A/N: Yay, chapter two! I've had this idea in my head for a while now, and so now I finally have it down! Yay… this is kind of set in an AU post-Nevermore where Max actually does save the world somehow like we waited eight books for her to do, and everyone is living happily and peacefully. :D

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I really, really appreciate it. :) I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

…..

Angel had a sleepover birthday party. Max and Fang were going, for the first time in forever, on a date. Ella had dragged Iggy off to join she and her friends in the joys of bowling. Nudge was off to the movies with some idiot who was probably three years older than her.

It was official. Thirteen-year-old Gazzy had the house to himself tonight.

He had no idea what he was going to do, but he was going to enjoy himself. A video game marathon? It wouldn't be as fun without Iggy, but maybe he could work on his skills.

Maybe, he could raid Iggy's store of R-18 games!

Satisfied with this plan, Gazzy made his way downstairs, where Max was standing, waiting for Fang. She shot him a scowl, as if she knew what he was thinking of doing once everyone left.

"What?" Gazzy asked defensively, wandering into the kitchen and rummaging about in the fridge.

"Be sensible while we're gone," Max said simply, "And responsible. That means—"

"Yeah, yeah: no alcohol, no drugs, no fun," Gazzy sighed, downing a couple of gulps of milk straight from the bottle.

"And no raiding Iggy's R-18 games," Max frowned, "And don't do that, it's disgusting."

"Sorry," Gazzy said lamely, putting the now empty bottle down on the bench. "What about the R-16 ones?"

"Don't even—" Max began, but was cut off by Fang seemingly materializing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Are we going?" Fang flicked his dark bangs out of his eyes and fixated his eyes on Max. Gazzy watched the 19-year-old melt under Fang's gaze.

Pathetic, he thought with a snort of amusement.

"Yeah." Max said, her eyes lighting up and her mouth stretching into a goofy smile as Fang took her hand. "What took you so long?"

"Ooh, Fang, you're soooo drea-my!" Gazzy said in Max's voice, before cracking up laughing. Max gave him a hard look.

"Be sensible," She reminded him, tossing him the house keys.

And then they were gone, out of the door and into the night.

Gazzy flopped down onto the couch. Angel was gone, Iggy was gone, Fang and Max were gone…

Which just left Nudge.

Gazzy waited. He waited and waited, fidgeting as he wished for his independence. He glanced at the clock. Wasn't Nudge meant to have left twenty minutes ago?

He stood up to go and check. As he neared her bedroom door, he could hear snuffling noises, and soft plaintive cries that sounded like a kitten mewing… or a Nudge sobbing.

Gazzy knocked softly. Once. Twice. On the third knock the crying stopped and a voice croaked, "Yes?"

Gazzy opened the door. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking at her crumpled frame.

Nudge was curled up on her bed, sobbing into the sheets, wearing her new dress, her mascara running down her cheeks. "Gazzy, I—" She took a deep breath, "No-o…"

Then the tears were spilling again over her dark lashes. Gazzy felt suddenly angry. Who had done this, made her cry? Whoever it was, had no right. Because nobody had the right to make Nudge cry. Nudge crying was just… it was just…

"What happened?" Gazzy asked, but Nudge couldn't answer through her sobs.

Gazzy took a tissue from the box on the bedside table. Gently, he sat beside her and put a hand on her arm. Slowly, he managed to get her sitting upright. Handing her the tissue, he asked again: "What happened?"

"Nate," Nudge said bitterly, the tears beginning to gather again, "Nate is what happened."

"Who's Nate?" Gazzy frowned.

"He is—was—my date for tonight…" Nudge sniffed. "He… he cancelled the date…ten minutes before he was meant to pick me up. He didn't just cancel, he… he… he dumped me—"

Nudge was sobbing again, her whole body shaking. "Ten minutes!" She shrieked, "Ten… ten minu—" She hiccoughed and buried her face in her hands.

Gazzy didn't understand the anger he felt, but he knew he felt it. Nate seemed like a right prick, and he said so. Nudge only cried harder.

What to do?

Gazzy wanted to stop Nudge's tears but he didn't know how… so he did the only thing he could think. He wrapped his arms around her and held her till they came to a standstill. It was a slow process, and was coaxed along by Gazzy murmuring words of comfort into Nudge's ear.

"It's gonna be okay. It doesn't feel okay right now, but it's gonna be okay."

The stream of tears became slower and slower, until they stopped entirely and Nudge breathed a heavy sigh. She blew her nose and dabbed her running mascara with the tissue.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Gazzy asked nervously, as if afraid of setting off more tears. Nudge shook her head.

"No," She sniffed, crumpling and un-crumpling the tissue in her hand.

Nudge didn't want to talk? This was serious, and Gazzy knew it. He tried to think of what he would want were he in Nudge's position.

He thought and thought as Nudge sat there in silence. What to do… what to do…

Aha! Gazzy knew exactly what she needed—to have fun. To forget about Nate for a while. To take her mind off things.

"Hey, well, how about we do something," Gazzy suggested, "Something fun, to take your mind off you-know-who."

"He who must not be named," Nudge added, a tiny flash of a smile briefly appearing on her face.

"Yeah," Gazzy laughed, "You know, we could watch a movie."

No response.

"And order pizza."

No response.

"It would be fun."

Nudge smiled a little. "Um… okay, I guess."

Gazzy gave her a grin. "Cool. You can go order pizza, I'll get some popcorn or something."

"Okay," Nudge grinned back—a little shakily, but it was still a grin. She stood up.

