Luminescence

Thirty-seven.

Do you all have that one person in your life, where if you stare at them for too long you will randomly burst out laughing? Well, Hudson was that person to me.

We probably held eye contact for a fourth of a minute, before I couldn't hold in anymore. A heavy laugh escaped from my lips as Hudson just watched me like a maniac.

"What?" He asks, eventually joining me, chuckling as he wipes a tear of laughter off my face before I eventually calm down.

"You should be asking yourself that! You've been staring at me for the past minute like you've been doing crack!" I exclaim as I can't seem to wipe the smile off my face.

His green orbs stare down into mine as suddenly is expression is blank again. Suddenly worry consumes me, as I struggle to read his emotions which were just one big jumble at the moment. What if something was wrong with him?

"Hudson, are you okay?" I question as I could've sworn his face went pale. I cup his face, being sure to check his temperature. "You look like—"

"Mara, I love you," he whispers.

And with that three-word sentence, the air is knocked out of me for the second time tonight.

"I-I mean..." he stutters, breaking the heavy silence between us. His eyes were frantic, looking anywhere but me as he struggled to speak. "Alright, you know what? Screw this."

He gets up from his position lying on the ground and stands up, pacing back and forth as his emotions were one jumbled mess. I stand up in my position as well, wrapping the blanket around me as I was confused out of my mind. I didn't know if I should say the words back, or stay silent.

Either way, I could hardly think because my heart was about to thud out of my chest.

"Hudson, I get that you love me, but why are you acting like its the end of the world?" I ask, slightly saddened at his regret with his word choice. Did he mean 'screw this' as in 'I don't love you anymore'?

While he paces, he shakes his head back and forth nervously, and I don't know how to help him. I've never seen him this... hyperactive before.

"This is the end of the world!" He exclaims running a hand through his hair, making me jump. "You see, I'm so fucking in love with you, I-I don't even know what to say. And it's absolutely killing me!" He stops pacing to look me dead in the eye with two feet separating our positions. "You know, a year ago I was the most feared commander in the entire country. I knew what to say, what to do and how to act. But then, here you come running into my life, and get this—there was even a magic bond that connected us!"

I furrow my eyebrows, confused as to what point he was trying to make.

"I knew the first moment I saw you with my own eyes, not through the crevices of my helmet, that you were absolutely... enthralling, and for nights on end you wouldn't leave my mind. Not a single one. And God, did I hate myself to let my mind be plagued by a gorgeous girl. Two weeks after I met you, King Red noticed that I was becoming softer. Two weeks was all it took for him to beat me back into evil shape with his stupid reform."

His voice was beginning to calm down, but I was still speechless as I stood there with wide eyes. My heart was fluttering out of my chest as he spoke, yet a slight bit of intimidation was present as his large figure rose a solid foot over mine.

"I was broken for what seemed like the longest time," his voice cracks. "But after you came into my life, I could feel myself slowly healing every night I saw you. I didn't know for the past seven years I was with the Plague that my body and mind had been craving love. And you were the person that would eventually show me how to do it. Commander G-R72 once thought he was the strongest person on the planet. He used to know what to say for everything. But then you come marching your way into his life, and boom. There went Commander-G72. You stripped me of all my confidence, in a good way of course."