Post by Lyric Night on Jun 8, 2017 14:26:41 GMT
May 25th 2017
Lyric sits on the edge of the bed a slight frown knitting her eyebrows together as she flicks through some paperwork resting on her lap, her long hair hangs down the side of her face, creating almost a curtain for her to hide behind.
The more she reads the deeper the frown creases into her forehead, she starts to chew on her bottom lip as she pulls a particular sheet out and holds it closer, reading it more intently than the others. Moving across that bed, his eyes glued to her as she went through those papers, Gabriel maneuvered up behind her, his arms coming to wrap around her midsection before finally giving her a reassuring squeeze.
"What's wrong, beautiful?"
Lowering his head, he lightly pressed his lips against the back of her head. She smiles and leans back into him with a small sigh.
"Chris had all this stuff in the office... it's the custody battle and stuff..."
She sighs softly and drops the papers to the bed, leaning her head back with a slight turn to look up at him.
"I don't understand any of it at all..."
Bringing his hands up, he brushed her hair to the side before letting his hands come to rest on her shoulders. Nodding his head slowly, he started massaging into her shoulders.
"Not understand it like..can't wrap your head around it or is it too complicated?"
His fingers worked deeper into her shoulders, lowering his head to rest against hers for just a moment before pulling it back up. She lets out a soft sigh leaning back into him more as her body relaxes at his touch, half closing her eyes she shakes her head slowly.
"Can't wrap my head around it..."
She leans all the way into him now and casts her gaze up behind her to look into his eyes.
"To not even fight but then welcome Chris like a prodigal son a few years later..."
She brings her hand up to her temple and rubs it.
"And if he didn't want to be around, why fight so hard for the Night name? None of it makes any sense at all."
Nodding his head slowly, he moved his legs around to place them on either side of her as she moved back the rest of the way.
"There's always a reason..people don't do things just to do them. I don't think that reason is going to be in those papers."
Taking in a short breath, he sighed out softly, letting his fingers continue to work into her shoulders, attempting to relax her further.
"None of us knew why dad left. He and mom had their problems but it wasn't -that- extreme. He just..left."
Moving his hands from her shoulders up to her neck, he let the tips of his fingers lightly move across her flesh.
"Maybe you're not asking the right questions to the right people."
Her shoulders relax completely as his fingers trail over her neck, leaning her head back into his touch and resting it against his chest she lets out a slow, steady exhale.
"I know you're right but.."
She closes her eyes again, a content sound leaving her lips at his touch as she tries to reconcile her thoughts.
"Part of me prefers the uncertainty... to meet him and see the rejection, to feel it instead of read about it."
She slowly opens her eyes, turning her head to press her ear at his chest, the sound of his heartbeat flooding her ears.
"Every time J calls me Emily it's like a reminder that there was this whole other life I don't remember..."
Her fingers trail up and down his arm as she muses her position.
"It's just a case of what wins out in the end... curiosity or fear."
"Curiosity is a strong feeling, one that's nearly impossible to shake off if it's strong enough. But fear..on the other hand."
Her head against his chest had him feeling peaceful, relaxed as he spoke.
"Fear is manageable. It's one thing to be curious about an answer but as much as it might scare you, it's going to eat at you until you know for sure."
His arms moving around her to give her a tight hug, letting go after a moment or two.
"Whatever you decide to do, know I will be there to help you however I can."
"Maybe..."
She starts to talk before her thought is fully formed, running her hands up his arms and back down, relaxed and comfortable surrounding herself with him, she leans her head up again, brushing her lips against his jawline before settling her ear back to his chest.
"Maybe it would help, understand all the.."
She frowns trying to find the word in her mind, her hands grips his arms a little as she lets out a long sigh, shaking her head against his chest.
"... Confusion, as much as I hold onto a lot of what I learned living in the commune, there's still those parts of myself I don't understand, that parts I can see so similarly when I look at Chris."
She bites her bottom lip with a slight laugh.
"I guess maybe nature and nurture balance out like that?"
She turns now to face him more fully, pressing her head against his shoulder her head buried into his neck so her lips brush his skin as she speaks, her breath falling against his neck with each small pause in her speech.
"And know, of course, that I would want... well, perhaps even need you at my side, as I always do..."
Her fingers lace with his and she turns their hands over and back, watching them with a small smile before kissing more intentionally against his neck this time.
