Here we go again! Yet another Willa/Philby fic. Partial inspiration comes from the song Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade (look it up!).This guy is from the end of book six. I don't know what took me so long to write this since so far it is the greatest thing EVER to happen in these books. Read and tell me what you think.

Finn drove without talking and without fear. It was one of the things Willa admired about him. Though he was hurting and mad he could channel it in. Pushing it aside to deal with the task at hand. Willa sat there crying her eyes out silently. Inside her mind she was screaming and her mind was shattering into a million pieces. But, all that fell to the floor were the tears that rolled down her cheeks.

It was his lips that held her where she was. Philby's lips.

She sat across from the boy who lay across the floor of the van. To here right was the cold, blue, and very much dead body of Dillard, a boy who she knew very little, but owed a lot. It was a debt that would never be repaid. He prevented her from turning her head towards the front of the van.

Towards the back was the covered and gagged body of Tia Dalma. Willa could see Charlene glare at her every once in a while. Charlene the adventurous girl, who could do anything she wanted, held the hand of a still Maybeck. It was not the first time Charlene wouldn't leave his side. She held his hand, messed with his hair to get it to lie straight, but never giving into the weakness of falling to tears like Willa was. But that was Charlene. She thought crying was a sadness for those who gave up. Willa didn't see it that way. Crying was something to let all the emotion out. To clear your mind. the flow of tears were necessary to her to move on.

Charlene prevented her from looking to her left.

So she looked forward. Her eyes never left the boy who both aggravated her and brought her the most joy. The one who held all the answers, but never knew what to do with them. Nothing stupid, he told her. She wanted to say the same thing to him now. He was looking out for her more than himself. Who was the stupid one now?

She focused on his lips; partly open. Willa pretended that she could see the small breaths coming out from between them. She wanted to put her fingers to them. To feel the breath coming out, to count them, but she didn't move.

"Don't do it Charlie," Willa heard Finn say. "She's for me."

The girl didn't want to look to see what he was talking about.

"What are we going to do? It's like the Syndrome. You get that, don't you?" This is why Willa doesn't talk when she is upset. Her voice was building. She wasn't even sure who she was talking to. "Both Philby and Maybeck are under a spell! They're . . . gone." it was the wrong word to use but it was the only that made sense. Mentally they were gone, away.

"Dillard's gone," said Finn uncharacteristically harsh. "Philby and Maybeck are still breathing. They can still be saved."

Charlene went on talking about options for the boys. It was like Willa's talk. No one was sure if it was for her own comfort or for everyone to hear. While she spoke Willa thought, and stared blankly. She thought about her own options. Philby was under a spell, what if he never woke up? What if she never got to kiss those lips that she had watched for the past twenty minutes? What if she never felt their softness on her own? What if . . .?

"Wait!" Willa yelled. Her voice cracked and the tears stopped. "It was the Queen, the Evil Queen who did this."

"So what?" Charlene choked.

"The Queen made them drink a potion, like . . . with the apple in Snow White."

Willa stared at the motionless Philby as Charlene explained the situation to Finn.

"Kiss." Why was this, the solution she thought of? Terrified, Willa clenched her hands into fists to hide the shaking. "I don't think it has to be forever love, just true love. Real love. Honest love."

"You think?"

"I know," Willa assured her. "True love isn't reserved for weddings and ceremonies. It's from the heart. That's all it has to be. All it ever is."

Charlene gave up on holding in her tears. "Well then, we have to try."

"What are you-?"

"Shut up!" Willa yelled.

Charlene looked at the girl. "Not just any kiss. It has to be-"

"Real."

Willa saw Charlene lean forward slowly bending her head. It felt like so many years ago that Maybeck had tried to kiss her for the same reason. Willa looked away giving them privacy. Not that they seemed to ever giver her relationship any.

Willa wiggled her body between Maybeck and Philby. Carefully, she reached her hand across his face. She moved his hair back and traced the scar across his forehead that was generously given to him during the battle with Diablo. Before giving it too much thought she leaned down and gently touched her lips to his.

It was her first kiss. Their first kiss. And he wasn't even conscious.

Willa raised her head. Her face hovered over his by only a few inches. She realized she was crying again when a tear fell from her face and landed on his. Willa placed a delicate finger on his cheek to wipe it away. Something caught her hand, another hand. It was Philby's. His hand, hers to his cheek. Little by little, he blinked his eyes open.

"Willa?" he asked in a haze. His voice barely audible.

Willa's breath caught. He was here.

"Yes," she leaned in close to his ear and whispered. "I'm here. I'm here. You're here. You're alright. We're going back. You're going to be okay. Close your eyes. Rest. I'm here. "

Philby moved his arm around her to hold her to his side. With his other hand he caught a tear falling from her cheek. Then he closed his eyes.

To say Willa couldn't sleep would be the understatement of the century.

By the time they made it on to the ship and in the medical wing, Maybeck was up and talking and joking around. Charlene stayed at the boy's side never letting go of his hand. Finn and Willa explained the situation to Security, who bombarded them with questions upon their return. She sensed that Finn needed to be alone; she walked him to his stateroom.

