One Tree Hill 1. Prologue

**Title**: Then it Rained  
**Author**: Treesh Aradia  
**Rating**: PT  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine  
**Spoilers**: Where we are now  
**Summary**: She left and never planned to come back, not when everything is going so well. Then it rained.

**Pairing: Leyton. Peyton, Lucas.**

**Then it Rained**

She never wanted to come back again, preferring the metropolis culture than the close knitted customs that was prevalent in Tree Hill. But her flat tire and exhausted disposition from her six hour drive made her stop and get a room at the motel off the side of the road. It's not the way she dressed that attributed to the muted silence and disbelieving glances in the café but the familiarity of her face, that and the fact that she was once a Tree Hill Princess.

She wishes she had curbed her coffee impulses and wasn't such a bean addict, maybe then she would not have to deal with the person at the booth.

"Peyton Sawyer?"

The voice that was once a welcome reprieve from the chaos that was her life now only served to grate her fraying nerves. She rolls her eyes and turns, smile ever ready. "Brooke?"

"Oh my god! P.Sawyer it's been too long!" And suddenly there is an Armani blur as the boom box flies off her seat and rushes to crush Peyton in a vice-like embrace.

She waits and realizes that the grip will not budge unless she pats the attention grabbing, label conscious, ex-cheerleading-pep-rally woman. So calmly, like a red-faced red-neck at an anger management meeting, she reaches with controlled calm, and pats her…acquaintance. "It's nice to see you too Brooke."

She gets a rude shock as Brooke pushes her back with much gusto, "don't you nice to see you too! You horrid biatch. What happened to keeping in touch?"

Peyton laughs. How can one be so clueless, especially since they are a long way since high school. She shrugs. "Been busy, and I really did want to come back sooner."

Lies.

"Well, I'm glad you're back. What have you been doing? Gosh has it been five years? You left after graduation and never came back P.Sawyer!"

I never wanted to. I still don't.

She smiles, letting her …friend talk. She preferred it better this way, it was familiar.

"So anyway, everyone's here, well of course without Hayley and Nathan. They've separated and Hayley's off singing at some gig thing, you know, she was on MTV the other day and Nate's been busy running his own company in the east coast, he moved out two years ago…"

She listens without listening and nods mechanically and at appropriate moments, thinking about whether she would have to hear about him and his marriage to the woman currently in her face. "And Lucas is coming home for the Christmas eve dinner tomorrow, he's living in New York, doing even better than Nate, if you can believe that."

She pauses and actually looks at Brooke this time round. "What?"

Brooke rolls her eyes. "If you were listening at all, I said that Lucas is an attorney in some high flying firm in New York. He's been living it up I guess, even though he does seem as broody as usual. If that makes any sense. He calls sometimes, which is more than I can say for you!"

Just the mention of his name sends her into panic mode. All the previous bottled up fear, anxiety and… passion suddenly bounces off the walls of her sanity. She left because of her father, and him. After Larry decided to get another job closer to Manhattan she realizes that having two houses when they were just one family was stupid. That and that she had nothing really going for her in Tree Hill, made her leave and start anew in New York. His relationship, and his blind, illogical devotion to her best friend then was something she never really opened disapproved but rankled her in private and she was glad she left before it started weighing down on her. There was enough on her plate then.

And she left without much fan fare and no word at all to the people whom she had spend the better years of her teenage years with. Save for the heartfelt letter to Nathan, whose impression of she has since come to reanalyze for the better and whose companionship during those last few months have sealed their friendship. And the little "Goodbye I am leaving here is my number" note for Hayley and Brooke. Of whom, she has since then come to realize were not really people whom she would want much in her life.

The fact that Nathan was her friend and Hayley's betrayal hurt not only him but her as she was left in the dark about it all when Hayley should have talked to her, made her a candidate for the Peyton can't care enough to write you properly goodbye card. And Brooke. Well Brooke she was never really fair to. She was already without a few brownie points when Peyton herself became second choice and a mistake. What sealed the deal was the fact that Brooke could potentially harm her relationship with him by being insensitive and reckless (and with CHRIS?).

"Peyton! You never change. Anyway you will come by right? I am not leaving you till you agree, dinner starts at seven!"

And it was then that Peyton realizes much too late that she has just obliviously agreed to reopening all the wounds and discords in her life. She was expected for dinner.


	2. How Not To Like

**How Not to Like**

She sits on the bed; legs sprawled over the verdant comforter, hands beside herself, thinking. It was a trying day, coming back from an equally trying board meeting and having to contend with the whirlwind that is Brooke Davis. She wonders how she manages her affectations, for she never fails to mentally wretch at her own falsehoods upon reflection.

