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Hubert stood in shock as his confession of love to Pascal went over her head. Brilliant as she was, it just went right over her head. After all the time he had spent agonizing over this and had summoned up all of his courage, she just didn’t get it. This had been his shot and she had taken i from him. He wasn’t sure when, if ever, he would be able to get himself to try again. He had to make her see. Now.
He groaned. “You insufferable woman!” As slowly as his build up to his confession had been, his next action moved quickly, so quickly that he himself did not fully register what he was doing. In one swift motion, he grabbed Pascal, still making promises of bathing, and kissed her. In a desperate act to convey the feelings that he had tried hard to vocalize, he poured everything he felt for her in one action.
But soon, he regained his senses and realized what he was doing and worse, he realized that she was not kissing him back. The situation fully sunk in and he pulled away even quicker than he had put them there, his face bright red with embarrassment and shame.
“Hubert?” Pascal asked. Her one word trying to form a question that Hubert was sure he understood.
“I’m so sorry,” Hubert blurted out, refusing to meet her eye. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“I do,” Pascal replied, her voice so much like her usual, chipper self that Hubert could not help but pay her heed out of confusion. She was standing there grinning like an idiot, her arms casually behind her head.
“What?” He asked, genuinely confused by her response.
“I know what came over you.” Pascal answered with a smile.
Hubert was almost angry now. How could she be taking this so lightly? How could she be treating his feelings so lightly? “How could you possibly know that?”
“Because,” Pascal stated simply as she took a step closer to him. “It’s about to come over me too.” Before Hubert could give voice to his further confusion, Pascal grabbed to collar of his uniform and pulled herself close to him for their second kiss.
For a moment, Hubert stood dumbfounded and confused, but the woman he loved was kissing him so he decided to seize the opportunity. He wrapped his arms tightly around her and fervently returned the kiss to which Pascal awarded him with renewed passion of her own. The questions Hubert had over this whole situation stayed quiet and for a brief moment he was content.
But as the two parted, the questions came rising bac in his mind. What did this mean? Did she like him? Why was this woman so infuriating? “Pascal?” This was Hubert could manage in the wake of all the questions that beset him.
“Well, I guess that’s settled.” Pascal chirped and turned back to Mecha-Asbel.
Hubert was utterly flabberghasted now. Settled? What was settled? Why wouldn’t she give him a straight answer for once? “What in heaven’s name are you talking about? What’s settled?”
Pascal turned back to him. “You and me, of course.”
“I hardly considered that subject settled. In fact, I am rather confused about this whole situation.” Hubert said, exasperated.
“What do you mean? You kissed me and I kissed you back. Seems pretty simple to me.” Pascal responded.
“These matters are never simple, Pascal.” Hubert tried to explain calmly.
“Well, why not?”
“Because-because,” Hubert began strong, but his voice soon faltered as he struggled to ask the question foremost on his mind. “Does this mean that you like me as well?”
“Of course I like you!” Pascal said with a smile.
Hubert was still not satisfied that she truly knew what he was talking about. “No, I mean...What is it that you want to be to me?” Pascal cocked her head to the side to show that she didn’t understand. “ Do you want to be my friend or my girl...friend?”
Pascal tapped her finger against her lips, apparently deep in thought. Hubert’s heart was pounding as he awaited her answer. “Well...I’m already your friend and I am a girl…”
“That’s not really-” Hubert was beginning to get disheartened and thought to resign himself to the fact that he would never figure out how she felt.
“I know!” Pascal shouted, seeming to have come up with the the solution to the question. “What comes after girlfriend?”
“Fiancee, I suppose,” Hubert replied.
“That’s what I want to be!” Pascal said, a triumphant grin on her face.
“What!?” Hubert felt like a gust of wind hit him in the gut. “Pascal, do you have any idea what fiancee means?”
“It means that we’re gonna get married, right?”
“Yes, well, not yes that we’re going to get married, but yes, that is what it means. And this is what you want to be? To me?” Hubert talked at a rush now, determined to figure out what Pascal was saying.
“Isn’t that what I just said. Geez, you’re gonna have to be quicker on the uptake if you’re gonna be with me the rest of your life.”
