Missing You
By: Sari
Summary: AU Futurefic. Laley friendship/relationship. Naley. Brucas. It started out as friendship, but some time between now and then you begin to realize you wish it was something more.
Chapter 3: White Paint
When Nathan got home from practice that day he didn't expect to be hit in the face by the aroma of wet paint or see Haley sitting in a chair facing a wall. A plain white wall, with nothing on it, except for the hole Haley was staring into it.
"If you stare any harder you might shoot lasers out of your eyes." Nathan joked coming up behind his wife. "What's up?" He asked her.
She jumped out at his voice, a blush spreading quickly across her face. "Nothing, I just needed to think."
"So you had to pull up a chair in front of a good white wall?" He asked incredulously. "Hales, I know you got some weird traditions but this might take the cake."
Haley blushed harder. "When Lucas and I were little he used to brood a lot even then, so one day Karen took us into the only empty bedroom they had in their house and she handed the both of us a paintbrush and pointed to a can of white paint she had on the floor. Lucas and I looked at her like she was out of her mind because we were twelve and we thought she had gone off her rocker but she sat us down and told us that if we ever felt like it was becoming too much we should stare at a wall and transfer all of her problems onto it. Then, when we've sorted them through we take some more paint and paint it over in white." Haley giggled. "At the time, we thought it had some philosophical meaning that meant we would wipe away all of her problems but it was really a way for Karen to get Lucas and me to paint the guest bedroom."
Nathan laughed with her. "That's a clever way of getting you to do some work, but what was so overwhelming that you had to paint one of our walls white?"
She shrugged. "Life decisions, you know us musicians. We carry the weight of the world on our soldiers and then translate it into a song."
"Anything I can help you with?" Nathan offered taking off his coat.
Haley opened her mouth with the intention to decline, but then shut it and gave him a thoughtful look. "Actually there is."
Nathan looked surprised. "Alright, lay it on me."
Haley shifted in her chair, still staring at the white wall before posing her question carefully. "What made you realize you were in love with me?" She asked.
"Hales…"
"Nate, this would really help me." Haley pleaded.
"Alright, it was the little things I think. You were the only person who saw past my tough exterior. You actually cared enough to let me work through my problems without forcing on me your own opinions of how I should act. You let me become the person I am today without pressuring me to do so. I think I fell in love with you when I realized that you were the only person I wanted to be a better person for." Nathan said softly sinking down on his knees next to her.
Haley's eyes filled with tears. "That was beautiful."
He smiled embarrassedly at her. "Did it help you?"
Her smiled turned somber. "Yeah it did, thanks Nate. I'm going to go out for a little while, you going to be here for a while?" She asked him.
He nodded. "Everything okay?"
"Not right now." She said ambiguously. "But hopefully I can make it okay again."
Haley knew without a doubt that Lucas would be in his apartment when she got there. She knew from Brooke that Lucas worked mostly from home nowadays, always locked up in his office immersed in some manuscript he had to edit. Haley smiled fondly at that, if he wasn't going to do basketball then being an editor fit Lucas. He had always had that love for literature and the English language that only an editor could posses.
A pang of nervousness went through her as she reached up to knock on the door. The choice she was about to make would hurt someone, there was no mistaking that, and Haley knew that she was hurting herself most of all, but you have to learn sooner or later that you can't just live for yourself. When you attach yourself to someone, they are just as much apart of you and effected by the things you do. She couldn't act on emotion because she wanted to, she had to think about the other people in her life. Nathan for one, and Brooke for the other.
She knocked once, and was surprised that Brooke pulled the door open before she could knock again. "Brooke!" Haley said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."
Brooke started at her strangely. "I live here Hales, have for a while."
Haley glanced at her clock. "Yeah, but Luke said you're usually out during this time." Haley replied lamely, not wanting to sound like she didn't want to speak with her but knowing that Brooke would take it that way.
As she expected, a hurt look crossed Brooke's face. "Well, obviously you're not here to talk to me." Brooke said. "Don't worry Hales, I can definitely take a hint. I just stopped home for lunch anyway. Lucas is in his office. Good luck trying to get him out of there."
