Unlucky

[Taniya_K]

Ok, so here's the update I promised. It's a bit less fluff than I thought it would be.

Oh, Lily asked if the American couple have a significance. That's some good snooping, but unfortunately they don't. I just used a long-running joke in my family about my parents telling us that they were going to do that as soon as we're at college [they haven't yet though].

Uh... enjoy!

Chapter 31:

Belle blinked once as his words sunk in.

“Two- two hundred and fifty thousand?” she stuttered.

“Yup.”

“But that’s…. a lot.” Belle couldn’t think of what else to say.

“Yup.” Aden repeated as he moved to sit back onto the bed as Belle pushed herself up to lean against the headboard.

“Why?”

“I told you, they needed a place and-” Aden began to explain but Belle shook her head and interrupted.

“I mean, why so much. No-one would go,” Belle paused to calculate the difference between what they had paid and what the house had been valued at. “$75,000 over the asking price.”

“True, but that was the original value, without everything else. With the stuff, and the lawyers and the other renovations, it kinda went up. Not to mention that it was quick sale.”

“‘Other renovations?’” Belle asked.

“Garden.”

“Oh.” She nodded, remembering that he had said something about that before. “So… a quarter of a million. That’s, um… that’s a lot of money.” Belle ran a hand through her hair, still trying to get her head around all of this.

“Tell me about it.” Aden laughed dryly. “Who would have thought that old place would have been worth so much.”

“Yeah…” Aden eyed Belle carefully as he noticed her distracted tone.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her. “You’re not mad that I kept this from you, are you?”

“What? No, I’m not mad…” Belle snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him properly, seeing the relief when she said that. “It’s just…”

“What?”

“What are you going to do with so much money?”

"I have no idea. I never thought that I could ever sell that house, let alone for so much." Aden shrugged, a slight smile on his face.

"Aden, that $5000-" Belle began.

"- is yours."

"I can't take it."

Aden grinned as she shook her head. He knew exactly how stubborn and independent his girlfriend could be, and he was predicting this was going to be the case when she found out about the 'surprise'.

"You remember that 4 grand you lent me?" He asked her.

"I got that money back from your dad." Belle frowned, wondering what he was getting at.

"Exactly, my dad. But you lent that money to me. So I'm paying it back."

"No." she shook her head. "I'm not going to accept it. I got that money back. In the end, I didn't lend you anything."

"Well, firstly, you've got to accept it, cos I'm not taking it back. And secondly, you did lend it to me, even if it was for about a day or two before we found out about..." Aden waved a hand as he trailed off and Belle knew that he was talking about the money going missing and everything after that.

"Aden, I can't." she told him, firmly.

"Look, if you don't want to take it as repayment for the loan, then you can take it as pay for everything you did for the house. Not to mention those pictures must be worth just as much." he reasoned.

"But $5000?"

"You said I could pay you back with interest."

"I never thought those words would come back to haunt me." Belle murmured as Aden laughed. "Ok, I'll think about."

"Don't think, just do."

"That might work for you, but it won't for me." she teased.

"Is that right?"

"Well, thinking is more than a weekly occurrence for me." Belle giggled as Aden frowned at her words.

"Ow. That hurts."

"The truth usually does." Belle claimed, her words coming out matter-of-factly.

"You're being really mean, you know that?" Aden asked as he tried to hide a smile from her. He was glad to see that she was back to herself now, even if she was taunting him.

"Aw, I'm sorry." Her tone proved that she was anything but. "Am I hurting your feelings?" Belle was laughing freely now as Aden shook his head, the smile threatening to break through.

"You know what? I'm going to leave." He told her as he stood up.

"No!" Belle quickly said, her laughter dying down slightly. "I'm sorry. Seriously." she was trying her best to look sincere, but it wasn't working.

“I dunno… That was really mean.” Aden began walk towards the window where he had taken his shoes off.

“I’m really sorry.” Belle adjusted. “Don’t go. Please?”

Aden turned back to look at her, only to see her pouting a slight bit. He sighed, knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to refuse whatever he wanted now.

As soon as she heard him sigh, Belle knew that he had given in. She held out a hand for him, dragging him back onto the bed as he took it.

“Thank you.” she said as he rolled his eyes. Belle gently grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to her. It didn’t take much strength as he climbed on top of her with hiss free will, accepting her kisses.

“We shouldn’t…” Aden whispered, pushing himself up on his arm.

“Why? Is it-” the look on Belle’s face told him exactly what she was going to say. He smiled ruefully that that was her first conclusion.

“You just got out of hospital, Belle.”

“Oh.” Belle had almost forgotten. It was hard to remember things like that sometimes. “That doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.” he grazed his fingers across her forehead and down her cheek, letting them linger by her lips, where he replace them with his lips.

“Hmm… I feel fine.” she murmured against his lips.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, you better make your mind up.” Belle told him as they parted. “Another kiss like that and there’s no going back.”

“Really?” Aden gave her his trademark grin. “That good, huh?”

Belle rolled her eyes this time, before pulling him down for a kiss, deciding for him.

---

Next chapter.... more fluff!

Lol and then some drama hehehe!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Ah, One Tree Hill! Are you a Lindsay or Peyton or Brook fan? Lol!

Ok, so this chapter's mainly a filler. It's basically me being cheesy.

Hope you all enjoy.

Chapter 32:

When Belle opened her eyes, the first thing she could tell was that it wasn’t anywhere near the time to get up yet. The next thing that she could tell was that Aden was awake. She could feel his thumb skimming against her knuckles, and when she focused, she could see it too.

Not moving to let on that she was awake, Belle tried to think what could be wrong. But she came up blank and decided that the only way that she would know would be to ask.

Gently rolling onto her back, minding her foot and Aden’s arm under her neck, she saw that her actions registered after a bit to him. He was lying on his back, head turned the other way, staring at probably nothing.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Belle whispered as she tried to position herself as well as she could onto her left side with a foot like hers.

“Hey, go back to sleep.” Aden smiled gently, and she could tell that he was just putting it on for her.

"Everything ok?"

"Of course." he replied, their voices still hushed. "Go back to sleep."

"You're up at," Belle pushed herself up to look at the clock on the far side of her room, "2.30am. Something's wrong." she concluded. Aden pressed a kiss to the top of her head, hiding a smile. He couldn't keep many things from her.

"Nothing's wrong." he reassured her, wrapping his arm around her waist to hold her to him tightly. "Just... thinking."

"This late?" Belle yawned.

"Yeah, I can't seem to switch it off." Aden joked. He could feel her grin lazily against his shoulder.

"What're you thinking about?"

"You." he sighed, gently running his fingers through her hair. "Always, you."

Belle looked up at him, the sincerity in his voice making her pulse race and the butterflies in her stomach flutter. She didn't care how 'high-school' it felt; it was what he did to her.

"Good or bad?" she whispered, causing him to look down at her.

"What do you think?" Aden gave her his smile before brushing his lips against hers. She tried to deepen it, but Belle knew where that would lead to, and it was the wrong time to think about that.

“Ok.” she murmured as she pulled away, resting her head on his chest. “Sleep now?”

“Yeah…” Aden replied half-heartedly, watching Belle as she got herself comfortable. He carefully swept her hair back from her face and away from her neck as it tickled his bare skin. “Love you.”

Holding back a smile, Belle knew that she would probably never get over hearing those words.

“Love you too.”

---

The now-familiar noise of Aden’s phone alarm woke him up in the morning.

Groaning, Aden tried to switch it off before it could do anymore damage and wake Belle up too. Unfortunately, he either wasn’t quick enough or wasn’t careful enough.

“What time is it?” She asked, turning her face inwards towards his shoulder.

“7.30.” he replied, loving how much she tried to catch those extra minutes of sleep.

“Too early.” Belle moaned, wrapping an arm around his waist as the other pulled his other arm tighter around herself.

“Maybe for you. But I’ve got to get to school.” Aden began to rub circles on her lower back, knowing that it might just get her to let go of her hold on him.

“Just stay for a minute.” she told him.

“A minute?” Aden repeated, amusingly.

“Just one.” she confirmed, making herself more comfortable.

“It’s never ‘just one‘.” Aden pointed out. They had this argument a lot now that Belle couldn’t work.

“It will be.” she mumbled, halfway back asleep. Aden kept an eye on her, watching as her breathing began to even out. As soon as it was perfectly rhythmic, he tried to push himself up to rest against the headboard. But as he did so, he could feel Belle’s arms tighten once again.

“I thought you had fallen asleep.” he confessed as she smiled, eyes still closed.

“Not that quickly. You should know that.”

Aden laughed as Belle started to wake herself up. Pushing her hair from her face, she struggled to keep a yawn at bay.

“Go back to sleep. I’m going to go anyway.” Aden told her.

“No, it’s ok.” she said, sitting up and trying to wipe the sleep from her eyes. “Do you really have to go right now?”

“Uh…” Aden hesitated. He knew that if he wanted to get back home, have breakfast and get to school on time, he would have to leave right then.

But when he looked Belle, her hair sleep-tousled, rubbing her eyes like an innocent child and asking him in a way that he knew if he said ‘no’ she would be very happy, Aden decided that getting to school on time was actually really overrated.

“Nah, I can spare you about 15 minutes.”

“Hm!” Belle grinned smugly as his arm wrapped around her waist, bringing her to rest against him.

“So...” Aden said suggestively.

“Don’t even think about it.” Belle responded almost immediately, not bothering to look at him.

“I didn’t say a word.”

“I know what you’re thinking.” Belle informed him, her eyes on his hand as it took hers and fiddled with her fingers.

“Actually, I was going to ask about those.” he nodded towards the many shopping bags laying around the further side of her room. Belle looked up at them, her eyes taking in the name of some of the shops.

“I need to sort them out.”

“Where are you going to start?” he asked, incredulous.

“By ringing mum up first. I might be able to get her to take some of them back.”

“Why?” Aden queried. “Free clothes. Isn’t that every girl’s dream?”

Belle tried to scowl, but ended up joining Aden as he laughed, hitting his chest to show how much she really hated what he had said.

“Girls like Nicole, maybe. There’s no reason for me to accept these clothes.”

“Uh… I thought she got it for you cos you were in hospital?” Aden ask, confused.

“Not even my mother can burn money that quickly.” Belle scoffed.

“So she always wanted to give them to you. You’re her only daughter, isn’t she meant to spoil you?”

“I just don’t like… you know.” Belle said, not sure how to complete the sentence.

“Charity?” Aden supplied.

“Well, yeah.”

“I don’t think this would define as charity.” he laughed, causing Belle to roll her eyes.

