...Eragon hadn't expected to be breathing again. After what he had done, how could he?
And yet, he was. Magic dabbed at his skin, and he could ...feel... himself returning.
Returning to consciousness.
Returning to the world.
Returning to life.
And even as he coughed and spluttered, cringing in agony in the moments before he opened his eyes, he was already thinking of how to go back.
Back to oblivion. Back to where his heart and soul didn't feel like they'd been cut open, torn asunder by his sadness, his pain, his want for what would never be.
But yet, he blinked once more. Opened his eyes and kept them there, some part of him willing his soul back to the world no matter how hard he had fought to ensure its leave.
Life once again filled him. And no matter how much he hated it, he did not repel it. Only stared into the haze of light that hung over him.
And as it cleared, a pair of wide green eyes stared back.
Eragon shuddered and turned to the side, trying desperately to ignore her emerald gaze, her touch as her delicate fingers slid away from where a wound had been moments before, the yearning he felt in his soul at her very presence... and then failing miserably as she suddenly enveloped him in an embrace.
"...I-I..." She chocked, spluttering to say anything. "...I was so afraid. I thought..." She sniffed loudly, her eyes clenching as tears pattered on the floor. "I thought..." There was a long pause as she tried to regain herself, but quickly gave up. "I th-ought I w-was going to lose you..."
For a moment, Eragon felt paralysed, shocked by the sudden loss of self control in the normally emotionless elf, and fighting all the harder to stop himself from trying to comfort her like he so desperately wanted to.
The rider put on a fake scowl as he turned to her, his limbs failing once again to push away. "Yeah, don't worry, your hero isn't dead yet."
Her grip only tightened as she dug her head into his neck, and Eragon felt warm dampness and silky hair against his skin. "Th-that wasn't why I was afraid." She whispered, her throat clenched as the rider lay still unmoving. "I thought that I w-would lose you."
"You can't die... I won't let you… …Not if it isn't by my side. Not without telling you what I always wanted to tell you."
Eragon growled. "You did. You did when you told me we were friends and would never be anything more. You did when you broke my heart in two." As if in tandem, he felt his heart clench painfully, the ache returning once more. "You did, when you brought me back to suffer again!"
Arya's grip somehow tightened as she reached around to look him in the eyes. And as much as he tried, he could not make himself look away from her teary-eyed stare.
"Eragon..." The elf whispered, and then suddenly, she leaned forward. "For a moment, he thought he felt a feather touch his lips, then he realised what it truly was and, as if somehow knowing, the she-elf took this as a moment to deepen the kiss.
...I lied.