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Callum had had this plan since the moment he saw her as his one deep truth. It was real. She was his light. Rayla.
He’d honestly been thinking of this kiss ever since she came back. She looked so beautiful standing there, backlit by the full moon. She was so… different. She looked so much more mature. He’d wondered if she thought the same about him. He was so angry with her that these thoughts barely had time to fully form before they were washed over by sadness, anger, relief, and every other feeling he could feel all at once.
But now… everything felt so different. He needed her. He just hoped that she needed him too. Maybe this was stupid, maybe he shouldn’t have asked her to do this, maybe she’ll think this is weird and back out and run away down the Starscraper and leave him. Again.
Then he heard her footsteps behind him. He turned.
“Hey…” She said. Her voice was so soft. So beautiful. So… perfect.
Before he could form any further doubts about his plan, he was walking towards her. And then it happened. The moment he had been longing for for the past two years. His lips met hers. His arms hastily held her waist as her hands found his shoulders.
When they broke for a moment, “I love you, Rayla.” The truth was finally out. What he had been too scared to say for weeks was finally out in the open.
She giggled slightly, “I love you too, Callum.” She initiated this time. This kiss was deeper, better, more “grown-up” than the ones they had shared two years prior. He held her as tight as he could until their chests were flush against one another. She took another step forward, her hands wandering up to his face to pull him even closer to her.
They were each other’s. Nothing else could have possibly mattered in this one singular moment. Their quest could have failed, the prison could have opened, Katolis could have fallen, and still, the only thing that could have mattered was that they were back together. Finally.
Minutes had passed, but neither was counting. Hours could have gone by and they wouldn’t have cared. If anything, they were simply making up for lost time.
When they eventually broke, they just stared. Her hands didn’t move from his neck, and his from her back. Rayla was the one to break the silence, “So much for trying to get a good night’s rest.”
He laughed and departed from her gaze, “Sorry, you were sleeping so well I shouldn’t have woken you up.”
She kissed his cheek, “Shut up, dummy. If I’m being honest I’ve been thinking about this too. Maybe a bit too much. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised you didn’t do this when I first came back. You were, like, obsessed with me back then.”
“Oh, really? If I might remind you, who was the first kiss from-?” She broke free from his hold and punched him in the shoulder. “Ow! What was that for?”
“I did say I’d kill you if you mentioned that again.” While she was serious in the moment, it felt so silly to say now after all she’d done. “Try me,” he replied, “I’m a much more powerful mage now, I might have a better chance of beating you.” He spread his feet and balanced himself as if preparing to cast a spell. Rayla had to admit, he looked so cute like that. He had changed so much. He looked so much stronger, more sure of his abilities and maybe even himself. And even if she missed being slightly taller than him, his new height wasn’t entirely annoying.
Before she could kill him, she walked back up to him and grabbed his face. “I’d rather just kiss you to death.” She pulled his face in towards hers. She felt him melt against her touch. He started to laugh, breaking the kiss, even if he didn’t want to. She laughed too. “Sorry, I don’t know why I even said that.” It was nice to laugh like this again.
Once his laughing fit calmed, he stood up again and hugged her closely, burying his head in her shoulder. “That wouldn’t be such a terrible death, though.” She was grateful he couldn’t see the embarrassingly deep shade of pink her cheeks were turning. She kept his embrace for as long as she could before she felt him quietly yawn.
“Are you finally tired?” She asked. He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know if I believe that…” He groaned softly as she started to walk him back to his bunk. “We have a long journey to plan tomorrow, we can’t stay up all night. And besides, you’ve barely slept, I don’t want to be the reason you have another nightmare.”
“Okay, fine,” He sighed, “But maybe… we could share my bunk?”
“Oh so now you want to share a blanket?”
“Shut up” His response made her chuckle, he was such a dork.
“I guess that’s fine with me.” She broke the hug to walk back to the other side of her bunk and start to undress. Sleeping in her clothes was fine when she slept alone since it made it easier to keep warm, but now with him… maybe she could reconsider. As she was unbuttoning her collar and shoulder pad, she caught him looking at her out of the corner of her eye as he struggled with a clasp on his tunic. As innocent as it seemed, maybe she didn’t really have anything else to hide. She took off her shoulder pad and dropped it by the desk as she made her way over to him. She couldn’t believe she was about to ask him this, but it came out of her mouth anyway. Stupid impulses.
“Would you… like to take this off?” He blushed almost as badly as she did before. Shit. This would just make things awkward again. “You don’t have to, you were just staring and I thought maybe it was a good suggestion-” He kissed her again to stop her talking. He was clearly tired, but the kiss was so alive. It made her feel things she’d never felt. “Yes,” he whispered.
He raised his hands to undo the buttons and she slipped the collar off her shoulders. “Do you need help with your tunic? I saw you struggling with the clasp.”
“I guess if you don’t mind…” She reached out for the clasps of his tunic in the center of his chest. She hadn’t noticed before how much more defined he was. “Wow. Flying is quite the workout, isn’t it?” He laughed. “Yeah, I guess it is. Is running around fighting random bad guys a workout too?” She laughed too, kissing him briefly as she finished undoing the clasps and his tunic fell to the floor. He then reached for her belts that held her vest in its place, fumbling with the moon-shaped buckle. Her hands met his and she guided them to be able to undo it.
She took off her vest, left in her undershirt. With a sly grin, she asked, “What’re you staring at?”
“Everything,” he breathes, catching her hands as she almost crosses them over her chest, “You’re so beautiful. And for the record, I thought that when you came back. I did wait too long for this.” He watched as her eyes lit up. She was truly his light. She embodied such good, her heart was so pure, her strength unmatched. How could he have ever been so angry with her? He brought her hands up to meet his lips. Her hands were so soft despite the blades they carried so effortlessly.
She laughed when she reached down to take off her boots. Once they were off, she sat on his bed. “Well? Aren’t you gonna join me? This was your idea…” He scrambled to take off his boots, overshirt, and even his gloves, which she had never seen leave his body. He climbed into the star silk bunk and laid down next to her. Despite it being well past midnight, somehow the room was still bright. They lay there staring at each other for heaven knows how long, memorizing the shapes of each other's noses, and the colors of their eyes. The way the light fell on them at this exact moment was one they could have studied forever and never gotten bored of.
Rayla eventually reached out to place a hand on his cheek, gently caressing the eye where Finnegrin had attacked him not even a few weeks prior. When his hand met her wrist, she flinched. Callum looked shocked, “Does it… does it still hurt?”
“A little…” she admitted, “But barely ever anymore. Only when I use it too much, really. I guess that run-in with Esmeray did a number on it.” He took her wrist again with the gentlest possible touch and kissed it. She moved closer to him, finding his cheek again as his arm fell over her waist.
“I love you, Callum. I really do,” she whispered. Barely loud enough for him to hear, but she hoped with everything in her that he knew it down to his core.
“I love you too, Rayla. I never stopped.”
They met again, her lips were soft, yet the kisses were so sure. So real. She was there, in front of him. They were together again. His hands wandered down her waist, to her strong lean arms, and around her markings. They ended up a tangled, giggly mess, and they were happy. They were finally one. The missing piece of his heart had returned, repairing it into the strongest it had ever been. No matter what happened, his truth, his tether to this world, was here. He tried his best to memorize everything new and old about her. Keeping contact with her even when their lips were apart. Breathing in her scent and connecting himself to every moment they had ever experienced together.
The Chosen Two, binding a history narrated by love.