"Well Skara, congratulations. You've outdone yourself this time… You idiot."
Looking down at the piece of paper in her hand, at the words, and the small drawing that she had done on it, Skara felt her ear's twitch, her heart flutter, and her face burn.
Whenever a Witches ear twitched, it could be for any number of reasons. Joy, excitement, embarrassment, nervousness, anxiety, or just plain old fashioned outright primal terror.
Skara, well-adjusted and emotionally mature as she was - Was all of them. At once. At the absolute maximum capacity she could feel for each individual feeling. Again, all at the same time.
Her hands clutched at her face, and then her head fell against the counter. The words and drawings all felt so… Skara didn't know. She would have said childish, but somehow she had no doubt in her mind a Witchlings drawing would have been less, well, childish, somehow. She hadn't even meant to draw anything. It just sort of… happened, absently, until Skara stopped at the verge of completion and realised exactly what she had done. And that made it all the more embarrassing in and of itself.
At least if a Witchling had drawn it, there would be an excuse for how, well… childish it really was.
That, and Willow wouldn't know it had been Skara who had drawn it.
Peeking her eyes over her hands, Skara took a deep breath, and looked around the room that she and her girlfriend had lived in for close to five years now. There were a thousand tiny charms to it that anyone other than Skara wouldn't notice, because she had been there for every single one of them.
Plant pots on the balcony that Willow looked after, and a gash in the wall that tore off a small amount of paint when one of the plants - Bitey - got upset when Skara had tried to feed it and not Willow. A pile of letters that they didn't have room for anywhere else just pushed into the corner of the counter and against the wall. A corkboard with a dozen photos of them and all their friends added to over the years. Skara's shelf on their bookcase that was full of albums and old fantasy books, Willow's filled with information on plant maintenance, Flyer Derby memorabilia, and coursework books, and another shelf where all their things were a jumbled mess. Some Bard instruments hung on the wall, like the tuba Skara had used to serenade Willow on their first date, or the guitar she used when she realised a tuba was a very bad instrument to serenade someone with. Papers of her ballads, songs and plays she had written and gotten Willow to look over were scattered everywhere, some unfinished, some abandoned, some that only needed her to put them together formally, some she already had, and some that were being performed by Bards across the Isles already. A blanket on their sofa, with one corner slightly burned due to the incident that they agreed to never speak of or acknowledge again. All of it was theirs.
And Skara owed all of that to Willow.
Looking around the room and remembering that helped calm her down, at least a little. They weren't in Hexside anymore. They were in their twenties. They weren't children anymore. Skara's feelings for Willow hadn't dulled or faded at all since then though. If anything, they had just grown deeper.
But sometimes, that made her feel like she was still back in school and dealing with all of this for the first time.
Skara shook her head, sighing. Standing up, paper in hand, she walked onto the balcony. A few of the plants there tilted to look at her, and one of them - Venomy (Willow was terrible, if descriptive, at naming things) grinned at her expectedly. Skara knelt down, and grabbed one of the many bags of plant food that they had for all the diverse flora, and found the one with food that looked uncomfortably close to Witch meat, and fed the hungry plant creature… thing.
"There y'go, buddy." Skara muttered absently as she fed it. "Sorry it's late. I've been… busy. Yeah, let's go with that. Busy."
As the sin against the Titan chewed, Skara glanced at the street their home was located on. She loved the view. It wasn't a busy street, but it wasn't exactly a quiet one either. People went about doing all manner of things at all points in the day, from chatting with friends on the sidewalk to getting thrown out of Grimgrubs Pub across the street. Sometimes, she would just people-watch from here. Seeing all the little stories playing out from outside her own home helped when she was trying to write her songs or plays. And sometimes, she could see her Petals flying or walking down the street when she was on her way home.
Everything about their relationship, Skara owed to Willow. It had started in Hexside years ago… on an incomprehensibly poor foot, to put it as lightly, gently, and diplomatically as possible. Back when she hung around with Boscha and tormented the Plant Witch.
A time she could not regret more if she tried. And a time of her life she simply knew she wasn't going to be able to look back on without regret for as long as she lived, even if she hadn't ended up where she did now.
If she could go back in time and yell at her younger self to stop hurting Willow, to realise how toxic Boscha was, to apologise and beg forgiveness and make things right to Willow, she would. Without question, or hesitation.
