BreeTico – Lol, I think being a writer is one of the hardest things ever. Not only do you have to be in the mood for writing, but you also have to have at least a lick of imagination. Sigh. And Xavier is an idiotic jerk. He just really likes Emily and has just recently figured out that he's too late. So I have to feel some pity for him. But mostly I don't like him. At least, right now. Haha! (:

I'm really, really, super duper uber sorry for the extremely long wait. My writer's block has continually gotten worse, and I've found myself staring at the computer screen for minutes at a time without a clue of how to move on. I need inspiration, quick, before the writer in me recedes into the darkest, drabbest corners of my mind!

The Significance Series belongs to Shelly Crane.

19: Forever Inked

I sprawled out on the bed, face down in the pillows, my feet dangling off the end of the mattress. After I'd calmed down enough that I wasn't sniffling because of my ruined friendship with Xavier, Derek had led me to his car. He told me that he finished with his plans early and had gone to my mom's shop only to find that I wasn't even there. He'd even knocked on my mom's office door to ask where I'd gone, only she didn't even know that I'd left. He told me that he was embarrassed to admit it, but he'd freaked out when he realized that no one – not even Xavier, who he'd angrily confronted – knew where I'd gone. He said that I should probably text her and tell her that I was okay, which I did. She wasn't pleased with the fact that I had run off, either, but she didn't ask for an explanation. Yet.

I felt the bed bow as Derek sat next to me, kicking off his shoes. A moment later, he was lying down next to me. I let out a tired groan, which made him chuckle. He rested a hand on my lower back, fingers dancing on the fabric of my shirt. It sent chills throughout my body, but I remained where I was. I got the feeling that he wanted to ask me something. He had something that he wanted to tell me, but he didn't know how to bring it up.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me and I rolled over, turning to directly face him. Our noses were only inches apart. I let one of my legs drape over his as I slid an arm across his muscular stomach, dropping my head onto his shoulder. I could feel the spark that it gave him, and I struggled to hide my smile. "I'm sorry," I whispered, "for getting all upset about another guy."

Derek let out a breath. "It's fine, baby. I was more worried about where you were. Though when I went back into the storage room looking for you and found Xavier, he looked like he'd been caught red-headed. Did he do something to you?" I could tell that he was trying to keep his voice calm, but there was an angry current running beneath it. A part of me liked it. And the other part of me said that I was ridiculous for liking it in the first place.

I felt my entire body tense. Derek could feel it, too, because his body suddenly froze next to me. He was waiting for the worst, I realized. "He kissed me," I admitted, my voice low. I could feel Derek's anger swirling inside of him, laced with jealousy and the need to prove that I was his. "The imprint shocked him, or something. He accused me of biting him." I said, lifting my face to his.

"Good," he said, his hand coming up to grasp mine. "Next time I see him, I'll…." He didn't elaborate on what he wanted to do to my (possibly ex) best friend. I figured that it was partly for me, partly because he didn't know what he wanted to do to Xavier for kissing me. To Aces, that was crossing a huge line. Their rules were different than regular human rules, and even then, kissing another guy's girlfriend was totally messed up. I bet that's why he looked so sheepish when Derek saw him there. Not even thirty minutes before he'd been trying to make out with me. And Derek was bigger and stronger than Xavier on any given day. If I was him, I'd be scared.

"Don't do anything to him," I whispered even though I knew Derek wouldn't dare. He wasn't interested in getting into any trouble with me or the real world – that is, if Derek beat him up and Xavier threatened to press charges against him, or something. "Just leave him be. He doesn't want anything to do with me unless I'm dating him." I could hear the hitch in my breath as I said the words, realizing how true it felt. That was pretty much what he'd told me, right? He said that he didn't want to be my best friend, he wanted to be my boyfriend. And since that position was already taken – forever – did that mean he was going to slide out of my life for all eternity?

Derek sat up a little bit to kiss the top of my head. "I won't do anything to him, Emily. I swear on it. But forgive me if next time I see him, I try to kiss you as often as I can." His chin rested on my head, and I could hear the rumble of every word in his chest.

I stifled a giggle. "I'll accept that," I said. I could feel Derek pushing emotions and vague advice towards me, trying to pretend like he wasn't trying to influence me. But I didn't mind it. If it were anybody else, I was sure that I'd be angry beyond words. This time, I just listened. It was time for me to stop worrying about everyone around me, specifically Xavier. I'd let him bother me to the point of tears, and I hated being that weak. Derek had seen me cry a total of three times, and two of those times it was because of Xavier. It wasn't fair to him for me to cry over another guy, even if he knew that Xavier was destined to be my friend and nothing more. It just wasn't right. The advice wasn't from him, directly. I had the feeling that it was from Victoria. But either way, I accepted it.

