Ori sneaked several surreptitious looks at Lelah as they walked out to her loft, wondering how she was feeling now. She seemed a lot less angry than when he'd come to her office, for which he was very thankful. Still, he knew she still had to be pretty ticked off by all of this.

After the fourth look he darted her way, Lelah stopped dead in her tracks and turned to him. "What? What are you looking at? Do I have something in my teeth? Hanging out of my nose? Is my shirt see-through in certain light?"

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I was...trying to see how mad you still were. Your top looks very nice," he added. "Not see through at all. Purple is a good color for you. "

She laughed and bumped her shoulder against his. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bark at you. I'm just... I feel really betrayed by all of this, you know?"

"It's okay," he protested. "Really. I understand. You have every right to feel mad and betrayed. I'd be furious, too." He reached out and patted her shoulder.

"You're wonderful," she said softly. They were walking up her drive now and she could see Oscar's face pressed against the window in the dining room. She waved at him and the sound of his yodeling could be heard all the way outside. "He's a nut."

"You bring it out in me." He grinned when she waved at Oscar, and wider still when he heard the dog's funny yodel. "He's really funny. I didn't know anything about Basenjis before I met you...and Oscar. They're neat."

"He's a comedian. My friend got him for me the year I won the Oscar, hence his name. I didn't know anything about them, but he, my friend, had grown up with them and knew that he, Oscar, I mean, would be the perfect companion for me, since they're so loyal and bond really easily with one person." She paused and dug in her bag for her keys. "I needed that at the time, you know?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I do. Looks like it worked, too, huh? He's definitely devoted to you." Kind of like you're becoming, huh, Ori? "I'm just glad he likes me." He stood a pace behind her at the top of the stairs, waiting as she opened the door.

"Me, too. It'd be difficult otherwise." She unlocked the door and was assaulted by a nutty Basenji. Oscar was so happy to see his mistress during the day that he danced and jumped and yodeled for her and then Ori, too, when he spotted the wizard behind Lelah.

He laughed, kneeling down to pet the dancing dog. "Hey there, big guy. Good to see you, too." He stood back up, grinning at Lelah. "If I ever get a dog, I think I'd want one like him."

She laughed and headed inside, leaving the door open behind her for Oscar to come back in when he was done snooping around the yard. "Yeah, he's pretty special. I think I'll only own Basenjis from now on." She set her bag down on the table next to the door, slipped her shoes off and shoved them underneath the table with the rest that were lined up and headed into the kitchen. "What're you hungry for? I was thinking soup and sandwiches or salads or something."

He put his own shoes next to hers, walking over to the table. "Soup and sandwiches sounds good to me. Want any help?"

"Nope. I got it under control. Sit down and tell me what you've been doing this week." She began moving around the kitchen, grabbing ingredients and tools, mixing and slicing and stirring, never remaining in one place for long.

He pulled out the chair that faced the kitchen and settled down into it, watching her. "Well...when I wasn't with you, I was mostly working, doing those storyboards. Or studying that spell book. I think I'm on the verge of learning a new spell." He shrugged, though she couldn't see it. "Other than that, you know what I've been doing, since I've been doing it with you." She was like a lovely little butterfly there in the kitchen, fluttering from flower to flower. A fond smile curved his lips as he continued watching her and thinking that. Yup, a butterfly. One of the really pretty kinds.

"Are you enjoying it?" She glanced over her shoulder as she sliced up some cucumbers. "The storyboarding and working with Adam, I mean. I know it's not what you were hired to do, but I figured if you have an idea of what we're going for with the look of the whole film, it might make it easier for you to set up your effects."

"I'm loving it," he answered honestly. "It's been my dream for so long to work on films... And yeah, that's exactly the way I think of it. The more I know, the more I can fit the effects to it." As he spoke, he pulled out the copy of the script she'd given him, and, tearing his eyes off of her with some effort, started paging through it.

She watched him for a moment and then smiled softly. She went back to lunch preparations, slicing bread and spreading it with a basil mayo before piling on slices of turkey, provolone cheese, lettuce, roasted red bell peppers, cucumbers, and salt and pepper. Then she turned off the burner underneath a pot full of creamy potato soup and added some chives and cheddar cheese to each bowl she ladled it into.

"Hmm," he mused softly to himself as he read the descriptions of the setting for the opening scene of the film. "I can make a desert, you know," he said, looking up in her direction.

She paused, her hands full of plates with sandwiches on them. "You can do what now?" She gave him a very puzzled look.

"Make a desert," he repeated, pointing down at the script. "The opening scene is Juliana and Imad in the desert. I have a spell to make an area of terrain look like any other terrain. Even with structures and stuff. It'll look, feel and smell like the real thing, even if it will only last about 16 hours." As he spoke of the spell, he felt it pulsing in his mind, begging to be released. He forced it away with what was becoming practiced effort. Not now, he told it. Another day. "All I need is some pictures to go by, if you want specific buildings or whatever."

She set the plates down on the table and just stared at him for a moment. "Wait. Let me get this straight. You don't have to use a computer for this? We won't have to make a sound stage look like a desert or hire a matte painter to do backgrounds? You can just change a back lot into a desert?"

