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 Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:24 pm
Stormy's smile was felt against his neck, and Gale's cheeks flushed a dull red, not quite as scarlet as it could have been. Her lips were moving, speaking words he couldn't hear, but he didn't need to hear them, not really. The ending kiss was equally cherished, Gale closing his eyes briefly and exhaling a long breath.
"A dance?"
It took him a moment for Gale to drag himself out of his own mixed up, chaotic thoughts; and when he finally did, it was with a slight sense of bemusement, Gale blinking sleep and nightmarish dreams away from his mind and his thoughts. He twisted his head so that he could semi-see Stormy in the near darkness, and her face was close to his, her arms around him.
Then he remembered. He frowned slightly, but not an irritated frown, merely a contemplative one. "The New Year's....well, whatever it was, I suppose we can't really call it a party since it didn't really exist except inside of our own heads."
It had felt real, though, and in that dream, she had been more open, less dragged down by the casualties of war. Gale shifted away from Stormy's grasp, extricating himself from her arms and sliding away so that he could stand up. He stretched out his legs and his arms, twisted his neck to ease some of the lingering tension, and then turned back to Stormy.
One hand stretched out towards her, Gale's face half hidden in shadows.
"May I have this dance?" he asked quietly
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Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:08 pm
"We don't have to now if you're not up to it," she added quickly, afraid it sounded like a demand more than a request. But Gale seemed intent on it now, and he slid out of her grasp with only minimal resistance. Stormy sat up and shifted on the bed, letting her legs dangle over the side as he stretched, watching. It was hard to see the minimalist reactions he had already without most of it being hidden in the dark . . . But it wouldn't stop her from trying to help him, tentative as she was on the inside about messing up.
"Always."
Her hand took his without a second thought as she rose, eager to fill the gaps between again. "You know, a wise wizard once said that even if it only happens in your head, it doesn't mean it's not real," she said, rekindling her smile in hopes of it being its own source of light. "Imagination's a very powerful and real thing." After all, it made the nightmare linger even when awake, made the smallest of things the largest of mountains, and was the cornerstone of creativity.
Leading by example, Stormy took an edge of her oversized shirt with her free hand and lifted it a little as she dipped in a curtsy, pretending she was wearing a fantastic dress worthy of a Disney Princess. "What sort of music are we dancing to tonight, Sir Gentry?" she asked, careful to keep her tone light but buoyant. She didn't know if any of this would really help, and the last thing she wanted to do was add onto Gale's frustration by making him play a game he had no interest in.
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Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:26 pm
He might not have been up for doing much, but dancing was, at least, a distraction, something he could focus on in lieu of doing something else more drastic. Dancing, even if it was the middle of the night and they were both sleepy and tired, was an escape, one that Gale greatly welcomed.
It also gave him a chance to be close to Stormy, which he never got enough of (at least, in his mind). He smiled as she took his head, easing off the bed, and a small, quiet laugh escaped his throat, the roar of the storm outside mostly drowning it out.
"Did you just quote Harry Potter to me?" he asked, gently teasing, and carefully placed a hand on Stormy's waist, his other sliding up her wrist to lightly lace his fingers through hers. It took him a little to get into the proper position, but once he was, he gave her a small nod.
"It is," he agreed, and took a step forward, indicating without words that she should follow his lead. "Mind you, I'm not a very good dancer; I'm just sort of...making it up as I go, but I do recall a few simple steps from school..."
Gale shifted his feet around and squeezed Stormy's fingers as he looked down at their feet, studying their positions in an almost scrutinizing way, head tilted slightly to the side. "You pick," he said, still trying to decipher the footing. "You're better at music than I am."
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:50 am
She winked coyly. "Maybe I did~ Or maybe it's all still in your head~" Stormy said airily. She let her shirt fall back down so she could plant her hand on his shoulder and, glancing behind her, took a matching step back.
"Mind you," she added with a smile, "that's exactly the sort of thing I like if you haven't noticed: impromptu action. Let's see how well we work on the fly, then~" He was warming up at the very least, so naturally she had to see how much she could push this in case it really was helping. That, and every moment spent like this was a memory to cherish, a new experience she could pour over and relive long after it happened.