The moment I decided to give up trying to fit my previous life to my current one, I felt a rush of calm wash over me. It wasn't the same feeling as I got when Derek touched me; it was greater, like a mixture of him and of the resolution that ran through my mind. I sighed heavily. It was like a pressure had been released off my chest. Derek seemed to feel it; the hand not holding mine reached up and ran through my hair. I let my eyes flutter.

I looked up at Derek. He was already looking down at me. I rolled over a little bit more and pressed my lips to his. Now that I thought back about it, there was few times where I initiated a kiss. But this was one of those few times. Derek reacted almost immediately, his body shifting to the point where he was propped up on one arm, his other hand set securely against my side. My hand ran through his hair, running down the soft, thin leather of his necklace, pressing down on the pendant that had come out from the collar of his shirt. I didn't even mean to do it, but my fingers fumbled over the front of his shirt, running down the three buttons on the V-neck. As my fingers slid over the fabric, I realized that there was something underneath it, against his chest. It felt like he had some sort of bandage there.

Without really thinking about what I was doing, I pulled away from him and yanked hard on the collar of his shirt. He seemed surprised by the movement, not that I blamed him. I realized half a second later that peering down the front of his shirt was weird, even if he was my significant. But I couldn't be bothered by it because I clearly saw the gauze taped to his chest. "Derek!" I exclaimed. "What did you do?" And why hadn't I felt that he needed to be healed? I was supposed to feel that kind of stuff, right? Was there something wrong with me? Wrong with our imprint?

"Emily," he started, but I was already tugging at the hem of his shirt, determined to see what was wrong with him. He sighed and complied, pulling it off by reaching behind his head and grasping the collar of his shirt the way guys do. I couldn't even find it in me to admire his chest and nice set of manly abs because I was so worried about him. Sure enough, taped to his chest, just over his heart, was a piece of gauze the size of the palm of my hand. I gently pressed my hand against it, worried that something had happened to him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?" I demanded.

"Because I'm not hurt," he replied softly. His eyes searched mine for a second before he picked at the corner of the medical tape against his skin. He winced a little as he pulled it off. I held my breath, still expecting to see some monstrous wound marring his skin.

Derek peeled away the gauze, revealing his chest. Just over his heart, the skin was raised and red. But he wasn't hurt, not technically. I now knew what he'd gone to go do while I was at work. My significant had gone to get a tattoo. My eyes immediately watered at the sight of it. I understood the placement of it now. It ran the length of my longest finger and was about the width of two fingers, swirling in cursive. Derek had tattooed my name over his heart.

I reached out and pressed my finger to it. I wondered if it hurt at all. Right then, I felt a flush of warmth that seemed to seep out of me and into him. I knew from somewhere that new tattoos were supposed to stay out of the sunlight and needed some sort of salve to make sure that they healed over, since they had to scab up. I realized that I had probably healed him, letting him skip the scabbing part. "Derek," I breathed, brushing the back of my hand across my cheek. I couldn't even find the words to say how much that meant to me. He'd tattooed my name on his skin. That was forever. I already knew that our relationship was going to withstand decades, but this was more than that.

"After I got it done, I was worried that you weren't going to like it," he said quietly. His eyes continued to search my face.

"I love it," I said, putting my hand on his cheek. "I might even like it more than I like your dragon." I told him, looking up at him from underneath my lashes. His face broke out into a smile as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I let my hands slide up his chest and wrap around his neck, tangling in the hair at the nape of his neck.

Derek's skin was hot on mine, his fingers leaving trails of fire on my cheek, my arm, my neck. Something inside of me was going crazy over him, too. My hands tangled in his hair, traveled down the smooth skin of his chest, pulled him closer to me. I could taste the sharp mint of the gum he'd been chewing earlier as our mouths moved together. We were one, destined to be one, forever and always.

His fingers skimmed the skin of my waist, my shirt riding up. He held his mind close to mine, but just out of reach. His ability to restrain himself was growing stronger by the day – even though this was the greatest make out session we'd ever shared, he was still keeping his head for the most part. Our kisses were fiery and almost urgent. But after a little while, they slowed to sweet pecks that grazed over my skin. I could feel love emanating from him every time his lips touched me. I could feel myself relaxing, calming down, mind becoming even more unguarded.

