I tried to stay away from Wanda then.

I didn't know why I even bothered,- I still didn't understand why Ian felt it was necessary- but I just did it anyway. She was obviously pissed about something I didn't feel like was valid, so I decided not to waste my energy on something I felt so indifferent about.

It was then when I realized that I barely saw her anyways; whenever we encountered each other she would dodge away, and when I greeted her she smiled fleetingly and turned away. She was already ignoring me. For some reason that bothered me. And I wondered since when she had been doing it, and whether she had been avoiding me since she had obtained her own body- and maybe I just hadn't noticed because I had been focusing on Mel and our relationship so much. Maybe that's why she had reacted so strangely when I had started to talk to her again,- when I brought her to her room- because now that I thought about it, I couldn't remember the last time we had really talked before that incident. Maybe it had just caught her off-guard.

But why did she avoid me in the first place? What had I done? Was she mad that we took her out of Mel's body? That couldn't be the reason though. She had her own life now, and seemed very happy living it. She was the one who inaugurated us with all of this new technology that had helped us cut souls out of humans successfully for months now.

No, handing her a new body and therefore an own life just couldn't be the reason.

It had to be something against me personally, but what?

But even if I would have wanted to talk to her, it wouldn't have been possible. She was barely alone- usually Ian was right at her side, and if he wasn't, he was close enough to keep an eye on her. I saw him glance over to her protectively several times whenever she was talking to someone. Just when I watched him doing that, his eyes met mine and he looked away.

"There you are," I heard the familiar voice say behind me. Mel smiled and reached over to kiss me. When she pulled away, she looked deep into my eyes that were still focusing onto Ian's back.

"What's wrong, Howe?" She asked me semi-seriously. Her glance followed mine and then it flickered back to me.

"Nothing," I grumped. When I realized how childish that sounded, I added: "Ian's being a dick."

Wanda bit on her lips to compress a smile, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards nonetheless. "My poor baby," she said, and I could help but hear the mockery in her voice. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and kissed me on the cheek. I don't know why she thought my annoyed expression was so amusing, but it made her smile. "What's so funny?" I asked, bemused.

"You look like a little boy when you're angry."

"I don't." I couldn't help but smirk, though.

It was the way she pressed her lips together to try and hide the fact that she was amused- the way her lips curved into a silent promise without her even noticing it. Did she perceive it the way I did? Did she feel the things I felt when she touched me? Could she sense her own face light up whenever I smiled? It was like her smile was infectious; and I had no idea if only I was susceptible to it.

It was like our conjoint energy was flammable, as if there were silent flames rising around us whenever we smiled at each other in that unparalleled way-

"Seriously though," she said as she pulled away once more to look directly into my eyes. "What's going on?"

I shrugged. "Ian wants me to stay away from Wanda." I said it as casually as I could, but it still triggered a reaction in Mel's face. Her brows rose and her nostrils flared just a tiny bit; I would have missed it if I hadn't watched her so closely. And it was just for a split second before her smile flickered back, this time a bit more contrived. It didn't quite reach her eyes. Whatever it was that I didn't understand, she did.

"It's not easy for him," she just answered. She didn't seem angry or hurt. She was so... understanding.

When I looked at her blankly, she sighed.

"Jeeze, Jared. Come on. Wanda really loved you when she was in this body. He knows that, and so do you. And even thought it may be over and she has her own body and feelings now, it's understandable that he's a little cautious when it comes to you two-"

"Is that what it is?" I gasped.

"Yes, what did you-?"

"-I just thought she hated me." I admitted, a wave of relief flowing through my muscles and relaxing them. Mel laughed once- a loud, abrupt laugh. "Wanda could never hate you, Jared."

This made us both grow quiet for a moment. We were both thinking about the past year. The fact that our relationship to one another,- mine, Mel's, Wanda's and Ian's- was probably a lot more afflicted with feelings and nostalgic memories that I had been aware of in the past few months made me feel uneasy. Had I really been this oblivious? I had thought that once everyone would have their own life back, and thus their own feelings, everything would go back to normal. And now on retrospect, that sounded too naïve, too simple. I realized that now.

"But I love you," I said silently. "Not her."

"And I know that," she replied softly. "And Wanda loves Ian. But we can't pretend that nothing ever happened." She shrugged and looked over to the couple who were laughing at something Jeb was saying."Just because it's over doesn't mean it's forgotten. Or that it never happened. It's exactly as real as it was a few months ago."

I saw Wanda talking to Jeb excitedly, watched how she thrust her arms into the air to gesticulate whatever it was she was trying to explain, and remembered our kiss. It was far away, and the memory was faint- an eclectic cluster of emotions and movements. Images of Mel's body flashed up, her lips, but the person that was kissing me behind them was someone else, the person that was gripping onto me with Mel's fingers was someone else. Someone that loves me in a different way, but desired me just as much, someone that knew me in a way only Mel could know me-

Mel was right. It would never go away. But at least it was over.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked.

"Because I don't want to spend my time looking back." I said, and this time she smiled her Mel-smile that was exclusively just for me, and it radiated so much happiness and love that I could barely contain myself of kissing her here and now. "I want to look forward. And I can only do that with you by my side."

The kiss we shared after that felt dream-like. And as our lips and tongues touched, I couldn't help but get drawn back into the memories.