Ilana felt like her heart had stopped.

Had he really...? It wasn't just her imagination? Apparently not, because otherwise Lance wouldn't be blushing so hard, or looking down at his feet in an insecure fashion unbecoming of a soldier. Tonight, though, he wasn't a soldier - he was a teenage boy at a dance who had apparently just asked his supposed date to a dance - a slow dance, at that.

"I would love to", Ilana said shyly, enthusiastically... endearingly. Lance felt that if there was any more blood in his cheeks they'd be permanently maroon. Almost without realizing what he was doing, he walked with Ilana towards the dance floor as the lyrics to the song began, and tried to remember where he was supposed to put his hands around her.

She giggled. Back on Galaluna, socialite events and balls had required her to master the art of the dance, and the position had become second-nature to her. She gently took Lance's hands and guided them down to their place on her hips. "Here you go, corporal."

He gave a nervous smile tinged with excitement that he couldn't seem to control, an excitement that was infectious and familiar to both of them. "Thank you, my lady."

'My lady?' What was he thinking? Every fiber of Lance that realized he was returning to Galaluna in a few hours screamed to him that this wouldn't be acceptable, wasn't already established, completely inappropriate... but every fiber of his being that reminded him of Earth and everything he had learned while he was on it pulsed throughout his body, telling him that it felt so damn right. For the moment, he figured, Earth was not Galaluna. They were, quite literally, two completely different worlds, and that meant different lives... different people. And maybe, just maybe, something would change.

Maybe he wanted it to.

Ilana put her arms around his neck with a smile and they started to rock back and forth on their feet along with the rest of their classmates.

I never thought that you would be the one to hold my heart.

But you came around, and you knocked me the ground from the start.

You put your arms around me, and I believe that it's easier for you to let me go.

You put your arms around me and I'm home.

The rhythm of the song became comfortable as the soldier and the princess swayed back and forth in a secret hope that their last night would change something of their future.

-o-o-o-

Two other pairs of aliens and humans found themselves lost in the slow dancing of Prom.

One pair reserved a bulky, semi-robot and a skinny, red-headed cheerleader held close and, predictably, kissing periodically, trying to forget the fact that each kiss might be their last.

The other pair, not yet a couple, found themselves alternating between intense (and to the outsider, cliché) looks into each other's eyes and awkward moments concentrated on the focus required not to step on each other's feet.

It was so quiet that Amy thought she might not have actually heard it.

"I love you..."

She looked up at him, and Andre starting blushing furiously. "Um, I don't think you were supposed to actually hear that, but I don't really... um...uh..."

She smiled at him and laid her head on her chest. "Love you too, you dummy." He kissed her head, and they found that they didn't need to concentrate on their feet anymore.

-o-o-o-

How many times will you let me change my mind and turn around?

I can't decide if I'll let you save my life or if I'll drown.

I hope that you see right through my walls.

I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling.

How did I let out love get so close?

You put your arms around me and I'm home.

Ilana hummed along to the song as she put her head on Lance's chest and closed her eyes, and a memory came to her from a night what seemed like forever ago...

"I can't believe she tried to kiss you in front of your escorts!"

"Escorts? Nobody told me about escorts..." Octus replied to the princess, confused.

"You went without escorts?!" Ilana asked in shock and mild horror.

"I think that's more of a... princess thing", Lance informed her good-naturedly.

"Oh yeah, I knew that", she replied sheepishly.

They came across a tadpole-shaped ship. "There it is", Octus informed them.

"Ilana, haven't you ever been on a... date?" Lance asked hesitantly, wondering why he was bothering to ask.

"Of course I have!" the princess said, almost indignantly. "My father set up many diplomatic arrangements for me."

"No, no no no. I mean a date. Just you and a boy, no escorts. He brings you flowers, tells you you're pretty - "

"You think I'm pretty?" Ilana asked, flattered and oddly excited.

"No!" Lance hurriedly replied in partial frustration.

"You don't think she's pretty?" Octus asked him, surprisingly astonished for a robot.

"No, I mean, yes, of course I think she's pretty, but that's not what I'm talking about", he clarified. "I-I'm talking about a boy - a - a hypothetical boy, who goes an-" he was cut off by a monster attacking him, and a battle ensued.

After the battle, they sat around a campfire, and the conversation resurfaced.

"So..." Lance started, almost shyly, trying to distract Ilana from her leg injury with a sincere smile and an unrelated question. "Did you ever like anyone you met on those diplomatic arrangements?" He asked.

Ilana felt oddly pleased that he'd been thinking about it, and smiled as she said, "They were all very... diplomatic."

"Oh," Lance said in disappointment, trying to keep the conversation going and somewhat regretful that he didn't get to know more about her previous suitors.

"Well..." She said, and he looked at her as she looked at the swamp trying to remember. "There was one, Prince Simon of Duran. He seemed very nice."

"What happened?" Lance inquired.

