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"You just can't get enough of me, can you, Stella?" Gale says, her voice warm and low against Stella's skin as she runs a hand through Stella's pink hair, damp and straggly from the rain but still soft as ever, carding her fingers through the long locks. She could bury her face in the nest of Stella's soft pink hair, but she doesn't even though she feels tempted to, sighing. "I knew I should have left you alone the moment I saw you, but something must have tugged at my heartstrings then."
Stella rolls over on her back. She turns to look up at Gale as though Gale holds all the stars in her eyes. Gale wants to look away, to avert her gaze, because no one has ever looked at her that way before, and it just feels different. It is just all too much for her, to see Stella looking up at her like that. She wants to look away, but she can't help but want to hold her gaze and lock it in. There hasn't been anything more beautiful than Stella's face whenever she looks up at her like she's in love.
"I couldn't just leave you alone," Gale continues, even though Stella is looking up at her with her sweet wide-eyed gaze and her mouth ever so slightly hanging open in a small circle, as if she is staring up at her in awe. "I had to get you back to safety. Maybe I felt bad for you."
"You did?" Stella says in a small voice. She was shaking and shivering when she arrived at the front door of Gale's house. She rushed up the front steps, pushed away Gale's bodyguard who might as well be twice her size because he was in her way, and climbed up the stairs two steps at a time to surprise Gale and stop her from leaving her a second time. "You shouldn't have felt bad for me. I came all the way to look for you. It was my fault." She presses her lips together, and then smiles sheepishly at Gale. "It was my fault I got cold."
"Oh, no," Gale cuts in. "Not today." Stella looks up at her, her eyebrow raised a titch higher up her forehead in confusion. What else could Gale possibly be talking about? Stella had embarrassed herself the most today. It was her limit, and she managed to surpass it on the first try. She had no shame left in her. "The first time we met. You know, I had half a mind to just leave you alone where you were." She turns to look away, feeling warm from Stella's stare. "But try as I might, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't leave you standing out in the rain."
"I had no idea you were watching me then," Stella says, every bit as pleasant as Gale likes about her. "I was just miserable, I guess." She fiddles with the strap of her shirt, and Gale watches the movements of her fingers. "I was just lonely then. Even Red had gotten sick of me at one point, and we aren't even together. He's my best friend." She turns to glance at Gale, whose mouth is set in a tight line at the mention of Red, and she is quick to dispel what Gale might be thinking. "He's only my best friend. It's just, sometimes, he doesn't always try to understand the things I do. He doesn't always try to understand me for me." Gale nods sympathetically. "I couldn't figure out what was it about me that made people want to leave. I couldn't figure out what was it about me that seemed to always turn people away."
"You love too much," Gale says softly, leaning in close to Stella, and Stella has to catch her breath, feeling as though the air had been ripped from her lungs, her heart beating so loud in her chest you could listen to it like the beat of a drum or the bass line of a song. "You love other people too hard and too much and it can be, well, too much. You love other people too hard and too much and sometimes it can turn people off. It's scary to most people to be loved unconditionally like that."
Stella swallows. "Were you scared?" she asks, and Gale stops in the middle of stroking her hair, her hand in mid-air as she was about to card her fingers through Stella's long mass of pink hair again. "Were you ever scared of me when I was like that to you? Be honest." Gale looks away. She can't answer or else she would hurt Stella's feelings. Stella is... sensitive in ways she can't quite comprehend. Stella is sensitive in ways Gale can't quite learn to be able to cater to because she has never known what it's like to tone herself down for another person. But she seems to be asking for it now.
"You really want to know?" Gale asks. She can't help but hesitate. They had just gotten back together, after all. She can't risk having Stella all sad and gloomy because of her. "You sure you really want to learn about that?"