But naturally Gale was looking at the dance from a technical standpoint, which was all well and good, though worrying about the details would only stall them! Rising on her toes, Stormy leaned forward and up until they gently bumped foreheads, almost comical in the way she treid to take up the whole of his vision. "Hey," she said in a more hushed tone, though no less affectionate. "If you remember then you remember, and if you don't then you don't. But don't get caught up in the steps: just go the way you feel's right, and I'll keep up~" And then, pecking his nose, she let him have his space back, ready to follow his lead.
But the music! What to start with . . . It had been so long honestly, and it was sad she didn't immediately have a list. Eventually Stormy settled on something and began to hum with deliberate slowness the lead in to Strauss's "The Blue Danube Waltz".
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:03 pm
He gave her a look that wasn't quite exasperated, but that wasn't quite not either, Gale shifting his feet a little more. He hadn't danced in ages (the faux New Year's party...thing...whatever it was, hadn't counted), and he felt only a little anxious about dancing in front of Stormy.
But, then again, it was just the two of them, and she wasn't the type to mock him should he mess up, so Gale simply let it go, as much as he could have, in this sort of situation. And he appreciated more so than ever, Stormy's endless enthusiasm and her insistence when it came to getting him to do things.
Maybe a distraction like this was just what he needed.
He was still focused on their feet when he felt Stormy stop, and then her forehead had bumped his affectionately, dragging Gale's attention back upwards. Some of the tension eased from his shoulders, and he gave her a wan smile, his face flushing a little at the kiss to his nose.
"All right," he said with a small sigh. "All right, I'll try to just...move. And not think. Move and not think."
He repeated this mantra to himself for several moments as he tried to reorient himself; but Stormy's gentle humming reached his ears, and Gale swayed a little where he stood, his fingers wrapped around his girlfriend's, the sound of her voice in his ears.
A step back, a step forward, and then one to the side. Gale relaxed just a little more.
"What would I do without you?" he asked, only half joking.
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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:56 am
Music was a great excuse not to answer at first because, as usual, questions regardless of their possible rhetorical nature piqued a need for her to speak--and she had to be careful not to let any more negativity slip from her, no hint of the awful side effect of having an active imagination when it came to the possibilities. Not now. Instead, Stormy continued to hum sweet and slow, the corners of her lips lifting in an intentionally mysterious smile. What would he do indeed?
Her knowledge of the waltz's then was limited, though, so eventually she ran to her memory's end and let the melody die away. "Close," she told Gale as she followed his lead, feet barely making a noise as she seemed to glide through the motions. "You have the right idea~ For three years you've gotten the technical stuff down to a science, right? Stand, aim, shoot, calibrate, move, practice, practice, practice. It's similar when you're learning an art like music or dance. You have to get the technique down first: the steps, the fingering, the breath control, the right notes, everything that's the bare bones of the work."
Her fingers twitched at his shoulder, a ghost of a memory of keys underneath aching to be played.
"And then," Stormy continued, "you have to master the most important part: thinking without thinking." She smiled contentedly at the phrase. "It's knowing the heart of the piece without asking it questions, knowing something beyond just the technical aspects. Feeling it, you know? In a dance, the steps give it a body, but the people have to give it a soul. And I think that's where you've got trouble."
Pause.
"Not that you don't have a soul," Stormy added with an embarrassed noise. "N-Not what I meant at all. What I mean to say is you're good with rules and codes and adhering to them, I think, stuff that doesn't ask for personal information. Expressing yourself creatively is just a different beast to tackle." Was she rambling again? She was totally meandering...
She gave a weak laugh at herself. "But that's a little much for a fun thing like this, so forget all that," she verbally hand-waved as she matched each step. "I've had a really weird sleep schedule, that's all. Words, wily convicts that they are, just keep on running out! So, music, right..." Stormy had to think on it some more before defaulting on another staple classic she didn't remember much of, Vivaldi's "Spring" from The Four Seasons.
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Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2014 9:01 pm
He liked listening to her hum music, just as he liked listening to her sing and listening to her speak and listening to her laugh. Basically, if he could listen to Stormy's voice for the rest of his life, Gale thought he might be very content with how things turned out.
One foot slipped behind the other, and he leaned back slightly, trying to accommodate Stormy and his own lack of precision. "That's all I know how to do," he admitted, a little self-consciously. "I have to tell myself that this is how it is - narrow everything down to the basic of basic facts and then build on that until I know what I'm doing. I have a hard time just starting something from scratch, without any prior knowledge or instruction."
