Fascination
By Hitoshii-Ichi-Purusu
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He fascinated her.
The way he carried himself when he walked – shoulders back, face forward, eyes tentatively scanning his surroundings – inspired the poet hidden inside her. She admired everything about him: his strength, courage, selflessness, skill, insight, maturity, intensity, gentility...she couldn't seem to sum her friend up in one word alone. Though she found herself chiding him a lot (he always biting back, of course), she really did recognize him, and held his valor, skill, and independence in high regard.
But it was not just his emotional aspects that made her love him so.
She found herself always looking back to the day he saved her life, and remembering him. She remembered her arms around his neck as he carried her bridal-style through the air. She could still feel how wiry his shoulder was against hers, and she could still feel the latent strength in the thin muscles of his arms. He was sturdy, in spite of his gangly appearance. He was tall and thin, and in the face of this, was strong enough to carry the weight of his father and grandfather's profound stigma. He carried power in his hands that she knew would shake the scientific world to its core.
She went about posturing and demanding attention, using her grandfather's highly-esteemed name to pull off anything she wanted. He went about constructing his rather-dodgy inventions, clandestinely nicking items from his day job at the Textile mill. She was empty in the friends department, as was he. Both were lonely, lacking a friend to run to. Finding each other was fate, and now, it was fate that was driving them apart. It was not meant for a rich girl and a poor boy to find happiness together. She was the granddaughter of a rich and powerful American gentleman, and he – the son of a nearly-penniless British Engineer who lacked a formal education. She was waited on hand and foot, treated like a queen, and he was struggling to work through his time-consuming day job, all-the-while formulating and building his peculiar contraptions.
And yet, it is she who is fascinated by him.
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