A/N: No, I haven't forgotten about this story, I've just been busy with real life a lot lately and I've been working on my other stories as well. But, here's the update, finally – only two chapters left!

Chapter Forty-Four

"Let's go play that game next! No, that one over there! Do you think we should get sweets before or after the next game? Oh my gosh, Broody, you have to have a go at that game!"

Lucas followed the direction his girlfriend was pointing before shaking his head vehemently. "No way, Brooke."

"Aw, come on! What's the point of us coming to a carnival if you won't play the games?" Brooke whined.

"I will play the games. Just not that one."

"Why not?" she pouted.

"Because the only guys who play that one are show-offs who just do it to prove that they're strong enough to hit the thing hard enough to make the bell clang."

Brooke put her hands on her hips and eyed him suspiciously. "And you're not strong enough to do it, eh?"

"I-of course I can," he sputtered.

"Then prove it."

"No, no; you're just trying to trick me into playing it."

"Please, Lucas?"

"Why do you want me to play it so much?" he wondered.

"Well…if you must know…I think it's a total turn-on," she said breathily.

"Brooke."

"I want the teddy bear prize! It's so cute!" she exclaimed.

Lucas sighed. "Okay, okay, I'll try."

"Thank you!" Brooke squealed, and hugged him tightly, before peppering kisses on his cheek. "If you hit it I'll name the bear Broody after you," she told him, grinning.

Lucas chuckled. "Well, I'll take that as a compli…" he stopped mid-sentence, frowning in the direction of the game in question.

"What is it? Cold feet already?"

"Uh, no, it's just I think that guy over there won your teddy bear already."

"What!" Turning her head, Brooke saw that a man had indeed won the teddy bear and was handing it to his thrilled female companion. "She got Broody, Broody! That's not fair. See if you had gone and played it instead of complaining I would have got it!"

"It looks like there are still some other prizes there," Lucas tried to reason with her.

"I don't want a stupid turtle. I wanted the bear." Brooke folded her arms and pouted. "Let's do something else now," she said, one moment later.

"A different game?"

"Not a game; I want to ride the ferris wheel."

"Er…"

"What now!" she exclaimed.

"Are you sure there aren't any other rides you'd rather go on? Like that rollercoaster over there?"

"Let me get this straight. My boyfriend, who is 18 years old by the way, wants to go on a rollercoaster but is scared of a ferris wheel?"

"I'm not scared of the ferris wheel! I just really don't like heights."

"The rollercoaster goes high too! It even takes you upside down!"

"But it moves really fast so you're not there for long. The ferris wheel suspends you and everything."

Brooke sighed heavily, rolling her eyes at him. As she looked around she spotted two familiar faces among the crowd, although neither saw her since they were too wrapped up in each other. She smiled to herself, attracting Lucas' attention, who followed her gaze.

"Oh. I thought the carnival would be big enough for us to avoid them," Lucas muttered.

"Lucas! He's your cousin!"

"And she's my teacher! Why am I the only one who is seeing the ickyness in this?"

Brooke looked back at Haley and Nathan who were aimlessly strolling through the carnival grounds. His arm was draped around her shoulders, while she was eating candy floss.

"I think they look cute."

At that moment Haley broke off a piece of the candy floss and fed it to Nathan.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Rolling her eyes once more, Brooke reminded Lucas, "Well, you wouldn't have had to see them here, if we had come any of the other nights the carnival was open, but no, you were the one who kept cancelling, and now today is the last night it's here!"

"Brooke, you know how coach has been insane with extra practices lately. I was too tired to even eat some nights."

"We could have come last night, though. You didn't have practice yesterday"

"I thought they were coming yesterday. That's what Nathan told me before; I didn't know until this morning that they hadn't gone."

"Are you going to spend your whole life trying to avoid seeing them together as a couple?"

"No, just until Nathan goes back to Charlotte."

"Oh, yeah," Brooke remembered. "But what about Miss James?"

"I don't know," Lucas shrugged. "So, about that ferris wheel?" he mentioned, trying to steer her away from their current conversation.

"Yes?"

"I'll give it a try," he conceded.

"Yay!" she squealed, and clapped her hands excitedly.

"Okay." Lucas took Brooke's hand and started to lead her in the direction of the ferris wheel. "But if we get suspended right at the top and I have to close my eyes, you can't laugh or anything," he warned.

Brooke giggled. "You're such a girl sometimes, Lukie." When he frowned, she continued, "But, it's okay, I love you anyway."

Lucas practically froze in his place, and it was only after that that Brooke realized what she had just let out, completely by accident.

"I, um," she stuttered.

"Hey, look, there's the Ferris wheel!" Lucas pointed out, and dragged her towards it without another word.

As they walked Nathan looked down to his left at his girlfriend whose eyes were wondering round the carnival. "So, are you having fun?"

Haley squeezed his hand, which she was now holding since she had finished with her candy floss, and flashed him a smile. "Lots, thank you."

"Hey, come on." Nathan nudged Haley using their combined hands. "Something's on your mind. What is it?"

Haley sighed. "I'm just…thinking about Peyton," she half-lied.

