So I've been talking with x4ashes4ashes and wanting to start up a livejournal community for our wonderful pairing, and was wondering who would be interested in joining it? Or if anyone even has a livejournal on here! Haha. Just something to think about!

Now, on to the chapter!

His fingers trace the small wisps of hair up and down her left arm as it lazily holds him in place beside her. It's a bright, sunny afternoon as they find themselves alone in the house, a perfect opportunity for their long awaited rendezvous. Their parents were forcibly taken to the library for one of Brick's projects and they could not be more grateful for their brother's tendency to be late with assignments than in that moment.

She murmurs softly and adjusts herself before finding comfort with her head placed securely within the crook of his neck. His fingers in reply weave through her hair, becoming ensnarled every few seconds, causing him to give up soon after with a chuckle.

"You should brush your hair before you come to me, you know."

"Hmmm...why?" her voice is laced with the soft rumblings of sleep. His lips finds hers and kisses her awake.

"Because, it'll be easier to run my hands through them when we're like this..." After a moment's thought, he adds "dork." at the end of his statement for good measure. When she giggles and playfully calls out his name with a light smack, he grins and brings her flailing hands to his lips, softly leaving cascading kisses until he reaches her wrist.

"Axl, I wish we could be like this always."

He does not miss the note of defeat in her voice, but chooses to ignore it. If he were to believe that this-whatever this is-was doomed to not have a happily ever after, then why did they allow themselves to go down this path to begin with?

"It can be Sue, it will be." She looks up at him with those eyes that look as though he is the only one she will ever love, and he swears he almost believes it. She perks up at the sounds of their parent's car pulling up to the driveway and quickly kisses him on the lips before running out of his room.

Sitting up slowly, he makes his way to the bathroom to run cold water over his face, to wash away any evidence of their secret. The sounds of Sue's overly high pitched squeals over some fabricated story about what's she been doing for the past hour, his mother's deadpan voice feigning interest, and the uneven shuffling of his brother's feet, no matter how much he wishes to, does not distract him from the one clear and obvious truth before him.

Axl Heck was caught up in the fanaticism of this love.

XXXXXXX

Usually, on a lazy Saturday afternoon such as this one, Axl would be on the living room couch, watching television with a bag of chips on his bare chest, oblivious to the world around him.

But not today.

No, today Axl was on a mission. A mission to get away with the most complicated lie he has ever created. He needed Sean to believe in his story and for Sue to somehow play along with it…the question though was, how? How could he get Sue to e-mail Sean under the idea that she was this completely different person? Would Sean believe it? Sue was pretty bad at lying… so how?

And then it hit him…

It happened when Sue came out from her room, exclaiming that she needed to check her e-mail on the family computer because her friend Carly had sent over something funny. Axl watched her curiously, like a hunter watching his prey in its' unnatural habitat, watched as she turned on the computer haphazardly, clicked on the keyboard before her very slowly, and very loudly. Laughed like a maniac, asked why someone from Nigeria was asking for help, and if Axl knew him, then just got up and walked away. No logging off from her account, no turning off the computer, nothing whatsoever in basic protocol of internet privacy!

Yelling into the couch cushion, he knew he could never get Sue to pretend to be some hot girl that has nothing to do all day but be on her computer writing love notes to Sean. So, with this realization, he decided he would have to be the hot girl.

With a shudder, he got up and went to his room, tearing out a piece of notebook paper and began writing what he thought would be romantic and hot-girl like. After five failed attempts, mainly because it was pointed out to him, by Brick, that his handwriting was too masculine, Axl thought he would never accomplish his task.

"Axl! Axl get in here!" rolling his eyes to his mother's yelling, after a long "Whaaaaaat?" he finally dragged himself into the living room.

"Axl! How many times do I have to tell you not to leave your socks on top of the dirty dishes? Isn't it enough that the dishes are dirty that we don't need your smelly, disgusting socks contaminating it more?" Frankie's hands find their way to her hips and that's the clear indicator that Axl is about to get a lecture.

