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There, everything was so suave, so smooth, my imaginary counterpart was so seamless. Here, in the real world, however, there was a lot more downtime, a lot more tense silence filling each wasted second that that lucky bastard didn’t have to bother with at all.

That’s what I get for thinking too much then, as well as for thinking too much now.

Moral of the story: just stop thinking, and be like that other me… hurry up and put a ring on it already.

“Not proposing yet, in case you’re getting any weird ideas,” I muttered, slowly and carefully guiding the silver band through the tip of her ring finger. “This is just… well… you know what this is already…”

A lot of words I just said, but Amanda seemed to have only hooked on a single one, her frozen lips momentarily thawing, pulling into a timid smile.

“Yet…”

Promptly afterward, the deed was done. I fitted the ring entirely across her finger. It happened so easily, so mundanely, I had this thought in my head that maybe I didn’t do it properly.

.....

Amanda kept her hand resting against my palm, whether oblivious or on purpose, I didn’t want to interrupt her… especially not when she was so engrossed in the luster of something foreign and new eternally in her possession.

I lasted about three whole seconds before the creeping silence inevitably got to me, and just had to say something, anything… even if it was at the expense of making the awkward awkwarder.

“You probably already know the story behind this ring, right?” I asked.

“Story?” The gleam in her eyes promptly disappeared, glancing away and up toward me. “What story?”

“You don’t know it?”

“It’s the ring that the First Divine is known to wear, isn’t it?” Amanda said, speaking in an uncertainty that betrayed her usual confidence. “Her followers replicated wearing it to show their unwavering devotion. It’s… that’s all there is. Right?”

Oh, she really has no idea, she really has no clue at all. Finally, I know something that she doesn’t… give her something I can share.

“According to ancient legend or… Dad, to be more precise,” I began, feeling a jolt of amusement, seeing her hang on to my every word with wide unblinking eyes. “This ring was forged and gifted to Frederika after a mortal man had fallen deeply infatuated with the Goddess herself as a declaration of his love.”

“That happened?”

“Let’s just say it did,” I said, shrugging. “Fast forward how-many-years and a whole new world later, here it is, passed down to you… as a declaration of mine.”

“A mortal woman,” she noted, staring down again at the thin piece of silver around her finger with a renewed sense of wonder. “And you the half-god-super-human hybrid child thing.”

“It’s like poetry, maybe… well, almost…”

Amanda gave a laugh, and at that moment, it was like she could finally breathe easy again; rejuvenated by her old demeanor returning. Her hand drifted away, and she took a single step back, just quietly absorbing, admiring, all with a tender smile that gradually grew wider and wider.

I could tell she had so much she wanted to say, so much that she felt right here, right now, too much even, that it just wrapped back around to not being able to say anything at all.

A feeling that I knew all too well always in her company…

So I decided to help her out a bit, and choose her words for her instead.

“What do you think?” I asked. “Do you… well, do you like it?”

“Like it?” Amanda’s jaw slackened, almost as if deeply offended by such a vile accusation. You… do you even have any idea how much I…? This – I was already so delighted, so happy with just the drawing, the letter you wrote! And then you… you just had to up your game… you just needed to be the best thing that I… that I ever…”

The words stuck to her tongue; a watery glimmer filling in her eyes that she tried hastily to blink out. She choked on a laugh, somehow still smiling wide

despite the heavy tremble of her lips.

But she simply ignored it, pretending, believing, that all was just fine… that her breath didn’t just quiver, that a tear didn’t just roll down her cheek.

“It’s perfect, perfect, yeah, I-I love it,” she stammered, running her sleeve across her eyes in one fleeting stroke before fixating them again on her newfound piece of jewelry. “I-I mean, it’s no diamond, but – actually no, it’s… what I’m saying? It’s better than that, it’s…”

“Oh, you wanted a diamond?” I interjected, hearing the cue of something I can do.

