#darvor

The earlier evil feelings had seemed to dissipate which definitely was a good thing, there was no room for negativity right now when everything had been so peaceful, almost innocent in a way which hadn’t been any behaviour which he was used to. Though that was besides the point, no longer had the fifteen year old kid existed; he was a twenty one year old adult whom still had been trying to read the rule book on how things were supposed to work. “I won’t freeze. It’s not that cold out, I’ve been through winter in New York; now that’s cold. But it’s just a light breeze, feels sort of nice right now.” he replied, looking back over at her. No matter how long the conversation about his jacket was going to go on for, he was somehow about to convince Darcy to just keep it; might have taken a bit more work than originally had been intended though that wasn’t a problem by any means. Once she had corrected him regarding his earlier comment, he only thought about it for a second and then tossed away anything that could have been said because it wasn’t worth starting a debate over. Not at all. “Well we’re officially a couple then. You’re my girlfriend and I’m your boyfriend, its simple terms but they definitely mean a lot.” He looked back at her after he had finished speaking and almost felt himself getting lost in her eyes; to actually be able to say that they were together now had been words which he long waited to say and now that he had, it just meant a lot more than he ever thought.

That was fine with her. Believing in fate wasn’t entirely crazy, after all, especially right now when there was Jordan’s wedding to think about. Fate and romance just seemed appropriate, whether or not they’d been on the beach and she’d been concerned about him freezing. Things would have been more awkward if they’d been back with his sister and everyone else, given none of them knew. Well, Jordan might have figured out that she’d been hiding something when it had come to Trevor, but that didn’t mean she’d accept their deciding to try a relationship. “Maybe it’s just me then. Although winters in London can get pretty cold too,” she replied, breaking through her other thoughts for now. Those could be dealt with later, and she was wearing a thin silk dress. That had to be different from his tshirt and jeans, so she’d just accept that he wasn’t cold. It wasn’t worth arguing over, but she still hadn’t decided if she’d keep the jacket as he’d offered. She would be fine once she got back to her car and could turn the heater on, and then they could avoid suspicion. If they were still planning on keeping their relationship secret, anyhow, getting caught wearing his jacket could give the secret away. She didn’t know if she wanted to risk that just yet, when it was all so new. She didn’t want anyone to question it. She didn’t want Jordan to question it, even if he thought otherwise. It would be easier to just explain things after the wedding and everything was over with, when there wouldn’t be any chance of taking the focus away from who it should be on. She couldn’t help but smile again at how simple things had sounded when he’d concluded the discussion of what they were, though. It sounded so innocent, like they were back in high school and all the drama had never happened. “We are. No matter what anyone else says, this is what’s important,” she said. They were what was important.

It might have been a lot of work to try to make sure that everything would have been okay with Darcy but it was all worth it, at the end of the day; she would have finally been his girlfriend which was something he had wanted ever since that day he had told her how he felt on the beach. The day that unfortunately had been met with a bout of laughter but that was forgotten. Looking over at her, he noticed the fact she seemed to have a problem with holding onto both her shoes and his jacket at the same time and immediately came up with an idea. “You’re welcome, the jacket looks really good on you. Did you want me to carry your shoes though? That way you can keep warm without having to worry about them.” he offered. If it was met with a rejection, then it wasn’t exactly a big deal. Either way, things were going to wait until question time was over seeing as he hadn’t been rude and definitely was not about to start now. “That does make sense, I wouldn’t mind going to London someday; maybe we could go together since you know the city. But for me, despite that I had another life in New York; I always missed living here so no matter what, I would have come back home.” he commented, looking back at her as they kept walking through the sand; the sound of the waves crashing into the shore brought him back to why he had returned. That sound was just calming and managed to give him answers somehow even if it hadn’t ever made sense. “You don’t ever have to be afraid again either. You’ve got me now, and I’ll keep you safe the best I can, that’s a promise.” Lifting their joined hands, he shifted them slightly to place a kiss on her hand to simply prove how much he meant every single word that had come from his lips. More than anything now he wanted to make sure she was alright and if it meant keeping bad people away, then so be it.