"Mom!" with his index finger pointed up, ceasing her nagging, Axl tilts his head to the side for the dramatic effect. "Instead of wasting time over your young, beautiful first born son's habits, you should be trying to help me with my English project!" charmingly make his way over to his mother and placing his arms over to bring her beside him, Frankie eyes Axl wearily.

"Oh really? And what kind of English project is this?"

"A project only my dearest mother can help me with! Since, you know, you are a woman." Rolling her eyes at the statement, Frankie allows him to continue on. "You see, our teacher wants us to…experience a sort of, switch in "roles" if you will. She thinks it would…benefit us, yeah, to write a letter to one of our classmates, but from the perspective of the opposite sex."

"Well…that sounds a little weird. What's the point in that?"

"Thank you! You're so smart mom! But what can we do? We need to follow curriculum, right? So, you see… the problem is…I've tried. I mean, really tried, but I just can't do it! No matter what the teacher wants us to learn from this, I will always be a man! I can't think like a female, I don't know how they think! No man does! And forget writing like them, with their hearts n' stuff! So! Could you please help me? I promise I'll stop leaving my socks on my dirty dishes if you do!"

"I don't know Axl…" giving it some thought, and also secretly taking pleasure in seeing her son squirm, Frankie holds out on giving a response for longer than Axl would have liked. "I mean, this is your homework. Parent's shouldn't meddle…" throwing his hands in the air, Axl exclaims loudly at her statement.

"Are you kidding me? You do Brick's projects all the time! You even did his paper route that one time he had that stupid job!"

Flushing out of embarrassment, Frankie shushed him before clearing her throat. "Fine! I'll do your stupid homework. What do I have to write and who is the classmate?"

"Thank you! God! It's to Sean, but you can't tell anyone, not even Dad, and especially not Sue!"

"Why not? It's not like they'll tell your teacher."

"Because! If Dad tells Sue, or if you tell Sue, Sue will definitely talk about it in school because she's dumb like tha-"

"Hey! Leave your sister alone!"

"-but it's true! Anyway! That's not the point, the point is, she'll blab about it in school, and yada, yada, someone will overhear it and tell someone else and bam! I'll probably get detention, lose any chance of getting a scholarship for football to East Indiana State, and you will get in big trouble too and you know the teacher's don't like you to begin with! So there!"

With Frankie's mouth hanging open, trying to protest but finding it impossible, she instead decides to nod before walking away to start her given assignment. Before she disappears though Axl remembers to add specifics to his request. "Oh! And include something about being grateful that he's taking her to the dance and won't regret it or whatever." Waving her son off, Frankie decides to no longer ask him questions about the topic.

"Sweet! Whelp, that's taken care of for now…I'll simply bring it in to school on Monday and then I'll tell him to write a letter back with his e-mail, to make it look legit and then I can e-mail him until the dance! Perfect!"

"Ah…so that's why you were trying to write like a female. It all makes sense now. (Sense)"

"Brick! What were you doing there! When did you get there?" Startled, Axl fell over the arm of the couch and into the cushions. Brick had been sitting on the floor directly opposite of the couch, near the television. "Did you…did you hear everything?"

"Yup. And I'm sitting here because it's the cleanest spot in the house right now. It seems this television is sacred…(sacred)."

"Ugh! Well, forget what you heard, and don't tell anyone!"

"But Axl, if I were to forget what I heard, how will I be able to tell anyone? That's being redundant. (Re-)"

"Stop! Stop whispering! Just do as I say, trust me, I'm not being a bad person, I'm actually doing a good thing, so don't screw it up, okay?"

"Sure Axl, I don't really care that you're tricking one of your best friend's with a fake love note. I just want to get back to my book."

Frowning, Axl turns away from Brick with the feeling that he really is a terrible person. He just wants to get a date for Sue, but why? When has he put so much effort into trying to make Sue happy? Stopping in the middle of the hallway, he thinks back to the times when, without thinking too much on it, he really did go out of his way for his little sister. Like the time he forced the couple to stop making out by her locker, or the time he pretended Sue's love note for Sean was actually his note for some girl. He laughs at this thought because now he's basically doing the same thing, just without either person knowing about it.

