"Earth is so different."

"It's so interesting, so vibrant in their own ways of living." Techna commented.

It had been almost a month since we were assigned a mission here on Earth, but their culture here haven't yet stop intriguing me. Especially their sounds, their music, neverending and easily found everywhere at all times. It's vastly different from ours, their genre, but still similar in some ways to our own back in Magix. Like opening your favorite storybook and finding something new that you never understand before-it's fantastic.

"What are you all happy for?" Riven interjected, giving me a raised eyebrow as we along the sidewalk of one of the streets in Gardenia, Bloom's hometown.

I grinned, happiness uncontained on my expression. "Don't you feel it? Everything's so different here, so magical!" There was an unusual lightness to my steps even now as I walked alongside him. He on my left side while I walked on the edge of the pavement.

"Yeah." There was that mocking look that he had again on his face. The intensity increases in his eyes, and one side of his lips pull up crookedly-the look was made for him, truly. "Says the person who's actually a magical being. Ha!" He had leaned down by then, both of us on the same eye-level and I could smell the scent of him, all moody bad boy colonge and aftershave smell.

I leaned back instinctly but felt myself lose balance immediately. One of my foot teetering on the edge of the pavement while the other struggled to find ground. "Whoa-hey!" I felt a strong arm behind my back at the split second I was going to fall flat on my butt and crack some pelvic bones. It was Riven. He pulled me towards him with an easy swing of him arm preventing my fall and guided me to his side.

"What are you doing!" He shouted at me. His eyebrows were on a down-low over his eyes and his jaw was clenched. He was furious. "You're gonna fall!"His arm around my waist gave a forceful tug, pulling me closer to him, to the warmth of of his body, as if emphasizing his point with the action.

What? He was the one who kept walking on the side, which gave me no choice to walk on the edge. And now he puts the blame on me?

He had already took back his arm by then. Pausing for a second with a complicated look on his face before he gave a sigh and brushed pass me briskly. His strong shoulder hitting my own purposefully, which I knew from the small upturned of his lips. You don't go so long with Riven to not know his little tell tales, especially when the person is me, his favorite teasing target.

I quickened my footsteps to catch up to him. His long legs which explained his naturally long strides when he walk gave me no choice but to jog to do so."Stop." I shouted at him, stopping in front of him with my arms out to block his path. Not like that would work if he decided to continue walking anything. Those arms of his would swat me away like a fly if he like. Yeah, he's a lean, mean fighting machine, emphasize on the lean part cause he's damn-

Nevermind.

People were staring. Apparently they've never seen a fairy and a specialist have an argument on a street in broad daylight….what's wrong with them?

"What? Are you gonna fall again?" He looked amused with both of his hand hidden in the pocket of his jeans. Subtly, he slipped his hand out, spreading out his arm in the space between us. And right before my eyes, a chastising smile bloomed on his lips. "Do you really like me so much that you want to fall in my arms?" He teased. "Here's you chance, don't-"

I stepped on his foot.

"What the heck! Musa, I-"

"That's for making me fall, dumbass!"

Another thing I love about Earth was their easy way of expressing their feelings. It was the norm for them whereas for me-well, not so much.

"It hurt you know." He was giving me a death glare. His shoulders hunched up defensively.

"Oh, quit being such a baby!" I gave him a scowl of my own.

My eyes traveled further away from where we were currently sitting in a table at some restaurant, to look at the people standing on the opposite street. There was an women on the phone, standing there idly as she chatted at some unknown person on the other end of the line. She looked happy, and there was a smile on her face, one that I know all too well because it was sometimes reflected on my own face, well when I'm with Riven.

She absentmindedly played with her hair as she crossed the street, equally unfocused as she did and as she passed by, I heard the three magic words slipped out of her mouth. Without hesitation, easy and relax like she repeats the word frequently without anyburden.

"I love you."

I groaned. Somehow the words annoyed me.

I turned to stare at Riven instead, sitting across from me. Discreetly staring at his face, I tried to remember the last time I've ever heard those words come out from his mouth. Never. Okay maybe not never, but close enough that I don't remember when. And that, that right there annoys me. Well more like frustrate me, but well, you get the point.

Words like that, so intimate and significant, don't come easily from Riv. I know he takes this things like this seriously, words that actually holds true emotion from his usually does no matter how oddly that reflects on his look-Mr. I-Don't-Care and all-, no matter how hard he tries to hide the fact. But sometimes, just once in a while, maybe he could just put down those manly pride of his to say something sweet like that?

"You're gonna get wrinkles if you keep thinking so hard."

Nope. Never going to happen.

I slammed the door open.

