Waited So Long
by
Disclaimer: Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't own them, or the wonderful song that accompanies this fic. The characters, settings, etc, are Jason Katims, etc, and the song belongs to 98 degrees. (The song is 'I Do [Cherish You]')
Summary: Those three famous words. Michael Guerin and Maria DeLuca. Pointless M&M fluff.
Rating: G
It's funny, how you realize how much you love someone during the small moments, the quiet times, rather than during the frantic, often life-endangering missions that being an alien necessitates.
We weren't doing anything special, just hanging out at my place. Of course, her mother thought we were at the movies and the mall, but sometimes white lies are a necessary evil. After all we'd been through lately, we needed the cuddle time.
We had some chick flick on the television, I don't really know what, because I wasn't watching the screen. I was watching Maria. Honestly, in moments like these, she can look more beautiful than anything I've ever seen.
She was curled up to my side, leaning her head on my shoulder, her curls trailing down my chest. She was watching the movie a little, she probably knew what it was called, which was more than I could claim, but most of the time, it looked like she was off in space, remembering something, or thinking about something.
When she looks up at me, and smiles, I can't remember why I ever thought I needed more than Maria in my life to be happy.
All I am, all I'll be
Everything in this world
All that I'll ever need
Is in your eyes
Shining at me
When you smile I can feel
All my passion unfolding
She reaches over, and takes my hand, rubbing it soothingly, just a little, barely enough to feel. I clench her slender hand in my larger one, giving her one of my rare smiles.
I grew up in a house where affection for anything except a beer bottle didn't exist. At Max and Isabel's, I learned what love was, but I always felt like the outsider. They had so much I didn't, it made me feel odd.
That all stopped when I fell in love with Maria DeLuca.
Your hand brushes mine
And a thousand sensations
Seduce me 'cause I
She's the most special thing that has ever graced my life. She can certainly take me down a peg or two, teach me a lesson when I need it, and she knows how to get under my skin, though I never let her see that.
But when I just let myself love her, and let her love me, I get this warm feeling of being safe. Of being cared for and of always having a place to go. I can't imagine ever feeling this way about another person.
I do cherish you
For the rest of my life
You don't have to think twice
I will love you still
For a long time, especially where it concerned Max and Liz, I didn't believe in soul-deep love. I thought they had a lot of puppy-love and angst. Couple that with the fact that Max saved Liz's life, and you had one messed-up relationship.
Again, as it always seems to, it took Maria to change my outlook on that particular fact of life.
I've never said 'the words'. I know that someday, I'm going to have to summon up all my courage, and spit them out, because goodness knows, I feel them. But for now, I think we both know how each other feels.
Maria looks up into my eyes, and in that second, I know that she feels my love for her. Because I have never felt her love for me more strongly.
From the depths of my soul
It's beyond my control
I've waited so long to say this to you
If you're asking do I love you this much
I do
For most of my life, after cracking out of the cocoon, I kept people, things, life at a distance. And after I learned of my true heritage, it never occurred to me that I could be happy living a life here on Earth, among humans, in love with a human.
But a path home is looking less and less likely, and my love for this place, this little world with their human wonders, and Maria, is growing by the day. I think I could be happy here, if I just let myself.
I've never had a direction. I was sure that I would go 'home' someday, to another planet, but I never looked for a way to make it happen. Sure, I would develop my powers and play at looking for clues, but I didn't have a goal. My life plans went up to 'Get off this planet', and then it didn't go any further.
In my world, before you
I lived outside my emotions
Didn't know where I was going
'Til that day I found you
Slowly, I've begun to see that there's more to life than getting away from this planet. That I could be happy here, that I don't need to fly away in a UFO to fit in. I have friends, people who care for me, and though I will always be different, it isn't a bad thing.
And Maria opened my eyes to this as surely as if she had walked up and pulled my eyelids apart.
How you opened my life
To a new paradise
In a world torn by change
Still with all my heart
'Til my dying day
I don't know what will happen to me and Maria. I'm alien, she's human. I might live to be three thousand, for all I know, she might die in a car accident tomorrow. I've always been a brooder, I can't help thinking that way.
But I'm going to make the most of what we have, and I'm going to love her for as long as I live.
I sincerely hope that she never has to doubt that fact.
I do cherish you
For the rest of my life
You don't have to think twice
I will love you still
From the depths of my soul
I look down at her, and find that she is just watching me, silently, the movie forgotten. And suddenly, I'm ready. I'm scared, but I know she feels the same, so I am full of loving courage.
I look deep into her eyes, and murmur softly the words that I know she has waited long to hear, and that I have waited long to say.
"Maria DeLuca, I love you," I tell her, and her eyes tear up, and a happy smile crosses her face. She buries her head in my shoulder, and whispers back,
"And I'm crazily in love with you, Michael Guerin."
I've waited so long to say this to you
If you're asking do I love you this much
I do