Goodbyes were something she had unfortunately gotten used to over the course of her life. Goodbyes with her father and sister, and now her mother, whenever a visit ended. Goodbyes with Delia and Harper every summer, and now goodbyes with the friends she had grown up with.

Everyone had shown up for the fireplace 'bonfire', and in true bonfire tradition, all the musicians played their instruments while everyone else sang however drunkenly and off key. She had sat beside Seven, which earned her strange looks from all their friends. Although it made no sense to her; she was also sitting beside Cash, and that was not in any way considered a strange occurrence.

The worst were Ian and Delia and then Juss and Harper who they'd told about the lipstick. Not that they'd received any clarification whatsoever on that front. Seven had simply ignored Delia's comment as if he hadn't heard her and disappeared into the bathroom. Upon emerging a few minutes later, his hair was perfectly pompadoured and there was no trace of lipstick on his face.

Cherish had deemed the question the stupidest thing on earth, "Why would he have lipstick?"

"Your lipst-"

"And before you say it was mine, I didn't lend him any which is about the only way he'd be wearing it because I think I'd know if he kissed me. Besides that, you just saw me putting this on in front of you." Like Seven, she wanted a little more time to figure things out without all the extra input.

But even the annoying speculations of all their friends could not ruin the night for Cherish. It was a happy tradition, one she hadn't partaken in since well before she'd left Montreal, since before Len even. She sang her heart out, feeling hoarse and contented by the time they'd abandoned the music.

By that point, there was only a core group of people left. The rest, the boyfriends and girlfriends, new friends and old friends who hadn't remained as close, had all come and gone. At some point she was aware of Delia, Ian, Harper and Juss leaving to go to bed. Even Seven eventually left her side, softly bumping his shoulder to hers, "I'm going to go get some sleep before our drive home tomorrow."

Cherish, however, hadn't slept all night, spending it instead in front of the fireplace with the close knit group. Quentin, who had come to spend the last night with them, Cash, Jeb, Audrey, Melanie, Jessline and even Iggy. They reminisced about old times and held an impromptu memorial of sorts for Len; they'd joked and laughed and cried and held each other. It was early when others started shuffling through the chalet again, dragging out bags and getting ready to leave.

"D'accord, je suppose que les adieux commencent maintenant," Cherish sighed. If she didn't say her goodbyes now, then someone would get overlooked, especially when they all started getting called away to other activities. She kissed Jeb and then Cash, and was saying an awkward see you later to Iggy when Jacqueline came downstairs, clearly looking for Cash.

"Argent!" she near shrieked and the whole group looked at Cash with a mix of amusement and sympathy. He only frowned at her use of his real name. Cherish was thankful at the very least that the wench had not witnessed their goodbye. Rolling her eyes, she blew one last kiss at Cash as he was dragged upstairs by his possessive girlfriend before returning to her farewells.

With the goodbyes finished, Cherish found herself tucked against Quentin's side. "How you doing, Babe?"

"Good."

He looked down at her seriously, gauging the verity of her reply, "You haven't really called me since your last crisis."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"That's what big brothers are for, Rish. But I wouldn't mind getting some good calls once in a while."

"Fine, I'll call you at three in the morning next Tuesday, just to say 'Hi' and I love you." She loved the way he laughed, guttural and raucous and entirely obnoxious, like she'd said the most hilarious thing ever.

"You better not forget, I'll be waiting," he said when he settled. "But, seriously, Babes, how are things, you know, after that last call?"

She thought long and hard, mentally weighing the outcomes of her words, and how she should answer him. He deserved far more than a simple 'good' or 'better'; he had been the one she'd gone to first, the one she'd wanted to be her rescuer. The big brother she'd sought out. She buried her face into his oversized chest, so he wouldn't see her blush.

"I may have news," the rushed words were muffled by his shirt.

"What?"

"I said," she pulled back so he'd be able to hear her. "I may have news."

"Oh? C'est quoi?"

Darting her eyes around the room and the people milling about, she lowered her voice to a whisper, "I asked him out."

Quentin looked impressed or proud, like in those words she'd accomplished something much more significant than a date with a boy. But in true big brother fashion, he looked unsure and a little overprotective, "Well, now I'm going to want more than a 'Hi' next Tuesday. I'll need updates."

"How about I just tell you now?"

"Wait, it happened already?"

"Yeah, yesterday!" Cherish laughed at Quentin's surprise, and then lowered her voice again, "He kissed me." This time Quentin did not look too happy, he wore the quintessential big brother 'I'll kill him if he lays a hand on you' grimace. "Quinn! Ça va!" she told him quickly, poking his side as he unconsciously flexed and squeezed her. "Stop squishing me!"

