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It’s been a while since Luca told Bernadetta about his “sad story”, and since then, Luca took the habit of visiting Bernadetta’s doorway after his training sessions. It slowly became also Bernadetta’s habit, after some time, she became used to him, so much that she could recognize his footsteps, especially when he was dancing to the music he was humming. Once Luca reached her door, he would knock it, most of the times, following the rythm of the song he had in his head, or just in a playful way. This time, though, Bernadetta didn’t wait for Luca to knock on her door, as she had already opened it upon hearing his footsteps.
(Luca):”Good afternoon Bernie! How are you?”
Luca was, as quite often lately, smiling. That was one of his ways to put Bernadetta at ease with him, which was probably working since Bernadetta was slowly, but surely, improving in talking always more with him.
(Bernadetta):”I’m really fine… I-I was wondering…. would you come inside and help me with a thing? Eh-Ehm IF you don’t mind of course…. please….”
Bernadetta was blatantly agitated, a bit too much even for her, despite not being the first time Luca walked in her room.
(Luca):”Sure. I have nothing else to do, so, why not?”
Luca was always content whenever Bernadetta invited him into her room, even if he had other things to do, he would much rather spend time with her. His carefree response was another way to try to tone down Bernadetta’s agitation.
After Luca closed the door behind him, Bernadetta pointed at the bed, so the two sat on it next to eachother.
(Bernadetta):”O-okay… To do this, I need you to close your eyes and do nothing else… please don’t ask me why…”
(Luca):”As you wish. Actually I will also take off my glasses just to be sure I don’t see anything.”
(Bernadetta):”Thank you… Phew, okay… I can do this...
How are you today?”
(Luca):”Well, I’m quite-“
(Bernadetta):”NO-NO-NO NO! Please please, don’t answer…. Just keep your eyes closed and don’t talk please…. I'll tell you when you can answer me.”
Luca simply responded with a thumbs up.
(Bernadetta):”Okay, again… Do you like the weather today? I think today is a good day for some embroidery, Do you like embroidery? I like to do it when I had a bad day, which is happening quite often lately… but this doesn’t mean I craft ugly dolls, I make cute little carnivorous plants, they’re so small you can put them in your pocket so you can always bring them to you.”
This was the next step for Bernadetta's social interactions practice, after discussing many topics with her teddy bear Sir Floofer, it was time for her to step up her training and converse with an actual person.
Luca wasn’t quite understanding what was going on, but hearing Bernadetta talking this much was quite enjoyable for him, so he didn’t mind the no-looking and no-talking aspect of it.
(Bernadetta):” *Breathes heavily* Y-y-you may answer the next one Luca, Do you like being in here?”
(Luca):”I’m quite happy for this. The monastery is a beautiful structure and I have learned a lot here and met many friends.”
(Bernadetta):”That’s….. nice…. But I was asking if…. You liked being in here, HERE….”
(Luca):”Aah, you mean in this room, then yeah! I definitely like being in here! I don’t understand what’s going on, but I'm having fun ahahah!”
(Bernadetta):”Good… Then later, would you help me with my task at the stables? There’s a lot of work to be done and I'm too afraid others will see me or talk to me so… Can you help me?”
(Luca):”Woah! So this was your objective I see, you’re a mischievous one! You could have just asked me normally, I would have accepted it, even if I don’t like being near horses.”
(Bernadetta):”Nooooo…. This has nothing to do with that, I have nothing to do at the stables, it’s just…You would help me even if you don’t like being near horses? You would do that…. For me?”
(Luca):”Well… of course… I like lending a hand when a good friend needs it.”
(Bernadetta):”Oh… So… Now... Could you not move at all?”
(Luca):”O-kayyyy….”
Bernadetta stopped talking for a minute while Luca had his eyes still closed. She took so long to do anything that Luca started thinking she had left him there. Luca was still wondering if he should have said something when he felt something going from his sides to his back, and then two hands holding him tightly. Bernadetta was hugging him. It was a cold hug though, she was keeping a distance between them, maybe because she was too afraid he would have rejected the hug.
