18. "Eventually… I can work with that."

Darren's POV on chapter 19 of As a White Knight on His Steed
...

I was on such a high after singing for Chris that I think the only thing that kept me from simply floating away was his hand in mine, anchoring me to the earth.

As soon as we got back to my house, my mom said, "Well, we've had a long day, and I know that you boys have, too. Is there anything you need before we head up to bed?"

"No, that's okay, but thanks, Mom. I'll just make sure that Chris is settled into the guest room, and then I'll be right behind you," I replied innocently.

Chris said goodnight to my parents, who headed upstairs. Once they were out of earshot, I whispered, "I'll just give them a minute to get into their room and shut the door, and then I'll go on up and sneak right back down. Wait for me in the guest room."

I went up to my room, making sure to tromp loudly on the stairs so my mom and dad would hear me. When I snuck back down, I was in ninja-stealth mode, tiptoeing all the way back to the guest bedroom.

"I changed into my pajamas and left my room again before I shut the door, so my parents would only hear it open and close one time," I told Chris. "And I was super quiet on the way down. They have no idea I'm in here with you. And their bedroom is on the far side of the house, so we don't have to worry about them hearing us."

"They've been so nice to me; I feel a little guilty about deceiving them like this," Chris said, with a slight frown.

"You're not deceiving them. You're right where they told you to be. I'm the one who's sneaking around, and if it doesn't bother me, then it doesn't need to bother you. Besides, I couldn't pass up this opportunity to sleep in an actual double bed with you."

"Well, good. 'Cause I would've been lonely down here without you. Even when we don't sleep in the same bed, I always like knowing you're there in the room with me."

"Baby, you're not alone," I sang.

Chris pulled me down onto the bed. "That song was incredible. I can't believe you wrote that. When did you even have time?"

I wrapped my arms around him, rubbing our noses together and giving him a quick kiss before responding. "I worked on it every night while you were in the shower. And on Thursday evenings, when you had to go to the campfire and I didn't."

"But you don't even have a keyboard at camp."

"I know. I wrote it on the guitar, but I thought it would sound better on piano. The chords are exactly the same, so I thought I'd give it a try on the keyboard tonight."

"Do you have any idea how amazingly talented you are?"

"You're just saying that because I let you have your way with me earlier," I teased.

Chris blushed, but came back with "I seem to remember letting you have your way with me, too."

"Well, then I guess you are amazingly talented as well."

"Flattery will get you everywhere."

"Really?" I asked, a million enticing scenarios flooding my brain.

"Eventually. But not tonight, and certainly not in your parents' house while they're asleep upstairs."

"Eventually… I can work with that."

…

We slept in the next morning, finally waking up to the sounds and scents of breakfast being prepared.

"Shit!" I whispered. "I thought I'd be up before my parents. I don't want them to know I slept in here last night."

Chris rolled out of bed and hurriedly got dressed. Grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants from his bag, he tossed them to me. "Here, put these on and pretend you've been up for hours."

I kinda loved it when Chris got bossy, so I did as I was told. As soon as I got to the kitchen, I gave my mom a hug.

"Good morning, Sweetheart," she said. "How long have you been up? I didn't even hear you come down the stairs."

"Oh, you know, Chris and I are used to getting up at 6 every morning to round up the horses," I said, which wasn't actually a lie.

My mom turned to the doorway, where Chris was standing awkwardly. "Good morning, Chris. How did you sleep?"

"Really well, thanks. The bed in your guest room is very comfortable."

"I'm glad. Well, if you boys want to set the table and put out some orange juice, breakfast is almost ready."

Whew! So we'd pulled that one off…

…

Later that morning, heading back down Highway 1, I couldn't wait to show Chris the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. I'd checked online before we left, and discovered that the sun and the moon and the earth were all lined up perfectly for our visit. 'Cause the universe loves us and wants us to be happy.

"Do you have any idea how lucky we are that there's a minus tide so close to noon?" I asked Chris.

