[Shane]Two Kids, Stupid And Fearless

[Shane Alexander Madden]

After Shane had finished explaining to Claire, he looked at her, searching for a reaction. He always wondered if he told people this late in the game if they’d be upset for never knowing. But he and Claire were still kind of new, so it was just like he was telling her stuff at a normal pace. But for some reason when she brought up Lullabies, it was like that small feeling of, it was worth it he always wondered if he’d get. Sure he wrote the song for himself, but he wrote it for other people too, people in similar situations that could relate. He thought if it helped one person in a shitty situation it would be worth it. And the fact that that one person was someone close to him made it all the more fulfilling. The good thing was, she took it well. He didn’t know why he imagined anyone wouldn’t; it was just something he always thought would be weird telling someone. But it really wasn’t awkward, and she wasn’t uncomfortable. It was just good to know he could tell her something like that and she could absorb it and just accept it as something about him that kind of made him the way he was. He knew a lot of people thought of him in a certain way, and even if they did know him, they rarely understood why he was the way he was. But he didn’t want to have to explain that he was in a kind of permanently angry state that be pushed as far back as possible to have at least some happiness that he wasn’t just faking. He didn’t think it would ever get better, or stop hurting, but he did know for sure he had learned to just cope with it. The anger didn’t subside, but he was pretty good at living with it. Claire had come over to his side of the table and sat in his lap, telling him that she wouldn’t leave him. Though it was nice to hear out loud, he thought there was a chance he may have already known. They were kind of inevitable. If not in a romantic sense, at least inevitable friends. At least something. After last night they’d always be something to each other. Shane smiled and said quietly, “Well that is good to know. I don’t think I’d want it any other way anyways.”

Shane placed his cheek against her shoulder, watching her pick up the fork. She said he’d have to deal with it. Her being a pain but sticking around. Hadn’t he already been doing that? And he’d probably keep doing it. He liked having her around; he figured he would try to keep her around. He didn’t answer, but instead just wrapped his good arm around her waist and rested it gently over her lap. This was all he really wanted if this was about as much as she was going to give him. Just hanging out, this he could handle. It was going to be the her in New York and him not in New York that was going to drive him crazy, he already knew it. He laughed when she commented about eating his breakfast. “It’s delicious, admit it.” She had reached over to get the whipped cream, stating that he hadn’t had a shower. “…No? Does that mean you’re entitled to make a mess of me?” He raised an eyebrow at her, thinking she was about to probably get him with the whipped cream. And he was right. Last words? “Oh, it’s on, Fox. It is on.” He nodded acceptingly when she cover the top of his head with whipped cream, but as she turned to reach for something else to put on him he grabbed the can from her and scooped her up under his good arm. He grinned, standing up and walked to the bed, tossing her gently on the mattress and then drew a line of whipped cream across her face, laughing. “That is a great look for you.”

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire squealed quietly as she felt Shane scoop her up in his good arm, having already taken the can of whipped cream from her. She struggled to stretch her arm out to the table, grasp anything that she could throw in his face later but her fingers couldn’t latch onto anything in time before Shane carried her over to the bed and tossed her back down. She laughed looking up at him, the whipped cream still clinging to his hair. “ Yeah that’s exactly what it means,” she said trying to roll over to get away from him. “ Shane, I came out for your birthday. You have to be nice to me,” she said quickly , grabbing onto the sheets as she was finally able to start pulling away. She laughed again as she felt his weight against her, tackling her to the bed. “ Madden. Stop!” she said, deciding to take a different approach. She narrowed her eyes and did her best to pull off an authoritative expression as she pointed her finger at him. “This is unfair. Cause I’m just a girl. Your mother would not be proud of you right now,” she dropped her hand back down against the mattress, pouting out her bottom lip in an attempt of a frown as she tried to plea with him.

