Gwen is lost somewhere inside her head. Her stance is all wrong. The way she is holding the gun is also wrong. Her aim is way off, and she is not paying any attention.

I clear my throat, "You'll be able to hit the cloth at least once if you focus."

Gwen snickers and spins around. She flares her nostrils. Cute.

She turns away and looks at her target. There is a bright red star in the middle of the cloth. All she has to do is to shoot at the star. The first prize is a huge stuffed teddy bear, and I have seen Gwen glance at it way too many times. She definitely wants that.

"Why do I suck at this?" I hear her say.

"You really do. You should be able to at least hit the corner by now," I say from where I am standing. I don't really get how someone can be so bad at this.

Gwen glares at me, "Why don't you try instead and show me how easy it is?"

Should I?

An idea pops into my head. Unlike all the ideas I shove to the back of my head, I don't do that to this one. I entertain it. I might actually do what I am thinking about. Okay, maybe not all of it, but some of it.

We are in a public place, after all.

I quickly step towards her and pull her into my body.

I love carnival games.

I touch her elbow and right her angle, "You're not holding the gun properly."

I place my palm on the side of her stomach, warm and soft, "Also, you're not standing in the right place."

It takes a lot of strength not to move my hands up and down, not to carry it the way they want to go. The places they want to travel to.

I wish we were alone.

I touch her sides and she doesn't complain, so I don't really stop when everything about her aim and stance is right. I make it seem like she still needs fixing. She is moving right where I am moving her.

I wonder if she would do the same if we were somewhere else.

I need to stop.

"Now you can aim and try to shoot," I say, standing right where I am, breathing in her perfume.

Addicting, she is.

"Okay," I hear a breathless little voice that doesn't seem like it belongs to the same Gwen I know.

"Shoot, Gwen," I whisper in her ear, and I can feel the warmth radiating off her body from where I am standing.

I try to focus on the aim instead of her body pressing into mine. It's a feat I would never achieve. Yet, I try.

I hold my breath as she pulls the trigger, and I breathe out when she shoots. She shudders and misses the cloth by a foot.

"How did that happen?" I frown, "You were aiming right."

I see her glancing at the teddy bear again.

"I think I know where the problem is," I say, "Take your eyes off the prize, Gwen. Focus on your work only. Forget about the prize."

"I can't when it's breathing on my neck," Gwen blurts out.

Huh. I should not flatter myself. I should move.

Before I pull away, I say, "Now you've only got two bullets. Try to hit at least once and keep your aim."

She doesn't reply, which is unlike her, so I put both of my hands on her shoulders and shake her, "Focus."

Then I lean away, as much as I don't want to. All I want to do is wrap my arms around her body and stay there.

Daydreams are nice.

Gwen shoots, with her aim and stance right, and this time she hits the star around the corner. Something unfurls in my heart, almost like pride.

Then she shoots again. She hits the bullseye.

"Yes!" Gwen fist pumps in the air. She looks over at me.

The warm feeling in my heart melts and seeps through my body. I am so proud of her; I think I am drowning in it.

I will never understand how one person is capable of making me feel so many emotions all at once.

"No "thanks"?" I ask as I walk up to her.

"What would I be thanking you for?"

"I taught you how to shoot. I deserve a thank you," I step closer without thinking much about it, "You owe me a thank you."

Gwen's eyes get wide a little, and then she blurts, "I can think of a few ways to thank you."

I would never forgive my brain for where it goes upon hearing that. I am in so much trouble. She is probably thinking of food or something. I am so not. Instead of figuring out what she means, I choose to ask her. "How?"

"Like, um," Gwen clears her throat.

She wasn't thinking about food.

"Like, um. Um."

I can't hide my smile.

"I'm waiting, Gwen," I remind her. Gwen glances back at my face.

"I think we should go to some other booth," she says hurriedly. I can see how flustered she is. My stomach somersaults. Why haven't we done this before? This whole date type thing.

"Okay, but remember, you owe me," I say and I think of using it as an excuse to take her out again, like this, like today. I want to turn up in her front yard and tell her we are going somewhere, and when she asks me why, I will say you owe me.

"Fine," Gwen rolls her eyes at that.

We go around the corner, walking side by side. We come across a whack-a-mole stand. Gwen sees it and cheers up immediately. I raise my eyebrow.

"Don't get surprised if I beat the high score on the first try," That's all she says before taking the mallet and looking down at the holes.

"Okay, I won't," I tell her. I can't help feeling intrigued. I didn't know Gwen is good at whacking.

Gwen starts the machine. The moles appear one after another, slowly at first, but then faster and faster. I see Gwen whacking them quickly and efficiently, not missing a single one. This goes on for a while that I start to wonder how long we've been here. Okay, my girlfriend might be really good at this.

Then she misses three at once, and the screen announces,

"Congratulations. High score."

Wow. Damn.

