The insane musings of the authoress: 'Glass Roses' chapter thirteen - I'm so glad I can clear up the cliffhanger of the last chapter. It was my birthday on Friday November 12th, so I am now officially fourteen! Yay!
Special thanks to: Dearest Lily, as always. Also, to each and every reviewer, but especially Lilqtazn35. Oh, and thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
Disclaimer: CCS is not mine.
Glass Roses
Chapter Thirteen
What Happens When: Eriol Gives Tomoyo A Shock
"What?!" Eriol demanded. "You can't leave! I need you here!"
"Well, I have to leave. I can't deal with this anymore!" Tomoyo bit back.
"Don't leave! Marry me instead!" Eriol burst out.
There was silence for a second. Tomoyo blinked at him in utter shock.
"What did you just say?!" she asked, sounding furious and bewildered all at once.
"I just asked you to marry me," he explained calmly.
"Are you crazy? No way!" Tomoyo yelled.
"I've only known you for a few months! There's lots of things you don't know about me - I doubt you know my favourite book, or my favourite film!" she continued, unable to believe what she had just heard.
"Tell me!" Eriol said.
"Tell me everything about you! I want to know it all!"
"You're crazy! Come on, Eriol-san, you're a sensible guy. This is just being silly - imagine asking a girl to marry you just to stop her from leaving!" Tomoyo said, trying to make a joke out of it.
"It's not just to stop you from leaving!" Eriol exclaimed.
"Then why, Eriol-san? Why?" Tomoyo asked as the stress caught up with her and her eyes filled with tears.
"I don't know why! I just know that… That… It seems right," he said quietly, thoughtfully.
"You're just being silly! You're just inventing things to stop me from leaving and you're also just trying to talk yourself into marrying me!" Tomoyo exclaimed.
"It's not like that!" Eriol objected.
"I don't need to talk myself into it! I know, at least, that I want to do this all the time…" he said, and in a few strides he was on the step with her.
And he was reaching out for her, and, like the fool she was, she went willingly into his arms. She rose up onto her tiptoes and she melted when his lips met hers. Her arms went around his neck and her fingers curled into his hair as she felt the first tentative flutter of his tongue against hers.
Then, all so suddenly, his tongue turned from tentative to exploring and his kiss turned passionate and hungry as she sighed into his mouth. His hands went to her waist and he clutched her tightly to him. She didn't know what anything was anymore, everything was blurred and fell into insignificance. All her senses were filled with him and she felt dizzy. It was hard work just to keep standing.
They broke apart and Eriol leaned forward to whisper into her ear, "I want to wake up beside you every morning. I want to have you and protect you and care about you every day for the rest of our lives. I never want to be apart from you."
Tomoyo's traitorous heart fluttered at his words.
"No," she whispered, "I'm sorry. I can't. It's crazy, and in a few days you'll realise that too and you'll be glad I said no."
She heard a sharp intake of breath from him.
"Okay," he answered, "I understand. But please, please don't leave. I'll leave you alone for a while, if that's what you want."
Tomoyo nodded.
"Maybe that would be best. It might be good for you to go away and think about what you just did. I'll be happy to say 'I told you so!' when you realise what a stupid idea it was in a week or so!" she joked. Eriol managed a smile.
Then he turned and walked away.
For some reason, Tomoyo began to cry.
…
"I just did something really stupid!" Eriol called as he stepped back inside his house. Nakuru was awake at this point, but not yet dressed. She was slumped on the couch in her pajamas, watching a talk show with Suppi the cat and eating chocolate-chip cookies. Ordinarily Eriol would have berated her about her unhealthy breakfast choice, but he didn't have time for things like that now.
Immediately Nakuru was wary.
"What did you do?" she asked as she switched the television off. Eriol sat down beside her on the couch.
"I… I… Oh God, I can't believe I did it!" he exclaimed. Now Nakuru was extremely worried.
"Out with it, Eriol! The suspense is killing me!" she cried.
"IproposedtoTomoyo-san," he babbled in a rush, his voice muffled as his head was buried in his hands.
