"I didn't think you were serious about meeting up tonight," Kat said.

Then it occurred to her to check her phone again. It was just five past seven. The time it took her to end the call earlier and make her way down to the lobby couldn't have been more than five minutes tops.

"Were you already on your way when you called?"

"Somewhat," Thomas said with a sigh. She caught him just as she'd come down from the elevator. She'd only invited him that one time but the guards already seemed to know him well enough to let him in without clearing with her first if she was expecting anyone.

"I know we were supposed to be cooling off but I really needed to see you," he said.

The edge in his voice was more obvious in person. That was what made her agree to meeting up in the first place even when it was too soon for her. Much too soon. But hearing him now…

"Do you… want to come up for a bit?"

She winced inside her head. It wasn't part of the boundaries they agreed on but maybe inviting the same guy up to her room wasn't the smartest thing to do when she'd made it clear where they stood just a few short days ago. It would have sent a message she had no intention of sending. She didn't want to hurt him more than she already had.

He smiled. It wasn't the same. Nothing had been the same since that day with him. But this time her friend looked like someone else. It was uncomfortable to see him now as someone else.

"Thank you for the offer, really. But I think it's better we keep this outside," he said impatiently, "you good for a quick walk? What I have is really more something to be shown then told than the other way around."

Somehow, he felt like a stranger.

That hurt.

Thomas met her eyes. They widened.

"Right… I almost forgot." He massaged his temples. She frowned. "I think I can show you from the garden out back instead? The last thing I want you to be is uncomfortable."

That was the same thing he said to her just last week, and so far he hadn't kept his word.

"Okay," she said anyway.

She lead the way through the lobby all the way feeling this nervous energy in the air. She couldn't tell whether she felt unsafe or uncomfortable. He was right behind her and she couldn't help but wonder whether he was looking at her in that way. It didn't feel wrong at least, but it hurt all the same knowing she didn't—couldn't reciprocate those feelings.

Kat crossed the marble floor feeling the thuds of her own footsteps more than hearing them.

She opened the glass door to the garden and let Thomas pass her by—that's when she felt that distinct, hair-raising sensation, like running her arm over her dad's old television just after turning it off. Except this time it was the television moving against her. She was very sure she'd never felt anything so literally electric with anyone else before.

"Sorry about that," Thomas said with a grimace.

Yet there was something unnerving with the way he looked at her, like she was so far away somehow. She didn't like it. She wanted her best friend back. Not this stranger who was so close but still so distant.

"You probably have a lot on your mind," she said.

But only now did she notice how truly unrecognizable he had been.

His clothes were too loose. She'd seen him enough times after work to know he didn't keep more than seven shirts, but for one of them to be so loose after just a week of not seeing him? Not to mention his face was sharper too. Kat knew he had been exercising lately, but nothing short of drastic and dangerous could have led to whatever she was seeing.

He walked towards the middle of the garden ahead of her, taking a left to the quiet, hidden away corner out of view of the rest of the windows.

Kat followed after him, not really knowing what to expect. Was he taking drugs? Would he breakdown and pull a knife on her? It sucked that the person she used to open up to about everything was now the subject of her morbid thoughts. But it was one thing to think them and another to see such a stark difference in the person she felt at home with.

Thomas turned back to look at her, he was dressed in the same suit she'd seen every other week—but before where it could barely hide his belly, now it seemed to hide the rest of his body. He had always been heavier set, but now he seemed... unsafe.

He felt wrong.

"Before I show you, maybe you can take a seat?" He scratched the back of his head, a familiar nervous tic. "I'm not really sure how you'll end up reacting…"

The way he said it made her even more unsure, but she was already here and if that was a mistake then she had already made it. But at the same time she couldn't hide the part of her that worried for the person that used to be her safe space. This unexpected night felt like a sudden point of no return. Almost the same as when she found out about his feelings.

But there was something else.

"What… happened to you Thomas?"

He took a deep breath before muttering something and gesturing with his hand—and she felt the air charge with something that wasn't just her feelings getting ahead of her.

