A/N: I am completely floored as I'm writing this because right now, thanks to all of you, I have over 100 reviews for a story that only has 8 chapters. I never imagined that this story would get as much attention as it has and this is now my most reviewed story. As a writer I'm just happy people are reading it, but the fact that people are not only reading but reviewing so much is...wow. I don't even know what to say. Thank you all so much for the support! Meanwhile, as you all noticed in the last chapter Ryan is back! I'm not sure who's happier to see him: y'all or Kelsi, haha. One rose in this chapter - was originally going to be two roses, but it ended up being 9 pages in Microsoft Word and the second explanation isn't even done. Thought that was too long for one chapter so I decided to break it up. The good news about that is that since the next chapter is pretty much done, the next update should be really soon. I liked writing Haley, with her massive crush on Ryan, so much in chapter 5 that I decided to write a special scene for her in this chapter that I think is pretty cute. Hope you all like this chapter!


"You made it," Kelsi sighed happily, leaning back against him.

"Of course I did," Ryan said, giving her a gentle squeeze. "I wasn't going to go through all of that and not see you today."

"Oh Ryan," she whispered, turning in his arms just enough to be able to bring her mouth to his. She managed to finish turning around to face him while still kissing him. She pulled back after a long moment to look at him, letting out a squeal as she literally hopped back into his arms. "You're really here!"

"Geez Kelsi," he chuckled, as she started more or less covering his face with kisses. "Would it kill you to show some kind of enthusiasm?" She giggled in response.

"You are absolutely amazing." She paused to kiss his cheek again. "All the letters." Another kiss. "All the roses." Another kiss, this time on his other cheek. "And our friends and families." Another one. "This is the most incredible thing anyone has ever done for me and I love you." Another one. "I love you." Another one. "I love you." Another one. "I love you."

"I love you too baby," he said softly.

"I know," she said in response, beaming at him. "How could I not know after today? Not just today but everyday. How'd I get so lucky?"

"That's something I ask myself every single day," he smiled at her. "I'm the lucky one here."

"I think I beg to differ," she argued, leaning in to kiss him on his lips. The kiss was sweet and lingered for several moments. When it ended, he opened his mouth to say something but she shook her head. "I'm not done with you yet," she murmured, kissing him again. This one slowly built up in intensity and she was rewarded when she heard him moan softly as he pressed her against the railing. "Thank you for today," she somehow muttered against his lips. The kiss lingered until they had to pull away to get some air. "I think you were about to say something else before I cut you off," she said softly.

"Um...yeah..." he said slowly, blinking.

"What was it?" she asked gently.

"I have no idea," he admitted, his brow furrowed. He gave her a mock stern look. "No fair, Kelsi. You can't kiss me like that and than expect me to remember my original thought."

"Sorry," she giggled.

"Dang it...what was I going to say?" he muttered, more to himself than to her.

"Was it about this?" she asked, moving her new purple rose into his line of vision.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Thank you." He studied the rose for several moments and then focused his gaze on her. "The purple rose, like the other colors, has a lot of meanings associated with it. I could probably apply them all to you, but I'm just going to focus on three. The first of those is royalty."

"Royalty?" she asked, wrinkling her nose at him. "How in the world can you associate me with royalty? I'm about as far from royal as you can get."

"When me and Sharpay were growing up, she always loved watching all of the princess movies. She would get so caught up in the idea of princes and princesses and knights and dragons. She liked to pretend that she was a princess and believed that she should be treated like one," he grinned. "Something that stayed with her as we grew up."

"Every girl wants to be treated like a princess," Kelsi said, thoughtfully. "Of course, some girls can get a little carried away."

"Like my sister at times," he nodded. "That was one of her favorite games. She'd be the princess and I'd get stuck in the dual role of knight and dragon a lot of the time. Usually whenever she had no one else to play her game with."

"So what, you'd slay yourself?" she asked, amused.

"In a matter of speaking. Not the easiest thing in the world to do," he informed her.

"I would imagine not," she chuckled.

"Not my favorite game to play, I have to admit. But when I got older, I started thinking that she had a point. About the whole being treated like a princess thing, that is. Maybe I didn't think of it in quite the same way...in her world, being treated like a princess meant being waited on hand and foot. It meant that her prince would do whatever it was that she wanted, whether he wanted to or not. If he didn't, she'd throw one of her classic temper tantrums. It all revolved around her in a way that was entirely selfish." He paused. "To be fair to my sister, though, in the past few years her definition of being treated like a princess has changed. Now we're kind of on the same page."

