Yo. XP

...

Later that day, Danny and I were in each other's arms, not wanting either of us to let the other go. I mean... I guess I was wanting him to let me go a little, since he hadn't released me for even a second, and it had been some odd number of hours since he had first begun holding me in his arms again. It was a little suffocating, how much attention he was giving me, how much he kept nuzzling my cheek and stealing kisses from my lips, but I didn't complain, for multiple reasons. One of those reasons was because I was afraid that if and when he ever did let me go, he'd never hold me again, that he'd need to leave me again and I'd be less than I already was once more. Another reason was because Danny seemed to need me in his arms now, since the few times he did remove them from around me, he didn't seem to know what to do with his limbs, so he had soon returned them to be around me, holding me close as he kissed my neck and cheeks. It seemed he never wanted to let me go again, like he had said earlier, and it seemed he was determined to make his words reality as he held me in his arms, sitting on top the top step of my cabin, showing his undying love and affection for me.

"I love you so much, Ty." He murmured as he nuzzled my cheek. The stubble growing on his own cheek, unkempt and unmaintained over the past week, was a little scratchy, but again, I didn't complain. He seemed to need to do that as much as he could, like it would break him if he couldn't, and I didn't want Danny to be broken, so I let him, dealing with the slight itch his stubble was giving me. "So much. I'm so sorry for hurting you. I didn't mean it."

I let out a small sigh at that, but Danny didn't seem to notice. That was another thing he had also been doing for the past few hours. He's been apologizing and saying he loves me nonstop as he nuzzled, held, and kissed me. It seemed like he was trying to get as much of those four things in as possible before the day was over, and it was starting to get slightly aggravating. But still I said nothing of it. Instead, I responded in like once more, as I had been doing for the past couple of hours. "It's okay, Danny." I repeated without much thought, mouth naturally forming the words as a habit developed over the last hour. "I love you, too."

Finally something changed in the loop of repetition we had started at the food pavilion.

The half- monster shook his head, stopping his nuzzling. "It's not okay, love," he said. "I shouldn't have done that. I should have communicated to you what was going on, instead of leaving you in the dark, thinking that I didn't love you anymore. I should have communicated everything to you, but instead, I just left you. I hurt you. Me, the one you say you love. I hurt you. I'm not supposed to hurt you. I'm supposed to make you better. I'm supposed to make sure you know that I love you with all my heart, and then some. And then more than some. Gods. I love you so much, Ty. I'm so, so, so, so very sorry for doing that, you have no idea how sorry I am." He started nuzzling me again. "I'm so sorry, love. I didn't mean to."

I smiled softly at his words, hearing the sincerity he spoke with in his tone, adding effect to the words he spoke. I rested one of my hands on top of his, the one resting on my left hip, and I laced my fingers between his. "I have some idea of how sorry you are, Danny. And I've forgiven you."

"And for that I'm grateful. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't forgiven me."

I let out a small sigh as he began to kiss my neck again, his small pecks light and soft, a couple long and pleasing, and I closed my eyes, tilting my head away to allow him more space, and Danny took that space, kissing up to as high as my earlobe and going as low as the collar of my shirt. He rubbed his thumb on my waist as he kissed my neck, adding more pleasure to his actions. "Neither do I," I breathed as he kissed me, not wanting the movement of my jaw to interrupt him, so I made it move as little as possible while still able to get words out. "You mean the entire world to me."

"Mmm." Danny hummed, stopping his kisses at the bottom of my ear. "I feel the same way about you, love." He murmured into it, and I giggled and squirmed, like I always did every time he spoke into my ear. Danny chuckled and nuzzled my cheek again. "That reminds me of something I was going to do."

"What were you going to do?"

"I was going to give you a promise."

I was confused by that. "A promise?" I repeated. "Promise for what?"

The half hippocampus sighed and stopped nuzzling my cheek. "I don't know if you're even going to want it, after what I did..."

"But I'd still like to know." I argued. "You can't tell me you were going to give me a promise for something, and then not tell me what that something was or is. You know how curious I get."

"I know, and it's adorable." He murmured, starting to nuzzle my cheek again, and I could tell he was trying to change the subject. I frowned slightly at that and pulled away from him, turning in his lap so I was facing him. Danny blinked at me, confusion on his face. "What's wrong, love?"

"I want you to tell me what you were going to promise me." I immediately responded. Danny bit his lip before sighing, lowering his head in submission, knowing well that I was going to be stubborn about it and not allow any change of subject till he told me. He wrapped his arms around me and shifted me out of his lap and onto the spot on the step next to him. I watched as he reached into his pocket hesitantly, his fingers toying with an object in it, a small one, since I hadn't noticed it earlier while sitting in his lap.

Danny bit his lip, still hesitant. "I don't think now's the time, love..."

"Just tell me what it was."

He winced at my slight snap before sighing. He pulled his hand out of his pocket, fingers clamped around something in his palm. He turned his hand over before opening it, palm facing towards the sky. My breath caught at the sight of a ring, silver and gold, two separate bands intertwined to make one, single band as the ring. "A promise, for the future." Danny told me simply, not making eye contact.

