I do not own anything associated with Being Human ;) Mentions from S1 ep3. Enjoy the chapter!

By the third or maybe fourth really obvious time, she had lost count of how many times it has actually been. There have been the times where Danny comes over to fix things, and he always seems to make some allusion to the fact that he thinks they are a couple. Then there are the people at work, who still seem to think they are just the "cutest couple". Not to mention when they first met Sally or rather when she tried to scare them by quoting the words to eighties power ballads and Joss mistook her for one of the druggies that sometimes hung out in the alley by the house, she had suggested that they were getting it on. Granted, in her case at least, it had only been the one time and Joss was pretty sure she was just doing that to annoy her, as having been perving on them since they moved in she obviously knew by then that they were definitely not together. But it was also the cashier at the grocery store who when Aidan went back to get her another steak, because they turned out to be on sale and the wolf just loved its steak, told her almost conspiringly that it was sweet of her boyfriend to go grab another one after she had lamented not getting more. Joss could almost forgive the cashier her misconception, because hey, she was a teenage girl and Joss of course had been a teenage girl at some point. Back in the day. When it was cool to say back in the day, if it ever was. She knew how hormonal they were; just look at her sister Emily.

Emily…who it turned out had practically interrogated Aidan as to his relationship with Joss when she found out they lived together. Aidan seemed to think it was funny and sweet that her little sister all but put the screws to him. It showed that she loved her and cared, he had told Joss when she tried to apologize on her behalf. Joss wasn't too sure; not that her sister loved her, she knew that, despite all that she had put her family through, despite almost having killed her sister in the basement of the hospital. No, she just knew Emily and she was sure by now her parents had the whole story of how she had run into her at the hospital and how her normally sweet and put together older sister had gone mad.

Joss thought moving in with Aidan was supposed to make her life a bit less stressful, but it seemed that it only increased her level of neurotic hysteria, especially on nights when she comes home to find half the neighbourhood in her living room.

"I should make a seven layer dip."

Joss looked at Aidan like he had lost his mind. He probably had. She had only been joking when she said they should invite the neighbours over to eat them. Mostly. "No."

As she tried to mingle, and only succeeded slightly better than Sally, who no one could see or hear, part of her, her OCD, was screaming that having all these people in the house was not good. For her sanity or the floors. Or her couch; had no one ever heard of wiping their feet at the door? Maybe she should put a mat down…

It was as she was considering this that she found herself in conversation with one of the neighbours.

"Jesse," he introduced himself from beside her.

"Joss," she replied. She was sure that wherever Sally had faded off too she was laughing at her awkwardness. Maybe she could go join her?

"So, I was kind of surprised that your boyfriend invited us all over here for this watch thing. You guys seem to keep pretty much to yourselves."

"Yeah well we're pretty busy…uh I mean," she paused, griping her beer more tightly. "Aidan's not my, not my boyfriend."

Jesse smiled as if that was what he had wanted to hear. From across the room she could feel Aidan's gaze on her, penetrating as always. He was probably making sure she wasn't embarrassing herself or doing anything that would be embarrassing or awkward, as usual.

"So cousin? Brother? One time lover? Stop me when I get there."

Joss laughed, feeling a little more at ease. Talking to guys was always hard for her; it was a miracle that she had ever been in a relationship long enough to get engaged. "We're just roommates. Friends. No loving going on here. We just live together and work together."

Jesse nodded, "So he's gay."

Joss almost spit out her beer, "god no!" Why did everyone assume Aidan was gay? "No, although that has been suggested before. No, we just are not attracted to each other like that, I mean he is good looking but…" she trailed off and quickly drained the rest of her beer to stop herself from talking. " Oh, would you look at that? Its empty! I'm just going to get another one." She started to slip away to the kitchen, but Jesse grabbed her hand and reached into her jeans pocket where her phone was just visible. Joss froze, not sure what to do. Who just reaches into a woman's pocket and grabs her phone? Had she been transported to one of those bad romantic comedies that Sally was so keen on watching? Was he going to try some Ryan Reynolds- esque line on her next?

