#(to be honest- the blurb wasn't about PalmerStrange; it was about Stephen realizing he was ready to feel that way about someone again)

[sobeautifullyobsessed]

palmerstrangeweek22 / day one: free choice

(from a blurb I wrote months ago - it's all I have fit to offer for palmerstrange)

...it suddenly felt as though a kaleidoscope of butterflies had been set loose in his chest and stomach. The last time they’d invaded with such fierce insistence was years ago; the first time that Christine Palmer had accompanied him to a Neurological Society Dinner—as a colleague only, presumably as just his ‘plus-one’. He was mingling and glad-handing his way through the throng, following an utterly forgettable speech by the Society Chairman. Working the crowd and collecting the kudos of his peers for a recent breakthrough in surgical technique which he’d chronicled in a paper for The Journal of Neuroscience, when he’d looked up and saw her reentering the banquet hall from a trip to the ladies’. And he had simply forgotten how to breathe for about a dozen heartbeats.

At the time, Stephen wouldn't have been able to say exactly why--but in retrospect the reasons became achingly clear. The combination of the light from the crystal chandeliers and the smooth silk of her dress clinging to her in all the right places; the way she moved while being completely unaware of how breathtaking she looked; and her honest, spontaneous smile when her eyes met his across the room, had done it. Perfect details that had brought those butterflies to vibrant life, along with the realization that he wanted her to be his. Not only in a physical way—but in wanting her undivided attention. The stimulation of her keen mind and the comfort of her laughter at his most stupid jokes. The softness and sanctuary of her heart opening to him as he confided the secrets and fears and insecurities that he successfully hid from the world. Precisely those things he could finally admit to himself that he longed for again. Longed for, right now...