Surprise! It's an update! I'm sorry that I haven't really updated much lately, but school has been ridiculously busy, and my break was taken up with grandparents visiting and sleeping and Christmas, so there hasn't really been much time to write. Plus, I've been feeling a little uninspired with this story, but now I'm back, at least for now! Yay! I apologize for not responding to any reviews/PMs lately. I honestly don't know where the time has gone, but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate them. Honestly, they mean so much to me, so thank you!


This chapter starts a little bit before where the last one left off, revealing what Lilly and Joe were up to before Olivia caught them. There's some Winnie-the-Pooh involved, and lots of kisses, and I hope you all like it! (I apologize ahead of time for any/all typos).

Disclaimer goes here!

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As soon as filming for their scene had ended, Joe grabbed Lilly's hand and dragged her down the hallway when he was sure that no one was looking.

"Where are we going?" she asked with a laugh as they headed up a flight of stairs.

"My sanctuary," Joe replied cryptically.

"Sanctuary?"

"It's where I go to be alone. No one ever comes up here," he assured her.

She was more concerned about another aspect of his answer. "Since when did you have time to be alone?"

"Are you complaining?"

Lilly pouted. "Yes. I never have free time."

Joe laughed and pulled her into a large, sunny classroom with a big, brown couch situated between two bookcases in the back near the door. "You have free time now," he pointed out.

"Not the point!" She crossed over to the window and looked out.

"Then what is the point?"

She turned, blinked up at him and frowned. "I don't know. Was there a point?"

With a chuckle, Joe held his arms out. "Come here, you."

Lilly walked into his arms as Joe wrapped them around her. "I missed you." She leaned her cheek against his chest.

"I missed you, too," he sighed.

Pulling away slightly, she wrinkled her nose up at him. "Don't tell me we're going to turn into one of those couples."

"Those couples?"

"You know, the 'I love you more,' 'No, I love you more,' couples. Been there, done that, it was not pretty."

Joe tamped down a flash of jealousy. Instead, he smiled. "Aww, but I was going to call you Schmoopy!"

Lilly wrinkled her nose in the way that Joe loved so much. "That's just gross."

"I'll show you gross," he whispered as he pressed his lips to hers. A soft, contented sound escaped Lilly's throat as she sunk into the kiss. Her arms came up and twined around Joe's neck, pulling him closer. Her fingers tangled in the little hairs at the nape of his neck and made Joe shiver.

She broke the kiss abruptly. "You know, as a prelude to a kiss 'I'll show you gross' is definitely not—"

Joe cut her off by kissing her again. A little while later, it was Joe who pulled away. "That was nice."

Lilly grinned up at him. "Mmmhmm." Something caught her eye and she moved out of Joe's arms, taking his hand as she tugged him toward a bookshelf next to the couch. "This is my favorite book!"

"'The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh'?" Joe asked with a laugh.

"Don't tease me. It has sentimental value." She hugged the book to her chest and sat down on the couch, patting the seat next to her. "Have you ever read it?"

Joe scoffed as he sat down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders. "Ha, me? Nooooo."

"You're a Disney star. How can you have not read Winnie-the-Pooh? Never mind. I'll read it to you."

"Ooooh, is it story time Miss Lilly?" he asked in his best little-kid voice as he pulled Lilly closer.

She tried to look stern. "Only if you're good, Joey. Now stop squirming or no story!"

Joe hunched up his shoulders and batted his eyelashes at her. "Otay."

She opened the book and cleared her throat. "Ahem. Chapter One. In which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, and the stories begin—"

"Ooooooh," Joe exclaimed, grabbing at the book. "Pretty pictures!"

Lilly giggled and slapped his hands away. "Joey! Behave, or I won't let you see the book."

Joe pouted. "But I want to see the pictures!"

"You'll see the pictures. Let me start the story." Joe stilled and gave Lilly his undivided attention. "Alright. Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin…" Lilly paused and pointed. "See, Joey, that's Edward Bear, and that's Christopher Robin."

Joe nodded solemnly.

Lilly continued. "It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it—"

Joe found himself getting caught up in the moment, the same characteristics that made Lilly an excellent actress made her a great reader and soon he was genuinely listening to the story and not just playing a game with her. He liked this, messing around and spending time together. Sure, the kissing thing was great, really great, but this was just as nice. His absentmindedly twirled in her hair as he lost himself in the sound of her voice as she leaned her head on his shoulder and read.