"Since it's only because of you I want to understand all of this, and myself better."
His eyes closed, that feeling of peacefulness growing more and more as he felt her lips against his flesh.
"You make it hard to concentrate when you do that."
Despite his words, he tilted his head to the side, offering her better access as she kissed against his neck.
"I'm always going to be by your side, no matter what you find out. I can understand you wanting to know these things..but not because of me. I fell in love with who you are, not who you were. A sentiment I'm sure you share."
He squeezed her hand reassuringly, a genuine smile growing across his features.
"I understand who you are. You're this wise, loving, strong willed, more beautiful than any I've ever seen. You're able to look past the things I've done, the things I'm doing and know that it was for a reason. That's all I need to understand."
Soft butterfly like kisses leave her lips across his neck as she presses up closer against him, her words littered with those same kisses as she talks.
"Because of you, your capacity to love me... and to love others beyond the realm of normalcy, you love deeply and honestly, wanting only what's right for those in your heart..."
Her other hand travels down his spine with a light touch as she kisses up towards his jaw and across his throat.
"I love not only who you are now, but all that you have been and will be, because it's what makes you, it's what shaped and created you that has given me this honest, open and strong man to love..."
Her lips find his with a firmer, more determined kiss than those she left on his neck before her eyes flutter open fully, to stare into his with a soft smile on her lips.
"There is nothing on this earth or beyond it that could move me from your arms, pull me from your side, I am exactly where I want to be... where I was always destined to be."
He returned that deep kiss before looking into her eyes, the words she spoke causing that warm smile to break through.
"You are the..second woman I've ever said I love you to in this context, Lyric."
He wasn't quite sure why but revealing that had a sort of liberating feel about it, his smile growing a bit more.
"There is nobody else who has ever made me feel like you make me feel."
His smile wavering as he thought about what he wanted to say next.
"I talked to Rayven after the show."
Those eyes of his slowly moving away from her, looking off into space.
"It didn't go as well as she had hoped..but about as well as I had expected it would."
Her fingers slowly slide to his shoulders now, her thumb caressing the side of his neck as she tilts her head to catch his gaze once more.
"I'd hazard to guess that, your expectations for success were not all that high to begins with.."
She drags her teeth over her bottom lip, one hand moving to the back of his neck, the other gently sliding down to rest over his heart, her fingers barely tapping his chest to match his heartbeat.
"Tell me about it..?"
Turning his attention back to her after being guided by her touch, he sighed softly, nodding in agreement.
"Not at all. I knew she was naive but.."
He paused for a moment, shaking his head slowly, frustration from the memory alone rising to the surface.
"She had the nerve to say I don't care about Xavier. I might have threatened to throw her through a windshield if she ever did it again.."
Everything after Gabriel muttered under his breath, rather unsuccessfully at that.
"In her..twisted sense of reality, the only way to care for someone is to pat their head and tell them everything will be okay."
She shifts slightly and turns all the way, her head tilted to meet his eyes still she sighs, fighting the desire to roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of Rayven's situation she keeps her tone calm and soft.
"Consider the source, she has been spoonfed everything she needs to hear her entire life, hand held and guided through to ensure she was the perfect product to present to the world."
She traces her fingers under his jaw with a slow exhale and a shrug.
"Do you really expect someone who was coddled and protected even from the death of her own parents to understand the true complexities of human nature?
No, in her world you show love by wrapping people up in cotton wool, concern is expressed through protection at all costs... Why do you think she was so easy for Lennox to trap, is so easily baited into situations over and over again..."
Lyric bites her bottom lip for a moment a quicker exhale than before as she sits up a little to full meet his eyes.
"You are doing what has to be done, what nobody else will do because you love Xavier more than anything, because you refuse to see your entire family go down in flames for a fallacy and pride.."
She shakes her head quickly.
"There are very... very few people in this world that can understand how much you care, to be able to do this."
"I'm going to be the bad guy in this..no matter how much I try to explain it to these people. They don't understand how this family works.."
Bringing his arms around her, he nodded his head slowly, a small smile coming to the surface.
"I tried and tried and tried but she's just..helpless. After what Alaina did, its crystal clear what has to be done. She showed how to get under Lennox's skin and yet I'm the only one who sees it."
Closing those eyes of his, he took in a breath before sighing out in an attempt to collect himself.
"Children."