Hubert’s head was spinning. Less than five minutes ago, he was agonizing over how Pascal would respond to his feelings and now they were engaged? “Now, hold on just a moment, Pascal! You can’t just declare yourself my fiancee. That’s not how these things work. Besides, we should take time before rushing into a decision like that. Right now, I’m not even sure what your feelings towards me are! You owe me a little explanation at least.”
“You kissed me, and I decided that I liked it.”
“And that’s all it takes? One little kiss and you’re ready to hand yourself over. Would you behave this way with anyone? If a random stranger had gotten to you first would you be his fiancee now? If that’s the case, then...then…” Hubert ‘s head had never been so conflicted.
“Calm down, Little Bro.”
“And don’t call me that. My name is Hubert!”
Pascal softened. “Sorry, Hubert. You know how I get when I get caught up in something. I tend to leave others in my dust. I guess I need to work on making sure to bring you with me.”
“Please, Pascal, I beg you, tell what is going on in your head.” Hubert pleaded, as he sat down on the ground, suddenly exhausted.
“Well, let me start with this. I promise you that if a random stranger had come up and kissed me that I would’ve clocked him where the sun don’t shine.” Pascal explained as she sat down beside him.
“Well, that’s a little reassuring. But what if it had been someone else. Like Asbel?”
“Clocked him where the sun don’t shine!”
“Richard?”
“Clock him!”
“Malik?”
“Right where the sun don’t shine!”
“But that only leaves...me,” Hubert said, as he watched her in disbelief.
“You know how when you work really hard building a new invention and while you’re building it you keep dreaming about how wonderful it’s gonna be. But the closer it gets to being done, the more afraid you get that that something will go wrong. And when you are finally done, it’s hard to throw that switch to test it, because what if you did something wrong and it doesn’t work or what it works but it isn’t all you thought it would be.” Pascal told him.
“I never took you for the type to be afraid of failure.” Hubert observed. He had listened carefully, trying to grasp her meaning.
“With machines, I’m not, cuz if I do something wrong I can always rip her open and try again. But you can’t do that with people. Those mistakes are a lot harder to fix.”
“So my kiss was the switch?”
Pascal nodded. “It’s the only switch in my life that I’ve too afraid to flip.”
“But you did want to. Flip the switch, I mean.” Hubert was beginning to see daylight again.
“Oh boy did I. It was like the biggest, reddest button just calling to me everytime I looked at you face. But, I guess that’s why we’re good together. You’ll flip all the switches and push all the buttons that I’m too afraid too.”
“And you’ll push all the ones that I know we shouldn’t.” Hubert smiled. His brain had finally stopped racing, although he couldn’t say the same for his heart. He reached out and took Pascal’s hand. “One more thing,”
“Of course.”
“I want to hear you say it, so that I don’t have any doubts.” Hubert requested.
“Hey, no fair! You haven’t said it yet either! You say it first.” Pascal demanded.
“No, you first,” Hubert retorted.
“Why?” Pascal whined.
“Because I kissed you first and so now it’s your turn.”
Pascal sighed. “I can’t argue with that logic I suppose.” She shifted to sit with her legs under her, facing him. “Hubert Oswell, I love you.”
Although he had been expecting it, Hubert’s breath caught in his throat. Hearing her say it was like a dream, one he was sure he would have to wake up from. He sat staring at her in disbelief. There was no way this could be true.
Pascal watched him for a moment. “Don’t go all doe eyed yet.” She chastised. “You still have to say it back.”
Hubert cleared his throat. “I love you, too, Pascal…dear god, I don’t know your last name.”
Pascal was glowing when she responded, “Amarcians don’t use last names, so I don’t have one...yet.” She chuckled deviously and leapt to her feet.
“Pascal, you’ve made me-Wait a minute! ‘Yet’! I told that’s not how these things work!”
“Lalala! I can’t hear you, fiance!” Pascal, fingers in her ears, teased as she ran to the other side of the Mecha. “You can’t break off the engagement if I can’t hear you!”
Hubert jumped up and began chasing after her. “I don’t need to break off something that was never there. The man asks the woman. Not that you even asked me, so much as informed me.”
“Lalalala. I still can’t hear you!” Pascal giggled. As she dodged Hubert around the other side of the robot, but he caught her anyway and began to struggle to get her fingers out of her ears.
“I AM ASBEL LHANT!” Mecha-Asbel’s voice came suddenly, startling the two so that they fell to the ground in a heap of laughter.