Disclaimer: Blah I own nothing. :'(
So yes I'm sorry this one took so long. I'm just meh. IT'S BECOME A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN WHAT I WOULD HAVE LIKED.
I sincerely hope you like it though. I hope you all know that as slowly and horribly-written as these chapters come, they're all for you. 3
Thank you especially to ExactlyAmanda because without her this chapter would have probably taken longer to put up. So all credit goes to her.
Also I'm sorry for the cliff-hanger that may or may not be happening at the end of this chapter... heheh... love you all.
Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.
-Lord Byron
"I can't believe you have all of the best possible gangster movies on DVD." Castiel reminded me vaguely of a little boy in an arcade the way he pranced about my collection.
"I try."
He pulled out a few and then practically swooned over my James Bond tapes.
"Scarface you're my favourite human being right now. It's like you were created just for my happiness."
"Yeah." I sighed, rubbing my bruised neck. "And you were created for my annoyance."
"You don't mean that." He grinned. "Now, what should we watch first?"
He held up a selection of my most violent movies.
"If we watch three of those, you have to watch Tangled with me."
"No."
"Okay. We'll watch a musical then."
"Fine, I'll put up with Tangled. Just for you Scarface." He groaned.
"I feel so special." I smiled.
"I feel like you'll use this as blackmail later."
"You know me so well." I smiled cheekily. "If you can mark me as your 'territory' I can tell everyone you sat down and willingly watched Tangled with me."
"I won't have to tell them Scarface, they'll know." He winked.
"Shut up and put in a scary movie." I growled. He just smiled.
For the next four hours we were entertained... or absolutely petrified in my case, by a series of Stephen King movies, followed by an incredibly violent gangster movie.
Too bad for him I was not the kind of girl to leap into his arms at every scary bit, I got the feeling that's what he'd been expecting.
I liked scary movies, it was his unlucky day.
Nope, I was on the opposite end of the couch for all of those movies.
It was after I popped in Tangled and made a fresh bowl of popcorn that I finally crawled into his lap.
"Are you excited?" I asked in a sing-song tone.
"Giddy." He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled a blanket around us. At least he was getting comfortable, that meant he wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon.
Not even when Rapunzel started singing did he get up and walk out on the movie.
Not even when I started singing along with her.
"That guy is just like me." He said about the character Flynn Rider. I smiled because in less than five minutes he was about to get smacked in the face with a frying pan.
Heeheehee.
At some point after it had finished he got up to put in a James Bond before letting me lose myself in his arms again.
He started absent-mindedly drawing circles on my back and then digging in more, massaging all the tense muscles.
"That feels nice." I murmured, closing my eyes.
"You're really tight. You been stressing about something?"
I rolled my eyes under closed lids. "I'm stuck in a house in the cold with you, what's not to worry about?"
"Calm down, I'm not going to pounce on you and take your v-card like some kind of molester."
"No, of course not. You'll just hold me hostage in your jacket, cover me in love bites and poke at my past by pinning me to the floor and bombarding me with questions about my scars."
"You aren't afraid of me. You're afraid of him."
WHY? WHY DO YOU KNOW ME THIS WELL?
"Nonsense."
"You're a horrid liar. Why are you afraid of him? He isn't fucking mantracker. He won't find you."
"Close enough. He's smart. Even when he was piss drunk he was smart. When he bothered to stay sober he was... crazy smart. He knew everything. He was like this bottomless ocean of knowledge."
"He was also apparently fucking crazy."
"There was that, that was sort of an issue."
He scoffed.
"So, you think that he'll find you?" He was being casual about it, asking questions with the same nonchalance as Bond himself, who was now charming some crazy woman that had previously been playing with some weird cards. At least she was pretty.
"Yes. Stop asking."
"He won't."
"You don't know him."
"Lucky me then. He won't find you, Scarface." His tone had taken on more of a plea than its previous assurance.
"Of course not." I sighed, but I didn't believe it. Not for a second.
He held me tighter, and we both fell asleep as James Bond tricked that stupid woman into crawling into bed with him.
When I woke up Castiel was packing up his bag again.
"Guess what, Scarface? They've opened up the school. We get to go back."