"What did you just do?"

He pursed his lips, and for a moment she saw her old friend about to say something really stupid or funny.

"Magic," he said with a wince. "Real, honest to goodness magic."

Kat suddenly found her hand against her face and groaned against the utterly stupid build up. "Did you really go through all that just for a bad joke?"

Because it wasn't funny in the slightest.

"From experience it's a lot easier to ease someone into something absolutely absurd by first making them feel disappointed." He brought a hand forward and from his open palm came a ball of floating water straight out of thin air. "Like I said, magic."

She blinked.

Kat walked over despite the doubts and morbid fantasies of earlier, all the while that feeling of static becoming more and more tangible, to the point that it was physically repulsive like she was a same poled magnet approaching another. Kat looked into Thomas's eyes. He was unsure of her, not of what he was showing.

Kat reached out to the ball of water with a finger and felt it cool to the touch. She passed the same finger underneath the ball where it floated above Thomas's hand. Unconvinced, she waved her hand over every conceivable angle. She felt nothing. No strings, no glass, no anything.

Then she bit the bullet and disturbed the ball of water floating in the air with her whole hand—and found that she couldn't even nudge it the slightest bit away from where Thomas held it in place. It bent to her touch but did not let her pierce the surface. It felt like water. But her hand was not wet even after touching it. She used both hands to wrest it away from where it was but to no avail.

Her friend slowly nodded.

"Magic. Real, honest to goodness magic," he said with a weight she couldn't place.

He took her hand with his free one and for lack of a better word poured the water ball over her hand. And only then did she feel the water wet her hand. It didn't make sense for Thomas to go out of his way to learn street magic in the short time since they last met and talked things over, and neither had he ever shared that he was learning any magic tricks before. She also doubted whether learning such would have caused the drastic changes she'd just seen in him.

"That was… different," she said, smelling her wet hand for a trace of anything unusual.

She wasn't too sure about what just happened, but it was weird and unnerving just like how Thomas had been so far.

"If it counts for anything, the water is safe to drink."

She snorted. Some things just didn't change.

"If what you said about this being magic is real, then that's the least important thing you could've said."

"Still unconvinced?" It was a rhetorical question, his tone when he wanted to share more hadn't changed at least. Because how could it otherwise? The last time she saw him was just last week Friday and yet here he was looking and feeling like a stranger.

"I know you've got more to show," she said, humoring that familiar twinkle in his eyes. Just like she always did.

Just like before he made things complicated.

"You know I do," he said with a small smile. He brought the same hand up but instead of a spectacle like before, she'd felt it first hand when the wind blew out from his hand. "Wind magic."

"Obviously," she answered. And that was way stronger evidence of it being real. Possibly. Some part of her was strangely okay with this, while another kept wondering whether it was all just an elaborate trick and there was some sadistic film crew behind all this.

"Okay, one last before we go for the big one." He was smiling now. The one he wore when he was having fun, but with a hint of something that wasn't there before. Thomas brought another hand up, this time asking for hers. "I promise I won't ever do anything to hurt you."

There was something bigger behind those words. Something she knew he wasn't about to tell her anytime soon. Kat place her hand on his. The static against his skin wasn't as prickly anymore. His other hand pointed a finger against her open palm.

Then she felt the static fill the air again as a small crystal ball of ice condensed right on top of her hand.

The ice ball dropped to her palm. It was cold like ice should be. And only then did it feel like everything she knew had just been pulled out from under her.

But Thomas was right there to keep her standing.

"I think I'll take that seat now." Her heart wasn't hammering in her chest, but it was doing something. And only then did the question come back to haunt her, what the hell happened to her friend?

"Some water maybe?" he asked.

He was still the same person deep down, but there was that sudden divide. Had his friendship really only been a façade for his feelings? For him to be so… different now?

"Some would be great yeah," she said.

Thomas brought a hand into his jacket and pulled out an empty glass.

"So now you pull out the parlor tricks?" She couldn't help a small shaky chuckle.

