Danny was more cheerful the following day. I mean, he's a pretty cheerful guy in general, but you should have seen him! He was all grins and laughs, and it took me hours to get him to stop skipping around like a little girl. He kept hugging me tightly, so tight that he made it hard for me to breath because my lungs couldn't expand any as I inhaled. He apologized after, but then would soon resume skipping around. He was that joyous, that happy to know his father was still alive. It made me kind of...

Jealous?

No, no. That's not the right word. I wasn't jealous over the fact that Danny's dad was alive. I've already made peace with the fact that I would never see my family again until I died and joined them in the Underworld. I guess I felt more...

Unimportant.

I had never been able to get Danny that happy before. Never had I made him so happy that he would skip around wherever he went. I had never been able to get him to grin or smile nonstop for six hours. He hadn't held me as much as he had the day after we learned his father was alive any of the days before. He hadn't given my cheeks as many small kisses as he had that day after we learned his father was alive. And that just made me feel...

Saddened, I guess. I don't know why. It just made me feel that way. Danny didn't seem to notice though, but that was okay. I wasn't very important. He was more important than me. He was happy, ecstatic with the knowledge of his family. I was happy, too, because he was happy.

... Wasn't I?

I don't think I was. I mean, I tried to be as ecstatic as he was about the whole thing, but I couldn't be. I kept thinking... Why couldn't that be me? Why did Danny's life have to be so much better than mine, even with what had happened the eleven years he had been away from his dad? He had family. I... I didn't.

I tried not to cry. I really did. Danny didn't seem to notice me wiping away my tears. I was okay with that, though. I didn't want him to notice. If he did, he wouldn't be happy anymore. He'd be concerned about me, and I didn't want him to be. I was being childish. I wanted my Mom. I wanted her to hold me again like she had used to hold me before she had died. Why couldn't I have that? Was it too bad of me to ask for my Mom back in my life, like Adam was in Danny's?

I really tried for him to not notice that I was crying. I really did. I took a two hour long shower and everything to escape Danny for a few moments and to calm myself. I cried as I did. I couldn't help it. I tried not to, but I did. I just wanted my Mom back. Why couldn't I have her back?

After my shower, I hid myself in my books. My books always helped me, especially the fairy tales. The Grimm ones. Those ones were always good. They were more realistic than the Disney ones, because nobody got a "Happily Ever After". They got a "Dead After All That Crap That Happened" story line, and the girl was never happy. Or they were happy for a few moments before turning into complete snobs and trying to kill everyone. And for some reason I liked that. Maybe not for some reason, since I do know the reason I like them. It's because they're worse off than I am. Everybody is. Or they're meaner than I am and get all the good stuff, while the people nicer than me get tossed into the dumps. Cinderella met her Charming, but he ran off with the snob sisters. Ariel lost her voice for Eric, but he ran off with his mistress and left her to rot alone as a human with no voice, putting silent crying to a literal term since she could utter no sound. It made me feel... better.

I sort of wished I was like those girls, or that my story was told, because I felt like those girls. I felt like my life was just another story written by the hands of the Grimm brothers. Why did I feel that way? I don't know. Maybe because I felt like Danny's ecstatic state would turn to betrayal as I read the Grimm stories. I don't know why I thought that. I really don't. I was just... really sad right then, you know? I couldn't help the thoughts that I was thinking. I couldn't help the tears that were leaking. I couldn't help the silent beating, telling me what to do and what to stop seeing. I couldn't help any of it. I was lost in my own thoughts, my thoughts of heartbreaks and heartbeats. I was lost in my fountains, flowing tears of those very hearts- I was thinking about. And I told myself to not think about them, but I couldn't. I pummeled myself mentally to try and get the thoughts to stop, but they wouldn't.

Danny finally seemed to notice my seclusion after an hour of me reading from my book of the Grimm brothers' work. I had begun to draw out the story of Little Red when he came into the Hypnos cabin's walk-in closet, which is where I was reading my book mounted on a pile of spare blankets and pillows. He gave me this weird look when he saw me reading and drawing in there, and he took a seat beside me as I finished drawing the wolf devouring Red's Grandma. He eyed the drawing for a little while, and I could tell he was feeling a bit uneasy, so I flipped it over. He seemed less tense at that until he read a couple of the words on the page that I was using to help me draw out Red's story.

"Love... are you alright?" He asked me after a few moments. I nodded silently, beginning to draw on the clean side of my paper. He watched me for a little while again before speaking once more. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." I responded quietly.

Danny furrowed his brows. "You don't look alright."

"Well... I am."

Danny sighed. "I'm sorry..."

I furrowed my brows this time and looked up at him. "For what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"Yes I have."

"Well... What did you do wrong?"

"... I don't know."

I couldn't help but to chuckle at that. I lifted a hand and brushed some hair out of my face. "Then you don't have anything to be sorry for, sweetie."

He smiled when I chuckled. "Are you sure there's nothing for me to be sorry for?"