"He nodded and went out, and in a moment I heard Winnie-the-Pooh—bump, bump, bump—going up the stairs behind him. And that's the end of chapter one!" Lilly looked at him and smiled. "So, what did you think?"

Joe smiled. "You, my dear, are an excellent reader. Now it's my turn!" He moved the book from her lap to his and began the second chapter. They took turns reading, just enjoying the time they got to spend alone together.

Joe cracked up as Lilly finished the fifth chapter. "Oh, Winnie-the-Pooh! He's no Hefalump! He just kills me!"

With a giggle, Lilly nodded. "Me, too. But we'd better get back soon. They're probably looking for us."

"But—but—we don't have to film anything else today. The rest is just Miley, Nick, Olivia and Kevin," he whined.

"Yeah, but they'll be expecting to see us at least at some point during the day. We don't want them to get suspicious."

A rebuttal hovered on the tip of his tongue but he choked it back. This had been a fun moment with Lilly and he didn't want to ruin it by arguing. "Alright," he sighed. He got up from the couch and helped her to her feet. Hand in hand, they took a few steps towards the door before Joe stopped. "Wait. Just one more kiss before we go."

Lilly complied and pressed her lips to his, then one kiss turned into one more, then two more, then—

"Oh. My. God."

Joe and Lilly had been so engrossed in each other that they hadn't heard the door open, but the shocked exclamation and the clatter of something falling to the floor was enough to have the two springing apart so violently that Lilly fell on the floor.

She looked up to see Olivia's horrified eyes transfixed on her. Lilly could only stare back. They stayed frozen like that for a moment, Olivia staring at Lilly, Lilly staring back, and Joe staying silent, until a faint "Liv? Olivia?" came through from Olivia's phone, which had fallen next to her book.

That brought Olivia out of her stupor, and she scooped up her phone. "Kevin? Sorry about that…Yeah, I'm fine…Listen, I gotta go…Wrong? What do you mean what's—oh, no. Nothing happened. I saw a bug?...I do have to go now…I'll call you later…Uh-huh." She shot Joe and Lilly a look. "Yeah, I'll be sure to let you know when I find Joe and Lilly…yeah. Okay. Bye."

Joe went over to help Lilly up and stood by her side as Olivia hung up her phone.

"What the heck is going on?" Olivia demanded.

"We were reading?" Lilly offered lamely, saying the first thing that had come to mind.

Olivia shook her head. "With your lips?"

"Okay, so maybe it sounds a little silly," Lilly admitted.

"We—we were rehearsing. You know, the kissing scene that Lilly and I have to do," Joe interjected, proud of himself for coming up with a plausible excuse.

"Right. Except the script calls for you guys to come up for air at some point!"

Lilly squirmed under Olivia's accusing scrutiny and resisted the urge to grab Joe's hand. "Are you mad?" she asked quietly.

Olivia sighed. "No, it's just…why didn't you tell us?"

Lilly smiled wryly. "I haven't exactly told Miley yet. And somehow I don't think she'd take too kindly to learning that I'm dating the guy she likes, in front of everyone else."

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Olivia nodded.

"Yup. When she kills me, she'd at least like it to be in private," Lilly joked.

"She won't want to kill you!" Olivia protested. The look the other girl gave her was incredulous. "Okay, so maybe she will. Hey, if you die, can I have your skateboard?"

"Hey!" Joe cried, hugged Lilly to him closely. "Jokes about dying when Lilly's got a stalker on the loose? Not exactly funny."

Olivia emitted a girly squeal. "Awww, you do care!" She paused to compose herself and sat down on the couch, facing the couple who was looking at her like she'd suddenly grown an extra eye. "Sorry, had a moment. Moment's over. So…how did you get together?"

"We didn't plan this. I tried really, really hard to not feel the way I do about Joe," Lilly began, her hands locked over Joe's where they were resting over her stomach.

Joe rested his chin on Lilly's shoulder and interjected. "What can I say? I'm irresistible."

Lilly gently shoved her shoulder against Joe's chest and rolled her eyes. "Of course you are, honey."

"You couldn't resist, could you?" he whispered playfully, his breath tickling her ear and making her shiver.

"No, no I couldn't." Joe placed a kiss on Lilly's cheek and Olivia let out another girly sound.

"You guys are so cute!" She clapped her hands delightedly. "I cannot wait to tell Kevin! I told him—"

"No!" Joe and Lilly exclaimed in unison.

"You can't tell anybody," Lilly pleaded, her eyes serious and solemn. "Not until I tell Miley."

"But—"

"Please?" Joe added, doing his best puppy dog expression.

