When Skye told me that he wanted to show me something, I thought it would be something that he built at his tree house or maybe it was another episode of watching the heavens through his telescope. However, looking through the best of the works in an exhibition was the last out of my expectations list.

"Whoa, are we looking for anything specific?" I asked Skye as we walked hand in hand amongst the interested crowd, all gushing about the paintings, artifacts and other things.

"Do you wanna look for anything specific?" He asked me back, seriously happy for some reason. As I closely stared at him, I saw his eyes gleaming with an unfiltered excitement.

"Yes, I do," I replied without thinking as I stared at him absent-mindedly. He looked so ethereal at that moment with the way his heart warming smile lit up his entire face.

Confusedly, he turned his attention back to me with a raised brow. Slowly and gradually his lips upturned into an amused smirk, making me blink my eyes to come out of the trance.

"I-I mean, I am looking for something specific like… like… those clay toys!" I said, quickly pointing toward a section where all the clay toys were beautifully placed as if they were ready for a photoshoot.

"Sure," he drawled out, holding back his smile and it made me blush because I could feel that he knew I was staring. "Come on, we'll check those out," he said, beckoning me to follow him.

I might have joked when I said that I was looking for them but from up close, they really were eye-catching and meticulously made. "These are so good," I said in awe and could only assume that my expression was like that of a kid with my lips rounded in amazement. My fingers hovered above them because I was too afraid to touch those delicate creations.

"And cute too," he agreed with me as he booped the head of a small clay figurine.

"So true." I laughed and mimicked his actions by booping the head of another figure with a sword in its hand.

"Careful there, he might come at you with his sword," Skye teased me, putting his fist on his mouth to stop his upcoming laughter.

"Shut up."

After a long session, which must have consisted of about hardly fifteen minutes, we finally left the clay toys alone for the others to look at through as well.

Skye took my hand in his and I let myself smile shyly. It was a good thing that he was walking ahead of me and didn't even look -

"Why are you blushing?"

Guess I jinxed it. "Stop looking over your shoulder and walk!" I exclaimed, exasperated. I got some weird stares from people around me so I huffed out a breath.

Skye began laughing at my predicament, squeezing my hand once as his laughs slowly turned into soft chuckles.

"Because you're hot, Val. I can't help but gaze at you all day," he told me with a straight face and I could tell that he was holding himself from laughing out loud again.

"Thank you," I deadpanned, rolling my eyes.

With the biggest grin that momentarily caught me off guard, he pulled me closer to him. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders before murmuring. "I wasn't joking."

My breath got caught in my throat as he continued walking. I like this side of Skye. He's carefree and he's himself. As we were gawking and commenting on some beautiful glass paintings, I discreetly noticed how happy he seemed. It was like he was free from the shackles.

"And here is something that I've been meaning to show you for a long time now," he said after cruising around and admiring different sections of the exhibition.

I averted my eyes to where he was pointing at and almost gasped because I was staring at the most flawless of wood carvings. I had an inkling as to who had carved them and it made them look that much more interesting. I could see the hard work behind them. It consisted from small figurines to Thor's hammer to Maui's hook to animals to some wood jewelleries and everything in between.

"Whoa…" I whispered. "These are all… these are all so… breathtaking, Skye. I am… I have no words because whoa like… just WHOA!" I chuckled, still mystified by how he must have transpired a piece of wood into such a beautiful creation. I turned around to see Skye, who was carefully gauging my reaction.

He looked at his work with a nervous edge in his visage. "Really?" He asked me, scratching his forehead as his cheeks were beginning to redden adorably.

"If you want me to repeat that more than a thousand times then I can BUT I won't because you should be confident enough to know that you carve so professionally, so immaculately and so good-ly, if that even makes sense. Heck, if I had a talent like that, if I could carve those then I wouldn't care about others' opinions, I'd be proud of myself," I almost shouted, my eyes wide to elaborate my point.

While I was putting my point across, I didn't really pay attention to his expression but once I was done, I saw admiration coating his entire face. He opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted by a loud shriek.

