Chapter 25

Danny's POV:

Staring into the softly glowing fire, I wandered through my mind; not really paying attention to the film that was flashing across the television screen or the warm body of Georgia leaning against me. Her silky blonde hair tickled my neck but I was too preoccupied to do anything about it. I heard Ruthy chatting excitedly to my mum-her Nan-somewhere in the room behind me but her voice seemed to be an incoherent buzzing at the back of my head.

As the fire began to shrink, it spat and hissed, gasping for air and choking without it. I did nothing except look at it. So Georgia sighed and heaved herself off the cream coloured couch to head towards the small fireplace. I watched her shiny curtain of hair tumbled down across her shoulder and waft in front of her eyes as she rested on her hands and knees by the fire; which she responded to by blowing helplessly at it. The strands of hair floated for a few seconds before falling back down again. Then leaning forward, she gently nudged open the tiny circular air vents. Instantly, the fire inhaled deeply and rose bigger than before, fuelled on what Georgia had fed it, grateful for the permission to breath. Fire was a killer but it was helpless without the oxygen to drive it and make it stronger.

After standing up and moving back towards the couch, Georgia plopped herself down next to me and nestled into my side; her feet tucked underneath her legs and her delicate hand resting on my chest.

"Don't get too comfy." I mumbled in her ear. "I have to go soon." Hearing the reluctance in my voice, she turned her head and stared up at me through her eyelashes to see the sadness in my expression.

"You don't have to." She whispered affectionately as she placed a hand lightly on my cheek, slowly stroking the skin there with her thumb. I desperately wanted to lean into it but I knew that if I gave in then I would never move. And I would never get done what needed doing. With a frown that felt as if it would pull the rest of my face down with it, I responded.

"No. I told him I'd meet him. He'll be waiting for me."

With a sigh, she dropped her hand and pushed her body away from mine, scooting along the leather material of the couch.

"Well you better get going then. It's time. Have you told your mum what you're doing?"

"No, I don't want to upset her."

"What do I tell her if she asks where you've gone then? She thinks we're just here for a normal visit so she won't be too happy if you're sneaking off without any reason."

Pausing, I stared into the fire. The flames danced mockingly in-front of me, crackling in their laughter.

"Just tell her I've gone for a walk."

"She won't believe that easily, it's freezing." Georgia smiled half-heartedly.

"Keep her occupied with any information on Doug and Lara's wedding that you can remember, she'll love that and forget all about me."

She nodded with a light but empty chuckle as I left the room and entered the tiny hallway. I had walked through this hallway so many times in my life but it felt much smaller than usual; the walls practically suffocating me. It seemed that the more inclined I was to remain in the house, the closer the door was. I wanted to stay but the house wanted me to leave. My feet dragged along the floor reluctantly. The walls were painted smooth brown and the creaky floor was wooden panelled. Pictures of family hung along the walls in decorative frames, a large mirror rested atop a decorative desk and a few pegs sat near the door to hold the coats and hats. A large picture of Vicky and me hung by the mirror; both of us grinning with our arms wrapped around each other's shoulders. Vicky's bright red hair sprang out of the photo and grabbed your attention first. Then a boyish grin dragged your eyes towards my face. We looked so happy. At that point, I hadn't gone through the recent traumas. The loss of Lola. The gaining of my unwanted dad. The universe had given me a trade-but it was a shit one. However, the photo was proof that because things were good once, they could be good again. I just had to give it time. And sorting certain things out would certainly help the recovery to happiness along.

Pausing to smile at it, I heard footsteps on the whining stairs and quickly grabbed my coat and scarf off the pegs. The woollen fabric had heated up due to being hung above the radiator and I had an urge to bury myself in it-even if I didn't leave the house.

Briefly turning my head to take a glance at the person coming down the stairs, I saw a pair of feminine bare feet skipping down the steps; soon my sight was filled with Vicky stood at the bottom of the staircase, staring up at me questioningly. She was wearing a pair of denim shorts and a white vest top that had a brightly coloured flower splashed across it. Her wrists almost shone from the bracelets she had piled on. I shook my head at her.

"How can you even dress like that? It's bloody freezing."

"Years of practise." She murmured as if she was only partly listening, arching an eyebrow and watching me quizzically. "But where are you going?"

