Nicolas seemed to jump off the walls as he slashed through the thugs that littered the alleyways. Amelia followed soon after her him, panting slightly.

"Ni~c, wait up," she whimpered as she ran to catch up with Nic. He always got too excited when he saw people to fight. He really got tunnel vision when it came to fighting.

The woman looked around at the cut up corpses and sighed. 'He's not even leaving me any fun. Meanie,' she thought to herself as she tried to run faster. If she didn't catch up with him, there'd be nothing left for her to fight. True, she wasn't feeling her best, but she still wanted something to fight.

Amelia lost sight of Nic, cursing under her breath. Where did he go? She ran past an alley when something caught her eye. She backed up and looked in curiously.

"Ooh, fun," she smirked widely before running into the alley.

Worick stuck a cigarette between his lips and lit it before sucking in. "How are they doing?" He asked Monroe, blowing out the smoke carelessly.

"Nic's fighting up there," Monroe replied, pointing up at the rooftops as said tag leaped over to the next roof top, on the trail of another tag. "Just a C4, nothing he can't handle," he added after a moment.

"And Amelia?" Worick asked when Monroe didn't mention the female twilight. He hoped the woman wasn't getting herself in too much trouble.

"Haven't seen her," Monroe shrugged, obviously not worried about the woman. "I'm sure she's fine. She can handle herself," the mob boss added when he saw the look of concern that crossed Worick's face.

"Of course," Worick nodded, knowing better than to worry about Amelia. Although, he remembered clearly telling Nic to keep an eye on her. It was obvious she wasn't feeling as well as she said but he wasn't going to argue with her. As long as she didn't get herself into anything too drastic.

An hour later, Nicolas returned to Worick's side. Either everyone was dead or Nic felt that Monroe could handle the rest. The deaf tag look at the taller male with a confused look.

'Where's Amelia?' he signed, raising an eyebrow in confusion. This only earned a hard deadpanned expression from Worick.

"That's what I was going to ask you, partner," Worick sighed, putting a hand to his face exasperatedly. "I told you specifically to keep an eye on her. Now we don't know where she's at," the blond put his hands on his hips as he looked at the twilight pointedly.

Nic just scratched the back of his neck, looking down nervously. 'I got distracted. I thought she was behind me. When she wasn't there I assumed she came to you,' he defended himself, honestly not sure when she split ways from him.

Worick was about to give Nic hell when a voice cut through the air.

"Hey, guys. Mission accomplished?" Amelia walked into the back alley. She jumped when Worick attacked her with a hug... and some groping. "Ah! What's that for?" She scowled, pushing the male off of her.

"I was just worried I'd never see that beautiful ass of yours again, Amy. Nic lost you and I got worried," Worick pouted, settling with petting the girls hair protectively although she was still scowling at him.

"Sorry, I, uh, got a little lost," she laughed slightly, rubbing her arm and stepping away from Worick's touch. She laughed nervously, apologizing softly.

"Ok..." Worick trailed off, noticing that Amelia seemed a little off. "Well, before we go home, we have to stop at Constance's shop. Grandma Joel said there's some damage we can help with," he explained, waving for the two to follow him.

"There's always something going wrong there," Amelia rolled her eyes as she followed Worick.

"Alex is meeting us there for extra help, too," Worick added as the trio disappeared into the back alleys of Ergastulum.

Nic paused, looking up. Whatever he had sensed earlier was gone. It was probably just some of the guys he just helped obliterate but still. Something felt off today.

"Thank you for helping again," Constance smiled up at the handymen on her roof. She had to admit, while it was obviously annoying to have her shop shot up, this one at least gave her a laugh. Dumbasses tried shooting off warning shots at the ceiling. She assumed they were planning on stealing guns and ammo. However, the dumbass who shot the warning shots clearly didn't realize what kind of power a machine gun gave off and how hard it was to control when turned straight up. He lost control and got holes all through her roof along with some of his buddies. The ones that were only injured decided that was enough to call it a failed attempt and ran off. The police or cleaned out the few bodies so all the handymen had to do was repair her damn roof before it rained.

