lights will guide you home ,

[Wyatt Kennedy]

CPL. WYATT JAMES KENNEDY.


( THROUGH ALL THE HARD TIMES IN MY )
( LIFE THOSE NIGHTS KEPT ME ALIVE )

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----ELEVEN MONTHS, ONE WEEK, AND FOUR DAYS. that was how long wyatt kennedy had been away from his home. or, at least, valkyrie was what he considered his home now. he was born here, though he grew up in texas, valkyrie would always have sentimental value to him. besides, it had been his permanent home since he moved here at eighteen to be with his sister and niece. and now, the airplane that carried wyatt and the other soldiers, was touching down in valkyrie. wyatt looked out the window and saw the familiar academy campus and a ways over, the university he attempted to go, but dropped out to join the marines. don't get him wrong, he loved serving his country, but being gone so long, he sure did miss america. "i just can't wait to have real food." wyatt turned his attention back to the passengers on the plane. some of the guys leaned over at hit jacob, the one who said it. "can't you ever think of something other than goddamn food?" henry said shaking his head. "well, you know what i'm doing when i get home," greg said and proceeded to make a crude gesture with his hands. yeah, he sort of got married a couple days before he was deployed. that must have been real commitment. at least for his wife, wyatt thought. for being married to someone for almost a year and only seeing him twice. "what about you, corporal?" wyatt shook his head and shrugged. "you know, probably just hang out with my niece." a ripple of 'awws' filled the plane and wyatt grinned shaking his head. "no. guys. she's nineteen," he explained as like the probably thought he was talking about some infant. the 'awws' turned into snickers and jacob threw in, "ok, well, how about you have real food, and i'll go hang out with your niece then." everyone started laughing, including wyatt. "she probably wouldn't go for someone that cries like a little girl when there was a lizard in their cot." there was more laughs. but even wyatt knew, his niece, brett, probably would. he loved his niece and tried to control her before he left, but he knew she was turning into his sister. that wasn't really a good thing. "ok, ok." jacob admitted defeat and they all got quiet as the plane descended.

he wasn't afraid of flying, but his stomach finally settled when the plane came to a complete stop at the valkyrie airport. looking out the window, he saw people standing farther away. here to greet the soldiers back in from eleven months overseas. he never really thought until now who was going to come and get him. he wondered if anyone remembered he was coming home. he knew one person that probably wouldn't show her face. charlotte hartwell. lottie to him, faith hart to the rest of the world. to say things ended badly would be an understatement. the last letter wyatt sent to her was a proposal. what did he get back? she was already getting married. later, he got another letter that basically implied she was going to be forever pissed at him. wyatt grabbed his duffel bag. his only possession left. all the other guys grabbed there bags and the plan door opened for them. the guys shoved wyatt out first and he was the first to walk down the steps. he heard some claps, from everyone's families. he saw a photographer snapping some pictures. most of the guys were from valkyrie. it was probably going to be put in the newspaper, how some of the boys were home. as he got closer to the crowd he was able to pick out brett immediately. she broke into a grinning smile when he got closer. he dropped his duffel when she started walking towards him and threw her arms around his neck, squeezing him tight. "i'm so glad you're home!" wyatt enclosed his arms around her back and squeezed back. he was stupid. why did he doubt no one would come for him? they let go of each other and wyatt kissed his niece, who was only six years his junior, on her forehead. "so you're my welcome wagon?"

brett shrugged and adverted her eyes, something that was not like brett. or, at least from what he remembered. "yeah, well, mom was going to but... it's mom, you know?" brett told him of his sister, sandy. yeah, he knew. she probably was going to come but then got too drunk and lost track of time or was with a client. it was only two in the afternoon but i guess sex never sleeps. but brett could tell that wasn't the only person on her uncle's mind. "wy, you didn't expect her to come did you?" wyatt bent down and grabbed his bag. "your mom? a little. i'm her baby brother." they started walking towards the doors to lead out to the parking lot. "you know that's not who i'm talking about. wyatt, she's pissed at you." wyatt sighed, he saw the little cross necklace she sent to him when he was overseas hanging from his neck. with his free hand, he tucked it back into his shirt. "i don't really want to talk about it." brett probably rolled her eyes and bit her tongue because she didn't say anything after that.

when the two kennedys got to the car, wyatt didn't remember brett having a car the last time he was here. "i didn't know you got your license."

[/color] brett shrugged and unlocked the doors. "i didn't." so, driving without a license. why did this not surprise him? "well, that's illegal." he tossed his bag in the backseat and brett started the engine. "well, i had to pick my uncle up somehow. or else we were going to walk from here back home." yeah, that probably would have sucked too. "just don't get pulled over." brett nodded. "but i could probably talk my way out of that one."

they were driving back into town and as wyatt was looking at all the little houses and the people walking around he realized how different civilian life was different in the states. the people here weren't afraid they were going to be blown up, or beaten for breaking some rule. he looked around and noticed women were wearing what they wanted. he turned and looked at brett, who was wearing jean shorts and a mid-riff bearing t-shirt. yeah, she would have been killed if she walked around like that in iraq. it wasn't for another ten minutes did he realize where they were. "brett, what are we doing?" brett ignored him at first and tapped on the acceleration pedal. "brett," he said more sternly. she finally opened her mouth as they turned on the all to familiar street. "what?" she asked innocently. he was getting uneasy all of a sudden. "you said she is pissed at me." brett nodded as she closed in on her final destination. "and i wasn't lying. but i want you guys to be happy. you need to work things out." slamming on the breaks, they both jerked forward and settled back into their seats. before wyatt could do anything, brett rolled down her window and yelled out, "hey! charlotte! you have a visitor!"

what the hell was this? shit. they both saw the curtains in the front window move and brett turned back to wyatt. "get out." he shook his head firmly. "no, take me home." brett automatically unlocked the passenger's door. "she probably already saw you. get out, now." wyatt was a corporal in the united states marine corps. he gave directions every day for the past eleven months. it took him a whole ten mintues to fall back into taking orders from one of two female relatives that walked all over him. but, brett was right. lottie probably already saw him in the car. if brett drove away, that would probably be the end of any hope wyatt had. "get outttt," brett repeated, droning out the word. "ok, ok. i'm getting out." he got out of the car and he barely was able to close the door when brett tore off down the street. there was his escape plan. now, he had nothing. wyatt moved slowly, up the sidewalk leading towards her front door. he stopped half-way when he saw the front door twist open.

