Author's Note 1:This chapter took forever to write-mostly because I haven't been home in the evenings to work on it. The other reason is that it's been written and rewritten several times. The final version has only been read over once, so I apologize for typos and grammatical errors.

But here it is, and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 8 Mutual Insecurities

'What are you thinking about?'

Belle broke through his rather dark thoughts. The thing he was actually thinking about would not be the thing to tell her-I am just soaking in this moment, because you will leave me at some point, once you've figured out this was all a big mistake. So instead his mind began running through what could be the truth without revealing too much of it.

'I am having a fun time with you…' He began. She immediately gave him a sort of exasperated look.

'And so that's what got you looking so down after watching Westley be nearly dead?' Her lips turned upwards and she tried to gloss over the words in a teasing sort of manner. Her smile faded when she saw how serious he still remained.

'I just-I guess I still can't believe you-well that you are here, and you are voluntarily being with- me.' The roll of his shoulders and the flutter of his hands swept over himself at the last phrase. He was not a handsome man-he knew that. He wasn't necessarily a young man either-probably would be classified as middle aged about now, he imagined. His one 'gift' or 'talent' lay in being able to spot something valuable pretty quickly and fairly accurately, that was all. He could not walk properly, could not talk properly, and had enough internal darkness to make even the strongest person shudder, yet here was the opposite of all he was, sitting next to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do.

'And you think that's a good thing, right? This isn't code for an 'It's not you, it's me' speech that's coming, is it?' Her eyes looked genuinely worried.

Robby hurriedly assured her, surprised that she could ever come up with that sort of conclusion. Did she not realize just how baffling it was for her to bestow her presence and allow him to bask in it?

'No, no, of course not. I am very happy, here-with you. It's just that I didn't think you could be happy…' His brain was now blank and wouldn't come up with proper words to explain himself. Just add that to the growing list of his imperfections: Brain goes blank at the most inopportune moments.

'Why not, Robby?' Her blue eyes were clear and focused.

Westley and Buttercup were now forgotten. They knew the ending anyway-it was all kissing stuff at the end.

'Isn't it obvious?' He stuttered out.

'No? So why don't you tell me. Why shouldn't I, or can't I be happy with you, Robby?'

'Because I'm so… and you're so…' Brain still hadn't gotten the memo to finish thoughts for him. Instead his hands fluttered about as if it were enough explanation-it ought to be, just the implication that he was himself and she was herself ought to be enough to have her calling this friend of hers, Ruby, and begging her to come and get her before his pathetic cowardice or internal darkness had a chance to seep out and infect her too.

'Can I be honest with you?'

Brain decided that he didn't need any words at all, so he was left nodding his head and wrinkling his face in confusion as to what Belle might have to say to him.

'That first day-the first day you found me in the exhibit room and watched me-yes Robby I know you were watching me.' His eyes went wide and now worried at just how long she knew he had been doing that very thing-did she know about all the other times he did that too?

'You looked at me and not, well,other areas, for one.' He went a little pink. His list of faults was a mile long, but at least at that moment he had been a gentleman. 'And you looked…' She continued. 'You looked at me like I was someone and like I was worth something, and you didn't even know me! And I think you bolting when you saw me, of course, began my curiosity, but the look you gave me before the bolting, assured me of what I had seen out of the corner of my eye. That you looked at me as if I had some value, and I'm just not used to that.'

Her voice got small at the end and she ran her hands together nervously at her confession. Robby's eyes were bugged out, he knew, and he was both sweating and almost shaking with nerves.

That not everyone who even glanced at Belle did not understand her light, her goodness, her intelligence, now baffled him more than the fact that she had allowed them to go on a handful of dates.

'You-you aren't? I don't understand…you are so…' wonderful, beautiful, amazing, kind… This time his brain supplied the words but he was too cowardly to use them.

