Hello,

I know, I felt sorry for Nosedive too. I really like his character, but I loved it when Duke and Nosedive competed for Lucretia, I thought it was hilarious and not something you saw in a cartoon. Kinda building on that, slightly.

Enjoy

TFG


Chapter Seven

It took maybe two seconds into consciousness before the hangover crept in and caused Duke to wish he was still asleep. Usually the older drake was a morning person, and would be up as soon as the ambient light that Tanya had programmed into the underground base to simulate the light of day started to change to mimic the dawn. But today, all he wanted to do was roll back over and go back to sleep. Unfortunately, that was impossible, as he was such a light sleeper and once he was awake, he was awake. Besides, he had stuff to do and a horrendous headache to medicate. And there was also the thought that something was terribly wrong and that he felt extremely sore. Like he had just played a really intense and brutal game of hockey.

With a groan Duke opened both his eyes, realising that he actually managed to remove his patch. The last time that he had not removed the sensitive piece of equipment from his face he had had trouble recalibrating it for a week. It was a very precise prosthesis, and it needed the adjustment of being put on each morning to make sure that it worked correctly. But this meant that his overly sensitive, scarred eye had to deal with the morning light. And with a hangover as well, the artificial morning light was almost like a new form of torture.

He tried to blink the horrible light out of his eye before he even considered moving. Luckily, years of training himself to wake up before an alarm had made him wake up early enough that it was still rather dull in the room. with a sigh Duke turned to see what time it was on the clock radio that was sitting on his left hand side bedside table. Or the clock radio that was supposed to be sitting on that table, as the irritating piece of equipment was not where it was supposed to be.

"Great," Duke said with a great sense of irritation. He must have been drunker than he thought when he eventually came in and he must have knocked the blasted thing off the table. He could also see that this eye-patch wasn't anywhere on the table either, and that caused him to become even more annoyed at the situation. And that was when he noticed the wall next to his bed. The one that contained the bookcase that was now missing several plaques, trophies, trinkets and books.

Now, Duke was not a stranger to alcohol, or alcohol fuelled crazy nights. But, it had been a very long time since he had been black out drunk and destroyed his room. The last time that had happened was during his grief at his younger sister's incarceration, when he had ripped everything from the walls and destroyed the piano that reminded him too much of her. But this time he had no idea what could have caused him to total his extremely organised and tidy room. from what he remembered it had been a great night that had been so much fun. There had been dancing, drinking, more dancing, then a lot more drinking. His brain started to hurt and his memory got fuzzy as he tried to recall anything that had happened after Wildwing, Grin and Nosedive had left the club.

"Oh, this is gonna be a bad day," Duke said as he brought his right hand up to rub his face. And that was when he finally realised what was wrong and what had actually caused his to wake up so early. He had one hand on his face and two hands on his bare chest.

Duke was suddenly wide awake and staring intently at the ceiling as his tender brain churned over all the information that was available. His destroyed room suddenly made a lot more sense, as he had been told that he was quite a rough lover. And the last time he had been intimate was a very hard quickie against a wall that caused quite a bit of property damage. But his mind was drawing a blank over who it could be.

He couldn't decide what would make the situation worse. If the body lying next to him was a duck, then he had completely screwed up the team dynamics. If it was a human, then that would be a PR nightmare for the team as he had no idea how the public would handle the news of an interspecies one-night stand. Plus, that would mean he had brought a random member of the public into the Pond in a drunken haze.

With a deep, not so calming breath, Duke finally looked down at his chest to see a bare, five fingered, slightly tanned hand.

"Well," thought Duke, "at least I didn't fuck Mallory."

He then followed the toned, slender arm all the way to the head of rainbow hair that had spread over one of his pillows. But not enough to obscure the still blissfully sleeping face of the only human who was permitted to be in the Pond.

If Duke was scared of the repercussions before it was nothing to what he felt now. He was completely terrified. Not only had he had sex with one of the few humans they trusted on the planet, but he had also had sex with a girl who was almost half his age. Plus, there was the fact that she was best friends with one of his team mates, who happened to be the younger brother of his captain. And there was the little fact that they all lived together. If someone found out what had happened, then everything that they had worked hard to achieve within the team would be lost. And all for a one-night stand that he couldn't even remember.

