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[longlonghair]

Rapunzel was watching Alex sleep again. She seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. She had been babying him since they'd gotten back to the bar, and thanking God silently during every moment of it that he was around to baby. Tears welled again at the thought of how close he had come to not coming back at all.

They had been brought back to the bar by Cait, and dumped somewhat unceremoniously through the door; Rapunzel had been in a daze. Alex had passed out soon after returning, and so she had enlisted the help of a kind red haired witch who levitated him gently up to her room. He had never even stirred Rapunzel had undressed him and cleaned him up as best she could.

He was still sleeping, but she was sure it was just sleep now, and not something more sinister.

She brushed a lock of hair off of his forehead, and leaned down to kiss it.

Comments

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

At her touch, Alex awakes. He sees her, and smiles. "Hey. What time is it?"

[longlonghair]

"It's not too late, I don't think."

She turns her head and looks at the clock.

"Just after eight. How do you feel? Are you hungry?"

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

He sits up, respledent in his t-shirt and boxers under the sheets, and lets his body talk to him. "Better. Still sore. I think that is gonna take a while to heal.

"But yeah, I am hungry."

[longlonghair]

She smiles softly and cups his cheek in a caress that also checks him for a temperature. His cheek is rough with stubble, but not hot to the touch.

"What would you like to eat? I'll run down and get it from the bar, and we can have a bed-picnic."

Just having him awake and talking is helping her mood. The tears have vanished (hopefully before he saw them) and she gets to her feet.

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"I'd love a big breakfast. That nightmare gave me an appetite. But I got this feeling that I shouldn't overdo it. So...oen egg, two slices of bacon and one slice of toast?" He flashes a huge smile. "And coffee. Hot coffee. I'm not sure I'm warm yet."

[longlonghair]

"Nightmares, still?"

Her voice is laces with concern.

"Well, I'll get you a tray and well get you filled up. After all that snow in Bahamut, I'll never like winter as much again. I'll bee right back."

She presses her lips to his forehead again, and hurries down to the bar. When she comes back, she's got enough food and coffee to feed four people.

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"Wow. If that's your idea of a light meal..." He grabs a slice of bacon as she gets close and devours it. "You should meet my omother. She cooks like that, too. Though no bacon.

"As for nightmares...not so much a nightmare as just strange stuff. But all fading fast."

[longlonghair]

She nods as she perches beside him on the bed.

"You didn't have the flu...it's all right for you to eat."

She takes a triangle of toast and nibbles on a corner.

"I want you strong again, leg and all."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"Do you know?" he says as he leans in to giv her a kiss. "That makes two of us. Though I think that when we teach Allie and the kdis baseball, I might need someone to show them how to run." He pours a cup of coffee and sits up enough that it won't spill.

And pauses.

"Raps, I got something on my mind."

[longlonghair]

She worries about that. About his leg possibly being permanently damaged. She feels guilty over it, though she wasn't the one shooting.

She looks up at that last bit, worried.

"What is it?"

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"There's something I wanted to tell you. Sometihng I wish I had before Bahamut happened. Because...well, if I really had been killed, or you had, you wouldn't have known. And I can't let it stay that way. It's too important."

And for the first time in a long while, the always confident Alex Knox sounds nervous, and seems a tiny bit tounge-tied.

[longlonghair]

She has a feeling that she knows what is coming, and doesn't know if she should let him say it. It's not that she doesn't want to hear it...but...but...but...

She can feel the tears pricking at the back of her eyes again, and squeezes his hand, remaining silent. If he needs to say it, then she'll deal...if she can remember to breathe.

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

He takes a breath of his own. "I know that when we first starting seeing each other, we agreed we'd just be friends, with beneifts. That it would just be fun. And it has been fun, and beneficial.

"But it's more than that to me now. It has been for a while. And I had to let you know...

"Rapunzel, I am so much in lvoe with you.

"And that's all I needed to say." He holds his breathe again, and hopes that he hasn't gone and say something stupid.

[longlonghair]

“Alex, I…”

Her heart pounds in her chest, and she can feel the trembling in her hands as she gathers herself.

“I wasn’t ever going to say the words to you; saying them would make them real. Telling you I love you would open the door on so much potential change and disaster for both of us…but not saying the words doesn’t make them untrue.”

The tears are escaping, rolling down her cheeks, though she isn’t really crying.

“I do love you. I don’t know what that’s going to mean for us in the future, but I just…I couldn’t…I didn’t know how to tell you.”

She bites her lip, not knowing if any of that made any sense at all to him, but not having the courage to say more.

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

He finds himself smiling. He was so scared that she didn't love him after all. Or couldn't.

"You just did, didn't you? And..." He takes a deep breath and then takes her hands, leaving the coffee alone for now. "And I don't know what's going to come next. For you or me or us. But the way I hear it, people fall in love all the time, and sometimes there's disaster and change. And sometimes there's good stuff.

"I think we can get some good stuff."

[longlonghair]

She smiles, much of the ice that had formed inside of her since the bullet hit him Bahamut melting ans she throws herself into his arms, regardless of the tray of food between them.

The tears are a mixture of happy and frightened ones, but mostly happy.

"I think we've earned it."

She kisses him again and again.

"Alex...I love you. It feels really, really good to be able to say it."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"It's really good to hear it," he says in between kisses. "And I know what you mean.

"I'm gonna tell you something. Remember the lake party? All those gorgeous women wearing almost nothing at all? It was a guy's dream come true. And I couldn;t take my eyes off you, Bot for a second.