"For a walk."

"It's bloody freezing." She repeated me with a slightly devilish smile on her face. I sighed, giving up. Years of living with my sister had taught me that she could read me like a book-there was never any hiding things from her. To buy myself some time and figure out how best to put it, I proceeded to put my coat on. Pulling it up my arms at a painfully slow pace, I stared at her feet. It annoyed her-I could hear the little huffs of impatience escaping her mouth-but I wasn't fully prepared. How would she react? Hadn't she wanted this all along? Settling for the blunt tactic, I stared her dead in the face.

"I'm going to meet dad." It came out in a thick whisper, the bold and harsh words creeping out of my mouth before disintegrating in the air but not without leaving their dark imprint on the atmosphere.

Dougie's POV:

The air was still and calm without the wind but that didn't stop it from being freezing. The cold surrounded, attacked and infected me; seeping its way into my body until even my breath came out as misty ice. The ground seemed to have been covered with a layer of frost simply overnight and now everywhere felt like Narnia. But it looked nothing like it. No real snow, no real ice. Just cold. It was quite disorientating. On the field ahead of me, a group of teenaged boys ran pointlessly at each other-well they had a reason as they were playing rugby but I couldn't fathom why they'd want to play it in the first place. Half of the pack of boys wore a yellow and black uniform and the other half wore a blue and white uniform. The two uniforms blurred together as the teams attacked; making it even more confusing for me because I had no idea how to even play rugby. What where the rules? Where there even any rules? What was the object of it other than 'get the ball'? And it was a weirdly shaped ball-it shouldn't even be called a ball.

Thick mud was plastered onto their skin from the knees down and the ground beneath them appeared to have been brutally savaged. But they kept going; blue sprinting at yellow, yellow sprinting at blue. Pushing and shoving. Like animals competing in the wild. It wasn't something I liked the look of. What ever happened to playing tag? A much gentler game.

Beside me, observing the game with the intelligent eyes of a professional sportsman, stood Harry. His hands were buried deep within the pockets of his red and black checked jacket and a black scarf was knotted firmly around his neck. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, watching as his mouth twitched with unspoken words of advice for the players whenever they made a mistake. It always happened when he became immersed in an activity-even if he wasn't actually participating.

Then on my other side was McCauley. His tiny child hands had clutched onto my leg some time ago and he had yet to release me; much like a monkey clinging to its mother's body as a natural reaction while she walked. Lara had dressed him perfectly for the arctic weather, covering him with a plain white vest top under a knitted red jumper and thick black pants. She had then proceeded to wrap him inside of a grey winter coat that was layered on the inside with white fluff, topped off with a striped blue scarf and hat. Little strands of his blond hair stuck out from underneath the hat and he didn't try to tuck them inside, so his forehead was almost concealed by a wall of feather-like hair, causing him to look even more like me than usual.

"You ok mate?" I asked, looking down at him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder so that he was snuggled into my side. He simply nodded with wide blue eyes and pressed his body tighter to my leg as he watched the older boys in something close to admiration.

"When will Kyle be finished with his game daddy?" He muttered, his eyes not moving.

"Soon. I hope."

Harry glanced at me with a smirk as he stretched out a hand to ruffle my hair. Pushing his arm away with a grin, I looked at him.

"I swear Harry, if my son becomes obsessed with rugby I'll kill you. I don't understand the game enough to be expected to go to every game he plays in if he joins a team."

Harry shook his head at me fondly, a smile still lighting up his face. It was reassuring to see him so happy after weeks of him being miserable and isolated.

"I'll go to his games for you."

"Oh, trying to steal my son are you? You have your own so back off." I joked. McCauley reached up to tug on my arm. When I looked at him, he asked in a whisper to be picked up; so I bent down, wrapped my arms around him and hoisted him up. I then placed him on my shoulders and held onto his feet as they dangled down my chest. His tiny hands rested on top of my head and his fingers flicked my hair.

"Harry, where's Kyle? He's gone!" McCauley asked loudly, thinking that he'd need to shout considering he was much higher up than he normally was. Harry raised his arm and extended a finger.

"He's over there mate. In the black and yellow uniform, near the boy with the ball."