It was seven-thirty and the girl was extremely exhausted. Her mother gained her passage to their room with a hug. It was five minutes of listening to her jabber on about the small tourist trap town she visited during the day before Willa noticed what her mother was wearing.

"You going out tonight?" she asked skeptically.

"Actually, yes, I am," she admitted a little guilty. "I know you have been really busy lately. A friend of yours, umm, Dell I think his name was. He and his mom both got backstage passes to the last show in the Royal Theatre tonight. Well, he got seriously hurt today during that kayak excursion today. He and the other one, Terry, have been in the infirmary all afternoon! Seriously, I hope Disney takes better care of you. Anyways, his mother offered the other ticket to me. . . I hope you are not angry."

"No-no mom, I'm not. You have fun tonight."

Mrs. Angelo walked the girl into her bedroom on the left, seated her on the bed, and leaned forward to give her daughter a kiss on the forehead.

"Darling, you really should get some sleep. Your eyes look terrible." Once a mother, always a mother. Willa's mom, tucked her into bed like a child. "I wasn't going to say anything, I'm not too fond of your friendship with the other holograms but . . . tomorrow I think you should visit your friends in the infirmary. That boy today . . . he kept asking if you were alright. Like something was wrong. Have you guys been not talking? He was desperate to see you."

"Philby? You talked to him?"

"Why, yes, I have been with his mother all day."

"So, he was awake?"

"Should he not be? He just has a few scrapes and bruises. It was reckless for Disney to let them jump into the river off a cliff. They could have hit their heads and been seriously hurt; could have gone into a coma!"

Willa laughed at her mother's ability to be so right yet so wrong all at the same time.

"Night, mom. " Willa didn't have the chance to hear the click of the door lock before her eye closed.

In her dreams, Willa saw red. The red of heart-shaped boxes of candies. The red of a bright-haired boys head walking toward her. She stood smiling as he came. But the smile didn't last long. More red followed. Like waves they crashed around her, seeping into his skin and clothes, consuming all. She was claustrophobic. The towers of scarlet suffocated her. Willa couldn't breathe.

She woke up screaming and in a daze. The blankets her mother had tucked in around her body were pushed off in a rush to free her body from their wraps.

Willa needed space. She needed to breathe. She scurried to open the thick curtains and get outside on the balcony.

It took a few minutes but her heart rate calmed and her breathing became more even. She took a seat in one of two chairs on the white railed balcony.

Willa watched the sunset. The golden orange color melted into the vast sea of blue in front of her eyes. All too soon darkness lighted by small stars took the place of the bronze sun.

She didn't sleep. She wouldn't let herself. It was a vulnerability to be unaware. But somehow even the strongest succumb to the needs of the body. Like crying, it's okay if it helps you.

The slightest pressure on her shoulders woke Willa up what felt like seconds later. She jumped up and out of the small chair. Her hands gripped the cold metal bar behind her.

"Sorry," came an accented voice, "you looked cold."

Philby took a step out of the darkened stateroom. Willa saw him rake his hands through his hair nervously as he got closer to her. She saw the blue blanket he had been placing over her on the ground between them.

"You shouldn't be here, you should be in the Medical Wing resting and getting better," Willa reprimanded him. She tried to sound demanding but her voice was starting to crack. She needed to stop now before she broke down. It really was good to see the boy up and walking again. After seeing him almost dead earlier, he looked better than ever.

"I needed to see you," his sincerity was clear.

Willa opened her mouth to talk; instead she found her feet moving the small two steps that suddenly felt like a mile toward him. Her arms moved up around his shoulders. Philby stood there in shock. The force of her body pushed him a step back before his hand caught the edge of the sliding door. With their bodies steady and upright, Philby wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Won't they know you are gone?" asked Willa.

"No," he answered, "Hopefully not. Maybeck is covering for me."

"Great," Willa groaned into his shoulder. "I can hear the jokes now."

Philby was sure that he cared about Willa. They had worked the closest together next to himself and Finn. Philby couldn't think straight around her, he couldn't count all the times he wanted to kiss her. She was beautiful. She was smart. She was perfect.

"I'm not worried about him." Philby pushed the girl back to look at her face. "I'm worried about you. I . . . remember you in the van, but you weren't there when I woke up, why?"

Willa searched his eyes for the answers she needed to give him. "I didn't want to do this there, I guess."

It happened again. That strange connection the two had with their minds. Nothing else was around and they were focus completely and one hundred percent on each other. Then, something else happened. Something new. The two began to lean their faces closer and closer together.

"What exactly is this?" Philby whispered.

Willa smiled. There were very few things that Philby didn't know. There were even fewer that neither of them knew.

As honestly as she could, Willa responded, "I have no idea."

Her gaze landed on his lips. It was hard to believe she had kissed them only a few hours ago. And, oh, how she wanted to feel them under her own once again.

Philby must have thought the same thing, or at least on a similar line because faster than a second they we on the same page.

As always.