But, somehow, against all conceivable odds and logic, and with a distinct lack of time-travel shenanigans, things improved. After splitting Boscha, she had formally traded her armour and banshee tears face-paint for a fishnet stocking and a green star, courtesy of an all-too forgiving Willow. A part of Skara honestly always suspected part of it might have been out of sheer desperation to have a full team of players. Even if that had been the case though, Flyer Derby brought them closer, first through practices and games, then texting strategy ideas to each other 'till two in the morning, then just spending that time together. Eventually, it felt like they had never been enemies at all. And it wasn't just Skara who felt that. After a while, Willow had commented something to the same effect more than once.
Which led to… feelings. Because of course it had. How couldn't it? When Willow was given a real chance to showcase herself, to prove what she could do, and just be the kind of person she wanted to be without anything holding her back, she was… Incredible.
Skara was a Bard. A pretty darn good one at that. But even she didn't have the words to describe Willow when she was in her element. Incredible was the best she could do. And it was like everything else about her that she noticed came downstream of that. The smallest, most normal gestures Willow made, Skara became hyper aware of - The tiny smile she seemed to always have, that small reserve of energy she had, the way she would intertwine her fingers when she got anxious, that small shine in her eyes.
When she first realised she was falling for Willow, with the grace of a Bard, Skara's response had been elegant, poetic, and measured.
Oh crap.
Oh Titan.
Oh no no no no no no no no no no.
For a long time, she refused to ever act on her feelings, because… how on the Isles, Earth, Ethereal Realm, or any other plane of existence could she? After how she had treated Willow for years, only for them to really start to get on after the fact - How could she? How could she put that on Willow? Did she even really have the right to feel like this? What was Willow supposed to do with that information? What could Skara expect her to do? She couldn't put that on Willow. She wouldn't.
And then, against everything Skara could have ever imagined, Willow confessed to her.
It marked a pattern throughout their relationship. Their first date, Willow had asked her on. Their first kiss, Willow initiated. The announcement they were dating, Willow made. As they grew older and became… intimate, Willow acted first. The home they had, Willow suggested. Every part of their relationship has been because Willow had been the one to act.
Not because Skara didn't want it to happen - The complete and total opposite was the case, and she had said so to Willow time and time again. Every single time anything big happened, she was absolutely over the moon. The reason she didn't make any moves though was because… Skara remembered their past. How it all began. And how she had hurt Willow before. And she didn't want to do that ever again. Ever. For Skara, that meant she would only ever take a step when it was explicitly clear, beyond any possible doubt, that Willow wanted it to happen.
At first, Skara thought it was perfect! She could never put Willow in an uncomfortable position again! And she hadn't!
Until, of course, Willow apologised for putting so much pressure on her.
She distinctly remembered it happening too. One night, when the couple spent their evening with takeout and a bad - just utterly atrocious movie, with Skara resting her head on Willow's lap. Willow had been lazily playing with the Bard's hair, before she slowly just stopped, and out of nowhere, said she was sorry. And when Skara asked why, she said for always being pushy.
'I don't know, I… I've always just… You never seem to want to do anything like… relationship wise, I guess?' Willow had tried to explain, awkwardly, unsure how exactly to say it herself. 'I mean like… You never just… Kiss me or hug me or anything, so I do it, but you haven't said anything and I just - I… I just don't want you to feel like I'm pressuring you into anything.'
Skara was both eternally grateful for having a partner who cared so much for her consent - and kicking herself for making Willow feel this way.
'No no, Willow.' Skara remembered getting up to kiss her partner's cheek almost like she was trying to refute such an idea. 'It's okay. You never push me. Everything I've said yes to was because I wanted it.'
'But then, why don't you ever…'
'Because… I don't… want to hurt you.'
In Skara's brain, this had been a perfect strategy. In reality, it had put the burden onto Willow. Skara explained everything, and after it was clear that no amount of telling her girlfriend that it was alright and that she considered the past to be in the past was going to fix this, Willow relented, said she understood, and seemed to accept that this was just going to be part of their relationship. But the whole thing made Skara realise the burden she had inadvertently put on Willow's shoulders.
So this time, for this one thing… Skara wanted to be the one to take that step.
Because -
Klick-Klack!
Skara heard the clicking of metal and the sounds of fabric scraping against the wall from the front door. Her ears perked up, and she turned, poking her head into the living room. Only she and Willow had keys, so it wasn't a surprise to see who it was.
