4. Sunset

She curled her legs under her as she sat on the bed, staring out the window as the sun slowly, slowly disappeared behind the horizon.

Another day almost gone… Another unremarkable boring day… Another day where she thought nothing would change, she would always be stuck in this rut of pretend normalcy and feigned happiness…

She was interrupted from her musings when she heard her door open, the person entering without permission.

John was surprised to see her. "Oh, hey, I didn't think you were in here."

"It's my room," she shot back sarcastically.

He pursed his lips in annoyance but decided to not comment on her foul mood. He walked over to her, holding out a box she didn't notice before he had. "Here…I just wanted to give you this. Happy birthday…"

She looked at him strangely. "My birthday's next week…"

"Yeah…well…you know how I like to get a head start on things…" He shifted from one foot to the other, feeling uncomfortable and awkward. "Open it…whenever… I don't care… Whatever…"

He turned to leave but she stopped him, leaping out from her position on the bed. "Wait!"

"What?"

"Just wait…"

He smirked as only he could in his own bad boy kind of way. "Afraid I got you something that's going to jump out at you?"

She rolled her eyes, laughing. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking."

She started unwrapping the gift on her desk, as he stood next to her, the nervousness getting stronger and stronger with each tear. He wondered when his palms started to sweat.

When she finally managed to open the box and pull out what was hidden inside, she gasped aloud. She turned to him, eyes wide in shock, lips in the shape of a perfect 'o.' Right at that moment, she was the epitome of a deer in headlight.

He scratched the back of his head. "I…uh…thought you might like it…"

She thought she was going to cry, clutching tightly to the pink heart shaped music box to her chest. "I love it. I…I can't believe you remembered…"

"Yeah…well… It was no big deal."

Of course, he would never tell her that he had been actually listening when she told her story, that he actually felt sorry that she had to leave behind her music box when she had left home, that it had taken him five weeks of searching on the internet and in various antique stores in the city (oh, the humiliation!) to find the one she had in her hands.

He was fucking Pyro. He had a rep to protect.

She placed the box on the desk and slowly opened the lid, the tune of Für Elise drifting into the room.

"They didn't have Black Sabbath so I had to settle on that," he said jokingly, trying desperately to cover up his anxiety.

She gave him a watery smile. "That's okay. This is good too."

Then before she could even think about it or second-guess herself like she did so many times before, she stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss. She was really going to kiss his cheek…

A quick peck…

Really…

Just a quick peck…on the cheek…

Instead, their lips meet and after that…

Well, after that, they both think Beethoven wrote the best make-out music ever.