Anybody But You

68

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Vibe: Sry Ily by Elliot Lee

"Are you ever going to tell me what's going on in your pretty head, my love?" Godric asked softly, kissing her bare shoulder as she began dressing herself with his help.

After giving into the temptation the first time around, Alice's daily gloom time in the training armoury, had become her daily escape time in the training armoury. Since Godric was clocked in between a certain time to clean the armour and weapons, no one normally came by until after his shift.

"I'm more than okay with being used as a distraction." He chuckled, stretching his biceps before grabbing his shirt that had been tossed haphazardly onto the haystack in the throws of their passion. "Whatever body part you need from me—be it an ear to listen to you with, a shoulder for you to cry on, lips to offer you words of encouragement... or any other body part for any other unlisted reason—I'll be here for you."

Smiling at his cheeky but pretty words, Alice turned around—surprising him with a chaste kiss on his cheek. "You are indeed, my sweet knight."

Squishing her face with his hand, he planted a sloppy kiss onto her laughing mouth as he tipped her back into his lap. Staring amusedly down at her as she scrunched her nose with giggles bubbling off her pink lips, he grinned, "And don't you forget it, my adorable miss."

"Oh shit, little Godric's got a loosely dressed lady in here with him!—" a loud voice suddenly interrupted the tender moment as they called excitedly for their other friends.

Alice sat up, her face turning beet red. Godric's fingers were already quickly tying her seconds ago loosened corset as she fixed her attire. She felt him place a kiss on her burning cheek as he fixed his own clothes, "Calm down, Alice, it will be okay." He promised.

Turning to him, she eyed his muscular body up and down, "If the Arvel reputation is tarnished and no one will touch me with a five foot pole after this... you'll marry me, right?"

Laughing out loud, Godric shook his head amusedly, "How could I say no to such a romantic proposal? Should I start calling you wife now, or after the wedding?" He joked, making the atmosphere lighter.

Alice giggled as he easily helped her up, brushing the dirt off them just as the other knights-in-training returned.

"Wait, isn't that...?" One of them eyed the others before hastily bowing to Alice, "Apologies, lady Arvel, we weren't aware it was you in here." He choked out nervously as the other knights quickly followed suit after hearing her name, "We will pretend not to have seen anything."

Godric looked at her shocked face as he finally broke the silence after the knights quickly ran away, "...does that mean our wedding is off?"

Laughing from the awkwardness she was recovering from, Alice shoved him lightly as they exited the stuffy armoury, "I guess you're saved for the time being, good knight."

Humming disappointedly, Godric stuck his head within her sights, "Just good? .. not sweet anymore?" He pouted, his messy shaggy hair paired with the puppy dog eyes making him appear more boyish than he had in months.

Reaching up and giving his fluffy head a pet, she watched amusedly as his cheeks tinged with red. "As long as you want to be, you'll always be my sweet knight."

He chuckled, lifting her hand to his soft, plump lips, "Forever then."

Alice sincerely wished he would never feel different one day.

She didn't completely understand her feelings when it came to Godric. He was something like a precious dream to her. Her body didn't know where her last life ended and this life began—and with him, it felt like they were one in the same. She yearned—no craved—his approval; his attention; his smiles; his affection; his love. She knew, without doubt, that her heart—whether it was hers or past Alice's—painfully yearned for him. It was like a truth she could feel all the way down to the tips of her toes—a desperate want that she had never been able to experience for herself.

An unfulfilled love that had ended in a tragedy... a love that destroyed her with his own hands.

Now, he was just a dream that was untouchable to that unfortunate Alice. A dream her current self wanted to hold onto. A dream she wished she could give to her past self. A dream she wished more than anything she could just turn into reality.

...But the truth was, she didn't feel real around him. She blurred into a version of herself that didn't exist in reality. With him, she was made up of a swarm of overwhelming emotions that she wasn't even sure were hers or a response to the violent end of a tragic love story. Emotions that screamed 'love me, love me, love me'. Emotions that paralyzed her with fear at the thought of him hating her.

It was only when he loved her, that they shut up—making her feel so at peace, it was like a dream.

"Your eyes—" Godric pulled her back from the depths of her thoughts, pushing a lock of her unbrushed hair behind her ear, "—it's like I could fall into them, they're so deep. It makes me selfishly want to figure out what they've seen, my love."

Sighing she let the heavy thoughts fall away as she looked down from his gaze, "...enough to last a couple of lifetimes."

No matter what her heart believed, she wasn't past Alice anymore—she was just her. And current her had to rejoin reality.

~*~*~

A.N.

Love is confusing. Throw in a psychological need to make someone like you, and it's even more complicated. Are you obsessed with them liking you? Or do you just want them to like you the way you like them? What an issue you have, Alice.

Thanks for reading and supporting ABY!