Wingless {Clifford A.U}

Chapter Twenty-One

A/N: So this is a major filler chapter, and because I am a fluff writer that's basically what it is because there isn't much of it in the story currently and I think there needs to be a quiet moment before bigger things come into play so yeah, enjoy.

She was curled up in a ball in the middle of the living room floor. She hadn't said anything since Lauren left besides a few words she exchanged with Michael before realization finally set in. She wasn't crying, she wasn't doing anything at all. If he didn't see her just staring off into space, he would've thought that she might have been sleeping, but that wasn't the case.

"Astrid, you need to get up, your brother's going to be home soon." Michael said, attempting to get some sort of reaction, but she didn't move and he sighed. He put his arm under her legs and his other on her back and picked her up.

"Put me down." she said quietly.

"No, you can't just lay there for the rest of your life." he said.

"I can try." she mumbled and he rolled his eyes at her, sometimes she was just like a child.

"No you can't." he said carrying her upstairs back to her bedroom. He set her down on the bed and she laid down, hugging a pillow to her chest. She had her back turned towards him. She felt him wrap his arms around her waist and pull her against him.

"You said that you thought that you deserved all of this, but you don't. All this pain and abuse you go through every day, no one deserves it, especially not you." he said quietly. "People like you, good people don't deserve to go through what you're going through." 

"Maybe I'm not a good person." she whispered.

"Of course you're a good person, you have this light inside you that I see, even through all this sadness and pain that you have. Nothing can change that." he told her. She turned on her side where she was facing him now. He brushed her hair out of her face. She closed her eyes and sighed.

"You don't really believe that do you?" she asked.

"I do, I wouldn't lie to you, you know that." He said. She didn't say anything, but just laid there in silence wrapped in his embrace. He was her safe place. He kissed her forehead and hugged her tightly.

"I love you." She whispered. That was the first time she's said that to anyone except Luke but that's different. He smiled at her and pressed a lingering kiss on her lips.

"I love you too." he said and she felt her cheeks redden.

"Really? You actually mean it?" She asked and he nodded. "Sorry I'm just not used to this, I've been played a lot so I'm just kind of insecure about this if it makes any sense." She said a bit embarrassed. He grabbed her hand and kissed her knuckles.

"It's fine angel. I get it." He said and she gave him a small smile and snuggled closer to him.

"Angel? That's new." She said and he shrugged.

"Well I don't know it just kind of fit I guess." He said.

"I like it." She said.

"Good." He said before they let the silence take over again, this time it was more calming than before.

They stayed like that for awhile and enjoyed the feeling of being near each other because after everything that's been going on, from her weekly therapy sessions, death threats, bullying, and the drama between Cassie, Lauren, and Ashton, she needed a break to just sit back and not worry about anything at the moment and just relax, even just for a few moments.

After a while, Luke and Maddie came home and it was nearly dark. The three of them sat at the dinner table in awkward silence for dinner, but Astrid wasn't hungry so she just pushed her food around the plate.

"Are you okay?" Maddie asked and Astrid looked up.

"I'm fine." She said as the front door opened and Naomi walked in, clearly drunk of her ass. "Never mind." she corrected herself quietly as Naomi staggered into the kitchen. She opened a few cabinets, and then slammed them shut. She opened the cabinet filled with wine glasses, but she had a hard time keeping her own balance and knocked almost half of the glasses out of them into the floor, shattering them. 

"God dammit." she said, and looked at Astrid. "Clean this up." she snapped. 

"No, I'm still eating." she said, even though she wasn't really hungry. Naomi glared at her and stumbled over to her and got on her level. 

"Get up and clean up the mess." she said in a deadly tone. 

"Clean up your own mess for once." she said and she regretted immediately after she said it. Naomi grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of her chair.

"Stop! My hair, you're hurting me!" she cried out. Naomi pushed her into the floor in front of the shattered glass and she threw her hands out in front of her to break her fall, only resulting in getting many pieces of glass stuck in her hand. 

"Naomi stop!" Luke shouted, yanking Naomi away from Astrid. 

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You know better than to interfere."

"I'm tired of just sitting back and watching you hurt my little sister. She's done nothing wrong and doesn't deserve this." He said, helping his sister off the ground. 

"I don't understand why you're standing up for her. She's a worthless child, if I could've I would've left her at the agency, but I need the money." she said. 

"Yeah so you can drink your life away. Clean your own goddamn mess up. Maddie go upstairs and go to bed." he said and Maddie nodded. He brought Astrid to the bathroom and helped her clean up her hands that had small glass shards still embedded in them. Once he had gotten hands cleaned up he walked her upstairs. 

"I'm sorry." he said and she shook her head.

"Don't apologize, I kind of earned that, I was being a smart ass towards her." she said.

"Yeah but that's just how you are. You're my stubborn, smart ass little sister." he said making her smile and roll her eyes.

"Mhm okay then. Night Luke." 

"Night."

A/N: So to be honest I don't know what the hell this was. I'll go back and make it better later. I wasn't sure where I was going with this, I originally decided to make it just kind of a fluffy chapter and then it died. What the hell is wrong with me? A lot of things actually *awkwardly laughs* so yeah sorry for the awful chapter but exciting things are going to happen really soon, like next chapter soon so don't give up on me yet. Even though this sucked please vote and comment? love you guys

-Xx E.J