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STATUS, complete.
CRED, format and graphics to me
LOCATION & TIME, charlotte hartwell's house, november 2007
LYRICS, 'those nights' - skillet
CLOTHES, here
TAGGED, lottie <3
I SAY, hope everything sounds ok.
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[Charlotte Hartwell]

CHARLOTTE HARTWELL,


AM I THE REASON YOU TOSSED AND TURNED LAST NIGHT
everything was such a lie, it didn't come out right
all of the sudden it's cold and I'm falling apart
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THE DARK
• • • • • • •

Charlotte’s hand rested on her hip as she bit down on her lip, a little frustrated. Her nails dug into her side as she tilted her head, trying to make sense of how to hang this painting. She got up on the chair again, on the tips of her toes attempting to adjust her painting. However, that did no good, so she stepped up onto the edge of the chair, trying to do that manoeuvre Angelina Jolie did in Mr. and Mrs. Smith when she was fixing the curtains. However, Charlotte was no Angie, and so as she placed more of her weight on that corner of the chair, rather than having some weight at back, she fell forward, landing on her bottom by twisting in the air. Shoot. She sat on the plush white carpeting for a moment, biting down on her bottom lip. She will hang that painting, one way or another. But around this time she heard her oven screaming, buzzing to alert her that the contents were baked. Great. Standing up a little too quickly, she closed her eyes, Charlotte hated being dizzy. As calm as she was, she hated a lot of things. Like dead plants, and when commercials are being artistic but are just soft core porn, and baby teethers with water in them. She liked the baby not the teether. The budding actress loved children, she was delighted when Eric became a father, and in turn she became an aunt. She wanted children, when she was older, she wanted the white picket fence, and the dog and the husband who would come home from work and sweep her off her feet. She wanted all of that, every single bit of bliss. Charlotte didn’t understand how people didn’t like children, I mean, weren’t they children once themselves? Children were endearing and fascinating, was it weird that she always wanted to be a mother?

But that was something she would have to wait for, she had her career to look forward to, because she loved what she did for a living. But being an ambitious Hartwell, she wanted it all, the life, the career, hopefully one day being in an iconic movie. Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, even Greta Garbo, so beautiful and timeless. That was what Charlotte wanted to be, timeless. It was the allure of being remembered by generations to come that sent shivers up and down her arms, goose bumps at the mere thought. But that was merely a dream, something she strived for not something she would not ever attain. But perhaps that was one of the reasons she wanted it so much, only for the chase, it was to keep her always moving forward. But right now, she wasn’t completely career headed. She was now on a little break in between films, after coming back from promoting and right before filming started again. But his much free time was driving her insane. She shouldn’t have free time; it would only make her insane. It was something about the lack of structure in day offs that annoyed her. Granted that after sixteen hour days on the set would take the life from her, but she never liked doing nothing. Charlotte got antsy; the need to do something drove her crazy. Though she wasn’t as bad as most, she also loved just sitting down with a good book, or just snuggling down to a good movie. She liked doing that; it was relaxing to just lie down. However, her painting which was not cooperating was annoying her to no end. Slipping her hands into oven mitts, the natural blonde reached into the sweltering oven, removing the cinnamon buns, golden brown and sweet.

As she was spreading the icing over the warm cinnamon buns, she heard a familiar voice yell from the front of the house, it helped that some of her windows were wide open. Ah Brett, wonder what she wanted, Charlotte thought in a sweet voice. She adored Brett, she was one of the few people that sort of helped Char get out of her rut when Wyatt first left. But Charlotte had a visitor? Wyatt should be home today, she was counting down the days regardless that she was absolutely furious with him. But she doubted that he would visit her, Wyatt wasn’t much of a confrontational sort of man. Biting the inside of her cheek, she cautiously peeked through the curtains in her living room, taking a quick glance at Brett in a car, speeding away. She definitely did not have her licence, what was she doing in a car? Huh. But without a further thought, she opened her front door and was shocked. Her green blue eyes widened as her mouth formed a small circle at what she saw. It was him, Wyatt Kennedy, standing a few feet before her. She didn’t expect this, not him, not now. Words wouldn’t form as she just stood on the veranda, silent in shock.

Her shoulders heaved up simultaneously as she took a deep breath through her nose, exhaling through her lips as she just looked at him. Well he was alive, that was for sure. But suddenly her body did that thing where it failed to consult with her mind as she raced down the porch steps, running towards Wyatt. She wrapped her arms around him, the side of her face falling perfectly in the little crook of his neck and shoulder as she held on with a strong grip. Charlotte closed her eyes taking in his familiar scent. “I’ve missed you.” She whispered, with her green eyes still closed, and her arms still around his torso. And she did, those were words of truth, she missed him so much that it really did hurt sometimes. She wasn’t going to cry, despite the fact that her eyes watered a little. He was safe, and finally home, above everything, even her malicious anger, she was relieved. It didn’t matter that he just stopped replying to her letters which sent her into a spiral of fear and began to think of the worst possible scenarios. Wyatt was fine, and that was what mattered at the moment. After a moment or two of softly crying into his shoulder, she raised her head, removing her arms from his body. Casually dabbing at her eyes with her fingertips, she walked towards her front door, holding it open, “You better come inside, so those rumours the neighbours will spread about the woman who killed out of sheer aggravation will remain just that; rumours.” She nodded, her voice ever so slightly cracking due to her tears beforehand. “Well come on now, we have a lot to talk about.” She threatened in her sweet voice, leaning against the door way, waiting for her ex to start moving.