"I'll squish you if I want!" he teased and pulled her into a headlock. When he suddenly stiffened, Cherish struggled to see around his large arm, and yanked her head out of his loosening grasp when she had no luck.

"Morning Rish, I'm doing a breakfast run, you want anything?" Seven asked.

"Uh, sure, surprise me!"

He was unable to focus on her while she answered, his gaze flicking constantly to the giant wall of muscle beside her. Cherish glanced at Quentin and found him glaring rather unnervingly at Seven.

"Uh, Morning, uh, Quentin? Did you want anything, while I'm out?"

"Get him the sugariest thing you can find and he'll love you forever!" Cherish joked. "And a black coffee."  As Seven left, casting uneasy glances over his shoulder, Cherish slapped Quentin's arm, "Way to be obvious, Jackass! Anyways, I should go up and pack." She pulled him down to her, kissing his face, "Je t'aime, grand fou!"

"Love you too, Babe."

-.-

It was a repeat of the day they'd left home, only this time Cherish and Juss packed all their things into the cars and waited on Seven to return with their coffee and food. Ian and Delia were squished into the extended cab of Seven's truck, stealing kisses when they thought no one was looking, and Harper lazed in the passenger seat.

She supposed they would all rearrange themselves once they were ready to head out. She laughed as Juss reverently belted Seven's guitar into the back seat of her car, and taped a paper to her rear window that read, "Precious cargo on board."

"So funny, Juss!" Seven's eye roll was audible as he approached them. "Give me a hand will you?"

There were several coffee cups balanced on two stacked trays, and a large bag bulging with food hanging off his elbow. He did not looked all too pleased with having to carry all of it himself. As Juss took the trays, Seven sorted the food, yanking open the door to his truck and tossing things in at everyone. When he took the rest of the stuff and headed inside, Cherish wondered if he'd actually gotten something for Quentin.

Juss leaned on the car beside her, ignoring the few things left to be packed into Seven's truck, things that would go in once Ian and Delia had vacated the cab. "What's that about?"

"Not sure."

"Didn't you get something?" Juss asked as he sipped at his coffee and then thinking better of it offered her some. Shaking her head, she noticed with curious wonder that everyone had settled into their spots with their breakfasts. As in, none of them had made a move from where they were.

The chalet door slapped open and Seven approached them looking slightly disconcerted. He handed Cherish the tray with two remaining drinks and dropped his keys into Juss' hand.
"Mess up my truck and I'll kill you," he growled. Juss simply laughed it off as he jumped into the driver's seat of Seven's truck and waved at a bewildered Cherish.

"What's going on?"

Seven sighed and packed the last few bags into the back seat of her car, "So, I take it no one told you?"

"Those guys? You mean the same guys who've spent half a year plotting to get us together? No, they didn't tell me shit."

"Ian thought you shouldn't drive, given the fact that you didn't sleep last night. He also thought it was the perfect way for us to get some alone time."

"Argh! Espèce de... And you just went along with it?"

"Well, he made a very valid point," he slid into the driver's seat. "Who else would you trust to drive your baby?"

He'd been right at least, with that thought, she wouldn't have let any of the rest of them drive her car. With a nod of agreement, Cherish sat and dug into the bag of food. "I can only imagine what they're thinking," she grumbled.

Seven only chortled as he pulled away from the chalet, "I don't know what they could be thinking. They practically had to force me to do this."

"Really? Am I that bad, Sev?"

"The worst, Pumpkin!"

They fell into a comfortable silence, the music blaring out of the radio being the only noise that filled the cavern of her car. She was annoyed that her friends had forced -because that's what they believed they had done- Seven and her to drive together. They'd even gone so far as to pretend there would be room for more people in her car, so she wouldn't question or protest. It was genius, really, pure irritating evil genius.

"I'm kind of really annoyed by this, but so happy I don't have to ride with them."

"Me too," Seven flicked his gaze to her momentarily. "I'll take any excuse to be alone with you... I mean, you know, without them... being there... I think I'll stop making this worse for myself now."

"I know what you mean, Bunny!" Cherish laughed at his expression as he kept digging himself in deeper. "Us, just us."

Seven nodded at her clarification. "So, uh, your Quentin hates me, I think. He threatened to tear me apart slowly and feed me to Massive?"

"Massive? That ball of fur wouldn't hurt a fly," Cherish laughed, "He's only 7 pounds and thinks licking is the appropriate response to the command kill!" She twisted in her seat, so she could watch Seven. "Quentin doesn't hate you, Sev, he's just an overprotective older brother."

"Well, I'm pretty sure he knows about what happened at the after party, and he thinks I'm a colossal jerkface."

"Jerkface? What are you ten? Alright, yes, he does know what happened, but he doesn't hate you for it. You were just in the moment and, to be honest, you really weren't wrong... as if you could have known, Sev! That's not why he's being overprotective..."

