Revenge of the Hideous Lady by Moonlight

"I'm guessing you aren't fine," Annabeth Cates took a deep breath and said carefully.

"Congratulations, you've got that right," Josh Batton said teasingly.

Her body grew tense again. "Should I-?"

"No, I can control myself," he assured her.

"Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yeah." With that, Josh tenderly pressed her head against his chest, rubbing her back gently. "Good girl. Let's get some sleep."

He switched the lights off them, plunging the room into darkness.

The entire world had fallen silent.

It was so quiet that she could hear him breathing as his warm breath blew against her neck. It made her heart rate go out of control.

She couldn't help but recall their intimate moments together.

She closed her eyes and tried her best to fall asleep without uttering a word.

Josh was doing his best to control himself because he couldn't do anything despite having a beautiful woman in his arms.

He began to calm down after Annabeth had fallen asleep, his facial expression gradually relaxing in the dark.

Perhaps it was due to the adrenaline rush from being on stage or taking a shower, but he could not fall asleep at all despite being tired. After a while, he carefully shifted Annabeth's head onto a pillow before getting up to put on a white bathrobe and went to the balcony. Josh poured himself a glass of red wine before he sat by the coffee table, sipping as he gazed at the moon.

Outside, it was snowing, but it was warm on the balcony.

The world outside was covered in a blanket of white as far as the eye could see, making everything seem pure.

It was the coldest winter day with the highest snowfall in all the years Josh had lived in Atlantis.

Although it was cold, his heart felt warm because Annabeth was with him.

thinking about all the little things between them, feeling like

would fall in love

was

and make one feel happy. And happiness often comes knocking on the door with no warning.

were full of

he could come home to a place where he could feel

all his exhaustion would fade away as soon as he saw

in love with her for the rest

would never

inspired to

the piano room. He sat in front of the piano and began writing down the melody in his mind in a

gentle tune, every note conveying warmth

playing, it felt

upright in front of the elegant white piano, wearing

long fingers danced freely on the black and white

a wonderful

qualities of the room were incredible. Nobody could hear a thing outside with the door

was very pleased with the tune he played, finding absolutely nothing that

down the song's name above the score;

after setting the score aside and proceeded to leave the

had time, but he had decided to make

Annabeth a surprise

tired by then, he headed back upstairs to find her sound asleep,

***

side was empty when

the next morning,

to touch

next to her and finding it

glanced around, spotting Josh on the phone in front of

Josh was at a fair distance, and he