The one flight of stairs tired me out. I slumped into the railings and half pushed myself upward, each step slow and sluggish. Shit, this was how I was going to die. I was going to pass out from tiredness, fall down the stairs and break my neck. Maybe if I danced up the stairs I would stay awake. I just opened my mouth to start singing a tune to dance to when I realised I must be slaphappy tired now. Ok, you seriously should have gone for a nap like Tulip did in the car. Err, you were conked out for most of that so you should be fine. No way, being conked out is not the same!

"Oh God, I am arguing with myself!" I wailed out loud. "And talking to stairs!"

That gave me enough energy to dash up the last few steps and round the corner to the open door of Xav and Crystal's apartment. There was little difference between our apartments except for the door to the attic being in the middle of the hall's ceiling just to the left of the main kitchen/ living area. Xavier had practically pulled us upstairs as soon as we got here to show off this badly placed attic door. He admitted it was "as hard as hell" to open and when he finally got it open a day or two ago, he was knocked onto his arse as the ladder flew down. He pretty much only told us as Crystal would have anyway.

I could see Crystal, Will and Xav as they stood at the bottom of the pull down ladder. Crystal turned and smiled. "Hey. I told the guys to not take anything before you got here. They were literally up there ten seconds to see a load of boxes and random crap before I ordered them down."

"It was like she cancelled Christmas." Xav said miserably. I could see a mischievous gleam in his eyes though. I had a feeling he was going to make Crystal "pay" later. "I had to change out of my Jack & Jones jeans though. The dust up there is just ugh!"

"I swear with every day that passes, he becomes more the girl and less the guy in this relationship." Crystal laughed. She leaned up slightly and gave Xav a quick kiss on the lips. "Come on. You lot need to head up."

"You're not coming up?" I said surprised.

Crystal just smirked. "You seriously think I would go up there? This building is not exactly new and that ceiling creaked like a broken door when Xav was up there on his own let alone with you guys there too!"

Will, silent up until now, frowned. "I will stay down then."

"No, the show pony here can settle down and help me unpack some things. And he brought down a few bits he shoved into his pants already so he lost his shot at getting another look."

"How did you see that?! It was just a watch and some cufflinks!"

Crystal just took him by the arm and led him down the hall saying "Do you really want to be healing my friend and your brother if they fall through the ceiling because of your fat ass?"

And so Will and I looked at each. He looked down and I felt my skin flush in his presence. He had such an unassuming, calm and quiet character that it contrasted interestingly with his beautiful exterior. I realised after a few seconds that I was just staring at him like a complete idiot. Smiling at me, making it harder still to stop looking at him like I was brain dead, he gestured to the ladder. "After you Willow." He said, my name sounding new to me from his mouth. I could have been wrong but he seemed to like saying my name as much as I enjoyed hearing it from him.

"Okay." I replied and pulled myself up the ladder, carefully avoiding Will's hand as he kept the ladder steady. I was already acting like a twat. If I was not careful I would lose twenty IQ points within the next two minutes.

Once I had pulled myself in, I heard the ladder creak under Will's weight. Grunting he pulled himself in, kicking the ladder. With a loud bang, it fell and crashed into the floor. The attic door automatically swung in fast, no longer burdened by the ladders weight, and slammed shut. I shrieked and had to force myself not to jump with fear. "Fuck." I squeaked as Will rolled back away from the door. From the tiny window, I could just about see his anxious expression. Glancing over to me he nodded towards the wall that separated the roof spaces.

"Turn on the light switch behind you." He said calmly. At least one of us was trying to be calm. I scrambled over on all fours and found the light after hastily pawing the wall. With an old fashioned "clack" the switch turned on a single bare bulb attached to a wooden beam no more than a foot or two above our heads.

He carefully slid back to the small door and swore at what he saw. Swearing sounded so odd coming from him I had to admit. Embarrassingly, it sounded very good coming from him also and I shook my head to dispel the thoughts. My long, blonde hair danced in front of me and I realised how fitting dumb blonde jokes would be right now. And how I should tie my hair up. The amount of dust we uprooted was unreal and a lot was catching in my curly mop.

Bringing myself back to reality I looked at Will, or more like the back of his head as he was bent over the door, pulling and yanking at its edges. "What is wrong?" I said nervously. Hearing my nerves, he looked back to me, forgetting the door however briefly.

"This door does not open from the inside. A stupid, idiotic design." He said, growing angrier.

"Hey guys, what happened? Will, Willow?" I heard Crystal say. Neither Will nor I had heard them run out to the loud crash of the ladder. I could hear Phoenix talking quietly with Xav so it looked like we had a freaking party out in the hall.

"The ladder disconnected and I cannot open this shagging door from here." Will half yelled down to them.

"Give me a sec and I shall be your saviour." Xav yelled back and I heard the scraping of the ladder being moved. About ten seconds later we both nearly jumped with fright as a loud "thwack!" reverberated through the walls and into the attic floor. "Ok, maybe not." Xav yelled. "There is nothing to balance it on Will."

