Archive of Our Own

Bloom had grown used to the absence of the cold by now. It was a strange, invisible shield she carried with her, a byproduct of the ancient fire thrumming rhythmically beneath her skin. In the beginning, before she had truly understood the depth of her lineage, she simply thought she was lucky, a person who naturally ran warm regardless of the season. After her powers had finally manifested, she realized that the heat was her new baseline. Sweaters and long sleeved shirts were more about fashion or tradition than necessity. Even on days where the wind was biting enough to make others shiver, a big jacket was usually a burden to her, something she wore to blend in rather than to keep warm.

She ran hot most of the time. It was a constant, internal furnace that hummed quietly in her veins. Indoors, she often felt the oppressive weight of central heating more than anyone else, and after comparing notes with other fire fairies at Alfea, she found out that it was a common trait among them. While the water fairies and air fairies huddled into thick wool coats and wrapped scarves tightly around their throats to ward off the chill, Bloom and her kind moved through the world as if they were carrying a piece of summer within them.

Standing now in the northern mountains of Eraklyon, in a landscape that had been recently and aggressively kissed by a fresh layer of snow, Bloom felt only a mild chill. It was a slight, tingling reminder of the environment, nothing more. The ground was no longer the steady, sun drenched green of Solaria’s endless summer days. Here, every step required a bit more effort and a bit more focus as her boots crunched into the shifting white, but in terms of her actual body temperature, it was perfectly normal.

But even if she didn’t get cold easily, she could tell when the air was truly freezing. She could also tell that Stella was not having the best time in this exercise.

“How long do we have to keep looking? I’m literally freezing,” Stella complained. The words were punctuated by the audible, rhythmic chatter of her teeth the moment she opened her mouth. Bloom was sure that if she turned around, she would be able to see the slight paler tone in Stella's skin, her usually radiant complexion drained by the frost.

A week ago, they had been sent to Eraklyon with a few other groups of fairies to train their magic in areas considered to be ‘critical conditions.’ The goal was to enhance their abilities and prepare them for any type of danger or situation they might face in the real world. All of this was provided by the new and improved system of teaching that Alfea had begun to develop and implement under the guiding hand of the Queen of Solaria. Stella had made herself heard the first time they caught word of it, and she had not been happy.

“Most fairies are more sensitive to the low temperatures, and some won’t ever be even close to that type of temperature. How could that be a teaching for everyone?” Stella had asked the headmistress. Her question had been followed by another about what would happen if she simply decided she didn’t want to participate.

She had been doubled down with a simple threat. Refusing meant a lower grade in some of the core classes participating in the program, which would lead her and everyone else who resisted to be closer to repeating the year. Of course, none of them said anything else afterwards.

That was how they ended up getting in pairs for the last day of it. Two students with similar magic were to be sent into the frozen labyrinths of the small campus the Eraklyon monarchy had provided. They were on the hunt for an unknown beast that was supposed to be close by, expected to attack them at some point during the trial. With the victory, they could finally go back and relax for the rest of the day, doing absolutely nothing until they left the next morning. In the meantime, there was nothing to be done but walk.

“I’m not sure. We should have already crossed at least one by now,” Bloom said. She was secretly hoping it was a Burned One. They had so much practice with them already, but the instructors from the Eraklyon school were not giving them anything to go by, so they had gone in blindly.

They had been in the labyrinth for at least thirty minutes. Bloom could notice the shaky form of Stella, who was covered in a pink scarf and a big black jacket she had taken from the stack the day before. The teachers had offered extra protection, as Stella's own high fashion outerwear wasn't doing the work properly.

“It’s so useless honestly, we are going to die freezing out here before we even get close to getting back,” Stella continued to complain. Even so, she kept walking besides Bloom, looking around and remaining alert, her blonde hair slipping over the back of the heavy jacket.

“Come here,” Bloom offered. She stopped for a moment and extended her hands, taking the pink covered gloves of Stella, who offered them without questioning.

Bloom’s eyes shone slightly. The blue hue changed for a red one, almost orange, as she got her own hands into a warm embrace that caught Stella’s hands by surprise. She saw the relaxation in Stella's eyebrows instantly. The frown lowered and Stella's eyes closed briefly as the heat soaked in.

“I wish I was a fire fairy,” Stella murmured under her breath. She opened her eyes again and noticed the smirk on Bloom’s face. “You’re not even cold,” she stated. Her tone was pitched and her eyebrows were raised in what felt like a question.

“I’m not, actually. But the faster we finish this, the faster we can go back to the cabin and get a nice day under the blankets,” Bloom said. It was a promise and an incentive to push Stella to keep going. She let go of her hands, feeling a little electric energy leaving her body the second she did. She watched as Stella moved quickly to press her now hot gloved hands against her face for the momentary heat.

Bloom turned around, blushing at the slight puff of air that Stella let out after feeling the warmth against her cold skin. She decided right then that she couldn’t think that way about her friend anymore while being in a situation that required all her attention.

The truth was that she had caught feelings for Stella during her second year at Alfea. Stella was in her third year at the time, being a year older and further along in her studies, and the shift in their dynamic had been a slow, quiet realization. It had been an accident, really. Bloom obviously didn’t mean for it to happen. She was pretty sure no one actually catches feelings for their friends on purpose. It’s more like a subtle erosion of boundaries, where you wake up one day and realize the way you look at them has shifted entirely without your permission.

During their first year, things had been a mess. They had been at each other's throats for the same guy, who in the end was just a waste of both their time. Once Bloom got the time alone to think about it over the school recess, she wondered how she could have ever dated someone who was flirting with her while being in a relationship with someone else at the same time. It was a red flag she had initially ignored, and the realization made her feel foolish, but the breakup had finally cleared the air between her and Stella.

The feelings for Stella came afterward, creeping in during the quiet moments of their second year.

Stella was a year ahead, but even with that gap in experience, they were still sharing a suite, their rooms literally next to each other, and Bloom felt like she was meeting Stella for the first time again. The "mean girl" mask was slipping, revealing a vulnerability and a sharp, protective wit that Bloom found herself gravitating toward.

Unfortunately, Bloom wasn’t the only one who had begun to notice the shift in Stella’s radiant energy. Someone else had caught it too.

Beatrix.

Bloom had never once considered herself to be a jealous person. She had never felt the petty, sharp need to fight for someone’s attention because, truth be told, she had never really liked anyone enough to care if they looked elsewhere. But for some reason, a heavy and bitter knot began to form in her stomach whenever she realized how much time Stella was spending with Beatrix. It usually happened when the rest of them were tucked away in class, leaving the two of them alone in the corridors or the quad.

The first time it happened, Bloom told herself it was fine. They had all crossed words with Beatrix at some point or another, the girl was a social nomad, jumping from person to person in a constant, restless search for something to entertain herself. It was just Beatrix being Beatrix, so Bloom let it go.

But the next few times were not so fine.

Bloom had tried to frame her discomfort as worry at first. she told herself that the other redhead was surely looking for answers to something, or perhaps looking for some hidden weakness in Stella to get her into trouble. But as the weeks stretched on, Bloom noticed a distinct lack of interest from Beatrix’s side in gathering any information that could be used for harm. There was no grand scheme, and that realization was what led Bloom directly into a brand new, terrifying feeling she couldn't name.

She began to have physical, bodily reactions every time the two of them got close. Whenever Stella and Beatrix would sit next to each other at their lunch table, talking in low, intimate whispers that excluded the rest of the world, Bloom’s magic would react without her permission. She would be sitting there, trying to appear normal, while she accidentally made someone’s coffee way too hot to touch, or caused the food on a nearby plate to start visibly burning.

She wouldn’t even notice it was happening. In those moments, her fire was a direct extension of her heart, acting out because she couldn't. The only person capable of stopping her was Aisha. Her roommate would sense the spike in temperature and immediately summon small, cool drops of water, flicking them onto Bloom’s forehead to startle her back from whatever dark place her mind had wandered to. Bloom was certain she had been close to literal combustion at several points, and she owed it to Aisha that she hadn't made a scene too gruesome for everyone’s eyes to witness.