"Actually, it's a bit more than that." He showed her the inside of his jacket and she only saw a pitch black devoid of form or shadow, not even the slightest bit of form or substance. Like she was looking straight into a starless night.

Thomas reached a hand into the inky black and pulled out a box of tissues. Her heart dropped into her stomach. It was that same pack of tissues he'd offered her from his bag the last time they went out together. He took two sheets and passed them to her. It smelled the same as last time when he'd taken it out of his bag.

"Your hands are a bit clammy, that usually happens to me when I'm having a panic attack. Healing magic doesn't work against irrational fears unfortunately—though, in this case it would be perfectly rational." Thomas shook his head. "Water. Right."

Thomas pointed at the glass—which she'd forgotten about—that was apparently being held by a tentacle of the same starless night coming from the shadow in his jacket—and slowly filled it up with water. "Ice?"

She had to remember to close her agape mouth. "Er, yes, please."

The half full glass was filled the rest of the way with smaller ice spheres perfect for munching on. A force of habit probably from his side. She knew he loved to chomp on ice—but was magic so easy a skill to learn? Maybe she hadn't been asking the right question at all.

Thomas handed her the glass of now ice-cold water.

She met his eyes again.

"Thomas, how long have you been gone for?"

That was the first time she'd ever seen her best friend cry.

It was one thing to see someone on the verge of tears and another to have them sobbing silent, heavy heaves. In him she saw the same hunched over wretch she had once been, crushed by a weight too much to bear, feeling like she was buried under a mountain wherever she went. The person before her wasn't the same person she last saw six days ago, this was someone else entirely.

That's why he felt wrong.

It should have been impossible and yet here he was coming forward with a burden that broke her once solid guidepost. Magic, he said. Or maybe it was better called a curse? Just how much had the truth taken away from him?

She sat there not really sure what to do with herself, whether to place a hand on his back or say anything wise or reassuring—because she was just as lost from the revelation. Since what was there to say after finding out magic was real anyway?

But through all that, the only thing that made sense—a phrase he'd repeatedly told her before when her own world had suddenly ended.

"I'm here," she said, blinking back the heat beneath her eyes. "I'm right here, Thomas."

His breath caught.

His hand reached out for hers. She let him. It was damp from the tears but smooth and soft and unnaturally firm. She'd never held his hand before. Not like this. But she knew they hadn't been like this before. His hands used to be gentler. This was like if steel could bend and mold itself as it willed.

Yet the softness was still there.

They stayed that way for a while with nothing but the silent night as company.

But she knew for a fact that no matter the day or season, this garden was always host to the smallest breeze. It was her oasis in the middle of the busy city. Her little pocket of nature and rest. And just like her friend, it suddenly seemed so alien after whatever it was he did.

Even stranger was despite the very obvious two people out in the garden, there were no curious looks at all from anyone else passing through the lobby. The lobby that was practically a wall of windows overlooking the well-lit garden even if they were somewhat hidden away in the corner. Everyone always looked no matter how utterly normal and boring the person sitting in the middle of the greenery was.

There was nothing sweet or tender about the way he held on to her so desperately.

Thomas gave her a weak squeeze before letting go. Calming down just as abruptly as his sudden outburst. He sucked in a sharp breath and breathed out face up to the sky with both eyes closed. Then he muttered under his breath as his body issued a soft but unmistakable green glow.

"Healing magic works with inflammation and irritation," he said, opening his eyes. They weren't red or puffed up anymore. "It was barely a year. But it felt longer than that."

His eyes had always been a deep black, but after that green glow there remained a lingering sliver of literal light in his irises.

"It shows," she said with whatever passed for a smile that night.

He smiled back.

The guy needed a hug, boundaries be damned. She leaned forward bringing her arms up, all the while berating her unsightly awkwardness.

But he leaned back to avoid it.

"Please don't," he said, looking away. "I'll fall for you all over again if you do that."

"That's the stupidest thing you've said all day." Here she was trying to be a friend but there he had to go and be all broody again. "Don't fall in love then."