If she ever thought last night was a mistake, just spending time with him would prove her she was wrong. They could’ve easily blamed it on the alcohol; sleeping together because Jose Cuervo told them to do so. But even watching him right now, with whipped cream in his hair, and a cast on his arm; she still wanted to kiss him, she’d still make the same decision last night without the alcohol. He was one-armed at the moment, but he had no idea how much strength he had over her. It was like he had this grip over her heart and no matter how much she tried to hide from it, she just couldn’t. In fact, the grip felt so strong that the farther away she was from him, the more it pulled and became unbearable. A lot of people felt like there was a piece of them missing whenever the person they loved wasn’t around, but she never felt that. If anything she felt an overwhelming since of pull, pressure, grip against her heart. So what was she supposed to do now? She was going back to New York, and instead of having one of their ‘almost kiss’ moments they had actually done something, something pretty important. But she was too young to really know what love was. And she knew love was the last thing on Shane’s mind. But it sort of felt like it. Or at least, that’s what she thought. He was just this guy that she was supposed to hang out with while Ethan went out with his friends. Now he was this whipped cream covered, messy, tattooed up, one working arm boy who she couldn’t stop staring at. Claire tried to squirm away finally before resting against the bed and saying to him quietly, realizing how close they were. “ Shane I already took a shower.” She held her breath as she scanned down the features of his face again. It was so different wanting to kiss him now than it had been before. Before it had been not really understanding her feelings, not understanding why she wanted to kiss him. But now that she’d been with him, she knew it wasn’t just wanting to kiss him to see what it would be like. She wanted to kiss him because for that small moment she knew she’d feel connected to him in a way that no one else could be. It was strange, knowing how she felt about him in private, when no one was watching them, but knowing how she treated him when others were around. Honestly she didn’t know why she was so afraid of other people knowing how she felt about him. Maybe it had to do with the fact that she felt publicly humiliated from her past, and sort of felt like she needed to protect her public image. If he was going to hurt her, she could handle it in private. But she wouldn’t let anyone else know that he ever had that power over her.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane laughed as he jokingly pinned Claire down on the bed, surprisingly with his cast and all. But then again, Claire really wasn't that big at all and any physical activity against her really wasn't all that difficult. But that was what he liked about Claire, the fact that she was young with out being childish and she kept him from getting too serious. She reminded him that he was a kid too still, kept him grounded. It was a really different feeling with Claire, one he had a hard time pinpointing because he struggled to find words for it. Like... smitten? That's was the best he could come up with. But it was like times ten plus a bunch of other stuff. Shane grinned, wiping what was left of the whipped cream from her nose, shrugging when she said she had already taken a shower, "Then I guess you might have to take another one. I'll have to take one..." Shane raised his eyebrows, drawing another line of whipped cream over her lips so she could eat it, before it trailed down off her chin and across her collarbones. "Haa, see, you started a war, and I will finish it Fox." He laughed, leaning down and ate off a small bit of whipped cream from her skin, kissing her collarbone, and moved to her neck, kissing her there and then sat up and shot shipped cream from the can into his mouth. He always said when he was a kid that when he was older he was going to buy a can of whipped cream and eat it himself because when he was little his mom never let him. That and Hershey's syrup. Funny how things change. When he was a kid he wanted the can of whipped cream. Now he just wanted the whipped cream and a girl to go with it.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire laid with her back against the bed, resisting any urge to fight Shane at his point. It was useless. Even with one arm he could easily defeat her. If you can’t beat em, join em. Claire rolled her eyes when he said that she needed to take another shower. At least she hadn’t styled her hair or anything, so it really wasn’t that inconvenient. She opened her mouth to respond, but just as quickly he was saying how he needed to take one as well, followed by lifting his eyebrows. Claire dropped her jaw only slightly as she looked up at the boy above her, placing whipped cream on her lips even though she was frozen in place. They could’ve just pretended last night never happened and carried on with their friendship. But what was he wanting? To continue hooking up? Something more? She licked the whipped cream off of her lips, more because it was tickling her lips than because she actually wanted to. He snapped her out of her trance when he told her that she had started a war, but he would finish it, whatever that meant. But as he leaned down and placed his lips back against the skin over her collar bone she closed her eyes. When had he placed whipped cream on her? Was she that lost in thought thinking about last night? She could feel herself bending towards his lips again, the same way she had curved to his touch last night. So it wasn’t the alcohol that made her react that way, he really did have that almighty, goose bump producing, electric pulsing touch to his hands, lips, touch. Suddenly her lungs started to hurt and she wondered how long she had gone without breathing. He’d knocked the wind out of her, caused her to quit breathing? Pretty impressive for someone who had no idea what he was doing. After catching her breath quickly she licked her lips and watched him as he stood up, speaking quietly. “ White flag waving, I surrender,” he teased in how he had fought ‘war’ against her.