Olivia pouted, but acquiesced. "Fine." When the couple in front of her cheered, Olivia held up her hand. "But…you have to tell Miley soon."

Lilly ran over to hug her friend. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you! And I'll tell her. I promise."

Fighting free from her blond co-star, Olivia laughed. "Okay, well I guess I'll let you two go back to…whatever it was you were doing."

Lilly blushed. "We really were reading!" She reached for the Winnie-the-Pooh book. "See?"

Olivia waggled her eyebrows and gave them a wink. "Uh-huh."

"We were!"

"Sure, I believe you." And with that, Olivia was out the door.

"We were," Lilly pouted, turning to Joe, who merely laughed at her and kissed her temple.

"I know, baby. Let's go." He took her hand and they lead her out of the room.

"We were!" Lilly repeated as he closed the door behind them.

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Meanwhile, Miley and Nick were filming in the art building, Ramona and Julian's first meeting alone since the dance. The set was decorated to look like the classroom they were in was more or less abandoned, and the script called for Miley to poke through all of the random art projects that had been left behind. The lights were off, but the sunlight streaming in from the windows (as well as some added lighting from the crew) were sufficient.

She and Nick kissed again in this scene. They hadn't kissed since that first day of filming, and she found herself looking forward to it. She told herself that it was because she was going to prove that that first kiss with Nick was an anomaly. She wasn't always going to feel like that kissing him, it was just because it was the first kiss and that's why it still made her tingle inside when she thought of it. She ruthlessly tamped down the part of her that wanted it to feel like it had that first time. Because she didn't. She didn't think about Nick that way. She liked Joe. She turned her attention to the projects before her as she heard Kenny call action.

"So…" Nick began, his hands stuck awkwardly in his pockets as he rocked back and forth on his heels. Miley turned to look back at him and smiled. He was adorable when he was nervous, even if he was acting.

"So…" she repeated shyly, trying to ignore the camera that was panning around her head.

"So…" he said again, then winced.

Miley laughed. "You just said that."

"Yeah. Sorry."

A silence stretched out between them, and Miley turned away, looking once again through art projects. The main cast and Oliver had all done a piece, just for fun, and she smiled when she came across Nick's. It was a drawing of a goofy looking stick figure under a lopsided sun. There were little V-like marks that she thought were supposed to be birds. She held it up and turned to him.

"Julian Montgomery," she read the name in the corner of the paper out loud with a laugh.

Nick looked up from where he'd been staring at his shoes. "Huh?"

She turned to him and held out the drawing. "Your art project of…something. It's very cute." She looked up at him and grinned. "Aww, is that a blush I see? You're not embarrassed, are you?"

He tried to shrug nonchalantly. "Pssh. No."

She giggled. "Uh-huh."

"I was a freshman. I thought art was a stupid class."

"Uh-huh."

"You gonna give me that picture now?" he demanded, holding out his hand and walking towards her.

Miley shook her head. "Nuh-uh. I like it. I'm keeping it. Evidence that the great and talented Mr. Montgomery was not always so artistic."

"I don't think so." Reaching out, he tried to snatch it from her, but she danced out of his reach. Her stomach knotted at his proximity. "Come on, Ramona."

"You're going to have to catch me first!" she called out as she backed away from him. She started to run across the spacious art room, avoiding looking directly at the camera that was right in front of her, and she had made it almost halfway when she felt Nick's arms come around her and she found herself suddenly off her feet.

"Got you!" he cried as he swung her around. He put her down and turned her to face him. "Picture now?"

Miley caught her breath as she looked into his eyes. She shook her head. "Nope," she whispered as Nick's head inched ever so slowly closer to hers. Finally, tired of waiting, Miley closed the distance between them, and it was exactly like it was before. It was like fireworks, or magic, or—or—perfection. Eventually, they broke apart and she sighed contentedly, putting her cheek on Nick's shoulders and closing her eyes. There was just something really nice about being in his arms.

Her eyes flew open as realization hit.

Oh God, she liked him.

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So I hope you guys liked it! Yay, kisses for everyone. The stuff from Winnie-the-Pooh is from the actual book by A.A. Milne, which is one of my favorites. And I just think it's really cute when couples read to each other.

Hopefully this chapter isn't too out of place from the rest of the story, just because I haven't written it in so long, I might be out of practice. But if a lot of people hate it, I can try to rewrite it. Anyway, let me know what you think! I love reviews, constructive criticism makes me ridiculously happy, and if you don't have anything nice or constructive to say…well, please don't say anything. Gracias!

-v