That might be the piece of information that hurt the most. The fact that he had finally gotten Roxie naked and in bed and he couldn't remember it. With any luck the memory might come back because looking at the complete state of disarray that his room was now in, Duke was sure that the night would have been unforgettable. If he could remember it. What a horrible twist of irony.

But he was digressing. He needed to focus on what to do and not the fact that Roxie was still naked and gripping slightly onto his chest feathers.

"Even when she's sleeping she's a tease," Duke said, exasperated at the situation before he clamped his beak shut as tightly as he could and hoped to any god that would listen that he didn't wake the sleeping girl up. Luckily for him, Roxie may be the deepest sleeper he had ever met in his life. The girl had actually once managed to sleep through one of their games while she was sitting in the front row and didn't wake up until Nosedive actually shook her awake once everyone had left. He carefully stole a glance at the girls sleeping feature and breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she was still asleep he had time to figure out what to do.

Hopefully it was still early enough that everyone else was still sleeping as well. And if he couldn't remember anything that happened the night before then there was a very good chance that she wouldn't either. And, since she was such a deep sleeper, there was a good chance that he could get her back to her room before she woke up. But there was still a chance that she could remember their night together.

"Well, he would just need to play it off as a sex dream", Duke thought sneakily. That was until he looked past the sleeping girl's face and focused on her exposed back.

The good thing about being a duck is having quite thick plumage that completely covered almost all body surfaces. Except some pads on their fingers, feet and genitals. As a result, you rarely saw any decolourisation of skin, unless you had extremely light plumage like Wildwing. Duke could always feel bruises for days afterwards, but you could actually see the horrible purple welts through Wildwing's light feathers. And that always made him feel worse. The only thing that could be seen on Duke were the scars that crisscrossed his body and face. And Duke preened meticulously every day to make sure that his facial feathers covered the parts of his scar that weren't covered by his patch. Human's, on the other hand, did not have this luxury. And now that he was looking at Roxie, and not just her face, Duke could see exactly how rough he had been with her during their night of passion.

There was a huge bruise that ran over almost the entirety of her back where he had almost certainly thrown her into a bookcase. There was also huge, four-fingered, hand-print bruise on her arm and on her collarbone where he had obviously gripped her far too strongly. The one that went across the front of her neck looked extremely nasty but also gave Duke a shameful sense of pride. Looks like Roxie was definitely on the kinky side he thought to himself. Then there were the bruises that must have been made by his beak, from biting by the looks of it. He could actually feel some sensitive places on his body, mainly his neck and stomach where she had obviously returned the favour.

Looking at the collection of bruises that were covering the small area of skin that he could see made his thankful that he had never been able to see bruises through his previous lover's feathers. If this is what he did to everyone he slept with then he was seriously going to consider never sleeping with anyone ever again. It looked so brutal. Yet, the young woman was sleeping quite soundly, with the hint of a smile on her face.

The bruises were definitely going to cause a problem for him. There was no way now he could just deposit her in her own room and hope that any memory she had of their night together would just be passed off as a kinky dream. But as long as she was asleep he would have time to think of what to do.

And that was the moment fate decided to figuratively kick him in nuts.

Duke had completely miscalculated what time it was. He would usually wake up himself almost half an hour and would be showered and dressed before the alarm clock blared out it's annoying beep. That morning was not one of those mornings. As the sudden, loud, high pitched beeping of his alarm clock sounded from somewhere under his bed causing the warm body next to him to groan into consciousness.

She moved groggily trying to fight the steady return into the land of the living. She was muttering to herself about evils of ducks and early mornings, completely oblivious to her bed companion. Until she moved her hand to push herself up and felt the feathery torso underneath it.

Roxie had stilled completely and her body looked tense, as if afraid to move. Duke was frozen as well, as he watched to see the reaction of the naked girl. He actually heard her gulp before she turned her bright blue eyes and met his dark orbs.

"Duke?" Roxie said, almost shocked by the drake who was sharing the bed with her.

