Chapter 10: Crazy in L.O.V.E

Two more weeks came and went like a century flying by. Every day was an adventure for Roux and Isabelle, whether they were sailing to small river villages in search of the perfect pastry shops, or the most beautiful landscapes for Roux to paint, or the best locales of seclusion for them to make sweet, passionate love upon. They played together at O'Sullivans almost every night without exceptions or want of such. And when Fiona left them in sheer envy after each set, when Danny and Connor found themselves the subject of the crowds of women waiting around the bar, Isabelle and Roux would spend until the sunrise again, walking the emptied streets of Paris in deep conversation, in debate, and most importantly of all, in each other's arms.

When they slept, which wasn't often enough between their sensual frolicking, they laid tangled in the warmth of each other's bodies on Roux's boat, and on the colder nights, stretched from head to toe on the squeaky old bed in Isabelle's room. He refused to let her stay at the hotel alone at night, for reasons he swore were 'depressing enough' to make her want to never go back at all. She had no trouble with it though, not when she knew she could wake up every morning, turn over and see him smiling back at her. That was more than enough. That was the world he'd promised and then some.

It was dawn on one of the few nights they'd had off from singing, when Isabelle slid from Roux's arms as he snoozed peacefully, and reached for her guitar at the foot of the small bed. She sat with her legs tangled in the sheets, her bared front draped against the old wooden instrument on her knees, and played softly into the dark blue air surrounding the boat's cabin. All of an hour later, with a crumble of paper on the mattress beside her, an ink pen trembling between her teeth and a shiver running her spine from the touch of something warmer than the room itself, something more genuine, she turned to see two crystal black eyes smiling up at her as Roux kissed the freckles at the small of her back.

"Did I wake you?"

"Ye did," he teased as he caressed her skin in the early light of day.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm not."

Isabelle smirked as she switched her attention to the strings under her fingers again, strumming casually while Roux reached for the piece of paper at her side. She tried to grab it to protect herself from harsh critique of the words dabbled onto it, of the lyrics that just refused to come, but he beat her to it.

"A song," he acknowledged quietly as he hummed his own self made tune to the emotions spilled on the page.

"It's not finished yet."

He grinned at the shyness lingering in her voice and returned the paper to her as he relaxed into the pillows again, stroking her skin until she eventually shifted towards him, legs curled and the guitar propped on her knees, hiding the view he longed for behind it.

"You're supposed to say, 'Well Izzie, let me hear what you do have then…'"

Roux laughed with tired eyes, "Am I then?"

"Yes."

"Right, so let me hear it."

Her eyes widened in surprise, "You want to?"

She humored him in ways no one ever truly had. Her fruitful innocence that came and went with determination was almost too much to bear at times. But he did, gratefully so. And Roux half sat up next to her under the sheets, his fingers tapping on her knees as he leaned over the guitar to reach her lips and whisper, "Sing for me, please."

"Kiss me first."

"Hmm," he teased in contemplation against her mouth. "Ye drive a hard bargain."

Isabelle puckered her lips with closed eyes until he took advantage of the plea and held the nape of her neck hostage, crushing her with passion. His fingers twirled through her soft yellow curls, leading her to him despite the guitar that half blocked their touching hands and wandering legs under the sheets. His tongue consumed her mouth with a blazing fire, the one she'd needed through the early morning, through the whole night while she'd slept. It was something she couldn't deny anymore, try as she might. And she realized as they came unwound from each other and as he kissed both of her eyelids open again, that what she was seeing had to be some master plan, something larger than she was maybe. Or at least larger than the 'she' that Isabelle had always thought of herself as being.

"Let's hear it, darling."

Breathless and drowning in his eyes, she returned the guitar to its proper place in her lap. She strummed to the beat she had studied in her mind and glanced over the paper that sat beside Roux's leg, scanning for the words to begin as the tune picked up, ever so slightly. It was a soft melody, soft like Roux's hands, like his lips. And Isabelle cherished every small stroke of the instrument, wanting it to be perfect, just as he was.

I've never gone with the wind

Just let it flow…

Let it take me where it wants to go.

Till you open the door, there's so much more

I've never seen it before…

Roux couldn't help but to smile in quaint satisfaction at the words as they flowed free of her tender lips. She was like nothing he'd ever known, like nothing he'd ever experienced or dreamed up even. His Isabelle was untouchable, unthinkable, and too good to be true at most moments, most importantly this one.