Eventually, at some point during that year, Beatrix had simply drifted away. She moved on to the next source of entertainment, leaving behind a completely heartbroken Stella. It was only after a few months of silence on the topic that Stella finally announced to the group that they had had a fling and nothing else. That was the first time any of them realized that Stella also liked girls.

That was a long night, one that Bloom would never forget. They spent hours trying to get Stella to step out of her room for anything longer than a trip to the bathroom and a short interaction. Bloom had hated seeing the dark and heavy bags under Stella’s eyes and the way the brilliant blue of her gaze was constantly veiled by a layer of unshed tears. Stella had finally told them the entire story, laying it out in order, and the girls had supported her with everything they had, thanking her for trusting them enough to tell the truth.

Bloom had been as supportive as the others, but she was also deeply mad.

She was furious at how Beatrix had used Stella, treating her like a temporary thrill before deciding to leave her behind as nothing but a used carcass. It burned Bloom to think that Beatrix didn't know, or simply didn't care, what kind of pain she had evoked. She hadn't even checked on her or tried to keep things friendly. Bloom had felt a desperate urge to go after her, it would have only taken a few minutes to walk down the corridor and find Beatrix in her own suite.

But just as the thought took hold, Stella had clung to her. Bloom found herself completely subdued by the contact, staying exactly where she was so that the light fairy could take as much of her embrace and her warmth as she needed. At that point, Bloom wasn't sure what she was feeling or how she could even begin to explain it to someone else to find an answer. She only knew that the way she felt about Stella was different than the way she felt about any of the others.

After that night, Stella began to rely on her more than ever before. They started doing things together without the rest of the group, slipping into each other's private spaces without ever questioning if it was okay. They shared close spaces constantly. On many nights, they would find themselves in the common room with the others, but they would be sharing the same couch, Stella’s legs piled comfortably upon Bloom’s lap or her head tucked into Bloom’s shoulder for support.

Sometimes, they would even share a bed, usually when they had stayed up talking too late or had started a conversation too early in the morning. Other times, they would just exist in the same room while the other worked. Bloom couldn't even count the amount of times she had wandered into Stella’s room and plopped herself down on the bed while Stella was at her desk, meticulously redoing her class notes.

It was a level of intimacy Bloom had never experienced with anyone else. For a long time, she convinced herself that the feeling of comfort and the radiant warmth spreading through her chest during their time together was simply what a deep friendship felt like.

Until, of course, someone finally pointed it out.

Aisha was the one to do it, which made sense since she was Bloom’s roommate and saw the things Bloom tried to hide from herself. One night, after Stella had finally left Bloom’s bed after a long, whispered conversation, Aisha turned around. She had a frown on her face and a question on the tip of her tongue that she didn't bother to save for herself.

“How long have you liked her?”

The question had absolutely destroyed Bloom. The utter simplicity of it brought down a wall she didn't even know she was standing behind. She felt unready for the conversation, and she almost went mad over the next few days trying to force herself to act differently. She tried to stop getting too close and tried not to share as much of herself as she usually did.

Of course, Stella noticed the shift immediately. She asked what was wrong, which led to Bloom stammering out a request for forgiveness and a weak lie about being too busy with schoolwork. She was a terrible liar, but Stella let the matter slide. She never questioned it again after one particular night when the whole group was together in the suite. They had shared the loveseat, one piled up on the other just like they always did, and the silence from Stella felt like an unspoken understanding.

The months that followed were filled with a specific kind of dread, the dread of noticing every single little thing about Stella. Bloom found herself cataloging it all: the way Stella would move when she talked, the specific way she would entone her words, the rhythm of her walk, and the way she smelled. She noticed all the tiny details that she only got the chance to see because they spent so much time close together in each other’s personal space. They were things that someone who saw Stella on a daily basis would never notice if they weren't close enough, or if they weren't paying her the kind of undivided attention that Bloom was.

Eventually, Bloom came to terms with it. She tried to keep herself at bay, forcing their interactions to stay in a friendly light rather than a romantic one. She knew that even if Stella liked girls, it didn’t automatically mean that she would like Bloom in that way. They were friends. Best friends.

And now, a year later in the late November cold, Bloom realized she was still just as caught as the very first time she understood that her friendly feelings were not very friendly at all.

“You’ve said that a few times already, but we’re still out here,” Stella spoke, her voice cutting through the fog of Bloom’s memories and pulling her sharply back into the present.

Bloom blinked, her eyes drifting back to the reality of the frosted stone walls and the biting wind. “Yeah, I’m not sure how long this trial is actually supposed to run,” she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders.

The honesty in her voice was plain. Neither of them had been given a specific timeframe for the exercise, which made the entire situation feel uncomfortably real. On one hand, the lack of a clock made the stress of the hunt more palpable, but on the other, it made every heavy step through the deepening snow feel more exhausting than the last.

“The snow is starting to fall harder now,” Stella announced.

Bloom looked up, noticing the delicate flakes beginning to descend at a deceptive speed. The wind caught them, gushing the white powder together and swirling it directly toward their faces. Stella squinted against the cold, her eyelashes already catching tiny droplets of frost.

“Do we really need these points?” Stella asked. There was a hopeful note in her voice, a silent plea for Bloom to turn around and help her find the way out of this frozen maze instead of continuing the search for a mysterious monster.

“Yeah, we do. If we complete everything, we’ll have those free days when we go back,” Bloom reminded her, trying to keep her tone upbeat despite the conditions. “We could try to sneak around and go to that new cafeteria that just opened in town.”

The promise of a few days off was a massive incentive for most. All the participating students had been offered a reprieve from classes upon their return to Alfea, a reward for the grueling effort put into the trials. To Bloom, it felt like a prize that was very well deserved.

“They only offered that because they knew half of us would be coming back sick,” Stella countered. She was walking with her back to Bloom’s, turning periodically to check the open areas behind them in case something was stalking them through the white out.

Bloom stopped in her tracks, lost in thought for a second, and felt Stella collide softly against her back a moment later.

“What—” Stella started to complain, but the words died in her throat when she saw the look on Bloom’s face.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice that was the reason,” Bloom said, her realization feeling a bit slow.

Stella held back for a beat, her expression skeptical, but eventually, she let out a soft, melodic laugh that she tried to keep quiet so as not to draw attention. “Did you really think we would get free days of class just because we were being good students? This was my mother’s idea, Bloom.”

Bloom nodded, realizing too late that it was likely the truth. Most of the students were not accustomed to snow in such vast quantities, and being exposed to it for this long meant it was only a matter of time before the infirmary was full.

“Well, I’ll help you stay warm when we go back. You won’t get sick, I promise,” Bloom said. She looked directly into Stella’s eyes, finding a small but grateful smile reflected back at her. She turned and continued her steps, and Stella followed her into the silence of the labyrinth.

The only noise in the corridor was the sound of their own rhythmic, heavy breathing and the persistent crunch of their boots against the snow. Suddenly, Bloom stopped again. Stella collided with her once more, and this time, the light fairy was the first to speak.

“You know you don't have to suddenly stop every single time, right?” Stella asked, peering at the back of Bloom's head and then at the hand Bloom had raised, frozen mid air.

Stella caught up to the situation the moment she looked past Bloom's shoulder. There, standing in the middle of the path, was a tall, familiar figure with scorched, charcoal skin. It was standing perfectly still, looking around, having not yet noticed their presence.

Bloom felt Stella take a determined step forward. Her hands were already up and ready, emanating a brilliant, shimmering hue of blue and purple light. The moment the magic grew in intensity, the Burned One snapped its head toward them, letting out a harrowing howl before it began to stalk forward.

Bloom felt the heat travel through her body, a natural and practiced flow of energy that expanded across her palms. Over the years, she had done this so many times that the raw fear was no longer a familiar presence, it was only a tiny, distant voice in the back of her mind.

The creature closed the distance, its long, spindly steps making no sound on the snow, unlike the heavy echo they would make on solid ground. Bloom thought it would be an easy, clinical almost, until the creature broke into a dead run directly at her.