"Hi, Skary…"
What was surprising though was how utterly exhausted Willow looked. Her eyes seemed to be only half open, and her long, free-flowing hair was unkempt and frizzled. Her glasses looked steamed up, her body posture was crooked and limp, and she had messily just dropped the multiple bags she had onto the floor.
'Oh boy. One of those days, huh?' Skara thought as she stepped into the room proper. "Hey, Petals. You er, you-"
Skara wasn't able to finish before Willow had taken a step forward, wrapped her arms around the Bards neck, and just allowed her head to all but crash against her girlfriends shoulder. Skara staggered slightly as Willow all but collapsed against her, but found her footing quickly. A small, bemused smile grew on her lips and she returned the embrace, her arms wrapping around her partner's waist.
"..Long day, I take it?"
"Mmm hmm." Willow murmured as she nodded against her shoulder. There were a couple seconds of silence before she spoke again. "Were we this exhausting as kids?"
"I er… I think we might have been worse." Skara answered, flatly and honestly. "You know. Considering how different things were when we were Witchlings."
"Bleh." Willow muttered, though she didn't argue. "We didn't give our teachers that hard a time though, right?"
"To be fair, I think it depended on the teacher. I still remember the number of times we got on Mr. Fleshoro's nerves in our final year."
"I mean, yeah, but that was different."
"How so?"
"He was a jerk." Willow chuckled slightly. And Skara chuckled back at her dry wit.
The two of them remained like this for a short time, before Skara spoke up again. "Are you alright?"
"Just… tired. I've spent the last seven hours teaching the most chaotic bunch of children at Hexside, nearly everything went off the rails, and I had to use Magic to keep the class in line more than once. I've got a dozen papers to mark over the weekend, and I have to go in tomorrow for a staff meeting to figure out what we're doing about a field trip to the Knee." Willow explained, exasperation evident in her voice.
Then, she looked up at Skara, the outline of a smile crossing her lips.
"On the other hand, I'm now being held by my girlfriend, so…"
A brief pause.
"…Just give me five more minutes and I'll be fine."
"Happy to be of delayed service, Petals." Skara smiled, letting her eyes roll, and holding Willow closer. She felt Willow pull herself into it, sigh, and laugh gently at her fluster. A blush spread across Skara's face, and she was happy that Willow couldn't see it.
This was why Skara wanted to be the one who took the next step.
Eventually, the two of them (reluctantly) separated, and deciding that now was as good a time as any for a meal, Skara made her way towards the kitchen to see what they had that she could cook for them. Willow sat herself down and started to look through her students' papers, highlighter and pen in hand. As Skara started to work, she would occasionally glance towards Willow and just watch her for a few moments, allowing herself to feel slightly captivated - As much as she was willing to let herself, anyway, for risk of starting a fire from not paying attention.
I've got enough on my mind as is. Don't need an extra crispy apartment to make it worse.
Skara still remembered when Willow decided that she wanted to become a teacher. She remembered being surprised, but at the same time not, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. It made a lot of sense, somehow. Willow always had that drive to prove herself, and it made sense that after having it being put down for so long, and how empowered she felt after realising her strength, that she wanted to make sure that others were able to have that same revelation in their own lives.
And she always worked hard. And Skara admired it a lot. It was one of the reasons she had fallen for her Petals in the first place. She always put her all into whatever she put her mind to, be it her Magic, Flyer Derby, or teaching. Even when she was struggling, It was hard not to watch, and harder not to admire.
Still, Skara was at risk of burning down the house if she didn't focus, so she tore her eyes away from Willow, and back to what she was doing.
Over the course of her life, Skara had gotten quite good at cooking. She wasn't anything even close to as good as her parents were, but she had picked up plenty of tricks from them growing up. She set aside some seasoned meats which had been left to marinate overnight into a pan, cast a small fire spell on the stove, and started to fry it all. As it cooked, she began to work on some of the foods that would go with the meats. One of the human foods that Luz had shared with Willow had been something called 'rice', which went well with just about anything that was cooked, and Skara had gotten her hands on as many bags of the stuff as she could to work with. She prepared some to go with the meal.
"Anything I can do to help?"
Glancing up, Skara saw Willow had put her papers aside, and stood on the opposite side of the counter, with the small smile that Skara knew meant Willow wanted to spend time with her Skary.
"Are you sure? You said you were exhausted. And you've got all those papers to work on."
