Keely smiled slightly. "He'd like to hear that." She suddenly perked up a little bit. "You think that'll earn me my job back?"
He shook his head, laughing. "Nope, don't think that'll work."
"Oh," she said disappointedly, leaning back into her chair again.
"Hey," he offered with a grin, "His loss." He watched her for her reaction.
"You think so?" At his earnest smile and eager nod, she giggled. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess so." She leant forward. "What picture were you looking at, anyway?" She took the pictures from him and, leaning back again, she continued looking through the pictures.
He watched her eyes as they sparkled and her smile as it widened. A wisp of hair moved across her face in the wind, and he resisted the urge to move it away, instead watching her as she did it herself.
He sighed mentally, looking away, and turned towards the pile of pictures he had already gone through lying on the table. He picked up a few and began to flip through them. Only after a while did he catch himself looking longer at the pictures with Keely in them.
He allowed himself the slighest of glances up at her.
There was something about her that no one else he knew had. Even one of her small smiles was enough to make him stop thinking straight. And her laugh...
He shook his head.
"What?" Keely asked suddenly. He looked up quickly. Had she been watching him? He began to shake his head again, automatically this time. "Nothing."
She smiled briefly and went back to what she was doing. He willed his heart to stop racing.
'I sound like a love-struck fool,' he thought reflectively, turning back towards the photos.
And he was.
He hadn't realised it while it had been happening, but there was no doubt now that he had fallen for her. Hard. It was crazy - one moment he had been watching her yelling at Tanner from across the room during drama class, and the next, he had found himself thinking, "I am so blind."
He had no idea of how he was going to leave when the time came. The century that had quickly become a part of him was allowing him to be a part of it, too. Those routinely walks to school with Keely, often accompanied by Tia, those classes that he had been forced to take up and ended up loving anyway, heck, even the enemies that he had never had a chance to really have at virtual schools were sometimes the most entertaining parts of his day.
It was crazy - but true.
"Phil."
"Mmm?" He replied distantly, staring at the desk.
"This one's of us." She leant a bit to the side so that their shoulders were touching and the photo was in both of their views.
It was a picture that had both of them in the shot, plus Alice, but they were nearly at the opposite sides. A normal picture, sure enough, of him dancing with his date while Keely stood near the table, but something about it made Phil study it more than he normally would have.
He smiled slightly in realisation and looked up. "We're looking at each other," he observed.
She nodded, looking pleased that he noticed. "Kind of odd, isn't it? That we're at the opposite ends of the room but we're looking at each other?"
He agreed. Their smiles widened as their eyes met. "Interesting," he said unnecessarily.
"We're both in the rest, too," she said, glancing down at the remaining pile. Her cheeks went a light pink.
"Are we?" Again an unnecessary question, but he said it anyway as he looked down at the other pictures. The first one caused him to grin. "This is from the - "
"Dance," she finished. "Yeah. The others are of the dance, too."
"But we didn't really dance much, did we?" he reminded. It was his turn to blush a bit. "More of hugging, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, I would," she said, giggling slightly. They looked through the rest of the pictures silently, her head resting on his shoulder.
"I liked it," he said suddenly, as he picked up one of the pictures and fingered it gently, rubbing his thumb over the top. He recalled that odd feeling of contentment he had felt at that moment.
"We look contented," she said, smiling, as if reading his thoughts. "As if...all was right with the world."
He was startled when it seemed as if she had read his thoughts, but he continued the conversation anyway. "Even though I might have to leave this century soon - leave you, that is," he clarified. "And even though we were in a public place, dancing in a room where we - I," he amended, "made a lot of mess."
She laughed. "And it was a school night and we still had a lot of homework to do," she reminded.
He chuckled slightly. "Yeah, that too."
"I liked it too," she admitted.
"We should do it again." he suggested. "Maybe a full dance this time?" He got up, bowing at the waist and offering her with his hand. "We don't have music, no fancy dresses, even though it's not like we really had fancy dresses then, but - "
" - I think that'd be...great," she cut in with a gentle smile, accepting his offer. As she wrapped an arm around his waist and draped the other over his shoulder, she laughed suddenly. "You do realise we're getting too cheesy for own good, right?"
He grinned. "Any complaints?" he whispered, pulling her slightly closer.
"Nope," she replied softly with a grin. "None at all."
"They look highly suspicious," Barbara whispered to her husband during dinner that night. She observed her son with his 'best friend', laughing, smiling, chatting as if they were the only people in the room.
They had done it before, a lot, during the several dinners they'd had together, but somehow there seemed to be something different between them.
Oh, to know what had happened in the room tonight, she thought reflectively, sighing slightly. Pim claimed that she had walked in on them dancing when she'd called them for dinner - "if you call dancing hugging while moving around, that is" - but only the three of them would know for sure.
Never mind. Lloyd and herself had something up their sleeves that they'd been planning for a while now, and she couldn't wait to see what happened then.
Firstly, a billion and one apologies for updating so late. I've had the worst case of writer's block you can imagine. ;) Of course, some people don't believe I had it, but it's true. :P
I'm not happy about this chapter, really, because I did this while I was high on writer's block if that's possible, lol and the end result is a whole lot of cheese, mush, and out-of-characterness. I'd appreciate it, though, if someone reviewed about it to tell me what you guys think. :)
Speaking of reviews, thank you for all of them! I certainly enjoyed reading all of them, and some of them more than others. :) It's helped a lot more than you'd believe. So thank you.
Alright, then, I shall take your leave. Please, please, please gimme some reviews. You wouldn't like to see me begging, would you? ;)
-- moofoot