"And what page would that be?" Kelsi wanted to know.

"Well...in a perfect fairytale world, both the man and the woman would treat the other one like a prince or princess. It's not about being treated well; it's about treating well...if that makes any sense. Like if they each put the other one first, than they both get taken care of. It's not about seeing yourself as a prince or princess; it's about seeing the other person as a prince or princess, even if they about as far from being one as someone can get. It's about holding the other person in high esteem and looking at them in the same way you'd look at a precious jewel," he explained.

"Kind of like how Zeke looks at Sharpay," Kelsi smiled.

"And how I look at you," Ryan said softly. "Only unlike my sister, who took a while to realize that she had that with Zeke, I figured it out pretty quickly. You were always special, even before we started dating. In fact...do you know why I went through all that trouble during our senior year?" He went on before she could answer. "It's because I always knew how precious you were, and I knew that if I was ever going to have a chance of deserving you that I would have to work for it. Kind of like how the prince always has to fight off some kind of monster or villain before he can get his girl. I associate royalty with you because I want you to feel like a princess. My beautiful, precious princess. I don't always do the best job at it, but it doesn't change the way I see you. I want you to look at that rose and know that there couldn't be anything more precious and valuable to me than you."

"Oh Ryan," she sniffled, leaning up to brush her lips against his.

"So that's meaning number one," he said, changing gears. "Meaning number two...the purple rose is often used to symbolize love at first sight. And I have to admit that I never really believed in that before. Attraction at first sight, absolutely. Lust, definitely. But love? Real love? I had my doubts about that one." He smiled at her. "Until I saw you. I can't even describe what I felt when I saw you for the first time. I'd had girlfriends and crushes before, but I had never felt anything like that in my life. I had absolutely no idea what it was for a long time. I guess you could say that it took my head a while to catch up with my heart." He chuckled. "Do you know when I finally figured it out?" Kelsi shook her head, ignoring the tears in her eyes. "The summer after our junior year when I thought you were dating Jason." Kelsi felt her eyes nearly bug out of her head.

"Me and Jason?" she asked, surprised. "We never dated."

"You guys seemed like you were spending an awful lot of time together..."

"He's practically my brother." She made a face at him. "We hung out a lot, sure, but only because we had a couple of classes together where we always seemed to be stuck together for projects. We got close and all but not like that!"

"Hey, I wasn't the only one who thought that you two were dating," he countered.

"Who else?"

"Almost everyone...except for Sharpay, oddly enough," he replied. "All I know is that I saw the two of you together and wanted to go over and punch his lights out. And," he added, his eyes twinkling, "I believe there was a point where Martha was having visions of heading over and pulling your hair out too."

"Oh honestly," Kelsi laughed, shaking her head. "Did it occur to either one of you to ask us if we were dating?"

"Of course not. That would've only been logical," he grinned. "We figured it out soon enough. And in any event, seeing you so close with another guy was enough to finally make me realize what it was that I felt for you. I had been hopelessly in love with you since the moment I saw you and was too stupid to know it. I should almost thank Jason, actually. Without him, who knows how long it would've taken me to figure it out. And once I did, there was no going back. After all," his voice grew tender, "you had my heart from that first moment even if I didn't know it. Which brings me to the last thing that this rose symbolizes...enchantment. Kelsi...I am totally enchanted by you. It's not just the things you do; it's the way you do them. You know, the way you move...the way you play the piano...the way you talk..."

"Oh Ryan," she whispered.

"The way you say my name," he smiled. "The way you smile..." He brought his hands to her face and started gently brushing away her tears with his thumbs. "The way you laugh...the way you cry when you're happy...The way you love me...the way you love your friends and your family...The way you do everything. You have me completely under your spell and you don't even know it. I don't think there's anything or anyone that could break it, which is great for me because I'm perfectly happy being under it. You're like my own, personal, princess slash enchantress and I wouldn't have it any other way."

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Several minutes later.

"We should go inside."

"I like being out here with you," she said, in protest.

"It's freezing and you're shivering," he pointed out.

"Hold me closer then," she suggested.

"I don't think that's physically possible," he said, with a laugh. "I'm holding you as tightly as I can while still letting you breathe. You're also wearing my coat and you're still shivering. Time to go inside," he eased back to look at her. "Besides there's other people here who are probably getting annoyed with me for hogging the birthday girl. Especially since there's currently a party going on without us and you're kind of the guest of honor." Kelsi waved a hand in dismissal.

"It's also Valentine's Day and everyone is probably hanging out with their spouse," she reminded him. "Well not Haley and Ms. Darbus, but everyone else."

