I rubbed my sweating palms across my jeans again, looking around the crowd from my seat and not finding what I wanted. Amanda was due to land any minute now, and the suspense of seeing her made my heart give a shuddered beat with every imagined scenario. It was unlike me to be so nervous around her (she had stayed with me for almost two weeks, after all), but the idea of taking her to our flat and never having to say goodbye to her again set my stomach churning. I was both excited and extremely apprehensive about living with her; it was my first time sharing a living space with a girlfriend, and I still wasn't sure we would be able to put up with each other for long periods of time.

I watched the countless families, business people, and foreigners pass me as I reflected over the one and a half years I had been with Amanda. It seemed like such a short amount of time; in some ways I felt as if she were still a stranger, and in others it was like she had been there my entire life. Everything before that trip to Minecon and the eventual house and job change was a blur to me; I'm still half convinced I'm dreaming up this crazy new life style I was living.

Of course, I had always known I wanted to be an entertainer. I never acted on that in school; you couldn't find me within a mile radius of the drama department, and up until I had reconnected with Trott and met Ross, I was convinced I was going to die having worked in a call center my entire life. Now I had both the time and energy to do what I wanted, while still being content and working hard at my job. I couldn't distinguish whether Amanda had anything to do with that jump or not, though I would never be able to repay her if she did. Would I still have chosen the risk of Youtube if someone like her wasn't behind it?

I felt something brush my shoulder, and nearly fell out of my seat as my girlfriend materialized beside me. "Smith?" she asked gently, probably having noticed my distant stare, "Everything alright?"

"Oh! uh, um yeah," I stuttered, trying to regain composure after the surprise. "Sorry," I laughed nervous, "I must have been lost in thought..."

I looked her over. It nearly knocked my breath away to see her. Every time I saw her was like meeting her for the first time again, and coincidentally that had also been in an airport like this one. However, her voice was the one thing that seemed to perpetuate my memory; that was one thing I couldn't reimagine or forget. Her laugh whipped me back to Las Vegas, and then to Christmas and the countless hours of minecraft or Skype calls or late night messaging. Her hair was a bit darker and she was doing something different with her makeup, but it was the crystallized perfection in her voice that sent chills up my spine in recognition.

"I guess so," she giggled, holding onto my arm and standing on her toes so she could plant a quick kiss on my lips while I still stood there, stunned. I wasn't a very poetic guy, but I couldn't help the dizzying thoughts that continued to run around my head, observing her every movement or smile like it was an art form. I realized that I had seen her less than a month before today, but at this point we were officially living together, and that made her much more tangible to me.

There was a moment when neither of us talked and we both just looked at each other, and I was desperate to know what kind of thoughts she was hiding behind the complex of emotions in her eyes. I watched her cheeks color as she averted her eyes to the floor, apparently as nervous and embarrassed as I was. Hopefully now that there wasn't going to be any long gaps in our relationship, we wouldn't have to relearn how to interact with each other.

"Should we..." she drawled, looking up at me through her lashes, "get going?"

"I guess we should," I chuckled, trying to break the tension and hesitating a moment before I took her hand in mine and lead her out to my car.

———————————————————

"Kevin!" Amanda gasped, throwing off her coat and crossing the room to greet her pet. She knelt down in front of the tank and smiled at her sea cucumber. "I see you survived the trip," she giggled, standing up again and taking in the room for the first time.

"Right, well I didn't really start unpacking yet," I told her guiltily before she had to ask.

"Too busy playing DOTA?" she asked, eyeing the computer and bin that I was still using as a chair.

"Is it really that obvious?" I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck and absently shoving a box with the toe of my boot.

"No, but the ClogsandCrumpets stream works really well for background noise when I'm doing my editing," she said, giving me a sly smile. I felt my face turn bright red as I thought about the things I had told Tom (and all the viewers) about her; I hadn't said anything lude or critical, but just the thought of her listening to me rambling about our relationship still made me uncomfortable.

"I didn't realize you watched it," I told her, "I get really pissed off sometimes..."

"I noticed," she smiled, raising an eyebrow at me and then walking over to the window. "Oh look at the park across the street! It's so cute!"

I followed her over, leaning down to look out the curtain-less window to the green space across the road. I had found out that this was a good neighbor for younger adults, so you could see a lot of people our age running, biking, or even a couple of people who were playing guitars in said park. It was rare to have a nice, sunny day like this, so everyone was taking advantage of it. "We should let in some air," I commented, reaching for the latch and throwing up the window.

