AN: Welcome to Chapter nine everyone! The song for this is "Dearly Beloved (From 'Kingdom Hearts') [2012]" by Kyle Landry. It's a big eleven minute song and it's on Spotify. I really recommend listening for this chapter. Enjoy!

No. 9: Amy – Dearly

Before Amy went to bed, she uploaded the song to her computer and then her iPhone. When it had successfully been synced she grabbed her earphones and crawled into bed, her song set to repeat. She closed her eyes and listened, paying special attention to each and every note, knowing they were clues to a secret message. She wondered "what was he thinking about when he wrote that part?" at different sections, thinking they were far too lovely to be inspired by her. She wasn't trying to tear herself down or anything, but the song just seemed beyond the earthly. As great as she was, she was only human and this song felt like it was about an astral being. Was this how he saw her? Happy, bubbly sensations decorated her body.

Was this what all the fuss was about? Is this the thing that poets rhymed about and Taylor Swift wrote lyrics about? This feeling where you caught yourself smiling for no reason, where you wished everything else would go by fast and the time spent with them would go slow, where all other colors felt dull compared to the spectrum that surrounded that one person? Was this what people meant when they spoke of…no, the word was still too scary, at least for right now.

"We're going to meet tomorrow" she thought, a bubbly smile reemerging. The thought made her a little nervous, but mostly just excited with anticipation. She was certain now. There was nothing that could make her turn from him, no matter who he was past the door. She knew who he was. The vessel he inhabited made no difference.

Jake, on the other hand, did not agree with this line of thinking.

"Whoa, wait Ames, you're gonna meet him tonight?" he asked at lunch, cereal spilling out of his bowl onto the tray.

"Yes. It's been months already. Why shouldn't we meet?" she asked, rolling her eyes at him.

"You don't even know his name, hell, you don't even know if he's a student"

"He's a student! He's a music major" she said, defensive.

"So he says, but what if he's like a forty-year-old dude who woos young women with his siren song, and then kidnaps them, and wears their skin?"

"Ugh, stop watching Silence of the Lambs, Jake. Look, he's not a serial killer. We've been alone hundreds of times, he's had every opportunity to kidnap me and wear my skin. Why would he start now?" she asked.

"Maybe he gets off on the chase, y'know? Like the build-up is the best part?" Jake suggested.

"That's ridiculous, and god, what is even with you? A month ago you were telling me to go for it and that I just needed to be patient, now you want me to stay away from him?"

"Well, I think his recent behavior is weird"

"Weird, how?" she asked.

"Well, why did he wait so long to meet you in person?"

"He wanted to finish his song first" she said, growing steadily more annoyed with the conversation.

"Why wouldn't he tell you his name? You told him yours"

"Jake. Enough. There's nothing that's gonna stop me from meeting him tonight so you can just save it" she said with a decided gesture.

"Fine, but let me come with you" he said.

"What?"

"Let me come with you. As soon as he comes in and I see that he isn't a forty-year-old man with an insatiable bloodlust, I'll leave you guys to nerd all over each other" Jake explained. Amy glared at him.

"Absolutely not! He would be so insulted, Jake. There's no way you're coming"

"But Amy-" he started, but was interrupted by Amy grabbing his hand on the table.

"Jake, listen to me, I know you're worried about me and that's really sweet, but I got this. I promise you, I'll be fine. If it makes you feel better, I'll text you and let you know everything is fine, okay?" she said, raising her eyebrows as she waited for his reply.

"Alright, just be careful" he said, smiling (like always), but looking disappointed.

"Thank you" she said and removed her hand from his. A familiar burning lingered on her fingers. For the rest of lunch she stole glances at him. Why was he so worried? It didn't make sense.

Then a terrible thought occurred to her. What if Jake liked her and he didn't want her to go because that would ruin his chances? A pang of guilt went through her.

"God, under any other circumstances…" she thought, realizing she still felt a spark of attraction towards him. Now she felt doubly-guilty. No one could compete with her pianist, but Jake was the one person who could confuse her. She looked at Jake again. He was looking down at his food, a smile still on his lips, but she saw deep-thought in his eyes.

"Oh, Jake…" she thought and made a mental note not to flaunt her relationship in front of him in the future. She didn't want to cause him pain.

The rest of her day went by painfully slow. She went to her classes and tried to take notes, but her mind wandered. Her thoughts weaved in-and-out between possible scenarios of meeting the mysterious piano player and her recent revelation about Jake.

"I bet he's actually really handsome and has a great body…Jake probably doesn't even have a thing for me…he probably smells really good…I can't just assume Jake likes me, but for what other reason would he act like that?" she thought, everything a jumbled mess.

"Miss Santiago!"

"Huh?" Amy said and looked for the source. Wuntch, who Amy unfortunately had gotten for a second semester, glared at her with her beady little eyes.

"Am I boring you Miss Santiago?" she asked and Amy was stunned like a deer in the headlights.

"Uh, Uh, no ma'am, I am super interested in what YOU HAVE TO SAY ALL THE TIME! PLEASE TALK MORE!" Amy said, her panic gradually turning her speech into a shout. The class looked at her in silence.