"Expecting someone else, Sweetheart?" Duke answered, slightly taken aback by the tone of her voice. The girl merely looked at him, before looking around the room and taking in the state of the normally neat room. She could see items of clothing hanging from various pieces of furniture, as well as all the other items that had been knocked down. Duke could almost see the wheels in her head turning, trying to process what had happened, and it was obvious that she didn't remember much of the previous evening either.

"Do you have any clothes on?" Roxie eventually asked after she moved a little further back from Duke, taking some sheets with her. She was trying to cover up her body as she realised that she was in fact completely naked.

"No," Duke said simply, not finding any amusement in the situation that the two had found themselves in.

"Right. But we didn't have se…ex," Roxie started saying before she moved her legs from between Duke's, and the pain of tired and overused muscle's shot through her body. Obviously confirming what she feared to acknowledge. She then closed her eyes and breathed a very deep, soothing breath.

"Do you remember anything?" Roxie said after a few minutes of complete silence.

"No, do you?" Duke said, sitting up a little gingerly. Various parts of his body were complaining from overuse, but in a very satisfying way. A way that he hadn't felt in years. The girl beside him just answered with a shake of her head and he could almost see the cogs starting to turn in her head. He, of course knew what was about to come out of her mouth next, as he had had that exact idea.

"You know, if you don't remember and I don't remember, then who's to say what really actually happened. I say we just don't mention it to, well anyone, and never speak of it again," Roxie said as she sat up next to Duke, taking as much of the covers with her as she could. She sat back against the headboard and instantly became uncomfortable, very confused as to what could be causing her intense discomfort.

"Well, that would work, Sweetheart, if not for one small problem," Duke said, slightly concerned over Roxie's reaction as he pointed to the mirror on the wall next to the bed. The girl followed his extended finger and saw the reflection of her bare back in the mirror and was absolutely horrified.

The bruise extended almost from neck, all the way down her spine, to the lower back. And it covered most of the expanse of her back. It was a deep, horrible purple that looked sickly against her lightly tanned skin. Roxie quickly scanned the rest of her body in the mirror, before looking at her actual skin in complete disbelief. She was absolutely covered in a multitude of oddly shaped, bright purple bruises. There were some from what looked like flat surfaces, impact bruises, four-fingered hand print bruises, and long bruises like hickies.

"What the hell did you do to me! I can't work looking like this!" Roxie exclaimed before going off on a long tirade. If she was covered in bruises, then she couldn't dance until they faded. They could cover up small bruises and cuts, but the sheer amount that were peppering her body would be impossible to cover up during dancing. Especially since they were all on places that needed to be exposed while she danced. And, since she was actually still underage, she couldn't make up the shifts by working at the bar like some of the other dancers did when they had a night with a little too much passion. That meant, she was going to be down at least three weeks' pay, maybe even more. On top of actually finding herself in bed with an alien, it was a little too much to deal with while having a raging hangover.

Duke, meanwhile, just let Roxie continue to berate him in silence. The kid needed to get all this out and off her chest if they were going to have anything resembling normality when they eventually walked out of that door. He just thanked Tanya forethought for making all the rooms sound proof, as Roxie was really raising her voice.

Then, she suddenly went silent. Which was entirely odd. During her lengthy tirade Duke had just been staring at his hands folded neatly in his lap. But due to the echoing silence he looked up to find Roxie just staring at him with something resembling curiosity and concern. He had no idea what had caused the very sudden change in demeanour, until she reached out a very delicate hand and ran her finger down the full length of the scar on his face.

"I thought it was just gone, I didn't know it was so badly hurt," Roxie said softly, looking at the spider web of pink lines running over the pearly white orb. She was tracing the flesh scar, that wasn't being covered by Dukes extreme hairdo. It looked like it would have been painful.

It was an extremely intimate gesture. One that he should have expected from an awfully curious who was friends with several aliens. Yet, Duke was not expecting it and was just frozen in place for a little while. He was wide-eyed with fear and afraid to move, in case he freaked the girl out more. Eventually, Roxie realised what she was doing and became aware of Duke's fearful reaction. She retracted her hand, apologised, and both became silent again. Staring, fixedly, in front of them and making very sure not to look at the other.