He had distracted her again when he had replied to her simple thanks, anyway. The compliment had amused her considering she didn’t really think she was wearing his jacket. Not in the traditional sense, at least. “You’re sure you aren’t cold?,” she asked, letting him take her shoes from her without question. It would be his own fault if he did anything with them, since she was still going to have to drive home later and while it wouldn’t have been a problem driving barefoot, she didn’t feel like walking into the hotel without shoes on. Either way, it had made holding the jacket close around her a lot easier, even while continuing to hold his hand as well. She was going to have to remember to give it back once they headed off their separate ways, however, no matter if she knew they’d be seeing each other again soon enough. She didn’t want him freezing on his way home when she could always use the heater in her car. “You wouldn’t?, “ she continued, actually surprised at his words. “Maybe sometime. It’d probably be better for me to get settled again here before I think about going back.” She might be tempted to stay if she went back now, even if he was with her. It was better to get her connection here back again, aside from him. That connection obviously didn’t need a specific location, since her feelings hadn’t faded when they were an ocean apart. She had smiled again as he had lifted their hands to kiss hers, even though she felt like he hadn’t necessarily entirely understood what she had been saying before. It wasn’t a fear of certain people anymore, or anything like that. It was fear of her feelings toward him, but she still felt his words. She believed him. He wouldn’t do anything to hurt her, and if they didn’t work out, that wouldn’t be either of their faults.

Not that he didn’t have ideas right now, it was more that they had to wait until another time. First was continuing the whole topic of discussion with Darcy about why his sister hadn’t known that he went to Columbia and also that he was back home; in his mind it was all straightforward however, it had been more confusing in actuality. “I guess not. I would have thought that they might have told her but honestly I don’t know. I’d rather be the one to tell her in the end so that she could have asked whatever questions about how it was. If you ever want to know how law school was, you can ask; I’m here for a while now unless you’re going to go back home.” he replied. There was no need to go back to his apartment immediately when he would have rather just spent his time with her. His, well whatever they were. Not quite girlfriend yet when their relationship was starting now but eventually that was what she would have been, something that only made him happy to know when it was what he had wanted for the longest time. “I know that we’ll be okay, you know.. I was thinking why don’t we just hang out on the beach right now? Talk for a bit, try to catch up as much as possible.” he offered, moving his hands back from her waist to hold his hand out to her. Catching up could have meant anything happening but he wasn’t going to push his luck right now. Plenty of times for things to happen.

She was finding out more about what had happened to him over the past six years without having to actually ask the questions anyhow, along with finding out exactly how good her best friend was at keeping secrets, and other members of the family. Some of those hadn’t necessarily been secrets, but then maybe it had all just been intended to keep them from this moment until now. Until they were both ready to actually try being with each other, ready to actually allow each other to see what was inside them. Of course, she knew he’d always sort of been able to understand that, wanted to protect her. She had known that even before the last time they had been here. “Of course,” she said. It made perfect sense that he would have wanted to be the one to tell his sister what had happened to him since high school, and it strangely made perfect sense that he’d be telling her now. “I don’t need to head back yet. There isn’t really a lot to head back to anyway. Room service and basic cable, honestly,” she said. It had just seemed weird staying at home when things were different, and she hadn’t been about to invade either Grace’s or Jordan’s apartments. Either way she would have felt like a third wheel, although in vastly different ways. She could still help with the wedding without being around Jordan and Danny 24-7, and right now she didn’t think anything was more perfect than just spending a little more time out here with Trevor. Even though a shiver ran through her as he had stepped away and she’d realized how much cooler the temperature had become, she still gave him a smile. “That sounds nice,” she replied, slipping her hand into his after leaning down to pick up her shoes from the sand. “I’m sure you have more questions to ask me, too. If you wanted.” She wasn’t going to be the only one allowed to be curious.

It was all a matter of waiting now, other conversations had been become the centre of attention and he simply put thoughts on the back burner of his mind so that there was nothing to block his attention away from what had been said. Apparently it was turning into question period although there was nothing that he would have shied away from when she deserved the answers to whatever mysteries there were going on. “No. By the time I was going to tell her, everything got busy and I didn’t want to spring that news on her while she was trying to focus on other things. And Jordan did know I was in New York, but like I said earlier; she still thinks I’m there and not back home getting ready to come to her wedding. Well at least now, I’ve gotten past the whole wonder of if I’m going or not; I want her to be happy since she’s my sister and deserves that. Plus of course, seeing as I’m a groomsmen.. I’ll have to be there anyway and I’ll enjoy surprising her.” he replied. No matter what, he was going to make sure that he didn’t make his sister upset and it meant even more on her wedding day but his issues weren’t going to overshadow that day, not when he recognized exactly how important it was. Everyone deserved to be happy after all, and it might have taken a bit of work for him to get there though having the one girl who meant absolutely everything to him was definitely a good start. Talking about what had made him feel broken also had made him feel better. “Thank you. That was the one thing I never heard from anyone who had hurt me, and I do appreciate your sympathy. Maybe we could find a way to keep each other from feeling broken again, since that’s the only thing that makes sense to me.” he said, slowly managing to find a smile to allow to crawl onto his lips. He might not have been able to trust a lot of people, but he knew that he could have trusted her.