Her hands come to his cheeks, her thumbs tracing the lines of his cheekbones as she rests her forehead to his, a soft inhale, half closing her eyes as she takes a moment to allow his scent to fill her senses.
"Very rarely are people able to appreciate greatness in the moment, the same is true here... When it's all over and the dust has settled, people will see what you have done for all of us."
She kisses him softly, tilting her head just a little to allow their lips to meet before she shakes her head slowly.
"And in the meantime, you continue to conduct yourself as you have been, nobody needs to see how much this hurts you... just another thing to be used as a weapon."
She sighs heavily, sliding her hands down the sides of his neck to lift his head with her thumbs hooked under his jaw, softly kissing each of his cheeks with a quick breath.
"Not a one of their opinions matter...."
She pauses the lean her head to the side, whispering the words to his ear barely a breath carrying them.
"Fuck em."
His head being brought up with her assistance, he looked down to her with a warm smile.
"You're right. There's three opinions who matter on this and you're one of them."
Her soft words sent chills down his spine as he couldn't help but to laugh slightly.
"Maybe not them.."
A sly grin began to tug at the corners of his mouth as he leaned his head forward, nipping at her lower lip. She laughs, running her hands down over his chest to catch at his shirt, pulling him closer with an incline of her brow.
"Well, if you want to get literal with it..."
A less than coy smirk runs across her lips as she bites her bottom one, both brows raising now.
"Mm..literal is quite the way to be, I hear."
That smile growing, he moved his hands down to rest on her sides before leaning forward, catching her lips with his. Deepening that kiss, he moved to lay back, pulling her down with him. His hands roaming up and down her sides before moving up to her back.
June 1st 2017
Lyric drops her phone off to the side of her, moving up the couch she slides onto Gabriel's lap, slipping his phone from his hand and placing it on the couch beside them also, she tilts her head up every so slightly to meet his eyes and arches a brow.
"You know that no matter what's in your past, or what may come back from it, my love for you into going to change, right?"
She pulls her bottom lip in with her teeth, running them across it as she exhales slowly, her eyes don't move from his as her hand runs down to rest over his heart, tapping against it gently.
"Unconditionally, I mean it every time I say it."
As hard as he tried not to, Gabriel was clearly bothered by the exchange. His mind racing until he felt Lyric moving up into his lap, causing him to relax noticeably. He gazed into her eyes with a light smile.
After he heard her words, he went to speak up but stopped as he felt her hand upon his chest, tapping against his flesh. That smile grew as he sighed softly, shaking his head slowly.
"I have trouble believing you're real at times. A moment like this in particular. I've really never met anyone as devoted and passionate as you are."
She leans in to hover her lips over his, shaking her head slowly, her eyes still don't leave his gaze as she lets out a soft exhale.
"If I was going to be deterred by your past, I'd have asked more questions... I came into this knowing there were things you wouldn't be proud of, things that cannot be undone."
Her lips just touch his as she exhales again before leaning back, to pick up his hand and place it over her chest so he can feel her heartbeat.
"Devotion, to you.. is not something that I expected to happen, but it's the unexpected things that happen in life that can mean the most."
She lifts her hand to trace the back of it over his jawline.
"You aren't the same person now that you were then... I will say that in my, opinion, you owe it to yourself and the child to know the truth."
Her eyes lock on his now as she pushes towards him a little more.
"If for no other reason than if you don't, it'll haunt you both for a long... long time."
Her words ringing in his ear, he offered absolutely no resistance as his hand was placed over her chest, feeling the beating of her heart beneath his touch.
Unable to find the words, the moment being unlike anything he had ever experienced beforehand. For that moment, it was like his breath caught in his throat.
"I want you to believe me when I say I have never loved someone like I love you, Lyric. You..are the most precious thing my hands have ever held."
He brushed his lips against hers briefly before letting his forehead come to rest against hers.
"You're right though. I should..find out the truth."
She smiles softly, her fingertips tracing over his cheekbone, skin barely brushing skin as she nods, her forehead still touching against his.
"I believe you, because I feel it..."
Her hands both come to rest against his chest now as she draws in a breath, half closing her eyes she inhales through her nose to take in his scent so as she exhales she does so with a happy sigh, her eyes fluttering open to meet his again.
"Whatever the outcome, you know that I stand beside you. We can't go back and change the things we've done but we can change what we do about them now, how we react and how we continue to react."
