A/N

Hey, guys! So I had this idea…and thus you get this one-shot!

Disclaimer: I do not own HON.

~Smiley

It had been a very strange morning.

In all honesty, the primary thing Rephaim was feeling was confusion. Her behavior had just been baffling him ever since he had turned back into a boy at sunset. Yes, she had come up to greet him as soon as she could, and then they had returned to the tunnels together. However, it was apparent to him that her hello hug had seemed forced, that there was something bothering her. At breakfast, she had eaten her Cap'n Crunch in silence instead of bursting with her constant babble in between bites. Rephaim had begun to wonder if she was feeling ill, but when he had tried to ask her privately, her eyes wouldn't meet his gaze for more than a second and her reply was mumbled so low that he could hardly catch any of it.

When they got on the bus, Stevie Rae took a seat next to Zoey. Confused, Rephaim simply took their usual seat in the back of the bus and made conversation with Kramisha and Damien.

"What's with Stevie Rae?" Kramisha asked suddenly. He had tried to listen to her as she rattled on about poetry and how he should try writing some, but her abrupt inquiry had him snapping back to reality.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Kramisha," Damien scolded, giving her the eye. "Just ignore her, Rephaim."

"What I mean," Kramisha continued, ignoring Damien, "is that yous always sit back here, together. Why she sittin' with Zoey in the front of the bus?"

Rephaim shrugged. "Perhaps they needed to discuss something."

"Kramisha, these questions are incredibly crude and juvenile," Damien argued. Why did he look so worried?

"What? I'm just lookin' out for mys priestess. She seem upset."

"Well, she was pretty quiet at breakfast this morning," Damien agreed.

"Uh-huh. And I knows that when Stevie Rae is quiet, she upset," Kramisha said.

Now Rephaim was worried. "What do you believe is causing her sadness?" he asked.

Damien and Kramisha both shrugged, but by then the bus had come to a stop in the school parking lot. Everyone filed off quickly; Kramisha started arguing with Johnny B, but Damien hung back with Rephaim as they both climbed off.

"Perhaps I should talk to her before first hour," Rephaim thought out loud.

"I don't think it would be a bad idea," Damien agreed. He jogged over to Shaunee while Rephaim caught up with Stevie Rae and Zoey. They weren't talking, which was particularly strange for them, as they walked towards Thanatos' classroom.

"Stevie Rae, are you alright?" Rephaim asked her quietly. She nodded, as if in a trance, but then shook her head violently, causing her short curls to get tossed around.

"Why are you not talking?" he questioned. She shrugged. Rephaim realized she hadn't met his gaze yet.

"Stevie Rae, can you look at me?"

She continued to stare at the ground. Their conversation, if one could call it that, continued like that for a time, ending with Rephaim asking if she was upset with him. And, if Stevie Rae hadn't been so completely serious, his reaction may have been different. But, as it was, he could only find it completely and totally strange.

Sure, he knew that his Red One was generally considered strange, but he found that it was usually in a good way. But…this was just absurd. Irrational. Illogical. Completely and utterly ridicules.

Yes, she was upset with him. That much was clear. And, for the rest of the school day (night), it drove him insane. How could she be mad at him over something he had no control over? It wasn't even his fault!

On the bus ride home, they did sit together in the back of the bus, but they exchanged no words. Stevie Rae was lost to him, staring out the window, and, even though he knew he was not truly to blame for her emotions, he found himself resenting them. How could she get so upset over something like this?

Everything was simply silent, and it was suffocating him. Mostly, he liked silence, but this was just horrible, and he hadn't even done anything to with it! Yet, he had still made her upset…Goddess, why did she have to be confusing!

Eventually, they, being all the red fledglings and the rest of their friends, had dispersed into their own corners of the tunnels, and he followed Stevie Rae to their room, walking in unbearable silence. As they ducked under the checked blanket, Rephaim decided that he would do anything to get her to talk to him again. This whole silent treatment thing was simply killing him.

"Stevie Rae," he started as she sat down on the bed, "will you please talk to me?"

"Nuh-huh," she mumbled, shaking her head and tossing her blonde curls around. Obviously, she was continuing to choose to act like a child. "I'm still upset with you."

Well, she was talking. That was a start. "Then what can I do to make you no longer upset with me?" he asked patiently.

She thought about that for a moment. Finally, she said, "Ya could apologize."

"Apologize?" he asked, hardly bothering to keep his voice down. "It wasn't even my fault!"

"But ya still did it!" she argued.

"Stevie Rae, I had no control over that!"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Ya could still apologize."

"Stevie Rae—" he started, but Stevie Rae was pretending to be deeply involved in the book she had randomly grabbed from the bedside table. He didn't bother to waste his breath.

"I'm waitin'," Stevie Rae said.

Rephaim sighed. "You're serious about this, aren't you?"

She nodded soberly.

"I cannot believe I'm going to do this," he mumbled to himself. Then, to her, he said, "Stevie Rae, I apologize. There, are you happy now?"

"No," she said. "I want a real apology."

Rephaim rolled his eyes, but her being upset with him, even over something as minuscule as this, was eating away at him. "Fine," he said, and he got down on his knees in front of her. She looked at him with a cross between curiosity and wariness, but he took her hand anyway. "Stevie Rae Johnson," he said, "I deeply, sincerely apologize."

"For?" she prompted.

"I hardly know what I did!"

"It's not an apology if you don't even know what you're apologizin' for!" she insisted.

"Okay, okay," he said. "Stevie Rae, I deeply, sincerely apologize…"

She looked at him expectantly. Just swallow your pride, Rephaim, he told himself.

"…for whatever it was I did in your dream."

A/N

Just a short little one-shot I felt like writing. Please, please review though! I'm open to suggestions for other one-shots too!

~Smiley