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“I love you, Percy,” she whispered. “How unexpected,” she said through a laugh and newfound tears.
Percy smiled, but there was something different about it, all exposed adoration and amazement. “Never leave, Fanny. I want you here, with me, always. I wish to spend forever with you.”
Fanny laughed, a gurgling sound behind it as she choked on her tears. Percy reached up and swiped them away before they fell. “You cannotspendforever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Forever never runs out of time.”
He laughed. “That is precisely right.” His finger traced down the braids crowning her head and touched the scars on her cheek. “I used to dread waking up in the morning—it meant that I would be forced to remember what I didn’t have. My eyes would be open but sightless, and life would be dull and I would be useless. But now it means that I get to be with you. Life is never dull with you, and I cannot tell you how much you mean to me, how…how terrible I would be without you. You have brought more happiness to me than anything else ever could have. For once, I do believe in love at first sight. Because if I were to be granted my sight again, at this very moment, I know I would already love you the instant I saw you, because of who you are. I have fallen in love with your soul, Fanny. My heart is yours.”
Fanny stared up at him, heart clenching with so many things she didn’t yet understand—things that were new and exciting and full of hope. She knew Percy would teach her the meaning of all these things in theirforeverthat couldn’t be spent.
Fanny looped her hand around his arm and pulled him down the steps, a peaceful understanding and belonging blooming within her. Percy smiled down at her as they walked all over the grounds, circling the gardens, with Percy making entirely annoying remarks that Fanny refuted perfectly. They laughed and they talked.
And at last, sitting under the shade of a tree, Percy asked Fanny to tell him a ridiculous story. She had many.