There was a moment of silence as McCauley's blue eyes scanned the faces of the distant boys, barging around each other. His face screwed up in concentration until he located one of his favourite people in the world.

"Found him again!" He shrieked with joy, throwing his arms up in celebration.

"So how is Kyle now? Any better?" I asked delicately, trying not to alarm McCauley or upset Harry. Harry nodded.

"Apparently Evanna said something to him and he's been…well…inspired to try harder. He's planning to try going back to school next week and this morning he insisted that he was going to play today. We wanted Izzy to come but she's not quite ready. She's going to spend the day with her brother tomorrow though. So yeah, we're getting there I suppose."

I nodded with a small smile. Then my gaze returned to the game; but they were soon caught by something else. A rather small girl with shoulder length honey blonde hair was stood near the edge of the field alone, watching the game intently.

The rest of the game passed quite quickly. I, of course, had no idea what had happened but Harry instructed me that Kyle's team had won. McCauley clapped and cheered heartily, hoping that Kyle would hear him from this distance. The brown haired boy was practically bouncing as he made his way off the field, his face glowing with a bright grin as he waved at us. Just like the other boys, he was coated with crusty mud from his knees down and it had also been splashed across his uniform. His usually sweeping hair was quite messy. Kyle seemed to be heading straight towards us until something caught his eye off to the right. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared for a while. Following his gaze, I found myself once again looking at the small girl with the honey blonde hair.

Kyle's feet seemed to move without him realising and soon he was hurrying towards her. The three of us watched him, completely confused.

When he reached her, he held out his arms and pulled her into an embrace. The girl buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him-not appearing to care about the mud.

Then I realised.

The thoughts rushed over me in a wave and everything came together instantly. She must be the girl that Kyle had told me about months ago; the one he was worried about introducing to everyone.

I risked a glance at Harry from the corner of my eye to check his reaction. Harry was watching them with one eyebrow raised and half a smile on his face, his head tilted to the side in a pleased kind of confusion.

Kyle's POV:

I held Emma tightly to me, my arms wrapped around her waist as hers clung to my neck. This was the first time I had seen her in over a month. She was still as tiny compared to me as I remembered and the scent that filled my nostrils was the same sweet scent of vanilla that had always floated around her, following her in an invisible cloud. She sniffled as her head moved away from my shoulder and I released her from my grip.

When we were separated, I looked at her properly. A few tears had escaped her eyes and had started to roll down her cheeks before she could get to them so she lifted her hand to wipe them away with a smile. She was wearing a long, light blue jumper and black leggings underneath an opened black coat that had big buttons and a pointy collar. Her skin was pale and her hair was a lot shorter; where it used to reach her hips, it now stopped at her shoulders-abruptly cut off where it should have carried on tumbling down.

"You're covered in mud." She smiled

"You've had a haircut." I stated, stretching a hand out to tug gently on the end of a strand of her hair that was floating forward on its own.

"So much has changed." She smirked, her eyes still watering slightly. But then the happiness dropped from her face and she frowned wretchedly. "Kyle, I'm so sorry. I kept waiting for you to get in touch with me…I thought that you needed time alone. But I should have come to see you. I feel awful, I've not been there for you when you needed me."

I frowned at her then and took her hands inside my own; they were freezing, the cold weather having infected her as well.

"No Emma, I'm sorry. How were you supposed to know what I wanted if I didn't tell you? It's my fault. I should have at least text you."

A tiny-yet rather pathetic-smile flickered across her face briefly. "Yeah I suppose. You're horrid. Don't ever do that to me again." She teased, removing one of her hands to bat me tenderly on the shoulder.

I pulled her forward into another hug, engulfing her in my sport-gained body heat. She tucked herself into my chest and I rested my chin on top of her smooth hair. I was vaguely aware of the fact that my dad, Dougie and McCauley were probably watching but I couldn't bare thinking about having to explain myself, so I stayed where I was; not really wanting to leave Emma anyway.

Hello again, I can only say sorry. I really am very sorry. And also very disappointed in myself for not being more disciplined in writing to be honest. But I managed to get it done in bits.

Also, I'm aware that Dougie and Lara have broken up but I can't bring myself to break them up in this and obviously I'm not following everything exactly. But I really like Lougie so yeah just a heads up-I'm keeping them together.