"Oh yay." I stretched and stood wandering into my room to switch shirts. I wanted desperately to opt for a turtleneck or something but remembered quickly that I didn't have one. By God when would I ever have willingly bought a turtleneck? Not my thing. None of the shirts I owned covered my neck.
Oh God I am so screwed.
"Come on Scarface, pick a shirt or I'll have to choose one for you."
I shrugged on a deep blue blouse. I hated blouses, but it covered most of the love bites, except for... okay so maybe it didn't really cover them, but it would have to do for now.
"Time's a wasting, Scarface."
Wearily, I trudged out of the room and grabbed my jacket. "How cold is it outside?"
"Freezing."
"Awesome. Let's go." I shrugged on my coat and we headed downstairs and back out into the cold.
"There. It isn't that bad." Castiel said behind clouded breaths. "I think it's gotten warmer."
Meanwhile, I shook like an earthquake beside him.
"It. Has. Not." I replied bitterly, every time I inhaled my lungs seemed to freeze. It wasn't the most pleasant of sensations. "Are we there yet?"
"Scarface, we just started out." The nickname sounded completely awkward on his tongue, but not nearly as bad as what he said next. "Can I just please start calling you Addison?"
Addison. It was completely foreign coming from Castiel, but it made my insides feel funny in a totally blissful sort of oh-god-you-embarrass-me-feelings sort of way. So I grumbled that yes, he could call me by my proper name.
As we approached the school, he glanced around and took my hand.
"Do you not want people to see us together?" I asked, ignoring the tingly sensation in my palms.
"No. I want him to see." He nodded towards Nathaniel, who was struggling into the school with a box or crap. Or had been, until he saw us, and nearly dropped the thing.
Castiel waved to him with a sarcastically pleasant and gloating grin. Nathaniel stormed inside the school.
"Brilliant. Does everyone hate me now?"
"I don't have you." He said, with a smile that plainly stated he assumed that his opinion was all that mattered.
"Other than you." I groaned.
"Lysander, Iris and Kim don't."
"Three people, whoop-dee-do."
"Did you honestly just say that?"
"Yes. I did."
He rolled his eyes.
We pushed open the front doors, still hand-in-hand, and I felt really good and really frightening at the same time. Once people found out (as they inevitably would, this was high school after all), that Castiel and I had spent a few nights together in a storm, they would automatically assume we'd done more than a little cuddling in order to keep warm.
Oh noooo.
When we started down the hall, I could see Amber and her two idiots in expensive clothing at the opposite end of it. Castiel looked absolutely giddy at the sight of them.
"I feel really evil about this." I muttered.
"Good. You're hot when you're evil."
I glared up at him.
"You're also hot when you're mad." He winked down at me.
"Well you're absolutely evil always."
"I'm glad you've noticed, I practice my evil in front of the mirror every day."
I laughed and he put an arm around my waist, dropping my hand.
We passed Iris, whose mouth gaped open and she mouthed something like "SPILL" at me. I made a face at her and she stifled a giggle.
Amber and the two Prada slaves were up next. Castiel casually brushed some of my hair off of my bruised neck. I was, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, torn between punching him in the throat and kissing him madly in a closet somewhere.
As soon as she saw me, her eyes flickered to my neck, and her jaw dropped. "Oh my-."
"Mmm Castiel. I wish we were back at my place." I stage-whispered in his ear. "I miss staying warm together."
That was it for Amber, she turned pink enough to match the Barbie shade of lipstick she wore.
"Only six more hours, Addison. Then I promise I'll warm you up again." He in turn whispered in my ear, though he decided to take the act a little further and nibble on mine. I had to bite back my infamous coughing fit.
When I glanced over at Amber she was a no-so-charming shade of scarlet. We sidled away before she could tear us into pieces with her manicure.
"I can't believe that just happened. I am going to be murdered." I grumbled, opening my locker and debating bashing my head against it multiple times.
I settled for bashing my head against it once, earning a chuckle from Castiel.
"You're an idiot."
"I am! I can't believe I let you drag me into this." I sighed.
"What? Regret being my girlfriend already?" He feigned hurt.
"No. But I certainly regret these." I gestured to the bites all over my neck.
