About Freakin' Time
by silver dream
author's note: hello everyone. i'm pretty much dead. this may, in fact, be the only writing from me you'll EVER get from now until forever. sorry. haha. um, you can basically take this piece as a parody of cliché cornelia/caleb 'i love you' moments, or you can be like me and take it for what it is. just a plain ol' humorous story, set sometime after phobos is taken out, in which cornelia hale and caleb (insert-last name-here) complain about and finally say those three, teeny tiny words: i love you.
disclaimer: i do not own w.i.t.c.h. or anything associated with it.
It wasn't difficult at all, really.
All he had to do was say—no, not even say, mutter, really—three teeny, tiny words… Harmless words, in fact, if directed at the right person. And, believe me, Cornelia was definitely the right person. The only person Caleb should be saying 'I love you' to.
But, was he? If you want the god-honest truth—no.
And, why not? Cornelia had absolutely no idea. She had laid out everything precisely as her girly magazines said to (page 32. Article: How To Get Him To Commit of the I Love You addition), so why wasn't anything working?
God, it was infuriating.
What was she going to have to do? Show up in Meridian wearing a French maid's costume? Like she'd actually stoop that low and actually do that… um, well, do you think that'd actually get him to—ugh, no.
Cornelia, placing her chin into the palm of her hand, was completely and positively stooped. Caleb had to be the most confusing boy on the planet. Oh, and Meridian. So, technically, Caleb was the most confusing boy on two separate planets.
See, now she was confusing herself by trying to figure out how confusing he was.
Cornelia sighed. She'd pay, in cash, to hear him say it at this point. How long had they been dating? And weren't they fated to fall in love? For Pete's sake, they'd seen each other in each other's dreams before they'd even met—if that wasn't true love, Cornelia didn't know what was.
And did he have to spend his entire life in Meridian? Phobos was gone, hello? The threat was obviously destroyed and conquered, Elyon was a big girl and could take care of herself (Cornelia knew personally) and, well… maybe, she kind of, um, missed him.
A lot.
A lot a lot.
But did that matter to him?
Of course not.
Caleb couldn't even tell her how he felt when clearly he was head-over-heels. It's not like it was a secret. Unless… oh my God, maybe it was a secret this entire time! Was their relationship supposed to be a secret, too? Why didn't he tell her—
Cornelia promptly stood, gripping the bedpost like her life simply depended on it. Which it may actually have. She felt so faint…
No. Get a hold of yourself, Hale. This was not a time for melodramatics.
Caleb could have—
Oh my God, thought Cornelia, jumping at the sound of a rhythmic knocking at her bedroom door. Impulsively, she swung the door open wide.
"What are you doing here?" demanded Cornelia, wondering if she looked like a cat that had its tail stomped on. Were the hairs on her neck standing up?
Of course, the man of the hour, Caleb, was standing before her. Looking rather… enticing. Why was he always so inexplicably on-time?
"Were you thinking about me?" asked Caleb, and Cornelia felt her body stiffen. How did he— "I sneezed three times in a row. Doesn't that mean something…?"
Cornelia visibly relaxed. Phew. So, her boyfriend wasn't a mind reader and didn't know anything about the infuriating conversation Cornelia had with herself only moments before. Good. Very good. Oh, no. Not good. How was Cornelia going to get him to say it without extrasensory perception? Telepathy sounded so good right now.
"Um, no. I wasn't thinking about you," barked Cornelia, swinging around. She glanced over her shoulder at him, in her usual manner. "Just like you don't think about me."
His face said 'Oh, here we go,' but his heart said 'Make thing right, bonehead.' Unfortunately, Cornelia couldn't exactly see what his heart was saying. Unlike his face, which everyone on that side of Heatherfield could probably see and understand the message he was trying to convey: My girlfriend is president of G.A.B. (girlfriends against boyfriends).
But, no sweat. Caleb could fix this. If anyone could fix this, it was Caleb. Right.
Keep telling yourself that, kiddo.