"Here's my number," he said handing her back the phone. "You know, in case we end up paired up for this neighbourhood watch thing or something. It was nice meeting you Joss, I'll see you around." He walked away then and she stood there for a minute staring at her phone in her hand. She could practically feel Aidan's eyes drilling into her now and when she looked up it was to meet his questioning gaze. She looked back at her phone and then shook her head as if to dislodge her daze and went into the kitchen.

"He was totally checking you out. He wants a piece of that," Sally puffed into existence beside her at the fridge and Joss clutched her chest.

"How many times Sally! Seriously, you are going to give me a heart attack!"

Sally smiled apologetically and shrugged a bit. "Sorry. Seriously though, that boy was hinting really hard. He def liked what he saw. You should call him; it would do you good to get out, with a normal guy. Besides, at worst you might get some recreational loving."

Aidan chose that moment to enter the kitchen, carrying some empty beer bottles. Joss eyed them mentally adding beer to her grocery list, as it seemed she was now out. He set the bottles on the counter and then looked at her expectantly.

"You saw that right?" she didn't know why she was asking; she practically had a hole in the side of her head from all the staring he had been doing. " I mean, who does that?"

Aidan crossed his arms and leaned against the counter, looking only slightly amused. At least he wasn't smirking like he usually did or giving her the "awe what a cute puppy you are" look.

"He's smooth, I have to give him that. I mean the phone out of the pocket move is hard to execute without looking like your coping a feel."

"He was smooth," Sally agreed nodding from the other side of her. "If I could leave this house, I would so pop in on him for you and make sure he's not some pseudo serial killer in training or that he doesn't have a secret shrine dedicated to you. Although that could be flattering, in a creepy Scream, I know who killed me kind of way."

Joss sighed, "I am going to go make sure none of our neighbours are trying to commandeer our TV or the stereo. Or my Michelle Branch CD's." She moved back towards the living room, as Sally called out,

"Nobody wants the Michelle Branch, Joss!"

Joss sent her a very rude gesture, which only made the ghost laugh. Once she was out of the room, Sally turned to Adian.

"If I could hit you, I so would right now."

"Why?" asked, Aidan laughing slightly.

Sally put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. "I saw the way you were giving Joss's potential one night stand the eye. If it were possible he would have caught fire. That girl deserves to be happy and that's not going to happen if your giving all the guys that talk to her creepy vampire looks."

"I was not," Aidan scoffed.

Sally looked at him pointedly and he rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't! I was just making sure she was okay; you know how awkward Joss can be. Like you said, she deserves to be happy."

"Yeah," Sally nodded, and the look she was giving him could only be called shrewd. "So do you. Maybe that's the problem, you're both trying to be happy separately." And with that cornel of wisdom the ghost faded out, probably to go through Joss' closet again.

Aidan sighed tiredly and stared at the kitchen floor pensively, not really taking in the cracked tiles. He knew exactly what Sally was getting at; the problem was that there was nothing he could do. Would do. Sure he thought Joss was good-looking; beautiful even, if she brushed her hair and he didn't really mind the werewolf smell anymore. And she was funny, in a weird sort of way; her neurotic antics and OCD were highly amusing at times. But she was also becoming the most important person in his life; their relationship meant more to him then he could really ever tell her. So no, he couldn't be happy with Joss, not like that. Because if he messed up, like he had with Rebecca, then it would ruin him.

"Aidan?"

He looked up to find Joss standing in the entrance to the kitchen looking at him questioningly. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "Great."

"Good, cause I think it might be time to call this meeting to an end. That girl who was going on about the tagger is getting a bit fanatic."

He nodded and moved to follow her back into the living room, chuckling slightly as he heard her mutter,

"I'm going to have so much cleaning to do tonight."