The warm air flowed over us and Amanda closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "It's such a nice day out," she gushed, "we should go for a-" She stopped suddenly, looking at the open window. Reaching a hand out gingerly, Amanda looked confused as she stuck her whole arm out the window. "Is there a reason we don't have window screens?" she asked my suddenly.

"What are those?" I asked, just as confused as she looked.

"Like..." she muttered, "Screens that go on the outside of the windows..."

"Is this some American thing I'm unaware of?" I asked her.

She threw her hands up and gave an exasperated sigh. "It's more of a logic thing. How are we going to keep the bugs out of our flat?" she asked.

I placed my hand on her shoulder and gave her a smug grin. "Bugs behave here in England," I laughed, "And I'm sure that's not the most alarming thing you're going to have to get used to now that you live here."

"Like bagged milk?" she asked, cocking a sarcastic eyebrow at me.

"No worries, I buy my milk in cartons," I laughed.

"You still put the date before the month like a crazy person," she muttered, walking over to the sofa and moving a couple of boxes to sit down.

"And saying maths because it's grammatically correct," I pointed out, sitting down and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

"I'm going to ignore you said that for the sake of not starting an argument in the first hour we're living together," she laughed, pulling her legs up to her chest and curling up closer to me. I wrapped both my arms around her, burying my face into her hair. It felt extremely awkward to have her here, and it would take a few days for me to get used to the idea that we were finally together, but holding her was like a stress relief to me; I had missed her.

"And I don't really get why you don't have an 'r' in your alphabet," she added, causing me to pull away and look her in the eye.

"Over here, those are fighting words," I laughed, not giving her time to react before I was tackling her into a laying position across the sofa. She giggled and yelled my name, but I was stronger so she remained with my hands pinning her wrists down. "Take it back!" I joked, moving my hands down to her waist to tickle her.

"Never!" she yelled back, trying to keep my hands away from her said as she continued, "You guys call your bathrooms toilets even though it clearly has a sink and shower in it!"

I shuffled over so my legs were on either side of her hips. "Is it too late for you to move back to the US?" I laughed, "I don't think you can handle British living after all."

"Just because I live here doesn't mean I'm not a free American," she giggled, swatting my hands away again as I tried to tickle her, "Besides, you said you would give it a few days before you kicked me out."

I wrapped my arms around her waist and gave her a small push so I could lay down at her side. "I'm just joking," I grinned, propping my head up onto my arm so I could still look at her face as we laid there, "I wouldn't dream of living here without you..." I paused for a second, and then added, "I need someone to pay half the rent."

"Oh I see how it is," she smiled, rolling her eyes lazily, "You just want me for the money. And here I thought you actually loved me all that time." She gave me a coy smile to confirm that she was joking, but I still didn't like even the mere the suggestion.

"I love you," I told her, the playfulness disappearing from both of us as I said it.

"I love you too," she said seriously, "I can't believe this is finally happening..." She reached up and ran her fingers down the side of my face, sending chills across my skin.

"I can," I smiled, taking my other hand and grabbing onto hers, intertwining our fingers together, "I don't know how long I've want this."

"It's better than I ever could have imagined," she giggled, "and I've only been here for an hour!" Her laugh rang though the flat, filling me with ecstasy.

"I hope I can continue to please," I grinned, leaning down to give her a long, soft kiss. When we were done, I added, "Is there anything specific you want to do today before we meet Ross and Trott at the pub?"

"Well," she trailed, looking around the room, "These boxes arn't going to unpack themselves..."

"Is there anything specific you want to do today that's fun?" I asked again, earning another laugh from the girl next to me.

"We can't just sit on bins and sleep on this couch for the next three months," she pointed out while sitting up.

"I've been doing pretty good for the past two weeks," I laughed, watching her stand as I threw my hands up to the back of my head.

"Get up," she laughed, poking me in the stomach, "We have a lot of work to do." Amanda reached for the closest box and started ripping open the tape with her new house key. I watched her for a moment as she bent down to sort through the items, and then jumped up to wrap my hands around her waist once more.

"Or..." I said, brushing aside her hair and kissing the back of her neck, "We could get started in an hour?"

I felt a laugh vibrating through her back and causing her shoulders to shake. "That sounds good to me," she hummed, turning in my arms and pulling my into another kiss.

A/N Sorry this took so long to update, I've been struggling with this book lately. I think a massive time jump to bring us to the present (or close to it) is in order, and though I don't really like those, it's really the only thing I can do to keep this book moving. Thanks for you're continual support, and I'm glad there are new people that discover and enjoy this book every day. Happy reading!