A/N: THIS IS TO THE PERSON WHO HAS BEEN CONTINUOUSLY PESTERING ME FOR THE PAST TEN DAYS (ShadowRanger05 I'm looking at you) IF ANYTHING GOES WRONG IN THIS CHAPTER, WITH GRAMMAR OR ANYTHING, IT IS THAT IDIOT'S FAULT!

Chapter 24: Labels

Sweaty, as he returned from the gym, he was just about to enter the shower, when he caught a glimpse of his phone. It showed a new message in his mail. He wondered who could be mailing him this early in the morning; it was almost 5 o'clock after all.

He picked it up, and opened the mail. It was short:

Dear Schuyler,

I must say, your father and I were very disappointed in the way you acted that day. We are certain that we did not raise you to be that selfish. Schuyler, we want you to reconsider our proposal. Oh and one more thing, we do not approve of that girl you brought to meet us that night; she is a bad influence on you, and we would like you to stop seeing her. To simply put it, if you do not stop seeing her, we are cutting you off.

Love

Mother.

"cutting you off?" Sky heard a voice ask from behind, he turned around to look at Bridge, a glass of milk and a toast in his hand, looking at him, and reading the mail over his shoulder.

"that means I'm not getting any allowance from them."

"you get allowance from them?" that surprised even Bridge, who thought he knew everything about his roommate.

"well, yeah I mean my expenses" he looked at the punching bag, and art supplies and the other stuff in his room that wasn't really needed by him, because it was available at SPD, but still Sky owned because he wanted to have his own, and not need to share them, "are not really met… by my salary at SPD, so they give me a monthly allowance for my… pointless expenditures."

"oh! So what are you going to do? Stop seeing Z? I don't think that would be a problem, with everything that went down between you two. Why are you so worried?"

"I'm not worried," and reading his aura, Bridge knew he was telling the truth, "but how did you know they were talking about Z?"

"you know when I pride myself saying I know practically everything there is to know about you?" Bridge asked, and Sky nodded, "well, this is one of them." And Sky grinned, punching his shoulder a little.

"go take a shower, or you'd make me smelly too" Bridge replied, grinning, "and don't worry, nothing bad is going to happen"

Sky agreed, and moved into the bathroom, taking a shower, and for some reason, missing Z there with him.

It was only after about four hours or something, that Sky decided to reply to the email. He also kept it short, and eith minimum emotions, which also happened to be his specialty.

Dear Mother,

I cannot accede to your demands as I have a few objections to the proposal, AND the way you have framed it.

1)Mr. Chavez is NOT my father. My father is Landon Tate.

2)Your demands are absolutely irrational.

3)I am not selfish, you are.

4)You cannot expect me to leave my dreams and life and everything I care about so that I could just take care of your stupid nuisance, which you don't even need in the first place.

5)I love Z and you cannot make me leave her.

6)You want to cut me off, DO SO, happily.

Thank you, I am pretty sure that I have made myself clear. And if you want to contact me again, please do so after you have gotten all these ideas out of your head, and turned back to the Taylor Eardhart Tate I used to know.

Love

Schuyler

"wait, wait, wait, this doesn't make any sense" Bridge said, reading over his shoulder again, "I thought you were going to leave Z and keep the allowance? How will you deal with your 'expenses'?"

"I told you I had made my mind, and well, I might be with Z, and I might not, that's my call. I don't want anybody else telling me that I can't be with her. Least of all, my mother. I am old enough to handle my life. As for the expenses, nothing wrong with it, I can cut short on them. If you, Z, Daniel and others can live on just the SPD salary, I can too, I don't need to be an overspoilt brat like Syd." Sky explained, and Bridge could see the determination in his eyes, and to be honest, Bridge was impressed.

"hey Bridge, it's almost been a week, you think I should try talking to Z again?" he asked, and Bridge looked at him.