"No you don't. Liar." He dumped a load of books into his bag and turned to me. "If you want, later I can remind you just how much you don't regret those."
"Shut up." I glowered at him, grabbing my books and stalking off towards the English classroom. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.
I spent most of the first period staring out the windows, the wind had died down somewhat, the frozen rain still beat mercilessly at the ground which brought back a few memories that I didn't really enjoy remembering.
The leaves had been stripped from the trees, which I was cross about. It was barely the beginning of autumn and the colours hadn't even started coming out on them before they were torn from their branches by the heavy rain and strong winds.
I loved looking at the colours, and now I wouldn't get to unless the trees decided to spontaneously grow more leaves and then have them change, which I doubted was possible.
"All this thinking you're doing is really bugging me." Castiel said, partway through the last act in Romeo and Juliet. "Are you okay?"
"It's just the leaves." I grumbled, I'm not sure he heard me, but he seemed to understand that it wasn't a big deal.
The bell rang and we filed out, he was grinning from ear to ear.
"What have you done?" I asked, instantly suspicious.
"Kim isn't here today. Neither is my usual partner. Looks like we'll have to be partners instead."
Iris, who had heard most of this conversation, winked at me and gave me a thumbs up. She was too adorable and nice to even consider being angry with.
"Yay." I shook my head, laughing and headed into the girl's change room.
I made it into a bathroom stall before most of the girls came in and was changed and in the gym before they could even start whispering about me. Success.
If you've never been in a co-ed gym class, it's pretty awkward at first. Most of the guys avoided us females like the deathly plague and we in turn, pretended they didn't exist.
Today, the fine line in between male and female groups was absolutely shattered because Castiel and I paired up. Also, I had hickeys all over my neck, which he seemed eager to show off, that definitely caused a stir.
A girl I hadn't talked too much walked over to one of the more shy boys and asked him to be her partner. So it began. Each girl paired up with a guy. The gym teacher exclaimed that it was just about the strangest but also most encouraging thing he'd seen out of us yet.
I forced Castiel to go to all of his classes. He almost did, except for the one we didn't have together, which he spent pacing about in the hallways outside of vocals class, glaring at anyone who made eye contact except for me and Lysander.
Lysander however, was far too busy noticing this Kara girl's lovely green dress to pay him much attention.
When final bell rang Castiel dragged me into the band practice room where him and Lysander entertained me with music by the Black Keys. Kara came along too, which is probably why Lysander was bright red the whole time.
Castiel informed me that Lys didn't like people hearing him, but he also really liked Kara. Naturally, demon spawn being the 'great friend' he was decided to invite her without telling him.
After they finished Lonely Boy by the Keys Lysander leaned over to Castiel. "You should play that piece you were telling me about."
Castiel kept his head down, still looking at his guitar, but I saw him begin to flush red.
"No."
"What is it?" I asked.
"A thing."
I rolled my eyes. "Very helpful, I got a lot out of that response."
"Good, so you won't ask for another one." He snapped.
"I will." I retorted.
He made a growling noise and looked up at me, cold defeat on his features. "I wrote a song. On the guitar. It doesn't have words, I don't do words."
"Play it." Kara and I chorused.
"Absolutely not."
"Please?"
"No."
"Tell me what it's called then." I begged.
"No."
"Why not?"
He looked away, I turned to Lysander for an explanation.
"Lysander? Would you happen to know what this song is called?"
Lysander nodded and beamed. "I do indeed."
"Would you care to tell us?" I asked.
"I'm afraid that is a secret I've been told to keep and-."
"Please?" Kara sighed.
That sold him, but just as he opened his mouth to tell us Castiel said,
"Fine. It's called Her."
"Her?" I was confused.
"Yes. Her. As in that girl, that I like. That one named Addison. Her." He rolled his eyes, but a shy smile lit the corners of his mouth. It was so timid and un-castiel-like it took me a while to recover and process what he'd just said. When I did, my eyes widened.
My turn to flush red. Six eyes were on me, and mine were trained on the floor.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I honestly wasn't sure at all what was running through my mind. Probably something along the lines of,
WHATINTHEACTUALHELLFUCKSHITH OLYTITSISTHISHAPPENING?
