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Elaine ran, shoving through the wall of bodies and blaring noise, eyes wild and searching, breaths short and desperate.
It was done. It'd been four months of endless patience, sleepless nights and quiet aching since the last day they'd seen each other, and so, so much time.
And now it was over and they'd won.
The Warden wasn't a problem. Not gone, but not an issue any more. Kadena was safe. Kieron was safe.
And Sebastian had the crown and the people were celebrating in the streets, with him right in the centre.
"Sebastian!" she shouted, running faster. "Seb!"
She needed to find him, just to make sure herself he was safe, and she needed to find him now and oh Warden, her throat was closing up with tears not again not right now—
She skidded to a stop.
Through the flowing mass of colour and bodies, not even a yard away, a flash of short blond hair.
He turned and she stopped breathing. Pink eyes—eyes—locked with hers, widening almost imperceptibly: bright with hope. A step closer. The background thrum of sensation faded to a tingle. Another step.
They were face to face.
"Seb," she breathed, reaching out to touch his face to confirm it. She stopped a whisper away, almost afraid it wouldn't be true.
He smiled, leaning into her palm, warm and whole and real. "Elaine."
She burst into tears.
"Oh—no, no—I'm sorry, please don't—" he started, sounding horrified and panicked. She tackled him, still sobbing, and that shut him up.
"Idiot! You absolute idiot! You're here."
"I am here," he agreed, hesitantly encircling her with his arms. He sounded confused. She let out a wet chuckle.
"You're so dumb," she sniffled, pulling away, pressing her forehead to his.
"Well I'm not so sure about that," he said, affection softening his voice—oh, there was a wobble to it too.
"Are you crying?" she sniffed.
"Not yet, but I might start. Are you real, Elaine?"
"I'm real," she confirmed.
"I missed you."
"Me too."
They stayed like that, wrapped up in each other, sniffling and slowly calming down. She was starting to digest that he was here, solid and real, and incredibly glad for it. By the way he slowly relaxed in her arms, she suspected he was too.
It was just the two of them.
Just this moment in the middle of the crowd, the senseless cacophany still around them but hardly registering. Their foreheads pressed together again, looking into each other's eyes, arms tangled, bodies close, just absorbing all the warmth and presence.
"Hey there," she whispered under the din, a smile in her voice.
"Hey there," he whispered back. She felt more than heard it.
"I see you went and got yourself a new pair of eyes." Elaine grinned when said eyes crinkled upwards in agreement, fixed on hers, content to drink her in like they had all the time in the world. They were a gentle pink, ringed in light yellow lashes, unfamiliar in a way, but familiar in all the others, and by the love shining through them.
"Old ones, actually," he replied, and then his smile widened and that was all the warning she got before she felt a whoosh and a flutter in the pit of her stomach and a careful hand on her back. He dipped her, laughing, and she was laughing too, fingers laced around his neck, a few strands of his hair brushing her forehead. He pulled her up, letting her stabilize herself before touching his forehead to hers again, just like the last time she'd seen him, except now there was joy shining clearly in his eyes and flowing like a thread through them both, connecting them.
"Your eyes are beautiful," she told him admiringly, caressing his cheek with a feathered hand.
"And you're as beautiful as I always knew you were," he countered, just a little smug and completely sweet. "We're even."
He wasn't just talking about her exterior.
The crowd's roars rocketed to a new volume, and he said something she couldn't catch. She yelled a question over the crowd, and her focus dropped to his lips, when he obliged, repeating a few syllables over and over again.
She read the words and suddenly her eyes were welling up with tears again—happy ones. Sebastian's eyes were shining too, an unquenchable smile on his lips as he said it again.
I love you, I love you, I love you, he was saying.
"That's something else we have in common," she said, and though it was soft, she knew he'd heard it because his eyes widened disbelievingly, just the slightest bit.
Then she kissed him.
He tasted like warmth and home and something sweet, and their teeth knocked, and Elaine could've melted. Sebastian pulled back just a moment, laughing so hard she wasn't sure he was breathing and she was laughing too when she kissed him again until neither of them could breath for sure.
"I love you," he said over the noise again when their giggles has subsided.
"I love you," she replied.
"I love you."
"I love you!"
They broke into laughter again, shaking helplessly against one another, bodies so close she could feel the vibrations. Sebastian took her hand, then her other one, and she looked up at him, surprised.
"Elaine," he started softly, "Light of my life, my heart, my only—"
"Stop it," she snickered, slapping a hand over his mouth. He peeled it away with another laugh. "Wait, your highness, just give me one second. I need to—this is serious."
She fell silent. He took a deep breath, as if steeling himself. She hadn't ever seen him this nervous, except maybe when—
—when—
Her breath stuttered to a halt.
"Will you dance with me?" he asked.
There was a moment when she just stared, wide-eyed, up at him and into nervous pink eyes.
"Yes," she breathed, then pulled him closer and kissed him again for good measure. "Yes, you silly prince, I'll dance with you."
"And be my queen?"
"And be your queen!"
Sebastian's face broke out into an unbelievably happy, adorable grin and they started to laugh again, breathless in excitement. She seized his hands and started spinning, hair jumping in her face, incredibly giddy. "We're getting married!"
"Elaine!" he gasped through laughter, "please slow down!"
"Whoops!" she realised, stopping abruptly. He collided with a grunted oof! and they fell in a tangled mess of limbs and cloaks.
"Ahh! Are you alright?" She asked, rolling off him. "Sorry!"
"It's fine, it's fine," he laughed, getting up slowly. He winced. "I think a rib broke."
"Seb!"
"I'm joking!" he backtracked hastily, giggling. She exhaled in relief, then thwacked the side of his skull.
"Not funny!"
"Apologies," he said cheerfully. They both knelt, getting up and dusting themselves off.
He tugged her hand, leading her towards the celebration with a hopeful grin. "Dance with me?"
With a smile, she followed him into the music. The crowd closed behind them, seamless.
And, melting into the people, the music and joy, Elaine and Sebastian danced.
"Who's leading?" she yelled into his ear, stumbling over his foot. "Ah!"
"I'll always follow you, your highness," he swore with a teasing lilt, catching her and swooping her low.
"Dork!" she accused, sweeping back up, twirling him.
"Not!" he retorted. A feathered arm emerged from the crowd and smooshed into his face. "Oof! Noo, these are designer!" he complained to thin air, despairing.
"Point proven," she said happily. Humming to the melody, she reached out an arm to him, inviting. He took it, setting a hand on her shoulder, and she put her arm around his waist, her head on his shoulder, and they swayed.
Somewhere close by, a musician started up a love ballad, the notes floating softly on the wind, weaving through people and reaching them. She closed her eyes and smiled into his jacket, content to stay like that.
"You know," Elaine confessed, "I think this is the most fun I've ever had."
"Really?" he hummed thoughtfully. "You know something, I think it's the most fun I've ever had too."
It was so loud she could hardly hear him, so chaotic that she almost tripped, but they danced right there in the square, and it was full of love, and triumph, and inextinguishable tenderness in a future Elaine never could've imagined for herself before. But now she was here, and gladder than anything for it.
Today, she was the happiest she'd ever been.