"I can put them off for a little bit." Willow said as she came around the counter, and placed her head up against Skara's shoulder as she glanced up at her. "And yeah, I'm sure."
"Alright, Chef Petals." Skara smiled down at her, and nodded towards a pile of vegetables on the counter. "Those need dicing up."
Willow lifted herself from Skara's shoulder and nodded. "Coming right up."
For the next while, the Bard and the teacher cooked together, with Skara directing and Willow assisting. Willow was… not the greatest cook in the world - a fact that they had both learned the hard way - so she usually just followed Skara's directions when it came to this sort of thing. She diced the vegetables up, boiled them, seasoned them and let them steam for a few moments, before getting them ready to serve.
It wasn't long until the pair of them had their meal all cooked and ready to go, alongside plenty of leftovers that they could wrap up and grab over the next few days to save time and money. Skara sorted out the servings, while Willow cleared their small table in front of the couch, getting out their plates and trays. Once everything was sorted, the pair of them sat down to eat what Skara called her Human-Witch Hybrid Snaggle-Curry.
"Mmmm! Oh that's good." Willow's entire face all but glowed as she took her first bite. She scooped up a few more rapidly and shoved them into her mouth, and closed her eyes as she chewed and savoured her food. "That's so good. This is delicious, Skara."
"It's nothing you haven't had before." Skara said humbly, though incredibly happy and proud of herself to hear that. "You must have been starving. My dad always said hunger from a long day of work was the best seasoning."
"Like I said. Long day." Willow agreed, leaning over to rest against her girlfriend. "But still - Thank you."
The feeling of the woman she loved curled up against her. The sight of Willow's eyes sparkling as she looked up at her Skary. The sound of her voice praising Skara and thanking her for cooking another delicious meal. The knowledge that she had helped Willow go from exhausted to relaxed and calm and loving…
This was why Skara wanted to be the one to take the next step.
"O-Of course." The Bard blushed.
The two of them talked as they ate - Willow told Skara more about her day in depth. Two of her students, Amethyst and Koa - a pair that Skara was utterly convinced that she could write a whole ballad about if given time and permission - had decided that today they were going to one-up each other in every way imaginable, from answering questions, to spells, to how much chaos either of them could cause. And as usual, their penchant for chaos sparked everyone else's penchant for chaos, until the entire classroom had been rowdy and Willow had needed to reign them in. The way Willow chose to describe the two students responsible was if you took both Skara and Luz, made them best-friends-slash-mortal-enemies with clear crushes on one another, and amped their carelessness up to eleven.
"…Should I be offended by this?" Skara bemusedly asked.
"Only a little." Willow answered, playfully. "They do remind me of the two of you."
"Me and Luz are responsible members of society."
Willow had to physically cover her mouth and hold back a laugh. "Do you remember that - what was it Luz called it? 'Orienteering' thing that we did when we were seventeen?"
"I got bit by a Dream Snake!"
"You hadn't even been in there for ten minutes and you came out carrying it!" Willow laughed. "I had to carry you back to town!"
"And you got a nice set of flowers out of it. And a nickname. Petals."
"Still not worth the proverbial heart attack." Willow said, only half-serious, though her face did redden as it often did with the nickname. "And you got one too. Skary."
It was scary, and Skara sounded kind of like scary - That had been the logic Willow had used. It was the absolute worst nickname Skara had ever heard in her entire life - So bad it came back around to being utterly and incomprehensibly adorable.
So many of their days were like this now. It wasn't that they never went out or did anything like they did when they were younger, but now that they had responsibilities, things had had to slow down in the way life sometimes just needed to. Whenever they had work to do, they would go out and do it, and when they got back, they would just chat about their days, and allow it to meander to whatever came to mind. Sometimes they would go out and do something, other times, they would stay in and do something at home, or they would have days like today - A simple night in, a meal, and doing whatever chores or work they had to do. And Skara loved them.
They came with such a difficult to describe feeling of bliss. In a weird way, it reminded her of the times in their teenage years where they just sort of hung out in one another's rooms, doing nothing but study, or browse Penstagram, or watch a show on a crystal ball, or do anything totally and utterly mundane. It was the fact that it was with Willow, the woman she loved, that made it feel like this good.
Eventually, the two of them finished their meal, and Skara began to clean up. Willow helped her, and once they had put everything away, she returned to the sofa, and pulled out the worksheets she had to mark again.
