"Jooeeyyy!" Leah squealed, brushing away the continuous stream of petals from her hair and shoulders. "Stop it!"

"What? This?"

The cheeky reply was followed by...much of the same.

"Sto-op!" she pleaded through another bout of laughter, shaking her head vigorously towards the ground. She looked up to scold the naughty grin, "You'll break the branches!"

Joey fell into hysterics and slapped a palm to his chest, but at least it meant he wasn't causing any further damage, rustling the fragile branches.

"It's not funny!" Leah whined, picking out more pink flowers from the ends of her hair and flicking them onto the grass. Except, that was a straight lie, and the smile that she couldn't keep away from her face told him so.

Beckoning her with a hand, Joey wiped a teary eye with his wrist.

"Come here, you got a little something-"

"Mhm, y'think?"

Having to listen to the recovery hiccups of laughs, Leah was fighting against a frustrating smile.

"Stop moving your head!" Joey exclaimed, letting go of the strand of hair between his fingers before he tugged too hard.

"I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

Leah stepped back, ruffling out her hair herself. She was already picking out a petal successfully.

"See? It's really not that hard."

She peaked too soon though, because it slipped between the pinch of her fingers, and she struggled to locate something she couldn't see.

"Leah." Joey caught her wrist, lowering it down. "Stay still."

Leah did. She stayed very still as Joey gently held the side of her face and lifted his chin to find lost, pesky petals to pick out.

She was forced to control her breathing that had puffed out too many laughs in too short a time, and in doing so, found herself lost in his touch. Found her eyes wandering over his handsome features that always softened when she was around, and equally, could brighten with a smile that she adored.

It was only when Joey's hand slowly slipped from her cheek, that Leah realised that he was looking right back at her, with an expression that was hard not to make her insides flip.

"Y-you have..." Joey pointed to his face, which flushed a little pink.

"Oh," Leah acknowledged, dumbly copying his action.

The hesitation for his approval confused her, but then the pad of his thumb swept underneath her eye and revealed a rogue eyelash that he subtly flicked away.

She couldn't even mumble a thanks, because Joey's hand was on her hip. It was nothing more than a light pressure at first, but when she didn't move away, his hand pathed up and rested comfortably on the gentle curve of her waist.

"Leah..." he began, voice low with an unfamiliar desire. "Please stop me if I'm...if I'm out of line."

Like a reflex, Leah placed a palm on his strong chest, putting a temporary hitch to his breathing. He suddenly looked ashen with disappointment, which was not her intention at all.

Swallowing her onset of nerves, Leah moved her tingling fingertips up over the ridge of his collarbone to touch the skin of his neck. They lingered on his Adam's apple that, on cue, disappeared downwards and then bumped back in place.

She was drawn to the light scruff of stubble that darkened the skin around his chin, and it gave his face a rugged definition even if he wouldn't grow it out any further.

"You're not," she whispered, finding the words to reassure him. The words that she didn't need to think about, because she liked Joey, and it seemed, he liked her back.

"Well-uh, yeah. I-I guess that's...good."

The relieved smile that kept twitching at the corner of his mouth, made it impossible not to adore his shyness, but when Leah's knee knocked into his trying to get closer to him, the seriousness returned to his eyes, and the hand on her waist squeezed so warmth spread out from under his palm.

Each move was slow, and representative of their time together- Joey pressing their foreheads together, the intimate angles to brush noses, Leah's palm moving from his collarbone to slip behind his neck, and all when impatient hearts were pounding in chests and changing resting breathing patterns.

But, not even the beauty of the spring season around them and a mutual want, was enough to provide the first kiss.

"What's wrong?" Joey asked softly.

Leah's hand slipped to his shoulder with the need to find a comfortable purchase on material that wasn't his skin. To take away some of the conflict. Forget the reason she had just...stopped.

"N-Nothing."

But it wasn't nothing, because the distraction that had put an end to her boldness had her trying not to direct a frown towards the path behind him. The area where her lust filled eyes had emptied because of one, silly sideways glance.

"Nothing, it's fine," Leah said again.

