Okay, boys, girls, and nonbinary pearls; it's time for Rupert to use his singular braincell! *loud cheering* It'll be hard for him to do, so let's do this like we're in a performance of Peter Pan, only instead of bringing Tinkerbell back to life, we're clapping our hands to kickstart the braincell! Get ready!

If you'd like to do a little mood setting, try listening to the song this chapter's named after in a different tab! (Be sure to remove the spaces and add the dots and the coms first!)

Here's a link to the original version of this song: www . youtube watch?v = 6jpKS31oJNI

And here's the version featured in the official soundtrack, arranged by Takeshi Saitoh: www . youtube watch?v = Ga_RF_mRZKw

Pick your favorite, then sit back and watch Rupert struggle. See you at the bottom of the page!

Fallin' Love (composition, Hirokazu Tanaka and Keiichi Suzuki, Mother/Earthbound Beginnings): "Silence falls... would you like to dance?"

It was hard to breathe, but not for the reason Rupert had been expecting. There hadn't been any air at all before, but now there was too much- it whistled past his ears in shrieks of wind, drying him off completely. He finally managed to open his eyes- a struggle with this incredible wind surrounding him- and found himself staring up at the big, blue sky. It was stunningly beautiful; a rich, cloudless blue that filled his vision so completely that he couldn't even see the sun.

...Where the hell was the sun.

Rupert blinked harshly and looked around. His arms and legs were suspended above him, as if all this wind was holding him in place... or like he was falling.

"OH CRAP!" He flailed wildly, managing to flip around to see the ground far below him, an endless field of grass with nothing in sight to catch him or break his fall. He shouted and flailed some more, helpless to escape death as it approached him rapidly. Any second now, he'd be sitting in a tiny little crater of his own making, his insides completely liquified from the high velocity impact and his bones shattered into dust...

…Wouldn't he?

Rupert stared at the line where the sky and earth met. He was falling, he was clearly falling, the wind implied he was falling- and yet the horizon did not move. It was like he was suspended in midair, falling down without moving an inch. He was stuck up here, with no way down.

"Are you bloody kidding me right now?!" He shouted. The wind ripped the sound away so quickly he wasn't even sure he'd said it aloud. He flailed around some more, as if an invisible ledge might suddenly appear for him to grab onto. His hand hit his belt, where, miraculously, his walkie-talkie had somehow put itself back in its holster. Rupert struggled to pull it free; maybe the wind had dried it enough so that it was working again?

"GG, this is Rupert Price; do you copy?" He yelled over the wind. "Price to GG, do you read me? Hello?!"

The machine didn't make a single noise- or if it did, it was impossible to hear. More likely the water had killed it completely. Rupert shouted and threw the walkie-talkie away; the wind carried it out of sight in an instant.

He scrambled to pull his backpack off, thinking maybe there was something else he could use to call for help. He managed to unzip the bag, only for cracked test tubes and ruined plastic baggies to fly out and hit him in the face. He swatted it all away, his hand connecting with something solid that he grabbed as quickly as possible: the "teleporter" that Gadget Gabe had given him. He had no idea if it was even working, or if it even worked to begin with; it had looked like a hunk of junk from the start, and was probably just for show.

He made to throw it away, only to stop halfway through and hug it to his chest. A strangled scream tore itself from his throat, the noise disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

All of that effort, all of that crap he'd gone through, just to end up falling infinitely for the rest of his miserable existence? Was that all he'd get? Was that all he'd managed to accomplish? Tears streaked up the side of his face, and he screamed behind clenched teeth. He hadn't even come close to finding Dave, and now he never would. Everything he'd worked for, everything he'd ever done in his life, gone. And it was all for Dave.

It was always for Dave.

It was always for Dave.

Why was it always for Dave?

From the moment they met, they'd practically been attached at the hip. Dave followed him around like a baby duckling with its mother, from school to school, from club to club, from city to city. It had taken him eight years, but he'd even followed Rupert onto the West Mesa police force, at least until the layoffs had happened.

Rupert loved it. Every second of it. Dave always put everything he had into everything he tried, something Rupert genuinely admired and respected. Plus the fact that Dave would try, and keep trying, meant more to him than anything. He didn't always succeed, but the way he'd eventually bounce back from anything was awe inspiring.