“What would you know? You just gave me 5 grand.” she muttered.

---

Just Adelle fluff.

Leave a comment, please.

Coming up:

*What's Geoff and Aden's secret?

*Who's in danger?

*What's the major drama?!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

There's a time jump between this chapter and the last. Just letting you know...

Chapter 33:

“Hey.” Geoff called out as he crossed the threshold of Belle’s bedroom.

Belle was sat on the floor by the far side of her room. There were hundreds of pictures lying around, with a portfolio book, frames and her laptop adding to the mess.

“Hey…” she replied, distractedly. Geoff figured that she probably didn’t even know who she was talking to.

It had now been a week since she had been ‘grounded’ by Irene as soon as she had left the hospital, and Belle had decided not to moan about her predicament, but instead to do something with the time she now had on her hands. Which, in her case, was to sort out all of the photos that she had gathered and get started on a portfolio for job applications.

“Are you busy?” he asked, attentively.

“What does it look like, Geoff?” she said in the same tone as before.

“I just wanted to ask you something.” Geoff sat on the corner of her bed, watching as she flipped through a whole stack of photos for a particular one.

“Is it important?”

“Um… kind off.” Geoff sighed when he saw no reaction coming from Belle. “You know what? You’re busy. I’ll come back later.” he was by the door when he heard her speak.

“No, wait.” she said, exasperatedly. “I’m not that busy. Nothing I can’t do without company.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Now sit before I change my mind!” Geoff promptly sat on the edge of her bad once again. “So?”

“I just need some advice.” he told her. “Girl advice.”

“You really do pick the worst times to talk about girls, don’t you?” Belle teased.

“If you’re really busy-” Geoff began, not fully comprehending her joke.

“I was kidding.” she assured him.

“Oh, right.” he sighed before looking down. “You know, maybe this was a bad idea.”

Belle smiled at him sympathetically as he stood up once again, taking silent pleasure in his discomfort.

“Geoff.” She said softly, making him turn around. “Come here and sit down.” Belle patted the floor next to her as she shifted some boxes full of pictures to her other side.

Sighing once again, Geoff took up her offer and sat where she had cleared a space for him, his back against the bed so that they could see each other. Belle carried on with her work, waiting for him to speak first. However, when he didn’t after about 3 minutes, she decided to give him a little push.

“You know, Geoff. I’m not going to be able to give any advice unless I know what the problem is.”

“I know. It’s just that…” he trailed off with a sigh.

“It’s just… what?” Belle looked up at him, resting back against the bedside table. “C’mon, Geoff. Tell big sis Belle the problem.” She said humorously, making Geoff laugh too.

“You know how Melody and I broke up a couple of weeks ago?” Geoff asked.

Belle had found out that Melody had called it off when her mother made it too hard for them to have a relationship. Although he had moped around for a couple of days, Geoff had seemed pretty understanding, however much it confused the three other occupants of the house.

“Yeah…”

“I haven’t seen her since, and I don’t know if this is all normal or what, because I didn’t ask for it, and I wasn’t lying when I said that I loved her. But now I can’t get this girl out of my head, and… I don’t know what to do.” Geoff had rambled out.

“Ok, firstly, stop speaking in pronouns. You lost me at ‘normal’.” Belle informed him as he nodded apologetically.

“Sorry.”

“What I think you were trying to say was that you haven’t seen Melody since you broke up and you don’t know where you stand with her?” Belle ended up turning the statement into a question when she realised that she didn’t know what she thought he was saying.

“No! I know where we stand. We’ve broken up. There’s no more to that.” He told her.

“Are you sure? Sometimes when someone breaks it off, it’s only for some space and perspective.”

“Really?” Geoff asked naively.

“Yeah.” Belle replied. She sometimes forgot how sheltered his and Annie’s upbringing was and how they only saw white and black, never accounting for the greys. “Like when Aden and I broke up-”

“Which time?” his tone was serious, but it still sounded like he was teasing her.

“My point being,” Belle carried on sternly, “that even though we acted as if we weren’t together, it was kind of predictable it wasn’t going to last long that way.”

“But I haven’t seen Melody since that night. I haven’t even had any kind of communication with her!” he told her.

“Oh.” Belle hadn’t know that bit. “Well, I guess she really did mean it then.” it was only after she said it that she realised how harsh it sounded. “No offence.”

“None taken.” Geoff replied, his tone clearly showing he didn’t know why he should have been offended.

“Ok, so you and Melody have broken up…” Belle prompted.

“There’s this girl.”

“Uh-huh. And does this girl have a name?”

“Yeah…” Geoff said sheepishly.

“Let’s just call her ‘this girl’ for now then.” Belle decided that it would make it easier for him to open up to her that way.

“The thing is, since I broke up with Melody, I’ve been hanging out with her more and I’ve just…”

“… fallen for her?” she finished for him.

“I didn’t mean to. I mean, I loved Melody. And we just broke up. There’s no way that I could do anything about this.”

“Why not?”

“Cos it would be wrong.” Geoff answered as if his response was the most natural one in the world.

“How so?” Belle raised an eyebrow at him, indicating how she didn’t agree with him. “You’re single, I’m guessing this girl is too, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s wrong with that?” When Geoff didn’t say anything, Belle continued. “Look, I can’t tell you what to do, or what’s right or wrong, but there is one thing that I can tell you, and that’s there are some things that you can’t control, Geoff. And falling for someone? That’s just impossible.”

“Now what?”

“Now you do what you want.”

“But I don’t know what I want!” Geoff groaned as Belle laughed.

“Does she know?”

“Know what?”

“That you feel this way!” she rolled her eyes as she said it. When he shook his head, Belle smiled a bit. “Maybe you could start there.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Geoff replied, half-heartedly.

“Can I ask who this girl is now?”

“Uh…” It was clear to Belle that he wanted to say ‘no’, but didn’t want to seem so impolite.

“If I guess, will you tell me if I’m right?” At his nod, she said the one and only name that came to her. “Nicole?”

“That obvious?”

---

Even an hour later, Belle sat in the same position as she had been when Geoff had left her to go and hang out with Nicole. She was currently shuffling through pictures of Aden, not sure whether she wanted to use them or to keep them to herself.

A creaking sound out in the main part of the house drew her attention away as she knew that everyone was out. The rain, which had been beating down for the past few days, had stopped too. However, it seemed that the wind hadn’t. Shivering at the thought of the creepy noises, she carried on with what she was doing.

When a sudden bang waved through the house, Belle involuntarily held her breath as she heard footsteps approaching. It was only when she saw who it was that she let it out.

“Dammit, Aden. You scared the hell out of me!” she hissed at him as he crossed over to where she sat.

“Someone scares easily.” he taunted as he sat on the edge of her bed, looking over everything. The place was actually a bit neater than what it had looked like that morning when he had left.

“How did it go in the city?”

Aden had planned to go to see his lawyer to see what she could do to help him out with his money. He didn’t really know what to do with so much, and his knowledge of the financial world wasn’t at it’s best.

“I didn’t go. The road’s closed.”

“Since when?” Belle asked, not remembering hearing about that.

“A couple of hours ago. Some tree blockage.” he replied.

“Where have you been then?”

“At home with Nicole. Why?”

“Just wondering.” Belle paused with her sorting out to look at him. “Was Geoff there when you left?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Because I found out some very interesting news about them today.” Belle said teasingly.

“Oh yeah?” Aden smiled, sliding down to sit on the floor where Geoff had been sitting previously. “What kind of news?”

“I can’t tell you that.” she smirked.

“It wouldn’t have anything to do with Bible Boy’s crush, would it?” Aden asked, his tone showing disinterest. At Belle’s frown, he knew that he had got it right.

“How did you know?”

“I can’t tell you that.” he mocked, making Belle cast her eyes heavenwards.

“Aw, c’mon.” she tried. “I’ll make it worth you’re while.”

“Really? How would you do that?” Aden was now interested, especially as her hand pulled on his to draw him closer to her. His lips had just brushed hers when she pulled away. He tried to capture her lips again, but Belle managed to keep away once again.

“Ah… not until you tell me.”

“Not until you kiss me.” Aden countered. Belle shrugged and carried on with her work, leaving Aden to do nothing but watch her.

As much as he loved to just watch her, he loved to touch her and to kiss her even more. Who wouldn’t?

“The footy tournament.”

“Excuse me?”

“During the tournament, some guy made some comment about Nic that was… unfriendly, to say the least, and Geoff kind of lost it.” he admitted.

“So he didn’t step on your hand?” Belle asked, her eyes narrowed as he smiled.

“No, that happened when I tried to stop him from attacking the guy.” he explained. “Well, the wrist anyways. The bruises was actually from a game.”

“I knew you two were hiding something!” Belle exclaimed.

“Yes, you did. Quite the PI. Keep to your end of the deal now.”

“‘Deal’? What deal?” Belle laughed as he growled and kissed her anyway. “There is one thing though.” she said as she pushed him away, even as he let his mouth follow the curve of her jawbone. “Why didn’t you guys say anything?”

“He didn’t want to.” Aden said, pulling back.

“And you just went along with it?”

“Call it my good deed for the year.” he joked.

“I’m surprised you haven’t used it against him.”

“Yet.” Aden smirked evilly. “How did you know anyway?”

“Geoff told me.” Belle said simply.

“Seriously?” Aden asked in disbelief. “He tells me not to say anything, but just spills it all to you anyway?”

“What can I do? Everyone loves me.” Belle grinned good naturedly.

“No-one as much as I do. I can promise you that.”

---

Wow! Sorry for it being extra long. I didn't notice until I posted it.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Please leave a comment!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Here's the next chapter.

Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 34:

Belle’s frustration reached an all time high as she struggled to piece together her portfolio. The problem with having so many pictures was that, in the end, she didn’t know which ones to keep and which ones to not.

Having banished Aden to her bed about 20 minutes ago for distracting her, she now regretted her decision. Looking up at where he laid across her bed, typing furiously away at her laptop, Belle considered asking for his help. Instead, she decided to take a break.

Pushing herself up, she hobbled to her bed, glad to stretch her legs a bit.

“You done?” Aden asked her, watching as she sat down at the top of her bed.

“Nope.” She replied. “I need a break though.”

Aden laughed as he turned his attention back to her laptop. Belle looked around her room, wondering what else there was for her to do. She had done so much in the past week while she was supposed to be ‘resting’ that she actually felt as if there was nothing left for her to do. Except her portfolio.

And getting out of there. Now that was something that she hadn’t done in a bit. Usually, stopping Belle from doing something that she wanted to do was almost impossible, but when she didn’t have the full functions of her body, it did slow her down. But only until she found another way to get what she wanted.

