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𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫𝗧𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘
❝ 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 ❞

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・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

While stopped at one of the ports on the way to the OBX, Kiara had overheard Pope and Cleo talking about their failed relationships and how they would make a "No Love Club." She heard Cleo specifically talking about guy she used to be in love with, which crushed all of her hopes of the two of them ever getting together.

She immediately ran to her sister and started ranting to her about everything, feeling so pathetic that she had even thought she had a chance. Kyla quickly calmed her down, reminding her to not worry since there was plenty of other fish in the sea and they had bigger things to worry about.

But once they all — apart from Sarah, whom they dropped off at the Château since she wanted to see if John B made it back — stepped foot back in the dock in the Outer Banks, all of Kyla's worries washed away for just a quick moment.

She was back home. She was safe. Finally.

"Welcome to the Outer Banks, Cleo," Pope said as they walked along the dock.

"You're crazy, Pope. Your parents are not going to appreciate me shacking up," Cleo replied since Pope had offered her a place to stay at his house.

"Of course they will. Are you kidding? Heyward might put you to work, but we could always use the help," People shrugged.

"I don't know, man. You sure?" she asked.

Pope placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, look, he might squawk a little bit, but let me talk to him. We'll figure it out," he assured her.

Kiara watched the little gesture and frowned a bit, causing Kyla to wrap her arm around her sister's shoulders and give her an encouraging squeeze since she saw the look on her face.

She also needed the reassurance herself when she realized they would be going by their house first, making all of her worries build back up again.

She wasn't sure how their parents would react to them being alive after being gone for a over a month. They'd either be thrilled or angry to the point where they would never let either of them out of the house again; it would probably be both.

Kiara sighed once they made it their house. "This is us," she spoke, pulling open the gate. "Home sweet home." Kyla hummed in response, her stomach dropping anxiously.

"Damn, guys. You two live here?" Cleo questioned in awe. "This is like the White House, man."

"Except with two probably very angry parents inside," Kyla quipped even though she wasn't sure how mad her parents would be if they realized their daughters were actually alive and well.

"How bad you think it's gonna be?" Pope asked after her comment.

"Scale of one to ten?" Kiara responded, glancing over at Kyla who shrugged and shook her head. "Twenty."

"Do you want us to hold up here?" Cleo queried, wanting to make sure they'd be okay.

Kiara's heart skipped a beat, cursing at herself in her mind for it. "No, we...we gotta take this. Thanks for walking us."

"Yeah, see you all on the other side," Kyla spoke before she started walking up the steps next to Kiara. She then looked down at JJ and added, "Bye, J."

JJ looked up at her with a small smile before he saluted to her. Kyla didn't know what to say to that, expecting some type of heartfelt goodbye or an encouraging response, so she just nodded slowly and continued to head up the steps with her sister.

"You ready?" Kiara inquired quietly once they made it to the side door.

"Not really, but...we have to," she replied and Kiara nodded, trying to open the door but it was locked. She started knocking on it quickly before she took a step away, realizing what was about to happen.

Kyla sucked in a breath once she saw her mom's figure walking towards the door, not paying attention since she seemed to be on the phone. The door then opened and their mom looked up, finally noticing the two sisters standing there.

"I have to call you back," their mom told the person on the phone, immediately hanging up so she could embrace her daughters.

"Hey, Mom," Kiara greeted softly as she grabbed her face in shock, seeing that it was really her. "We're really sorry," she apologized as she began to cry, making Kyla start to cry as well.

Anna moved towards Kyla, bringing both of her daughters inside as she pulled them close to her, weeping, "Oh, my God. Are you okay? Are you okay?"

"Yes," Kyla responded through her tears that had fallen, not expecting to become this overwhelmed since their last few interactions weren't exactly family-oriented.

"Mike!" Anna called out, wanting to let their dad know that they were back.

"We're okay, we're okay. I promise," Kiara told her before their father came running down the steps. Once he reached the bottom, he paused when he saw his two daughters before he ran towards them, enveloping both of them in hugs. "Dad, hey..."

Anna then joined in the hug, the two parents holding onto their daughters so firmly since they didn't want to lose them again. "We're sorry," Kyla sobbed as they all continued to embrace.

It was the first time they had actually hugged ever since they thought John B and Sarah had died.

