During the storm/ Alternate first kiss:

She blamed the universe for this. Every time Ada shook this off, reminded herself that none of this was true, someone in her life would pop in to remind her. The thoughts would return, imagining if all the nonsense wasn't so ludicrous after all.

Throughout all the preparations for the storm, the images in her head didn't fade. Pots were filled with water, all dirty dishes were cleaned, coffee was made and the cooler was filled with ice and a few perishables, along with Tom's beer. The distractions from the storm were fleeting because every time she heard Tom come in from outside and everytime she heard him move around in the living room, Ada was reminded of her brother's words, along with everyone else's words who ever added fuel to the rumor fire.

As the storm finally arrived in all its glory outside, Ada began to light the candles just at as power went out. It wasn't completely dark outside yet, so there was enough light to find your way around without running into things. Tom also appeared to have the fireplace going in the living room, the shadows of the flames dancing on the walls of the hallway between them.

Ada had already set the table placed the heated casserole in the middle of the table. Peter had found the radio that Ada sent him to look for, one she actually thought had been thrown out a long time ago, and her mother's Janis Joplin CD played in the background.

"Dinner!" Ada called out before she sat in her chair. She'd already grabbed a beer for Tom, a milk for Peter and a water for herself.

Ada realized she'd need something a hell of a lot stronger than water when Tom walked in, his skin glowing from the flickering candles.

Her eyes connected with his as he sat down at the table across from her and Ada's hand instinctively went to her hair, touching the strands only for a moment before she willed it back to the table. He noticed, of course, but didn't appear to be as amused as he usually was when she made the gesture. The only sign of him noticing at all was his stare following the movement.

Ada licked her lips and dropped her gaze to her plate, which she'd already filled with food. "It's just leftovers. I didn't have time to make anything else."

"No worries. It looks good," she heard him say from across the table.

Peters footsteps pulled her eyes away from the plate and she tried to act as if nothing had happened; as if everything was completely normal.

Peter talked for most of the meal, talking about all his classmates and how happy his teachers were at seeing his extra effort recently. He mostly talked to Tom, who seemed genuinely interested.

Every time Tom made a move to look Ada's way, her gaze retreated. It was hard not to look at him during the meal, but getting caught looking at him was a whole other thing. She assumed he could feel her gaze, but she wasn't about to let him prove it by catching her in the act.

Why did Peter have to say something? Why couldn't her home be a safe zone, an escape from the rumor and all that came with it?

Now all she could think about were Peter's words and all the questions they created.

How did they act like a couple?

When did they look like they were about to kiss?

What made him think like they wanted to kiss?

"You okay, Ada?"

Ada's eyes fled from Tom and toward Peter. She'd been in a daze since the beginning of the meal and now noticed that while they were both nearly done, she'd only moved food around with her fork. Her eyes moved to Tom, who appeared concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," Ada said as she pushed her chair from the table and stood. She grabbed a candle from the table and lit it. "I'm just going to- I'll be right back."

Tom looked like he was going to stand but she moved too quickly out of the room and toward her bedroom downstairs.

Of course he was a damn gentlemen. She'd only seen a guy do that in movies, and only in older ones.

And of course he had to be attractive, the prick. This would all be so much easier if he wasn't attractive. Her mother had said that at least the rumor was about a cute teacher, but it only made it worse in Ada's eyes. If Tom wasn't as good looking as he was, the dreams never would have started. The random thoughts about him wouldn't be entering her brain. The desire wouldn't be building in her.

Ada set the candle on her bathroom counter and knelt next to the full bathtub to splash water on her face. It wouldn't rinse away all the damage this rumor was doing, but if there was a chance it could wake her from the 'Bennet Trance', it was worth a shot.

Ada grabbed her hanging towel and dried her face before staring down into the water like it had all the solutions.

She heard Tom's heavy sigh before hearing him speak. "Is this about what your brother said?"

Ada dropped the towel on the closed toilet seat and lifted herself to the end of the bathtub. "It's everything," Ada admitted. "I feel like I should be above all this, like I'm too strong to let this all get to me."

"No one is that strong, Ada. Not even you."

