Chapter 2: Friendship

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews. I'm glad you guys liked it. And as promised, here is the update. And as to Hunneybee's question, Well, Cott has happened. They are still the descendants. In that respect, it isn't really AU, but there won't be any Cronus battles. Hope you enjoy. Sorry about me putting the chapter up three times. I had it up, and then I discovered that the dialogue was missing lol. There is one more chapter after this. And then more installment's of Reunion. Please review.

If I owned this, I would be helping with the second season silly.

xxx…And If I told you I needed A Friend, Would you be Mine? …xxx

Archie could feel the blood drain from his face. He could feel emotions he had long ago written off as useless rumble to life deep in his heart. He could feel his heart pound as it only had once before in his life.

He whipped his head around and felt his hands let go of his clipboard, letting it fall to his feet. He didn't particularly care, he only truly cared about the fact that she was standing there, her hair as red as it had been when he had first met her.

Her face was paler than it had been long ago, but her eyes were the same. The same golden hazel he had once been content to watch for the rest of his life. Her lips were pink and shaped much like a long bow. Her body was lithe and muscular, not soft and curvy as most women's were. She looked almost the same. There were few differences.

The first time he had seen her, she had looked the same as she did now. Except that she had seemed so much more full of life, and love. She had been so open, so trusting, that all of the bitter cynical hate he had always carried with him fell away in front of her. She alone had been his saving grace. She trusted him, cared about him. And she did not fear him.

Archie had never understood that. He was violent, always had been. He had lived on the streets, and that was how you survived. But even though he had been mean to her when they first met, she had seen through his jaded façade.

The memory tore through him as he stared into her pixie like face.

--

She had been lying in the grass, her arms stretched around her, staring at the sky. She was smiling, and humming softly to herself. She had been the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She shone with innocent happiness, and yet he could sense that she knew much more than a girl her age should. He had walked up to her, wanting to savor the warmth of the presence as long as he could.

"What are you doing here?" He asked roughly. "I don't want you here."

And that's when she did the most miraculous thing of all.

"Well I want to be here, and you are welcome to stay. I am a good sharer, why don't you come and sit with me and watch the clouds?"

Archie had never had someone to ask to share with him before, but he was almost positive it was just some cruel hoax.

"I don't want to sit by you." He spat angrily, "I want you to move, girl."

She had smiled serenely and gotten up, walking over to him. He had been ready to fight or flee. Instead of challenging him, she had taken his hand and tugged him towards the spot.

"My name is Atlanta. Not girl. And I don't particularly care if you don't want to sit by me. I want to sit by you."

Archie had never had anyone want to sit by him before. It had caught him off guard. This girl as so pretty, why would she want to sit with him?

"Why are you being so nice to me?" He asked. Atlanta grinned.

"I like you. You don't need to be mean with me, I know you're not a bad person. If you were, you wouldn't look so shocked that someone wanted to sit with you."

Archie sat down beside her, still stunned that she had known he wasn't actually mean.

"Why would you like me? I am a bad person."

"No your not. You're my friend."

Archie had never had a friend before. And Atlanta seemed so sincere, maybe she wouldn't hurt him?

"I'm Archie. And I would like to be your friend."

--

Archie felt his head pound as the girl who he had only ever known in dreams stared back at him in real life. His best friend. His only friend. The woman who had only been seven when they met and twenty two when he last saw her. That had been five years ago. She was now twenty seven, and he was twenty nine.

His life was almost over, and the worst part of that revelation was that the best time in his life had been when he was sleeping. Every night from the age of nine to twenty four were the nights that had made him want to keep going.

"Katie, go upstairs." He choked out, his cobalt eyes still locked on the tortured hazel ones. He heard the scrambling of Katie's footsteps. Once the room had gone silent, he sucked in a deep breath.

"Atlanta?" He asked, his voice laced with shock.

The woman seemed to awaken from a trance, and the look in her eyes was not promising. Instead of the hope that had been shining there, suspicion and hurt stood.

Archie had only had Atlanta look at him like that once before, and it had been in a dream. She was supposed to go to the prom, and she was talking about how she was going with this Gary boy. And Archie had hated it. He wanted her to be real; he wanted to go to the prom with her!