• • • • • • •

NOTES sorry it's late but, WYLOTTE!<3 and since Lottie doesn’t swear, it was really hard to resist. xD
STATUS complete!
TAGGED wyatt, bby.
ATTIRE Lottie
CREDITS format and graphics to yours truly.
LYRICS "little miss obsessive" by ashlee simpson

[Wyatt Kennedy]

( CPL. WYATT JAMES KENNEDY. )


( THROUGH ALL THE HARD TIMES IN MY )
( LIFE THOSE NIGHTS KEPT ME ALIVE )

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----IF WYATT HAD A CHOICE, he would not have come to visit Charlotte right away. he would have waited. maybe a week, maybe two, maybe until he realized he would have to eventually because if he waited that long, he was just being rude. he wasn't even sure if charlotte would be home. he didn't know anything about her life anymore. whether she was somewhere would the world promoting a movie or on location filming a new film. his buddies overseas would always try and get wyatt to look at what rumor they found while googling her. wyatt refused to look or hear what his friends had to say about her. after wyatt found out that charlotte was engaged, he didn't want to hear any of it. he didn't want to know what this guy looked like, his name, what he did, anything. it was heartbreaking for wyatt. especially when he put everything out on the line for her and got rejected. thankfully, brett had enought balls for the both of them and secretly arranged this reunion. it if wasn't for her, he wouldn't be standing here on charlotte's front lawn. what if her fiance was in there? he should have asked brett what the guy was like, assuming brett had already met him. wyatt honestly just didn't want to be in the same room as him. he didn't want to look this guy in the face and try and see what he saw in charlotte. he'd bet the new guy didn't call her lottie. she hated it, but wyatt knew deep down, she liked it. but seriously, did this guy love her as much as wyatt did?

the door opened and wyatt held his breath as lottie emerged from the house. they stood in silence for a moment. wyatt could faintly hear screeching tires and he wondered if it was brett still making her getaway. should he say something? but what? 'hi, i'm back?' or 'brett dropped me off?' he didn't know if any of his apologizes would work. she was pissed at him. she had every right to be too. he just... stopped writing to her. lottie's shoulders heaved and then she was running towards him. shit, to kill him? wyatt tensed up to the point where she would have been better off hugging a rock. but her arms circled around his chest anyway, squeezing him. her face falling into his neck. assessing that nothing was going wrong, he relaxed. wyatt put his arms around her, holding her close. it was like two missing puzzle pieces finally put back together. “I’ve missed you.” she told him. one of his hands stayed on her back as the other one rested right below her neck. was she crying? wyatt swore he could feel water droplets through his shirt. he wasn't expecting her to be so warm about this reunion. she didn't want to marry him and yet she was hugging him like they did before he left. she was engaged to someone else and she was crying over his return and saying she missed him. now, maybe wyatt had been out of the loop when it came to relationships, but if he was in engaged to a girl and that girl's ex-boyfriend came back from war, he'd be watching like a hawk. out of either curiosity or jealously. no, wait, probably both.

he felt her hair press up against the side of his face and wyatt remembered the letters up until the bitter end. was he a little bit of a jerk in not writing back? yeah, kinda. no, 'congratulations on your engagement.' or 'i hope you're happy.' wyatt didn't want to lie to her. one, he didn't want to celebrate her engagement with another man. two, he was selfish, but he really only wanted her to be happy with him. why would he wish happiness to her and someone else? bitter, that he was. he just didn't understand. he must have thought about her logic and reasoning every night before he fell asleep over on his base in iraq. they had been friends for years now. they dated for a year before he broke it off - only because he was being deployed for duty. wyatt wasn't even gone a full year and now charlotte got herself into another relationship, and this one she was going to marry. it didn't make sense to him.

wyatt was fully aware he hadn't spoken yet. he still didn't even know what to say. charlotte let go of him, and wyatt let go, too. they both stared again before she told him, “You better come inside, so those rumours the neighbours will spread about the woman who killed out of sheer aggravation will remain just that; rumours.” that would be nice. he survived eleven months of war only to return and get killed my charlotte within the first hour of being home. she held the door open for him and he walked up the walk he had been use to. it had been left just the way he remembered it. she spoke again, urging him to enter the house. she was leaning against the door frame. wyatt stopped right across from her. he hesitantly touched her right above her eyebrow, part of bangs falling over his fingers. "your hair," he stated. so this must be what his subconscious decided on for his first words. "you changed it. it's darker." highly observant, wyatt specifically remembered her hair was a lighter red/blonde tone the last time he saw her. his finger ran down the side of her face and traced the jawline. he pulled away and his arm fell back into place next to his body. he turned and entered the house, the smell of cinnamon buns filled his senses. she would be cooking something. she was so different than the celebrities in hollywood. if the fact that she lived in a joe-schmo house with nothing more than a lock on the door, he was worried for her safety the more and more she got famous. he entered the familiar living room. he looked around, covering his bases. he saw a few things he hadn't seen before and the occasional chair or table that was re-arranged since he was last in here. "so... where is he?" he did another clean sweep of the house, wondering if he was lurking in some corner.

______________

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STATUS, complete. CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, charlotte hartwell's house, november 2007 LYRICS, 'those nights' - skillet CLOTHES, here TAGGED, lottie <3 I SAY, hope everything sounds ok.
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[Charlotte Hartwell]

CHARLOTTE HARTWELL,


AM I THE REASON YOU TOSSED AND TURNED LAST NIGHT
everything was such a lie, it didn't come out right
all of the sudden it's cold and I'm falling apart
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THE DARK
• • • • • • •

Often times when she was lonely over the past eleven months, one week and four days, Charlotte would close her eyes and just play the memories with Wyatt over and over in front of her closed lids. Her mind would drift to when she first met him when Charlotte moved to Valkyrie from Chicago to how happy she was right before he left. Her thoughts would always linger at those few precious moments in the morning of his deployment, right before he broke everything off. She couldn’t sleep that night, but she stayed in bed with Wyatt, it was going to be a long time before she could feel his arm around her, a while before she would be able to soak in his warmth. Charlotte remembered getting up before him, just watching him sleep, how his face seemed to be peaceful and yet she could vaguely see his brows hunch together as if something was bothering him in his slumber. Time slowed down from that moment to the moment where everything fell apart around her. The actress recalled a lot of yelling, only on her part, her anger just getting the best of her. Then he was gone, just like that. Somehow, every time she thought of this it brought her to tears.

