When Gordon was a child, he never thought about love.
Sure, he loved his family, he loved swimming, he loved hot dogs, but he never thought about love love. He was a kid, he never had to.
Not when his brothers brought home a friend who they claimed they were in a relationship with, not when his parents would exchange kisses or look at each other earnestly when they thought no one was looking, whilst his mother was still around. He didn't think too much about it, because that's just how it was.
So, when he first experienced it, he had no idea what it was.
He was still a kid, but much older. There was a girl whose father knew his father. Apparently, they were long time friends, even though Gordon had never met him.
He'd come to the island to discuss something to do with a new project his dad was starting up. Gordon hadn't paid it much mind; he was too young to be involved in it all anyway.
But this man had brought his daughter, and Gordon was involved in that long before he realised.
This girl was called Penelope. She was a Lady, and of course Gordon had never met a Lady before so of course he'd made a fool of himself in front of her.
She had laughed and Gordon had felt embarrassed, and he never felt embarrassed, but with her it was different.
Then, she smiled, and Gordon couldn't breathe.
He didn't know why. Maybe it was because she was important, maybe it was because his dad knew her, or maybe it was just because someone pretty was paying attention to him.
He'd dismissed it, though. Pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and brushed the embarrassing moment off because he was Gordon Tracy, that's just what he did. It wasn't brought up again.
Gordon didn't think about the moment he met her again. Or so he pretended.
After that day, they were seeing each other more and more, and every time Gordon laid eyes on that girl, on her light, blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, his breath was taken away again. He remembered each time she talked to him, counted every time she smiled at him. He longed for when she got close enough for her arm to brush up against his, and felt a pang each time she had to leave.
She was there for him when his father went missing, but she was there for everybody, so he couldn't say that he was special.
And Gordon was still just a kid. He didn't know what it was, so he didn't pay it any mind.
Not until the two of them were on a rescue together.
It wasn't the first time they'd worked together, not by a long shot, but this one was different somehow. Maybe it was because, other than Parker, they were alone. Perhaps it was the fact that they were so close to death.
There was a chance that they weren't going to make it out of that temple. They were doomed to be trapped there forever, if Virgil and Scott hadn't come to the rescue. That might have been why he felt so…enraptured by Lady Penelope, who stood across from him, with her hat on her head, watching him as they waited for their last hope.
He only felt breathless around her because he was worrying for their lives, he told himself. Quite literally he had no breath when that chamber was filling with gas, and when Lady Penelope had saved him by pushing him to the floor, the air had been knocked out of him.
He told himself that was why he couldn't breathe. Not because she was looking at him and said he had lumpy elbows and had paid enough attention to him to form an opinion on his body, even if it was just his elbows. Not even because he held her hand and took her hat off and stood so close to her.
No, it wasn't because of her, because when they eventually got out of that temple, they didn't confess their feelings. Gordon didn't say about the breath he no longer possessed. Lady Penelope didn't say the one word he wanted to hear.
They went back to the way things were before. When Gordon would long for her touch or even an acknowledgement from her that he existed, but now he watched her for longer, would count the smiles that were no longer enough.
Gordon hadn't realised it was love until he was shown that he couldn't have her.
His brothers soon caught on, but Gordon ignored them. He shrugged off the teasing, the disabling of shower controls after telling him who was coming on board. They joked because they knew he was in over his head, he laughed along because he knew they were right.
However, that wouldn't stop him from putting his arm around her to make sure she was safe from a giant drill exploding, didn't stop him from being solemn at the thought that he wasn't her first choice to take to a charity auction.
He didn't think she cared, at least not more than she did for the rest of his family. He fooled himself into thinking otherwise when he risked his life again.
She sounded so concerned over the comms. He heard her call to him, her voice sounding on the verge of panic as she said his name. His need to get back to her almost stopped him from repairing that ship, but his love for the sea had been around much longer than his love for her, and he told himself he could wait that second more. The sea would be safe and then he could see her again.
The acid was nothing compared to how he felt next.
He was such an idiot. To really think that she thought the same way. But she was just kind. Too kind, so of course she cared about them all, he wasn't special.
The breath had been knocked out of him in a way it hadn't been before. This time he had really let himself hope. Had thought that finally she'd admit that she felt the same way as him, but she didn't.
He shouldn't have been surprised, so he brushed it off. He let Sherbet lick his face, just so he could make her laugh again. Just so he could see that smile again.
It all went tumbling when he literally went tumbling in his ship.
That experience was a massive blur for him. He only remembered snippets of the moments after. But he'd heard about how she'd saved him, how she cut her way into his ship and took him to the surface.
He had made sure that he thanked her. He was raised to be polite, after all. He thought that she would leave after that, but she stayed a moment longer. She held his hand and promised him tea, and any air that had been in his lungs after his ribs had been crushed was gone.
Things were different after that. Gordon couldn't explain why, he just knew. Which was why he decided to stay behind after they'd turned over that ship and Virgil had headed home.
It had been so long, too long, since he'd last seen her. She sat next to him, had told him she missed him. It was just their luck that they were interrupted.
By that point, it wasn't a surprise to him that she got up to leave. What did surprise him, was that she came back a moment later and leant in close.
He thought that she would stop there, but she didn't, and her lips met his.
It wasn't perfect, at least from an outsider's point of view. Their lips had almost missed and it only lasted for a second, but he was still left breathless all the same.
Even if she said it was just as a thank you for saving them, Gordon couldn't help but think it meant more.
Things grew hectic after that. They were too busy putting the plan together to get their dad home, that he didn't get to see her much. He barely got to say goodbye before he was being ushered off by a frantic Scott and was boarding the Zero-XL.
He couldn't think of much other than making sure the ship made it to their destination safely and about whether their dad was still out there or not. Everything had been so chaotic in space, that he hadn't realised how much he missed her until he saw her again.
His dad was being taken away by his grandma, forced to endure her cooking that he'd gotten out of eating for eight years.
Gordon watched them go, and another person entered the module.
"He's really here," Gordon said without looking at her.
"He really is. How do you feel?"
He finally turned to her. Sherbet sat in her arms, and Gordon almost found it easier to look at him than her.
"Overwhelmed." He still hadn't wrapped his head around the fact that his dad was actually home. Not only that, the hood had so nearly stopped them all from getting back, from him seeing her again. "But happy."
He smiled at her, then scratched Sherbet's head. Sherbet was watching them both keenly, like he expected more. Gordon did too.
"I'm happy that you made it back too. And that the Hood and Chaos Crew are finally-"
"Penelope." He cut her off. He didn't know when he'd stopped using her title, but then again, he did just interrupt her and that wasn't what he would do to a Lady. Yet, he didn't think titles were appropriate right now, they were too formal. "Can we not talk about that right now?"
"Alright." He didn't know why he was surprised she agreed, he should have known she was full of surprises by this point. "What do you want to talk about?"
He shrugged, he didn't think she would actually ask that.
"Gordon Tracy, are you speechless?"
"What? No, I-" Okay, maybe he was, but she just had a way of making him do things he'd never do, of making him feel things he'd never feel.
She was watching him with an amused smile on her face. He couldn't look away.
"I really am happy that this all worked out for the best," she said.
Then, before he knew it, she was kissing him. It wasn't for long, but this time it was long enough for him to close his eyes, to put his hands on her waist, with Sherbet between them.
She broke away and stepped back, but not before she whispered in his ear.
"This time, it's not as a thank you."
Then, she was walking out of the module, and Gordon was once again out of breath.