"I won't lie. I want to beat the hell out of any man who's had you… but nothing in your past can change how I feel about you."

Sylvia Day, Reflected in You

Things had changed ever since the incident. Neither of them talked about it, but they both felt the difference in the air between them. Both of them became more tactile to each other. Misty would hug Cordelia whenever she got excited. Their hands were almost always seeking contact with each other. And to Cordelia's delight, Misty would now talk to her about her inner world. She told the other about her strict religious parents and community of her hometown. Cordelia's heart was shattered into pieces to know the young blonde, who deserved all the love in the universe, got next to none of it as a child. In return, Cordelia told her about her own childhood and life before she met the wild blonde. She often broke into tears trying to look back at her past. Her mother and abandonment, a father that she never had, being bullied in middle school, her attempt to end her life and numerous scars on her body, her ex boyfriends and a fiancé she almost had married… Cordelia talked about everything and anything she could remember, and Misty would hold her tight all the time.

"You never told me you had a fiancé." Misty whispered in shock, a little heartbroken to hear about the past lovers of the older woman.

"Because he is irrelevant.i We dated two years when I was in my twenty's, but he cheated on me with some girl he met online." Cordelia sipped wine from her glass. They had been drinking and chatting for hours now.

"What a jerk. I don't understand how people can cheat on their partner, you know? It's like, I know I would never cheat on mine, if I had one, that is." Misty couldn't understand why anyone would want to hurt Cordelia like that. "He didn't deserve you any way." She added.

"Ha, I know. I don't even know what he's doing now. I wouldn't give a single penny to know though." Feeling the alcohol starting to affect her, Cordelia leaned further against the other woman. "So, you've never cheated on your boyfriend… How many boyfriends have you ever had?" Even if their friendship had grown strong, they had never talked about romance until now. Cordelia was dying to know about Misty's, but she was still timid when it came to the subject. I could blame the wine. She told herself silently.

"Me? I ain't have no ex boyfriend." Misty answered with her nervous giggles. She knew where this conversation would land.

Cordelia took a few moments to think with her tipsy mind before asking another question. "Girlfriends?" She hoped that her voice didn't sound so eager to the younger blonde.

Misty breathed out a mixture of a laugh and a sigh. "No. I don't have any ex boyfriends or girlfriends. I have never been in a relationship." A little frustrated with the exchange she had had with people so many times, Misty looked at her friend next to her with a serious look. "I know, I'm 28 and never dated a person. I just have never met anyone that I feel like dating." It was a phrase she remembered by heart, but she never imagine she would have to explain this to the other.

The older blonde seemed to be contemplating something, but Misty couldn't tell. "Well, I don't see anything wrong with that." Cordelia spoke softly. "There are people called aros and aces. It's perfectly normal not to want to be in a relationship. It's just who you are."

"People called what?" Misty didn't understand what the other just said.

"Um, so, aces are people who don't experience sexual attraction to another person, no matter what the person's sexuality is. And there are people called aros. These are people who don't experience romantic attraction to another person. Aromantic people may or may not be attracted to another person sexually, though. These are not the same thing." Cordelia was a little proud of herself that she had something to teach the younger blonde.

"Well, I don't think I'm an aro, though…" Misty told the other, eyebrows knotted together. "I mean, there is someone."

Cordelia looked away from the girl's face at the response. She didn't want to continue this conversation any longer. She didn't want to know about the person Misty had her very first crush on. Her black soul wished whoever it was would go to hell. "He must be the luckiest guy on the planet." She mastered a smile before walking to the kitchen with an empty wine bottle in her hand.

"Nothing is forever, and neither is a goodbye."

Unknown

It had been one and a half months since Misty had come back. This was the longest time she ever stayed in the city without doing anything work-related. She wasn't going to lie, it was actually nice to see the season change in the busy city. The wind was blowing hard and carried dead leaves for no purposes. The sky was extra blue and seemed a bit farther than usual, and Misty contently breathed in the autumn air from Cordelia's window.

She moved her gaze from outside to her friend, who was reading a thick book in the couch. The older woman had her glasses on, and Misty thought it was the cutest thing she'd ever seen. Misty sighed and looked out the window again.