"I, um, brought you this—" improvised the hapless boy, patting down his jeans for something, anything, that may have been inside his pockets at the moment and, yes! Something tangible, other than lint balls!
Cornelia, on the other hand, wasn't as impressed. "Caleb, that's a knife."
"Right, a knife," repeated Caleb, lamely. "But, but, I engraved our names into it!"
"Really?" said Cornelia. Hmm. Maybe he wasn't that bad after all—
"Yeah, but hold on one second," interrupted Caleb, snatching the knife back. Okay, he just needed something sharp to scrape the metal with and a few seconds of undisturbed concentrated time and Cornelia could have a token of his love and—
Wait.
Did he just think—
Love?
Oh boy.
"Hello? Are you still with me?" snapped Cornelia, unconvinced. Men.
"Of course I'm with you," said Caleb, offering a phony grin.
Cornelia eyed him suspiciously. "Right."
Caleb twitched. Love. He had truly thought that, hadn't he? Because, well, he'd been suspecting it for a while now, and maybe, just maybe, he actually love his irrational, cantankerous girlfriend of several months now. It was quite the possibility.
…yeah, actually, it would explain a lot of his actions.
And that day he sat around doing nothing but planning out his future? Cornelia was included in a lot of that, too.
Oh, and dreams. Being in love with her would unquestionably justify a couple of those. Yeah, definitely some of those.
Caleb eyeballed Cornelia. She was hands down the prettiest girl he'd ever met. Hands down. No question about it. Even when she made that little face she only made when she was about to burst out in anger—
"Well? Are you just going to stand there or are you—"
"Cornelia!" shouted Caleb, unreasonably, at a very loud volume. But it called for it! Caleb was sure about it. He was actually in love with Cornelia this entire time. And he'd thought it was something else entirely…
Calmly, Caleb walked over and took his girlfriend's hands in his.
"Are you sick or something?" asked Cornelia in her signature tone, and, boy, was it music to his ears.
"No," answered Caleb, staring her directly in her eyes.
Cornelia, feeling a little uncomfortable, glared directly back into his. "Then, what in the world is your problem?"
Perfect moment, perfect moment, perfect moment, go for it, Caleb—
"I love you."
Cornelia blinked.
Several times, in fact.
In a quick succession.
"What did you say?"
Caleb grinned.
Cornelia didn't know how to react. She'd been complaining about it all afternoon, and BAM, there it was. In her face. And, of course, being Cornelia, she didn't know what to do when she actually got something that she grumbled about wanting.
Say something, say something, say something, perfect time to say something, Cornelia—
"Oh, my God."
Caleb scratched the back of his neck. "Not exactly the reaction I was going for."
"Give me a second, jeez," snapped Cornelia, her cheeks hot.
Wow. She let out a long, relieving sigh. It felt as if it had been inside of her for centuries, waiting to be released at this very moment, and there it was, and there it went… Wow.
"You have no idea how long I wanted to hear that," said Cornelia, eventually.
Bravely, she raised onto her tiptoes and pressed her mouth onto his.
The exchanged lasted shorter than a millisecond (okay, not literally) but had left an odd shock between the two of them. They stood in silence for a minute, evaluating the moment of intimacy, Cornelia: the surprising certainty in Caleb's confession, Caleb: the softness of Cornelia's mouth.
"I, um, I love you, too," replied Cornelia, the tips of her ears hot at this point.
Caleb grinned, this time a genuine smile, and bent down.
He covered her mouth with his, romantically sweeping his hand through her hair. It was oh-so cliché, but absolutely pleasant to the both of them.
They parted eventually and an awkward silence settled between them. Cornelia looked in the opposite direction embarrassedly. Caleb smirked—she was really cute.
Wow, thought Cornelia. They had just committed something couples everywhere dreamed of committing, just like that. Implausibly suddenly, too. Entirely unexpectedly.
And it wasn't difficult at all.
author's note: there you have it. :) if you like it, even though it's sooo dumb (and cute), review! it'll make someone happy, believe me. haha.
toodles.