Title: "Leap of Love"
Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: G
Summary: "Just promise me one thing," Rich pleas, but Dana will promise him everything and forever hold to her word and their love.
Warnings: Het, Established Relationship
Date Written: 21 March, 2012
Word Count: 1,272
Challenge: For a Aphrodite's Blessings Yuku forum challenge
Disclaimer: Rich Halke, Dana Foster, all other recognizable characters mentioned within, and Step By Step are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else belongs to the author. The song is ﾩ & TM Jimmy Buffet, not the author, and is used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

"Whoa, Momma!"

"She is so hot!"

"Oh, be still, my heart!"

"I'd do anything to go out with her!"

JT looked over to his best friend, Rich, as their other buddies continued to make remarks about the cheerleaders. "Come on, Rich. Which one's your favorite?"

"Dana," he replied without thinking.

The other guys were so shocked by Rich's answer that they actually managed to rip their eyes away from the cheerleaders to gawk at Rich. "Dana's so not a cheerleader!" JT protested. His chuckle brought forth the others' laughter.

Rich shrugged. "I didn't say she was," he answered, beaming proudly. "She's so much better than any of those cheerleaders! You know they've all made the rounds, and if you put them all together, you might get enough intelligence for one brain."

"Shut up, man! They might hear you!"

"So what if they do?" He shrugged and poked at his cafeteria food with his fork. "We all know it's true."

"But we don't want them knowing that!"

"Why not?"

"Look, dude!" JT exclaimed, shaking his head. "I know you keep saying you don't see anything in any other girls. I don't know how. I mean, one, you're not dead. Two, you're not even married yet, and three, you're hooked on the ugliest girl in school. I mean, come on, it's Barky. But don't ruin the rest of our chances with the cheerleaders!"

"They're already ruined," Rich pointed out. "One, you're not jocks. Two, you're not rich. And three, why would you want them any way?"

"Why? WHY? Because they're hoooooooooooot!" JT trailed the word out as though it could emphasis the steam he felt rising within himself every time he looked at the cheerleading squad.

"Rich, I'm sorry," another of their friends spoke up, shaking his head, "but I'm with JT. How can you not look at that," he asked, pointing with his fork to the table where the cheerleaders were all but literally posing, "and not get heated up? We know you have a girlfriend, but she's not hot. She's too smart to be hot, and besides, she - she - " He fumbled for the word for which he was looking to describe Dana's awkwardness.

"She's a Giant!" the guy sitting next to him blurted out.

"A Giant?" Rich repeated.

"Yeah, a Giant! She's way too tall for a girl!"

JT laughed; soda snorted out of his nose. "That's a good one, David!"

"Dana is not a Giant," Rich spoke, sitting his fork down and staring at the others. "She is smart, but she makes being smart look hot."

"Nobody can make being smart look hot."

"She does - " Rich started to persist, but then his buddies started looking as if they were ready to run.

"You can tell her that!"

"I'm done with lunch. How about you, guys?"

"Yeah. This cafeteria food stinks any way."

"It always does."

"You coming, JT? We're gonna go get seats to watch the cheerleaders practice."

"You bet I am!" JT scrambled up to go with the other guys. "Sorry, Rich, you're on your own!"

"Yeah," David chuckled, "and tell your Giant of a girlfriend we said 'hello'!" He walked away, still laughing, with the other guys following him.

Rich turned in his seat to see what had spooked them all into leaving and smiled as he caught sight of Dana heading his way. He could tell immediately that she was mad about something, probably some other injustice laid her way by the idiots in their school who could never appreciate true beauty, but even angry, she was still beautiful. She was the loveliest girl upon whom he'd ever set his eyes. She was smart. She was strong, and yes, he supposed, watching her move toward him, she was tall.

Rich was the shortest guy in school. He was used to being picked on for his height and had often wished he was taller. Yet, with Dana, his shortness had rarely mattered. His height actually put him on eye level with her breasts, and they had discovered a lot of fun ways to use their size difference to their enjoyable advantage.

Yet, as Rich watched Dana, David's words echoed in his ears, and he began to truly notice how tall she was for the first time in a long time. She dwarfed all the other girls in school and, at one time, had made him feel even more like a Dwarf than the other guys did. She was beautiful, but she was also so very tall. His head rested on his hand; his brown eyes started to drift shut.

She seemed to grow taller before his very eyes. She was either growing taller, he realized for certainty as she came to within a few feet of him, or he was shrinking again. The school fell away around them. Their classmates screamed as Dana grew even taller; they raced away into the forest. Still, Dana continued toward him until she reached him. She smiled down at him. "HI, RICH."

Her voice boomed like thunder, but he didn't quake even as she shouted down at him from where clouds now swirled around her lovely face. Instead, he answered her back, "Hi, Dana!", and rose to hug her. He tried to put his arms around her, but he could no longer hold her. She had grown so big that his arms could barely wrap around her ankle; there was no way he could reach any other part of her. He started jumping in his vain attempts to reach her and calling her name.

"RICH? RICH? WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE'D YOU GO, BABY?" She peered through the clouds in search of him.

"DANA!" he screamed, flailing his arms to draw her attention. "DANA, I'M DOWN HERE!"

"NOW WHERE DID MY LITTLE MAN GO?" she questioned even as he continued to scream her name. Rich blanched as her foot lifted into the air and started to come down on top of him . . .

"RICH! RICH, WAKE UP!" Dana shook Rich awake, and he blinked blearily up at her.

"Hmm? Dana? Oh." He looked puzzled for a moment. "It was a dream." He'd have to kick David's butt for him later, he decided, to give him such a nightmare.

Dana was only a couple of feet taller than himself again, and she peered down at him in concern. "You're not getting enough sleep," she commented, caressing his handsome face.

"I'm not complaining."

"I am. We're going to have to start going to bed earlier."

"That'd be a great thing, as long as I have you in my arms!" He beamed.

"Rich!" She laughed, then rolled her eyes and gave him a playful shove. It never failed. No matter how angry her classmates made her with their taunts and cruel remarks, he always knew exactly how to cheer her up. She grinned down at him, her blue eyes sparkling happily. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Whatever you want," he answered, gazing up at her with all the love and adoration that filled and would always fill his heart for her alone. "Just promise me one thing."

"Anything."

He took her beautiful face in his loving hands and caressed her softly as he leaned up. "Promise me," he told her, "that I'll never have to leap to do this." Dana looked at him in puzzlement, but he didn't give her a chance to ask any more questions as he pressed his lips to hers in a sweet and tender kiss full of all the passion and love they would always share and that no one, not any other girl or guy, any of their classmates or family, and especially not any Giants, would ever dim.

The End