A/N: This is kinda the end of the story (epilogue to follow within the week), and it was a very emotional time writing this chapter. Feel free to cry at any point; I cried a little myself while I was writing it. I give you all the Lucky feels, all of them!
Guest: Yes, it's the most perfect ship name ever! I'm a little sad about it ending, too, but I do plan to write other things with Lucky, so it's not goodbye forever! :)
James awakens slowly. His head doesn't hurt anymore, and he wonders what they gave him to make him sleep. He knows he wasn't out long, but he slept well, and didn't dream, which surprises him, because the memories released by the spell breaking were, for the most part, not pleasant. The few that were… there was a girl, a red girl, a black room. He thinks they were friends, maybe.
He doesn't really want to drag up everything all over again though, so he pushes back the rising images and opens his eyes.
Shuri is sitting directly in his line of sight, and he squeezes his eyes once, to make sure he's not seeing things. He's lying on a flat surface, in a room that's almost overwhelmingly futuristic. She's got some kind of holographic screens up, and doesn't even notice he's awake, busy tapping away at lines and lines of numbers and symbols.
He watches her for a minute, working smoothly and efficiently, and then clears his throat. To her credit, she doesn't jump, but swivels her seat around with a wide smile.
"Ah! I am glad you are awake," she says. "We were worried."
"Sorry," Hermione's voice comes from somewhere behind his head; she's out of range of his vision. "We didn't anticipate such a big reaction. The spell was more interconnected than we expected."
"S'alright," James says, and tries to sit up, to face her. He immediately fails, because there's an inanimate hunk of metal attached to his shoulder, and flops back with a huff. Shuri's eyes dance at him, and he gives her a half-hearted glare that only has the effect of making her laugh.
Since sitting up clearly won't work, he tilts his head back to see Hermione, and Bill standing there.
"I was hoping I was wrong about your arm," Bill says sympathetically.
"I'll manage," James reassures him, but he is a little sad for Luna's arm paint-job. "Think you could get this thing offa me?"
"Well, I'll have to if I want to put the new one on you, won't I?" Shuri says.
James thought he was done being surprised by people. He opens and closes his mouth.
"You… would do that?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Shuri scoffs. "Of course I will. It will be fun," she says, eyes dancing with anticipation. "A little something to challenge me." With a swish of her hand, the holographic screen changes to something completely different. It's a rough schematic for an arm.
"You'll have to stay here for testing and calibration," Shuri continues. "Don't worry, we'll put you somewhere relaxing. There's a goat farm or two that could use one extra hand." She winks at him and turns back to her holo-screen.
One hand, haha, he thinks. Very funny. He's about to ask if she's really serious about the goat farm, because he's pretty sure that's a terrible idea, he has exactly zero experience with animals, except for killing rats and throwing rocks at mangy dogs – and hey, he hadn't remembered that before, that's new – and then Luna comes in, and he promptly forgets about the goat farm.
"James," she says brightly, skipping over to him. "Chocolate?"
He accepts the already-unwrapped bar from Luna, breaks off a chunk in his mouth, and nearly moans with happiness as it melts in his mouth.
"S'this magic chocolate?" He asks around another bite.
"All chocolate is magic," Luna tells him, solemnly. It makes perfect sense to him, although he hears Hermione smacking her forehead, Bill chuckling, and Shuri giggling. Luna smiles one of her warm glowy smiles, and he feels like he's found home.
"Are you staying?" He asks Luna, later, as Shuri is seeing Bill and Hermione out. He's sitting up, carefully, on the edge of the table. He's less one arm now, so he keeps having to readjust for the absence of weight there. He doesn't recognize the expression on her face for a beat; it's so unfamiliar a thing. She looks… uncertain.
"Do you want me to?" Luna asks him, quietly. James feels his heart ready to pound out of his chest. He tries to swallow past the sudden constriction in his throat.
"Yeah, yeah, I – more'n anything," he tells her, and his voice sounds funny, and there's something in his eyes that's making them teary, or maybe it's just because he hadn't even thought that she might not stay until right this second, and he hates that thought with every fiber of his being. And Luna hasn't spoken yet, so he doesn't know if she'll stay or if she'll go, and this weird feeling is building in his chest, and he knows if she goes it'll hurt deeper than the lightning from the chair ever did. It's not stopping, and he wonders if maybe this is-
"Yes," Luna breathes, moving closer, and resting her hand on his knee. James didn't know it was possible for people to glow with happiness, but she is, and he feels like he might be, too.
"Yeah?" He asks, even though he doesn't need to, even though he's smiling so wide his face will probably break. He just wants to hear her say it again.
"I've always dreamed of living on a goat farm with you, you know," she tells him.
(He has no idea if she means it literally, but he doesn't really care to ask while he's kissing her.)