I Know It's 2am, but...

"Good," she whispered.

The force of Eric's heartbeat was all that Nova needed to answer her question. There was no way she thought he was lying, but something in the back of her mind was pestering her, telling her that this was all just a dream and that she'd wake up alone in her bed to the sound of her alarm clock telling her it was time for school. She didn't want that to be the case, not at all, and standing here feeling and listening to his heartbeat was enough to tell her that it wasn't.

"Are you okay? Your face is really red, and your heartbeat..."

She leaned against him a little and squeezed back, letting her eyes close. Nova couldn't tell if she had a heartbeat at all, but at some point it had fallen into sync with his when she hugged him. Did her face look as red as his did? Hers sure felt like it was on fire, but looking at how red his face was worried her that he was going to pass out. But standing here in his arms...

She smiled, feeling so happy that she wanted to laugh--so she did. When she quieted down, she murmured, "I'm happy I asked to meet. I didn't think...I didn't think that you'd feel the same way at all--especially when we just got out of the VR. I thought I was being silly."

At this point, she either refused to let go or just didn't think about it. She was comfortable right where she was, even though it made her feel fiery and jittery at the same time and it was kind of hard to breathe--but that wasn't Eric's fault and she wasn't about to complain. He was warm and smelled nice, even though Nova was trying not to be a big creep. She kind of couldn't help it when she was this close to him and wearing his coat, though. Her own scent was a clean, subtle vanilla, which too had clung to her scarf.

"I don't regret the VR either.. Was this the thing you were talking about on the phone? The weird feeling side-effect..?"

Nova snickered and gave a small shrug. "Maybe we won't, but it's not the first thing on my mind right now. And, you know...I was excited to see who you were from the moment I woke up. I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but I really, really was."

Still worried about his red face and racing heart, she considered pulling away, but there was something else that was distracting her.

What he said was making her think, wonder, though she tried not to speculate. 'Ride it out'? She wondered if this meant that he thought his feelings were only temporary--that maybe hers were only temporary too, and that in a week or a month the feelings would just disappear and they would wake up one day not feeling the same anymore. There wasn't a single part of her that wanted that to happen, that wanted these feelings to just go away.

She wondered and wondered, and eventually she came up with a plan.

Nova finally pulled back, but she was quick to take Eric's hand and start pulling on it. It was 2am but cats and dogs be damned if that was going to stop her. She looked like a girl on a mission--an excited one at that--and whatever she had in mind, she was set on dragging him along with her.

"Come on, let's go somewhere! If we're gonna ride this out, we're gonna ride it out in style."