Lucie lay by the fire, the carpet rough on her bare skin, the blanket covering her more for show than warmth. She rolled over, the heat of the flames licking at her back, and Shane's hand stroking the length of her ribs. He looked lazily at her, at the spaces the blanket didn't cover, and smiled slowly at her, his eyes half-closed with contentment.
Lucie lifted her leg over his, wrapping herself into him, her body curving fully against his.
"Yoba, I hope Marnie hasn't decided to trudge through the snow to make sure you're okay," Lucie murmured into Shane's ear. He pushed her shoulder lightly, groaning overly dramatically.
"Why?" He moaned, rolling on to his back to look up at the ceiling. Lucie wriggled into the small gap between his arm and body, her head resting on his shoulder. "Why would you ruin this moment by bringing up Marnie?"
"Maggie would claim its a remnant of my self-destructive behaviour, routed in my fear of commitment," Lucie said, tracing swirled on Shane's bare stomach. "But I'd argue that she can't bring up my fear of commitment now, given that I am wholly committed to you, and I was the one who pushed for us to be public." Lucie paused, her finger stilling on the small crease on his ribs. "Or maybe she'd claim the pushing you was my subconscious trying to sabotage us."
Shane caught Lucie's hand, lifting it to his mouth and pressing a kiss into her palm.
"I'm so glad you are not my therapist," he teased. Lucie pulled her hand back and used it to stroke his hair.
"Me too," she smiled. "Therapists can't date their patients. It's unethical."
They lay there, talking quietly, for an hour or so, before Lucie stole the blanket, to go find some drinks for them. When Shane asked her to find the bottle of wine he'd stashed in the fridge, she didn't question it, but she did pause long enough for Shane to supplement the request with an explanation.
"When I tried to go cold turkey I just ended up going on a bender a week later. Cutting back works a hell of a lot better for me - and it's easier to stop drinking wine than beer," he said, propping himself up on to his elbows. He shrugged slightly then smirked at Lucie. "Plus it feel a little classier."
She laughed at that, then sauntered out the room to find the wine and two glasses.
Lucie rested her hand on the base of her wine glass, looking up at Shane as he dressed to go fetch more firewood. Her other hand was curled beneath her chin, her elbow resting on the coffee table, legs crossed like a child at story time.
"I love you," she said.
And that was it.
Shane always thought that when those words were said that it had to be some major moment. That they had to be savoured and held, and kept close until a particular moment, but no. Lucie seemed to just think them and then they came from her mouth, like she'd said nothing more than 'it's still snowing'. When he went to say them back, he felt his mouth tremble and shut it once more. Instead he kissed the top of her head, and went to fetch firewood.
Lucie hoped to everything that might listen, from Junimos to Yoba himself, that she hadn't overstepped. But stood there, pulling a jumper over his head and ruffling up his hair, Shane had been the most wonderful creature in existence. She couldn't help but think of a quote from a TV show she'd loved all those worlds away when she'd lived in Zuzu City:
'And then you get to know them and their face just sort of becomes them, like their personality is written all over it. And they just - they turn into something so beautiful'.
Shane was the most beautiful man she'd ever met. Then the words came, because there were no other words. She loved him, and he smiled at her. And that was enough.
The oh-so-feared moment when she finally confessed that she did love him was never going to happen on some moment occasion, because she'd already said it to him. She'd said it as she sat with him in Harvey's Clinic. She'd said it as she'd walked Jas home from Penny's, knowing that Shane would be at home, dreading going out in the rain. She'd said it in coming to see him under the pretence of needing hay. She'd said it by learning the pepper poppers recipe by heart and practising it over and over until she couldn't get it wrong.
Lucie had spent the last few months telling Shane that she loved him. She just didn't realise it until now.
Shane returned with a basketful of firewood and an apology. He placed the basket down by the fire, and spoke more to it than to Lucie, feeling the awkwardness of his words, falling out of his mouth as stiffly as the wood fell from his hands.
"I'm sorry I didn't say it back," he told the fire. "I just…" He didn't know what he just. But Lucie saved him from answering, her hand finding the small of his back and kissing his clothed shoulder lightly.
"You don't need to say it," she murmured lightly. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, the blanket clasped in front of her chest in her free hand. The hand that had touched his back slid around his waist as she continued, "You've said it in the things you do."
Shane pressed the hand that wrapped around his waist into his stomach, holding it tightly. He glanced at the head full of curls, lightly placed on his shoulder.
"Promise me something?"
"Mm?" Lucie opened her eyes slowly, as if waking from a deep sleep. She looked up at Shane with no guards up, an openness in her face that made him love her even more. Even if he couldn't say it, he felt it in every fibre of his being.
"Promise me you won't ever stop hearing me say it in the things I do," he murmured. Lucie lifted her head and shifted her weight slightly so that she looked at Shane head on.
"Only if you promise me something in return?" She said, her thumb rubbing small circles into the knuckle of his own thumb. He raised an eyebrow in way of response. "Promise me you won't ever leave me without at least trying to fix whatever went wrong between us?"
Shane lifted her chin and kissed her softly. He didn't move his face away from her when they stopped, their foreheads pressed together as he answered her in a voice so low it was almost inaudible.
"I promise."
Lucie sighed happily and shut her eyes once more.
"And they lived happily ever after," she murmured.
