Lemonade Mouth

Cuddle Buddy

By Ella Lavender

(^^)

"You're an ass."

"And yet here you are…"

"It's not like a have a choice."

"Well you kind of do."

"Yeah, but the other option was freeze to death, and I wouldn't give you the satisfaction," Stella claimed with a glare as she tightened her hold. He rolled his eyes at her. "Technically your other option was to sleep outside, which I wouldn't entirely disagree to."

"What difference would it make?"

"You would be outside and not turning me into your thermal pillow."

Stella Yamada bit back a growl. "It's your entire fault Beech, if it weren't for you we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place." Ray snorted in response. "It takes two for that chaos we caused."

"Yeah right, it would take an army to cause the damage we did."

"Oh so you admit you played a part in the mayhem?"

"…shut up, it's the cold talking."

"Whatever," he replied with another snort as he felt the chilly breeze fly through his hair and freeze his ears. Damn it.

Stupid camp. Stupid detention cabin. Stupid cold. Stupid thin blankets.

Normally Ray Beech wasn't the type to complain or do things that he didn't want to do. This time however was different. Brenigan sentenced the destruction duo to correction camp which was pretty much camp for delinquents. The teachers all but kidnapped them from class and shoved them into a bus.

It didn't help that there was no cell service and that both their parents probably agreed to it.

The blonde soccer played cursed them all.

He supposed the punishment was somewhat fitting. The last time the Troublemaker from Long Island and the Tyrant of Mesa were called into the principal's office, they both simultaneously blew up. Literally.

Ray didn't particularly remember what was said but the next thing he knew, both he and Stella were surrounded by a torrent of broken and/or thrown furniture with the principal hiding out behind a standing lamp, the only thing left untouched in his office.

The teenagers paid the price and were abducted and locked into a bus going directly to god knows where.

Neither knew what was going on and had no way of escape, when they arrived at their destination things only got worse.

"This place is like prison," Stella muttered, her warm breath caressing his neck as she struggled to capture the warmth he was emitting. He wanted to agree, but his body was internally heating up to service them both so he only hummed in reply.

Happy Woods Camp was anything but happy, and woody.

It was a desolate, empty space with large rocks and boulders and dirt. Lots of dirt. The cabins were dingy and poorly built, windows broken and doors barely hanging on their door hinge. The only activity the camp seemed to have was anger management exercises; the campers (prisoners more the word) were expected to meditate and write haikus.

Other than that it was physical labour which only consisted of rock breaking. It was definitely prison. All they needed was the black and white stripped jump suits and they'd be convict certified.

The two teenagers agreed though reluctantly to work together to escape, but after many failed attempts at reaching a working signal for their phones and sneaking into the counsellor (read: warden)'s office to call for help, the two gave in to their fates.

Not really.

Both just got angrier and blew up again. If the camp looked like crap before it looked like crap's crap now.

Which was why the two were confined to the most badly built cabin on the camp.

It was meant to be solitary confinement but since there was only one cabin like it, the two were sentenced to solitary confinement together (which kind of eliminated the purpose entirely) in any case, the teenagers were left to freeze to death in the glorified woodpile that could hardly be called a shack.

The tiny space housed only a bed. One. That was the first problem.

With only two pillows between them, neither would give up one to build a wall so due to the small space of the single bed and only two pillows, the two were squished together like sardines. Problem number two.

The third and most obvious problem, since they started at camp Happy Woods three days ago, it was cold as the Tundra.

The thread bare blanket was to be shared between them. That was the fourth problem the two faced.

And the fact that they were alone, together in the cold only made things ten times worse.

They either shared or one of them died. Simple as that.

Ray realized this much faster than Stella, and made a grab for the blanket and commandeered the space on the bed closest to the wall. He would survive the night. She could freeze to death.

Of course Stella wouldn't go down without a fight and she'd do anything to prove that she could last the night.

Defiantly she lay on the other side of the bed, and yanked the blanket from Ray.

He pulled. She pulled. He pulled. She pulled. He pulled.

And then the sound of something being ripped broke through the silence.

"Look what you did!"

"Me? You were the one who wouldn't share!"

"I never said I would!"

The anger that boiled over between the two kept them warm up until the stony silence that followed the exchanged snuffed it out.

Stella broke first due to her frozen fingers, "I'm sorry."

"You should be."

Scoffing, she turned over her side to face his back. "You jerk; you're supposed to say you're sorry too."