"Brooke...look I'm sorry, I didn't want it to come out that way." She tried apologizing. "This is just urgent, and I really didn't expect you to be here."
Brooke nodded. "Go talk to him Haley, you want to get together later tonight? We can have a night out with Peyton, haven't done one of those in a while."
Haley smiled gratefully. "I would love that, call me with the details."
Brooke nodded, waved slightly at her, and shut their front door. Haley looked down the long hallway and sighed inwardly. Now she suddenly wished she had talked to Brooke a little longer. At least it would have delayed the inevitable conversation she had to have with Lucas.
Haley opened the door to Lucas's office and stood their admiring him as he worked. He had been her best friend since that fated day when he saved her from the school bully and boy, had he grown since then. Tall, handsome, and endearing, she understood why girls had always been so drawn to him. But Haley, she had been drawn to him because she had seen his heart, and it was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.
"Hey, you going to stand there and stare at me all day?" Lucas asked her in his soft, inquisitive voice. "I'm beginning to think I'm one of those lab experiments you used to like so much."
Haley smiled. "I zoned out for a little bit, I'm sorry." She said sitting down on one of the chairs in his office. "How's the latest manuscript going?"
Lucas winced. "It's a young adult novel. I don't know why my boss sent it to me, but it's not my style so I can't really give it an objective opinion."
"Maybe he wants to broaden your horizons? Can't stay with the soul-searching literary fiction forever."
He rolled his eyes. "That's the only kind of fiction that matters." He joked. "But I know you didn't come here to talk about my work." His eyes grew serious. "Haley, what was that yesterday?"
"You just jump right into the serious stuff." Haley said weakly. "I don't know what it was." She admitted.
"Let me tell you what I think it was." Lucas offered, moving closer and taking her hand in his. "I think, it was something that was unique, beautiful, and perfect. I think it's something worth looking into, it's something worth fighting for."
Haley's eyes brimmed with tears as she looked into Lucas's eyes. His eyes were always so expressive, and now they were filled with love.
"I..." Haley trailed off, looking up at him. She sighed into his mouth as he kissed her, it started off slow and passionate, like the kiss they shared yesterday but quickly developed into something fierce and driven by lust. They both battled for dominance, until Lucas pushed her down into the loveseat and covered her body with his own. They only broke away for air, before he devoured her lips again and Haley had no choice but to let him take her to places she had only dreamed of.
Somewhere in her mind alarm bells were going off. Her moral center was screaming at her that this was wrong, that if she wanted to do this she couldn't hurt Nathan again and she couldn't let Lucas hurt Brooke again. So, reluctantly, she pushed him off.
"We have to stop!" Haley gasped, catching her breath and trying to ignore the hardness pressing into her thigh. "Luke, get off me, I can't...I can't think when you're on top of me like that."
He slid off her on to the ground next to the loveseat and settled his head on her thigh. "Haley that was..."
"Perfect." She finished for him sadly. "We're going to hurt someone." She said softly. "We have to tell them."
Lucas winced. "I'm going to break Brooke's heart again." He whispered, a pained look appearing on his face. "God Hales..."
She placed another kiss on his mouth, and then moved to kiss away the tears that were building behind in his eyes. With sudden realization she knew she still loved him, and always would. "Lucas..." she whispered. "We're doing this aren't we?" She asked.
He looked up at her with reassuring eyes. "We're going to do this, and we're going to do it the right way." He said with resolve.
Haley smiled in relief. "We'll do it together?"
Lucas smiled down at her, kissing her lips softly. "Always."
A/N: Okay, everyone this is a definite Laley. If you didn't realize that by now get your head checked. It's also going to be a pretty short fic as you may have realized. It'll probably only be 8 to 10 parts. It's not a large fiction piece like my other ones. This is just how I would like to see Haley and Lucas get together, because I think that they are perfect for each other. They wouldn't sneak around or anything, they'd do it the mature way and that's what I'm trying to convey here. The fact that you can be with the one you're meant to be with without losing your friends and family in the process. Of course there will be drama because I can't write a OTH fic without it, but it's not going to be some scandalous Desperate Housewives kind of drama. Okay, enough of my rants. On to the reviewing!