Title: if tomorrow lasts forever
Category: Cartoons ยป Winx Club
Author: Cahaya Sidur
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Romance, Tragedy
Published: 22-02-18
Words: 1,832

Disclaimer: I do not own Winx Club.

AN: What I've found is that I have a ton of Helia-centric ideas that I like to write about. They are quite sporadic and are often based off things I have either watched or read recently. I've wanted to post them quite some time, and what better way than in a collection of one-shots?

Most of these may be continued based on how the writing for each one goes, but please don't expect any to be continued if I feel that that's all I have had muse for. Many of the characters might be OOC, and for that I apologise.

Background info for one-shot: For this one-shot-ish, the primordials mentioned later on are essentially the Titans from Attack on Titan. Helia is the same age as Daphne, and was frozen in time the same time she was.

"Hey Daph," the familiar voice calls to her, and the blonde perks up and turns to see her best friend striding confidently to her. She waved at him as he approached and took the seat opposite her. "You're looking radiant today."

Daphne rolls her eyes, knowing that her baggy clothing and unkempt hair was contradictory to her usually impeccable taste. She slouches over the table, folding her arms on the table. "I'm feeling rebellious today. What do you think?"

"I think you need to find a beard if you want to pull it off enough for your parents to freak."

"Are you offering to be that beard?" Daphne simpers, batting her eyelashes at him.

Helia laughs, that loud and free laughter that makes Daphne smile and reminisce times before Alfea, when they were children and hadn't had to worry about the legacy they needed to leave behind. "Well, I'm not opposing the idea if you desperately need one."

"I'll take that offer." Daphne smiles and straightens a little. She slides the menu over to him. "Here, I'll pay."

"Thank you very much." Helia smirks as he flicks through the menu, clearly going for the most expensive drinks.

"You are an asshole." Daphne scowls.

Helia shrugs. "I'm from Red Fountain. It's sort of in the entry requirements."

Daphne snorts, though there is sympathy behind it. "Your grandfather still trying to persuade you to skip a grade?"

Helia nods with a long-suffering air. "Yeah. Safe to say, I'm not anyone's favourite person at the moment."

"You don't have to go to Red Fountain, Helia." Daphne puts her hand over his. "There are plenty of art schools or political academies that you can go to. Red Fountain doesn't have to be your only option."

"It's where grandfather is." Helia smiles half-heartedly. "And it's not long anyway. Another two years and I'll be free to do what I want."

"Doesn't mean you have to suffer-are you ordering wine?" Daphne demands, trying to push down the menu Helia is seeing to get a better look. She finds herself facing the wine section.

"You said you wanted to piss your parents off."

"I meant in the 'we're so disappointed in you what's gotten in you' way, not the 'have you completely lost it we're cutting off all your funds' route!"

"What better way to do this than get wine now?" Helia waves a waiter over and orders a bottle, causing Daphne's eyes to bulge as the waiter nods and walks away with their order.

"Helia, it's three in the afternoon. You're not even supposed to be drinking yet."

"I never said it was for me." Helia says sensibly.

Daphne relaxes a little. "Then who's it for?"

"Codatorta. Grandfather's being a little stranger than usual. I think the poor man deserves some form of compensation." Helia answers. "Courtesy of you, of course."

"Of course." Daphne rolls her eyes.

"So, what's really on your mind?" Helia asks.

Daphne sighs and wonders if she can change the topic. Maybe bullshit her way through this. Then again, knowing Helia, probably not. The two had practically grown up together. "My parents are thinking of having another child."

Helia blinks. "I see."

"But it's strange. You know. I mean. It's been 16 to 17 years. Why do they need a child now?"

Helia easily reads between the halting lines. "They're not trying to replace you, Daphne."

"Maybe they think I'm a disappointment and are looking for a new heir."

"Or, they just miss being parents of a child and you're overthinking this." Helia suggests. "Daph, your parents aren't the sort of people to do this over a grudge."

"It's not just a grudge. It's the future of my kingdom!" Daphne slouches over once again. "Well. Not mine soon."

"Daphne, you're the eldest. You're being ridiculous. Just talk to them."

"Yeah, no."

"Hey, Daph." Helia's tired smile comes through a hologram. Daphne immediately sits up, wide awake. Her friend never called at this late an hour. And he never looked so despondent before, except for that time his parents had sent him to boarding school.

"What's wrong, Helia?"

Helia shrugs half-heartedly, glancing at something sitting just out of Daphne's - and the hologram's - line of sight. But Daphne waits patiently, knowing that Helia would tell her soon.

"Codatorta talked to me today about a special program that is being held at the Magic Dimension's borderlands."

Daphne blinks. Not at Helia's way of talking - she's long ago learnt that he rarely hid what was on his mind - but at the fact that Codatorta is using a move that seems too deliberate to interpret otherwise. "He's trying to get rid of you?"

Helia shakes his head maybe a little too emphatically. "No. I mean. Sort of? But I think he thinks he's doing it to protect me."

"What do you think?" Daphne asks immediately.

Her navy-haired friend shrugs. "I don't know."

"Are you going?"

