Sixteen

"SOME DAYS, YOU'RE THE ONLY THING I KNOW. Only thing that's burning when the nights grow cold. Can't look away, can't look away. Beg you to stay, beg you to stay, yeah. Sometimes, you're a stranger in my bed. Don't know if you love me or you want me dead. Push me away, push me away. Then beg me to stay, beg me to stay, yeah.

Call me in the morning to apologize. Every little lie gives me butterflies. Something in the way you're looking through my eyes. Don't know if I'm gonna make it out alive.

Fight so dirty, but you love so sweet. Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth. Late night devil, put your hands on me. And never, never, never ever let go. Fight so dirty, but you love so sweet. Talk so pretty, but your heart got teeth. Late night devil, put your hands on me. And never, never, never ever let go.

Some days, you're the best thing in my life. Sometimes when I look at you, I see my wife. Then you turn into somebody I don't know. And you push me away, push me away, yeah."

❁

I was dancing across the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body, and another in my wet hair, signing Teeth by 5 Second of Summer, quite energetically.

But when I bounced my hips around the room, still singing from the top of my lungs as if there was no tomorrow, I froze when I turned around and saw him. He was right there, sitting comfortably on the couch, with a crooked grin on, but still with that black mask on his face and a shirt with long sleeves and gloves.

"You weren't joking when you said you sang in the shower, hm?" Hearing his deep voice again, with absolutely no alcohol in my body, still spread goosebumps down my spine.

I gulped, "Why are you still with a mask on? Are you going for a Beauty & the Beast concept now?"

He tilted his head to the side, confused, and I remembered that they also don't have freaking fairy tales in this world. No Snow White, no Little Mermaid, no Rapunzel, no Aladdin, Elsa & Anna, or Cinderella. How discouraging towards the kids. I still have to do something about that!

"Beauty & the Beast?" He asked.

Sigh. "Whatever, you won't get it. And yes, I do sing in the shower as you may have just heard!"

"I never heard that song," of course, you didn't. "Was it one of yours?" No. But I nodded anyways. "What's the name?"

"Teeth!" And when I realized I was still only dressed with the towel, I felt my entire body get suddenly hot. "Oh my God," I ran back inside, but as I hadn't chosen a dress to wear yet, I had to come back again and take one from the wardrobe. "You can't go inside a single Lady's room like this when she's bathing, dumbass. Don't you feel ashamed? It's rude, you know?"

"So, if we get engaged I'll be able to come in when you are bathing?" What?

I froze again, "Are you really considering my proposal?"

He chuckled and I got myself loving the sound of it again, "You really are something else. I just said something naughty and you focused on that?" I said nothing. "Of course, I am considering. Why would I take the risk of bringing you here like that if I wasn't?"

"Hm… because you are a gentleman?"

Scoff, "Cute. I'm not what someone would call a gentleman, though. I'm selfish and I'm only doing this because there are things I want from you!"

Oh? Well, I can relate. "Then that makes us the same. So, will you marry me?"

That sensual crooked grin appeared again, and leaned forward, with his elbows resting on his knees. "I don't know why I'm still surprised to hear you proposing to me again, even though you still don't know my name, or what I look like."

"If you wanted me to know, you would already have told me, and showed it to me!"

"Hm, true."

"Besides, you saved me from my family. I'll be forever indebted to you for that. And one of my requirements for someone to be husband material is someone who will go against my family if needed, to protect me. Just like you did. That alone is a reason for me to marry you, as long as you are single, and aren't gay!"

That made him arch his eyebrows, "Do you think I'm gay?" His voice was deeper than the ocean and he came dangerously closer to me as he asked that.

I gulped, feeling my heart beating like a drum, "It's not that I think you are gay. It's just that, I can't throw the possibility out of the window just because you look straight. After all, many guys are gay and look like the straightest men alive. Looks and actions can be deceiving!" I lowered my tone, not to look as moved as I actually was by the sudden proximity.

He came even closer and I unconsciously stepped back, hitting my back on the wardrobe. Still unable to break eye contact, I realized how right Mari was when she said our height difference would be extraordinary when I'm barefoot. I'm almost breaking my neck just to look at him.

And I still can't look at his eyes because of this damned mask. But his lips are saying quite a lot.

When he caressed my chin, I found myself holding onto the top of my towel with all my strength, "I can assure you, Hope, that I'm not gay," he whispered, brushing his thumb over my bottom lip. "And I'll gladly prove it to you," he shortened the space between us, enough for me to feel his warm breath on my lips. "But I won't do anything you don't-" I didn't let him finish.

Trusting that the towel would stay in its place, quickly like thunder, I held his face gently with my hands and put an end in the distance between us, sealing his lips with mine in an innocent but impulsive kiss.