It wasn’t as bad as things used to be, in the early days of Wyatt being gone. She cried, she moped, she didn’t get out of her pyjamas or bed for five days with the exception of the occasion coffee mug making its way to the collection piling up beside her bed. It was as if she was in mourning over someone’s death; Charlotte was a mess. It took a lot of persuading for her to change out of her jammies, to take her hair out of that wretched haphazardly put together pony tail. But eventually, with a lot of help from a certain Brett Kennedy, Charlotte was able to leave the house for the first time in a while. But she had to put a face on, she had to go on and promote that film of hers, she had to maintain some sort of presence in the public eye, though she thoroughly loathed her publicist’s idea but went along anyways. Charlotte felt empty, hollow. Then the letters began and things began to look up. Granted that the letters started because Brett sneakily mailed Charlotte’s letter to Wyatt, Charlotte owed a lot to that nineteen year old. The Chicago native looked forward to these letters from Wyatt, each letter solidifying his memories in her mind. His voice resonated in her thoughts every single moment she read and reread the letters. And then the letters abruptly stopped. Just like that. She didn’t know which hurt more, the fact that they were no longer together or the letters that she so eagerly awaited each week.

Many things ran through her mind when she would open her mailbox and find nothing. Sometimes Charlotte would convince herself for a moment that perhaps he was too busy or tired to write a letter tonight… He was overseas fighting for the country after all; it wasn’t like he was available all the time. Other times her stomach would churn at the worst of thoughts that rang through her head, making her knuckles whiten. It didn’t help that the newspaper read of the bombings and the ambush of Wyatt’s squadron. Still nothing on the letter front, which made her turn from anxious to worry. Then the overdue days slid into overdue weeks which slid into overdue months. Four months. Four months where Charlotte didn’t know anything about his safety, if he was safe or injured or what she feared most of all, dead. It wasn’t until she meekly posed a question to Brett one morning about her uncle. Apparently he was alive, that both angered and relieved Charlotte. How dare he not write something, not tell her vaguely that he was okay. Did she mean so little to him that he couldn’t bother to say ‘Hi honey, I’m not dead yet, cheers.’?

By some stroke of luck, all these thoughts, these worries melted away once she caught sight of him. Wyatt Kennedy in the flesh, standing in front of her dark green eyes, she was surprised to say the least. After running towards him, embracing him with all her life and even briefly crying into his shirt despite the fact that she had vowed to herself that she would do no such thing, Charlotte now stood in her door way. She watched him walk towards her, absorbing every detail of him, memorizing everything right now like she did on their last night together. He was only four years older than her, yet after returning from duty his eyes made him look much older. Something was wrong; she could just see it in his eye. But he still had his long shaggy hair which Charlotte adored; he still had the ever soft wrinkle he would get around his eyes after smiling. He still possessed all the small little things she had committed to memory the moment she met Wyatt. When he stopped in front of her, she looked up, wondering what he was going to say. Wyatt hadn’t said a word to her, nothing at all, and what was the first thing that he says? Her hair was different. Yeah. But something oddly unexpected occurred, his touch tentatively starting from the edge of her temple all the way to her jaw line. Closing her eyes as his fingers traced their path down the edges of her face, her head instinctively leaned into his touch. She felt the warmth of his fingers along with the warmth of the blood rushing to her pale face, making her blush like a crazy person. Slowly opening her eyes, she glanced down quickly, embarrassed at the shade of red she presumed to be and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear before she looked at him again. “Uh…Yeah.” Charlotte finally muttered after her skin stopped sizzling at his touch. She never knew of anyone else who made her plummet and rise like a vicious roller coaster the way Wyatt did every time he looked her way. Was it too disgustingly cliché to say that she would sometimes forget to breathe around him?

Her brows furrowed together as her eyes narrowed slightly at the question. Who was Wyatt referring to? If it was Eric, her older brother, who actually got along with Wyatt fairly well and thus, he should have known a bit about the eldest Hartwell. He knew that Eric had a house of his own and what not. He wouldn’t just hang around here all the time like he tried to in the early days of Wyatt’s departure. Closing the door behind her, the dead bolt clicking in place, she turned to observe her former boyfriend look around the small but homely house. Was he expecting some stalker to be secretly lurking or something? Clearing her throat subtly she asked, “Who are you looking for?” Charlotte didn’t linger in the living room, but rather proceeded to walk towards the kitchen with the large windows overlooking the beach, the sun glistening in the sky, almost melting away into the blue. The days were winding down much faster now, even just standing idly in the kitchen the big ball of fury seemed to settle a few degrees lower than the time she last took a gander. The girl leaned over the warm cinnamon buns, the scent devouring her nose as she quickly spun around on her left foot to face the refrigerator, heaving the whit textured door open. The edge of her dress encircled her, settling down above her knees a few moments after she had stopped spinning. Biting down on her bottom lip, Char leaned into the fridge, contemplating on what to make in a few hours, “What do you want for supper, Wy?” She yelled out with her head still in the cool refrigerator. Yeah, that was what she should be asking him, what he wanted for supper. Not the fact that he coldly stopped writing back to her letters which sent her into a fit of fear for his safety, or the fact that it took Brett for him to be even standing in front of him. Or even ask him why he ever thought it was a good idea to beak her heart into a million little shards.

No, she asked about dinner plans instead.

• • • • • • •

NOTES I couldn't help myself. this post just wrote itself. xD
STATUS complete!
TAGGED wyatt, bby.
ATTIRE Lottie
CREDITS format and graphics to yours truly.
LYRICS "little miss obsessive" by ashlee simpson

[Wyatt Kennedy]

( CPL. WYATT JAMES KENNEDY. )


( THROUGH ALL THE HARD TIMES IN MY )
( LIFE THOSE NIGHTS KEPT ME ALIVE )

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----HE DIDN'T KNOW WHY HE was eerily quiet. even he knew his one liners felt foreign to him. why was it so hard to just talk? wyatt wondered if lottie knew he wasn't the same. was it expected? being back from the war and everything. wasn't that suppose to happen? how many movies or tv shows had wyatt seen where the soldier coming back from wherever was quiet, reserved, and withdrawn? on edge from being attacked in their living room, or never knowing what to say. was wyatt going through that? he felt fine on the plane ride in. though, he was with his buddies. maybe they were all talking to kill the time. to not want to talk about how different it was going to be. wyatt knew there was going to be a a veteran support group at the hospital that was going to meet a couple days a week. but, wyatt didn't know if he really wanted to go to that. maybe he wanted to stay in denial that everything was going to be fine even though it so clearly appeared to be the opposite. he didn't even know what to talk about anyways. that jimmy died? that he blamed himself? he wasn't looking for anyone to disagree with him. he hear enough 'it wasn't your fault,' overseas and he wasn't in the mood to hear it again. jimmy could come back from the grave and tell him it wasn't wyatt's fault and wyatt would still disagree. this would just be a burden until he died. it was something he'd think about everyday until the day he died.