I was trying to fly but I couldn't find wings

You came along and you changed everything…

She'd written those words for him, for the love he could sense she wanted so badly but didn't know how to fall into it. And that modesty in passion alone was enough to undo him at the seams. Isabelle turned her eyes up to see Roux's smiling, proud face. In earnest, she let her fingers continue the tune as she watched his reaching out to touch her cheek, to hold her there with him, in that small memory minute. Then as the seconds dwelled in need of the chorus she had scratched onto the paper, she refocused on what little she had left to share with him, to give him in return for everything he'd given her so far.

You life my feet off the ground

You spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier…

Feels like I'm falling and I'm lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier…

The blood was boiling from his brain to the tips of Roux's toes as Isabelle came down from her rhythmic high with a gentle ease of the guitar strings under her fingers. The song stopped softly where it had yet to be completed, and as she glanced up at him with a tear in her eye, all he could do was touch his forehead to hers, stroke through her tangled web of hair and breathe her in.

"That's all I have so far," she whispered innocently.

From between them, Roux lifted one of her hands from the guitar and placed each of her fingertips to his lips, one by one, leaving tiny kisses where her skin burned from playing. Isabelle watched him through hazy eyes, surrendering herself to the silence of his ways, to the need for few words. Four words were enough, the ones she loved to hear and prayed soon she'd return.

"I love you, Is."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

O'Sullivans

**WARNING**

As Roux hurried down the steps from the apartment above the pub the next evening, lingering in laughter with Danny and shuffling towards the growing crowds in the bar, he was prevented from moving beyond the archway of the hall. The door of the cellar swung open, and from inside, an arm reached out and pulled him back within by his shirt as he laughed. In the darkness he fell against the shelving of relic wine and beer, giving into the blind sensation of the two small hands travelling over his entire body. Even in utter blackness, he knew just who it was. If there was one thing he'd come to quickly learn about Isabelle, it was that she had a keen sense of surprise and reflexes like a kitten in assault mode, all despite her constant clumsiness. And he had to admit, as he felt her fingers working on his belt and tossing it away, that it was one more thing about her, that he loved beyond the realm of understanding.

"Excited t'night are we, love?"

Isabelle worked the buttons of his shirt one by one, kissing his chest as she followed the soft trail of hair she could feel on her lips in the dark, saying not a word. She could hear the deep hums in the back of his throat as she went on, teasing him with her slow fingers over the button and zipper on his jeans. Not seeing his face but recognizing the sound of desire in his laughter and pleas alone was what she had wanted. She wanted to experience his pleasure through blindness, to know Roux like no one could know Roux.

"Izzie, ye know we have a set to--"

"Sh." She finally whispered as she pulled his straining cock from the tight confines of his jeans, kneeling before him with a tiny giggle. "This won't take long."

Before he could further protest it, he felt the softness of her two wet lips sliding over the heated rigidity of the ache she held in her tiny hand. Roux could do nothing but laugh, throw his head back to the shelf and thank some higher power for the moment. He could see nothing, but when his manhood fell deeper inside of her small mouth and her tongue massaged left and right, up and down upon the begging flesh, he felt the world rocking underneath his boots.

"God--" He gritted his teeth together and bit his own tongue for control. "Isabelle, I need--"

Her movements all swirled together in one delicately violent pattern after another minute, and then another. His legs began to shake as her warm hand moved up his bared stomach, reaching to almost his chest when he took possession of it with his, squeezing tenderly. Her mouth worked smoothly over him, from the tip and back as she pinched the trembling sacs beneath, taunting him, leaving him breathless. So that when there was nothing left to feel but pure ecstasy, Roux gave in to her actions and shuddered to his grateful release upon her wanting lips. And when all had been taken greedily, she slowly worked her way back up to his mouth with a path of feathery kisses.

**END WARNING**

"Feeling better?" She murmured at the corner of his mouth, stirring Roux to wrap his arms around her and hug her close to him, calming the spell she'd cast.

"You're a rush o' blood to me head, darling."

Isabelle laughed nervously, "Good thing?"

Roux pressed his lips harshly to hers where he could taste his own washed away passion, revealing his heart with the kiss and proving his gratitude.

"It's th' best thing."

Once he'd fumbled in the dark with her assistance to clean the evidence of what she'd done, he took her hand softly in his and hurried to the door again.

"Come on. I do believe I hear th' crowd calling for ye."

He was right. The second they turned unsuspectingly out of the cellar to the whimsical lights of the pub, as soon as she hurried towards the stage on his boot heels and saw the constant audience, the rowdy locals and continued fans of her presence, she felt at home. She felt like she belonged somewhere safe and warm and wanting for once in her life, instead of that place she had always tried to get out of, that other Paris. This was her rush of blood to the head. This was Isabelle's one wish.

