Author's Notes: Ah, my kind of romance – an epileptic seizure, tears, and exceptance.
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"Chloe?"
An exasperated sigh came from the helmeted girl beside him. Her hands were a blur over the keyboard of her laptop, eyes focused on the computer screen. He didn't know what she was doing. Bobby didn't want to know, really. With Chloe, sometimes it was better not to ask any questions. But when she'd told him she needed him for an experiment, he got nervous.
"Yes, Bobby?" her voice was awesome music to his ears. But also, scary music to his ears. The element of danger was yet another reason to think she was cool.
"Is this gonna, I dunno, hurt or somethin'?"
"Possibly," she replied. "It depends." She handed him a small box, containing two contact lenses. "Put these in. Quickly."
If anyone else had said that to Bobby, he'd have punched them or refused outright. But he trusted Chloe. Maybe it wasn't the smartest thing he'd ever done, yet he couldn't find it in his heart to refuse her anything. No one in his whole life had been so interested in him – in who he was, not just what a bully he was. His parents hated him. Bobby knew he'd been sent to camp just to get rid of him for a couple weeks. When Chloe talked to him, he felt… well, wanted.
Chloe had never met anyone who believed, truly and deeply, that she was an alien. Bobby knew she was telling the truth. He didn't doubt her even for a second. He didn't make fun of her for being extraterrestrial. He cheered her on, and told her she was too awesome to be human. It was enough to make her cry if she thought about it for long enough. Bobby was perfect for her. Perfect to her.
"Focus on the screen," she told him, looking stern. "Don't look away." He nodded.
A sequence of flashing lights hit his eyes. Red and blue, flashing twenty times per second. His eyes got wide and his fists clenched. She felt her heart skip a beat and moved to catch him just as his knees gave way and he collapsed. Sighing, she put the computer on standby and held him. Her hands stroked the fuzzy poof of his hair. Oh, Bobby. Sometimes she wished she had someone else to experiment on – it hurt her to see him like this. At the same time, it deeply touched her. Who else would do this for her? Even though he knew how wrong these things could go, he never even hesitated.
"Oh, Bobby," she whispered, a few tears slipping down her cheeks, "For an Earthling, you are amazing."