After a few moments Roxie finally noticed the eye-patch that was hanging precariously off the lamp on the desk. She really didn't want to move, in case she exposed herself more, but she really wanted to get out of the room. with all the strength of will and skill of delicate movement, she managed to pull out the sheet and secure it completely around herself. She could feel Duke's eyes watching her as she went and could almost feel his longing gaze on her body. She reached over and plucked the patch from lamp before handing it over to the drake, who took it gratefully from the girl.

Roxie then began her search for her underwear and clothes as Duke adjusted the sensors slightly so he could see from that eye once again. Once that was done he finally spotted Roxie's elusive underwear, which were hanging from the top of the headboard. He unhooked the wine-coloured lacy material from its hanging place, appreciating her choice of undergarment, before clearing his throat to get the girls attention.

When she turned around, Roxie saw her bra and panties hanging loosely from Duke's extended finger. She also saw the trademark smirk back in place and had a desire to beat it off of him, but first she would get dresses. She snatched the underwear and held up to put it on, and that's when she realised another problem. Both the bra and panties were ripped to shreds and were now of no use to man nor beast.

"I'll replace those," Duke said quickly as Roxie let out the sigh of irritation.

"Kid, why don't you just come back to…" Duke continued before Roxie cut him off.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence Duke L'Orange! I'm going to get dressed, leave then shower, in that order. Then I'm going to forget this morning ever happened and I really suggest you do the same thing!" Roxie shouted before she went around the room picking up her clothes to put them on or throwing Duke's clothes at him. The drake finally began to move as well, albeit slower than she was. He was obviously going to have to talk about what happened another time, when she wasn't as stressed as she was now.

Meanwhile, the morning after was happening in other areas of the Pond as well. Though, not nearly as stressful as what was happening in Duke's room.

Wildwing had, of course, woken up early to get a morning skate and run, as had been his routine since he was fifteen. He was currently sitting at the breakfast table with a mountain of fruit and toast, as well as the obligatory cup of coffee. He had had a fairly relaxed morning so far, his hangover was fairly mild and the paper had been delivered on time. Plus, there was nothing scheduled for the day, apart from practice that afternoon. All in all, it felt like it was going to be a good day.

About half way through his relaxed breakfast Nosedive finally emerged from his room with a major headache and joined his brother for breakfast. The younger drake didn't look as nearly well put together as his older brother. His yellow mane hadn't been combed and he was wearing a pair of baggy jeans and his training jersey. Things that had obviously been on his bedroom floor.

"Feeling rough, baby bro?" Wildwing asked with a half-cocked smile over his cup of coffee.

"No words, words hurt my head. Coffee is life, give me coffee!" Nosedive said through a grimace of pain, taking the coffee that his brother offered and declining all food. He exclaimed in pain when the doors opened far too loudly for his taste, allowing Tanya, Grin and Mallory to come in for breakfast. Each complaining of their hangovers but all agreeing that it was a fun night out. One that should actually be repeated and a lot more often. The other ducks then sat down at the table, still talking too loudly for Nosedive. The group of five then began to chow down on the food that Wildwing had had the foresight to prepare.

"Hey, where's Duke and Roxie?" Nosedive asked after a while, noticing that his friend hadn't come in yet.

"Don't know, haven't seen them since we left the club last night," Mallory said as she began to eat her cereal.

"Wait, they didn't leave with you two?" Wildwing asked, receiving a negative answer from the two females. He already had an idea of what had happened, as he saw the way Duke was touching Roxie last night while he was dancing with her, and the way she was also touching him. Though he hoped that he was wrong. He was unsure of what his brother's relationship was with the girl, but he was sure it was a lot more than just friends.

Nosedive on the hand had put two and two together quite quickly and had sprang from his seat to towards the accommodation wing, closely followed by his concerned older brother. He raced to her door and was about to knock on it when another door opened down the hallway. It was Duke's door but it wasn't Duke who was leaving his room.

