Author's Note:

Okay, this is another really short one, just moving the plot line along a little bit. I was thinking about putting them together right away, and then thought better of it. But my mind is working and I've got plans for certain things in the near future. I'm also a Naley, so I've got to figure out how that's going to work into all this as well. I'm thinking and I'm working though, so yeah. I'm thinking that the next bit is actually going to be a summer between chapter, maybe with a road trip and possible drunk confessions? Who knows? It could be good…

"So…" Karen says as Peyton plops down in front of her at the counter of the café. Lucas was playing with the river court boys after school, Haley was tutoring, and Brooke was off with her latest endeavor from the basketball team. That left Peyton alone, and since she wasn't up for starting homework on this beautiful Saturday afternoon, she figured she'd pop by the café for some lunch and see if Lucas or Haley became available sooner rather than later.

"Haley's tutoring, Lucas is playing basketball, and Brooke is… well, Brooke is being Brooke right now."

"What about Nathan?" she says, and Peyton picks up on the other question in her gaze as well.

"Lucas told you?"

"I'm surprised you didn't tell me, Peyton."

"It really isn't a big deal. Happened a week ago." She says, shrugging her shoulders.

"Okay… and you're fine with this and Nathan is fine with this?"

She just nods, not really wanted to get into the details of why exactly the two of them decided to part ways where boyfriend and girlfriend were considered. However, she knew that she wouldn't get away with that.

"What happened? Did he do something?" she asks, assuming that it was Nathan's fault as she still couldn't wrap her head around the boy.

"No, Karen, he didn't do anything. If anything, I was to blame, but we just realized that it wasn't going to work out."

"You guys dated for a while, you didn't see it before now?"

Peyton sighs then, knowing the real answer, but not willing to share before the reason figured out what the reason was, "No… it just happened, and we're good with it. Actually, we're still friends, and everything is fine. Even he and Lucas are okay with each other again."

"hmm… yeah, Lucas was starting to think he'd been replaced."

"I know that, and I told him that wasn't the case. It's going to all work out."

Just then, Keith walks in with Lucas trailing not too far behind, "Hey, look what I found?"

When Keith steps aside, they both gasp, watching Lucas walk in with muddy clothes and what is going to surely be a black eye tomorrow. "Lucas Eugene Scott!" Karen screeches.

"Luke, what happened!"

"Well, when I drove by, he and his brother were having a few words with their fists."

"Nathan did this to you?" Peyton asks.

"It's nothing, leave it alone." He says, walking past both of them to go into the bathroom.

Karen moves to walk back there to him when Peyton puts a hand on her shoulder, "Let me deal with this. I have a feeling it's going to be something stupid."

When she walks back to the bathroom, Lucas is dabbing at his eye with a washcloth, "you know that's going to be black and blue tomorrow?" she says to him, grabbing his face so she can see it better.

"It'll be fine."

"Are you going to tell me what happened?"

He sighs then, turning around to rest his body against the sink so he could face her, "It started off as some stupid comment about Dan, then it went to you, and then it went back to Dan, and it just got out of hand, and we were being stupid."

"What did you say?"

"Why do you automatically assume—" he starts and then notices her slight quirk of the eyebrow, "Okay, so he was kicking my ass basically and being a jerk about it, so he made some comment about how he got the Scott basketball genes a little better than I did, and I said something to the lines of the fact that he got all of Dan's asshole genes."

"Lucas… that's a low blow, you know."

"Yeah, so then he made some jerky comment about how at least he got the genes that Peyton Sawyer wanted to get into…" he says, cautiously looking up as he said it. "and I know that it was just trash talk and I know he was trying to get a rise out of me, but I took it too personally, and it pissed me off, so I hit him."

"You said it went back to Dan…"

"Yeah, that's kind of when I said that you were smart enough to get away from him before he got you pregnant and cheated on you with the first random chick that looked his way."

"I assume that's when he started hitting back?"

"Yeah, that's kind of where that started, and Keith was driving by and saw something happening."

"I don't think he was expecting it to be you…"

"No…"

"Hold on." She says, walking away for a minute and coming back with a bag of ice for his eye, "Lucas Scott, you are an idiot, and you know you have to go apologize to Nathan."

"Hey, he dished it right back at me."

"Yeah, and I'm going to go tell him that he needs to apologize to you too, cause you're both idiots."

"I'm sorry, Peyton."

"For what?"

"Being a jerk."

"As I see it, in a way, you were defending my honor… albeit in a roundabout way…" she says, grabbing his hand before turning to go talk to Nathan. "And Lucas… I never wanted in his jeans, for the record."

He smiled then, wincing a bit at the pain, and then wincing again when he saw Karen come around the corner and he prepared himself to get yelled at for fighting in the first place, no matter what the reasoning behind it.

Peyton rang the doorbell to the Scott house hoping that it was Nathan who would answer, and letting her face fall when it was Dan Scott who opened the door instead.

"Hi, Mr. Scott, can I talk to Nathan?"

"Well, if it isn't the cute little ex-girlfriend… who I'm sure is the reason he's going to have a black eye tomorrow. He's busy at the moment."

"Yeah, well, can you let him know that Peyton's here?"

"Peyton?" Nathan says, calling from the hallway behind his father.

