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"She walks in beauty, like the night!"
Tori bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from giggling. She could taste the tang of blood, but it was worth it to see Paulie try harder to make her laugh.
"Of cloudless climes and starry skies!"
She had to actually turn her back this time to hide her reaction. They had a pile of freshly washed sheets currently languishing on the spare bed and waiting to be folded and put away, so she gladly walked over to fuss with them and cover up her reason for turning.
"And all that's best of dark and bright! Meet in her aspect! And her eyes!"
It was a good thing Tori didn't actually care about the quality of her folding, because she had to shut her eyes and breathe long and deep to quell her amusement.
"Come on, Tori! We both know you hate tidying and never do it unless you have to, just come listen to this poem. It's the most fantastic thing."
Breaking, Tori turned and put her hands on her hips. The words on her lips died when she saw Paulie, lying on her back with her head hanging off the end of bed and a crazed grin on her face.
"One shade the more, one ray the less! Had half impaired the nameless grace!"
"I'm pretty sure it isn't meant to have that much emphasis on the end of every line, Paulie," Tori threw back with a smirk.
Paulie rolled her eyes, and twisted onto her stomach, still grinning. Tori felt her stomach take a little flip. Paulie's smile was always so wide and warm and slightly out of control, like Paulie herself, and it was always brightest for Tori.
"Which waves in every raven tress, or softly lightens over her face! Oh Tori, words as important as these need to be shouted from rooftops with passion!"
Paulie slipped off the bed and onto her feet, and leapt across the room to stand in front of Tori, so close that their noses were almost touching.
"Isn't it just divine?" she asked, her voice hushed but excited. "Such words. Such beauty!"
"Beauty, huh?" Tori laughed as Paulie spun away again. "Come on, are you coming to breakfast?"
"Yes, beauty!" Paulie snatched up her jacket and bounded out their door. "Oh, to see such beauty!" Tori heard her words echoing back up the stairs and laughed.
They were serving blueberry pancakes that morning, and Tori and Paulie managed to find themselves a corner where they could eat in peace. Paulie was still muttering lines of the poem to herself and exclaiming over them while she ate, anyhow. The other girls were rarely inclined to deal with Paulie when she was in a mood like this, but Tori didn't mind. They had more fun on their own, anyway.
"Don't you want to see beauty like that one day, Tori?" Paulie asked, suddenly serious over her orange juice.
"What sort of beauty is that, Paulie?" Tori said and flicked a tiny piece of her remaining pancake across the table.
Paulie laughed and flinched away from the tiny projectile, her serious expression dropped, but still she stared intently into Tori's eyes as she spoke.
"The sort of beauty that changes your life."
They went from class to class, and spent lunch and dinner with the others like they normally did, and Paulie seemed to calm down a little along the way. She didn't yell or jump on furniture or mutter about old texts that nobody understood. She wasn't too intense for the others. But when they got back to the room, she got that look in her eye again. The look that told Tori to curl up with a pillow and get ready to hear all of the craziest thoughts on Paulie's mind.
She loved evenings like this. Just the two of them, hidden away in their tower room and telling secrets. She particularly liked that Paulie could be like this with her, because Tori knew - oh how she knew - that Paulie didn't feel free enough to be like this with anyone else.
But Paulie didn't jump on her bed and laugh and start spilling bitter memories across their room. Instead, she knelt down on the floor in front of Tori, and took her hand.
"I've known the sort of beauty that changes your life," she said, serious once more.
"Paulie-" Tori started, lost, but Paulie silenced her by raising Tori's hand to her lips and placed on gentle kiss on her knuckles.
"My Victoria," she said, and then simply sat there on her heels and looked.
"Paulie, I don't understand," Tori finally choked out.
"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," she replied earnestly, and then moved from the floor to sit beside Tori on the bed and hold her hand and tangle their fingers together. "Say you'll be mine?"
"But we're both girls, Paulie."
"What does that have to do with anything? Say you'll be mine, and I'll be yours, and then we can be together forever."
Then she leant forward and kissed Tori chastely, before leaning back and watching her closely.
"What do you say?"
"I don't- Paulie. Everyone will- I don't-"
"Hush," Paulie said and reached up to cup her cheek with one hand. "And on that cheek," she intoned, and then caressed each of Tori's in turn, "and over that brow," and she gently smoothed the lines of confusion and worry on her forehead with her thumbs. Then she leant forward and kissed all three.
"What's the next line?" Tori whispered, her voice breaking.
"So soft, so calm, yet eloquent-" she paused to kiss Tori's lips again, "- the smiles that win, the tints that glow, but tell of days in goodness spent."
She paused, waiting, and Tori tilted up her head so their lips brushed.
"Tori," Paulie whispered, her voice strained. "Tori."
Their lips moving against each other as she spoke made Tori shudder, and then Paulie was snatching her up and bearing her back against the pillows. Paulie's hands were on her hips, her waist, her breasts, her neck. She was kissing her thoroughly and murmuring her name each time they broke to breathe.
"My Paulie?" Tori managed to gasp when Paulie's lips trailed away across her jaw.
"Always yours," she murmured back and tightened her fingers in the hair at the nape of Tori's neck. "Yours, beautiful, yours."