'𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝐼'𝑚 𝐴 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝑙 𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑌𝑜𝑢 - 𝐿. 𝑆𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑏𝑦

2.

The witches looked at him in shock, and so did I.
    "Lee, Dr. Grumman is dead. I saw his head at Jordan College. Asriel brought it in a case to prove that he is dead." I explained.
    "I don't think he is. Just go along with it." He said, "we would like to go and search for Dr. Stanislaus Grumman."
    "Where do you think he is?" Serafina asked.
    "Well, his whereabouts are unknown, but I'm sure Y/N and I can find him.
    "Witches, should we trust them?" The witches nodded in unison, some more rapid than others. Lee wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. His touch was as warm as always.
    "Alright, you may go. But, take this." Serafina handed Lee a small flower that looked like a pine mixed with a small lavender plant. "This is a cloud pine. If you ever need me, put it up to the sky and call my name and I shall hear you. Now go and find Dr. Stanislaus Grumman. He could help find Lyra."
    "Yes, ma'am. Let's go, Y/N. Thank you for inviting us by the way!" He told the witches. Then, we left after Serafina smiled at us.
    We got back into Lee's balloon and it started to slowly rise.
    "Lee," I started, "what happens if we can't find Dr. Grumman? What if he is dead?"
    "Honey, no opinions of others will make me change my mind on if he is dead or not. He's alive and I know it. Now, it's getting late. You should get some rest." He climbed down from the metal bars that held up the middle of the balloon and came over to me. Lee grabbed a small blanket that sat beside me and tucked me in. He placed another blanket underneath my head that was very fluffy. There wasn't a pillow around.
    "Sorry I was so unprepared for sleeping. I usually sleep in hotels. Very seldom do I rest here. Only in emergency cases."
    "It's alright, love. Shouldn't you get some sleep?" I asked.
    "Nope. I need to keep my eyes on the balloon to make sure we don't go off-course. I don't want you getting lost, or for God's sake, you fall out of the balloon. I can't lose you." He booped my nose and adjusted my blanket. "Now, you get to sleep. I don't want you to be tired in the morning." Lee kissed my forehead and continued working. "Good night."
    "Good night, Lee." I adjusted myself and tugged the edge of the blanket close to my face. Magnus, my falcon daemon, snuggled up next to me and fluttered his wings to get comfortable.
    I couldn't sleep, honestly. I was too excited and worried at the same time. What would my parents say about me going on an adventure without their permission? Are they worried? Do they even care about me anymore? You know what? It doesn't even matter to me anymore. They shouldn't matter to me anymore. I'm with Lee, the love of my life, and I'm letting them worry me? Just stop thinking about it, Y/N. You'll make yourself cry. It's not worth it. It's not worth letting Lee know that you're not strong. He needs to know that you're a good person, or you try to be, at least.
    I groaned and rolled over, looking at Lee one last time. His back was facing. I wanted to see his perfect face, so I asked him a question.
    "Lee?" I started.
    "Yes, love?" I could hear the rasp in his voice now.
    "Do you think this will work out?"
    "If you're talking about Dr. Grumman, I told you. No one's opinions will make me change my mind. Not-."
    I cut him off. "I mean our relationship. Like, what if we get mad at each other while we're trying to find Dr. Grumman? I don't want you to stop talking to me or anything."
    "Darlin', I'm not going to get mad at you. I've had many relationships in the past, and I mean many, and they didn't work out, but I'm confident in you and I. Don't you worry." He smiled and kissed my forehead once again. I loved that so much. I couldn't explain why. I just did.
    "I won't get mad at you either," I said, sitting up. The blanket fell down my body a bit, "you don't deserve to be mad at me."
    "Sleep, sweetheart."
    I rolled back over as he smiled at me one more time.
    A cool breeze blew through the balloon and it calmed me down. I needed to stop worrying about my family. I'm was with Lee now. That's all I needed to worry about.
    I slowly closed my eyes and quickly felt my body relax and I fell asleep.

    When I woke up the next morning, Lee was already sitting next to me. He was lightly running his dirty fingers through my hair. They were covered in grey and brown soot. I don't where that came from. I started to sit up when he noticed me awake.
    "Good morning, love." He leaned over to kiss me, and I gladly accepted it. I loved it when he called me these cute names. "Are you ready for today?"
    "Mhm!" I quickly nodded.
    "Okay. Hold on tight." And with that, the balloon went down fast. I held my seat and Lee grinned at me.
    "I have a question, Lee," I said, putting my hands on my knees.
    "What's up, love?" He replied.
    "Can you teach me how to fly your balloon? Like with all the levers and buttons and fancy stuff."
    He cocked his eyebrows up and smirked at me. "I thought that you said you didn't want to learn any of it. You told me your brain can't handle complex math and physics."
    "Well, that was months ago. I wanna know how you do it."
    "Alright then. Get over here." I got up and he wrapped his arm around me. He led me over to a dashboard-like thing.

   
Lee finished teaching me everything that he knew about the balloon after at least forty-five minutes. The math parts confused me and kind of hurt my brain, but that's normal.
"So, what did you think?"
I hesitated for a moment, "Well the seats could have cushions."
Lee laughed, "you're right. That would be nice."
"So, where are we headed now? Where do you think Grumman is?" I asked.
"I should pick up the pace a little bit if we want to reach some towns. You never know, he might be closer than we think."
"Alright. You do you." I went over and sat back down on the uncushioned bench. I took the blanket and threw it over myself. Magnus fluttered his wings and laid down beside me again. I saw Lee look over his shoulder and smile at me. I smiled back. He slowly came over to me and sat down, resting his head on my left shoulder. I kissed his forehead as he snuggled closer to me.
"Shouldn't you be taking control of the balloon?" I asked.
"Nope," he perked his head up, "it's on the course it needs to go." Lee wrapped his arms around my torso and I grinned, my cheeks flushed with red.
"I love how you said that you needed to fly the balloon or else it would get off track, but now you don't need to. I'll never understand aeronautics." I said and he laughed.
"So, I never asked you." He started.
"Never asked me what?"
"If you wanted to be my girlfriend. I mean, how you said 'our relationship' before, it seemed like we were dating, but I told you we were when we were with the witches." Lee stopped for a moment, lightly blushing. "So," he stood up and smiled at me again, "would you like to be my girlfriend? Or, will you?" He scratced the back of his neck and slightly bit his lip.
"Did you think I would say no?" I laughed. Without saying anything else, he leaned down, pulled my chin up, and immediately closed the gap between us. Magnus and Hester cuddled close together. He slowly ran his fingers through my hair and twirled the tips. I smiled into the kiss. We broke apart and looked at each other once again.
"Now, we should be landing soon." He kissed my head and got back to work, doing whatever he was doing. I was starting to get hot under this blanket, so I threw it off. Magnus jumped off of me and looked at me angrily.
"What was that for?" He ruffled his feathers.
"Sorry! I was getting hot under there!"
"Hotter than you already are?" I heard Lee chime in. I widened my eyes and blushed. He turned around and winked at me.
That was something....