He caught her fumbled words and smiled a little, gently touching Stormy's face with his fingers before replacing his hand back into hers. "I know what you meant," said Gale, and sighed. "I need to figure out how to balance myself between the two - creative versus unimaginative, soulful versus soulless, etcetera, etcetera."
Twisting his body, Gale drew Stormy into a light arc, lifting his hand to turn her around in a small circle before gathering her up in his arms again and picking the steps back up again. It wasn't so bad, once he got the hang of it; all he had to do was take little steps and Stormy would follow, her feet moving in tandem with his own.
"I wish there was more I could do in this world than shoot and miss at things," said Gale, pressing his lips together. "I never had the childhood you did; I never got to do much, really, until I lived with my uncle, and even then I only lived with him for about six months before I was recruited to Deus."
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:32 am
She continued to happily hum, pleasantly surprised by the twirl but falling into it without hesitation. An unexpected moment of deja vu hit her of childhood, back when her parents had enlisted her and her sister in various classes to see where their talents lied. Papi used to touch a finger atop the center of her head and she'd spin like the ballerina in her music box . . . Stormy sighed out the last few notes as she came back into position, serene in her introspection.
"You're more than your talents and drawbacks," she said softly. "Just like you're more than your rank or title. You are not two-dimensional, Gale: Deus makes you concentrate on different skills, but that doesn't mean they're the only things you'll ever be good at. For instance," she added with an encouraging smile, "you're already getting more confident about the dance after just a few minutes~" They were starting to go more smoothly without the aid of music, and while there wasn't necessarily a pattern to it, for some reason it was getting easier to pick up.
Leaning in closer as they danced, Stormy, gently squeezed his hand. "I'll tell you as many times as it takes to sink in: you're way too hard on yourself. You didn't have a fun childhood, no, but that doesn't have to stop you from trying something new if you want to. Learn from my mistakes: the past shouldn't hold you back." Her smile grew a little sadder, both an accident and an apology for bringing it up.
"Besides, the sort of skills you have are important. When you're out there on a mission, nobody cares about what you think the soul of it is," she continued, seemingly half-caught in a stream of thoughts though her eyes hadn't dulled. "It's like you said: breaking things down to basic facts and compartmentalizing are valuable things to have. Don't dismiss them just 'cause they don't help you with this. You're making up for lost time, you know? You're still learning about yourself."
Before Stormy could stop herself the words spilled out, a thought for herself that slipped past her brain and manifested in actual words, a murmur that came just a little too loud. "That's the important part, isn't it? Not just that there's still something to learn, but that you can do it. Everything--from what you do out there to what I see in here--is a part of you. Not another timeline, not another name, but you. A you who isn't Lina's, nor a shadow's, but mine." She sounded like she was skipping over key words and phrases, but her sentiment was genuine. Color was starting to bloom on her cheeks and her eyes were resolutely at their feet, but there was no stuttering backpedal, no hastily offered explanation or divergence into a new topic.
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:27 pm
He kept his hands where they were, gentle in their ministrations as he awkwardly led her back and forth around the room. With the sound of the storm cocooning them inside of the little yellow house, it almost felt like they were the only two people in existence; like there was no one else that mattered except for each other.
And for a few moments, Gale decided, it was all right to think that way.
His expression softened the longer Stormy talked, his cheeks flushing slightly at her quiet praise, her gentle compliments. Gale had never been particularly good at accepting such things, mostly because the few times he'd actually been complimented were few and far between - and, since coming to Deus, usually from Bix, who had always had that carefree attitude about him. Not that Gale didn't appreciate Bix, or his endless support, but there was something to be said about hearing the things Stormy was saying from Stormy herself.
"Yours?" said Gale quietly, and his feet had slowed to a stop now, the two of them in the center of the room. Still in position, it was like a moment frozen in time as he looked down at Stormy and her bright red face and her bright eyes. Slowly he withdrew his hand from hers and touched her cheek, sliding his fingers back along her face until his palm rested there, cradling her head.
"Always yours," he said, and his thumb brushed over her skin tenderly, his expression oddly serious, his eyes strangely bright in the otherwise dark room. "I'm always yours, Stormy."