"Actually, I don't. I have no idea what you're even talking about. But I can tell by the way you're bouncing in your seat that it's pretty exciting."

"Pretty exciting doesn't even begin to describe it. In fact, it's indescribable. You'll just have to see for yourself," I told him, pulling into the parking lot. "Come on!"

I took Chris's hand and led him down a short, steep trail to the beach. The ocean was lovely, of course, but at first glance the beach wasn't much to look at. Once we stepped out onto the partially exposed rocks, however, the tide pools came into view. One look at the wonder on Chris's face, and I knew I'd done the right thing in bringing him here.

If I ever had to write a personal ad (which, thank god, I won't – since Chris and I will be together forever – but if I did) it would say something along the lines of I'm Darren: I like beaches, sushi, and small animals who are nice. This place definitely had the first and the last, and I suppose it also had all of the ingredients for the one in the middle, so I figured I'd hit the great-place-for-a-date trifecta.

Chris spotted a starfish, and squatted down to take a closer look.

"Is it okay to touch them?" he asked.

"Yeah. Watch what happens if you stick your finger in a sea anemone," I said, demonstrating.

"Oooh – did it sting you?"

"No, it just feels tingly, and like it's sucking on your finger. Here, try it."

Chris reached out a tentative finger, and gasped when the anemone sucked it in. "Wow! That's kind of freaky."

I tugged on his hand. "Look, there's a rainbow chiton!"

Soon we were pulling each other from rock to rock, peering down into each pool and exclaiming over what we discovered.

"Come on," I said, after we'd seen all of the crabs, sculpins, mussels, and hermit crabs that lived in the pools by the shore. "The tide's low enough that we can get out to the sea urchin beds."

I took Chris's hand, and we ventured further out on the slippery rocks, helping each other across the wider chasms. At the outer edge of the rocks we found the sea urchins, waving their deep purple spikes in the current.

As we were making our way back toward the shore, Chris stopped short and pointed excitedly. "Dare – look – an octopus!"

"Where? Oh, wow, that's so cool! I've never seen one here before."

"So I guess we're losing our octopus virginities together today, huh?"

I brought our linked hands to my lips, brushing a kiss across Chris's knuckles. "God, I love you."

And I did. I always did. But what I loved the most about him, in that moment, was how connected to him I felt with every part of myself: the romantic part, that wrote "Not Alone" and sang it for him in front of an entire café full of strangers; the horny part, that couldn't wait for "eventually" to come around so we could try everything; and the silly, little-kid part, that had me bouncing around with delight over having seen an octopus.

Have I mentioned that I'm kind of a goofball? (Yeah, I know, I didn't really have to mention it, 'cause it's sort of obvious.) Well, sometimes I'd pretend to be an octopus. And most people would be like, 'Darren what're you doing?' And I'd just sit there and laugh, because they weren't cool enough to be an octopus, and I'd just be like, 'Hah! You're just jealous because you're not an octopus.'

But Chris totally was cool enough to be an octopus. In fact, he was cool enough to be a giant, rainbow octopus from the Andromeda Galaxy.

And I loved how much fun it was to hang out with Chris and just be goofballs – losing our octopus virginity – together.

End Notes: I hope you had fun playing "Find the Darren Quotes" in the last chapter. In case you're curious, here are the things he actually said (some of which I modified slightly for this story). "I don't want to see you hanging out with this dryer. This is a bad, bad dryer!" "Totally awesome" "I'm using the soap… Now I'm using the shampooooooo…" "Music to me is the sound of meaning, it's the embodiment of things you can't put into words." "If you hear any screaming girls… it's probably my father." "This is going to be the most crazy, romantic thing I've ever done in my life! This is going to be amazing! We're gonna run off and love each other forever and ever until we DIE!" "That hug was like all kinds of love explosions." And, of course, all of the lyrics to "Not Alone."

There are three additional quotes in this chapter. Did you spot them?