I had to admit it was a very nice and at the same exciting feeling to exit the Studio and see Him standing across the street, hands deep into the pockets of his dark-washed jeans, leather jacket irreplaceable, he looked like he was very hard not to take out a cigar and indulge himself in its poisonous smoke. It was barely eight and my classes just finished.

I felt something warm in the pit of my stomach as if a bubble of something pleasantly hot burst and its warmth spread throughout me. The feeling was thrilling to say the least.

Kelly noticed me and hurried across the street to me still waiting on the stairs of a ten-story building with the upper two floors belonging to Evita Dance Studio. I smiled and cloaked myself further into the big scarf I was sporting again.

"Hey." He stopped in front of me and as I was standing two stairs from the ground, we were practically the same size.

"Hey yourself." I beamed. We were so close our noses were almost touching and I could just about see the air he exhaled as it turned transparent-white on the cold November evening. "You're early."

"I'm on time." He corrected and I didn't believe him.

Neither of us made a move to close the distance probably being afraid that after our last intimate encounter at my door there was no way we would proceed with the date if there would be a repeat of that heated make-out session.

My eyes glinted and I smiled sheepishly before looking down and biting my lower lip out of habit.

Kelly smirked:

"You're not gonna make this easy for me at all, are you?"

"You wish."

"Shall we?" He said, offering me his hand.

I eagerly took it and we proceeded down the street when he asked . "You hungry?"

"Not really. I had a good lunch with Gabriela. But I wouldn't mind the biggest mug of coffee or tea. It's kinda cold outside."

"The biggest mug it is then." He nodded and secured my hand in his much bigger one. "So this is where you work?"

"Yeah." I sent a look to the roof of the building we've just left behind. "I teach here."

Kelly's eyebrows rose:

"You teach, really?"

"What?! Don't I look like someone who could teach people how to dance?" My tone wasn't accusing but I added a pretend-big-eyes just to be sure I delivered a thought across.

"Not what I meant." He laughed and I loved how his deep reach voice sounded near my ear. "I just thought you would be the one to dance. You look like someone who could be the finest dancer."

"Huh, the flattery will get you nowhere but, for the record, keep going." I grinned but cleared my throat to continue. "I used to dance…professionally. Ballet. Ever since I was four. American Academy of Ballet graduate. And until last year it was the biggest and unfortunately the most important part of my life. And then the car accident happened and my right knee gave way…and the best doctors told me that though I would walk and everything, there was just no ballet anymore in store for me…"

I felt him watching me as I kept on.

"It was hurtful and…very strange. It's just I didn't remember the time in my life when I wasn't a ballet-dancer. And this feeling of not knowing who you are anymore and what to do next is very…odd…weird not in the good way."

I felt Kelly lightly squeezing my hand. I looked at him and smiled sadly. I've never told it to anyone…well a lot of people knew the story in facts, some of my friends and a shrink my therapist had assigned knew half-truths but…I've never felt the need or want to tell anybody how I felt inside. And here I was spilling the guts to the man I've known less than a month.

"So when my body was ready to go back into the world of walking people I decided to stick with what I could do best if there would be a chance for me in that area. One of my ex-teachers at the ballet Academy, Jonathan, opened his own Studio a couple years back and after receiving the news about what happened offered me a job. So I took it."

"I'm sorry." He said after a pause.

"Don't be." I bumped into his solid form lightly that made him half-smile. "It could have been much worse. I appreciate the ability to walk much more now! So, I guess, it turned out pretty well."

"I couldn't agree more." He raised our clasped hands and kissed my knuckles.

Yeah, like a schoolgirl really. Was all I could think.

"So what's your story, Firefighter?" I asked as we rounded the corner.

"There's not exactly a story behind it all." He chuckled. "It's probably one of the universal things in my life – something that has always been there."

"And no other options?" I grinned. "Except for being a hero?"

Kelly chuckled again as we stopped at a small café in the side street I didn't exactly noticed we aimed for.

"Yes, just being a hero for you." He opened the door for us.

-\-

"Let me think…" Kelly took a sip from what was his third coffee refill. "Well, the three of us came to the station around the same time: me, Andy and Matt. Andy and I were there for each other ever since we were kids, we decided to become firefighters together. Me and Matt, on the other hand, hit it off with this rivalry…a friendly one… and Andy became the catalyst."

"So you and Matt are typical frienemies?"

"Frienemies? What are you, fourteen?!" He sneered good-naturally.

"Oh! Don't insult my fourteen years, they weren't a bunch of laughs itself." I finished off the glass of water that came with the coffee.

"You were a nerd?" He asked, smirking.

"No." I dragged the 'o'. "Not exactly."

"A first class nerd?"

This time I grinned before answering.

"I guess, I was more of a loner."

"I would never believe that!"

"Well, please, do. Kids in school tend to get mean. I didn't want to be in the middle of gossiping and all that jazz, so, my guess, it was a self-preservation thing. Plus training, rehearsals…that didn't exactly leave me much time for any social life. But you seem to be one of those kids…the prom king?"

"Thanks, but no, thanks!" Kelly frowned. "A sport junkie."

I inhaled with my lips dramatically:

""I should of guessed!"

"Am I that predictable?"

"No…" And I let my voice get just a little bit dreamy. "I guess, to me you're anything but…predictable."

-\-

I was desperately trying to scratch on my left hand but Kelly's big paw was on my shoulder which made the so-desirable action impossible. I had a feeling he knew all about my intentions.

We were a five minute walk from the bar where the firehouse crew was meeting for drinks when I asked something that has been on mind for some time.

"Do you…do you think this is normal?"

"What is?" He answered with a glance dawn at me.

"This thing between us." My voice was soft so that he wouldn't get a wrong impression. "I almost don't know you but somehow…"

"Don't." He stopped and turned to me. I noted that his voice was equally soft as I gazed up at him, my lips slightly parted. "Don't overthink this. I've never had anything like this too."

"But I don't know if how I'm reacting is right. That…" I bit on my bottom lip.

"You're doing fine." In my thoughtful pause the joke was almost lost to me. Almost. We started laughing. "No, really, I think we're doing more than fine. I've never had relationships before but if they look like this I'm starting to regret it."

I punched him with my good arm in the stomach…or in his case a pack of hard muscles. Kelly pretended to be wounded for a second but caught my arm and pulled me closer to him, sneaking his other arm to the small of my back.

"So I say we go with the flow." He closed the distance between us and covered my lips with his after adding almost inaudibly. "Pixie."

My protests were lost in a kiss.