"Nathan, go back to icing your hand. You can't play with it swollen like that." He says, clearly not caring much about his son, but more about the game that he could potentially miss.

"I'm good dad, I want to talk to Peyton… alone."

Dan looks between the two of them, a smirk on his face, "Oh young love… I remember that once… don't be stupid, Nathan."

"Thanks dad." He says with a scoff, stepping out onto the front step and motioning for Peyton to sit down with him.

"So, I guess you heard."

"Yeah, and apparently you are both real jackasses when it comes to your tempers."

"Well, I was provoked…"

"Yeah, and so was Lucas… but for the record, I didn't want in your jeans Nathan."

He looks down then, ashamed at what he had hoped Lucas wouldn't repeat.

"It was a low blow, him comparing you to Dan like that. He knows how you feel about all that. But, you had no right to bring me into that pissing match."

"I know, and I'm sorry."

"Well, that's why I came over here. You need to apologize to Lucas. Just like Lucas needs to apologize to you."

"And what about us?"

"What about us? I thought that everything was okay, and then I hear that comment, and I'm thinking it's not all okay."

"It's not. I thought that I would be okay with it, cause I know that you and Lucas have this strange connection or something, but maybe I'm not."

"Ego a little bruised?"

"Something like that…" he says, looking down again, avoiding her gaze.

"Nathan, I do still want us to be friends, and I do want you and Luke to actually be brothers. Don't let Dan and all this baggage get in the way of that. It's stupid."

"That's easier said than done Sawyer."

"I know, but come on…" she says, gesturing for him to come with her.

After the guys apologized, it went on okay for a while. Nathan and Lucas walked eggshells around each other for a while, but they were working towards something with each other. They knew what they wanted from each other and with each other, their father be damned.

"So, Luke, how goes it with Nathan after fist fest?" Keith asks weeks later when Lucas is helping him in the shop.

"It's okay… I mean we're working on things. We just know each other's buttons, you know? We knew exactly what would get to us."

"Peyton and Dan…"

"Yeah…"

"It's like the angel and the devil, but you've got to know when it's worth it, Luke. You knew he was pushing your buttons, you didn't have to play into it."

"Yeah, but the second he said that, I was pissed."

"Why?" Keith asks, fully knowing the reason.

"I don't know."

"Maybe he said it cause he knew you were jealous."

"What? Keith, it's Peyton."

"Exactly… it's Peyton."

That's all he said before going into the office to grab some paperwork on the car they were working on, leaving Lucas alone to think about what his uncle had said. He loved her, and he had known that for a while, but he also knew that she wouldn't return that sentiment.

When Keith came back, he knew the poor boy was still lost in thought about the situation put before him. "Lucas?"

"Yeah?"

"You know, you're only sixteen. You'll figure it out eventually. There's a lot more living ahead of you."

It was like a switch was flicked, him hearing Peyton saying those exact same words to him just a month before now. What it meant, he didn't know. Was she saying that to get him to understand that she felt the same way he did, or was she thinking something entirely different. She was his best friend. She was also the girl who promised him marriage in second grade. But she was Peyton, the girl he'd known since age four. And she was the girl who kissed him on the first day of high school so he would get made fun of.

"I gotta go."

Brooke Davis had become a good friend to Peyton, but Peyton knew their friendship's limitations. While Peyton could confide in Haley and Lucas, she found it hard to confide in Brooke knowing that anything she might say could end up around the cheerleading squad and all of Tree Hill High later in the day.

"So, why won't you tell me?" she asks for the millionth time.

"Brooke, do we need to go through this again? Nathan and I broke up a month ago!"

"Yeah, I know, and your answer of the fact that you just weren't going anywhere doesn't satisfy me."

"Well, that's the answer that you're getting."

"But I'm not buying it Peyton! You're telling me that you date the guy for months and months and then all the sudden you both realized that it was over?"

"Yup."

"You're so lying!"

"Whatever…" Peyton says, turning back to her sketching as Brooke is thumbing through the latest CD purchases made by the blonde.

"Oh my God! It was the kiss!"

"What?" Peyton says, knowing exactly what she meant and hoping upon hope that Brooke didn't detect the panic in her eyes at the mention of what was the catalyst for her and Nathan's break up.

"You and Lucas kissing at the party! You totally broke up with Nathan because of Lucas!"

"Brooke, I didn't break up with Nathan, he didn't even break up with me… we both realized that it wasn't going to work out."

"Yeah, because Nathan saw you playing tonsil hockey with Lucas. I'm totally right, aren't I?"

"No, actually, you're totally wrong. You seriously need to get back with Jared."

"No, I'm done with him… I'm onto Trevor… and don't try to change the subject. You're totally in love with the other Scott brother."

Her mind was screaming that Brooke was in fact right, but her mouth spoke a lie. "Brooke, it isn't like that between me and Lucas. He's like a brother to me. We could never date like that."

The bad thing about lies is that they are always found out and they are always something that spreads quickly. For example, when you leave the door to your house open, anyone can walk in… and who wouldn't listen at the door when they heard their name mentioned.

He was glad the music was playing loud enough for him to escape unnoticed. Clearly, he was wrong about that light bulb in his head. He'd wait, because she said he'd eventually figure it out. He thought he had.