☆☆☆ Chapter 48 ☆☆☆

Tapes and Chills I

*Ane's Point of View (POV)*

"Oh, my sweet, sweet Ane," Daniel giggled to himself as he skipped his way ahead of me. One of his delicate hands stopped him from straying too far, however, 'cuz it was blissfully stuck to mine. It felt as if he were an excited puppy on a leash. Not like I minded── it was super cute. Typical of an angelic being. "Why would you say such a thing?"

"What? It's a no-brainer. I'm jealous of your damned spoiled self, havin' all the money in the world without havin' to lift a single goddamned finger, wastin' it on whatever you want without a care in the world. And yea, I would've used it all on tapes and regret it later 'cuz I can't help but wanna save up tons of it and still give in to things I like, but here you are, without ever having those thoughts, 'cuz of course, there's a never-ending pool of money comin' out of your ass since birth. You just can't understand what budgeting is, 'cuz you never needed to. So come on, who wouldn't say such a thing to you, my sweet, sweet spoiled-rotten Daniel?" I rambled with a smirk, shutting the door behind me.

As a response, Daniel rolled his emerald eyes at me with a smile that wasn't shy 'bout letting his tongue out. All it did was prove my point, though. "Ane, my sweet, sweet personal maid, isn't that what I hired you for?"

Okay, nevermind. I thought it proved my point, but if he thought he had me with that sudden cheekiness, it's over for him. "No, we both know that's not it," I replied, taking my time to close up our distance. "You hired me 'cuz you didn't have the guts to ask me out the way normal people do."

That reddened his cheeks, and shut him up real good.

I couldn't help but want to press a little harder, so with the hand that wasn't holding his, I rubbed the gentle face that was awkwardly growing a fair beard. "Don't worry, you still got me in the end, so congratulations, you won, my sweet, sweet hopeless romantic of a boyfriend. Or── oops, I'm still on your payroll. Should I be calling you Master Daniel? Which do you prefer?" I made sure to blink as if there was nothing on my mind except rainbows and unicorns. "Not like it really matters. We blurred the line between work and play, didn't we? It's all the same now."

Seeing him all quiet and shy made me want to tackle Daniel down to the bed behind his small figure with all of the playfully bitter kisses I could possibly give, but the thought quickly poofed itself out of existence once my brain realized the bed's frame and sheets weren't mine. The frame had an off-white velvet coating, and the sheets were, for the most part, white and brown with dashes of a pale yellow here and there. Definitely not mine.

We weren't in my room── we were in his. Tapes. Tapes everywhere. Tapes galore!

My eyes darted over to Daniel's state-of-the-art video player. Well, a damn good video-recorder, really. It was a model that had yet to come out to the public, able to record multiple TV shows at once and rewind tapes without having to wait an eternity, all without doing any funny business. And the best part? Daniel had a stack of tapes beside it of movies and TV shows, all of 'em anxiously waiting to be binge-watched by yours truly.

Yes, I know my room's basically our standard place to spend time in, but his own's clearly a hidden gem; it sorely lacks the attention that it deserves, and it's obviously 'cuz of the video-recorder. And his binge-worthy stack of gold. It's no wonder why I found myself by the other end of the room within the blink of an eye, running my fingers past each and every title of his stack, in total awe.

Hugs and kisses can wait.

"There's so many, it's almost criminal!" I huffed, shaking my head. I heard a muffled yelp come out of Daniel when my head happened to turn his way, immediately after some shuffling led to him stubbing his toe against what sounded to be a hollow side of his low bed frame. I held back a laugh as he bent over to rub his toe, but as I did so, I noticed a bit of cloth poke out from under his aggressor's velvet figure. Hot pink. Could be seen from a mile away. Mine. I must have dropped it somewhere 'round there sometime within the past couple of days, forgotten all about it in the heat of a moment. Not surprised 'cuz of all the action goin' on lately, but oh my god is it embarrassing to see with a clear state of mind!

We've been having way too much fun getting to know each and every part of me to care 'bout where I leave my underwear, I know that── we hardly leave my room, hardly go outside, unless it's for my therapy sessions with Dr. Connor── but the proof of it staring right at me made my blood boil over. Hot. Hot pink underwear. Oh, oh god... !

I turned back to the shelf housing his collection of video wonders to try and calm down.

"They... they just don't compare to what I have back at my parents' house, they just don't! Did I not live a good life as a shut-in?"

So many to choose from. So many TV shows, both old and new, cataloged as if they were in the comfort of a store, yet to be watched. So, so many movies that just came out, too, resting on the shelf along with older ones, like, oh my god, we literally watched one of those two or three months ago in the theatres. It's insane! How the heck does Daniel get his hands on these babies? Does he or his family know someone in that business or something?! Wait, hold up, now that I think about it, why have we gone to so many movie dates if he could just get them from god-knows-where? Does he go to the movies for the experience? For me? Or is it that he gets the tapes sometime after the movies come out so he has no choice but to watch them with the rest of──

Daniel's hand hovered over mine, and once I somehow stopped running my fingers past the titles, it wrapped my hand with as much of itself as it could. The tips of his fingers barely made it to the edges of mine, but his warmth made everything within me flutter.

Behind me, Daniel began to speak, very softly: "I'm not a shut-in, but I am technically an unemployed homebody for now, so if it comforts you in any way to know, Ane, no amount of videotapes could ever make me live a good life. Would you like to know what can make me live a good life?" Daniel paused, let me process the words he was so gracefully purring to me. He used the silence in between us to slide his other hand around my stomach. "Love, happiness, safety. Meaningful memories. Health. Your health, in particular."

