White Lines

I guess we just have to hope...

Over the next three days, it snowed almost a foot and a half; leaving Leah to drive them to her father's house in the ice. When they finally got there after about an hour, Leah couldn't help but laugh as Gabriel and Noctis exchanged nervous glances. It was almost a week before Christmas but her dad insisted on having it early so that he wouldn't take out of their plans. The dark haired man greeted them at the door and Leah and Vanz both threw their arms around his kneck. He laughed and patted them on the heads, "Well I guess I was missed."

"Of course," Leah said, "You are our dad."

"Yeah, what kind of daughters would we be if we didn't introduce our boyfriends?" Vanz said.

Gabriel and Noctis--despite being on crutches--shook His hand and introduced them selves politely and followed the girls into the living room. The sound of laughing filled the air as Leah tripped and fell onto the couch. A young man in a wheelchair almost fell over laughing, but when Noctis and Gabriel entered the room, he stopped. Noctis slightly lost his balance and had to catch himself before he ran into Gabriel.

"You must be Noctis and Gabriel." the man said with a small smile.

"Hi." Gabriel said with a wave of his hand.

"Hey." Noctis said, liftling his hand slightly off of his crutch.

"You are scaring them." Leah said.

"How? All i'm doing is sitting here."

She sighed and waved her hand towards the man in the wheelchair, "This is my brother Alexander."

Vanz raised a brow, "Are you going to sit down or ar we going to have to drag you?"

They sat next to the girls and Noctis winced as he put pressure on his leg.

"You okay bro?" Alexander asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just having problems with my leg."

Alexander looked at Leah and she sighed, "What you didn't believe me?"

"No, I didn't think you were interesting enough to attract a French guy. What mating call did you use?"

"I actually didn't need one."

Alexander looked at Leah, "How much is she paying you?"

Leah slapped him on the arm, "Xander!"

"I was joking!"

°°°°

After a few hours, Leah walked out onto the porch with two cups of hot chocolate in her hands. Noctis sat looking out into the never ending fields of snow and trees in front of him. Leah sat next to him and handed him a cup, "What are you doing out here? It's freezing."

"Do ever wonder..."

"Wonder what?"

"Just...wonder. What happens when you die. I find myself thinking about it quite often. Do we just cease to exist?"

"Well, I know for one thing, you either go to heaven or hell. So I guess, you exist, just in a different universe almost."

"Hah, yeah, okay."

"What? Do you not believe in that sort of stuff?"

"I stopped believing in that a long time ago."

"Well, how did you have any hope?"

"Hope in what?"

"What would happen after you died. "

"I guess, I didn't. There was no reason to believe that anything would be better."

"That is why I believe. It gives me a reason to believe that I will see my mom again, that I will see Grace. Noctis, that is why you needed to believe. Knowing that you are going to heaven gives people hope, keeps them from fearing death. I guess...I guess we all just have to hope."

"Well, I suppose, there has to be someone looking after me. How else would I have survived this long?"

Leah sighed out a laugh and lay her head on his shoulder, "never run faster than your guardian angel can fly. "

"Well for the next few months I won't be running anyway."

She wrapped the blanket that was round her shoulders around Noctis and kissed his cheek, "well I don't need you catching a cold. "

"I think you've forgotten to look up." Someone said from behind them.

Leah looked backward at her father who was standing in the doorway and Noctis looked up. Hanging from the edge of the porch awning-was a mistletoe.

°°°°°°

That night, all of the roads were shut down due to ice and wouldn't open up until the next morning when the road workers could salt the pavement, so everyone stayed at Leah's dad's.

Noctis and Leah were sitting curled up on the couch together later and Alex sat next to them in the recliner. Noctis reached out to grab his drink and his sleeve slid up his arm exposing the white marks covering his wrist.

Alex narrowed his eyes and glared at Noctis, "What's wrong with your arm?"

"Nothing, why?"

"Really? It looks to me like it's covered in scars."

Leah snapped at Alex, "Shut up, Alex. It was a while ago, quit being a bitch to my boyfriend before you scare him off."

"Yeah well you need someone better than an attention whore, sorry for caring about you, it won't happen again."

Leah stood up, jerking from Noctis's grip, "Care? When have you ever cared about me? I have scars on my thighs that Savanna helped me to stop. I starved myself for three years before Savanna finally put her foot down and helped me stop. You haven't ever cared. The only thing that you do is scare away my boyfriends and I'm tired of it! Because by god if you're going to force the best thing to happen to me out of my life! So shut your bitch-ass mouth before I shut it for you!"

Noctis sat wide eyed at Leah, he hadn't wanted anything to happen, he was just going to shrug it off. He was honestly hoping that no one would notice-or care for that matter.

________________

Religion references sorry.

Cute stuffs ^-^

Not a lot of Gabriel and Vanz sorry. I can't think of anything for them.

Leah bout to open a can of bitch pudding.