Joey sighed, lowering his head in dismay.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't-"

"What? No! Joey, I did- I wanted to...I-I want to-"

The words stopped flowing when Joey's hand was taken out of their equation, and it left a painful patch of what could have been in its wake.

"I don't want to be cliché, but the moment's gone." Joey stepped away, a feeble shrug of his shoulders that made him look small. He rubbed the back of his neck, disappointed with himself. "If I kissed you now, it wouldn't be the same."

It hurt Leah to hear the drain of enthusiasm from his voice, and the lack of sparkle in his blue eyes that did their best to avoid her. All, because of her lack of commitment to something that had grown exponentially between them.

"Please don't stop talking to me," she despaired, trying to gain his attention. Her eyebrows pinched towards the middle, begging to be read. "I don't want this to change anything."

"It won't change anything," Joey answered flatly, looking up at her. His jaw tensed for a second, and she thought he was about to slip away into the opened crevice of their friendship. "And I would never stop talking to you. I couldn't if I tried."

Leah practically jumped into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She was burying her face in his bouncy curls, familiar smells of citrus fruits and the woody musk of his aftershave enticing her to comfort.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, because it was the only thing she could muster when she was silently pleading that he wouldn't push her away. "I'm so, so sorry."

Eventually, Joey's arms circled her waist and hugged her tightly in a way that told her she hadn't lost him. Relief adorned her, but it could not fix her whimpering, confused heart.

"I'm sorry too," he returned, but it was bitter with sadness.

<>

"You're back quickly," Joey said, flopping down on the couch and slipping his bulked arms over the top.

Brad lifted his eyes from his book.

"Oh, I never went."

It was safe to say neither of them had been expecting that answer.

"Then who did?" Leah asked with sudden intention, sitting next to Joey.

"Steven."

"Steven?"

"You let Steven go?" Joey followed up, with a lurch of his body over his knees.

"What's this about Steven?" Tom inquired obliviously, making an appearance into the living room.

"And where have you been?" Brad asked.

"Yeah..." Joey agreed curiously, temporarily side tracked. "Where have you been?"

"Um, I've been...around," Tom explained vaguely. The hesitancy was replaced with an accusing frown. "Wait, why has this turned on my whereabouts? Go back to Steven."

"Brad, I think that might be the dumbest decision you have ever made," Leah deadpanned swiftly, pinching the bridge of her nose. She, on the other hand, had not been distracted by Tom's arrival.

Sheepishly, Brad closed his book and rested it beside him. He rubbed his hands down his bearded face in guilt.

"Yeah okay, I sort of see why."

Leah sighed quietly. She now had Tom perched on the arm next to her out of one corner of her eye, and Joey nursing his head in his hands out of the other.

"When did he go?" she asked, reinstating a more calm measure of questioning.

"Oh, uh, about half an hour ago, maybe longer?"

Joey looked up at that. "Why do you sound so unsure?"

"Because!" Brad replied defensively. "I'm sorry, okay? He wanted to go, and I didn't want to get in his way!"

"Then I guess we have to wait," Tom said, kindly drawing the argument to a close before it swung out of hand.

No one had anything else to add.

<>

The hours after were a no-show from Steven.

The four of them grew to accept it, and figured he'd return in the early hours of the morning with a lot of explaining to do. What they couldn't understand was why he took off in the first place when he was better. Quieter, and sometimes wrapped up in his thoughts for too long, but he was involved, and he had stayed, and he was honest.

Then again, maybe it was still a façade for his suffering, convincing those around him that he was fine so he wouldn't have to pin what he felt on someone else, but somehow, he had ended up doing just that, and Steven had no idea that he was dragging them down with him regardless of his efforts.

When the daylight faded, it really didn't sit right, so much so that there was discussion to go and get him, or to find him if he wasn't in his haven. However, it was dismissed due to the lack of a vehicle, phone (because no one knew where Leah's was) and the useful factor of light.

Instead, they were left with a collective concern for his whereabouts, with nothing they could do to simmer it down.

With each moment that passed, it nudged them closer to a deathly edge, deeper into tunnels of darkness, and they each peeled off to be somewhere alone to distract themselves from the daunting events of what tomorrow had in store.