She kisses him, softly at first but with a growing intensity as she slides her hands up to his shoulders, pressing against him so when she breaks the kiss her words still fall against his lips.
"I love you Gabriel, nothing will ever change that."
Their lips pressed against each others, embracing one another in that passionate kiss, he felt her words formed by her lips against his.
"You are truly amazing in every way possible. I must have done something exceptional to have someone like you in my life."
Bringing his arms around her, his hands coming to rest upon her back, gently rubbing into it.
"As soon as things..quiet down, I will look into everything, hopefully get things figured out. But until then, a vacation..where?"
A slight tilt of his head, just a hint of that inquisitiveness showing in his soft smile.
She rests her head against his shoulder, her cheek to his collarbone as she considers the idea, rolling her tongue across her bottom lip in thought before she looks up to him with a smile.
"Anywhere..."
The word comes out more like a sigh as her fingers trace non-existent patterns across his arms.
"Literally anywhere with you will be paradise, just to get away and not have to worry about any of this... stuff. That's all I want."
"Away from all of this sounds perfect."
A slow nod of his head, his body fully relaxed beneath hers as he found himself unable to look away from her eyes.
"Something outdoors, a forest..or a beach."
That smile grew a bit, a hint of deviousness growing across his lips.
"Take you out into the middle of nowhere.."
She smiles, pressing her forehead to his to stare deep into his eyes. Her hands grip his shoulders a little as she settles against him now with a nod.
"Hmmm... I can't lie, I adore the sound of that. Little cabin, up in the thick of the woods, no one and nothing around..."
She tilts her head to nuzzle into the side of his neck. Her hands dropping to wrap around him as she completely relaxes into him, a happy sound complementing the slow exhale.
"Just you.. me... and time. I literally cannot think of a single more perfect thing."
"I had hoped you would. I'll look into making arrangements in the morning."
A reassuring smile followed by a nod of his head to further his point. His fingers kneading into her back, he sighed contently as he felt her against his neck.
"You..are perfect. Everything I could ever want..could ever need. It feels like..you were made for me."
Not moving an inch, he sat there with her in his lap still, simply taking in the moment of clarity, everything else melting away.
Lyric sits on the edge of the bed a slight frown knitting her eyebrows together as she flicks through some paperwork resting on her lap, her long hair hangs down the side of her face, creating almost a curtain for her to hide behind.
The more she reads the deeper the frown creases into her forehead, she starts to chew on her bottom lip as she pulls a particular sheet out and holds it closer, reading it more intently than the others. Moving across that bed, his eyes glued to her as she went through those papers, Gabriel maneuvered up behind her, his arms coming to wrap around her midsection before finally giving her a reassuring squeeze.
"What's wrong, beautiful?"
Lowering his head, he lightly pressed his lips against the back of her head. She smiles and leans back into him with a small sigh.
"Chris had all this stuff in the office... it's the custody battle and stuff..."
She sighs softly and drops the papers to the bed, leaning her head back with a slight turn to look up at him.
"I don't understand any of it at all..."
Bringing his hands up, he brushed her hair to the side before letting his hands come to rest on her shoulders. Nodding his head slowly, he started massaging into her shoulders.
"Not understand it like..can't wrap your head around it or is it too complicated?"
His fingers worked deeper into her shoulders, lowering his head to rest against hers for just a moment before pulling it back up. She lets out a soft sigh leaning back into him more as her body relaxes at his touch, half closing her eyes she shakes her head slowly.
"Can't wrap my head around it..."
She leans all the way into him now and casts her gaze up behind her to look into his eyes.
"To not even fight but then welcome Chris like a prodigal son a few years later..."
She brings her hand up to her temple and rubs it.
"And if he didn't want to be around, why fight so hard for the Night name? None of it makes any sense at all."
Nodding his head slowly, he moved his legs around to place them on either side of her as she moved back the rest of the way.
"There's always a reason..people don't do things just to do them. I don't think that reason is going to be in those papers."
Taking in a short breath, he sighed out softly, letting his fingers continue to work into her shoulders, attempting to relax her further.
"None of us knew why dad left. He and mom had their problems but it wasn't -that- extreme. He just..left."
Moving his hands from her shoulders up to her neck, he let the tips of his fingers lightly move across her flesh.