"Oh, my gosh! Are you Skye Williams?! Goddamn, I love you! I love you so much! I really do!" Someone said and I bent my body from the side to see a girl, who looked very young, almost a teenager.

I was not jealous, just to make it clear but my brain, like the king it is, ordered my eyes to narrow themselves angrily.

Skye passed her an awkward smile and soon a swarm of girls and some guys formed a circle around him, literally pushing me to the sidelines. They reminded me of myself when I used to gush about Chace Crawford as a teenager.

I scowled when a healthy girl with the biggest of smiles unintentionally poked my side with her elbow. "Jeez, girl, calm down," I muttered, annoyed. All those towering bodies made it difficult for me to see Skye and I sighed sadly to myself.

It went on for about five minutes until my eyes lit up when I saw a bunch of muscled guys moving stealthily toward the group gathered around Skye. They seperated everyone from him and circled around him. They were about to lead him somewhere when he caught onto my wrist and took me inside the comforts of the human chain.

"Whoa." I chuckled, not meeting his eyes because I felt so useless when I was discarded by those people back there. I knew that it shouldn't hurt me because Skye had admirers and I was happy for him but it slightly did. It was like Mr. Miller's words about me being "useless" to him still affected me. I was just a "pawn".

"This is happening to me a lot lately. My best bet is, all that media coverage given to us is doing that," Skye told me, noting my silence for something else.

"I… understand," I whispered because I was worried that my voice might break if I spoke too much. Just then I looked up to see that the security guards were leading us toward a secluded corner of the exhibition hall.

I saw Skye flicking his wrist at them, an indication to leave us alone and they obediently stood about twenty feet away from us. He wrapped his arm around my waist as we walked toward a balcony ahead.

Skye seldom puts his arm around my waist because it's too intimate an action so when he did, I couldn't hold myself back as a small tear rolled down my cheek. As soon as we reached the balcony, I quickly put my hand on the railing to stare up at the dark sky. It was as if the peace of the darkness lulled me to let it all out. To let my tears fall. It was through my blurry vision that I noticed a slight drizzling and the cold winds slapping against my face.

"Val," Skye said my name with such tenderness that I put my fists on my eyes to stop the tears. "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" He turned me around and I still couldn't meet his gaze.

"I don't know…" I half lied because such things have never swayed me before.

He wiped my cheeks with his thumbs and I almost felt better. I could have sworn that his touch held a certain magic because my tears had somehow lessened.

It was his very patience of not forcing it out of me that compelled me to talk. "Sometimes… sometimes I feel like I appreciate myself too much which isn't a wrong thing…" I lifted up a shoulder and rested my cheek on it to stop another onslaught of tears. "Because if I don't do that then I know, nobody would. And I mean it, nobody would. But when I try to point out to myself about how deserving I am to be proud of what I am or what I can do, people around me never take a step back from showing me about how stupid I am to think that," I blurted out my emotions in a really meek voice.

"Don't you always tell me about how I should appreciate myself, no matter what others think? I can never forget anything that you've said to me so far. In fact, just now about how I should be confident about myself? Valerie, you always lift me up so why don't you listen to your own words?" He asked me with worry etched on his features. He cupped my cheeks as he slowly intertwined his hands in my hair and massaged my scalp.

"Because, Skye, for a hurt singer - even if they sing so many inspirational songs - it is just an ordinary monotone to them. Maybe all that person needs is someone else to tell him or her that they are not useless," I explained to him, silent tears cascading down my face.

"You wanna know what I think about you?"

I just shrugged, too overwhelmed to answer him.

"You're the strongest woman I know. No one has ever been able to make me feel so… confident about myself, even as a teenager. But I won't make this about myself. You are… you have a heart like that of a child. Unfiltered, pure, helpful, friendly but with a tinge of a lonely energy. Sometimes, all you need is to be loved to feel good," he said the last part in a low voice and with a warm smile.

His words brought a great sense of happiness within me but it was the last sentence that had me feeling all sensitive from the inside. That and his smile that spoke volumes. It was as if only he knew the depth of it, the secrets it held. I sniffled which made him laugh a little.