"After it was over, and we were back here, I looked at you and actually thought I was falling in love. And I was. How about that?"

[longlonghair]

She tries to pinpoint an exact moment when she just knew, but can't think of one.

"You just sort of crept into my heart and made yourself at home, a little at a time. It was so gradual that I didn't even realize it was happening. I could tell myself that being so proud of you for your columns, and awards and your enthusiasm for life was just a friend being glad for another friend. I don't know how long I was lying to myself."

She gives him a watery laugh.

"And then I was afraid that my favorite reporter was going to see through that lie. He's incredibly clever that way."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"I kinda suspected, sometimes. But it wasn't till it would seem to slip out one in a while. A word here or there, something I bet you didn't notice. Which is how the truth always comes out.

"And..." He pulls her close. "And how you reacted, there. I kinda knew then."

[longlonghair]

"I'm sorry I hid it from you. You deserved to know--I was just afraid."

She rests her head on his shoulder, stretching out beside him.

"I guess sometimes it just got too big to hold in."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"Same here. On both counts. I was sorta scared. I still am, to be honest. It's still kinda new for me." He won't tell her that he's never told anyone he loves her before. Or that at some level, like some many men, he wasn't sure about the idea of commitment. But he can at least let her know what he's feeling.

"But one of the things we have is honesty. I mean, I am the Seeker of Truth, right?"

[longlonghair]

"That you are. Does that make me your faithful sidekick?"

Joking aside, she feels like a weight has been lifted.

"I haven't been in love for centuries...it's kind of new for me, too. I guess we take things one day at a time for now, huh?"

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

He thinks but only for a second. And smiles at his love. "Yeah, I guess so. Which is how I usually take things. We've been doing well so far, anyway.

"And you are not my sidekick. You are my partner in crime. Or crimefighting. The Seeker and the...the Princess of Honesty? Or whould that be Queen, or Countess?"

And that smile? In part it's because the idea that she'd fall for him when there was no one else for that long makes him feel like he is something really special.

[longlonghair]

"Partner in crime or crime fighting...whichever one suits best at the time. I'll pass on the royal title, unless it gets me special privileges."

She shifts a little beside him him, and reaches down to pull a spoon from the tray from under her hip.

"I think I've ruined most of your breakfast."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"Oh, any and all pseical privileges you're gonna get from me anyway." He kisses her, of course. "Though some will have to wait till I'm a little better.

"As for breakfast...maybe in a while we can walk downstairs and I'll see how my leg is doing? I think I'm ready for people again." And Raps should be able to tell that he's still not quite himself from that comment.

[longlonghair]

"Dinner and dancing in Paris will definitely have to wait. Breakfast in the bar we might be able to manage, as long as you don't over do it."

She's probably going to be bossy for a while; their adventure in Bahamut had scared the hell out of her, and she isn't eager to let him out of her sight until she knows he's strong enough.

"We have to get you up and around so you can run rings around those kids you're supposed to be mentoring back in Gotham."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"I meant it about Paris, ladylove. We can afford it. We deserve it." He slowly pushes himself off the bed. It hurts, but not very much.

"But I'm staying here until those kids don't ask any questions about why I'm limping or need a cane." And he does, though he's gamely pretending he can walk without one for a moment.

[longlonghair]

She smiles and shakes her head.

"You'll be up and about in no time. And if anyone asks why you're limping and grin at them and say it's my fault."

"Paris sounds nice, but it's just being alone with you that's the real treat."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

He just keeps smiling. This, he notes, is how it should be, and heck with the pain in his leg.

"You are incorrigable, you know that?" He looks for his clothes, even as a thought occurs to him.

"Raps, how are you doing? Since we got back, I mean."

[longlonghair]

She sobers a little. "I'm doing better, now that you're doing better. I was so worried about you, I haven't had time to worry much else. I think I'm all right."

She finds his clothes for him, and begins helping him get dressed.

"I don't think I've gotten much sleep, but that's something I can catch up on."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"I have an idea," he says a bit quietly. "Let me do a little worrying about you? And a little taking care of you? I think that what you're supposed to do when you love someone."

[longlonghair]

She pauses in handing him a cheerful Hawaiian shirt, her eyes filling a little again.

"I promise the next time I get shot, you can take as much care of me as you want."

She puts a hand to his cheek.

"We're quite a pair."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"Aren't we?" He smiles, but sees the tears. Wow, he thinks, she really does love me that much. Wow.

"But I have much better idea. How about neither of us ever get shot again? And we take care of each other anyway?"

He buttons his shirt and then slowly puts on his pants and shoes. This is the hard part, and even with the bandage over the wound, it hurts.

[longlonghair]

"That sounds like the best plan, yet."

She kneels down in front of him, shooing his hands away and helping him with his shoes.

Shew walks to the corner and retrieves an impressively carved cane/walking stick.

"I got this from the bar earlier. We'll take the elevator down, too."

[gotham-knocking.livejournal.com]

"There's an elevator?" Well, of course there would be, but he's never thought about it.

He studies the walking stick. "Oooh, nice. All I need is a bowler hat and I can be just like John Steed. Only you are prettier than even Emma Peel." That's how much in love he is. He's forgotten even his boyhood crush.(And should he ever chance to meet Ms. Peel in the Bar, he might go all fanboy, but Emma will just have to get over her disappointment that he's off the market.)

"Shall we get some breakfast, my love?"

[longlonghair]

She grins at him, and take is other arm, in case he needs to lean a bit.

"Let's."