Author note: It just keeps snowing! I'm starting to feel like I live in Alaska almost. Our car even got stuck when I tried to pull out for work. Of course freaking boyfriend gets it back in and when he backs out it goes smooth as silk. Freaking guys. Wanna know something else? People who ennunciate their S's... make me wanna cry. It sounds like snakes behind me!

Germandelights: Snuggles is right! I fallen for fluff lately, can you tell? Liz-liz, aw I gotta find a character to call her that. Her reaction... oh, I gotta do it now!

Sparksfirebug: Her mama is a cold cookie huh? I didn't know I was bringing her in until bam... she was in and I couldn't get rid of her. I'm glad you like so far!

Owlsdistraction: Short and sweet wins the treat? Or... something. Forgive me, my brain is a little fried right now! Yes, I got bit by an inspiration bug. I just fell in love with this story so I didn't want to put Lizzie to rest just yet.

Disclaimer: I own Lizzie! And her lethargic aunt and her statue mother. Yeah, I feel rich.

Chapter start

Lizzie was an easy person to sleep with. Nathaniel wouldn't have guessed it. Lizzie was hard to swallow in life so why should it be any easier when she was asleep?

In his whole life he had never known a person to wriggle around so much. Lizzie was prone to slithering her way out of tight spots like she was covered in oil. Unless she wanted to be somewhere she wouldn't be still for the two seconds it would take to say no.

Nathaniel hoped she was using that slithering ability of hers to stay out of her mothers reach.

But in sleep none of that was there. No, she was… still. For all that energy she threw off in waves when she was awake when she was asleep it was almost like she was nonexistent. Nathaniel had thought she was dead and panicked when he had woken up in the morning. She had curled herself to him tightly and her breath had been so soft he couldn't feel it on his skin.

That jolt of fear had definitely taken care of the morning problem every warm-blooded guy had in the morning. Kind of hard to be 'happy' when you thought you were holding a dead or dying girl in hand.

Lizzie hadn't gone to school with him. She had followed him there and had hugged him tightly when they separated for classes. But she hadn't gone. She had vanished. The only thing keeping him from flipping tables in new worry was that she had the thought to tell Castiel to tell Ken to tell Iris to tell Melody to tell him… yes, that was how her mind worked… that she hadn't felt like being in school and was ditching.

And she had promptly decided to ditch another week away.

It was now the weekend and he hadn't heard anything from her. That wasn't unusual. So he had resolved to not worry about it. When she was ready Lizzie would come back he was sure.

Yeah, and he would be the one to invent the first ever flying pig.

Nathaniel sighed when he thought of his lost morals. It was hard to tell when he had started to just accept the fact Lizzie would rarely be in school. It made it all the more irksome when she got A's on papers.

"Nathaniel!"

He glanced up from his novel to see amber looking at him with annoyance. "I've been calling you for ten minutes!"

"What is it," he forced himself to ask.

"Some old hag is waiting in the drive for you."

Nathaniel furrowed his brow. He didn't know any old hags… old women, well enough to warrant a home visit. He closed the book and stretched his upper body so he could peek out the blinds. Their van was gone so his mother had gone shopping. In its place was a black car.

Where had he seen it…?

There was a small itch at the back of his skull as he stood up to go see who it was. He knew that car from somewhere. It wasn't until he had slipped his shoes on and gone outside though that it hit him.

Her arm was hanging from the opened window to flick ash onto the driveway. Her cool moss colored eyes surveyed him and Nathaniel stopped when he was close enough to see and hear her clearly.

"You kept me waiting thirteen minutes and thirteen seconds," Lizzie's mother commented softly.

And people called him detail oriented. Not even he was that bad as to count everything. Okay… some things.

"Can I help you in some way?" He was careful his words were polite.

Lizzie's mother gave him a flick over with her eye. It was offensive to see how little her opinion of him really was.

"Lizzie seems fond of you. My sister tells me that you're over at the house more often than even she is."

"Isn't that what friends do," Nathaniel asked and shifted to run a hand through his hair.

He wasn't expecting the snort. "Lizzie doesn't have friends, she has pets and toys. What makes you noteworthy is that not only has she kept you nearly a year… but Lizzie has never brought someone home with her and never had someone stay with her for the night."

