For the next three days I stay by Sergio’s side. While he rests and recovers I hide from the doctors by practising my shape-shifting. I’m getting a lot better at it.
On the third morning I wake up to a rose hovering under my nose. It hovers perfectly still and when I look closer I can see that the thorns have been cut off. The petals are bright red and perfectly formed.
“A pretty rose for a pretty girl,” Sergio says and the petals stroke against my cheek.
“Where did you find it? And why are the thorns gone?”
“I found it outside and I cut them off. Can’t have my princess pricking her finger can I?”
I look up at him, “your princess?”
“Unless you don’t want me,” he looks like a little-boy-lost and so damn cute.
Thanks to the advances in medical technology most – if not all – of his bruises have healed and vanished without a trace. His hair is still short and his stubble longer, I swear his beard is growing quicker than his hair.
“Do you want me princess? As your boyfriend?”
I nod quickly, before I can change my mind. I had thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend but this is the first time it’s been mentioned out loud.
“Am I your girlfriend?”
He nods and just like that it’s official. I am no longer single, not that I’ve cared about that. I love him and he loves me, we’ve whispered it at each other often enough.
He smiles at me, a smile that lights up his whole face. A brilliant smile just for me. I feel my own face respond. He comes closer and takes the rose from my hands and goes down on one knee in front of me.
“Blair, will you do me the honour of being my girlfriend?” How he says that with such a serious and straight face I’ll never know.
I pretend to think about it, watching his face fall when he thinks I’m going to say no. His eyes sparkle with amusement when he figures out I’m only playing with him.
He stands up and grins. “I’ll have to persuade you.”
Before I can say or do anything he starts tickling me. He tickles my neck and my ribs, laughing when I squeal at him to stop. He tells me he won’t until I give him my answer, even though he knows I want to be his girlfriend.
Finally when I gasp out a yes he smiles and kisses me. He blinks and the rose hovers between us. I reach up and touch the stem before Sergio moves it away. He smiles and moves the pretty flower so it rests behind my ear.
“Princess,” he says softly and his fingers gently touch my cheek.
I smile, remembering how much I hated that nickname when he first gave me it. I know he’s thinking the same because his eyes sparkle and he laughs.
“You are more than just the sleeping beauty I found in the cells,” he says seriously once his laughing fit has passed.
I look up at him, “more than the president’s daughter?”
“It’s part of you, but not all of you,” he answers after a few seconds consideration.
“It’s not? It’s all everybody seems to know me as,” I say playing with my hair.
“Blair,” he sighs. “You are smart and funny. You care about everyone you meet, just look at Robbo and Kia. You’re like their big sister.”
“What about you? What do you see?”
He blushes, “I see the girl I love. I see my princess.”
YOU ARE READING
Project: Hero
Teen Fiction"You might be a killer, but I don't think you're a monster." The government has taken over the nation in a totalitarian state. But there are a select few who stand in its way. And that is those with the moon Tattoos. Each possesses a strange power a...