wyatt wondered if charlotte was going to grow impatient with his quiet nature. was he a letdown to what she thought he was going to be like? he wasn't the same man that left her eleven months ago. was he too different for her to like anymore? would he be able to open up to her like he so easily could in the letters? he wanted everything to be the same like it was before he left. when they were happy with each other. when their friends would tell them that they always looked so comfortable with each other. it was true, really. the being comfortable with each other. she kept him happy. they really had been a perfect balance of each other. the slight age difference only was in the way when he first met her. she was seventeen and he was twenty one. they started out as friends, trying to ignore the chemistry there was between them. the day after her eighteenth birthday, he asked her out on a date, and well the rest was history. they've known each other for a collective three years, but to wyatt, it felt like they've known each other for a lifetime. wyatt had had girlfriends in the past. high school girlfriends, and a couple during his first semester at valkyrie university. he wasn't down-playing them at all because each one taught him a little bit about himself and relationships, but none of them had the same feeling when he got together with charlotte.

“Who are you looking for?” wyatt turned, and saw her walking into the kitchen. was she trying to avoid it or something? wyatt wanted to know now who he was dealing with. thinking about her with someone else was one thing, but now that he was back and charlotte walking no more than ten feet away from him, he wanted to meet him and already go through strategies on how to eliminate him. not literally, obviously, but get the douchebag out of the picture. there were still feelings between them, wyatt could feel the distant emotions coming in the surface. he could see it on her face too. the way she closed her eyes when he touched her face. there was still something there, he knew it. you can't just turn off your feelings when you broke up still in love. he walked slowly around the room, taking everything in. his eyes training on everything that looked new to him. eleven months wasn't very long. still wasn't a full year, but why did it feel like wyatt had been gone for five years? things looked familiar, but where they? he walked slowly by a table against the wall. there was pictures in frames, one getting his attention over all the others. his hand reached out and grabbed it, and pulled it up so he could look at it better. it was a picture of him and her. wyatt remembered when the photo was taken. it was at a picnic at a park. some get together they were invited to by friends. somehow, wyatt ended up cooking the burgers and hot dogs because he claimed to everyone they didn't know how to cook a damn thing and 'this wasn't how they did it in texas' (yeah, maybe he was drinking because he remembered quite clearly he ended the night dancing like a russian, since that was typically his m.o.) in the picture, he was by the charcoal grill, head turned and smiling at the camera. charlotte was directly behind him, her arms wrapped around his chest. she, too, was smiling at the camera. they looked really happy. and why wouldn't they have? that day was fun.

“What do you want for supper, Wy?” supper? so did that mean he was staying? did she want him to stay? wyatt placed the pictured back where it was on the table and walked towards the kitchen. he stopped at the entry way and leaned against the side of the wall, his arms folded across his chest. "you want me to stay?" he asked. he was still going to ask her about 'him' she wasn't going to get away with her avoiding. "i know you're pissed, lot," he told her. "i'm sorry that i stopped writing you. but after you told me you were getting married... i just gave up,"

[/b] his light texan twang was rumbling out of his mouth. he shook his head, and chuckled softly at himself. "i was kind of stupid to think you'd still be here when i got back." for not talking a lot, he was sure picking up speed and catching up to her on the conversation front. "i just want to know who he is. the guy you're going to marry."


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STATUS, complete. CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, charlotte hartwell's house, november 2007 LYRICS, 'those nights' - skillet CLOTHES, here TAGGED, lottie <3 I SAY, hope everything sounds ok.
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[Charlotte Hartwell]

CHARLOTTE HARTWELL,


AM I THE REASON YOU TOSSED AND TURNED LAST NIGHT
everything was such a lie, it didn't come out right
all of the sudden it's cold and I'm falling apart
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THE DARK
• • • • • • •

When Charlotte was younger, at the age of six or seven she wanted to be a turtle. Don’t get her wrong, after it was proven years later that there was no way that she could ever become a whole different species it broke her heart slightly, knowing that she could never be a turtle. But when she was in kindergarten to grade two, Charlotte Faith Hartwell wanted to be a turtle, small and green with beady eyes eating lettuce all day. She was determined to be one as well, for Halloween becoming a turtle solidifying her lifelong dream. However, when the younger twin sister accompanied her entire family to a family vacation to New York City to visit relatives, her entire perspective changed on her life goals. It was with her aunt Caroline, whom Charlotte to this day still talks to on a regular basis, and it was just the two of them, a day on the town, aunt and niece. Kate and the rest were with the others, and this day of one-on-one time was one of the most amazing days of her life. They had ice cream, went to the park and walked around down town, Charlotte got a new pea coat in the specific shade of green she wanted to be as a turtle and to end the day Charlotte and Caroline went to see a play on Broadway.

It was ‘the Lion King’ one of the first showings of the season, and within the first five minutes, Charlotte was mesmerized. For the length of the Lion King, she forgot about being a turtle, she forgot about walking around Time Square, everything thing faded away. She wanted to be up on stage, she wanted to do that, and be liked and be applauded for it. Would she be applauded for being a turtle? Not really unless that applause meant more lettuce. But she could feel her arms tingle and that tingle didn’t just remain there, it travel throughout her body, soaking in her spine. Charlotte wanted to be an actress, there was no question now. Like most people would end a good story, the rest was history, well, except with how hard she had to fight to get where she was. In school she was always in the drama clubs and choral and musical theatre once it came to high school, but she was talking about after high school. So many of her friends went to university, to get a ‘real job’ and forgot about how much fun they had. Charlotte couldn’t do that, after loving what she had done for so long, she couldn’t dismiss it for a boring old office job that would want to make herself shove sharp objects into her eyes.