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 11:15 pm
Her gaze remained resolutely averted, as if doing so gave her even a remote amount of relief from how warm her face was getting; it grew worse when Gale stopped them, worse and worse with each word. No distractions left, no noise aside from the storm outside and the sound of her hearbeat that was quickly beginning to feel like it originated in her ears. She would have thought it was a dream if his hand didn't feel so very, very real.
. . . No. No, she knew it wasn't a dream because in her dreams, they would have kept dancing. They had before. She would say little things like that like they were nothing: that last mission sucked, the tea was amazing, you are mine, should we renovate, I think Nevada's spying on us, race you to the kitchens, you are mine and I am yours. He'd just take it in stride like it didn't mean as much as it did, in a way that hurt but that also allowed her to survive. Too much focus made her freeze up (just as she was now), and too little focus left her craving more, and there was no third option, no balance that she knew how to keep. Funneling her emotions little by little in her thoughts and dreams was what allowed her to decompress without becoming overbearing in the real world; better to be ineffectual and vague and want more than to give too much and be empty again.
Besides, Stormy knew what happened to people she kept too tight a grip on. The ones closest to her always got hurt in some way thanks to her, one way or another. Here at Deus that was a risk that would happen regardless of her presence, but it didn't invalidate her thinking--if anything, it reinforced it. Why Nevada, after all? Why that reasoning? Why Lance, why Aria, why her division? Why Jack, past and present? Why her mother?
She had to think about what was best for others, not what would make her happy. Gale had to be kept away from that curse. Her dreams--where they smiled and lived and accepted everything according to her design, where love existed untainted and unfettered, and where she was everything that she should have been--were enough. They always had been.
(She kept telling herself.)
Her hand, which had hovered in the air even after his had left it, finally lowered to her side. "I have to make that distinction, what's mine or not," she said in a small voice. "Sometimes it's hard to tell what's real and what isn't. Sometimes I remember the missions in the desert, the bugs that came in and the bones that broke and the bodies that fell, and when I wake up I have to ask, did that really happen? Sometimes I go to sleep and live in that other world again, and when I wake up I have to ask myself, which is really the dream? I spent a whole day once trying to sleep and find it," Stormy admitted shamefully, "a little after the promo with Nevada. Could you blame me? You were happier there. I was better."
She seemed to fade a little after revealing the fact, like giving it words sapped her energy. But then she picked her head up nevertheless as she lifted herself on her tiptoes, a precious few inches that let put her at eye level with Gale. For a few moments she studied the look in his eyes, not unafraid but at least steeling her nerves to do so. Stormy felt her heart migrate from her ears to her throat the longer she looked, her mouth twitching several times in false starts. The unfaltering conviction he possessed had always been something beautiful and envious to her.
But thunder rumbled outside like the starting gun going off, and she remembered her voice.
"'I'm-always-yours'. Would you die for that?" she asked, unblinking.
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:35 pm
He knew what weight the words carried, knew the heaviness of their meaning; yet he also knew that he wouldn't have said them if he didn't mean them one hundred percent. If there was anything at all that Gale prided himself on, it was his complete honesty - but at the same time, it was also a side of himself that he was slightly ashamed of; straightforward to the point of embarrassment sometimes.
Stormy wasn't looking at him, but she didn't have to; her cheeks were slowly rising in color, going from a faint pink to a brilliant scarlet red that shifted across her face, under her eyes and even at the tips of her ears. And when she spoke, her voice was low, hardly audible, her expression, not pleased, but almost pained, as though he'd said something that caused her emotional distress.
He probably had.
He tried not to think about it too much.
(He over thought it, of course.)
"I'm real," said Gale forcefully, almost as though he were not trying to convince Stormy, but himself as well. "I remember the Sahara, every minute of every time that I had to go there. I remember the dream, and I remember dancing with you, and I remember..."
His voice caught a little. "I remember Ben," he said, with some difficultly. "And Clarice and Clerise and everyone else. I remember them being happy, and I remember being happy with them because they were...my family in that weird alternate universe dream thing."
If he thought hard enough, he could almost hear Ben's laughter, smell Clarice's perfume.
