The next few weeks are, for the lack of a better word, absolutely and utterly amazing. I've never really had a serious boyfriend before, and am not accustomed to someone being so sweet and attentive to me twenty four seven. Blue-Eyes can read my expressions like an open book. If I didn't like something, he knew immediately, and rushed to change it to my liking. He doted on me, and made me feel like a queen. 

And I liked it.

Any remnants of the suspicion that I'd harbored toward him vanished entirely throughout the weeks that passed. 

"Guess what today is," Blue-Eyes currently sits beside me on a peeling, plastic red swing, his hands clutching the two metal chains like a lifeline. He stares at me with the expression of an excited two year old who is about to pick out a new toy. 

I arch an eyebrow and lean against one of my own metal chains, "Do tell me, dear." 

He shakes his head and grins mischievously, "No, no. I want you to guess." 

I make a face. I hate guessing games almost as much as I hate the people who stand several yards away from us, throwing perfectly good cereal at a flock of demon geese. With a sigh, I swing a little, my broken leg doing little to help that effort, as I mull the possibilities over. 

"Your birthday?" I chance a guess. 

"Nope." 

"Your mother's birthday?" 

He mimics the sound of a buzzer, "Err, wrong. Try again." 

I shoot him a glare, and fold my arms across my chest. "Tell me, or I will resort to violence, and it will not fair well for your handsome face," I demand. 

Blue-Eyes sticks his tongue out at me and snickers, "You'd have to catch me first, oh-wounded-one," as he stares pointedly at my leg and then toward the crutches that lie a few feet away from us. 

"Hey," I jab a finger at him, "I'm pretty fast for someone on crutches."

A wary smile twitches across his features, and Blue-Eyes arches a brow at me, waiting for me to continue to guess. I press my lips together and skewer him with a pleading look. I refuse to guess anymore. I mean, he was either going to tell me, or not. I don't like playing games. 

But I really want to know what today is. 

Blue-Eyes rolls his eyes and stands. His abandoned seat swings back and forth at the sudden movement, and he side-steps it to avoid getting smacked in the booty by it. I watch him curiously as he stops in front of my swing and presses his lips to my forehead. 'What are you doing?" I ask as he squats down in front of me. 

"Shh," he pokes my stomach, "You'll ruin it." 

My eyebrows crinkle in confusion. He sits down in front of me and pulls his backpack into his lap. He starts to fish around inside the main pocket until he pulls a small chocolate brown stuffed dragon out, a bright red ribbon tied around its neck. Then he pulls out a heart shaped box. 

I open my mouth to speak, but he cuts me off with a narrowed look. I press my lips together into a tight line and take the items as he passes them to me.

"Happy one month anniversary," he smiles hesitantly. 

 My eyes widen to roughly the size of golf balls and my mouth drops open as I flounder around for a coherent thought. My gaze shifts from the gifts in my hands to his face, and then back again. He points at the dragon, "I didn't think that a normal teddy bear would really mean anything to you, so I went to Toys R Us and found a dragon because I know you like them. I hope you like it." 

He shifts around on the ground and presses his lips into a firm line as he waits for some kind of reaction from me. A small blush is dusted across his cheeks. 

"What?" I finally croak. I didn't even know that we were supposed to celebrate a one month anniversary. 

He cracks a worried smile, and confusion flicks across his expression. 

I pick up the dragon and its large, plastic blue eyes stare at me expectantly. Guilt sizzles through me and I frown at Blue-Eyes from over the dragon's head. "I didn't even know we were celebrating," I admit awkwardly, "I don't have anything for you." 

"I didn't expect anything," he lets out a loud peal of laughter, and leans back, his hands pressing into the ground up pieces of rubber that covered the play-area of the park. His lips stretch back into a relieved grin as I press my nose to the dragons to hide my smile. 

I have a weakness for dragons. 

I open the small box and almost choke on my spit. Inside the heart shaped box, is a miniature bag of Fruit-loops. I laugh and arch an eyebrow at him as I pull it out. Blue-Eyes cocks his head to the side and watches as I toss a few pieces of cereal into my mouth. "You got me cereal for our one month anniversary," I say as I swallow and shake my head at him, "You have no idea how much I freaking love you." 

He chuckles, "I was hoping that you'd like it." 

"Come here so I can kiss you," I set my gifts down onto my lap and hold my arms out toward him. He laughs and climbs to his feet, bending over so I can pull him into a kiss. His lips are smooth against mine and we both grin into the kiss. 

"I love you," I whisper, as we pull away. I hold my breath to see his reaction. While he told me that he loved me all the time, this was the first time I'd truthfully uttered the words --and meant them. 

He rolls bright blue eyes playfully, but grins like he's just won a million dollars, "Everybody does." 

I arch an eyebrow. 

"I was just teasing," he is alarmed when he sees my expression; it's like he's scared that I'll take it back. I laugh at him and shake my head. 

"I was just thinking," I purse my lips, and he urges me to continue, "You probably have heard those words from a lot of people." 

His eyebrows furrow, "What do you mean?"

"Well," I glance at my new dragon and stroke its head. I kind of want to name it Cereal, just because. "Think about how often teenagers say I love you, and then two weeks later, break up over something small. It's like the words have no meaning anymore." 

Blue-Eyes stares at Cereal with a contemplating expression, as he ponders what I said. 

"We should come up with a new way to say I love you, then," Blue-Eyes suggests after a few moments of silence. 

"Any ideas?" 

He snorts, "I'll let you come up with that one." 

"Hey," I laugh and kick at him with my good foot, "Why do I have to do all the work?" 

He fends off my attack with a pout --though it doesn't take long for a cheesy grin to break through it. We grin at each other like idiots and I fiddle with my presents as I think. "You realize," I say as I fiddle with Cereal's suede wings, "That I'm horrible with this kind of crap."

"And yet you're so good with nicknames."

I kick at him again and he laughs. "Fine," I say as I hug Cereal to my chest, "Cereal." 

"Cereal?" He arches a brow.

"You told me to pick something, and cereal is the first thing that popped into my mind," I grumble, cheeks flushing a bright, burning cherry red. "I told you that I'm horrible with this stuff." 

"No," Blue-Eyes shakes his head and snickers, "I like it. Cereal. Like, I cereal you." 

I glare at him half-heartedly and contemplating hiding behind my dragon. Blue-Eyes laughs at my expression and climbs to his feet. He holds his hand out to me and I let him pull me up with a grumbled curse shot his way. He yanks me from the swing and wraps his arms around me, nuzzling his nose against mine.

"I cereal you," he chuckles. 

I stick my tongue out at him in response.

But the expression sticks. 

A/N:

Okay so please excuse this chapter. I'm posting it, but only because it will probably be deleted or revised when I go to edit/re-write this book as a whole. I lost the original plot paper (I have like sheets of paper with each chapter written out for each book of mine) for this story and Supers in the move. I know what's supposed to happen, but am at a loss for the date-ideas for these next few chapters. 

So just kind of bear with me until we get to chapter forty. That's when shit gets real...