On love’s light wings!

She kissed me. Or I kissed her. Either way, it was me, and Tzuyu. Kissing. I wanted to kiss Tzuyu, and I did. She kissed me back. Which, on the whole, isn’t as much of a surprise as it should’ve been. But now she’s gone, she has to be. After Tzuyu spelled me away... there’s no way she could’ve survived those flames. She’s a vampire (she is  ), and the flames...

I don’t know where the car is, but I can’t stop running, not with how Tzuyu sacrificed herself (in her own flames, but still). So I run. I can’t stop, feet slipping on the snow, I can’t think about anything but Tzuyu  and I kissed her and now she’s burning up. Hot tears slip down my cheeks, falling onto the front of my (her) jumper. My thoughts are building to a crescendo in my brain. I can’t hear anything but them, and the roar of the inferno behind me—

It wasn’t supposed to end like this, she was always going to kill me, or I was going to kill her. The thing is, now, I’m realizing—

I didn’t want to, because of this kissing thing, or the fact that we’ve been a team for the past weeks, but I didn’t want to. And I’m thinking that Tzuyu didn’t want to kill me, either, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

She saved my life.

And now, the only thought in my head is, ‘Oh , what will I tell the Chous?’  .  Because of course they’ll think I killed her, like I was always supposed to. And didn’t I? Didn’t I at least contribute?

I could’ve saved her.

I didn’t try—

Tzuyu is gone .

The grip around my wrist doesn’t register until—

“Son!”

I whirl around, and she’s there. Like after the chimera; without even her eyebrows singed. It’s Tzuyu. As I’ve always known her. Messy, obsidian hair, framing her face. Coffee-brown eyes, pinning me down. (though maybe in a different way than I’ve always thought?)

“Did you mean it?” She asks, and her grip on my wrist tightens. I’m too shocked to answer, it’s Tzuyu, here, alive. Tzuyu. She tugs on my arm, but not roughly. “Come on, Son, did you?” I almost ask what she’s talking about, and then I realize I’m an idiot.

“Of course, Tzuyu.” I don’t know why I kissed her, but I did. And I wanted it. I wanted it.  “But, it’s Chaeyoung. Like you called me before.” She doesn’t reply, only starts to bend down to meet my lips. I place my other hand in front of my mouth. “Hold on, Tzuyu, you died! “

She lets go of my wrist and sneers. Tzuyu, who I watched burn up in that forest, sneers at me. Cruel as she’s always been. It’s almost endearing to me, familiar. I thought I wouldn’t see it again.

“Well, it didn’t stick, evidently.”

Relief hits me, all at once. It’s sinking in now, the fact that Tzuyu lived. I’m so glad. It’s now in this moment, that I know for sure. I won’t kill her; I can’t kill her. It would kill me. I’m never letting her go again, and I mean that both in a figurative and literal sense. I back away from her for a second, and her eyes widen. It takes me a moment to read the look on her face. I’ve never seen it before.

Tzuyu looks scared. There are notes of panic and longing in her eyes. You wouldn’t even notice them unless you’ve studied her as I have. (That sounded really gay. Oh, Christ, am I gay now?) Tzuyu looks almost hungry right now, but not viciously. Softly, like she wants to reach for me, but can’t. So she just stands there, looking so helpless. I want to console her, wipe the panic from her eyes. But I can’t. It’s too early, hasn’t even gotten started. Tzuyu is still my sworn enemy, no matter the resolution I’ve come to.

I step closer to her again. The panic doesn’t fade from her eyes, and I think she’s scared of what I might say. Knowing that I have to the power to break Tzuyu right now, with whatever I say… It’s scary. Not so much for me as it is for her, I’m sure, but—

I’m not good with words, at all. It’s part of why my magic is such . Spitting the words out is hard for me, and I stutter and blubber my way through life. But I don’t think I need words here. I didn’t need any words when I kissed Tzuyu. I need to be brave. That’s always been my strong suit.

Swallowing my fear, I step forward, and wrap Tzuyu in a hug.

To my surprise, she’s completely accepting of it. Tzuyu doesn’t shove me off or slap me, as I would’ve expected her to do yesterday. Instead, she’s reciprocating almost immediately, after she recovers from her initial shock. Holding her is nice. I’ve never been this close to her. Tzuyu is soft, where I’ve always thought she would be hard. A hard nut to crack is one way to describe how I pictured her— if that idiom didn’t make me snort.

But she’s not. She’s soft, and skinny, and her arms wrap around me. Capturing me, in the middle of this (hopefully-not-still-burning) forest. Her chin rests on the top of my head, and I feel a wetness there, a few seconds later. Not rain, I realize. She’s crying. Tzuyu is crying on me. So much has changed, in these past, what, thirty minutes? It’s almost unbelievable.

We stand there for a minute, and I feel so safe, so warm (hopefully the forest isn’t still burning) that I never want to let go. But I have to recognize that we need to talk, and we need to leave this forest. So I let go first, and that’s when I realize I’m crying.

Tears stream down my face as I point my index finger at Tzuyu. “Don’t ever leave me like that, arsehole. Don’t! What were you thinking? You can’t just do that! Do you know how worried I was? Don’t do that ever again— and especially after—!”

Tzuyu cuts me off with a kiss, and I melt into it. I wasn’t angry, per se, but any traces of outrage I still had slid away with the feeling of Tzuyu’s mouth on mine. She’s not that good of a kisser— actually, I think I might be her first— but it’s Tzuyu, and that makes all the difference. It’s not quite fire, with her, but more like magic. Like how going off feels, but in a more pleasant way. Like all the energy I have coils up into this one, shining place, behind my heart.

I break away after a second, and practically throw myself into her embrace again.

We’ll have so much to face, once we get out of this forest. We’re going to need to talk about these kisses, Tzuyu trying to kill herself, how she got out of the fire, what this all means. And, of course, there’s still the Humdrum, and whoever killed Tzuyu’s mum to deal with. And the Mage, and the Old Families. There’s so much we’ll have to go through. But I’m sure now, that we’ll face it together.

And for now, I can stand here, in Tzuyu’s arms.