#clemandlouis

"Ah, you two meet again," Louis spoke, talking as if he was narrating an old fairy tale.  "Last time, Aasim was forced to request a kiss from a girl he like liked, to which he was slapped.  What shall he have to do this time, your majesty?"

"Hmm..."  Clem voiced, squinting her eyes as she tried to decide.  "Maybe the same thing?"

"Aw, really?"  Aasim groaned, uneasily glancing down at Ruby, who sat next to him.  

The red head giggled, saying, "Don't worry, I won't slap you this time."

"Okay, then," Aasim said, turning to face her.  "Um, can I have a kiss?"

"You sure can," she agreed, getting up and pressing her lips to his.  Aasim's eyes widened in surprise, then closed as he pulled her face closer to his.

"Ewwww," AJ groaned.

"Nasty!"  Willy shouted.

The couple ignored them, their kiss getting more intense.

"Okay, you guys can stop now," Violet told them, wryly scrunching her face at the pair.

"Enough porn, you two!"  Louis proclaimed.  The couple snapped out of it, and they pulled away from each other.  Both of their cheeks were bright red.  "How about we do another round?"

The dread locked teen began to pass the cards around the group, chuckling as he saw AJ's cringing face.

When Louis said go, they all flipped their cards over again.  This time, Omar won and Louis lost.  

"Alright, Omar," Louis said,  "what's it gonna be?  A treacherous truth?  A deadly dare?"

"A dare that you finally won't be able to do," Omar claimed, wearing a smug smile.  

"No dare will ever stop me,"  Lou asserted.  

"Okay, then; go lick that yellow snow."  Omar pointed to a yellow spot in the snow you could just faintly see by the fire, unable to hide his mischievous grin.

"Ewww!"  The rest of the kids let out in unison.  Well, everyone except Louis.  He tilted his head at the color, actually debating on doing it.

"Who peed there?!"  Ruby asked, disgusted.  

"It was Rosie,"  AJ said.  "I saw her do it earlier."

Clementine backed away from Louis to look him in the eye.  "You better not do it.  If you do, I won't be kissing you for a week."

"But Clem, I have to," Louis whined.  "I haven't ever not done a dare.  I can't lose my title as dare king."

"Louis," his girlfriend repeated firmly, "Don't.  Do.  It."

Louis bit his lip, glancing over at the colored snow.  

"Don't do it," Clementine said again.

"I have too!"  Louis declared, jumping up from the couch he sat on.  He ran to the pile, got on all fours, and gave the snow a great, big lick.

All of the children let out sounds of disgust, and Clementine face palmed.  Omar's smug smile immediately dropped as he gagged.  Louis stood up proudly, wiping his mouth.

"I didn't think you would actually do it," Omar admitted, cringing.

"Well then you obviously don't know me well enough," Louis chimed.  He sat next to Clementine, and she scooted away from him.  

"Nuh uh, pee breath," she told him.  "I'll snuggle with AJ, who'll still get my kisses for this week."  Clem patted the spot next to her, and AJ happily crawled up with her.  The teen wrapped her arms around the tot and planted little pecks all over his face, making eye contact with Louis as she did so.  Her boyfriend pretended that this did not make him incredibly jealous of AJ's place.

"Worth it," he stated.  "I'm still the dare king."

"You won't be thinking that by tomorrow,"  Clem mumbled.

"How about we do another round?"  Ruby suggested.  The cards were all passed around again, and this time Violet won and Clem lost.  

"Victory Violet," Vi spoke, smiling.

Clementine sat up straighter, awaiting her truth or dare.

The blonde studied her, deciding on what to give her.  Finally, she said, "I think I'm feeling a truth this time."

"Alright," Clem voiced.  "Shoot."

"What scares you the most?  You know, scare as in makes you scream, jump, or whatever."

Clementine was quiet for a moment, pondering the question.  After a couple moments of silence, she admitted, "I don't know.  Nothing, I guess."

"Nothing?"  Louis asked dubiously.

"Nothing," Clem confirmed.

"Snakes?"  Louis pushed.  "Walkers?  Bad people?  Storms?"

Clementine shook her head to all of his tries.