Claire brought her fingertips to her collar bone, tracing where her skin still tingled where his lips had been. Finally she sat up, doing her best to regain control of herself. “ Eat your breakfast,” she said, pointing at the chair for him to sit down and eat his breakfast. Claire placed her hands on the end of the bed, sliding herself off of it before she stood up where he was. “ So you don’t think last night was a mistake?” she questioned, slightly surprised as she watched him. If he thought it was a mistake and just wanted to carry on the way things had been before, there was no way that he would have continued this behavior. But what did he want? A friend with benefits, late night hook ups, she wasn’t sure she could trust anyone at this point for a relationship. But she couldn’t deny the way she felt when he touched her either. Claire smiled faintly before she looked down, feeling slightly embarrassed before she took in a deep breath and looked back up at Shane, speaking slowly. “Eat your breakfast… I’m going to go start a shower. If you want to join me, you can. I wanted to go downtown to look at some shops before I have to leave tonight. I was hoping you’d come with me,” she said before she stood on her toes and wrapped her hands around his neck softly. Claire stood still for a moment, kissing him sober could be entirely different. What if it was disappointing. What if he wanted nothing to do with her. Fuck it. Claire pulled herself closer to him and kissed him. If it was possible, she felt closer to him. This thing about his brother that he had admitted to her. The fact that they were so comfortable with each other. And as cliché as it was, after sleeping with him, she sort of felt tethered to him. It was like her feelings had enhanced. “ Don’t let the water get cold,” she said, near his lips before she kissed him again quickly and then made her way to the bathroom.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane stood up, half agreeing with Claire that he should probably eat the rest of his breakfast, half thinking breakfast really could wait. But he could wait too. He wasn't an animal. And besides if he wanted to get laid that badly he'd have done it ages ago with some random chick so clearly he was cool with waiting for the right person. For a 'rock star' he was pretty picky who he had sex with. He knew if he told people he'd never once slept with a fan/groupie, they'd probably never believe him. Even though it was true. And it wasn't so much as him being picky or having standards, it was just that he kind of took it somewhat seriously, enough that it mattered who he shared that with. He stopped what he was doing, after having set the whipped cream back on the table and turned to look at Claire when she asked him if he thought last night was a mistake. On one hand, he was taken by surprise that she would even ask, because to him it seemed obvious that he didn't think last night was a mistake at all, but on the other hand, he understood what relationships Claire had had before, and the way they functioned. He knew she must have a hard time trusting someone really wanted her, when the last two guys had both disappointed her in some way. Anthony had basically cheated on her, and though she said they weren't technically publicly dating, that still had to hurt and feel like she'd been betrayed. How do you even trust someone after that? And Carter... well Shane didn't really know what to think about Carter to be honest. Actually, Shane didn't really think anything of him. Claire didn't bring him up at all so that was probably just a one time thing?

Shane turned to look at her before he sat down, meeting her eyes for a moment, "No I don't think last night was a mistake. I don't regret it at all." Shane shrugged, watching her come over to him. She told him she was going to go take another shower, and that she wanted to go down town to see some shops. Of course he wanted to go wit her. He'd go anywhere with her. Honestly, at this point, he didn't want her to get on that plane that night at all. And if it weren't for them being in Detroit, he might just want to stay right there in that city with Claire. Why get back to the real world when they had their own world? But it didn't work that way. Thy both had stuff to get back to. School. Music. Dance. Video games. Okay the last one, not so much. Claire had wrapped her hands around hi neck, him seeing how close she had moved toward him. "We can go wherever you want," he old her, offering a soft smile. When she kissed him he knew. He knew it was so much better then kissing her drunk. He knew this had to be more then just a fling, it had to be. If it wasn't it would drive him mad. What the hell was going on? Just a week ago she had been so mad at him. Just a month ago she was nothing more then a best friend whom he tended to have slightly confusing moments with when it seemed they might want to kiss each other. Or something more then friends. How many times had he resisted the urge to kiss her? How many times had he resisted the urge to grab her hand and hold it? How many times had he hugged her so casually, effortlessly, and resisted that odd at the time urge to just hold her, turn a hug into something else? Too many. She had kissed him again, warning him not to wait too long, "I won't," he said grinning at her as she headed to the bathroom.

