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"Is there anything you particularly want to do in DC?" Gansey had asked Blue on the drive up last night, his hand finding her knee. She wasn't sure, really. Besides being apprehensive about seeing Gansey's family and being excited to spend time alone with him, Blue hadn't thought much about the trip before it happened. But then suddenly it was upon them and they were driving the three hours northeast, and she had every offering of the area available to her.
"I want to go to the aquarium," she'd said, surprising herself with how much she meant it. She did want to go to the aquarium.
She hadn't been to one since she was probably seven or eight years old when she and half of the inhabitants of 300 Fox Way had taken a vacation to North Carolina. She remembered the overpowering awe she'd felt seeing sharks several times her size mere inches away, just a thick sheet of glass between them. She remembered each room being cast in a flickering blue light, as if she was truly at the bottom of the sea herself. She remembered her little cousins being too young to tolerate much, and wishing she could be there alone, to sit and stare for as long as she wanted.
"Great idea," Gansey'd said. "We can go up to Baltimore."
Now they were on the road to a city she'd never been to before, Gansey behind the wheel of his Suburban, as big as the American dream. They were merging onto I-95 North, more of a hellscape than a highway, when Gansey handed her his phone.
"I've had enough of it already. Hide it from me, please, Jane."
"Oh, sure." She glanced down at the screen; it was already lighting up again with another message. Dozens lay under it, labelled 'Helen' and 'Mother' and several more than were simply strings of numbers. It was more texts than she'd ever seen. "You don't need to answer any of these?"
"Need is not the word I'd use," he sighed. He changed lanes in an impressive maneuver, merging into a barely-there gap while cars zipped recklessly around him, and continued as if it was nothing. Perhaps to Gansey it was nothing; he seemed completely used to the insane way that people drove in DC. "I've never been more ready to go on our trip,” he said. “They know I'll be traveling then, it won't be like this. It's since I'm here- we're here- that they're so… enthusiastic."
She nodded. Cell phones weren't a thing in her household they were in the Ganseys, and she suddenly realised how much of a blessing that must be. Not that she'd get half as many messages as Richard Gansey the Third, the heir of a political family, but her mom would probably call her way too much.
Blue grabbed Gansey's hand as they exited the parking garage. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please." He pulled her closer and threw an arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him and his fingers followed the line her necklace to ghost along her collarbone, sending slight goosebumps down her arms. It was an overcast day, chillier than usual for late August. Maybe Fall would come early. Fall always felt like the start of something new, and this year more than ever.
It was strange to be in a real city, with huge thousand-window skyscrapers and bustling sidewalks. Parts of DC were like that too, she knew, but the area where the Ganseys lived might as well have been a different universe. It was all brick townhouses and manicured gardens and gated driveways, nothing at all like downtown Baltimore. She was glad to be with Gansey, to walk close to his side and allow him to figure everything out.
They walked until they found a small cafe, a quiet place with a striped awning and a neon sign in the window. Gansey held the door open for her, and she ordered for them both at the counter: a London Fog for Gansey and an iced vanilla latte for her.
"What would I ever do without you?" Gansey laughed, reaching around her to pay.
"Have to order your old-man-drink yourself, is what," she teased. She watched as his card went through. She was finally starting to get used to Gansey paying.
The first few weeks she had to pretend it wasn't happening, after she'd tried to pay once and he'd practically thrown himself in front of her to stop her. He'd spent nearly an hour that evening convincing her that he should be allowed to pay when they went out. 'It's not anti-feminist, Blue," he'd said, and had so many debate points to back it up that she'd finally given in. She had to admit she didn't hate it, now. It was cute that he wanted to take care of her, or whatever.
She still didn’t love it, but she accepted that it mattered to him. It wasn’t going to stop her from trying to be quicker than him once in a while, but this was a date and he ‘was going to pay, Jane,’ so she figured he could have this one. She’d get him back once his guard was down, and that was a promise.
"It's not an old man drink," Gansey mumbled, pulling her back to the present, and she laughed.
"Keep telling yourself that, Dick."
Gansey gasped theatrically at the use of his first name, and pulled her in to press a quick kiss to her forehead.
The National Aquarium was one of the biggest aquariums in the United States, and it certainly looked it. It felt like it took up an entire block. It was right on the water, as well, which was cool. Was that standard with aquariums? She didn't know. Gansey would know, but it felt like a dumb question to ask.
"Ready?" he asked, lacing his fingers with Blue's. She nodded.
She felt almost giddy as they entered the ticket line. She didn't know anything about this aquarium, but there had to be a lot inside if it was this huge.
Gansey bought their tickets while she tried not to gasp at the price (almost $50 per person!). He didn't even blink, just swiped his card. She'd definitely never get used to how easily he did that.
They spent the next while wandering through the small exhibits at the beginning of the aquarium, walking hand in hand and pointing out creatures they liked or thought were funny. Gansey especially liked the lizards, reading all the plaques about them and squinting to find them in their habitats.
"Look, Jane!" he whisper-yelled, squeezing her hand. He pointed at the corner of the glass. Blue leaned down to try to see, and he pulled her into him. She stumbled slightly, but he righted her easily with a hand on her hip.
"Gansey!"
"Do you see it?"
"See what?"
"The Jefferson mole salamander. Ambystoma jeffersonianum. Look!" Sure enough, there was a dark brown salamander with large eyes poking its head out of a hole just on the other side of the glass.
"Aw, it's kinda cute," she said, reaching out to cautiously touch the glass near it. The salamander immediately ducked back down into its hiding spot and Gansey laughed.
"You scared it!"
"He'll be fine. C'mon, I wanna see the sharks."
Gansey let her lead him further into the aquarium, seemingly content to just follow behind her. He had said that he'd been to this aquarium almost a dozen times before, after all, he'd probably seen everything so many times.
They weaved through groups of elementary and middle school field trips and tired parents.
"Wait, Blue," Gansey said suddenly. "Shark alley." He pointed to a sign at the end of the hall.
"Yes! Let's go. Wait, say your thing."
"Excelsior!"
"Excelsior," she echoed, laughing.
It felt like a different lifetime than the one where they'd stood in the flowing empty grasslands of rural Virginia, searching the ley line for Glendower. But this was still her Gansey, the same one who'd convinced Helen to set them down on private property and led them into Cabeswater. He was still the same boy she'd fallen in love with on those pitch black Virginia highways so many months ago, but he was a different boy now too. He was calmer now, more settled than he had been then, and a little more… real, somehow. Like dying a second time had made him more alive.
She looked at him as he looked at the sharks, dappled blue light flickering across his face, and was nearly overwhelmed with how much she loved him. Turning back to the sharks before he could catch her looking, she realised how lucky she truly was.
Not only had they both survived Blue's curse, but they were happy. They were happy and in love and had all the time in the world to figure the rest out. She laced her fingers through Gansey's and out of the corner of her eye saw him smile softly. He raised their conjoined hands to his mouth and kissed the back of her hand, and she laid her head on his shoulder just as the biggest shark she'd ever seen glided past.
It felt like a sign. They were together, right where they needed to be, and they had a million more moments like this ahead of them.