Something like that.
I was essentially completely lost in my own world of mass panic mixed with pure bliss, which I was shaken out of violently when he started playing the guitar.
It sounded a little like the beginning of a Mumford and Sons song, which shocked me. Die hard rock fan, and he had written a song like this? Not that I was complaining. It was beautiful.
The song had a sweet sort of melody to it that seemed to be a compilation of everything I loved about us. It sounded like togetherness. It was bittersweet, sad and happy at the same time.
As he played he muttered a few words, I caught her scars and my arms and I felt like sobbing and laughing and making him stop and making him stop by kissing him right then and there.
He stopped partway into what I assumed was the chorus and we both looked up to find the door closing behind Lysander and Kara.
"How could they possibly leave in the midst of that?" I asked, completely astonished. Those were the only words that I could form without mass stammering and more blushing.
"I think they wanted us to have a little privacy." He grinned. "What do you think?"
"About the song?"
"No. About the fucking daffodils. Yes, the song." He shook his head and sighed.
"It's-it's so good." If I could marry it I would. "I like it." We'd have beautiful melodious children. "How long did it take to write?" Song-babies are totally possible. Right?
"Not long. I had a lot of inspiration." He smiled and I my heart seemed to want to burst of out the confinement of my rib cage, which suddenly felt awfully tight.
I'm pretty sure he leaned in first, shifting his guitar off his lap. Our lips met and his hands found my waist and encircled it, pulling me closer. I replaced the guitar's previous spot, sitting on his lap.
"Be honest. How many girls have you seduced with songs?" I asked between kisses.
"None, unless you're admitting that it worked." He replied cockily.
I growled, and kissed him instead of answering. I bit down on his lip lightly and he smiled against mine. I felt his tongue slip into my mouth and did the same, eagerly exploring his taste.
He was kind of minty, and tasted a little like smoke too, and oh-so incredibly similar to sin, which only made me kiss him harder. I wanted sin.
I had previously been tangling my fingers in his hair, but moved them down to his shirt, they found their way underneath it and up his bare chest. I could feel the hard bumps of his abs.
The door to the classroom opened again. In a completely ungraceful feat to distance myself from Castiel I leaped off of his lap, taking out a few desks and chairs and landing in a heap on the floor.
I could hear all three of them laughing at me. Ha guys, very funny.
I was relatively certain that my side stitches had split open somewhere and were bleeding again, but I was too busy trying to detangle my legs from the legs of several desks and chairs.
Castiel was laughing the hardest of anyone, clutching his stomach like he did when I did something stupid and he found it funny.
When I stood, Lysander and Kara kept laughing, but Castiel stopped and paled visibly. He pointed to my hip.
I already knew what I'd find when I looked down. There was probably a tad of blood soaking through my shirt. Big deal.
When I did actually glance at my blouse I instantly felt a little nauseous. There was more than just a little blood. My whole side was red.
I met Castiel's eyes and he clearly saw the panic in mine because he jumped up and stood next to me, covering the side that was bleeding everywhere.
"We need to be going actually. I have to get spazzoid home before she breaks something." With that he took my hand and pulled me and his guitar from the room. We got about halfway down the hall before I stopped.
My legs felt a lot like JELL-O which seems like it would be a neat sensation.
It wasn't.
I leaned over a garbage can and prepared to puke but nothing came up.
Castiel scooped me up into his arms, my bleeding side pressed up against his chest.
"I'm going to get blood all over you, put me down."
"Ah yes, because you were doing such a good job of walking."
"I was, actually. I'm glad you noticed."
"Are you really going to be like that when you're bleeding out?"
"I'm not bleeding out, drama queen. I'm just bleeding a little. The sight just kind of freaked me out."
"A little? Yeah okay. The blood donation clinic would be having a field day right now. Speaking of clinic, that's where we're headed."
"WHAT? No. Absolutely not. Castiel they'll see the scar and-!"
"Not up for debate."
I wriggled out of his arms. "Yes it is. I'm not going to a clinic."
"What do you plan on doing then?" He spat. "Sewing yourself up again?"
"Yes."
"Are you fucking crazy?" He yelled.
"Yes."