"Are you done, Miss Santiago?" Wuntch asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Please continue, ma'am" Amy said with her head bowed low.

During all her free time, Amy listened to her song. With the conscious decision to pay attention to every single note, she had learned it by heart. Listening to it was addictive like coffee: if she didn't listen to it for too long, she'd get the shakes. She prayed for classes to end so she could put her headphones in and dismiss herself to a different world.

As the night came, not even her song could calm her nerves. Meeting felt like such a huge step and what would happen after they met? Would he ask her out to a proper date? Would they just look at each other in strained silence? Would things get…intimate? The questions swimming through her head were making her insane and she wanted it to end already. The tension that had been building was going to have to pop at some point and it made Amy want to barf.

Of course, Jake wasn't making any of this easier.

"You sure you don't want me to go with you? I really think it's a good idea" he said, poking his fork at her.

"No! Jake, he is not a serial killer"

"Sounds like something a serial killer victim would say, except wait, they can't say anything because, oh yeah, they're dead!" Jake said with passion. Amy gave him an incredulous look.

"You're not coming with me. Drop it" she said before she attempted another bite of her grilled cheese. Nope, she couldn't do it. She was still too nervous. She looked at her watch: 8:15 p.m. She still had another half-hour before she left and forty-five minutes before she met him. Her stomach twisted itself into knots she wasn't sure they'd be able to untie. It was getting so close.

"Alright, well I'll see you later, I guess" Jake said, rising from his seat.

"You're leaving?" she asked. He normally went back for seconds and thirds, but he only had one plate of food.

"Yeah, uh, I wanna catch the next episode of that show I like" Jake said, averting her eyes.

"Oh, okay. See ya" she said, far too nervous to notice his shifty answer.

"Later. Try not to puke on his shoes, Ames" Jake said, leaving before she could retaliate.

If she thought her nerves were bad during dinner, it was nothing compared to how she felt walking to the music building. Instead of just her stomach twisting into knots, all of her veins followed suit.

"Breathe, Amy, Breathe" she told herself and it helped a little. She put her headphones on and listened to the song again. She felt some of her muscles relax and was grateful for the song's existence. How had he given her exactly what she needed?

The walk into the music building reversed some of the calm she had managed to find. As she went up the stairs, she heard no music and a horrible fear gripped her chest.

"What if he isn't coming?" she thought and looked at her watch. 8:55 p.m. There was still time. She went down the hall and put her hand on the door handle.

"Maybe he's inside and too nervous to play?" she thought, trying to appease herself. There was only one way to find out. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

"JAKE?!" she said, her voice reaching volumes she'd never tapped into before.

"Heeeeeeeey Amy" he said, a guilty grin on his face.

"I swear to god, Jake, if you don't leave right now-" she said, her face red with anger.

"Hey, hey, hey! Look I'll leave, I promise! I'll leave as soon as he gets here" Jake offered.

"NO! Leave! Now!"

"Not gonna" he said with a shrug.

"UGH! You are such a-just-unbelievable…I told you not to come!" she said, nerves dissolving into white hot anger.

"You said I couldn't come with you, so I came before you" he said, his grin now triumphant.

"Jake, this is important to me! I'm going to kill you!" she said with a face that looked like she meant it.

"Amy, look, he'll be here in like two minutes and I'll explain that this was totally my idea, and that I just wanted to make sure you were safe, okay? As soon as I do that, I'll scram, okay?" he asked and Amy felt a pang of affection for him. If he was this adamant he must be really worried. She sighed. What was two minutes more?

"Fine, but I'm still really pissed at you"

"I'll make it up to you" he said and Amy felt an odd sense of Déjà Vu.

Amy began pacing in the room. At any second, her piano player would come through that door and she'd be here with another guy. She was sure he'd understand, but still, it wasn't the perfect picture she'd imagined.

"So is this the piano that started it all?" Jake asked as he sat down and plucked a key.

"Don't touch that!" she snapped at him.

"Whoa, jeez, Amy. You're a little on edge, let me play ya something" he said, pulling back the sleeves of his shirt.

"Don't-"

BOMP!

CLASH!

"Jake! Stop playing around!" She said as Jake slammed the keys.

"Sorry, sorry. Hey, do you think piano boy can do this?" Jake asked and began playing "Chopsticks".

"Yes, Jake. I'm sure he can play 'Chopsticks'" she said. She was so annoyed that she had to turn away from him. With her back to Jake, she looked at the clock on the wall. 9:02 p.m.

"Where is he?" she asked in a low voice. She began worrying that he really wasn't coming.

Then, softly, Amy heard a few notes play from the piano. They were tentative and not played at the right speed, but Amy recognized them immediately. The notes picked up and gained confidence and started playing in full. Someone was playing her song: Amy's Song. But how? The only two people in the room were her and-

She turned around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash and that's when she saw it. Jake. She saw Jake playing the piano, playing her song, like he was born to do it. He looked at no sheet music, just at his hands and the keys. Sometimes he even shut his eyes and just let the song go where he knew it went. Amy watched him in silence, her brain not able to put the pieces together.