・・・・☆・・・・☆ ・・・・

"Hey," Kyla called out once Kiara dropped her off at JJ's house after the two showered and put on some new clothes. She was able to convince her parents to let her go see him, even though she hadn't told them they were dating yet; she wanted to wait until things cooled off. She then noticed the sign taped on his front door. "What's with the sign?"

"Eviction notice. For, like, nonpayment or whatever," JJ answered dryly. "Doesn't matter," he sighed. "This place sucks anyway. Great to be back in the Outer Banks, right?"

Kyla stared at him for a second, not sure if she should comment on his attitude. She decided not to, waiting for him to want to talk about it himself. "So guess what. Kie and I had an email waiting for us when we got home. John B actually found Big John," she revealed to him and JJ immediately stopped working on his bike. "He's alive."

"Seriously?" JJ asked, looking over at her with a growing smile.

Kyla nodded, a small smile making its way up to her face as well. "Yeah. He's at the Château."

JJ chuckled in shock. "Damn," was all he said, completely speechless since Big John had actually been alive and wasn't just some conspiracy that John B had concocted.

"Yeah, he thinks we're close to the same treasure Singh was talking about," she told him and JJ's eyebrows raised, nodding at that before he started to work back on the bike.

Kyla swallowed hard, continuing to sense the tension coming from him for some reason. She thought that at this point, they'd be completely comfortable around each other. "Hey, look..." she began slowly, not wanting to pry but also wanting to make sure JJ was okay, "My parents didn't even wanna let me out of the house, but I told them I had to come check on you. They don't know we're together yet, by the way, I thought it'd be best to way for things to die down before then. But I still wanted to check on you."

"Well, it's not me you have to worry about," JJ told her, letting out a sigh.

Kyla's eyebrows knitted together her as she looked down, wondering where this was all coming from. "JJ, what's up?" she inquired, looking back up through her eyelashes. "Is it because of what happened after we left the island? Because I thought we cleared that up already."

"No, we did, we did," JJ nodded, starting pacing back and forth a bit.

"Well, is it because of the Rafe thing? Because I promise you, nothing happened. I would never let that happen. Ever," she promised him, moving towards him and grabbing his hand so he would stop pacing and look at her. He looked down at their hands before he looked at her face, becoming nervous. "Ever," she said again, wanting him to know she was being completely serious.

The two stayed in that position for a few moments, just staring at each other deeply, going forward inch by inch. But before their lips could touch, JJ breathed out, "What are we doing?"

"What?" Kyla said quietly in confusion, shaking her head lightly.

"What are we doing? We shouldn't be doing this, nah, we shouldn't do that," JJ continued as he moved away from her, shaking his head.

"JJ, what's going o—"

"We shouldn't!" he cut her off.

"JJ," she tried again, turning around and staring him down with complete look of utter confusion written all over her face.

He looked back over at her, staring at her for a few moments before he began shaking his head again. "Look at you. You got your new threads on. Look at me. What do I got? This?" JJ questioned as he pointed out at his broken house. "This piece of shit?!" he exclaimed, picking up a metal part and throwing it at his house. "I'm getting kicked out of this place in three weeks anyway. Shit, I don't even got parents right now. But why would you care? Why would you care?! Like — Like — Like, I'm just some loser that—"

"JJ..."

"You don't care. No, you don't!"

"I do care!" Kyla shouted, getting in his face to show her genuineness. "JJ, I care."

"No, you got parents that live on Figure Eight, you know? You know...you..."

"That's not my fault," she responded, straightening up a bit.

"That's your future. You got that," he said, moving past her again.

She turned around to look at him, not getting mad just yet; she was just...upset since it really seemed like JJ thought she didn't care about him when he was her world. "JJ, I'm here to help you, okay? We can help you. If you need us, we're gonna help you. I'll help you, you know that."

"Okay, it's that right here, okay?! Like...It's so easy for you to say that. You know why? Because you're a Kook. You're a Kook, Kyla!" he yelled at her without thinking.

Kyla sucked in a breath at that, still having no idea why he was acting like this. "Seriously, JJ?" she questioned and he nodded, raising his eyebrows at her to get the hint. She scoffed at him. "Yeah, I'm a Kook. I was such a Kook when I decided to help you guys find the gold. I was such a Kook when I risked my life to save yours. I was such a Kook when I told you I loved you and had to live in a cave with you for a month. I just love that Kook life, don't I?" she spoke sarcastically.

