Ace of Hearts

The building was refreshingly cool. The tanks cast a blue glow across the rooms. Each one was decorated in the same way, every place looked the same, only the tanks inhabitants changed.

Madison was standing before a cylinder shaped tank, the water bubbled at the surface. A purple coloured octopus floated around inside, it's tentacles danced elegantly. Madison wrinkled her nose at the disgusting creature displayed before her. All she could think about was being wrapped in those tentacles and squeezed to death. A chill shot down her spine at the mere thought. A pair of arms wrapped around her and gently squeezed her.

"The octopus is coming for you," Slade chuckled, setting Madison free.

She laughed softly and turned to face him. "You'd save me if it did, right?"

Slade shrugged. "Maybe."

With a faint smile still gracing her features, Madison patted Slade's arm, before walking off towards a tank full of various brightly coloured fish. She peered into the depths of the salty water, locating a clown fish, she watched it dart around, cutting through groups of other fish. It was the outsider, the only one in the tank. She sighed heavily, shaking her head and looking across at Slade, who was looking at a tank full of jellyfish, one of his dark eyebrows raised in thought.

She felt her chest swell with every single emotion that had ever existed. Slade made her feel happy, and it had all happened so quickly, Madison was waiting for it to be swiped from underneath her at any given moment. She hadn't felt as happy as she did with him for a long time. Of course, just as she managed to find a source of happiness, the source of all her angst, anger and upset had whaltzed back into her life, turning everything upside down like the hurricane that she was.

Turning back to the tank, Madison watched the clown fish swim around on it's own. It was independent and it could live alone. She, however, wasn't a brightly coloured clown fish in a deep tank at the aquarium. She was Madison Burton, daughter and best friend, and she couldn't do it alone.

"Jellyfish are actually really weird," Slade cut through her thoughts with his random statement.

She snapped her head around to face him, a smile spreading across her face. She closed the gap between them, wrapping her arms around his waist tightly. His arms fell around her, the pair holding one another in a gentle, yet unbreakable grasp.

"Why'd you bring me here?" Madison mumbled, pressing her ear to Slade's chest.

"I like aquariums. And I guess it's easy to lose yourself in the depths of the ocean."

She nodded, pulling away from him slightly. "I think that this helped a lot. Thank you for cheering me up, and for bothering me, even though I'm miserable and not the most exiciting person to be around, if anything I'm quite messed up, and so is my family."

"Madison, I like you, that's why I bother with you. That's why I want to cheer you up, and that's why I can't stand to see you cry. Believe me, if I could fix all of this for you, I would."

She felt tears sting her eyes as the sincere words left Slade's lips. She sniffled and wiped her eyes, shaking her head. "You're making me cry!"

He chuckled and pulled her close to him again, kissing the top of her head. "I can't win, can I? I'm trying to be nice to you and you're still crying."

Madison wiped her eyes and inhaled deeply, calming her emotions. She pulled away from Slade and smiled at him. "No more tears, I promise." A buzz cut through the air and she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone. It hadn't rung all day, surprisingly. She pressed a couple of buttons and smiled at the screen.

"What?" Slade asked, curiously.

She looked up at him. "Blair got invited to a party and wondered if we wanted to go." She pushed her phone back into her pocket, without bothering to reply.

Slade frowned and plucked Madison's phone out of her pocket. "Well, yes we do want to go. This is only the first part of your cheer up trip, this party can be the second." He grinned, tapping off a text back to Blair.

Madison rolled her eyes, taking her phone back from Slade as he sent the text to Blair.

Truth be told, she didn't feel like socialising. She didn't feel like drowning her sorrows with bottles of vastly expensive champagne and cocktails. She couldn't be bothered to go home and pour over her wardrobe, in an attempt to pick out an outfit to amaze all the other guests attending. But she was going to go along with it, because she couldn't do this alone.