She walked slowly to the microphone like any other night, but before Roux could lift his guitar off the stand at her side, and before the crowd could get comfortable with their popular double act, Isabelle stopped everything with compromise.

"If you all don't mind, I'm going to kindly ask Roux to step down for this first song." She batted her eyelashes at him as he stepped towards her, curiosity lingering on his brow. "Please," she then whispered away from the microphone and to only him.

He paused for a moment, not wanting to give in to her sneaky smile so easily, but too far gone by the look in her eyes leftover from their cellar rendezvous, to say anything but, "If ye insist, princess." And with a kiss on top of her head that made Fiona's ears blow steam, Roux took off to find a seat among the mass of his friends and drinking buddies.

Isabelle breathed in deep as she gained the silent attention of every pair of eyes and ears in the pub. It wasn't a difficult a task, not like it had been her very first night for example. They loved her. They trusted her here. And staring down into the crowd to see Roux for a change was what sweetened the deal and helped her to finally move back towards the piano on the stage. She sat down slowly with jittering knees and tapping boots as she touched the toe of one to the pedal of the instrument. She adjusted the microphone to her level, slid her clammy fingertips to the appropriate keys, and whispered a gentle explanation for the curious group.

"This is a song that I wrote just yesterday, and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to end it until I woke up this morning. I finally realized how I wanted it to end." Isabelle smiled with moisture in her eyes as she turned to look out on the dimly lit tables of people, between the flickering candles and cigarettes to see Roux staring back. His eyes were open and wanting as he shook his head in some sort of obvious amazement. She winked to him and concluded, "I know what I want it to be now."

Everyone knew what she was getting at and why she hadn't wanted her other musical half to be a part of the song. He couldn't be a part of it, because he was the song. Roux was Isabelle's every word as she lulled through the first verse. His boot tapped along to the easy, harmonious beat he remembered from the morning before in their tiny little bed. It had sounded more raspy, more grainy on her acoustic guitar than it did presently, on the tinkling of piano keys. And he was so lost in her, that he nearly missed when the new verse began, the one that would hold all the secrets he hadn't yet heard.

I watched from a distance as you made life your own

Every sky was your own kind of blue.

And I, wanted to know how that would feel

And you made it so real…

You showed me something that I couldn't see

You opened my eyes and you made me believe…

You lift my feet off the ground,

You spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier—

Feels like I'm falling and I'm lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier, oh…

While the words spilled free and clear and true of her gut, Isabelle felt every beat of her heart matching one that she could only hear inside of her mind, his. It burned her, like the haunting of a ghost, like something unnatural and strange, but she was drawn to it as she sang. She stopped playing the piano out of some superstitious force, a welling that seemed to be bubbling in her chest, where that same beating continued more harshly. She rose from the piano seat with the microphone in hand and sang her way to the front edge of the stage, where she jumped down into the tangled web of the crowd as they gawked and laughed at her thwarting beauty. And with a stride to where Roux sat with an intrigued smirk at the corner of his mouth to match the black haze in his eyes, Isabelle wrapped her arm around his neck and fell down into his lap. She pressed her forehead to his the same as he had done to her the morning before, when all she could feel was him in the world. Slowly, she sang to him the same, as if they were the only two people in the room again, in the whole city of Paris, in the world.

Baby, you showed me what living is for

I don't want to hide anymore…

There was no sound but her voice. There were no movements, no thoughts but those she could feel and see boiling up in Roux's eyes beneath hers. And right there, while straddling his legs in her tiny blue dress, with her boots dangling off both sides of the chair, his hands firm on her hips as his lips silently begged to do the same to her mouth, Isabelle told him everything he needed to know in one last, starry-eyed chorus.

You lift my feet off the ground

You spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier…

Feels like I'm falling

And I'm lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier…

And where the song ended, was where Isabelle hoped she was feeling the rest of her life beginning. Roux stared at her for a long moment as the crowd slowly, surely recognized the fade to the ode and began to applaud. It was gentle at first, uncertain in the silence of the pair's longing gaze. But when Roux threw warnings to the wind, followed the directions laid out before him in the song and wrapped both of his arms firmly about Isabelle's tiny waist, lifting her from his lap in was swarming spin through the middle of the floor, that's when the real cheering began. He kissed her face like mad as she laughed wildly through the noise of the crowd, her golden mane flying with the same momentum as Roux's feet down below. She hugged his neck for safety and a million other perfect reasons, kissing him back wherever she could seem to reach, and finally whispering in secrecy, where no screaming locals or drunken fans or envious red-heads could hear, "I'm crazy in love with you, Roux."


Song: CRAZIER By: Taylor Swift