Ada looked up at Tom, who looked so strong in that moment. With his arms crossed and head held high, he looked like he could take on the world. She looked down at her lap, hands trembling against her thighs.

Ada cleared her throat and ran her fingers through her hair before she sat and grabbed her candle, walking past Tom back into her bedroom. She went straight to her backpack next to her bed and unzipped it, pouring the contents of it across her blanket. Dozens of crumbled up pieces of paper fell out.

"Some of these are from your first day on leave, but most of them I found today. They kind of built up during my time off."

Ada sat on the bed while Tom took a few over by the large window where there was still a bit of light from outside. It was pouring rain at this point. She could hear it falling so clearly even from inside.

Her eyes remained on Tom as he read the ones he'd grabbed, dropping each one to the ground when he was finished. Then he went back to the bed in silence, grabbed a few more and went back to the window, holding each one up to the light before allowing them to drop to the ground as he finished reading them.

Tom did this over and over again and Ada watched as the pile on the bed grew thinner and collected on her floor. He remained silent the whole time. Every now and again he would clear his throat or suck in a breath or let out a sigh, but no words past between his lips. He didn't stop until each note was read. Even Ada herself had only read a few of them.

Once every single note was on her bedroom floor, Tom looked down at the pile, his gray eyes looking as if they were trying to set the paper on fire by pure will. He then knelt down by it, continuing to just stare as he clasped his hands together so tightly his knuckles turned white in seconds.

Ada scooted closer to Tom, remaining on the bed, but stopped when he shook his head. She'd gotten close enough to notice his face had gone a bit red at whatever thoughts were building in his mind. She listened to his heavy breaths as they grew shaky.

This was a Tom she hadn't seen before, full of a eerie silence and a rage he was too afraid to let out. She saw how easily he could snap at that moment and how desperate he was to keep it at bay.

The sound of Tom's knuckles cracking one by one filled the room. "Why didn't you tell me?" After several moments of silence, he looked up at her. "I'm angry at the notes, Ada, not at you."

Ada licked her lips and scooted a few inches closer to him. Though he obviously noticed, he didn't stop her this time and she didn't push her luck by closing the distance completely, not that she was scared by what he'd do to her. She couldn't imagine every being scared of Tom and she couldn't imagine him wanting to scare her.

"Because I don't want you going around murdering a bunch of teenage boys on your hunt for justice," Ada explained a bit dramatically. "Plus, I was really hoping that once you were back, this would all just stop."

Ada slid herself off the bed, making sure to keep a distance between the two of them, though she wasn't certain he really cared about that at this point. Her hands were still trembling when she ran them through her now short hair and Ada reverted her gaze to her bookshelf opposite Tom so he couldn't see her eyes that were now glistening. "When I think about what Peter said, what my grandmother said, I dunno... I guess it makes me wonder if I had this all coming, like I was asking for it."

"Don't say that, Ada." His voice was soothing, but didn't work it's magic as it usually did.

"I went to your apartment, I went fucking furniture shopping with you. We've gone out to eat-"

"That doesn't mean you brought this on yourself."

Ada's eyes moved to Tom, who seemed to now be the one attempting to inch his way toward her. "I called you gorgeous and asked you to kiss me. Peter's right, I've been treating you like a boyfriend and now I'm paying for it."

"Ada."

She ignored him. "Everyone teases me about this. Britt, my mom. I turn into a fumbling idiot around you and it pisses me off because I am supposed to be smart and independent, dammit."

Ada looked up when she heard his footsteps and saw Tom crouch down in front of her. He tucked her hair behind her ear and Ada couldn't help but close her eyes at the sensation. She was sure he noticed, but it hardly mattered. Everything was pretty much out in the open at this point. All she could do was shake her head in shame. "I feel like I'm losing my mind, like everything I knew about myself is actually bullshit."

A heavy breath escaped Tom before she felt his lips press against her closed eyelid, then the other, before going to her cheek.

Ada drew in a sharp breath when she felt his mouth move to her neck, just below her ear. He kissed every inch of her neck, it seemed, until leaving one on her chin, just below the place she wanted him most. Tom's nosed grazed hers once, then again, nudging up her head before placing one soft, chaste kiss against the corner of her mouth.