After handling the rest of the things in the kitchen, Skara turned to watch Willow at work again. Things suddenly felt very… Still. Quiet.
A hand absently made its way into Skara's pocket. There, it came into contact with paper - The note she had made earlier that day. And then, why everything felt still now made sense.
Now was a perfect time.
Things were quiet, they were still, they had just eaten, and they were both in high spirits. It didn't need to be this big, grand display. It never had been. At least, not to Skara, and Willow never seemed to care much for them either. So she could just do it now. It was almost perfect. It… She…
Her hand left her pocket. She bit her lower lip. She…
…She couldn't.
She just…
She couldn't.
As quietly as she could, she made her away out of the kitchen area, and onto the balcony. The sun had started to set as evening came. With it, the streets became quieter. The fresh air felt colder than it had not too long ago, but it was still refreshing. At least, as refreshing as it was going to get right now.
For a short while, the Bard didn't move. Didn't let her eyes wander to watch the few people in the streets. Didn't react when she heard noises around her. Didn't even really pay all that much attention to what her eyes had happened upon. She focused so little on it, that her eyes began to blur, and she wasn't even certain what she was looking at - Either a hill, a house, a house that looked like a hill, a hill that looked like a house, or a monstrosity from the depths of the underworld that turned into a statue before her that looked like a house or a hill.
Or maybe it was a road.
Whatever it was, she didn't focus and couldn't bring herself to.
She wanted to shout at herself - Tell herself that she was being an idiot, that they had gone through this a thousand times before, remind her that she had promised herself this time was going to be different and to get back in there.
But how was she supposed to do that? This home, these moments, this life that she had with Willow… It meant everything to her.
And all she could think about right now was how she didn't deserve it.
Memories kept flooding back - The time she had helped Boscha to rig Willow's locket to scream whenever she attempted to unlock it. The times she just stood by and watched as Willow went through some of her worst days at Hexside at Boscha's hands for the crime of being slightly happy with how her life was going. The time she -
A pair of hands suddenly wrapped themselves around Skara's waist and stomach, and Skara suddenly found herself being pulled into a hug from behind. She felt Willow resting her head against her shoulder, almost burying itself in her hair.
"Thanks for the food, Skary."
Skara forced herself to half-smile as Willow looked up from where she had buried herself to look at Skara. She blinked, and for a few seconds, both of them didn't say or do anything at all.
"...What's wrong?" Willow saw through the half-fake smile immediately. She always could.
"N…Nothing." Skara said, but then sighed. "I… Just some… memories."
"..." Willow didn't say anything, wanting to let Skara decide if she wanted to extrapolate further, or just leave it be.
"...About Hexside." Skara eventually admitted.
"Ah." Willow said, indicating she understood.
It wasn't the first time Skara had gotten lost in her own head over this kind of thing, and it seemed to bother Skara more than it bothered Willow sometimes, either. Of course it did. She worked in a school for the Titan's sake, where some of the worst times of her life had occurred. There were plenty of times, even now, where her thoughts would take her somewhere dark in the past, and she would get upset, or sad, or angry, or depressed. Thankfully, they faded quickly. But with Skara it was different.
Skara dealt with guilt. And that was… very different to what Willow had to deal with. Willow was stronger now. She had the confidence that she could protect herself if something happened to her that even resembled her childhood - Or even just shrug it off, unfazed by it now she was older and wiser. Skara on the other hand couldn't do anything to make what she had done in the past hurt past-Willow any less.
Even if she made today-Willow the happiest person on the Isles.
"It just sort of… came back to me." Skara lied. "And it just made me think about…" She gestured with her hands, and tried to find the right words, but there didn't seem to be any. None that really would convey exactly what was in Skara's head or heart right now. Eventually, she gave up, and one of her hands simply rested on Willow's. "...I adore you, Petals, but… Sometimes I don't know how you can even stand to be in the same room as me."
"Hey, hey, hey. Come here." Willow's hands removed themselves from Skara's waist, and one grabbed hold of Skara's hand. She led the girl back inside, and gestured for her to sit on the sofa, not letting go of her hand once. Once she had sat down, Willow knelt in front of her, and cupped her cheek with the other hand. The Bard leaned into Willow's hand a little, but she couldn't bring herself to look her girlfriend in the eye. "Look at me?"
Skara's eyes tried to look as far from them as she could.
Willow's hand gently tilted the Bard's head. "Skara."