'Troublesome, Selfish, fussy…' She started naming off in his silence, using her fingers to count the words and sounded as if there were a plethora of additional words she could use. This shocked him, of course, horrified him, really.

'No! No, of course not! Why would you think…'

'Oh they are words I hear often enough, well, as often as he will speak to me, anyway.'

Somehow he knew exactly of whom she was speaking.

'Your father?' he suggested.

Belle nodded, confirming his suspicion. She looked so small and fragile at that moment. He could speak even one word in agreement to her father's summation and it would tear her apart, he knew. Robby felt this sudden urge to wrap his arms around her and promise protection from all such rubbish her father spewed for the rest of her life. He was never brave-never, ever brave enough for anything so forward.

Belle wrapped her arms around herself instead and sighed, her eyes looking ahead and not seeing the large screen in front of them.

'You aren't any of those things, Belle.' He said. He said the words quietly, though they could easily be heard-the volume on the radio having been turned down a few sentences ago by one or the other, he couldn't remember.

She turned at last, smiled a sad small smile and nodded. 'Thanks, I appreciate that, Robby. Her arms unfolded and she rested a hand on his arm.

'I'm sorry you've been made to feel insecure too. But don't you see? Putting yourself down, believing that I am somehow above you or something, only diminishes my choice. I am choosing to be with you, Robby-Jeff may have helped things along.' She smiled amusedly at the thought. ' but you were always my choice.'

Her words and blush at the end of that sentence confused him more than her assurances that she was there because she wanted to be.

'Always?'

'Well, at least for the past two years, anyway. I think I've had a crush on you since that first *almost* meeting.'

A smile happened involuntarily. She was a wonder.

'Me too.'

Her own smile got bigger.

'Oh good-then all my time spent at the exhibits didn't go in vain after all.' His forehead had wrinkled. 'Well, I know I am a bit strange, but I don't normally go to art exhibits to read books-that's normally what a library or the park is for. I always stuck around for as long as possible, in the hopes you would be sent to kick me out when the building closed for the evening.'

They were both laughing, and he a little self depreciatingly-if he had only had the courage to speak to her all that time ago. She had patiently waited for him and he had let her down time after time. He had no idea why she was still putting up with him now. Apparently she was choosing to do so, and who was he to argue?

'I'm sorry I didn't come speak to you.' He managed. The guilt that she had waited all that time was building and beginning a sort of panic over him all of the sudden.

'Hey, please-I'm glad things turned out the way they did-and we are together now, aren't we?

Besides, the art and humanities building has become quite dear to me over the past couple of years. Not only did you work there.' Her cheeks still became pink when discussing her feelings and thoughts towards him-that he caused the color on those cheeks! Him! He would endeavor to deserve even a fraction of it, though he didn't feel like he would ever fully understand it.

'But…' She continued, her bottom lip being bitten and that sort of nervous look she got when discussing how things were at home. 'It became a sort of safe haven for me. It's rather quiet and peaceful, and elegant and, oh, well, I came to enjoy my Saturday afternoons there quite well.'

Safe. She felt safe there. Did that mean? A knot of worry came over him. He again hated that at the end of this date he was supposed to drop her off at a place where apparently she was made to feel like all those words that were thrown at her, and where in comparison, an art and humanities building felt safe.

'You know…' The color was back though her lip was still being chewed while she smiled at him. 'You'll think it's silly, but I had such an image of you built up in my head. Quiet and kind with gentleman like manners. I was so worried that I had become enamored with my own image of you that when I did finally become friends with you (because I never stopped believing it would happen-I was determined that it would happen eventually) that you would turn out to be, well, not that, and that I would be terribly disappointed.'

'And you weren't…' Robby started-hardly believing how similar things were between them, remembering his own image of Belle that he had harbored for the past two years-and how that she had exceeded every hope and dream that he had of her. That he wasn't a disappointment would be baffling, but since she was still here…and told him she wanted to be here… 'disappointed?' he finished.

