―

Hannah let out a small groan, her eyes blinking open as her alarm clock went off. She felt the movement of the body underneath her, the brunette in her bed lightly tapping her back.

"Turn it off."

"Right." Hannah muttered, crawling out of the bed and hitting the top of the clock on her bedside table.

Over the past few months, Hannah and Debbie had convinced Fiona that they both needed their own space, their cramped room not being the ideal place to share with another person. So, with the help of Ian, Jimmy and Lip, Hannah cleared out the basement and set up her own room in there. It still smelt like meth, but the redhead couldn't complain about that.

"Come back to bed, it's cold."

Hannah chuckled, throwing on a shirt and pair of pyjama bottoms, "I'm gonna grab some breakfast and coffee from Jimmy first. You want some?"

"Always." Xavier grinned as the younger girl leaned down, kissing him deeply before she ran up the basement stairs.

Opening the wooden door, Hannah cringed at the bright sunlight that smacked her in the face, before she went up the stairs to the back of the house, her bare feet tapping lightly against the woods.

"Morning!" Jimmy greeted the girl brightly.

"Hey." Hannah smiled at the man and her three younger siblings.

"Got your breakfast." Jimmy said, placing a tray with two plates of food and two cups of coffee on it.

"Thank you, JimmySteve."

"I thought you said you weren't our butler." Carl said.

"Yeah, but I'm his favourite," Hannah winked at the boy, ruffling his hair, "I give him all the secrets to the enigma that is Fiona Gallagher. And besides, he's not my butler. He's my housemaid."

Jimmy only rolled his eyes at the girl as he continued cooking the rest of the family's breakfast, "How's the basement treating you? We'll paint the walls this weekend."

"Very nicely," Hannah nodded, "Though I have to say, I do wish I had the sunlight to wake me up again instead of my alarm," She groaned, "It's so annoying."

"Yeah, we can hear it from our rooms." Lip commented as he and Ian walked down the stairs.

"Getting it now?" Hannah asked.

Ian nodded, "See you at the courthouse." He muttered to his sister, giving her a side hug before he and Lip left the house.

Debbie eyed the tray as Hannah picked it up from the counter, "Your boyfriend still here?"

Hannah glanced over at Jimmy, "Well, Fiona's is. Only fair I get to keep my stray. And he's not my boyfriend." She smirked, before leaving the house, Jimmy's whine of complaint being muffled as she shut the door behind her.

Pushing open the basement door with the shoulder, Hannah made sure to close it with her foot before she continued going further down into her room, "Room service." The girl sang, placing the tray on her bedside table.

"Jimmy makes a mean pancake." Xavier grinned, sitting up in the bed.

Hannah chuckled, throwing his shirt at him from the night before, "Put that on before you eat, we both know you'll get it everywhere."

"That's a shame," Xavier hummed with a smirk, "I was thinking that I would make a better plate for breakfast."

Hannah bit her lip as she smiled, glancing over at her alarm clock, "I can delay getting ready for ten minutes."

Xavier chuckled, tossing his shirt somewhere and grabbing Hannah's wrist, yanking her forward so she fell on top of him on the bed, "Ten?"

"We can push for fifteen." Hannah shrugged with a grin as her shirt was yanked off.

―

Elodie stood in front of the Gallagher house, her head cocked to the side as she studied the pictures of Frank that were tied to the fence with ribbon.

"If you think this is sad, you should see the shrine in her room." Hannah commented as she walked to stand next to her best friend.

Elodie glanced over at the redhead, smirking slightly, "Looks like you two had a good time last night."

Hannah's hand came up to cover the bruise on her neck that Elodie had pointed out, the two girls glancing over at Xavier, who was driving his motorbike away from the house, "This morning, actually." Hannah corrected, reaching into her bag and pulling out her concealer as Elodie handed her the pocket mirror from her own blazer.

"Oh, forgive me for my monumental mistake." Elodie rolled her eyes with a chuckle as she held her hands up in surrender.

"You're forgiven," Hannah smirked, finishing covering up the large hickey on her neck and giving Elodie her mirror back she tucked her concealer away.

"What even is Xavier's job, anyway?" Elodie wondered.

Hannah shrugged, "He's not told me. Pretty sure he's a drug dealer though." She nodded.

