Welcome to Gaia! ::

Brielle could walk now, but she often didn’t. The floor still didn’t feel the same under her feet, and it likely never would. She was nervous on her feet, unsteady, although honestly that was only half of the reason she split her time between hiding curled up in blankets on Olivia’s couch, or sometimes Paris’s.

When she closed her eyes, she started seemed fire again, and it got worse when she was cold, or alone, or doing stressful things like trying to stumble around.

It happened less when Tavi or Olivia were around.

Something had been in the back of her mind for weeks now, since even before she’d been taken. It was something she wanted to do, something she wanted to go for more and more since every time Olivia pressed a kiss against her forehead.

It had been enough that Brielle had done some online shopping, and now she held a small paper box, hidden under her blankets, while she waited for Olivia to walk through the room again.

There she was. There she was with chocolate milk.

Food, too, but the chocolate milk was certainly a stand out. If Brielle had been having any doubts about the conversation she wanted to have right now, which she hadn't, the ways in which Olivia was taking care of her would have quashed those, and quickly.

Her heart was pounding, and it was only partly from nerves. Her smile was bright.

"You are amazing," she said, taking the chocolate milk as ordered, and sipping at it. "The balancing act, yes, but also just how kind you've been being to me."

There was a moment's pause before she took the plate so that Livi would have room to hold something else, and then she fished the little box out from under the blanket.

"I actually have something for you, too," she said, holding it out.

Inside was a necklace. The pendant was a silver ballet shoes, laced up high the way both of their powered shoes were.

Brielle melted under all of it, the way she always did. The kisses, the pet names, the assurances that she could be a kind person underneath everything she’d been through, everything she’d done.

Only this time, on top of all that, it made the nerves crackle like electricity under her skin, because what if what she was about to say ruined all this? What if making it different made it strange, or worse, what if Olivia said no?

Still, Brielle was hardly the type to avoid a situation simply because it scared her. As Olivia pulled back again, she swallowed hard, and then she spit it out.

“Would you like to be my girlfriend?”

Her face softened as she added, “If I’m the best, it’s because you bring out the best in me. I think that might be what love is, if I had to guess. I think I love you.”

Her cheeks went pink. “And Tavi, I asked him about it and I think he’s been wanting us to get together for a while. All three of us.”

When Olivia’s smile froze, Brielle’s fluttering heart froze too. It was only when she answered, really answered, that all of Brielle’s insides managed to thaw themselves again.

“Of course I mean it,” she said, voice softer than it had been in weeks.

“And yes, I talked to Tavi. Of course I would, you’re married.” Talking about the man might have seemed the opposite of romantic to someone else, but to Brielle, hearing about how loyal they were to each other was endearing. “He brought it up, actually. He thought we were already dating? That was when I realized that I liked you.”

Then she’d talked to him a bit more afterwards.

She leaned back into her blanket nest, sipping at her drink as the tension faded from her shoulders. “I want to date him too; if you’re okay withthat. We’d have to talk about it more, but-“

She smiled over, a warm feeling spreading across her chest. “Not now. Can you come over here? Cuddle me?”

A blush spread across her cheeks just asking for that much. “Oh, I’m so glad you said yes.”