"A promise for what, exactly...?" I asked hesitantly, glancing up from the ring and to his face. He looked nervous, extremely so, and his empty hand kept fidgeting in his pocket.

"That one day, w-we're going to be married..." He murmured in response. "I feel like I have to promise to you that we're going to be married one day. I just love you so much. I can't imagine my life without you. I know that, now, after going a week without you. I can't live without you. I want us to always be together, forever and always, like we always say to each other. You mean so much to me, Ty, that I wanted to promise to marrying you. We haven't been together long enough for me to actually propose to you, because I figured it might be too soon for you, after only two odd months together, and I was afraid I might scare you away from me if I did propose instead of make a promise. So I wanted to promise instead, to show you that I've really been thinking about it, that I'm really going to mean it if and when I actually do propose to you. I wanted to show you that I mean it, those forever and always, and I hoped that by making this promise, you'd know just how much I mean them."

Danny let out a small, nervous chuckle, and he removed his other hand from his pocket to rub his neck. "I'm sorry. I'm not good with these sort of things. I've never wanted to spend the rest of my life with someone like I want to do with you." He dropped his hand and let out a small sigh. "Never mind. Forget it. Now isn't the time for this, after what I did to you. I understand if you don't feel the same anymore..." He closed the hand with the ring in it, and went to put it back in his pocket.

Quickly, I darted a hand out and put it on top of his, stopping his hand from reaching his pocket. Danny looked up, confused, before he blinked. "Love... you're crying." He murmured sadly. "Why are you crying? Did I do something wrong? Say the wrong things? I told you it wasn't the right time, love. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry..."

I quickly shook my head, lifting my other hand and wiping my tears away. "No. No, Danny, I'm okay. I'm fine."

"But, love... You're crying..."

"Because I'm happy." I assured him. "Ecstatic, even. So over joyed that I couldn't help but to cry."

"'Happy'?" Danny repeated. "'Ecstatic'? What for?"

"You want to promise me that we're going to spend the rest of our lives together. How can I not be ecstatic about that?"

"Even after what I-"

"Danny, I don't care about what you did anymore." I interrupted him before he could put more doubt into his own mind. "You've said you're sorry, and you've proven that you're sorry, so what more is there to forgive?" I gave his hand a small, gentle rub with my thumb. "I want your promise, Danny. I want you to promise me that we're going to be married one day. I want that. I love you too much not to want that."

He finally looked up and into my eyes. "R-really?"

"Really."

Danny searched my gaze for a few moments, I assume searching for any signs that I was lying to him about that. But when he saw no lies hidden in my sincere expression, a slow grinned spread it's way across his face. The half hippocampus pulled me into a tight hug, seemingly trying to squeeze me to death his hug was so tight. "Thank you, love. Thank you so much." He squeezed me for awhile longer, and I swear I was about to pass out from oxygen deprivation until he released me. Immediately I gasped for air, filling my lungs, and Danny gave me a sheepish smile. "Sorry love. I was just so overly excited that you said yes that I couldn't help it."

I gave him a small smile as I caught my breath. "It's okay, Danny."

He grinned at me. "May I have your hand, please?" I smiled softly and held out my left hand, and he took it gently in his empty one, holding it as he slipped on his promise ring, making it official.

An electric, ecstatic thrill went through me at that as I imagined what was going to happen the next two times he did that, one for his proposal, and the last for when he fulfilled his promise to me. There was a nagging fear in the back of my mind that something would stop him from ever fulfilling his promise, like Cyril or something else, or that he wouldn't ever be able to fulfill it because the gods might try to prevent us from marrying each other, since he was half monster, and I was half god, and our parents were natural enemies of each other. I hoped desperately they wouldn't do that, because I really, truly did want to eventually be married to Daniel Rivera. Our love felt like true love, a thing I never believed in till I had met him, and I didn't ever want to let that feeling go, even if the gods didn't want us to be together.

Once the ring was securely on my finger, Danny brought my hand up and kissed the top of it, smiling. "I promise you, Ty, that one day, I will propose to you. And I promise, too, that I'll always love you, no matter what I say or do that could make you think otherwise."

I smiled warmly at that, and, finding no way to be able to respond to his promises, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. Danny hummed a little before he kissed me back, bringing a hand up to cup my cheek as we did. He wrapped his other arm around my waist and pulled me back into his lap once more, holding me close to him as we kissed. I wrapped my arms around his neck once he pulled me into his lap, and in turn, he deepened the kiss. Danny somehow managed to stand up with me in his arms while still kissing me, and he stumbled over to the door of my cabin, removing the hand he had on my cheek to open the oak door, fumbling with the round knob for a bit before he was finally able to open it.

Once it was opened, he carried me inside, pulling away for a bit to take a breath and close the door behind us, closing it behind us so all we'd pay attention to was each other and nothing more. We cuddled each other for the rest of the night, happy and content in each other's arms until, eventually, we both fell asleep, still murmuring our undying love for each other as we did.

...

Awkward ending! :P