Her voice became slightly more authoritative, but it wasn't in any way forceful. Stern, but gentle. Serious, but kind. How she was able to do all of that, Skara had no idea, but it made Skara look back, and saw Willow's emerald eyes looking at her with a serious, but soft expression too. Her hand relaxed, and gently cupped her cheek.
"We've talked about this, haven't we? I've told you all this before. It… Did hurt. And honestly, sometimes… It still does."
The prongings of guilt stabbed at Skara, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. Her eyes darted away again. For maybe the millionth time now, she started to apologise. "...I'm sor-"
"But I didn't fall for a bully."
When Skara looked back, she saw Willow shaking her head. Like she was responding to her own statement, or refuting whatever thoughts were in Skara's - Or both.
"No." She carried on. "I fell for the girl who stood up to Boscha in front of an entire school and told her to…" Her voice trailed off,and a twinge of pink spread across her cheeks. "...Honestly, it's been years, and I still don't think I can repeat something so…. Colourful."
An amused smile forced itself onto Skara's lips as she recalled that particular memory. "Well, when you're a Bard, you pick up a few words, and learn to overcome certain…. Language barriers."
"No kidding." Willow said, with a chuckle. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone so flustered at being insulted before or since."
"I've got more where that came from if need be."
Willow giggled again, before taking her hand away from Skara's cheek, and stood upright. Her expression remained soft, but her tone returned to being a bit more serious. "But that's who I fell for. The person who did that. I fell for the girl who took a chance on my Flyer Derby team, even when it could have gone nowhere."
There was a brief moment where Skara found herself missing the feeling of Willow's hand on her cheek. And almost as if she were responding directly to that thought, Willow went one further - She placed herself onto the Bards lap, a leg either side of her. Willow's hands meanwhile, draped themselves over Skara's shoulders. And for her part, Skara found herself feeling a lot like an anxious schoolgirl again.
"I fell for the girl I would spend hours with over crow calls on the weekend, talking about strategy at first, and then complaining about homework, and then having… existential crises' with after talking about basically everything in the world."
Inadvertently, Skara felt her body shift, and with it, she couldn't help but notice the way that the light seemed to shine around Willow's head. Like a halo, like those mythical creatures from the Human world that Luz had talked about supposedly had. What were they called again?
Angels? Angles?
Whatever the word was, Willow was absolutely one of them. Skara felt her eyes open that bit wider.
"I fell for the girl who helped us to win their first championship because of her clever strategies. I fell for the girl who made my heart soar whenever she said 'Hi'." Willow could always say things like this, so easily, whereas Skara, the Bard, always struggled. It was just another thing that Willow could do that made her so incredible. "I fell for the girl I felt the safest with whenever she held me. I fell for the girl who was always the brightest star in the sky whenever she flew."
It was impossible for Skara to not smile at what she was saying. It was so dramatic, so cheesy that it would make any other Bard call her over-the-top, but it was also… Incredibly authentic, so real, so honest, and so reassuring.
Sometimes Skara didn't understand why Willow felt the way that she did about her.
"I… could never fall for a bully." Willow carried on. "But you aren't. That's not who you are now."
But she could never doubt her honesty. Never.
"I didn't fall for a bully, Skara." Willow's hands finally returned to the other girl's cheeks. Her thumb stroked gently underneath her eye, and for a moment, Skara wondered if she had been crying, but she never got the chance to ask if she had been, because Willow then leaned in, close enough that their noses bumped against one anothers. "I fell for you."
Not giving the Bard the chance to speak, Willow pressed her lips against Skara's. It was a kiss Skara couldn't help but contentedly sigh, and lean into.
This was why she wanted to take that next step…
…And now was as good a time as any.
When Willow finally pulled away, Skara finally found a moment where she could say something, and the first thing she could think to say was…
"I, um… I… Lied."
What an incredible way to kill a moment, Skara.
"E-Earlier!" She quickly added. "About everything just sort of… coming back to me."
Willow blinked, and then raised an eyebrow. "What d'you mean?"
