Chapter twenty-five – Changes

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Slowly, our lips separate from one another's, as our gazes meet. Michael's lips are slightly parted to breathe now; his eyes half-lidded as he looks down on me. He licks his upper lip, remaining completely silent like I am, but then he decides to speak.

"Thank you ... for being my girl, Citria," he murmurs lowly, obviously not wanting to break the peaceful atmosphere around us. "Really ... "

My head shakes, almost brushing the subject off. "Why are you thanking me for something I wanted?" I question, before entering his embrace, resting my head on his chest. "Because I wanted it just as much as you did, Michael."

He slowly rocks me in his arms, to the tune of the music that's playing. "Because it's such a blessing that we both feel the same. Such a blessing."

My eyes close, whilst I inhale deeply, taking in his scent. His body is pressed lightly against mine, meaning I can feel the warmth of his presence all over me, and ... it feels good. It feels right. It feels perfect. I could stay like this forever.

We continue to dance to the music that's playing, careful not to trip or fall because we're on roller skates. Every so often, Michael leans down to kiss my forehead; just a gesture to let me know how much he cares for me. When I'm lucky, the kiss even lands on my lips, instead. This night couldn't really go any better, to be honest.

"Okay guys and girls, the roller disco will be closing in ten minutes! We're gonna play one final song for you to dance to, then that's it for the night!"

The sound of the DJ making the announcement cuts my thoughts in half, bringing me back to real life a little. The night is almost over; soon, we won't be here, but I want to stay here forever. Michael seems to be coping with his fear of being around other people really well – it was a big step coming here tonight, just to make me happy.

A final song plays; it's a fast one that has a killer beat and a catchy tune. Soon, everyone in the roller disco is dancing, and skating around, squealing and laughing in excitement. Michael and I start skating around to follow the crowd, because we don't want to be the only people not moving.

"Just tell me if I'm going too fast," Michael tells me. My hand is in his, and he's leading us, whilst I'm following. He's truly a skilful skater, despite having not done this since his younger years. "Remember to tell me Citria, okay?"

"Sure." I smile at him as he briefly looks my way, returning the smile.

He continues to lead me around the disco, cautious not to bump into anyone or fall down. Soon, the song ends, so Michael comes to a stop, helping me to stop by pressing his hands gently against my shoulders.

He leans forward and plants a soft kiss on my lips, "I hope you enjoyed tonight. I certainly did."

A warm, mellow smile forms on my face. "I enjoyed every second of it ... and it's all because of you. Thank you, Michael."

He takes my hand, leading me towards the changing rooms so we can change back into our normal shoes. Once we've finished, we start making our way back home together.

I'm still finding it hard to believe that Michael and I are officially together, now. We've been friends for well over a month, and I thought we would remain that way. Obviously, my thoughts were wrong, but I'm not complaining about that at all. I'm so happy that we're a couple, now.

It takes some time to get home, but once we're back, we enter the house together. Before we can get into the living room, I hold Michael back, stopping him rather abruptly. He turns around to look at me, seeming to know that I want to say something to him.

A small, somewhat-shy smile tugs at my lips, as I move my hands off his shoulders, to his hands. My eyes look up to meet his, which is when I spot his typical bad-boy smirk – yet, at the same time, it's so sincere-looking, that I almost lose my train of thought for a moment.

"Did you want to say something?" he questions, breaking the silence that previously lingered between us.

I nod gently, trying to collect my words. "Well ... I've been thinking about tonight. There were so many people at that disco tonight, Michael." My hand moves slowly up his arm, making its way to his shoulder. "And I'm just ... I'm proud of how well you coped with it. You were scared, but you put that aside for me, and that's just ... it means so much to me."

My other hand makes its way up his other arm, so both my hands meet around his neck. He feels this, causing him to coil his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him the way he did at the disco.

"I know I was scared," he goes on to reply, shifting his gaze from me, to the floor behind me, almost in deep thought. "But of course, I was willing to face my fear for you, because I wanted everything to be perfect. And the fact that it really was perfect has ... made me so happy."

His large hands are pressed carefully against the small of my back, making me feel protected. The warmth of his skin is easy to feel through my dress, especially in his palms. It makes me feel appreciated, and loved ... it's magical.

