Quick Info~

Hi guys! I am alive and well and ready to post the next chapter! My love for Leon and Frey has never dwindled, even through the heaping piles of schoolwork and the awfully bad breakup that I recently experienced. But life changes, people come and go, and the only thing I can do is know that there is always the possibility for a brighter tomorrow. I just really needed fluff in my life so this chapter is pretty much mushy, squishy romance. It is written in a rather obscure way because my love for abstract pieces has intensified recently. Basically the only thing that really needs to be explained is that the part in italics is a flashback. The rest is pretty straightforward; it's broken up in a way that forms a parallel between Leon and Frey and their conversations with Arthur and Xaoi Pai. Anywho, thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with this and giving me such wonderful feedback! You guys give me a strength right now that I cannot explain.

Title: Genuinely Perfect Oddities

Rated: T

It was odd, Frey thought, the way that he slept. The slightest hint of the ever-present crease between his eyebrows vanished. The steady rise and fall of his chest and the consistent thrumming of his heartbeat in the silence of the night was so different from his normally tense disposition. Even the way he held her was different.

She traced one finger across his defined jawline and continued to trail down the vast expanse of his chest. His arm was around her, protecting her back from any outside threats of the night, and his bicep was the perfect pillow. She was laying in between his shoulder and his chest, her leg almost straddling his waist as the other leg rested against his own. Occasionally she would feel his fingers twitch near her hair, tangling themselves unknowingly in messy knots. She giggled when this happened, and would slowly bring herself up to plant a quick kiss on his neck.

"So what do you like about him?" Arthur asked, scribbling nonsense on page after page of official-looking documents.

"What?" Frey asked, blinking a few times as she tore her eyes away from the large window in Arthur's office.

Arthur glanced up at her, his glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. "While I am by no means saying that he isn't a good person, I would be lying if I said that I was the first person to be curious as to why you are so interested in him."

Frey smiled and felt a blush begin to creep into her cheeks at the mere mention of their relationship. "Well it's simple, he's the most genuine person I have ever met."

It was odd, Leon thought, the way that she looked at him. It didn't really matter what they were doing; she was always intrigued. A lopsided, half-smile would play on her lips as her eyes met his. Of course, he would throw her a mischievous grin in return, and then watch with amusement as her cheeks flooded with color.

But there were other times that she looked at him with an entirely different expression. It happened rarely, but when it did, Leon was convinced he wanted to be able to freeze time in that moment. It happened the first time that she told him she loved him. It happened a few other times but none quite as memorable as that first. She looked at him like he held the entire world in his hands. And, in a way, she often felt like he did.

"So what do you like about her?" Xaoi Pai asked, propping her elbows up on the check-in desk at the inn and placing her chin perfectly in her palms.

Leon chuckled and looked up from the book he was reading absently in the lobby. "I'm assuming you mean Frey?"

Xaoi Pai nodded. "She's your soulmate, yes? Why do you think that is?"

He paused for a moment and, in doing so, became lost in a never-ending train of green twin tails, stolen kisses, and the blindingly white light behind the angel that saved him. When he came back to consciousness, he simply said, "Because she's odd."

"I love you," she said, her petite frame looking even tinier when engulfed by the darkness.

She was wearing her nightgown but in that moment she looked like she could really have been the princess everyone believed her to be. Her hair was hanging low on her back and it cascaded down in soft waves. Her eyes were wide and filled to the brim with tears that shimmered like crystals.

"Why are you crying?" Leon asked gently, wanting to reach out and touch her but it was almost as if he felt like she would shatter the moment he did.

"Because I can't help it," she said, the faintest hint of a laugh hidden in her tone. "I love you and that's absolutely beautiful."

He smiled and stood from his sitting position on the bench near the lake. He took her up in his arms and held her so tightly that she could feel his heart beating through hers, with hers. He smoothed her hair with his palm and shivered as she ran her fingers up and down his back.

"I know," he whispered.

He wanted to say it back. So badly he wanted to take away the weight that was on her shoulders whenever he couldn't say it back. But he hoped that even though he didn't say it, the words that he did say held just as much meaning.

"So how was your day, love?" Leon asked as the pair sat underneath a large tree slowly turning red as the nights grew longer and the days grew colder.

"Good," Frey said, shrugging and lacing her fingers with his. "Arthur had a few tips for me on which orders I should complete next. He was also strangely interested in you."

"Unfortunately for Arthur I am quite taken," Leon said, grinning.

Frey playfully hit his arm as she rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant and you know it. He wanted to know why I like you so much."

"Oh ho, this just got interesting. What did you say?"

Leon was fully prepared to begin teasing her. His eyes sparkled with mischief as he grinned. But when Frey looked at him with her big eyes, he felt his insides turn to mush and he instead matched her serious expression.

"I told him I love you because you are so genuine," she said quietly, her lips barely moving, but the impact of her words hit him like a freight train.

"Xaoi Pai asked me the same thing today," he said, brushing one thumb over her cheek.

"And what did you say?" Frey asked, pulling back out of his grasp, an underlying tone of fear creeping into her voice.

"I said that you are odd."

Silence. Silence so eerie that it could have pierced through the thickest fog.

Frey nodded after awhile. "Oh," she said.

Leon smiled and took her hand, tipping her chin up to look at him with his other hand. "I only mean it in the best of ways."

She smiled wearily. "How?"

Leon felt his heart begin to race as he tried to think of something, anything to say back. He loved her for all of the reasons she didn't love herself. How was he supposed to convey that in a way that did not seem like he was teasing her?

"You're perfectly odd," he said. "The way that you can get everyone else to smile when things are going wrong is odd. The way that you hurl yourself at danger like you're some sort of immortal deity is odd. The way you laugh is odd, but not because it's bad, because it makes me feel like everything is going to be okay. And not only are you odd, but you are downright crazy for risking your life to save me and for convincing me that I can feel again. You're the greatest part of me, Frey."

"I love you, too," she whispered, placing her hand softly over his heart.

Leon's eyes grew wide and although he tried to grasp for a quick remark to cover up his surprise, no words came.

"I know," she said, smiling up at him. "You may not be able to say it, but I can tell."

Frey looked at his eyes, then his lips, then back at his eyes again. As he leaned in to close the gap between them, she felt as though the air around them, the unspoken words, and even the very soil of the earth knew that he loved her, too.