As expected, the night was restless and uncomfortable, and the morning arrived bright, early and unforgiving, with no solutions to guide them through the day. Everyone was a little worse for wear and just as unwilling to start the conversation, because it would always find a way back to Steven, and Steven was undoubtedly in some sort of trouble.

It was hard to ignore the chance that something might have happened, which was why they wasted no time getting on the move, skipping breakfast, throwing on jackets, and tying up shoes.

For the first time, they were all leaving the farmhouse, and there was a lingering thought that they might not return.

The time ticked on, the air chilling and present, and the sun dawned sleepily over the horizon. Heads were down, nervous hands were concealed in pockets, and four sets of footsteps made distance along the private driveway that turned to the unknown, but whatever hazy route they had planned was pronounced unnecessary.

Those speculating flames had, quite literally, been burned out.

"Oh shit."

Leah stopped abruptly next to Tom, the bearer of the brutal shock.

Joey broke into a jog, miserably circling the remainder of the van that had been charred down to the basic bodywork and the cylinders of the engine.

The seats were gone, glass and lights shattered into nothing, and the tyres were melted down to the silver alloys. The ashes blackened the road, and the adjoining hedgerow was damaged from the scars of a fire and a horrifying sight that Leah, along with Tom and Brad on either side of her, couldn't tear their eyes from.

Every so often she caught an inhale of petrol fumes and burning rubber, a reminder of just how recent it would have been, and how amazing it was that none of them had heard anything. She was skimming over the wreckage, imagination stimulated to piece together a chain of loose events, and strangely, it didn't make her feel a loss.

It hurt somewhere that it could have been prevented, iced the sting of the cold that nipped at her nose, and had the strength to lock her feet to the ground, but it was too scripted for the van to have gone up in flames and for there to be no sign of life around.

No noise. No evidence. No blood.

Someone else had been here, and they had stopped Steven in his tracks.

Tom breathed out shakily, a hand finding its way to the collar of his jacket.

"Is he...?"

"Don't finish that sentence," Brad warned, not looking his way. "Don't you dare."

Joey joined their mismatched row, flailing his arms.

"What are we going to do? We barely had a plan before, and now we have nothing!"

Despite her whirring mind, Leah couldn't speak. She could hear the sorrow that cracked their voices and the fight against a flood of grief, but she just couldn't share it with them.

"Is this really it? Is this how it ends?" Joey listed off in despair. "I-Is Steven. Is he...gone?"

"We don't know that."

"What are we going to tell Joe? Or anyone for that matter!"

"Joey, calm down." Tom placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him from constantly turning. "We can't assume the worst."

It went on like that, Brad and Tom trying to keep Joey stable, whilst Leah was zoned out and staring ahead.

She was waiting for the moment to hit her. Figure out the knowledge she was missing.

"Joe..." she mumbled to herself. The daze snapped. "Joe!"

She turned to the three guys who were standing in front of a beautiful backdrop of an orange glowing sun that was still low in the new day, and thankfully not quite bright enough to make her squint underneath her navy baseball cap.

"What about him?" Tom asked.

"You never got a message saying he was home did you?"

The collective avoidance was enough to spill the ideas from her tongue.

"So, what if he never went home?"

Confidence was building, and she was glad Tom was understanding her speculations.

"Are you suggesting he could still be in the country?

Leah nodded, and there was a new spark in her posture. Her hands were free from her pockets, and the pads of her cold fingers were rubbing together underneath her sleeves to try and stop her from jumping too far ahead.

"And if he is, he must be staying somewhere."

"But how are we going to find him?" Brad pointed out, drawing his shoulders tight underneath his jacket in a shrugging motion. "He could be anywhere."

The rush of her crazy concepts was almost enough to make her smile, but Leah managed to hold it together. It wasn't perfect, but it was something, and they needed something.

"Who would he call?" she asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean there's no way he's spent the last month in a foreign country without contacting someone," Leah explained. "If it's not you guys, who would he call? Family? Close relatives?"

"He has a sister," Joey said. "And they're pretty close."

Leah's smile appeared even if each of the three men looked back at her with apprehensive curiosity that had escaped their masks of doubt and gloom.

"So, we call her."

<>