A/N: So this is a birthday present for Sidney Loves Werewolves. She has been really amazing to me ever since I started writing for CR, encouraging me and reviewing my stories, so I thought that I would take this opportunity to do something nice for her and thank her for all the support.
I hope you like this Sidney, it's dedicated entirely to you. An( early) Happy birthday to you!
Disclaimer: I do not own CR.
Catch A Falling Girl.
//
"I'm so annoyed with Brown," Caitlyn said as she flounced around the room, looking annoyed. Nate just watched her curly hair move up and down, not paying much attention to what she said.
"Did you even hear what I just said?" Caitlyn said narrowing her eyes at him. Nate sat up straighter immediately and said that of course he had been listening to her in the most convincing voice he could find. He just wondered if she would buy it. From the look on her face, apparently not. Here it came 1, 2, 3…
"Of course you were not listening, you are too caught up in your own problems to listen to any of mine," Caitlyn said glaring at him as she continued flouncing around the room much too annoyed to give him an earful. Which she would have done if she hadn't been so annoyed with Brown. He couldn't understand one thing though, why she was annoyed with Brown. He ventured bravely to ask.
"Why are you so annoyed with Brown, Caity?"
"Because he signed us both up for Christmas tree decorating without asking us whether we even wanted too. He said you owed him for this. Seriously. And now, when I just want to curl up with a blanket in bed with a hot cup of cocoa, I will be outside decorating a freaking tree while freezing my butt off at the same time" Caitlyn said throwing herself on to his bed.
Nate blanched at the mention of the word favor. He had secretly asked Uncle Brown to sign him and Caitlyn up for work so that they would be able to spend some time alone. Nate had been wanting to ask Caitlyn out for quite sometime and it was impossible for a shy guy like him to do so when they were surrounded by twenty different people at any given point of time. And it did get terribly frustrating, anytime he worked up the nerve; some idiot would pop up on the scene and spoil it.
And now Caitlyn was not at all happy about working with him or spending some time alone. He bowed his head into his heads. Stupid Shane. He'd been the one who suggested trying to ask her in privacy. He wanted to punch that pretty little face of his right now.
"You know Nate, I am so thankful I will be working with you." Caitlyn said suddenly sitting up and crossing her legs.
"Really?" Nate's head shot up lightning fast at this admission from her.
"Of course you goose. I'd rather be with a friend than with anyone else. Imagine if I had to work with Shane or something. I would have thrown a hissy fit." Caitlyn said shuddering at the thought of working with Shane. Shane was a little bit of a diva. And that was putting it mildly.
Nate smiled; maybe he just would be able to do it after all. Ask her out that is.
//
When Nate and Caitlyn passed Brown later that evening Caitlyn shot Brown dirty looks which he received with complete bemusement. Nate on the other hand shot him a look of apology before running to catch up with Caitlyn's long strides. The look he received from Nate only served to add to his confusion.
As far as he could see, Brown knew he hadn't anything wrong. So why was Caitlyn shooting him dirty looks? He hadn't done anything wrong had he? He was under the impression that Nate and she had wanted to work together. He shook his head. All these years of being a camp counselor and he still couldn't figure teenagers out. He continued walking pausing to separate two boys from fighting and then got thrown on the cold snow himself. He raised his voice and began yelling at the two contrite teenagers, Nate and Caitlyn having been driven out of his mind by two boys who seemed determined to rip each other apart.
Caitlyn had an armful of tinsel balls and baubles, while Nate had his hands full of lights and other Christmas ornaments. The tree was the one which had been placed in the centre of the dining hall. They entered the dining hall and went up to the tree; Caitlyn deposited all of the ornaments onto a chair before plonking herself onto a chair. Nate stood there with his arms full of ornaments wondering what to do. Caitlyn eyed Nate out of the corner of her eye. He seemed to be all keyed up.
"Nate, you can put the things on the ground you know. There is no need to stand with it." She said before taking out her phone to check her messages.
A slow flush crept up Nate's neck. This was what he had wanted right? But as of now he just wanted to bury his head in the ground and stay there for an inordinate amount of time. All that previously worked up courage had gone flying out of the window. He deposited the ornaments on the ground and stood around awkwardly before deciding to sit down on a chair. He looked at Caitlyn. Her hair was specked with small snowflakes and her cheeks were pink from the cold. He wondered idly how her cheeks looked so enchantingly pretty. He was debating when her cheeks looked the prettiest and the pinkest and decided that it was when she was embarrassed. Her cheeks turned a tea-rose pink then.
Caitlyn looked up to ask Nate something and noticed him staring at her with deep concentration. At the same time it was as if he was miles away in a distant land. She snapped her fingers in front of her face and Nate broke out of his trance and turned a deep red. Caitlyn smiled. She was pretty sure Nate got away with a lot of things because he looked so darn cute, especially when he was embarrassed. She stood up.