"Be honest with me, Gale," Stella says, reaching up to hold Gale's hand in hers, lacing their fingers together. "Please. I won't get hurt, I promise." Gale cocks a thin brow at her. Stella smiles sheepishly. "I mean, I might get hurt, but at least I asked for it. I won't get mad at you for hurting my feelings if you do. I just need to know. I want you to be honest with me. I need you to."
Gale takes a deep breath. She's used to dramatic sighs as if she is going to reveal something important, like the end of the world, and Stella just stares lovingly at her, like she would adore anything Gale does and cheer for anything she says. "Well," she says, "here we go. I'm going to be completely honest with you. You were just too different for me. I'm used to cruelty. All sorts of tricks." She looks down at her lap. But you were kind to me. Even on that day with the rain and the wind in your hair, you still ran up to me then and offered to find an umbrella for us to share. You offered to take me home. You showed me kindness in a face I have never encountered before, and it felt almost like a threat."
Stella blinks up at her, her mouth in a soft o. "Go on," she whispers, urging Gale to continue with her version of the events as she remembered them in her head. "I love listening to you talk. It's like I'm reliving that day. It's like I'm getting a chance to remember it all anew."
"We weren't supposed to be friends," Gale says, a smile twitching at the corners of her lips. "It was all so wrong for us to be friends. It was wrong no matter where you looked at it, and you knew it, but you still approached me and wanted to be friends with me from the get-go."
Stella smiles up at Gale, and it's so contagious Gale feels weak with it. "And now we're friends," she says, wrapping Gale's cape tight around her body, "aren't we?"
"We're more than friends," Gale says, squeezing Stella's hand. She shakes her head. "But stop distracting me. I was your greatest enemy. I sent troops and troops of my minions out at the field. But on that day it was like there was no animosity between us. It was like we were destined to find each other and become friends then."
"Yeah," Stella breathes out. "I'm glad I did that. I'm glad we became friends. Just like that. I'm glad it's all over."
"You wanted to be friends with me right then, because you didn't understand," Gale says, making a face. "You were just too different from me. I didn't want to trust you, even though I know I'm the one you shouldn't trust. I'm the one who is not to be trusted. But still, I projected that on you. I guess I was just insecure. I was just scared you might overthrow me somehow, and I wanted to hold on to the power I had for a little more."
"You were the great big Bad Princess," Stella recalls, rather fondly for someone who has been on the wrong side of Gale's wrath before. "I get it. I get it why you were... scared. Of me. I remember it all so clearly."
Gale traces circles into Stella's palm with the edge of her nail and Stella giggles softly, her laugh a tinkling sound that makes Gale's heart hurt and swell. "Well," she says, "I couldn't quite understand you at first. I didn't know why you did it. Why you could love me as a friend. How you could love me as a friend when I used to be your greatest rival just then. It even scared me first, the way you seemed to love every other person in the world unconditionally, but now I guess I've gotten used to it. I guess I keep looking for a love like that."
"Aw," Stella says softly, but she's still looking for some sort of reassurance that Gale's story wasn't quite able to give her. "Are you sure there isn't a twist to this story?" Gale looks down at her and raises an eyebrow in confusion. Stella's face betrays a look of worry. "Like, aren't you going to take all of this back anytime? You could take all of this away from me anytime soon, and I'm scared." She averts her gaze, but Gale reaches down to hold her face in her hands, cupping her cheek, and tips her chin up to her face. "You know I want to be with you forever, for the rest of my life, even, but I'm scared you're just taking me on for a ride. I can't help but feel scared that you might run away and leave me again. You almost got away with doing that today."
"I wouldn't," Gale says, holding Stella's face in her hands, looking in her eyes. They're almost as blue as water, in contrast to Gale's golden ones, and her face is small and round like a moon made specifically to fit in Gale's hands. "I promise." She crosses her fingers, and then holds her hand to her chest. "Cross my heart. You turned me into the way I am today. So much kinder. So much nicer." Stella smiles at Gale, her eyes shining. "I wouldn't trade a love like this for anything in the world. I can't find a love like this anywhere else in the world."