A/N: Howdy! I don't own Coraline *sniff*.

I think it's obvious that I shouldn't be allowed to watch movies and listen to music at the same time. Or at points in time that are near each other. In this case, the movie was Coraline and the song was Angel by Sarah McLachlan. I probably shouldn't come up with my own titles either, cuz they always suck

How I manage to hate romance, or romance-y-type situations, and yet write/read/draw it without a second thought is something I don't think I'll ever be able to figure out… this isn't supposed to be a hugely romance-y situation though… just slightly

So… song one…

Song One: Angel

Coraline ran into her room – if it was even that – and hid away anything that spoke. The picture of her friends; all her toys. She locked the bedroom door, barricaded it, jumped into bed and threw the covers over herself.

"Go to sleep," she kept telling herself. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep…"

Coraline was sure that, like the previous two nights, she would wake up in her own bed, in her own World. The real one.

"Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep…"

However, sleep was evading Coraline. The more she tried to force herself to sleep, the more frightened she grew. The more frightened she grew, the less sleepy she became. And the less sleepy she became, and more she tried to force herself to sleep.

Coraline was terrified of this world and its (literally) button-eyed occupants. The Others. Other Mom. Other Dad. Other Mr B. Other Ms Spink. Other Ms Forcible. Other – Other Wybie…

No, that part was a lie. Other Wybie wasn't scary. Normal Wybie – the one who could talk and had real eyes – he was a bit weird, admittedly. But not even his button-eyed, silent (thanks to the Other Mother 'fixing' him) counterpart from this World was scary. He'd given her a rose, after all… sort of.

Aw man! Coraline realised she didn't have the rose with her. She must've dropped it outside the house. Coraline frowned. Really, she felt that she could be so damn stupid sometimes. And the Other Wybie – the one from this World – was so nice to her, too. There was always a smile on his copper-skinned face, and his dark, curly hair never had moss or twigs or leaves in it (unlike the hair of the Wybie in her World).

Damn it, this wasn't helping! She was supposed to be trying to sleep. And instead she was curled up here, thinking about Wybie. She needed to sleep. But she couldn't.

Coraline froze as she heard a noise from outside her room.

It was a light tapping sound. The Other Mother trying to get in, perhaps?

The tapping sound, though, was coming from the window. Was it the cat? Perhaps she should let him in.

The cat was the only one, apart from Coraline, who wasn't an 'Other anything', as he had put it. He and Coraline both came from the same World, entering through a portal. The cat – who could somehow talk like a human in this World – was completely black, with blue eyes. He was supposed to be feral, but the Wybie from the World Coraline came from looked after the cat like a pet.

If the cat wants to come in, Coraline thought to herself, I should let him in.

She threw back the covers and nearly screamed a little in shock when she looked at the window. Nearly. She managed not to.

Coraline hadn't been expecting to see the button-eyed Wybie crouching on the roof of the old house, tapping lightly on the window with his gloved knuckles. Coraline hesitated for a moment, but she decided to open the heavy window and let him in. He climbed quietly inside and stood in the middle of the room, slouching a little, like his human counterpart, looking perfectly in place with his dark clothes, in the dark room that was barely just lit by the light of the full moon. His face was thrown into shadow by his hair, his too-big black coat practically covered his entire body and he scuffed the wooden floor awkwardly with the toe of one of his green sneakers.

Coraline cocked her head to the side enquiringly and he produced a rose from under his coat and offered it to her. Coraline felt certain it was the same rose she must have dropped earlier.

"Thanks, Wybie," she said quietly, smiling at him. She couldn't tell, but she thought he smiled back. Coraline watched as Wybie carefully twisted the stem of the rose until it broke, then gently tucked the now short-stemmed rose behind her ear, moving her short blue hair out of her face. Coraline smiled again. Then she yawned and stretched and lay back down on her bed. Wybie sat next to her, and this time she could see his face.

"Stay here until I fall asleep, okay?" Coraline whispered. Wybie smiled and nodded, stroking her hair gently.