“Aden…” Belle said sweetly.

“Hmm…?” he replied, not bothering to look at her.

“How much do you love me?”

“Not enough.” Aden’s tone was distracted, although Belle could see the start of a smile on his lips.

“That’s not funny! You don’t even know what I was going to ask.” She claimed.

“It wasn’t going to be something I would have agreed to.”

“How do you know?” Belle huffed. It occurred to her that she was acting slightly childish, but she brushed that thought aside.

“Well, for starters, if I was going to agree then you would have just asked. And you wouldn’t have used that sickly sweet tone.” Aden pointed out.

“Fine.” She huffed, leaning back on her bed, hugging am pillow to her. Sighing, Aden sat up straight, not being able to resist her saddened face.

“What were you going to ask?”

“Why? It’s not like you’re going to say ‘yes’.” Belle retorted.

“I might…” he replied, pushing her chin up with a finger before stealing a kiss from her. Belle eyed him carefully as he sat back, his thumb still stroking her jaw.

“Can we go out? Like, out out.” She added, knowing that by ‘out’ he would probably take her for a little walk around in the area just outside the beach house like she had been doing for the past week.

Leaning in to her, Belle accepted the kiss that her boyfriend bestowed upon her. For a moment, she thought that he would agree with her. But that was until he back off.

“Not a chance in Hell.” Aden whispered as he smirked, ducking as a pillow came his way. The look on Belle’s face had returned, and Aden felt bad for not being able to give her something that she so very much wanted. “I’m sorry. You know that if it was up to me, I would.”

“Then let’s go!” Belle pleaded.

“Irene would kill me. Not to mention Amanda if she ever found out.”

“So they won’t find out.”

“Where would we go? Practically everyone in this town knows that you’re supposed to be resting.” Aden reasoned.

“We’ll go to… the beach. We’ll go to our place. No-one ever goes there.” Belle said excitedly as she saw him beginning to give in. “It’s the perfect opportunity to redeem yourself.” she joked.

“Alright.” He sighed. “But not for long, ok?”

“Whatever you say.”

“Just remember that I was the voice of reason here, yeah?”

Belle giggled at his words. Although they sounded serious, she could tell the amusement was underlying them.

Getting off her bed, she started over to her closet to find something else to wear. She had taught herself to move around with just the one crutch now, making it much easier for her to do things without asking for help.

Aden closed the laptop, placing it back onto her desk where it belonged. He was just about to put his shoes back on when a sudden flash of light caught his eye. Looking up through the window, it wasn’t long until he heard the thunder. A couple of seconds later, there was rain.

“No!” Belle moaned, making her way to where Aden was. “No! That’s not fair!” she growled as he rubbed her back sympathetically.

“I don’t think the weather cares about being fair.” he told her, pulling her away from the window by the hips.

“But I haven’t been out in ages!”

“We went for a walk just yesterday.” Aden said as they sat on her bed.

“Oh yeah, the 5 minute walk just outside the house.” Belle scoffed. “How could I forget?”

“We’ll go after it stops raining, ok?” he assured her.

“Promise?”

“I promise.” Aden drew a cross over his heart, causing Belle to smile and roll her eyes. “What do you wanna do until then?”

Belle thought about it. There was a lot of things that the two of them, alone in the house, could do. Before she could even verbalise one word, a clap of thunder made her jump. When a downpour of rain followed it, she involuntarily shivered.

“You ok?” Aden asked her, rubbing her leg in an attempt to warm her up, although the shiver wasn’t from any coldness.

“Yeah.” Belle tried to smile, but she guess it failed by the look of concern on Aden’s face. “I just… don’t like bad weather.” she confessed, shrugging to make it look like it was no big deal, when Aden could see that it clearly was.

“How comes?”

“Just.”

“Belle…” Aden said, his words laced with concern and slight reprimand.

“You remember how before I came to the bay, I kind off ran away from home?” At Aden’s nod, she continued. “Well, while I was jumping from place to place, there was this one night when the weather got really bad. Rain and lighting and all. So… you know…”

“Yeah, I get it.”

They fell into silence for a moment, not sure what else to say or do. Apart from answering Aden’s question’s about how she got to Summer Bay, Belle had never really spoken about those times. She had hardly ever mentioned her adoptive parents either, just that they weren’t the best in the world.

“What do we do now?” Aden asked once again.

“Well,” Belle smiled suggestively. “the last time it rained heavily, I ended up playing strip poker.”

“Really?” Aden’s eyebrows shot upwards. “Did you… uh, lose?”

“Nope, Lucas and Ric did tho. Lost everything.” Belle laughed a the look of disgust on his face.

“I don’t think I needed to know that.”

“I have pictures. Well, I should, somewhere.”

“I dunno if I should be more worried about you having naked pictures, or naked pictures of your exes.”

“Well, if you wanna play strip poker, I’d be happy to take pictures when you lose.” Belle quipped.

“Sweetheart, the only person losing would be you.”

“Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is? Or better yet, your clothes.” Belle told him.

“Bring it on, babe.” Aden challenged. “Bring it on.”

---

5 hands and just over an hour and a half later, Aden sat topless and without his watch and wrist wear, while Belle had lost her scarf and top shirt. The other hand had ended with neither one losing anything after an argument of what qualified as a piece of ‘clothing’. Belle had won, so she had got to keep something on, accusing Aden of time wasting.

Now, just as they finished their 6th hand, Aden looked at his cards, wondering whether it was worth it to play or not.

“Hurry up, would you?” Belle moaned. “Daylight will come back around if you go any slower.”

The clouds had gathered, and with the time that had passed, the skies were now a darker shade of grey.

“Just hold on!” Aden said, smiling at her. He didn’t look up at her, still wondering whether she would be able to read him so clearly. Sighing, he knew that if he didn’t make a move now, Belle would figure out that he didn’t have a good enough hand.

Peering up at her through his eyelashes, Aden saw Belle concentrate on something behind him. Her eyes quickly shifted back to her own cards soon after.

“What was that?” he asked her, eyeing her.

“What was what?” Belle replied innocently, but Aden knew that she was covering something up.

Looking over his shoulder, it took a second before it all clicked.

“You cheat!” he yelled. “You’ve been checking out my cards in the mirror!”

“What?” Belle said incredulously. “No!”

“Yes! That’s how you won those two hands!” Aden concluded.

“You have no proof.”

“I saw you looking behind me.” he told her. Belle opened her mouth to defend herself, but she couldn’t think of what else to say. Instead, she smiled sheepishly.

“It’s not my fault that you didn’t realise you were sitting in front of a mirror.”

“It’s still cheating.”

“Oh well. No harm, no foul.”

“No, no, no.” Aden smiled now, pulling on his shirt. “You cheated, and now you pay the price.”

“What price?” Belle asked. His smile informed her that it wasn’t going to be something she would like.

“Lose 2 more things.”

“No way.” Belle scoffed.

“Or you could lose everything.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “No!” she flung her cards at him, letting out a slight shriek when he did the same to her.

“It’s up to you…” Aden laughed. Belle was about to give him an alternative when the house phone rang. She was surprised that they heard it over the noise from outside. “Saved by the bell.”

“Will you get that?” Belle asked to get rid of him.

“Fine, but this isn’t over.”

“Fine.” she huffed.

“Fine.” Aden smiled, hopping off her bed.

“Fine!.”

---

This once again ended up being longer than I wanted, which means that finding out who's calling and what the major drama is will have to wait for another chapter!

Hope you enjoyed the Adelle fluff!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Thanks for the comments you guys! You all seem to get sweeter and sweeter! I hope you still be as nice even though the Adelleness calms down now!

Chapter 35:

“…are you sure?” Belle heard Aden ask. He had been on the phone for about a minute now and these were the first words that she could clearly make out. His tone worried her.

A sudden flash of lightening caused the lights in her room to blink before they steadied back again. She let out a slight gasp.

“… be there. Give us about 15 minutes.” She heard him sigh. “Yeah, I get it.” There were a few more words exchanged before Aden hung up, making his way back to her room.

“What’s happening?” Belle asked straight out.

“We, uh… we need to head over to Roman’s.” he told her as he leaned over her bed to reach his phone. All of the playfulness had evaporated now. “Is your phone on, babe?”

“Yeah, course.” She replied, grabbing hers too.

“I’ve got no signal.” He said.

“Yeah, uh, me neither.” Belle watched him as he tried to find a signal. “Why are we going to Roman’s?”

“Cos it’s safer there.” Aden muttered as he walked out of her room.

“’Safer’? Aden! Come back here!” she called after him.

“Hold on!” he yelled back from the kitchen. Belle sighed heavily as she heard him enter the bathroom now.

“What was that all about?” she asked as he re-entered the room.

“It’s raining outside.” He stated, holding up the roll of Clingfilm in his hand and a roll of tape. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he meant.

“Can’t we wait until it dies down a bit?” Belle peered out of the window as good as she could from her position on the bed. The rain did seem a bit calmer, but not enough for her wanting to go out into it.

“Roman said that they predict that it’s going to get worse.” He informed her as he sat on her bed, pulling her leg onto his lap.

“Why can’t we just stay here?” Belle helped him cover her cast, keeping an eye on his studious face as she did so. “Aden? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Aden put on a smile for her. “We have to go because this place is too near the water.”

“Ok.” Belle said. “Ok.” She ran a hand through her hair, a clear sign to Aden that she was getting anxious. He stopped what he was doing and reached out to pull her hand away from her face.

“Listen, everything’s going to be ok. Just relax.”

“I am relaxed!” Belle told him.

“If you say so…” Aden laughed.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Irene’s with Roman.” Aden said, avoiding eye contact as he finished up with her leg, pulling her flared jeans down over to cover it.

“Where’s Annie? And Geoff?” Belle asked, noticing how he was reluctant to mention them. When he didn’t answer, instead paying too much attention to placing the equipment he had neatly onto her desk, she knew something was wrong. “Aden?

“They’re together.” he told her.

“So they’re ok?” Once again, Aden didn’t respond. “Aden, please? Tell me!”

“They don’t know where they are.” He admitted, coming to sit back down opposite her.

Aden watched her face as the news sunk in. Roman had told him not to say anything if he could avoid it, but there wasn’t much that he could keep from Belle. Plus, it wasn’t as if she wouldn’t have figured it out soon.

“What- what do you mean, ‘they don’t know’?” Belle faltered. “I thought Geoff was with Nicole?”

“Nicole and Jai are missing too.” Aden added.