"No?"

"What did he say exactly?" she pried gently.

"Be careful, Jackass. If you so much as lay a hand on her... I have ways of knowing what you're doing, and I will torture you by pulling your limbs off one by one and feeding them to Massive."

The fit of giggles that exploded from her mouth was not what he had expected. She instantly dialed a number, and yelled into the phone when the call was answered, "Quinn, you fucking galoot, what the hell did you do that for?!?" Without letting him respond, she hung up and faced Seven again, "He thinks he's protecting me, Sev. He doesn't want me to get hurt again. He's being an annoying older brother because I told him about us this morning."

"Oh... Really? You told someone?"

Her phone buzzed violently in her lap, but she ignored it easily, "Why is that surprising?"

"Because... I dunno," he mumbled. "You told Ian we were friends yesterday."

"We aren't?"

The conversation was starting to feel awkward, too close to all the heavy things they would need to eventually discuss. Her phone buzzed in her lap again and this time she answered, simply saying, "Not now" before dropping it. It didn't matter that she didn't want to further the conversation with Seven at that moment, she wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone else either. She turned up the music, but it was only a couple of minutes before Seven turned it down.

"Are we not talking anymore?"

Squirming in her seat, Cherish busied herself drinking her now cold coffee.

"Cherish? Listen, could you give me some warning when you're going to stop talking to me? Because I don't know if I can deal with guessing what's up all the time."

She gauged the expression on his face curiously, was he actually pissed off or merely pretending? It was unfair of her to avoid everything, especially when he'd been nothing short of patient with her. With a sigh she pulled her knees up to her chest, "Sorry. We are friends aren't we? It's not like you said any different last night. You brushed it off too."

"Only because I was following your lead, Rish. It's not like you were busting to tell them..."

"They'd have a million questions!" she flushed. "Going out can just be going out. Not all dates work out!"

"I don't think that's the case with us, Rish."

The butterfly in her stomach soared high at his words, making her feel weightless and floaty. "What if I think it's not working out."

"I don't think that's the case," he said evenly, causing her stomach to flip again. This time because it was obvious he knew how she felt about him.

"It's not," she admitted with a sigh. "But shouldn't we be able to figure all that out without them pressuring us?"

"Pressuring?"

"Yeah, you know. The second we tell them we went out, they'll be asking what it means, and are we dating and does this mean we're going to get married and have kids and live happily ever after?"

Seven laughed; she was so worked up, she snorted the last part of her rant derisively. He raised an eyebrow in teasing challenge, "Does it?"

"I don't know, you tell me!" she shot back, unwilling to let him get to her. She was startled when he pulled onto the shoulder in response and brought his mouth down on hers in another head spinning kiss, pulling her toward him roughly. It was over before she had a chance to fully register it and her butt was back in her seat, the car back on the road.

Her hand was still clutching his arm as she steadied her breath; he was way too good at doing that to her. She grudgingly thought that if he did it one more time there'd be nothing left of her but a melted puddle of goo. Pulling her lip into her mouth, she eyed him surreptitiously from under her lashes. His eyes flicked over to her, and he smirked, "You alright there, Pumpkin?"

"I swear, I'll get you back," she grumbled more to herself than him, and his smile grew. She squished his bicep and released her grip on his arm, "What the hell was that anyways?"

"A kiss?"

"I know that, Captian Obvious, what the hell did it mean?"

"I didn't know it had to mean something," he was purposely evading her question, trying to get under her skin.

"Sev!"

"It means, Rish, that I really like you. And, fuck! You have this really annoying way of making me want to kiss you! Like all the time! And I don't know about married and kids and happily ever after, but maybe we could try this with you being my girlfriend first? There, I said it!" When she only stared at him, he peered at her again, "Is that a good enough answer for you?"

Her voice eluded her, and all she could do was force a tiny nod and make a garbled sound that resembled an affirmative answer. The girl sitting beside Seven, stunned into silence by a boy telling her just how much he liked her and that he wanted to be her boyfriend, was not Cherish. She did not let guys talk to her like this, did not find it cute or charming, and she most definitely did not allow her insides to lurch with such ardent craving.

Normally, she would laugh it off, or worse, tear him to shreds so embarrassingly that he would reconsider his sanity in liking her. Absently sucking her bottom lip into her mouth again, she chewed on it as she pondered whether or not she liked this new her. For his part, Seven seemed quite content with the quiet now, because this time despite being the reason for it, he had every reason to wear his smug smirk.

* Title song by Lorrie Collins

TRANSLATIONS:

D'accord, je suppose que les adieux commencent maintenant- Ok, I guess the good-byes start now.

C'est quoi?- What is it?

Ça va- It's ok

Je t'aime, grand fou- I love you, crazy boy

Espèce de...- piece of... (a curse)