Looked at you like the stars that shined….

A/N:this story is for Bunnylass (again), for writing the brilliant "With Eyes Wide Open", which half-inspired this story. The other half of the inspiration came from Taylor Swift's Mary's Song (Oh My My My), which is where the lyrics quoted come from…

Enjoy, R&R…?

Xxx Saffy

PS – just noticed; yes I know the ages are wrong in the song. Sorry. ;)

I was seven and you were nine
I looked at you like the stars that shined
In the sky, the pretty lights

They first met at kindergarten, aged four, and they'd become friends straight away. He hadn't wanted her to feel left out, just because she was different, and so he'd gone up to her, and taken her hand, and dragged her across to play in the sand-box with him and his friends. They'd all laughed at her, but she'd just smiled at him, and thrown sand in their faces, and run away.

They stayed friends, though… when they got to elementary school, their first year at the mission, 1st Grade, and all of their old friends had ditched them for the cooler kids from other kindergartens – the ones with richer mommies, and the ones who'd wanted to play Barbies, and Ken-dolls, and who'd never be like them.

They didn't mind.

They had each other.

That was all they'd ever needed.

And our daddies used to joke about the two of us
Growing up and falling in love and our mamas smiled
And rolled their eyes and said oh my my my

They had to laugh at things like that. They were kids; girls hung out with girls, and boys had cooties, and that was all that there was to it… but not for them. They were best friends, and they always would be. But it wasn't just their mommies and daddies who said that. It was the kids at school, too, and that upset her. He didn't mind. If she'd have gotten up and kissed him right there and then, he wouldn't have been happier. He was eight years old, and he was in love.

Take me back to the house in the backyard tree
Said you'd beat me up, you were bigger than me
You never did, you never did

He had to pretend that he didn't like her, though. Girls were smelly, girls were nasty, and girls shouldn't be friends with boys… Once, when she took his hand at a crossing, when they must have been nine years old, he was so embarrassed that he'd threatened to beat her up. She'd cried and run away, and she hadn't spoken to him for weeks and weeks…

By the time she did, once more, because she was lonely, and because none of the other kids liked her because of her hair colour and her eye colour, and because, let's face it, kids just can't hold a grudge that long, he'd all but forgotten about his little crush.

Shame.

Take me back when our world was one block wide
I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried
Just two kids, you and I...
Oh my my my my

She'd always been a joker, and she'd always known that he was the only one she'd ever dared try to fool around with. They must have been eleven years old, and she dared him to kiss her. They were in his mom's kitchen, and she knew that it would be the most embarrassing thing she could possibly have asked of him, but he tried anyway. That made her squirm. She hadn't expected him to actually do it… and so she just ran…

…and then fell down on the grass of his garden, and giggled, for what must have been at least fifteen minutes straight, whilst he sulked at being "rejected".

Take me back to the creek beds we turned up
Two A.M. riding in your truck and all I need is you next to me
Take me back to the time we had our very first fight

When they made it out of the Mission's middle school, and into high school, and he got his drivers' license, and she became editor of the school paper, still nothing changed. They both thought it would, and prayed that one day they would suddenly not need each other any more, but that day never came.

For her, especially, it was becoming difficult to be in his presence as a friend. She loved him, and much as she tried to hide it, she kind of felt that she always had, and that hiding it would be a part of herself.

And then the new girl rolled up. Susannah. Suze. The coolest, bravest girl that either of them had ever met… and of course he fell in love with her. She couldn't blame him; Suze was incredible. She couldn't even hate her, she was that cool. Besides, Suze liked her. They became good friends… and eventually Suze figured it out.

He kept asking Suze out, and she just had to sit back and watch him, and watch as Suze rejected him…

… but eventually she worked out that Suze knew.

And she couldn't be certain, but she certainly suspected, that Suze had something to do with them finally getting together, when they eventually did… She was pretty sure that it was Suze who'd opened his eyes, and that the fact that Suze already had a boyfriend with whom she was clearly infatuated could only have helped, too…

Well, I was sixteen when suddenly
I wasn't that little girl you used to see
But your eyes still shined like pretty lights
And our daddies used to joke about the two of us
They never believed we'd really fall in love
And our mamas smiled and rolled their eyes
And said oh my my my...

The winter formal, that year, was incredible. It was incredible because she truly believed that he loved her… that he had opened his eyes and seen what was in front of him all along… and that first kiss they shared, all those years after she'd dared him that time, that first kiss was mind blowing. For both of them. It was more than either of them could ever have imagined, and it only confirmed what both of them had kind of suspected all along, even if it had only been at the back of their minds…

That they were meant to be together.

And they when they went to college, they knew that distance would never stop them… He had proposed, before they went, but she'd said no, and leant over and kissed him, and said that she wanted to have a career before she had to look after him for the rest of her life. He'd laughed and said that she'd been looking after him all his life, and she had to laugh and agree…. But that wouldn't make a difference. She wasn't ready for that. She loved him, more than anything else, but she wasn't ready for that. "Besides, it's just a piece of paper, right?" she's smiled, and he'd agreed, and kissed her again.

And now, they're sitting beside a tree, in his mom's back-yard, the night before she heads off to college, and they're in each other's arms… and she's pulling away, and looking for something sharp. "It's just a piece of paper…" she's whispering, as she begins carving into the tree, "this is just as special. And it's just as important…"

And those words, now that she's finished writing them, will be there forever.

"So much more than a piece of paper…"

And those words, the words that will be on that tree forever, say "CeeCee and Adam. Love; Love but you. Forever and Always."

I'll be eighty-seven; you'll be eighty-nine
I'll still look at you like the stars that shine
In the sky, oh my my my...