Shane sat down and pretty much scarfed down the rest of his breakfast, which wasn't any faster then normal anyways. He checked his phone again, quickly texting Zack to tell him that he was fine and no he wasn't beaten in a back alley by Detroit thugs or anything like that. He said he was gonna hang out with Claire for a little while longer before she had to catch her flight and then he'd be back in time to ride the tour bus over to Grand Rapids for tonight's show. Not wanting to keep Claire waiting, he tossed his phone on the chair by the window and headed to the bathroom which was already filled with steam, which he let himself in and shut the door to keep it warm in there. Shane smiled softly at her silhouette on the other side of the glass, stepping over he pile of clothes, "It's not cold yet is it?" Shane looked at his stupid sling contraption, annoyed with it deeply and it'd only been two weeks. And he wasn't supposed to get the sling wet, "Okay sling is coming off, this is exciting." Ha, of all the things that were coming off him the most exciting was the stupid sling. Figures. After he'd undressed, he slid the glass door open and stepped in the shower, shutting it behind him so as not to let any steam out. He held his bandaged arm away from the water, but stepped closer to Claire under the water, wrapping his good arm around her waist and pulled her against him under the stream of hot water. He let go of her just momentarily to grab the shampoo, quickly rinsed what was left of the whipped cream from his hair ad poured some shampoo onto the top of his head, "Okay, so someone got whipped cream in my hair, think you could help a guy out?" He grinned lopsidedly, laughing. He could wash his hair with one hand but it was annoying. And it was hard to reached the opposite side of his head.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire played with the end of her hair as she strolled her way into the bathroom, twirling the ends of it around her finger mindlessly as she replayed the last few moments in her mind. She was about to take a shower with Shane Madden. She was about to take a shower with her best friend in the entire world. And it felt normal. This shouldn’t feel normal. But that kiss.. it had been just as good, better, than when they were drinking last night. Claire puffed out her cheeks as she shut the door behind her and made her way over to the shower, turning the faucets so that the hot water began to stream down. Claire looked in the mirror, shaking her head at the whipped cream that was still on her face and wiped it off with the back of her hand before she started to take her clothes off and tossed it to the side. She smirked and shook her head, of course Shane hadn’t come jumping in their quickly. Boy loved his food. Either way, she needed to wash her hair again. Claire put her hand into the shower, testing the water before she stepped inside and shut the door. Just a few minutes later the steam had filled the bathroom and she had shampooed her hair, lifting her body wash to her nose so she could smell it again. There was just something so clean about the smell of coconut that she just loved. Just a second later she heard the door open and smiled to herself, setting the shower gel down. Why wasn’t this weird, this should be weird. “ No, it’s still pretty warm,”

When Shane opened the door to the shower, Claire couldn’t help but smile at how easily he had wrapped his good arm around her and brought her to him. Granted, Claire was physically stronger than she appeared. You had to be, to be skilled at dancing the way she did. But it didn’t matter how much physical strength she’d ever possess, though it wasn’t as much as him, because he’d always have power over her. She laughed as he just dumped shampoo on his hair, clearly not caring to put in any feminine effort towards it. “ Hey, that someone already surrendered so you should be nice,” she said, pointing her finger out at him. Claire rolled her eyes at him as though he was annoying her, even though he wasn’t. “ Just this once,” she said, lying again. Claire reached her hands up into his hair, shaking the shampoo throughout all of his hair. After it was clean, she just wanted to play with it, running her fingers through his hair she brought it all straight up until it was in the shape of a Mohawk and smiled at him. “ Shane you’re sort of special..” she said sheepishly. In more ways than one, but she didn’t want him to think that she felt that way about him already. “ I mean what rockstar would have a whipped cream fight then go look at old lady stores with their friend on their day off,” she smiled before she picked up her body wash and shook the bottle at him playfully. “ By the way you stink,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at him before she flicked the cap off and put some of it in the palm of her hand, rubbing it onto his chest and over his shoulders.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane laughed, but leaned his head down so she could scrub his hair. As weird as this could be, it wasn't awkward at all. They had always been so comfortable around each other. Even when they had just started being friends, they'd always been really affectionate toward each other. But Shane had to admit he had always been an affectionate person, always been a cuddler, ever since he was a little kid. Ad it was kind of interesting that he'd dated Kat for so long because he and Kat were never that touchy feely, but mostly because she wasn't very touchy feely so he kinda held back in that department. Claire was very much a cuddler though. He and Claire had always lounged around, usually her lounging on him, and now they'd developed such a comfortability with each other that all this more intimate stuff seemed natural. Shane let her mohawk his hair, which he promptly asked, "That a good look for me?" jokingly. He wiped a line of suds that were dripping dangerously close to his eye away, hearing her when she said he was special. She kind of played it off like he was just being a good friend hanging out with her doing stuff she probably figured he wouldn't want to do, but he kind of thought he knew what she meant otherwise. He kinda thought she was special too. Special in the way he knew he lit up when she walked in the room, the way she could easily get him to lighten up and stop being just a serious adult, she kept him in check, kept him on his toes, maade him feel like he could tell her anything. Made him want to tell his mom all about her. Whoa. That one almost made him laugh. Interesting, because he usually told his mom who he was dating but he didn't rave about the girl to his mom unless he really thought she was something. Apparently he did. He felt so stupid for not seeing the signs in himself, for not reading his own body language toward her, for not realizing the things he did for her were for some reason other then just friends. The longer he put thought into it, the more he knew he'd been an idiot to not see it earlier. He gave himself a little bit of slack though, blaming it on just having gotten out of a serious relationship that he hadn't seen his feelings for someone new. Oh well. He knew it now, and he'd be damned if he let her get away with out at least trying. He also knew Claire was pretty wary of a serious relationship, since her last one had been diminished by lying and cheating and whatever else. But he could wait, no need to rush.

