Quil Ateara and the Impossible Claire
Chapter Thirteen: Presents and Surprises
Claire's POV

A/N: I hope this lives up to all your expectations. You guys almost gave me a complex over this. But I love you all for it. As usual, ignore typos. It's 3 in the morning, I'll fix them later.

Quil ran all the way to the edge of the woods by the school parking lot and crouched down so I could spastically hop off his back.

"You go change back," I told him. "I'll wait by the truck."

I meandered to Quil's truck and climbed in the passenger seat to wait. Pulling out my cell phone, I saw that I had two missed calls – one from Carly, and one from Tony. I sighed. Tony was probably hurt that I'd ditched him to spend my birthday with Quil. I probably shouldn't have. I mean, girls spend their birthdays with their boyfriends, right? But I couldn't lie and say I regretted it. Quil's surprise had been wonderful. It was what I needed if I was ever going to get used to the whole wolf thing.

I called Carly to let her know where I was and that I'd be home soon. She almost scolded me for blowing off Tony, but she thought better of it. Which was good. Even if I agreed with her, I still would've bitten her head off.

Shutting my phone, I wondered where Quil was. He was taking an awfully long time to just switch back to being good old human-Quil. I waited a few more minutes, and when he still didn't show up, I started to worry that something was wrong. I figured that was stupid. He was practically indestructible, right? But I kept right on worrying until I finally got out of the truck to check it out.

Reaching the edge of the trees, I called, "Quil?" When I got no reply, I moved further into the woods. "Quil, where are you? Are you okay?"

That's when I suddenly heard his voice nearby as if he'd appeared out of nowhere and moved towards it. He was talking to someone. I overheard him say, "Dude, I'm not doing it. I thought you were kidding. I need to go, she's coming. Get out of here." This was all followed by, "Oh, shit" when I came upon him talking to another wolf and standing in the middle of the forest completely naked.

I stopped midstep, my foot hovering the air in some kind of weird pose for a second before I remembered to put it down. My eyes immediately did a full sweep of his body before they consulted my brain. Dammit.

Quil scrambled to cover himself up, but really, it was too late, and we both knew it.

"Embry, I hate you," he muttered under his breath to the other wolf, who was literally rolling in the dirt, he was so amused. "I'm going to castrate you, you son of a bitch. You did that on purpose." This was followed by a string of such profane names for Embry that I was actually impressed by Quil's creativity.

With great mental effort, I moved my eyes from poor, embarrassed Quil to Embry. "Hello, Embry," I said politely, for lack of a better response to the situation. Even if I was looking at the grey wolf who was still in the middle some sort of wolfish giggle fit, I was picturing Quil naked in my head. This was distressing.

Quil finally found his pants, and I really did try to not sneak one last peek before he pulled them on, but I just didn't have the willpower, apparently. Embry caught me in the act and he had to shift back to human form just to laugh at me better. Embry seemed to be lacking the qualms Quil had about being naked, but I didn't have such a hard time not looking, either. I found it quite easy to glare right at his face.

"Oh, man, that was so worth it," Embry cackled.

"You realize you're naked in the dirt, right?" I said, my face burning red, going on the offensive rather than letting him just sit there and laugh at me.

"Nothing new," he replied, wiping a tear from his eye as he continued laughing.

"You're disgusting."

"I love you, too, Claire," he said, smirking. "Don't worry, I won't tell Quil that you were totally staring at his junk. Oops!" He feigned innocence, as if he'd forgot Quil was standing right there. "My bad!"

If it were possible, I blushed even more. "I was not staring at Quil's – I hate you, Embry. You're a birthday-ruiner."

"Whatever," he giggled. "That was your birthday present from me to you. You know you liked it. I bet it's your favorite present of the day."

"Shut up!" I snapped childishly.

Quil finally reinserted himself in the conversation, after fully clothing himself. And he looked really pissed. "Embry, I'll deal with you later. Let's go, Claire."

Embry seemed to sober a bit when he realized Quil was legitimately angry. "Man, it's not a big deal."

"Yeah, whatever," Quil said, grabbing me by the hand and towing me away. I was wondering when my face would stop being red and go back to normal.

"Quiiiil," Embry whined from behind us. "Don't be mad!"

"Later," Quil grunted back at him.

We left the woods once more and got into the truck without speaking. Quil drove, shifting gears jerkily and accelerating too fast.

I finally found my voice again. "So...why exactly did Embry want me to see you naked?"

Quil flinched visibly at the word "naked." He cleared his throat. "Because he's a sick bastard, most likely."

"Ookaaay." I was still a bit confused, but Embry was always a little odd. He probably just thought it was funny to embarrass Quil. And me. Stop thinking about him naked. It's weird. Especially when he's sitting right next to you and he's breathing hard because he's pissed off. Shit, Claire, stop it.

"I'm sorry about all that, Claire" he said.

"Not your fault," I reassured him.

"I'm just sorry you were put into an uncomfortable situation," he went on.

"Quil, you're over thinking it. I saw you naked. It's not a big deal. Really." It was totally a big deal. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

He finally relaxed a little bit. "Okay. I'm still going to kill Embry, but okay."

"Nah, you don't have to kill him. Just hurt him a little bit."