Roxie looked completely dishevelled and sloppily dressed, with her rainbow hair in disarray and she wasn't wearing any shoes. Nosedive could see bruises on her slightly tanned skin where a beak had noticeably nipped at the tender skin. There were also four fingered handprints across her thighs and waist, ones that could not have come from a human. As well as a horrible purple bruise running across the front of her neck. She was obviously planning on heading back to her room to shower and dress for the day, forgetting the night had ever happened, but when she saw Nosedive standing next to her door she froze. She couldn't move and could only watch Nosedive silently stalk towards her, taking in her appearance. Once he was right in front of her he peered into the room that she was trying to vacate.

The sight that greeted Nosedive wasn't any better than the one in the hallway and definitely confirmed what he suspected. Duke was quickly trying to get dressed, only barely managing to pull on his boxer briefs. His eye patch was also on slightly awkwardly, with his facial plumage out of place around it. His room looked like a tornado hit it, which was unusual for the neat freak compartmentaliser. When he heard the noise at his door he looked up to see Nosedive evaluating what he was seeing, and he couldn't help but look guilty at the younger drake.

"I, Dive, we…" Roxie tried to explain but could not finish. What could she really say? That she had gotten drunk and had a night of wild sex with one of his team mates that she actually couldn't remember. That all the bruises that were covering her skin was from all the ways that Duke had obviously fucked her senseless?

"What…Why?" Nosedive tried to say looking between the two. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. His best friend had chosen another drake over him. It felt like his heart had been ripped from his chest and he could barely look at either of them.

"I, uh, I guess I did have the stamina after all…" Duke started to joke with a nervous laugh, hoping to lighten the situation. In hindsight it was the entirely wrong thing to do.

All Nosedive saw was someone who was flaunting sleeping with his best friend to his face. So, he reacted accordingly. He pushed Roxie out of the way of the entrance and launched himself across the room, tackling Duke to the ground. He was trying to pummel the older drake, hitting every available body part that was in sight, and Duke was letting him. He was only seeing red and didn't hear Roxie when she screamed at him to stop. Nosedive didn't even notice when the other members of the team ran into the room, drawn in by all the shouting and screaming. He also didn't notice as his older brother and Grin pried him off the black, blue and bleeding male.

It would have been impossible to get Nosedive to calm down and listen to reason. Or to get him to look at the two, who he felt, had betrayed him. No one tried to stop him when he stormed out of Duke's room, and the Pond, intent of getting some alone time anywhere but there. By this time everyone was in Duke's room, having been attracted by the sounds of angry yelling and fighting. When Nosedive stormed out no one really knew what to do or say, especially to the two that had been the cause of the outburst. One of whom was still dressed only in his underwear and currently being helped off the floor by Grin. Though Mallory did make some snide comments in the direction of Roxie, who had sunk down on the bed to slightly wallow in her bad choices.

"Come on, everyone, back to what you were doing," Wildwing said ushering everyone out of Duke's room and closing the door behind him. Leaving Duke and Roxie alone to try and digest what had just happened. It took a few minutes of uncomfortable silence before Duke finally mustered up the courage to address what had happened.

"Look, sweetheart, I'm sorry about what just happened here. I didn't, I mean, you always turned me down before when I got that close. I didn't think that this would actually happen," Duke said as he put on his pants, still looking the girl up and down. Duke wished that he could remember the particulars but he was sure that he would be hard pressed to remember another night of sex that would rank anywhere close to the night he just spent with Roxie.

"Though, I'm really not that sorry 'bout the night itself, I only wish I could remember it," Duke finished, looking Roxie up and down. He was starting to get a familiar stirring in his groin. Seeing the girl sitting on his bed, sloppily dressed and still looking thoroughly sexed up. He moved closer to the girl and tried to pull her closer to his body again. The fact that the girl hadn't shied away when he wasn't wearing his eyepatch, revealing the large scar that went across his eye, was a huge turn on.

"Don't, please just don't. I have to fix this," Roxie said as she moved back from him. She jumped up, off the bed, and opened the door. She then turned on her heel and walked down the corridor towards her own room, leaving Duke to the cold shower that he obviously needed.

During the most of the day the rest of the team didn't see hide nor feather of either Duke or Nosedive. And they didn't hear a peep from Roxie. It wasn't until the early afternoon practice that Duke eventually showed his face, appearing mostly dressed in the training gear and bypassing the locker room completely. Both Tanya and Mallory began to whisper between them about what had happened and it was only through Wildwing's intervention that an argument was avoided. The young leader thought that is might also be in everyone's best interest to cut this practice short and only work on some fundamentals, instead of having a full practice. That way, everyone could leave early and not talk to one another.