"I thought you said she was fine. And I know Jake called her last night when he arrived; he told me so when he called me this morning."

"Yeah, he did. She's okay, just…adjusting."

"Well, it shouldn't take her too long," Nathan said encouragingly. "She is going to move there in a few weeks."

"Yeah, she is. You know, I think that we should talk…" Haley began.

However, Nathan's attention had been caught by one of the stalls near to them and he didn't catch her second sentence. "Hey, have you ever played that?"

"Huh?" Haley looked at the stall in question and frowned. "The game where you knock down the bottles with a tennis ball? Yeah, I've seen it at school carnivals and stuff. I was never really good at, though. I might have mentioned it before; coordination's not really my thing. Why do you ask?" Haley wondered.

Nathan simply said, "Watch," before taking her by the hand and leading her to the stall.

Haley didn't have time to react before they reached the stall and Nathan let go of her hand, informing the boy attending the stall that he wanted to play. Haley watched curiously as the boy collected the three tennis balls and placed them in front of Nathan while he fished a dollar bill out of his wallet.

"So, you think you're some sort of expert at this game?" Haley conjectured.

Nathan glanced at Haley, giving her a knowing look. Then, wordlessly, he picked up the first ball and threw it at the pile, resulting in knocking them all down. He smiled triumphantly at Haley, "Looks like I haven't lost my touch after all."

"I'm guessing you used to have a lot of practice at this game," she commented.

Nathan nodded. "It paid off though. I was champion of it in junior high."

"Junior high?"

"What's so funny?" Nathan wondered when she started laughing.

"Well, nothing, except that I didn't think that you were so uncool that you were still spending all your time playing games like this when you were that old," Haley told him, resuming her laughter.

"Uncool?" Nathan repeated before immediately starting to tickle her sides, causing Haley to squeal.

"Ahem."

Haley pushed Nathan away from her abruptly when the obviously uncomfortable attendant cleared his throat, clutching a teddy bear in his hands. "Here's your prize," he told them, handing it to Nathan.

"Thanks," Nathan replied, taking it from him, leading Haley away from the booth as he gave it to her.

"For me?" she exclaimed in her best girly voice.

"You think I'm going to keep it?"

"Well, I don't know; I'm worried I may find even more skeletons in your closet."

"I'm not the one with a teddy bear named Mr. Waffles," Nathan reminded her.

"Did you just make fun of Mr. Waffles?" Haley exclaimed for real this time.

Nathan chuckled. "I would never make fun of Mr. Waffles."

"Good," Haley stated, hugging the bear to her chest. "Now he can have a female companion."

Nathan raised an eyebrow, curiously. "It's a girl bear?"

"Hello. Did you not see her pink ribbon?"

Nathan just shrugged. "Men wear pink ties."

"So?"

"So just because it has a pink ribbon, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a girl. Guys wearing pink ties would be kind of the same thing."

"Do you wear pink ties?"

"No!" Nathan exclaimed.

"I think you'd look cute in a pink tie," Haley contemplated. "With a black shirt and…"

"Not even for you," Nathan said pointedly.

"Oh, well, I suppose I'll have to make do," Haley sing-songed, taking the bear into her left hand so she could hold Nathan's with her right once more.

"So do you want to go on a ride next or a booth?" Nathan wondered.

"Actually…could we talk first?" Haley said finally.

"Sure. What do you want to talk about?"

"Us."

"Okay, that's not good," Nathan said, slowing down his steps. "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's not bad. I just – whenever I bring up Charlotte you always say that's ages away, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I've come to a decision."

"You have?"

"I've decided that I want to come to Charlotte with you."

"Oh." Nathan stopped short and glanced around, a small smile on his lips.

"Oh? That's all you have to say?"

"I guess we should have talked about this before-"

"You don't want me to go with you?" Haley said, slowly, sounding an awful lot too whiny to her own ears, but couldn't help it.

"Actually, I had sort of decided that I would stay in Tree Hill."

"S-stay? As in…"

"As in move here," Nathan explained.

"B-but why?" Haley asked, before she could stop herself, to which Nathan couldn't help but chuckle.

"Because you're here. Although if you're moving to Charlotte that could be a problem," he joked.

"You know what I mean! What about your family – and your mom! And-"

"Actually, that's kind of the reason I hadn't mentioned it before now. I like it here, and it's not like I couldn't work here either, but I wasn't sure about leaving Mom alone there."

"And now?"

"Well, when she came back from Charlotte the last time she went she said she was thinking about opening up a branch of Karen's Café here so she'd have to divide her time between the two. It wasn't finalized then, but it was today so –"

"Well, why didn't you tell me all this before!" Haley demanded

"Because I wasn't sure how you'd react – we haven't really been going out that long and I didn't know if –" Nathan got cut off when Haley put her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. He reciprocated the kiss, pulling her close so that her body lines up against his. When they moved apart for air, Nathan grinned down at her. "Well, I take it you're pleased, then?"

She grinned back, rubbing her nose against his. "Very."

"I'm glad. Now, I just have to find a place to stay."

"Well, you know…I, um, heard there's a vacancy coming up in my apartment building soon…"

"I'll make a note."