"Maybe you're not asking the right questions to the right people."
Her shoulders relax completely as his fingers trail over her neck, leaning her head back into his touch and resting it against his chest she lets out a slow, steady exhale.
"I know you're right but.."
She closes her eyes again, a content sound leaving her lips at his touch as she tries to reconcile her thoughts.
"Part of me prefers the uncertainty... to meet him and see the rejection, to feel it instead of read about it."
She slowly opens her eyes, turning her head to press her ear at his chest, the sound of his heartbeat flooding her ears.
"Every time J calls me Emily it's like a reminder that there was this whole other life I don't remember..."
Her fingers trail up and down his arm as she muses her position.
"It's just a case of what wins out in the end... curiosity or fear."
"Curiosity is a strong feeling, one that's nearly impossible to shake off if it's strong enough. But fear..on the other hand."
Her head against his chest had him feeling peaceful, relaxed as he spoke.
"Fear is manageable. It's one thing to be curious about an answer but as much as it might scare you, it's going to eat at you until you know for sure."
His arms moving around her to give her a tight hug, letting go after a moment or two.
"Whatever you decide to do, know I will be there to help you however I can."
"Maybe..."
She starts to talk before her thought is fully formed, running her hands up his arms and back down, relaxed and comfortable surrounding herself with him, she leans her head up again, brushing her lips against his jawline before settling her ear back to his chest.
"Maybe it would help, understand all the.."
She frowns trying to find the word in her mind, her hands grips his arms a little as she lets out a long sigh, shaking her head against his chest.
"... Confusion, as much as I hold onto a lot of what I learned living in the commune, there's still those parts of myself I don't understand, that parts I can see so similarly when I look at Chris."
She bites her bottom lip with a slight laugh.
"I guess maybe nature and nurture balance out like that?"
She turns now to face him more fully, pressing her head against his shoulder her head buried into his neck so her lips brush his skin as she speaks, her breath falling against his neck with each small pause in her speech.
"And know, of course, that I would want... well, perhaps even need you at my side, as I always do..."
Her fingers lace with his and she turns their hands over and back, watching them with a small smile before kissing more intentionally against his neck this time.
"Since it's only because of you I want to understand all of this, and myself better."
His eyes closed, that feeling of peacefulness growing more and more as he felt her lips against his flesh.
"You make it hard to concentrate when you do that."
Despite his words, he tilted his head to the side, offering her better access as she kissed against his neck.
"I'm always going to be by your side, no matter what you find out. I can understand you wanting to know these things..but not because of me. I fell in love with who you are, not who you were. A sentiment I'm sure you share."
He squeezed her hand reassuringly, a genuine smile growing across his features.
"I understand who you are. You're this wise, loving, strong willed, more beautiful than any I've ever seen. You're able to look past the things I've done, the things I'm doing and know that it was for a reason. That's all I need to understand."
Soft butterfly like kisses leave her lips across his neck as she presses up closer against him, her words littered with those same kisses as she talks.
"Because of you, your capacity to love me... and to love others beyond the realm of normalcy, you love deeply and honestly, wanting only what's right for those in your heart..."
Her other hand travels down his spine with a light touch as she kisses up towards his jaw and across his throat.
"I love not only who you are now, but all that you have been and will be, because it's what makes you, it's what shaped and created you that has given me this honest, open and strong man to love..."
Her lips find his with a firmer, more determined kiss than those she left on his neck before her eyes flutter open fully, to stare into his with a soft smile on her lips.
"There is nothing on this earth or beyond it that could move me from your arms, pull me from your side, I am exactly where I want to be... where I was always destined to be."
He returned that deep kiss before looking into her eyes, the words she spoke causing that warm smile to break through.
"You are the..second woman I've ever said I love you to in this context, Lyric."
He wasn't quite sure why but revealing that had a sort of liberating feel about it, his smile growing a bit more.
"There is nobody else who has ever made me feel like you make me feel."
His smile wavering as he thought about what he wanted to say next.
"I talked to Rayven after the show."
Those eyes of his slowly moving away from her, looking off into space.
"It didn't go as well as she had hoped..but about as well as I had expected it would."
Her fingers slowly slide to his shoulders now, her thumb caressing the side of his neck as she tilts her head to catch his gaze once more.
"I'd hazard to guess that, your expectations for success were not all that high to begins with.."