“Missing? They’re missing? For how long?” she demanded.

“I don’t know. Roman didn’t say. I guess before it started to rain.” he reasoned.

“So a couple of hours, then.” she concluded. “Maybe they’re just hiding out somewhere, waiting for the rain to calm down.”

“Maybe.” Aden sighed. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that people had search all the nearby housing and shelters to find nothing. “We’ve got to go.”

Aden stood up, holding out Belle’s jacket for her. She took it from him gratefully, sliding it on as Aden did the same with his and his shoes.

“Are they still looking for them?” Belle asked slowly as Aden made sure that her window was locked shut.

“Roman and Mr. Stewart have got some people to have a look about. They can’t have gone too far, you know?” Aden tried to make it as light as possible. He knew exactly what Geoff and Annie meant to her. They were the family that she never had; the siblings that she never had. He was anxious about them too. Nicole had transformed from a bratty spoilt kid to a sweet, albeit annoying, little sister that he never had. If he could, he would be out there looking for them as well. But as Roman had put it, someone had to ‘take care’ of Belle.

“So they’re at the Surf Club, then?” Belle asked as they walked out of her room.

“Yes.”

“I wanna be there.” she said determinedly.

“Belle, you can’t do anything.” Aden told her, turning around to face her. Out in the main part of the house, it was easier to see that the rain had slowed a bit, although the lighting and thunder had not.

“I just want to be there. Irene’s there, isn‘t she?” Belle pointed out. When Aden didn’t reply, she knew that she was right.

“Look, Roman said that this storm’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And you’re not supposed to even be leaving the house, let alone go to the Surf Club. If this place wasn’t so close to the sea, then we would stay here.” Aden explained to her.

“Aden, I have to be there! What if something happens to them? What if-?”

“Hey, don’t think like that.” He pulled her into his arms as she breathed deeply. “Listen, if there was anything that we could do, I would do it. But if we go there, we could just be getting in the way.”

“Please?” Belle pleaded, her face still buried in his chest. “Just quickly. We’ll leave if we’re in the way. I just want to see Irene.”

Aden didn’t reply. He knew it was a bad idea, but there was no way that he could say ‘no’.

“We’ll take the car. You can’t walk all the way there in this weather.” Aden gave in. It seemed like that was all that he was doing today.

“Thank you.” she whispered as she backed away. Leaning up, she gave him a brief, intimate kiss before letting him lead her out of the house, one hand in his, the other helping her keep her balance.

---

“Belle!” Irene exclaimed as they walked into the Surf Club as fast as they could 10 minutes later. The rain had made the journey slower. “What are you doing here?”

“Aden told me about the kids. Is there any news?” The elder lady shook her head, before leading Belle away to get dried up a bit. Although the walk had consisted of all about 30 seconds, it was enough to make someone in her position ill.

“I thought I told you to take her home?” Roman asked Aden as he walked over to where the search volunteers stood around a map.

“She wanted to come here and see Irene after she found out.” Aden told him.

“You should have stopped her.”

“Uh… have you met Belle?” Aden said sceptically. “When was the last time you got her to change her mind about something once she was dedicated to it?”

Roman gave him a half smile, knowing exactly what he meant. His own daughter was just as stubborn.

“Do you need some help?” Aden asked, politely, knowing that if he just told Roman that he wanted to help, he wouldn’t let him.

“Uh…” Roman hesitated. The more people, the better, he thought. But when that person was Aden…

“Look, if I’m going to be hanging out here, and it looks like I am, then I might as well be useful. You need more searchers, and I know the area pretty well.” Aden reasoned.

“I don’t know, Aden. The weather’s taking a turn for the worst. You should probably take Belle, and Irene for that matter, and head off home.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.” he said as he peered over his shoulder to see Belle and Irene sit on the sofa at the far end of Noah’s Bar. Roman followed his gaze, seeing the two women talking, their worry clear on their faces.

“Ok, I guess we could use another hand. We don’t have time to waste/”

“Great. Thanks.”

“Alright. Well, after you go and tell Belle that you’re going to be helping us, and be out there along with her missing foster brother and sister, I’ll fill you in with everything.” Roman gave him a clap on his shoulder. “Good luck.”

---

Hope you enjoyed it...

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Sorry for the lack of update last night! To make it up, I finished this off early for you guys!

Chapter 36:

Belle yawned for about the 8th time that hour. It was just past 9pm and her and Irene still sat in the Surf Club.

“That’s it, darl. We need to get you home.” Irene told her.

“No! I’m fine.” Belle protested.

“No, you’re not. You have been trying to keep your eyes open for the past hour, love.”

“I’m not going until I know something.” Almost as soon as the words left Belle’s mouth, a commotion broke out in the main part of the building. The two of them shared a glance before getting up and rushing to see what was going on.

“Oh, thank God.” Belle heard Irene exclaim just before she reached where she could see what was going on. There weren’t that many people there, but whoever was there was blocking her view.

Although the rain had forced everyone inside to safer shelters, Miles had joined them while waiting for news about Jai and the others. Anyone else that was there was helping with the search. However, as the weather got worse, the more the people decided to go home.

Belle sighed in relief when she saw Geoff, soaked to the bone under his blanket, and Nicole not looking much better. They had a couple of scratches on them, but other than that, they seemed fine.

“Where’re Annie and Jai?” Irene asked as she let go of Geoff.

“I dunno.” His voice was raspy, and Belle guessed that it was probably from shouting.

“Are you guys ok?” she finally asked. Both Nicole and Geoff merely nodded.

“We’ve still got everyone else looking for Annie and Jai.” Roman informed them as he entered the Surf Club. Belle didn’t fail to notice the quick look he shot her, or that he was alone.

“Do you know where they are?” Miles asked.

“We’ve got a better scope of the land now, and we’re pretty sure we’ve got the area covered.” Roman told him.

“‘Pretty sure’?” Belle said incredulously.

“Well, we can’t be for sure whether they’re there or not.” He nodded towards to two that had been found, and where now drinking some hot beverages. “They’ve told us what happened, and we’re just going to go on that.”

Roman waked over to where the map was laid out, a couple of other search and rescuers joining him. Swallowing the urge to scream about the fact that Roman seemed so much more calmer now that his daughter was found, yet her sister and boyfriend were still in the rain, she hobbled over to where Irene was talking to the two teenagers.

“You all gave us such a fright! What happened?” she was asking.

“We were just hanging out at home, and then Annie texted Geoff, saying how they were lost or something.” Nicole began.

“Yeah, so we headed out to where Annie had said they had been.”

“Where was that?” Miles asked.

“Near the bushes, somewhere. It was about to rain, so they took a shortcut through there. By the time we got there, it was already raining. We tried to find them, but we just couldn’t.” Geoff finished, the guilt clear on his face.

“It’s not your fault, Geoff.” Belle comforted him.

“Why didn’t you come to us for help?” Irene enquired.

“We figured that they would just be nearby. By the time that we got lost, we had no signals on our phones. We tried to get back to the road, but the rain had made it all slippery.” Nicole answered for Geoff.

The three of them who had heard the story for the first time all nodded.

“Alright.” Irene said finally. “We need to get the two of you to the hospital.”

“What? No!” Geoff said in disbelief. “Annie and Jai are still out there. I want to help look for them.”

“Geoff, you’ve been caught out in that rain for a long time now. We need to make sure you’re ok. There are people out there looking for them, love. There’s nothing more you can do.” Irene tried to reason.

“But-”

“Irene’s right, Geoff.” Nicole told him.

“I’ll let you know if there’s any news.” Miles told him, hoping it would convince him to go. Fortunately, it did the trick, along with a nagging Irene.

“Roman’s busy with the search, so I’ll come with the two of you.” She told them.

“Wait, someone has to wait here for Annie.” Geoff said.

“I’m staying.” Belle assured him. Everyone else who was there looked at her. Some in disbelief and some in doubt.

“Belle, you need to head to Roman’s.” Irene informed her.

“I’m ok.” She insisted, adding a gentle smile to try and persuade her.

“You’re dead on your feet, love. You can’t keep fighting those medications any longer.”

“Irene’s right. I’m going to be here, anyway.” Miles added.

“There, you see? Irene placed a hand on her arm, guiding her with her as Geoff and Nicole walked into the main section of the Surf Club. “And I’ll come right back when these two are checked out.”

“What about until then? Don’t you think that Annie’s going to be a bit upset if there’s no-one here?” Belle’s words made Irene stop walking.

“I’m sure she would understand.” Irene said slowly, knowing that there was more to Belle’s begging to stay than she was letting on. And it wasn’t too hard to guess what it was. “And I’m sure Aden would too.”

The look in Belle’s eyes showed Irene just how spot on she was. Sighing, she understood her eldest foster daughter’s concern, and her lack of verbal concern for him. She didn’t want to seem as if she was more worried about Aden than for Annie and the others.

“I want to stay.” Belle said, her tone suggesting that there was going to be no way to sway her the other way. Irene sighed heavily.

“Alright, but if anything happens, I’m telling Roman to take you home, ok? Even if it’s kicking and screaming, so be it.”

Belle reluctantly agreed, even as Irene added that as soon as she got back, Belle had to go.

Soon after they had left in the ambulance that had made its way there, the lights in the Surf Club blinked once before plunging them into complete darkness for about 10 seconds. It wasn’t for long, but the totally blackness made the storm that much scarier for Belle. She couldn’t help but notice Roman’s eyes on her as the back-up generators kicked in and the electricity returned.

“I’m fine.” Belle’s tone was defensive which made the ex-SAS man raise an eyebrow in disbelief and just nod. She decided to leave before he could start up a conversation about how she should head homewards.

Sighing heavily, she settled herself back onto the couch, not surprised when Miles threw her a cautious look from where he stood at the bar, drinking some water. To stop herself from saying something that she would probably regret, she pulled out her phone just out of habit. Belle wasn’t surprised to see that she had no signal.

Running her thumb over her screen, she wondered what had possessed her to allow Aden to go out in this weather when he had told her. Although at first she was very unwilling, telling him that she would prefer if he was there with her, Belle had given in when he told her that he couldn’t just sit there doing nothing. She hadn’t wanted to seem selfish; asking him to stay so that there was one less person for her to worry about.

“They’re going to be ok.” A voice made her head snap up, replacing her phone back into her pocket.

“I know.” She replied, the exhaustion clear in her voice. Roman sat on the chair opposite her.

“Aden’s the one who found Geoff and Nic, you know?” The look of shock on Belle’s fact told him that she didn’t know. “Yeah, he said that it was common route that he and Nicole take sometimes when they’re late for school.”