She hadn't shown the song to anyone. How did he know it? Did Jake know the piano? Wasn't he a business-

Amy's eyes widened. Jake told her way back when they first met that he was a business major, but so did her piano player. She thought about their conversations. She thought of the notes under the door and remembered how, sometimes, there was something very familiar about the way the piano player phrased his sentences. Amy felt hot tears prickle her eyes.

Jake played on, an expression she had never seen from him on his face. She thought she might faint. Then, slowly, carefully, tenderly even, Jake finished the song. He looked at the keys, painfully aware that Amy was staring into him. He slowly lifted his head to meet her eyes. He wore the sweetest, smallest smile and a look in his eyes that asked "well?"

"It was you" Amy said, her voice catching. It was a statement, not a question. She watched his expression change. It was vulnerable and pleading, with no smile in sight. When had Amy ever seen Jake without a smile?

"Amy, I-"

"The whole time?"

"Yes-"

"And you've known-?"

"Yes, Amy, I-" he started, getting up from the stool and taking a step towards her.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" she asked, her eyes welling with tears now.

"I was-"

"Was this a joke to you?" she asked, and Jake's hands found her shoulders. Strong hands that played music for her when she was sad. Jake's hands.

"No! Amy, I swear. Everything I said to you here was true. I didn't say anything when I found it was you on the other side of the door because I was worried you wouldn't…worried you wouldn't…" he said, words failing him. Amy refused to let him off the hook, however.

"'Worried you wouldn't' what?" she asked. Jake looked away from her for a second and then met her eyes again.

"I was worried you wouldn't want to be with me if I was 'Jake'. For the past month I've been trying to figure out how to tell you…I'm sorry" he said, his big brown eyes searching hers. She backed away from his grip.

"I need to think" she said in a hushed voice, eyes still welling with tears that refused to fall. She broke Jake's pained gaze and darted out the door, leaving Jake in the room alone with the piano.

Jake

Jake looked at the closed door that Amy had hurried out of. A pain formed in his chest like no pain he had known before. She left. She just left.

"I fucked it up. I really fucked it up" he thought, panic setting in. Should he have just told her as soon as he knew she was Amy? Would that have been the right decision? Was there really any scenario where she didn't walk out of his life forever? If there was, where did he go wrong? What else could he have done?

The pain in his chest had, somehow, gotten worse. He stood in the same place, unable to move, staring at the door. He lost her. He lost her.

It was his fault. He knew it was. He just didn't know where and how.

"Ugh, why am I so stupid?!" he asked himself. He began pacing and looking at the tiles on the floor, hoping the answers hid there. He began going over different scenarios in his head when-

BAM!

The door slammed against the wall. The jarring sound made Jake look over instantly. In the door frame was Amy, her arm still extended from when she slammed the door open. She looked directly at him with a piercing glare that made him back up. Her face was red and her breath was shallow. She looked like she had just run a mile. Jake stared at her, too confused for words.

After a beat, Amy stormed towards him and for a wild second, he thought she was going to hit him. Instead, she roughly wrapped her arms around his neck and brought him down to her lips. She kissed him like fire kissed kindling and held nothing back. For a moment, Jake was stunned, but quickly got over it and met her fervor equally. He ran his hands to her hips and then wrapped his arms around her back to pull her closer.

Amy separated herself from Jake's lips and took big, gulping breaths. Her eyes met Jake's again. Jake wasted no time in taking her face in his hands and bringing her to him. He kissed her again and this time, he felt her grab his shirt. It ignited even more passion from him and a small groan escaped his chest. He trailed kisses along her jaw, down to her throat and Amy snuck a hand into his hair, clutching it tightly.

"Jake…" she said, hushed, sultry, and low. The sound of his name sent him back to her lips, sweet and hot. With some reluctance their lips parted and Jake rested his forehead on hers. He traced his hand up and down her arms and then grabbed her hands, his thumbs rubbing her knuckles. Jake felt her warm breath hit his lips and thought he'd go crazy. He wanted even more of her. Selfishly, greedily, hungrily desired it.

"Amy…" he whispered.

"I know" she said, and both of them giggled. They pulled back from each other and indulged in the sight of each other's eyes as smiles illuminated both of their faces.

"You scared the hell out of me, Santiago" he said, his eyes tender.

"I'll make it up to you" she said and closed the gap between them once again.

AN: *Does victory run* WOOOOOOOO! We made it to chapter nine, babies! I'm so excited this chapter is out. I hope the perspective shift didn't throw you off too much, but I felt like we needed to get Jake's perspective and, if I'm honest, I didn't have the heart to break it up into two chapters. That would have been too cruel haha.

I hope you liked the song that goes with it! I'm a Kingdom Hearts nerd and "Dearly Beloved" is one of my fave pieces of music ever.

There's a Death Cab for Cutie reference floating around in there somewhere.

Chapter ten is basically going to be an Epilogue, but expect more fluff.

Thanks, as always for all of your kind messages. It really means the world to me. You guys are great!

See you in the last chapter!