She drags her teeth over her bottom lip, one hand moving to the back of his neck, the other gently sliding down to rest over his heart, her fingers barely tapping his chest to match his heartbeat.
"Tell me about it..?"
Turning his attention back to her after being guided by her touch, he sighed softly, nodding in agreement.
"Not at all. I knew she was naive but.."
He paused for a moment, shaking his head slowly, frustration from the memory alone rising to the surface.
"She had the nerve to say I don't care about Xavier. I might have threatened to throw her through a windshield if she ever did it again.."
Everything after Gabriel muttered under his breath, rather unsuccessfully at that.
"In her..twisted sense of reality, the only way to care for someone is to pat their head and tell them everything will be okay."
She shifts slightly and turns all the way, her head tilted to meet his eyes still she sighs, fighting the desire to roll her eyes at the ridiculousness of Rayven's situation she keeps her tone calm and soft.
"Consider the source, she has been spoonfed everything she needs to hear her entire life, hand held and guided through to ensure she was the perfect product to present to the world."
She traces her fingers under his jaw with a slow exhale and a shrug.
"Do you really expect someone who was coddled and protected even from the death of her own parents to understand the true complexities of human nature?
No, in her world you show love by wrapping people up in cotton wool, concern is expressed through protection at all costs... Why do you think she was so easy for Lennox to trap, is so easily baited into situations over and over again..."
Lyric bites her bottom lip for a moment a quicker exhale than before as she sits up a little to full meet his eyes.
"You are doing what has to be done, what nobody else will do because you love Xavier more than anything, because you refuse to see your entire family go down in flames for a fallacy and pride.."
She shakes her head quickly.
"There are very... very few people in this world that can understand how much you care, to be able to do this."
"I'm going to be the bad guy in this..no matter how much I try to explain it to these people. They don't understand how this family works.."
Bringing his arms around her, he nodded his head slowly, a small smile coming to the surface.
"I tried and tried and tried but she's just..helpless. After what Alaina did, its crystal clear what has to be done. She showed how to get under Lennox's skin and yet I'm the only one who sees it."
Closing those eyes of his, he took in a breath before sighing out in an attempt to collect himself.
"Children."
Her hands come to his cheeks, her thumbs tracing the lines of his cheekbones as she rests her forehead to his, a soft inhale, half closing her eyes as she takes a moment to allow his scent to fill her senses.
"Very rarely are people able to appreciate greatness in the moment, the same is true here... When it's all over and the dust has settled, people will see what you have done for all of us."
She kisses him softly, tilting her head just a little to allow their lips to meet before she shakes her head slowly.
"And in the meantime, you continue to conduct yourself as you have been, nobody needs to see how much this hurts you... just another thing to be used as a weapon."
She sighs heavily, sliding her hands down the sides of his neck to lift his head with her thumbs hooked under his jaw, softly kissing each of his cheeks with a quick breath.
"Not a one of their opinions matter...."
She pauses the lean her head to the side, whispering the words to his ear barely a breath carrying them.
"Fuck em."
His head being brought up with her assistance, he looked down to her with a warm smile.
"You're right. There's three opinions who matter on this and you're one of them."
Her soft words sent chills down his spine as he couldn't help but to laugh slightly.
"Maybe not them.."
A sly grin began to tug at the corners of his mouth as he leaned his head forward, nipping at her lower lip. She laughs, running her hands down over his chest to catch at his shirt, pulling him closer with an incline of her brow.
"Well, if you want to get literal with it..."
A less than coy smirk runs across her lips as she bites her bottom one, both brows raising now.
"Mm..literal is quite the way to be, I hear."
That smile growing, he moved his hands down to rest on her sides before leaning forward, catching her lips with his. Deepening that kiss, he moved to lay back, pulling her down with him. His hands roaming up and down her sides before moving up to her back.
June 1st 2017
Lyric drops her phone off to the side of her, moving up the couch she slides onto Gabriel's lap, slipping his phone from his hand and placing it on the couch beside them also, she tilts her head up every so slightly to meet his eyes and arches a brow.
"You know that no matter what's in your past, or what may come back from it, my love for you into going to change, right?"
She pulls her bottom lip in with her teeth, running them across it as she exhales slowly, her eyes don't move from his as her hand runs down to rest over his heart, tapping against it gently.
"Unconditionally, I mean it every time I say it."