Shane shrugged, "One who misses her and doesn't want to waste a second while she's here. Hang on, the mohawk is falling over..." Shane leaned over, rinsing the shampoo from his hair, jokingly squirming away from her, "No, what will people say when I smell like a coconut? They'll tell me I smell like a girl. I'll smell like you. Actually, that's not a bad smell, might just be suspicious though." He made a face, "You missed a spot." He made a mock serious face, "You're lucky I haven't taken to singing in the shower, I usually serenade the shampoo bottles and my loofah that I don't have." He smiled, brushing a piece of wet hair that had fallen in her face, leaning down to kiss her, "You're pretty special yourself, Claire." Now that they were both sober and didn't regret last night at all, why not see what was really underneath the alcohol? Actually, he didn't need to kiss her again to know what his sober feelings were, he knew what they were and kissing her was a result of it. And now that he was kissing her, he really didn't want to stop. Trying not to mess up his bandages, he wrapped his arm around her waist, his other hand sliding behind her neck, his fingers tangled in her damp hair, and pulled her closer to her, deepening the kiss. Now that he'd kissed her he couldn't imagine how he'd gone so long with out doing so, it was like breathing for the first time. Everything about the way her body molded into his, the way she felt so familiar, even just the hot water running between them, he'd kind of forgotten for a moment where they were.

It was like time was slowing down and yet flying by all too quickly. He didn't know how long they'd even been in the shower for, but he did know he was clean. And the shower wasn't needed any longer for cleaning purposes. And yeah, they could stay right here and do what they both knew they were about to do, again. He didn't really need to ask her, it kind of spoke for itself. But in his mind, in the part where he housed common sense and some sort of decency, they were not drunk this time. And his mind was reminding him that whatever they did from here on out was based on whatever they felt for each other, no blaming it on the alcohol. And if that was the case, granted this wouldn't be the first time, but it at least meant something. He he kind of thought they should leave the shower and move this back to the room. With out moving away from her, Shane reached over and turned off the water, and then slid the door open, getting out. He only briefly grabbed a towel, quickly drying himself so he wasn't dripping, and then wrapped the towel around her back pulling her gently out of the shower, grinning. He jokingly brought the towel up to her head, her hair dripping with water, "Here, let me help you with your hair, since you helped with mine." With one hand, he rubbed the towel over her head, 'helping' towel dry her hair so it at least ceased to drip like a leaky faucet. All joking aside, he wrapped the towel around her body, wrapping his arms around her, and backed out of the bathroom, kissing her neck. Somehow, with out much thought they made it over to the bed, fully sober this morning and fully aware of what they were doing.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire laughed as he asked whether or not it was a good look for him, moving her hands into the water to wash the shampoo off of them. “ Most looks are good for you. But I’ll deny ever saying that,” she said jokingly before she shook her hand through her own hair, trying to squeeze some water out of the ends of it. Claire looked down at her feet as he spoke, saying he didn’t want to waste a second while she was there. She didn’t want to think about leaving, about how every time she took a shower after this she’d probably imagine him. He already haunted everything else in her life; now her showers were included. “ Tell them that you smell like Malibu Rum, and that you just must still be drunk,” she said with a small laugh as she finished rubbing the coconut body wash against his chest. She rolled her eyes as he said that she missed a spot, wrapping her arm loosely around his neck. Claire tilted her head to the side slightly as she brought her fingertips to the tattoo across his chest, reading the words as she traced her finger across it slowly. After his recent revelations, she had a feeling this tattoo might be more for his brother than anything else. Claire leaned forward, placing her lips against his chest where the tattoo began gently and kissed it, wrapping her arms around him tightly in a hug. Whatever he felt like he had gone through alone, she’d never make him face on his own again. After he head leaned away, it was enough space for him to brush hair from the side of her face and she smiled, though it didn’t last long since he was leaning down to kiss her.

Claire moved her hands quickly into the back of his hair, holding onto his neck as she pulled herself close to him. Why in the hell had she resisted kissing him so many times, brushed it off like it was nothing. Cause this wasn’t nothing. The way he kissed her made her feel like she was literally the most beautiful girl in the world, like he appreciated her. But moreso, she honestly felt like she just felt like she was finally herself, if some people saw fireworks that was just childsplay to what Shane made her feel. Was there something bigger than fireworks? Apparently the way Shane kissed. But it wasn’t just his lips, it was the way he just protectively wrapped his arms around her. Claire took the opportunity to catch her breath as he got out of the shower. Kissing him sober was one thing. But if she slept with him sober, it was game over. He’d have all the power to completely crush her. She couldn’t let him know she cared about him. She could continue being bitchy. But then he was wrapping the towel around her, pulling her out of the shower. And grinning. That god awful adorable grin. Any argument that she would have had about why they shouldn’t do this was completely wiped out of her brain as he kissed the side of her neck. Apparently he’d been drying her hair off playfully, but how could she focus on that when all she could think of was what they were about to do. And how much more it meant this time. They were making a conscious decision to be involved. As she laid back against the bed she adjusted her shoulders a bit to make herself comfortable. “ I see you’re fighting back against the cast,” she said with a small lift of her eyebrow. Claire sat up, looking in Shane’s eyes as she shook her head. “ We are completely stupid..” she said quietly before kissing him again, pulling him back over her by his neck as she laid back against the bed, realizing just how entangled her legs had been around his own.

