Even if the stars don't shine

Fragile

  He sat on the couch and watched her, cross-legged, trying to work out the crochet pattern. She still kept some of her grandmother's knitting and crocheting things in one of the cupboards and thought it would be a fun idea. It turned out to be something of a nightmare.

  She'd seen these little woollen hearts that seemed easier on the webpage, now that she was doing it: it was nothing like it. She said she'd figure it out first before doing it together so she could teach him, so he watched her struggle.

  Finally, he smiled and turned the laptop toward him, seeing her tying herself into knots. "It's not a very difficult pattern..." he commented and took another hook and some of the wool.

  She raised her brows, lowering her work into her lap and staring at him. "How do you know how to crochet?" she asked in a low voice.

  He shrugged and started working, easily. "I had a grandmother too, called her ma though," he told her and effortlessly weaved the new wool over his fingers to work them into his pattern, hardly looking back up to see the instructions.

  "Holy shit... what else can you do that I don't know about?" she asked with a low hanging jaw, amazed and slightly scared at his power of mystery.

  He shrugged again. "I don't know what you know... can't know what you don't," he looked up at her briefly with a tiny smirk, knowing that would annoy her.

  "Come on, what other superpowers do you have?" she pushed with a small smile, she liked his smirk, it was crooked and perfect.

  "Alright... I can speak Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, Latin, German and Japanese..." he paused, "I can only understand French, never got around to that I guess."

  She sat in silence. "Say something in something..."

   He grinned at his work. "Quam pulchra es," he started with Latin, "tanto faz..." then Portuguese, "que a veces," then Spanish, "Kokyū ga dekinai..." he ended in Japanese. He looked up at her perplexed eyes and his grin widened.

  She paused a moment. "What the hell does all that mean?" she sat forward.

  "I couldn't tell you."

  "Why not?"

  "I would only spoil it..." he flashed her a smile and finished the heart, handing it to her.

  She took it slowly and took the stuffing she had pulled from an old and unused pillow, stuffing the heart and handing it back to him so he could close the hole in the side. "Fine... then at least show me how to do this."

  He nodded and sat closer, showing her each step and making sure she was following. He found that she was looking more at him than at her hands so he had to remind her every so often until she was finally finished.

  She turned to face him and close the hole in the side. She held it out to him in a flat palm. "Here."

  "What?" he didn't know what he was supposed to do with it, it was already finished, some spaces bigger than others but she'd done her best at it.

  "I'm giving it to you, you big lug..." she bit her smile, hoping he wouldn't think she was too weird.

  "Thank you..." he took it from her and looked at it attentively, studying it as if it were a real heart.

  "Treat it right, it's fragile," she looked down, her smile faded.

  He touched her hand hesitantly then held it. "I will treasure it."

  She looked up at him and smiled softly.

                                       **

  He drew on her left hand in pen while she typed on the laptop. He wasn't sure what she was doing so he distracted himself from asking her. He was doodling the city outside the window and was shading it when she looked down.

  "Shit..." she said then nodded, kissing his cheek. "It's amazing..."

   He nodded once and felt the heat leave his cheek.

  "Sam has now taken to emailing me..." she told him and rolled her eyes.

  He furrowed his brows for a moment then remembered what emailing meant. The gap between the ages was still prevalent even though he'd tried to catch up a little. "Why?"

  She sighed. "Says it's safer, which it really isn't. Anyone could trace his IP address-" she looked at his confused face now, "never mind, it just isn't."

  "What's he saying?" he finished his drawing.

  "Stupid shit as usual," she smiled, "says I'd love it where they are but can't tell me where that is so it's pointless, oh an Steve says hi."

  He nodded. "Kinda miss him actually."

  "Kinda?" she scoffed with a grin.

  "He's a punk, but a fun one at least," he shrugged.

  "Do you mean you're not having fun?" she turned to him, seated beside her at the kitchen island.

  "No, no- I-"

  She chuckled, letting him know she was joking so he could calm down. "Don't worry... Want to go for coffee? Like what normal people in relationships do?" she offered.

  "Relationships? Are we in a relationship now?" he raised his brows and stood, looking down at her.

  "I thought- I mean-" she started in a flush.

  "Don't worry..." he told her with a smile, making her hit his arm, "yeah normal people..." he agreed.

  She stood and eyed him suspiciously. "Don't do that..." she warned him.

  "I express my deepest apologies," he said unto her and lowered down to kiss her shortly before pulling her by her waist toward the door.