As hard as he tried not to, Gabriel was clearly bothered by the exchange. His mind racing until he felt Lyric moving up into his lap, causing him to relax noticeably. He gazed into her eyes with a light smile.
After he heard her words, he went to speak up but stopped as he felt her hand upon his chest, tapping against his flesh. That smile grew as he sighed softly, shaking his head slowly.
"I have trouble believing you're real at times. A moment like this in particular. I've really never met anyone as devoted and passionate as you are."
She leans in to hover her lips over his, shaking her head slowly, her eyes still don't leave his gaze as she lets out a soft exhale.
"If I was going to be deterred by your past, I'd have asked more questions... I came into this knowing there were things you wouldn't be proud of, things that cannot be undone."
Her lips just touch his as she exhales again before leaning back, to pick up his hand and place it over her chest so he can feel her heartbeat.
"Devotion, to you.. is not something that I expected to happen, but it's the unexpected things that happen in life that can mean the most."
She lifts her hand to trace the back of it over his jawline.
"You aren't the same person now that you were then... I will say that in my, opinion, you owe it to yourself and the child to know the truth."
Her eyes lock on his now as she pushes towards him a little more.
"If for no other reason than if you don't, it'll haunt you both for a long... long time."
Her words ringing in his ear, he offered absolutely no resistance as his hand was placed over her chest, feeling the beating of her heart beneath his touch.
Unable to find the words, the moment being unlike anything he had ever experienced beforehand. For that moment, it was like his breath caught in his throat.
"I want you to believe me when I say I have never loved someone like I love you, Lyric. You..are the most precious thing my hands have ever held."
He brushed his lips against hers briefly before letting his forehead come to rest against hers.
"You're right though. I should..find out the truth."
She smiles softly, her fingertips tracing over his cheekbone, skin barely brushing skin as she nods, her forehead still touching against his.
"I believe you, because I feel it..."
Her hands both come to rest against his chest now as she draws in a breath, half closing her eyes she inhales through her nose to take in his scent so as she exhales she does so with a happy sigh, her eyes fluttering open to meet his again.
"Whatever the outcome, you know that I stand beside you. We can't go back and change the things we've done but we can change what we do about them now, how we react and how we continue to react."
She kisses him, softly at first but with a growing intensity as she slides her hands up to his shoulders, pressing against him so when she breaks the kiss her words still fall against his lips.
"I love you Gabriel, nothing will ever change that."
Their lips pressed against each others, embracing one another in that passionate kiss, he felt her words formed by her lips against his.
"You are truly amazing in every way possible. I must have done something exceptional to have someone like you in my life."
Bringing his arms around her, his hands coming to rest upon her back, gently rubbing into it.
"As soon as things..quiet down, I will look into everything, hopefully get things figured out. But until then, a vacation..where?"
A slight tilt of his head, just a hint of that inquisitiveness showing in his soft smile.
She rests her head against his shoulder, her cheek to his collarbone as she considers the idea, rolling her tongue across her bottom lip in thought before she looks up to him with a smile.
"Anywhere..."
The word comes out more like a sigh as her fingers trace non-existent patterns across his arms.
"Literally anywhere with you will be paradise, just to get away and not have to worry about any of this... stuff. That's all I want."
"Away from all of this sounds perfect."
A slow nod of his head, his body fully relaxed beneath hers as he found himself unable to look away from her eyes.
"Something outdoors, a forest..or a beach."
That smile grew a bit, a hint of deviousness growing across his lips.
"Take you out into the middle of nowhere.."
She smiles, pressing her forehead to his to stare deep into his eyes. Her hands grip his shoulders a little as she settles against him now with a nod.
"Hmmm... I can't lie, I adore the sound of that. Little cabin, up in the thick of the woods, no one and nothing around..."
She tilts her head to nuzzle into the side of his neck. Her hands dropping to wrap around him as she completely relaxes into him, a happy sound complementing the slow exhale.
"Just you.. me... and time. I literally cannot think of a single more perfect thing."
"I had hoped you would. I'll look into making arrangements in the morning."
A reassuring smile followed by a nod of his head to further his point. His fingers kneading into her back, he sighed contently as he felt her against his neck.
"You..are perfect. Everything I could ever want..could ever need. It feels like..you were made for me."
Not moving an inch, he sat there with her in his lap still, simply taking in the moment of clarity, everything else melting away.