"I've been meaning to ask you," Taehyung said when Amaris finally pulled away from their embrace.

"Yeah?" She looked up at him, wiping away the mascara that had streaked down her face.

"How did you get to the station yesterday?" She had been on lockdown since she became Oracle, so Taehyung had no idea how she could have gotten to the station on her own.

"I snuck out," she admitted with a small smile, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"And here I thought you had changed." Taehyung cracked a smile, teasingly nudging Amaris with his shoulder.

"They were furious when I got back," she chuckled softly, "yelling and saying how someone could have killed me."

"How do you live with it?" Taehyung asked. "I've never seen these body guards, but knowing they're here is just...unsettling."

"When Jin was around it was okay." Amaris shrugged. "They trusted him to watch me, so he was a little more lenient."

Taehyung couldn't help feeling dampened as soon as Amaris mentioned Jin.

"But as soon as he left, it got way worse," she said, "they think I'm some helpless little girl. They had no idea what kind of person I was before. I guess that part was nice. At first, they never expected me to be able to sneak out."

"Where would you go when you snuck out?" Taehyung asked.

"You wanna see?" Her eyes lit up for the first time since Taehyung had been reunited with her.

He nodded, happy to see this change in Amaris' demeanor. She popped up from her seat, grabbing Taehyung's hand and pulling him along. It was this part of the new Amaris that confused Taehyung the most. He never knew where she would be at emotionally. One minute she was broken, and the next she was taking him on an adventure with a bounce in her step. And on top of that, Taehyung never knew what would make her feel how.

She led them outside and rocked on her heels as she waited for Taehyung to unlock his car. He opened the door for her to which she dipped her head in appreciation before climbing in. As he walked around to the driver's side, Taehyung wondered where Amaris was taking him. 

"Turn around and make a left at the first stop," Amaris instructed.

Taehyung followed Amaris' directions until they were in a place he didn't recognize. The roads became bumpy and uneven, ridden with potholes. Taehyung wondered if Amaris really knew where she was going, but when he looked over at her he saw a certain familiarity in her eyes. She seemed rejuvenated. The way the corners of pulled up just slightly reminded Taehyung of the look she got when they would skip class to explore.

"We're here," she said as Taehyung pulled up to an abandoned cement structure.

It looked like what had once been a parking garage attached to a multi-level building with gaping holes for windows. Ivy crawled up the sides, clinging to what looked like nothing from where Taehyung stood. What he saw was a desolate building, crumbling piece by piece. But looking at Amaris, he knew she saw something more. The light in her eyes showed freedom, a secret hideaway.

"C'mon," she said excitedly, grabbing Taehyung's hand and pulling him along towards the building.

Her fingers were cold in his, but it was a nice cold. Taehyung wondered if she could feel the heat coming from his hand, enveloping her smaller one. As he thought about Amaris' cold fingers in his warm ones, he became hyper aware of their contact. She had taken his hand without a second's hesitation. It probably meant nothing to her, besides there was always Jin, but Taehyung couldn't get rid of the nagging voice in the back of his head telling him there was something more.

The truth was, he wanted something more. Taehyung had been angry at Amaris for leaving him to fend through the rest of high school on his own. And when he saw her again, all he felt for her was pity. But as the days had passed, learning about what had become her world and trying to sift through all the crazy, Taehyung couldn't deny that his old feelings for Amaris began to resurface.

It was wrong to say it was the same feeling as before, though. After all those years, both he and Amaris had changed. Amaris wasn't the same person anymore. Even though she wasn't the Oracle, the Oracle was her. Taehyung couldn't ignore that part of who this new Amaris was. There were still glimpses of the old Amaris in times like now, but Taehyung knew the Amaris from ten years ago would never come back.

Amaris led Taehyung into the crumbling structure and up several flights of stairs until they came to the roof. The sun shone in Taehyung's eyes and he squinted to see the place that had been Amaris' sanctuary.

There was overgrown ivory that covered the concrete in a lush carpet of green. On the far side of the roof, Taehyung could just make out what looked like a canopy made out of white sheets. The air smelled sweeter up on the roof, and Taehyung noticed just how far from the city this little sanctuary was. 

From below, it had seemed like it was just a crumbling eyesore of a building. But up here, Taehyung felt free and elated with the breeze blowing on his face. It was refreshing. Taehyung had never noticed just how stuffy his little cubicle was until he was up on the roof with what felt like limitless space.

"Pretty nice, huh?" Amaris asked with a soft chuckle.

"What are you laughing at?" Taehyung asked defensively as she started to walk towards where the makeshift canopy was.

"You." She smiled over her shoulder at him. "You just looked so amazed, so free. It's incredible what an abandoned building can do for the soul."

They made it to the canopy which was a thin sheet hung over some metal fixtures and pipes that were piled together haphazardly. There were holes in the sheet that allowed for little rays of light to shine down on the lawn chair that was sitting underneath.

"Go for it," Amaris said, motioning towards the chair and finding her own perch on a once white milk crate.

Taehyung sat down on the rickety chair gingerly, praying he wouldn't break it under his weight. After he was settled relatively comfortably, he stole a glance at Amaris. 

The sun ricocheted off of her black hair in a way that made her glow. She looked so different up here. She wasn't quite the old Amaris, but wasn't quite the new Amaris. She was a different version of herself that Taehyung had never seen before. He liked this version, though. She seemed a lot happier up here than he had ever seen her.

"Did you ever take Jin here?" Taehyung asked curiously.

"No," Amaris answered without turning away from whatever it was she was looking at on the horizon. "This is my place."

"Then why bring me here?" Taehyung watched her features carefully, but she was as unreadable as ever.

"I don't mean it in that way." She shook her head and finally looked at Taehyung. "This is my place for me as Amaris who is also the Oracle. This isn't her place, it isn't my place. I guess the right word to use would be 'our.' It's our place. But that just feels wrong. We aren't two people."

"I understand that now," Taehyung said softly. "At first I thought you were the Oracle. And then I thought that the Oracle was some evil thing that stole you away from me. But now I know that you aren't two people, and you're not one person. You're...I don't know."

He stopped talking, suddenly very conscious of how strange he sounded. Taehyung knew it was impossible, though, to deal in Amaris' realm of supernatural and not sound strange.

"That's why I brought you here," Amaris smiled softly, "because I knew you understood that."

"But what about Jin?" Taehyung couldn't help the part of him that wanted to explore this area where he, for once, won out over Jin.

"He disregards that Oracle." She shook her head in the way that Taehyung loved that shook waves through her locks. "He looks at us as two separate entities and refuses to acknowledge that she's a part of who I am. It was refreshing at first, but..."

She stopped talking at looked back out at the horizon where the sun was starting to dip. Taehyung looked out too, savoring the view he had a feeling he wouldn't get to see again.