There's No Place like Home [Vacation]

The thought made her laugh when they were seated in the cafe. It was a cute little place and it seemed nice enough. When the waitress came over and asked what they wanted, the statement kind of came to her as a surprise. She didn't react nearly like Gabe did, though. Her eyebrows furrowed for a second in a confused look. Where in the world did that comment come from? Did they look like they were dating? It was a shame that two friends couldn't just go out for coffee and tea. A little bit of color flushed into her cheeks, but she smiled and waved it off pretty quickly before she glanced across the table to her companion. He looked so flustered! He could barely finish a sentence. Erin was half surprised he could ask for a drink. Turning back to the waitress, she chuckled. "Oh, we're not together," she told her. "Well, like... as in dating. But I'll have the same thing." After she had ordered, she looked back over at the summer. "Are you okay over there?" she asked him playfully.

The waitress nodded and walked away, giggling to herself. She shipped it. Gabriel looked up, his face still slightly red. "I'm fine. Great. Brilliant." he said. "And I thought you were going to get coffee?" He stuck his tongue at her in an attempt to bring things back to normal. After a few minutes, their drinks came out. Gabriel took his drink and nodded his thanks. He took a sip of the tea and sighed quietly, he missed truly British tea.

Erin rolled her eyes with a smirk as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. "I might still get coffee!" she responded with sass. "I just wanted to start off with tea. You talked this place up so much that I wanted to try both!" With a bit of a giggle, she sat up when the drinks arrived. She looked at it for a minute, admiring the steam that gently rose from the cup. It was so nice to see hot tea again. Picking up the cup, she sipped it for a moment, the burst of flavor amazing. It definitely was something she had missed even if she wasn't from London. This was real tea. It was fantastic. Setting her cup down, she looked back up at Gabe. "Okay, so I'll give you points for the tea. It's delicious!" She told him before immediately picking it back up to sip on it some more. It was hot, but it was perfect. "I didn't realize how much I missed European tea."

Gabriel laughed at what she said. "See, I told you it was good!" he said, sticking his tongue out again. He took another sip of the hot tea. "It's European tea or go home with me. None of that synthetic American rubbish." He shrugged. "Actually, I lied. I'll only take the synthetic kind when I've run out of the good stuff. Or when I'm hanging out with some red-headed girl in the Lounge." he added, smiling. He loved hanging out with Erin so much, she was so energetic and funny. He sat back in his chair and took some sips of his tea, waiting for it to cool enough for him to actually drink it. "So I take it I don't have to drag you across London to every cafe?"

"Okay, okay. You got me there!" she told him, rolling her eyes playfully as he talked about the tea back from America. He was right about that. The tea from America sucked compared to this stuff. At this point, she had practically downed half of it without realizing it. She had only paused when he recalled the time they spent in the lounge when they first met. She quickly felt a small blush fill her cheeks as she remembered back to that time. Yeah the tea still sucked but she had fun. He was a lot different than she had expected when they first met, but it was a very nice change. He was so grounded compared to her. What she really liked, though, was that he also took time to go out and do things rather than play it safe inside. "Hey, I tried to make that tea as best as I could. You have to give me credit for that." With a grin, she finally placed the cup down and leaned her head on her hand after resting her elbow on the table. "Well... I guess you don't have to. I think I can stick around in this one for a while. But I don't know... What if their coffee isn't good? Then we'll have to go searching for a good coffee shop!" she teased.

Gabriel rolled his eyes jokingly. "Well, going around London in coffee shops is one way to spend the day. And then we'd never sleep again from all the caffeine." he said, laughing. "I was thinking we could walk around after this. Just take in the scenery of my hometown." He wasn't going to tell her his plan to go on the London Eye until later, when it was dark out. She needed to see the Eye at night, plus it would be a great ride. He took another sip of his tea, finally cool enough to drink properly.

"But then we would have so much time to do everything!" she exclaimed, her eyes almost lighting up at the idea of not sleeping. In her mind, that would be fantastic never having to sleep again. She loved being up and active. It would give her more time to go out at night and look at the stars. She quickly calmed down again, though, when he had mentioned walking around and taking in the sights. It was a cool idea. She wanted to see everything if she could get the chance because she was pretty sure this would be her only chance to visit London. "I'm up for it! I would love to see where you live. I want to see as much as I can while I'm here!" She continued to drink her tea, almost finishing it as quickly as she had gotten it. She didn't even realize it was gone until she tried to sip it again and only got air.

Drinking the last of his tea, he grabbed his wallet. He pulled out a few bills that would cover what they owed and set them down on the table. Standing up, he put out his hand to Erin. Might as well get started. London was huge, and it would take awhile to cover everything he wanted. "Shall we?" he said to her.

OOC: We could either timeskip to evening and the Eye or I could bullshit my way through walking around London. Your choice.

Finally setting down her cup, she waited for Gabe to finish. It didn't take very long and as soon as he was done, he stood up and held his hand out to her. For a second, she stared at it with a bit of surprise before she grinned, looked up at him and took his hand eagerly before standing up. "I think we shall!" she said as they walked out of the cafe.