“Eyes!” Stella commanded.

Bloom didn't hesitate. She knew the drill perfectly. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited. A second later, a flash of light so bright it could be felt through her eyelids erupted from Stella, blinding the creature instantly. The resulting screech was loud and ear piercing, but Bloom was used to the sound. To her, it was simply the signal to act.

She snapped her eyes open to find Stella moving closer, her hands glowing with a steady, controlled radiance. It was Bloom's turn.

The creature was flailing blindly, snapping its claws at anything within reach. Stella was there one moment and gone the next, her movements perceived only by the hurried imprints of her steps in the snow. In one fluid motion, Bloom ignited the path furthest away from them. The snow blackened and hissed, melting into slush at a rapid rate as the flames rose. The blinded creature moved wildly, backing away from the heat of the increasingly tall fire.

Stella appeared on the opposite side of the beast, magic building in her palms like a gathered storm. With a simple, sharp nod to Bloom, the flames grew stronger and higher, creating a searing wall between the girls and the monster. Stella pressed her hands together, containing the light until the last possible second, then pushed the energy into the ground near the creature's legs. The blast sent the Burned One stumbling directly into the heart of Bloom’s fire. Bloom expanded the inferno, giving the creature no chance to escape the white hot center.

She moved to the other side of the clearing, reaching Stella just as the light fairy was lowering her hands. Stella's eyes were fading from a brilliant gold back to their natural soft blue.

“That was easy,” Bloom said, standing in front of Stella to keep the lingering heat of the flames between them and the remains. The screeching had stopped. There was no sound left but the crackling of the fire.

“Too easy, I would say,” Stella answered. She stepped closer to the warmth, and Bloom watched as the snowflakes that had landed on Stella’s face began to melt into tiny droplets of water from the proximity to Bloom's heat.

“The blast looked cool,” Bloom added softly.

Over the years, she had watched Stella practice countless ways of manipulating light, and the improvement was undeniable. Even if the Queen was never satisfied with her daughter's achievements, Bloom never missed an opportunity to praise her.

“Thanks,” Stella answered, a small smile playing on her lips even if Bloom couldn't fully see it through the layers of her jacket. “I think you can let the flames down now. We should take the crystal back so we can finally go inside.”

Bloom obeyed, slowly drawing the fire back down to ground level until it vanished into the blackened earth. But as the smoke cleared, she realized they had made a mistake.

Instead of a clear victory crystal that was supposed to be left behind by a training simulation, there was only a charred, skeletal figure. It lay in a twisted, human like pose, burned to a cinder.

“There’s no way,” Stella whispered, taking a cautious step toward the remains. She overlooked the body, searching for the crystal they were supposed to retrieve, but there was nothing. “I don’t think they would have set free an actual creature, right? It should be illegal to keep Burned Ones imprisoned for a school test.”

Stella looked back at Bloom, her face twisted in a grimace of horror at the state of the creature.

“I don't think so either. We should go back and inform them before something else happens,” Bloom said.

Just as the sentence left her mouth, a distorted, faraway announcement echoed through the mountains. The camp speakers were miles away, but the wind carried the message to their ears.

“Attention Alfea students. An extreme snowstorm is approaching the mountain and will hit shortly. All students are to report back to camp immediately and check in with their respective teachers. Students currently in the labyrinth will be located and retrieved by staff members.”

The message was short, but the man on the speaker began to repeat it immediately.

“We’ll have to wait here then,” Bloom said, noticing the visibility dropping by the second. Stella groaned at the thought of staying in the cold. “Come here, we don't know how long it will be.”

Bloom began to unwind her own red scarf, offering it to Stella.

“Are you mad? Put that back on,” Stella said, moving away from the offered fabric. Bloom couldn't help but laugh at her stubbornness.

“I promise you, I’m fine. I can totally handle this,” Bloom insisted. She stepped closer, her hands steady as she held the scarf out. Stella looked skeptical, her eyes searching Bloom’s face to see if she was truly as unaffected by the weather as she claimed.

“Fine,” Stella finally relented.

Bloom moved in close, her fingers nimble as she began to wrap the red scarf around the pink one Stella was already wearing. She adjusted the fabric carefully, pulling it up to cover more of Stella’s face.

“If you get cold, you say something, alright? I don’t want you to freeze,” Stella warned. Her tone was sharp, but Bloom knew her well enough to know it wasn't anger, it was the only way Stella knew how to show she was worried.

“I won’t, but I’ll tell you if it happens,” Bloom promised. She finished wrapping the scarf and then reached out, taking Stella’s gloved hands in her own again. She let a soft pulse of magic move through her palms, warming Stella’s fingers. She heard a subtle, contented mumble from Stella and felt a surge of quiet joy, knowing that she could make her comfortable even in the middle of a storm.

They stood there together for a suspended moment in the center of the path, the world around them having fallen into a expectant silence that made every heartbeat feel audible. Bloom didn’t want to look too closely at the girl standing beside her, already knowing with a painful certainty the way Stella’s eyes would seem to burn with a brighter, more ethereal light against the stark white contrast of the frost. She knew that if she turned her head, the delicate freckles scattered across Stella's pale skin would immediately snag her attention, pulling her into a orbit she was trying desperately to resist.

“It’s pretty,” she heard Stella say softly, the words barely carrying through the chilling air.

Bloom found she had to turn around then, if only to see the world through the same lens as the light fairy, and she watched as Stella’s gaze remained fixed not on the slushy remains of the battle they had just finished, but on the impeccable coat of white that was slowly reclaiming the stone walls around them.

“Yeah, it is,” Bloom answered, her voice a low murmur as she watched the snowflakes begin to descend with a renewed frantic speed that seemed to blur the edges of the labyrinth. “I’ve never seen so much snow before,” she added, the comment serving as a bridge to keep the conversation moving in the quiet. “We don’t have snow like this in Gardenia, and the only other time I really saw any was when I was much younger, back when my family would visit my grandparents for the holidays. Besides that one memory, this is probably only the second time I’ve ever seen it in my entire life.”

Bloom didn’t usually make a habit of talking about the First World, that place of static normalcy she had left behind, because ever since she had warmed up to the Otherworld, she had found every little magical detail more enchanting than the last. She had embraced the wonder of it all, not even minding the constant threats that seemed to follow her lineage, but still, the First World was the place where she had grown up. Even if she hadn't had the best time back there, she still carried a quiet sentiment toward it that she simply couldn't shake away, no matter how far she traveled.

“Do you miss it? The First World?” Stella asked, her mouth tucked partially behind the red scarf making the words came out sounding muffled and soft, though the close distance between them was enough to let Bloom hear the genuine curiosity in her tone.

“Sometimes I do,” Bloom admitted, feeling a sudden wave of nostalgia for the sheer simplicity of it all, back when she didn't have a clue about the fire thrumming in her blood or the weight of the destiny on her shoulders. It was a feeling that used to happen more often during her first year at Alfea, back when everything felt overwhelming and she felt like she didn't know how to live properly in a world that demanded so much of her.

A quiet moment stretched out between them after her answer, filled only by the sound of the wind whistling through the high stone corridors.

“Have you ever thought about going back for good?” Stella turned her head then, those painfully blue eyes searching for an answer in Bloom’s face with an intensity that suggested she was looking for a truth that words couldn't quite capture.

Bloom had thought about it more than once, especially since the entire point of her attending Alfea in the first place was to learn how to control the volatile magic within her, and she had already gotten so far with her training. The things she struggled to control these days had less to do with an inability to direct the flow of fire and more to do with the way her feelings would cause the flames to burst out without her permission. On the other hand, her entire life was now rooted here, her friends and her future were in this world, and the choice was a heavy one that she was hoping not to face until she was at least a few months away from graduating next year.

“I did, a few times,” she answered simply, wanting to avoid the complicated train of thought that would surely bring up questions she wasn't ready to answer aloud. “But I’ll see what I do next year, probably.”