He thinks back to more times when he was unusually nice to Sue, or when he did things for her, like when he gave her his old football jersey to comfort her due to not making "ball girl" for the tennis team in her middle school. Or the time when she and arguably his father too, pushed him to try and work harder so he could get better grades. The optimism in her eyes had pushed him to get that B minus, and the smile he got from her was more than worth it.

"Axl…? Hey, Axl? You okay?" Looking up, seeing her somewhat concerned yet confused face, Axl realizes that he would do anything to make his little sister happy.

As long as no one knew about it, of course.

"Yeah, just peachy, now move, you're blocking my way!"

"Geez Axl, you don't have to be so mean! I have to go to the dentist anyway, Dad's taking me. I need to do something about this broken head gear." Frowning, she pulls at the metal contraception a bit before dismissing it. "Oh, and your homework is all done, it's on your bed…well, I think it's your bed, I really couldn't tell with how messy your room is! You know you should really-hey!"

Cutting her off, Axl brushes pass her, knocking her shoulder along the way. "Whatever. Thanks!"

Huffing, Sue merely shakes her head at her brother's behaviors before calling out for her dad to leave.

XXXXX

They get back late. Later then he would have liked. He wanted to talk to Sue about the dance, since he was worried that maybe, just maybe she would find someone who would take her, and he didn't want to go through all this trouble for nothing. He was planning on telling her to stop looking, that he found someone, but that she couldn't know who it was until the night of the dance because the guy was shy. When his mother handed him the letter to Sean, he almost hugged her out of pure joy but restrained himself. Now all he needed was for Sue to just stay as Sue.

When he heard his dad's car pull up into the driveway, he felt like he was speed racer with how fast he jumped from his bed and dashed to the door. Composing himself before they came into the house, ignoring his brother's questionable look, he decided to play it casual by leaning against a wall.

All of Axl's musings over how to tell his sister to stop looking for a date did not prepare him for this. What walked through the door was not his sister. No, what walked through the door was someone entirely different, someone actually…dare he say it? Beautiful.

Among the gushing of his mother's voice, the pride in his father's voice, and Brick's compliments that sound like they came straight from the "how to compliment a girl" guide book, Axl was mesmerized.

Mike Heck must have taken his only daughter to get a make over. Sue's hair seemed to have been professionally done, washed nicely, and blown out expertly. Her eyebrows seemed to be plucked perfectly, and she had on a new change of wardrobe. A nice, not three sizes too big, pink dress. It was simple but fit well, not too tight and sexy but not baggy.

Of course, the biggest and best change of all was that when Sue smiled, he actually could see all of her smile. The braces were gone! The entire head gear! This is when he tuned in to what his family was talking about.

"-And, and! The Dentist said I didn't need it anymore, that it breaking was actually a good thing! He said that it was a extremely quick recovery! Dad was so happy that he didn't have to keep paying for braces he took me shopping!"

"Mike! That was so kind of you! I mean, I wish I could have gone too, but look at my little girl! Aww…come here you!" Hugging her daughter, Frankie stopped Sue's rant. Feeling the need to pick it up, Mike smirked and continued to boast about his generous feats.

"Yeah, and then next to the store we picked up this outfit from, there was a promotion going on for a free wash and blow dry, the only catch was that they wanted before and after pictures. They took one look at Sue and thought it would really show their skills to work on her hair and there you have it!"

Pulling away from her mother, jumping up and down with her usual crazy scream of delight, Sue stopped only to include the last stop on their list. "Oh! And the Salon also had eyebrow waxing, for only three dollars! I talked dad into it, since I know a lot of girls at my school do it! It reaaaaalllly hurts mom but look! Doesn't it look nice?"

"Yes, honey, everything looks wonderful! I hope you thanked your father!"

"Of course! I'll say it again though! Thank you Dad!" hugging him, Sue only pulled away when she noticed her big brother standing in the corner, silent.

"Axl! Did you see? Did you hear! Look! Don't I look pretty?" Doing a little twirl, smiling so brightly, Axl couldn't take it.