Derek pulled away from me then, his mind carefully closed off to mine despite the fact that we'd touched the very surface of mutualizing. He wasn't willing to go any farther until he was absolutely positive that the two of us were ready for such a big step. And even though I wanted it – I wanted to know every little thing about him – I respected his decision. And in the end, he was probably right. It was like our roles had been reversed. He was the responsible one, and I was the one that couldn't wait for more.

"Emily," he whispered, his lips touching my ear, breath hot on my hair. "I love you more than I've ever loved anything else. And I always will."

I smiled and kissed him one last time before snuggling into his side and letting sleep take me.

# # #

All I was aware of, at first, was the sound of something thumping right underneath my ear. Not just one something, I decided after a moment of listening to it. Two somethings. And just like that, I remembered the night before as I really started to wake up from my morning stupor. I had fallen asleep nearly on top of Derek. He was lying out on his back, one arm hanging over the side of the bed, the other tucked underneath my head. I sat up with a low groan of morning hatred, running my fingers over my eyes. I had fallen asleep in my skirt, which had hiked up my thighs in the middle of the night, and my tank top which felt twisted and tight. Running a hand through my hair, I glanced over at my sleeping significant.

Moving as quietly and quickly as I could, I slid away from him, swinging my feet to the floor on my side of the bed. Smoothing down my skirt, I found the drive to stand up and head to the dresser. I was in desperate need of a shower. Maybe after that I would feel less like I'd slept in the tightest clothes I owned. Even my mouth felt dry, I realized, which was generally uncommon when I was next to Derek. I must have really looked like a mess.

I slid open the dresser drawers and picked through my options, choosing out undergarments and a pair of jeans that flared out on the legs and made my butt look great, or so said my mother. I dug around for a shirt for a little while, but eventually ended up standing in front of the open closet. After a few moments of staring at my shirts, none of them jumping out at me and screaming "Wear me! Wear me!" I turned my attention to the lines of darkly colored shirts on Derek's side of the closet. I hardly ever really paid attention to what he was wearing unless I was admiring the fit of his clothes or the way it made his skin look warmer. It was always about him. But for some reason, I found myself flicking through the hangers of dark shirts, noting the way they all seemed to be virtually the same. He was nothing if not predictable, my man.

I'd gotten about halfway down the row when someone cleared their throat. I froze for half a second before sheepishly looking over my shoulder. Derek had apparently woken up while I was surveying his choice of outdoors wear, and I'd been so distracted that I hadn't even noticed the steady stream of coherent thoughts. Derek met my gaze with a blazing warm smile that I felt all the way to my toes. "Find anything you like?" He asked, his lips twitching up into a smile.

"A few things, maybe," I answered without missing a beat. I turned away from him so he couldn't see the way his simple flirting affected me. My cheeks were growing hotter by the second. I could hear him getting up as I returned to my half of the closet, quickly picking a shirt at random and tossing it onto my pile of things to shuttle away to the bathroom with me.

Just as Derek surprised me by wrapping an arm around my waist, there was a knock on the door.

I let out an unladylike snort. Of course, we hadn't even been up for ten minutes and someone was knocking on the door. Of course. Derek just chuckled and grabbed his shirt from yesterday from the end of his bed. He straightened it out as he headed over to the door. He was still holding it in one hand when he twisted the knob. The door swung open. I gathered my things in my arms, trying to balance them precariously.

I heard a low whistle from whoever was standing at the door, followed by a loud, "Dude, you're so whipped!" I turned to see Jack standing on his tiptoes, looking over Derek's shoulder at me. He puckered up his lips and blew me a kiss. Derek shoved him in the stomach. I stifled a giggle, rolling my eyes. "Man, don't you know you're not supposed to get a girl's name tattooed on you?"

"Kiss off!" I called out from my place inside the room.

Derek let out a bark of laughter. "You heard the lady. What do you want?" His words weren't sharp or pointed, but I could tell that he wanted to get back to me. It was just too hard for us to get any alone time. Derek had four brothers and sisters, not to mention his two parents, and this was our most solitary place. I thought, momentarily, about the idea of getting our own place. It would mean that we wouldn't have to move around the schedules of the rest of his family, but it was probably going to be a really bad idea. Our imprint had only been for about three weeks, and we were already having trouble keeping ourselves at our chosen slow pace (for Aces, anyway.)

