long-ass a/n: another late update, another apology. i'm pretty damn consistent with my inconsistency, huh? sorry you all have to put up with me. well, i'm going to give you guys a shock and say i've decided how and when to end this fic.

i first released this fic on june 1st, 2019 for last year's pride month. my plan is to finish this absolute mess exactly a year since i started it. i can only hope i can achieve that, seeing as i have condemned myself to another double update today. sorry for the sudden ending, but here we are, on the second last chapter of a fic that has taken me a year to write, and what a year it was. okay, i won't bore you with my nostalgia and reminiscing just yet and get on with the marellinh. apologies for the lengthy a/n, and the long ones to come with the end of the story.

MARELLA REDEK

"I'm glad I have you, Linh."

The words seem to shimmer with heat as they leave my mouth, not from embarrassment or shame, but with something else. Something as red-hot and passionate as fury, but I know this is anything but that. I can never truly get angry with Linh Song.

"Of course, Marella," she replies in her sweet voice, like silver bells chiming melodically. "I'll always be here for you. You know, right?"

"I…" As if in contrast, my voice cracks like it is filled with ash and smoke. "I know."

What kind of half-witted, self-centred, insensitive response-

Linh giggles, and the sound makes the fire in my stomach crackle with heat, and blood rushes to my face. She's sitting so close, so close I could count each and every eyelash and breathe in her scent and maybe, maybe if I leaned in the tiniest bit our noses would bump and there would be hardly any space between us at all.

The heartbeat of silence drags on too long, and I clear my throat. "I mean, I know you're here for me, and I … appreciate it. A lot. And…"

I close my eyes, flames rearing behind my eyes, golden and bright and warm.

"I wanna be here for you, too."

I don't know how I say it. The words come out jumbled and twisted, but Linh looks at me with so much understanding, sparks rise in my throat. I barely register the cold splash of water extinguishing the flames on my hands, which I hadn't even known had appeared.

Linh opens her mouth, closes it, opens it, closes out. Like a fish out of water, like a siren without song. The silence stretches, and I can feel heat prickling on my arms, my legs, my face. And yet the light touch of water is ever-present, cool and refreshing and so Linh.

"I'm sorry," I mumble, and Linh looks up with a jolt, silvery eyes narrowed. "I mean … I'm sorry for all the shit I'm making you deal with."

Linh swats my arm, simultaneously dumping water on my head. Where did she even get so much water?

As I cough and sputter, Linh dries my face with a blanket and holds my head in her hands, and my face is burning, hotter than flame. It has to be, but all I can hear and feel are the words that spill from those pretty pink lips.

"Don't you dare be sorry, Marella. I've already been through lots of … poop, and it's not your fault. Absolutely nothing is your fault, and if you ever blame yourself I'll have to dump an entire ocean on you and make sure you know that I would go through it all again if it meant that I could see you smile again."

The ferocity in her eyes, the utmost sincerity ... it washes over me, not like an angry flame, but the gentle push of a small wave.

"Okay," I whisper, my voice weak and hoarse. Linh nods, and her eyes suddenly dart to the space between us as if realizing our proximity. She shifts back, and I could swear her cheeks turn even pinker.

"Why, though?"

The words slip out of my mouth, surprising us both, and heat flares in my face once more. The words are always burning in the back of my mind when Linh does something so incredibly nice for me. How can somebody be so kind? Why?

"Why what?" she asks, her brow scrunching. But of course. This is Linh Song. It's her whole nature to be so nice to everyone.

But … even me? It's not like I was particularly nice to her before. I'd have thought she saw me as every stranger did: stuck-up, annoying, nosy. Whatever they call me.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

Okay, her face is definitely pink now. Not just her cheeks, but her entire face glows a soft, delicate shade of rose that somehow makes her even more beautiful than ever.

There's a heavy pause, and it's almost like smoke hangs in the air as I wait with mounting anticipation, although I don't know why. Most of the time, I know exactly what's going on when it involves two people and blushing, but not now. Not now, when it's somehow the most important time to know, at least for me.

And then she says it.

"I love you."

I used to imagine, when I first met Linh, what it would sound like if she ever said those three words to me. Perhaps in her quiet, sweet voice, a soft smile gracing her lovely lips, her eyes twinkling with her inherent kindness. I would say it back, she'd bless me with an even wider smile, and maybe we'd kiss. I stopped imagining it, though, the moment I realized what I had been thinking.

But this is not like my imagination.

No, her words tumble out in a loud, blurted rush, and her pretty silver-blue eyes go wide with surprise as her pale hands clap over her mouth. The light flush warming her face grows even redder, and I can feel heat blooming in my own as I gape at her.

I love you is a common phrase for somebody as sweet and caring as Linh. She could easily mean it in the way she says it to her brother, or Keefe, or her pet murcat. But with that reaction?

I'm not perfect, but I'm not quite as oblivious as a certain moonlark. Or, for that matter, the female sitting across from me. Because I know what Linh means when she tells me those three words.

And now I have to say it back.

I'm not like Linh, though. I don't throw my heart at everything that moves (and some things that don't). (Although I admire this quality of hers, even if it makes me a little jealous of others, sometimes). It's just difficult to actually bring my feelings into words. I can't remember the last time I have said those three words, not even to my parents.

The blood has drained from Linh's face, other than the slightest pink twinge in her cheeks. She doesn't meet my eyes, putting out small tongues of flame that pop up around me or in my hair or at the tips of my fingers. For once I'm grateful for my uncontrolled pyrokinesis, which gives her something to do and me the ability to stall.

Say it back, I growl to myself, but the words stick in my throat like wet ash.

I choke out a curse, reach up to cradle her soft face in my warm (but thankfully not flaming) hands, and press my lips against hers.

When I kissed her on the cheek only hours earlier, I'd marvelled at how soft it was. I thought it was the softest touch in the world.

I was wrong.

Her lips beat that record; smooth, warm, safe. She smells like freshwater and flowers. Fiery giddiness burns in my chest as she smiles against my mouth, so familiar, so sweet, so Linh. When we finally pull apart, gasping for air, I look into those blue-glass eyes and I understand what it means to drown in somebody's eyes.

But there's nothing malicious in them. There never could be. She glows with love and happiness, and it's all I can do not to burst into flames as I finally manage to say it.

"I love you, too."

a/n: 5 am this time. well, here is this incredibly slow and awkward chapter. if all goes to plan, the last chapter / epilogue will be out later today! sorry i've been distant and crabby lately, but i hope you guys are all doing well and i love you!

also, HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! 3