"No problemo Connie~" Worick smiled, making an OK sign with his hand. The blond had his hair tied back in a braid and nails sticking from his toothy smile. He, along with everyone else, was wearing work overalls. He was nailing on new shingles where Nic or Amelia already repaired the woodwork.

Speaking of the twilights. They were a little farther away from the front of the roof sporting their own overalls. Nic wore his half down, showing the black tank top he wore underneath. Amelia had her's unzippered and showing her white t-shirt. Certain ways she moved it would hang open more or fall off one shoulder. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a pony tail with a few fly aways sticking out to frame her face. They were both taking care of the important repairs that would keep the inside of the shop all nice and dry in the nearing thunderstorm.

Alex helped Worick with the shingles, her overalls unzipped just enough for her cleavage to peek out. At first, she honsetly sucked. It was obvious that she hadn't done much work like this before. Nobody judged her, although she still apologized over and over. They had plenty of hands anyway so it wasn't like they were pressed to work fast. With all four of them they should be finished quickly. Worick showed her how to do the shingling and then let her try a couple on her own, going back and fixing anything nessecary. Now she was doing rather well though. She wasn't asking Worick to help her as much and Worick barely had to fix anything.

"Ally, you're going to hit your thumb if you do it like that. Here, like this," Worick came over to Alex and wrapped his arms around the girl, setting her hands in a better position so she could nnail the shingle into place.

Nic looked at him and rolled his eyes. 'Damn flirt can't come up with a better excuse to get close to her and touch her,' he thought to himself with a sigh. That's when he noticed Amelia had stopped her hammering. She was staring at them with a lost look her eyes. She was smiling softly. She had that look she got whenever Nic saw her reading some romance novel. Why they had those on their shelves was beyond him. Worick probably gave in and bought Amelia some and one point.

He wondered if she knew she was making that face. He wondered if she knew how beautiful she looked. He wondered if she knew how she made him feel. He wondered if she regretted that night three and a half years ago; did she know that she wasn't just a rebound to him?

'Nic?'

Hands moving in sign caught his attention, not realizing that he himself had spaced out. He looked at Amelia expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

'Could you... help me?' she paused in the middle of her signs, obviously still thinking about whether she wanted to actually say something before continuing.

Her question surprised him. Help her with what? She was doing fine. She had been doing this for 20 minutes now without so much as a recap on how to repair this type of damage. It confused him. She didn't need help.

Then he saw it. Her cheeks were tinged a slight pink. It could easily be mistaken as a reaction to the sun beating down on them, however, she didn't have that flush of pink a minute ago. She was looking down like she did when she got shy, too.

The deaf tag glanced over at Worick and Alex before back at Amelia. He bit down a smirk and hoped he wasn't showing a blush of his own. He moved towards her and proceeded to ask her what she needed help with. It took a minute for her to come up with something as ridiculous as 'can you just show me how to do this again. I feel like I'm doing it wrong.'

He swallowed any nerves he had and grabbed her hands gently in his own. He knew his hands were big but with Amelia's hands inside his own, they felt massive. Maybe her's were just small but nonetheless, it put into perspective how big his hands were. He went through the motions of repairing the damage.

Amelia only looked at him to speak but otherwise avoided eye contact. She was so afraid her face was bright red. She didn't think he'd actually do it, although she was perfectly happy that he did. Even if their hands were gloved and she couldn't feel his skin, it still made her heart race. She could feel his breath in her hair and she could smell him. God, did he smell good.

He hoped his hands weren't shaking and his heart wasn't beating out of his chest because that was what he felt like. He could smell her scented shampoo in her hair and he could see the sweat glistening on her skin.

... He could also see down her shirt if he tilted his head down but he was trying really hard to avoid that.