"Your personality is like that of a cactus. Even though it's avoided by the others, it's a fact that it conserves water within itself. You know why? So that it could quench the thirst of the desert birds flying by. You look tough and may pretend to hate but you don't. I still remember how you gave me the chance to speak the truth even when I had asked you to leave in front of so many people," he paused as if letting me process his words.

I sniffled again with a watery laugh. "I swear I was gonna punch you when you said that I have a cactus personality but want to kiss you so bad when I heard the rest," I spoke honestly.

This made him look at me with an open mouthed smirk and my heart fluttered just looking at him.

He could look good doing just about anything but like I had thought about him in the beginning, it's his personality matching with those good looking expressions that made my heart do some weird hip hop on Shakira's songs.

"You can still give me that kiss, you know…" he trailed off, playfully wiggling his brows.

"Yeah but… the snot…" I cupped my nose, giving him a sheepish stare.

Skye pulled out the handkerchief from his pocket and held it out for me. I took it without questions and dabbed it under my nose. I swear if it weren't for his presence, I'd have blown my nose but I pretended to act like a disciplined princess.

I wanted to give it back to him but it smelled so good. Just like his once in a blue moon scented candles perfume. Putting it on my nose, I breathed normally so that he wouldn't detect that I was sniffing it secretly. "I am sorry I can't give it back to you right now but I will once I wash-"

"It's okay, Val. Don't worry about it." He cradled my head and hugged me. "Just saying though, that you're not useless. And if that person makes you feel that then remember you're anything but that. Because there's spite in their tone and they're jealous that you're better than them," he assured me and further continued. "Nobody will remind a real "useless" person that he's useless or no one will say to a person with a "low self-esteem" that he has a low self-esteem or isn't confident. I've learned this the hard way. Even better, you were the one to show me that."

I tightened my arms around his waist as I watched the rain shower increase its momentum. A few sprinkling drops sprayed on my face but it was perfect. This moment was perfect. "Thank you, Skye. Thank you so much. I really needed this." I pecked his chest and hugged myself even closer to him.

It was silent between us as we watched the city turning foggy and the rainfall making an incessant sound of pattering after meeting the solid ground. "Thanks to you too, Valerie."

I smiled as he rubbed his hands in my hair. The sensation was so good that I was feeling almost sleepy. However I didn't want him to stop doing that nor did I want for this moment to end so I asked him a random question. "Do you like the rain, Skye?"

"I am Skye, I let the rain through," he replied smugly, making me look up at him with a weird face. "Well, technically the clouds do but whatever, I was just joking! But really, I love rain. It's as if it washes away all the sins. One second under it and I bet you'll want to open up your arms wide and grin up at the heavens. You won't even worry about the cold and fever. It's just gonna be you and the rain."

"Wow," I breathed at his choice of words. "First sunsets and now this. I wonder, Skye, if you're secretly a nature guy." I tilted my pursed lips to the side as if thinking deeply.

"You might be right, Ms. Jones. Do you love rain?"

"Hmm, I never really gave it a thought but it scares me. I don't really like to get wet in the rain." I shrugged my shoulders. "So, Mr. Williams, will you show me the beauty of the rain like you've defined it?" I asked him, flirting without meaning to say what I said.

His chest rumbled with chuckles and because I was so close to him, I could feel the vibrations, forcing me to stick to him like a koala. "If you insist, mademoiselle."

It made me go into a fit of giggles as I closed my eyes and Skye took that moment to kiss me. It was slow, like playing sensual music on the piano. It was like a yellow color, fluttering my insides with hope. A hope that we could be together forever, leaving all the piranhas behind us. I loved the kiss in every sense.

He broke the kiss, breathing heavily and the words 'I love you' were on the tip of my tongue but I held them back because like Skye said, 'all in due time, sweetheart.'

I don't know what made me say it out loud but it must have been my reckless brain. "All in due time, sweetheart." 

Skye beamed like he knew what I was insinuating as he repeated, "All in due time."