“What?” She looked up at me, misty eyes blinking in alarm. “No – No! I didn’t – forget it! You – I – I just misspoke, I didn’t mean to…”

“Come here for a bit,” I said, ignoring her, taking her hand again and laying it flat atop of mine once more. “Just keep still for a second… let me just concentrate… just a little more… a little bit… and…”

Amanda was right on the verge of inquiring, before, suddenly, the urge died in her throat, falling back to a stiffened silence… feeling it, sensing it, just as I did, the swell of something invisible, something palpable surging from her hand and mine.

Slowly, a small glint of light began to manifest, a corporeal glow faintly illuminating independent from the moon and stars, gradually brightening, dazzling, reflecting prominently within and before her unblinking, unbelieving stare.

A second passed, and wouldn’t you know it – there it shimmered: the white sheen of a diamond softly pulsating from the ring on her finger.

“Did I forget to mention the ring also acts like a container and catalyst for magic?” I said, throwing her another self-satisfied smirk. “I’ve been filling that ring up with my magic for some time now… thought it might make it just that little bit extra special of a present, y’know?”

I moved my hand away, and in an instant, the twinkling light dissipated – plunging her shock, her amazement back into the darkness where it remained shadowed in complete and total silence once again.

“A little part of me with you at all times,” I explained. “So even when I’m not currently with you… I still am. And look -” I said, briefly pulling out my phone again, chain and all. ” – we match.”

“A little part of you…” she repeated, finding her voice again only to then belt out an accusation with it. “You totally stole that from Irene.”

“I totally did,” I confessed shamelessly. “And here’s the best part about it – you’re able to utilize the magic inside it too. Until it runs dry, that is.”

“I can – what?”

“Adalia mentioned it should be possible when I asked,” I said. “I had Ash give it a try first too just in case.”

Her expression stretched a little upon hearing that.

“You had Ash wear it?”

“To test it out, yeah,” I clarified. “Because, y’know, since apparently Elves can’t produce magic on their own. If she’s able to use it, then theoretically so should you. And guess what? She was.”

Amanda was thinking something. I could tell she was thinking something, pondering something, and whatever that something was, it clearly was a something that was bugging her.

“And you still decided to give the ring to me?” she asked, finally letting the bug fly out her mouth. “You… you didn’t think to give it to any one of them instead?”

“Oh, Amanda… not again with this nonsense,” I feigned a heavy frown. “Don’t make me write you another letter – you know I will, don’t try me.”

“No, I – I didn’t mean it like that, I’m not – it’s just… just… uh…” she was stammering, squirming her hands and rustling both pages vigorously all over themselves, particularly at a certain fourth finger. “I… why… what made you think of me? I mean… why did you choose me to receive it?”

This… this is what she was mulling around in her head about? Why she was making that sort of face in the first place? Taking precedence over her happiness? Her joy? What she should really be feeling?

Not on my watch.

“I didn’t choose anybody to have anything, Amanda,” I told her. “The moment I got it, I knew it was yours. I didn’t think, I didn’t choose. It’s yours through and through, alright? It belongs to you.”

“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I’m not, I’m really not,” Amanda ran her sleeve across her eyes again, and heaved another breath trying and failing to compose herself. “I’m just not…”

“Very good at accepting gifts?” I said, finishing for her. “I can tell. Better get used to it though, Amanda. Y’know Valentine’s just right around the corner, right?”

She snorted a laugh. “You’ll never top this.”

“Yeah? Try me,” returning her laugh, I began to step back, giving her space. “Now hurry up, already. Give the ring a try.”

“Oh,” she said, realizing only at that moment that I left her stranded in a circle of five feet. ” but… but I – I don’t really know how – what to…”

“Easier than it looks,” I assured her. “With a container, it’s so much easier. Just focus, think real hard – that’s how you do it. Try it.”

Any uncertainty, any doubts, I made sure to silence them with an encouraging smile from a distance. After a while of standing around in place, Amanda finally thought to hell with it and stilled herself into a sharp focus.

She didn’t even need a second attempt. Without warning, and clearly, without intending, Amanda completely swept away the blanket of snow from her circle, leaving only the patches of grass to sway and rustle from something invisible.

“Woah!” She yelped, jumping in the air like a startled cat, before landing on her feet in excited, hearty laughter. “No way, I can…!”

