A/N: This will be my last update for a while. I'm spending the next week on a trip to Russia and won't have access to a computer until I come back. I leave you with this parting gift (as well as a strange one-shot fic) and will post more once I return and eagerly read whatever reviews you've left for me. Thank you!
After Take Care had left, Bright Heart and Gentle Heart continued to talk about everything that had been going on in the Kingdom of Caring. Bright Heart injuries had pretty much left him out of the loop. Eventually, the painkillers Take Care had given him took their toll and Bright Heart found it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.
"I think I should let you rest for a bit." Gentle Heart said getting up from the chair she'd pulled next to Bright Heart's bed. She was surprised at how stiff she was, and wondered just how long had she been sitting there.
"I guess you're right." Bright Heart mumbled sleepily, yawning.
"I'll stop by a little later and bring some of your books." Gentle Heart offered. This time she had to strain her hearing to hear his thanks. "Pleasant dreams," she said as she leaned over to hug him good-bye.
Bright Heart surprised her by not only returning her hug, but also by giving her a kiss on her cheek. Gentle Heart's face heated and she idly felt her mouth hanging open. She was about to ask what that was for when she noticed that he was already asleep. Shaken, she turned and headed for the door. After turning the lights off, she turned around for one last look at the slumbering raccoon, watching his chest rise and fall as he breathed.
She sighed and turned back to the door to head outside, only to halt dead in her tracks when she noticed Swift Heart and Cheer Bear standing there waiting for her. The smiles on their faces were of the kind that could give you nightmares.
"H-hi Cheer, Sw-Swift Heart." Gentle Heart stammered, her face warm. "C-Can I help you?" They just kept grinning. Gentle Heart felt sweat break out on her forehead as she closed the door behind her. "Just how much did they see?" She asked herself.
"So…" Swift Heart began suddenly breaking the silence, not to mention nearly giving the poor lamb a heart attack. "You and Bright Heart…Who'd have thunk it?"
"What are you talking about?" Gentle Heart asked, her face turning red.
"Oh come on," Cheer said. "It's obvious, the way you two look at each other, not to mention the way you two act together, the way you've spending time with him, and I'll bet you were up all night worrying about him too." Gentle Heart's guilty flush confirmed it. "And as if that wasn't evidence enough, you're blushing."
"A lot." Swift Heart added. There was some immutable law that stated that pointing out that someone was blushing was a guaranteed way to make them blush even more. Gentle Heart proved that theory right then and there, her blush extending from her cheeks down to her neck.
Gentle Heart knew that it could have been worse. If it had been Love-a-Lot Bear who'd found her she'd be sighing and swooning non-stop, Treat Heart would never have stopped giggling (not that she did anyway), Playful Heart would have teased her something terrible…so it could have been worse. Somehow, the consolation that brought wasn't all that much help.
Cheer Bear laid a paw on Gentle Heart's shoulder. "Why don't we go talk shop for a while?" Gentle Heart shook her head, but when Swift Heart's paw landed on her other shoulder she realized that she didn't have much of a choice.
"All right." She said softly, still beet red. "Let's go." She added in the voice of one about to be taken to their execution.
"I don't believe it." Swift Heart said as she and Cheer all but frog-marched Gentle Heart outside. "It's just like in the movies: it's always the shy, quite one who falls for the mad scientist…"
"Bright Heart is not a mad scientist." Gentle Heart said in a vehement whisper, wishing Swift Heart would keep her voice down. Cheer Bear blinked, surprised by Gentle Heart's unusual defensiveness, which only proved her suspicions.
"Absentminded professor then?" Swift Heart suggested.
"Okay, Swift Heart you've had your fun." Cheer admonished her. "No more ragging on Bright Heart. It's not as if Gentle Heart has a crush on him or anything." She added, unable to resist sinking a barb of her own. Gentle Heart mumbled something that sounded like a half-hearted denial, but no one believed it at this point, not even Gentle Heart.
"Is that what's going on? Do I like Bright Heart that way? Do I love him?" She asked herself. This was confusing. Gentle Heart loved everyone in the Care Bear Family. After all, they were family and would do anything for each other. But she'd never felt this way about anyone else before. Was that the other kind of love that she'd heard about? Not the kind between siblings, or between close friends, but the kind shown in all those films Love-a-Lot can't get enough of?
Bright Heart was family, so didn't that make what she was feeling wrong? Of course, they weren't a family in any biological sense, so…she had to hold her hand to her head to ward off the headache she was getting.
Still, she did find herself wanting to be around Bright Heart more than anyone else. She hadn't always felt that way, though, which was as confusing as anything else. Once he was just a friend. A good friend, true, but Gentle Heart had never seen Bright Heart—or anyone else—in any different light. No one else gave her butterflies in her stomach, or made her smile the way Bright Heart did, or made her happy the way Bright Heart did, or…
Her train of thought was abruptly cut off when Swift Heart snapped her fingers in front of Gentle Heart's face. "You still with us, Gentle Heart?"
"Hmm…oh!" Gentle Heart flushed. "Sorry."
"We know what were thinking about." Cheer said indulgently. "You went all dreamy-eyed on us." The poor lamb now looked as if she'd been badly sunburned.
"So, want to tell us again how there's nothing going on with you and Bright Heart?" Swift Heart prodded.
Gentle Heart sighed. With friends like these, who needed No Heart?