---time skip---

The walk had basically taken all day. They traveled just about everywhere. Erin remembered seeing a couple of streets a few times as they walked around the city. There were so many things that she absolutely loved as they walked. There were so many sights and sounds that the redhead wasn't used to. It was so exciting! She almost didn't want it to end. By the end of the day, however, she felt that they had practically been everywhere. The sun had already set and the last bit of sunlight was shining above the buildings that towered over them. It left a beautiful rainbow in the sky of reds and blues before fading into the black and stars. Well, what stars could be seen through the lights of the city. As they continued to move, Erin finally wondered where they were going. She knew that they were wandering rather aimlessly, but now it seemed that Gabriel was on a mission to go somewhere. "So where are we headed now?" she asked him, her eyes locked on the night life moving around them. It was like a whole new city as the sun went down.

The Summer walked alongside the girl with his hands in his pockets. He looked towards the setting sun as they made their way towards the Eye. "You'll see." he said, smiling at Erin. He was getting nervous as he contemplated what he was going to say to the girl once they got onto the Eye. He knew he was going to confess his feelings for her, but he didn't know what to say. A fluttery feeling ran through his heart and stomach as he thought more about it. Eventually they made it to the point where they could get on the Eye. Luckily, the line was very short tonight. "Do you know where we're going yet?" he asked her, giving her a goofy grin.

The autumn continued to look around at the city, unable to take it all in. There was just so much around them. It was very exciting to see the night life, but she finally paused when she looked in front of them to see the giant Ferris wheel. She had always seen pictures of the Eye but seeing it in person was a whole new type of amazement. It was huge! Her face beamed as she looked up at all of the lights that decorated the outside of it. She turned to look back at Gabe with wide, excited eyes and a big, goofy grin to match his. "No way! You can't be serious! Are we getting on?" she asked him, even though she was certain she already knew the answer. It took everything she had not to jump around and squeal like a little girl getting candy for the first time. This was awesome! Here she was thinking that she would only ever be able to see it from pictures or from a distance, but here they were about to climb on. Erin was sure that what made her the most excited was seeing all of the city lights from the top of the Eye. It was going to be so beautiful! "I can't wait! This is going to be so great! You thought of everything!" The way that she bounced around and grabbed onto Gabriel's arm was funny. She didn't even realize how silly she probably looked, but at this point, she couldn't care less.

Gabriel laughed at Erin's reaction to seeing the Eye. "Yep. We're going up." he said simply, smiling. He watched as the girl bounced around with excitement. 'She's so cute when she gets excited.' he thought. As they made their way through line the fluttery feeling kept getting stronger. He took a deep breath to steady himself; he thought that he was shaking. Once they had finally made it to the front of the line, he was just about as nervous as Erin was excited. He and the girl got into one of the cars and after a few minutes they began to move up. As the got higher and higher Gabriel admired the view. He had never seen London from this point of view. And now, with the perfect scenery, would be the perfect time to admit to Erin how he truly felt.

Looking at the girl, he swallowed nervously and took a deep breath. "H-hey Erin? he began, C-can I tell you s-something?"

It was so hard to contain her excitement, but Erin knew that she had to try to keep herself calm. No matter how hard she tried, though, she couldn't wipe the large grin on her face. Soon it was their turn to get on and she climbed in without hesitation. This was going to be so much fun! She waited on Gabe to get in behind her and soon they were moving and climbing up. Of course, the higher that they went, the more Erin began to look around to see what everything looked like from above. Her eyes quickly locked onto the scenery below, her expression that of amazement and awe. It was so much more beautiful than she could have ever imagined! Her thought process was quickly interrupted, however, when Gabe spoke up suddenly as they started to reach the top. With a quick turn sending a lot of her hair flying for just a moment, she stared at him with curiosity and a quizzical look. "What is it?" she asked him, having no idea what he could be asking about.

Gabe took another breath. Looking right into her eyes, he prepared himself for what he was about to say. "I have something I want to tell you. I've been meaning to tell you for awhile now, but tonight seemed like the perfect time to do it." he said. "So here it goes. I.. like you, Erin. I really like you." The last part came out as barely a whisper. His face was redder than a tomato by the time he had finished speaking, and his eyes had wound up wandering back to the skyline and the view of London from above. 'Well, it's out in the air now.' he thought. 'I just hope this doesn't make things weird between Erin and I.'

Erin instinctively tilted her head to the side as Gabriel began talking. He seemed really nervous about whatever it was that he had to say. It was a little strange, but it made her listen more intently. When he finally said what he had to say, there was a mix of emotions that spread across her face. It started with surprise and flattery turned confusion and a little bit of shock. She had no idea why she wasn't expecting this, but the whole thing was a surprise to her. Her mind reeled as she tried to wrap her brain around the whole thing. Her heart raced and her stomach suddenly felt like it was doing flips inside of her body. How was she supposed to respond to this? She had never really thought about how she felt about him specifically before. They were friends, but she never thought more than that. Oh god... "Oh," she said rather happily, looking down at the ground for a moment deep in thought. She felt bad for not saying more, but what else was she supposed to say? She had to think about this. The only thing Erin found herself doing was smiling like a dork. "I, uh... I don't really know what to say," she told him. "I'm very flattered, but I don't think that... I can say the same. With the same kind of meaning, at least. I really like you too, but romantic stuff hasn't ever really been my focus, I guess. I'm sorry if that isn't really what you want to hear. I mean, I can't say I don't like you like that, but I also can't say that I do. I'll... I'll have to think about it." Despite her confusion and almost disbelief, it was an exciting nervousness that flowed through her. Who knew people could be interested in her?