There was amusement laced with his words, and it was clear to Belle that he was trying to make her feel better and not worry so much about Aden.

“Why didn’t he come back with you?” Belle finally asked the one thing that was playing on her mind.

“He knows the area much better. There’re plenty of well used paths through those bushes that he knows off. We need him out there.”

“Great.” Belle said dryly. “Aden gets to play hero, while I sit here worrying.”

Roman couldn’t help but laugh at her choice of words. He was pretty sure that no-one had called Aden a ‘hero’ before.

---

Irene arrived back at the Surf Club about 45 minutes later.

“Are they ok?” Belle asked straight away.

“They’re going to be fine. Docs are still running extra checks and fixing them up, but other than that, they’re ok.” Irene told her before turning the questions onto her. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Well, the rains died down a bit, girly.” Irene hinted.

“So?” Belle replied, pretending to be oblivious to her tone. Irene, however, wasn’t falling for her act. “I’m not going to head over there on my own!”

“I’ll come with you then! Or better yet, Roman will. He’s heading back out, isn’t he?”

Both of their gazes fell onto him on the far side of the room. He was just informing whoever was there where they were going to go, and making sure the equipment worked. There was no electricity in most of the Bay.

“Yeah, he is…”

“… but?”

“I want to stay here.”

“Belle! I thought we went over this-”

“I know, I know!” she interrupted hastily. “But I’ll go crazy if I have to sit in that house by myself, wondering what’s going on!” Irene still looked sceptical, so Belle pulled out the guilt card. “And what if something happens to me? I’ve got no way to contact anyone else from Roman’s place.”

“Belle…”

“Just let me stay. Please? At least until Aden gets back.” Belle pleaded.

“Fine!” Irene threw her hands up in surrender. “But only until Aden comes back. Then he will take you home, and you will go, you hear me?”

“I promise.”

---

Aden arrived back at the Surf Club about 20 minutes later, just before Roman and the rest were about to go.

“Aden.” Roman greeted him. “Anything?” Aden shook his head as he took off the rain soaked jacket which had gained a lot of weight.

“Sorry.” He accepted a towel from the older guy, drying his hair, face and arms.

“That’s ok. Just show us where you guys got to, and we’ll carry on from there.” Roman instructed and Aden did as he was told. It didn’t take long; Aden knew the place like it was the back of is hand. “Alright, we’ll head to the west then.” Roman instructed his team before turning back to the young boy. “You should get that checked out.”

“Nah, it’s just a scratch.” His hand automatically reached up to brush the cut just above his left eye, sweeping away the blood. “Nothing I can’t deal with.”

“Even so, get it cleaned.”

“Whatever you say.” Aden mock saluted him, bringing a smile to both their faces. “Where’s Belle?”

“In there. You need to take her home before she falls dead, Aden.” Roman told him. Nodding, he entered the other side of the Surf Club, noticing how there were only about 4 people there now.

“Hey.” He said gently, adding a small wave.

“Thank God!” Irene exclaimed, making both Aden and Belle laugh.

“Didn’t think you would be so happy to see me.” Aden quipped, going to sit on the armrest of the couch, next to where Belle sat.

“Hmph! Now that you’re here, maybe you can convince this little missy to get to Roman’s!”

“Ah, I see.” Aden laid an arm on the back of the couch, making himself comfortable.

“Is there any more news?” Belle interrupted them. Aden shook his head solemnly, sitting up straighter.

“Roman’s heading out to take over from where we left off.”

“That’s good. They’ll find them in no time, now.” Irene said optimistically. Belle nodded along, not truly believing it, but not wanting to say anything otherwise.

The three of them sat chatting about Geoff and Nicole for a moment before Irene made them leave, especially as the thunder and lightening had stopped right then. However, the rain hadn’t stopped, and it was a 5 minute walk to Roman’s place. Aden had gotten her umbrella from the car before they had set off; making sure that Belle was protected from the rain as much as was possible.

When they had just reached the walkway of the house, Aden paused, making Belle stop too.

“What is it?” she asked. Her hand which was holding onto his tightened.

“There’s someone there.” He replied distractedly, eyes narrowing as he looked into the distance through the rain.

“What? Where?” Belle squinted too. She couldn’t see anything but could hear a very distant yelling.

“Look, I’m going to go check it out-”

“No! Aden, c’mon. It’s probably just another search and rescuer.” Belle tried to reason.

“Even if it is, Belle. I’ll be right back.” He dug into his pocket, pulling out his keys. “Here.”

“Aden, please! Call someone else. You can’t go on your own.” She pulled tighter on his hand.

Aden fought with himself in his head. He knew that the person down there could be in danger, but he couldn’t put himself into a situation that would make Belle worry.

“I’ll be careful.” He told her. He was about to add something else when he saw a familiar car pull up on the other side of the road. “Look, there’s Roman. I’ll go with him.”

He forced his hand out of Belle’s, which wasn’t too hard to do in her weakened state. Handing her the umbrella, he tucked the keys into her pocket and gave her a kiss.

“Go!”

---

Lol I just had to end it there!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Sorry for the wait! Been busy unpacking and stuff. I moved a week ago, but I never had the need to unpack until now!

Hope you enjoy this!

Chapter 37:

Shutting the umbrella and placing it in the corner next to the door, Belle wondered what to do. Shivering violently, she got her mind thinking about something other than Aden.

Without knowing it, she walked over to where the light switches were, surprised when they blinked on.

Roman must have gotten a backup generator fitted in, she concluded, realising how much sense that would make for a guy like Roman, being prepared for anything and everything.

Belle now stood shivering in the light. With the curtains open, she could see the lightening flash through the windows, the rain pattering against it too. Moving as quick as she could with one crutch, she shut them with a bit too much force.

It can’t have been more than 2 minutes since she had entered the house, but the day’s events were starting to catch up with her. The emptiness of the house seemed to play on her emotions.

Not now, she told herself as she breaths came out raggedly. Closing her eyes, she focused on the constant tick of the clock, slowing her breathing down as much as was possible.

When another shiver rippled through her, she realised just how much rain she had brought in with her. Not wanting to ruin Roman’s house, and wanting to keep busy, she headed upstairs.

The first thing that Belle did was to take out some towels from the linen closet by the bathroom. She knew this house just as well as she knew hers. Pulling out 4, she took one, dried herself as good as she could and dumped it next to the stairs with her crutch as she travelled back down to place the remaining 3 on the back of the couch just in case anyone came home before she had gotten cleaned up.

Once that was done, Belle decided that it was time to look after herself for once. After grabbing her nightwear from Aden’s room, she locked herself in the bathroom. It was the first time that she got to see herself since that afternoon, and she could see the stress and worry from the day clear on her face.

I look like the living dead, Belle mentally moaned. She didn’t really feel as bad as she looked.

Sighing, she switched the shower onto hot, got undressed and stepped in. She didn’t want to take too long; just long enough to warm herself up and look remotely alive. When a dull ache started to form in her foot from putting pressure on it for so long, she knew that it was time to get out.

Dried and dressed, and warm, Belle sat on the edge of the bathtub with a pair of scissors that she had found in the medical cabinet. Snipping at the wrapping around her cast, she cursed Aden for using so much. He could really go over the top sometimes when it came to her.

Finally done, she stepped out of the bathroom, steadying herself with her crutch to listen for a moment. When she heard no movements or voices, she guessed that no-one had returned as of yet.

Belle was about to return back downstairs when she realised just how cold the house was outside of the bathroom and warmth of the steam. Tracking back again, she entered Aden’s room, hoping to find something that she could pull over her tank top.

She stopped her rooting through his clothes when she heard the front door open. Thunder sounded much louder for those seconds that the door was left open as the person whoever had returned got their bearings and tried to keep the rain outside.

Grabbing the first thing that she could pull on, not fussed anymore about finding her own clothes, Belle hurriedly made her way down.

“Belle?” the person called out as she approached the stairs.

“Aden.” Belle sighed with relief as she climbed down the stairs. He was stood by the door using a towel to dry himself as much as was possible. When Belle saw him, she finally realised how lucky she was to have had an umbrella. Aden was simply drenched.

“Hey.” He said, a smile on his face as he looked up at her as she stood on the bottom step.

“Are you ok? Where’s Roman?” Belle fired off her first set of questions.

“I fine. Roman’s at the hospital. He went with Jai and Annie-”

“It was them?” She neared him now, shock clear in her tone as her eyes widened.

“Yeah, it was. They-”

“Are they ok? Why were they here? Is Irene with them?” Belle interrupted once again.

“If you would let me speak,” Aden said lightly. “I can tell you.” Belle smiled sheepishly. “They’re ok. Well, they had scratches all over and were soaked. And Jai might have a dislocated shoulder, but Irene’s with them at the hospital too.”

“You didn’t say why they were here.” she pointed out.

“They were trying to find a way back. Must have been hard though. Painful too.” Aden shook his head when he thought of the two kids.

“But they’re ok?” Belle asked one again.

“They’re going to be fine.” He reassured her. Belle nodded slowly, inhaling deeply to let go of all the worry.

She watched as Aden took of his watch and shook it a bit before rolling his eyes when it was clear that it was water logged. Shaking her head, Belle took it out of his hands and threw it onto the couch before wrapping her arms around his waist. Aden slid his arms around her shoulders, drawing her closer to him as she pushed her face into his neck.

Belle’s hands automatically started to climb up his back, going under his top. However, being caught out in the rain for the past 20 minutes with no jacket had plastered his t-shirt to him. Startled, she remembered how it felt being that wet and backed off.

“You need to get changed.” She instructed, bringing her arms to hold onto his forearms. “Go have a shower. It’ll warm you up too.”

“Yeah, alright.” Aden agreed, his hands falling to her waist. “Looking good, by the way. You should wear this more often.”

Belle laughed gently, pulling the front of the shirt that she had put on tighter around her. The first thing that she had grabbed when she rushed out of the room was Aden’s white school shirt that he had probably worn that day. She figured that he might have had; it did smell just like him.

---

When Aden came downstairs about 15 minutes later, he was surprised to see Belle in the kitchen, by the stove.

“You shouldn’t be doing that.” He said pointedly. Belle tossed a look and a smile over her shoulder at him as he leaned against the doorjamb.

“I’ve been making hot chocolate since I was a kid. I think I’ve managed the art of it by now.” She quipped.

“I meant,” Aden began as he walked over to her, “standing there with no support. It’s going to damage your leg even more.”

“I’m leaning against the counter.” Belle informed him.

“Belle,” Placing his hands on her hips, he slowly tugged her backwards, “go sit down, and I’ll make this.”

