So I guess a lot has happened since I've last updated this story- school started, the world of college applications started, and Miley and Liam have broken up and gotten back together to my incredible delight. I'm so happy they're together still, I was so sad when I heard they were taking a break and I didn't have the motivation to write about them. But now this is what a four hour car ride gets ya. This chapter is like, what I've written this entire story around. Hope you like it and don't forget to review. Song- Falling For You by Seabird

Towards the Sun
Chapter 4

I hope this song brings you back to life
'Cause I can see the fear in those eyes
I promise you if we just try
We'll take this wrong and make it right

A city holds a different air when it's winter. It carries with it a frosty cold and comfortable warmth and a cheery quiet that lingers on the streets. Christmas is in two days. The little stores that dot the sidewalks stay open till late at night and people casually pass by, leaving glances at the window displays and mull over the consideration of purchasing one too many gifts for their lover. The sun is quite distant and hidden behind puffy gray clouds of snow, but every hour or so it will peak out and smile at the Parisians strolling along the Seine River, chatting over a baguette and espresso, and spreading kisses on each other's cold-bitten faces.

She's not a Parisian but Miley feels like one. She feels lovely in the oversized sweater that makes her look tiny and fragile and her combat boots that make her feel real tough. She laughs as Liam erases his Australian accent and attempts to speak with fancy French words; he says, "Vous êtes belles" and Miley's cheeks turn rosy and she shoves him playfully.

Miley likes to watch the people that they pass and she studies their character with cool intellect and careful consideration of who they are and not who they seem to be because she would rather people judge her in the format anyway. There are two old woman on the park bench talking with pursed lips and mitten hands, a mother with a stroller of delicate twin girls, and a student with books and shopping bags in hand. She feels that she can hear their conversations and their untold stories and she wonders if people can read her as well as she thinks she can read them.

"I mailed the postcard at the airport," she mentions, "I sent it to my mom, just telling her where we'll be and how good this has been."

They keep walking through the streets as it funnels into a small side street filled with a market. Two days ago they were somewhere similar, but it was Mexico and it was warm and Miley feared everything but now she's living freely. And it's funny, because now that she isn't worrying, not a single camera has found them, nor a single person has shouted her name..

Hi Mom & family,

I bought this postcard in Mexico- Tijuana, actually- but I'm writing it in on a plane to Paris. It's hard to believe that we've been gone for just 4 days cause it feels like weeks. I've learned a lot about people and seen more than I ever thought I would. Liam is taking care of me, and we're being good for each other. The nightmares have stopped and my mind is clear. You don't have to worry, we'll be home soon.

Love always,
smiley Miley

They are eating dinner at a nice restaurant and Liam notices how the candlelight creates an ethereal glow on Miley's face and he watches the flame flicker in her eyes. He likes how her hair is pinned up to show the many piercings that dot her lobes and you can just faintly read her tattoo, LOVE. It is inked on the inside of her right ear and he always whispers words of the lovely-sort into it.

"You've changed," he says softly and she looks up from her food with a smile. "You're not.. scared anymore."

"You're right, I'm not," she agrees and tries to bring her emotions to words. "I was thinking about how this all happened, and I believe it all amounted to change. After I came home from shooting the movie, I wasn't used to going back to nothing because Hannah was done. And then the paparazzi just got too insane and I don't know why but it was starting to get dangerous to the point where I didn't want to leave the house. And when I'm alone with myself a lot, I start to think too much and then I worry about life. My problem with achieving so much so soon is that I was beginning to wonder what more was left for me."

"You've got a lot left, Miles," he felt her hand find his hand under the table and squeeze it, "Knowing you, you've got the rest of your life mapped out."

On the plane last night, Miley was reading "Eat, Pray, Love" and in it she read "You must find another reason to work, other than the desire for success or recognition. It must come from another place." So she started to think about what other place it could come from. She could do some charity work, she reasoned, and volunteer around the world. She should be more selective of the movies and music she does, and do it because she wants to not because she has to. Moving away from Disney was a good first step in that direction. Or maybe she could stop all this and go to school. She never really thinks about college anymore, as if it's just a lost cause- impossible, unrealistic. But it'd probably be for the better to have a degree in something, a subject that inspires her. Like a music teacher or photography, or animal science. No matter what she does, Miley realized, it must come from her heart.

