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Gambit leaned his head into their touch as he felt them smoothing his hair. He had forgotten how much a simple gesture like that could give him butterflies, even as his mind ricocheted back and forth in his skull chaotically.
When their voice changed Gambit rolled onto his back to look up at Belle's face, his eyes widening as he saw Beau looking down at him instead. He felt a fresh wave of grief at the familiar face we missed so much, as well as relief that It wasn't just another trap.. Beau was really here, and their smile both broke his heart and held it together all at once.

Although he was shocked when Beau leaned down and kissed him, he was smiling all the same and seemed to melt into the grass beneath him as a warm feeling spread through him and helped ease the hollowness. He was still crying, yet he seemed to be unaware of it as Beau broke away, merely looking up at them with a silly smile on his face as if dazzled for a moment.
"M drunk and confused... yeh," As he spoke he leaned up and wrapped an arm around Beau's waist, hugging them close and wishing he could just stay like that forever. "But I still know I love you."

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As Belle talked, Gambit's breath seemed to hitch in his throat, but he didn't move away even as the truth made it hard for him to breathe. Instead, he curled his body even closer to her as she sat with him before resting his head against her leg without a sound.
His fear was demanding he run with every fiber of his being, not that he would have gotten further than ten feet in his state anyway, but he didn't have it in him to run from Beau after they showed him such kindness. He didn't deserve it. He'd betrayed the only person he'd ever cared about.

"Ah.." He mused, feeling a little delirious as it felt like his whole world had just been flipped upside-down on him. ".. If anyone has the right to kill me, it's you..." Despite his words and the intense glow of his eyes however, his tone seemed rather relieved.
He felt like even more of a mess than usual as conflicting emotions waged wars in his head. He was crying silently, yet his mouth was twisted in a smile. He was both overjoyed knowing his worst fears had been wrong and that Beau was alive, but also hollow and feeling worthless because of what that meant.

He felt putrid for giving up on returning. After the first two years of failed attempts he had convinced himself there was nothing to return to. He thought his fucked family had done something horrible to Beau, and he'd been too much of a coward to find out the truth. The fact that he had basically abandoned Beau for eight years was hitting him like a truck. He didn't know what he was supposed to say, or what he wanted to say. His thoughts were too loud for him to figure them out.
"I'm sorry I'm shit.. I'm so sorry Charm.."

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The leaves rustled in the wind above as a figure laid on the ground under a cluster of park trees. In the darkness he might have been nothing more than a shadow, if not for the magenta glow that lit up his eyes like Christmas lights as he stared up through the branches at the stars above. He still wore a tube top and jeans from his earlier outing with Belle, but the jacket was missing now and his arms bare. The bruises covering them from the night before had darkened to a deep purple, joined by a few newer ones as well as a split lip, but he was unbothered. He silently took a swig from an unlabeled bottle beside him in the grass and let his thoughts tumble through his head restricted.

The necklace Belle gave him hung from his neck safe and sound. One of his hands found the little charm and traced the D he now knew should have been a G. She knew him, but he didn't know her. There was only a few people that knew his old name, and until now he had assumed they all wanted him dead. Yet she had been kind, and seemed to care more about him than he even did himself. If it weren't for Belle's concern he'd have assumed it a trap and already be done with it. He'd be at the club still, laughing and sinning.

Yet here he was fucked up alone at a park, crying like a loser and wondering what damn dimension he'd fallen into last night. He wished if she knew him so well she'd know he was stupid and just tell him. He was sure it could break him, but frankly he was already fucked. He sat up and took another swig from the bottle only to topple over drunkenly onto his side. After a brief moment, he sat up again and this time slid closer to the tree to prop himself against it, pulling his knees to his chest and dropping the bottle beside him.

He knew it was a bad idea, but he couldn't drop Belle the way he could drop others. He had known her for only twenty-four hours, yet he found himself uncharacteristically attached to her. It made him seriously consider what was real and what wasn't, and a part of him was terrified he had finally fully lost it. Even the memories of before Japan that he avoided so much did not contain a girl named Belle. Honestly he had never really been close to any girls in his life, until her. Even his sister had been a stranger to him.

But then why was he sitting here torn because he wanted to see her? Why was she so special, and how did she know him? He had so many questions and no answers. He didn't even know if he wanted the answers, but if he was already crazy did it really matter?
He fumbled in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a joint and his phone, lighting the joint and trying to focus on the phone-screen as he scrolled through his messages. After glancing up confused for a moment until he located a big sign in the distance reading out the name of his mystery park, he sent a text to Belle.

He couldn't think of anything to say, just the name of the park, but as the phone slipped from his hand he simply leaned back against the tree and left it at that. He knew it was probably the wrong choice. He doubted she wanted to see him like this or put up with his shit, but he soon decided she likely wouldn't come anyway. Nobody sensible would, and sure as hell not for him.
With a smile he toppled over again but didn't bother sitting back up, simply laughing and rolling onto his back instead. There he lay, smoking and quietly singing to try and ignore the fact that he had no clue what he was doing anymore.

"Alice, Alice, heart and soul, fell into a rabbit hole~ Dreamers dream until they don't! Lost her miiind a whiiile ago! Alice, Alice, don't you know~ Wonderland was all a hoax, made it up so she could cope~ Maadder than a haatter, Alice... broke."

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"Very sure." Gambit responded firmly. He may have been confused to hell and back over the course of the last twelve or so hours, but Belle had made him quite happy. It was a nice break from his life, and he was thankful for it. Even if he hurt like hell inside, to him it was like facing the thorns to enjoy holding a rose.

