A week later Cath had still not managed to weasel any answers out of Levi or Thomas. Lauryn hadn't really had much luck either.

"I mean, what the hell do I need to do, go all seduction level on him?" Lauryn said one day after journalism class. "Idiot. I can't believe this happened, it's just so unreal."

Cath tried to restrain a smile and failed. "I don't know, we just have to give up I guess."

Lauryn shrugged, scowling at the ground. "At least he's talking to us now."

Barely, Cath thought. Thomas made small comments to both of them, but he hadn't even started his promised fanfiction.

"How's your femslash piece going?" Cath asked as they headed towards the cafeteria.

"Terribly," Lauryn muttered. "I mean, I just don't know that I would ever really ship the two of them, so it feels pretty fake. But we'll see. Maybe they'll grow on me. But oh my god, your first chapter was stunning. Are you going to write more?"

"Probably," Cath said. "I feel bad abandoning Just What the Doctor ordered though."

"Yeah, that's hard," Lauryn said. "And I'm sure your fans would be pissed since all of them are enjoying your stuff in light of not having anything new to watch at the moment. I mean there's gonna be a new season in January, right? But god that's just so far away."

Cath smiled. "Yes, I guess that's part of what makes fanfiction so appealing. You get to keep living in those different worlds, even when they stop going in real life…"

Lauryn nodded. "Exactly."

Lauryn snagged a table for the both of them, their favorite off to the side where they had a good view of the whole place.

"Do you know what you're writing your next journalism piece on?" Cath asked.

"Well…campus events…I mean there are tons of those so I'm not really worried about it. I'll probably just get dragged along to something at some point and then I can write about it afterwards," Lauryn said with a shrug as she swirled bits of cracker into her soup.

"Yeah, but we have to interview people, right?" Cath asked.

"True. I figure I'll probably just go with my roommates and then ask them. I know our professor said not to, but hey…how he going to know if they're my roommates or not?" Lauryn said, shrugging.

Cath nodded. She was about to ask about Lauryn's latest decision on her fanfiction, when a chirp came from Lauryn's phone.

"Ug, it's my mom. She's always bugging me," Lauryn muttered. "Seriously, I thought by the time I was a junior she'd be over it, but she still wants to talk to me at least once a day."

"Sounds like she just cares about you a lot," Cath suggested.

"Sure. Plus she works at home, so she has more free time where she gets bored and lonely," Lauryn said. "What about your mom? What's she like?"

Cath set her fork down and tried to find some excuse to avoid the question. However, when nothing came to her staring at her food tray, she finally gave up.

"She um…she's well…she kind of walked out on us when I was little. And last year she tried to kind of reestablish ties with me and my sister. I'm…still not really sure how I feel about it."

Lauryn frowned. "Oh gosh that sucks. I'm so sorry. And here I am complaining about my worrywart overprotective mom when you hardly talk to yours. I'm an asshole, seriously, so sorry."

"You didn't know," Cath said, reaching out to sip at her water and clearing her throat before she tried to change the subject. "What about your dad, what's he like?"

"I don't have one," Lauryn said. "Or well…my mom's never been married or anything. She adopted me when I was still a baby. So…it's always just been me and her."

"Guess I just made it up with that question," Cath pointed out, feeling her cheeks heating up a bit. "Sorry. I didn't realize. So are you like…an orphan or…?"

"Closed adoption, so I have no idea," Lauryn said. "I've thought about trying to find my birth parents…but it's never happened. It would be interesting to know though. I mean maybe I'm like Simon Snow and my dad's off being a mage somewhere."

She giggled at the thought, and Cath was surprised to see there wasn't any bitterness in her friend's expression or tone.

"I honestly don't remember any other kind of life," Lauryn said. "I love my mom, even though she's really annoying sometimes. But she's great, and I'm really glad I have her. I mean, you make family out of what you have, right? To me there's not really a right or wrong way to go about it. Family are the people you care about. Not necessarily the ones who share your blood."

"Yes," Cath said. "I guess they are."

After lunch, Cath started to realize that it had been a while since she'd talked to her father. In fact, she had to check her phone log to see when the last time she'd called him was. With how busy she'd been, she'd had less time to worry about him.

The phone rang and rang and rang again. Cath sighed and started debating if she should leave a message or just hang up and call again later.

After a few rings he picked up.

"What's up Cath?"

"Just was talking about families with one of my friends today and it made me think about you and how I haven't called you in a while."

"Ah, that's ok, I know you've been really busy."

"Yeah, I know Wren hasn't mentioned being home recently…but I thought you wanted her home most weekends?"