The proverbial walk down memory lane brings her back to the few days before her leaving all those years ago…

Everything then was not ok, but it was better than they had been when the sting of Jake and Jenny's leaving was still fresh, and her nose was still reeling from the rush of holy powder. The summer had come and gone and her friendship with Lucas Scott has never been better, it was a rung inching towards their status quo; an amelioration from the awkward interactions of before. It was a calculated move on both their parts and they walked on eggshells, limiting their meetings to only once a week, not wanting to go overboard and be overkill. And such was the effect that they were able to converse without the remembrance of cheating, Nikki and rapid firearms assaulting the others' integrity and loyalty to friendship.

A real camaraderie that really was just _camaraderie_…

_The beach, where they shared some of their deepest and most tragically lame thoughts, was where they agreed to meet that Friday evening, being two very boring and unsocial butterflies. _

_She was dressed in her usual non-conformist, angst tee and cargo pants finishing with a pair of military boots garb. Not much for beach wear but for a slack session, it will have to do. _

"_Hey, trying to make me look bad again?" She calls out to the boy already at their usual spot, lying back on the blanket, and waiting._

"_What can I say; I think punctuality is a virtue." He quips, seeing her raised eyebrow in response. She sits and they share the food within the basket, enjoying the twilight hue of the night and the company, all very friendly and very platonic._

_As she reaches for the last Famous Amos No Nut Chocolate Chip cookie, she flinches from the jolt to her synapses as his fingers reach for hers, while reaching for the cookie. _

_They smile and he lets her take it. _

_That's friendship…_

The alarm rings.

And she remembers the time, 6:30, and struggles between the option of going and showing her face or leaving right then and there, which should be no problem for her, considering her actions previously.

Without thinking, she goes into the bathroom with the cheap mirrors and shower curtains and starts preparing.


	3. How Not to Know Silently Falling

**How not to know**

She stares back at the perfect looking porcelain face and the verdant green frock, reminiscent of the dress she wore so many years ago, when she was not as strong, but every bit as detached and depressed as she is now, but for so many different reasons. The clock reads seven and she realizes that she's late. Turning away from her reflection, she leaves the room, waiting for the cab to take her to the mechanics, where her vintage baby was waiting.

She pays the cab and tells him to keep the change, too much in a hurry to get the only thing that hasn't failed her yet and ironically has in a physical way. She has her bags and she is aware of the urgency in her to _leave_, itching under her skin, when she's walking nearer to the shutter door wherein houses her car. Tree Hill was no good for her. Too much painful memories and nothing truly good, save for the fleeting moments betwixt the deaths and illness and betrayals. Her time there was defined by the tears more than by the smiles on her face and she just HAVE TO LEAVE.

The inner dome of the shop was filled with a whirring sound from the fan that badly needed to be oiled and just as she was inspecting one of the hubs on the board desperately waiting for the mechanic to appear, Joe his name was, like every other Joe Schmoe that ran one of such businesses, a voice greets her. One that is very much different than Joe's.

"Of all the car repairs you had to go to, you come into mine." He quips, leaning against a dented beamer. He looks her up and down, slowly and painstakingly meticulous, as if memorizing into his mind the contours of her silhouette and the nature of her face. He hasn't seen her in ages. Eons that spanned and grew to light years in time. She did not say goodbye those years ago, and his hurt pride did not allow for him to ask them for her number. However, in the here and now of this unexpected moment, he relishes the fact that this might be the opening he needed to reconnect.

_Did you ever think of me _

_As your best friend  
Did I ever think of you_

_I'm not complaining_

He so badly _needed_ to talk to her, to blurt out all his thoughts and secrets, just as he had once: when she was nicer and more forgiving and when he was less insensitive and uncaring of her feelings. He never questioned her affections toward him, for though he was a guy and oblivious to other people and their feelings, he was always sensitive to hers and even with that lucidity he never once thought to rekindle their spark, to alight that ember scared the flames would be stoked and would burn them. They were combustible, he remembers easily, and that fire had burnt them all in the end, leaving the charred remains of a ghost of a friendship and a Brooke that was never really the same. They were _all_ never really the same.

So he played the guy - much to her unconscious yet telling dismay, the quintessential jack-a who was her best friend and who was incognizant of her slanted eyes towards him, lingering for a might too long.

But that was ages ago.