He wasn't sure what the words were supposed to mean, but he assumed it had something to do with what Kysaly had said the night before about him reminding her of someone. It made things make a little more sense... maybe he had made her think of that person putting themselves down. His expression softened as he thought of how kind of a person she was, and he smiled at her warmly when she looked up to him.
"Thank you."

After a few heartbeats he looked down to check on her when she went silent, only for his gaze to be pulled immediately to the golden hand in her lap. For a moment, it was as if someone had pulled the plug on his mind. His thoughts blanked and all he could do was silently stare at the golden skin before it suddenly vanished as fast as it had come. He glanced away in a daze shortly before she looked up, his mind screaming too loud for him to form thoughts.

He tried to hear what she was saying, but he couldn't focus on anything besides the oddly soothing sound of her voice. He felt like he was leaning over a black abyss and if he tried to think it might tip him over the edge. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew his eyes were burning brighter than they had in a long time, enough that his vision had been tainted by the magenta color he had come to both hate and love.

He closed them and struggled to stop himself from spiraling, trying to block out the sounds of unseen horrors he could now feel lurking closer as his fear grew. Stop. Stop. Please. He wanted to be anywhere besides here, yet nowhere else at the same time. He tried to keep his face turned away from Belle, but his heart was racing so fast that he doubted it mattered. She would notice. He'd make her sad again. He had blown it.

He really wasn't cut out for being around people that didn't like his fear, he couldn't stop it yet he felt like shit for how it bothered Belle all the same. The only thing he wanted right now was to not be sober, and to be around the kind of people he couldn't hurt. Yet with Belle in his lap he couldn't run, even as his brain screamed louder than the voice that was scared of hurting her feelings, it wasn't louder than the one scared of hurting her physically.

With a sound that was half-whimper, half-laugh, he fell onto his back on the bench. Leaving her in his lap and instead simply trying to cover his eyes with his arms in barely-contained panic as he fought to calm down and not think all at once. He tried to smile knowing his mouth wasn't covered, but a part of him knew it probably looked closer to a grimace.
"I'm sorry, don't be sad please.. I'm just, ignore me.. haha."

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Gambit was confused for a moment when she brushed his cheek before he noticed why and his face flushed as he realized he hadn't been playing it so cool after all.
"No it's okay-" He quickly assured her, a little lost but not wanting to hurt her feelings either after she had been so kind to him. "I'm sorry..! I'm just.." He felt at a loss, honestly not even knowing himself why something like that had effected him that way. He had never had that happen before, even though things far more intimate than a simple kiss on the cheek were quite common for him.

"Maybe I'm just a bit mixed up from last night is all." He finished, his own best guess at the weirdness he was experiencing. He flashed her a smile as if to try and show her he was fine before playfully nudging her shoulder when she looked down. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad, I'm sorry.. I'm just a bit of a airhead, It's ok I promise~ You could do whatever you wanted, I wouldn't mind, It's fine~"

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Gambit joined Belle outside, giving a little smile as she did a cute little bow when he approached. He sat fairly close beside her on the bench and leaned forward to offer his hand as she held hers out, a goofy smile appearing on his face as he saw the melon necklace fall into his palm. Being the dumbass that he was, he missed the fact that his old initial was on the necklace, too caught up in how much he liked it to realize she should only know his new one.

"I fucking love it~" He quickly closed his hand over the melon necklace and brought it close to his chest for a moment before gleefully sitting it safely in his lap so he could give her his gift in return. He carefully fished the peach necklace out of his pocket and held out his hand with his fist closed around it to drop it in her palm as she had done to him. A part of him enjoyed the fact that they had both seemed to have the same idea, and it made him feel a little less like a duck in a chicken coop.

"Seems great minds think alike~" He mused with a chuckle as he gave her the necklace and took a bite of his crepe, his free hand returning almost immediately to pick up the necklace she gave him from his lap as if scared of loosing it. 

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Gambit felt her happiness as if it were contagious when she smiled at him like that, and yet something tugged sharply at him from inside. It was like the happiness came hand in hand with sorrow, but he was too scared to think about where the sorrow came from, and so he tried to ignore it and push it away. He was torn between enjoying being around Belle, and also hating that doing so made him feel so unsure and mixed up inside.

He smirked mischievously when she stole a bite of his crepe, responding by gently wiping a bit of whip-cream off of her bangs and casually licking it off his finger with a swipe of his tongue.
"Very~" He mused happily, turning to look back towards the street as Shima handed Belle a pink crepe with peach and creme filling. Although his chest remained hollow even as his head was happy, he was still enjoying himself. His eyes hadn't been this close to normal in a long time, and he hadn't seen a single horror since the night before.

But then why did it feel like the more he enjoyed himself, the more on edge he was? His shoulders had become tense, and something in him felt like a loaded spring. This wasn't his life, hadn't been for a long time, and it was slowly getting to him. He was also aware the longer he was around Belle the more likely she would learn more about him, and the fun would likely end there. Although he had no issue with his life-style, he wasn't blind to how normies viewed people like him, either.

Normally he wasn't this interested in Normies to begin with, but something about Belle was different. However, he wasn't sure if he saw that as a good thing. The last thing he wanted was to risk getting attached to another person again. He had spent the last eight years surrounding himself with human garbage for exactly that reason, and here he was risking it all for a normie. Internally, a part of him wanted to scream. Yet when he spoke he still at least sounded happy and calm.
"Wanna check out the shops?~"