"When's the last time you screamed because you were scared?"

"I don't remember."

"Well there has to be something that scares you,"  Louis claimed, crossing his arms.

"No there doesn't," Vi countered.  "She's a bad ass, and she's fearless.  What's so hard to believe?"

"Even bad asses get scared by little jump scares every once in a while," Lou stated.

"I just don't get scared," Clem said.

"I'll have you know, Clem, that I not only hold the dare king title, but ALSO the scare king."

"Okay..."

"So I'll make you a deal.  I scare you within the next 24 hours, you have to kiss me again."

Violet snorted, saying, "You really are desperate, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Lou told Violet.  Then he looked back to his lover.  "So what do you say?"

Clementine pursed her lips, debating on taking the deal.  "What happens if you don't scare me?"

"I don't know.  What do you want?"

The girl thought for a moment, before a mischievous grin spread across her face.  "I want to cut your hair."

Louis's hands flew up to his precious locks.  "No way!"

"Fine, then, I guess I won't take the deal."

Louis twirled his hair on his finger.  "Alright, fine, you can cut my hair if I don't scare you.  But I'm not worried about that, because I promise you, I'm gonna scare you so bad you'll pee your pants."  He stuck out his hand for Clem to shake.

Clementine took his hand in hers and shook.  "You better enjoy your hair while you still have it, Lou."

"How are you gonna cut it, Clem?"  Violet asked.  "I say you shave it all off."

Louis shot her a dirty look.  "Hey, have some faith in me, Vi!"

"I would," Vi said, "but Clem's pretty bad ass, and you're pretty lame."

"You got that right," Clementine agreed.

"I'm gonna go all out, though," Louis warned.  "All.  Out."

"Do it," Clem challenged.  "I can take it."

"Okay.  But you're gonna regret saying that."

Violet rolled her eyes, and the pair stopped shaking hands.  Just then, a large gust of wind blew, blowing the little fire out.

"And that's our cue to go inside," Omar asserted.  

The whole group got up to go inside. Louis scooped Clementine and carried her bridal style, and AJ picked up her crutches.  

As they walked back to their dorm, Lou went to give Clem a kiss on the forehead, but was stopped by her finger.  

"Nope,"  Clem told him, "Not until next week."

"I think you mean until after I scare you," Louis corrected.

"Mmm, nope.  Not until next week."

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

"How old was AJ when you taught him to shoot?" Louis asked Clem as she hobbled down the dirt path in the woods;

"Probably, like, three," Clementine estimated.

Louis's eyes widened. "You trusted him with a gun at that age?"

"Well, he actually kind of taught himself. He had seen me use it, and one day, I didn't see a walker coming, but he did. So he grabbed the gun and shot the walker himself. Right through the head, first try."

"I don't think I'll be that good," the dread locked teen said. He nervously eyed the weapon in his girlfriend's back pocket, and she noticed.

"It's not that hard," Clem assured him. "Besides, you've got the best teacher to teach you."

Louis smiled. "You're damn right I do."

The couple was heading towards a little makeshift shooting range, where Clementine would give Louis his first shooting lesson.  Louis was anxious about it, but he felt better knowing that it was Clem teaching him.

He had already tried multiple times to scare her in the morning, but none of his attempts worked.  Before Clem woke up, he hid in a box outside of her door to try and jump out and scare her.  When she came out of their shared room and he jumped out, she didn't even flinch.

At breakfast, he tried to make it look like he had sliced off his finger cutting carrots.  However, Omar was in on it, and he wasn't a very good actor.  The chefs giggling through Louis's very realistic screams of pain gave him away.

He tried another jump scare before they left for their shooting lesson, too.  He hid behind a tree close to their meeting spot for about fifteen minutes, before he gave up and came out.  However, little did he know that Clem saw him go into his hiding place.  She ended sneaking behind him and shouting, "Boo!"  Louis had nearly shit his pants.

So, in short, it wasn't as easy to scare Clementine as he had thought it would be.

As they walked, Louis fidgeted with the fake mouse he had in his pocket.  He had found it earlier while wondering around the attic.

This will get her.

"Hey, what is that?"  He questioned, going towards a little pile of dead leaves and snow.