Two hours later, and all Claire could think about was the intoxicating scent from the shower and how it had lingered along Shane’s skin. She lifted her vanilla ice cream cone back to her lips and licked against the side of it before she brought it up to Shane’s level, her other hand reaching down and sliding into his own. “ Ice cream?” she asked with a small smile, only every time he moved to take some she pulled it farther and farther away. Claire laughed quietly. “ okay, okay. I’m done,” she said seriously, waiting just a moment before she smashed the ice cream cone against his nose and let go. She wished that he had more days off from tour, that she could take off longer from school. Claire tightened her fingers around his, looking past him to look into a few of the windows for the shops. “ You haven’t bought me a present in a while,” she said, clicking her tongue at him in a disapproving way. “When you come back to New York you’ll have to bring me a present. Even though I’ll be really mean to you around everyone else. Cause your music sucks. And you have the worst fashion sense in the world. And you have the hobbies of an eight year old boy,” she said with a small smile before she stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. “ Just so you know what to expect for the insults,” she said before wiping some of the ice cream from his nose. She leaned back in to his side, seeing no sense in not being affectionate with him. They were when they were friends. They could be now.


outfit

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane looked down at Claire, watching her eat her ice cream, which really was just as bad a tease as anything else. He was dreading her going home to New York. If he could just keep her on tour that would be cool. But she had her own life to get back to. Shane thought she was gong to share but instead she just smashed the ice cream on his nose and he reached up to take it off his nose, laughing, "Oh thanks so much." Shane tossed what was left into the trash nearby, taking her hand back in his and leaned down when she kissed him. This was perfect. They didn't have anyone to answer to, the didn't have anywhere to be unless you counted life, and the way he felt about her at the moment was completely consuming. Shane wrapped his arm around her, "You know when you actually insult me for real I won't know you're being serious. That could be a good or a bad thing." Shane heard a roll of thunder over head, and he looked up, not having realized how dark the sky had been all morning. They'd been kind of in their own world all morning. "That doesn't sound good..." he trailed off, feeling the lightest of a rain drop fall onto his arm before the skies opened up and it started completely down pouring. "Claire, this is your third shower today!" he joked through all the rain, looking for somewhere they could quickly take cover until the rain stopped. Shane took her hand, leading her into the nearest shop, not even looking at what it was. Inside it was empty but for a very small middle aged man and every antique item one could think of. "Whoa... I feel like I just walked into my grandma's house." Shane walked further inside, looking at the stuff on the shelves.

[Claire Jayne Madden]

“ Who says I’m not always insulting you for real?” she questioned sarcastically as she tried to scoff at him. She laid her head against the side of his chest, looking down at their feet as they walked. It was so easy to walk with him this way, head on the side of his chest, arm wrapped around his waist lazily. It was sort of like she’d been made to form against him. She didn’t want to go home, back to practice, back to pretending. Shane had spoken, saying something didn’t sound good. Claire lifted her head from his chest to look up at the sky just in time for it to start pouring down on them. She laughed, for lack of knowing what else to do and shook her head at Shane as he teased her, saying that it was her third shower of the day. “ This is getting ridiculous, I swear my hair isn’t meant to be dry today,” she said out of aggravation before she gripped her hand against Shane’s as he held onto it. She followed him into the small shop quickly, still holding onto his hand as they came into the dry haven. Claire pushed some of her wet hair from her face, pausing to look around at the shop, trying to hide a laugh as Shane said it reminded him of his grandma’s house. “ Your grandma lives in a shop?” she asked sarcastically before she looked over at a few shelves with him.