Except maybe he was already damaged, yet that didn’t scare her. Oddly, it meant that maybe they actually would work out. At least, in her confused mind it seemed to mean that, but she wasn’t planning on saying that. Just like she wasn’t exactly planning on telling Jordan that she was considering a relationship with her brother. If Trevor could hide college from his sister, she could hide this, at least temporarily. Except she still couldn’t quite figure one thing out. “She knew you were in New York, but she didn’t know why?,” she asked. The latter part of his statement hadn’t needed a response, although it had meant that hiding her relationship would be a bit more difficult than it would have had he refused to go. That was a challenge she could handle, since she would rather deal with that than have to explain to her best friend why her brother hadn’t come to her wedding. She wouldn’t have to pretend she hadn’t seen him, anyway. They could survive being in the wedding party together. Besides, she could always hope that Grace distracted everyone from wondering about the two of them. Her own sister could always be counted on to do something to deflect attention, even without being asked. She had other things to focus on than worrying about the wedding anyhow, when the conversation had returned to what had broken him. There wasn’t any reason to worry about trivial things like people finding out about their fledgling relationship and questioning it when there were more important things to consider. Her sympathy could only work so well, when she apparently wasn’t connected to who had damaged him. Nobody had said they were sorry to her either, but her trauma had been different. Nobody was about to extend sympathy to her for that now, either, since she figured most people had forgotten it happened, and she didn’t expect it. There were a lot of things she hadn’t expected from this visit, but she’d smiled a little as he had responded. “Maybe.”

What hadn’t been different was how he felt about her, and managing to finally get that all out into the open was definitely a good thing; she now knew everything which might have been enough to make him scared but he wasn’t afraid. He just wanted to know if she felt the same. Not that it was too much to ask or anything of the sort. After all of these years, it had been hard to resist wondering if she had felt anything for him at all. Though that question had quickly been answered as she returned the kiss, which seemed to also have something else behind it, something that he couldn’t put his finger on at first but quickly understood; she was telling him everything that she had felt and he just was happy. Raising his hands slightly, he cupped her face and just kissed her more; making sure that he managed to get the point that he had gotten everything she said across. Dreams would never have been able to tell him exactly how good this was, or how much Darcy really cared about him. It was just too perfect. Maybe after six years, things ended up changing just enough where possibilities were more that mere ideas.

Except for a few, and those few words had been what had finally made her break the kiss and pull back slightly. She’d still left her arms where they were, draped over his shoulders and curved around his neck as she’d simply looked at him. As she’d regarded him, thinking of what he’d told her again now that her thoughts weren’t blinded by other things. “What did you mean?,” she asked, her voice quiet. “You know that Jordan would be happier having you there at her wedding, just like I’m sure she’d be proud of you for everything else.” If she wasn’t already. Darcy knew she was proud of him for proving himself, but somehow it seemed like in proving himself he’d decided he was broken. She felt an odd sense of déjà vu, except this time it wasn’t him trying to hold her together. This time she was the one trying to hold him together, and she wasn’t entirely sure if she could. “What broke you?,” she continued, not entirely sure if she was going to like the answer.  There were all sorts of reasons why she wouldn’t, starting with the most terrifying one that was finding out that she had broken him. She hadn’t fixed herself enough to know that she’d survive that. She couldn’t run away either.  Not anymore. Even if she’d left and went back to London, she knew that she’d still want to fix him. All she needed was to know that it was possible to glue him back together, like he had her, probably without even knowing it. She wasn’t even sure that she had known that until now. She wasn’t completely fixed, but the little spark inside her had kept her together the past six years even as there had still been times she felt like it was all going to crumble into ash. Now she just had to convince him that it was possible again.