"What makes you so special to her I wonder?"

"Ask her yourself." The words were short clipped. Nathaniel was already sick and tired of those empty eyes on his.

"As you've seen my daughter aren't on the best terms on the best days." She raised a brow. "Lizzie acts out in the worst ways. She's quite rebellious. And my sister has little in the way of an urge to be an active guardian. It was a mistake leaving her with her aunt-"

"Because she looks like her father," he cut in with some irritation.

"I wouldn't expect a child like you to understand. Lizzie was more her father's daughter than she was ever mine and I'll give him the credit to say he spoiled her rotten when he was in the mood to. But in the end she is just as out of control as he was."

Nathaniel closed his mouth. This woman was utterly confusing and annoying all at once to him and alien. Not even his parents had ever stopped bothering with him because he was more like the other.

"Did you even try to be there for her?" Nathaniel found he couldn't not ask.

Lizzie's mother looked at him. "Of course I did in the beginning. But she never stopped running off. I had thought she was close to her father but that child didn't even cry. Everything I said or did, nothing registered. As she got older she started defying me openly and my sister didn't help any by letting her do whatever she felt like."

Call him a cynic but defiance wasn't what Nathaniel had seen in Lizzie when she had introduced them. Yes, she had said no to moving in with her mother but she had shown up. She had listened and thought. If Lizzie had still been running from life she wouldn't have even bothered to go and Nathaniel never would have seen that scene. Or been in this odd family setting that made his seem normal.

He's the only one who ever cared enough to try to teach me that my logic was wrong."

Nathaniel remembered Lizzie saying that to her mother a week ago. It made him all the angrier. If he could reach Lizzie even a little… even if it had taken him over half the school year and more headaches than he wanted to remember… even if she still only let him really near, if he could breach those walls she had set up and fortified for years, a decade even, then why couldn't her mother do that when she was a child and the walls were still weak?

And whether she had meant to or not Lizzie had invaded his own carefully crafted walls.

"You didn't try."

"Excuse me?"

Nathaniel knew that her mother was startled by the sudden steel in his voice. Words were sticking in his throat and he had to spit them to force them out.

"You never tried with her. Instead of telling her it was wrong to be hit, that her dad was wrong you told her it was because he did things he didn't want to do. You let her think someone would end up hurting her like that if she ever needed anything from them."

"I never told her tha-"

"But you never explained." He sliced over her calmly. "She was a child then. I can understand that you were hurting too when you told her those things and left her to draw her own conclusions. But neither you nor her dad gave her any guidance on how to live.

So instead she ran around doing whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Lizzie had it in her head that if every day wasn't fun for her then she would end up like her dad, hurting people she cared about or that she'd end up in your position if she let someone in. so she never stayed stuck to one thing for too long, she never stayed long enough to form an attachment to someone."

Lizzie's mother cleared her throat and he found he was looking for the abused mother who had some regret for abandoning her daughter. There wasn't a trace anywhere in what she had become.

"I didn't come for you to lecture me. The fact is Lizzie hasn't ever gotten close to anyone but you, heaven knows why, so I figured you would have the most influence over her. I'd really rather not this become a huge legal battle but I will have no choice if she doesn't come home with me willingly. And if you think her aunt will fight for her for long you've got that wrong."

It all made sense now. Nathaniel was finally putting together all the pieces of Lizzie. The reason Lizzie never stayed in one place for too long. The reason she had been trying to transfer again. The reason she always transferred from school to school like a gust of wind down the halls.

Because she was afraid of attachments. Because she had been afraid she was too close to him, that he had gotten in too far. It had been Nathaniel that tore down those walls and bore her to the reality of the fact she was running from pain and sorrow, from her loneliness.

And she didn't hate him for it.

Suddenly Nathaniel smirked at her mother rather cheerfully. "You want me to tell her to be smart and go with you?"

"Yes."

"Unfortunately I don't agree. In fact I'm of the opinion that you're the worst thing that could happen to her now." If he was Castiel he would have put in some more colorful expletives.