"Hmm, I am so not surprised," I say hurriedly as Gwen looks at me with a smile.

"That's how you play."

"Yes, you forgot that anything else existed," I tell her.

"I can get hyper focused when I'm doing something I love," Gwen confesses, "I just give it my all."

"When don't you?" I say, looking at her. I know how passionate she used to be.

"Huh?" she asks, looking confused, and I don't push it. I might reveal just how long I have had feelings for her. Instead, I wrap my fingers around hers and walk beside her. That feels like a privilege.

We get to the food stall shortly. The smell of food reaches us, and that is when I hear the growl that leaves Gwen's stomach. Shit, we should have eaten first. I am such an idiot.

"That's my stomach saying hello to you," Gwen says, not missing a beat. I swear she has words for every situation, whether I can't even say the words that are necessary.

So I change our course and head to the food stalls. We end up at the corn dog stand and I order one so we would get it quick and don't have to wait around.

"Are you not going to eat?" Gwen says.

We get our order a few minutes later, and we go to the stall standing right next to it and order funnel cake. I buy one from there. We look around for a bench or something to sit on. There isn't anything. So we have to stand next to the stalls. Before I can say or do anything, Gwen is already biting into the corn dog.

"When it comes to food, you always forget me," I say, thinking where I stand on Gwen's list of priorities, definitely below food. Am I even there at all?

I grab her wrist and then bite into the corn dog that she has just tasted. When I look back at her, she is staring at me with her eyes wide and cheeks flushed.

I swear I am thinking about food only. I swear.

"We'll buy another one," I reassure her while I break bits of the funnel cake.

Gwen stares down at the cake, at the corn dog and then at my mouth. She joins me in eating the cake.

"Your stomach might be decent enough not to make a sound, but you eat like a caveman," Gwen says with an accusatory tone. "You didn't look hungry. You finished my corn dog."

I look up at her, "Yes, I'm hungry." I can't help licking the tips of my fingers because they are sticky, "Just because it doesn't look, it doesn't mean I'm not."

While I utter the sentence, I realize how it must have sounded. Gwen is staring at me open-mouthed. Her cheeks were red, now her ears and neck are red too.

God, the things I want to do to her, right now.

Gwen tries to eat like a normal human being while my heart drums and I can feel the heat in my stomach. She looks a bit flustered, I can see the tiny drops of sweat on the side of her forehead. I am not in this alone.

I fucking love that.

Then we move to other stalls, trying different foods. When we come across a stall selling tater tots, I know what I have to do. You give the woman what the woman needs.

Before I can place an order, Gwen beats me to it by ordering a large.

"You never thanked me for making you taste this," Gwen says, "Without me you would've never tasted tots."

"It's just tots," I say, hiding the fact how much I have grown fond of them. She is changing a lot of my habits, and I am not really sure if I like it or not. Like right now, I am standing here holding her hands in mine and I am getting accustomed to it because how right it feels to hold it, her fingers in mine.

"Not, it's not just tots, and you know it."

I do.

"Admit it, it tastes great. Because I know you love it as much as I do." I stare at her while she speaks and look away while she turns to me.

"Hmm," I murmur, "Okay, they taste good."

"There you go," Gwen comments as our tots arrive. When she gets the packet in her hand, I snatch it right away. I need to make a point.

"Hey!" Gwen says, "Give it back!"

Not so fast, not so easily.

"What? I love them, so I am going to eat them all," I say.

"No! How could you do that to me? It's large and I ordered it," Gwen complains.

I sigh inwardly and say, "Doesn't matter. I'm going to eat it anyway."

"You-you-" Gwen slaps me on my chest as I stare down at her, "Give it back."

"Listen," I hear myself say, and I am not entirely sure what I'm going to say next, but it's something I have never said before, "You are the one who got me saying I like them, so I just want to let you know if I want something, I don't stop until I get it."

I suck in a quick breath as I continue with my heart drumming away, "After I get it, I don't give it up so easily. What's mine is mine, Gwen."

There is no way out, Gwen.

I am gazing right at her eyes while she says in a whisper, "Why would you think I'd need a way out? I'd probably get lost if I do."

I let go of the tots because I have made my point, "So will I." I whisper before I lose all my courage.

We eat silently after that, not saying a word to each other. What I have already said sits heavily between us. She doesn't need a way out, she said.

"So, um," Gwen says, "I think we had enough carnival games for today."

I notice her looking up at the Ferris wheel. I pray to stop the inevitable.

"Let's get on some rides."

No, no, no.

Gwen turns to me, smiling and looking so happy, my heart sinks in my chest.

"We will see about that," I mumble weakly, knowing I don't have much choice.

*****

A/N: important question: I added the chapter lips and chords together and made one chapter from Oliver's POV of that night and it is currently 4150 words long. Should I break it down to 2 chapters ( i don't want to, the anticipation dies kind of) or would you mind reading a chapter that long?