Amazingly, it took the emergency services a solid half hour before they pried the attic door open. And then the door refused to close again once they got Will and me down. I heard Crystal saying she better go buy duct tape to keep it up until someone came to either fix the wretched door or replace it. I think we were all praying for it to be replaced. I know I was.

After another half hour of neighbours and emergency people reassuring themselves Will and I were fine, they left with Crystal thanking them for their concern through her teeth. "Bloody nosey wankers." She spat. "All they want to do is look concerned and get details for a story to tell their fecking book clubs later."

While Xav calmed her down, the rest of us took the hint to go back to unpacking. Since we were up there, Tulip and I decided to help out. I think we both knew that due to knowing pretty much no one here we would have plenty of spare time tonight to unpack our own stuff later. "True." Tulip said throwing herself down onto the burnt orange sofa in the main living room. "But it tells us not to be bothered to get to know the lot of them now. At least I can cut down the amount of introductions I have to make now to just a few thousand in college."

"Yeah cupcake," Xav said, wrapping his arms around her from behind. "Are you not glad now we did not bother visit any of them in the days we've been here?"

Unable to resist Xav's charm, Crystal smiled a genuine smile. "Yeah. So Yves and Phee, can you guys help me unpack in Xav's and my room? Willow, you said you guys were helping out, yeah?"

I nodded while Tulip seemed to barely notice Crystal's existence. "Ok, Willow, can you help Will unpack in his room. And Tulip, can you unpack the bags in the bathroom?"

I nodded again. Then I registered something. Crystal had just confirmed Will was staying. I have to admit, I was disgusted with the little flutter of happiness in my stomach from someone else confirming he was staying here.

"Thanks Willow." Will said as he came out from the bathroom. I had gone in just before him to get the dust and cobwebs off my hair and clothes, which Will had probably just spent the last ten minutes doing. "I decided to do a post grad up here. Since I graduated early, I figured why not? And Xav and Crystal were coming here and so on…." He trailed off simply shrugging his shoulders.

I decided to hide that I was impressed he was already graduated in something. As far as I could tell, there could not be any more than a year between us, if that. No need for this extremely handsome Benedict to get an ego as big as Xavier's. Xav was still dressed like he had strolled off a catwalk while the rest of us were in sweats to unpack. Huh, I guess he and Crystal were better suited than I thought.

"Ok, we better get going." I said and Will made a grand gesture with his arms, as though to say "ladies first" down the corridor. I barely registered Crystal trying to pull Tulip up from the couch, with Tulip whining miserably. It always amazed me how quickly Tulip became herself around new people. Yves and Phoenix were squabbling over whether to just leave the two of them at it or intervene before it got ugly.

"You might as well." Xav called out as he leaned against the kitchen countertop. "I have a feeling Tulip is as stubborn as Crystal. If so, we could be here a while." Xav seemed way too pleased at that thought until Crystal threw him a withering glare "Actually I should probably start without my very forgiving and loving Beauty."

I stifled a giggle, letting my hair fall around my face as I walked off ahead of Will, who mouthed "whipped" over his shoulder to his brother. I glanced behind me to see Xav's eyes turn into slits over this.

"Quick in, in, in!" Will said, half-pushing me into his room, the one closest to the kitchen, and slamming the door shut quickly. A spilt second later, the door vibrated with a heavy "thunk".

"Orange?" Will yelled to his door.

"Apple this time." Yves called back. "Did you not see the bowl of 'em?"

"Close enough." Will said. I raised an eyebrow when he looked back around. He smiled, biting his bottom lip as he looked at me. "What good is there having a whipped brother if you cannot tease the shit out of him for being that way?"

"Good point." I said, pretending to think it through seriously as I rubbed my chin in thought. I stopped mid chin stroke as I actually looked at Will's room. "Oh Christ Will. Was not one of you bothered unpack at all?"

I found myself in a rather small space of clear floor by his bedroom door. Except for the clean sheets on the bed and one box spilling a few t-shirts, nothing was unpacked. A sad little desk sat tucked in the far corner by one of two narrow windows. The bed was beside the other window with a wardrobe set a few inches away from the door. But the rest of the space was filled with boxes and random bags.

"Err, well…." Will said, rubbing his head. He ruffled up his hair and I thought absentmindedly "now that is how you do the messy look. Sexy style". Oh geese. Shut. Up. Brain. I could feel my face warm up.

"Screw it." I said, then mentally dying at my choice of words. I further got warmer. "Let's start" I said grabbing a box and tearing into it. I officially asked for death when I came out with a handful of boxers. This could not get any worse.

"Here, let me do those." Will said, laughing awkwardly.

"Sure. Yep." I said like I was high. I then handed him that handful and then instead of handing him the box, I proceeded to take out the rest of his underwear and hand him it. I froze after shoving him a fourth handful. Groaning, I slumped over the box. "Just point me to a safe box." I said, my voice muffling through the box and a curtain of my hair.

"That might be best." Will said, now actually laughing as he put the underwear down on his bed. He pointed to a large box beside the wardrobe. "If you can handle jeans and shirts, try that box."

I nodded mutely and began to open up the box with caution as Will tried to distract himself by sorting through the rest of the underwear box. I had a sour feeling that embarrassing myself was going to become my new hobby, not mastering mandarin Chinese, while I was in New York.