Gazzy stood up too, patting her on the back, and darting round the door and down the stairs to the kitchen, to see what they had in the pantry.

No popcorn, the kitchen was entirely popcorn free. Gazzy frowned. They really needed to get some. He searched around for a substitute. He grinned as he spotted one—corn chips. Maybe they could have some dip, too.

Gazzy ripped open the corn chips and dumped them into a bowl. He could hear Nudge on the phone from in the other room. He smiled—her voice seemed almost normal, not overly bubbly, but it was progress.

The fridge revealed an unopened container of shop-bought guacamole. Win. Gazzy put it on the kitchen bench and turned back to survey the fridge. One dip would probably be enough—

Aha, bonus—salsa. Gazzy grinned; it was Nudge's favourite.

As he worked getting everything set up on a tray, he thought about Nate. Gazzy bet Nate didn't care about Nudge. Gazzy bet Nate didn't care about her feelings. Gazzy bet Nate didn't know that Nudge couldn't eat corn chips and salsa without sour cream to balance out the spice.

Gazzy knew. He put some sour cream on the tray, too.

When he came out into the living room, Nudge was wearing jeggings and a hoodie, which was probably the most casual outfit she owned. DVD's surrounded her.

"Can we watch this?" Nudge held up a DVD, "Stephanie and Cassie have both seen it, so I got it out the other day. It's meant to be really cool."

Nudge started talking about the actress that starred in the film, while Gazzy looked at it in dismay. It didn't look like the sort of movie he would usually get within ten metres of… but then again, it wasn't for him, it was for Nudge.

"Okay, yeah, we can watch it," Gazzy said weakly, "We didn't have any popcorn, but we did have corn chips."

"Oh, yum," Nudge took one as Gazzy sat the tray down on the coffee table. The doorbell rang.

"That'll be the pizza," Nudge said through a mouthful of double-cheese corn chips and salsa, "I'll get it."

Soon they were both settled down on the couch, and Nudge was starting the movie. A one and a half hour chick flick, with a plot with about as much substance as air. Gazzy sighed.

Only an hour and a half… just to make Nudge happy.

…..

When the credits were rolling Gazzy glanced at Nudge. Her eyes were shining and there was no trace of sadness left on her face.

"That was such a good film!" She babbled, "Dave and Lindsey were such a cute couple! Oh my gawd, when he held her hand for the first time I just died! So adorable. Screw Hamish: Team Dave!"

"Aha, yeah," Gazzy smiled at her. He hadn't really engaged in the plot at all, and had been boarding unconsciousness by the end. Still, he was glad Nudge was happy. Even if he had wasted one and a half hours of his life, and sacrificed his gaming night.

They both stood up. Nudge turned the TV off and spontaneously threw her arms around Gazzy.

"Thanks," Nudge told him, "For cheering me up."

But Gazzy barely registered her words. All he could feel was her body against his and her warm breath in his ear, her soft mocha skin and her hair that smelt like strawberries, and then how much he liked strawberries.

And Gazzy thought some very un-Gazzy like thoughts, thoughts he quickly shoved out of his mind because they frightened and confused him. But they kept creeping back in like the spider that just refuses to die no matter how much insect spray one shoots at it.

By the time Nudge pulled away Gazzy was out of insect spray, out of might, out of breath, perplexed and slightly dazed. Nudge smiled at him.

"It was really nice." She said.

What was nice? Gazzy blinked once, twice, three times. Oh yes—the whole cheering Nudge up thing. "Uh… no problem."

Nudge grinned, yawned, and bent down to pick up an empty pizza box, but Gazzy came back to his senses, "Ah, it's okay, I can do that."

"Are you sure?" Nudge rubbed her eyes.

"Yeah. You go get some sleep," Gazzy said, feeling slightly proud at how gentlemanly he sounded. But he was also still confused about what had happened earlier, and his brain became so full with thoughts it hurt. "You look tired."

"Okay," Nudge yawned again, turning around and starting up the stairs. "Night."

"Night," Gazzy said, beginning to pick up the mess they had made. He had got the two pizza boxes and the empty tray into the kitchen when he heard the door open.

He poked his head around the door as Max and Fang walked in. Iggy was with them. "Hey."

"Hey Gazzy," Max rubbed her eyes. "Were you sensible?"

"Nudge's date cancelled ten minutes before she was due to leave, so I took her mind off it and cheered her up by watching a movie with her," Gazzy said simply, "No R-18 games, no drugs, no alcohol, just me and Nudge and some pizza."

"Oh, that was nice of you," Max smiled at the thirteen-year-old, "Is she okay now?"

"Yep," Gazzy said, "Well, I think so."

"Great. Well, I'm tired. Goodnight," Max yawned, making her way towards the stairs. Fang followed.

Iggy came up behind Gazzy, who was shoving the empty chip bowl in the dishwasher. "So…"

Gazzy turned to the nineteen-year-old.

"…just you and Nudge then?" Iggy raised his eyebrows one at a time, grinning as if he knew something he shouldn't.

Gazzy scowled, and then, for Iggy's benefit, said, "I'm scowling, Iggy."

Iggy touched Gazzy's face. "You're red," His grin grew broader.

"Oh… shut up."

…..

A/N: Damn Iggy's ability to feel colours! And also his weird ability to know what Gazzy is thinking… maybe he could tell from Gazzy's voice. I don't know, you decide. :)

Like it? Hate it? Review! I appreciate your opinion and wish to know what you think. :)