Disclaimer: I don't own anything, and I make no money

FOLLOW YOU UNTIL YOU LOVE ME

-FOURtwo-Nish

He didn't have a camera, he didn't spy behind trees. He didn't try to hurt her when things didn't go his way, but he still chased after her and was still her paparazzi.

NOTE: Starts faster than the previous chapter and should be better liked on the account that there are no OCs. Sorry about her in the last one, but I needed a plot-pusher and none of the other characters fit the bill.

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It had been over a week since the photo that Chazz had stared in with Alexis, and things seemed to have frozen in a monotonous place. Every day was a replica of the day before. Get up, eat, go to class, go to lunch, talk to people (Alexis), be talked at (Jaden), go to class, go to dinner, go for a walk, go to bed, get up and do it all over again the next day. The only thing that made the repetition bearable was that Alexis was talking to him almost daily now—she didn't try to avoid him if he approached her (probably, he assumed, because he wasn't trying to tell her about how he felt anymore…she got it.) and she'd even approached him on her own and asked him a question. It had just been a question about class and a note she had missed, but she had gone to him instead of anyone else.

That had to mean something.

However, his mind grew restless in the evenings and he found himself wandering around the campus before the time came to return to his dorm to sleep. Most of the other students were having practice duels or congregating with friends. Chazz didn't care to waste time dueling for no reason and the only person who readily talked to him was Jaden…and he really didn't want to talk with Jaden—he never had anything new to say.

So, instead of being sociable, Chazz slipped away like the recluse that he was when Jaden was busying himself with something else. Sometimes he went into the building, sometimes he went towards the shore and just watched the waves for a while, and other times he found himself walking in large circles within the woods. That was where he ended up on Friday, just wandering around in a large circle with his mind doting on unimportant things like the homework he had due later, schemes of how to dead end the conversations Jaden attempted to start with him and, occasionally, if tomorrow was going to be any different than today.

He pitched a sigh when he saw the path leading back to the dorms cut across the woods in front of him and stopped. It had grown dark, but enough light still shone to illuminate the edges of the trees and the rocky path. If he kept going, he decided, it would only grow darker and it was highly probable that he'd end up disoriented, but he wasn't tired and didn't care to return to the dorms. He continued forward and stepped onto the path, preparing to follow it downwards to the shore. He'd rest there for a while and then go back when the time was right.

He trudged on, occasionally looking up at the sky where the stars had begun to show, and listened to the sound of the waves crashing against the shore. The peaceful sound worked like a narcotic, relaxing and soothing him as he drew nearer. He found himself feeling drowsy, but pulled awake instantly when the sound of the waves became overpowered by the sound of footsteps crunching on the rocks of the path behind him.

He submerged himself amongst the trees and was prepared to wait until whoever it was passed by and then find someplace else along the beach to go after discovering where his "companion" decided to stop. There was definitely enough shore on the island to share with one other person, and while whoever it was was preoccupied with the water Chazz knew that he could easily pass him or her without being perceived.

So Chazz waited as the crunching steps grew louder and the form of the approaching student came into view. Chazz felt himself choke on the breath he'd taken in and faltered backwards. It couldn't be! But that figure was unmistakable.

Alexis.

He felt his heart flutter and his cheeks burn. If he had kept wandering in circles through the woods he would have missed her! He wouldn't have been able to observe her as she gracefully walked down the path towards the ocean. He would have been stepping over debris and kicking himself free of snaring vines instead of being entranced by her severe beauty.

She passed by without picking up on his presence which left Chazz puzzled. Alexis always seemed the type to be aware of everything in her surroundings. Even if he was the only one who could hear his pounding heart, couldn't she hear how he struggled to breathe?

He didn't have the self-control to avoid her and, once she had passed by and disappeared out of sight, Chazz continued down the path, trying to calm himself and think of what he would say. (Of course he was going to join her! It was the perfect opportunity! As long as he played his cards right, it would make for a romantic moment!) These ideas goaded him until the beach came into view where Alexis stood with her usual rigid posture. The air tousled her hair slightly, but not enough for it to look like a romantic movie scene.

It was that that thought that brought Chazz back to earth. Alexis wasn't like the movies. She wasn't swooned by affection or gifts or anything like that. She didn't…love him back? He hated the very thought of it and it compelled him to drift back into the woods where he could observe her from a distance without being spotted.

She looked so at ease—her posture relaxed, her body being outlined by the moon's glow and the faint final traces of the sunset. She was so beautiful, it was impossible for any boy not to notice. So beautiful, so smart, so strong willed, so focused…there was no end to her perfection. Her only flaw was that she was crazy—she had to be! How else could she resist The Chazz?

He watched her shoulders move as she sighed and found himself sighing with her. He stepped closer to the edge of the woods, being careful not to step upon anything that would crack or make himself known. He glanced at his foot for a moment, trying to make out if what he was stepping on was a vine or a branch, and when he looked back up Alexis had turned her head—looking over her shoulder at the forest.

Chazz gasped soundlessly and whipped behind the tree on his left, hoping that he hadn't been seen but feeling certain that he had. He leaned against the trunk and pressed his closed fist against his chest as he caught his breath and waited for his heart to cease pounding. He didn't dare to look to see if he'd been spotted or if Alexis had been looking at something else…like the stars or a planet or something. It's not like he could see her eyes, she was just turned in his general directions, her face a black smudge.

Shadows shouldn't dare to cast darkness over a face like hers…Chazz jotted down the thought in the notebook of his mind and reminded himself to say that to her someday.