And so, she moved to California, where she would at least get a chance to so what she loved. But at the beginning things didn’t look up as well as she thought they would have, so she took up a waitressing job to make ends meet, even babysat her niece for some money. But Charlotte was persistent; she wasn’t going to give up that easily. Finally this persistence paid off, and she got a role, and then another and another… all to build her portfolio, her experience for bigger and greener pastures. Then she had her role of a life time, her Oscar nominating role. Charlotte didn’t know what to do, after just two years in this business, wow. Just wow. But then, Mona, her agent and instant publicist had a grand old idea that she and her co-star should pretend to be getting married, just so people would watch the movie more. ‘It worked for Angie and Brad… people want to see the movie that brought the actors together…’ She would go on, and Charlotte would nod along uncommitted to the conversation. Her mind and heart wasn’t in this, she didn’t want to be in the public eye. It hurt to walk around with a smile on her face when she knew her heart was a thousand miles away. Her co-star, the diva of the set, was the infamous Rhys Logan who was pretty much linked to every single person to ever be in Hollywood. It was almost disgusting. But somehow without really thinking about anything, Charlotte went along with it. The paparazzi went wild; every event she went to the photographers went wild. But she didn’t smile like a new proposed to person would be, she wasn’t grinning from ear to ear. It was depressing; this wasn’t how she wanted the world to know that she was engaged. And she certainly did not want to be engaged to one of the most terrible people she knew of either. But alas, after a while she couldn’t bother with the charade…and it helped that Rhys tried to make a move on Kate, Charlotte took his precious memory card from his black berry and dropped it in a mailbox of one of the most gritty gossip magazines…And that was the end of that.

However, right now, she shouldn’t be thinking about the horrid year she had, but rather now that Wyatt was back, things were looking up. When he asked about staying for supper, he was kidding, right? There was no doubt in her mind that Wyatt was staying, he just came back from a nearly a year in Iraq, it had been nearly a year since she had seen him, since she had wrapped her arms around him. Charlotte wasn’t going to let him go so easily, but she could taunt him lightly, no? Was it in bad taste? Perhaps, but Charlotte was ecstatic, even if she wasn’t showing it right now, trying to be a grown up or something like one. “No, I just asked for no reason.” Charlotte shrugged casually, pursing her lips to hide a smile before speaking again, “Of course I want you to stay, I may never let you go now. Sucks to be you.” She nodded playfully as she still stood within the refrigerator’s cool area. Hmmm, maybe chicken. She gingerly held the tray of packaged chicken in her hands, attempting to place the package on the counter. Charlotte managed to do so as he continued to talk as her heart sank. He thought she was going to marry that Rhys Logan, her unbearable co star, how silly… the first thing to run through her mind was that she had always somehow pictured herself marrying Wyatt. It was always him she would think of when she thought of the future.

Then everything happened, the letters stopped, but still there was always a little part of her that still thought that she always belonged with him. Wyatt was never out of the picture, he was always the picture she wanted. “Are you talking about those rumours and what not? About Rhys and I? It was a publicity stunt Mona made me do to get more press involved with the movie. I could never marry him…He’s a…A…A douche bag.”

[/b] She said. She hated speaking so foully, despite the fact that Rhys needed it so grandly. He was a jerk, a completely horrible person. Like previously mentioned, Charlotte did not like him, not even as a friend, and that was saying something. Charlotte was never the one to hate people, she pretty much liked every single person she met, with the exception of Logan. He was unbelievably prissy and conceited, those characteristics just annoyed her. Charlotte was so glad that she wasn’t publically linked to him anymore. “Goodness, I’m sorry, but yeah… We’re not together in the gossip magazines anymore because I sort of gave them his memory card one night because I couldn’t take the stunt anymore. The magazines loved it, and he hasn’t talked to me since, so much for his attempts of being America’s sweetheart, ” She spoke sort of quietly, as she removed some vegetables and some other utensils, beginning supper early… She had to do something to keep her limbs busy, because she wasn’t prepared to meet Wyatt’s eye just yet.
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• • • • • • •

NOTES Oh my, she said a bad word. xD hope everything was ok.
STATUS complete!
TAGGED wyatt, bby.
ATTIRE Lottie
CREDITS format and graphics to yours truly.
LYRICS "little miss obsessive" by ashlee simpson

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[Wyatt Kennedy]

( CPL. WYATT JAMES KENNEDY. )


( THROUGH ALL THE HARD TIMES IN MY )
( LIFE THOSE NIGHTS KEPT ME ALIVE )

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----WYATT WATCHED HER CAREFULLY. if you didn't know that they already knew each other, you would think that he was a creeper. she was standing in front of the refrigerator still. her eyes going over the food and contemplating what she wanted to make. wyatt wasn't really hungry. or, maybe he was but his brain refused to send that information down. he was so distracted right now. watching charlotte in the kitchen. she said that she wanted him to stay. his heart elated slightly, so she must not be completely mad at him still. and really, shouldn't he be bad at her? he proposed to her and she's acting like it didn't even happen. if she decided to mention it, he would just blame it on his fucked up thinking over there. or maybe he had a moment of insanity with all the bullets flying. ugh, what was he thinking? he had proposed to her in a insane moment in his life. he had a breakdown and thought about how fragile life was. so fragile that for the rest of his life, he wanted it to be with someone who he loved. no more of this bullshit dating thing. if they were meant to be then goddammit, they were meant to be. "if you want me to stay, i'll stay."

and then, everything he thought he knew about her for the past four months changed just like that when she said to him, “Are you talking about those rumours and what not? About Rhys and I? It was a publicity stunt Mona made me do to get more press involved with the movie. I could never marry him…He’s a…A…A douche bag.” what, what, what? it was... a set up? wyatt was completely shocked that he couldn't even muster up words to say back to her. it was fake all along? he never wrote her back because of a fake engagement? the name rhys sounded familiar. wyatt was never really savvy when it came to hollywood big wigs, but he knew some like, clooney, damon, and dicaprio, but beyond that not so much. he was just a marine. unless the movie had the name faith hart in there, he didn't have time to watch it. but, the rhys name might have been dropped overseas. about a movie. or, maybe that who his friends were talking about over there, but would hush quiet when wyatt came around.