"Mom and Madison want to take Emily shopping. She says that you two need to go out on a date." Jack looked like he was struggling not to laugh. He must have thought that it seemed as ridiculous as I did – Derek and I were constantly with each other, and when we weren't, we worried about the other. Now that we had ascended, we didn't need to release each other anymore, but I still didn't want him to leave me anywhere. We were always circling around each other, always in the other's mind, always counting down the moments until we could be together. But I guess it made sense; Victoria wanted us to have a sense of normalcy, even if we weren't a normal couple.

Derek must not have been very focused on me, because he didn't seem to pick up on my thoughts. When I looked up, he was looking at me, a question clearly formed in his eyes. "What?" I asked a little too loudly. "I wasn't listening."

Do you want to go out on a date with me? You can go shopping with Madison and Mom, and I'll find a place where we can go. No fancy restaurants, though, right?

"Right," I agreed. "Yeah, we can do that. It will get our minds off of things." Jack snorted at the doorway, probably because he realized that we were talking to each other in our minds. A part of me said that he was just jealous over the fact that he hadn't met his significant yet. I was probably going to have to get used to it – with the imprints being renewed, those that hadn't imprinted were going to be jealous over the fact that I, a human girl, had managed to snag one of the hottest Ace guys there was.

"Well, you better hurry," Jack said. "They're leaving in like, thirty minutes, tops. And girlfriend, I think you've got a bird's nest in your hair." My significant rightfully defended me by socking his brother in the shoulder. Love you, I thought in his general direction.

Derek nodded, shooting off a dazzling smile, ducking his head under the hem of his shirt and yanking it on. Jack leaned against the doorway while I hurried past the two of them to the bathroom. I took the quickest shower ever, blow-dried my hair halfway, and quickly put on the makeup basics – which, now, was only mascara and lip gloss. I hurried back to the bedroom to grab my sandals and purse. Jack and Derek were still in the doorway, talking about a show or something. I wasn't really paying attention as I slipped my feet into my shoes and snatched my purse off the ground. I stood up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips.

Do you need some cash? I've got a few fifties in my wallet. He offered. He could tell that I didn't like it when other people tried to take care of me financially when I had my own money. I'd also learned from him that he was determined to provide for me, and if that meant giving me his entire paycheck he would do it. Neither of us was going to back down easily. We were at an impasse.

No, I have my own money. Thanks, though. There was no point in lashing out at him. I would never really be comfortable with him giving me money or buying things for me, and he would never stop trying to take care of me in every conceivable way. I could feel him mentally rolling his eyes at me as he squeezed my hand once before letting me go. I breezed down the hallway after Jack, smiling at my significant over my shoulder.

Have fun, Derek called after me.

You too, I said back.

# # #

Madison was extremely excited that I was there. She had thought that I wouldn't accept their invitation for shopping. Madison had only seen the new imprints of others; and they were always holding onto one another, even freaking out when they weren't together. She had figured that me without Derek would be a wiggly mess of pudding, or something. Understandable, I guess.

And partly true. It was hard going from constant protection and understanding to an area without so much as the breeze of him. I managed my mother's shop because I knew that he would be coming back soon and that I couldn't look distressed about him not being there. But with other Aces, I could be myself. It was easier to let myself show them how much I craved his presence. And now that I wasn't constantly holding myself in check, I caught myself doing little things that, to any other person, would look natural. Touching my back or my neck for an ache was one. Shrugging out my shoulders, shaking out my wrists, or shifting anxiously from one foot to the other were a few more.

After about an hour, I had bought nothing. We stopped in the mall food court for fruit smoothies and had managed to steal a booth on the very outskirts of the eating customers. Victoria and Madison slid into one side, leaving the other for me. I harbored all of their shopping bags between me and the wall, since there wasn't any room for all of them on their side.

As I stirred my smoothie with my straw, I listened to Madison's story about her friends while looking over their bags out of the corner of my eye. Victoria was pretty free with her credit card. She and Madison seemed to favor the stores that I avoided like they had the plague, thanks to their incredibly high prices. Victoria hadn't even batted an eyelash as she swiped her card at several stores, even when the totals got to be three digits. I nearly had a coronary. My mom and I never spent three digits anywhere unless it was at the grocery store.

"Emily?" I looked up at the sound of my name, meeting both Victoria's and Madison's gazes. They looked a little worried. They also looked like they were waiting for me to answer a question.