"What?"  Clem inquired, turning to watch as he went.

Louis squatted down, sneakily slipping the toy from his pocket to the pile.  Then, he stated, "Eww, gross..."

"What is it?"  His girlfriend repeated.

"A DEAD MOUSE!"  Louis shouted, whipping around and throwing the mouse at her.  She just stood there and let the mouse hit her, and it flopped to the ground.

"Wow," she said, unimpressed.

"How did that not even gross you out?"  Louis inquired, disappointed his trick didn't work.  "What if it had been a real mouse?  What would you have done?"

Clem shrugged.  "I've had walker guts on me before.  Nothing seems grosser than that."

Louis sighed, feeling defeated.

"Aw, don't be sad, Lou," Clem cooed.  "I promise I'll make your haircut look good."

Almost immediately, his spirits were boosted back up.  "The day's not over yet, Clem.  I've still got time."

==

At some point, it started snowing, making their trip to the shooting range harder than it needed to be.  Louis, being the good boyfriend he was, made Clem wear his jacket.  She didn't want to at first, but he insisted that she needed to so she "wouldn't get frostbite and lose the other leg."

Even though Louis was shivering now, he felt content knowing that Clementine was nice and warm.

Eventually, they made it to the shooting range, and the girl began to teach right away.  She wanted to get out of the cold as soon as possible.  They both did.

"Okay, first, make sure you have a wide base," she instructed.  He obeyed.  "Good.  I'm going to give you the gun now.  Don't freak out or anything.  Just hold it."

She handed the foreign object to Louis, and he gazed at it in awe in his hands.  "Isn't crazy to think that this little thing has the ability to take a life?"

"Or save a life," Clem added.  "Which is why we're doing this."

Louis pointed the gun at the makeshift target, closing his eye and trying to figure out how to aim.  The weapon was only a few inches away from his face.  Clementine smiled, being reminded of Sarah by the way he did it.  She adjusted  him the same way she had fixed her old friend.

"Also, remember, it's just a thing."

"Just a thing," Louis repeated.

"The most important thing to remember is to take a breath before you pull the trigger," Clem taught.

"Okay."

Then, Clementine showed him how to aim, how to load the gun, see if safety was on or off, all that jazz.  Soon enough, it was time for Louis to actually practice.  

He stood just like Clem had showed him, pointing the gun at the old book she had posted up on a tree about ten yards away.

Louis took a deep breath to shoot, but when he went to squeeze the trigger, he couldn't get his finger to move.

The dread locked teen tried again, but still, nothing.

Clementine placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  "I know, it may seem scary at first, but after you just do it, it's not scary."

"Okay," Louis breathed.  "I can do this."

"How about on the count of three?"  

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Okay.  One, two-"

BANG.

The shot rang throughout the woods, making the few birds who remained scatter away into the sky.  You could see that a corner of the book was knocked off, and Louis smiled proudly.

Clem laughed.  "I never made it to three."

"But I did it,"  Louis said.  "I shot a gun!"

"Yeah, and you actually hit the book.  I'm impressed."

"It's too bad we can't celebrate with a kiss," Lou said, wriggling his eyebrows at her.  

"Yeah, too bad.  If only someone hadn't licked dog pee yesterday."

"I rinsed my mouth out!"  Louis claimed.

"Still."  Clementine gagged.  "That's disgusting."

Louis got back into shooter stance.  "Okay, I'm ready to go again."

"Whoa whoa whoa, slow down their, hot shot," the girl ordered.  "I've gotta take a piss.  And I don't want you shooting that thing until I get back."

"Ugh, fine."

"Once you earn my trust with it, you can shoot it whenever, but today's only your first day."

"Yes ma'am.  I won't shoot it until you get back."

"Okay."  Clem turned and started to hobble off on her crutches.  "I'll be right back."

Louis watched until Clementine walked out of his sight, then sat down on a little stump.  He traced the ridges on the gun and hummed to himself, until the low, deep groan of a walker reached his ears.

He looked up from the gun to see one of the dead slowly dragging itself toward Louis, half of its body frozen and stiff.  The teen glowered at the sight of the walker.

Reaching into his back pocket and grabbing his spare knife, he walked up to the walker, stopping a few feet in front of it.  The monster tried to speed up to reach him, but ended up just falling down because of his immovable side.

Louis actually pitied it for a moment, watching it lay there and struggle.  He took his gun and stood how Clem had shown him, aiming at the head.  

"Bang," he spoke, pretending the bullet had actually fired.

Suddenly, he got an idea.

Oh, that would scare the shit out of her.  If it actually works.

A mischievous grin spread across Louis's lips as he dug deeper into his new found prank.  "I'll be kissing her by the end of the day," he said out loud.

First, he took the knife and plunged it into the walkers head.  Once it was dead for good, he turned it over and cut open its stomach, like AJ had when they had to sneak onto the boat.

After that, it was time for the gross part.

"Do it for the kiss," he mumbled, trying to encourage himself to plunge his hands into the corpse's guts.  Without giving himself too much time to think about it, he dove his hands right in.  

Lou picked up a big glob of the monster's insides and smeared it on the side of his head.  He cringed as he added more, trying to make it look like a bullet had gone through his scull.  Then, he took the walker's blood and dyed a small patch of the snow red.  Once he was done, he dragged the body out of sight.

Louis didn't really have any reflective surfaces, so he could only hope that he did a good enough job on his head.  When he felt ready, he went and got on his knees above the pile of blood.

"Here goes," he uttered.  Then, he pointed the gun straight up into the sky and pulled the trigger.

At first, everything was silent.  Not one bird chirped, and no walkers moaned.  However, after a couple moments, he heard Clementine call, "Louis?"

He quickly laid his head down into the blood, but kept his eyes open.

"Louis!"  His girlfriend yelled again.  "Answer me!"  He could hear the panic in her voice.

He kept quiet.

Then, he could hear her crutches as they hit the forest floor, moving faster than he'd ever heard them before.  They were getting closer to him, and soon, he could just barely make out her outline.

"Louis?!"  Clem shouted.  "Where are you?"

He closed his eyes, but barely raised up his eyelids enough to see his girlfriends reaction.  

When Clementine saw him, she stopped in her tracks, dropping her crutches as her hand flew up to her mouth.

"No," she whispered.  "No, not again!"

The girl frantically hopped over to where his body lay, and Louis didn't move a muscle.

She got down on her knees letting out a sob as she inspected his body.  She took out the gun from Louis's hand and threw it to the side.

Lou had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from moving while Clementine gently touched the fake bullet wound on his head.

"W-why?" She asked, her voice breaking as the tears began to fall.  She pulled Louis into her lap, caressing his cheek and stroking her thumb across his dread locks.  "How c-could you j-just l-l-l-l-leave me?"

Okay, I didn't think she'd actually fall for it, Louis thought to himself, feeling guilty as his girlfriend wept over him.

"I n-need you, Lou!"  The distraught girl cried.  "God, w-what am I g-going to do?"

I should probably give myself up now...

Clementine took off her hat and threw it on to the ground, running her fingers through her hair.  "Why d-does this always h-happen?  Why do a-all the good o-ones fucking leave?!"

She laid her stump on the ground, and rested her forehead on her good leg.  Louis felt terrible as her body trembled, both from the cold and the despair.  

Clem reached down and grabbed Louis's hand as she sobbed, harder than she ever had before.  She brought it up to her lips, kissing it.  

"I should've b-b-been h-here.  I d-didn't m-m-make y-you h-happy enough.  I-I'm so s-sorry."  

She let out a little whimper that broke Louis's heart.

"It's a-all m-my fault."

Louis couldn't stand to see her like this anymore.  He wiggled the fingers of the hand she was cradling, and Clementine jumped back, reaching into her back pocket for a knife.

The boy sat up once he saw her reach back there.  "Don't worry, I'm not turning into a walker," He claimed, reading her mind.

Her eyes softened and seemed relieved for a moment, before they grew wide again.  She reach out to touch him, on his "wound."

Louis nervously rubbed the back of his neck.  "Yeah, that's not real."

"So y-your okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"And y-your s-still a-alive?"

"Yeah.  I'm not, like, a ghost, or anything."

As Clem realized this, her face hardened, and she sent the scariest death glare towards Louis that he had ever seen.  It felt as if she were staring a hole right through him.  

Louis went to say something, but was cut off by his suddenly livid partner.  "Y-you fucking a-asshole!"

She stood up on her one leg and began to hop towards her crutches, and Louis was quick to beat her to them to hand them to her. "Okay, I deserved that," he admitted.  "I didn't think you would actually fall for it, though-"

"You're s-so f-fucking stupid!"  She exclaimed, her stuttering from her crying still present, but not as bad.  "Who the h-hell does that?!"

"I thought you would see my attempt to scare you and laugh at it!"  He defended himself.  "I didn't think you would actually buy it!"

"Idiotic dick!"  She cussed.  "Bone head of the fucking century!"  

"Hey, I said I'm sorry!"  Louis said, a little surprised at how angry she was.  "I told you I was going to do whatever it took to scare you, and you said that was fine.  You were scared, weren't you?"

"Yes, Louis, I was scared fucking shitless.  I thought I fucking lost you!"

"Well I'm here.  And I'm okay."  He stepped closer and caressed her cheek, attempting to calm her, but it just made her even madder.  She jerked away from his touch.  

"I'm going back to the school, and don't you dare fucking follow me," she warned menacingly.  

She started to turn and walk, but Louis walked next to her, claiming, "I have to stay with you to keep you sa-"

He was cut off has Clementine reared back and swung herself on her crutches to send her foot flying into Louis's crotch.  A devastating blow. He groaned in pain, doubling over and holding his groin area.

"I can take care of myself," she growled.  Then, she started to walk off again, before stopping and turning around to tell him one last thing.  "Oh, and you know what?  We're through!"

"What?"  Louis asked through clenched teeth.

"This," she said, gesturing to her and then to Louis, "is over.  I don't need a boyfriend who makes me cry my eyes out just for fun."

"I already told you, it wasn't like that!"

Clementine ignored him as she walked off,  not looking back behind her.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

Louis waited until sundown to go back to the school.  He was too scared to go any earlier.

He was frowned at by Willy at the gates, and got a disapproving look from Omar as he entered.  Aasim shook his head as Louis passed him, and Ruby glared at him as he went to the music room.  Even Rosie didn't come to Lou when he called for her.

Louis sat alone in the music room, trying to tickle the ivories a bit to clear his mind.  But anytime he would start a piece, he would get lost in thought about what happened earlier, and his fingers would hit some random keys and mess up the song.

Finally, he just gave up trying to play at all.  He ran his fingers through his hair, resting his forehead on the piano.

"Aw, shit," he mumbled to himself.  "I really fucked up."

"Yeah, you did," Violet agreed from behind him.  He turned to see his old friend leaning in the doorway, and he sighed and turned back around.  "So, I hear you got dumped."

"Yeah," he admitted.  

"How does it feel?"

"Glorious," he sarcastically replied.  "I love it."

"Well, you kind of deserve it," Vi opinionated.   "What you did was messed up."

"I know."

"What were you thinking, anyways?"

"That I wanted to kiss her so bad, and that I should give playing dead a shot.  I didn't think it would actually work."

"So not terrible intentions."

"No."

Violet came next and sat next to him, sighing.  "I already talked to her a little for you.  I said that you just do dumb things sometimes, to not take it personally.  But she [retty was pissed."

"Thanks."  Louis lightly pressed the lowest key on the piano.  The deep, dull town it let out pretty much summed up the way I felt.  "For talking to her, I mean."

"You should try talking to her," Vi suggested.  "Before she just gets madder."

"I've already been kicked in the balls once today.  I don't want her to do it again."

"That's a risk you gotta take if you ever want her to forgive you, Lou."  Violet stood up.  "And if you ever want her kisses.  That's why you did this whole thing, isn't it?"

"Yeah."  Louis played another note.  "I guess I probably should go and talk to her."

"Good luck," Violet wished him as she started to walk out.

"I'm gonna need it," he replied.

He caught their initials out of the corner of his eye, and the corners of his lips slightly raised as he recalled the memory he had at this bench.  For a moment, he forgot the situation he was in.  Then, as reality set back in, he stood up, a newfound determination filling him.

I have to fix this.

0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0

Louis made his way over to Clementine's dorm, freshly picked flowers in hand.  He rehearsed his lines in his head:  Clem, I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have done that to you.  I just wanted to kiss you, so bad.  I can't wait a week!  I wasn't expecting my prank to actually work, either.  Please, please forgive me.

As he neared the room, he saw AJ walk out of it.  "How's it going, little man?"  Louis asked as he passed him.  

"Okay," Alvin Junior claimed.  "Where are you going?"

"To see Clem,"  the teen responded, showing him the flowers.  "How is she?"

"Mad.  Like really, really mad.  I left because I didn't want to be in there with her when she was that mad.  She's scary when she gets like this."

"Well, I'm going to fix her," Louis announced, walking toward the door again.

"Aren't you the one that broke her?"

"... I'm gonna make her better, okay?  Just, go play with Willy or something."

"O-kay," AJ said, rolling his eyes.  

Louis watched until AJ rounded the corner of the hall, then hesitantly stepped up to the door.  He raised his hand up to knock, but stopped right as he was about to do so.  "Don't fuck this up," he murmured to himself.  Then, he lightly rapped on the door.

"Who is it?"  Clem asked, the annoyance clear in her voice.

"Me," Louis answered.  

"Go away, Louis."

"But I have something for you."

"I don't want it."

"They'll die if I don't get them in something soon."

Clementine was silent for a moment.  "What is it?"

"Guess."  Louis leaned his head against the door to see if he could hear her reaction.

"No.  Leave."

"But Clem-"

"God damn it, Louis, just get the fuck out of-"  She was suddenly cut off, and Louis heard a loud thud.

Without thinking, Lou through open the door to find Clem on the floor, lying on her stomach.  He set the flowers down and bent down to help her up.

"Are you okay?"  He questioned, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.  

She jerked her arm away from him.  "I'm fine."  She grabbed hold of the bed and hoisted herself on top of it.  "I can get up myself."

"Did you forget again?"  Sometimes, Clementine forgot that she didn't have half of her leg.  She would get up to do something without thinking, and usually fell flat on her face.

Clementine didn't reply, and Louis took that as a yes.

Louis picked the flowers up from off the floor, and held them out to her.  "I got you these."

She glared at him.  "I'm allergic to flowers."

Louis faced dropped, and he threw the bouquet behind him.  "Oh."

They both just stared at each other for a moment, the uneasy tension making the boy uncomfortable.  Clementine took advantage of that, sending him a death stare.  "You can leave now."

Louis started to turn around, but stopped.  He faced Clem and made direct eye contact with her.  "I'm sorry."

"Okay."  

"I'm am so, so sorry," he repeated.  He sat down next to her on the bed, and Clementine scooted the opposite direction and up against the wall.  Louis pretended not to care, continuing, "I just couldn't stop thinking about how badly I wanted to kiss you.  And I also didn't think it would actually work!  I thought that maybe you would see me and just yell at me for shooting without you there."

"Well either way, it was stupid."

"Yeah, I know.  That's why I'm swallowing my pride and apologizing, Clem.  You know me; I can be fucking stubborn sometimes.  But I'm here right now, admitting to you that I was wrong."

The girl just stared at him.

"I'm also known to do stupid things, Clem," Lou added.  "You should know that by now."

"Stupid things lead to people dying, Louis!"  Clementine suddenly snapped, making Louis jump.  "Believe me, I know!"

Louis was silent, shook from her outburst.  She broke eye contact and stared at he bed, surprised by her sudden words, too.

"Sometimes, it's not even anybody's fault," Clem muttered, more to herself than Louis.  "It's just the universe, giving us all a hard fucking time."  She looked up from the blankets and back to Louis, her eyes misty.  "I was reminded of that today.  Stupid things happen all the time.  People who were happy do dumb things, and they leave me..."

Louis grabbed her hand, and this time, she didn't tear it away.  "Hey, I would never do that to you."