_I never tried to feel  
I never tried to feel this vibration  
I never tried to reach  
I never tried to reach your eden_

Her shocked looked changes to longing before it swiftly settles to a cold type of amiability. She nods and he vaguely registers his name as it falls from her lips. He is too caught up in seeing the difference in her manner, and the sadness in her eyes. Still the same lost looking green eyes he has ever seen and yet, there was an edge to it that was not there initially. Or maybe he just did not notice while keeping to his role as best friend and boyfriend to the other girl.

"Aren't you supposed to be at Brooke's dinner shindig?" He smiles at her last word and though it was reminiscent of a Peyton at seventeen, the blunt force of her inquiry stings like the new edgier Peyton she has become. He realizes he's still not welcomed in her life, even for that short interim, waiting for Joe.

He nods. "I called and said I will be late. You will be in attendance too right?" He knows her, and so he knows that her dress might have spoken an affirmation but her wanderlust and anxiety _and_ her presence at Joe's spoke of her indecision and the 180 turn towards the nearest exit. Some things always stayed the same.

"Something came up." She explains shortly, curtly, like a stranger to another.

And the moment he thinks they might have had, albeit quite an unlikely possibility in an auto repair shop and with so much emotional and physical distance _and_ all that time lost… is gone. Broken and shattered like the lives they have broken and shattered with their melodrama and triangle situation.

"Hey Luc! And Ms Sawyer, your car is waiting for you in the back." Joe calls out jovially, emerging from the back door, grease and stains on his hand.

"Thank you." She mutters, breaking eye contact and looking towards ground as she leaves for the back.

Lucas merely smiles at the mechanic, knowing that the susurration from being this close to her, and that visceral jolt in the deepest recesses of his 'insides' from recognizing its soul, has already started to fade to black…

_I have a bad dream._

**Silently Falling**

She's halfway to pulling out of the shop when the soft finger-taps on her window makes her pause. She watches him watch her, in muted silence, and in the pregnancy of that pause she reads all his thoughts, clearly present on his face like the moon on the backdrop of an empty sky. What he never said, what he wants to now, what he wants… and she acquiesces to his silent request and rolls the window down.

"You should come. I mean whatever it is that's stopping you, _ditch_ it." He says so forcefully, and if it were possible in his position, he would have grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

Peyton looks on, watching as the slight drizzle from a few minutes ago start to get heavier; _angrier_ and his suit begins to resemble that of a horridly skewed polka dot ensemble, with rain drops adding character to its material. He bends lower, arm resting on the side of her car, eyes on hers and she quickly recoils.

"I can't."

Curt and cutting and his hope falls slightly.

She turns back to the wheel ready to return to driving the heck out of there, but pausing as she did, and that slight hesitation gives him the courage to run to the other side.

She stares at him shocked as he opens the passenger's door and slides in, smirking as he did so.

"Well, then I just will have to be very late to the dinner. If I even go at all." He chuckles, confidence oozing from his pores at his supposedly fail-proof plan.

Peyton doesn't return the smile, instead stares straight ahead.

Mechanically driving.

"What about your car?"

"What about it? I can always return for it, but this…this meeting you, it's a one time thing isn't it Peyt?" He questions, looking at her. He knew that once she left, she would leave for good. And in his heart of hearts, he could not _not_ see her again.

Sensing the awkwardness of an extended silence, Peyton ignores the voice in her head telling her to pull over and shove him out, while the fury of the rain unleashes its pandemonium. She starts, "so how's life in the city then? Heard you are doing good in New York."

He nods his head, happy for the shift in topic, shift from silence, and answers,"yeah, I saw Brooke just now, she told me you were back and that you're also residing there."

Peyton nod, aware that the volley of words has ended again.

He starts again, "so anyone signi-"

And this time she interrupts, unsure of where the conversation was going and was adamant in it not going where she thought it would. Opening up the past would only deepen the semi-healed wound. "Look this is not working. I mean I can't do this," she waves her hand back and forth between them," I'll drop you off here ok?"

She doesn't register that it was in the middle of nowhere, she was starting to become unraveled.

She breaks and wait for him to get out.

He stares at her, silently and if not a bit angrily.

And in fluid steps, opens and closes the door, entering the rain ridden open road.

And she feels disoriented and if she were to admit to herself, disappointed that he didn't try harder.

Suddenly, the alarm in her car goes off as her door opens wide.

She feels herself being thrust upon his chest as he holds her locked within the embrace of his arms. And she simply stares in shock.

"I miss you." He discloses to her, like a secret, as he silently falls in love with her again.

And then it rained on her, like it rained on them…there was no time like the present.

And taking that scary unknown step, she draws his lips to hers and hopes that they would be ok this time round.

END.


End file.