He frowned.

She pulled him into her arms, static and all, the marble statue that flowed.

"At least now you're being more open about your feelings."

Thomas sighed into her shoulder. He tried pulling away but didn't try very hard.

"Please let me go?"

She couldn't. Not when he was being like this.

"I'm being a good friend. This is not a romantic hug."

He squirmed and gave up in the same motion.

"I didn't know you smelled this good."

"Don't be a creep."

"It was worth a try."

She felt him smile.

"I love you."

Her stomach dropped.

"You really had to make things weird again."

"Well, it was one of the things that kept me going."

He tried pulling away again.

"That's hardly fair."

She held on anyway.

He laughed. Weakly, but laughed all the same.

"I'm sorry I don't feel that way."

Thomas leaned onto her. "I know, but I love you anyway."

"You deserve someone who'll love you more than I ever could."

"I know, but even then I love you."

"It hurts to hear you say it again and again."

"I'll apologize tomorrow, let me savor this dream for now."

She didn't let him go, despite the protest of her straining arms or her hammering heart. It wasn't a matter of persistence or giving in. It just wasn't him. There was no one else. There didn't need to be anyone else. Kat bit back the bile rising in her throat. More guilt than butterflies twisting her guts.

"Sometimes… I wish somewhere out there there's a version of us together in another universe, and I'm really really sorry this isn't that one."

He brought his arms around her, the way a lover would, up to her waist. He hesitated. Then continued up to settle on her shoulders. Platonic. "And even then this is the universe I'll keep coming back to."

They stayed that way for god knew how long.

It was uncomfortable but warm all the same.

Thomas was the first to break away. His face was a mess and so was her shirt. With little to go by with how she looked herself. He did that glowing thing again and fixed up his eyes, then he did the same for her, like a coolness that sprang from deep within her heart and radiated outwards. Her clothes were also saved of their distressed state somehow involving the shadows that danced within her friend's clothes.

They sat together in silence.

"For the record," Thomas said, cracking. He cleared his throat. "I could have gone to another universe, but this is where my heart always pointed back to."

It still hurt to hear him talk like that. But in a way it just took some getting used to. For tonight though, she'd let it slide.

"Get it out of your system now since I'll be mad at you by tomorrow again," she said with a smile. Half-meant, was still half-meant. It still made her uncomfortable, almost suffocating to be told so clearly and sincerely about a love she couldn't return.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." He brought his hand forward, and out of thin air a gigantic silver house key appeared. "I wasn't kidding about the other universes though. Or about coming back here."

"You know, when you mentioned earlier about a bigger magic trick I was kinda hoping you'd be showing something cooler."

Thomas was taken aback in campy mock offense. "How could I have fallen for someone who couldn't recognize a Keyblade?"

"Yeah well, joke's on you bud." She smirked. "Nothing's stopping you from moving on, you know."

He narrowed his eyes at her while cradling the strange looking prop that was supposed to be more important but couldn't for the life of her seem anything but as if he were nursing its feelings. Obviously, it was supposed to be something really big. The gravitas was just lost on her.

"She just doesn't know how cool you are, Arc."

"Earlier was weird, but now you're just being weird weird."

Thomas passed her the prop—it was metal and cold to the touch—but as soon as he let go the thing disappeared from her grip and reappeared in his hand.

"Okay, was that the big thing?" It was kind of impressive.

Thomas put on a smug look. Then took out his phone and fiddled with it a bit before passing it over to his shadow tentacle thing with its camera pointed at the two of them in selfie mode. It was set to video.

"Did I mention I can fly?"

The late night lights of the city stretched out like a sea of stars all the way to the ends of the horizon marking a straight divide between the bright earth and clouded sky. She floated high above the roads and pedestrian traffic where the wind carried with it the sounds of living she was always so immersed in.

Up here and so far away from everything, it all seemed so small.

"I can show you the wo—"

"Don't ruin the moment," she said to her literally glowing friend. "I was this close to calling it even with you being an ass earlier."

