A/N: Hey, guys! So, I'm blown away by the amount of love on this fanfic. I mean, almost 1,000 views in two days?! That's freaking awesome! You guys are amazing! And over 40 followers! WOW!

Thanks so much. I felt like I owed you guys another chapter, so this is what I've been working on for the past two hours...or more. I hope you enjoy! I will be posting the third chapter VERY soon, so keep an eye out! I love you all! Mwah!

Chapter Two

Class was extremely boring that day, even more than usual. The hour and a half dragged by like the time my dad had thought it was a good idea to film a document on a snail making its journey from place to place. It was a very long and slow day. Not to mention, we had a substitute who was older than Mrs. Holbrook and who would trail off in the middle of his sentence and just stare blankly at the class like we knew what he had meant to say. Half the class fell asleep ten minutes into the lecture, while I forced myself to take diligent notes, though that was hard since my teacher hardly understood what he was talking about. By the time the poor old man said, "Class dismissed", the only person still conscious was me - and drool was dripping down my chin.

The snow had started up again, the delicate snowflakes melting when they touched the warm window. I had seen it begin to fall when I was in class, drawing doodles on my pitiful notes. It wasn't as harsh as last night, but I still couldn't wait to return to the warmth and coziness of my dorm - and Nod.

Nod. My stomach twisted and I felt warmth spread from my cheeks down to the tip of my toes almost immediately. I felt tingly and lightheaded and fluttery. Not to sound cliche or anything, but the only guy who had ever made me feel that way was Nod. No, he wasn't the first guy I'd ever kissed. There had been a couple of boyfriends before him - Tom, Chris, and Jason. All of them had been nice guys - except Chris, who was a complete crybaby it turned out (and a jerk) - but none of them had made me feel like if I closed my eyes, I'd float away. Or like a furnace was burning in the pit of my stomach, surrounded by a roller coaster doing loopty-loops. Each of my boyfriends had lasted for a couple of months at the most, and then we'd grown apart. I always used the same old lame line: It's not you, it's me. Because it was. It really was. I had found that none of them had what I was looking for, so I had let them go.

I hugged myself, grinning uncontrollably as I crossed the courtyard, recalling just last night when I had jumped into Nod's arms without abandon. And then slept in those warm, strong arms. And then kissed his cheek, right after he'd called me adorable . . .
I was falling hard, and fast. More like sinking. In Moonhaven, during our adventure, it had felt like a silly little crush I'd get over when I "got big" again. For weeks afterwards, I felt the same way about it. It was a crush that would die, then grow into yet another friendship. But when I left for college, I couldn't get him out of my head no matter what I did. No amount of college guys could take my mind off of the young Leafmen. And seeing him again had solidified my feelings - I was desperately, and quite stupidly, in love with him.

Sure, he was cocky and sometimes annoying, but I'd seen a softer side to him more than once. He'd lost his dad, who was also his hero and only remaining parent, when he was young and had no one to truly care for him the way a parent could for a long time. Ronin was his replacement father, but he was also busy, no matter that he loved Nod like his own son.

