Oops, I so did not realize how long it had been since I last updated. I will try to write more and more frequently. Promise. :)

Chapter Seven: The Two Princes Unite

Nathan paced up and down his living room. After breaking almost every speed limit known to man to get back home as soon as possible, he had stormed up the stairs to his apartment and slammed the front door so hard that his neighbor called to complain.

Nathan had simply mumbled an apology and hung up – before kicking the hell out of the couch.

How could they do that to him? How could they play such a cruel and sick joke on someone who'd made it obvious he wanted nothing more to do with Haley?

And Brooke! How dare she stab him in the back like that? After everything that had happened in the past few weeks.

He'd opened up to her and she had said she'd understood. He had helped her and she had helped him.

And it had all been part of a plan to get him back with Haley.

He wasn't going to have any of it.

Nope, no way. From this moment on, he was done with all of them. Haley, Lucas, Brooke… the whole lot.

Nathan Scott was better off alone.

There was an urgent knock on the door.

"Go away!" He yelled, already suspecting that it would be Brooke standing outside with another apology in hand. "I told you I didn't want to talk to you."

"Nathan, let us in." Brooke yelled back through the door.

Us?

Nathan frowned and reluctantly opened the door, if only so he could slam it back in their faces if need be.

Pulling back the front door he so viciously slammed twenty minutes beforehand, he found his brother standing beside Brooke.

It was the first time he'd seen him since the announcement of the engagement – not counting the incident at dinner earlier in the evening.

"What do you want?" Nathan asked curtly, masking his shock at seeing Lucas at his apartment.

"We wanted to apologize," Lucas told his brother, "Can we come in?"

Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and blocked the doorway.

"Why should I?" he asked determined to show them he wasn't backing down easy.

Brooke stepped forward, touching his arm and looking up him with big pleading puppy-dog eyes. From the amounts of time they had spent together recently, Nathan had become accustomed to her expressions. From disgust to glee to just plain sarcasm; he knew them all.

And he knew Brooke's various puppy-dog expressions well and he'd counted four; one when she wanted him to do something for her; one when she was apologizing but didn't really mean it; one when she wanted to get away with something; and the other when she was just pouting.

He'd never seen this one before.

It looked genuine and it gradually melted his insides especially since she had begun to gently caress his arm; not in any sexual or flirty way, of course since her fiancé was next to her, but in a way that suggested she really was sorry and wanted to make it up to him. She was reaching out to him.

Lucas, on the other hand, stood with his hands buried in the pockets of his jeans while his fiancée did all the work for him.

"Just make it quick." Nathan finally yielded and allowed the two inside.

Brooke walked in first with Lucas following closely behind. Nathan shut the door behind him, letting it slam shut a little more gently than before.

The three stood in the triangle and, for a few moments, said nothing except survey the premises.

"Um… it's cleaner." Lucas offered.

"Your girlfriend's doing." Nathan replied before pointing to an area in a corner of the living room which was the complete opposite to 'clean', "As it that."

Lucas' gaze landed upon a large pile of wedding magazines and scrapbooks. He shook his head and turned to roll his eyes at his fiancée.

"What?" Brooke smiled, clearly a little embarrassed and picking up the hint, "Yeah, that reminds me. I'll just go…" she pointed vaguely to the corner before walking over and picking up her wedding scrapbook. "I'll take this and clean the stuff up later."

"You're taking the book?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah, Lucas wanted some input and we left it over here--"

"Oh," Nathan looked disappointed.

She looked between them and offered him a bright - slightly forced - smile. "But, hey, I'll bring it back again. I still need the best man's input and all that. And we really did come here to apologize to you. That was so not how I planned the evening going. I had no idea--"

"Babe, you're rambling," Lucas interrupted his fiancée.

She nodded, appreciating his attempt to stop her from making an idiot of herself. "So, anyway, I might, you know, leave you boys to it."

