~Fulton~

Fulton paced the hallway, mumbling to himself.

"Maybe I should try again. You never know when a person will turn up. I'm sure if you just looked a little harder. But maybe she just doesn't want to be found right now, you idiot, why don't you just leave her along?"

Just as he was about to go back to his room and mope, he heard footsteps pound on the stairs. And Cameron McAllistar turned around the corner, walking straight towards him. Until she looked up and met his eyes. That was when she she swerved around on her heels and ran back the way she came. He blinked, realizing what had just happened, and ran after her. She was half way down the stairs when he finally caught up with her.

"Will you just stop it?"he growled, grabbing her arm. She turned half way around and elbowed him in the stomach. Hard. He doubled over for a moment but his grip didn't loosen.

Fulton grit his teeth and picked her up. She kicked wildly, and her fists flew around, looking for connection whenever she could hit his flesh. He carried her over his shoulder and into the common area for the JV team. He quickly locked the door, and threw her, carefully, onto the couch. It didn't take long for her to get back onto her feet, her face drawn into a snarl.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she screeched.

"Me? There's nothing wrong with me! You're the one with a problem!"

She gave a snort, rolling her eyes. Her hands were crossed, and her stance was one of defense. Fulton knew that if he tried to touch her at all she would probably give a giant bruise for it. He put his hands up, as if in surrender. He didn't want this to be like this.

"I'm sorry, but I just didn't know how to get you to stop. I did ask you to stop, but you just started to hit me. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Every consider saying please?"

"As if you'd stop if I had said please."

"I might have. I guess you'll never know now."

"Please don't be like this Cameron."

She sighed and flopped down on the couch, not meeting his eye. He slowly sat down beside her. He could feel her stiffen as he did.

"Cameron, I want to talk about this."

"Well, did you ever think that I don't want to talk about it?"

"Yes, I did. But when a person isn't there for three years, and then suddenly shows up again, wouldn't you want to know what the heck is going on?"

When she didn't answer he cautiously put his hand on her shoulder.

"Cameron. Please talk to me."

Her arms fell to her sides, and her whole demenour faded. She turned towards him, and lifted her face to his level. Fulton drew back slightly at the pain that had been hiding behind all those walls she had put up around herself. Her mouth opened as if she had wanted to say something but then she closed it. He could't take it anymore. He pulled her close to him and embraced her. Her head fit right on his shoulder. There was a wet feeling that formed on his cheek and his shoulder. He knew she was crying again.

"Shh. It's okay. Everything's okay." he whispered softly into her ear. "Everything is going to be okay. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Just stop crying please."

The tears turned into sobs quickly, muffled by his shirt. He pulled away so that he could see her face. She tried to hide her face but he cupped his hand around her face so that she had to look at him.

"You got to stop crying or you're going to make me cry and then it'll just be hopeless." He whispered again, wiping away the stray tears.

She gave a little laugh. Fulton loved her laugh, it had never changed. It was one of the best qualities about her. It was contagious.

"And we wouldn't want your manly reputation to get muddied,"she laughed,"what would people say if you walked out of crying? There goes the tough bash brother. He's not crying, he's just sweating through his eyes, right?"

He laughed softly, ducking his head to cover his embarresment. When he lifted his head again, she had closed up her face. The walls were back up and running. He had been so close.

"Cameron, I don't care about what people think about me. I care about you."

Tears whelled up in his own eyes. Most people didn't know but he cried a lot. He just didn't do it in public. Cameron's face wavered for a millisecond but then it was back to the normal expression. Fulton could feel the tears now running down his face. He wished he could take away all that doubt, and pain away from her. But he couldn't. Because she wouldn't ever let him see that part of her. He squeezed his eyes shut, and let himself fall back on the couch. It was over. She wouldn't tell him anything. Not now at least.

~Cameron~

Why hadn't she left yet? She just had to get up and walk out the door. But she couldn't. Fulton just lay there, tears slowly trickling down his cheeks. Well, why did she care anyways? It's not like he was telling the truth. He couldn't really love her. Suddenly she was overcome with the memories of home.

"No one will ever be able to love you, you worthless, stupid, ugly girl. Repeat after me! No one can ever love me!"

She sat there, blood trickling from her mouth. Her eyes stared blankly ahead. A blow came to the right side of her head. Even more blood trickled down her face.

"No one could ever love me."

"That's right!"

Another smack across her face.

"Now go get your worthless ass out of my kitchen."

"Yes, dad."

"Cameron. Are you okay? You're shaking." a voice pushed through the memory.

Cameron blinked hard, seeing that Fulton has peering at her. He was too close to her. It scared her to death. She pushed him hard. He fell back against the couch again.

"Don't touch me!" She screamed.

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to know if you were alright."

"Well, I am, okay? I'm fine. Just leave me alone."

She scrambled to her feet and marched over to the door. She slide the lock out of place and flung the door open. It hit the wall with a bang. Her room was just at the end of the hall but again her feet seemed like they were glued to the floor. What was wrong with her? He had come up behind her and was running his fingertips up and down her arms. A shiver went through her body. He was the sweetest boy she had ever known and all she had ever done was push him away.

She whirled around and looked him right in the eye. It wasn't that hard since he was so close to her that she could have leaned forward an inch and they would have been kissing. Their noses knocked together gently. His eyes looked right into hers.

"I'm scared, Fulton."

"Scared of what, little mouse?"

Her eyes softened at the use of his old nickname for her.

"I'm scared of love."

"So am I."

~Fulton~

She stared at him for a few seconds. Then he felt her fingers lace through his hair. And he leaned forward.

"Wait." she whispered, putting a finger to his lips.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I just wanted to say, I'm not a mouse."

She pulled him into her and their lips met in the middle in a soft kiss. He felt her melt onto him. Even though she was two inches shorter than him, he felt small when he felt her lips on his. It felt as if the world had exploded and then came back together again. He pulled her closer to him making the kiss hard and real.

When they seperated, he was gasping a little. And his bandana was missing. It lay on the floor, where she had thrown it. He hadn't really dried his hair after his shower, so it was still a little damp. So it stuck up in different patches after she had run her fingers through it. Fulton looked at her, examining the girl who she had become. Her eyes were clenched shut, and her mouth moved, speaking silently to herself.

He leaned forward a little so that his lips could feel hers'. Her breath quickened, and her eyes flew open.

"I love you." He whispered, still feeling her lips underneath his.

Her mouth formed an 'O' and she pulled away. Fresh tears were forming in her eyes.

"Maybe this isn't a good idea." she choked.

"Cameron... Please don't shut me out again."

"I'm sorry. But this is going way too fast for me. Can't we just- can't we just try to be friends for a little while? And then go from there."

He was tired of this. Tired of all these emotions running through him. Tired of all his impulses that messed up of her indecisiveness about their relationship. He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing with frustration. He must have looked angry because she shrank a little.

"I don't care right now, Cameron. Although I wish you wouldn't do this."

"I'm sorry. It's not like I'm doing this on purpose."

"Okay. Okay. Well, I guess it's kind of late, so good night."

"Good night, Fulton."

She gave a shy smile to him and then scurried off to the room at the end of the hall. Which was just across from his own room. Grrreat. He sauntered over to his room, pausing by her door for a moment. Then he continued to go into his room and proceeded to take of his clothes slowly. He slid into his bed, wearing only his boxers. As he drifted off to sleep, he kept on seeing the recent kiss happen over and over and over. Even though he was fast asleep, he smiled.