He thought of Beth Lewis and what could be. He thought of Iolanthe, of Miranda, of people he could have or should have loved, but none of them had managed to get through his heart the way this woman did.
This woman had loved him the way none of them had loved him, but Daria was also the woman he had hurt the most.
“I want to stop being afraid like you. I want to stop pushing people away. I want my world to revolve around you, but more than that, I want to be like you, Daria Everest.”
Daria covered her trembling mouth at Nik’s last words. No one had ever said something like that about her. She didn’t think anyone would even want to say that. She was Daria Everest - the crazy, flirtatious, impulsive girl everyone loved to hate. And here was Nik, telling her he didn’t just love her, but he wanted to be like her.
Nik took a deep breath. Now or never, he thought. “I want to love you the way you loved me. Let me love you please, Daria, and I’ll wait until you can love me again.” He pulled his last surprise out from his other back pocket.
Daria couldn’t breathe.
It wasn’t a ring.
It was...something more.
It was the paper-cut tiara she had taught “Bella” to do, and as he offered it to her, she realized that he was embracing her fairytale with open arms. He was her frog, and he was asking her to be his princess.
Through the mask, she saw Nik close his eyes and oh God, she wanted to cry, she so badly wanted to cry when she saw him do it.
She knew, she knew that it was his way of saying he believed in their love the same way she did. With his eyes closed, he wouldn’t know she was gone before it was too late and the whole world had seen her turn him down.
Defeat crowded inside him, but he doggedly pushed it away even as the silence grew. He was going to give her as much time as she wanted, Nik told himself. He had hurt her a lot. It was only understandable she thought twice about trusting him again.
But God, there was so much damn silence—-
And that was when he heard it.
The sounds of her footsteps—-
Daria was walking away.
That was it then, he thought dully.
Something hit the side of his head. What the fuck? Did this fucking crowd think he was a sitting duck and he was on knees for them? His eyes opened and he pulled his mask off.
And that was when he saw the bottle right in front of him.
A Gatorade fucking bottle.
A shadow fell over him, and as he looked up, Daria fell to her knees in front of him. She was smiling, but more than that, she was crying.
So many damn tears.
It fell on his hand as she reached for it and placed his hand on her face. “Time to turn you into a prince.” Tears choking her words, more tears falling down her face, and as he raised his other hand to cup her face and cover her mouth with his, more tears flavored their kiss, and they tasted like...love.