Next year. The thought felt like a cold weight in her chest because next year meant Stella wouldn't be sharing a suite with them anymore, and she would be officially off to the capital to handle her duties as a Crown Princess, likely becoming too busy to visit or to be as close to Bloom as they were in this moment.

“Well,” Stella’s answer came out low, and the shift in her tone was subtle but unmistakable to someone who was paying as much attention as Bloom was. The melodic quality of her voice was now tinted with something tentative and heavy. “If you ever decided to stay... the capital isn't actually too far away.”

The offer was quiet, but it was a massive hint that Stella was leaving behind, a soft request for Bloom to stay within her reach even if the final answer to the future was still unknown. Bloom was just about to find the words to respond, looking back into those beautifully blue eyes that were almost covered by the red scarf, when they heard a ragged, wet breathing echoing from the shadows behind them.

The labyrinth paths had been deeply stained in white since the storm began, making every turn look identical and the origin of any sound nearly impossible to pinpoint through the falling snow. When they stepped into one of the corridors to investigate the source of the noise, they found themselves staring down an almost pure white path, with nothing but the grey stone walls to guide the way, and in the center of it stood another creature, this one entirely unknown and far more menacing than the last.

“Shit. That one must be the actual test, right?” Bloom asked, reluctantly retrieving her hands from Stella’s warmth and moving to stand against the rough stone wall, peeking around the edge with a focused intensity.

“Do you think we still have to find a crystal for this one?” Stella asked, moving in right beside her to peek around the frost covered corner.

“Probably not, but we should just get the training over with so we can get out of here,” Bloom said, feeling a surge of confidence because she knew that, between the two of them, the task should be handled with ease.

“Can I try this one alone?” Stella asked suddenly, and all Bloom could do was raise her eyebrows in surprise for a second before nodding her head in agreement.

“Of course you can, but if you need a hand, you just have to say it,” she said, moving away from the edge of the wall to let Stella take the lead.

“It’s an Ice Elemental, it should be easy enough, I think,” she heard Stella mutter, though Bloom was sure the comment was more of a reassurance to herself than anything else. Truthfully, she didn’t know the specific weaknesses of an elemental, but she trusted Stella’s knowledge of magical creatures enough to let her step forward.

She watched as the blonde disappeared around the corner into the whiteout, but things didn't go as either of them had expected.

The snow was beginning to fall with a violent rapidity that made it feel as though the sky were collapsing, and there was nothing they could do to stop the change in the weather. Stella launched her first attack the moment she was in range, likely thinking that the creature would be a simple challenge of her reflexes, and it would have been a good plan if this were a controlled simulation and not a real, living Ice Elemental that had wandered into the maze.

Bloom was certain that by the third blast of shimmering light energy, the thing would surely shatter and turn into a small victory crystal, but after being thrown against the stone wall, the tall, jagged creature just pushed itself back up and began to fight with even more ferocity than before. Bloom tried to tell herself it was just the instructors making the test harder for the upperclassmen, and she remained convinced that the elemental would disappear before it could actually harm a student, because anything else would be against every school regulation she knew.

But the sudden and sharp slash of a crystalline claw against Stella’s forearm was far too real to be a part of any test.

The moment Stella hit the floor and the pristine white snow began to be painted with a shocking shade of red, Bloom realized the older girl was screaming, and the sound shattered the calm. It was supposed to be an easy exercise, yet Bloom found she couldn't actually hear the screams anymore, the only noise in her ears was a deafening, vibrating humming that started at the base of her spine and flooded her entire body. Her internal fire was burning so harshly that it felt as though it were melting her from the inside out, impeding her ability to think or move with any sense of normalcy.

An Ice Elemental should have been an easy target for a fire fairy, but Bloom was so blinded by a mix of raw anger and terrifying worry that for a moment, she truly thought she would snap out from the sheer intensity of the heat and find her back finally adorned with a pair of wings.

At some point, the humming in her skull finally stopped, and all she could hear was the sound of the ice creature melting into nothing and the sound of Stella’s ragged breathing behind her. Her eyes were unfocused as she stared at the slush on the ground, and for a second, all she could see was red, until she managed to tune her ears back into the world long enough to hear Stella calling her name. She dropped to her knees in the snow, her vision blurred by the falling flakes as she desperately tried to see how she could help.

“We need to move, Bloom... they usually come in packs,” Stella said, her voice trembling as she tried to stand up while clutching her mangled arm to her chest.

“Wrap yourself with the scarf, right now... we can’t have you bleeding out in this weather,” Bloom said, her voice sounding grounded and sharp as she pulled the red fabric from Stella’s neck. For a brief second, she caught the layer of unshed tears in those blue eyes and felt a pang of protectiveness that nearly overwhelmed her. “It’s gonna be fine, Stella. I promise.”

Bloom pulled hard on the ends of the scarf to make sure the makeshift bandage was tight enough to stop the flow, and then she leaned in to look directly into Stella’s eyes. “It’s gonna be fine, yeah?”

Stella nodded her head slowly, her hands shaking uncontrollably and her nose bright red from the cold. “Yeah,” she whispered. They stood there in the freezing air for longer than they probably should have, but they were shocked into movement a moment later by the sound of a predatory growling echoing from the other side of the labyrinth.

“Okay, yeah, we definitely need to go,” Bloom said, grabbing Stella’s good arm and guiding her firmly through the twisting corridors of stone.

She wasn't entirely sure which way led to the exit, and even if she had tried to check the map in her head, the snow was erasing every landmark, but she kept pushing forward, every turn feeling like a blind leap of faith toward the other side. The growling was still far off, but they couldn't afford to take any more risks, especially now that they knew the creatures were real.

The snow was quickly becoming an impassable wall, and even with Bloom walking in the front to break the wind, she could barely see more than a few meters through the white blur. It took them several minutes of frantic walking to finally find a white painted exit at the end of a long corridor, but what was supposed to be a short, easy walk back to the cabins turned out to be nothing of the sort. The camp was nowhere to be found in the shifting white void, and the familiar landmarks were gone.

“We need to keep walking... this is institutional land, so there has to be a secure outpost or a shelter somewhere around here,” Stella said from behind her, her voice shaky as she tried to peer through the blizzard.

Bloom didn't answer her with words, but she obeyed the command and kept pushing them away from the labyrinth and the creatures that were likely still stalking the halls. She knew that Stella wouldn't be able to stay in the freezing temperatures for much longer, not with a destroyed jacket and her face exposed to the wind, and even Bloom felt the sting of the snow hitting her face.

She pulled Stella flush against her side, wrapping an arm around her as they walked so that they were moving as one. Bloom started to intentionally raise her internal temperature, almost burning her own skin for the sake of radiating enough heat to keep Stella from fading. She could feel her own body starting to react to the unnatural intensity of the fire, and while she could have handled the walk for hours like that, the violent shaking of Stella’s body was a constant reminder that they were running out of time.

The minutes stretched out into long, agonizing cycles of grey and white, and with every heavy step they forced through the rising drifts, Bloom felt the gnawing dread that they were getting nowhere, her mind spiraling into the dark thought that it might have been better if they had simply stayed behind at the mouth of the labyrinth. Her internal monologue was a frantic loop of whispered frustrations and half formed insults directed at the storm, but somehow, through the howling wind, her silent prayers for a reprieve were answered when Stella finally spoke.

“There,” Stella’s voice was rough, a fragile rasp that made Bloom’s heart stutter with a new wave of worry as she took in the deathly paleness of the other girl's skin, praying fervently that the lack of color was merely a byproduct of the freezing cold and not the result of a dangerous loss of blood.

Stella was right, looming out of the whiteout just a few meters ahead was the dark silhouette of what appeared to be a small mountain cabin, far more modest and weathered than the polished lodgings they had been given back at the camp.

Bloom surged forward, breaking the path for both of them as she moved with a desperate, renewed energy, grabbing Stella’s good arm and pulling her along with the singular goal of trading the brutal elements for the sanctuary of a covered area.

