Haven’t done one of these in a while!

So this is her fault. 😉

We’re no strangers to love

It was the sort of courtship you snuck between classes and club time, child care and bar-hopping. It was the sort of courtship that looked accidental while being nothing but accidental. It was the sort that started with “hey, you’re in Theatre Club too, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t his first courtship, but it was the first he’d pursued with such intensity.

You know the rules and so do I

She was cautious, of course: she had graduated from Addergoole and, while she didn’t quite recognize him as having done the same, she knew to be cautious, knew to distrust kindness, and knew the buddy system and every other rule of safety far better than most of her companions.

And he was, in turn, just as careful. He knew, if the boys in his dorm didn’t, that a boy could suffer just as badly from incaution as a girl could, that the rules didn’t care about gender, and that one had to know who you friends were – and, more importantly, who your friends weren’t.

A full commitment’s what I’m thinking of
You wouldn’t get this from any other guy

So it took six months before she agreed to his so-casual invitation to go out to dinner, and even then she, suspicious to the last, turned down his offer of shared babysitting. It took eight months until he got her to invite him to her house, and nine until he finally got the nerve up to drop to his knees in front of her.

“I hardly know you,” she protested.

“I’ve been following you, watching you, since my first year of school.”

“But I don’t remember you at all.”

“I know.” He ducked his head and tried not to smile. “You were rather distracted.”

“And you really mean…”

I just wanna tell you how I’m feeling
Gotta make you understand

“I do. I can’t help it, I do. I watched you with them – those boys, those girls. I watched you with your cy’ree. I watched you here, all year.”

She stared at him. “You’re obsessed. Did someone Work you?”

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

“No. I mean, not for that. Not this. This is… just an obsession. But I mean it. I want to go all the way.”

We’ve known each other for so long
Your heart’s been aching, but
You’re too shy to say it
Inside, we both know what’s been going on
We know the game and we’re gonna play it

He offered her his wrists, knowing she was staring at him in disbelief. “I want to treat you better than all of them. I want to do better. I want to show you how it can be.”

“You want to… you don’t want to Keep me?”

“No.”

And if you ask me how I’m feeling
Don’t tell me you’re too blind to see

He shook his head. “No. No. I want you to Keep me. Until it all gets better for you.”

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

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