“But it’s almost done!” She protested even as Aden managed to drag her to the table. He pulled out a chair and she grumpily sat down, slumping against the back of the chair to her right.

Watching him as he made the drinks up, Belle couldn’t help but think about how they got so domestic. Any other time that they were left alone, they were too lazy and preoccupied with other things to think about this stuff.

Aden handed her a cup silently, sitting on the chair opposite her. She carefully took a sip, not wanting to burn her tongue like she normally did. It was only as she watched Aden over the rim of her cup that she noticed the cut and scratches on his face.

Lifting a hand up, Belle gently ran her thumb over the red line by his left temple and then just brushed the cut above his left eyebrow.

“Does it hurt?” she asked.

“Stings. It’ll heal.” Aden shrugged, pressing a kiss into the palm of her hand before she retracted it. “How’s the leg?” He asked as he pulled it up to rest on his lap, his hand running up and down her calf.

“Fine.” Belle lied. There was a dull thump of pain vibrating from it, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

“Sure.“ She could tell that Aden obviously didn’t believe her, but he let it go anyway.

They continued to sit in the silence that was marred only by the rolls of thunder every 2 minutes or so. That was something that Belle appreciated about her relationship with Aden; words weren’t always needed. But right then, she wished that they could talk about something. Anything. Because not talking about something meant thinking. And thinking wasn’t a good choice for her right then.

Aden noticed that there was something wrong when Belle stopped drinking her hot chocolate.

“Watching it doesn’t taste half as good, you know?” he joked. Belle looked up at him, resting her head against her hand which was propped up on the back of the chair. Her watery smile and lack of response worried him. “What is it?”

Belle didn’t answer. At least not verbally. Shaking her head, she turned her face away from him, pressing her fist into her forehead to stop herself from getting so emotional. Unfortunately, it didn’t work as good as she hoped, breaking down when Aden slid his arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he whispered into her hair as she buried her face into his shoulder. When Belle just shook her head once again, Aden decided that his approach was wrong. “Shhh…” he murmured gently, holding her tightly while she tried to get control of her emotions.

When her tears had stopped and her breathing steadied out, Aden was pretty sure she had cried herself to sleep.

“Sorry.” Belle muttered suddenly, turning her head out slightly.

“It’s ok.” Aden assured her. “You want to talk about it?”

“Just the day catching up with me.” she sighed, tracing patterns around Aden’s bicep.

“That seemed a bit more than that.”

“What if something had happened to them?”

“To who?” Aden asked, confused.

“Annie and Geoff.” Belle replied. “And the others.”

“We would have found them.” he told her.

“I know, but still. What if they were hurt? They got real lucky.”

“I dunno where you’re going with this, Belle.” Aden admitted.

“Never mind.” Belle pushed herself away from him. “I’m just being stupid.” She tried to add a smile to show how much she meant it, but it clearly failed.

“No, you’re not.” Pulling her closer to him, he debated whether it was worth pushing the issue or not. In the end, he decided that if it bothered her this much that she broke down over it, then maybe it was important to talk about it. “Tell me.”

“Annie should have told me.” Belle blurted out. “When she contacted Geoff, she should have texted me too. She knows that if she’s ever in trouble that she should let us both know. But she didn’t.”

“There’s nothing that you could’ve done.” His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

“That’s not the point.” She sighed, resting her head against his shoulder once again. The day’s events had made her tired too, not to mention her medication which she was still fighting, 2 hours on. “I’m their big sister. I’m the one who should be looking out for them and keeping them safe.”

Belle voice was barely above a whisper, but Aden could hear the emotion behind it very clearly. He knew what family meant to her, and Geoff and Annie, along with Irene, were her family. Maybe more so than Amanda, Ryan and the others.

“Belle,” Aden began before pausing. He didn’t know what else to say that would change her mind. “Belle, I don’t know what to say. You know I’m no good with this stuff. What I can say, though, is that it doesn’t matter what happened today, Annie and Geoff both know you’re there for them. They also know how much you care for them. I guess Annie didn’t let you know because she didn’t want to worry you or make you do something that would hurt you as well. She really looks up to you, you know? She’s going to want to help you as much as you want to protect her. Do you get what I mean?”

When he stopped speaking, Belle felt a weight lift off her. She felt him press a kiss to her forehead, giving her the comfort that she wanted right then.

“Yeah.” Belle said softly. “That was… perfect.”

---

Please leave a comment!

I don't think there's much left of this fic. Maybe 5 more chapters or something like that?

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

That's ok! You're never bagering me! I love knowing that there's someone who really wants to read my fic lol!

And yes, I did say that I would do a sequel. I have it planned out already!

But here's the next chapter!

Chapter 38:

When a surprisingly loud clap of thunder woke Aden up at half past 1 that night, he was extremely shocked to see the he was alone. Groaning, he pushed himself up to see if Belle was there by any chance, though he knew it wasn’t likely. Pulling on a top from where it lay on the floor, Aden got out of bed.

“Belle…” he moaned as he stumbled down the stairs. There were no lights on anywhere in the house. That was until he rounded the stairs to look in the direction of the kitchen. Standing in the doorway once again, he spoke. “What are you doing?”

Belle stood by the sink, the water running. During the day, or if he had been awake for longer than a minute, Aden was sure he would be able to figure out what his girlfriend was up to that early. But right then, she could have been sacrificing another human being for some magical spell and he wouldn’t have noticed.

Her head whipped around when she heard his voice, jumping slightly at the sound of something other than thunder and rain,

“Why are you squinting?” She asked amusingly.

“To early for bright lights. Hurts my eyes.” He replied, a yawn breaking up his sentences. “Why are you up?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Belle informed him, turning back to the job at hand.

“Your meds… you can’t keep fighting them.” Aden reprimanded her, rubbing at his eyes to wake himself up a bit more.

“I’m not. I just can’t sleep.”

“So you decided to come down and…” He walked up to the counter, leaning against it for all the support he could get and needed. “…wash up?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” Belle repeated, this time in defence.

“Yeah, I heard you the first time. Doesn’t explain this though.”

“Explain what?” She dried off the final mug and placed it on the side as she washed her hands.

“Cleaning in the middle of the night. Isn’t that like an OCD or something?” Aden’s tone was light, but his question was serious.

“I don’t have an OCD. I just came down so that I wouldn’t wake you, and I thought I would wash up to keep myself busy. Maybe make myself tired.” She explained.

“Ah, yeah, chores tend to send me to sleep too.” He was teasing, but Belle couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“Thanks.”

“What for?” Aden asked, moving around her to pick up the two cups and the milk pan to put them back where they belonged. If he had to be up at 1:30am, he may as well be useful.

“Making me laugh. After a day like today - well, yesterday - it just what I need. You’re just what I need.” Belle added at the end, watching him as he made his way back over to her, a smile on his face that showed just how much he appreciated hearing her say that.

She willingly allowed him to wrap his arms around her shoulders, pressing his lips to hers in a passionate kiss. They stood like until the need to breathe became necessary.

“Anytime, beautiful.”

---

Aden sat on the couch in the living room 30 minutes later, Belle leaning against him, asleep. They had moved there from the kitchen mainly because it was more comfortable. Although Aden had to argue that it wasn’t as comfortable as his bed would be, it was a very close second.

Belle had given in to the sleep almost as soon as she laid her head on his chest. He didn’t understand how she could complain of not being able to sleep earlier when she succumbed so quickly right then.

Twisting her hair around his finger, Aden just watched her sleep. There wasn’t anything else that he could possibly do. Trying to sleep in that position would be painful, to say the least, and he didn’t have the energy, or the want, to move them both back upstairs.

A noise outside the front door attracted Aden’s attention. It was pretty late, or early, and the storm was still in full force. However, where they were sitting, it wouldn’t seem like it.

“Hey.” Roman greeted as he entered the house, Geoff and Nicole following him. “Oh, sorry.” He added once he saw a sleeping Belle.

“Don’t worry about it.” Aden replied, knowing that it was very unlikely that she would wake up anytime soon.

“Everything ok here?” he asked, nodding towards the sleeping girl as the three of them got dried off with the towels Belle had left down there.

“Yeah, it’s all great.” he semi-lied. “What about you guys?”

“We’re fine.” Geoff replied.

“Speak for yourself.” Nicole huffed. “Look!” she shoved her hands towards Aden as he raised an eyebrow when he couldn’t see what the problem was. “Do you know how long it’s gonna take to grow my nails back again? And don‘t even get me started on the cuticles!”

“Good to see you’re back to normal.” Aden grinned as the other two laughed quietly. “How are Annie and Jai?”

“They’re going to be ok. Jai’s shoulder’s dislocated, and Annie’s got a sprained wrist. Other than that, they’ll be out of hospital in the morning.” Roman filled him in.

“So everything’s ok?”

“Yeah.” Silence fell between the four of them, and Aden shifted slightly, becoming a bit uncomfortable in the position that he and Belle were in while the other three just stood around. “Right, well, we better get dried off before we get ill.”

Geoff and Nicole both nodded and headed upstairs at once. Roman stayed behind and gave Aden a look which he could only interpret as doubtful.

“Are you sure everything’s alright?”

“Yeah, of course.” Aden promptly replied. Roman obviously did not buy it. “Honestly, I’m good.”

“Alright.” he hesitated for a moment before continuing. “You do know you can talk to me, right?”

The sincerity in Roman’s voice made Aden feel guilty on the inside for lying to him, but he knew that he couldn’t tell him Belle’s problems. He couldn’t betray her trust in him.

“I know.” Aden told him. “But it’s not my secret to tell, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, of course.” Roman nodded, understanding fully what he was talking about. “You should get her to bed. As comfortable as it may be here, it’s going to get cold soon.”

“I might just do that. Where is Geoff sleeping?” he asked as innocently as he could. Roman clearly got what he was hinting to.

“In the spare room.” he replied. “Actually, I might just go and make sure everything’s alright up there.” Roman walked back to where the stairs came down, noticing Belle’s crutch lying on the floor where she had tried to make it lean against the wall. “I’ll take this up, yeah?”

“Sure, thanks.” Aden called after the elder man as he disappeared even before he received a response.

Now faced with the dilemma of how to get Belle upstairs, Aden came to a conclusion pretty easily when he looked down at her. There was no way that he could bring himself to wake her up right then.

Easing himself out from under her, he laid her head back onto the pillow on the couch before crouching down by her side. Pushing away the wisps of hair from her face, Aden pulled her arm around his neck before wrapping one arm behind her back and the other one under her legs.