Stormy's eyes met his, standing up on her toes (he wasn't that much taller than she was, after all), and he looked back at her with an expression that was half curious, half stubborn, his fingers curling against his palm and then loosening again so that they hung motionless by his side.
Her question confused him, but he answered it, with a flat sort of resolution, "I'd die for you, if that's what you mean."
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 12:11 am
"Don't." Gale was met with the same sort of flatness he'd given, a rare quality for her given that when Stormy was normally resolute about something, it was more embracing. This was a knee-jerk reaction, a definitive flinch at the very idea. "Don't," she repeated with more emotion, her brows knitting as she continued staring at him. "Don't do anything so stupid, got it? Because I promise you right now that if you try, Gale, I will stop you."
She was quite still on her toes. It was only a two inch difference at most, but it mattered to her, like so many other inconsequential things did. Being eye to eye at the same level meant something in a world that more often than not had to look down.
"You're real," Stormy repeated, gripping his shoulder. Her voice never rose in volume, but the energy behind it grew. "That's exactly why you're not allowed to do anything to jeopardize it needlessly like that. If--If you die then you'll die, a-and I'll mourn you until my bones're as white as my coat--" underestimation, oversimplification, just words that blanketed the idea and kept the real bite of it away because it wouldn't happen anyway, "--but if you think you can-- if you think you can forfeit your life for mine for one second, Gale, think again."
It was a close one. She almost said her original thought: if you think my life is worth yours. But that would have been too easy to counter and a little too close to disturbing Gale than she felt was appropriate now, especially since she was already getting too mired down in this topic as it was. Stormy had asked him once before, on the night they first agreed to date, about avoiding sacrificing his life, and even then she had had a feeling that the message hadn't sunk in. Why would it, after all. They'd been carried on the bliss of being a new couple.
This was perhaps the first time Gale had, unintentionally or not, failed to adhere to his promise, the easily forgotten one that one sickly trainee made one hunter swear to:
"You're not allowed to pull stunts like you did with the horsemen, okay? No sacrificing yourself just 'cause you feel like it, or I'll go find your ghost and bind it to a runic watch so I can keep my eye on you all the time."
"I promise. I won't do anything like that again."
It was a ridiculous and small portion of a memory, but it had happened, and that was enough justification for her firm replies, regardless of how much weight those words had really carried at the time, regardless of how much (or how little) sense she was making now. She'd meant them then and she meant them now. Gale was lucky; there were various things she could do with recalling their every encounter with far too much practice.
"Everything I'm doing for Nevada, I'd do twice over and more to keep you safe and alive. I won't have another person's death on my conscience," she said quietly, apologetic even for her outburst as she reached for his hand and flattened back on her feet. "I won't. Not for my sake. Understood?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2014 10:32 pm
He stared at her, taken aback by the vehemence of her tone, the sharp flatness of her declaration. Stormy was well known for her passionate nature - it was part of why he loved her as much as he did - but her form of passion was in a tightly gripped hand, a warm embrace; less the vocal and more the physical, which was why he was startled.
Gale's brows furrowed together. He wasn't sure whether to take offense at her assuming he would do something stupid if she were in danger, or if he should laugh at the irony that he would indeed do something, anything if Stormy's life was on the line. There had never really been a question about it - it was instinctive, an involuntary gesture to want to immediately do what he could to rectify the situation.
Her eyes were still locked on his. She was still standing on her tiptoes.
He could feel his heart beating in his chest, rapid and erratic, with every word that fell from Stormy's lips. The strength behind each of them was startling; a brutal honesty, an intensity of her desire to keep him safe that was poured into her voice. Gale stood in front of her with his mouth slightly agape, unsure of what to say, of what to even think.
It was not a declaration of love, but it might as well have been.
Gale's cheeks had slowly, over the course of the last several moments, grown steadily redder and redder until they were flushed a dark scarlet, a stark contrast to his normally pale face. Gentle fingers touched his own as Stormy lowered herself back down from her tiptoes, and he still hadn't said anything, was still staring at her with a look of surprise.
He finally closed his mouth, but it was only to lean forward and plant a resounding kiss on Stormy's lips, firm and edged with something else, surprise, perhaps, but not desperation, something that was not frustration but something more than that, something more positive.
He leaned back after a moment, breathless and slightly dizzy.