"We had one scheduled arrangement and we got along very well. Then his country got into a civil war and broke apart, and I never saw him again."

Octus had then come with the salve, and the conversation was abruptly over.

A date... was this a date? It was certainly Prom, and they were certainly dancing, and maybe Ilana was just imagining it, but he certainly seemed, for all of his nervousness, to be enjoying it, and the way he looked at her... it had the kind of look that resembled his face when he pulled her out of the rubble from their fight against that black tornado, when they had been fighting against working together, a kind of desperation and raw need, and fear of facing the unknown.

Everything seemed to be coming together in her mind. The day the black goo had infiltrated the high school, the urgency of his voice and actions to make sure she was okay... the first day, how he had later told her about running across the tops of buildings and over bridges and cars, causing several accidents (to which she was dismayed), and jumping through the window of a moving bus to make sure that no one tried to hurt her while she was shopping... even his concern over her relationship with Jason seemed to be developing into something more than protection simply as her bodyguard. He seemed to care... more than a friend, more than a princess.

Another flashback, this time to his goofy smile and ridiculous hat at the Three Moons dance, and a similar offer to dance in what seemed to be inability to see her disappointed.

She looked up at him to find him looking down at her, and they both blushed.

When did she fall in love with him?

She blushed more and looked away from the onyx eyes she had just realized she adored as the thought made her finally accept the fact that, yeah, she was in love with him. The crazy, rebellious corporal had somehow captured her heart.

"What is it?" He asked her in an uncharacteristically soft and caring voice.

"Um, nothing", she murmured. "Just... thinking about what things will be like when we get home."

Lance's expression fell a little. So he realized it too, she thought. That they wouldn't be able to see each other like this after their return.

"Home..." he said distantly. "What is home..."

"What do you mean?" She asked curiously. "Home is Galaluna."

He gave a sad sort of smile. "Remember, I told you when we got here that I didn't really have anything to go back to. Now I found Amy - or, rather, she found me... maybe we'll help rebuild, and then go live somewhere with her friends. She has more than I do to return to..." he unconsciously looked down at her and then away.

"What are you talking about?" She asked him, slightly panicked at the thought of him not staying on Galaluna. "You're getting a promotion on your return, you'll serve at the highest level."

Lance shrugged. "Yeah, I mean, I don't really know... everything will be different, you know?"

"Yeah..." Ilana sighed, and without thinking said, "It doesn't have to be..."

Lance cocked his head at her. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know", she quickly said. "Nothing, I guess..."

Lance sighed. "It's weird... living here for a year, you and Amy and Octus was the closest thing I've ever really had to family."

"Well, that's something worth fighting for", Ilana said unthinkingly.

He looked down at her, their face inches away, both breathless.

"I kept trying to watch the show, but it was very distracting. Kimmy kept moving closer and closer to me, until she was almost touching me."

"So, she tried to kiss you", the corporal said to the robot.

"Yeah, I suppose it is," Lance murmured, and brought her up around the waist as she leaned up on her tiptoes.

In all her time on Earth, Ilana had certainly viewed enough of what the Earthlings called 'chick flicks'. She had cried at almost every romantic movie known to man, including some that weren't even in English. Christina Perry and Taylor Swift were her two favorite artists, and she had the lyrics to almost every one of their songs memorized. Romantic novels littered the floor under her bed, her guilty pleasure - she'd developed a routine of buying a new one at the little bookstore on the way home from school every Monday, and would be done with it by next Monday. Nicholas Sparks was her favorite author, but as much as she admired them all, neither words or lyrics or acting could accurately portray what she felt as she kissed Lance, and as he kissed her back she felt her heel slowly rise and suddenly understood why everyone was so centered around finding love on this planet.

Fireworks didn't even begin to describe the tingling sensation in her lips as they met his, or the electric shock that ran through her body as he held her closer, bringing a hand up to her face to cup her cheek, one of her hands coming up to his head of its own accord to hold his face to hers.

-0-0-0-

She loved him too.

That was all Lance could think as they kissed - it repeated itself in his head as her hand tangled itself in his hair, and while he had the strongest desire to deepen the kiss, he restrained himself, reminding himself that she was a princess- and opened his eyes in surprise as she began to do exactly that, exactly what he had been thinking about.

They lost the ability to form words as they slowly inched forward, and when they finally broke away for air, they began to laugh and looked at each other, each one of them unbelieving that the other felt the same, that the feeling was mutual.

Ilana put her head on her corporal's shoulder, and he held her closer as he rested his head on top of hers, and the song continued.

You put your arms around me, and I'm home.

It's not the end, I swear! I'm just kinda sad because I only got one review for the last chapter, and this has been the chapter that I've been wanting to write since last February, and... yeah. I'm kinda hoping this chapter will get more reviews, because...yeah. Please review! It makes me sad that no one reads the story anymore...hope you're all having a great summer.