"Jane said that, too."  Her eyes took on a glazed over look, as if she wasn't really there.  In a way, she wasn't;  she was sucked into her memories. Back to when she found Jane hanging from the ceiling.  "But she lied.  Just like everyone else.  Left me and AJ on our own."  She closed her eyes, the memory painful.  "Fucking selfish."

Louis said nothing.

"That wasn't the first time, though.  Everyone in my life, they don't stick around for too long.  I don't know what it is, but every time I come into a group, they fall apart.  People die, friends betray... and it only happens when I show up.  I don't know, maybe I'm like a bad luck charm, or something."

"Don't say that," Louis scolded.  "You're the best thing that's ever happened to us."

"I've learned to never get too close to people," Clem continued, ignoring Louis's last comment.  "The only exception I made was to AJ.  Everybody else, though, I try to not get used to them.  But today, when I saw you in the woods..."  She took a deep breath to keep control of her emotions.  "I realized how much I let you mean to me.  How much I let myself I need you.  How much I let myself  love you."

Louis's stomach did a flip at the last sentence.

"I let you get too close..."  She bit her lip as a tear trickled down her cheek.  "If that had been real, Lou, I don't know what I would have done.  I was debating on killing myself, Louis..."

Upon hearing that, he scooted right up next to her and pulled her into an embrace.  She didn't hold back from him at all anymore.

"I've always been okay on my own.  But now that I've met you, I never want to be alone again.  And I hate you for that."  Her voice broke.

"It's love, Clem," Louis softly whispered, holding her tighter.  "One of the downsides of it is it turns our whole world upside down.  But it's worth it.  You don't have to be tough all by yourself.  You're not alone anymore, and that's good.  You don't have to push me away."

The teen girl let out a tiny sob, and Louis gave a gentle squeeze.

"Know that I'll never leave you, okay?  I won't hurt you.  I won't let anyone else hurt you.  You're safe.  It's okay to let people in now."

"Okay," she muttered into his shoulder.

Louis held her close, softly swaying back and forth to calm her down.  It worked, and she slowly stopped crying.  

After a little while, she pulled out of the hug and wiped her runny nose.  Louis wiped off her tear trails with his thumb.  

"I think I know what scares me the most, now," she claimed.  

"Oh yeah?  What?"

"Losing you.  Or AJ.  Anybody here, really."

"Well you don't have to worry," Louis assured her, wrapping an arm around her.  "I won't let that happen.  That's an irrational fear, with me around.  It's like you saying that you were scared of bunnies."

Clementine let out a small laugh, and Lou smiled.

"So... are we still broken up?"

"No," she stated.  "We're officially a thing again.  As long as you don't pull another one of your pranks."

"I won't," he promised.  "Never again."

Clem smiled at him, and her eyes fell to the flowers on the floor.  "Hey, can you get those for me?"

"I thought you were allergic," he spoke, getting out of bed and bending down to get them.

"No.  I was just mad at you."

Louis chuckled, handing them over.  Clem took them and inhaled deeply, satisfied with their fresh scent.  Then, he crawled back into bed, and Clem scooted over to him.  She snuggled into his chest, and he pulled her close.  Out of habit, he turned his head and planted a kiss on her forehead.  His eyes widened once he realized what he did.  "Sorry, I forgot I'm not allowed to yet.  Please don't kick me in-"

He was cut off as Clem planted a tender, passionate kiss on his lips.  At first, he was too startled to react, but once he processed what was happening, he kissed back.

After a moment, Clementine parted their mouths and went back to laying on his chest.  "You're allowed to kiss me now."

"Good," Louis breathed.  He glanced out the mostly boarded up window to see that it was dark already dark outside.  "Geez, it got dark pretty quick."

"Mhmm," his girlfriend replied, her eyes closed as she rested her eyes on Louis's chest.  

Louis smiled, whispering, "Goodnight, Clem."

"Night."

"I love you."

"Love you, too."

Louis gingerly stroked Clementine's hair as she drifted to sleep, quietly humming a made up tune.

He couldn't help but smile at how peaceful she looked.  

At some point, he fell asleep, too, a wide grin plastered on his face from admiring who he loved most.

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AN:  well, there's that. hope you liked!