"Look at them cuties," Worick whispered to Alex with a smirk. When she just gave him an odd look he pointed slightly towards the two twilights. "Aren't they adorable?"

"So... they still have feelings for each other?" Alex asked, smiling softly at the scene in front of them. They really were adorable. She was happy to see Nicolas so open with someone.

"Don't tell them that. They don't know yet," Worick chuckled and rolled his eyes slightly. "Honestly, neither of them would be able to tell the other liked them unless they flat out told. Even then, they might not get it," he sighed. "It's painful watching them. They both blame themselves messing up a chance at a relationship 3 years ago when they both are willing to give it another chance. Stupid," he muttered more to himself than to Alex. "Makes you wanna yell at them to just kiss already, you know? Although, Amelia would be the only one to hear it..."

Alex giggled softly. "Don't do that. That might just pull them apart again. Although..." she smiled and waved Worick closer to whisper in his ear. A grin slowly spread across the blond's face.

"You better be treating my granddaughter well, handymen," Grandma Joel sneered as she walked inside the gunshop. Everyone was inside, sitting at the counter while Connie counted out their payment. The older woman hit Worick in the leg with her cane, making him move over. She gladly took the seat he had been blocking and set a large pot on the counter.

"I don't care if you have some women living with you now," Grandma Joel started. "You two still don't know how to eat a home cooked meal, so you'll stay and eat mine," she grumbled. She always acted like she didn't care but Worick could tell she worried in her own way.

"Ooh~ I haven't had your cooking in so long," Amelia smiled standing up to look inside the pot curiously.

"That's because you left without any warning," Grandma Joel sneered making the girl wince slightly. "Besides that, you're the only one in this town smart enough to get out when you can."

"Wow~ Grandma Joel, that was almost a compliment. You feeling ok?" Worick smirked before wincing at another hit from the woman's cane.

Amelia sat back down in her seat and looked down, biting her lip awkwardly. Grandma Joel had a way of saying things bluntly and making them sound really bad. Ok... so maybe how she left wasn't exactly good but she didn't like being reminded of her own cowardess.

"OK! Lets eat!" Connie cheered, pumping a fist in the air excitedly as she pulled out some bowls from behind the counter.

Soon everyone had a bowl full with Grandma Joel's yummy food. Alex was sitting beside Amelia who had Grandma Joel on the other side of her. On the opposite side of the old woman was Worick and finally Nicolas. Connie was still behind the counter across from her grandmother.

Worick looked over his shoulder at Alex and gave her a wink. Alex seemed to understand as she nodded in response.

"Um, so, Amelia?" Alex smiled at the girl, easily grabbing her attention. "What was it like? Living with those two for so long? I mean, I've lived with them for a couple of months but I still feel totally distant from them."

"Hm..." the blonde thought to herself for a moment. "Well, I knew them for a long time before we actually lived together so you could say I had a head start compared to you," she laughed softly. "If you're worried about Nic warming up to you, don't. He will eventually, although even then it's not exactly warm. You know how he is with Worick? I've never seen him like that with anyone. If I had to guess how long it took him to warm up to me... I'd have to say at least 2 years... and that's from when the three of us first started to actually hang out a lot. The first time I actually talked to them, I was like 11 or 12. I only ever saw them go into Danny's office or talking on the lawn so we never really got to know each until I was 16." She pouted slightly at the next sentence. "Even Delico and Yang got to know them before me. God, I was so jealous. Don't tell, but I had like a little girl crush on Worick ever since I met him."

Alex giggled softly at the thought. She could understand. If Worick was this good looking in his mid-thirties he must have been gorgeous in his early twenties. She really hoped that it wouldn't take Nicolas 2 years to warm up to her, though. Even if she knew he was showing he cared in his own little ways, it was hard to feel welcomed. The closest she felt to him was when he had helped steady her hands and open her pills before disappearing. Maybe he just knew Worick would get upset or something if she died or went bat-shit crazy again.