I nodded. "I'm sure."

Danny suddenly got a mischievous glint in his eyes. "Positive? Because I'm about to do something, and you're probably not going to like it. But I'm not going to be terribly sorry about it, because it might make you laugh, and I love hearing your laugh."

My eyebrows furrowed more. "What are y-"

I yelped as he suddenly started to tickle me, and I tried to fight him off before I started laughing. Danny was too eager to tickle me, though, so it made it impossible for me to get away from him or for me to get him away from me, and I started to laugh. Danny grinned widely as I squirmed under his hands and laughed as he quickly poked around my sides and tickled me. Danny straddled me on the pile of blankets and pillows to keep my lower half from squirming as he tickled me, making it easier for him and harder for me to attempt at getting away. He kept tickling me until I started to hiccup, something that happens to me if I laugh for too long and too hard, and his grin only widened when I started to do so.

"St-stop!" I laughed, hiccuping.

"Nope!" Danny laughed, still tickling me. "Say you love me, first! You haven't all day. Say it!"

Him telling me to say it made me not want to, and I shook my head, still laughing and trying to get his hands away from me. "N-no! St-stop first!" I hiccuped.

"More tickles!"

I squeaked as he started to tickle me more, and tried to grab my book of Grimm fairy tales to use it to block him from tickling me, but once Danny saw me reaching for it, he grabbed it, pausing in his tickling to move it away from me. He closed my book and set it down on a shelf before grinning down at me. I had managed to calm down my laughter, but I was still hiccuping. I squeaked when he moved his hands to tickle me again, but much to my gratitude, he didn't resume tickling me, more so just hovered his hands above my sides.

"Say you love me." He said, still grinning widely.

I shook my head, giggling a little. "Yo-you're going to tick-tickle me again!"

"I won't if you tell me you love me!"

I shook my head once more, and Danny's grin slowly fell. He sighed, leaning down and giving my forehead a small kiss before sitting back up straight. "I respect your decision, then, love." He murmured before getting off of me.

I bit my lip, still hiccuping occasionally as Danny sat down on the pile of blankets beside me. I watched him pick up the book he would always ask me to read to him, his most favorite from my collection, my book of Disney fairy tales, and watched him as he tried to read it, the first time I had ever seen him read. He appeared to keep getting stuck on a word, even though most of them were simple words that all elementary grade and beyond people could read. I sat up and, still hiccuping, gave him a small kiss on the cheek. Danny turned his head and looked at me with his frustratingly deep blue eyes, confusion clear on his face. I tried giving him a small smile, but he didn't smile back. I let my smile fall, and I sighed. Standing up, I left the closet and went to our bed, climbing in under the covers to try and take a nap, hoping it would help me clear my still full and slightly- foggy mind a bit more than reading he Grimm stories had.

Just when I was about to fall asleep, my hiccups gone, Danny joined me in our bed, shaking it slightly as he climbed in, startling me back to be fully awake again. I rolled over to see Danny staring up at the ceiling as he laid with me, the back of his left hand on his forehead. He had put a couple of inches between us, so when I rolled over his elbow only slightly grazed my forehead. Danny didn't seem to notice, or he just didn't care. Whatever the case, he didn't move after I had rolled over. He didn't even glance at me, and it made me want to cry again. And I started to, too. I couldn't help it, just like how I couldn't help my earlier tears. I rolled back over to be facing away from Danny as I cried, removing my pillow from underneath my head and hugging it, crying into it so Danny wouldn't hear me. He never liked it when I cried. I never liked it when I cried. It was stupid. It made me weak, or at least weaker than I already was. It was just proof that I wasn't strong enough to not cry. It put nasty thoughts into my mind every time I did cry, thoughts like Danny shouldn't want to marry me, because I was too weak to be strong enough for him to not cry.

"Ty?" Danny asked in concern after awhile. I buried my face in my pillow, trying to pretend to be asleep, but unable to as I cried. The bed dipped as Danny rolled onto his side, bringing up a hand and rubbing my arm. "Love, are you alright?" I stayed silent, save for my muffled sobs into the pillow, and Danny sighed. "Please, Ty. Can you please tell me what's wrong? Was it something I did?"

I shook my head, not removing my face from where it was at in my pillow. "N-no."

"Then why won't you tell me that you love me?" He asked softly, moving my hair away from my face to lightly run his thumb across the bit of my cheek that was exposed. I didn't respond to him, and he sighed. "Would you like me to hold you?"

Again, I didn't respond, trying to gather my thoughts so that I could try and speak to him, to try and tell him what was wrong, even though I didn't know the reason, or at least I didn't think I knew the reason as to why I was crying. But I took too long to try and respond to Danny, and he sighed once more, removing his warm fingers from my cheek.

"You don't want to marry me." He murmured more than asked. "That's it, right? You know you could have just said no yesterday, right? You didn't have to say yes, love. I would have understood..."

