Hey guys :) Hope you like the new chapter and have a great Valentine's Day! Thank you so much for reading and as always, I own nothing (except for my original characters) and all mistakes are my own xx

"No touching, just looking, okay?"

Skye nodded her assent and peered down at the little puppies and Anabelle. Some of the tiny, wrinkly, puppies were stumbling over each other while the others were sleeping soundly. Anabelle looked content, lying down on a soft towel, and keeping a watchful eye on her babies.

Skye didn't let the fact that Raina was standing close by her ruin her mood, instead she cooed over the little puppies, "Aw! They're so wrinkly!"

Wanda laughed and Connor grinned at her, "Yep, but they're pretty cute, huh?"

She nodded and pointed to one of the puppies. It was brown with large white spots all over it. It was climbing on top of Anabelle's face and it's paws kept slipping on her big ears so the puppy kept falling flat on its face. Anabelle gently nudged her puppy along and it stumbled over to annoy one of its siblings.

"What're their names?"

Wanda shrugged, "We haven't named them yet. We're waiting to see if we can get some of them adopted into a loving home."

Skye let out an offended sound, "Do you have to take them away from their mom?"

Connor came over and patted the top of her head, "We'll only give them to a family if we're sure they'll love them and take really, really good care of them."

She still wasn't happy about Connor taking the puppies away from their mom. It was clear that Anabelle loved her babies a lot, it didn't seem right to separate them.

Wanda walked over to her and reached forward to brush some of the hair out of Skye's face, "They'll be alright little monkey. Why don't you think of some names for them? That way we can keep better track of them."

That made Skye's mood brighten a little bit, "Okay."

"While you think up some really good names, I need to go check on some of the other dogs. Are you okay here?"

Skye nodded absently at Connor and heard him and Wanda retreat.

She stared really hard at the little puppies, trying to come up with the perfect name to fit each one, and had honestly forgotten that Raina was here until the other girl spoke up, "What're you gonna name them?"

After jumping a little at the sudden noise, Skye calmed down and refused to look over to the other girl, "I'm still not talking to you."

She heard Raina sigh, "Come on Skye."

Shaking her head, she focused extremely hard on the dogs in front of her. Maybe Raina would get the hint and leave her alone.

"I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean what I said before, I was just upset."

Skye still refused to look over to the other girl but she couldn't stop herself from mumbling, "It was really mean."

"I know, I'm sorry."

Raina sounded like she really meant it but Skye wasn't going to make the mistake of just blindly believing her. If she was being honest with herself, she barely knew the other girl. She didn't like how Raina could go from being friendly to being so mean within the space of a few hours and she didn't like how the other girl treated her family and she especially didn't like how she had said that she and Nattie weren't real sisters. It was going to take a little more than two lousy apologies to make it better, even if Raina did sound heartfelt.

Finally, she turned to look at the other girl. Raina was shuffling her feet, looking nervous and uncertain, but met her eyes. Skye bit her bottom lip, tilted her head, and made a decision, "Prove it."

Raina's drew her eyebrows down in confusion, "What?"

Skye crossed her arms, "Prove that you're sorry."

Raina squirmed a little, "How?"

"Stop being so rude and distant to my family, they're just trying to help you. And make a decision. Either you want to be my friend or you don't. It really sucks when one minute I think we're friends and the next you're pushing me away, so make a choice here."

It was silent for a few moments and Skye thought that Raina just wasn't going to answer her but Raina finally nodded and said, "Okay."

Skye was honestly a little surprised. With how distant Raina had been from the beginning and how mean she had been earlier, she hadn't expected the other girl to want to try to prove herself. She had expected Raina to just walk away.

"Well… alright then."

One of the puppies made a tiny, pathetic, mewling noise and it caught Skye's attention. She went back to watching over the puppies and tried to come up with names for them. Her favorite was the brown one that had tried to climb up Anabelle earlier. Now it was nipping at one of the other puppies' ears and Skye could tell the the other puppy was getting annoyed.

She liked the small brown, spotted, puppy. It was spunky.

Pointing to the little troublemaker, she said, "I wanna name that one Loki."

Raina peered closer to the dog, "Is it even a boy?"

Skye shrugged, "I don't know, its name is still gonna be Loki though."

"Why?"

She grinned, "Because it's a troublemaker, just like the God. Look at it."

Now Loki was nipping at Anabelle's skinny tail as it wagged back and forth. Anabelle huffed a little, stood up slowly, and turned around so that she was facing Loki now. Skye didn't know how it was possible but Loki had the decency to look ashamed and quickly lied down, promptly falling asleep.

Raina nodded, "It's a fitting name."

For the next twenty minutes, Skye sat down on the floor next to the dogs and picked out the perfect name for each of them while Raina watched on. It was still awkward and Skye still didn't trust the other girl, but the tension that had surrounded them since the fight had faded a little bit.