"Why should I? You were the one who tore it!" He retorted turning as well to glare at her but paused when she sniffed and rubbed her hands together. Stella sighed at him. "Ray, I'm too frozen to fight with you."

Then it really was too cold, he thought to himself as he watched her sigh into her chilled palms.

His body retorted violently to his upward movement as he sat up, shrugging out of his jacket. When he removed the garment, he found her bright brown eyes staring at him in confusion. "Are you crazy Beech? What are you doing?"

"If we're going to die, we might as well put up a fight," he said as he threw the material over their upper bodies noting how quickly Stella snuggled into it.

Lying back down, Ray watched as Stella sunk thankfully into the warmth his jacket offered, the only thing visible other than her bronze coloured hair was her forehead, eyebrows and her honey coloured eyes that were still wide open. "Thanks Ray."

He sank deeper into the barrier against the cold and muttered, "Whatever."

From his vintage point he could see the upward movement of her visible face, involuntarily he felt himself returning her unseen smile.

Ray fell asleep after that, the cold air numbing his limbs and his mind.

He wasn't sure what time he reached unconsciousness but when his eyes opened to the streak of morning light stinging his eyes, he knew the torture of being left to freeze in a cabin was over.

Peeking around from underneath his jacket, Ray could see the bronzed brunette hair of Stella Yamada.

The fact that she was there only surprised him momentarily, after all they were confined together.

But the fact that was glaring at him at the moment was that Stella Yamada was currently using him as a pillow. Her hands were pressed against his chest and her head was nestled in the crook of his neck, both legs tangled with his.

In any normal circumstance Ray would've gladly pushed the half-Asian guitarist off of his person; however the petite revolutionary was providing some excellent warmth.

Besides, his body wasn't entirely immobile either, throughout the night his hands wandered from their place under his head to the place on Stella's body, one pressed against the small of her back the other drifting lower...

Who knew the spitfire had such a nice...

No!

He tried to move his hand upwards but found that Stella moaned slightly at the movement, right into his ear.

The warm rush of air into the sensitive part of his neck and ear made him flush scarlet.

Oh hell.

Why was this happening? Ray thought to himself torn between being miserable, being indignant and being pleasantly surprised all at once.

Almost suddenly he remembered a nature show he watched once while channel surfing, animals and people tended to move towards a heat source in their sleep particularly prominent when in cold temperatures, which would explain Stella.

Damn it.

Some part of him demanded that he remove his rival from his space.

The rest of him was quite content with being wrapped up in Stella's warm form, not to mention, she smelt pretty good. Despite the fact that they were out in the middle of god knew where for three days, she smelt like fresh jasmine and vanilla with a bit of wood-smoke from the cabin, or was that him?

For some reason the idea that she managed to get a part of his scent on her, appealed to him and he wanted to smack himself. But his hand liked its current position.

When she began to rouse from her sleep, Ray didn't register it until she slammed his chin with her head.

"What the -?"

"The hell was that for Yamada?"

"Oh hell, Ray is that you?" she asked confused.

"No its Jack freaking Frost, yes, it's me. Who do you think it is?"

She sat up, still unaware that she was on top of him and was now currently straddling him; Stella rubbed her eyes groggily. "I don't remember being this warm last night..."

"That's because you didn't take advantage of me until I went to sleep," he stated, pulling his hands casually behind his head as if seeing her completely comfortable on top of him was perfectly normal.

"What are you...Oh god," she groaned. "How did I get on...you...?"

Ray shrugged. "What can I say, you may act like you hate me, but when you're unconscious you can't pretend anymore."

Stella rolled her eyes, cross her arms and still made no move to get off him.

"You're an ass."

"And yet, here you are..." he trailed off suggestively, cocking a brow at her.

Despite the flush that flirted across her cheeks, Stella still managed to look annoyed.

"And apparently, the Troublemaker from Long Island likes to cuddle," Ray noted smirking at her blushing face.

"And apparently you like to indulge me Mr. I like feeling unconscious girls up," she retorted in turn.

Silence.

"We shall never speak of this again."

Stella looked satisfied. "Now you're talking."

"So...do you wanna keep me warm again or...?"

FINIS

Haha so there's my first one-shot tribute for the new year, hope you guys enjoyed!

By the way, my best friend changed my penname...apparently all my stories have my sort of 'vibe' to it and so she jacked my account to change my name to: It's Ella Inspired. Yes I know she's very weird. But I love her anyway!

Here's to 2012 Rayella fans!