$ Princess $

"Why yes," Princess held the mirror up higher, making sure to catch her eyes, "I will marry you! This is all so unexpected!" she blinked a couple of times to make the tears come—if she was going to cry, she needed to look good while doing it.

"I wouldn't bother," a husky voice called out. It had frightened Princess so much, she dropped the mirror.

"Whoever you are, you're fired! And I'll make sure you never work again! How dare you! Clean this up!" she was livid.

"Hmm, no. Afraid I don't work for you Princess,"

"Then, what are you doing in my house?" she said each word slowly, rising with anger, "Secu-," but she didn't get to finish—a hand covered her mouth.

She felt like barfing. The hand smelled strongly of dish soap, and apparently the owner had never heard of moisturizer. Princess reached into her back pocket and pulled out a wad of cash, waving it above her hand with her free hand.

"I don't want your money," the voice sounded disgusted, and pressed on the side of Princess's neck.

She blacked out.

When she woke up, hazily, she realized she was tied—hastily, it seemed—to a chair.

She started to scream—but soon realized she was incapable of doing so, her mouth had been duct taped.

"You might be wondering what I want,"

No shit.

"I don't want money, or anything that can be bought,"

Then what?

Her eyes widened in fear, and—, "No, I don't want that either. Don't be so conceited. What I want,"

Get out with it already!

"Concerns just what you were talking about a couple of minutes ago,"

None of this made any sense—was this man sent by Boomer? If he was, she can guarantee her Daddy won't sign over anything, and she'll be sure to make certain Boomer gets in a lot of pain for this little show.

"I wasn't sent by Boomer, no," the man paused, "he's too good for this," Princess found she was confused once more.

"But, enough about that. Listen, Princess," in a flash, the man was behind Princess, his lips beside her ear, "I could kill you," he whispered, "I could but I won't. Instead, I'll warn you. Leave Boomer—and the rest of the Rowdy Ruffs," she added as a second-thought, "alone. Have your daddy sign over his company, and leave the boys alone,"

Princess scoffed silently—of course she would agree to this. That doesn't mean she has to go through with it—she would just tighten security, and have Boomer with her at all times.

"Don't even think about it," the man said, as if he could read her mind, "because if you don't do as I asked—I'll stop at nothing to make sure you get what's coming to you,"

Another blackout, but this time when she woke, she was no longer tied up, and there wasn't a single trace of her…visitor.

One thing was for certain, if he was real, he did a good job at scaring Princess out of her wits.

~Bubbles~

Belle's heart was still beating heavily—she couldn't believe what she'd just done. Of course, it was all bluffed, but she hoped Princess wasn't aware of that.

It was unfathomable that she had that kind of strength—and that she could make her voice go that low. Originally, she wasn't going to say anything to Princess—in fact, it hadn't even crossed her mind. It wasn't until tonight, when she saw the pained look on Boomer's face at the sight of her going out on a date that she realized making Boomer jealous wasn't doing anyone any favours.

It was obvious he had feelings for her, that wasn't the problem evidently. Shewas. Boomer was doing his best to ignore his feelings for Belle by insulting her and keeping his distance, because he knew it was hopeless. He was trying to avoid feeling more pain than he already had to by marrying Princess.

She felt completely terrible—all of this was so out of her character. Lying, tricking, threatening. But the world was in a state of post-apocalypse, and she only did what she thought she had to.

She unlocked the door to their condo, still feeling slightly shook. It had certainly been a while since she had been in a situation like that. She leaned against the door, finally feeling relief when the light flicked on.

"Oh, hey Belle," Belle didn't need to see who it was to know it was Boomer. He was standing in the kitchen, his back to her, still in the dark.

"Boomer." She said, completely devoid of emotion, "You're up late,"

"You're home late,"

"Since when did I have a curfew?"

His silhouette chuckled as he turned around slowly. He was slumped over slightly, holding what seemed to be a beer in his left hand—his shirt was off. He stumbled into the light, and Belle did her best to mask her reaction.

He chuckled, she could smell the alcohol from here, "You wear your heart on your sleeve," apparently she had not done a very good job at hiding her emotions.

She rolled her eyes, hesitating before coming to his side, "What happened?" she ran her hand across a scar that lined from his left eye to the left corner of his mouth. It was in the process of healing, but deep enough that it had not healed yet.

He flinched, something she never saw him do, "I had it coming. I've been skipping meetings," his voice was nonchalant but his eyes showed his pain.

"Here. Why don't I help you to your room, and I'll help you clean these up,"

"Why? It's going to heal anyway,"

"To make it slightly less painful," she said softly, even though his constant questioning was irritating her. Belle knew very well that even if Chemical X healed your injuries, that didn't stop them from hurting. She put his arm over her shoulder and began walking towards his room.

"No, it's alright. I can stay on the couch,"

"Is it too painful to move?" she stopped walking.

"Not exactly…" she narrowed her eyes in suspicion, slipping out from under his arm and continuing to his room, "Yeah, Belle, you're not going to like it,"

A tornado had hit his room. It had to have. The damage was high—one of the walls was ripped out completely. His bed had been broken in two, the wallpaper ripped to shreds. She had small comfort in the fact that he took his anger out on his room, and not a poor unsuspecting citizen, as she had been told he was known to do.

"That's fine," her voice was high pitched and clipped, as she walked back to Boomer, slipping his arm over her shoulder once more, "you can sleep in my bed, and I'll sleep on the couch,"

"Belle-,"

"No." She said sternly, "You're injured. Just try not to destroy it," she said light-heartedly. She did her best to make it seem as though she was struggling under his weight, but in reality he felt as light as a feather to her.

She helped him onto her bed, and spent the next few hours tending to his wounds, even after he had fallen asleep. When it was four in the morning, she decided to retire to her couch, and she got up from her crouched position beside the bed.

As she left, a small photograph sized paper floated out from under the mattress, onto the floor in plain sight. Unfortunately for Belle, it had escaped her attention.


Author's Note: Oh it's so good to be back! I missed you guys. I couldn't even write because I forgot my journal. It's torture to have all these ideas etc in your head and you are unable to write it down.

Wow. 300 reviews! That's amazing. You are all so amazing and so kind. I posted a poll on my profile, concerning whether or not you guys would like an epilogue. I'm not sure how exactly polls work, but I think you can vote even if you don't have an account. If not, sorry D:

I just can't get over how much I love your reviews. Especially your reaction to Beth. Ou and congrats to fearlessgurl101 for being reviewer number 300!

Uhm EXCUSE ME- I very much thought you were going to yell at me...baha and I can't help it. Writing is a huge passion of mine.

Kairidawn- I'm interested in knowing why you thought he was. Is the real reason what you expected? Or do you feel robbed?

Lavenderprincess22- Thank you very much! That means a lot!

And again, thank you to all my lovely constant reviewers. You guys are AMAZING! I read all of them, and each one makes me smile like an idiot :)