JJ quickly shook his head. "That's not what I'm talking about. God!" he voiced irritatedly before he hopped on his bike, wanting to get out of there.

"Do not leave," Kyla warned him before he revved up his bike, starting to drive away. "JJ, what the hell?! JJ! Come back!" she screamed after him before she gave up, seeing that he wasn't coming back.

Kiara quickly got out of the car since she saw JJ driving away, jogging over towards her sister. "Hey, what the hell happened?" she questioned as Kyla stared into space, going over everything that just happened in her head. "Ky?"

"I-I don't know," she answered slowly, looking over at her sister. "He...he just started yelling at me, saying that I'm just some Kook who doesn't understand. I literally have no idea where it came from I..." she trailed off, trying to pinpoint where she had messed up.

"Ah, shit," Kiara breathed out, placing a hand on her forehead. Kyla blinked at her reaction, not knowing what it meant. "I should have told you from the beginning, but I thought this time would be different."

"What do you mean?" Kyla quickly asked.

"JJ, he...he's never actually had a real girlfriend before. He's had a bunch of hookups, but he's never had a stable relationship other than the Pogues. He just kinda bails," Kiara explained and Kyla just looked at her, wanting her to explain further. "Because of his mom leaving and his abusive dad, he has commitment issues. Not, like, the cheating kind but the kind where he ghosts you."

"Oh, my God. So, he doesn't want anything to do with me anymore?" Kyla concluded worriedly, moving a piece of hair out of her face.

"No, no, that's not what I said. You're the first girl that I've ever seen JJ like before. Love, even. That's why I didn't tell you this from the beginning. Trust me, he's been my best friend for years so I can tell," she assured her sister. "I think he's being like this because he doesn't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me? Why would he think he'd hurt me?"

"Because he already has," Kiara shrugged and Kyla furrowed her brows. "You almost died for us, Ky. Multiple times. You became a Pogue for us. He doesn't want it to go a point where you actually die for us because he cares about you. A lot. He just wants to keep you safe and he thinks the best way of doing that is...to let you go, I'm guessing."

Kyla looked down, realizing that had made sense. She didn't want JJ to feel that way because she was always going to be by his side no matter what. She just didn't know how to tell JJ that without him trying to leave her since he was that selfless.

"Well, I can't let him do that, Kie. Okay? I...love him and I can't just let him let me go," she told her sister and her sister gave her a sad smile, pulling her into a hug.

Kiara then got a text, making her pull away and check her phone. She read the message before she looked at her sister, saying, "Sarah wants us to meet her at the dock. She has something important to tell us."

Kyla started to nod, pushing her other thoughts aside so she could help Sarah with whatever important thing was happening.

Once her and Kiara made it to the dock, Sarah started explaining how she went back to Tannyhill. "So I went back to grab clothes and a phone, and you guys are not gonna believe this. Rafe and Tara are back," she revealed.

Kyla and Kiara shared the same look. "Seriously?" Kyla said since she already had enough on her plate.

"Yeah. I saw them at the house. I don't think they saw me, but I think the cross is coming back...to Wilmington tomorrow night," Sarah told them.

"What?" Kiara spoke while Kyla's eyes widened.

"Yeah."

"Does Pope know?" Kiara asked.

"No. I was gonna tell him at the Château."

"Well, he can't. He's on lockdown," Kiara told her.

"Okay, um...Then...I'll hit up Pope, and then maybe you go to the Château and tell John B," Sarah said to Kiara before she looked at Kyla and added, "And JJ?"

Kyla sucked in a breath at that before she nodded. "Yeah, I have to talk to him anyway about something."

"Yeah."

"Our parents are gonna kill us," Kiara commented and Kyla nodded, releasing the millionth sigh of that day.

authors note
ruh roh...trouble
in paradiseeeee and
it looks like rafe and tara
r back so that's obviously
amazing 🤩 anyway i hope
you guys enjoyed this chapter
even though it was kinda depressing
(also im trying to make it a little
diff from happens in the show but it's
kinda hard to work our existing
relationships so pls don't hate lol)