however, with this new-found information, wyatt now had a glimmer of hope. it's like that tiny little light at the end of the tunnel just got wider. did that mean that maybe she still wanted to be with him? even if this topic was difficult for him to think about, it was a better distraction than thinking about the past eleven months consisting of war, death, blood, and loneliness. wyatt was kind of grateful that lottie wasn't asking him about iraq. he didn't know what he was going to say. he should just have and automated answer for anyone in the future who were going to ask him this question. 'it was good.' would be just a flat out lie. 'i don't want to talk about it' was the honest truth, but he didn't want to shut people out. 'it was bad,' was too blunt. no one really wants to know about the bad stuff. they need a sense of security. though, don't ask a serious question like that if you don't expect a serious and honest answer. maybe wyatt should just settle on something like, 'it was difficult and i'm glad to be back.' simple, an easier blow of the truth, and puts forth some sentiments about being back home that displays that wyatt is still 'here' and not completely out of touch with reality.

lottie explained to him the fake rumors and how she hadn't seen the actor in months. her back was still facing him, and he got the feeling she didn't want to look at him. why not? it was finally like his mind was catching up to his body and he was understanding now that he was in her kitchen. his awkward no talking ten minutes ago outside felt like a ghost. that that was just his exterior and his mind was speeding away in brett's car as she took off. it was a weird feeling to describe. he could only put it where he felt like she was experiencing his welcome home in an out-of-body one. like, he was watching himself be with the people he loved. brett, charlotte... he couldn't understand that he was home for real. that maybe after all this wasn't some dream and in three seconds he wouldn't wake up on a cot in the middle of the desert.

holy shit. he was in valkyrie. he was home.

he was standing in the entrance of the kitchen belong to his ex-girlfriend watching her take some vegetables out. what was he doing just standing here? he waited eleven months for this moment and all he had to say about it was she changed her hair color? what the hell was wrong with him? clearing his head by shaking it, hoping the misty haze clouding his mind would disappear, he took the five steps it took to go from the entryway to right beside her. "stop," he said. "you're not hungry, i'm not hungry you're just trying to kill time." he smiled down to her, maybe it felt like a forced smile since it had been so long since he worked those muscles. but all he wanted was... her. wyatt cocked his head to the side and cupped his hands, around her face, like he was keeping her head up. his thumbs rested near her temples and his rough fingers laid on the curve of her neck. "i guess i should ask anyway, but are you seein' anyone? 'cause, i don't want to complicate things but i really want to kiss you right now if that's ok with you."

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STATUS, complete. CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, charlotte hartwell's house, november 2007 LYRICS, 'those nights' - skillet CLOTHES, here TAGGED, lottie <3 I SAY, i realized i never changed this... hi xD meh this is kinda short but i'm hella tired.
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[Charlotte Hartwell]

CHARLOTTE HARTWELL,


AM I THE REASON YOU TOSSED AND TURNED LAST NIGHT
everything was such a lie, it didn't come out right
all of the sudden it's cold and I'm falling apart
PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IN THE DARK
• • • • • • •

Sometimes when there was nothing to do or if she was feeling nostalgic, Charlotte would think of what would have been if she had gone to New York. She would recall that time, when she drove just out of Chicago, and she drove her car right onto the soft shoulder, pulling the parking break and got out. It was a bright and sunny day in the windy city, it seemed so rare to her, when she sat atop the hood of her car and pulled out her lucky silver dollar from the pocket of her jeans. The dollar shone brightly, reflecting a circle of light onto the gravel beside the car, her thumb smoothed over the edges of the coin. Charlotte was being impulsive, she had choices for the first time in a while; go to Los Angeles, live in the small town outside the metropolis where her brother and niece lived or go to New York and live with Kate in a small apartment, Broadway bound. One would think that with all their worldly possessions in the back of their car, they would have a little inkling on where to go. Not for Charlotte, she didn’t plan that far in advance then, she was seventeen after all. With a fateful flip, it landed tails; Los Angeles it was, well, Valkyrie.

But what it if was heads?

She would have never met her niece whom she loved with all her heart. There was a very likely chance that she wouldn’t have gotten into movies as quickly as she did, Charlotte also had a lingering fear of not being able to get all those Broadway roles that she yearned for anyways. All in all she was happy that she had come to the west coast as opposed to the east. However, most of all, she would have never met Wyatt. She didn’t mean to be rude, but why would he be going to New York of all places? Would she have been as happy as she was right this very moment if she was in New York? Somehow, call it her naivety, but Charlotte still doubted it. It was weird to think that someone could make her so happy, it was as if she was co dependent or something; which for the record, she wasn’t. Charlotte was stubborn and hot headed, and to a certain extent she was fiercely independent. However, despite all those qualities, she needed Wyatt, it was something she couldn’t really explain. Like peanut butter and jelly made a classic sandwich; Lottie and Wyatt were classic. Shoot, she was calling herself that awful nickname… there was no saving her from it now. It was all about chance, that was the only viable conclusion she came up with after tying her mind up in knots about ‘what could have been.’ Such as now, it was just chance that she had managed to see Wyatt again. What if things went on a downward spiral, what if he was severely injured or worse overseas? Charlotte was selfish, she knew that full well, because even the thought of not having Wyatt around made the inside of her chest ache. She thought of what would have happened to her if things would have been much worse, how hollow and lost she would feel without him. But Char didn’t want to think about that now, she was finally reunited with the one of the few people she cared deeply for. It wasn’t like she was fawning over Wyatt or anything of that sort, and it wasn’t like he was her first boyfriend… It was just different with him. High school dating didn’t mean much, it’s high school, it isn’t supposed to be serious but with Wyatt, despite the fact that she was eighteen, it meant something to her. It was just their dynamic, and she loved it, almost addicted to the sense of how comfortable they were with each other.

When he mentioned that she was just killing time by making something to eat, she let go of the knife, the half chopped carrot and pieces fell across the cutting board. He was right, she was killing time. What could she say to him? That she was angry with her sister for always getting what she wanted, that Charlotte couldn’t even have a fake engagement to herself? That she had simultaneously ruined two careers with one memory card? At least the dance society didn’t think Kate had any dancing flaws, her knee injury was very much under wraps still. At least Charlotte didn’t extinguish her life completely, but she very well came close. Though she had admitted to Wyatt that she handed over a memory card, she didn’t tell him the entire truth, the part of the truth that made her feel guilty every time she saw her sister. It would have been unbecoming of her to unload her insignificant problems after he had been through so much… her petty jealousy against her gorgeous and graceful sister seemed not worth mentioning. However, she didn’t expect him to suddenly start talking, suddenly become lively. But now she thought of his reasoning over why he didn’t write… Was it because of Rhys? Oh, that was low… Not as low as spawning a false engagement, but still…“I can‘t believe you stopped writing because you thought I was marrying someone else… I was worried to death you know.”

