Special thanks to Sunset Clouds for the idea. You rock, chick-a-dee.

. . . . . . . .

“Stel-la,” Joe whined, shutting the closet door behind him, “Why do I have to help you repair the Stellavator?” Stella looked up from the enormous mound of clothing and crossed her arms.

“Because Joe-seph,” she said, emphasizing the syllables as he had in her name, “It was your friend who broke it.” Joe stomped the floor and flailed his arms around in a fake tantrum. Stella watched him with amusement on her face.

“It’s not like Carl meant to make the Stellevator malfunction,” Joe said once he had noticed that Stella wasn’t going to fall for the tantrum.

“Whatever, Joe,” She said, “you’re still helping me fix it.” Joe sighed, hanging his head in defeat.

“Fiiiiine,” he said.

“That’s better,” she remarked, “Now, I’ve almost finished fixing the wires that your friend crossed, I just need you to hold this, and don’t touch anything.” Joe yawned and nodded, taking what she handed to him, and standing there looking bored. Stella slaved away on her project, reconnecting things and taking them apart. Joe stared at the wall, bored out of his mind.

“Joe,” Stella said, calling his attention down to her, “can you move your hands please?” She asked, scooting so that her body was pressed against his leg. Joe nodded and did what she told him, straightening up and cracking his back.

“Wait, Stell,” Joe said, leaning down, “You missed this.” Stella’s eyes looked at where he was reaching to help her.

“Wait! N-” Stella started, but it was too late. She could’ve screamed when the Stellvator (patent pending) went haywire, again. “Joe!” She shouted, shoving him away from her machine. Joe smiled at her sheepishly.

“Whoops?” He said. Stella stood up quickly, seething. Joe backed up.

“Let’s just get out of here!” She yelled over the deafening sound of the machine as it flung clothes all around the closet. Joe ran for the door, and twisted the handle, ready to yank it op-

“Uh, Stells…” Joe said, swallowing hard as the doorknob to his closet came off in his hand.

“What?” She snapped, a pair of Kevin’s pants landing on her head.

“Double whoops,” He held up the handle to the door.

“I hate you so much right now, Joe Lucas,” she said, softly clenching her fists as she made her way back to the machine, fighting against the clothes to shut the alarm on the machine off. Then she worked on making it stop flinging clothing. That was harder to stop then the alarm was. When she managed to pull it off, she whirled around to glare at Joe.

“Now how are we going to get out of here?” She asked, her tone panicked.

“Relax, Stells,” Joe said, tossing the doorknob he had previously detached from the closet door onto the floor, “We can just go through the place where the clothes come out.”

“Gee, Joe,” Stella said, her voice shrill, “climbing through the shaft where the clothes come out would be a great idea if there wasn’t a mountain of clothes blocking it!” Joe was quiet for a minute.

“You don’t have to be so mean,” he muttered. Stella stood up and straightened.

“You’re right, Joe,” she said, “I don’t have to be so mean. I mean all you did was get us stuck in a closet with no way out!” Joe swallowed, thankful that she didn’t have anything to hit him with. Well, okay, she did, but she only had her hands and nothing really hard.

“I’m sorry!” He shouted, “is that what you want me to say? I didn’t know helping you would cause all this crap to happen!”

“I told you not to touch anything, but what do you do?” Stella shouted, crossing her arms and tapping her foot, waiting for Joe to respond.

“I touch something,” he mumbled, hanging his head again.

“I’m sorry, Joe?” Stella asked, “I didn’t quite hear that.”

“I touched something!” He shouted back at her, flinging his arms in the air. “Next time I’ll be sure to listen to-“

“Oh, no, no, no,” Stella said, wagging a finger at him, “there isn’t going to be a next time, Lucas,” she hissed, “When we get out of this closet I am never speaking to you again.”

“Well fine then,” Joe said, “If that’s what you want.” He crossed his arms and turned away from her.

“That is so what I want,” She said, crossing her arms and turning away from him as well.

“That wasn’t necessary,” Joe remarked, clicking his tongue, back still turned to her.

:”What wasn’t necessary?” She asked with an attitude.

“You copying me, crossing your arms all sassy-like and turning away.”

“For your information, Joe,” she spat, “one, I was thinking of doing that way before you even did it and two, sassy-like, what kind of a word is that?”

“For your information, Stella,” Joe growled, “one, no you weren’t and two, it’s not a word, it’s two words.”

“Whatever, Joe,” Stella said.

“What-ever, Stella,” Joe responded.

“You are so immature,” She said, turning to glare at him over her shoulder.

“At least I’m not a copy-catter!” Joe said, turning to face her completely. Stella’s nostrils flared, turning completely around as well.