Rupert didn't have that. There were too many times he'd almost given something up because he couldn't get it right immediately. Time and again, though, Dave's gentle smile and his genuine, honest belief that Rupert could do anything, had pushed him to keep going until he succeeded. The way Dave's eyes lit up with wonder and joy when Rupert finally came out on top was always worth it. Dave was always worth it.

Rupert had been so happy when Dave finally managed to get hired at the museum. He and Johnny practically raided the local gas station for snacks and drinks to celebrate; Dave had been so adorably flustered by the attention.

They snacked and drank into the wee hours of the morning, which is when Dave admitted that he was nervous. Being the new guy at West Mesa had been hard enough, but without Rupert, Dave thought it would be impossible.

Rupert had hugged him tightly. The apartment was dark and the couch had been lumpy beneath them; Johnny had fallen asleep at an angle and was snoring loudly. He told Dave he was certain he'd be perfect for the job, that he'd flourish, that he'd be safe.

He hadn't been. And the night Johnny died and Rupert had come staggering home, after hours of filing police reports and making calls to Johnny's family, only to walk in on even more police officers informing him that Dave had been kidnapped... He'd thought he would fall to pieces that would never be put back together. They'd had to keep watch on him for days, and it was only thanks to a passing mention of the local military branch seeking new recruits that Rupert had gotten back on his feet.

He'd worked hard, used every resource available to him to climb as far up the ranks as possible, doing anything for even a scrap of authority he could use to find Dave, to save him. He'd been so close. The Toppats had surrendered. Dave had to be on board that airship.

And now here Rupert was, pushed so far back from where he'd started that none of it even mattered. Dave was gone, and probably had been since the start. Now, in a sense, so was Rupert.

Maybe… maybe if he'd just accepted the truth, moved on with his life like everyone told him to, he wouldn't be in this mess. He could have kept climbing the ranks, earning power and prestige until he was at the very top-

Rupert blinked forcefully. That line of thought didn't sound like something he'd think at all, plus it wasn't even true. He'd never been interested in that crap. That wasn't why he'd joined the military, or the police force. He'd done it to do good, to help those who needed it, to save people like Dave. Dave, who'd saved him in more ways than he'd ever know. Dave, who was so faithful, so kind, so loving…

"I'm in love with Dave Panpa." It came out as a whisper, almost inaudible, but he'd said it. He said it again. "I'm in love with Dave Panpa." Then again, louder and louder until he was screaming it into the sky: "I love Dave Panpa! I love Dave Panpa! I! Love! Dave! Panpa! "

The wind screamed back, trying to tear the words away from his mouth, his mind, his heart, but Rupert held fast. It was a battle between who could scream louder, him versus this strange, awful wind that seemed determined to take the truth away from him. It shrieked in his ears, you can't have Dave, you can't have him, you won't take him, you won't.

"I love Dave! I loooOOH SHIT-!" He looked down and saw the ground was rapidly approaching. He was actually falling now, death rushing up to greet him as he was helpless to stop it…

But then he saw something else.

In the field below, almost but not quite impossible to see, was a little dark spot. And maybe it was because of how fast he was falling, or the carnal desperation flooding his veins, but the spot seemed to have a distinct, almost human shape to it.

It had to be.

"Dave!" Rupert shouted. "I'm up here!" He waved his arms wildly, trying to draw the motionless figure's attention. "I'm up here, Dave! Dave!"

"Dave!"

"DAVE!"

And the penny drops! We did it, Reddit! *even louder cheering and applause*

Yay, Rupert realized his true feelings... approximately one minute before his unavoidable and painful death. Can Dave find it in himself to look to the sky and see Rupert one last time, or is he too far gone to care anymore? Even if he can force himself to look up, what can he possibly do to save Rupert? Find out... next week!

Despite all the romantic fics I post (usually one shots), I'm not actually super confident in my ability to do romance? Namely the whole "feelings realization"/"confessions" thing. Let me know if you think Rupert's thought process is reasonable; I didn't want to spend too much time here (I had a tendency to trap myself in Rupert's self loathing when I did), but I didn't want to make it such a jump of a conclusion, you know? It was a struggle, so I'd appreciate any feedback you might have to offer.

Anyway, next time: things will happen! Probably! What kind of things? Oh, you know; stuff. And things. Things and stuff. You know. Leave a comment and tell me what you think! I'll see you all in a week; until then!