My small smile dissolves into a wider grin. "I'm happy about that, too. You're the bravest man I've ever met, and I'm so honoured to be your girl." Having no more words, I compensate with a simple peck on the lips, before changing the subject completely. "So, I was thinking we could go to father's tomorrow. We can tell him and Clover that you and I are together; see their reaction to that. You up for it?"

His eyes seem glazed over – but not in a bad, shallow way; more, he seems in awe of something. He's looking at me, though – he just seems a little zoned out, for some reason.

"Michael?" At my call, he finally zones back in to real life, shaking his head and waiting for me to repeat what I just said. "Are you up for it?" I ask again.

He nods. "Hell yeah, I'm up for it." His cheeks are now tinted a soft pink shade. "Sorry; I was just ... kind of in awe."

"In awe of what?" My right eyebrow cocks in curiosity, as I make eye contact with him once again.

"In awe of you," he answers, his tone almost seeming amazed that I could be so stupid as to not figure that out. "My God, you're so beautiful."

A light, timid snicker passes my lips. "And where has that statement come from?"

"My mind. And I'm a very clever man, Citria; I know a lot. Whatever I say, that's true. Never doubt my knowledge, Miss Espinosa." He gives a grin in amusement, winking – like two colliding windscreen wipers – at me.

"I won't doubt your knowledge if you don't doubt mine," I negotiate playfully, beginning to drag him into the living room. We sit together on the sofa, still as close to one another as we were in the kitchen. "Deal, or no deal?"

"Deal." We shake hands jokily, before we relax together on the sofa. "So, give me some of your knowledge, oh Great One." With this demand, he gives a coy smile, which I find simply adorable.

Letting myself sit in his arms, my hand reaches up to his head, my fingers running gently through his curls. "Well, I know that ... you're so cute." A tiny laugh accompanies my words, "Simply adorable."

"I'm finding it hard to not doubt your knowledge," he states, grimacing playfully, earning a laugh from me. "But because you're my girl, and equality is important in a relationship, I won't doubt it – just this once."

A casual smirk rises onto my lips, as I tauntingly thump his head, "See? Even you can't deny your cuteness." My eyes move to the clock, to check the time, "It's past midnight, Michael. Look-it." I point at the clock, which shows the time as being 12:17am. That's late for us; normally we're asleep way before now.

He chuckles. "Wow. That's the latest I've ever stayed awake with you." He averts his eyes to me again, "Do you want to go to bed? Are you tired yet?"

"I'm happy to stay up if you want to, Michael. I really don't mind at all." An inviting smile plays on my lips, as I fiddle with the ends of his curls a little.

He laughs quietly. "I feel like this relationship is going to be very interesting when it comes to decision-making; we both let each other choose everything!" He then leans forward, letting his nose touch gently against mine, his eyes now half-lidded because he's looking down at me. "We're going to have to compromise sometimes, you know."

"Of course. But ... I'll let you decide most of the time." A mischievous snicker comes from my lips, "You're the guest, after all."

"I may be the guest, but you're the boss of the house. What you say, goes," he asserts, placing a soft kiss on the space between my nose and upper lip, then moving down slightly so the kiss lands on my lips, "I go by your rules, Miss Espinosa."

"My rules?" It's difficult to even say that sentence, because his kiss is almost paralysing me, leaving me breathless, "Michael, this isn't just my house now ... it's yours, too ... " I make a desperate attempt at catching my breath again, "We both go by each other's rules ... "

Our faces are still close; our noses are still touching, whilst our mouths are only centimetres apart. We couldn't really be any closer to one another if we tried.

"Rules ... " He breathes the word, "What about decisions? Do we have to compromise with decisions, too?"

"Sure we do. We can compromise on anything at all," I answer, briefly looking away from Michael's eyes, breaking the eye contact we once had. "At least then, we can't have any disagreements."

The smallest chuckle comes from him. "That's true. But hey ... the fact that there's an "us" now has really ... changed me, I guess."

"Changed you? How?" My eyes move back to Michael's, making eye contact once more.

"I mean ... before we were officially together, I was some timid, shy man that had lost everything. Now you and I are ... something ... I feel more confident as a person, and I just feel like I've ... changed," he elaborates, "I can't explain how, or why, but ... I'm not the man I was when you and I first met."

"In what way?" I find myself questioning.