"I can hear when you think, Mist." Cordelia temporarily stopped reading and looked up.

"Sorry." Misty said with her eyes still glued to the outside world.

The short-haired woman sensed Misty's troubling thoughts. She abandoned her book and walked to the window. "What is it?" She put her hand on the other's thigh, a gesture that never failed to comfort the younger blonde, but maybe not this time.

"I just…" Misty changed her posture so she could be face to face with her friend. "I've been thinking."

"What have you been thinking about?" The older blonde asked with a reassuring smile, but deep down, she knew there had to be only one thing.

The wild blonde took a deep breath before speaking. "I've been thinking that maybe it's time I left." Misty had never hated her job as much as she did now. She wished to stay with her best friend forever. But at the same time, she knew she would be a bird in a cage if she chose the path. "I need to go, Cordelia. You know that."

"I do, Mist. I do." Cordelia looked at her wild blonde before looking past her to see the blue sky above them. Winter is coming, she thought. She wondered if she would have to spend winter by herself again.

"Do you remember when we talked about soulmates?" Cordelia heard the Cajun ask, and she nodded her head to the question with her hands still perched on the other's thighs.

The wild blonde nodded in response. "I've also been thinking about it a lot lately. And if you asked me the same question again, I would still say I don't think people are written in the stars." Misty took the hands in her lap. "But I think, maybe a person can have more than one soulmate. People I've met, they would all be my soulmates…They just have different purposes in my life." She breathed in again. She couldn't stop now. "And what I'm trying to say is that, I think you're one of them." She felt like crying. It must look stupid. It's not like I'm confessing my love to her, she scolded herself.

"You make me feel safe, Cordelia, and no one's ever done it before. Ever since I was a child, I always felt left out, alone. Then I thought I could find my tribe somewhere else, so I left my home. And I've been searching and searching for the one place where I can finally feel like I belong. But no, I still feel like an outlier, no matter where I go or what I see." Misty was now sobbing. "But you, Cordelia. You make me feel safe. When I'm with you, I know nothing could ever hurt me."

It was Cordelia's turn to choke on tears. She could taste the salt in her mouth. "Misty…" She breathed out the name that she had gotten used to on her lips over the years, but nothing came out after that. There were so many things and nothing she could say. It would've been impossible for the older blonde to form any coherent sentence in this state anyway.

"Misty." Repeating the name like a prayer, Cordelia brought her hands and cupped the Cajun's face. Her lips tasted salty from the tears both of them shed, but Cordelia couldn't care less. Not now, not ever. She was finally kissing the girl she so strongly had longed for. It was a short, sweet kiss that lasted only for a second, but the older blonde was in euphoria. Cordelia hadn't realized how much she loved the other girl, or how much she meant to her life until now. She started to cry again, but this time it was happy tears.

Misty pulled the crying woman in her arms and soothed her, peppering small kisses on her temple. "I love you, Cordelia. I love you so, so much." She kissed every inch of Cordelia's face again and again. Between their sobs, Misty heard I love yous in a voice that didn't belong to her. She felt safe. It felt like she was finally coming home she's been looking for her entire life.

When Misty dropped her cat off at the landlord's apartment, she pulled the other into a tight embrace. It was still hard to leave, but knowing her lover would be waiting made it easier for Misty. She had a new propose to come back now.

"I promise I will skype or whatever it's called when I can." Misty planted sweet kisses on her girlfriend's lips. She wanted the moment to last forever, but it was of course interrupted by an obnoxiously loud honk of a taxi, claiming its arrival.

"I love you, Misty. Come home safely." Cordelia pleaded between kisses.

"I love you, too. And I will, I promise. You are my home, Cordelia. I always come back." And with that, Misty kissed her for the last time and fled.

When the door shut and the taxi drove away, Cordelia looked around the room. It suddenly felt much smaller and suffocating. She could hear car engines from outside, Mr. Whiskers doing something in the bedroom, and people upstairs arguing. But not Misty's footsteps or giggles.

Yet Cordelia was smiling. She was alone, but her soul was still with Misty. She could wait. Forever if she had to.

The End!