"Whatever, you like you always do, like a dork!" Confused, the family looked at him aghast.

"Hey, you apologize to your sister!" Mike took a step forward towards his son but Frankie's voice stopped him.

"Axl, what is wrong with you? Sue looks pretty! You should compliment your sister!"

Feeling trapped and uncomfortable by Sue's sullen eyes, he realized he needed a quick escape. "I'm out of here." Grabbing his jacket and storming out of the house before anyone could stop him; Sue flinched as the sound of the door behind her snapped shut.

XXXX

It was past his curfew. Exactly two hours past his curfew, Sue noted. After the initial excitement over Sue's transformation and aftermath of Axl's outburst died down, Frankie hugged her daughter once more for good measure before busying herself with kitchen chores. Mike patted his daughter's shoulder, the way he always does when he's at a loss for words, and Brick shook his head in their general direction before limping his way to his room.

The sound of him coming through the door so late at night would normally scare Sue, that is, if she hadn't been up waiting for him all night long. Sleepy, but still aware, Sue merely sat up straighter when Axl emerged.

He looked angry but with a hint of remorse. When he caught sight of Sue he jumped slightly before looking down at his feet. Standing up from the couch, Sue was prepared to give him a lecture about being out so late, wanting to fill in for her mother who was already sound asleep. When Axl turned to look at her though, she lost all courage. She knew deep down, something was different, something was wrong.

Sue was used to Axl ignoring her but growing up with him all these years, she knew how to decipher his levels of acknowledgement. Whenever she talked to him or about something loud enough in his general vicinity, he would always have three levels of interest. Level one, the best one, she believes, is when he actually looks at her, listens, and responds. Level two, is when he pretends to ignore her, doesn't look at her, but stays within hearing range to respond if he sees fit. Usually with a jokingly yet mean retort. Then there was Level three, this one was usually reserved for when he was angry at her. He would act as though she was invisible, say spiteful things about her loudly to someone else, like their mom or Brick, and walk away whenever her voice got "too annoying" for him. Still, at the end of the day, no matter what they bickered about, he would eventually look at her, smirk, call her by a mean name, and say sorry.

Yes, Sue could feel that this time, something was very wrong. He wasn't ignoring her or pretending she didn't exist. Based on that alone, she assumed he wasn't angry at her yet the way he was looking at her was as though…as though what? She couldn't quite figure out the word for it.

"Axl…what's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?" Shifting on her feet, Sue felt strangely uncomfortable, now believing she should have never waited for Axl to come home.

"Sue. I have something to tell you, sit down and be quiet alright?" Moving towards his sister, Axl took a seat next to her, waiting for her to comply with his demand. A little confused but more curious than anything, Sue listened and sat down quietly.

"Listen, about the Spring Dance, you don't have to worry about finding a date…I found one for you." uttering out the last words, Axl expected to hear loud screams of joy and a billion questions to follow but when nothing came, he looked up at Sue in wonder.

Silently, Sue was watching him. Furrowing his brows, he tried to understand what was happening. Did she freeze from shock? Did Axl Heck break his sister? Her mouth opened slightly as though to say something, but soon closed. Reaching out his hands to shake her, he almost grabbed on to her shoulders before she stood up and jumped away from him.

"If this is supposed to be some kind of joke, Axl, it isn't very funny!"

"What…?" Lost, Axl fumbled around to stand up and calm his sister down. He didn't know why her reaction was that of anger, especially when she was just begging him the other night to get her a date. If anyone should be angry, it should be him! He just wasted a Friday night telling lies to get her a date, then a whole Saturday afternoon trying to scheme his mother into writing a love letter for his plan and then Sue goes and…and what? Becomes beautiful? Become worthy, appearance wise, for a guy like Sean? No lies or tricks needed?

"I don't know why you are acting so weird Axl but please just leave me out of it!" Storming off, Axl had little time to prepare for Sue's misunderstanding. Not knowing what to do, he contemplated just going to bed, forgetting the whole plan, and leaving his sister to fend for herself.