I had just gotten a text from him a few minutes ago that literally compromises of that one word 'Urgent!' in it. And yes if you were wondering, this is how you likes to text. A proper sentence on his better days and one-syallable- I quote "straight-to-the-goddamn-point"-texts on worse days. Like today.

"Hey, what urgent thing were you talking about in your text-"

There weren't any monsters attacking him and his shirt sure as hell isn't drenched in blood, heck he's not even wearing a shirt."What the….." I did not just left my chips unprotected in my room for this.

"Oh hey, you're here." He was able to tear his eyes away from the television for a second to look at me, giving me an approving nod. He lifted tha game console he had in his hand as a greeting. "Wanna play?"

I was about to let him know just how I felt about getting called out to come play video games with him late at night and more importantly having to leave my half-finished bag of chips as I did but stopped myself when I saw one of the games he had. And at the same time, a devious idea popped into my head.

Hmm…

I could play with him and then beat him at his own game. Ha, he would be so embarrass, getting beat up by a girl. That be rich for him! And at the same time, I could try out the new game that I wanted! Two birds with one stone, oh yeah.

"Sure." I sat down beside him crossed-leg and grab the console.

"You ready?" He gave a side-glance with one eyebrow raised perfectly as he did.

"I was born ready."

"Yeah well, get ready to eat my dust, pixie!"

"Fat chance." I couldn't let him have the last word.

"Don't worry you're already fat enough for the both of us." He just had to reply.

Damn.

There was a vicious grin on his face while a competitive smirk was plastered on my face a second before the game begin. I know this by looking at the reflection of us on the black on the black of the tv screen before it disappeared only to be replace by a blaring blue background with the word 'START GAME' on it. Our faces expanded on screen, all round and stretched out, and we glared at each other through our reflection.

Ah well, so let the games begin.

"There must be something wrong with this thing!" He throw his hand console onto the floor. Standing up he rubbed his hand across his face with a loud groan. His eyes were ignited with something like an imaginary fire within as he looked at me, "You must've cheated!" He accused.

I stood up on my feet and brushed the back of my shorts with my hands. Calmly, I replied to his accusation. "You just can't admit it." I slowly lifted my gaze from the screen that clearly had my name under the winner sign to look at him. "You just lost to a girl. In fighting."

"Ha. Ha." He folded his arms. "Well you should know that I let you win."

"Sure." I mimicked his pose-arms folded, legs wide apart. "Sure you did." My tone contradicted with my words and that's what hit him. His ears were turning red.

Aw, he's so cute. But no! No, Musa! You have to stand your ground.

We continued with a staring contest after that but he was the first to give up. He threw his arms in a dramatic move and groaned sloggishly, "Ah just forget it!" He walked over to where his bed was but made a turn to sit on his leather armchair instead, situated behind the study table.

"What are you doing?" I asked confused. We would usually bicker some more and he would blackmailed me into doing things his way by kissing me before he would let me leave. Not that I was expecting that or anything….

"Can't you see?" He answered gruffly.

I walked over and bend over to see what he had spread out over his desk. There was a file and through the transulent cover, there was some papers messily put together. "Homework?" I guessed.

"Report actually." He said in a matter-of-fact tone. He didn't looked up at me the whole time he spoke. And I don't know if that meant I could ask any futher questions or…..? This was the first time he had ever showed me anything school related, well except his missions which he has with us.

"So what's it about?"

He didn't reply so I thought he didn't want to talk about it.

"Mind as well do this now…." I heard him whispered under his breath before he pulled me over to him, lifting me up so easily by my waist and placed in the small space left on the leather armchair, between his legs. "Wha-" It happened so quickly that I didn't had time to even complain.

"Why don't you find out yourself?" He whispered, our bodies so close to each other that I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. His chest agasint my back.

This was another part of Riven that only I know about. The thing is, no matter how he looks on the outside when we're behind closed doors or when its just the two of us, he's shows this side of him. The side of him that actually wants to let you in, the touchy-feely side of him. Maybe it was only towards me, I'm not sure. But I like it.

"Okaay…." I trailed off on that one word as I leaned back on him, getting comfortable in his arms. I positioned the file so that stands vertically on the table. I was going to start from the top of the page but stopped when he pointed at something on the same page.

"Read this, outloud." He pointed on the last paragraph on the first page.

I turned around and almost hit his chin. "Why?"

He sighed, the feeling sending an undescribable feeling down my spine when his breath touched the base of my neck, close to my ear. "Just do it."

I quickly turned around, my cheeks heating up. "Where?"

He pressed his finger roughly on the piece of paper, indicating where he wanted me to start reading.

Taking in a breath of air, I read from that point onwards. "I sincerely apologize for what I've done and did so with a self-reflection on account of my atitude and manners when socializing with other students in Red Fountain-"

"Okay, stop." He closed the file in a rush and threw it on the table carelessly. He then rolled the chair so that it's out of the expanse of the table.