Nosedive didn't return to the Pond until after six that evening, arriving just in time for the teams evening practice. When he entered the locker room the rest of the ducks watched him as he quietly tied his skates and skated onto the ice with his stick. Stopping angrily opposite Duke to do their usual passing practice. The practice continued as it normally did, if a little more violently, and silent.

After practice the mood in the locker room was tense. No one really knew what to say to Nosedive, or Duke for that matter. Andy they still hadn't seen hide nor hair of Roxie all day. After a few minutes Duke tried to approach Nosedive, but the teen stopped him dead.

"Not one word," Nosedive said coldly to the former thief as he focused on removing his practice gear.

"Look, it's not like I did anything wrong!" Duke yelled running his hand through his mane, frustrated at the kid's attitude. As far as everyone knew the kid and Roxie weren't together, so she actually was far game.

"Yeah, I mean it's not you haven't stolen anything before!" Nosedive yelled back petulantly, standing up angrily.

"I didn't steal her, she came willingly, maybe if you'd grown some balls and asked her out this wouldn't have happened!" Duke yelled, the two drake's beak to beak.

"I did!" Nosedive yelled back. He stopped once he realised what he had said and that the others were staring at him now. He sighed despondently and sank down onto the bench to think about that night.

It was a painful memory for the young drake. That was night of the Sportsmen Dinner all those months ago. After the event had closed and after that dance between Duke and Roxie, Nosedive had been invited out by some of the younger players from various different sports teams. And, of course, Roxie joined her best friend as she still didn't know what to really think.

They had gone to a few clubs and had a few more drinks. And this time Roxie would only dance with Nosedive. Other players kept on asking her out on the dancefloor, but she refused and continued to have a great time with her best friend. As the night wore on and Nosedive had had enough alcohol to give him the necessary confidence boost he began to run his beak across the rainbow hairline of his friend. And she smiled and leaned into him. He thought that she was enjoying the feeling and that her feelings towards him matched his, so he led her off the dancefloor to somewhere quieter. There, he finally spilled his changing feelings to her, saying that he was unsure of what he was feeling, but he knew that he wanted more from their relationship.

The look on her face had been enough to tell him that she didn't feel the same. She tried to tell him gently that she didn't feel that way about him and that they should go back inside and continue their good time. But after any reaction it would be impossible to carry on. The two then got a taxi back to Pond and didn't speak of the event again. It had taken weeks before they were able to move on and begin to enjoy each other's company fully again.

"She said, she said that we were friends, and that it would be a mistake. That she didn't want to jeopardise what we had," Nosedive said defeated, after sitting on the bench in silence and staring down at his hands and remembering that night.

"I don't understand why she would, you know, with you instead of going out with me," Nosedive said, finally meeting the older drakes' eye. His eyes were glassy from the unshed tears and he seemed so raw, so vulnerable that it made Duke's heart ache.

"Maybe I don't mean as much to her as you do," Duke said simply before leaving to take a shower in his room. The other ducks decided to leave Nosedive alone with his brother to talk about the incident, thinking that it would be the best course of action. They actually sat in silence for a long time before Wildwing got the courage to speak.

"Listen, Dive, I really think you and Roxie need to talk about this. You're best friends after all, and a friend like that doesn't come along very often. Yes, what she did was, was hurtful, but I honestly don't think she did it to hurt you. She loves you. Maybe not the way you want, but she does," Wildwing said sympathetically thinking about the friend that he had lost. He then got up to leave so that his brother could think about what he should do.

Nosedive decided to head back onto the ice for a quiet skate. As this was where he did most of his thinking, same as his brother. After much soul searching the young drake eventually found himself outside his friend's door. It took a lot for him to knock and wait for the answer. It took a while for the girl to appear, but Nosedive waited.

"Dive," Roxie said once she had answered her door, obviously shocked that he was standing there. The drake then breezed past the shocked girl, quickly entering the room that he had helped decorate all those months ago.