"I bet some jerk at school on Monday, who doesn't even know her name, or know a thing about her, will ask her out now, hoping to just score with her!" The thought angered him. He knew he couldn't allow that, knew that Sue would be so naïve and fall prey to jerks like his imaginary counterpart seems to be.

Begrudgingly making his way to her door, he knocked softly twice before waiting for her voice to allow him entry. When her voice never came, he opened the door hesitantly, hoping he wasn't about to walk into an awkward moment. Thoughts ran through his head of catching her changing, wailing into her pillow, making another poster of something weird.

But there she was. Sitting up in her bed, her back against the headboard, holding a small pillow in her arms looking not Sue-like at all.

"What do you want Axl?" her voice sounds tired, and it had every right to be. It's way past midnight. He can't remember Sue ever being up this late.

Sitting on the bed slowly, testing the waters, he made himself comfortable when she didn't kick him out. Picking up a teddy bear, he tossed it in the air a couple of times before he failed to catch it and it hit him square in the face. When he heard his sister giggle softly, he turned on his side to face towards her and felt a wave of relief hit him.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you mean it?"

A nod.

"Okay."

And that was it. That was all Sue ever needed. Things were always so simple with his sister. He knew he could be the worse brother in the world to her but she would still forgive him at the end of the day, still love him just as much.

"Sue, I'm really sorry." his voice is strained.

"I know, Axl. It's okay."

"No, it's not. I shouldn't have been mean to you earlier today. I should have told you what I really felt when I first saw…you…uh-oh..." He had made a mistake, said too much. Sue's eyes started to light up and he knew she was expecting him to elaborate. "Don't get too excited, dork. I just meant that I should have told you, you know, that you looked different…in a good way!"

"Oh Axl!" Reaching over to hug him, he would have pushed her away if he hadn't been so exhausted. "Thanks Axl, that's very sweet of you to say!"

"Yeah, yeah." He could smell perfume, maybe she had bought it while she was out earlier or maybe he just never had the chance to catch such a close whiff. Whatever the case, he liked it. It smells like peach and is very soft, not overpowering like how girls from his school would wear theirs. Clearing his throat and his inner ramblings, he continued on to the matter at hand, pulling away from Sue's embrace in the process.

"Well, listen. What I was saying before, on the couch. It's true! I found a guy, and he wants to take you…but he's shy, okay? So you won't get to see him until the night of the dance. Is that okay?"

"Oh wow, really? That's so awesome! Thanks Axl! I can't wait to tell Carly!" Shaking his head, Axl once again had to be amazed at his sister's trusting nature. No sneaking suspicions, no lingering doubts, and aside from the initial telling about the date, to which she only thought he was being mean to her after his actions from earlier, she accepted what would otherwise be seen as fishy conditions, without questions.

"Yeah, well, don't spread it around school too much, okay? And keep your voice down; you're going to wake Mom and Dad." Nodding, Sue smiled at him before quickly frowning, noticing the time.

"Oh, Axl! Look at how late it is! I'm only up this late because of you! You know you should never stay out past your curfew! Where were you all this time anyway?"

"Geez Sue! Relax, and lower your voice down!" Moving closer to her, so his whispers can be heard, he noticed that despite Sue's makeover, she still had an entire wardrobe that needed to be destroyed. Like the fuzzy pajamas she was wearing currently.

"Oops! Sorry! But Axl…why did you storm off like that anyway? Why did you stay out so late?"

"Why did you stay up waiting for me anyway? Who are you, mom? Errr. Think again." Mimicking the sound of a buzzer, Axl wanted to ignore the fact that he felt happy that Sue stayed up so late waiting for him.

"Well, Mom was tired! And I was worried! So please tell me why you left?" Her voice becoming soft, Axl knew he couldn't refuse much longer.

"No reason, okay? Just having a bad day, or whatever. Like I said, I'm sorry, you know, for taking it out on you. Annnnnd. I guess, for worrying you. I just drove around, and went to a movie. Happy?"

"You went to a movie by yourself? Isn't that considered uncool? Especially on a Saturday night?"