"I beg your pardon? I heard something about Tomoyo-chan, but you were mumbling…" Nakuru said, trying to keep calm even though she was going crazy with curiosity.
"I proposed to Tomoyo-san!" Eriol burst out. Nakuru's mouth fell open.
"Okay, you what?! This is even better than the talk show!" Nakuru exclaimed.
"Explain exactly what happened!" she demanded. Eriol sighed.
"Well, while you were still asleep I went to Tomoyo-san's house because I had a weird feeling that something was wrong. I was right - when I got there, Tomoyo-san had packed some bags and was preparing to leave," Eriol began. Nakuru gasped.
"No! You're kidding! Tomoyo-chan can't leave! She belongs here! I can't stop yelling!" Nakuru exclaimed, then laughed.
"So I said - 'Don't leave! Marry me instead!' Totally on the spur of the moment. I didn't plan to do it or anything," he finished.
Nakuru sighed dreamily.
"That's actually quite romantic, sort of like yelling a proposal to someone as they go away on a train…Except usually when you propose to someone, they're already your girlfriend and have been so for at least a few months," Nakuru reasoned.
She then returned her attention to Eriol. She was desperate to know what had happened next.
"So, what did she say??" Nakuru asked, sounding thoroughly over-excited. Eriol sighed heavily and raked a hand through his black hair.
"She asked me if I was crazy," he said, a faint smile curving his lips because it was actually sort of funny, "and said 'no way!'"
Nakuru managed to laugh and look disappointed at the same time.
"Well, what were you expecting? You had only known her a few months, you weren't her girlfriend first, you did it just to stop her from leaving and you didn't have an engagement ring!" Nakuru said, still laughing. Eriol had to admit that she had a point.
"Wait," Eriol said wearily, "there's more. Then she asked me why I did it - proposed, I mean - and I said I didn't know, but it felt right, for some reason. I said it wasn't just to stop her from leaving. And I… I…"
Nakuru looked like she might fall off her seat, she was so tense and eager for the next part.
"You what? You what?! Tell me!" she urged him.
"I kissed her," he said with a shrug. Nakuru's mouth formed an 'o' of surprise. Her eyes were as round as saucers. Eriol didn't realise up until then how much Nakuru loved a good romantic story.
"And what did she do about that?" Nakuru asked. Eriol blushed.
"She kissed me back, actually," he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed.
"And was it good?" Nakuru asked wickedly. Eriol's blush deepened, and Nakuru took that as a 'yes.'
"Then, when we stopped, I told her…" Eriol buried his head in his hands again.
"I told her… Oh God, it was so stupid of me to say… I told her I wanted to wake up beside her every morning, and I wanted to take care of her for the rest of our lives, and I never wanted to be apart from her, or something like that."
Nakuru choked in excitement, then, when she had regained her composure, she said in a remarkably calm manner,
"Did you tell her you love her?" she asked. Eriol raised his head from his hands, looking confused.
"No, because I don't," he said, sounding quite certain. Nakuru raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical.
"Oh, Eriol, it's so obvious that you do! All those things you said - that's how you feel when you're in love with someone!" she said, seemingly incredulous that he hadn't realised.
Eriol shook his head.
"No, I think you're wrong, Nakuru. I don't love Tomoyo-san - I think I just said all those things to try to stop her from leaving."
Nakuru sighed.
"Okay, Eriol - how about we try this? You answer the following questions completely honestly. You have five seconds to answer each one. At then end I'll tell you what you should do about all this," she suggested. Eriol nodded, willing to try anything to try to put everything right.
"Okay, number one - do you still want to marry Tomoyo-chan?" she asked.
"Yes," Eriol answered.
"Number two - do you like kissing her?"
Eriol blushed.
"Of course I do."
"Number three - do you love her?"
"Yes," Eriol answered, and then he clapped his hands to his mouth, looking horrified.
"No! I don't!" he tried to amend. Nakuru shook her head.
"That game never lies," she said.
"However unfortunate it may be, you're in love with Tomoyo-chan," she continued.
"Okay, maybe I have a little lust for Tomoyo-san. I mean, she's very beautiful…" Eriol attempted, but Nakuru shook her head.
