an: so very sorry it's taken me so long to get this up. I've been meaning to, I just kept getting distracted. dang uni! haha, but here you are, hope you like it!

disclaimer: I don't own Dougie but I own Adara.

EIGHTEEN - IT'S A LAUGH

I've got a way of counting cars
You've got a way of breaking hearts
I've got the keys to a real fast car
And you're a real fast girl

"Uh-oh," Dougie said as smoke started coming from the front of the car, the sounds that had preceded it growing in decibel, as he pulled the car to the side of the deserted road. "I think she's broke."

I had spent most of my afternoon with Dougie. After we had found out the place we had planned on going to was closed for some mysterious reason, we opted to driving to a similar place just outside of the city – about a forty-five minute drive, to be exact.

Dougie had enlisted my help a few days earlier – for what, I still wasn't quite sure, but apparently my input on something had helped as he walked out of a store a few minutes after I had, informing me that he figured it out – he didn't elaborate as to what it was though – not even when I asked.

But before he figured it all out, we had had quite the adventure. I had managed to unknowingly drop my phone under the car while we got back in after stopping at the first promenade and when Dougie started to pull the car out of its space, we heard a crunching sound. Investigation of the sound found my completely destroyed phone, sitting in a puddle, where the car had been sat just moments before.

Then, later, at the second promenade, while walking by a guy on stilts who was switching back and forth every few minutes between juggling fire and juggling sharp knives, Dougie stopped to look at something on the ground, and since I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing instead to the guy we were walking by, I tripped over him, almost causing the guy juggling the huge knives to trip as well, as we were that close. The juggler did, however, drop one of the knives – less than a foot in front of where I was splayed on the group.

Apologising profusely – all three of us – Dougie threw me over his shoulder and dashed off, only putting me down when he thought we were a safe distance from the juggler and safely hidden away at the back of a small used bookshop.

It was in that bookshop that our first purchases of the day were made. Dougie declared that we should pick out a book for the other. Agreeing immediately, we spread out, looking at all the random titles available to choose from, planning on meeting out front the store in twenty minutes with our book choice purchased for the other.

This was how I found myself looking through all the books, some of which I had never heard of before, others common day, and a select few that I hadn't see since my childhood. Twenty minutes later, books purchased, we traded paper bags.

After having peeked inside his bag, Dougie laughed, "Latin for All Occasions'," he read off the front of the book, and then opened it to a page at random: "'Amo vi-um.'"

It sounded more like gibberish to me than another language, but I let him have it, as the only Latin I had ever heard was in movies. "And what does it mean?"

"I love sex." His face was so serious that I was almost on the ground in a fit of laughter.

"Of course it says that!" When we – my laughing had apparently started him up, too – calmed back down, I check out my book. "'The Big Coloring Book of' – '" I pulled it out enough to see the title and front image before promptly letting it fall back into its hiding place in the opaque paper bag, cutting myself off in the process. "That's crude," I laughed. "They seriously have a colouring book for that?"

The smile he gave me while he nodded happily was slightly smug.

After that, we found ourselves in what I can only imagine was the largest toy store ever to have existed. They had this area of teddies and other animals where you could figure out which type of stuffed animal you wanted by cuddling up with one of the samples in a large and cozy bedroom-like setting – minus the bed, of course. Upon seeing it from across the store, Dougie had dragged me over – not like it was such as struggle; as soon as I saw where he was taking me, I was probably pulling him more than he was me.

"You know what I just realised?" he said as we were relaxing with a bunch of zoo animals a while later.

"That you're really a seven-year-old girl?" I teased. When he tossed a zebra at my head, I added, "No, what?"

"That your name rhymes with 'bear'." It was a simple statement, but it had me in a fit of laugher once again that would have surely had me on the floor had I not already been lying down.

After finding composure, I replied, "Yes. Yes it does. Whatever brought this up?"

He reached over, pulling an animal back with him so I could see it. "This bear. And," he added with great enthusiasm, "your name is spelt like 'naked'. But with a 'd'."

I was beyond confused now. "What?" I asked, voicing this confusion, while launching a monkey at him.

"You know," he started as if it was plain as day, "B – A – R – E, bare… naked! D – A – R – E, Dare… you!" He seemed so proud of his realisation.

"You," I rebutted, this time launching a giraffe at him, "are one messed up and cheeky monkey."

"That's it!" he cried, jumping up. "This means war!" With that, he tossed the bear at me and rushed off, looking for cover and more toys.

Within minutes, we had thrown almost every animal that was in a five foot radius of where we were hiding from the other, and had thrown a good deal of the ones that weren't within reach anymore, as well.

After a few more minutes, our stuffed animal war was put to an end when we were thrown out of the store for having scared a couple little kids. I felt kind of bad for scaring them, but we were laughing too hard as we left to do anything about it really.

It was shortly after that when Dougie 'figured it out'. We were in a home furnishings store, talking about what we were looking at on the shelf when a look briefly crossed Dougie's face. We continued looking around the store for a while longer, but after having already been looking for about ten minutes, I told Dougie that I was going to go wait outside the store for him.

When he found me another almost ten minutes later, he made an announcement: "I've figured it out! Thank you, Dare Bear!" Before I could make a comment as to what he had just called me, he was wrapping me in one of his usual lung-crushing hugs.

"Okay?" I asked catching my breath after having been released, completely baffled and not knowing what I had done to help him. "You're welcome? Now what did I do, Cheeky Monkey?" I figured if he was giving me a weird nickname, I would give him one as well.

He just smiled at that, sniggering. "Oh, you just helped me figure out what I was looking for. I had to order it, since they didn't have exactly what I wanted. You'll see in a few weeks."

I nodded, still confused. Linking his arm around my back, he started pulling me along, "Let's skedaddle, shall we?"

Twenty-five minutes later, as we sped down the road, some sounds forced us to turn down the music we'd been blasting and sing along to. It wasn't much at first, just some sounds we were somewhat aware of. Continuing on, however, only caused the sounds to become louder until, before long, the car was smoking and sounded as if it was going to just quit on us while we still moving.

Dougie had been lucky enough to get the car off the road before it completely died. He looked over at me as we now sat on the side of the road. "You don't happen to know anything about cars, do you?" He looked hopeful and like he already knew the answer was no; it was so sad and endearing.

Shaking my head, I replied, "Just that they're not supposed to be making weird sounds and smoking like a chimney."

Sighing, he pulled a lever to pop open the bonnet, made sure there was no traffic – not that we'd seen any the whole time we'd been driving the road – and climbed out of the car.

I reached for his mobile, which we had just put on to charge as we left the promenade before quickly following him to the front just as he pushed the bonnet up, sending even more smoke than had already escaped – which was a lot – into his face.

Glancing down at his phone, I realised that the car must have been having troubles we didn't realise, as his phone, once having held a small charge, was now completely dead.

"Looks like we won't be phoning anyone for help," I informed him sadly, pulling him away from the car to give it time to cool.

song: love like this by the summer set

an: thanks for reading! :) I'm still working on the next one, and it may be a while, as I have a lot of essays due this week (three!) and I'll be travelling for about two weeks right after that. I will try to work on it, but I don't know if I'll get it up until the end of April. Sorry in advance! Thanks for sticking around while my head goes crazy and forgetful on me! xxxx