He managed to lift her with ease; Belle didn’t weigh much anyway, and Aden noticed that she seemed to have lost a bit of weight since breaking her foot too.

I’m going to have to have a talk with her about that… he thought to himself as he picked her up and readjusted her so that she rested lightly in his arms before heading up the stairs.

When he reached his room, he was glad that Roman had left the door open for him with Belle’s crutch by his cupboard.

Aden tried to place Belle back down onto the bed carefully without nudging her, but with her foot as wrapped up as it was, it didn’t work out.

“Aden…?” Belle murmured through her sleep.

“Shhh… Go back to sleep.” he whispered back, pulling the covers over her.

“Wait…” Her mouth barely moved as she spoke, sitting up straighter and pulling at the shirt she had pulled on over her tank top earlier. Eyes bleary and half shut, Aden decided to help her out before she pulled herself out of the sleep, which would probably cause her to be up for the rest of the night.

“I’ve got it.” he told her, sitting on the bed as he slid it off her shoulders and threw it onto the floor in the general direction of a chair. He laid her down back again, pulling the covers right up before he took his own top off and climbed into bed behind her.

Aden was pretty sure that Belle had fallen back asleep as he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him as much as he could without disturbing. But that either failed or she hadn’t been asleep like he had thought at first as she turned around in his arms, pressing herself to him and burying her face in under his chin.

“Thank you.” Belle whispered, pressing a kiss to his clavicle, the only place she could reach without having to move. “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

---

How was that?

Just a bit of non-dramatic fluff for myself and any fellow Adellites in this Adelle bubble of mine lol!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

Sorry for the late update! I got it done as quick as I could!

Please enjoy it lol! It's fluff!

Chapter 39:

“Yeah, we’re all good here.” Belle spoke into the phone. “Just let mum know. She’s driving me crazy with all the calls.”

After the storm had died down in the early hours of the day the following day, Belle and Geoff had returned home along with Annie and Irene, who had come straight from the hospital. At first, none of them knew what to expect when they got to their home. They were pleasantly surprised that nothing had been destroyed or even damaged.

“I will. Uh… I’ve got to go now.” Ryan replied. Belle had been hoping to chat to Amanda, but she wasn’t complaining that she got Ryan instead. In fact, she was kind of happy to avoid their mother.

“Alright, that’s ok. The last thing I need is mum on my case for making you late to footy.” Belle said lightly. Her mood had really risen that day.

“Don’t worry. She’s always dropping me off late.”

“Can’t you get Drew to drop you off?”

“No.” he simply replied.

“Why not?” Belle asked curiously.

“ Mum doesn’t like me in the car with Drew. She say’s he’s a dangerous driver.” Ryan said earnestly, making Belle laugh out loud.

“Yeah, that sounds about right.” she told him, although she was sure that Amanda was just joking when she said that.

“I’ll let him know you agree.”

“You do that.” Belle laughed once again. “Alright, you better get off to practice then.”

“See you, sis.” Ryan said innocently, although Belle could hear the smile in it.

“Not you too.” she groaned good naturedly. As much as she denied it, that nickname was growing on her.

Almost as soon as she hung up, there was a knock on her door. Matilda walked in once Belle had allowed her to.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Mattie asked as she sat on the bed.

“I’m good.” Belle smiled brightly. “How about you?”

“I’m good too…” Mattie said carefully, eyeing her best mate. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re just so… happy. Why?”

“So what? It’s a crime to be happy now, is it?” Belle still smiled as she spoke, leaning back against the bed.

“No, no. Of course not. I’m just curious.” Mattie replied, holding her hands up in a surrendering pose. “Although, I’m sure I could guess.”

“Oh, really?” she giggled. “Go on then.”

“Could it be a certain person? Name starting with an ‘A’ and ending in a ‘N‘?” Mattie asked in total innocence.

Belle laughed at her words. It was true; after all the drama of last night, that morning had been very sensual, to put it one way.

“Well, that’s part of the reason.” Belle admitted, a slightly shy smile showing on her lips.

“Uh huh… Well, as your best mate, you should tell me all.” Mattie insisted. “So go on.”

---

An hour and a bit later, the girls were still laughing. It felt good, especially after everything that had happened.

A knocking on the door stopped them both from reaching hysterics, especially as Mattie’s phone buzzed at the same time.

“Yeah?” Belle called out the same time as Mattie told her that she had to go. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you for so long.” she rolled her eyes to emphasise her sarcasm.

Aden had walked through the door just as Belle had spoken.

“Ric’s outside.” He stated as Mattie gathered her stuff.

“I know. I said I would only be an hour. Jai’s coming home and Miles is doing something or another…”

“Alright, well give me a call later then. We’ll sort it out then.” Belle told her.

“Will do.” Mattie replied as she brushed past Aden hurriedly after getting a goodbye hug from Belle. “Ooh, cake!”

“Cake?” Belle called out, her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion as she looked at Aden. He had an exasperated look on his face.

“Yeah, there’s chocolate cake out here.” Mattie said as she re-entered the bedroom. As she stood by the doorway, she finally took notice of Aden’s look. “Ah, I see. Well, I’ll be off then.” She retreated back into the main part of the house, throwing Belle an interesting look as she left.

“So… cake?” Belle asked, laughing.

“It was meant to be a surprise.” Aden said, sighing as he collapsed onto the bed next to her.

“For me?” she asked hopefully.

“No. For everyone.” he said seriously.

“Sure...” Belle nodded along, pretending to understand him completely.

“I’m being serious.”

“Oh… sorry.” she replied, sheepishly.

“Geez. I do one good deed, and no-one believes me. Maybe I should stick to being a tool.”

“ No-one’?” Who else?” Belle looked at him curiously, taking her camera off of him as he started to fiddle around with it.

“Annie.”

“Ah… you were talking to Annie?”

“What’s with all this doubt? You sound so surprised!” Aden exclaimed, although there was a joking tone to it.

“I’m sorry. It’s good. I just can’t get over it.” Before Aden could ask her what ‘it’ was, she carried on, not wanting to get into that. “Why the cake?”

“Well, I was going to bring you chocolate, because you, sweetheart, need to put on some weight.” Belle gave him a slap to the chest for that remark. “But then I realised that I wouldn’t get any of that, so I brought cake instead.” He explained. “For everyone, of course.”

“Oh, so you have learnt, have you?” She teased him, readjusting herself so that she was sitting opposite him instead of next to him.

“Yep… the hard way though.”

“I share!” She defended herself.

“Only after you get something in return. And even then, it’s the most miniscule bit ever.” Aden scoffed.

“‘Miniscule’? Been learning new words, have we?” Belle taunted.

“Oh, that’s just mean.” He shook his head, trying to hide his smile.

“Aw… are you going to leave?” Belle asked, referring to the other day last week when he had threatened to do so.

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Aden replied, giving her the satisfaction of seeing him smile.

“No, of course not.” She said with sincerity. “Well, at least not until I tell you my good news.”

“What good news?”

“You know how my plaster’s all crumbly because of the rain and all?” Belle began.

“Yeah…”

“Well, Irene made me call the hospital up and tell them to get it changed, and they said to come down on Friday, and guess what?” Belle asked excitedly. Her happiness was contagious and Aden couldn’t help but smile.

“They said that they’ll do another x-ray and see if they could take it off totally?” Aden replied.

“What?” She was disappointed that he had got it spot on. “How did you know?”

“I’m psychic.” He said solemnly.

“Um… I think the word you’re looking for is ‘psychotic’.”

“Funny.”

“I would think so.”

“You would.“ Belle laughed, nudging him slowly with her foot. He reciprocated the moved, as did she until they finally ended up getting a bit violent, though they were laughing through the most of it.

“Stop it!” she gasped out as he leaned above her, somehow managing to pin her arms above her head with one hand, the other grazing her stomach, tickling her gently. “Aden! Please?”

“Alright. But only cos you asked so nicely.” He informed her, sitting up again so that he was on his knees, and letting go off her hands.

“I’ll have to remember that.” Belle said. “You can’t resist anything I want when I ask nicely.”

“I can’t resist you?” Aden asked incredulously. “It’s you who can’t resist me, babe.”

“Oh, is that a fact?” she asked as she pulled him down by the front of his shirt.

“You know it is.” Aden whispered before touching his lips to hers. Just as she tried to deepen it, he pulled away. “See? Irresistible.”

---

Hope you all enjoyed it!

It's all drawing to an end now so it will probably all be fluffy chapters from now on.

Leave a comment!

xoxo

[Taniya_K]

I'm trying my best to make this story 40 chapters, which is more than I originally planned. This chapter wasn't meant to be in this anywhere, but I just added it to make it all longer lol! So if it tends to drag or bore or just plain suck, I'm sorry!

But here's some more fluff!

Chapter 40:

“Urgh!” Belle moaned as she emptied the last bag. Although she had been wanting to sort through everything her mother had bought her for a week now, but never got around to it. Well, she had phoned her mother who had said she wouldn’t take any of it, so Belle had gotten frustrated and left them in the corner of her room as she did her portfolio.

It was past 9pm and after clearing up the photos from all over her floor yesterday after Aden had left and before he had returned, and that morning, she had decided to remove the clutter from the corner of her room too. After all, once her cast came off, she wasn’t going to spend any more time than necessary in her room.

She hobbled up to her cupboard once again, pulling out a couple of hangers to place some of the tops that she liked on. Belle had made two piles; one that she would keep and the other that she would offer to Annie or Mattie, and if they didn’t like it… well, she hadn’t thought that far ahead.

When Belle heard the window behind her slide up quietly, she sighed.

“Is there even a point in telling you about the invention called ‘a door’?” she joked without looking at who had climbed into her room.

“Nah. You know you love it.”

“Uh-huh.” she replied.

“What ya doing?” Aden asked, flopping down onto the bed. He tucked a bag that he had brought with him under the bed, hiding it from her. "Wow!”

“Sorting out the clothes.” Belle said she turned around to see him pulling out a black laced top from one of the still filled bags. “Oi! Leave it!”

“This is nice.” He smirked, letting it hang by one finger to show her. “It would suit you very much.”

“You think?” Belle asked dryly. “And what would I wear with it? This skirt,” she showed him a black miniskirt that she had placed back into a bag because there was no way that she was going to wear it and nor would Annie or Mattie , “or this one?” The second one was just like the first one, but in red.

“I like the second one.” He said earnestly. Belle rolled her eyes at him, placing both skirts, and the top, back into the ‘put away’ bag.

“So is this what you’re going to be doing all night?” Aden asked, getting bored after a while.