"Tom." Her voice was barely audible and she doubted her heard any letter of that three letter word that past between her lips, her lips that he covered with his own.

His mouth was closed when he pressed it against hers, seeming reluctant to give into whatever was happening here. But the reluctance faded with each press of his lips and his mouth slowly opened to take her in, to which Ada went more than willingly. With every kiss, his lips quivered against hers, leaving shaky breaths which seemed to only pull her in more.

Ada wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him against her, erasing any trace left of hesitance between them. She kissed him with an almost sinful sort of passion that only he could unleash in her. And he claimed all the passion she had to give, his tongue brushing up against hers lightly before almost immediately losing any ounce of control it had.

A groan built in her throat and Ada opened her mouth more to allow it to escape. But Tom took that opportunity to deepen the kiss further. His hand at the small of her back pushed her into him, molding their bodies perfectly.

With every single kiss, every movement of his hands or shaky breath that expelled from his mouth and into hers, Ada felt her body reacting, moving against his, skin heating up wherever he touched.

Tom placed one last short kiss on her lips before pulling his mouth away and resting his forehead against hers. His hot rapid breaths filled her lungs and his body quivered nearly as much as her own did.

"I shouldn't have done that," Tom admitted quietly.

Ada could barely trust her voice to respond or trust her brain to come up with any sort of word combination that could form an actual sentence. Even her limbs seemed to have lost a bit of function with that kiss. "So why did you?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, well where does all of this leave us?"

He lifted his head from hers to look into her eyes. "I don't know the answer to that one either, Ada."

"So tell me what you do know," Ada pushed. "Give me something. A rejection or an apology or a possibility. Something that tells me how the hell you feel about me."

After a few awkward moments, Tom stood from the ground and walked a few steps before he began rubbing at his face. "It isn't that simple."

"Yes, it is," she shouted back. "You're just complicating it because you don't want to face what's really happening here."

"So what's happening?"

Ada shook her head. "You have feelings for me. You wouldn't have kissed me two weeks before we agreed to unless you really wanted to. That kiss had nothing to do with my list. That kiss was you wanting me."

And went over to him and was surprised when he didn't stop her. She placed her finger on his lips and watched as his eyes stared back into her. "I know how much you love your job and how seriously you take it. I get that wanting me is breaking a code you've lived by for years and I really am sorry about that. But you shouldn't punish yourself for this and you shouldn't punish me." Ada's hand moved from his lips to his chest.

"I'm crazy about you," Tom said, cutting her off and removing her hand from his chest. "Ever since you came over that night, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you, and it's pissing me off because you're right, I've always lived my life by the code that society and my job tells me to live by. And I've never thought twice about that because it's basic fucking human morals."

Ada tried to touch him, but he took a step away from her. His anger faded and seemed to turn into defeat right before her eyes.

"The fact that I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not allowed to want you makes me feel like an immoral predator who doesn't deserve to be a teacher."

She shook her head. This wasn't even illegal, since she was eighteen, nineteen in only a couple of more months. If it wasn't for the titles they had in each others lives, this would be something that others would frown upon, but it wouldn't be wrong.

Ada went over to him, not bothering trying to touch him. "So what does that make me then? Broken? Stupid? A whore? Some naive victim?"

She was pissed and she gave exactly zero shits about hiding that fact from Tom. But there was also sadness in her, so much so that there was too much to hide from him even if she'd wanted to. So she stood in front of him with her soul on display to do with what he wanted.

Ada shook her hear and ran her fingers through her hair, turning away from Tom. She sucked in a breath and let it out slowly. "My mom told me that I've never really been the kind of person to let people on; not until you."

"Ada."

His voice was tired and desperate coming out, but not as much so as how she felt in that moment.

She turned to face him, staring him dead in the eye, and willed her voice to be as strong as it had ever been in her life. "Are you going to make me regret letting you in? Because I'll be fine if you tell me nothing can happen between us. I'm a survivor. I can manage a little heartbreak. But I need an answer, Tom, even if it's not one I want to hear."

Tom let out a heavy sigh and leaned against the wall of her bedroom. "Ask."

She'd worn him down.

"Do you want me?"

"Yes."

"Do you want me badly enough to be with me?"

