That November night was a turning point in the unlikely friendship between the thirteen year old girl and sixteen year old boy. They spent less time at the park, and more time at Quinn's house. Always exchanging skittles, and talking about nothing; nothing had changed except for the location.
She was wary around the rest of Quinn's family, having only met his mother. She wasn't sure about meeting his father and brothers; Aurora hadn't had great experiences with men thus far- she was surprised she was even able to speak to Quinn that first night, although the candy bribery might've had something to do with it.
When Aurora turned 14 in February, Quinn had her over to his house. The rest of his family was away for one of Jack's tournaments- a two day tournament in Detroit. Quinn had training that he couldn't miss so he stayed home. He had a whole night planned, wanting to give her a good birthday.
They spent the evening watching movies, Aurora had never seen Harry Potter which Quinn found quite offensive and made it his mission to change that. They were on movie three when Quinn brought out a small cake with a single candle in it. He sang happy birthday to her and forced her to make a wish. Aurora closed her eyes and thought about all of the things she wanted. What could she spend her birthday wish on. She could only think of one thing
I want Quinn to stay in my life forever.
She took a big breath and blew out her candle.
Quinn looked at her, eyes alight with joy and asked, "What'd you wish for?"
Aurora gave him a big cheesy smile, "If I tell you it won't come true. And I really want it to come true." She sort of half mumbled the last part, feeling a burning in her cheeks.
What she felt for him wasn't necessarily love, and even if it was, she wouldn't be able to tell. Aurora knew that she felt strongly towards the boy- he was just about the only person she cared about. She cared deeply for him.
And Quinn felt the same way. He wanted to whisk her away from anyone who had hurt her or wronged her in any way. Quinn was fiercely protective over the younger girl who hadn't known enough kindness. That was part of the reason why he hadn't pushed her to meet his brothers. Coming from a hockey family of three boys, they had the tendency to take things too far. Jack and Luke weren't cruel in any way, quite the opposite. But they hadn't quite figured out how to be sensitive around delicate situations. And Aurora was a delicate situation.
So he'd keep her to himself for just a while longer. Wrapped in a cocoon of normalcy for as long as he could. Until she had to go back to her house each night, he would make sure that she never doubted her safety in his care. He would make sure that until he was forced to be away from her, she would know that she was cared for.
"I got you something." Quinn's voice startled the both of them out of their thoughts.
"You really didn't have to, this is more than enough." Aurora was more than happy to just sit with him in peace.
He thrust the bag into her hands. It was a medium sized bag, filled with blue tissue paper. Aurora looked up at him and saw his encouraging smile and the little nod of his head. She timidly pulled the tissue paper from the bag. The first thing she pulled out was three bags of skittles. One original, one sour, and one berry.
Quinn chuckled a bit, "Admittedly that one is more for me. You onl-"
"-Only like the green ones." She finished his statement. Shaking her head a bit while smiling. She set the skittles to the side. There was something soft at the bottom. She reached into the bag and pulled out a navy blue quarter-zip sweater. On the breast of the fabric USA Hockey was embroidered, and the left sleeve had Hughes 43 written.
Aurora was stunned. She'd never received something so thoughtful before. She'd had birthdays of course, but mostly it was just out of necessity, mainly receiving gift cards or money for her to go and get what she wanted. "Quinn I- I don't know what to say." Rory genuinely could have cried. "Thank you." she breathed.
"You don't have to say anything. Just wanted you to have a little piece of me I guess." he sort of mumbled the ending under his breath. But Aurora heard and the response was the burning of her cheeks.
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forget me not ~ q.hughes
Fanfiction"And I won't confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn As the men masqueraded, I hoped you'd return With your feet on the ground, tell me all that you'd learned 'Cause love's never lost when perspective is earned And you said you'd come and get...