"If you only lust someone, you want only their body. And maybe only for a night. You want all of Tomoyo-chan forever," Nakuru said simply.
"Oh God," Eriol muttered as he raked his hand backwards and forwards through his hair in agitation, "I do, don't I? I fell in love with her without even realising."
Nakuru nodded as she thoughtfully bit a tiny piece off the cookie in her hand. She seemed to be quite enjoying her 'wise woman' role.
"So, the question is, what do I do?" Eriol asked Nakuru. Nakuru rolled her eyes.
"Go tell her you love her, stupid!" she said, as if it were obvious.
"I can't!" he exclaimed. "She told me to leave her alone for a while, to think about what I did."
His lips twitched a little and Nakuru began to laugh.
"It's like you're a naughty little pre-schooler!" she exclaimed.
"Anyway," she said when she was feeling a little less giggly," here's what I think we should do…"
…
Tomoyo sighed as she looked around her living room. She was terribly lonely without Eriol and Nakuru. She still saw Ms Chase at work and everything, but it wasn't the same without the other two. Ms Chase had asked if there were any problems she'd like to discuss (A.N. Of course, Nakuru has told Ms Chase all about Eriol's proposal
: -)), but Tomoyo always said that there was nothing.
It had been just over a week since she and Eriol had had the bizarre encounter on her doorstep, and Tomoyo was beginning to wonder if she had been too hard on him. He had just panicked, not been thinking straight.
She sighed as the doorbell rang. Perhaps it was the pizza delivery boy. She went to answer it, and got the shock of her life when she saw who was standing at the door.
"Eriol-san?" she said in a sort of questioning tone, even though there was no doubting it was he. He nodded. Tomoyo noticed that he was holding something behind his back. He caught her looking and brought the thing out with a flourish.
It was a beautiful bouquet of vivid purple violets, the scent of which immediately assaulted Tomoyo the moment Eriol placed them in her arms. She gave a smile and a soft murmur of approval.
"They're gorgeous…" she whispered as she closed her eyes and sniffed them delicately. Eriol's heart stopped. It wasn't fair that she looked so beautiful with her eyes closed, her long black hair cascading down her back in ringlets… He swallowed.
"I went away and thought about it…" Eriol began, and Tomoyo smiled.
"And I'm sure your conclusion was that it was a frankly silly idea and you didn't mean it. No problem," she said, smiling confidently, certain that she was right. Slowly, nervously, he shook his head.
"Iie, Tomoyo-san. That wasn't my conclusion. This," he said as he fumbled in his pocket for something, "was my conclusion."
Tomoyo gasped as Eriol got down on one knee and opened a little black box to reveal a shining, antique engagement ring.
…
A.n. Boy, do I ever feel mean doing that! ((Laughs)) When was the last time a chapter of 'Glass Roses' didn't end in a cliffhanger?! I'm sorry I'm being so mean with chapter endings lately - I'll try to update 'Glass Roses' more regularly so the cliffhangers don't matter so much.
I'm hopeful that the story will end around chapter twenty. Originally I had envisioned the fic ending around chapter thirty, but then I made a major plot change and, well, here we are!
I'm really excited because it feels like I'm actually nearing the end of something (even though I've actually still got a sizeable chunk to get through, providing my calculations are correct).
It's just, I've been writing 'Butterflies' and 'Glass Roses' for over ten months now, and I think that's the longest I've ever been constantly working on a fic. I know for certain that 'Butterflies' will take me at least another six months (probably more. I can actually see it taking two years in total to finish. Jeez, two years, that seems like a really long time! I'm hoping to finish it before Christmas 2005, though)
So, the idea of actually having the end in sight with a fic at the moment is really exciting! I pretty much know how I'm going to take 'Glass Roses' from here to the end, and I'm hoping to finish it before March 9th 2005 (so that the final chapter can be part of my little sister Lily's birthday present).
Anyway, I've rambled for long enough (if you managed to read all the way to down here, then give yourself a pat on the back. I admire you) so I guess I'll see you next time!
Shattered Midnight Dreams…zzz…
Because life's like that sometimes…