Amanda raised her hand in the air, and in response, the thick, looming branches of the nearby trees swayed and creaked, sounding quite a lot like her thrilled squeals after the fact.

“This is so cool!”

Have to say – I agree with her sentiments there. Watching her create her own breeze, sensing the ripple of magic exuding from her, the blur of her hand, the streak of silver on her finger weaving across the air…

Even before I gave her that ring, she had always been magical to me, brimming with it… a type of magic only unique to her… all I did was simply give her a way to express that magic of hers in a more physical form.

And boy, what a show it was.

Amanda moved her hand again, a sharply angled arch that ended with her arm falling back down at her side, and from her motions, her desires… came forth glittering rims of lights surrounding her, basking her in pure white… as if she had taken the many distant stars in the sky and had them hovering close to her.

What a thing to behold.

Her wide smile, the immense sense of wonder teeming in her expression, as she moved, as she spun, exhilarated, her slender figure basked in an almost heavenly glow, her glow… the town right behind her… maybe she was right, after all.

How on earth was I ever gonna top this?

“So?” I spoke up, strolling back toward her, stepping over the large mounds of her windswept snow. “Finally feeling like accepting? Or should I take the ring back, after all?”

Amanda froze in place, whirling quickly and instantly catching sight of me past her blinding winter lights. It happened again, thinking, and feeling so much that she couldn’t say anything at all.

“It’s like I told you that day when you first confessed to me, sitting on that bench, talking about love, talking about us. I promised you, didn’t I?” I said to her, shuffling through her dazzling spheres of white, stepping into her circle of billowing grass, and reaching for her, feeling the blaze of her warmth as I tenderly stroke her cheek, still wet from her tears. “You’ll get my fair share and more.”

I was then instantly hit with a blur, a sudden impact that nearly took the breath from my lungs; my eyes were half-buried within a tousled sea of blonde hair, and the more I struggled, the harder it seemed to squeeze.

Amanda gasped, and I could feel her warm breath hitching pressing onto my shoulder, the crease and wrinkle of paper bumping against my back. Beneath the spheres of light hanging above, I could see shadows painted across the earth, with one familiar, beautiful silhouette interlocked with another.

“I… I don’t have words for this…” I heard her muffled wavering voice echo quietly against me. “I want to tell you… I need to tell you… how much this means to me, how much you mean to me… but I just… I can’t… I don’t know…

“Hey…”

“I… don’t have words for you…” She gasped again, clinging even tighter. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t say anything. You don’t need to say anything,” I told her. “I already know, Amanda. I do,” I reached my arms around, embracing her just as tightly. “And I love you too.”

.....

“It’s not enough that you know,” she whispered, sounding both upset and infuriated. “I want to show it too. I love you, I love you so much, it’s driving me crazy. Let me… I want to…”

“If you want to express yourself to me that badly,” I muttered, pulling back, our shadows briefly separating from one another “I know you know there’s a simple way you can let me know.”

A ball of light drifted past, illuminating moistened red eyes, tear-stained cheeks, and an aghast Amanda fervently shaking her head from left to right, clenching and puckering in her lips.

“Can’t, won’t,” she squeaked out, blushing, taking refuge in my jacket. “I’m not well, you won’t be well… and I’m a mess. I’m sniveling, I’m crying, there are tears everywhere, and…”

I lifted her head back up at me, cupping her chin.

“I don’t care.”

Amanda gulped.

“You really will get sick, you know…” she whispered in one last attempt at protest. “And then you’ll be in bed with someone nursing you for like…”

“In sickness and in health, Amanda,” I interjected, a lack of patience already spurring, brushing my lips onto hers. “I’m yours.”

All was a blur again, everywhere around drenched in gentle sensations. I could feel a tender warmth enveloping; faintly the sound of soft, sultry breath caressing my ears, and down right below, eclipsed by the night, the world, the rays of light surrounding us, two shadows joined as one, holding each other, loving each other…

Until death do them part.

Or more accurately, probably, a cough. Let’s just hope one doesn’t come for a while...

Night’s still young.