Somewhere down my back, I felt his forehead rest against me. "I'm happy, Ane, I'm living a good life, because we're working on all of them," he continued. "I hope that someday, you'll feel the same. I hope that someday, you'll look at these, and think not of how great they are, but of all the memories you made with those you love while watching them. All of the love, all of the happiness, of how safe you felt in someone's arms, of how far you've come since the day you decided to step out of your house and work for some creepy pervert, who── deep inside── means well, and has devoted himself to being your knight in shining armor, wherever and whenever possible."

"And... and because of all of that, I hope you can forgive me for what you just saw me do," he mumbled.

Huh? "W-Wait, what?"

Daniel's hands squeezed me a bit. His forehead pressed itself against my back, 'round the middle of my shoulder blades. Something in his body was trembling, but I couldn't tell what. "Your, uh, your panties. You... you saw them, when... um, when I was trying to... uh, h-hide them. A-And I have no excuse, it's exactly what it looks like, but I swear, I don't mean any harm. I... I just didn't know how to tell you. Usually I hide them well but I didn't think we would be coming to my room anytime soon, and, um... oh gods, that's a bad way to put it," he stopped to let himself take a moment to breathe. "I-I've been doing this for quite a while now, and I know it's a problem── "

I didn't want to hear any more of it.

I turned myself around, and shoved him against the shelf. As his eyebrows flew high above his forehead in surprise, some tapes fell to the ground. "Shut up, you cute, awkward smooth-talker," I said, before giving him a quick peck on the lips. "It's okay, thank you. I actually appreciate that."

"W-What?"

His face shriveled up, as if he were confused, but he was definitely not. I mean, he's here helpin' me and my embarrassment, keeping away the underwear I throw as if there's no tomorrow when we're in the mood from seeing the light of day, y'know!

"Can't believe you're gonna make me say it," I said, rolling my eyes and putting my head down to meet his. "I've been kinda careless 'bout where I put them, I get it, so... thanks for watching out for those things. For keeping them away from anyone's sight, including mine. I didn't know you were working so hard on that. I... I'm pretty embarrassed, to be honest. I'm the one who should be sorry."

"No, no, I think you're misunderstanding, that's not why I was hiding them, it's actually because I collec── " Daniel gasped, and stared at the floor. He huddled himself up against the shelf, clearly flustered from head to toe. His ears were flushed. "Nevermind."

After that, his head plopped itself onto the comfort of all my breastbone's polar sides could offer, and his hands made their way 'round on my hips. He remained that way for a long time, breathing so oddly and heavily that I thought he would tear up, but he never did. He only stopped when I nudged his shoulder by accident, 'cuz it made him jolt a bit. It brought him back down to earth, I guess. Gotta admit, his breath was tickling me way too much for comfort, so the fact that he stopped made me sigh in relief. I didn't know how long I would've lasted with a clear mind, had he not jolted.

"Ane," he breathed out, looking up at me. The green in his adorable puppy eyes grew increasingly thinner as all the black in them dilated at the sight of me.

No words could possibly describe how struck I was with emotion in that moment, but some other things helped out on getting there, like the sudden wild beats of my heart and the blood rush that those same beats made happen.

"Yes, Daniel?" My angel.

Everything within me made a certain fact crystal clear: my attention was trapped in his natural charm, in a matter of seconds. He's simply far too handsome, far too beautiful, to be human. He's an angel, without a doubt. I wanted to melt away into nothingness. No, I wanted to melt away on him, be one with him.

"Would you... would you like to watch a movie with me? Make a new memory with me?"

Words were scattered all over my head, but I managed to muster a couple of words together, and hold them tight. "No," I began, clenching my hand. Daniel tilted his head to the side in wonder, and blinked twice. His perfect eyelashes followed the blinks behind, teasing me, but I replied to them with a smirk. "We're not watching a movie just yet. We'll do that later."

"Later?"

Before Daniel had the chance to say anything else, I pulled him closer to me and gave him the kiss of a lifetime. There was not even a single shred of protest in him── he was quick to respond, nothing held him back. He wanted it just as much as I did.

Our lips melted on each other, molded themselves into tender bits of intoxicating goodness. The inner workings of our lips were excited to meet up, jumped at the idea of exploring all that thrived within. Sweet nectar overwhelmed all of my senses, made me blind to anything that didn't have to do with my irresistibly cute boyfriend's lips, or touch. Our opportunistic hands caressed each other's backs, desperately pressing our bodies onto the other, not satisfied with the limits our human bodies cursed us with. We wanted to melt away on each other. I wanted to.

New life breathed itself onto the surface of our skin, born from sheer desire. The heat I had once confused as a childish fever dared to eat up everything within me, consume me whole. I loved it.

All of my hairs stood on their ends as Daniel found his way down my neck and back up to my lips. A sound escaped out of one of us as he did that, not sure from who, but we seriously couldn't care less. We were too busy with everything else that we were doing.

"Yes, later," I whispered in his ear sometime later, when a handful of more titles fell to the ground and reminded me of the question he'd asked god-knows-when.

State-of-the-art video-recorder or not, tapes galore or not, hugs and kisses couldn't wait.

Hopefully I won't forget 'bout my underwear this time.