She was writing, putting random papers of notes in chronological order and penning them into a journal. The scraps of paper were tossed into the bin one after another once they’d been successfully rewritten.

As she sat on the worn couch with blankets draped across the back, a man who looked just a few years older than her leaned closer, resting his forearms on the blankets and peeking over her shoulder at what she was writing.

She smiled despite the intrusion.

They were familiar with each other, more than with anyone else. Comfortable. Honest and trusting.

Deeply intimate on every level.

“Ryuu, it’s supposed to be private,” she scolded him.

He gestured at the journal with a grin.

“But it’s about me!”

“Ugh. Fine. You can read.”

“Good.”

She rolled her eyes as her pen started up again. Not a minute later, he hopped over the back of the couch gracefully and lightly landed on the cushions, only to snuggle up closer to her, on the side she wasn’t using a hand and arm to write with.

He maintained a blissful expression, his eyes sparkling a bit as he read what she wrote.

He chuckled a bit and recounted his own thoughts on the scene she’d been scribbling her own mind and emotions on. It was back when they were first meeting and feeling one another out. Of course, since it was her journal, it was exclusively from her point of view.

But now, he’d voiced what he’d never said or written anywhere. The feelings from his point of view.

“Really? That’s what you were thinking?” She turned to look at him, incredulous. Despite knowing she believed him, the words he’d uttered were baffling to say the least.

“It’s the truth,” he said, shrugging.

“You were mesmerized by the way I rolled my eyes in annoyance?”

“It was cute. And you were pretty.”

She leaned against him as he reached a hand up to curl some stray strands of her hair back behind her ear again. She smiled.

“Okay… I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I know.” She grinned and looked at him. Her gaze wandered up and down, right and left, seeing every bit of his face and expression. She’d never grow tired of it, of seeing him who had seen her. It was all too easy for people in her life to come at her with expectations and requirements. Those had come for him too. In that way, they were kindred spirits, bonded by more than simple fate.

He smiled back at her and pecked her lips gently with his own.

“It’s good that you know.”

“Is it? Won’t my ego grow too big?” she asked with a smirk, her gaze now focused on those lips which had greeted hers not ten seconds earlier. It was clear to both of them that she was ready for a second and third.

“It’s good.” He leaned his forehead against her temple and whispered against her jaw. “Because then we can both appreciate you and love you, just as you are.”

“And we’ll appreciate and love you too, right?” she asked. It was technically rhetorical to her. She was going to do it anyway. Because nobody was like how he was to her.

He was her everything.

And she knew she was his as well.

He nodded anyway in response.

“We will.” He sighed happily and pulled back, only to hold her face in his hands. “God, I love you.”

With a beaming smile she caressed his face.

“I love you more.”

The second kiss was longer, the journal and pen and slips of paper forgotten entirely.

He grinned.

“Don’t you dare.”

She shrugged, smugly grinning.

“Too late.”

“Oh yeah?”

Pushing the journal from her lap, he pulled her into his, his arms holding her tight, drawing a small burst of laugher from her. He kissed all over her face, making her giggle and squirm until he settled for nuzzling against her neck with a sigh.

“What am I to do with you, hm, Jade?”

Her response was a light giggle and a tight embrace followed by one single word.

“This.”