Once they finished their dinner, they stepped out into the cool air under a starry-black sky. It feels like a holiday dream with Winter curling around their noses and nipping at their eyelids. The street lights shine down, making circles of yellow light on the streets as taxis and people buzz by. Not knowing what street they are on or what time it was- they don't care- they follow the direction of the Eiffel Tower. Its skeletal structure is wrapped in lights and it glitters upon the city and dazzles Miley and Liam with its romanticism. It is a truly picturesque night.

Miley breaths in deeply and finally allows her mouth to speak before her mind. "I'm going to be very honest in a second and I don't want to freak you out."

"Okay," Liam laughs, "Go for it."

"How far into our relationship have you thought about?" Miley stares at the ground, sort of nervous and unbalanced.

"As far as forever," he says and his hand lifts Miley's face to look at him. "I know where I want us to go but I believe in going one day at a time. As far as love goes, I don't think you can really plan it out."

"Because the lady on the boat yesterday asked if we ever talked about getting married." Miley winced at the word, waiting for him to too but he didn't. "And we've never talked about it at all."

"Just because we've never talked about it doesn't mean I've never thought about it," he says as they sit down on a ledge with the tower above them. Miley sinks into his side and he holds her right there.

"Me too," she says, ".. And I think I'd like to one day."

"I'd like to too.. to be married and make sure you're happy and build you a quiet little home where we can live out our days.."

"That sounds nice," Miley smiles and reaches her hand up to cup his face and he kisses her. At that moment, lying beneath the Eiffel Tower below the stars and deep dark sky, a sense of purity and wholeness overwhelms them and lifts them through the atmosphere and out of the universe. Every move they make is a choice they make; a choice to fall into unconditional loving and not to come back out.

'Cause I'm fallin'
I've fallen for you
Oh darling, it's finally true
And someday, I'll break your fall too
'Cause I'm fallin'
I'm fallin' for you

It's almost twelve am which means it's nearly tomorrow, Miley reckons, and that's a weird thing to think about because this moment will be yesterday and tomorrow is only a minute away. Miley is washing up in the bathroom of their hotel and the scenes of the night keep replaying over and over in her mind like a film reel and it puts a smile on her face every time. She wonders when she got so lucky in love, but you know, it wasn't always this way. There are moments of truth that have faded behind the happiness.

Miley and Liam were plagued with distrust and secrets and tearful forgiveness. Just three months ago, Miley was here, in Paris, without him. It was their first long term separation when Miley left him the summer to film LOL. She got confused and so did he as their lips and limbs touched those other than each other. They lied to each other and forgot what they had tried so hard to keep alive, and so they tried to fill a loneliness so strong it nearly permanently ripped them away. But the truth is Miley is just a flirt and Liam's charisma is too enthralling to resist, and so the positives of their character distracted them both those lonely and unsettling months. Until the day she came home and he was waiting at the airport for her. And she fell into him sobbing. He told her he'd make it okay again. And he did.

She walks out of the bathroom and Liam is lying atop the sheets with just his basketball shorts on. His mind is blankly watching the television as Miley takes in his body- so strong and enduring- and its sights like these that untame her. She crawls over to him, silence mixed with the creaking of the bed and the voices from the movie playing in front of them, and rests her head on his bare chest and hugs him tightly. She closes her eyes and smiles after she softly kisses a spot on his skin. He plays with her hair until the movie ends and the credits scroll down the screen in quick sweeps. She's nearly asleep but her insides have never felt so alive. He shuts the tv off and then reaches over and turns off the lamp with her still on him. They are quickly enclosed in darkness except for the streetlights outside the window highlighting the wanting expressions on their faces. The Eiffel Tower is now just a small object in the distance, like a little Christmas ornament swaying on the branches of time. She lifts her head up so that her chin is resting on his chest and he is absorbed into her deep, deep eyes.

"Love you, Miles," he whispers fingering her hair back.

She smiles, takes a moment of sensual thought, and reaches forward to kiss him. He kisses her back and she does too and they keep going like this because they don't want it to stop like it always does. It doesn't stop.

She undresses with the light of streetcars dancing around her bare stomach. White on white, ghost skin on transparent bed sheets, he holds himself over her and kisses her eyes, her mouth, her neck, her love, and she unties the binds of innocence wrapped around her wrists and ankles, she is free, she feels beautiful, she is so strong;

Pain. Just a little. It's a bitter sweet moment, a little red, a little white, and then a little bit of everything. And like the first time for anything, the wonder of it all sticks to her like glue and she feels pure and dirty at the same time until he whispers love into her right ear. And love is all she feels.

December 23, 2010

"L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.
The love that moves the sun and the other stars."