As it was he was turning away to go back into the house when his father pulled in from work. Or he would have pulled in if not for the fact Lizzie's mother was in the drive. The older man parked in the street and wasn't too happy about it but he swallowed it when he got out of his car with his briefcase.

"Nathaniel who is this?"

"It's Lizzie's mother."

As they stood side by side Nathaniel registered the similarity between him and his father. Both had the same eyes and hair and were of similar build. He could easily believe that this was what he would look like when he was in his thirties, only softer thanks to his mother's genes.

"That blond girl you've been hanging around with?"

"Yes."

His father grunted and held out a hand. "I hope my son hasn't caused your daughter any issue, ma'am."

Lizzie's mother brushed her palm with his briefly. "Oh, no. none that Lizzie has told me about. I merely wanted to know the same as you."

The smile was like Lizzie's in that it was totally fake. If one thing both blond males could see it was fakeness. So Nathaniel wasn't surprised when his father said with total curtness that they had things to do and couldn't chat any longer. He wasn't surprised but he was sure as heck pleased when she left.

"Nathaniel I want to talk to you about that girl."

Nathaniel swallowed. When he was gestured he trotted after his father and wondered what could possibly be said. Then Nathaniel shook himself firmly. He wouldn't cower. He had stopped cowering a long time ago and simply accepted. But that acceptance was gone now too.

Instead Nathaniel was going to be firm and strong. Just as strong as the brilliant man who now sat at the table and waited for him to do the same. Nathaniel sat down with soft movements and asked what was wrong.

"Is she your girlfriend?"

His breath released in a whoosh. His gold eyes were wide as they looked at his father with shock. It seemed smart to ignore the sudden person in his head nodding frantically. Of all the things to be asked…

"No."

"Really? You aren't lying to me are you?"

Nathaniel glanced away to gain his calm armor again before he shook his head negatively.

"Then would you mind telling me why the hell she climbs in through your trellis and why you spent the night at her house without telling your mother or me?"

Nathaniel didn't get Lizzie's reasons for that at all. And as for him… his father didn't need to know that at all. So he remained silent. The minutes ticked by and he felt sure that so did the anger grow in his father.

"I expect an answer!"

When his father got up so did Nathaniel. But when he saw the fist swing at him he didn't remain stationery as he normally did. He moved back and sent his chair to the floor. When the briefcase was thrown at him he grabbed it before it made contact and dropped it.

He would have maybe tried to dodge for the remainder of this until his father got tired because he sure as hell didn't know what to say and the older man was getting angrier by the second. But his father was bigger and stronger really even if he wasn't as quick and the kitchen was too small for anything complicated.

So all in all he wasn't shocked when one of the fists slammed into the side of his head. Before another blow was dealt he reached and grabbed the outstretched arm and planted his feet.

"Knock it off!"

He heaved with all his strength and unbalanced the older male and sent him back into the counter.

There was new rage in his eyes. The rage of being defied and of the fact Nathaniel wasn't submitting.

"You aren't going to touch me again. I'm through covering for you and lying whenever you beat me up. I'm not your punching bag!"

"How dare you talk to me like that you ungrateful child!?"

"I am not a child!" And that was true. In the eyes of the law Nathaniel was an adult now, legally after his eighteenth birthday which had been three months ago.

"You don't want to be treated like a child anymore?" His father spat but he didn't go after his son again. "Then get the hell out of my house! If you aren't a child then you don't need my food, my money, or me giving you a roof over your head anymore. Get the hell out!"

"That's fine." Despite the blaze directed at him Nathaniel was calm as ever and he wondered where this new strength came from.

"No."

Both men turned slightly to the voice. There was Nathaniel's mother in the doorway with arms laden with bags from her shopping trip. She let them slip from her hands so she could plant them on her hips. Nathaniel let his eyes slip away to follow the bags when he heard things cracking. There was a mess now flowing from the things that had fallen from the bags and busted open. Milk, eggs, and some tea. The woman paid no attention as the milk pooled around her sensible sneakers.

"Nathaniel, get me the mop please," she requested quietly. It was still ingrained to listen to her so he moved to get it immediately while she locked eyes with her husband.

"What's happened to us," she murmured.

"I-"

"No. Nathaniel is not moving out. This is his home for as long as I live here."