Nod was good with children, and he loved animals, including deer-
Whoa! Back up! Did I just think that he was 'good with children'? When did I start thinking about having kids with Nod?! Flustered and blushing madly, I abandoned the train of thought that continued down that winding way and dug my key from my coat pocket, where Nod had put it for me last night. I hurriedly shoved the key in the lock and turned it. Throwing open the door, I glanced up and froze for the second time that day, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. My ears got hot beneath my beanie-and this time, it was a mix of anger and embarrassment.
Sitting on the bed next to Nod, talking excitedly, was the only girl on my hall that I had avoided like the plague all year. She was the spreader of all wildfire rumors, the maker-upper of horrendous nicknames, and the storyteller of embarrassing moments. Her platinum blonde hair shone in the low light of the TV, which was turned to Jeopardy. Nod was laughing and the girl was throwing about her hands as she told her story, neither of them acknowledging that I was there. If only he knew what she was capable of.
Oh God. We're dead. Both of us. Mrs. Holbrook's going to kill us.
"Anna?" I choked out, speaking the campus's top gossiper's name like it was a curse.
The girl spun around, grinning still. "Hi, MK! Your friend here is super nice!" She touched Nod's shoulder like they weren't strangers. "And not to mention cute!"
Nod laughed, smirking. "I like this girl. She has a good taste in men."
Both of them laughed, like they were sharing some sort of inside joke. Ugly black jealousy roused in my chest and I bit back a retort that had something along the lines of Anna being the biggest tramp around campus. I hated being jealous. I shut the door, locked it, and faced them again. Anna, with her big blue eyes, stared up at me innocently. She was a trampy, but beautiful girl-short, voluptuous, and a gaudy sense of style. Her cheetah-print sweatsuit had her name embroidered in gold across the back, and her gold Puma's gave me the hee-bee gee-bees. Think I'll stick with my hoodies and leggings, thank you very much.
"Anna," I said as nicely as possible. Gosh, all I wanted to do was kick her out! "Please don't tell Mrs. Holbrook, or any of the other girls." She was also Mrs. Holbrook's favorite, meaning she got away with things the rest of us would be sent home for.
"Don't worry, silly!" she giggled, her high-pitched voice annoying me. "Your secret's safe with me." She touched Nod's knee and whispered something in his ear, and they both laughed again. As they laughed, she wouldn't stop touching him in various places, (though nothing inappropriate), and suddenly I was raging like a bull who'd seen a red flag.
"Okay, well, time for you to go," I growled, grabbing her wandering hands and pulling her to her feet. Surprised, she began to protest, but I had the door open and her on the other side before she could get out a word. She turned back, but I slammed the door in her face with, "Thanks for keeping our secret! See you in pottery!"
Absolute silence. Finally, after a long minute, footsteps. Then a chuckle in my ear. Startled, I spun to face Nod, who was cracking up yet again - this time at me.
"What?" I hissed, fists on my hips.
He shrugged. "You're funny when you're jealous."
My heart jumped like a fish out of water. I let my fists fall. "Excuse me?" I squeaked, losing my gusto. "Who said anything about anybody being jealous?"
Nod chuckled. "It's written all over your face."
Great. I was blushing. I had just noticed it, too. Scowling, I shoved him towards my desk and stomped to my bed, trying to ignore how his abdomen had felt beneath my fingers. Lean and muscular and . . . so not thinking about it!
He followed me to the bed, where he picked up the remote and shut off Jeopardy. Folding his legs, he said softly, "So, why don't you tell me about class? Was it really as boring as you said?"
I tried not to smile; but it came anyway. "Yes. We had a substitute teacher, and he kept forgetting what he was saying."
Another laugh. He ran his hands through his hair when the quiet stretched between us. "Um, Anna mentioned this thing called a 'coffee shop'. I was wondering, if we could, just maybe . . ." He trailed off, his brown eyes meeting mine. Immediately, my resolve melted. He looked like a begging puppy.
Sighing, I reached for my purse. "All right. But you're not getting an espresso. I don't think you'd be able to handle the energy."
"Me?" he scoffed, helping me back into my coat. "I can handle anything."

Two hours later, I was watching Nod run around the nearest park like a mad man. Upon trying to prove me wrong, he'd ordered a double-shot of espresso and gulped it all down. Now he was buzzing with more energy than he'd ever had before, and he didn't even seem to care about the blizzard coming down around us, or the fact that he was halfway frozen.

He dashed up to me where I stood under a tree, trying to stay out of the storm. Icicles were literally frosting on the tips of his hair and eyebrows, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"You look like Jack Frost," I said.

He shrugged, jumping from foot to foot. "C-Cool. H-Hey, can I-I have another e-espresso? P-Please?"

I shook my head. "No. Look at you! You're shaking like a Chihuahua!"
He cracked a manic grin. "So? T-this is f-fun!"

Sighing, I grabbed his jittering arm. "C'mon. Let's get you back to my room. You'll need some aspirin when you calm down."

"W-Why?"

"Because you're going to have one heck of a headache."

Nod laughed again and rushed ahead, kicking up snow and startling sleeping pigeons in the tree branches. Waving his arms high over his head, he shouted, "I'll be just fine! You watch!"

Again, I laughed.

He was so naive.

He crashed not long after we got back to my room. I laughed the throughout the entire ordeal-as I helped him lay down on the bed, got him some aspirin and a glass of water, and peeled off his boots and outer armor.

"Still wet," he said through gritted teeth, clutching his head. "I'm gonna have to strip down to my underwear." Somehow, through his pain, he managed a cocky smile. "A sight I'm sure you would enjoy."

I turned my head to hide my blush. "You can take off your own clothes, buddy. I'm going to go get you an ice pack from Mrs. Holbrook, 'kay?"

He chuckled weakly in reply. When I left, he was struggling to pull his shirt over his head. Thankfully, he still didn't see my burning cheeks.

Mrs. Holbrook gave me her infamous supicious look when I asked for an ice pack. I faked a limp and told her that I had bashed my knee coming back from class. After a lengthy conversation, she finally gave it to me. As I turned to go, I bumped into someone, hard.

"Oops," I apologized, righting myself. "Sorry. Didn't see you there."

"It was my fault," the guy replied brusquely, stepping aside so that I didn't get a good look at his face. His voice was rough and deep, and the hood of his jacket covered everything but a few wisps of golden hair. Before I could ask him his name, he vanished, leaving me wondering if I'd truly seen him, or if my imagination had conjured the whole interaction.