Alternate questions game:

Dinner could only be rated as somewhere between shitty and excruciating. Tom shot her awkward looks throughout; though Ada did the same with him, so she could hardly blame him for it. Her brother seemed to realize how damaging those few remarks he made were and grew quiet halfway through. So dinner consisted of sideways glances, throat clearing and a lot of just pushing the food around the plate.

"I think I'm gunna go upstairs and do my homework," Peter spoke after a good five minutes of no one saying a damn thing. He grabbed a flashlight from the table, as well as a battery operated lantern, which was really just an extra large, glorified flashlight. "If I need some help?"

"Just let me know," Tom replied.

The second Peter disappeared from sight, Ada stood from the table. "I'm going to go-"

"Not so fast, little missy," Tom warned.

Ada lowered herself back down. "Little missy?" Ada had to fight to hide her amusement, though she didn't fight it very hard and Tom still managed to notice. It was the least uncomfortable moment they'd shared since sitting down.

The power flickered several times, disappearing only to reappear moments later before going off completely. Some candles were already lit on the table, so the room wasn't completely dark.

"Let's go talk in the living room," Tom suggested.

Ada nodded, though that was the last place she wanted to talk. Out in the storm would have been better. At least there she wouldn't have to see the firelight dancing off his skin. Still, seeing as she couldn't actually admitt to that, Ada stood and went over to the cooler, where she'd snuck in a few wine coolers, and grabbed them herself a bottle and Tom a beer.

She walked in silence to the living room and twisted off the cap to her wine cooler. One sip after another, she called on her liquid courage to get her though this conversation; the cold to cool down her warm body and the smell to fade out the aroma of burning wood. As she pulled the bottle from her lips and noticed she'd drank more than she should, all of it, Ada realized it didn't accomplish jack shit.

"Whoops."

She turned to Tom and smiled and he just shook his head.

"How many of those does it take for you to get tipsy?" He questioned.

Ada thought back to last summer. "Three? But that's usually when I go a while without drinking and it hits me more than it should. So it's probably more like four or five."

"You get two," Tom told her. "At least until we've made it through this conversation and things are back to normal."

"You and I are anything but normal," Ada said as she plopped herself on the couch in front of the fireplace.

Tom let out a sigh. "Apparently. The right kind of weird then. Did you want a second one."

Ada was tempted, but she also had a feeling that she'd drink it just as quickly as the last and the speediness probably would cause her to get prematurly drunk. So she shook her head and Tom sat down next to her.

"So Peter," Tom said his name in a long, breath."

Ada smiled mischievously. "We need to get rid of him."

Tom turned and looked at her like she'd lost her mind. "What?"

"He knows too much."

"Are you drunk already?"

Ada looked down at her empty bottle, which Tom immediately took out of her hands. "No. Just trying to make a joke. I'll admit that it didn't turn out great."

Tom chuckled quietly and leaned back against the cushion of the sofa. "Eh, it was worth a shot."

Ada followed Tom's movement and leaned back as well, turning to look at him just as he did the same. "So," she repeated, "Peter."

"Is he right?"

Ada had hoped she'd turned the conversation back on Tom so he could take the reigns, but he appeared to do the same to her, unfortunately. "I don't know. Is he?"

"Do you think he is?" Tom was smiling at this point, seeming to realize they were both equally avoiding being the one to jump in.

But he was the one who suggested the talk. She'd accepted and knew it was for the best, but if Tom wanted this talk to badly, it was up to him to be the one to headline it.

"Do I think he is what?" Ada asked with a smile on her face.

Tom shook his head. "Do you think he's right about how we act?"

"Act how?"

Tom glared at her before taking a drink of his beer. "We're seriously going to be having this conversation for the rest of our lives the way this is going."

He was exaggerating, of course, but Ada knew as well as he did that this conversation probably did need to happen.

"Then how about you just man up and answer it?" She challenged.

The words earned her another glare, which quickly faded. "I don't want to have this conversation either, Ada, but we have to."

"Well, one of us is going to have to rip off the bandaid."

"Three questions," he said randomly. "We both get to ask the other three questions and we have to answer. Complete honesty, zero bullshit."

Ada narrowed her eyes at him. "I say rip off the bandaid and your response is to make it awkward times six? That's a terrible idea!"

