I think I'm catching feelings

"Well, it seems to me that the best relationships - the ones that last - are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is... suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with."

Rose and Giovanni walked into their dressing room, hand in hand, after their performance. They both collapsed in a heap on the sofa next to each other, sighing in unison.

Giovanni turned his head slightly to face her, making sure she was able to lip read. "Well done out there…you did an amazing job," he said sincerely.

Rose smiled. "Thank you. And thank you for being a part of it with me. I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else," she replied. Giovanni smiled sweetly back at her, eyes gazing into hers. They sat in silence for a good few minutes, attempting to process what had just happened. Rose took a deep breath and broke the comforting silence.

"Hey, I need to ask you something," she said hesitantly.

"Okay. Go ahead," he replied calmly.

"And I need you to not get mad or go all lizard on me," she blurted, letting out a small laugh when she mentioned the lizard.

Giovanni also let out a small laugh. 'Lizard' had become one of his nicknames, but he didn't mind. He actually liked it, he thought it was cute; but he would never tell Rose that. "…Okay I won't," Giovanni replied, quizzically.

"Promise?" she asked as she held out her pinky.

"Promise," he echoed, whilst interlocking his pinky in hers. Their fingers lingered intertwined for a little longer than the average pinky promise but neither of them seemed to mind. As Rose pulled her hand away, she stood up and faced Giovanni, who was still slumped onto the sofa.

"Okay. I don't know if I'm reading too much into it and you can totally call me paranoid if this isn't the case, but between you saying what you did last week and then saying I love you after our dance, I don't know what I'm supposed to think," she confessed.

Giovanni doesn't say anything. He wasn't really sure what Rose was going to say but he had no idea this was the way it was going to go. He tried to open his mouth, but he couldn't find the words. Just as he thought he found his voice, Rose interjected, "You know what? Forget it. It doesn't matter."

"No, it does," he said.

"It was silly. I'm sorry. I should have never brought it up," Rose apologised.

"No, please. I wanna know what you were going to say," he insisted.

After a short pause Rose agreed, "Okay. Um, if you insist." Giovanni noticed Rose's hand begin to shake out the corner of his eye. He grabbed her hand and stroked his thumb against her knuckles. Suddenly, her breathing began to slow down, and her body started to loosen.

"I just feel like these past few weeks have been different. Like something has shifted," she confessed.

"Is that a bad thing?" Giovanni asked.

"No. At least I don't think it is," she replied, with a little uncertainty. Giovanni stood up, their faces just inches away from each other's.

"Rose I-"

She cut him off, "Please don't say anything. At least not just yet," Rose explained as she took out her hearing aid and squeezed her eyes shut. Giovanni taps her her shoulder trying to get her attention. "I'm not gonna open my eyes so if you're trying to talk to me there's no point. I can't look at you when I say this because I think it'll break me, so this is a compromise." Giovanni interlocks his fingers with hers as an indication that he understands. "You can't keep saying those things to me. I know you're just trying to be nice, and I know it comes from a good place but those words actually mean something to me." Rose trailed off for just a moment in an attempt to compose herself and continued, "So I would rather you don't say that unless you actually mean it. Which you never will. So just never say it again actually. I can't believe I managed to convince myself that you would say it in any other context." Rose noticed that she was beginning to ramble on, but she managed to steer it back in track. "It's just that, over the past few weeks you've become my best friend and I don't wanna do or say anything that would ruin that." Giovanni's heart sank when her heard Rose's voice crack.

Tears started to fall down Rose's face as she lost all composure. Giovanni placed his free hand on the back of her neck, wiping away her tears with his thumb. Rose still couldn't pluck up the courage to open her eyes. She took a deep breath and continued to ramble on, which was a bad habit of hers. "You know what? I'm gonna need to you leave and pretend like this never happened. I'll see you on Monday and we can just move on, back to business as usual. I'm sorry. I'm such an emotional wreck today. Anyway, I'm sorry for even suggesting that you were in love with me. That's crazy. The reality is you would never be with someone like me. And that's okay. So, I'm sorry for even suggesting it. I-"

Rose was cut off by Giovanni's lips crashing against her own, both of his hands caressing her face. Her body tensed up to begin with, completely startled, it caught her so off guard. Eventually, her body eased into the kiss as Rose slid her hands up onto his chest. They both pulled away and Rose's eyelids flickered open slowly. As they opened, she saw Giovanni locking into her gaze, only about an inch from her face. They stood there in silence, frozen in time, keeping eye contact for what felt like forever. Rose broke the silence, still in complete shock of what just happened, "Why did you do that?" She questioned.

"You- you wouldn't open your eyes and I- I didn't know how to get you to shut up," Giovanni stuttered.

"So, you KISS ME?! You realise you could have just TAPPED ME right?" Rose exclaimed, letting out a small laugh afterwards to indicate it was okay.

"I'm sorry! I panicked", Giovanni said sincerely. "I don't regret it though," he confessed.

A smile grew upon Rose's face. "I'm glad," she replied. They both stood there, locked into each other's gaze as beaming smiles grew upon their faces eventually turning into them laughing in unison. Giovanni slumps back down on the sofa, without breaking eye contact with Rose.

"Come here," he said, pulling her by his side. Rose lay her head in the crook of his neck with her hand rested on his chest watching her hand rise and fall to the rhythm of Giovanni's breathing whilst Giovanni began to stroke her back. Her legs rested over his and his free hand intertwined with hers. Giovanni kissed the top of her head and then rested his head on top of hers. There they lay, safe in each other's arms, living in the present, not wanting to move out of each other's grip.

After ten minutes Giovanni gently tapped Rose's shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open and she gently sat up to face him, her legs still sprawled across his lap.

"I did mean it, by the way," Giovanni said taking her hand in his and gently brushing his thumb across her knuckles.

"Mean what?" Rose asked

"What I said. I want you to know that anything I say to you, I mean with my whole heart," Giovanni replied, "Unless I'm trying to tease you of course," he teased. Rose rolled her eyes.

Giovanni continued on, "But seriously, I would never say something like that if I didn't truly mean it. And I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable, I should have realised-"

Rose interrupted, "It didn't make me uncomfortable! It truly melts my heart and I'm so grateful. I just didn't want to let myself feel how I feel about you, if you didn't really mean it."

"I meant it," Giovanni said sincerely, placing a kiss to the back of her hand.

A few moments passed and Giovanni had somehow grown the confidence to ask, "So how do you feel about me?" Rose grabbed the pillow from behind her and slammed it against Giovanni's chest. Giovanni pretended to act like it really hurt as the pillow fell to the floor. Rose rolled her eyes at Giovanni's acting skills.

"I'm joking!" They both start laughing in unison, their faces slowly getting closer to another's.

Giovanni placed his hand in the crook of her neck and pulled her towards him, closing the small gap between them. Rose was shocked at first but part of her was relieved that he initiated another kiss as she was too startled to savour every moment of the first kiss. As Rose kissed back, Giovanni deepened the kiss. This wasn't like the first kiss. The first kiss was hesitant. Gentle. Sweet. This kiss was different. Full of passion. Full of meaning.

They both eventually broke away, opening their eyes and meeting each other's gaze. Rose finally broke the eye contact and buried her face into the crook of Giovanni's neck. Giovanni wrapped his arm around her and returned to stroking her back. He slowly placed a gentle kiss on her temple as she traced her fingers up and down his chest.

They were both still a little unsure on where they stood with one another, but for now, that was okay. They were safe in each other's arms and that was all that mattered.