So Archie had left the dream and hadn't returned for a week. But the day after prom night, Archie had once again found Atlanta in the meadow where they had first met, only it was night instead of day.

--

She was more of a woman now, and as she lay in the exact same spot as she had years ago, Archie could see the differences. Her face was less round and her body less boyish and more feminine. She looked like she had been crying and Archie felt pain lacerate his heart.

He walked up to her and sat down, taking in her appearance. She watched him with her hazel eyes, filled with suspicion and hurt.

"What are you doing here?" She had spat angrily, her words and tones only a cover up for the pain that had shone on her face.

"I'm here because this is where I am meant to be. And now that you're here, everything is okay again." Archie had whispered softly, telling the truth and putting as much feeling into it as his heart could muster.

She scoffed, "Sure. Why are you here?"

He stood and took her hand, looking down into her face.

"I'm here to ask my best friend if she wants to dance, since I couldn't go to the prom with her."

Despite the tears that appeared in her eyes, her face broke out into a grin, and she took his hand and stood up.

"I didn't go to prom."

He was shocked, she had been so excited. "Why not!?"

"I was sleeping, trying to make you come back, and I accidentally missed it." She giggled.

Archie had been pleasantly surprised. But also a little guilty, since he was the reason she had missed her prom.

"Well, we will have our own private prom then!" He had declared, and made a suit appear out of nowhere.

--

Archie came back to reality, only to see the same eyes he had seen for only an instant that night. Except this time, Archie had the feeling that these eyes would be harder to fix.

"What are you doing here?" Atlanta asked him in the exact same way she had so long ago.

"I'm here because this is where I am meant to be. And now that you're here, everything is okay again" Archie reiterated the words exactly how he remembered them.

Atlanta's face slackened, as though she was shocked he shared her memories. "Sure. Why Are you here?" She whispered in a hoarse voice, looking for confirmation that he was real.

"I'm here to ask my best friend if she wants to dance, since-" Archie was cut off as Atlanta raced into the living room, leaving him alone. He followed her quickly.

"Why are you running away from me?!" He demanded angrily, "Atlanta, come back here this instant! What are you doing? Where are you going?"

His next sentence was lost as Atlanta pulled up short and turned around to face him. Archie forgot completely what he was saying when he looked into her hazel eyes, blazing with unbearable pain and anger. They shone with every emotion he could name, but most prominent in them were hatred, love and hurt. Archie couldn't breathe under the intense scrutiny.

"Why did you leave me?" She whispered slowly, as if to taste the torturous words for herself.

Archie stepped back, as if he had been slapped. Atlanta almost regretted the words she had spoken, just because the look of self hatred and pain on Archie's face. But it was a true question, and the one question that had hounded her for the past five years.

Archie couldn't speak past the black anger he felt. How dare she accuse him of leaving! He hadn't left, he just couldn't get back! She actually thought he wanted to leave? She thought he would just stop coming to see the only person in the entire world that actually mattered to him by choice!?

But it was still his fault that she had been hurt so badly. He could have looked for her. He could have taken a chance and searched her name in every phonebook in the state. Actually, he didn't even need to do that considering he had known her name and where she had supposedly lived. But Archie had thought she was a figment of his imagination, just someone he had created to make himself feel less alone. His own personal friend, which only he was allowed to know.

That was why Archie had left when the prom thing had come up. He knew she wasn't real, and therefore, neither was Gary. But even so, Archie hated the thought that maybe there was a dream Gary, and a dream prom. Or some such silly thing. And Archie hated that he was jealous of someone who didn't even exist.

And when Archie looked up from the floor, Atlanta was gone. Archie felt uncontrollable anger race through every vein in his body and he unleashed it on the wall next to him.

As he stomped up the stairs, he glanced once more back to the area Atlanta had stood in and had an intense urge to go sniff the floor. But Archie shook off the foolish thought and looked at the fist sized in his wall. He would need to fix that soon.

xxx… I Want One Chance To Show you, You Were Right For Me …xxx