“Well, no.” She replied as she emptied another bag. “I do plan on sleeping too.”

“Can I help?”

“With sleeping?” She asked funnily.

“That too, if you’d like.” Aden said suggestively. “Although I did mean with this.”

Before Belle could reply, Aden was by the open cupboard, flipping through some of her clothes. She watched him from the bed as he just browsed through them quickly.

“These weren’t here before.” he stated as he pulled out a long black top.

“That’s cos I’ve had to move half of my clothes around to make some space.” Belle informed him. “Plus mum bought me that one.”

“Figures.” Aden murmured.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked warningly. When he just shook his head, she went back to sorting through the clothes.

“Whoa, you still have this?” Aden said suddenly, pulling out her school uniform.

“Well, I wasn’t going to throw it away.”

“I would. First chance I get, I will.” Aden told her. He twisted the dress around before looking at her. “You looked hot in this.”

“Put it back.” she told him.

“It’s a compliment.” Aden laughed as he did what she said.

“It’s not going to happen.”

“What’s not going to happen?” he asked innocently. However, he didn’t give her chance to reply, instead pulling out something else that he found, chortling in appreciation. “Why have I never seen this before?”

Aden was holding the dress that she had worn to Amanda’s wedding. She had to admit, it was a pretty gorgeous dress, but there was no way she was going to wear it ever again. It did tend to bring bad luck.

“That’s my dress from Mum and Peter’s wedding.” she told him.

“Bridesmaid dresses aren’t this sexy.”

“Ok, you know what?” Belle asked rhetorically as she got up and took the dress off of him. “You’re not helping.”

“Sure I am. I’m telling you what you need to keep and wear.”

“Yeah, that’s not helping.” she told him, shoving him aside as she readjusted everything in her cupboard so that these two dresses weren’t reachable.

“You must have more dresses than that.” Aden said as he tried to go through her cupboard once again.

“Well, I don’t.” She pushed him away once more with less force than before as she couldn’t keep her balance much.

“Liar.” He huffed as he tried to go around her to peep into another cupboard.

“Hey!” She yelled, pulling on his arm to get him away from her stuff. “Bed, now!”

“Aw, c’mon Belle! I’m just trying to help.” He tried to plead.

“I don’t care.” She told him, pushing him in the general direction of her bed. “Just stay there.”

“Can I help from here?” Aden’s words had sarcasm laced in with them, but Belle ignored it.

“No. Can’t you find something else to do?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” he asked slightly offended.

“Of course not.” Belle turned to look at him, unfortunately catching him going through another bag of clothes. “Well, maybe if you won’t leave my stuff alone!”

Aden promptly backed off, sitting up innocently against the headrest. Belle couldn’t help but be reminded of a little child who had been caught with a hand in the cookie jar and smiled.

“What?” he questioned her sudden smile.

“Nothing.” Belle replied airily.

“Man, you’re an emotional rollercoaster today.” He had meant to have muttered to himself, but it was clear that Belle had heard him when she chucked a piece of clothing at her. Aden laughed when he discovered that she had just thrown the lacy black top at him.

“If you say one word about that, I will throw you out and nail the window shut.” Belle threatened as a very ‘classic Aden’ look glistened in his eyes.

“I wasn’t going to say anything.”

Belle stared at him in disbelief before turning around to go rooting through her cupboard once again, not bothering to tell Aden to stay away from anything as she heard him rustle through another bag by the floor.

“I still think you could keep some of these clothes.” He told her as he came across a plain white knee length dress, or a top, with a deep v-cut neck.

“They’re not my style.”

“Give them back or exchange them. They must be worth a bit.” Aden suggested as he found a pair of black skinny jeans.

“That’s just rude.” She countered. “Anyway, I don’t want the money. If I want to buy something, I will.”

“That’s true. You do have the money to now.” He found a skimpy, strapless green top and laid it above the jeans that he had fanned out on the floor. “You should keep these.”

Belle turned around to see what he had been doing. The bag she had left on the floor was now almost empty, it’s contents spilling out as Aden leaned over the bed to adjust the white dress and the other outfit. She hopped over to where he was, slapping his hands away.

“That looks like a wedding dress, and I would not be caught dead in that top.” She stated, kicking the jeans to the side of that she could pick it up as she sat on the bed. “This, however, I will keep.”

“But what about the top?” Aden asked as he sat back straighter on the bed.

“No.”

“But-”

“Just, no.” She shook her head to stop him from going on. There was no way that she was going to wear a strapless, bottle green top. It wasn’t her style at all.

“Fine.” Aden sighed as he, finally, gave up on trying to be her fashion advisor. Though she did find it pretty sweet, he didn’t really help her much. “But I’m taking this,” he managed to quickly swipe her camera from he desk before settling once again on her bed, “to keep me busy. Smile!”

Behind her, she could hear the lens on her camera shut as a flash blinked before her. She didn’t know what he was trying to capture because there was no way that she was going to turn around when he had told her to.

“Don’t waste my memory.” She informed him as the 20 flash shone in about 2 minutes. Turning to pick up some more clothes, Belle saw him viewing whatever pictures that he had taken.

“These are pretty good. Maybe I should become a photographer.” Aden said earnestly.

“If you say so.” Belle said, doubt colouring her words.

“I do say so. Maybe I could set up my own studio. God knows I have the money.” Aden stated, adding the last bit in a softer voice.

“Maybe you should take more than just a handful of pictures before you spend that much money on something you’ll hate.”

“I wouldn’t hate it.”

“Sorry, I meant be bad at.” She laughed and stuck her tongue out at her as he did it to her the first time.

“You’re just scared that I’ll be better than you and take all the jobs.” He told her, placing the camera aside as Belle took it to see what he had snapped.

“I wouldn’t be out of jobs, would I? My boyfriend has his own studio, remember?” She teased, giggling as she saw the pictures of her, some close up, some totally off focus. “You might need some practice though.”

“Yeah, I might need to invest in a camera. They can‘t be that much, can they?” When Belle gave him a look that meant ‘think again’, he knew that he was wrong. “But I can afford it, right?” He smiled cheekily as she took the camera with her and placed it back into a drawer, away from Aden.

“What’s happening with your money then?” Belle asked.

“Uh… I don’t know, to be honest.” Aden replied.

“You don’t know?” She asked cynically.

“Well, I was thinking about maybe buying a super cool car. You know, the ones that all the chicks dig.”

“Uh-huh…” Belle replied, her hands on hips. “What happening with that then?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it more. Maybe we could go down to the city tomorrow. What do you say?” Aden asked, fake hope in his voice.

“Oh yeah, sounds great. I’ll help you pick out a car which you’ll crash in about 5 days and costs more than anything else we own. Sounds just brill!” Belle replied, closing the doors on her cupboard and cleaning up the rest of the clothes.

“I’ll take that as a no.” he joked as she shot him a ‘duh’ look.

“Seriously, Aden, you need to sort out that money.” Sitting back on the bed, she folded up the spare clothes that she didn’t want to think about right then. “You can’t just keep it laying around in your bank account.”

“Belle, I know. I was just kidding. I’ve got it all sorted.” He told her. That was news to her.

“What? When?” She stopped with the clothes, giving him her full attention.

“I went down to the city today-”

“Didn’t you have school?” Belle interrupted.

“Ah, yeah. About that…” Aden smiled sheepishly, twisting the ring on his finger guiltily. He knew that Belle was going to be mad at him.

“I thought we agreed no more time off school!” She exclaimed.

“I know, I’m sorry. But I had to go.” He tried to defend himself.

“You could have done it later on, or even on the weekend.” Belle fumed. They had talked about it the previous week about how his HSCs were coming up and that if he took anymore time off because of trivial things that could be sorted out another time, he might as well pull out of school and just repeat a third time. Because that was where missing all this time was heading to.

“Actually, I had this appointment with Rebecca and the accountant fixed especially.” Aden informed her. Belle sighed deeply.

“Fine, but you’re not forgiven.” She said as she narrowed her eyes, making Aden smile. He knew that she wouldn’t stay angry at him for long. “What did they say?”

“Well, the accountant said that the best idea would be to just put most of the money away, in like a savings account or a trust fund or something. Or to invest it if I wanted to. But seeing as my knowledge on investments and financial stuff is pretty much dire, I didn’t really see much good with doing that.” he explained to her.

“So you’ve put it all away safely?”

“Yeah.” Aden agreed. “Well, most of it.”

“How much?”

“About $200,000.” he told her as if it was nothing. Belle knew that she would never get used to thinking about the fact that Aden had a lot of money, and if he was careful with it, he would probably be financially comfortable for the rest of his life.

“What about the other $50,000?”

“Ah, now that’s my fun money!” Aden grinned unselfishly. It made Belle smile too.

“What are you going to do with $50,000?”

“Spend it.” He laughed.

“On what, exactly, do you think you could spend that much on in Summer Bay?” Belle moved herself to sit next to him as his arm came around her waist, pulling her closer. She rested her head comfortably on his shoulder, turning his body inwards to him.

“Well… there is this girl I know. She is pretty much perfect, although she takes up a lot of my time.”

“Hey!“ Belle tried to hit him on the arm, but he managed to catch it before she could even build up enough momentum to cause even a bit of pain. But she did manage to give him a kick to the shins with her good leg.

“I do mean that in a good way though.” He added.

“You better. You choose to spend that time with me, remember?” Belle reminded him, intertwining her leg with his.

“Like I have a choice.” Aden mumbled under his breath, clearly wanting Belle to hear. She didn’t give him the pleasure of knowing that she had heard. Instead just snuggling more into him, tightening her arms from around his waist.

“So about this money and this girl?” Belle prompted.

“Right. This girl, well, she’s perfect, like I said, but she doesn’t know it. Well, she doesn’t believe it, but I can tell you that everything that she does, from the second her wakes up till the seconds she falls asleep, and even in between actually, is always for the goodness of others. She will always think of others before she thinks of herself. She’s everything to me, and I don’t know if she knows it, but she is pretty much my life.”

Belle looked up at him, but his eyes were fixed upon the wall opposite them. She felt his hand in her hair start to pull out, instead twirling it around his finger like he did when he was deep in thought. Listening to his words, Belle couldn’t bring herself to speak. So she tilted her head back down again.

“I know that she loves me for who I am, and it’s that which make me do what I do everyday, although sometimes I am a bit of a screw up. But,” Aden continued before she could argue with him. “she does forgive me, and she’s made me who I am today. And because of that, I would do anything for her. I try to give her everything that she wants, and now that I have the possibility, I can give it to her. Cos this girl deserves the world and more. And I want to be the one who gives it to her.”

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