The Love of a Stranger

The Remains

"I'm going back to see what's left of my flat. I'll be back in an hour or so." I sighed.

"Can I come? You might need some support and I'm really bored, plus I could take you shopping if you lost everything in the fire." He smiled.

"The things we lost in the fire fire fire." I sang. I thought it fitted the situation. Dan laughed at me and continued to hum the song.

We arrived at the soot covered building. My windows were smashed and what was left of the curtains were hanging out.

"Oh My God. This is all my fault." I stood there, not daring to go any closer to the building but Dan ended dragging me there.

"No it's not, you don't know that. We'll take what we can and then we can go." He said in an angelic voice.

We walked through the hole that used to be the entrance. Everything was unrecognisable, I couldn't tell what the ashes on the floor used to be. The kitchen counter was still there, the mirror on the wall still stood but was covered in blackness and the now half burnt couch remained where it was. The smell of the smoke was still strong and my lungs felt like they were burning up.

The bedroom was worse. There was a hole in the floor looking straight through to the apartment below. I jumped over and searched through the remains of my drawers to see if I can find any personal possessions that I had took with me when I left my parents house. Nothing. Everything was gone. A tear strolled down my face as Dan walked in.

"Everything. It's all burnt. I have nothing left I don't even know what caused the fire. I checked everything before I went." I cried, but they were tears of anger. Knowing that all I had was gone just in the blink of an eye was heartbreaking. Dan comforted me while I cried into his shoulder.

"I know it's hard, it can only get better. Let's go, there's nothing we could've done. Don't blame yourself." Even I knew he felt uncomfortable in a situation like this, I would've been too if it was the other way round.

Feeling stressed, we left the remains of my apartment hand in hand and headed to the city centre. Dan got noticed a couple of times and signed some autographs while I waited at the side.

"Sorry, that's seems to happen a lot."

"It's alright, I feel like I'm going out with a celebrity." Oops, didn't mean to say that, we hadn't exactly made it official yet. I kept asking myself if he was going to make it official and when. Maybe he doesn't want to? Or maybe he already has...

We picked out a few pieces of clothing that I really liked. Dan seems to know what he was doing, he picked out half of the things which made me wonder if he's already done this before for another girl.

'Shut up Laura, course he has, I mean he's an attractive man, he must have girls falling for him. He could have anyone.'

Every now and then he would jokingly pick up a piece of clothing that was highly inappropriate and placed on himself.

"How do I look?" He said posing.

"Fabulous" I laughed.

Hours later, we finally headed back to Dans, dropped the multiple bags of shopping and I collapsed onto the couch while Dan turned on the kettle. He asked me a question but I was just too tired to reply, so I just groaned as a reply.

"Is it okay if I have a shower?"

"Laura, you don't need my permission for everything that you do, it's okay."

"Sorry, just haven't gotten used to living with other people." I sighed.

When I came out the shower I dried myself off and headed into Dans bedroom. Shit, I forgot to bring in my clothes. I didn't want to go out a grab them so I found one of Dan's t-shirts. I decided to try it on, and when I did, I swear it could've passed as a dress on me. I walked out in front of Dan, but he was to busy on his phone to notice. I cleared my throat then he looked up at me and smiled.

"Is that my top?" He stood up.

"Maybe" I bashfully said. He came closer to me.

"I think you suit that better than me" he whispered placing his hands on my waist, smirking.

He pulled me closer to him, foreheads touching we both closed our eyes, then finally, our lips met once again. It felt like the world stopped moving when I was with him. He gently placed me down onto the couch with him lying on top of me. I hugged him even tighter when he started to kiss down my neck, but then he stopped to look at me.

"I love you so much, I don't want you to go. Live here with me. Please?"

"Of course I will Dan."