A/n I'm back! Sorry I was gone for so long :/

Felicity's POV

Seth and Jake are supposed to arrive at school around 6:15 on Friday night. Nessie is practically jumping out of her skin in excitement, and I quietly admit to myself that I'm trying hard not to do the same. In order to be proactive, I invited Ryan to meet Seth and re-meet Jake, and he sits on the couch with arms crossed staring at the door. To occupy myself, I triple-check that the picnic basket is ready to go for the morning-we're leaving at seven which means I won't have time to assemble anything. I've packed strawberries, bananas, sandwich supplies, lemonade, blueberry and chocolate muffins, and cheese. It's not the most organized, but it's what my College Student Brain commanded.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Nessie perks up and rushes to the door-I guess she's heard something that indicates their arrival. Ryan notices it too, because he stands up and puts a possessive arm around my waist, pulling me tight against him. I grumble in annoyance but otherwise let it be.

"Hey, hey!" Jake grins in greeting before wrapping his arms around Nessie in a tight hug. I sigh at how perfectly they seem to fit together. Nessie pulls him onto the loveseat which leaves room for Seth to duck through the door.

"Hey, Felicity! You must be Ryan." Seth offers his hand for a shake, which Ryan takes. Seth is the first to let go, and Ryan's eyes tell me he sees that as a victory...I refrain from rolling mine.

"Either of y'all need anything?" I turn towards the kitchenette, but the boys shake their heads. "Let's sit, then."

Ryan tries to pull me onto his lap, but I pull away and instead seat myself between him and Seth on the longer couch. His mouth tightens. "What should we do?"

Nessie's eyes light up. "I want to play Never Have I Ever!"

Jake groans. "Every time."

"Come on," Nessie nudges him with her elbow.

He grins. "Okay, okay. Everyone? Ten fingers up." We comply.

"Never have I ever fixed a car," Nessie begins. Jake and Seth each put down a finger.

Now to Jake. "Never have I ever had curly hair." An impish grin of his and a disgruntled noise of Nessie's follows the statement and Nessie drops a finger.

"Never have I ever been pulled over." A smug smile crosses Seth's face. "I'm an excellent driver."

Jake laughs. "No, you're just lucky!" A chorus of laughter echoes in response as each of us puts a finger down.

My turn. "Never have I ever played Monopoly." A series of what?!'s and how?!'s follow, and I put my hands up in mock-surrender. "We just never bought it back home! Nobody I knew played it, except for Ryan, and that's not exactly the best date night activity when a competitive player is involved."

Ryan scoffs. "You wouldn't have the patience for it anyways, babe."

Everyone besides me puts down a finger and the game moves to Ryan. "Never have I ever shopped online." He makes a grimace that is almost comical. Ryan hates the concept of online shopping. Nessie, Jake, and I all put down fingers.

The game continues for a while, eventually taking the inevitable sexual route. I learn that Ryan has had two one-night stands, although he doesn't specify when, Jake and Nessie have done it in the bathroom of a restaurant, and Seth is a virgin. Ryan ruthlessly teases him about this, but Jake and I are adamant about Ryan leaving Seth alone.

"I think it's admirable, waiting until you find the right person," I defend, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Yeah, just about as admirable as waiting two years on the grounds of being a prude," Ryan shoots back. The words are barely out of his mouth before Jake, Nessie, and Seth come to my defense.

"You leave her the hell alone, Ryan!" Nessie is the most vocal. "If she's not ready, she's not ready, and that's the end of it! Every person involved in a sexual act must be one hundred percent consenting. Anything less isn't okay."

Seeing he's made a wrong move, Ryan tries to backtrack. "Come on, guys, it's not like I'm trying to force her into anything. I just think it's a natural part of a relationship and refusing to take that next step is kind of selfish."

At this, Seth begins to shake.

"Let's take a walk," Jake exclaims. "Yeah, Ness? Seth? Lets give these guys some space to discuss."

"Nope, I think I'll stay here." Seth's voice is tight and unlike I've ever heard it. His arms are crossed and he's leaning around me to unflinchingly stare Ryan down.