Elodie nodded, "Classy."

Hannah glanced over at Elodie, nervously asking, "Still no Adam?"

"Considering he's not walked with us since the winter, no," Elodie shook her head, making Hannah frown, "Seriously, Han, what the fuck happened between you two."

"Nothing," The redhead shrugged as they turned a corner, "That's why I'm so confused."

―

"You gonna beat him up, or am I?" Hannah asked Mandy as the two girls and Ian were waiting for Lip to be released.

"We can take turns," Mandy smirked as an alarm buzzed and the trio looked up to see Lip being lead out of the cells by a guard, "Here he comes."

"Been up to see mickey?" Ian asked his secret sort-of-boyfriend's sister.

"Nah," Mandy shook her head, "I sent him some girl-on-girl porn last week. It's the only thing he ever wants."

Ian and Hannah both shared a glance, letting out a hum as Lip walked up the them.

"Hey." He said, hugging both of his siblings and kissing Mandy's cheek. Many smiled at him, before landing a swift punch to his gut, "Gah! What the fuck?"

"Asshole." Mandy rolled her eyes.

Hannah copied her friend's actions, making Lip bend further over in pain, "Yeah, asshole." She said, walking ahead of her brothers with Mandy, their arms linked.

"What the hell's that about?" Lip asked Ian.

"Neither were too happy to hear about you getting caught," Ian told him, lighting the cigarette in his brother's mouth, "How'd it go?"

"Public defender thinks I can get off with community service If we take the laser back. Underprivileged kid trying to gain access to scientific equipment he doesn't have At his ghetto-ass, underfunded high school," Lip smirked, Ian chuckling, "Hey, uh, thanks for bailing me out."

"All Mandy." Hannah spoke up from in front of the pair.

"She used her dad's line of credit At bad bob's bonds.

"Miss a hearing, and my dad will come after you With a linoleum knife and a bucket of battery acid." Mandy told her boyfriend.

"Hey." Lip said, coming up behind her, tickling her until she laughed as they wrestled their way down the hallway, making two redheaded Gallaghers roll their eyes with a chuckle.

―

"What's it called?" Carl asked as he and Debbie marvelled over the robot that Lip and Hannah were attaching the wheels to.

"Frank," Hannah grinned, "Destroys everything in its path and Lip and Ian had to run from the cops to get it."

"Nice." Carl nodded, high-fiving her as Fiona came through the backdoor.

"What's that?" The eldest Gallagher wondered.

"It's a miniature mars rover," Lip told her, "I'm mounting a helium-neon laser on it."

"We're gonna blow shit up with it." Carl grinned.

"Hey," Fiona poked his cheek, "Language."

Hannah let out a snort as she took a sip of her beer, "Hypocrite."

"Oh, hey, final notice on the property tax," Lip said, picking up the envelope they had receive through the letterbox, "You going down there tomorrow?"

Fiona turned to him with a nod as Ian jogged down the stairs, bag slung over his shoulder.

"Later."

"Where you going?" Fiona asked as she took the letter from Lip.

"Study group." Ian told her before leaving.

Fiona glanced around the kitchen, noticing something was missing, "No dinner?"

Debbie shook his head, "No Jimmy."

"No cookies after school either." Carl frowned.

"He wasn't here when you came home from school?" Fiona asked.

Hannah shook her head as Debbie answered, "No, and his beamer's still out front. Want me to open a can of tuna?"

"Sure." Fiona nodded, obviously confused.

"I'll put on some spaghetti." Hannah said as she stood up with a sigh, squeezing Fiona's shoulders as she passed.

―

Hannah and Elodie linked pinkie fingers as they walked behind Mandy and Lip, Carl and Ian holding Frank behind them as they approached the registration desk for the robot competition.

"Back for yet another round of ritual humiliation, Gallagher?" The rich prick behind the desk asked.

"Finally gonna win this time, Goff." Lip said, leaning against the desk.

"College entrants only today," Goff told him, "It was on the website. Or don't you have internet down at MLK Charter?

"What's the matter, Goff?" Lip asked, "You afraid a teenager is gonna kick the shit out of one of your half-assed bucket of bolts?"

Goff chortled, "Your engineering can't compete at the black bot championship trophy level, Gallagher."

