To the guest who left a review: thank you for sharing your thoughts! opinions like this made me actually think more deeply about this story. Here are some of my points.

I admit Misty's been too passive. but only since the relationship started. please note that Misty was quite enthusiastic about their friendship. all she wanted was make Cordelia happy. it was Misty who made changes in their relationship, because she thought that was what Cordelia wanted. she cares A LOT, even though she didn't know what she wanted for herself. and despite all that, Cordelia overtly said she didn't want them to be friends. there isn't much effort you can make after that? if anyone needs to grow, it's Cordelia, and the last chap was to show her growth.

when I started writing this story, I knew not everyone would be able to relate to Misty. she's a bit different, but that's what I wanted to write. I get why Cordelia is easier for the reader to empathize with, though. there are some more pieces of the puzzle I have yet to include, so your view may or may not change in the future. but I'd like to hear what you think when it's all finished. :D sorry I can only answer this much.

"Do you want to take a walk with me?" Cordelia said at the end of the silence.

There was no choice for me but to nod. At the first word, the first breath she drew for me, I felt all of my scars start to heal. Every word she'd said, every ache of my heart, all fading away. It was easy like that. Some people might hold grudges. Some might wish retaliation. But the fact that she came to see me, for whatever the reason, already meant the world to me.

As we walked in silence, her eyes looked over the bayou. "This place has changed so much since the last time I came here."

I remained silent because I wasn't sure if the words were directed at me. The last time we visited this place together was a couple of months ago. The middle of the summer, when cicadas and other bugs were making the best of their short, magnificent lives. The scenery of green had no resemblance to the bleak, naked place before our eyes.

Above the water was a screen of fog, encompassing us into a mystic world. I listened to our footsteps, faint but heavy. They were absorbed into the frost-bitten ground. The white moon was becoming like a cat's eye. The winter wind glided on the water surface, and caressed our skin. Cordelia trembled as though she didn't have layers of winter gear covering her body, her hands buried deep in her jacket pockets. She looked like a tiny bird, getting its feathers puffed to fight the icy weather.

"It's cold." Part of her neck was exposed by the wind. "Do you think the swamp will freeze this year? I've never seen a frozen swamp before."

This, I knew this was not a rhetorical question. "Dunno. It's rare. It have ta be much colder than this."

Although it does happen, it is a rare occurrence for a swamp to freeze. I'd only seen it twice in my life, in brutally harsh winters.

Cordelia talked more, about the weather, about the gators, about the garden. It was unusual of her to be talkative like this, I thought, but her eyes continued to look into space. In the instant, I was overwhelmed by fear and a sense of insecurity all of a sudden; what if there remained the same hollowness in her eyes when she turned around?

I might have gotten my hopes up.

She stared at the bayou under the moon. It seemed like she was looking for a gate to another world there. A sense of longing was evident on her face.

"When I was a child, I was scared of the night," she opened her mouth. "Not simply because it was dark. Because, looking at the sky, I thought it could swallow me up and I could never go home. When I met you, I don't know why, but I felt the same way. I was scared, of you. Not the same way Fiona frightened me, but a different kind of scary. I never knew I could be in love with someone who frightened me." Quiet chuckles escaped her lips, vibrating the stiff air. "You were- are grand and so powerful, like the night sky. I guess I was scared that…if I ever allowed myself to be near you, you would swallow me up."

Another silence fell upon us again. I watched her profile, watched her black-jacketed figure blend into the darkening surroundings. The silver-gold waterfall of her hair illuminated as brightly as the twin moon on the water surface. I feared she would disappear. Disappear and become part of the dark if I dared to blink. Of course, it was an irrational idea.

The wind roared as though to mock my fear, and I was forced to close my eyes.

When I opened my eyes, I found she'd turned around to face me. Her eyes -they flickered with emotions!- gazed at me in the silence in a way that made me gulp in awe. Everything ceased to exist for a moment. The air stopped, the night birds quieted, the water stilled, my heart, and the whole world. That's what happens to the things around you, I think, when someone who represents your entire universe stands in front of you. Nothing else matters, and everything starts to have meaning simultaneously.

Her gaze was blistering. Not with accusation or hatred, but with something purer and much more intense. Bubbles in the deepest part of the ocean, it made me think of something like that.

With equally stubborn determination, I refused to look away. I knew how difficult it was for her to stand like that. Cordelia was looking into my eyes, into my soul. I knew, whatever word her mouth would utter next, I would love her even more then.

"I'm sorry." Her answer reached my ears, cut through the darkness like a trail of light.

She closed the gap between us, and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. The hand hovered over my cheek, soft fingertips radiating hesitation and uncertainty. Bringing up my hand, I took hers, before pressing my cold cheek to her palm. Gentle warmth seeped into my skin like a hot bath after a long, long journey. I hadn't felt that for an eternity. I felt her thumb get wet with droplets of my tears.

"I'm so sorry," she said again. "I should've been there for you when you suffered alone. I should've been the one to tell you there was nothing wrong with you. This is all my fault. If I had been stronger…"

I shook my head, with my cheek still against her hand. "It's not your fault, Miss. Cordelia."

