infinite recursion

Bart wasn't really used to people being unattainable. He was used to being platonically and aesthetically attracted to so many people at once that he even forgot, sometimes, what it was like not to just...like someone, and a lot, but all of that giddy enjoyment absolutely paled in comparison to the anticipation and apprehension he felt whenever he thought about just how close he longed to be to Gala.

She had been so sheltered, so isolated, and he wanted to show her the world. Not in a pitying, patronizing way. He wanted to explore with her.

She was so silly, so casually funny and witty and delightful. Bart, meanwhile was ham-handed and reckless, wasn't he? People sure liked to tell him so. And it worked out for him, most of the time. How else should a pirate prince behave? What better way to embody the Desert Orca?

Pirates were notoriously awful at caring for and maintaining plants...

Oh, Gala. She was so intelligent and so shy that he would often daydream about complex, layered conversations with her (until he realized that he really didn't know all the things he hoped to learn from her), when the day finally came that she was truly comfortable around him and came all the way out of her shell.

She would tell jokes about history, make insightful observations about every landmark they visited (and every new one they discovered, because surely they'd love learning cartography together), see worlds of humor in every embarrassing moment.

Gala could do anything, absolutely anything. Someday they would spend time together without a shred of nerves, and just the giddiness, all to themselves. Not that Bart wouldn't also want to show her off to everyone he knew! Maybe someday she'd be a social butterfly, let out of her cocoon.

But he couldn't just assume that that would ever happen. In fact, he should probably just assume that it wouldn't, and find a surefire way to support and encourage her that didn't involve Becoming Gala's One And Only.

Oh, but what a wonderful idea...