"I'm here to risk it all for love." The syllables meshed, his voice cracked with emotion and nerves and everything in him lurched. The words resonate deep in her very soul, reverberating off the insides of her brain, echoing into oblivion but never once leaving. Like chapel bells and song birds in the early morning hours, like the first light of daybreak stealing past the tiny opening in the closed curtains and dancing warmth on tired cheeks. Like magic. He waited for her reply patiently. He felt like he'd waited his entire life. And after all that waiting you'd expect him to be a patient man… but the waiting was eating him up inside. Finally her blank expression deepened into confusion.
"W-what?" She asks slowly, word slurring, a real struggle to get it out, fumbling over syllables, stammering. She was floored, to say the least. Brain activity was just too much to ask. First he shows up, then he goes and says something like that. She was confused. He'd disappeared, and she'd been worried. She'd assumed him lost and moved on. And now, finally when she was getting on with her life… here he was.
"Well," He says, trying to play it cool, to act natural. "I saved the world, now I want to get the girl." He explains. Again, her expression goes blank. How was she supposed to react? What was she supposed to say? What was he saying? God, confusion didn't even come close to the feeling rising in her. Fury, mixed with love, and worry, and angst, and everything and it was all just running together into one big emotional mess.
"I can't. I-I c-ca—," He cuts her off with one of his fingers pressed lightly against her lips and a soft, yet firm,
"Shh." And she was silent. And he was too, and their eyes met. They seemed to be trying to read lifes very meaning in each others eyes, both their gazes so intense. Her eyes two emerald pools of doubt swirled with pain, and love, and a fair amount of weariness. His deep brown storm clouds claimed by the temptress of depression long before her time, and his too are filled with love and pain and weariness.
"I don't know what to do." She finally finds the strength to speak again. The words catch in her throat, she's nervous as ever, her hands suddenly clinging to him. "I-I don't know w-what to do." She croaks again, repeating herself just because she needs to. She really doesn't know what to do. She sounds terrible and she's sure she looks terrible too.
But he's smiling down at her as if the world were a wonderful place, and he thinks she's the most beautiful girl in the world, and that her voice is the sweetest symphony God ever graced the Earth with, even when it's filled with teary emotion.
"H-how are you so sure?" She stammers. She sounds angry now. She's angry with him for seeming so calm. She's angry at him for not being as unwound as she is. She holds tighter to him, holding on with everything in her.
But he just keeps smiling calmly. "Shh," He soothes again, large hands slowly cupping her cheeks. He's gentle, as if she's glass. As if she's the most fragile thing in the world. It makes her feel special… loved. "I'm sure because you make me that way. I know that I want to be with you. I know that I can't spend the rest of my life with anyone else. And I know it'll be hard, I know that. But I know that it'll be worth it." He explains, his voice is soft and gentle. He isn't forcing these feelings on her; he knows she feels the same. She's just young, and she's so tired. She just needs him to guide her, just a little bit.
"Oh, Angel." Is all she manages to murmur, burying her face in his chest.
"Ioniun," He whispers the Gaelic word softly into her hair, his hands holding her, stroking her golden tresses and her back. "My beloved." His voice is low, as if speaking loudly would shatter this moment and leave him back in his old dank room. As if speaking loudly would break this reality and send him reeling back into last year, or the year before that, or any year that passed by without her in his arms. "It's all going to be alright now." He assures her.
And she knows. She knows he's telling the truth, because he would never lie to her.