As the Sun Sets... (Cat only)

Sterling gazed at her a little sternly, unwilling to cause her pain... but he couldn't bear to see her so desperate for his embrace... he couldn't deny her. He quickly moved back inward, resting his chin on the top of her head affectionately. "I won't." he said firmly. He ran a hand so slowly up her back it was hardly detectable as moving at all.

Sterling pulled away just enough to look her in the eyes. "Do not apologize," he quoted her, with a smile. "Unfortunately, it is my fault. But if you'll let me, I'll spend my whole life trying to make it up to you..." he said. It was a speech he had prepared accidentally, mulling over the words continually in his spare time without realizing it.

Would she be scared away by his long term promise?

Sterling closed his eyes in shame as she scolded him for his acceptance of fault... that was usually encouraged... but he would placate Catalina simply for her... yet it didn't change the fact that it was, in fact, his fault.

Sterling smiled gleefully and pushed Catalina's hair out of the way and kissed her... not in an excessively sensual way, but in a passionate, happy way, as if thanking her for her acceptance. She might as well have just accepted a proposal... although they were both much too young for that. Still, he did want to spend the rest of his life with her. Her beauty seemed amplified and accented by the wondrous scenery that surrounded them. The world seemed to be spinning... Sterling was the happiest man in the world.

Sterling slowly backed away from the kiss. He enjoyed the sensation of her laughing into his mouth... it tickled his tongue and warmed his heart... it was pure ecstasy.

He imagined his seventh year... that would be without Catalina... and it saddened him greatly. Would she be able to stay with him, when he couldn't believe she had ever chosen him in the first place? Would she be able to resist the allures of other as he himself had been so unsuccessful in doing thus far?

He wanted to say yes, but he didn't know. "You know I'm going to blame myself anyway. I can't blame my own faults on others," he said, thinking back to when he had last withheld information from her for that very purpose. It guilted him to have hidden any thought he had from her, however small.

Sterling was happy to take a seat next to her, holding her hand. "That's me... hard headed," he said simply smiling and kissing her on the cheek for accepting him regardless. Sterling blushed as she said she would be able to eventually... the way she said it made it sound like a promise, or a challenge. It made him want to lean forward and kiss her again, but he resisted the temptation... temporarily.

"If you want to," he said in a whisper. He wanted to, of course, but then again, he wasn't as desirable as her, and wanted to give her the option either way. In his imagination, he had always imagined his pre-proposal to be a lot more romantic than sitting at sunset in Paris by the Eiffel Tower. It didn't seem nearly good enough for Catalina.