I blinked and quickly shook my head, horrified that he would think that. Removing my face from the pillow, I finally spoke. "N-no. That's not it a-at all, Danny."

"Then why won't you tell me you love me?"

"I... I don't know. I just... I-I don't feel t-too well." I told him, wiping at my eyes. I guess that was why I was crying... I mean, I didn't feel too well. I didn't know what was wrong, but I didn't feel well. That's all I knew. But I hadn't realized that until I had said that. Earlier I had been fine, I think, but once I said that I wasn't feeling well, I suddenly wanted to do nothing but lie in bed, sleep, and probably throw up, too.

Danny grabbed my arm gently and semi-forced me to roll over and face him. He had a small frown on his face as he removed the pillow from my arms, bringing up a hand to fell my forehead. His frown deepened. "Love... you feel really warm. I think you might be sick."

Okay... I wasn't the only one to have suddenly noticed my not-feeling well. Danny would have noticed when he had kissed my forehead in the closet, but he must not have been paying any attention, then. But then again, maybe I wasn't really sick. Maybe I was only warm because I was crying. That happened to me, sometimes. Sometimes when I cried my face would turn red because I was crying too hard. Or maybe my brain was trying to convert my inner turmoil, my desire to have my mom back, into something physical. Emotionally, I had felt sick all day. Maybe my brain was making me actually sick because I was so emotionally sick of everything that day. That seemed like the best reason. So I wasn't actually sick. It was just... the brains power over the body, I guess.

Shaking my head, I told him I wasn't sick, because I knew I wasn't, because of my quick deductions. I just felt sick. Danny appeared confused by my conclusion, but stopped trying to convince me that I had a fever. He did, however, press the matter of my verbal communication.

"Can you please tell me why you haven't told me that you love me today?" My fiance asked, gently wiping my tears away from my face.

"I-i-it has nothing to do w-with you."

"Are you sure...?"

"I-I'm sure."

"Then can you please tell me that you love me? It makes me feel like I've done something wrong when you don't tell me that..."

The way he trailed off, I knew he was thinking about when I had made us become only friends after he had snapped in the Medical Building, and I knew he was mentally beating himself up over it once more. So I nodded before letting in a shuddering breath. "I l-love you, Danny. S-so much. I-it... th-this has n-nothing to do w-with wh-whether or not I-I want to m-marry you, because I d-do. I-I really do w-want to marry you. B-but A-Adam..." I trailed off, unsure of how to continue telling Danny why I was crying so much, why I had secluded myself in my cabin's closet.

"Is it because I keep talking about my father?" Danny asked, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Is that why you're cr-"

"No!" I suddenly shouted, startling Danny. He blinked his deep blue eyes in shock, and I let in a shuddering breath before speaking. "I-i-it's because y-you get to h-have your father a-at our w-wedding, a-and I-I-"

"You want your mom to be there, too." Danny murmured softly in understanding. He knew about my mom, that I had lost her when I was seven years old, the age Danny was when he was taken away from his father. He knew the story behind her death, too, and that even now, at the age of nineteen, twelve years after she had died, I was still mourning over her death. But that story, for you guys, is for another time. Now... I just want to stay with this, what happened the day after we had contacted Danny's father.

Nodding, I sniffed and wiped at my eyes, trying not to cry more. "I-I want my mom, Danny. I-it isn't f-fair. Wh-why can't she s-see us g-get married, t-too?"

My fiance sighed softly and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him and holding me close as I cried. He didn't respond to my mournful question as he began to hum softly, rubbing my back as I buried my face in his shirt. Danny sat up as he held me, making me sit up as well as I continued to cry.

"It's okay, love," Danny murmured as he rubbed my back.. "Everything will be okay. You'll see her again one day. But for now, stay happy for me, okay? I'm sure she would have loved to be there, but I'm also sure she would love for you to enjoy the moments you have."

I let in a shuddering breath and nodded to his words, but didn't try to respond. Danny gave the top of my head a small kiss and pulled me closer to him until I was curled up in his lap. He continued to hum and hold me, and I started to feel better. I wasn't feeling unimportant anymore. Danny... he always had a way of making me feel that way, had a way of making me feel important and loved, and I loved it. I was glad I had Danny there with me. He knew how to make me feel better, no matter what. And... I was glad I was going to marry him, no matter now long it took until we actually said our vows and were officially bonded together. I mean... we already were, through our love for each other, but... not in the eyes of the government. I wanted that to happen, because... well... Danny was my one true love. I loved him with all my heart, and he loved me with all his heart, I'm sure of it. I mean, there was nothing he did that could possibly say otherwise. We made each other happy. It was only right that we were to be married in the next year or two, depending on how slow we wanted to take things. The happiness might not last long, but it might last longer than long. I don't know. It was all just a matter that only time could tell. But I'm sure whatever the story it wanted to write for the two of us, for Danny and I, it would be well worth the clocks time.