A Thousand Kisses, A Thousand Deaths

Quarantining When You Can't Kiss

Blue laid on her blanket clad bed, ever so slightly hanging off the edge. She was upside down staring at her boyfriend, Gansey, who sat across the room. His nose was deep in whatever historical book he was reading this time. Blue mused to herself that even finding Glendower all those years ago wasn't enough to satisfy his thirst for knowledge. It had been four years since they'd found the Welsh King, nearly dying in the process. Well, Blue frowned, in Gansey's case he had actually died. But that was something she didn't often like thinking about. She watched him as he turned another page, a look of pure concentration on his face. Blue could feel the blood rushing to her head as she continued to dangle. After a few more moments of observing him, she huffed and pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"Laying upside down for too long isn't good for your head, Jane," Gansey remarked with a hint of a smirk in his voice.

She rolled her eyes and stretched, not acknowledging his teasing pet name. "So you could sense me staring at you."

Gansey spun around in the office chair he had been sitting in, holding his finger in between the pages of the book as to not lose his place.

"Of course I did," he said with a smile, "I don't have to be a psychic's daughter to know when a beautiful girl is watching me."

Blue rolled her eyes and grinned. "Well, I wouldn't be staring if I wasn't so bored!"

Gansey was wearing his wire frame glasses that Blue found so normal and so unlike the President Cellphone she had met years ago. He pushed them up his nose as they were sliding down.

"I know this is hard," he said, shutting his book for real now. "But this won't last forever."

The forever that Gansey was talking about was a virus that had caused a pandemic and confined them inside the walls of Monmouth Manufacturing for the foreseeable future. Blue didn't mind living at Monmouth. Actually, she prefered it to the traditional types of houses that surrounded Henrietta. When the subject of moving in together had come up, Gansey had suggested making the old factory their home and Blue had happily complied. However, being confined indoors was not something that Blue enjoyed.

"I know it won't," she sighed, "It just sucks being stuck in quarantine and unable to do anything...I dunno, fun?"

Gansey placed the book down on the desk and directed his full attention to her, an amused grin on his face. "Well Jane, what is fun to you?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, clearly knowing that he was up to something. "I don't know," she replied, "I guess I just miss the others. I miss being able to adventure." Gansey nodded.

Ronan and Adam had moved to the city to attend Virginia Tech together. With the stay at home order that the governor had put in place, they hadn't seen the pair since Christmas.

Gansey stood up and crossed the room to Blue with that confident stride that she used to hate so badly. He positioned himself on the bed.

"Well," he said, "I have an idea of something adventurous we could do." She cocked an eyebrow at him. He gave her a sly smile. As sly of a smile that Richard Campbell Gansey the third could muster that is.

"I could kiss you."

Blue instinctively recoiled, jumping to a standing position beside the bed.

"Are you crazy?" She exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air, "It will kill you!"

Gansey shrugged. "It could, but we wouldn't know until we tried, would we?" Blue gave him a look that very much communicated that she had decided he'd gone completely mad.

"The last time I kissed you, you literally died!" She was feeling a sense of anxiousness and dread just thinking about it. The kiss. The way his body had crumbled to the ground. How she had almost lost him forever.

"And?" He said, as if it was the most normal thing to say in the world.

"And?" Blue exclaimed, "It's a fucking miracle that you're alive at all!" Gansey stood up to grab her hands. She let him take them.

"Blue," he said quietly. This was how she knew he was serious. He only ever used her real name if it was serious. "I know I died. But you've already kissed me once. How do we know that the curse wasn't broken when I died?"

Blue took in a gulp of air and could feel the hot tears forming in her eyes. She couldn't look at him. They stood in silence for a moment before she spoke.

"Gansey, there's a reason I haven't let you kiss me since that day. I'm terrified of what might happen to you. If you died for real this time, I..." The tears began to fall down her cheeks.

He pulled her into a hug the tears still falling down her cheeks. "It's been four years since that day," he whispered into her hair, "We can't guarantee that it'll happen again."

Blue pushed back from the hug and looked at him with tears still falling down her cheeks. "We can't guarantee that it won't!" She was beginning to shake at that moment.

Gansey stepped closer to her wiping the tears off her face and cupping her cheek in his hands. "Blue," he said, staring intently into her eyes, "Trust me."

Before she knew it, his lips were pressed to hers. For a moment she couldn't breathe at all. Normally Blue was a very sensible person but in that moment she felt the floor slip out from beneath her and all sensibility was lost. She shoved him back hard.

"What the hell were you thinking!" She screamed. There was a moment where Blue couldn't see anything through her tears. Then she felt a hand on hers. She blinked rapidly, trying to force the tears away.

Gansey smirked down at her. "I told you to trust me."

Blue felt an overwhelming sense of relief that was then rapidly replaced by anger. She slapped his shoulder. He winced but laughed all the same.

"You absolute dick!" she said, a bubble of laughter finding its way out, "I could have killed you!"

"That is my name," he chuckled, "Don't wear it out." She couldn't help but laugh, a feeling of hysteria consuming her.

"I can't believe it," she breathed, "I can.. I can-"

"Kiss me?" He smiled. She took this as an invitation. She closed the distance between them and kissed him. With his lips on hers, she felt like an anchor that had been tied to her ankle had finally been cut free. She pulled away, placing her hands on his shoulders.

"You're still alive?" she asked, looking at him for any possible problems.

"I would think so," he grinned. She couldn't help but grin back. She had kissed him! He was okay! She threw his arms around him and held tight. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her as close as he could.

"I love you," he whispered in her ear. She grinned again. A big, stupid grin. She looked up from his chest.

"I love you too," she said, kissing him once more.

They grinned at each other and Gansey pulled her with him as he flopped down on the bed. Maybe quarantining wasn't so bad after all.