"Isn't there anything you're curious about that you think I wouldn't answer any other time?"

He was able to make it would more intruiging in that sense and Ada couldn't help but take the bait. "Who goes first?"

Tom took another several chugs of his beer until it was empty. After setting it next to her empty bottle on the table beside him, Tom turned back to her and leaned his head against his hand. "First question. Are you going to take the test?"

For a brief moment she thought he was referring to the tests they were taking at school. Then she remembered. "Have you been studying up on Huntington's, Mr. Bennet?"

She remembered how strange it was to use his first name in his apartment and trying to train herself to use that rather than what she'd always referred to him as. Now calling him by the name she always used to call him by seemed weird.

"I think my entire desk at home is covered in shit I've printed off about it. Are you?"

Ada looked down and shook her head. "I really don't know the answer to that. I don't want the results to justify how I live my life, but I also don't want to live the next fifteen years wondering if it's inside of me or not."

"That's fair."

Ada wanted to come up with something as equally serious, but unfortunately there wasn't anything. "First question. Does any part of you regret inviting me over to your place that night?"

"No," he answered quickly.

"But I turned your life upside down," Ada pushed.

Tom only shrugged. "My life was turned upside down, but not by you. Regardless, my answer is still 'no'." Tom didn't wait before continuing. "It doesn't matter how many times or how many ways you ask me that question, Ada. I'll never regret any decision I've made in all this."

Ada gave him a hesitant nod.

"Question two. Why did you ask me to kiss you?"

Son of a bitch.

It was a question she declined to answer before and a question she still did want to answer now, but at least he'd opened up the gateway for her own. Still, her cheeks flushed and she had to divert her eyes to the couch to answer it, not wanting to see so much as a glimpse of him while she spoke the words. "Because I think you can deliver on my pretty fucking high expectations," she responded, quoting how he'd phrased it at their lunch two weeks before.

This wasn't the most embarrassing confession or comment she'd made to him, so it wasn't too bad. She'd told him he was gorgeous, so admitting that she thought he would be a good kisser was hardly a stretch.

"Question two. Why did you agree to the kiss?"

Tom rubbed at his his head. "I was really hoping your answer was gonna be more revealing."

Ada shook her head. "Why? What's your answer?"

She watched as he dropped his head toward his chest and began mumbling something she couldn't decipher.

"Tom?"

"I agreed because I wanted to." Tom slouched further into the couch and rubbed at his neck before rubbing his eyes. "'Want' isn't the right word. Need, I guess. I don't know. I have questions that I can't get out of my head and I think kissing you can answer them."

Ada opened her mouth to respond, but every vowel and constonant seemed to fail her, so she closed her parted lips. She attempted to raise herself from the couch, but her legs felt wobbly, so she sat back down. Her body appeared to be on strike, but her brain was going a thousand miles an hour.

She turned her gaze to the crackling fire in front of them and tried to remember a time in the last two weeks that he'd given her any indication of his feelings for her, but couldn't think of one damn time, minus agreeing to kiss her. Both her mother and herself had managed to throw her under the bus as far as admitted her attraction, but not him. He'd remained cool and unreadable while she was a blabbering idiot.

"Ada?"

It was a confession that caused her mind to go dizzy, one that she had trouble actually believing. Yet the way he avoiding looking at her made it feel genuine and Ada couldn't imagine him breaking the rules of the game and lying to her.

"You-" The word was tiny coming out, but he seemed to hear it.

"Yeah."

She nodded emptily. "Can you go get me that other wine cooler, please?"

Tom let out of quiet chuckle before standing. "Sure."

He was gone only for a moment before she saw his hand waving the open bottle in front of her. She accepted it with a trembling hand and took slow gulps, not putting it down until the entire bottle was gone. Ada kept her eyes on him while she drank and saw him remain by the fire place rather than sit back down next to her, placing a fresh beer on the mantle.

Once every drop of her wine cooler was gone, she set the empty bottle next to the other and took a long breath. "You said that you think kissing me will answer your questions. What questions?"

Tom leaned against the wall between the TV and the fireplace. "My question is if I really fell for a student or if it's all just in my head because... I don't know. I don't know if I'm crazy about you or just crazy thinking this is all real."