Thomas stood on the air right next to her, light shining through his skin, while she rode on what used to be his key sword. He had turned it into what could only be called a magical flying silver Segway—which wasn't the coolest looking—but the deal breaker was how it needed a chain leash that he had to hold onto so that her ride wouldn't just disappear beneath her feet.

Granted this was the best option she had since the other one was to hold hands with him so that he could extend the magic directly—or to ride him like a pool noodle and either choice was just as bad for different but relatively similar reasons.

A small part of her in the back of her mind couldn't help but consider the very real possibility of Thomas threatening her, and a stupider part of her was strangely alright with that in exchange for the experience. She had a feeling he wouldn't do that, but a lot could have changed in the supposed year he'd been gone.

And… men getting rejected had a… tendency in general to take drastic measures when it suited them.

"So," she said, breaking the train of thought, "was it that bad?"

Thomas took a deep breath before turning to her.

"Yeah. It was pretty bad," he said with a nod.

"Tell me?"

"Definitely, but not tonight." Thomas brought up his watch. "It's already past ten. We still got work tomorrow."

"I'm on sabbatical, remember?"

"Oh, right. Big boss perks."

It was in the little details he'd forgotten where she saw him saddest. Thomas said it was only a year, but it was also a very long one from how out of sorts he was.

"I can stay up a bit later," she offered. Not to mention the view was spectacular.

"I'm not afraid of tomorrow anymore so a few hours of sleep won't be too bad. Besides, I definitely remember we agreed to no sleepovers or hanging out past eleven. Wasn't that S.O. territory?"

She rolled her eyes. "This is in no way me agreeing to your flirting or your romantic gestures—"

"Hey, I wasn't trying to flirt!"

"Yeah you have. How else would you explain all this sappy talk? And weren't you the one who just said 'I love you' just a few minutes ago?"

Thomas puffed out his chest. "I was being honest, frank, and open about my feelings. Call it my way of dealing with them. If I were still in love with you I'd be a lot less vocal about it and would have probably offered to take you to and from work or something. Acts of service is my main language of affection."

"I'm on a permanent flexible work set-up."

He narrowed his eyes at her. Opened his mouth but closed it again after a moment. Huffed. "You sure you guys aren't hiring?"

"Dude, trust me, you don't wanna go here." And she was already planning on resigning for some time already. "We barely need an IT department, and the CIO is kind of an ass."

He was a total ass.

"Right, going back. I still have work tomorrow and guess who kinda forgot all about his running projects?"

"Yikes."

"Yikes is an understatement."

"You sure you don't have any magic spells that'll make you a butt ton of money?"

"I can probably pass myself off as a faith healer?" He shrugged. "Apparently healing magic works on atrophied muscles and stroke patients."

And didn't that hit a nerve.

"I said something stupid didn't I?" Thomas floated over to her. His face scrunched. "Shit, sorry."

Kat took a deep breath and wiped the damp from her eyes. "It's not your fault, it just still hurts every now and then."

"But it pained you all the same. That was very careless of me. I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "I'm happy for your aunt though."

"Thank you," he said. "She's walking and talking normally again too. Though I wish my magic also worked for emotional damage."

Kat groaned. "Not really the best timing to crack a joke, Thomas."

He smiled. "I know, but at least now you're more disappointed than sad."

She smiled back. "You know, since you can fly and all, we can probably do some kind of medical mission sometime?"

Thomas laughed. "This is why you're very important to me. I've told you before and I'm telling you again, you really do keep me human. More so than ever now."

Kat shrugged. "Does that mean I can take that as a yes?"

He nodded. "Definitely, but it won't be like you expect probably. I can heal people and even cleanse infections actually—both viral and bacterial, but… if we do too many people it can end up causing mass hysteria."

She pursed her lips. "Right, faith healer. We'll just have to figure something out later."

"Definitely. Also, its getting real late already."

"One last thing then, and its something I've been meaning to ask for a while already."

"Go ahead."

"Are you sure you won't be offended? You won't just drop me out of the sky or anything?"

