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“Over here,” Lila called from the foretop of her ship, and Kell looked up. It was dark and she didn’t take any lantern with her – she had her fire, after all. Her intuition told her that he was probably questioning why she was there, and why she had used their ring to summon him.
She didn’t have to ask him to come up. Her trained ears caught movement coming from the ladder. He tried to be subtle and silent as he climbed, and she knew it. But she also knew that when it was just the two of them, his mask slipped easily, and he lost his focus.
Soon enough, Kell appeared and sat down next to her on the platform.
Seven , she told herself, but didn’t share it with him. They weren’t practicing, and this wasn’t a lesson. Moreover, they weren’t on a mission either.
“My ring burned – I woke up and you weren’t in bed,” he revealed. “Why are you here?”
Lila felt her cheeks heat up and managed a small smile. “I needed to investigate,” she explained. She hadn’t wanted to rise from the narrow cot, and leave his side. But something had caught her attention, and curiosity got the best of her. “I saw a glow near the horizon.”
“How?”
“See it for yourself,” she tipped her head back to point with her chin.
Kell turned his head and sighed, amazed by the red rays which bathed the sky in a shade of red that reminded Lila of the river in Red London.
“I’ve never witnessed something like this.”
“It must be an aurora,” Lila said. “Northern lights.”
“Should we worry?”
She snorted. “No, I don’t think so.”
“How do you know that?”
She didn’t, but he didn’t have to know that. She shrugged. “I heard one sailor recount a similar event, once,” she said. This, at least, was true. “He called it aurora. When I was in London. My London,” she specified, even though she didn’t need to. “It was also on the local paper, but I didn’t buy it. I thought it was ridiculous, but I would have loved to see for myself if it was real or not.”
“I would have,” he confessed. “I would have believed it was magic.”
“In a world full of magic you would be hardly surprised by something like this,” she huffed. “It is impressive. And extraordinary.”
“Seeing it from up here is even better,” he agreed. “I understand what attracted you. We’ve been at sea for such a long time, but we’ve never witnessed such a spectacle.”
“It’s not the only reason I got out of bed,” she admitted. “Ah, and because you were snoring.”
“I was not,” Kell said bluntly, and she suspected he was glaring at her.
She didn’t turn to see his face. She was teasing him, and she found it cute when he got all flustered. She giggled softly.
“I almost forgot what date it was today,” she continued, ignoring his previous retort.
“It is the 31st,” he said. “Of december.”
“Yes, the last day of the year,” she nodded. “And according to my watch, it is two minutes until midnight. Then the new year begins.”
“I completely forgot,” he sighed. “I even fell asleep. If it wasn’t for you –” he frowned. “You touched the ring because you didn’t want to come down and call me yourself. You’re so lazy.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I was preoccupied with the lights. What if they posed a threat to my ship?”
“You’ve just said they didn’t,” he protested. “How much until midnight?”
Lila glanced at her pocket once again. “Less than sixty seconds,” she sighed.
She gazed at him in the dark, and she could barely see his face. He leaned in, and she thought she saw a hint of a smirk before his lips crashed over hers without warning.
He pulled her body towards him, and she ended up on his lap. She grabbed the back of his coat and felt his hand on her spine. He made sure that she would be tucked safely in his arms and wouldn’t fall off the wood, she realized. He knew that she was perfectly capable of controlling herself – even when her breath was knocked out of her because of his kiss.
If they weren’t that good at keeping their balance, they would have tumbled off the platform.
They could have healed each other, surely, and it would have been such an idyllic way to start the new year. And such a sight. They would have laughed about it.
“I have the perfect wine to celebrate,” Lila whispered, gasping. “Hidden in my trunk.”
“Coming from the royal palace,” Kell laughed softly. She could feel his breath on her lips. And that wasn’t a question.
“One of the perks of being familiar with a prince,” she replied nonchalantly. “It was a good year.”
“Are we still talking about wine?”
“No, not the wine,” she answered. “The year that just went by.”
“It was our best year yet,” he said. “Here’s to many more.”
Lila blushed again. He talked about them as a team, as an ‘us’ instead of an ‘I’. Undeniably, they had their own independence, but they were amazing together.
Kell was the only other person in this world and all of the universes that existed along Red London, whom she considered her equal. Her partner.
What was the right term? Significant other.
Every time he talked about their future, she knew she didn’t envision one without him. That was how significant he was to her.
“You need something to drink in your hand,” she complained. “To toast.”
“I’ve got my hands full,” his fingers squeezed her waist for emphasis. “And I might want to stay like this for a while more, and enjoy these lights. Who knows where we might see them again?”
She bit her lip, and nestled her head on his shoulder. It was an honest request. Besides, she was relaxed and comfortable up there. The wine could wait.
“To our best year yet,” she muttered after a while. He kissed the top of her head in agreement.