She shrugged smoothly, lying back down in her bed. "I don't think it would necessarily be triggered by anything," she said. "It's just a dark part of me that I can only hope to contain."
"That's scary. Please do try to contain it. I've never been pranked successfully before, by the way."
"You're challenging me, Francis," she said, raising an eyebrow. "I may be immobile, but you know I can't resist a challenge."
"C'mon now. Don't try and prank me, it's not nice." He looked at her, a strange look on his face. "You'd never succeed at doing it, anyways."
"You are challenging me, Francis," she said, raising an eyebrow. "You remember what happened last time you challenged me?"
"Don't you remember?" she asked. "It was right after you and Evan had had that fight, and the challenge was whether or not I could make you blush. I didn't stop until I was practically kissing you. And we weren't together then, despite the fact that you were madly in love with me."
"Didn't you lose that one?" he raised an eyebrow with a small grin. "And besides, I had a crush on you then."
"I did lose that one. But I persevered in the face of defeat," she insisted. Her brow dimpled as she frowned, cocking her head at him. "And you liked me by then? I thought it was later than that."
"Was it?" He tapped his chin. "I don't remember. Honestly, the point where I first started liking you is a blur on the timeline."
"That was the moment I first considered it," she said, nodding. "But the moment that I first realized it was the night you fought Evan."
"And you didn't say anything because you thought I would treat you like all the others? Or you were scared?" He turned to look at her, his eyebrows furrowing.
She hesitated, cocking her head as she thought back. "I didn't think that I would be the one that would mean something," she said eventually. "I didn't let myself dare to hope that." She frowned, and shifted, wincing slightly as the wound on her site shot a dart of pain through her. Gritting her teeth, she continued. "As for the 'being scared' part...well... I'd be lying if I didn't say that it concerned me. I didn't think you'd ever hurt me, but... I mean, there was a lot of things I didn't know about you. I had no idea where I stood on your affections. I wasn't even sure you liked me, to be completely honest."
"I didn't think you would like someone like me," he said lowly. "This was really complicated. I thought that you wouldn't like me because of who I was."
She went quiet for a moment, watching him intensely. Her gaze moved smoothly across his face as she studied him, and her expression was difficult to read.
He looked back at her for a moment, before turning back to the floor. "I didn't think I was worth it, but you've told me otherwise."
