Love Is in the air.

10. It's beautiful.

Clark smiled warmly after answering and started grabbing herself a bowl, she wondered if he'd expected her to have cereal too. If so he definitely didn't show he was surprised as she started boiling some noodles and added pieces of chicken, humming lightly as Pierce watched her move.

"Do you have this often?"

She nearly scoffed, proudly lifting her chin as she grabbed a smaller bowl.
"Almost every day since I was like ten? Eleven?"

Now Pierce seemed as surprised as she had expected, Clark could almost feel him looking at her figure. For many years from primary to secondary school,when she looked back on old photos and videos, she looked like a ghost.
Now she had a little meat on her bones, which made it feel like all eyes were on her.

"Every day? You never got sick of it?"
"Nope! I still love it as much as the day I first had it."

As she answered his question Clark started pouring most of her noodles into her bowl and some in the smaller bowl, holding it out to Pierce.
"Try a little, you'll like it I'm sure."

Pierce gently took the bowl and lifted a spoon, filling it with the golden broth that smelt like chicken and vegetables. Her gaze almost burned a hole into his skin as she watched him try the liquid, his eyes widened and he glanced up at Clark.

"This is wonderful!"
"Really? Thank you! I was worried I was weird for experimenting with it all but I know the ramen from Japan or Korea probably tastes much better, but I felt encouraged to just make what I like."

She was rambling she knew that and was probably not making as much sense as her thoughts were, talking was always more difficult for Clark.
Pierce just watched and ate his ramen-inspired noodles, finding her to be too cute.

"I get it, these noodles are amazing and I've never tried real ramen but I think this,"
He lifted his bowl of nearly finished noodles.
"Can't be rivaled."

Clark laughed holding her chest for a second before taking his hand and meeting his eyes, smiling softly.

"Thank you, that's really sweet of you."
"You're welcome."

There was no movement between them as their eyes were on each other, only being sucked out of their trance when Pierce cleared his throat and started clearing the bowls from the side to the sink.
"Oh you don't have to do that, I'll wash them later."

He smiled at her and shook his head,

"No, no, I'll do this."

Clark felt a peaceful sigh leave her lips and leaned up on her toes to kiss his cheek, surprising even herself as she walked out of the kitchen towards the bedroom. The pit-pat of the rain outside her home had started to grow a little harder, making goosebumps rise up her arms.
Pierce joined her on the bed and when seeing her shiver, lifted the blanket and wrapped it over her shoulders with a smile.

"Cold?"
"Not exactly, rain just gives me the shivers. I love rain."

He sat beside her under the covers and listened before following her eyes to a skylight above them, seeing the dark clouds across the sky.
Suddenly a clap of thunder and lightning echoed loud enough that Pierce jumped and gripped onto Clark.

"Are you scared of thunder?"
"No no, I just was a bit startled."
"It's okay if you are, I used to be..."

Pierce looked over at her face and gently asked,
"You used to be? Can I ask...?"

"Of course, it was a long time ago but it's one of the few clear memories I have. It was a stormy day and I was with my dad on my way home when we got caught in a thunderstorm, nothing bad happened besides me catching a cold I didn't see my dad again for a while, cause my mum got angry at him for taking me out into the cold. For a long time I associated thunderstorms with that memory and would get scared of the thunder but then one day I found it beautiful."

It didn't sound as silly in her mind but when saying it aloud she assumed Pierce found it a little weird that she could find a thunderstorm beautiful, that was until he spoke.
"A beautiful thunderstorm...I can see that, kinda."

She smiled while resting her head on his shoulder looking up at the skylight and musing aloud,

"It's one of my favorite times in the world where everything just seems right, it's the perfect time to write."
"Do you want to write?"

Clark hummed and looked over at her laptop, rubbing her arms and considering it.
"I don't know..."

Pierce looked at her in the corner of his eye, giving a half-smile.

"Why don't you blog about your love life? You said it's been a year, I'm sure your readers would be interested and you don't have to say you have a boyfriend just that you met someone and like him."

There was a flicker of hesitation before he kissed the top of her head and made her tension fade, grabbing her laptop and opening up her blog before tilting her head.
Clark took a deep breath and started typing while leaning into Pierce who watched mostly how agile her fingers were, how her little button nose twitched when correcting a sentence and trying to describe as much as possible.

Every now and again he would kiss her head and rub her shoulder, not caring too much for what she was writing only that she gave a smile as she did. Looking up at Pierce when finished and asking breathlessly,

"How is it? Is it perfect?"