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"You poor, poor things"

"Coently and helpedblue"

"Not yet"

"Yes Look at you, you’re shaking"

"But--" I pinched the he, Ara?"

"I…I’ve hardly spent any time with you since you’ve been here"

"We can coested "And I’ll still be here to at et back to the manor, can you stay with me for a bit?"

"Stay?"

"Mrew a little taller, and the winda ne and him across my nose "Ara, I want to--God knows, but it’s late"

"Well, I’o to bed yet"

"Yes, you are I can see how tired you are" He ran his icy thumb across the skin undertime with you, Jase--ti" He tucked my hair behind my ear "How can I possibly resist that?"

The stars faded, keeping the secrets of this pair who sat talking all night, watching the sun rise in each other’s cos I wanted to ask hihts brushed on horrors of the past--things he locked inside as his own torturous regrets--he’d switch the subject He was fighting a battle inside for what he’d done toit alone

I shuffled down a little more on the settee by the fireplace and crossed htened out over his lap "I e could do this every night"

Jason ser for the hundredth time "I’m sureI don’t think he’d s "I’d hed "Only because you know you have all the wrong intentions Whereas, I, on the other hand, don’t"

He shook his head, his eyes srin "You are a terrible liar, Ara-Rose"

"Me? A liar?" I said, crossingAnd why do you keep doing that with ht his other hand up slowly, pinching the white-gold band between his fingertips "I’er, letting hi We’re supposed to be a couple, yet you wear this like some shrine to your supposedly dead husband" He slipped it into his pocket "Reive the people some hope"

I kept my eyes on his pocket for a few seconds "Fine But don’t lose it"

He laid a hand to his chest "I’ve never lost anything I hold close to my heart"

"So, your heart is in your back pocket?" I joked

"No It’s on ht that was really sweet

In the background, an acoustic playlist of ic little world; each song bringing this closer to an end We sat quietly then, both hearing the words to a song about being in a dreaether, and Jason smiled, because they fit so perfectly to our situation

"Who’s this by?" he asked

"Gavin DeGraw"

The corner of his lip turned up sharply and his s, as the words played out around us "Do you think he wrote it just for us?"

"Maybe he did and he doesn’t know it"

"Maybe"

I ran the tip ofthe melody fill me up like Jason’s mere presence did, and neither of us had words for a while, because everything anted to say was being sung to us by a person we’d neverended with the rise of day, and the sun reached out to all corners of the ht with the cold light of truth

"I should go," he said, rubbing a hand over ht for me to be in here with you like this"

"How noble of you" I rolled my eyes "Yet it was okay while it was dark"

"I’et so really hard "I’ in that world of neither here nor there that it’s auto, and I don’t wanna be that guy"

"I know And I don’t want to be that girl, either"

He brushed his thu "I know you don’t, Ara And ere in those dreaht up in the confusion of it all, and, honestly, I never cared if I hurt David, but, so him on a fire to burn alive kinda mended the hatred I had for him"

"Then why didn’t you try that in the first place--instead of ruining the first ball I ever went to?"

"Ooh, lo," he said with a grin, his lovely dio back, I’d do it all differently"

"I know that, Jase" I patted his hand "And you’re right, you know--David would be very pissed-off to see us sitting like this"

"It’s just so hard, though," he whined "I want to be this ith you, and I know you want it, too And ot David here to love you like you need, but, right nohile he’s not, and while you’re willing to let ht incredibly hard with myself not to put us in situations like this"

"Situations?" I looked down at his hand onsoftly between the out like we’re in love--spending the night together"

"It’s not like we slept together"

"It will happen, though, Ara," he stated "If we keep this up, I won’t be able to let you go when he cohed then because, as he said that, a song playing said, "I won’t let you go," as if my playlist had been perfectly selected to hway to Hell cahed, obviously having read all that in s as he stood up "I’ll hit it--leave you to sleep"

"I’rinned and wandered over to my fireplace

I sat up "Um, Jase, the door’s the other way"