She took the mop from him and then told them both to sit. When they both hovered, his father dumbstruck and Nathaniel confused she firmed her grip on the mop and brandished it threateningly.

"SIT!"

They obeyed her then. Nathaniel looked up to see Amber on the stairs. She was biting her lip and he wondered what she thought of this.

"Mother I don't want to stay here anymore,' he muttered it when all seemed like it would remain silent.

She paused in her mopping. "You used to call me mom."

Nathaniel only stared at her and she swallowed. "You are not moving. At least not unless it's into a dorm at the end of summer." She turned to her husband. "This isn't happening. I am not losing my son over you."

"I'm not going to tolerate him disrespecting me in a home I pay for." It was a snarl.

"What about our disrespect to him," she retorted. Nathaniel wanted to go to his room very badly.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"He's our son. And we've hurt him worse than anything in the world."

His father was silent and Nathaniel was silently contemplating how to sink into a hole.

"Is this what we wanted to be like when we decided to have him? Is hurting him the first thought you had when you saw how tiny he used to be…? I don't know… where we went so wrong. Where it became okay to bully our own son… but I want to be good parents from now on. I want to be that woman who wanted to keep him safe from every scrape again."

Nathaniel didn't sit for long in the next round of silence. He had his keys and was opening the door when his father's voice drifted to him. He glanced back woodenly.

His father swallowed thickly. "The rules still stand. It's a weeknight. Be inside this house by eleven or call to say where you are staying the night. Do you understand?"

He wasn't asking if Nathaniel understood the rule. He was asking if he understood that he wasn't being kicked out yet. It was an olive branch his father was extending him and the best he would ever get. No way could he see his father apologizing.

It was tempting to go and pack his things anyway. It would be satisfying to drop the key into that wide palm that he had felt crack against his skin too many times to remember. It would be tempting to throw it in his face and know he'd never see them again.

But then the logical part of his brain kicked in like always. He had no job, no real friends he could stay with for a length of time. He didn't even have a car to sleep in and even if he did it would really be his father's car.

He hated logic. But he made himself nod a small fraction.

Lizzie was at the river like always. He didn't understand why she liked to watch it flow so much but he didn't question it. So long as she did then he could most always find her here.

"Natty!" She smiled, really smiled.

Nathaniel dropped to his knees in front of her and leaned forward. His lips were a fraction from hers for a second but then he dropped even further. Her shoulder proved to be a great pillow for his more than weary head. All he thought about was collapsing now.

He was just too tired and she had somehow become comforting. When really had she ever seemed to have a comforting bone in her body?

"Natty?" She was curious.

There was a lot he wanted to say and nothing he could say. Given how she was he couldn't go on full speed like he wanted. If he said passionately that he wanted her to stay near him, not necessarily with him in any regard, but just there where he knew she was within a certain distance, and never leave him… Lizzie would run again, he was certain. That had been her autopilot for over a decade now.

Her body was another thing. That she would give him with ease and maybe even enjoyment. He was certain of that and he could agree with that. She had offered him a physical relationship before with her word and actions. That previously unheard from part of him that was jealous wondered how many others she had let take her in that quest to avoid feeling anything other than false happiness and fun.

It would be easy to take one part of her if only he didn't want all of her. So for now he would have to content himself somehow with whatever she was willing to dish out until he either came to his senses fully or he found out a way to break her remaining walls down.

It was hilarious in a way. Here he was cracking like plaster and Lizzie, who had been cracked and broken a long time ago, was the cool oasis he sought to bury himself into.

So much to say and nothing was safe anymore now that he was aware of all he wanted. So instead he sighed.

"Just let me stay here like this for a while."

And Lizzie wrapped her arms around his shoulders and loosely held him, dropping her cheek against his head. "What would you do without me Natty?" She asked teasingly.

Nathaniel had no clue. He barely remembered what he did without her. But the question warranted some thought.

What would he have done if Lizzie wasn't there or never came?

The answer was simple. It was nothing. He wouldn't have done anything. Because without Lizzie nothing would have started and nothing would have changed.

End chapter

Author note: Heehee I love being fluffy. I never knew I could get a taste for it. See you guys next time!