He nodded enthusiastically, grinning. "You bet I can. And the actors will be able to feel the sand beneath their feet and the wind--hear it, too. They'll smell that dry, sandy smell of the desert. They can even pick up a handful of sand if they want." He was getting into the idea now, and his voice picked up speed. "It's like the perfect immersion set. They'll really feel like they're in the desert. It'll be big enough to hold several buildings, or let them walk around some."

She smiled softly and then took a deep breath before blurting out in a waterfall of words, "I'm just going to say it because we've both been feeling it and it seems to me that it's sorta dumb to not say it because it's too early or whatever because what happens if you get run over by a bus tomorrow or what if a dragon decides that I look particularly yummy later this afternoon and then we'll be dead and neither of us will have said how we feel and I think that's possibly the saddest thing I've ever thought of." She took another deep breath and said slowly, carefully this time, "I'm falling in love with you, Ori."

He lifted his head, staring at her. "I've been asking myself if I was falling for you, if it could happen so fast. I didn't know if I was just...you know, fooling myself, because of our...intimacy. I told myself that I had to take it slow, take it easy, because I didn't want to screw things up between us. I remembered what you said about Rhys, and was scared to death that I might push you too hard like that, and lose you like that. And all the while, I was realizing how terrible, how sad it would be if you weren't with me. I knew you felt some of this, too, even if I didn't know how much. To hear you say it, though... I know it's okay for me to tell you that I think...no...I know that I'm falling in love with you, too, Lelah." He took a deep breath of his own, then leaned forward, taking her into his arms, and pressing his forehead against hers.

She slid off her chair and into his lap, curling her arms around his broad, strong shoulders and pressing her lips against his. She kissed him softly, almost hesitantly, as if she expected to be rebuffed at any moment.

He closed his eyes when her lips touched his, meeting that kiss gently, a little bit of his own hesitation showing through for a moment before he seemed to gain confidence, and kissed her more firmly, sliding careful fingers into her silky hair to cup her head.

She responded in kind, parting her lips so that her tongue snaked out to dance with his. She slipped her hands through his hair, twisting it around her fingers, amazed once more at how it felt like a living, breathing, warm-blooded creature. "Bed?" she murmured, breaking the kiss but not the touch of their mouths.

The hot sensation of arousal filled his body as she held his hair and kissed him, sending little trembles through his muscles. "Yes, please," he whispered, standing, lifting her slight weight in his arms and carrying her towards the bedroom. He felt almost giddy with happiness, now that they'd both confessed their feelings, and he was determined to see that she'd never forget this night.

She peeled off her jacket as he carried her into the bedroom, letting it fall to the floor and then chucked her shirt as well. Her fingers were busy at the buttons of his shirt, making quick work of them before she pushed the shirt from his shoulders and kissed his chest, her tongue and teeth exploring his skin.

He gasped at the feel of her mouth on his chest, tilting his head back, sitting down quickly on the edge of her bed before his knees turned to rubber. His fingernails scraped down her back and found the catch to her bra, unhooking it quickly and tugging it down off of her.

She smiled up at him, whispered soft, sibilant words between kisses, covering his body in poetry. First, she spoke the poem in Persian, then translated while holding his face between her hands, her eyes locked onto his, "In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest, where no one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art."

It was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever said to him. He felt a pressure in his chest, almost an ache, but it wasn't something to hide from, or wish away. It was his growing love for her, he realized, stirred awake by her words. He looked deep into her beautiful eyes and wished he had words to match those she'd just spoken.

She smiled again, just as softly, then leaned in and kissed his mouth, then his cheeks, then his forehead. "It's Rumi," she explained. "He's a poet. My father read his poetry to my mother and that one was always my favorite."

"It's beautiful," he whispered. "I've never heard anything so beautiful."

She kissed his mouth once more, then slid off his lap long enough to unzip her skirt and let it fall to pool on the floor around her ankles. She stepped out of it and stood before him, wearing only panties.
He reached out and put his hands on her hips, pulling her to him. He kissed her stomach, then rested his cheek between her breasts. "Tell me again," he whispered.

She lowered her head, pressing her face into his hair, and whispered, "?n-vaqt ke bahr-? k?ll shavad z?t mar?, r?shan ghardad jam?l-? zarr?t mar?. z-?n m?-s?zam ch? sham'a t? dar rah-? ?shq, yek vaqt shavad j?mleh-? awq?t mar?."

"It gives me goosebumps," he murmured against her flesh, then kissed the valley between her breasts before tilting his head up to find her mouth with his. His fingers pressed into the bare skin of her back, stroking, rubbing.

She kissed him, pouring all the burgeoning love she was feeling for him into that one gesture. She pulled back and whispered against his mouth, "I love you," before kissing him again, pushing him gently backwards onto the bed and helping him out of his pants.

Even with their mutual confession just minutes ago, it was something entirely different, something intensely intimate and special to hear her actually say those three words to him. When she'd slid his pants off of him, he pulled her up his body until their faces were less than an inch apart, and, gazing intently into her eyes, he said them back. "I love you."

"Show me," she whispered and laid down next to him, her arms reaching for him, inviting him to make love to her. "Show me, Ori," she whispered again, the words urgent this time.

((Many thanks to Ori Simon's player for this scene.))