A/N: I like doing A/Ns. XD OK, thanks to Hayles45 for this one (the plot suggestion): I accept your challenge! :P It's partially in Fred's perspective and partially in Daph's. It's just the best way to write it. Just a little oneshot of what might have come about had Fred not been interrupted by the Hex Girls in that famous scene. I'll keep with the script of Witch's Ghost as much as I can, I've got it up on my iPod, and here goes. Jazzola :)
(Fred)
"Gee, why is it that you always pair off with Daphne, Fred?"
ARGH! Not now, Velma!
"Er… well… um…"
"Never mind, it's a good idea. You guys stay here, I wanna take another look at where the guys saw that ghost."
I hardly heard what she said after "never mind, it's a good idea". Relief flooded my chest as she turned away and the others followed her, Shaggy and Scooby trembling as usual but following.
For a while now Velma had been pressing me on this- issue- that I had. The one that made my knees weak whenever Daphne sat down next to me or put her hand on my shoulder or spoke to me. The one that was haunting me, always there, never willing to leave me, especially when she was there. I knew she would find out sooner or later. I just wanted it to be later, although somewhere deep inside me I screamed for it to be sooner. You know you hear about people who make out they want one thing when they really want the other and it rips them apart inside? That was me. Completely me. Saying one thing, wanting another. And Velms knew it. She had guessed years ago, when I had a crush on Daphne. A crush that I thought would blow over but had lasted and lasted and stayed inside me, slowly getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Now I reckoned she was trying to be the matchmaker. But I didn't want her to be. If I told her to stop, I was told to shut up. She wouldn't take no for an answer. She was dropping little hints left, right and centre for Daphne to find and since we are a group of detectives she was taking them in like clues in one of our mysteries, putting them together and piecing the whole mystery from that.
Daphne looked over at me, giving me her glowing look as soon as they were gone. Ignoring my instructions, I gave her a smile back, my eyes slightly closed. I cursed myself but kept my face neutral as she brushed her fingers against my arm and turned away quietly, beckoning for me to follow. I did. In turmoil inside, so much that I tripped over, not even looking slightly where I was going.
(Daphne)
"Ow…"
Fred picked himself up, rubbing dirt off the knees of his jeans, and I might have sniggered at him once upon a time but now I walked over and helped him up, leaning down and pulling a bramble from his jacket. He'd tripped over a huge bramble on the floor, which had snapped in two from the force of Fred's foot but had brought him down.
"You OK?"
"Swell," he replied, pulling a thorn from his palm and wincing. I rubbed a little blood from his hand, knowing that my cheeks were rose-red and seeing from what I could see of Fred's face from under my hair that he was pretty strawberry-coloured as well. I knew I had a band-aid somewhere in my purse so I slid it off my shoulder and had a look.
"There," I said quietly, sticking it on. He murmured his thanks and smiled at me again, that smile that I had loved ever since we were in junior high together. On bad days all I had to do was call him to his computer and turn my webcam on and see his smile and everything would melt away. It sounds so soppy, and it probably is, but it was the truth. The warmth from his hand on mine as I smoothed the band-aid down and wiped a little blood away from his thumb was making my heart race so much I swear I needed a blood pressure pill.
"C'mon, we're here for a reason," I told him, sliding my purse back onto my shoulder. He nodded and followed me into a little shrubby area, with only a few trees around it but secluded enough.
Velma's words came back to me as I saw a little heart etched on a tree nearby. JA DAE LOVES ANDY showed clearly on the damaged bark. Velma would have been sighing over the tree, saying that whoever was irresponsible enough to do that should have to plant five more trees in compensation. She's a real eco-head for someone as high-tech as she is. All I could think was, What if it was slightly different? In my mind's eye the rough cuts in the earth-coloured bark moved themselves around and formed DAPHNE LOVES FREDDY. I shook my head at myself, but my mouth stretched into a smile at the thought.
Funny how you often want to do one thing but your body does another. Like those people who say one thing but actually want something else and are trying to hide it. I see it all the time on my soaps and stuff that I watch at home.
But I never thought I'd think of myself as like that.
(Fred)
Daphne was looking at something on the other side of the clearing we were in. I say a clearing; it was more a square of grass in the woodland, surrounded by bushes. I looked as well. A heart etched into the trunk of a tree, saying JA DAE LOVES ANDY. I'd doodled on trees as a kid, but just cut my name in or my initials. This was a teenager, probably feeling somewhere about the same way I was, proclaiming their love on a tree. Pretty, I guess. I didn't think it was all that important.
Then I saw the smile on Daphne's face and realised that I was seeing it as one thing, and she was seeing it as something completely different.
"Daph? Daph, you there?"
It was like she was in a trance, but as I called her she snapped out of it.
"Sorry…"
She turned to me, and I almost gasped at the look in her eyes as she stepped forwards and opened her mouth to speak.
(Narrator)
The Hex Girls, as they liked to call themselves, had arrived at a junction. A real one, not a hypothetical one.
If they went one way, Thorn would get home first and the other girls would have to double back. Then again, if they went that way they could all go to Thorn's place and perform their ritual before the show tomorrow. They weren't divas, but their rituals were important to them.
If they went the opposite way, Dusk and Luna would get home first. They wouldn't be able to do the ritual; they would have to postpone it.
"Do you want to perform our ritual now, girls? Or tomorrow?"
"Not tonight, Thorn. My powers are weak from exhaustion," Dusk sighed huskily. Luna nodded.
"How about tomorrow, just before the concert?"
"Agreed," the other two said together. Inside, Thorn was protesting; she would have liked them to do the ritual now, rather than the next day, but she wanted to keep the peace with her band-mates before the concert. She was also too tired to argue, having used up all her energy practising.
"Come on, Thorn, you're falling asleep on your feet," Luna sighed, beckoning for her friend to follow her. "You need to go home."
There was no question of them splitting up right now, not with that ghost or whatever on the loose. The Witch's Ghost, everyone was saying. Thorn nodded.
"Coming, sisters."
She hurried forwards on her high heels, clicking on the pavement.
Going the opposite way to Fred and Daphne.
(Daphne)
"So, Freddy- why do you always pair us up?"
I put on my coy face, leaning towards him, my hands behind my back and my eyes wide and child-like in a show of attempted innocence. I know body language. Mine was just begging him to say those three little words. My body, soul, heart ached to hear them.
"Erm, well…"
He leaned back from me slightly, and his voice went about an octave higher as he said the second word. It only does that if he's nervous or shocked. I've noticed, after months of paying attention to every little thing about him, every quirk and detail. It's just what you do when you're in love, I guess.
"I've thought about that for the longest time, and- there's never been a good time to tell you-"
"Tell me now," my heart whispered. "Tell me now!" I leaned towards him, a smile on the lips I had so painstakingly made up, hoping he would think I was beautiful.
"-maybe it's time that I- well, that I…"
He trailed off a little, and I could see uncertainty in his eyes, the stormy, clear blue orbs I daydreamed about. I stepped towards him, not caring about the difference in our heights, staring up at him, my eyes wide and beseeching and trying to instil confidence in him, the confidence to maybe say what I dreamed each night of him saying…
"-that I told you I… I… I love you."
My lips gasped. My heart shrieked in triumph. My hands reached out and grasped his, feeling his smooth skin against mine, and my head leaned forwards to meet his.
My lips stopped gasping. And started kissing. Passion flowed through them, and suddenly months of agonising uncertainty and dithering flew away like startled birds. He had said it. He had said it. He had said it…
And the world no longer mattered as we held each other and kissed, his eyes shining into mine and his pale, soft lips on mine.
A/N: Now you can go away and tell the makers of Witch's Ghost how it should have been done! And while you're at it, get them to get in touch with me, I have plenty more alterations where this one came from. :P Thanks to Hayles45 for asking me to write this, any other little moments you'd like me to, ahem, alter, either review and say or PM me and say. And of course I'd like you to review anyway! Thanks for reading this, hope you enjoyed it! Jazzola