Both men seemingly looked panicked at the thought of Brooke not being there to chaperone.

"…because my phone is ringing," she picked it out of her pocket and pretended to read the caller ID. "It's Peyton! It must be really important."

They stared at her. "I didn't hear anything." Lucas said.

"That's because it's on vibrate and um..." Brooke struggled for another excuse.

"Brooke--" Nathan began seeing through her game.

"I have cramps!" she announced clutching her stomach, "I need to go get some--"

Lucas sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what? Just go. Nathan and I are big boys now, and this talk has been a long while coming." He smiled at her, sensing her unease at his change of heart. "We won't kill each other, I promise."

"Oh, I totally trust you," Brooke told him before turning to Nathan, "It's Punchy McPunchison that I don't trust. I've seen you before you were friends. You fought. A lot. I have a sprained ankle scar to prove it!"

Nathan had the grace to look sheepish as he bowed his head. "I promise to be on my best behavior."

She pointed a finger at him, "You swear? Because if my fiancé has one little scratch on his pretty little face before the wedding… then I will have to kick your ass."

Eyes sparkling with amusement, Nathan managed to nod solemnly; "I swear." He said, before rolling his eyes. She'd been really eager to leave only moments earlier, and now it seemed they'd have to push her -kicking and screaming- out the door. "We'll be fine. Go call Peyton or something."

Brooke made a face, "Fine but I can't promise we won't talk about you." she teased before slipping out of the door.

And finally the two brothers, who acted more like strangers these days, were alone.

"So… Brooke tells me you've been really helping her with the wedding preparations."

"Only because she forced me to."

"Yeah, well, that's Brooke."

Nathan sighed deeply and tapped his shoe on the floor to let Lucas know that he was wasting time. Lucas took the cue, taking a gulp and turning to address his younger brother.

"Look... what happened this evening was a mistake. It was a complete accident."

Ever the skeptic, and vaguely because he refused to let go of his anger that quickly, Nathan arched an eyebrow in disbelief. "I find that hard to believe."

Lucas held his hands up, "I had no idea Brooke was bringing you over, and Brooke had no idea Haley was going to be there. It's just... a... lack of communication issue."

"Right, because you don't communicate with your fiancée." The other man scoffed. "Please, you two are all over each other, almost to the point where you share the same brain. I don't believe for one second that Brooke didn't know about your guest." He spat the word as though it had tasted foul. "It's not a surprise, really. I get that you want everyone to play happy families now that you're going to tie the knot."

"You don't believe me..." Lucas began before trying it from a different angle, "You might think that me and Brooke and the whole world is against you and are trying to hurt you but believe me... the only thing we want is to help you. And we're not trying to force you into anything. Brooke's been spending time with you because she wants to, and I've been spending time with Hales because she's my best friend. There's no hidden agenda. And, okay, sure we might want you two to be on good terms or stand being in the same room together on our wedding day - but that's only because you both are important to us and we want to share things with you. Neither of us wanted to take sides."

"It's a bit late to be saying that, don't you think?" Nathan replied, feeling very much as though he was losing the battle. "Especially if you're spending time apart from one another to be with , without telling each other about dinner plans and all that."

His brother glowered. "Don't go making this about me and Brooke."

"Hey, you guys came to me! Not the other way around."

"What is possibly wrong with the two of us trying to make amends? It's not like I'm totally exempt from the blame here either. All of us ignored Haley and I thought that it was unfair to make it seem as if I was taking your side, when really, we were all just trying to do something to make things better between everyone. It wasn't all that long ago we were all friends."

"It's been over two years, Lucas. That's long enough."

"You're right, it has been long enough. Long enough for the two of you to realize that, even if you can't go back to where you were; your friendship meant something."

Nathan moved to protest.

"Leave it. You will hear me out." Lucas interrupted his attempts, holding a hand up to silence him. "Seriously, tonight was unintentional, but nevertheless, it's looking more than obvious to me that you and Haley need to sit down and talk."