"Sorry, I zoned out." I admitted with a sheepish grin. "What did you say?"

"I asked why you haven't even tried on anything yet." Madison reiterated, giving me a pointed look. I knew that this impromptu shopping was a part of the plan to get me and Derek to go out on a date of some sort. Usually, dating couples didn't live together after only weeks of knowing each other. They wanted to give me my Cinderella moment, even if that meant forcing Derek to wait in the living room while I walked down the hallway in my sparkly dress and matching stilettos.

Like that was ever going to happen. If I attempted stilettos, I was going to fall flat on my face and probably break my nose in the process.

I shrugged. Somehow, it became embarrassing to admit that I didn't have the kind of money to shop where they did. I was a cashier at my mom's music shop, for God's sake. It wasn't like I was rolling in money in my free time. Finally, I settled on saying, "I don't go in those stores all that often. It's not really… my style." I said. I could tell, though, that it didn't exactly fool them. They were smart enough to realize that even though my dad had a certain amount of money, I wasn't into charity handouts. I was nineteen. Other nineteen-year-olds were in college, working part-time like me, studying for their tests. They weren't supposed to be dependent on their parents anymore. So I wasn't dependent on mine.

Madison blinked rapidly a few times, like she was trying to figure out how to move us off the subject. Or, at least, make it less awkward.

I really, really wanted Derek at my side now. Almost as if the universe was answering my prayers, my phone lit up and started buzzing in my purse. I turned and nearly pounced on it, eager for the momentary break. I couldn't help but hope that it was Derek. I knew, though, that it was probably going to be my mom, texting me to see what I was doing. I pulled the phone out of my purse and felt my heart swell when I saw the name and the picture tagged to it.

I was sure that Victoria and Madison could see my face light up like a bulb had gone off in my skin as I swiped my finger across the screen. "Hey," I said into the mouthpiece, my heart clenching for a second while I waited for his reply.

"Hey." I let out a sigh, unable to hide the smile touching the edges of my lips. He sounded relieved, too. "Your heart was starting to pick up. Are you okay?"

I played with my straw as I brought my knees up to my chest in the booth, despite normal public etiquette. "I'm fine," I replied smoothly. I studiously avoided Victoria and Madison's gazes. "Don't worry about me. What are you doing?"

"I can tell you're clamming up about something. But you're so far out of range that it's hard to get a good read on you. Don't think I won't wrestle it out of you later."

"You can try," I said, challenging him with a devious smile on my face. I remembered what happened last time I challenged him. He trapped me in the front seat of his car just in front of the high school…. I brought my smoothie across the table and chewed almost nervously on the straw. I could tell that Victoria and Madison were listening intently. I was used to having them around in the sense that they'd seen us touch and they'd seen us kiss, but we'd never flirted with each other so boldly in front of his family.

"Don't tempt me," was his answer. I sputtered out a laugh, nearly knocking over my drink. I could hear the laughter in his voice, which put me at ease. "Stay safe, baby."

I put my elbows down on the table. "I will. I love you." I couldn't help but glance up at his mom and sister as the words slipped out of my mouth. They were both slyly looking away, but I could tell that they were really listening in. I couldn't even begin to hide the blush that was crawling up my cheeks and staining my neck.

"I love you, too, sweetheart. I'll see you soon." I could hear him pull away from the phone, but I didn't pull mine away from my face. I waited until I heard the slight pop that said he'd hung up before taking a deep breath and setting my phone down on the table. Derek's name and picture glared up at me, a time flashing underneath, saying that we'd only been talking for about five minutes. It hadn't been very long, but it was almost enough to give me a renewed sense of comfort.

Taking a sip of my smoothie, I grinned at Victoria and Madison. "We've got more shopping to do."

Once again, I'm terribly sorry for the incredibly long wait on this. It's been weeks, I think. But I have a good excuse, I do! I had several exams this past week and have been swamped in other personal aspects of life. But I did it – I finally got this chapter written. And honestly, I'm going to warn you to expect another large gap between updates. My planning has only taken me so far, and I'm still trying to figure out how to end this chapter of Derek and Emily's lives. Things might seem a little fluffy for a little while. But fluffy is okay, right?

I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammatical errors. I sort of skimmed over it, but I didn't actively search for mistakes. So please do forgive me if they're in there. Hopefully they're not terribly distracting.

As always, I ask that you take a few moments to leave me a review in the box below. Another thing: I want to really thank you all for your continued support for this fanfiction. Thank you all so much! Peace (: