“Jumpin’ Jehosafats, I think I just creamed my pants,” Annette whispered, staring at Luke. Luke’s eyes locked on me. He lifted his hand and crooked his finger. “I was wrong about before. Now, I’ve definitely creamed my pants,” Annette breathed.”

“He stared up at me, and even as the house fell apart around us, even as drops of fire rained down from the sky, his hand raised and brushed a lock of hair out of my face, and I felt his stomach rise as he breathed in deeply.“You,” he whispered. “You’re a boy?” His hands cupped my face, and a tear streaked down my cheek onto his fingers. “I dreamt of you but… but I never thought…”

“You get a kick out of shocking the pants off me, don’t you?” I shook my head with a smirk.He just shrugged with a playful smile, his eyes momentarily flitting toward my pants before returning to meet my gaze.“It’s an expression,” I rolled my eyes. “Don’t tell me you aren’t familiar with it, Mr. Smarty Pants.”“You have quite a repertoire of ‘pants’ references, don’t you?”

“What?"Her breathing stuttered at the thought of tasting the sweet cream off his skin. "Nothing.""No, tell me." He stepped closer.She shook her head. "Why mint and peach?"He quirked a crooked smile. "Mint for fresh breath, peach because it's breakfast. You know, fruit.""I don't think peach ice cream counts as fruit.""What's that right there?" He pointed to the hunks of frozen orange buried in the mounds of ice cream overflowing his bowl."Peach, but--""Nuh uh. No but. It's peach. Case closed." He lifted the bowl and took a big bite.”

“Every time I look into his eyes I just want to take the ice cream or whatever I've got in my hand and rub it into his face. That's how much I like him.”

“I should have kissed more than your hand...thought I'd have more time," he whispered between liquid, panting breaths. "...too late now."I looked into his eyes and completely forgot the rest of the world. In that moment, all I knew was that I was holding Stark in my arms, and I was going to lose him very, very soon.”