Redhawk Caldera If the whole wide world stops spinning

me neither, honestly :')

It was so strange that it was hard to believe that he would like her. It had seemed like such a light hearted thing in his mind, but now it was becoming bigger and bigger and honestly, Eljay felt like he'd lost complete control over it. It had derailed entirely, he realised further as Maia started to tell him... Pretty much everything that Eljay had wanted to tell her, but he'd been too afraid to. He thought saying he liked someone would be easy. He'd said that before. Apparently, when you told it to someone that you really really liked, like liked, it held such a different and bigger gravity than he had predicted. He wasn't sure he wanted to even stop it how that they were here.

He absorbed all the words Maia said about him like a sponge, mapping them to his tired brain because he never wanted to forget them. Feel that back -- did that mean that she... liked him? Eljay took in the words, from you're amazing all the way up to feel that way back, and he felt his heart flutter.

Then she continued. There was one particular thing that stood out from what she said. A girl like her? What does she mean? She's so great! he thought to himself. He was about to be mildly outraged at that, but he got stopped right in his tracks by what she said last.

Love me back. Love her back? Did she say...

Love?

Eljay blinked, and he saw that Maia startled by her own choice of words, too. He decided to gloss over that. It was an honest mistake. I... I think you're really great, Eljay said, not really sure what to say. His heart was so full, and he felt like Maia had been very eloquent and he could never really get up there on her level. Besides, he'd planned so hard to not tell her how amazing she was, that now that it was time to tell her, it was hard to find the words.

I can't believe... The things you said, it's just so -- it's so hard to believe that you really feel that way. And you said you aren't brave, he thought to himself. He would never have been brave enough to tell her exactly how he felt if she hadn't first. I guess I never imagined someone like you would be... Would like someone like me. He felt his cheeks heat up as he said it, not realising how utterly hypercritical it was to say that after silently judging Maia for thinking she was anything less than amazing herself.