He frowned. "I get where you're coming from. And I understand making a promise kind of doesn't really cut it too much given the things you've seen me do. I'm kind of regretting telling you my feelings in the first place now that we're like this."

She missed how comfortable she used to be around him too.

"Well, that's part of the reason why I'm asking this now. I do want to get over my reservations."

He nodded.

"Did you… want to be my friend because you liked me?"

Thomas smiled awkwardly. "To be perfectly honest, of course I liked you, but that's more of a me problem. Because I… don't really have a way to qualify what counts as platonic and romantic love. Rather, to me it's more of the difference between whom I see as family or as a friend."

"So you saw me as family I take it?"

"At the time—well, last week—I was considering whether I was alright with making you truly part of whom I considered family. Yes, part of that was considering marriage—but a better way to put it for me is like with how chemical reactions start."

"I keep forgetting you finished chem."

"Eh, I've been in IT ever since I graduated anyway. There's no money in chem."

"You were saying?"

"Chemical reactions don't normally happen automatically—technically some can but let's ignore that for a more formal definition—there's always this energy gap that your constituent chemicals need to fill one way or another before the molecules or atoms or whatnot can react together and form new molecules. This is called the activation energy."

She slowly nodded.

"To me, to take someone as family is to cross this crazy ass activation energy gap and from there its all downhill. To me, to love someone is like to climb a mountain then dive from the top of it down to the sea. The build up to the decision takes a shit ton of effort but once that threshold is reached there's no going back."

"And you're saying you've reached that threshold with me?"

"I was scared shitless thinking about it, but yes. Yes I was thinking I was about to cross that line."

"Is this a metaphor for sex or something?"

"What. God no. Sex can lead to children. And in this goddamned economy?! Hell no. I'd sooner get a vasectomy before considering doing the nasty."

"So you don't see me that way?"

"I would if you told me you wanted to fuck me, yeah."

"Fair enough, but it still feels like bull."

"Consider it a consequence of economic trauma."

"I see. So… we're friends then?"

Thomas nodded. "Yes, we're friends. The decision to be family needs to come from both sides. At least that's how I see it."

"And how were you planning to get over that?"

"I was planning to tell you a few truths."

"And are you still planning to tell me them?"

"Not anymore."

"Even if you said you loved me?"

"Call it an arm's length sort of love then. Friendly love. Not the dark and visceral kind of love I have for family."

She yawned. "Okay, I think I can live with that. You love me as a friend. And you weren't just friends with me because you liked me."

He nodded. "And besides, you already know how to make me fall in love with you again. So if you ever get around to it and I'm still single, you know what to do."

Last week they barely talked because of a certain someone catching feelings and getting all clingy. And yet now here they were just the next weekend, together under a cold and slithering shroud of literal darkness and skulking through the most desolate hallways of Manila's largest hospital bringing people back from Death's door with a few casual words and an unmissable light show.

They did agree to no more hangouts past eleven, but there was no good way to perform miracles in the middle of the day in a very busy hospital jam packed to the brim with patients. So by the crack of midnight it was. She was very thankful to be on sabbatical given the recent revelations because she wasn't sure otherwise how she might have survived the week with an incomplete story weighing against her heart.

A story that spanned at least two different worlds—in a parallel, dimension, sort of manner—and a week that was actually a year long but felt much much longer than that judging by the sheer exhaustion her friend had described it with.

"This should be the last one for tonight," Thomas said next to her. "Any more than this and people will start asking questions."

The shroud of darkness was his Keyblade transformed into this amorphous blob of shadows and the deepest night given a solid form. It bent and stretched according to his will, wrapping around both of them like a glowing purple condom—for lack of a more appropriate term—with the two of them connected by a small lifeline.

It was uncanny seeing the deep black that wrapped around the two of them yet seeing through it as a translucent glow of a totally unrelated color.

"We've already made a difference here," she agreed. The magic wasn't hers to use, and she hoped at least Thomas wasn't doing this purely because of his feelings.

They were talking again at least.