"Sky, I know what you should do"

X-X-X

"Z?" Sky yelled, as he ran across halls in SPD, looking for his teammate, who had been so cut off from everybody for almost two weeks, and well, everybody too had been trying to give her some space, him, Dr. Manx, Bridge, Daniel, Syd, and even Cruger thought it was better if she spent time away from her friends a little, and hence it landed her up with missions that sent her for hours and hours on stakeouts, or to tail people, or gather info, that might not be done at SPD, i.e. all the field operations.

"Z!" he continued running, trying to find her, he knew that she might not listen to him, after all, she didn't listen to Dr. Manx, who was what? Over 120 years older than her. But he knew just what to do right now. It would be his last try, and if it did not work, Sky planned to give up, because he valued his love for her, but if she was going to be as stubborn and irrational as his mother, he was better off without her. What was Z afraid of? Getting her heart broken right? What Bridge had said made sense. All he needed to do was win over her trust… Even if he did so as a friend, and nothing more.

"Syd have you seen Z?" Bridge skidded to a stop, and asked as he came across Syd, and Syd nodded, "I haven't technically seen her, but I know where she is" and then she told Bridge, and well, Bridge ran to Sky telling him what to do, and Sky nodded, he agreed that Bridge had a point, and also agreed that it was better if he spoke. Sky stopped to collect some things for Bridge's plan, and then made his way, almost running, to that spot in the woods.

He found her sitting there, her feet in the stream, oblivious to the world, and depressed, as she was.

"you know, it's against the rules to sit here all by yourself," Sky echoed the words he had said to her almost a year or so away, "what are you doing here Sky? Go away!" she unknowingly repeated her own.

Sky smiled at the irony, and knew there was no place better to talk to her. "Z?" he slowly came and sat by her side, on the forest floor, dipping his own feet in the gently flowing stream.

"go away Sky" she repeated, "I don't want to see you"

"why not?"

"because…." She didn't know exactly what to say.

"because you don't want to admit that I'm right?" Sky said a little playfully.

She rolled her eyes at him, and started to get up and leave, but he gripped her hands, and dragged her back to where she was sitting, and she looked at him with murderous eyes.

"I'm not going to say stuff like 'I love you Z,' and 'please take me back' and shit like that" he said, and grinned, "I'm not usually a sucker for stuff like that. I don't know what happened to me back at our date."

She looked at him tiredly, Kat couldn't convince her, and she wasn't sure whether Sky would be able to or not. And yes, before anybody objects to it, she WAS rude to Kat and she is not a bad person, and so she DID feel very bad about it.

"what I am trying to say, Z," he said, conjuring up from behind him, a photo album, HER photo album. "take a look at this"

"it's pretty" she said drily.

"you're not getting it, lets just flip through the pictures" he said, doing so, there were a lot of them. From the badmintons, the Halloweens, the arcades, the movies, the jungle gyms and even the pillow talks! They talked, they laughed, remembering the memories, for a few moments, forgetting everything that had gone down between them. "remember laundry day? you ALWAYS separate out your whites, and delicates, and whatnot into SO MANY categories!" she said, punching his arm.,

"and you just throw all yours in the same machine like a trashcan" he replies, laughing so hard, that he got tears in his eyes.

"oh, oh, oh, and remember the time we went jogging?" he added suddenly,

"ON THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!" Z said,

"yeah" Sky chuckled cheekily, "I got Cruger to teleport us there"

"what a nice surprise!" she laughed, and then he laughed, and finally, laughing, he said, "see? We're great together!"

at that statement, Z realized they were sitting REALLY close to each other, and on that realization, Z suddenly jerked backwards.

"Sky I can't do this, I already told you! There are wayyyy too many expectations, which are not met, so many promises unfulfilled, and so much more! Sky if we ever get into a relationship, who knows what might happen, I might break your heart, you might break mine, and all these memories" she pointed at the album, "might turn sour"

"might?" Sky scoffed, and well, he had a point, they weren't on amazing terms yet were they? "Z, that is what I am offering you, I get it, after everything that happened, that you don't trust guys. Jack left, Joseph cheated, and whatnot that I don't even know about. But I am not like any other guys. I am your friend… shoot that, your BEST friend. To hurt you would simply kill me. The same way I can't hurt Bridge." he said, "I'm not asking you to go out with me, or date me, or marry me, or anything, what I am asking you, is to stay my friend…" he said, extending his hand for a handshake.