Slowly, his heart returned to a semi-ordinary beat and he dared to glimpse at her again. Her attention was back on the water, her head turning occasionally to survey it from side to side. Then she stared to turn her head back again and he pulled away.

He growled in quiet frustration and shook his head. This wasn't getting him anywhere. What the heck was he doing hiding behind a tree like a repulsive peeping tom?

He took a deep breath and dislodged himself from the forest, making sure to snap a branch to let Alexis know, for certain, that he was there. She turned back towards him and then raised a hand in the air in a greeting gesture.

"Hey, Chazz!" She called, sounding friendly which eased some of the pressure off of him as he drew nearer. She didn't sound upset about having her solitude intruded upon.

"Hey, Alexis," he managed to say, smiling inwardly. He had managed to say a greeting to her upon seeing her this time.

"What are you doing out here?" She said this politely, smiling at him. He hoped that the darkness hid the blush that he felt growing darker.

"Same as you, I guess," he said with a slightly shaking voice. He hated how foolish he had to look. Blushing, stammering, probably even trembling... Why did she have the power to make him so nervous when no body else did?

"I just wanted a little bit of time to myself," Alexis said, looking back out at the water. "It's usually pretty peaceful here."

"Oh," Chazz stated softly. "I could go away, you know…if you want me to." That was why he was hiding behind the tree like a peeping tom…she couldn't tell him to go away if she wasn't sure that he was there.

Alexis turned back to him quickly, her hair swaying elegantly.

"You don't have to!" Alexis insisted. She sounded so sincere that Chazz felt his heart skip a beat. "I mean, I was wondering when you were going to show yourself. If I wanted you to go away I would have gone somewhere else."

So she had seen him…or sensed him…there really were no faults with Alexis.

"Sorry," Chazz said, looking away before Alexis's face could become contorted with confusion. "You can tell me if you want to be alone. I'll go." Maybe, by showing that he was willing to give her her space, she'd like him more.

"You don't have to, Chazz," Alexis said sternly. Plan: backfired. Alexis sounded angry.

"Fine," he said, pulling back his normal persona. "I'll stay. But only because you asked me to." He smirked and she rolled her eyes in that adorable way that she did when she got mad. She didn't say anything else though. She just looked out at the water and Chazz, not wanting to look like a creep by staring at her, looked out at it also. The dark waters licked at the beach lazily, slowly, sleepily…he had to do something or else he was going to be lulled to sleep and look like a fool when he fell over onto the beach—and with Alexis standing right there as a witness.

Drowsily, but not drunkenly, Chazz stepped towards the water, attracting Alexis's attention, and knelt down in the sand less than a foot away from the sleepy, lapping waves.

"What are you doing?" Alexis asked, watching as he placed the tip of his finger against the surface of the rushing water.

"The ocean, it touches every continent, right?" He looked at her, able to see her face in the moon's glow.

"Yeah…" Alexis drawled. "Where are you going with this?" She moved to his side and knelt down also. Chazz felt himself become flustered, but swallowed back the heart that had risen in his throat.

"So…if you touch the ocean, aren't you touching every continent too?" Alexis looked at his eyes which shined with a sort of contentedness and sadness at the same time and then at his finger on the water.

"Yeah," she said, her face breaking into a smile. "I guess you are." Then, she, too, extended her arm and placed the tips of her index and ring fingers in the cool water. She remained that way for over a minute, Chazz found himself counting her breaths instead of the seconds, but he was sure that the span had been long, and then pulled her hand away and stood up. He retracted his hand as well, but stayed kneeling. "Feeling philosophical tonight?" She asked with a laugh. "I never thought of that before."

"I thought of it when I was kid when I was on vacation with my parents and my brothers." Alexis hummed sullenly. "I would rather have been anywhere else but on that island and I thought about how the ocean touches 'everywhere' and thought that, maybe…I don't know…It was a long time ago." He shook the words away before he could make a fool of himself by saying them.

"You don't know?" Alexis asked, sounding playful.

"Well, I do," Chazz said, looking out at the water and then towards her.

"Then tell me. You can't just start a story and not end it. It isn't fair." She offered him a smile, but he was still reluctant to speak and she read it in his face and frowned. "You thought, back then, that maybe a portal would open up and you'd disappear off the island and turn up someplace else?" Chazz found himself smiling faintly and looked away.

"Yeah, something like that."

"You don't have to be ashamed of it," Alexis said, noting his distant expression. "Your brothers seem kind of…brutal." Chazz didn't say anything. "It's getting late," she added after a time. "I think I'm going to head back. Are you going to stay here?" Chazz shook awake from his stupor and glanced at her, attempting not to become fixated and stare.

"Yes," he managed to say. He'd thought of more to say after that, but he couldn't get his tongue to move right.

"Oh." She sounded surprised. "Alright, but I thought that we could walk back together since it is getting dark." Her tone suggested that she feared he would get himself lost, but Chazz found comfort in the thought that she was asking him for protection. The thought made him practically giddy. So giddy, in fact, that he didn't notice the look of disconcertion on her shadow-blackened face as his twisted into some sort of smile.

"I guess I could go back now," Chazz said, trying to stifle his bliss and failing dismally. "Since it is getting dark and it's not safe for a girl to walk at night without an escort." Alexis said something like "That's not what I meant", but Chazz wasn't listening and the two of them had already begun their walk back.

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Love, FOURtwo-nish