He pushed himself off the wall and grabbed his beer before he began pacing around the room and Ada listened to his shuffling footsteps as she watched him move around the room in no designated direction to speak of, his gaze dull at her stared ahead.

After a minute or two or an eternity, Tom stopped and placed both his hands behind his head. "I don't have a third question," he admitted in a mutter.

Ada had one for him to ask, but it would take all the courage she had to answer it. She shifted on the couch so she could face him better. Ada swallowed hard and dropped her gaze to the hardwood floor behind the couch.

"Ask me the second question again."

"I'm sorry, what?"

She wasn't sure if she said it too quietly to hear or if he was surprised at her words. No matter, Ada looked up at him and repeated herself. "You asked me why I asked you to kiss me. Ask me again."

"Why did you ask me to kiss you?"

"Because I can't imagine anyone being able to kiss me better than you and I can't imagine wanting anyone else besides you to kiss me."

Tom smiled, relief evident in his eyes. He admitted to not wanting to want a student. But if he was going to admit to wanting someone he shouldn't, it was some sort of comfort knowing that it wasn't one way.

And for Ada, it was anything but one way.

Ada remembered walking into his room freshman year and being in complete awe of him, even more so when he actually seemed to notice her. Not in the way he did now, of course, but she'd always been invisible. She was always the girl you couldn't quite remember the name of, and he saw her. Despite being as self conscious as she was, Ada liked being noticed by him, relished in him remembering her name after being told it just once.

Someone as handsome as him noticed she existed when no one else did. Now, four years later, he wanted to kiss her and Ada couldn't let him believe she didn't want the same.

"So if I asked you to kiss me now-"

Tom shook his head before he walked over to her and sat on the living room table. "I wanna say that I don't owe that school anything. I've watched it turn on you and seeing how everyone's treated you, I wish I could tell 'em all to go to hell and break every damn rule I please, but I can't do that.

"The one rule I want to break is the one rule that basic human morals tells me I can't. You are still a student in that school for another two weeks and I can't kiss you while I'm still your teacher. I can't break that rule, as much as I want to with you."

As much as she hated it, Ada completely understood and was determined not to push him on it or tempt him to live against his morals. "So in two weeks I get to check off number three on my list. Then what?"

Tom let out a stretch before shifting to join her on the couch. "If we both agree something really is there between us, we go out on a date. Then, after I get out of the coma your dad will undoubtedly put me in, we'll go on another."

Though Ada couldn't help but laugh at that, it was a worry for her. She'd never angered her father and had never gone against his wishes. He would feel completely betrayed by Tom and she wished so badly that that part mattered more to her. But her feelings for him far outweighed the consequences of what would come with the kiss.

"Question three."

Tom looked at her like she was crazy. "That was your question three."

Ada shook her head. "I said, 'if I asked', but I didn't legit ask a question there."

"Bullshit."

Ada shrugged. "Kinda bull true. Sorry."

"So what is your third question, you sneaky little hussy?" He asked, looking both annoyed and amused.

"How many people have you kissed besides your wife?"

"You starting to wonder if I'll actually be any good at it or somethin'?"

"Just curious."

Tom leaned back on the couch and took a swig of his beer. "I'll admit that she's the only woman I've slept with, but I've kissed three. I had a girlfriend before her my freshman year of high school and almost a month after I moved out of our place, there was some girl at the bar that I was going to hook up with."

"What happened?" Ada couldn't help but wonder aloud.

Tom shrugged. "I'm just not a one night stand kind of guy. I thought I could be, just once, but I chickened out." He took another chug of his beer.

When she heard the stomps of Peter coming down the steps, Ada turned to see her little brother. She muttered a curse word under her breath at the interruption and watched as Tom scooted further away from her on the couch.

"Tom, can you check my homework?" He asked as he trotted into the room with a handful of papers.

Ada shot a sad puppy dog face in his direction. "I can't check it?"

"Tom's a teacher. He's smarter than you."

Tom laughed. "I'm pretty sure your sister is the smart one, but I'll take a compliment when I can get it.

Peter plopped between her and Tom and she watched happily and as the guy she was absolutely crazy about helped her little brother do his homework.