"No." He picked me up again and held me firmly against him. "Compromise, we go see the Nurse what's-her-face."
"Isley?" She sort of annoyed me, but it was a fine alternative to being carried to a hospital.
"FINE."
We were moving swiftly through the hallways, he looked overly concerned. My side did hurt, but I was certain it would be fine, this had happened before after all.
There was a factor however, we hadn't considered.
Isley had left. It was the end of the day, she was gone, her office dark and locked.
"Darn, guess we are going to the clinic." Castiel shrugged.
"No. Look it's already stopped bleeding." I whined, lifting my shirt slightly to show him.
I could see in his eyes there was a massive battle going on. To argue or not to argue, that was his question. I knew he trusted me, but he was definitely concerned and that meant he was going to try and take charge of the situation, control it.
"Castiel." I said firmly.
"What?"
"I am going home now."
He sighed again, strands of red hair blowing out of his face as he did. "Fine, it isn't as bad as I thought." He glanced at my side once more before nodding curtly. "I'll walk you home."
"Thanks, but you could really just go back in and keep making beautiful songs about me." I teased. He scowled up at me, but a familiar smile graced his features.
"Fine. Also if you tell anyone else about that I'll be forced to do horrible things to you." Okay. That was hot. Did he have any idea that some of the things he said made me want to ravish him in the middle of the damn hallways. Of course he did, the cocky bastard.
I pointed at my neck, "You already have, jerk-face."
"Good one." He winked and I turned to go.
"Not so fast, Addison." He growled in a voice that pretty much reduced me to a puddle of melted Addison, he caught me, fingers wrapping around my own.
"What're you-?" He twirled me towards him and our lips met in what was, on my part, a very frustrated goodbye kiss.
"May I go now?" I breathed once he pulled away. My next sentence was cut to pieces by the quick pecks he gave. "Because I..." "Really need to..." "Get home and..." "Do homework."
"Why do you insist on trying to talk when I'm trying to kiss you?"
"You aren't very good at distracting me I suppose."
He held me tighter. "Take that back Addison Richards."
"Absolutely not." I grinned and flounced away.
"That, my dear, is a belief we shall have to remedy later." He called after me.
I pushed open the doors, only glancing back to stick my tongue out at him like the mature human being I was, and surrendered to the cold outdoors.
The weather was being peculiar in a way that only weather can be. The sky, though mostly clear save for a few wispy clouds, was still heavily freckled with snowflakes falling towards the earth. The sun hit them in such a way that each individual piece of snow looked like silvery glitter spiraling downwards.
I felt happy, like a child again. Maybe Castiel was right, maybe Dad wouldn't find me.
After everything I'd been through in the past whatever force was kind enough to make an outdoor scene as beautiful as this one would take pity on me, let me live normally.
As it turns out, that same force was an evil one, because though Castiel had been poor at distracting me that day, the weather did not cease to captivate my more earnest attentions.
That's probably why I missed the familiar truck outside the apartments; I was too busy marveling at the glass-like fragments of frozen water falling around me. I somehow managed to ignore the fact that the door of the lobby had been left unlocked, even though you needed a key to open it. I had been watching the clouds swirl above me.
Once inside though, away from the alluring beauty of the outdoors, I did notice that my apartment was unlocked.
Had I forgotten to lock it in the morning? But Josh usually checked it because he knew I was forgetful.
The more likely reason was that he had used the spare key to get something from my place, they always needed ingredients for stuff.
Still, a nervousness had settled like ice in the pit of my stomach, one that hadn't really been brought on in a while.
I pushed open the apartment door and stepped inside. I was instantly overcome with dread. The atmosphere seemed wrong, something had been spilled on the floor that looked awfully similar to alcohol. My albums were strewn about the floor, my couch torn open.
When he was drunk, he used to have such a hard time finding me that he'd search everything for even the slightest trace of me to beat.
My converse crunched on broken glass as I moved towards the television, left on a show that had constantly been on in a past life.
He used to throw things at the television whenever Jeopardy came on. He used to know all the answers and then it all went wrong.
I felt the sickening feeling of hot, sticky breath on my neck.
"Addison, I'm home." He whispered.
Ooooooh you guys are gonna haaaaate me.