He furrows his eyebrows, lidding his eyes even further than they already were. "Well, I was even brave enough to be around people tonight. That's a change, surely? Before there was an "us", I couldn't have done that at all. And ... " He pauses a moment to think a little, "And you've helped me to regain trust in people. If I was alone right now, I wouldn't have done any of what I have done these past few weeks."

Taking in his words, I can't help but agree that he has changed; now he's said it, it's rather obvious to see. When I met him on the curb just over a month ago, he was just the shell of what he is now. He's come so far since we've known one another, and that makes me so happy.

"Yeah," I breathe, still toying with his curls to entertain myself. "You've come extremely far in the time we've known each other. We both have, I guess; there's no way I'm the girl I was a month ago."

"Well, yes," Michael seems to agree. "But there's some things about you that haven't changed at all." Noting that I'm playing with his hair, he returns the favour, running his fingers through mine gently, "And the main thing that hasn't changed is your selfless personality. I love that about you."

"Selflessness ... I've always had that nature in me, Michael. It's the way I was raised." Despite this statement being true and serious, a small chuckle accompanies my words.

"Then I can come to the conclusion that you were raised exceptionally well," he informs me. "And you must never doubt the Knowledge of Michael."

"I wouldn't doubt it for a second," I assure him, before feeling the urge to stretch my tired muscles. "Boy, I'm getting tired, now ... "

"Then why don't we sleep?" Michael questions, bringing his hands away from my hair, "I mean, it's getting real late, even if you said you didn't mind staying up."

"Don't make me feel bad," I tease, standing myself up, finally giving Michael some freedom to move around himself. "I'm sure you're just as tired as me; you're just hiding it well."

He snickers, an expression of amusement visible on his face. "Just hiding it well? Nope. I'm just not tired like you are; don't get all sad about it." He pouts playfully, squeezing my cheeks between his thumb and forefinger to emphasise his point.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure that's true," I argue with a laugh, watching Michael stand up too, "Come on. Bed."

I'm the first one to make any kind of movement in the direction of the stairs; Michael follows behind me. Before I can get too far, I feel his hand slip into mine, and his long fingers protectively wrap around my smaller ones. We make our way up the stairs together, arriving at my bedroom once we've reached the top.

"I'm going to brush my teeth. You coming?" he asks me, letting go of my hand.

"Yeah, of course. You go first while I get changed," I reply, walking into the bedroom without him, as he heads towards the bathroom.

These past few days have been incredible, in all honesty. Like ... it's changed me completely. I know I keep saying that a lot, but ... I just can't get over it. I doubt I'll ever get over it.

Changing into some comfier clothing, I spot the photo of mother and I on the bedside table. I gently lift it up with my thumb and forefinger, my eyes fixed solely on mother's face. She is almost expressionless, but that's because of the naturalness of the photo. It was captured when she least expected it. I miss her happiness and warmth. I've felt so cold and alone these past eight months without her. However, Michael is bringing some warmth back into my life, which is nice.

"Tonight was perfect, mom. Michael and I are together now, and I know you would approve of him." Pausing momentarily, I turn my head to check Michael isn't back, listening to my words. Seeing that he's not here, I turn back to the photo, continuing my speech. "He's just what I've been needing, mom. And I'm just what he's been needing. We've been needing each other since ... "

"Forever and a half," I hear a voice say.

My head turns frantically to check if Michael's back, but he isn't. The voice didn't sound like his, anyway ... it sounded more like mother's.

"Forever and a half," I repeat, slightly breathless, "A-And that's how long we'll be together too, mom. We've created too strong a bond for it to ever be broken, now."

"I'm so proud of you, Citria," the voice speaks once again.

Once more, I turn around to see if Michael's behind me, but again, he isn't. And once again, the voice sounded more like mother's, than Michael's ...

Before I can turn my head back to the photo, Michael returns, seeing me holding the photo in my grasp. He gives me a sympathetic smile, coming up to me and lovingly wrapping his arms around my waist in an embrace. His lips touch my cheek in a kiss, which instantly makes me feel happier than before.

And when I turn to see the photo once again, mother's face isn't expressionless.

She's smiling.

Almost like a sign of approval from her to me because of the man I have.

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Okay, I promise this isn't a supernatural story. I just wanted to add that little touch for a dash of cuteness. Did it work? Hehe. :3
Anyway ... I'm really starting to love this story. Is it getting a little better now? :)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!