Claire brought her fingertips up to a few of the antiques, finding herself more fascinated than she initially thought she would be. She smiled, looking over to see Shane a few times. Sort of complicated things that Shane was her brothers friend. But it wasn’t like they were best friends. Just that she’d already sort of been in a relationship with one of Ethan’s friends, and she wasn’t sure he’d be too pleased if she liked another one. But there was honestly something about Shane. He let her be a kid, but at the same time encouraged her when she was trying to find out who she was as an adult. She coughed to herself, realizing that she was staring at him too much before she looked away. “ Play a game with me?” she asked with a smile. Claire gripped her hand against his shirt to pull him closer to her before she kissed him again and then backed away. “ Antiques have history, right? Make one up…” she said, looking over to the side before she picked up a walking cane, twirling it slowly as she held it out to him.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane let go of Claire's hand to walk around and check out the stuff in the shop. Old tobacco pipes, good silver, random stuff he didn't even know what it was. Some of it was kind of interesting. Everything in here had belonged to someone at some point, had meant something to them. Everything he picked up made him wonder whose it was and what it meant to them. He thought about some of his stuff, what he had that people could possibly want decades from now. His luck, people would probably want his stuff just for having belonged to Shane Madden. It was so weird to this very moment that people treated him like a big deal. It still blew his mind that they could sell out shows to people that loved their music. Wild that he could stop singing and the entire room could continue with out him, having known every word and lyric that he'd written. It was the best feeling. Claire asked if he wanted to play a game and Shane turned around and grinned, "Sure." He watched her pick up a cane, thinking the same he'd been thinking. Everything had a story. Shane took the walking cane in his hands, looking at it. It wasn't an ordinary walking cane. The top was really elaborate, gold plated, detailed. Opened up to a sundial. Interesting that anyone would actually need that. "Well we're in Detroit, obviously this belonged to a pimp. The top was probably where he hid his cocaine," he joked, setting it back down, "Okay, my turn."

Shane turned around, finding in front of him a glass case with jewelry inside, on top. Just sitting around. Figures. Detroit, right. They'd just have expensive jewelry sitting out. Shane picked up a small ring box that was closed, sitting beside a few brooches and a tie clip with some initials engraved on it. He tossed the ring box to Claire, not even opening it to look. "Here, what's the story on that?"

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire folded her arms as she watched Shane, who seemed to be just as willing to play the game as she was. She laughed as he started off,saying that it probably belonged to a pimp and used to house cocaine. “ You’re ridiculous,” she said to herself, shaking her head as she dropped her arms from being crossed over her chest. All the same, she couldn’t help but laugh and enjoy herself when she was with him. He had gone from this unreachable rockstar, to her best friend, to someone that she wasn’t sure how she felt about. All she knew is that there was a comfortability with him. She shouldn’t be this comfortable with someone she used to sing the lyrics along to every time he held the microphone out at one of his concerts. Back then she’d just been one of a crowd, now she felt like he could pick her out of any crowd. Claire pushed her hair behind her ear. “ Oh you get to call the shots, too?” she questioned before she brought her hands up just in time to catch what was obviously a ring box. “Giving me a ring already, Shane? That’s a bit overzealous” she said jokingly before she opened the box. Claire sighed, trying to think of what she could possibly say about the ring before she looked down.

Claire narrowed her eyebrows, dropping her smile as she looked at the beautiful ring inside of the box. Lots of girls loved diamonds, and wanted the biggest one their man could afford. Claire had a thing for sapphires; the rich dark blue color to it was the most beautiful thing in the world to her. Aside from one thing in particular. Claire moved her fingers around the box, grazing her finger tips over the side of the stone. She wondered how much it was, how much it would cost to take it home with her. Suddenly she realized she’d been staring at the ring for quite some time now without saying anything and looked back up at Shane quickly, giving a nervous smile. “ Well,..” she started off, tapping her finger against the side of the band gently. “ Honestly I think this ring belonged to the luckiest woman in the world. Someone loved her enough to betroth her something so gorgeous.. they loved her just as much as she loved this ring and they probably looked at her with just as much admiration. Even with the flaws, it’s amazing and gorgeous. Just like love,” she said, taking the ring out of the box so she could get a closer look. “ She probably couldn’t wear any other jewelry after this since it hailed in comparison. The same way you can never truly love someone else the same way as your one great love.” Claire was tempted to slide the ring onto her finger, to see how it would look but instead set it back down. “I’d buy it, but a ring like that deserves to be given to a woman in love,” she said, sliding her hands in her back pockets. “ Okay… to find something for you …” she said, clicking her tongue as she walked away from the ring. It was better not to tease herself, to look at it any longer when she knew she couldn’t have it. Claire stopped in front of the window, watching as the rain storm seemed to be coming to an end. But who knew if it was just a calm of the storm, it would probably just start pouring down on them if they went straight outside again. Claire bit the inside of her cheek, looking back at Shane. “ What if I’ve screwed up too much to ever find that? What if someone can never love me that much?” she questioned, sliding her hands out of her back pockets as she walked closer to him.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane grinned and shrugged when she told him he was being overzealous, "Yeah? Aren't I always?" He laughed watching her open the ring box and saw her expression go from casual to that of being in awe. Now that was something. The look on her face, he never saw her look at anything like the way she was looking at that ring except, well... Shane listened to her talk, he could tell she was just gushing over the thing. He hadn't even bothered to look at it. And the story... seeing her that smitten over a piece of jewelry and the way she was talking about love and all that. Made him really think that kind of love was real. It had to be. The way she was looking at it, the way he knew she was hoping one day that story would apply to herself. It was adorable in too many ways. After she'd set it down and walked away, Shane quickly picked it up and looked at it. It really was a nice ring. Old. Detailed. Someone put a lot of time into this ring. It was in good shape for being old too. Someone had taken good care of it. Shane thought Claire was right, someone had to have loved someone enough to give this to them, and someone loved it enough to keep it beautiful. He didn't think he'd ever forget this ring. Probably wouldn't forget what Claire had said about it. He could still hear her words bouncing in his head.