Groaning Will sat back and rubbed his hands down his face. I heard the quick, light footsteps of Phoenix head off and come back seconds later. "I got a broom. I might be able to push the door back for you guys enough. By the way, where did you get a broom covered in hula girls Xav?"

"I bought it and matching towels and dishcloths for him. I figured it might motivate Xav to use them on occasion." Crystal said, clearly pleased with herself.

This time I groaned and sat back beside Will. "Our fate lies in the hands of a girl who likes hula girls, another who thought buying them would be a good idea and a guy they clearly suit."

Will could only laugh dryly, resting his arms on his knees that were bent up to his chest. "My family for ya ladies and gentlemen."

We listened to the scrape of the broom top as it tried every possible way to push open the door. After five minutes they gave up, causing Phoenix to start muttering under her breath. It was probably wishful thinking hoping a measly hula girl covered broom could get an ancient, stiff attic door open. Even though it had been no more than fifteen minutes, I was getting sick of this small space fast. The light bulb flickered above causing Will to look up in surprise. I sighed. "I control electricity currents and I can produce them too. Sometimes when I 'lose it'," I said using air quotes, "It affects currents without me trying. I thought I had it under control. Apparently not." I said, muttering the last two words.

"Interesting." Will mused. "I can sense danger."

"I guess your spidey sense does not pick up starving-from-being-trapped-in-an-attic-for-the-rest-of-our-lives danger?"

"Nah. Pretty handy when you live in our family though."

"I would imagine." I said humourlessly. Fighting off my growing petrified hatred of the attic, I shifted over to the nearest cardboard box and started rooting. I caught Will looking at me. "Who knows how long it will take for them to just call the dang emergency services? Might as well try to find something."

Will shrugged and pulled the closest box on his lap. Satisfied I resumed poking through my box. It was full of girly stuff. Hardback novels, a few scarves and gloves and costume jewellery. In delight, I sifted through the mess of obviously cheap, outdated jewellery. Will coughed and I glanced up.

"What the hell is on your face?!" I said. Pulling my box of goodies over with me, I plonked myself down in front of Will. He had some black crap smeared on his chin and upper lip.

"I think I should grow it out like this." He mused out loud, pretending to stroke his mad goatee. Leaning forward, I ran a thumb down the curly tipped moustache. It smeared down like I predicted. Only I forgot it would go down onto his lips. I hastily drew back my hand and became very occupied in rooting through the jewellery. In an attempt to cool the heat nearly visible in the attic air, I plucked up what felt like a ring. I was about to open my mouth to insist, no matter what it looked like, that is was the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. Only I stopped with my mouth open like a baby bird's when I saw the ring itself.

"Wow." I said softly. It was a beautiful ring, smooth, glistening silver that seemed to caress the jewels in the centre. It looked like the stone, with the softest hints of pink, blue and green in it was holding another stone in an embrace nearly with smaller stones disappearing into the silver on either side. If this was costume jewellery, it was divine.

Will shifted closer and softly whistled under his breath. "It is incredible. You found that in there?"

I could only nod, my hair falling into my face. Slowly Will brushed it back, carefully as though my hair was fragile, with his long fingers. I focused on the ring, trying to ignore the stirring in my stomach. With that hand, he slowly moved to hold my hand that held the ring out. The silence was thick and heavy yet not oppressive. More like a thick blanket you wrapped yourself in on a winters evening.

It could have been hours before I moved. Careful not to break into the mood hanging in the air, I began to put the ring onto one of my fingers and Will helped push it down gently. It fit like a silk glove. I finally met Will's eyes to my side. The silence grew heavier.

Go figure that is when I hear Crystal yell "For fucks sake Xav. You can practically reach it! How hard is it to open. Is it rocket science?!"

"No, it is attic science, a much more complicated science Einstein could not even master Crystal!"

"Shut up!" Phoenix screamed causing Will and me to jump apart, cracking the tension. "Give me the landlord's number now!"

What seemed like mere seconds later, I heard numerous sets of footsteps run into the apartment below. "What was all the shouting about?" I heard Yves and Tulip say over one another. Mortifyingly, I heard numerous un-familiar voices, tenants within earshot of Phoenix's screech most likely. Mere minutes later, the landlord, emergency services and pretty much the entire apartment building could be heard in the apartment below.

"Willow, we will get ye down soon. You too Will." I heard Tulip yell.

I slumped into Will's shoulder. "I have officially died of embarrassment."

The author person has updated...

I know I am somewhat un-predictable updating and sorry for that. I decided a new chapter to celebrate a new month :)

Thanks xxx-benedictbrothersfan-xxx, OMGIluvreading, LittleLily99, NativeofJune, theblueshadow99, whatmathlike, dropsofjupiter1999 and all the guest reviewers for your lovely reviews!

I have decided to leave a hint for the next chapter... It involves underwear...

Review, follow whatever you wish! Hope you had a great Halloween, I did ;D