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Believe it or not, Serena knew that the there was truth behind his words... And that made her feel bad for not having told him her entire story yet. She tapped her foot, still standing beside him, looking at him curiously. "Because you were truthful, should I be too?" she asked, trying to sound as if she was joking, btu she was honestly conflicted.

It took a few minutes, hearing the boiling water pop through the silence, and she sighed deeply, looking at him, sorrow in her eyes... The wall was going to be broken down sooner or later.. "You really want to know?" she said, her voice soft.

"I used to live in this apartment with my fiancee, Devon... He left to fight in the war... A week before he was supposed to be shipped back home... Well..." she said, turning her eyes away to look at the vegetables. "He was shot down. And what's worse is that I'm pregnant with his child... Who would want me now?" she asked, not really a direct question to him, but rather, to herself. She brought her eyes to his gaze once more and smiled weakly. "Things happen, I guess," she said with a light laugh.

She could see the conflicting emotions churning behind his eyes... She was always good with the eyes... Serena believed that if you delved deep enough in the eyes, you could find anything... It was, after all, a window to the soul.

But, she had not seen this... The kiss that Laurence laid on her lips was something that could not have been foretold, and caught her by surprise. But, there was somethign conflicting in her own body too... What she now felt for Laurence, and how it made her seem like she was betraying the one she had held so dear for so long... Devon. So, what to do?

She was now facing his back, words upon words caught in her throat, lodged there and making it hard for her to breathe. She knew she had to say something... Anything. The way he was facing made it seem he was going to leave, and she didn't want him to. She wanted him to stay... Even though she had only known him for a short period of time... She wanted him to stay in her life...

She was suddenly wrapping her arms around his waist, something she had not realized she was doing... When had she taken a step foward, closign the gap between them? And when had her arms started moving to bring them to a rest around his body. She could fel warmth radiating off him, and he smelled great. She held him tighter, as if afraid to let him go. "Don't leave..." she said, her voice was a whisper, and it quivered, as if trying to hold in tears...

Gabriel was astounded. He couldn't remember the last time a girl had given her his number. Perhaps it was because he was far too reclusive these days, too caught up with Marisol, too broken. "Th-thank you, Nikki," he managed to say. Marisol glanced at Gabriel, who was still staring after Nikki with a strange look on his face - not happy, not sad, maybe confused. Marisol was young, but she was pretty intuituve for her age. "You like her, don't you?" Marisol asked, precocious as always. Gabriel shushed her but smiled slightly. "We really should be going," he reminded her. "Find something healthy to make for dinner." Marisol nodded. "Okay." They headed out onto the street, but Nikki had already disappeared. Gabriel glanced at the napkin in his hand, glanced at the trash can, and slid Nikki's information into his pocket.

Feeling his hand fall on hers gently, not tryign to pull away, but rather, almost welcoming it, she smile into his back and snuggled into it, taking in the muskiness of his scent, the feel of his body against hers... All the contours and such of his body...

"Thank you," she said in a whispered voice once more, as if a regular tone would interrupt the moment... Or that it would frighten him off and away from her arms, leavign her empty again. It was weird... She felt strangely whole... There was not hole in her chest, eating at her, burning on the fringes, pulsating from being so new... Never having fully healed... But now, it was being filled up with this man... Laurence, who was in her arms...

She would have stayed like that forever if she could have, but the sudden sound of sizzling brought her back to reality, and she turned her head, seemingly dazed, to see the water boiling over. "To be continued," she said, and dropped her hands, moving to the stove and taking the pot off before it boiled over too much. The element was still sizzling a little, and she turned it off. She tested a noodle, and realzed she cooked it for just the perfect amount of time.

"Would you like to help me strain this?" she asked Laurence, looking at him, her eyes much more gentle and loving when they looked upon him than they had been before. But her voice had returned to her normal volume and spark, as if nothing had really happened between them a moment ago... And yet, she was shakign a little, her body slightly unsteady, her knees wanting to buckle beneathe her.. Her arms itchign to be around him once more...

She loved the feel of his arms around her waist... She felt so safe... So at peace with everything that was going on, both in and out of her body.

What she wasn't ready for, however, was the sudden warmt of his breath agains ther ear, that made her own breath catch in her throat in almost obvious ecstacy. Surely, Laurence was not aware of the affect of that breathing against her ear, though she had shivered a little, a warm, tingling feeling running up and down her spine in response to the light caress.

"Yeah, I... I'll try," she said softly to him, trying to hide her apparant excitement from the situation, and instead, focusing on her work in the kitchen. She held up the strainer abover the sink and motioned him to dump the contents of the pot into the strainer, so that they could get rid of the water.

She could already smell the sauce too, adn knew it was close to being ready.

She giggled, her laugh, light as air and softened by the appearance of this new emotion that she felt towards Laurence. She had told him of her secret, something she had not been able to reveal to anyone... And he accepted her... No, not only that, but he still wanted her after it all. She felt great... Like her past and everything in it was slowly melting away into nothingness... Like it was opening the way for her to start afresh.

Restart. When life didn't go right, fix it and hit play from a new spot. She liked that... "Haha, well, thank yourself though, because you helped to do it," she said with a smile as she looked at him. She wanted to feel his kiss again, but didn't want to be too sudden... To forward. She wanted to take it easy, but it almost seemed that the rate in which her eyes were devouring him would not hold off that hope...

It had been so long since her last human contact with feelings like this... She didn't want to lose it... She wnated to have it, hold it in her grasp, and feel nothing but that.

She was almost surprised when he took her face in his hands and laid a kiss on her lips.. It was full of meaning.. Something she hadn't felt for so long, and it made her shiver a little from it all. But, she fell into the sway of it and allowed it to commence, returning with just the same amount of passion, feeling her back pressing into the counter with a gentle force.

When she finally did pull away, she felt as if all the breath in her had left, and something had taken its place... But, it wasn't cold, like it had been before... It was full of a warmth that comforted her... Almost made her feel... dare she think it? Normal...

The car’s engine roared to life as Lantis shifted into gear. He shrugged. “If you say so.” He didn’t bother mentioning never seeing the Ferris wheel before. Was he that out of touch with reality? Once they were on the road, Lantis felt a bit better. It was always good to be moving, it always made him feel like he could go on forever or anywhere at all. Every now and then, he’d look at Rae from the corner of his eye. He made certain that she didn’t notice.

How can anything so beautiful be so flawed? It was near impossible. But then again, it was easy to hide tears in the rain. Odd as it sounded. At one point he had caught her looking at him, also studying him, assessing him. That was a good sign, she was careful, but it was also an indication. Had she experienced much pain in her life? Seemed so. Lantis cleared his throat as he looked back to the road behind shaded eyes. “So do you do you want one? A bear I mean. I won’t argue they’re nice, but haven’t you ever wished for something better?” It was small talk, but Lantis felt that as long as he could keep her talking, he could some how find out more about her. “Ah, there it is…” Sure enough past the trees, a grand ferris wheel could be seen, acting as a becon to many and drawing the crowds in. Lantis felt a bit uncertain about this for the first time, he didn’t know what it was. But crowds made him nervous he couldn’t pin point why, but he was certain it's roots were back in his past. Again, if that was the case he wouldn't run away from it.