"I've been…. Thinking about it for a while, because…" Skara's index fingers pressed against one another nervously, and she felt her face redden. "...I - I do mean it, Willow. I adore you. I love you. You're just this… Amazing person, a-and I don't know if you ever really know just how amazing you are. You're passionate, you're kind, you're caring, you help me when I'm being dumb and…"
The reason Skara wanted to be the one to take that next step was because…
"...you make me feel wanted." Skara finally said. "I-I mean… You were the one who asked me out. You're the one who kissed me first. You're the one who…" Skara blushed, and then quickly continued. "...You're the reason that we have any of this. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be here now, and I… I'm not sure where I'd be now. I… I can't even imagine it anymore…"
As Skara spoke, Willow found that she couldn't say anything. Her cheeks were reddening, and she was smiling in a flustered, awkward way that she didn't really have any control over.
"A-And…" Skara stammered. "I… I want you to feel and… k-know that I want you as well. S…. So…."
Summoning up every bit of courage that she had left, Skara took a deep breath. Now or never.
One of her hands reached into her pocket, and found the paper she had drawn on earlier that evening. She held it there for Willow to take.
"Just… Read this, please? A-And don't just say yes because you feel like you have to. Just…. Ignore that bit?"
There was a second where Willow just sort of looked at the paper, blinking and confused. She… Hadn't even been sure where any of this had come from, or where it was going, but she was fairly sure that she hadn't exactly expected this to be where it went. All that over a piece of paper?
She took the paper, and opened it up.
Written along the top, in large, capital letters, the words that made Willow's heart throb.
'Will you marry me?'
Underneath that, were two checkmark boxes, 'Yes' above one, and 'No' above the other. Underneath the 'No' one was written '(please don't choose this)'.
And in the middle of the two of them, there were two stick-figures, but the heads were incredibly crudely, childish drawn caricatures of both Skara and Willow, surrounded by love-hearts.
For about twenty solid seconds, Willow didn't even move. She didn't look at Skara, and her face was covered up by the paper. Skara couldn't see any indicators as to what was going on in her girlfriend's head.
"...I, er…" Skara's entire face turned a deep red. "I don't… Do you want to maybe forget you saw tha-"
"Pft!"
Suddenly, Willow's hands started to tremble, and she started to laugh. She did her absolute best to hold it back, but she failed utterly miserably, and it wasn't long before she was openly giggling and laughing.
"U-Um…" Skara… had no idea how to respond to this.
"S-Skara!" Willow managed to say in between her laughter, "This is the - the cutest thing I've ever seen! You - I - Pfffffft!"
As soon as she was able to, Willow reached into her breast pocket, and scribbled on the paper, before turning it around to show Skara what she had done.
She had selected 'Yes', by answering it with a love-heart.
Skara's face lit up, but before she was able to say anything, Willow threw herself at her girlfriend - Now her fiance - pulling her into the biggest hug and kiss of her life.
It became, in hindsight, one of the most important and special moments of either of their lives. Unplanned, but it didn't matter - It was spontaneous, and that was like their relationship. In its imperfection, it was perfect.
To commemorate it, the paper that Skara had absently doodled on, and Willow had played along with and answered with her own scribble, they kept, and had framed, hung on a wall for all to see.
Whenever Skara looked at it, she smiled, proud that she had been able to take that step forward.
And whenever Willow looked at it, she felt wanted.
Hello All - It's been quite a while since I've posted anything, hasn't it? Apologies for that - I've been bloody busy these past few months with about a billion other projects that I've been working on and asked to help with - However, my friend, writing partner, and beta-reader for this oneshot, DesmondKane, got a commission for Skarlow I found utterly adorable and I wrote this out over the course of a week. My writing has felt a bit rusty and out of practice lately so I'm hoping that this will help to pull me out of my funk - And that you enjoyed it!
We're still working on Guitar Strings and Flower Petals, don't you worry - The next chapter is mostly undergoing some heavy edits but should be out soon. If you haven't read it and liked this - Go read it. Long form slow-burn Skarlow, what more could you literally ever want in life?
A slight announcement that we'll be making in GS too - One of the reasons we've not been updating as frequently is because we're both planning on starting a Webcomic together! We're still getting everything sorted out, like a website and proper social media for it, but we're getting it all together! We're really excited for it! We're gonna keep writing fics of course, but that has taken up a chunk of our time.
So if you're interested in either, you can find me on Twitter under QuirkQuartz, Tumblr under artfoquartz, and Demond under DesmondKaneofao3fame under Tumblr too, where he does Skarlow asks (Wink Wink Nudge Nudge), where we'll probably make announcements if and when that's ready to go, as well as any Skarlow or other writing stuff.
But I hope you enjoyed this either way! Thank you for reading!