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The forest was too quiet.
Two Time noticed it first, their pointed ears twitching at the absence of the usual nocturnal hum. Silence pressed against the bark, almost sticky, like the air itself was holding its breath. They stepped carefully over a fallen branch, the moonlight catching the crisscross of scars that danced over their pale arms.
They’d gotten most of those scars on purpose. The rest… well, they didn’t like thinking about those.
The stillness broke when someone dropped (quite literally) from a branch above them.
“Miss me?” a voice teased, landing with a grunt.
Two Time didn’t jump. They didn’t do that. They only tilted their head, silver hair brushing their jaw as they stared at the leprechaun lying flat on his back in the leaves.
“You fell.”
“Mm. No,” Chance said, pushing up on strong arms, brushing off dirt. “I descended. Dramatically.”
His sunglasses (human ones, wide and black and entirely unnecessary at night) were crooked but somehow still looked good on him. They always did. Two Time hated how good they looked on him. It made something in their chest itch.
Chance stood, brushing leaves off his shirt and stretching his arms above his head. Two Time looked away instantly. There was no reason for them to notice the shape of his body under the moonlight. Absolutely none.
“Why are you here?” Two Time asked. Their voice was cool, flat, but Chance could hear the faint tremble under it.
“Following a hunch,” Chance said. “Or maybe following you. Hard to tell the difference these days.”
Two Time’s eyes narrowed, but their lips twitched, almost a smile, almost a threat.
“Stop flirting.”
“Not flirting,” Chance said, stepping closer, “just telling the truth.”
They were close now. Too close.
Two Time could feel the warmth radiating off him, a sharp contrast to the chilly night. They took a step back. Chance followed. They stepped back again. Chance followed again.
“Why are you doing that,” Two Time muttered.
“Doing what?” Chance tilted his head, glasses sliding down his nose just enough for Two Time to catch the shimmer of his eyes underneath.
“That.”
Chance grinned. “Oh, the following? I thought we were dancing.”
Two Time’s back hit a tree. Damn it.
Chance placed a hand beside their head, leaning in just enough for heat to pool low in their stomach. Two Time could smell mint on his breath, fresh, warm, soft. Luck magic always smelled like mint on him.
“You look tense,” Chance murmured.
“I’m always tense.”
“Yeah,” he said softly, “but tonight it feels different.”
His hand hovered near their jaw but didn’t touch. A teasing, almost-electrical kind of hesitation. Two Time hated that it made their pulse quicken.
“I don’t like this,” they whispered.
“You don’t like being close to me?” Chance asked gently.
“No. I don’t like wanting to be.”
Chance’s breath hitched—just barely, but Two Time heard it.
Slowly, carefully, he touched their cheek with the back of his fingers.
Two Time froze. No one touched them softly.
“Wanting something isn’t a curse,” Chance murmured.
“I’m an elf with a thousand mistakes carved into my skin,” Two Time said.
“And you’re… you. Lucky. Bright. Clean.”
Chance laughed under his breath, sad and fond all at once.
“Clean? Babe, I stole these sunglasses from a human teen who tried to punch me.”
Two Time blinked. “Why?”
“He deserved it.”
Two Time snorted. They didn’t mean to. It just escaped. Chance lit up like it was the first laugh he’d ever heard.
“See?” Chance’s voice dropped lower, warmer. “You sound good when you’re not pretending everything burns.”
Two Time swallowed hard. “You talk too much.”
“And you think too much.”
Chance slipped his fingers under their chin, tilting their face up.
“Let me try something?” he whispered.
Two Time hated how quickly they nodded.
Chance leaned in slow, slow, so slow, and pressed a kiss to the corner of their mouth. Not the mouth itself, just the soft skin right beside it. It felt like being struck by moonlight.
Two Time exhaled sharply, hands gripping Chance’s shirt.
“Do that again.”
“Which part?” he asked, smiling against their skin. “The kiss or making you ask for it?”
Two Time’s ears flushed pink.
“Chance.”
He hummed, kissing the other corner of their mouth. Then their cheek. Then their jaw, trailing soft heat down their neck.
Their breathing hitched; their hands tightened.
“Why do you want me?” Two Time asked, voice small now.
Soft. Vulnerable.
Chance lifted their chin, meeting their eyes through the slanted sunglasses.
“Because you look at me like you’ve already lost something,” he whispered. “But I think, if you let me…I could help you win once.”