"Maybe." Helia says, glancing again at that thing out of focus.

"You know what?" Daphne starts to clamber out of bed. "This is a conversation too important to have over hologram. I'll be at Red Fountain in ten."

Daphne easily scales the wall into the room, heading straight for the open window. She thanks the Dragon that she's had the foresight to talk to Saladin and obtain a key into the dorms as she clambers into the room.

Helia is hunched over a hologram of some pamphlet, the light giving his face an eerie look. He barely looks up at her. "Hey Daph."

"Hey Helia." Daphne climbs on and makes herself comfortable, leaning her head on his shoulder. "So what's this program thing?"

"It's at the borderlands of the Magic Dimension." Helia tells her, shoving the pamphlet in her direction. "And it's for students who don't excessively rely on magic."

Daphne frowns. "What will you be doing?"

Helia shakes his head. "That's the thing. It says rigorous training against a specific enemy, but there isn't any additional information."

When Daphne sees her friend several months later after he quit Red Fountain and joins the programme, she almost wants to cry. Helia is looking more alive than she remembers him, with a healthy glow to his pale skin and eyes alight with adrenaline. But at the same time, there is a heaviness that wasn't there before, alongside shadows under her eyes.

"Helia." A quiet murmur as Daphne steps tentatively forward.

"Hey, Daph." Helia opens his arms hesitantly, clearly as unsure as she. Daphne wastes no time in flinging herself forward into his arms and tightening hers around his neck.

"I've missed you." Daphne confides, because it's been so long since she's had a proper genuine friend, and Helia's not been able to contact her and she missed him so dearly.

The arms tighten around her waist as if relieved with the assurance. "I've missed you too." His voice breaks. "So much."

Daphne can feel her heart pounding as she watches the remains of the palace of Domino, after what the primordials and Coven Witches had done to it.

The navy-haired former specialist stands in front of Daphne, eyes dark and ready for battle. His hair is tied up sloppily in a bun, but it keeps the strands of hair out of his face and that's all that matters. He is holding dual folding swords that slide up and down his arms, and thick mesh ropes are around his body in a sort of harness.

He glances at Daphne, and there is a glimmer of fondness that reassures Daphne her friend hasn't completely lost himself to his stoic battleready persona.

"Ready?"

Once they got past the barrier, the primordials would be able to get ahold of them. It was a matter of time until said primordials caught up to them, so they had to run in, get Bloom, and then run back out.

Daphne nods firmly. "Ready."

And then they charge through together.

Daphne gently sets down the pictures of her and Helia, both laughing and carefree shortly before the fall of Domino. By then, they had endured unspeakable hardships that had reaffirmed their own identities and self-confidence as well as their friendship, and it showed in how willingly Helia leaned into her and she subconsciously curved back in.

She lovingly traces the outline of their faces and smiles to herself, before there is a knock on the door.

"Come in." She calls out.

She half expects for Helia to walk in.

Griselda does instead, and Daphne's not too sure how she should feel.

Daphne ends up staring at the screen a lot longer than she probably should. Faragonda had said that she wasn't sure, but anyone who had been around Helia growing up would know the way he flicks his head when he's unsure or gaining confidence in something reckless, or the way he shut his eyes a second too long to to mentally visualise his next move.

"Who is he?" Bloom asks.

But it is Daphne who answers through dry lips. "Helia."

Faragonda nods gravely.

"Wait," Nex blinks, clearly confused, "that Helia? The one who disappeared during the fall of Domino?" He exchanges a meaningful look with Daphne. "That Helia?"

Daphne nods. "Without a doubt."

"I see." Faragonda clasps her hands behind her back as she turns to look out the window. "I will need to inform Saladin."

"Wait. Who's Helia?" Bloom asks her sister. "How do you know him?"

Daphne inhales shakily.

Faragonda eyes her sympathetically, but allows the nymph of Sirenix to answer the question.

"He was - is - my best friend." Daphne answers honestly, unable to tear her eyes away from the picture. "We grew up together. His family perished when he was young, so he was entrusted to Saladin's care. We went to Alfea and Red Fountain together before he left to the borderlands for a special programme against the primordials."

"The primordials?" Riven demands. "The crazy giant we nearly died defeating? There are more of them?"

Daphne nods sombrely. "Magic wouldn't work against them, so a fighting force was developed of children with exceptionally quick minds and reflexes, and Helia qualified. He flourished there." Her eyes turned sad. "But he hated it there. He hated having to kill someone for the greater good."

She doesn't realise she's fallen silent until her sister gently touches her shoulder.

"Daphne?" Bloom asks quietly.

"He's the gentlest man you'll ever meet." Daphne laughs thickly through gathering tears. "He's the reason we're alive, Bloom. Back on Domino." She clarifies at the confused look she receives. "The primordials had breached the inner defences and established a perimeter around the palace, preventing us from getting in or out. You were trapped inside, and we had to go and get you." She shudders at the thought. "Without him, we would be dead."

Bloom's eyes are wide at the thought.

"We need to get him." Daphne whispers.

"Yes, we do." Faragonda nods. "That is why I'm sending you girls out to get him."