"Yeah, it's fine," I agree, trying to diffuse the situation. I turn to Ryan. "Ryan, your thinking is completely wrong and incredibly problematic, but I'm not having this discussion with you again, at least not tonight. If you can be nice and not an asshole, you're welcome to stay, but if you need to sleep off whatever this is, then I will see you tomorrow morning at seven."

The room is silent in the wake of my declaration, and I can guess as to why. I've never really stood up to Ryan like this before, especially not publically.

Ryan's teeth clench and unclench. Finally, "I'm going out."

Without looking at any of us, he gets up and stalks across the room. The door slams behind him.

Everyone's quiet until I hear a cackling laughter fill the room. With a jolt, I realize it's me. "Ohhh, he's an ass. Sorry about that! Where were we?" I force my voice to sound light and positive.

"Uh, how 'bout a movie," Nessie suggests warily, obviously not buying my act.

"Great," I agree, determined not to let my true feelings show.

We gather in Nessie's room to use her TV and put on Spider-man: Homecoming. Jake and Nessie cuddle on the bed, I sit on a beanbag chair in front of it, and Seth stretches out beside me.

"Sorry Ryan was mean to you," I whisper about ten minutes into the movie.

He shrugs. "Don't worry about it. Sorry he was rude to you." His voice tightens. "He shouldn't talk to you like that. He's supposed to love and protect you, not make you feel bad and pressure you."

I turn my head to smile at him. "Sometimes he's great...those moments are just fewer and farther between the more time we spend here." I pause. "I liked him better back home."

Seth grumbles. "I'm not sure I like him at all. He...makes me nervous, with his angry behaviors." Seth's eyes meet mine, and I can see real concern in them. Concern for me.

I'm quick to reassure him. "Ryan's never violent...he just has rude streaks."

"Verbal abuse is real, too." We both pause as we take that in. "If it ever gets bad, or you get worried, give me a call. I can be here insanely quickly."

I want to chuckle to lighten the mood, but I can see the sincerity and worry in his eyes and don't want to belittle what he's just offered me. "Thank you." I mean it.

We watch the rest of the movie in silence, and the events of the evening begin to take their toll on me. Around the part where Peter and his friends arrive in D.C., my eyelids grow heavy. Without me truly realizing it, my head slips onto Seth's shoulder. I vaguely register a blanket being tucked around me before I sink into sleep.

{...}

I wake up tucked into my bed, still in my clothes but missing my shoes. The early morning sun stretches its beams through my open curtains and I know the time must be near seven o'clock. I hop in the shower and wash as quickly as I can and then get dressed in an outfit suitable for hiking. I meet Seth, Jake, and Nessie, who are all dressed and ready to go, in the living room.

"I distributed the food between all of our backpacks," Nessie says upon my arrival. "I thought that would be more practical than carrying a separate basket."

"Good idea!"

"Umm, it's 6:58...should we head out, or are we waiting for…?" Her voice trails off.

"Let's go now. He knows we're leaving at seven exactly. If he had wanted to be here, he would be."

She nods and the four of us don our backpacks and head out the door. We've made it halfway down the second flight of stairs when I hear another set of footsteps following quickly. Jake groans.

"Liss!" Ryan jumps the last two steps to meet us on the landing. "I'm sorry about last night. You're right, we won't have sex until both of us are ready."

For some reason, the thought of being intimate with him doesn't quite sit right with me. Ignoring that, I smile and take his hand.

Nessie's POV

Ryan and Felicity holding hands. Rolling eyes. Ryan. Vomiting. Seth and Felicity looking at each other smiling. Happy dance.

Jake laughs lightly as I pull my hand away from his face. "Give it time."

I place my hand on his cheek again. Seth shaking. A giant wolf. A sketchy explanation.

"Yeah," Jake nods. "Could have been bad. Thankfully, it didn't come to that."

The sounds of the forest echo around us, and the deeper we get, the more my senses are awakened. The smell of a mountain lion hits my nose, and my grip on Jake's hand tightens. It's been so long since I've hunted. For weeks, I've been living off so-so human food. A mountain lion would be a real treat.

Jake grins at me. "Nessie and I are gonna take a little detour from the trail. Meet up here in about two hours?" He points to a spot on the map. Venom begins to flow in my mouth as my excitement rises. Here we go.

Seth can smell it too, and he deftly disguises a grin. "Have fun you guys. See you soon!"

Jake and I separate from the group at a human pace. Once we're out of Felicity's and Ryan's sight and hearing range, we take off. It takes Jake a minute to de-clothe, store them, and phase, so I have a bit of a head start. I run towards the smell of the mountain lion, avoiding trees, limbs, and bushes with ease. I hear the pounding of paws behind me and Jake hurries to run alongside my right. He tries to nudge me off track, and I throw my head back and laugh as I pull just out of his reach. As we get closer to the mountain lion, I jump into the trees so it can't smell me coming. Jake, content to let me take the kill, falls back so he won't scare it away. As much as I want to wrestle with it, I can't let the others think something other than hiking has been taking place, so my attack is swift and clean. I lunge onto the lion and snap its neck in the span of a second. It never knew what was coming for it.

Seth's POV

Felicity and Ryan hold hands, walking a foot or two ahead of me. They talk about Ryan's frat and the possibility of Felicity going to a party next weekend. My stomach clenches at that thought. Felicity in an unfamiliar place where most people are drunk and/or high, Ryan inevitably abandoning her...a shudder runs through me as I think of all the bad that could come from that situation. It's not that I don't want her to go, it's just that I would feel a hell of a lot better if I was there to look out for her.

Suddenly, my feeling of unease turns into outright panic and I become hyper aware of my surroundings. Without realizing why, I lurch forward and wrap my arms around Felicity. She screams as the ground she had been walking on suddenly falls away and lands several hundreds of feet below. Ryan yelps and jumps back.

"It's okay," I do my best to soothe Felicity, her fear palpable. "I've got you." She clings to me, and I carefully pull her up and place her feet back on solid ground. Eyes wide and tearful, she doesn't let go, so I wrap her in a hug. Slowly, her heart rate begins to slow. I breathe a sigh of relief. She's okay.

"Seth," she gasps, still a little shocked. "How did you-?" She looks at me expectantly, waiting for an explanation. I scramble to come up with something believable, because I don't have one. It was as if some force other than myself acted of its own accord to protect Felicity. Probably something to do with the imprinting, I realize.

"I uh, saw the cliff on the map and realized where we were."

She nods, accepting my explanation. Ryan clears his throat, but I ignore him. I'm not ending this hug until Felicity wants it to end. She buries her head in my chest and takes a few more deep breaths. I tighten my arms around her and rub a hand up and down her back, hoping to help calm her down. I can't describe how amazing it is just to hold her.

"Thank you," she breathes, looking up into my eyes.

I gulp, not wanting to freak her out with a declaration of how I would literally always be there to save her. So instead, I smile and say "of course."

She lets go of me then and turns back to face Ryan. "Let's get back to walking. We don't want to be late and make Nessie and Jake worry."

The rest of the hike takes about half an hour, but this time, I don't leave Felicity's side. I could tell it gets on Ryan's nerves, but I literally could not care less. Doesn't he know that Felicity is my world now, and I would never be stupid enough to leave her safety up to him again?

By the time everything is set up to eat, it's one, and I am beyond starving. The picnic is nice. We set up by a waterfall, just as Felicity had requested. It makes my heart happy to see the light in her eyes when she sees the waterfall. After we've eaten, Felicity gets a mischievous look on her face. Nessie notices as well and grins.

"What are you up to?"

Felicity returns the grin and begins taking off her shoes. "I am going to go check out that waterfall. Care to join me?"

Nessie scoffs. "Please, you'll love it for two minutes and then realize how cold you are and be running right out."

Felicity's mouth opens in mock offense. "I will not."

Nessie smirks. "I bet you can't spend three minutes under that waterfall."

Felicity straightens. "And if I can?"

Pursing her lips, Nessie thinks for a moment. "I will give you three free passes to use my car. When you lose, however," Felicity rolls her eyes, "you will give me that dress of yours that I've been admiring."

Felicity's eyes gleam. "You're on."

We all walk to the edge of the water to watch the coming spectacle.

"Okay, three, two, one, go!" At Nessie's command, Felicity runs under the waterfall, shrieking when the cold water hits her.

"Ready to give up," Nessie questions with a chuckle.

"I could-could do this all day," Felicity shouts back, spluttering as the cascading water fills her mouth.

I know this is just a game, but I can't help the concern that comes over me. I fight the urge to run into the water and pull Liss to the safety of land. Jake must notice this, because he comes over and pats me reassuringly on the shoulder. His voice is quiet when he speaks, but I can hear him just fine. "It will get easier with time. Your instincts will begin to realize when she's in actual danger and when it's just play, and then you can enjoy yourself a lot more." I nod, knowing I should listen to him but am unable to take my eyes off Felicity's shaking form.

"One minute left!"

I can hear Felicity's teeth chattering from here. "Come on, Liss, you've got this!" I don't know where the desire to encourage her comes from, but it pops up and suddenly I'm shouting from the edge of the water. "Picture the car, Liss, the car!"

She laughs heartily. "I want it," she shouts back.

"Then believe!" We're both laughing now, calling back and forth to each other. Nessie begins to countdown from 10, and I shout more encouragements to Felicity. As soon as Nessie gets to zero, Felicity sprints out of the water and meets us at the shore, jumping up and down in an effort to warm up. I offer her the blanket we used for the picnic, and she accepts gratefully.

"Nice," I compliment enthusiastically.

"Why thank you! Nessie, I humbly accept your defeat."

Nessie grumbles and leans into a laughing Jake. Felicity jogs over to where Ryan is standing a few yards away from us all and tries to hug him. When he pushes her away and I see the embarrassment on her face, my heart sinks.

"Gross, Felicity, no way. You're all wet and this is Patagonia."

Eyes cast downward and shaking from the cold despite the blanket, Felicity walks back over to the three of us.

"Hey Liss," I offer softly, bending down a little to better meet her eyes. "I'm warm. Remember?"

She grins and falls easily into my open arms. I see Ryan give me a strangled look, but I ignore him, choosing instead to focus how wonderful it feels to have Felicity in my arms for the second time that day.

"We should head back," Jake says, his authoritative tone naturally coming forth. "It'll take us a bit to get back, and I don't want us risking getting caught in the dark."

Nessie scoffs, obviously wanting to push Jake a little. "It's barely three."

Jake shoots her a suggestive grins. "Yeah well, perhaps I have ulterior motives for getting you home so quickly."

Nessie swallows, and Felicity scrunches up her nose.

"All right everyone, pack it up! Pack it up! Time. To. Go!" Nessie shoos us all along.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Jake grins at Nessie's evident excitement.

Reluctantly, I pull back from Felicity so we can begin our hike back to the cars. She groans, presumably at the loss of heat, and I consider something. Deciding the pros outweigh the con (a pissed off Ryan), I crouch and offer Felicity a piggy back ride. She laughs and gratefully accepts, hopping on my back and wrapping her legs and arms tightly around me. Ryan just rolls his eyes at us and stalks ahead.

"Dang, Seth, I forgot just how tall you are," Felicity chuckles. "I feel like I can see everything from up here!"

I laugh, happy that she's excited. "Just watch out for any low-hanging branches," I advise, half joking, half serious.

"Roger that, Captain," she mock salutes, causing us both to chuckle. I begin actually walking, and her arms tighten around my chest. After a few minutes, she leans down to speak softly in my ear, her breath tickling my skin. "Seth? I'm really happy that I met you."

Oh Felicity, I think, you have no idea.

A/n Please let me know honestly what you think! I'm trying to improve my writing and grow as an author, so I would really appreciate some constructive feedback :) I promise Ryan will be out of the picture soon, so hang in there!