"We're past the 'talking through our problems' stage, thanks. Haley and I will deal with our situation on our own. We won't be needing Oprah or Dr. Phil to tell us to 'share our feelings'." Nathan realized he was probably abusing the air-quote gesture, but he was trying to make a point. Although Lucas just groaned in frustration.

"Then do it! Don't mope around the apartment complaining about it.

"I can mope and complain all I like. It's my apartment. You're free to leave whenever you like!"

"I'm not leaving until we sort this out. I'm fed up with having to tip-toe around you. And I'm fed up of hearing Brooke go on about how I need to be more understanding and put more effort into reconciling with you, when it's you being a stubborn ass."

Nathan scowled. "I am not being a 'stubborn ass'!" There he went with the air-quoting again. "I have every right to be pissed off!"

"Bullshit! At first you did, yeah, but everyone else has moved on-"

"Everyone else?" Nathan sneered. "As in Haley? Yeah, I'm sure she's moved on. Probably with another one of her groupie-types.."

"Hey! The only thing she did when she was on tour was miss you!" Lucas pointed a finger at Nathan, "But of course, you don't know that because you refuse to even listen to her. She's hurting as much as you are."

Again Nathan moved to protest, and again he was cut off.

"And don't give me any of that 'I find that hard to believe' crap, either." Lucas' tone softened. "I know she hurt you, and she knows she hurt you. And she cares, Nate. She really, truly cares."

"What if I don't?" Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and replied coolly. "What if I'm fed up of being used and ignored while she went off to fulfill her dreams? Why am I the bad guy for wanting my wife to care about me? What about the dreams that I threw away because I wanted to be with her? What about all that, Lucas?"

Leaning against the kitchen counter, Lucas shook his head. "I don't blame you for being upset. If it had been Brooke and I had been in your position?" He shrugged. "Yeah, I'd be pissed. But if she came back…I don't see myself not caring enough to hear her out."

"Well, you and I are very different." Nathan reminded him. "I've had enough abandonment in my life. Now are you done?"

"Not until I know we're okay. You can be mad at Haley all you want, if that's your prerogative - but don't be mad at me, and least of all, Brooke. She was really upset after you left."

Now Nathan was feeling somewhat guilty. Damn it!

When had she wormed her way under his skin to that degree? He frowned. "Yeah, well, so was I…" This time it was he to cut off Lucas' attempted interruption. "But I still should have treated her better, I know."

"Yeah, you should. She is, after all, going to be your sister-in-law. Which basically gives her the right to be here all the time... and if we have kids..." Lucas trailed off when Nathan chuckled at the thought of little Lucases and - God forbid - little Brookes running around his apartment and calling him Uncle Nate.

"Me, you and Brooke are cool." Nathan finally admitted, "But me and Haley..."

Deciding that was a topic -or, rather, an argument- best left for another time, Lucas nodded. "Understood. For now." He sighed as Nathan glowered. "You're going to have to face her at some point, you know."

"I know. Not now though."

"No," Lucas offered him a faint smile. "Not now." He extended his hand as a symbolic gesture and Nathan took it, shaking it firmly. The two exchanged a smile at the very moment Brooke crept back into the house.

"Okay, please tell me that's a 'we're friends' shake, not an 'I'm about to beat your ass, fo' shizzle' shake."

Both men looked at her, then each other, before rolling their eyes.

"Hey!" She protested, hands on hips. Then, "Ooh, then it was a 'we're friends' shake!" She skipped closer with the usual bounce to her step returning. Placing herself between the two, she hugged them both and made a 'Brooke sandwich'. "This is great," she exclaimed kissing Lucas on the lips and even kissing Nathan on the cheek. "Now we can plan everything together."

"So…" Nathan began, extracting himself from the group hug, "Should I try to kick your ass now or wait another minute?"

Brooke thumped him upside the head.

"In a minute, then."

To Be Continued…