Christmastime wasn’t terribly fun for Violet since she was stuck on the couch for the most part. At least she was able to eat all the things her mother baked as much as she wanted for the first time in years.

She started physical therapy right after the holiday and it was excruciating. Kaleb or Nathan drove her to her appointments since everyone else was at work but sometimes Noah was able to come pick her up from them.

Violet followed every instruction to the letter—she absolutely would not stand for the possibility of screwing up her own recovery by being the slightest bit lax or by pushing too hard too soon. Her physical therapist was impressed by her dedication since most people didn’t follow the rules so strictly.

More than anything, she was determined to dance again. The director of the ballet had come to visit her while she was laid up at home, explaining that he could hold her place in the company for a maximum of twelve months. Any longer than that and he would be forced to replace her.

Her physical therapist said her mobility should be completely restored in the original 3-6 month time frame she was given but that it might take longer to be able to build her muscles up to where they were before. Dancing on pointe would probably take her more like 6-9 months.

Violet didn’t care how long it took as long as she didn’t destroy her knee permanently and was still able to make it back into the New York City Ballet before her year of leave was up. She tried her best to remain optimistic but losing the ability to dance forever threatened to destroy her.

After one particularly painful and difficult day at physical therapy, she broke down sobbing in Noah’s arms.

“What if I really can’t ever dance properly again? Then what am I supposed to do with my life? I won’t be me anymore if I can’t dance.”

He gently stroked her back as he spoke in a calm, soothing voice. “I really don’t think that’s going to happen, Vi. Your physical therapist seems confident in your progress even though you feel like it’s going too slowly.”

“But what if it does?” she sniffled.

“Then we’ll figure something else out. Even if you can’t dance professionally, you should still be able to move around enough to be a dance teacher. All you would have to do is push your plans up a little earlier than expected,” Noah pointed out rationally. “Like I said, I don’t think that’s going to happen though. You’ll be the prima ballerina of the New York City Ballet again in no time.”

His words were exactly what she needed to hear. Especially ‘we’ll figure something else out.’ Noah included himself in her problem like they were a team. He had always been like this but somehow things felt different now that they were in a relationship.

He wasn’t only her best friend helping her out. He was her partner, like her parents were partners. It was Violet and Noah against the world even more than before.

Many times over the years she had wondered what on earth she would do without him when things got hard but she had never thought that more fervently than when she was recovering from her surgery.

Noah was the only thing keeping her sane when anxiety about the future threatened to destroy her. As always, he continued to be her safe place.

“And Vi?” he spoke up again.

“Yeah?”

“You’ll always be you, no matter what your job is. And I’ll always love you.”

Violet gazed up at him through her tears and could see the earnestness on his face. How had she ever missed it every time he supported her over the years? He was looking at her the same way her father looked at her mother. Like she was the entire world.

She didn’t know what she was supposed to say to that. Their romantic relationship really hadn’t progressed that far in the weeks they had been together. She got the feeling he didn’t want to scare her by moving too quickly, which she appreciated.

Changing a lifetime of feelings wasn’t something that happened overnight. But she had to admit, she didn’t think she could possibly love someone more than she loved Noah in this moment. If he kept being his wonderful self, she would fall in love with him for sure.

Since the day she told him she couldn’t bear to lose him, they hadn’t kissed again. Violet was fairly certain he was waiting for her to make the first move.

There was no time like the present. Overwhelmed with feelings of affection and appreciation, she tilted her head up to plant a kiss on Noah’s lips. He was surprised for a moment and pulled back to look her in the eye.

“Hey Vi…I don’t want to overstep your boundaries or anything…but I really, really want to kiss you right now.  Properly. Is that okay?” he asked a bit nervously.

Violet nearly laughed. The look on his face was so cute! She smiled and gently caressed his cheek, feeling emboldened by her earlier surge of affection for him. 

 “Yes, Noah. But you know, you didn’t need to ask.”                      

His eyes widened, pleasantly surprised, before he leaned down to kiss her again. She had been kissed before but it had never felt so sweet. Despite his obvious inexperience, Violet could feel all of Noah’s love for her pouring through his kisses.

Her heart pounded in her ears and when they finally broke apart, she buried her face in his neck, unable to look at him. This was Noah. The man she had thought of as a brother up until a few short weeks ago. How could he possibly be making her heart pound like this already?

“You don’t look very comfortable,” Noah pointed out. “Do you want to move?”

Violet’s leg, still in its brace so she couldn’t bend it, was sticking out somewhat strangely as she sat on his lap. With a flaming face, she swung it around so she could sit next to him instead. How embarrassing!

“Want to play Scrabble?”

He spoke nonchalantly, as if they hadn’t barely finished making out. She really wondered how he could be so cool and collected about this when she was such a visible mess. 

Noah had always been the most relaxed person she had ever met, but still! If he was really in love with her shouldn’t he have some sort of reaction? He had been such a wreck when she made him be a stand-in for the prince…

Violet narrowed her eyes at him. “How are you so calm right now?”

He cracked a smile and confessed, “My calm is an illusion; I’m actually about to spontaneously combust. You can feel my heartbeat if you don’t believe me.”

She lay a hand on his chest and sure enough, it was thrumming so rapidly there was almost no pause in between heartbeats at all. She let out a small snort. It was nice knowing she wasn’t the only one freaking out going into uncharted territory.

“Do you really want to play Scrabble?” Violet asked doubtfully.

“Truthfully, I’d rather continue down the path of spontaneous combustion.”

This time she couldn’t contain her laughter. What an interesting way of saying he wanted to kiss her again. Noah had always worded things so hilariously.  

Violet stood up and offered him her hand. “Well, if you truly want to spontaneously combust I’m not going to stop you. Since I can’t bend my leg though it might be easier to stand.”

He accepted her hand eagerly but as they were about to start kissing again they both burst out laughing because of the awkwardness of it all. They laughed so hard that they ended up touching foreheads for support. This was definitely going to take some more getting used to.

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