"Well that's true," he agreed. "But even so...it's still your party."

"Then I should be able to do what I want," she shot back, smiling sweetly at him. "Right?"

"So what, you want to freeze to death out here?" he teased her.

"I just want to be with you," she told him.

"You'll still be with me," he said, softly. "You'll just be with me inside where it's nice and warm."

"Nice and warm does sound good," she admitted.

"Yeah...nice and warm and surrounded by people who love you. Sounds pretty good to me too," he nodded. "Besides...don't you want your next rose? I did promise you twenty five, after all, and there's still two left. Both of which are inside."

"Okay, okay...we'll go inside," she agreed. "But at some point tonight I want to have you all to myself again."

"You will," he promised.

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The party was going on full swing by the time Ryan and Kelsi made it back to the group. The scene made Kelsi smile. The room was currently full of all of her favorite people, all of them looking like they were having a good time. She spotted Haley as the girl made her way towards them.

"Hey Kelsi," Haley started. "I'd love to stay longer, but I'm meeting a few friends over to watch some movies. We made the plans a while ago...before I knew about this party or I'd stay..." She looked nervous and Kelsi smiled gently at her.

"No worries, Haley. Thanks for coming," Kelsi said, stepping forward to give her a hug.

"Happy birthday Kelsi," Haley said brightly. She glanced over at Ryan shyly. "Thanks for letting me be a part of everything..."

"There was no way I could've left you out," he said warmly, making her blush and lower her gaze to the floor. Ryan studied the teenager for a moment. "Hey...before you go...do you want to dance?"

"Really?" Haley's head shot up so fast that it was comical. "You'd dance with me?"

"Sure."

"Really?" Haley asked again, sounding absolutely delighted at the idea. She turned her focus to Kelsi. "Is that okay? I mean it is your birthday and he is your boyfriend and all that..."

"I don't mind," Kelsi assured her, trying not to laugh at Haley's enthusiasm. "But just one," she added, in a mock stern voice. Ryan held out his hand to Haley, who barely suppressed a squeal as she took it and let him lead her out to the middle of the room.

"I think it's safe to say that this has officially just become the best Valentine's Day of Haley's life," Gabriella decided, with a grin, as she made her way over to stand beside Kelsi. "She's gotten to dance with all of our guys and I think she has a small crush on each of them. Ryan is still her favorite though. Her crush on him is so cute."

"It is," Kelsi smiled. She watched as Ryan twirled Haley around the makeshift dance floor, occasionally spinning her around which always seemed to set off a burst of giggles from the teenager. When the song ended, Ryan pulled up Haley's hand to kiss it. For a brief moment it looked as if Haley was literally about to pass out from the shock of it.

"I feel really bad for her friends now," Gabriella chuckled, still standing by Kelsi. "She's going to be talking about that kiss all night." Haley practically bounced back over to them.

"Oh Kelsi," she whispered. "You are the luckiest girl in the world. He twirled me," she said dreamily. "I've never been twirled before!" She let out a squeal, causing Gabriella to nearly choke on the drink she had just taken a sip out of. "And he kissed my hand! I am never washing this hand ever again," she announced, holding it up in reverence. Kelsi's lip twitched as Gabriella fought valiantly to keep from laughing. Haley gave Kelsi a sheepish smile. "Sorry...I know he's your boyfriend, but I can't help it."

"Ryan does tend to have that affect on people," Kelsi nodded. "Don't worry about it." She walked Haley to the door and gave her another hug goodbye before returning to Gabriella, who by then had been joined by Ryan. "You are quite possibly the sweetest guy on the planet. You do realize that."

"It was just a dance," he said, looking slightly bewildered. "One dance. You'd think I asked her to marry me or something the way she was acting. But...it was just a dance."

"Yes, but you twirled her. She had never been twirled before," Gabriella giggled. "The way she talked about it made it sound like the highlight of her life."

"No, Gabriella, I think the highlight of her life was the kiss," Kelsi grinned. "Twirling her and then kissing her on the hand? Were you trying to kill her?"

"Hey, is it my fault I'm so irresistible to women?" Ryan joked. He then shrugged. "It's Valentine's Day...every girl should feel special."

"Speaking of special," Zeke piped up as he joined them. "Don't you have another rose to give to our birthday girl?"

"That I do," Ryan nodded. "Nice transition into that, by the way."

"I'm like the king of transitions today," Zeke informed him. "Right Kelsi?" he added, giving her a wink. Kelsi giggled.

"Oh yes," she said, seriously. "All hail the king of transitions."