AUTHORS NOTE: Hi everyone! I am new to this pairing and this is my first OTH and Breyton fic (this fic includes Femslash so if you don't like don't read!)! Reviews are welcomed and appreciated. This fic will start where we start in Season 5 and will follow the show partly in the first few chapters. Some of the dialogue is directly from the show and used however there will be changes to the plotline as the fic progresses. I do not own OTH or any of the characters.

Chapter One

"What happened to us… you know?" Peyton's voice shutters through the telephone line sounding strained and full of heartache. "I don't know who I am anymore. Or how I got here. I miss who I used to be. I want to have a home again, you know? And… real friends… you know the kind of friendships you used to believe in. I miss that. And I miss you. I guess I just miss all of it. Does any of that make any sense?"

Silence is the only thing the teary eyed blonde hears on the other end of the line. She sniffles slightly , trying to gain control of her emotions once again before glancing down at her phone to make sure it hadn't disconnected. She opens her mouth to ask the person on the other line if she had been heard, but is stopped short by a response.

"It makes perfect sense Petyon," Brooke's raspy voice says into the phone. "I miss you too."

The last bit makes Peyton chuckle through the new set of tears that have begun to slip from her eyes and stain her cheeks.

They were separated by 2,462 miles and had been for nearly four years now. But in this moment, Peyton feels closer to Brooke than she does to her loud neighbor in the apartment next to her.

Four years… 1,460 days… 35,040 hours… give or take a few visits in between. It hadn't been easy, but they had managed to maintain the close friendship they had before leaving Tree Hill, even if it was mostly by telephone calls and emails in the end.

It didn't matter.

Peyton Sawyer and Brooke Davis had been through a lifetime's worth of shit together… all to get them to the place they were today. A country apart… Peyton in L.A. unhappy with her job in the music industry where she had hoped to come and find music that spoke to her soul and could speak to the souls of others… and Brooke in New York lonely but powerful, running her insanely successful clothing line and living the life she had always dreamed for herself in high school. They had both thought once they had everything they had ever wanted the rest would work itself out in time. But four years hadn't changed a thing. Neither L.A. or New York were ever going to be home.

"Can't you come visit? It's been almost two years since I've seen you… you've got to have some sort of meeting or something coming up in L.A. sometime soon," Peyton asks, her pitch sounding higher than normal as she is practically begging the brunette on the other end of the phone.

From her spot in New York, Brooke smiles at the voice of her blonde best friend and she can feel her heart rate increasing.

They had been best friends for as long as Brooke could remember, despite a few bumps in the road. Actually, it was one really big bump that went by the name of Lucas if Brooke wanted to be honest, but in the end, they had still managed to pull through and find each other and their friendship.

But it had never been just a friendship either. Maybe that was why high school had been so up and down for the two friends. Brooke couldn't remember exactly when it was that her feelings started to change for Peyton from best friend into something more, but she knew for sure that the feelings were there… even if she kept them hidden away deep inside.

She was in love with her.

She probably always had been… right from the start, but the idea of an eight year old girl falling in love with another girl seemed a bit too much for Brooke to grasp, so instead she tried to believe that it wasn't until high school that the feelings began.

Brooke had never been lucky in love. Sure, she'd been beautiful and popular and technically a little slutty in her early high school days, but she had never been truly in love. She had tried really hard to convince herself that what she had with Lucas was love… but even then, she knew it was just a disguise… a way to keep him from the true love of her life. Peyton.

Brooke could remember every detail of how things progressed. She remembered their first kiss when they were just twelve. Of course, Brooke had used the cover as them practicing their kissing for boys… but it still counted in Brooke's mind. And sure, it was just lips to lips… the simple kiss of two innocent friends who didn't know any better, but it was still so much more.

It wasn't until Freshman year that it happened again. And even at the time, both the girls had blamed the kiss on the spin the bottle game they had found themselves in. But Brooke knew that their lips had lingered just a little too long to be considered normal when they pulled away and Peyton's face was flushed red.

It hadn't been until Felix and Anna moved in next door to her that everything escalated on a much grander scale. Brooke reacted out of pure jealously the night that Peyton admitted to her best friend that Anna had kissed her just a few days earlier.

Flashback- High School

"Brooke, why are you so upset? It's not like it's a big deal or anything," Peyton asked, watching as Brooke paced around her bedroom. "It was nothing!"

Brooke stops pacing at the last outburst that had come out a bit louder than the previous question and statement. She stood with her back to Peyton, trying to calm herself and her anger. But the more she tried, the more upset she got. She spun around quickly, her dark hair following in a whip like state behind her.

"Oh come on P. Sawyer… It wasn't nothing. I know you and I can tell by that look on your face and the tone of your voice that you like her just as much as she likes you," Brooke accuses.

Peyton's mouth widens in surprise and her brow raises almost to her hairline.

"Brooke! You can't be serious! I've never even kissed a girl before. Now you are accusing me of wanting to date one?"

Brooke scoffs at the comment, knowing very well that Peyton has in fact kissed her… twice.

"You've kissed me!" she replies.

"That doesn't count! You're my best friend Brooke!"

"So what, that makes it count any less?"

