I hope y'all are staying healthy. I will try to get some writing done to help y'all stave off boredom. It's about the only thing I can do from quarantine myself.

This fic came to me while I was trying to write something entirely different, haha. I'm calling the ship DoranKatja for now.

It was time to go to the tree.

An almost daily ritual for Katja, hampered only when torrential rains paid a visit to the remote village. She would wake up, go about her chores at the church, and then pack up a lunch to eat beneath the shade of gently swaying boughs. Being there was… peaceful. Even if her days lacked the excitement they had before, even if now she performed the ritual without her spirit friends by her side. There was still comfort in the doing of it, of going through the same motions she had most of her life.

But today there was someone waiting for her beneath the old tree.

Delight spread through her at the sight of her unexpected visitor – someone she hadn't seen in months. "Mest!" she declared happily, running up the hill to meet him. "It's so good to see you!"

The man smiled weakly, his face no longer sporting the stubble it had before. He seemed much more put together than when she'd first met him; dressed in clean clothes, face fully shaven, hair cut neatly. "It's good to see you, too, Katja. Thought I'd come visit, see how you're doing."

Although it was flattering that he had thought to check on her, Katja had a difficult time fully believing his words. After all, this was his first visit since he had saved her, months ago. If someone was going to check in on someone, they'd usually do it after a few days. Or maybe a week or two. They wouldn't wait months to visit someone out of the blue. It just didn't work like that.

There was something wrong. Katja could see it in the way he couldn't seem to bring a full smile to bear. The downcast, tired glaze over his eyes, and the way his shoulders hunched in the same grief and despair that had wracked him when they had first met. He looked… so very lost.

It wasn't hard to guess what it was about.

After all, the friend he had come with last time was nowhere to be seen.

She smiled at him, happy nonetheless that he had made the trip. It was nice to be so relied on, by someone to whom she owed everything. "I was just about to eat lunch. Would you like to join me, Mest?"

As he opened his mouth, Katja suddenly remembered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. You wanted to be called… um… Doranbolt, right?"

Pain shot through his expression, a flinch that Katja wouldn't have missed even if she were a less observant person. "Mest is fine, really. You can keep calling me that."

That would be easier for her, certainly. But again, she wasn't sure if she fully believed him. "Alright," she agreed, at a loss for what she should do in this sort of situation. It was new territory for the former celestial mage. "Will you join me? I would love to catch up with you."

He nodded, not quite meeting her eyes. "I would like that."

Although her lunch wasn't large, it was a filling one, which Katja happily shared with Mest.

"How are you getting along?" Mest asked her. "You seem… a lot happier."

She smiled gently at him. "It's an adjustment, I won't lie about that. But I'm doing well. I'm taking care of the church for now, until Zentopia sends a replacement priest. I can't lead the worship, but I'm pretty good at cleaning the place." Katja paused, peering into Mest's exhausted eyes. "Although I get the impression that you're actually here for a reason other than to see how I'm doing." Again, he flinched, rubbing the back of his neck in chagrin at having been found out. "Why don't you tell me about it," Katja urged him. She reached out and took his hands. "I owe you my life, Mest. Anything I can do to help you, please let me know."

Swallowing thickly, Mest's eyes slid away from hers. "I… wanted to ask you how you were doing. That's it."

Perplexed, Katja continued to look at him. "Is that really all there was? I'd be happy if that's the truth, but I get the feeling that you're holding something back."

The man's lower lip trembled. "I just wanted to make sure. That… that there was someone I really had saved."

It clicked in Katja's head, then. Katja still remembered the girl he had told her about. The one she looked like, the one had died because of him. And now there was someone else clouding his gaze. Another failure. Another death. Once again, he blamed himself.

She clenched his hands harder for a brief moment, then relaxed her grip and lowered them to the grass. Katja turned away from him, but didn't fully relinquish their contact. For a long moment, she silently looked out over the hilltop. It was bright, and hot, but not as much so as it would be for the people who lived at a much lower elevation. Insects chirped and buzzed all around, and birds sang in the tree above. A slight breezed stirred the grass, adding its melody to the symphony of life and sound. A typical summer day in the mountain village. An ordinary day that she would never have gotten to see if not for the man beside her, and his absent friend.

"I won't lie to you, Mest," Katja began. "It's been… hard, these past few months. It's been good, yes. But also hard. I find myself missing my spirit friends every day, and wondering if there had been a way for me to keep them. If there was another path I could have taken, but which closed while I averted my gaze because I felt sorry for myself. And then I find myself wondering the same things I did back then. Why grandfather choose this sort of future for his descendants? For his children's children? Why did he feel he had the right to decide that for me, long before I was ever even born?"

"Katja…"

She shook her head, forestalling whatever Mest had been about to say. "Please, let me finish." When she saw him nod out of the corner of her eye, she continued, "Another question I had asked back then was why the clock had even been created. It was something that no one had ever bothered to explain to me. Why was this thing created, this thing that would take away my time? Who had wanted this? And I never understood." Then Katja smiled, suddenly, and faced Mest once more. "Until you and your friend, Lahar, saved my life. And now… I think I understand. For the first time in my life, I had a future. A future that I could do anything I wanted with. That moment was probably that happiest of my life. If I could hold onto that moment, that feeling, forever, I would do it in a heartbeat. So…" She squeezed his hands tighter, teardrops beginning to mist over her eyes. "Know that you made a difference. To at least one person, you made a difference. Thank you. Thank you so much for being there when I needed someone. Thank you so, so much."

Droplets of saltwater splashed onto their joined hands, the tracks staining Mest's cheeks. "I couldn't save him," he confessed, nose crinkling up and the tears flowing unabated. "I… didn't even get the chance to try. It happened so fast. Too fast. I know that there was nothing I could have done, no way I could have saved him. I know that! I know it! But I… But I… Lahar's gone. His future is gone, there's nothing I can do about it."

As sobs wracked the man's frame, Katja's own started to well up inside of her.

So he really was gone.

Her other savior. Her other friend.

Katja pulled Mest closer, and just as she clung to him, so he did to her.

And the two allowed themselves to grieve, together.