"I can't stay here," she muttered to herself. "I have to go home and I can't come back." Then she looked up at Wybie.

He was still stroking her hair absent-mindedly, staring contentedly out the window now. He turned to face her when he felt her move. He looked happy and sad at the same time, which was the way he felt. If Coraline left then he'd never see her again, but also… she'd be safe. For a while.

Wybie sighed darkly at the thought that the cute blue-haired, brown-eyed girl wouldn't be safe for long, the ever-present smile disappearing from his face. He knew the 'Mother' – the Beldam, as she was really called – had the power to do terrible things, and he would be the target of them if he protected Coraline. But this had gone on for too long; he'd known it for a long time. He didn't want to help that evil woman – if that was even what she was – to hurt people any more. Each child's death hung over his head day and night, a constant reminder of what he was helping to happen, and it made him feel directly responsible. He was a puppet – a toy, in a way – but as the Beldam had gained in strength, so had her two most important 'little helpers', as she so often called them: himself, and the Other Father. They had developed thoughts and consciences; ideas and feelings; likes and dislikes and strengths. They had developed life.

But they were still useless outside of this world. Wybie was the second most powerful, in a way, if you counted the Beldam as well. He had the most strength of all the Beldam's creations. He had neither the power nor the strength required to put up a good fight against his creator, but he had the resolve now to stop her from hurting anybody else. In this case, Coraline.

The only problem was that, if the Beldam found out, he probably wouldn't be around to help the next person out. He sighed darkly again.

Coraline knew something was wrong. Assuming she had upset Other Wybie by telling him that she wouldn't be back, Coraline mentally cursed for not keeping her big mouth shut. "Oh Wybie," she whispered, sitting up and hugging him. "I'm sorry." Coraline felt Wybie's body stiffen in surprise at her sudden embrace, but then he relaxed again and gently put a hand on her back.

"…Coraline…"

Coraline gasped and pulled back. She could've sworn she'd just heard Wybie say her name, heard it like a faint whisper. But this Wybie couldn't talk.

"…Coraline…"

There it was again. But the button-eyed boy's lips hadn't moved. "What was that?" she asked quietly, shaking her head to clear out the voices. Meanwhile, Wybie reached into his coat again and held out a heavy glass orb about the size of his palm: a crystal ball. White mist swirled inside it and a figure seemed to stand in the middle.

Coraline peered at the figure, fascinated, leaning in to get a closer look. Wybie held the orb with the swirling mist at about eye-level. The figure came into focus.

He was about eleven, with dark skin and a wide mouth. His dark, curly hair had moss and bits of twigs and leaves in it, like always; his black coat hung down and covered his skinny figure. He could've been tall, but he was slouching so much it was nearly impossible to tell. His dark eyebrows were pulled together, his hazel eyes filled with worry, and he was wringing his hands nervously. As Coraline and the button-eyed Wybie watched, it felt like the mist inside the crystal ball was engulfing them, until they stood beside the Wybie from Coraline's World, watching as the mist slowly faded into the kitchen of Coraline's home.

Wybie – the Wybie with human eyes – was standing awkwardly next to the door. Coraline's real mom was sitting at the kitchen table, with her face buried in her hands. She seemed to be crying. Coraline's real dad was kneeling next to her. It looked like he was trying to console her.

Coraline and the button-eyed Wybie could hear the scene as though through a window. All the sound was muffled and it was difficult to hear anything.

"…all my fault…" Real Mom was sobbing.

"It's not," Real Dad told her.

"…Coraline…"

That was Real Wybie again. His voice was a sad, faint whisper, like he was saying it to himself. His eyes turned to the floor and he turned to go. Real Dad caught his arm. "Do you know where she could've gone?"

Real Wybie rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I-I'm not supposed to talk about it, but… my Gramma said her twin sister who went missing kept talking about this Other Mother… said she lived inside a little bricked-up door in the wall."