Though, it was a very different situation for Thomas while it was still relatively fresh for her. But it wasn't unwelcome. Some things stayed the same but there was an unmistakable otherness to him now that at least alleviated some of the awkwardness of where they left things before.

Thomas presented his hand to her. She took it, magic filling and suffusing her where they touched skin to skin. Her feet left the floor as gravity's hold against her body fell away, giving way to a freedom far and beyond the controlled fear of riding the silver Segway.

They passed by the clerks and nurses, each one looking as tired as the other, all walking with a purpose—some of them lain asleep where they ended up. Patients and caretakers alike all equally as exhausted but for different, adjacent reasons.

Her friend squeezed her hand. She squeezed back. There were no good words to be said in the face of such. They both knew he could do so much more, but at the same time there were also so many things that could go wrong.

She felt it beneath his skin, with his magic so close to her. There was so much of it within him just waiting for a way out and it took so much effort just to maintain the control he showed off as if he had mastered it perfectly. But things weren't as seamless as he tried to maintain things. Being so close to him, more so now compared to before, each minor fluctuation and stirring compounded into lingering echoes and stray notes.

Here he was—with a power possibly unique in all the world and worried… or was it fear? But if it were, then were there still things to be left to be feared here in this world? What of the ones beyond? How many other worlds were out there that would make someone that might as well have been a god-like being so cautious?

And did she dare want to find out?

Thomas flew them out of an open window and into the night sky, climbing towards the clouds.

"You know," he said. "Maybe starting rumors of miracles and whatnot might not be so bad after all?"

Through the veil of darkness, she saw that familiar, playful glint in his eye.

"What was worrying you in the first place though?" Because a good friend sometimes needed to play the devil's advocate. "What are we risking?"

"Unwanted attention, both from within this world and outside."

And there it was. "How likely is this outside attention to muck anything up?"

"Honestly? I don't know. Whatever took me out of here though was definitely from the outside, so there are already things happening beyond our usual understanding. It's just very very unlikely to happen to anyone we know. You and I were just very unlucky."

"…then, does it still matter to be cautious? Because if we're already getting screwed anyway."

"On some level, maybe you're not the best sound board for these ideas."

She chuckled. "You were the one who said before that I'm the friend you ask when you're not sure about something. You wouldn't be asking me this now if you'd already made your mind. And you for a fact know exactly where I'd vote in favor of."

Thomas smiled. "God has been kinda neglectful lately, yeah? And the country's already suffering enough with this… current admin. Might as well make a bigger difference and maybe wake a few people up?"

Kat knit her brows. "Now that I think about it, what's stopping you from taking some more drastic actions?"

"Paper thin moral dilemmas mostly. It's so easy to decide that the ends would justify the means, but I'm not smart enough to foresee the repercussions of things. If I had the power to time travel, maybe I'd be more open to the risks—but knowing what I do now about parallel universes and the like, I'd rather not fuck up the one I cannot help but choose to live in."

"Are you flirting with me again?"

"Partly, but mostly its about everyone I know here too. This universe is the one I existed in and is precious to me. I don't want to be anywhere else."

"Even if there's one out there where we could've been together?"

"She wouldn't be you, and he wouldn't be me. They might have our names, but we wouldn't be the same people. I still wouldn't be with you there either."

"It's really weird to have you keep saying and doing things that sound like you're still in love with me."

"After going through what I did, I've learned to throw the slightest possibility of regret out the window the soonest I can."

She raised a brow. "So what's really stopping you from doing what you want here?"

Thomas brought his other hand to his chin. "Thinking about it again, it does tend to sounds like doubt for doubt's sake. But it's always better to think twice about such world-altering choices."

"It might not be much, but you know I'll be here to help you out no matter what."

"I know," he said.

Thomas's eyes glowed pure white before every shade, hue, and manner of green light rained upon the dreary hospital.

"Come on," he said, eyes glowing even brighter than before. "We've still got the rest of Saturday and you owe me a non-romantic viewing of the sunrise."

Kat shrugged. "About time I heard that story, yeah?"