Two Time stared at him, stunned.
Chance pulled back just enough to breathe,
“So. Will you let me kiss you for real?”
Two Time didn’t answer with words.
They grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed hi., slow at first, then deeper, warmer, their bodies pressed close. Chance sighed into their mouth, one hand cupping their waist, the other sliding behind their neck.
When they finally separated, foreheads touching, both breathless, Two Time whispered,
“Don’t disappear on me.”
Chance smiled, tender and wicked at once.
“I’m a luck spirit. Disappearing is what I do.”
Two Time glared.
“But,” Chance added, thumb brushing their cheek, “I can stay. If you want me to.”
“Don’t disappear on me.”
Chance smiled, tender and wicked at once.
“I’m a luck spirit. Disappearing is what I do.”
Two Time glared.
“But,” Chance added, thumb brushing their cheek, “I can stay. If you want me to.”
For a moment, nothing moved, not the leaves, not the wind, not even the moon.
Two Time’s breath hitched, their jaw tensing as if the words they wanted to say were stuck behind their teeth.
Then, with a sharp exhale, they grabbed a fistful of Chance’s collar.
Not rough enough to hurt.
Not soft enough to be gentle.
Just… desperate.
“Come with me,” they said, voice low, tight, unsure.
Chance blinked, caught off guard, but only for a heartbeat.
Then he grinned, foxlike and warm.
“Lead the way.”
Two Time didn’t release his collar until they were sure he’d follow, tugging him through the trees, the moonlight streaking over their scars as they walked. Chance watched their silhouette, the tension in their shoulders, the way they kept glancing back to make sure he was still there.
He didn’t disappear once.
They reached the small wooden cabin tucked between two mossy stones. Soft yellow light flickered through the window, candles left burning, the smell of herbs drifting out from the cracks in the door.
Two Time hesitated at the entrance.
Chance stopped right behind them, closer than necessary.
“You okay?” he murmured.
Their fingers twitched on the doorknob. “I don’t bring people here.”
Chance tilted his head. “Then why bring me?”
Two Time’s throat bobbed.
“Because you won’t laugh at it.”
They opened the door.
Inside was small, warm, cluttered books piled everywhere, half-melted candles, blankets tossed over wooden chairs. A nest of a life. Familiar. Lived-in. Lonely.
Chance stepped inside slowly, sunglasses glinting in the golden light.
“It’s… cozy,” he said, genuinely.
Two Time let out a breath they didn’t realize they were holding.
They watched Chance from the doorway, uncertain, arms crossed tightly over their thin chest.
“You can take those off,” they mumbled.
“Take what off?” Chance teased. “My shirt?”
Two Time rolled their eyes so hard it almost cracked the air.
“The glasses.”
Chance chuckled, pushing them up but not removing them yet.
“I’ll take them off if you come closer.”
Two Time froze.
Then, slowly… they approached. Their steps were uneven, cautious, as if getting close was harder than walking through a battlefield.
When they stopped in front of him, Chance gently removed the sunglasses.
His eyes were bright, too bright for candlelight.
Like sunlight trapped in irises.
Two Time stared, trembling. “You look… different without them.”
“Better?” Chance asked, leaning in.
“Worse,” they whispered.
“Now I can’t look away.”
Chance’s breath faltered in his chest.
He cupped their face with one warm hand, calloused thumb tracing the edge of an old scar.
Two Time shivered under the touch, visibly.
“I want to see all of you,” Chance murmured.
“If you’ll let me.”
Two Time swallowed hard. Their voice broke around the answer.
“…okay.”
Chance stepped closer, slow and careful, letting the heat between them build.
He brushed their hair behind their ear, fingertips grazing their skin in a way that made Two Time’s knees wobble.
“You’re freezing,” Chance whispered.
“I’m always freezing.”
“Then let me warm you.”
He slid his hands to their waist gentle, steady, grounding.
Two Time stiffened instinctively, years of tension flaring through their body.
But then Chance’s forehead pressed softly to theirs.
Two Time melted. Against their own will, against everything they’d told themselves, they leaned into him, cheek brushing his nose, breath trembling against his lips.
“You’re… very close,” they murmured.
Chance smiled.
“Would you rather I backed away?”
Two Time’s fingers curled in the fabric of his shirt.
“No.”
Chance’s voice dropped to a whisper, low and warm and maddening:
“Then let me stay tonight.”
Two Time closed their eyes.
“…okay.”