After a few hours, where most breaks in silence were one of us getting up to get some drinks or snacks, we were pretty much finished. I was dying for a shower to remove the last of the attic's dust and the general grunginess I felt after the long day. I kept my distance from Will as much as I could, though I had to admit his presence gave me a sweet, warm feeling I tried in vain to ignore. The weight of the ring I found in the attic refused to let me be without his presence for even a split second.

When Will stood up from organising boxes under his bed, he stretched, his joints popping and he let out a satisfied sigh. Looking over at me as I tidied up he smiled lazily. "You might want to stretch. It feels amazing." He sighed, rolling back his head and moving it from side to side. I stood up, wobbling slightly from having been kneeling for so long. I stretched and half laughed/ groaned.

"Geese, you got that right." I sighed. "Next thing is a shower and ah shit!"

Will looked over to me in alarm. "What?"

"I still have to unpack. No point in showering before then."

Will rumpled his brow in thought. "I thought Crystal, Xav and Tulip went down an hour or two ago. They had actually unpacked a bit more than me." He said sheepishly, playing with the end of the bedspread.

"A bit more than you?! Ok, that would only make sense if you had unpacked at all!"

"I did unpack." Will said distractedly looking around his room. "I unpacked the clothes I have on." He said triumphantly.

I rolled my eyes. "Well let's go see did they unpack any of my stuff. If not, we have plans for the rest of the night."

Once we got down to my apartment, I could hear the music before I even opened the door. With Will behind me, we both entered to discover Tulip dramatically singing the chorus of "Human" by Christina Perri. She was kneeling on the hardwood floors with her head flung back screech-singing into a can of deodorant. Even when she noticed us dumbfounded by the door, she continued to sing (sort of) but got off her knees came over and took my hand as she sang (ok, let's face it. Dogs would howl at her voice. You could barely call it singing).

Xav wandered in from the hall and raised an eyebrow. "I knew I heard an addition to that delightful song."

"Oh hush up." Crystal said coming up from behind him. She turned to me. "I unpacked most of your stuff. Clothes, books but I left a bag or two with stuff you might want to do yourself." Noticing my surprise she simply said "Tulip said you would be cool with it. Kill me not her if you hate it." as she went to pick up her apartment keys off the kitchen table.

"Let's head Xav and relieve Yves and Phee upstairs. They might be bored as they have to be long done."

"Oh they finished a long time ago cupcake." Xav said as he led her out.

"Then what are….. Never mind. We can just yell they can go to their hotel. I am not going looking for those bunnies."

"Oh Tulip, tell Willow the plans. See you guys tomorrow." Crystal called and shut the door behind her.

Tulip finally straightened up into a normal pose and wandered over to her iPod dock to change song. My ears were already starting to ring from the volume. "Oh yeah, we are heading out tomorrow. Crystal found some crazy cool nightclub to welcome us to America. It even has a karaoke part to it." Tulip said with delight.

I could just about hear Will saying "Oh shit" behind me as I tried to say something positive about that news.

"Great." I said through a grimace. Thankfully Tulip was heading off down the hall. I took that as a sign I could unplug her iPod dock. I might have to google how to limit the volume on this thing. If I could limit the speed a car could go, I was sure this would be a piss easy to tamper with.

I could hear coughing and I glanced over to Will. He was rocking back on his heels with his lips tightly pressed. When the door clicked behind Tulip he burst out laughing. He actually clutched his stomach and I could only smile. He seemed to become the person he was in private: completely and totally unselfconscious.

Noticing me he pushed back his hair and managed to get out "We have to go out tomorrow, let lovely Tulip sing and say we know her. Are we making a good impression on New York or what?"

"Shall we convene for breakfast tomorrow morning and plan some way to make the whole club deaf or her hoarse by then?"

Will opened his mouth to reply as Tulip wandered out in her pyjama shorts and tank top, her fluffy slippers shuffling along the wooden floor. He smartly stayed quiet as she looked at the two of us through narrowed eyes. Her eyes moved from me to him and then back.

There was a moment of silence. "No boys can be in your room after eleven Willow. K?"

I forgot to correct her stupid use of text language as I flushed a deep red, bending my head forward to hide my face. Before either Will or I could start flat out denying anything, Tulip waltzed over to her IPod dock and pressed play. "Rydian told me to tell you that. He text me and I was not going to say anything until someone turned off my music." Tulip said frowning. Then she perked up. "It is only ten or so now so have fun kids!" she cackled as she sauntered off in evil delight.

"I think we might have to discuss more than just making her hoarse." Will muttered. I could only agree.

Author person has come back!

Sorry, I very stupidly decided to myself I would not upload until I finished chapter nine. Argh, trying to fit what I wanted into that chapter was very hard so I am not making silly promises like that to myself again. I was also too busy. Grrr. Life. Then I had to go edit this chapter. And I hope you liked it! (fave, follow or review if you did :D ) At least this is the longest chapter yet.

I also started a new story called "Giving Gold". Check it out if you have a minute and tell me what you think!

Now... hint for the next chapter? The reason why Will never let Crystal find him his soulfinder :D