"I promise," said Gale, surprising himself with how easy the vow came out. He lifted his hand to set aside her face, his thumb brushing over his cheek. "I won't do anything stupid, I promise."
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:27 am
Gale had stumbled across one of the few things that hit her buttons faster than most--the sanctity of a life-- which was even moreso now with Nevada's on the line. A flip of the switch and she was suddenly quite serious. Thus the rising redness in his face as well as the surprised look, in that light, softened her expression with some confusion and eventually some blushing of her own. Hadn't her stance been made obvious before? "Obvious". No, she answered her own question just like that. She never made things obvious. Even so, her actions and words should have spoken for themselves . . .
. . . Or perhaps they didn't. In the last exchange alone she'd nearly left Gale in the dust by flipping topics, despite the segue being clear as a bell in her mind. Stormy grew more and more self-conscious the longer he stared, her gaze starting to wander a little nervously between his eyes and the strangely magnetic curve of his open mouth. Had she offended him somehow? Maybe she shouldn't have used the word "stupid"--what a poor choice in her little fit. She didn't have the right to call anyone out on their intelligence anyway. Maybe only in writing, where she could control and edit her responses, would she be as clear as crystal.
He certainly made his own point known through an unexpected kiss, however. Her reverie was cut through so abruptly she almost wavered and swooned when her air was stolen, glad that her hands were already grasping his and his shoulder to steady herself. There was something brighter here than before, warmer--just one kiss, one taste of the reason why some said eating chocolate gave the same elation. She found herself mildly biting her lower lip just to keep it there as he pulled away, equal parts surprised and pleased and, as always, tentative.
Maybe Gale really meant it. It wasn't like pulling teeth at any rate, like other things had been before. But it was still so easy to doubt. Words spoken in the dead of night meant very little in the heat of battle or in the middle of a mission; promises could be discarded in bouts of selfish heroism. He might not be lying now, but she was sure he'd renege if something happened to her.
Unhooking her hands, Stormy slid her arms around his neck and pulled herself close. "I need more than a promise," she whispered as she tilted her head and sank into a kiss for a few moments, in search for that sweetness. "You have to swear on something important that you won't, no matter what." There seriousness was still evident in her tone and in her eyes, but slowly but surely she felt herself inching back into the haze of hormones eager for her return from topics she shouldn't be bringing up in bedrooms.
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Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:46 pm
He was still reeling with all of the unspoken implications of what Stormy had said in regards to keeping him safe - and the you're mine that she had so blatantly declared earlier, her eyes blazing with a strength usually reserved for her passionate love of music and for all things Disney. It was not that Gale had suspected she didn't love him - in fact, he was quite certain that she did, even if it took her a while to say it back to him - but there was something about really and truly understanding the depth of her feelings towards him that had him goggling at her in astonishment and a flustered pleasure that turned his cheeks scarlet in the process.
Hence why he'd broken out of his own stupor - and hers - but kissing her, his own unspoken words pouring out in an act of affection and of adoration held solely for one person and one person alone, and that was Stormy Ortega, who held a place in his heart that no other could even hope to fill.
He felt slightly dizzy with the weight of it all.
"I promise," Gale said again, but she had kissed him again, and that was more than enough of a distraction to keep him occupied, Gale's arms wrapping around Stormy's waist to hold her close. For a moment he actually lifted her off her feet in his enthusiastic response before he set her down again, his eyes only half lidded.
"I swear..." He was trying to concentrate, but that was becoming more difficult. Jinhai made a sound in his head, something between a not-so-subtle throat clearing and a mental slap as though to rouse him from his hazy, teenage-induced state, and Gale's gaze came more into focus, his forehead against Stormy's, his hands sliding up her arms to rest on her shoulders.
"I swear on Bix's life I won't," he said, half cracking a smile. "Bix is my best mate, and he's important to me, so it counts, doesn't it?"
But the smile shifted, and his expression was serious, Gale absently running his hands up and down Stormy's arms. "I swear," he repeated quietly, and pressed a small kiss to the corner of her mouth, then her cheek, sighing against her temple, his face against hers.
The next few mumbled words were breathed out against her neck as Gale dropped his forehead to rest on her shoulder, something that contained the word love and maybe need as well.Ol-j-man ...is ur avi michaelangelo...
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