"Come on Nate, might as well get this done with as fast as we can and then hightail it out of here."
She walked to the tree and picked up a string of tinsel and began stringing it around the tree. Nate picked up some sparkling baubles and began to hook them onto branches. Caitlyn picked up some bells and tied them to the branches pausing in-between to take a few bites of mint candy cane. Nate noticed her eating the candy cane and took it away telling her severely that she would have stop eating that. He did take a bite of it himself. Come on it was candy cane after all, how could he not?
Nate strung a few lights around it and Caitlyn decided that it wasn't Christmas-y enough and hung a few stars of the branches. Satisfied with her work she stepped back and looked at the tree. Nate looked at her and smiled only Caitlyn would use a word like Christmas-y. He too stepped back and surveyed the Christmas tree. It looked bright and sparkling just like a Christmas tree should. Now there was just one more thing left to do. Place the golden star on the top of it.
"Can I place the star on top Nate? Caitlyn asked looking at him hopefully.
"Yeah, sure you can," Nate said handing her the star.
Caitlyn drew a chair close to the tree and climbed upon it while Nate stood behind her holding the chair and tried to keep his eyes averted so he would not be accused of looking at her behind. Though truth be told he had snuck a tiny little glance at it and had quite enjoyed the view. But now his eyes were averted or at least were trying hard to not look that way.
Caitlyn tried to reach the top. It was slightly higher than she expected and she stood on her toes confident she would reach it. However she over balanced and thought she would land on the cold hard ground and embarrass herself colossally in front of Nate, when she was caught by a pair of wiry arms.
Nate was thinking of how he could ask Caitlyn out when he saw her overbalancing, the next thing he knew was that she was in his arms. It had almost been like some inborn reflex. Catch a falling Caitlyn Gellar. He looked at her, her face once again pink, the pretty pink she turned when she was embarrassed, he involuntarily smiled.
Caitlyn was confused, why was he smiling at her like an idiot?
"Nate, are you smiling because a pretty girl like me just fell into your arms?" she asked smirking.
"Yes." Nate said simply. Someone had said that simplicity was the best policy or something to that effect. Either way he couldn't remember who said it for the life of him because to concentrate on remembering some old geezer's name was quite a task when you had such a pretty girl in your arms.
Caitlyn was stunned. Did Nate admit to what he just admitted; that she was a pretty girl? Something did not feel right here.
"Nate, you just agreed to me being pretty" Caitlyn said as she went all squinty eyed on him as if trying to catch him out.
Nate took a deep breath, it was now or ever.
"You are the prettiest girl I have ever seen Caitlyn and I have been wanting to tell that from the moment I met you. I also want you know that I am the reason you are here decorating this Christmas tree because I was too chicken to ask you in front of people. I couldn't have handled it if you had rejected me in front of so many people. So I thought I'd ask you when only the two of us were alone. That way if you rejected me I could have handled it. Eventually." Nate said in one breath looking at Caitlyn's face. There. He had said it all.
Caitlyn stared at him somewhat surprised by this heartfelt admission. She never even had an inkling that he thought of her as something more than a friend. With Nate, you never knew what he was thinking.
"Silly boy," she said, a sweet smile playing on her lips. Nate stared at her with a mixture of hope and confusion in his eyes.
"Why would I want to reject you? You are the sweetest boy I have ever known. The only one who listens to all of my rants and doesn't think I am clumsy or scary. And you think I am the prettiest girl and catch me when I fall. What more could a girl want?" Caitlyn said smiling.
Nate smiled at her as he hugged her closer. Yep. He was strong and Caitlyn was lightweight compared to Shane who he had once hefted around for an hour.
"By the way, you can put me down," Caitlyn said.
"Oh…"
Nate put her down and drew her close to him. Once again her cheeks were pink and as Nate drew her closer her face grew pinker. Nate placed a gentle kiss on her lips. She tasted of mint candy cane and sweetness. It was, light and airy and just so her.
//
Brown was passing by the dining hall and decided to look in on the Christmas tree decoration and maybe even steal some candy cane. He had just come from the recording studio where he had forcibly thrown out Shane and Mitchie for having a deeply involved make-out session there. He looked into a window to see if Nate and Caitlyn were still there. He did see them there. Only they were engaged in a make out session too. Everything fell into place, Nate asking him for a favor, Caitlyn shooting dirty looks at him and Nate shooting him apologetic looks.
He moved away from the window and sighed deeply, not feeling like breaking up another deeply involved make-out session. Teenagers, they would always remain the world's greatest mystery to him.
Hopefully you don't hate me for this Sidney. And everyone else, I would love to know what you thought about it. :)