They reached the structure in what felt like no time, and Bloom pulled Stella back just enough to vent a quick, intense burst of magic to melt the wall of snow blocking the entrance before she reached out to test the heavy handle.

“It’s locked,” she gritted out, throwing her shoulder against the solid wood and feeling the unyielding resistance of the frame while Stella stood shivering beside her.

Bloom was already beginning to call up the heat in her palm, intending to simply melt the iron lock into slag, when she felt the startlingly cold pressure of Stella’s hand stopping her mid motion.

“Wait! If you melt it now, it won’t be able to close back properly because it will be fused entirely,” Stella cautioned, her voice trembling but steady enough to command authority. She moved Bloom to the side with a gentle shove, and before Bloom could even think to argue, she saw Stella’s eyes begin to brighten with that familiar golden radiance, a light that was noticeably weaker than usual but still flickered with an underlying strength.

Bloom watched in a sort of dazed fascination as Stella’s uninjured hand began to twitch and tremble in the air, until a slim, perfectly shaped golden stick of solid light grew out of the void, followed quickly by another. The light fairy began to pull and twist at the inner workings of the lock for several minutes, seemingly oblivious to the wide eyed look Bloom was giving her, until finally, the mechanism gave way with a satisfying click, and she pushed the door open, ushering Bloom inside before closing it firmly against the screaming wind.

The interior of the cabin was sparse and hollow, containing nothing but a lone single bed tucked into the corner, a small stone fireplace that sat cold and neglected, and a simple wooden table with a single seat. There was another door set into the back wall which Bloom hoped led to a bathroom, and although the windows were all shuttered and locked tight, the space felt remarkably safe and quiet after the chaos of the blizzard.

“How on earth do you know how to pick a lock like that?” Bloom asked, the question tumbling out as the first thing she could think to say while she surveyed the room, eventually turning her gaze toward the bed where Stella had slumped down, her face looking dangerously ashen. “Actually, a better question is, does this place have a first aid kit?” she amended, answering her own thought by moving toward the back door and discovering a small bathroom and a cramped pantry area on the side.

She began to move the few meager items in the pantry aside with frantic hands, searching for anything that resembled medical supplies, eventually sighing with relief when she found a small stash of disinfectant, some rolls of gauze, and a few clean bandages. It wasn't much, but she could work with it.

“Okay, we need to get that jacket off you right now. I’ll try to find something to start a fire with in a little bit, but in the meantime, we really need to check that arm,” she said, pointing toward the makeshift bandage that was still wrapped around Stella’s forearm.

“I don’t think it’s deep, but it hasn't stopped bleeding yet,” Stella admitted, and the sheer amount of pain laced through her voice caught in Bloom’s chest the second she heard it.

Bloom moved forward to help her stand, carefully peeling the heavy jacket away from her shoulders while being mindful of the injured limb, and then she knelt down to finally inspect the damage under the dim light of the cabin. To her immense relief, the cut wasn't overly deep, likely a result of the sharp precision of an Ice Elemental’s strike, and she was profoundly thankful that there was only a clean slash across the skin.

She worked in a focused silence, cleaning the wound with the disinfectant and wrapping the gauze as neatly as she could, trying her best not to let the constant shaking of Stella’s body affect her own steady hands. Stella didn't look at her once during the entire process, her blue eyes remained fixed on the frosted windows and the relentless fall of snow outside, and Bloom didn't mind the silence, assuming that the other girl was simply trying to distance herself from the sharp sting of every touch.

However, once Bloom had finished and was planning to look up and ask if she needed anything else, she heard a very slight, muffled sniffle coming from above her. When she looked up, her heart broke at the sight of a solitary tear tracing a path down Stella’s cheek, her clear blue eyes still staring vacantly at the window as if she were lost in a memory she couldn't escape.

“Are you okay? Does it hurt too much? I can loosen the bandage if it’s too tight,” Bloom asked quickly, her voice thick with concern as she tried to catch Stella’s gaze. “Did I miss something? Is it pinching you?”

Stella remained silent for several long moments, and it was only when she finally looked down at Bloom that the flush of heat in her face, caused by the frustration and the tears, became visible.

“I should have been able to take it down on my own,” she said, her voice small and brittle, causing Bloom to relax just a fraction.

“Stella, it’s fine, really— we’re both safe now and you had no way of knowing that it wasn't just a part of the test, so it’s perfectly normal that you wouldn't have—”

“No! You don’t get it!” Stella interrupted her abruptly, her tone shifting into something sharp and jagged. It was a flash of anger that hadn't been directed at Bloom in a very long time, and the intensity of it made Bloom flinch. “How can I not defeat something like that, even if it isn't a test! I am only months away from graduation and I feel like I am still the exact same person I was on my first day at Alfea!”

The pressure in her voice was immense as she suddenly stood up from the bed, leaving a stunned and worried Bloom behind on the floor.

“It attacked you, Stella! You didn't think it would actually strike, and it is a completely normal reaction to be caught off guard by something like that,” Bloom defended, trying to reach through the wall Stella was building.

Stella wasn't looking at her anymore, but after Bloom finished speaking, she whirled around with a frown that was a far cry from any expression Bloom was used to receiving from her. “And if it hadn't been because you were right there, it would have just kept doing it! I would be lying out there deadly injured in the fucking snow right now because I am still just as useless as I was when I started!”

She was trembling as she spoke, and Bloom knew exactly what lay beneath that outburst. All of their friends were aware of Stella’s long struggle with her magic and the deep seated problems she had with control. They had all watched her grow with patience and teaching, helping her manage her emotions in a more positive way and pushing her away from the toxic environment she had been raised in, yet it seemed that despite the massive growth most people saw, Stella was the only one who couldn't see it in herself.

“How am I supposed to be fit to carry the title I’m destined for if I can't even protect myself properly?”

“You can do that! But this situation was complicated, and we were never supposed to cross paths with a real creature in a training exercise,” Bloom argued, her voice rising in her own defense of her friend.

“Oh, right,” Stella snapped back, her voice dripping with a defensive sarcasm. “But you managed to get it all wrapped up in under a minute back there, didn't you?”

Bloom stood up then, her own brow furrowing as she tried to understand the direction this conversation was taking, but she found she couldn't actually defend that specific point. Truthfully, she didn't even fully understand what had happened in the labyrinth, there had been a terrifying numbness in her body the second she saw Stella’s blood in the snow, and by the time she had even processed the need to act, the creature was already gone.

“I’ve been treated like an unstable person with my magic my entire life, only to find out that I can't even use it when I actually need it,” Stella whispered, the words barely audible in the small cabin, yet they felt like they filled the entire room. “You didn't even have to think about it. It was quicker than your fight with the Burned One, and I’m pretty sure that even with that one, you didn't actually need any help from me.”

Bloom took a step forward, then another, reaching out a hand to try and comfort Stella, but she was pushed away the moment she got too close.

“No! Just—” Stella stopped, her eyes darting to Bloom’s face and catching the hurt look there. Bloom could feel the heat of unshed tears burning in the corners of her own eyes, and for a fleeting second, a glimpse of regret crossed Stella’s features before the wall went back up. “Just let me be alone for a moment,” she said, her voice cracking as she moved back and seemed to disappear into the shadows of the small room.

Bloom stood frozen in the center of the narrow room for a long moment, her eyes searching the shadows as if there were some hidden map written on the floorboards to guide her through this sudden emotional minefield. The cabin was tiny, a mere handful of square feet that should have made it impossible for two people to lose each other, yet as she lowered her hand and took a tentative step backward, she felt an immense, icy distance opening up between them. She retreated until the edge of the bed pressed against the back of her knees and then sat down heavily, her mind reeling from the sharp sting of Stella's rejection.

She could feel her face burning with a heat that had nothing to do with the ancient magic brewing beneath her skin and everything to do with the raw, exposed nerves of her heart. Lowering her head until her face was shielded by a curtain of fallen hair, she allowed herself one brief, private moment of weakness, she let her eyes flare into a bright amber, replacing the blue with a flicker of dragon fire that worked to instantly sear away the tears pricking at her lids before they could ever fall.

