but we'll see. I do have at least one more chapter written for it, so I'll see if I post that or not..

Please review, I do appreciate it so much, and of course, more reviews = more chance of me posting a new chapter sooner!