Like Moonlight
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Summary: A Magical Melodies story. It's hard to believe there was a time before she knew he existed. Michael/Gina.
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Disclaimer: I don't own 'em, and every time I write something, they look at me just a little funnier.
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It's hard to believe that there was a time before she knew he existed.
She and Dia, best friends and sisters and sometimes-lovers-for-pretend, walk past the inn, and the cafe, and the library.
Very slowly, because they can.
Dia lowers her voice as they pass a strange, starkly white building with a vivid blue roof.
"What do you think they sell at a Junk Shop?"
Gina wonders too, but doesn't giggle.
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It's hard to believe that there was a time before he knew she existed.
Michael has what Martha calls a romantic nature.
He walks at night, and thinks about his wife. Ann's mother.
When he sees a shape in the moonlight, moving slowly and gracefully, ladylike even in solitude like she was, he moves towards her, hand out, her name at his lips.
It isn't her.
Of course.
Naomi was small and slight, like this girl, but bright and vivid, with the roses of a thousand summers in her cheeks and lips and laugh.
This girl is quiet and silver and blue and from another world, but no less beautiful.
He has time to notice.
Before she sees him watching.
And they look at each other. Through the trees growing by the stream. Every detail memorized.
And she flees.
And he still stares. He can almost still see her.
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Girls are supposed to have crushes.
And nurses are supposed to have crushes on the handsome doctor.
It's something like a tradition.
Almost a given, she thinks drearily. A decision made for her, long before she came here.
Gina is very lucky to have a friend like Ann.
Ann, who laughs at everything. Think he still remembers your name?
Ann, who makes even complex things simple. If you don't like him, you don't like him.
Ann, who can be such a good listener when she's not blowing things up.
They say she gets that from her father.
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Michael likes to think that he's a good father.
And part of being a good father is getting to know his daughter's friends.
He knows the name of Ellen's favourite sheep.
He knows Nina's favourite brand of tea.
He knows that Katie likes strawberry tarts in summer, but prefers pecan in the winter.
He knows Maria's favourite book, and he knows that Eve loves Dan's laugh.
He looks forward to knowing some things about Gina.
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Today, it's raining, and Ann is visiting the mines.
Gina still came to the Junk Shop with Martha while Dia read upstairs.
She watchesfrom a corner for a while as Martha and Michael catch up on all the news, and then joins in.
And then keeps talking with him, even after Martha leaves because the Cafe is calling.
She thinks the tired lines around his eyes are beautiful, especially when he smiles.
He's smiling right now, because he said it was her turn to ask him a question now, and she looked up shyly and asked, What exactly do you sell at a Junk Shop?
He has a beautiful smile, she thinks.
If only this funny feeling of dizziness would go away.
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Girls are supposed to have crushes.
And nurses are supposed to have crushes on the handsome doctor.
It's something like a tradition.
Almost a given, Alex thinks dreamily. A decision made for him long before he had to worry about it.
Alex is very lucky to have a friend like Michael.
Michael, who always smiles. I agree, Gina's a beautiful girl.
Michael, who can simplify even complex things, but not too much. She seems brilliant for her age, I'm sure she'll make a good nurse given time.
Michael, who is such a good listener.
He has the strangest feeling that Michael would like to hit him.
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It's raining again.
It's rained so much this autumn.
The rain is so noisy, splattering on the wood of the door and the glass of the window.
She can barely see a flash of pink hair and a pleasant smile through the windowpane streaked with rain.
She hardly feels the cold drenching her hair and her dress.
Liz and Michael will be happy; she knows that.
And Nina and Ann will be sisters.
Like her and Dia. Best friends. Sometimes lovers-for-pretend.
Her tears mingle with the rain before she knows it.
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He finds a drenched, shivering, miserable creature around the side of the Junk Shop while he's seeing off an old and dear friend.
She's Ann's friend, of course, so it's only natural that he would take her inside to get dried off.
As a good father, he should know things about his daughter's friends.
And she'll get sick if he leaves her in the rain, and then he'll have the doctor to answer to.
The shadow cast on skin pale like moonlight by her collarbone.
He pulls out those braids of hers and runs the towel vigorously through her hair.
The short fine silken hairs at the back of her neck smelling of citrus and clover.
He peels off her wet clothes and wraps her in his bathrobe. She's still crying and he wonders why.
The gentle slope of her shoulder.
She looks away shyly and unknots the robe slowly, shrugs it back off her shoulders, and then looks up to see if he's still watching.
The tiny golden-brown freckle at the exquisitely soft underside of her breast, like a drop of honey left by a fairy.
And they look at each other. Through damp strands of pale silver-blue. Through the mellow light of his oil lamps.
The intensely ticklish little place at the inside of her thigh, halfway up from the knee.
Through the sensation that this is all a dream when he touches her and she gets to touch him back.
Impossibly, a kiss.
"This is wrong. You're far too young."
Another.
"I'm sorry."
Several more, and they're tumbling back into a chair and she's kneeling in his lap.
"Don't be. You're beautiful."
His mouth finds her breast, and she gasps and tries to want to pull away.
"But you said it's wrong."
Her hands in his hair and his hand cupping her cheek.
"I love you."
A smile like daybreak, even though she's silver and blue and moonlight, nothing like Naomi but just as beautiful.
"I think you might have told me that a long time ago."
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End Notes: Wow, I have NO justification for this pairing. Umm...they both like onions? XD I don't know, they're just my two favourite sadly underappreciated characters.