She paused, considering, "hmm" she said, "I don't want to lose anything we have either. We should stay just friends"

"don't say that like it's a bad thing" Sky said, at her tone.

"Sky to be honest… I love you too, but like I've already said, broken promises, unmatched expectations, and in the end, a million pieces of two hearts, I just don't know what to do."

Then suddenly, an idea hit Sky,

"remember that time when we were… friends, had sex, 'no strings attached', and were fake dating?" she nodded, that weird time, she had enjoyed it a lot.

"well, I was your friend, I was your boyfriend, (fake tho, but still) I was your sex friend, and… I loved you too, right?" she nodded again, " BUT we couldn't label what we were."

"too many labels, too much confusion, yes"

"and you agree it was the best time of our relationship?"

"yes"

"so what if we just forget the labels?"

"WHAT?" the idea seemed crazy to her.

"just think of this, we will be whatever we are, we will be to each other, friends with benefits, best friends, lovers, buddies and everything, but not be called anything. We're just great together, and we do not need labels to define what we are. We know what we are."

Z smiled, she never knew Sky could come up with such an innovative solution.

"it makes sense" she nodded, "I mean if we just follow our hearts, what can go wrong?"

"and you don't need to keep expectations or make promises, whatever we do, we do of our own free will."

"yeah, so no anniversaries, and stuff like that"

"and no 'I'm your girlfriend so you will have to do this for me' stuff either"

"I can always say to that 'you're not my girlfriend" he chuckled,

"heyy!" she pretended to be offended, but then laughed, "it's perfect, you know, this arrangement."

"we're perfect together, and I don't want us to throw that away on stupid labels. I don't want us to be 'friends with benefits' or a 'couple' or 'just friends' or anything like that, I just want us to be 'Sky and Z'. And I don't care what the world says"

Z smiled, "it's kinda perfect." She hugged him, "I love you, but hwat if you break my heart? Like Joseph? Or the many guys before him?"

"do I seem like any of those guys?" Sky asked, a little hurt, and Z could feel it, "Joseph wasn't the one who came all the way into a forest console you when Jack left, was any one of those guys here when Joseph broke up with you? Did any of them take you into a blue color Shotet rain, to stain your skin just so he could see a smile on your face?" Sky had a point, and Z shook her head, her eyes filling a little with tears.

"nobody ever pretended to be my fake boyfriend to get back at my real boyfriend either" she added, laughing a little, "no Sky, nobody truly compares to you, I really misjudged you. I'm sorry for putting you with all those other fuck ups and jerks."

She saw a smile erupt, though it was slow to come up, "its okay Z, I understand what you've been through, I won't break your heart"

"I'll trust you, and I promise I always will"

"I won't break your heart Z, I promise, I'd die if I do… no fingers crossed. If things end with us, it will be your call. I will keep clinging on to you pathetically like a leech" he joked a little, but he was serious. He wasn't going to leave her, and he wasn't going to let her leave him easily.

"I love you Sky," she said, now kissing him fully on the lips.

"I love you too Z" he replied, kissing her back.

Now that everything was almost perfect, now, Sky pushed Z back against the forest floor he continued kissing her passionately, covering her body with his own, much larger one, "you okay if I do this?" he suddenly asked, pulling back, as she had that one fateful day, and she chuckled, pulling him down on the ground with him.

Neither of them bothered about the world, and after three or almost four hours later, finally, collapsed on the ground together, her head resting on his chest, "what should we tell them?" she asked, referring to their friends,

"let's let them figure whatever out on their own."

Both of them laughed, and slowly drifted off to sleep… together.

A/N: BUT WAIT... the story isn't over yet!
So long until the NEXT chapter!