"You really shouldn't worry. It can be hectic living with them but it's... exciting," she laughed. There were a lot of words she could say but exciting was one of the few that made it sound pleasant. Which it was. It was pleasant to live with them. "Besides," she smirked, moving closer to Alex. "It looked like you were anything but distant from Worick up on the roof," she raised her eyebrows suggestively at the woman, referring to when Worick helped her.

Thid earned a deep blush from the ex-prostitute. While this was exactly the derection she wanted the conversation to go in, it was still embarrassing to think about. "O-o-oh yea?" She stuttered. "What about you and Nic, hm? You guys were just as close," she teased back, watching for a reaction.

She got one alright. Red tinged Amelia's cheeks and the tips of her ears as her eyes darted away. Alex could see her hands starting to ring together nervously as she shifted in her seat. "I... don't know what your talking about," Amelia said quickly beforr turning towards her food again and gulping some down hurriedly.

"Hey, it's alright. I was just wondering if you still had feelings for him... like before you left," Alex asked curiously, putting her plan into action.

"Well... I don't know... maybe," Amelia bit her lip, looking up at the other woman. "But I doubt the feeling's mutual and that's fine-"

"You can't just assume," Alex jumped in. "You should tell him. See if he feels the same way. I bet he does. Guys don't get that close to a girl unless their interested... or flirty like Worick. But we both know Nic isn't like that."

"I couldn't. If he said no that would be the end of me," Amelia said worriedly, looking over her shoulder slightly to see if anyone was listening or paying attention in anyway.

"You can take the chance though. I know I'm not exactly someone who knows a lot about love but I think I see it in you two," Alex smiled.

Meanwhile, across the gunshop counter, the two handymen were talking. Worick was dishing out his part of the plan.

'Nic, score any points with Amelia?' The gigolo asked his friend, not beating around the bush like Alex. He was getting straight to the point.

'Score any points?' The tag asked, swallowing some of the food Grandma Joel had made.

'You know. Up on the roof earlier? Getting all close and friendly,' Worick smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at his partner who just glared at him.

'Friendly and that's all,' Nic narrowed his eyes at the other male, not enjoying what he was getting at.

'Awe, come on, Nic. I can tell you still like her. I know you feel like it's you fault she left before but I honestly don't think she blames you or cares for that matter. You should just tell her how you feel.' Worick smiled softly at the male, hoping he could at least get the idea in his head enough that it repeats annoyingly until he believe in it.

'And if she doesn't feel the same?' Hook. Line. Sinker.

Worick smirked, knowing he got the tag thinking about it. 'I think she'll feel the same. You think she'd let you be so close if she wasn't the slightest bit interested? Remember the first time we brought her to help out? She didn't know what to do. She decided to ask me for help and I tried to pull that move on her. She slapped me and told me to just show her. She let you touch all over.'

'I also didn't try to grab her ass,' Nic pointed out, remembering the time vividly. It was pretty funny how she didn't hesitate to slap him. Worick had a humorous reaction, too.

'I'm just saying, you should give it a shot. I think it'll be worth your while. You are getting old for a twilight. You need someone to live for besides me...' Worick gave his partner a small smile. It was a little depressing but he was only looking out for the man. He wanted him to be happy. Amelia made him happy.

Oh my god each chapter is getting longer than the last. I mean, I know people like lengthier chapters but I feel like it's not right that my first couple chapters are like 1 500 and now they're like 3 500. Well, whatever.

Helping the Monroe family wasn't very action-y I know but it was more just to build up the conflict of the plot and the next chapter. And the rest was obviously just me giving into my need for romance. I'm so greedy. I want it now. But i know if I get it know I'll end up ashamed of this story like one of my other ones that I will not name because, as I said, I am ashamed of it.

Anyway, please oh please Review along with favourite/follow so you know right when the next chapter comes out ^-^

February 21, 2016