Real Mom and Real Dad gasped. Coraline had been talking about the Other Mother and the door in the wall.

Coraline and Other Wybie were snapped out of the scene when she flung her arms around him, crying. She wanted to go back home again. She wanted to see her parents again. She wanted to hug them and tell them everything was alright. The button-eyed boy put his arms around Coraline and patted her back, trying to make her feel better. He hated it when the kids from her World cried. It always made him feel guilty. It also always came after the buttons were sewn onto their eyes. The Beldam would leave them to rot in that room inside the mirror while their lives were drained away, and they would cry. But it was always worse when they stopped crying. When the kids stopped crying, it was always a sign that their entire lives had been eaten away… they weren't alive any more.

It was a long time before Coraline could stop crying. Finally she managed to stop herself, but she still sniffled a little. She was tired now, and her head hurt from all that crying. She wanted to sleep. And Wybie's arms were so warm… and he was holding her so gently, like she could break at any minute. She felt his lips brush against her forehead, just for a second.

Coraline felt something she hadn't felt from her Other mother. For the first time since entering this World, Coraline felt loved. It was strange, feeling loved by Other Wybie, because she barely knew him. But right now, it was something she needed to feel.

Coraline soon fell asleep. In her dream, she flew out the window of the room and back home, back to her family…

When Coraline woke up, she looked around, feeling disappointed. She was in her bedroom, yes, but not in her own World. She found herself lying down in bed, the covers tucked in around her. Wybie wasn't there, but her window was open again. She got up shut the window, un-barricaded her door and crept downstairs, towards the room with the little door that led back to her World. But the door to the room was locked.

Coraline chose to tip-toe through the house, until she found her Other father, playing the same dull note repeatedly on his piano. He looked pale and tired. Something was wrong…

When she heard the song playing on the radio, Coraline turned the sound up, closed her eyes and began to sway to the music. Rain pitter-pattered down the windows and onto the roof of the car and the signal was a little fuzzy. She shivered a little and Wybie put the heating on.

It had only been a couple of weeks since Coraline and Wybie had defeated the Beldam. But in that time Wybie and Coraline had become good friends. Best friends, really. And soon school would start again and Wybie had already offered to show Coraline around. But today they just sat in the car, which Wybie was already calling his car, keeping out of the rain.

Coraline had laughed at Wybie that morning. "Wanna see my car?" he'd asked. Coraline had punched him playfully in the shoulder and replied, "You don't have a car. You're eleven."

"So? My Gramma said I could take it to pieces and build something. She just got a new one so she gave me her old car."

Coraline couldn't much see the point of a car you couldn't drive, but Wybie seemed enthusiastic enough, and besides, she liked spending time with him, so they'd gone over to Wybie's house, Coraline on foot; Wybie on his self-made electric bike beside her. The walk might've taken less time but there was no extra seat on the bike, and Coraline wasn't about to sit on the handlebars. The only problem was that it had started raining. Abandoning the bike against the wall of the house, they had made a dash for the car and shut themselves in. Wybie had promised right then and there to use an axel from the car to make pegs for the back wheel of his bike, so Coraline could stand on those and next time, they'd make it quicker – hopefully, he had joked, before it started raining.

"Sarah McLachlan?" Wybie smirked, pulling Coraline out of her train of thought.

"What?"

"Nothing," Wybie chuckled. "I-I just never really pegged you as a Sarah McLachlan fan."

Coraline laughed. She didn't, either, to be honest. But the song reminded her of that night when the Other Wybie had comforted her, and she found herself singing along.

In the arms of the angel,

Fly away from here…

From this dark, cold hotel room,

And the emptiness that you fear…

Oh yes, he had been her guardian angel that night, right when she needed him the most.

A/N: Ugh, cheesy chapter was cheesy. I say again: ugh

That was a bit of a weird chappie… I was nearly asleep when I thought of it. You wouldn't believe how boring it is when you can't sleep.

Next song: Everything I Do by Bryan Adams