[/color] she scolded him, her neat brows furrowing together slightly. Charlotte didn’t care that he was cradling her head in his hands, or that he said something sweet with his slight Texas twang that she adored… It bothered her for some odd reason why he didn’t write back. He should be glad she wasn’t furious right now. The Chicago native was relieved above everything else, he was back home now, mostly unscathed. She was blessed that he had come home, most of her worrying wouldn’t be distant any longer. Though he smiled, it didn’t reach his eyes, it bugged her that she didn’t know why but she smiled nonetheless at his words, “I guess I could pencil you in…” [/color] She nodded, rising onto the tips of her toes to reach his lips, kissing him a little too ferociously. How she had missed this, how she had missed the best part of her being. [/font][/blockquote][/size]

• • • • • • •

NOTES Ugh, short and late, forgive me? xD
STATUS complete!
TAGGED wyatt, bby.
ATTIRE Lottie
CREDITS format and graphics to yours truly.
LYRICS "little miss obsessive" by ashlee simpson

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[Wyatt Kennedy]

----EVEN THOUGH HE WAS ONLY TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD, he had very prominent moments in his life that stood out. thinking back, he would always think of that night he went to a bar with some friends. he was eighteen at the time and he had been currently attending school at valkyrie university. at this point, he was feeling out of place in school. sure, he had good friends, but he felt like this whole school thing wasn't exactly him. one night, him and some of his friends on the football team went downtown to one of the bars. they knew they couldn't drink legally but it was a great bar to pick up girls and have a good time. when wyatt had gotten there, he had seen about five guys hanging around the bar. they were older than him but clearly still in their twenties. after about ten minutes of constantly hearing cheers and laughs, wyatt and his buddies went over and introduced themselves, wanting to see what was up. the other group of guys were marines. in valkyrie on leave and enjoying a few good beers. eighteen or not, wyatt and his pals joined in on the drinking games as they all got to know each other. wyatt was close to his friends on the football team, but it was nothing like the type of bond he saw in the marines. they all belonged to something, all shared this common bond. wyatt's form of having his friends' back was playing wingman, standing up for them in a fight with rivals, or watching out for them on the football team. the marines' form of 'having each other's backs' were making sure they didn't die while they were out fighting for their country. that night, wyatt decided he wanted to be a marine. he didn't drop out of college right away. but the next day, he called on of the marines he had met and they directed him to a place he could sign up. by the end of that week, he quit college and entered basic training. the rest, well, here he was, corporal kennedy.

the second most important moment in his life was undoubtedly when he met charlotte. despite the fact that she was seventeen and he was twenty one, it really only took him that one moment to be completely smitten with her. could it really be only three years ago that this happened? it felt like ages ago; it felt like he'd known her all his life. he had just gotten back from japan and he was home visiting brett and his other friends in valkyrie. they were walking down on the beach when she said she would go get them hot dogs. he started pulling out his wallet to give her money when she coyly shook her head and said she could get them for free. she knew who usually worked the stand. not wanting to know the back story on that one, he let her go. wyatt had watched brett go, and when he turned back around, he was literally greeted with ice cream. mint chocolate chip had been smeared all across his face. when he wiped his eyes, it was a girl looking back at him, embarrassed and apologized. but not before she told him that at least it was good ice cream on his face. he smiled, laughed it off and found out her name was charlotte hartwell. he had been completely taken by her warm smile and her clear eyes. he wanted to get to know her. but she was with family and brett came bustling back with a 'what the hell?' and they both had to leave. wyatt found the nearest bathroom which brett shamelessly followed him in to get the details on this girl he just met. wyatt said, "i don't know but she just might be my future wife." brett laughed at him. the chances of seeing her again were slim to none. well, wyatt had beaten those chances and the very next day, he ran into charlotte again on the street. it was then he found out she was only seventeen. he said he was twenty one and they decided on a friendship. she told him she was an aspiring actress and he told her he was a marine.

and here they were, three years later. charlotte, a successful actress and wyatt home from war. they stood in the tiny kitchen, pressed close together. “I can‘t believe you stopped writing because you thought I was marrying someone else… I was worried to death you know.” wyatt furrowed his eyebrows. yeah, he had been a dick. just stopping his letters altogether. but she didn't comment on his last letter. the one where he proposed to her. "it was too hard for me, lot. i was selfish. when i left, i wanted you to move on. i just didn't know how hard it was going to be when i heard you did."

[/b] he looked deeply in her eyes, still feeling stiff and unfamiliar of his surroundings. he knew this was her house. that he basically lived here the months leading up to his deployment, but it felt weird. like it wasn't true... or real. he was still absolutely terrified he was going to wake up and be back on his cot in the hot iraqi desert. and this reunion with charlotte was all some dream. that, in a few moments he'd wake up and she'd still be getting married to someone that wasn't him.

and then her lips were on his and he knew that he wasn't dreaming. wyatt knew he was here, right now, in a kitchen that felt like more of a memory. he hunched slightly to not be as tall compared to her. his heart rate kicked up and he refused to close his eyes. he spent too man hours over in iraq imagining this that he didn't want to ruin it. she kissed him fiercely, the longing for each other apparent in how they kissed. "you don't know how long..." he trailed off and went from kissing her lips to her cheek, and then to her neck. his hands left her face and secured a place around her back. he missed everything about this. her body close to his, the way the curves of her body fit perfectly against his, her lips on his, the closeness. he missed it all. and now, here it was again, in his arms. their feet shuffled and a few short steps, lottie was pressed again an edge of the counter. without thinking, he lifted her up on the counter. it felt like old times even though it wasn't. he kissed her again, but then sharply withdrew. he shook his head. "sorry, i didn't mean..." even though, he did mean.

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STATUS, complete. CRED, format and graphics to me LOCATION & TIME, charlotte hartwell's house, november 2007 LYRICS, 'those nights' - skillet CLOTHES, here TAGGED, lottie <3 I SAY, late. wanted to spice it up =D
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