The sky was on fire – a last glorious blaze to promise the sun would be back tomorrow shiny and golden like her own eyes.
Griffin drew the drapes to cloud the room in darkness and put an end to the infinite day. The absence of Cloud Tower's pulse in her veins was deafening despite the boiling energy of the Domino palace and her exhaustion. The room was not her own. It was not anybody's after two decades of being in ruins with no one to claim it. It reeked of new and restoration magic. It could not be home – only a cruel callback to the homes she'd been missing for a lifetime.
The distinct taste of magic she recognized in the core of her being engulfed her followed by a warm embrace. Faragonda had her own brand of a grand entrance that rarely failed to inspire a smile to bloom on her lips and never missed to welcome her in the presence of the fairy. Even when it was Faragonda coming to find her.
Griffin leaned on her and relaxed her muscles to sink fully into the comfort of Faragonda's arms around her waist keeping her safer than any armor could and boosting her energy better than a spell would. Returning to Domino hit in a different way now that it was restored and the full royal family was there to welcome them but it still left bruises. It was just the tenderness of Faragonda's fingers at her sides that spared her from writhing in pain as her lungs rattled around in her ribcage at each piece of evidence of the life they'd gone through. Each look at Marion and Oritel's unchanged faces and the familiar transformations Daphne and Bloom had undergone since the Company had operated on Domino was a look at the missing parts that had been taken from all of them. Hugging her lost friends pulled them all back into that old rhythm – jumping from one crisis into another, from one tragedy into the next.
"Having to resist your closeness made this day even longer," Griffin laced her fingers with Faragonda's so she wouldn't slip away like the sun outside that was plunging into darkness. Laughing with her friends of decades drained a lot of energy to ignore the time gap between them during which they'd held hollow names next to their hearts instead. Faragonda was her rock while the rest tugged on her soul with their mere presence as if prying one end loose would let them tie themselves to her and the life she'd had without them.
"We could tell them about us," Faragonda nearly dropped her words in the dead silence taking over the room as Griffin stiffened in her arms. She'd become the rock now – cold and hard and weighing them both down after Faragonda broke her glass house. It hadn't done much to keep out the memories bleeding in her mind but the shards were helping them cut through her heart now.
"We shouldn't." Bloom was still getting to know her parents and Daphne needed all their care and attention during her recovery. Domino still wasn't fully restored and Marion and Oritel could use some time to themselves. And so could she and Faragonda.
She wasn't ready to share what they had with the world after it had taken them so long to put themselves back together and find each other again. After it had been the world that had broken them. She couldn't walk out there and have Faragonda pulled out of her reach again by the flow of memories with empty spaces in them. They had making up for lost time to do for themselves.
"You know they'd be happy for us." Faragonda ran her fingers through Griffin's hair to disentangle her thoughts. Unravel would be a better description of the effect, however, just like Griffin was unraveling despite the invisible grip on her throat.
"You weren't in a hurry to tell them either." Marion and Oritel wouldn't judge her for her happiness because theirs had been taken away. Hagen would come around to respect their relationship the same way he respected their friendship even if it took some time. And Saladin could finally drop any self-deprecation he might have had over the drama between the two of them. They'd be happy but she couldn't tell them. She hadn't even told the twins yet. Not before the past was done hunting her down for the debts she owed.
"I'm not in a hurry. Just making sure you're not guilt-tripping yourself again." Faragonda caught her red-handed. The flesh was being scalded right off her bones until the fairy's lips touched her palm after her magic had removed the gloves Griffin usually covered her fingerprints with. "I don't mind if it's just the two of us in on our little secret for a while."
That was hardly the case. They had to wait for nightfall for Faragonda to sneak into the room that only felt hers with the fairy there. And the first rays of sunlight chased her away as if what they were doing was wrong.
"What if I am never ready to come out of the shadows?" Griffin had no strength to overcome the terror hiding in the dark of the space around to make the words louder than a whisper. It was her that was putting the world between her and Faragonda when she had to be giving it to the fairy. It was always her pulling things and people apart, even her own relationships. It was a miracle she had friends again on top of her romance with Faragonda. A miracle she didn't know how not to drop somewhere under her bed where she'd never find it again.
"I enjoy having you all to myself." Faragonda's kisses only turned more insistent to coax her out of her shell where the warmth coming from the fairy could shine on her while she was perfectly safe from everything else.
Griffin would protest but Faragonda's lips on her pulse point sucked a loud moan out of her as her body surrendered to the fairy's will. One of those days she'd be able to make her heart listen and beat in the right rhythm for their reunion with their friends all on her own. She had the proof that even the whole world couldn't come between them right there where she could touch it as soon as she cracked the door open, as soon as her fingers touched the knob. She could find the courage to let the sun touch her relationship with Faragonda without fear that it would burst into flames.