Shane set it back down, almost feeling bad for not holding on to it. Claire really liked it. But he left it, turning to hear her voice her concerns on never finding love. Well that was ridiculous. Everyone had someone out there meant for them. And here he was, half inclined to not walk out of there with out that ring, just to see that look on her face again. Here he was, contemplating getting a ring. For her. What. The. Hell. Was. Going. On. With. Him? It wasn't like he was like, thinking about that. Exactly. But he liked seeing her that happy. And would do something in order to make her happy like that. He couldn't quite shake how he was feeling about her. Like, in the pit of his stomach it just felt like it was swelling. It was hard to describe. He'd loved people before. He was sure of it. Just not like this. He'd never felt like this before. This was different. He had loved before, so he knew what that was like, this was just... bigger. Which was scary. and exciting. He didn't want to ask himself if he thought he really loved this girl, because he was afraid her already knew the answer. But it was why he answered, "I don't believe that for a second."

[Claire Jayne Madden]

Claire watched Shane hesitantly as he seemed to be mulling over what she had asked of him, about whether or not she’d gone too far in some of her decisions and it had cost her the opportunity to have someone love her in life the way men loved women in great romance novels. “ No?” she asked quietly, responding to how he had said he didn’t believe that for a second. Claire lowered her hand to Shane’s, interlacing her fingers into his own slowly before she stepped closer to him. “ Shane..” she started off quietly. ‘ You’re going to be involved in my life. For the rest of my life. One way or another. Friend. Enemy. Annoying crush. Something more.. I don’t know but, can you do something for me?” she asked, looking away from him just for a moment. “ It’s just that..” she said, taking in a deep breath. “ You scare me. A lot. You have this great potential to just crush me, and it’s what causes me to be mean to you. If you hurt me than I can deal with it in private, and everyone else will think I’m still tough and can handle it. But the truth of the matter is you’ve just gotten to know a part of me that I’m sort of scared to show anyone else. That gives you more power. And I’m young.. and I don’t really know what it’s like to be in a relationship, or to… care this much about someone. But I have had someone tell me they love me. And then it burst into flames,”

Claire traced her thumb over his fingers, looking down at their hands together. “ I don’t think I could handle the flames that would ever come from you saying that. So please don’t ever say it to me. Unless you’re ready to back it up. I don’t know where this is going or whether or not you’ll ever feel the same way you can assume I feel. But before any of this started I was just this girl, who was your friend and you wanted to protect. Don’t forget that… because I’d hate to have to protect myself against you all by myself. You confuse me because.. I want to make plans with you. Big plans. Change the direction of whether or not I should stick around and do college, or still pursue ballet even though it might tear me away from New York plans. And I also want to make stupid plans. Building forts in your living room and shoving fruit into your freezer so much that we swear we can hear Parker cry a little in the distance… make a mess just so we can clean it up together. I’ve never really wanted the serious and the reckless with someone at the same time. If you never feel it, that’s fine. That would be completely different than if you lied to me about it and ended up crushing me,”

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane took a deep breath, holding her hand in his own. Shit just got serious. But in a way he was more relieved then he had expected, because now he knew just how serious she was feeling about all of this, and glad to see that it matched his own. So he wasn't the only one wondering if this was something really huge for them. She too was wondering if this was maybe someone that would end up being forever. And yeah that was scary as shit, but it was a reality he knew he had to deal with. And he also knew exactly how easily he could hurt her and how badly he didn't want to be that guy. "I understand what you feel. And I don't want to make you any promises, but I can promise you I won't ever lie to you. If I say something, I'll mean it. Okay?" Shane hugged her, pulling her against him. He never wanted to not be able to do this. "Looks like it stopped raining." And just like that, the rain had stopped, as fast at it had come, just long enough to bring them in this little shop. Just long enough to put into perspective just how big this thing between them really was.