Once Skye had named all the puppies, both girls sat back and watched as they circled around Anabelle and lied down. Anabelle made sure all of her babies were gathered around her and sleeping before gently placing her head on her paws and falling asleep too.

Anabelle was such a good mother, it kind of reminded Skye of her mom.

"I really am sorry about what I said. I don't even know why I said those things."

Raina was sitting across from her but Skye didn't look over to her. Even if Raina was telling the truth, that didn't excuse her behavior.

"I think… Everyone always leaves me and when I saw my Grandma, I think I just panicked. I pushed you away before you could leave too."

Skye felt sympathy for the other girl, she would have to be pretty heartless not to, but some part of her wouldn't forgive her yet. If Raina had just talked to her, the other girl would have known that Skye wouldn't just up and leave her, none of her family would. But Raina didn't know that, she didn't know how much her family wanted to help her, because she had never even given them a chance.

She sucked in a deep breath and said, "I'm not leaving and neither is the rest of my family. We all… All of us kind of know what you're going through. We've been through a lot of bad stuff too and we know how you're feeling and we just want to help. It would be nice if you'd let us."

When Skye tore her eyes away from the sleeping dogs, she saw that Raina was playing with her fingers, "I know, I'll make it up to you guys. I promise."

Skye stared at her for a couple of moments before nodding and turning back to watch the puppies.

"Mom."

"No."

"Mom, c'mon."

"No, Skye."

"Please?"

"Nope."

"Mooooooooom."

"Skye, I already said no."

Huffing, Skye groaned and turned to face her dad. She gave him a hopeful look but before she could even ask, he gave her a sympathetic smile and shook his head, "You heard your mom, we aren't adopting a puppy."

Skye crossed her arms, "It's not just a puppy, his name is Loki and he's the cutest puppy alive."

Her mom stood up, leaned down, and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "I'm sorry baby but the answer's still no. We already have a lot on our plate right now, I don't think we should add a puppy to the mix. We can reconsider once everything has cooled down."

Even though that wasn't exactly the answer Skye wanted to hear, there was still hope that she would be able to get a puppy in the future. She would take that.

"Okay… Can we at least get pizza for dinner?"

Her mom rolled her eyes and walked past her and her dad laughed, "Now that we can do. Does Raina like pizza?"

Skye gave him a look, "Who doesn't like pizza?"

Her dad gave her a gentle nudge, "Go ask what she likes and I'll order it."

Rather than going upstairs, Skye faced the staircase and shouted, "Raina! We're getting pizza! What do you like?"

Her dad sighed and her mom called to her, "Skye, no shouting please."

"Sorry."

She heard footsteps from above her and then Raina's head poked over the railing, "What'd you say?"

Before she could say anything, her dad spoke up, "We're going to order some pizza. What do you like on yours?"

"Just pepperoni."

Skye looked up at her, "You mind extra cheese?"

Raina shook her head and Skye turned to her dad, "Pepperoni and extra cheese, please?"

Her dad nodded and grabbed his phone and Skye flopped down on the couch. She didn't expect someone else to flop down next to her. She glanced over and saw that, rather than go back into her room, Raina was sprawled out next to her, "What're you watching?"

Skye shrugged and handed the remote over to the other girl, "Whatever you want."

When her siblings were gone, Skye always hogged the television. When her brothers and sisters were home, they always fought over the remote and Skye never won that argument. Wanda and Connor had dropped her and Raina off at home and gone back for an early night in. Pietro and Trip were still out playing football with friends and Natasha had gone to the movies with Clint, Steve, and Bucky.

Raina flipped through the channels and clicked on an episode of Cupcake Wars. Skye perked up, "Seriously? This is like my favorite show."

Raina gave her a tiny grin, "Really? It's mine too."

Skye grinned back at her and settled back into the couch. Both girls watched tv until the doorbell rang and Skye hopped up, "Pizza's here!"

She closely followed her dad as he opened the door and when her dad paid the guy, she took the box of pizza from the delivery guys' hands and quickly moved into the dining room. Everyone grabbed some pizza and set them on their plates.

Her mom looked over to her, "Movie?"

Skye took a huge bite out of a slice of pizza, nodded, and mumbled, "Superhero movie?"

Her mom sighed, "I don't know if I can watch another one of those Skye."

She pouted and jumped a little when Raina spoke up from behind her, "I like superhero movies."

Her mom and dad gave each other surprised looks. Skye couldn't blame them. Raina hadn't willingly, openly, talked to either of them since she'd started living with them.

Her dad smiled broadly, "I like them too. Sorry Mel, it's three against one."

Her mom was a good sport about it and they all settled into the living room, ate their pizza, and tried to agree on a movie to watch. She couldn't ignore the looks that her mom and dad kept giving Raina and she knew that they were happy that the other girl was starting to talk to them, and it made Skye happy too.

Let me know what you thought! Reviews make me happy :)

I hope everyone's staying warm! A massive storm brought a cold front through and I've been staying in my room all weekend to avoid the cold! Anyone have plans for Valentine's day? xx -Ariel