Quil laughed as we pulled up to my house. "Deal." Getting out of the truck, he said, "I have a real present for you inside."

"Seriously? You already gave me an amazing present," I said, then felt it necessary to clarify. "I mean the running thing," I said, blushing again.

"That doesn't count as a present!" Quil cried. "That was just a special surprise."

I got two "special surprises." Shit. "What did ya get me?" I asked, poking his side on the way through the front door.

"You'll see," he replied with a grin. He bounded into the kitchen and retrieved a poorly wrapped gift. "Let's go upstairs to open it."

"You know," I told him once we'd reached my room and he'd handed the present over, "gift bags are a lot easier." We sat down facing each other on my bed.

"Are you insulting my wrapping?" he asked, slightly hurt.

"Of course not," I lied. I turned my attention to ripping open the gift. It was a digital picture frame, one of those that holds a bunch of pictures and will go through them like a slideshow.

"Cool!" I said.

"Wait, it gets better," he said, clearly excited. "I already filled it with pictures." He took it from me and turned it on.

A picture of Quil and I when I was around three filled the screen. We were on the beach. I was perched on his shoulders, my arms firmly wrapped around his forehead, matching smiles on our faces. Not smile-for-the-camera fake smiles, either. But real ones.

I smiled back at the image. Then it changed. The new picture was again of Quil and I. I was still a toddler, and this time we were holding up pictures we'd drawn. I noticed that his drawing was just as bad as my three year old scribbly one. It was endearing.

The picture changed again, to my fourth birthday. To Halloween, where I was dressed as Snow White and Quil was helping me go through my candy loot. To Christmas. To my first day of school. It kept going for several minutes, going through hundreds of moments that Quil and I had shared over the years, right up to a picture my mother had taken not three weeks ago, of Quil and I slumped on the couch, grinning cheekily at the camera. Then it started over.

I finally looked away from the screen, realizing there were tears in my eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Quil asked, concerned.

"Because that was the greatest present I think I've ever gotten. How much time did that take you to find all those pictures?"

A smile broke over his face. "A while. But it was totally worth it. I'm glad you like it."

I leaned over and hugged him tightly. "Of course I like it. How could I not?"

He set the picture frame aside and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into his lap. "Good," he murmured.

Pulling back slightly, I pressed our foreheads together. "You're the best friend ever. I think this is officially my best birthday yet."

"I'm happy I could be a part of it, then," he said quietly.

"Part of it?" I laughed. "You were all of it!" So close to him, feeling my heart swell with affection for the man who had filled my life with so much joy, I thought about how easy it would be to tilt my head just so and kiss him. Then I remembered that I couldn't, he was my best friend, I had a boyfriend, and the only reason I was even thinking of it was probably because I'd seen him naked not too long ago. So instead, I said, "Well, all of it except getting the part I wanted."

"You got Maggie?" he asked, his eyes lighting up.

"Mmhm!" I replied.

"That's awesome!" he cried, pulling me back into a tight hug. "I'm so proud of you. I knew you could do it."

I relished his praise more than I normally did, holding him in a hug for longer than usual. But he didn't seem to mind.

Quil stayed for dinner. My mother had courteously made a vegetarian dinner for me on my birthday, and Carly had made an absolutely beautiful cake that would have looked like crap if I'd made it. He left around eleven, giving me another hug before he left.

I went to bed extremely happy, but laid awake for quite a while. And some time around one in the morning, I heard someone throwing rocks at my window.

Assuming it was Quil for some reason, I leapt out of bed and pulled the window open to lean out and see. It was Tony, grinning up at me.

"Hey, birthday girl," he called quietly. "Come down for a minute."

I nodded and then snuck downstairs and outside. He met me on the front porch. "You know, it's technically not my birthday anymore," I told him.

"I know, but I didn't get to do this on your birthday," he said before pulling me into a deep kiss.

Flattered that he'd snuck out of his house just to give me a birthday kiss, I slid my arms around his neck and kissed him back. We were just getting into it when I imagined kissing someone much taller, bigger, and warmer. I froze, but Tony coaxed me back into the kiss. Then I did it again, imagining Quil's biceps and hot skin under my fingers instead of Tony's arms. I pulled away, and I thought I would be able to play it off, until I heard a wolf howl close by.

"Tony, I um...I need to get back inside. We have school tomorrow," I muttered awkwardly.

"Claire -"

"It was really sweet of you to come see me," I interrupted, planting a quick kiss on his cheek.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine. Just tired. I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay?"

"Well, okay," he said, sounding defeated. As he turned to leave, I grabbed his hand and squeezed. "Thanks, Tony. It was really sweet." I gave him my most reassuring smile and he seemed to perk up a little before leaving.

I trudged back to my room feeling guilty and confused. Burying my head in my pillow, I tried to organize my thoughts. "The only reason I imagined Quil was because I saw him starkers," I told my stuffed dog Otis. Otis's glassy black eyes seemed to accuse me. "I mean," I went on, trying to convince Otis, "how can I not think about him when I saw him completely naked? He's an attractive guy, I can admit that. I'll get over it." Otis stared back at me, clearly not believing my arguments. I dropped him unceremoniously on the floor. "Fine. Be that way."

I fell asleep wondering why there was such a thin line between friendship and more, and why it was so difficult to see.