admiration [l.t]

v

Their shoulders lightly brush against one another as they walk side by side throughout the fair. Neon lights were shining as far as the eye could see with a large Ferris wheel planted in the middle. Louis felt nothing but comfort in the warmth her body was radiating, contrasting to the cold of the night.

Immediately when they had arrived Louis had given her his jacket, watching as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms, trying to create some kind of warmth.

"I take back what I said earlier," she starts, "I really do hate you."

Louis only laughs, watching as she tries to hide a smile. She fails miserably, but he doesn't say anything. "Nah, you know you love me. Everybody loves me."

"Hmm, cocky I see," she grins. Her eyes focus back in front of them, looking at all the booths, until they widen in curiosity. "Maybe I'd love you if you won me that big giraffe over there," she says softly, nodding her head towards the game booth. Louis follows her gaze to see the ring toss game; a large giraffe stuffed animal hanging from the top. He grins mischievously, knowing he's terrible at it, but also knowing his failed attempts will lead to her laughter. And there's nothing he would love to hear more than her laugh.

"I shall do anything my lady requests to win her heart!" Louis proclaims, surely loud enough that the whole fair could hear, holding a hand up to his heart. He quickly grabs her hand before she can resist and pulls her over to the booth.

"You act very immature for your age, you know that right?" She questions through a fit of giggles.

"Only when I want to be," he states with a smile, hand still holding onto hers. He looks over to the man behind the booth, who has glasses over his eyes and a long black beard accompanying his chin. "Hello, four rings please," Louis tells the man, handing him five tickets.

Bella soon takes her hand from Louis and replaces it with the cold and he can't help but feel disappointed. But he soon grabs the rings and looks at the bottles, shaking his head to focus.

"Prepare to be amazed," Louis whispers with one eye closed and his tongue sticking out, aiming the ring at his target.

"I'm preparing for nothing," she says, crossing her arms over her chest and putting her weight into her left leg.

Louis simply rolls his eyes and focuses back on the bottles. He throws the first one, and watches miserably as it doesn't even come close to a bottle. A smile finds its way onto his face, knowing she's going to make fun of him.

And she does. He hears a snort come from the girl next to him as she claps her hands slowly. "Oh yes, quite amazed I am."

"Okay, Yoda. You just watch."

And so he throws the rest of the rings, all three of them missing the target terribly. She made fun of him after every throw, and Louis is sure he missed so terribly because he was laughing too hard.

"I'm afraid I've failed your love, Bella."

She laughs, rubbing circles on Louis back for pretend comfort. "Not quite."

Those words don't register in Louis' head until she turns away from him and begins to look for the next thing to do. And when they do, his eyes widen and he turns to face her. "What do you-"

"How about we go get our face painted?" She says enthusiastically, tugging his wrist to follow her like he did to her earlier. Louis notices how red her cheeks have turned and how quickly she changed the subject. He's pretty sure she didn't mean for those words to leave her mouth.

But on their way to the booth he can't get those two words out of his head. Was she really feeling the same thing he was feeling? Or was he just crazy. The two of them still didn't know much about each other, but there is an undeniable connection between them. The way Louis' smile appears on his face unwelcomingly whenever he looks at her and the heat he feels whenever they touch proves something iss there. He hates to say it, but she does in fact make him feel alive.

It's not the kind of alive that he feels when he's getting drunk at a party though. It's more comforting than that. He feels warmth spreading through his veins and making its way to his heart whenever he sees her smile and when the crinkles form between her eye brows when she's focusing.

"What are you going to get?" Bella asks, eyeing all the possible designs and bringing Louis out of his thought process.

"Hmm..." Louis looks up and down all the options, none of them really catching his eyes. But let's be honest here, he really doesn't want to get one. "I'm not sure if I'm going to get anything."

Bella looks at him with her eyebrows furrowed, and slaps him in the arm. "You are too getting one."

"And why's that?"

"Because I said so."

"Wow you should really be a lawyer," Louis laughs, focusing back on the designs that are drawn on the board. The simplest one he can find is the smiley face. "How about I just get this one," he says pointing to it.

Bella rolls her eyes and smiles. "Ugh, laaaamme," she sing-songs. "But if it means you getting one then okay."

So Louis only spends about 5 minutes sitting in the chair while someone paints on his face. Yes, he, a senior in college, is getting a smiley face painted on his cheek. Where has he gone wrong.

"Okay, Bella, since you got me to get a smiley face what are you getting?" he asks, standing from the bench and walking to the mirror.

"Oh I'm not getting anything."

Louis turns from looking at his reflection in the mirror to face her, mouth open in shock. "What?"

"Yeah, I mean you didn't win me that giraffe. So I thought..."

"That I deserved a smiley face on my cheek."

"Precisely," she says with a smile, trying to not laugh from the bright yellow painting on his left cheek. "Now I really think we should go walk around, possibly even go on the Ferris wheel. I don't know, wherever there are people. Oh, and we should probably take pictures for memories."

Louis can't help but smile, even though he knows she's going to make this night a living hell from here on out. "What happened to the shy Bella I picked up today?"

Bella laughs and begins to walk towards the Ferris wheel, "I guess you'll have to find her."

[A/N; This chapter wasn't changed much, just a few grammatical errors.]