'Oh no! You have been exactly that, and more.' She put her hand on his, squeezing it lovingly. Her eyes were so soft, so blue, so honest and genuine. Kind. She had called him kind. He didn't know if he was exactly that. He hadn't many examples of what kindness was, but he did know with all his heart that written on those beautiful blues was kindness itself, of that he was certain.

'Two years… ' He breathed, his brain not supplying the additional words needed again.

'I know, but we are here now, and I quite like you, I think.' She laughed. 'So stop beating yourself up, and I'll stop beating myself up and we can enjoy our evening okay?'

He had ruined her evening. His heart was suddenly crushed. 'Oh, I'm so sorry I…'

'Shhh…' She smirked. 'I can at least catch the ending-you know with all the wonderful kissing stuff.' She giggled and his chest felt lighter.

After all the confessions that evening, bringing her to that house made his chest continually feel tighter the closer they got to it. He tried to come up with some solution that didn't seem too forward, or would make her nervous, oh, he didn't know what to do. He felt closer to her tonight than he ever had before. It was like the one evening took away all the normal awkwardness that the first few dates tend to be (not that he had experience or anything), and the two years that they had been pining after each other (after each other! It would take him weeks to process that), had been fleshed out and made into something substantial. They were no longer barely acquaintances anymore, they were friends, they were people who both wanted to be with each other.

The house loomed ahead, and he could see that once again her father had decided to invite boisterous company. She was beside him gnawing at her lip and running her fingers over her forehead worriedly. He couldn't stand this.

'I don't like it.' He attempted.

'What?' It was like she suddenly realized where she was-as if she had been somewhere else in her mind, a horrible place, he reckoned.

'I don't like dropping you off here.' He was worried she would be offended-as embarrassed of the house as she was only a week ago, however, she just nodded her head at his words but continued to look distressed.

'I can't go to Ruby's tonight, she and the other girls are out doing things that just aren't for me.' She gave a half hearted, crooked smile. 'Don't worry too much-I, uh, when it's this loud and I can't go to Ruby's, I normally go through my window, over there. Normally if I'm quiet enough they don't realize I'm there.'

Her honest blue eyes betrayed her worry.

'Why don't you come back with me?'

'Pardon?' It had clearly caught her off guard-it had him too.

'Separate beds, all that stuff, don't worry, but you can crash at my place, and I can bring you back to your car in the morning before I go to work, or whenever you want to be back.' He shrugged, trying to make it sound as casual as possible.

She thought over it for a moment.

'I just want to say first that I am not one of those girls who spends the night at a boys place-just so you know, never thought I would either.' Everything was spoken a bit stiltedly. 'I planned to wait until, um, well, marriage' She reddened. He nodded his head, he believed her. He wasn't one to have a girl stay at his place either-she would certainly be the first, though he could feel her saying no, in an attempt to keep her morals and convictions intact. 'But I can't say that I want to stay here either. Some of dad's company-well, they can be a little rough.'

His chest tightened again. 'They haven't hurt you, have they?'

'No, not exactly. Been a little, um, forceful at times, and lewd with their speech, but I've always been able to avoid anything too bad. I'm always scared though.' She said the last bit as if it was some sort of deep confession. She ought not to be scared. Her father was made from the same rubbish his house was made, if that was the sort of job he was doing at protecting his daughter. Robby had very few violent thoughts in his life, but he had a few for Belle's father at that moment.

'So if you don't mind…Just for tonight?'

He nodded. 'Yes, of course, just for tonight.'

Author's Note 2: Alright-a few notes here.

I have gone back and forth on how to address Belle's stay at her father's. There's still some background stuff that is coming, but several have mentioned having her stay with Robby. I come from a conviction similar to Belle's here, so I tried to accommodate for that. So don't expect this to be a permanent solution-however, I promise for something that will hopefully make up for it!
Thank you for reading! I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Loving all your comments!