Pushing aside the rush of my suspicions - mainly because I felt like Mrs. Holbrook - I returned to Nod, who'd fallen asleep beneath my comforter on his side, shirtless. I made sure he was comfortable before I sat down beside the bed, turned on the TV, and flipped through the channels until I found I Love Lucy. Throughout the program and Nod's nap, however, I couldn't focus on a thing besides the fact that the guy I had bumped into-his voice, in the very least-had seemed familiar, yet I couldn't place it for the life of me.

Nod was awake when I returned from my pottery class, where Anna had pestered me the whole time with questions about my "new man". She'd never even bothered to acknowledge my existence before that - which had been fine by me. She was the type the flitted about from friend to friend, and boy to boy. More than once I had to tell her that Nod was not my boyfriend, which seemed to make her very happy.

"He seemed to be such a nice boy," she'd tittered, shaping a small pot with her tiny, birdlike hands. Her platinum blonde hair was tied back in the perfect ponytail, whereas mine looked like a rat had nested in it, no matter what my beanie did to help. "Though, quite odd. He told me a lot about his job . . . I think he said something about working with a leaf blower?"

I had frozen for a second. He didn't. I then replied, "Oh, yeah. He's a, uh, landscaper." I mentally face-palmed myself.

She had frowned, but agreed. "Yeah, I think that was it. But he sure did have a weird uniform. It looked like armor made of leaves! Looks like his company takes their job seriously."

After we both set our pots out to be put in the kiln, class was dismissed and I was finally rid of her. Last I saw, she was clinging to the arm of the soccer captain and giggling at something he'd said. Hopefully, she wouldn't latch on to Nod like that.

Personally, I hated myself for being jealous. Anna was prettier than I was, and had more money to buy things to fix herself up. Even when my mom had offered to buy me make-up, I didn't know what to do with mascara and blush. All my life, I'd been called "cute" and "pretty", but never gorgeous or beautiful. Sometimes, I just wished that a guy would come along and find me that way.

I also hated pitying myself.

Nod called me out of my recent memories by sitting up, putting his head in his hands, and groaning loudly back in my room. I sat at the edge of the bed, toying with my laptop. I had an assignment due for English in less than a week, yet I was still procrastinating over my topic.

"Bad headache, huh?" I asked, eyes focused on my screen.

He moaned.

I smirked. "Told you so."

He lifted his head and shot me a glare through his fingers. Those brown eyes were warm even when meant to be ice cold. He glowered at me for a solid moment before he collapsed against the pillows again, hissing, "I officially hate coffee."

I laughed, patting his knee through the thick, floral print comforter. "Don't say that. Once you try normal coffee with a splash of milk and some sugar, you'll become just as addicted as I am."

He groaned in response. "Yeah. Whatever." He threw his arm across his eyes and the other across his chest. He rubbed at his bare skin for a silent moment as I typed 'Good English paper topics' into the Google search engine. "Do you have anything to eat in that tiny magic box of yours?"

For a second, I didn't have a clue what he was talking about. Then I bursted out laughing. "You mean the mini fridge?"

He scowled. "The mini what?"

"Fridge. Short for refrigerator. It's like a box that keeps things fresh." I shut down my laptop and slid it off my lap as I stood. I straightened my clothes and bent to open the fridge, peering inside. "Um, let's see here. I've got some spaghetti from the amazing little Italian deli down the street . . . one supreme burrito . . . some Chinese take-out, and a couple of moldy slices of pizza." I glanced at him over my shoulder. "You pick."

"Moldy pizza sounds nice," he chuckled. He looked like heaven from my point of view. "What is pizza, anyway?"

"It's a dish with crust, tomato sauce, cheese, and any toppings you like," I replied as I retrieved the Chinese take-out box and the leftover spaghetti. I shut the door with my foot. "Chinese and Italian it is! I'll be right back. The communal microwave's down the hall in the rec room. Don't go anywhere."

He smirked. "Wouldn't dream of it."

I smiled, feeling my cheeks heat.

As I opened the door, he asked, "But, um, what does the microwave do?"

I grinned wider. "Do you want to come see for yourself?"

He moved to stand, then blushed and pulled the comforter higher around his bare torso-which was tanned, tight, and sort-of drool worthy. I felt like such a swooning girl, catching him half-naked like this.

"Um, how about I put on my clothes and meet you there?" he suggested almost sheepishly, which was comical in my eyes.

I giggled. "Sure. Just don't let Mrs. Holbrook see you. She does her hourly rounds, and it's almost seven."

He glanced at the clock like it was Mrs. Holbrook herself, and I laughed. In the past twenty-four hours, I'd laughed more than I had all semester.

Having him around sure was fun.

Please review!

XOXO, OceansAria