"She's going to her meetings, she says things have been fine," her dad said. "Besides, I've been swamped with work lately. So I feel bad making her come home only to have her sit alone in her room. So long as she's not been partying, I think it's fine."

"What are your latest projects?" Cath asked. "Anything I can help with?"

"Not really. I'm just keeping busy," he said. "In fact, I'm going to have to make a few calls in a few minutes, so unless you have something really important I might have to say goodbye for now. That ok?"

Cath shrugged and then realized he couldn't see. "Yes. That's fine. Take good care of yourself."

"You too, sweetie. Call me sometime this weekend if you want. I think I'll be a little less busy on Sunday."

"Ok," Cath said. "Bye."

There was a knock on the door. She set her phone down and went to answer it.

Levi was leaning against the doorframe, smiling his usual wide and beautiful grin. He stretched out a hand holding a small white box tied with a ribbon.

"Excuse me miss, did you happen to order some cupcakes with a charming boyfriend on the side?"

Cath smiled and reached out to take the box. "You shouldn't have."

"Shouldn't have what?" Levi said, blinking at her with a faux tone of innocence. "I just was going by Cupcake Seduction and though…hmm…I wonder when the last time Cath had a peanut butter cupcake was. Maybe if I buy her one she'll write me more fanfiction."

He winked at her, and Cath pulled him into the room to wrap her arms around his neck. She lightly went up on a tiptoes to place a gentle kiss on his cheek and then a longer one on his lips.

Levi pulled her in to hug her and kiss her a little more. He pulled away after a moment and smiled.

"See, knew it would work."

"Has writing fanfiction become your euphemism for….other things?" Cath said.

"What like you fanfiction writers don't have euphemisms for other things?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

"That's beside the point," Cath said.

She pulled away and went over to open the cupcake box, opening it to reveal two neatly made cakes with a decadent looking yellowy brown frosting on the top and a few chocolate sprinkles. Cath's mouth began watering at the mere sight. Levi had started into a habit of buying her peanut butter desserts whenever he saw them, trying to have her try as many as possible. So far the cupcakes were her favorite though, which was why Levi kept buying them.

"So, do you want to watch another Cornelius episode while you eat that?" Levi asked.

Cath smiled and shook her head. "No, because we're on the season two finale. And if you finish that one, you'll have to watch the first episode of season three and you have class in an hour."

"Have to? How little self-restraint do you think I have?" Levi asked as he went to sit down on her bed.

"You're not listening," Cath said.

"I'm not listening? I just heard you quote Cornelius at me to prove a point, I'm listening," Levi said with an eye roll. "I'm fine watching one episode."

"No you're not, because it's the season finale and the cliffhanger was huge. I'm just lucky I got to watch all of them at once on Netfilms because the wait after that would have been awful to experience."

"Fine, you're the expert."

"Yes, I am," Cath said. She lifted one of the cupcakes out of the box. She held it out for Levi. "So no Cornelius. Why don't we just…talk…you know…while we eat."

Levi smiled and leaned forward to have a bit of the cupcake. It was a bit messy and tricky trying to feed it to him, and most of the frosting ended up on his nose while Cath tried to stop laughing.

"I think we just disproved the romantic nature of feeding someone," Levi said with a grin. His tongue snaked out to try to catch the frosting still on the tip of his nose. "I think I'm going to be smelling peanut butter for a week."

"Probably," Cath said with a smile. She leaned in and kissed him again. "You're adorable."

"I'm pretty sure that's you, Cather," Levi said, he pushed the cupcake box aside and wrapped his arms around her. They fell into a pleasant moment of lips touching and Levi's hands coming up to cup her face.

Somehow both of them ended up laying on Cath's bed, continuing to kiss. Levi's fingers trailed over her side, until they slid to the hem of her shirt, caressing at a small patch of bare skin. Cath suddenly realized and pulled away.

"No fanfiction in the bedroom," she whispered.

Levi frowned for a moment and then remembered the earlier joke and laughed. "Whatever you say, Cather. Too bad though, I had some great ideas for the next one."

"And I have some great ideas about Reagan walking in on us and being pissed," Cath said.

"Yeah, true story," Levi said. "I just adore you, Cather. You know that right?"

"Yes," she answered and leaned in to peck his lips again.

"So, life update. How is your day going?"

Cath shrugged and grabbed a pillow to stuff behind her back before shrugging. She didn't really know what was to be said.

"Ok," she said.

"Not good enough. Give me a high and a low," Levi said.

"High…I somehow managed to get a B on my last exercise for journalism," Cath said. "I don't really know how. And low…I still have no idea what I'm writing for my fiction class and I think my professor's going to start pushing me to write more."

"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," Levi said. "But hey, you're a brilliant writer. I'm sure you'll come up with something great. You have no ideas at all?"

"Everything I think of is so boring," Cath said. "My professor said to base it on things I know a lot about…but nothing in my life is interesting."

"Hey, not everyone's life is really exciting," Levi said with a smile. "But you find bits and pieces that make it more so."

"Like what?" Cath asked.

"Like today I served a lady who wanted me to put ice in her drink, but she didn't want any of it to be floating," Levi said. "And I think last week someone wanted their coffee made at one hundred and twenty degrees."

"All that proves is that your life is interesting," Cath said. "I don't meet weird people like you."

"You'll think of something," Levi said. "It will be great."

Cath shrugged, but didn't bother to argue with him. She moved so that she could lean against his tall frame, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Levi," she began, and then broke off.

"What Cather?"

She sighed and closed her eyes, For a moment she thought about asking him again, but the comfort of the moment was just too nice. "You're wonderful."

"Aw, thanks," Levi said, leaning in to kiss the top of her head. "You're pretty great yourself."

A few days later, Cath found she still just couldn't let go of it. After yet another class with Thomas not looking at her, she'd had enough. But she was running out of ideas for how to get either of them to say anything.

She was sitting at her desk trying to motivate herself to write another chapter. The door opened and Reagan walked in, flinging her bag aside before jumping onto her bed.

"Hey," Reagan said.

"Hey."

Cath thought a moment, and then realized that Reagan might be able to offer better advice.

"Reagan, do you know a Thomas Barath?" she asked.

"No, why?" Reagan said, eyes narrowing.

"Never mind," Cath said.

"God Cath, you can't just bring someone up and then not tell me why you did," Reagan said with an eye roll. "Seriously, who is he?"

"Classmate. Just thought you might know who he was…Levi seemed to not like him very much."

"Well Levi and I took a pretty good break from each other once we broke up," Reagan said. "I really don't know a lot about what happened to him for a while. Can't you just ask him?"

Cath shrugged. "He didn't really seem to want to talk about it. I just…it's been weird and I feel kind of bad."

"Do you want me to use my best friend powers or something?" Reagan asked.

Cath crossed her arms. "You promised you wouldn't do that."

"If it benefits you does it really matter? And besides, it's not really best friend powers, it's just me being more assertive and willing to not take no for an answer if he doesn't want to talk about it. Who is this guy anyways?"

"The one I went on that 'date' with that you encouraged me to tell Levi about," Cath said.

"Did you ask if he was jealous? Clear up what your relationship was?" Reagan asked, sitting up straighter.

"Yes, he said he wasn't jealous. Just said he didn't like him, but he wouldn't say why."

"Want me to ask him and get back to you on the results?" Reagan said.

Cath bit her lip, but eventually nodded. She just wanted to figure out how to make things better. She wanted her fanfiction circle back together. And she wanted Levi to not feel uncomfortable around her friends. Was that too much to ask?

"I can't imagine it's anything that serious," Reagan said. "Levi gets along with everyone."

"That's what I thought," Cath said. "Until I saw his face."

Reagan shrugged. "I'll mention to him that you were upset about something. Make it seem like it wasn't even your idea in the first place. Sound good?"

"If you can, that would be nice." Cath said.

"Yeah, no problem," Reagan said. "But just be warned…you might not like whatever it is. If that's a risk you're willing to take, so be it."

"Yes," Cath said.

"Just don't shoot the messenger," Reagan muttered.

Cath nodded. With that settled she turned back to her computer. She closed out of her school assignment and opened Just What the Doctor ordered. Well, with all the tension, maybe she could use some of the tension to fuel her work.

The next day Reagan came in after her night class.

"Sit. We're talking about this," Reagan ordered, pointing to her own bed.

Cath closed her laptop and came over to sit on the bed. She looked at Reagan, trying to study her face for signs of what had happened.

"Look, first off, in the future, just ask Levi about it. Tell him it's bothering you," Reagan said. "Seriously, I think he's annoyed now that you didn't tell him."

Cath wrapped her arms around herself. "I just didn't know how," she admitted.

"Ok, well for future situations, ask him yourself," Reagan said. "Seriously, all you needed to do was tell him you were upset and he would have probably told you everything."

"Should I do that now?" Cath asked.

"Yeah, well the plan failed and he figured out I was asking since you weren't feeling comfortable enough to ask yourself. He's going to need a little cool down time, so he said I could tell you."

"So what happened?" Cath asked.

"Long story short this Thomas guy is some rich bastard who made Levi's first year at Starbucks a living hell. Bullied him, made fun of him, asked for ridiculous orders, complained that Levi had gotten it wrong even when he hadn't. Was basically a huge pain in the ass and poor Levi just had to deal with it."

"Wait, really?" Cath asked. She couldn't really believe that. Thomas didn't strike her as a bully. She wondered if there was a good way she could ask him about it. But "hey did you make my boyfriend miserable" just didn't seem like a very good strategy.

"Yeah, from what I know. I can't really remember everything, but that sounded like the most of it. Sounds like this guy is a douchebag so I recommend you just stop talking to him…which brings me to Levi's problem. Levi wants you to be happy. He knows you have trouble being social. So you have to understand he was trying not to ruin your friendship if for some reason it was working for you. But at the same time he was upset that this annoying guy that he hated was somehow close to you. Mixed feelings really."

Cath nodded. She felt a pit growing in her stomach as she tried to figure out how to handle the situation. What was she supposed to do about this?

"My advice, just stop hanging out with this guy. Sounds like it would be easier on you," Reagan said. "And besides, who's more important to you?"

Levi, hands down. She knew that. She remembered when he'd asked her if she was rooting for him. The answer was yes. Always yes.

"I'll see what I can figure out," Cath said, even as he stomach churned at her words. She needed to find a solution. There had to be one. But within a few minutes she was already more aware of the complicated nature of the situation.

A/N: I really just am not feeling inspired on Cornelius Bell and the 10,000 Smiles, so I'm going back to this one instead. -Magicath

Cornelius took a deep breath, trying to steady his rapidly racing heart as he listened to the words Anna was speaking.

"She's cruel to him, Cornelius. I don't know how you haven't noticed, but she is," Anna said calmly. "And if you're not careful, Tom's going to walk out on you. He's close enough as it is. Been asking me to help him look at flats lately. I keep trying to find excuses, but I'm running out."

The thought of Tom leaving…that was more than he could handle. He had never had a family by blood he cared much for, or at least not that he ever remembered. His parents who had always been too busy to give him much attention. Or Gwendolyn who had her own life and her own concerns and had never looked back when he needed her most. Cornelius was more aware than ever that family was not about blood relation.

Family was something you made. Family was Anna and Miss Dyer, Allen and Selene….and Tom.

But Tom had always been there for him. He'd been the one that had helped him through his darkest days. It had been Tom who had seen the best parts of him, seen what no one else had ever cared to see.

And yes, Selene was lovely. For a time he'd thought about what it would be like to start a family with her. To actually have what he'd only dreamed about. But if she was going to cost him the one person he cared for most, could he actually stand to be around her? Could he actually just sit back and watch Tom walk away?

"You need to do something," Anna said.

"Do what exactly?" Cornelius said. "You act as though there is a simple solution to this problem, while there is not."

"How is it not easy to figure out?" Anna said with a sigh. "Cornelius, this is Tom we're talking about. Tell Selene to leave him be. And apologize to him before you lose him. I know you don't want that. I've seen how you look at him."

His head jerked up, and he stared at her. Her warm brown eyes were staring at him with a level of sympathy.

"It's why I stopped pursuing you," Anna clarified. "Not because of Selene. Because I saw you when you thought no one was looking. I saw the way you looked at him. Your passion. Your raw and vulnerable emotion. You try to hide it, and you normally do so well. But just for a moment it was there. And I knew you were already taken, and I backed off."

Cornelius was silent, for once without a response. She was correct of course. She always had been.

"But I think Selene recognizes it too. Consciously or unconsciously, she's trying to create a rift there," Anna said. "And you need to stop it. You need to stop it now, Cornelius. Or have you not thought about why he's gone back to the bottle. You're losing him. It's your fault."

"I have so few friends," Cornelius admitted. "I want to keep them both if I can."

"Sometimes you can't," Anna said. "Sometimes it's about choosing. I doubt Selene would ever be as understanding as me. It's going to come down to making a decision."

She was right. He pondered the possibilities, but already he could tell she had a point. It did come down to a choice. And he already knew how his heart was going to vote, even if his mind hadn't quite figured out the more logical decision. He just knew already, he was about to lose someone. It only depended on whom he chose.

-From Just What the Doctor Ordered posted Oct 2012
by Fanfixx . net author Magicath

A/N: Bit of a shorter chapter, so apologies on that.

Thanks to stormyskies73, FanimeLuv, JuliaBC, OWonderfullMoonO, Glo8ria,The Marvellous Seeweed, Dorks Are Awesome, ForTheLoveofPeanutButter, AthenaMay24, and midnightia for reviews! You guys are awesome!

-elsarenard