Perception

XCVIII

Oh, but her memory had not done it justice. This pizza was divine, and she was famished after the long afternoon of trying to write intelligent things on pieces of paper and focusing despite being punched in the gut. She cut happily into the flaky crust and the chewy, melt-in-your-mouth dough, the molten cheese running in rivulets over her fork.
"Tomorrow I'm going to cook you something." she told him. "Ideally something with vegetables."
He grinned softly. "Wow! That sounds awesome. I'm a terrible cook."
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I'm not."
She smiled across the table at him. The idea of cooking for him was ridiculously appealing. It was amazing how very dear this man had become to her, so very quickly. Before she met him, feeling that electricity for the first time in the college hall, she had never thought she would ever feel this way about anyone, ever, and now suddenly here she was; sitting in a little restaurant with him with their feet pressed together under the table.
Boyfriend.
That's what Sarah had called him. Did she have to ask him where he stood on that? What was the custom on this? She had no idea. She put another bite of scrumptious pizza in her mouth and gave him a silly grin.
He had almost finished his pizza already, but his eyes were shrouded now, focusing out of the window on nothing, far, far away. His fork was hovering above his plate as he stared, zoned out like he had been on and off during the day.
"Hey. You okay?" she asked him softly. He blinked a few times as he came back to the now and then he nodded quickly. He took a deep breath.
"She must have realised who you were. Who we were." His voice was quiet, so quiet, and laced with emotions so deep they almost scared her all over again. "Why else would she have taken me?"
Anna swiftly put her hand on Eli's arm, stroking it softly, hoping she could soothe those emotions somehow.
"I... I don't really have the answer to that, Eli. I don't know, but she must definitely have realised that we were a danger to her, I think. But then... why did she take you, and not me? Was it just because I was harder to get to in the tent? Was this a crime of opportunity, and she took you because you were out there, or did she come there on purpose, knowing what she would find?"
She looked down at the Formica table and traced the wood patterns with her finger once again before carrying on, so softly her voice was just a whisper. 
"I really hope she didn't know who I was. If... if she was willing to do that to her daughter, to bury her alive in the woods, what would she be willing to do to me?"
"She's in prison." he said bleakly. "And from what I gather she'll be staying there for the foreseeable future."
Anna nodded slowly. She very definitely didn't want to scare him any further. But at the same time... didn't this have to be said?
"Yeah. I really hope so. I just... I have no idea yet how her powers work. You... you know what my mum said, right before she vanished."
Eli's arm tensed a bit under her fingers, but his voice was quite normal again as he answered.
"Yeah. I do. So. I guess it's fair to say that there are a lot of questions to be answered still about your family."
Anna nodded again. "Yes. And maybe... I don't know..."
His tight smile interrupted her before she could carry on. "Well. I'll be right by your side when you decide to go find them."
Oh.
The finality with which he said that, as if it were the most self-evident thing ever. The quiet temerity in his soft, slightly hoarse voice. His eyes, that burned with the depth of what he was feeling. She blinked at him as she picked up his hand and leaned her forehead against it. It, like him, was firm and strong, but at the same time soft and gentle. What point was there in being coy now?
"To be honest, Eli, I hope you'll be by my side always."
He grinned suddenly, his face opening up in a boyish, happy gawk.
"Yeah? Well, try and stop me."

She could feel the elated beam spreading on her face like oil on still water.
Try and stop me.
Yeah. She wasn't about to, and she promptly lost all sense of decorum as she half stood up and bent over the table awkwardly, throwing her hair over her other shoulder to stop it from hanging in the leftover cheese on the plates. He met her halfway, his eyes joyous too, and their lips met in the softest of kisses. Oh, this kiss, this sweet kiss unlike any they had shared before, after their words just now... it said it all. His warmth spread like wildfire through her veins, and when they let go and she sat back down she had to catch her breath. She smoothed her shirt, a little embarrassed at their PDA.

He breathed out slowly, and oh, how she loved that little smile that played on his lips. That smile that told her it meant the same to him.
"Well." he said then, as normal as if they had just been discussing the weather instead of a shared future. "Why don't we eat a portion of tiramisu with two spoons, and then I would like to take you back home and curl up with you on that very comfortable mattress of yours. That good with you?"
She took his hand again and rubbed her thumb softly over his wrist.
"That's more than good with me."