“I am not!”

“See!” Joe shouted, “there you go again! Copying me!” Stella screamed in frustration.

“I don’t even know why I bother with you, Lucas.” Joe crossed his arms and turned away from her again. Stella huffed and walked across the closet, sitting by the boxes in the corner.

They remained like that for what felt like hours before Stella got bored and started to look through some of the boxes. She was excited to see that it was old toys and things from the boy’s childhood.

“Isn’t this precious,” she whispered, holding up Joe’s old teddy bear. Curious, Joe glanced over his shoulder and caught what she was looking at.

“Hey,” he said, crossing the room towards her, “Is that Beary-Bear Bearington?” Stella giggled and nodded. She was never going to get over the fact that Joe Lucas had a bear named Beary-Bear Bearington. He wasn’t a very creative child.

Stella continued to go through the boxes, smiling when she found old baseball gloves and hats, holding everything up briefly before she passed it to Joe. Everything seemed fine until Stella pulled an old doll out of the box.

“Princess Penelope?” She asked, turning to look at Joe, “I thought I lost this…” Joe swallowed, bracing himself for more yelling. “Wait a second…” she trailed off, slapping Joe across the chest, “did you steal my princess doll, Joe?”

“Stella, let me explai-” he tried to say, calmly, but she was already on her feet, yelling at him again.

“Stella,” he tried again, but she ignored him, continuing her verbal onslaught. She looked really peeved this time.

“As if ruining the Stellevator and putting pudding in my peach pit purse wasn’t enough,” she shouted, “you had to steal Princess Penelope too?”

“I can explai-” he tried again.

“I can’t believe you, Joseph Lucas,” she continued to rant, waving her doll around frantically. Joe got to his feet, trying to gain her attention.

“Stella!” He shouted and she stopped for a second, looking at him before she continued to verbally bash him. Joe sighed. He wanted to grab her by her shoulders and shake her so she would stop yelling, but he didn’t think that would help his situation too much. He didn’t know how much longer he’d be stuck in this closet with her anyways.

“Why’d you do it, Joe?” She asked, staring at him for another brief second before continuing on to voice her assumptions, not even giving him enough time to explain. Joe almost screamed in frustration, grabbing Stella by her shoulders and forcing her to look at him. She narrowed her eyes, continuing to babble on. Joe narrowed his eyes back. He thought grabbing her would work. Maybe he’d have to try a different approach…

“Stella,” he said again, trying calling her by her name one last time. She ignored him again, forcing him to try something a little more…drastic. He pulled her into him and mashed his lips to hers with such force, she instantly shut up. In fact she stopped moving altogether.

Ah, Joe thought, keeping his lips pressed against hers, even though she wasn’t kissing him back, silence. The silence didn’t last long, however. A second later, Stella screamed and tried to shove him away. Being the gentleman he is, Joe pulled back and stared at her with wide eyes, still holding onto her shoulders.

“Stella, look, I was just try-” SLAP! He released her and stared at her with his mouth agape. “Well,” he said, touching his cheek, “I guess I deserved that.” Stella stood in front of him breathing hard. She stared at Joe for a long time, watching as he rubbed his cheek, still wincing in pain.

“Sorry, Stella,” Joe breathed a few seconds later, “I just…I was trying to explain, but you never gave me an ope-” Stella cut him off by returning the favor and mashing her lips against his and grabbing a fistful of his beautiful straight hair. Joe’s heart pounded as he kissed her back, shoving her into the wall. She took a sharp breath in through her nose when her back made contact with the brick, but refused to pull away from him.

My god, Stella thought, feeling Joe’s arms wind around her waist to pull her body closer to his, this isso satisfying. Her heart was pounding, her lips moving against Joe’s wildly. Joe moved his hands up her back slowly, tracing his fingers over every curve as his hands made their way up to caress her neck gently.

“Whoa,” Joe said when he pulled back, gasping for air. Stella laughed.

“Whoa indeed,” she remarked, gasping for air as well.

“Do you still hate me?” He asked in a whisper a second later. Stella smirked.

“I don’t know,” she said, ruffling his hair, “depends on what your reason was for stealing Princess Penelope were.” Joe smirked, leaning forward so he could whisper his answer against her neck.

“I had a crush on you.” Stella felt her breath hitch.

“What about now?” She whispered back.

“Now?” He asked, pulling back to look her directly in the eyes, “now, I’m in love with you.”

. . . . . . . .

I kind of wanted Nick and Kevin to find them in the closet because of all the noise they were making, but I like how it turned out and this seems like a really good place to end it. Read and review!