ShadowRose18: I'm finally back with SOMETHING

Anyway here's the final chapter that took forever to write, I know

Whether you hate me or not right now, enjoy it.


Chapter 5 – Happily Ever After?

My mouth dropped.

It was her. She was standing not ten metres away from me.

My mysterious girl.

She didn't notice me for a moment, she was looking at Olivia, but after looking at Lysander and then me, her eyes grew wide and she took a shocked step back.

"Hey Em, these guys were at my party. Remember?" Olivia said brightly, ignoring the shocked stares between the girl and me.

I could see her beautiful green eyes staring directly into mine and her mouth was open slightly.

Mouth agape, I took a step towards her, unsure what to say.

Frightened, she turned and ran back into the hidden room through the door she had just come through.

Instinctively I followed her. I wasn't even thinking straight. I could only think of one thing: that I didn't want to lose her. Not again.

The inner room was darker than the store and was full of books; bookshelves lined the walls reaching to the ceiling and there were other piles of books lying all around the floor.

I heard her before I saw her; she was climbing the stairs at the end of the room.

Sprinting, I followed her further into the maze. At the top of the stairs she turned to see if I had followed her and gasped when she saw me. I would have thought she would have heard me climbing the stairs so clumsily.

She turned to run down a corridor, but I had reached the top of the stairs by then and grabbed her arm.

She stopped, panting in her frantic climb. Slowly I loosed my grip, but didn't completely let go of her arm, scared that she would run off again.

We stood there for a moment, breathing heavily, neither knowing what to say.

"Why…?" I breathed after some time. She looked at me with her brilliant green eyes and I had to take a deep breath before I could speak again.

"Why'd you run away? At the party" I asked, scared to hear the answer.

She bit her lip and kept her head down. I was just itching to hold her, but I didn't want to cause any more confusion. There was already plenty of that.

"I…" her voice was soft. She was scared. She bit her lip again.

"I didn't want it to become one of those… just one night, kind of things," she said finally, her head still down.

I just stared at her. That's what she had been worried about? My mouth turned into a smile. I even chuckled a bit. She looked up at me quizzically.

"I'm not like that" I answered, touching her hair.

She took a step back, but couldn't get far against my grip on her wrist.

"That's what they all say," she muttered, staring at the floor once more. I was a little shocked. I hadn't expected that reaction.

Now it was my turn to be at a loss for words. I took a deep breath.

"So how do I prove to you that I'm not like that then?" I asked her, unable to conceive a logical way to prove to her that I wasn't some playboy.

She didn't answer. I waited, fear beginning to creep into the depths of my heart. She was going to tell me to get lost, or that there was no way. I was going to lose her again.

I let go of her wrist. There was no point waiting for her to say it, it'd just hurt more. I might as well just leave.

"I got it," I said and with a sad smile turned to leave.

I had only taken a step before she grabbed my wrist. Surprised I whirled around to see her crying earnest tears. Wrapping her arms around my waist, she started crying into my shirt.

I couldn't think straight, but I followed my instincts. I held her and let her cry.

I ran my hands gently through her hair and kissed the top of her head. I told her to let it all out.

In my heart, I knew that this would either the beginning of something wonderful, or the end of a sad episode. Either way, I was going to treasure the moment, so I just held her as she cried.

After a while, she calmed down.

"I guess we started this all wrong, huh?" I whispered. She didn't reply. "My name's Tancred. Nice to meet you."

"Emma," she replied into my chest. I chuckled as she lifted her face off my shirt.

"Sorry," she murmured, wiping the last of her tears on the back of her hand.

Smiling, I took her hand and sat down on the top step, urging her to sit beside me. She hesitated but obliged and sat beside me. Her hand remained in mine.

"You didn't answer my question you know," I said to her. I wanted to eliminate even the smallest chance that she would reject me.

"You already proved it," she answered. I looked at her in surprise.

She smiled, making my heart beat faster. "You didn't forget me, you looked for me and you let me cry."

I chuckled. "That was enough proof? Really?" I thought it would take some sort of expensive present or utter dedication. She nodded, still smiling.

We stared at each other for a moment before I leaned in, but stopped myself.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," I pulled back. I ruffled my hair in embarrassment and then stared at the descending stairs.

This time her hand came to the side of my face and turned me to face her.

"I didn't say I didn't want you to kiss me," she said, smiling. And then her lips met mine.


"NO WAY!" Lysander cried. Olivia looked smug and Julia Indeglew looked uncomfortable.

"Yes way, Lysander Sage. I bet twenty bucks that they're making out right now," Olivia replied.

Lysander looked worried. "You don't know that they're back together though," he replied, unsure.

"Well they haven't come out," Olivia replied, smiling almost evilly.

"That doesn't indicate either direction," Lysander answered.

"Well, then let's find out, shall we?" Olivia responded, a cheeky twinkle in her eye.

"We shouldn't… disturb them," Ms Indeglew murmured, clearly uncomfortable.

"It'll be fine," Olivia replied with such certainty that even Ms Indeglew was convinced… for a while.

Peeking around the corner into the inner room, the room was dimly empty, the books still lying in the positions that they had been before.

"Where'd they go?" Lysander asked, avoiding a tower of books.

"Upstairs?" Olivia suggested, grinning.

"No way," Lysander breathed

The three walked towards the wooden stairs but only needed to look to the top of the staircase where the two sat asleep.

They sat beside each other on the top step, holding hands. Emma was resting her head on Tancred's shoulder and they looked exceedingly comfortable.

Olivia smiled, content with her matchmaking and turned back towards the store, Lysander was relieved that his friend would at lease no longer be like a zoned out zombie and Ms Indeglew was simply glad that they hadn't walked into anything awkward.

"I still won that bet, Lysander Sage," Olivia whispered as they closed the door to the inner room.

"No way, Olivia Vertigo," Lysander replied, following her out.

In her sleep, Emma smiled.


ShadowRose18:

yes that did take forever, but it's done FINALLY

Sorry, lack of time, motivation and everything in general made writing this near impossible until about half an hour ago.

I'll try to update JoM sometime soon.