She knew she couldn't stay in the gloom forever, so she forced herself to stand and begin the grounding task of searching the small space for enough logs to build a fire that would last through the freezing mountain night. By the time she had gathered a sufficient stack of left behind wood and coaxed a steady flame into existence, she had already decided to surrender the bed entirely, eyeing the lone wooden chair and table as her designated post for the night so that Stella might have the space to herself.

The table was shoved unceremoniously against the far wall near the bathroom door, and as Bloom settled into the hard chair, she found she had a unobstructed view of one of the cabin's three frost rimed windows. She shed her extra layers of clothing, feeling suddenly suffocated by the heavy garments, and leaned her head back against the rough wooden wall to rest, listening to the rhythmic pop and hiss of the sap in the burning logs.

There had been a profound, unbroken silence throughout the entire time she moved around the cabin, and though Bloom was secretly hoping she might catch a glimpse of Stella, perhaps a shimmering shift in the light in a darkened corner or a subtle movement out of the corner of her eye, there was nothing but the empty air and the sound of the wind. The only evidence that she wasn't actually alone was the way the mattress of the single bed suddenly developed a deep indent on one side, the center dipping under the weight of an invisible form leaning back against the wall.

Bloom didn't try to force a conversation the moment she noticed the shift, choosing instead to remain quiet and grant Stella the sanctuary of the space she had demanded. Outside, the sky had surrendered to a deep purple as gloomy clouds swallowed the last of the afternoon, leaving the flickering orange glow of the fireplace as their only source of light and their only shield against the encroaching dark.

As the hours began to stretch, Bloom’s mind drifted toward all the things she wanted to say, all the ways she could try to fix the jagged mood, but she knew from experience that words were often a poor currency when Stella was in this state. She remembered the days during their second year when Stella would vanish into her room for days on end after a particularly harsh encounter with her mother, and she knew that the light fairy was a master in hiding away when the world became too overwhelming to face.

But explaining the truth of the labyrinth felt like an even greater risk, telling Stella that she had lost all sense of control the moment she saw blood in the snow would lead them toward a conversation Bloom was terrified to have. It was easy enough to hide the fact that she didn't know how she had killed the creature, but it was much harder to hide the why, the fact that she had gone blind with a protective rage so bright it had erased every lesson in control she had ever learned. She knew that three simple words could dismantle the entire foundation of their friendship, and the fear of losing that connection kept her lips sealed tight.

“They’ll probably start a real search in the morning,” Bloom commented loudly into the stillness, her voice sounding strange and hollow in the small room. She saw the blankets on the bed shift for a brief second before settling back into a stillness that offered no answer. “They won't go out in the middle of the night in a storm like this,” she continued, mostly to hear the sound of a human voice, though she quickly reconsidered, knowing that Stella’s status as a princess meant the instructors were likely terrified of the Queen’s wrath. “Or maybe they will... they probably have the means to navigate this since they live here, after all.”

Most of the Eraklyon instructors were local experts, men and women who were born to the snow and trained for the harshest military conditions, so it was logical to assume they wouldn't wait long. “The storm looks incredibly strong, though,” she added, watching the snow lash against the glass with a violence that suggested they wouldn't be going anywhere soon. “So maybe by tomorrow, we’ll be back in our own beds with much more comfortable clothes.”

It was only then that she noticed her own black jacket was missing from the spot where she had left it. She had tossed it onto the bed earlier while she was focused on Stella’s wound, and now it was gone, pulled into the invisible space Stella occupied. A small, genuine smile touched Bloom’s lips at the realization; she was glad Stella had taken it, glad that some part of her was still seeking out Bloom's warmth, even if she couldn't say it aloud.

She fell silent for a long time after that, resting her head on the table and staring at the grain of the wood to give Stella a sense of privacy in the cramped quarters. Eventually, as the sun vanished completely and the world outside turned into a pitch black void, she used her magic to stir the dying embers back into a roar, relishing the perks of a power that could revive a fire from nothing but grey ash.

As boredom began to set in, her mind drifted away, her fingers idly scratching crooked, unreadable lines into the surface of the wooden table. “Have you ever heard of the Fantastic Four?”

Bloom asked the nothingness of the room, knowing Stella was there but unable to see the expression on her face.

“I don’t imagine you’ve ever actually heard of them, because I’ve made a habit of checking the shops in the city whenever we go out, and they don't seem to have any of the same comic books that we have back in the First World,” Bloom continued, her voice drifting through the small, flickering space as she leaned her head back against the rough wooden wall. She reached out a hand toward the hearth, flicking her fingers to stir the fire into a more aggressive blaze, hoping to push the warmth into every shadowed corner of the cabin because she had no way of knowing if Stella was shivering in the dark on the other side of the room.

“The story is about a small group, three men and one woman, who all find themselves gifted with these incredible, impossible powers after a freak accident during a trip into outer space. The woman in the group, she ends up with abilities that, if you think about it, could pretty much be considered a form of light magic,” Bloom explained, her hands moving through the air to illustrate her points even though she was staring at nothing, her eyes searching the empty bed for any sign of a reaction.

She hadn't ever been a particularly dedicated fan of comic books while she was growing up in Gardenia, if she had been, it likely would have just added another layer to the mountain of things she was already mocked for by the other kids at school, yet she still knew about the characters and their histories for a handful of other, probably equally nerdy reasons. Back then, the very idea of magic and superhuman powers had been a fantasy that felt entirely too far away from reality to ever truly imagine a person having the capacity to perform such feats, yet now she found herself as one of them, a girl who could make flames dance across her palms and ignite things around her without suffering so much as a single scratch. She was a living part of a fantasy she hadn't even known could exist until she was thrust into the center of it.

“In a lot of ways, she kind of reminds me of you, Stell. She has the ability to turn herself completely invisible, and she can even extend that power to make other objects or people disappear from sight too, but she can also use her magic as these incredible shields or… like these invisible forces that protect everyone or use it as blasts,” Bloom said, her voice trailing off into a soft whisper by the end of the sentence.

She didn’t look anywhere in particular, shifting her weight in the hard wooden chair before letting her head fall back against the wall once more, this time allowing her eyes to slip shut against the orange glow of the fire. “Your magic is way cooler, though, honestly. You can create and manifest so many other intricate things with your power now that you’ve shown me that lock picking trick, which was actually incredible!”

The room remained agonizingly quiet after she spoke, with no rustling of blankets or soft movement of feet to indicate that Stella was planning to return to the visible world, and Bloom kept her eyes closed, refusing to check if the bed was still empty. The conversation was entirely one sided, a desperate monologue into the void, and she felt as though she could keep going for hours, adding more and more evidence to the idea of just how useful Stella’s magic truly was and how much potential she had as a light fairy. It was all there, right in the palms of Stella's hands, yet she was the only person in the world who seemed unable or unwilling to see it for herself.

Bloom stayed quiet for a long moment, the crackle of the fireplace the only sound between them, and she decided then that she wouldn't let the silence stretch for too much longer if she could help it. But, as it turned out, she didn't have to say another word.

“It must be cool to be a superhero,” a whisper drifted through the room, sounding so much closer than Bloom had been expecting that it sent a involuntary shiver down her spine. It wasn't exactly right next to her ear, but the voice had definitely migrated from the dark corner of the room, and when Bloom glanced toward the bed out of the corner of her eye, she noticed for the first time the distinct lack of a dip in the mattress where the invisible weight had previously been resting.

“I think being a fairy is cooler, honestly,” Bloom offered into the dim light, and she found that she actually meant the words with every fiber of her being. She didn't necessarily think she was a better person than whatever an idealized superhero was supposed to stand for, but she did know the visceral living reality of what being a fairy was like, and in her opinion, the raw connection to the elements was far more profound than anything she had ever read about in a comic book.

She heard the breathy hum of a laugh, a sound that could have been taken as entirely humorless given the tension in the room, but Stella didn't choose to show herself or do anything further to bridge the gap, and Bloom didn't have the heart to push her.

