Keep no secrets, tell no lies

2 months.

Entire lives can change in that time and you can wake up different people from where you once were. The very idea can be so intense, leaves on lookers shell shocked. 

They’re flipping through the recent questions, having lacked time to read them, it’s hard to believe they’ve actually had free time. 

The writing wears on her heart, but they can’t tear themselves away. 

That's all I can do anymore. Hope.

And perhaps rooming with... My, um. Ex-friend, I suppose. Must have made me a little soft and more codependent. So yeah. Living alone doesn't really have the same kick to it as it used to. There's something cold tocoming home to an unchanged apartment. There's no love here. My life is... Simply loveless.

The reverse time spell. Or the "bring my friends to the Realmso I don't have to be lonely or at least confess my undying love for both of them or probably not cause a kid told me that they're dating each other now and really happy so I guess they don't need me or miss me at all haha" spell.

I’m worried it’ll never get better. 

I need a sign, so so badly. I need a sign and then I won't give up hope. Just.. please, don't make me the only one to keep myself going. Please.

I suppose I ought to stop saying their names, andjust give up on them. There's no more hope for that now. I can only focus on my dear preSMACK

Swiftly, a hand pulls the book out of her hands. In dismay, they looked up at to see their roommate standing over them. He looked fully back, simply shook his head and yet to put the tome down, far away from them. 

“I want to keep tabs on her too,” he sighs, “but we can’t obsess over her in this time of transition.”

She grits her teeth, that idea they could be obsessed still stings their chest. 

Let go.

Talk it out.

“It’s… so hard,” the familiar pulls her knees close to her chest, “we’re watching her regress from a different side of the universe!”

“I know,” calmly he set the book upon its proper shelf, feeling his own built up sweat against his skin, “I feel with you, immensely.”

“Where’d she even get the idea that we’re dating!? I…” the words faded as they couldn’t find any correct expladive. 

“That one I do know the answer to,” the sullen disappointment was palpable, “I only just recently learned that the kids are sometimes pen pals with them, god love ‘em but they don’t really understand anything.”

“I think that’s an unfair assessment.”

“They haven’t met you, they don’t know the full picture,” he turned back around to approach them, “a teen’s mind is full of ideas.”

“I miss them,” she mumbled after a pause. 

“I do too,” he placed a hand on their shoulder, taking a seat on the bed with them. 

“The Nightfall masquerade.”

She blinked, still unfamiliar with him knowing things about the realm.

“What about it?”

“I’m going.”

“You can’—“

“I can do as I please, and I will be attending. But are you?”

“I can’t.”

“Why not.”

“I promised the next time I’d go back I’d see my mother when I’d go back.”

The human tilts his head back, wrapping his arm fully around them, remaining intentionally gentle. 

They sat, in their silence, accompanied by each other’s feelings, fears and hopes. Neither can bring themselves to question the other, knowing for once that their intentions were truly pure and their own. Eventually the familiar relaxes into him, returning the comfort back to him when they know he needs it most.

They don’t want to stop each other from what they need to do.

They just wished they could do it together.

“If I make it out of the ball alive, I can see if I can meet Ms. Voulge,” he suggests, “she wouldn’t live far, no?”

“She doesn’t,” they nod.

“She’ll be happy to see him again.”

“She would,” they let a laugh escape, “god she would. She’d completely forget to even be mad at me.”

“What do you want me to say to Cas when I see them?”

“I’ll write a letter.”

“You got it.”