"Hm," she mused, running her fingers through his hair as she thought. She twirled a lock between her fingers, her touch light. "I would say that subconsciously it probably happened sometime back in the forest. It was kind of a steady incline there. I just.. started liking you more and more." She frowned in thought as she tried to place the next moment in her mind, her gaze unsteady. She blinked and shifted back to him with a cocky grin. "The first moment that I can actually remember acknowledging my feelings was right after that dream I had, do you remember? You held my hands really tightly, and I remember thinking, 'Damn it, Poppy. You cannot fall for this guy.'"
"Oh jeez, falling for that guy? Worst choice ever," he said jokingly, smiling. "But that was a good night, but I never really knew how to deal with bad dreams. It just came to my head."
"It was good," she said, looking down at their hands. "It was reassuring." She watched their fingers for a moment, almost in awe. "What about you?" she finally asked. "What was your moment?"
"The dream was definitely a moment where I had to think about it, but I only realized how much I wanted it during the first night in the observatory. I just didn't believe it was possible, so I tried to ignore the feelings," he admitted, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb.
She grinned at him, the action emphasizing her dimples. "Beating up my ex inspired affection from you?" she inquired, her eyes bright.
He frowned, raising an eyebrow. "Not that part. I don't think that part inspired affection from anyone. I was talking about when you fell asleep on my shoulder," he said softly, looking down at his hand, which still had cuts that were healing, and bruises that mostly faded.
She cocked her head as she watched him, and then she pulled his hand to her face and gently kissed his lightly bruised knuckle. "Well," she said quietly, glancing up at him, resting her chin on the intertwined fingers. "I'm glad my sleepiness was endearing."
She smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Is 'nice' going to be the word that defines... whatever this is?" she teased, gesturing between the two of them. "It seems to be popping up a lot."
"I don't think nice works well enough, in my opinion. Nice would be something to describe-" He stopped himself from finishing the sentence he had originally planned. "Something not as good."
She raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the subject. "Hm," she mused, tracing the joints in his fingers with her pointer. She glanced up at him, the hint of a smile playing on her lips. "What about 'good'? 'Swell'? A 'grand ol' time'? Any of these appealing to you?"
"Lovely, wonderful, pleasant, delightful. Honestly, are those the kinds of words you would use to describe this? 'A grand ol' time'?"
She tried to keep her laughter out of her voice as she shrugged. "I don't know," she said with mock nonchalance. "I think it synopsizes the whole situation fairly eloquently." (laughing so hard right now. imagine Francis saying 'a grand ol' time' seriously.)
(Oh snap, we've passed 2000!) "Swell? You have an interesting set of vocabulary, but I'm not sure I want to hear anymore weird words like that." He shook his head. (Also, something I haven't given any thought, but what kind of voice do you think Francis has? Like what does it sound like?)
(Woop woop!) "Ha. Alright. Did you say 'lovely'? I like that one," she said, glancing up at him. (I actually think about the character's voices a lot! It's kind of hard to describe, but I've imagined Francis' voice to be fairly low, and I feel like he speaks with his words in the back of his throat if that makes any sense. American accent. I'll see if I can find a video of someone that speaks similarly to him.)
"Me too. It's a good word, I think," he said, shutting his eyes for a moment. (The names Craw. Francis Craw.)
"So it's settled then," she said, resting her head back on the floor. "'Lovely' it is." (Agh! The voice thing is really hard to figure out! It's really hard to translate his voice in my head to the voice of an actor. What would you say for Poppy? What does she sound like?)