"Yes! I mean… those kisses were innocent… nothing… the way I kiss my grandmother!" The use of the word nothing cuts deep into Brooke's heart but she ignores it.

"Oh, so with your best friend you can only kiss her the way you'd kiss you grandmother but you can make out with some girl you barely know?" Brooke shouts back.

Peyton's brow furrows as she tries to follow Brooke's train of thought.

"Is that what this is all about?" she questions. "You're jealous that my first French kiss with a girl wasn't a best friend bonding moment?"

Brooke turns her back to Peyton once again, struggling to keep her emotions in check and her lip from quivering. She wasn't even sure why she was so upset with Peyton, but she couldn't deny the jealousy that had emerged once Peyton had told her about the kiss with Anna.

"Brooke?" Peyton says again, this time sounding as if she is standing just behind her. "You're still my best friend. No one can ever take your place."

Brooke laughs, but it isn't an amused laugh… more like a hurt laugh, filled with pain. Peyton can hear the sadness in it and a small smile forms at the corners of her lips. She reaches out and spins Brooke around with her hands.

Before Brooke has a chance to object or say anything, Peyton moves in and her lips are on top of Brooke's. Her eyes close instantly and Brooke doesn't respond for a couple of seconds. She is standing there, her lips pressed to Peyton's but she isn't moving or kissing Peyton back. It isn't until Peyton deepens the kiss, her tongue coming out to trace the line between Brooke's own lips, that she feels movement from her dark haired best friend.

Brooke's mouth opens slowly, and just enough to allow Peyton's tongue a little inside. With that little entry, Brooke finally responds fully, her tongue coming out to play as it dances around with Peyton's.

The kiss lasts for less than ten seconds, but it feels like a lifetime before the two girls finally pull away. When they do, Brooke knows in that instant, looking at Peyton's kiss swollen lips.

She is in love with her best friend.

End Flashback

It should have ended there. It would have made things a whole lot simpler… or at least Brooke told herself over the years since it had happened that it would have. But of course… Brooke's heart always seemed to win out over her head.

After that first initial kiss, standing in the middle of Peyton's room, more began to follow. Such as the time the two friends were arguing over the best kissing technique and it made a lot more sense just to show what they meant than to just try to explain it. But often they were chaste kisses given or received at a time of much needed comfort that had been turned into extremely long and intense passionate kisses instead. Neither girl ever said anything about them once they happened, they merely picked back up and continued their lives as if they had never occurred.

It was strange for Brooke, to have those moments… those secrets kisses between them and feel so deeply about them when she knew to Peyton they were nothing more than a little daring fun between to best friends.

Brooke had even tried to fall in love with Lucas… to convince herself that it was true love with him. But in the end, she couldn't kid herself. She had found every reason to get out of the relationship, using Peyton kissing him in the school library as the excuse she needed to get out completely. She had no idea that Peyton would fall into his arms shortly after.

She had truly believed that Peyton wouldn't do that to her again. Their friendship was stronger than ever… and Brooke had somehow convinced herself that Peyton was feeling something more than just friendly with her too. It wasn't Brooke that often initiated the kisses… it was Peyton and so Brooke was shocked and hurt when Peyton actually did run right to Lucas.

She wasn't willing to admit that she was jealous, so she made it about the friendship. The betrayal... the lying… the backstabbing. She convinced herself that the friendship didn't really matter and that the best way to get over these crazy feelings was to cut Peyton out altogether. But all she really wanted was for Peyton to wrap her arms around her and hold her tight or kiss her until all her fears went away, but instead Peyton was wrapped around Lucas.

It had taken almost truly losing Peyton to that psycho Derek… or Ian… whatever his name was to truly understand that she could never stop loving Peyton. It was embedded in her soul and core. She was and always would be in love with Peyton Sawyer.

It wasn't easy those last few months. To put on that smile and act like it didn't bother her to see the girl of her dreams all cozy with Lucas Scott. But Brooke told herself she was doing the right thing. In the end, she loved Peyton… and she wanted her to be happy. She knew that Peyton deserved happiness. If Lucas was her happiness, then Brooke was just going to have to get used to it.

So she faked the smile… faked the laughs… faked the relationship with Chase, all for the sake of keeping some form of connection to the blonde. In the end, it had worked. Their friendship had soared and remained tight knit and friendly after high school ended and they went their separate ways to opposite coast lines.

They visited frequently that first year… and it was like everything was how it had always been. Peyton was still desperately in love with Lucas, despite rarely seeing him. As Clothes Over Bro's became more and more successful, the frequent trips lessened. Their phone calls increased and their length of time talking into the late hours escalated into hundred dollar phone bills on both ends. But as long as they had each other, it didn't matter.

"Brooke… you still there?" Peyton's voice rings out from the telephone in her hand and attached to Brooke's ear as she shakes her head from the sea of memories.

"Yeah… I'm here."

"So what do you say… you up for a visit to L.A.?" Peyton asks, sounding a little less distraught and more like herself. But Brooke can still hear the pain in her voice.

Just then it hits her. As an idea enters her mind and takes a moment to grow and expand, her smile widens.

"I think we can work something out."