“You always sound so incredibly sure of yourself whenever it comes down to things like power or magic,” she heard then, and when she looked around the small cabin, she finally found Stella’s figure sitting on the floor directly in front of the flickering fireplace. Her legs were pulled up tightly against her chest as she hugged her knees, and her eyes were focused with an unblinking clarity on the dancing orange flames. “It’s like the power truly belongs to you, like it’s a part of your skin.”

Bloom didn’t move from her place at the table, choosing instead to remain perfectly still so she could listen to Stella’s words as they slowly, painfully unspooled from her. It was true that Bloom was powerful, but that didn't necessarily mean she had ever felt like she was in complete control of that power. She had spent years of her life trying desperately not to burst into flames after every minor inconvenience or emotional spike, and the management of her own feelings had become an exhausting, full time job at various points along the way, even if she had managed to get through most days with only minor incidents.

“I don’t think I’ve ever once heard you truly doubt yourself or what you’re capable of doing,” Stella whispered, her voice reflecting the glow of the embers.

The statement hit Bloom with the weight of a physical blow, because she had doubted herself, she had doubted herself a thousand times over, and her magic had been so dangerously unstable since the very beginning that she had often feared she was more of a hazard than a hero.

“That’s wrong,” she said then, her voice firm despite the quiet of the room. “You were right there, Stella! You were present the very first time I ever truly struggled with my magic back in the stone circle.” It had happened so long ago now that she could almost convince herself it was a forgettable and distant memory, though it felt much more vivid knowing that Stella still carried the guilt of what she had tried to teach her that day.

She heard a dismissive scoff coming from the fireplace, but Stella still refused to look back at her, her gaze remaining fixed on the heat.

“You didn't know how to use your magic at the very beginning, sure, but after that first times, you never seemed to doubt yourself once,” Stella stated with a definitive edge to her voice. “The wings, and the brutal fights with the Burned Ones, and all those times during training when you faced sudden encounters with whatever or whoever got in the middle of a goal you had set for yourself, you never once looked like you doubted that you would win.”

“I didn't actually know what I was doing during most of those times, Stella,” Bloom said, realizing that it would be much easier to just tell the partial truth than to let Stella drift away into her own head again. She could avoid to expose herself. “When I first realized I had magic back in the First World, it wasn't some grand moment of destiny, I literally started a fire in my house in the middle of the night while my parents were sleeping, and I hurt my mom that night.”

The words felt choked as they left her throat, and for a fleeting second, the phantom memory of the acrid burning smell drifting along the hallway of her childhood home seemed to stick to her nose once again.

“Afterwards, my magic felt like it was totally broken, and during those first few days at school, Aisha had to help me constantly before I managed to burn down the entire woods surrounding Alfea just by trying to get the flames to work the way they were supposed to,” she said, offering a small shrug that Stella couldn't see. The memory wasn't exactly a funny one, but in the grand scheme of everything that had happened since, it had been the least concerning of her many failures. “I was never really confident about my magic, Stella, I think I was just far too hardheaded and stubborn to ever stop and look the other way.”

She wanted more than anything for Stella to finally turn around and look at her, to say anything at all that would stop her from believing that her own magic wasn't useful or powerful enough to matter.

“Even the wings were a mistake back then, too, because I didn't have the slightest clue how they worked or what they were really supposed to mean for me, I was just acting on pure instinct,” she spoke the words slowly, trying to let them sink in. She had never really gotten the hang of the wings in a technical sense, they were simply a part of her that reacted to her stronger needs, and if she had to explain the mechanics of them to someone else, she knew she wouldn't be of any help at all.

It was then that Stella turned slowly, her blue eyes bathed in the flickering, warm light of the fire and her body swathed in the oversized black jacket that belonged to Bloom. She almost smiled at the realization.

“You did so well with the Ice Elemental back there,” she said, her impossibly blue eyes catching Bloom’s and holding them with a gaze so intense it made Bloom feel as though she might actually melt into the floorboards.

“I don't even know what I did,” Bloom admitted, her voice dropping to a whisper.

The room stayed quiet for a long beat, and for a moment Bloom feared that her words had been too quiet for Stella to hear over the crackle of the wood, but she was proven wrong a moment later when she noticed the small crease forming in the other girl's eyebrows and the slight, puzzled twist of her head.

“How?” Stella asked.

Bloom took a steadying breath, shifting her weight in the chair so she could fully face the direction where Stella was sitting. “It just... it happened,” she said with another shrug of her shoulders. “I was standing behind the stone wall one moment, watching you, and then in the very next second, I was suddenly standing in front of you.” She couldn't bring herself to say that it had happened before, because that would be a lie. A small, and perhaps unimportant lie, but a lie nonetheless. “You were hurt, and I blinked, and then it just—” she moved her hands through the air in a frustrated gesture, as if the motion itself could explain the inexplicable way her magic had taken over.

Stella’s eyes remained locked on her, and it felt as though she were trying to peer straight through Bloom’s skin to see the fire beneath. Bloom found herself suddenly glad that Stella was a light fairy and not a mind fairy, because she wasn't sure she wanted anyone seeing the chaos inside her.

“I’m so sorry that I was the one who triggered that,” Stella said, and Bloom was about to launch into a frantic protest when Stella lifted a hand to stop her. “You’ve never been like that before, Bloom, you were completely locked into the situation, and you didn't even look at me while you were doing it. You just stepped around me, and that thing was gone in less than a minute,” she explained, finally shifting from her huddled position and letting her arms move as she tried to wrap her head around the memory.

Bloom truly didn't know what she had done, it felt as though her body had reacted long before her mind could even process the danger, leaving her with no memory of the act itself, only the heat.

“If the thing that actually triggered your supposedly ‘instinctual’ reaction was the sight of me getting hurt,” Stella said, her voice dropping an octave as she shifted her tone mid sentence to emphasize her lingering skepticism regarding the instinct part, “then I’m truly sorry, because a reaction like that shouldn’t have happened just because—”

“Stella, it is absolutely not your fault!” Bloom interrupted, her voice rising in volume, not out of anger, but out of a desperate need to get her point across through the thick fog of Stella’s guilt. “You have to stop blaming yourself for things that simply happen in the heat of a moment. You can’t possibly expect to control every single variable around you so that nothing ever goes wrong.”

Bloom watched her closely, knowing all too well that Stella was the type of person who would purposefully push herself down, refusing to accept compliments as lasting truths and instead treating them like fleeting comments about a version of herself that would eventually fade away.

“I don't ever want to see you getting hurt, and I reacted the way I did because my magic simply latched onto my strongest emotions in that exact second. I was afraid because—” Bloom stopped herself, the true words catching in her throat like jagged glass. To say the full truth now would be too much, too harsh, and she couldn't risk the sting of a rejection while they were trapped together in the middle of a snowy mountain inside a tiny isolated cabin. “Because you’re my best friend, Stella,” she finished, relaxing back against the wooden wall and letting her shoulders drop in a gesture of weary defeat. “I can’t let you get hurt, but that doesn’t mean I see you as anything less than me just because you froze up back there for a second.”

She wanted to get everything out into the open before the chance slipped away forever, even if the deepest feelings she carried would have to wait for another time, or perhaps an eternity. She could manage this, they would still be friends, and that was a tether she refused to break, even if it meant she wouldn't get exactly what her heart was screaming for.

“My magic is naturally more destructive, so it only makes sense that my emotions would trigger the most volatile side of it,” Bloom said, pushing herself away from the hard chair and lowering herself to the dusty floor, where she sat cross legged so she could look directly into Stella’s eyes. “Yours is so much more delicate and careful. You might take more time to weave it, but light can cause so much more than fire ever could!”

And she truly believed it, there had been countless times when Stella’s light magic had been the only thing that saved them. Bloom knew she could destroy things or sneak her flames into complicated places, but that didn't make her power superior. She was only "stronger" because of a primordial spark she had been given before she even knew she was a fairy, and she was still stumbling through the dark trying to understand it.