Lip cocked his head, "Who'd you steal your designs from this time? Was it Carnegie Mellon or M.I.T.?"

Goff eyed the group in front of him, Hannah sighing and unbuttoning the two buttons on her shirt, pulling it further down and cocking her head at Goff.

Goff stared at her cleavage, before sighing, "Entry fee is 150, and we don't take food stamps."

Lip registered them for the tournament and Mandy dropped the money into the trophy as the other four went into the event.

"You really are becoming Fiona." Elodie told her best friend.

"I know, it's terrifying."

―

Later that night, Hannah, Elodie, Mandy, Lip and Ian walked down the stairs, entering the kitchen with Lip raising the trophy, whooping in excitement.

"You won?" Fiona grinned.

"Of course we did." Hannah grinned.

"Oh, nothing left but smoke and metal And bruised geek egos." Ian smirked, placing a kiss on Liam's head.

"Yeah, plus four hundred bucks cash prize for first place," Lip said, putting the cash on the table, "Thought I could help out a little bit With the property tax bill. Do you want me to run the payment down to the post office before school?"

Fiona shook her head, "No, I got it."

Ian went to pull out the chair next to Debbie as they all settled down for dinner, but Debbie threw her hand out, "That's still daddy's spot," She told him, before looking over at Fiona, "Anything at the hospitals?"

"I forgot to check today, Debs," Fiona said, "I'll call after dinner, okay?"

"All right, here we go, guys! Dinner's served," Jimmy said, placing food on the table, "Can we make way over here?"

Everyone began to plate their food as they talked excitedly about the robot war, Lip describing the fight. However, one by one, their chattering deceased and Hannah knew why once she followed Elodie's gaze. It grew silent as everyone at the table was looking at Frank, who was stood in the kitchen entrance.

Debbie, who was the last one to notice the man, stood up as a smile crept across her face, "Daddy," She whispered, before rushing towards Frank and hugging him, yelling, "Daddy!"

The rest of the table shared wary glances, before they continued their conversations, ignoring the newly home father.

―

"I'll be right back." Hannah told Xavier as she walked up the stairs in her bedroom with a bag of trash in her hands, which mostly contained empty beer and vodka bottles/s.

Xavier nodded from where he lay, his hands behind his head as he was watching whatever was currently on the small box TV that stood by the end of the bed, "Don't be too long." He smirked.

Hannah chuckled, "Wouldn't dream of it."

The redhead toed on the flipflops that she left by the basement door and went outside, walking over to the trashcans to dump the rubbish from her room over the past week. Putting the lid back on the trashcan, the girl turned around, freezing once she saw someone stood on the other side of the fence.

"Hey." Hannah muttered.

Adam gave her an awkward smile, "Hi."

Hannah raised an eyebrow at the boy, "So, you're talking to me now?"

Adam shrugged, shoving his hands in his coat's pockets, "You're the one who left."

Hannah swallowed thickly, looking down and playing with her fingers before she took a step forward, shortening the gap between them, though the fence still separated them, "Why'd you come?"

"Wanted to see you."

"You see me at school." Hannah said.

"Wanted to see you here." Adam told her.

"Hannah?" A voice called from the entrance to the basement, the pair turning to see Xavier looking at them from the door, "You coming in?"

The girl nodded, her arms crossed protectively over her chest, "Yeah, just a second."

Xavier eyed the boy she was talking to before nodding and retreating back into the basement, leaving the door open.

Hannah turned back to the boy across from her, "I have to go." She muttered, starting to walk back to her room, when his voice stopped her.

"Did you mean it?" He asked.

Hannah turned back to face him, "Mean what?"

"What you said that night," Adam clarified, "Did you mean it?"

Hannah swallowed thickly with a tight smile, "Did you?" She whispered.

However, Adam had no time to answer as Hannah had already disappeared into the basement, closing the door behind her without looking back.

Adam let out a heavy sigh, his eyes scrunching together as his head tilted up, "Fuck." He muttered, wiping away a tear before he began to walk back to the Northside.

"Who was that?" Xavier asked as Hannah re-joined him in her bed.

She shook her head, "No one important."

"You sure?"

Hannah took the remote and turned off the TV as she straddled him, "Positive."