"Yes, it is," she cried out. "The face you would make every time I said I love you…I knew you were struggling with something. But every time, I told myself to ignore it. Tried to convince myself it was nothing, because I felt like if I ever asked…" She abruptly looked down, before taking a strangled breath. "If I ever asked, I thought you'd be gone." Tears caught on her bottom eyelashes reflected the moonlight. "I'd kiss you and take you to bed, so you couldn't tell me how you truly felt. That's how I always dealt with problems in my past relationships. I didn't know any other way... I- And when I realized you were never in love with me, I couldn't-" The fingers on my cheek trembled. "Forgive me…Forgive me."

"Ya are- I already-" All that came out of my mouth was sobs and unfinished sentences.

The say the willingness and the ability to forgive is a sign of emotional and spiritual maturity. It's hard to say I can agree with them. I'd like to believe my spirit was mature like that, but forgiving Cordelia was different. To me, forgiving Cordelia was something more natural than blinking or breathing. It was easier than forgiving myself, for the tears that had wet Cordelia's cheeks.

She held me tightly as we sobbed together, something we had never done before. It seemed overdue, given all the obstacles we'd gone through. But it was always either me crying on her shoulder, or her on mine.

"I love ya," I choked out. I felt her nod in the crook of my neck.

"I love you, too, Misty Day."

I smiled for the first time in what felt like years. Her words of love still sounded different from mine, but I could live with it. I must.

"Come back to m- Come back to the coven."

Nuzzling further into her neck, I released a breathy laugh. "Ya know I can never say no ta ya."

ooOooOoo

We went back to the shack after admiring the stars for some more moments. Even though the moon illuminated the bayou, it was too dark to walk through the woods. We would go back to the academy in the morning, we decided.

"I'm completely spent." I rubbed my forehead.

"Me too." Cordelia, with her swollen, droopy eyes, let out husky chuckles.

As she gently placed herself onto the mattress, her brown eyes looked around the room. There was amusement tugging at the corner of her lips, curiosity in her eyes, as though she had never seen any place like this. At the sight, I felt a lump in my throat. Cordelia in my hut. It was a picture that I'd thought I would never see again. A huge piece of our kingdom. It had yet to be restored fully, but we had it in our hands.

Our eyes met, and we exchanged somewhat reserved smiles.

"Let's get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day." Cordelia crawled under the mountain of blankets.

While giving her a nod in agreement, I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. The wooden floor creaked underneath me. I cleared my throat a few times, in order to keep the silence to a minimal, in order to conceal my uncertainty.

At last, I walked towards my bed and said: "Do ya- do ya mind if I steal a blanket?" I kept my gaze on my fist, the quilt blanket in my grip. "I'm used ta the cold, but even I wouldn't survive without any cover. Ya can keep the rest o' 'em. I just need one."

Cordelia looked at me, with her lips slightly parted. "Where are you going to sleep?" A hint of insecurity returned to her voice.

"On the floor. I've done it before. I can sleep like a log."

A short episode of silence followed. "You can sleep in the bed with me," she said in a whisper.

My fingers fiddled with the blanket, fingertips absentmindedly tracing the lines where two patches met.

It seemed there were two parts of me at war. One who wanted to jump into her arms, just the same way I'd always done. And the other who feared that exact same immutability of our relationship. Feared the unchanged. The tiny possibility that, in the morning, when I woke up, everything might be the same as before. Our tangled limbs, her nose in my hair. The life that I once had wished would never be different. The soft sunlight would cascade down on her cheeks, and I would have no choice but admire her. And when she opened her eyes and smiled at me in the light so happily, who could say I wouldn't allow her to press her lips against mine? It would be all over again. My pain, her tears. All for nothing.

"I won't do anything," sensing my reluctance, Cordelia whispered. "I don't want you to freeze, is all."

I bit my lip as I looked at her. A needle of guilt poked my heart at the tone of her voice. Wary, brokenhearted, yet gingerly expectant.

"Okay," I answered, and then slid under the sheets.

Scooting down, Cordelia made more room for me. Our bodies aligned in a quite neat manner, as if an invisible line divided the bed into two.

"Goodnight, Mist." Her voice was just about loud enough to travel the distance between us.

"'Night," I said it back.

In the dark, hooting of owls and cries of other nocturnal creatures drowned out our breathing. I listened to the wind. I listened to the squeaks of the roof, and leaves rustling against the walls.

Laying on my side, with the blank space and Cordelia behind me, I felt her body tremble. It might have been the last sign that I was searching for. Turning over, I found myself reaching for her over the invisible boundary. Her shoulders stiffened as my arm went around her waist, and with a faint exhale of breath, she relaxed, wiggled, and adjusted her body to fit into mine.

In the moment of stillness, I realized that this heartache would continue to haunt us, even after the reconciliation, just like blood cannot be stopped by simply acknowledging the wound. You must treat it with care. When it is done, the rest is in the hands of time.

And with her in my arms, there was no way to fight this helplessness, this powerlessness. I had no magic power to stop her tears, or mine that created a salty trail across my face.

this chap isnt so good i know :( imma try to finish the story in a few chaps...