"Wait, was that a reflection letter?" I turned around to look at him, and noticed a light blush on his face. "Did you get in a fight again?"

"Take that book." He ordered, totally ignoring my questionings.

"You haven't answer me-"

"Later." He shifted his eyes away from the shelf he had beside the study table to look at me. There was a pleading looking in his eyes, and the rarity of that had me swallowing my words. "Just take the book, women. And stop asking questions."

Begrudgingly I did as I was told. I have no heck of an inkling to what evil plan he was initiating but I figure I go with the flow for now. I grabbed the book that he chose and took it out of the shelf. It was some sort of biography that had a not so nice potrait of a bearded-man on the cover. It says on the cover: "BIOGRAPHY OF MICHALLEN GREAT".

"Page two hundered and eighty-nine." He mumured. I could feel the weight of his head as he leaned his chin on my shoulder gently. "Paragraph two." Almost a whisper.

"It wasn't until he was a grown man that he….." I read it quietly. The whole mood in the room had somehow shifted from the impulsive and aggressive nature we have just now to this: hush up and intimate.

He swore quietly. "Shit! That's not it." He pointed to a paragraph below the one I was reading. "Here."

I sighed but read on anyway. "Love came to Michallen when he met Lucinda Nayes when he was twenty-one."

"Stop." He commanded. With some shuffling and arm stretching, he exchanged the reading material in my hand again but this time with today's newspaper.

"Huh?"

"Second page, lower left corner."

It was a printed ad by Witchin Boutique about some sales they had. "What? An ad? You want me to-" I protested. Either he's gone totally bonkers or, well he's gone totally bonkers.

He pointed to the frontline of the ad that was printed in block styles. I sighed and read it outloud. "You won't regret coming to the sale extravaganza, we will be having a special guess too, the ever famous teen celebrity-"

His gave a squeeze with his arms around my torso, indicating that I stop. I put down that copy of Magix Metro to turn around and look at him. "What's all that about?" I was incredulous. What was the man playing at?

There was a satisfied smile on his face, the tips of his lips curved up in a childlike way as he looked at, seeming to search for something on my face. Slowly, the smile on his face crumpled. "Seriously?" His eyebrows were knitted together as a frown set on his face. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up before his gaze returned to mine. "30 points if it's within 1 minute."

I tilted my head, as if staring at his face at another angle would let me decode what's he thinking. "What are you talking about?"

He didn't move an inch, his face retaining the intense glare he had on me, his jaw tightened and I could see the small muscle flexed there. "20 points for 3 minutes."

"I don't-What?" He was seriously confusing me now. What in the whole is he talking about?

Frustrated, he got from the chair and went to sit on his bed. He had one arm over his eyes as I heard him whisper, "Forget it." And with a louder volume, he said, "You're so slow Musa." He turned around so that his back was facing me, "Ah just forget." He waved his arm in the air like he's swatting a fly away. "It was a stupid idea in the first place." He groaned.

He sounded annoyed and tired. And I could hear a hint of disappointment in his voice. Right then I wanted nothing more but to say the right thing, the words that he wants to hear but I didn't know what. What was he trying to say? Asking me to read random lines off of random stuff because?

And then it clicked.

The thought never even occurred to me that he did that to say-heck it was still hard to believe even though I decipher his actions.

Suddenly I had this incredible urge to laugh. Just outrightly laugh out loud. And so I did. That didn't go well with Riven, he turned back around to stare at me with an icy glare. "You're laughing?"

I just couldn't take it anymore. I walked over and squatted down so that we were on the same eye-level as I look at him. This guy, I thought and couldn't help a giggle from escaping, that exceptionally silly guy. How could he be so adorable, truly?

He was looking at me with a murderous intensity in his eyes when I grabbed him by his chin to get him closer to me. "Dummy." I whispered on his lips before I kissed him. He was surprised, his lips open upon contact but he quickly recovered. And slowly, deadly slow, he kissed me back and I heard him huffed reluntantly as he finally responded to me.

When we finally pulled over, I rewarded him with those same words. "I love you too."

His eyes were still hazy but his body reactions betrayed his emotions before he managed to hide them. He blushed, just a little and he quickly looked away.

I chuckled. "You're turning red." I poke his cheek.

He didn't reply instead he tackled me onto his bed.

I don't think he will ever stop suprising me with everything he does. Although we don't express our feelings as easily as others do, I was fine with it. Content and amazed with his clockwork. Afterall, bad boy Riven style is the only way to go for me!

And I'm sure he won't tell you otherwise.

Hey it's been a looooooooooong time! So here a new chappie! X) Any of you crack Riven's code? XD