"Yeah, well, Sean was there with some people so I just tagged along. Then we just went out for food and now I'm here! So enough with the third degree alright?" Still frowning a bit, Sue gave up with her interrogation, seemingly buying Axl's story.

"Sean was there?"

"Yeah, so what?"

"Nothing. Sean Donahue is just very nice…is all." Glancing away, fidgeting, Axl gasp when he pieced it together. Pointing at Sue with horror he almost couldn't choke out the words.

"You still have a crush on Sean?"

"What? Still? You knew I had a crush on him before? Ahhh!" Alerted by Sue's scream, Axl instinctively threw himself on Sue, forcibly quieting her. Wide eyed and embarrassed, Sue laid motionless as Axl's weight knocked the air out of her. She knew her brother was strong, but the weight of him reminded her in that moment that Axl was a man. Feeling the entire length of his body pressed against hers made her blush and fidget under him.

Staring down at her, Axl tried to process the information he just obtained. It was one thing to get his friend to take his sister to the dance, he knew after his game was figured out the night of the dance that Sean would be too nice to leave his sister alone. It was another thing though, for Sue to still have feelings for Sean and then exploit those feelings with the possibility of them being reciprocated!

Time seemed to move very slowly as Axl tried to figure out what his next move would be. His thoughts came to a sudden halt though when his sister mumbled that he was crushing her. Maneuvering his body and taking the weight off her while still being half on top of her, he checked to make sure she was okay, his hand still over her mouth.

"Sue, I will remove my hand but only if you promise to stop screaming." Nodding, the young girl agreed and when he removed his hand she continued to comply. "Listen, it was obvious you had a crush on Sean since day one." Seeing the panic in her eyes, Axl placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her. "Don't worry, he doesn't know. And! He doesn't ever have to know. Actually, stop liking him! Right now. Stop it." Pressing his index finger into the center of Sue's forehead, Axl tried to to force Sue to give up on all thoughts of Sean.

"What? How can you stop liking someone just like that?"

"I don't know, just do it." He deadpanned.

"Axl… it's not that simple." Shoving her brother's body off of her completely, Sue watches him as if she was the more mature and wise one.

"Yes it is! I wanted to stop liking Karen from Science Class one day and just like that! I did. See? It's easy." Falling back on to the small bed, Axl started playing with a fuzzy string that was sticking out of Sue's pajama top.

"Then that means you didn't really like her, duh? When you really like someone-not saying that I really like Sean!" Axl gave her his signature "yeah right" look but she simply brushed it aside. "It's hard to stop. You can't help but think of them randomly throughout the day, and when you see them, your heart skips a beat. Sure, you tell yourself that you'll never be able to be with them and that there's no point in hoping but no matter what you do, you can't stop hoping. Can't stop looking forward to those few moments when you get to be with them, or near them… haven't you ever felt like that Axl?"

The fuzzy string lost its appeal as he watched Sue's face transform from his nerdy sister with her usual goofy smile to someone whose face showed such compassion and obvious potential to love like no other. Sitting up, refusing to think about how it may be possible that he felt those feelings before, and possibly still do, Axl decided it was time for bed.

"Sounds like being a stalker to me. Have fun with that, Sue. I'm going to bed, 'night!"

"What? Oh, fine! Night Axl! Don't come home so late again!" Chasing after him to close the door to her room, Sue was stopped short by Axl who was lingering at the door frame, looking torn.

"You know how I said you looked different, in a good way?"

"Yeah Axl?"

"Well, geez…I can't believe I'm saying this but, you look really good Sue. I almost forgot you had a pretty face under all those braces and messy hair."

"Axl…you really mean that?"

Embarrassed, Axl knew he had to make his escape unscathed. "Yeah well, you may look pretty but you're still a loser!" With that, Axl left to his room and Sue, after being speechless for a few seconds, turned off the light before fumbling to get into her bed, finding comfort under the warm sheets, mystified as to why she could not for the life her, stop smiling.

Pretty long chapter eh? I figured I owed it to everyone since I haven't updated in forever!

I hope this will be a great update to make up for not having new episodes! Thanks so much everyone, for always reading and reviewing! Much love!