“Most of the magic I use by accident is triggered by the wings, and I honestly don't have nearly enough information about how any of that works, so it’s all just a process of slowly learning and trying things to see how they go,” she said with a small shrug, looking back at Stella, whose eyes were now shiny with unshed moisture and an unfocused gaze. “And you literally picked a lock today! With light magic!” Bloom brought it up again, a small, genuine smile finally starting to creep onto her face.

She noticed the way her own eyes were stinging in sympathy, matching the vulnerability in Stella’s expression, but the residual pain she had been hoarding inside her chest seemed to dissipate the moment she heard a light, soft chuckle finally break through Stella’s lips. She watched Stella closely as the blonde moved to twist her body in Bloom’s direction, the tension finally bleeding out of her posture.

“I actually learned how to do that last year,” Stella admitted, shifting slightly. “Not the lock picking, that’s a skill I’m pretty sure I picked up when I was much younger.” This time, it was Bloom who laughed, the sound filling the small space of the cabin and making it feel a little less like a prison. “I can’t do the big and lasting things quite yet, but I’m getting there.”

“It’s still amazing, Stella, and it takes so much focus to get to that level,” Bloom replied softly, hearing the faint, whispered ‘yeah’ that Stella offered in return.

A new kind of silence grew between them then, but this time, the air felt different. There was no more jagged tension or unspoken resentment lingering in the corners of the room, the silence was comfortable, a warm blanket of shared presence as they sat in full view of each other. Stella eventually moved to stand, her movements a little shaky after being huddled on the floor for so long, and she stepped closer to Bloom, extending her hand in a silent invitation.

Bloom took it, letting Stella help pull her to her feet, and for a long moment, the blonde girl simply stayed there, standing quietly in front of her. The proximity was closer than Bloom had felt in a long time, an intimacy that felt different from their usual late night talks. She could see every minute detail of Stella’s face, from the deep shadow of blue in her eyes to the constellation of little freckles that dotted her skin. Bloom did her absolute best to keep her gaze from drifting lower to Stella’s lips, desperate to avoid showcasing her feelings so clearly and risking the uncomfortable silence that would surely follow.

But then, the distance vanished as she was pulled forward into a crushing hug, Stella’s arms wrapping around her with a fierce intensity that Bloom immediately returned.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you,” she heard the muffled sound of Stella’s voice, her face hidden perfectly in the crook of Bloom’s neck and shoulder.

“It’s okay,” Bloom answered, her own voice thick with emotion as she refused to let go, savoring the radiating warmth that always seemed to bloom in her chest whenever Stella held her like this.

When Stella eventually pulled back, she didn't move far, keeping her hands resting on Bloom’s arms as if to keep them anchored together in the empty space. “I’ll help you,” Stella promised, her eyes searching Bloom’s. “I’ll help you find out everything there is to know about the wings.”

Bloom thanked her, knowing the journey ahead would be a long one and that having Stella by her side would make it bearable. “But in the meantime,” Bloom said, moving her hands to lightly cup Stella’s face, her warm palms a striking, searing contrast against the lingering cold of the other girl's skin. “You’re getting cold again.”

“I’m so glad you finally noticed, honestly,” Stella quipped, and Bloom laughed softly, gently pulling her back toward the single bed in the corner.

Bloom sat down first, settling herself against the wall and extending her arms in a silent offer, and Stella didn't hesitate for a single second. She tucked herself into the embrace, letting out a long, shaky sigh of relief as she felt the comforting heat radiating from Bloom’s body. They stayed like that for a very long time, long enough for the exhaustion of the day to finally pull Stella into a deep sleep, and far longer than the logs in the fireplace were ever supposed to last. But Bloom kept the fire going, using her magic to whisper life back into the flames so the cabin remained a sanctuary of warmth, even as the blizzard continued to howl outside.

Bloom liked the feeling in her chest, the soft, fluttering giddiness that was born from nothing more than the simple presence of the light fairy in her arms. If this was all she could ever have, if friendship was the only bridge they would ever cross, she would take it with open arms and never let go.

Bloom woke up some time later, in what she assumed must be the middle of the night. The flames in the fireplace were still burning strongly in the background, casting flickering shadows across the walls, and she could feel the comforting pressure of Stella pressed against her side. At some point between drifting off and the deepness of the night, they had moved to lie down properly on the narrow bed, their limbs still wrapped around each other in a protective tangle. Bloom made sure to keep her internal heat steady, ensuring that the other fairy wouldn’t have to feel the bite of the cold again.

Bloom lay perfectly still in the darkness, her eyes wide and staring blankly at the rough hewn ceiling above them, tracing the jagged creases and knots in the timber until her mind began to form small, ghostly faces and abstract shapes out of the wooden grain. Outside, the wind was still howling with a relentless, predatory strength, pushing far more snow against the walls than before, and she couldn't help but offer a silent, flickering hope that the cabin wouldn't end up entirely buried under the weight of the whiteout falling from the sky.

There was a soft rustling movement at her side, the friction of fabric against the mattress signaling that Stella was no longer lost to sleep, and she felt the light fairy’s head shift slightly against the curve of her shoulder. Bloom moved just a fraction to settle herself more comfortably, trying to give Stella a little more breathing room within the tight sanctuary of their embrace, when she noticed the deliberate, conscious movement of Stella’s fingers. They were tracing imaginary lines along the skin of Bloom’s arm in a slow pace, a rhythmic and grounding touch that felt like a secret language written in her skin.

“Bloom?”

The question was hoarse, the heavy weight of sleep still lingering in Stella’s voice as if it were physically attached to her, making the whisper sound almost fragile.

“Yeah?” Bloom asked in return, her own voice mirroring that same husky tone as she moved her hand, the one tucked beneath Stella, to copy the rhythmic actions of the light fairy, tangling her fingers gently into the soft silk of Stella’s hair.

“Would you tell me... if you ever decided to leave?”

The question was so impossibly quiet, muffled by the closeness of their bodies and the heavy air of the room, that for a fleeting moment Bloom truly thought she had imagined the words, that they were merely a product of the fog still clinging to her mind.

“If I ever leave?” she asked back, her brow furrowing as she struggled to catch the true meaning of the words through the lingering haze of exhaustion.

A long, stretching silence followed her question, a silence so profound that Bloom would have assumed Stella had drifted back into sleep if it weren't for the fact that the slender fingers were still moving, still tracing patterns against her skin. Bloom didn't pressure her for an explanation, waiting patiently in the dark just in case the words were too much for her to say out loud.

“If you ever leave... to go back to the First World,” Stella’s voice was even quieter now, and beneath the surface of the words, Bloom could hear a jagged fear of the truth.

Bloom stayed silent, not because she lacked an answer, but because she was trying to understand what could have possibly made Stella think she would ever simply disappear one night, vanishing into the mundane world to never return. Even if she had wanted to, Bloom knew she would never be able to walk away from the relationships she had built at Alfea, her friends had become the most vital part of her existence, and their shared history was not something she could ever leave behind in the dark.

Stella, especially, had become the great constant in her daily life, the person Bloom turned to for every minor triumph or devastating setback, the one who was always there to offer a hand or a sharp, witty remark. Stella had always been there for her, and Bloom was certain, with a conviction that burned brighter than her magic, that she always would be. Even with the complicated  feelings tangled in the middle of their friendship, she could never leave Stella without an explanation or a solemn promise to find her way back.

“If I ever leave, you will be the very first person to know,” she promised, the words firm and clear in the quiet of the cabin. She felt the relieved exhale of air against her neck, followed by the humming vibration of Stella’s voice in response.

Bloom leaned down to press a quick kiss to the top of Stella's head, moving her arms to wrap herself properly and securely around her, letting the other girl settle back into a protected position against her chest.

“Bloom?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

The words caused a sudden release of thoughts in Bloom’s mind, a chaotic rush of adrenaline that threatened to break her calm, but she didn't let her racing heart or the electric burst of energy stop her from answering. She took a breath, letting the heat of the fire and the weight of the girl in her arms ground her, and spoke the words back just a second later.

“I love you too, Stella.”