It had started out as a storage room, a place to keep things that the ducks no longer needed but couldn't get rid of. It was smaller than most of the other personal rooms, due to the fact that it was never designed to house another person. It was painted a light blue colour and had light oak furniture. It was also covered in so many posters, pictures and magazine cuttings that you could instantly feel Roxie's personality. And Nosedive loved spending time in this room with his friend. They would often have their study sessions in her room, as it was designed more for academic pursuits that his room.

The two friends stared at each other in complete silence. Nosedive couldn't help but think that Roxie looked somehow diminished, like she wasn't as vibrant as before. Which was actually true. Her hair had merely been brushed back and out of the way, and she was wearing yoga pants and long-sleeved, high-necked undershirt. Obviously trying to hide as many of the bruises as she could. She was also being quiet and looked so ashamed. Now that was something to break his heart. He knew that this girl would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, but she obviously was being wrecked by guilt because she had hurt him.

"I know, you're surprised, but I really wanted to talk to you, and I haven't seen you all day! I just wanted to know, why him? Why him and not me? I mean, I think I'd be a good boyfriend, I mean a lot better than Duke, so why? Uh, going somewhere Roxer-roo?" Nosedive rambled as he paced the room, eventually noticing that Roxie had begun to pack.

"Yeah, I thought that I'd find somewhere else to live, I don't want to cause any more problems here," Roxie said sadly. She didn't want to leave as she loved living at the Pond, but she really didn't want to upset her friend.

"I don't want you to go," Nosedive said, looking his friend in the eye. He then moved to hug his friend. He had missed her that day.

"I don't want to go either," Roxie replied, hugging her friend tightly. She had missed him holding her.

"Why him, though? And why not me?" Dive asked quietly.

"I was drunk; it really didn't mean anything. Dive, you're the best friend I've ever had, I don't want to do anything to ruin that, and that actually includes a relationship with me. If you hadn't noticed already, I'm fairly toxic, and this is the healthiest relationship I've actually ever had," Roxie answered.

"But we could be good together," Dive said, still not releasing his friend from their hug. But, Roxie eventually moved away so she could look Nosedive in eye.

"We could, and I wish I felt that way about you, Dive. But I don't. I do really love you though, possibly more than any other guy I've ever met. But it's a different kind of love. And, I'm sure once you think about it, you'll realise that's how you feel too," Roxie said, eyes glassy and voice cracking due to all the emotion she had poured into her speech.

"I love you too, Roxie. I really do. I'm just so confused right now. I know I love you, and I've never felt that way 'bout anyone before you, and, I don't know, I really just want someone," Nosedive said with a sigh as he sank down on the comfy bed.

"I really wish I could you the love you deserve. But I will promise to give you all the love I can give you as your best friend," Roxie said sitting down next to the drake. He then threw his arm around her and pulled her into another hug.

"I think that would work. Just, don't do Duke again, ok Roxer-roo. You can do better after all," Nosedive said with an unamused laugh.

"You're never gonna let me forget that, are you? I was super drunk, and besides, that itch has now been scratched. It won't happen again," Roxie said, joining in with the giggles.

There was a lot more talking needed for the two friends to actually sort through the problem. They talked through most of the night, only stopping for food and drinks. It took a lot work afterwards for them to work out the problem. But, eventually, Nosedive realised that he did love Roxie but in a purely platonic way. That his confusion was due to the fact that he had never had a friend like Roxie before and he just didn't want to share her. And that the crush he had on her was signalling that maybe he wanted to have a relationship with someone.

Roxie, for her part, tried to do everything she could to make it up to Nosedive. She also held back on all her flirting as much as possible. She was a lot more honest with Nosedive about her feelings and about her actions, and Nosedive returned that favour too.

And it took a lot for Nosedive and Duke to see eye to eye again. Nosedive never really did forgive him for taking that night with Roxie, but Duke was willing to try to make it up to him, and Nosedive let him. He also held up on the flirting. Unfortunately, every time he caught sight of Roxie he got another flash of memory of that night together. It was hard not be affected by her presence in the room when every time he saw her he could her the echoes of her cries of passion ringing through his brain.

Yet, it all managed to work out, somehow. If only for a while.


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TFG