Bernadetta held Luca for a little time before backing out her arms. Then another long moment of silence, Luca was very disappointed, he hoped that Bernadetta would have hugged him better and longer, that “fake hug” left a bad taste in his mouth. Before Luca accepted that such a demonstration of affection was already a lot for Bernadetta, a second hug came from her, but this time their bodies were very close to eachother. Luca started feeling very hot, not only because of Bernadetta’s warmth, but also for his feelings for her and for his inner necessity of feeling to be loved by receiveing heartfelt hugs. Luca hoped that moment never stopped. Bernadetta, on the other hand was boiling with embarrassment, her social practice led to something she wasn’t prepared at all, when Luca told her he would have helped her no matter what, Bernadetta stopped thinking with her head and started listening to her heart. What her heart was saying was “hug him”, while her mind was objectively against it “if you hug him, he will hate you forever Bernie!”. Bernadetta was stuck in her decision, hug him or not? She had already hugged him before, but that time she was crying for the kind things Luca told her, this time however, she wasn’t crying, and he wasn’t talking. The fact that Luca was so patiently standing still and playing the role Bernadetta asked him to do, gave her the motivation to finally hug him, a bit awkwardly, but she was indeed hugging him.
Burning with ever growing embarrassment, Bernadetta left her grip pretty quickly, afraid of an aggressive reaction from Luca that actually never came out of him. Again, Bernadetta gathered her courage to hug him better than last time, she tried to close the gap between them, but not too much, enough for her to feel Luca's breath on her neck. This hug lasted more than the previous one, and yet again, Bernadetta backed out without saying a word while Luca was completely still. This second hug left Bernadetta with a different feeling, she wasn’t embarrassed or afraid of his reaction, but she was actually unsatisfied of it, so she gave him a third hug almost immediately. This time their bodies were touching eachother, then Bernadetta layed her head on Luca’s shoulder.
Bernadetta was hugging Luca very tightly, as she didn’t want him to go away. She was so happy, for once in a long time, she was free of her worries, of her persecution complex, for a couple of seconds, Bernadetta went back to being the carefree girl she once was.
The third hug took Luca completely out of his guard, he was living his dream, the girl he had a crush on was hugging him ever so tightly, his heart was pounding so fast he couldn’t stop himself from hugging her back with all the affection he felt for her. Bernadetta didn’t expect him to hug her back, it snapped her carefree moment away, only to be replaced with a more romantic one. Bernadetta’s happyness was skyrocketing, she didn’t remember if she had ever felt such happyness. All the usual thoughts that housed in her mind like “He will hate you”, “You don’t deserve this”, “You useless, worthless Bernie, what are you doing”, were completely gone out of the window, instead another thought was yelling from all the way back of her mind, “Did you… actually fall in love with him?”. Bernadetta’s face became quickly as red as the Black Eagles' insignia.
She found out only then she had feelings for him. Her embarrassment went through the ceiling, her body was boiling more than the lava in the Valley Of Torment, her heart was beating faster than ever, she slowly loosened her hug to back out once again. A thousand thoughts hurled from one side of her head to the other, “How do I explain this to him?” “What am I going to do now?” “Does he like me too?”, the confusion was driving Bernadetta crazy, until she looked at Luca’s face and be pleasently surprised. Luca was crying with joy, just like Bernadetta he never felt such happyness in his life, he felt so lucky for experiencing that moment.
Bernadetta was moved by those tears, never once in her lifetime, she saw a male individual cry with joy, the fact that she was the cause of such joy made her body move by itself. She wasn’t going to hug him again, her target was different now, her lips were headed towards his lips. With the same pace of a snail, Bernadetta got closer and closer to Luca. Her heart was pounding faster and faster as she closed the gap between them.
10 centimetres, 7 centimetres, 5 centimetres, the closest she was, the more red her face became, 2 centimetres, 1 centimetre, that’s it, she was kissing him. As soon as their lips made the smallest contact, Bernadetta snapped out of it and ran away to the other side of the bed, she wasn’t believing she was actually trying to kiss him. Panicked and more embarrassed than before she took a lot of time to breathe and calm down, she was so scared a kiss would have ruined everything and it was definitely time for Luca to leave her room.
(Bernadetta):”Eh-ehm Lu-Luca??? We-we a-a-are d-d-done fo-for today… Can you… leave me alone now PLEASE!?”
Luca wasn’t quite understanding such a sudden change of behaviour, after all he felt nothing of that attempted kiss, but he was definitely filled with joy by that hug, so he did actually have an idea of why she was acting that way after thinking what just happened.
(Luca):”Yes Bernie, I'll leave you by yourself in an instant!”
Luca wore his glasses and quickly left the room, only then he dried his tears of joy.
(Luca):”Have a nice day Bernie… and… thank you…”
Luca greeted Bernadetta with a tender voice before heading back to his room with his heart full of excitement, while Bernadetta was laying on her bed thinking how her social interaction practice took a completely unexpected turn, that she definitely was happy about.