Red 2
After a week of nonstop rain, the sky finally gave up, letting the bright, full moon shine over the balcony. A few stars even managed to push through the city’s lights.
Natalia gripped the balcony railing with both hands. She took a deep breath, then looked down, watching the streets lit with streaks of red and gold. She squeezed her eyes shut.
She wouldn’t say she was afraid of heights. Not exactly. But standing up here, so far from everything, made her feel a little anxious, like the icy wind might just tip her over. The cold helped, though. Better than the sweaty, sick feeling that clung to her ever since the drea—
The nightmares that hadn’t stopped.
She huffed and opened her eyes again, gathering the courage to look down. It wasn’t sothing she was used to.
She rembered balconies from when she was small, back when she still lived in the city. But then they moved to the suburbs, which were supposed to be quiet and leafy. What they got instead were possums screaming on the roof at three in the morning. So much for peace and better schools.
She touched her face. Still puffy. No surprise there. Half the night had gone to crying into Eydis’s shoulder, and the morning to avoiding them both.
Eydis, with those too-gentle eyes, and Astra, because… well. Because.
And now, Natalia was here.
lissa’s place.
The doctor had left early for work, so Natalia hadn’t seen her. Just the apartnt. Fancy and spotless. Marble counters, marble floors, marble everything. Like a catalog page, but colder.
Perfect. Cold. Untouchable.
Just like lissa.
She flinched at the thought, a little ashad. That wasn’t fair. lissa wasn’t cold, not back when they were younger. She had been Lionel’s scary-smart best friend, the one who always had a book in her hands and would sit on the grass while he ran laps, shouting, “Watch this!”
That had been ten years ago.
Ten years since lissa had walked out of their lives, chasing sothing bigger, sothing important. And Natalia—
Natalia had stayed exactly the sa.
No ambitions. No grand plans. Just… existing. She was almost normal, or she might have been—if not for the “Gifted” label.
Still, her magic was barely more than a spark, never enough to matter. Astra, on the other hand, burned brilliantly. Her na quite literally aning “star,” and of course she lived up to it in every way.
And really, why would Eydis ever choose a spark when she could have a star?
God. She’d been so dumb. Really, really dumb.
Tears burned at the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back. No way she was crying again. Seriously, how much more pathetic could she get?
Maybe that’s why lissa stopped trying; the eyes that used to see her like a little sister now barely paused on her, like she wasn’t there at all.
But lissa still saved her. Just like she saved Lionel.
And Lionel… When Natalia got older, she started to notice it. The way his voice shifted when lissa ca up. How his eyes darkened, like sothing hurt every ti. Like he regretted sothing.
She never asked what.
He’d never dated anyone, not as far as she knew. Like he was waiting. Or hoping. Maybe they were more alike than she thought. Brother. Sisters. All hopeless.
All in love with soone completely out of reach.
Because lissa wasn’t just smart, she was everything. Natalia wished she could be like that.
If she were, maybe Eydis would—
No. Don’t finish that sentence, idiot.
Then, the sliding door opened behind her. Warm air flooded out, bringing the scent of mint and sea salt. She turned, and—
And it felt like stepping straight into a mory.
There she was. lissa leaned against the balcony door in a bathrobe and a rumpled T-shirt, looking far too human for soone who routinely broke the internet.
“Heater or winter breeze. And of course, you pick winter breeze,” lissa muttered. “Masochist archetype.”
Natalia blinked. And just like that, the space between them didn’t feel so big anymore. As if those ten years hadn’t really happened. As if lissa had never left.
But still, she didn’t move. Because if she did, if she let herself believe this was real, very real…
She wasn’t sure she could handle it vanishing again.
lissa watched her. “Scientifically speaking… You look like soone about to have an epiphany. Or a ltdown. Honestly, I’m betting on ltdown.”
Natalia blinked again. “That’s not real science.”
“Sure it is. Anecdotal evidence counts.”
Before Natalia could think of a coback, sothing cold pressed against her cheek.
“l, what the hell?”
“Reflex test, Red. You passed.” lissa held out a bottle. “Here.”
The na tugged at sothing soft inside Natalia. The drink, less so. “…Waterlon alcopop? I don’t turn eighteen until August.”
“It’s practically a vitamin smoothie,” lissa said, smirking. “Besides, I can afford the fine.”
Natalia took the bottle. “Is this actually supposed to help?”
“From dehydration? No. From your absolutely disastrous taste in wom—people? Also no. But chemically, it suppresses the central nervous system.” lissa took a sip of her own drink. “So, at the very least, it should make you slightly less likely to torch my building.”
Natalia’s face burned. “I wasn’t going to—wait. Your building?”
“Tax stuff. Loopholes. Parental bribes. Don’t ask.”
Natalia snorted.
lissa grinned and studied her. “Progress. You’ve downgraded from ‘raging inferno’ to ‘sad campfire in light drizzle.’”
"Is this your version of therapy? Because it's terrible. And I do not look like a—”
lissa gave her the look.
“…Maybe a little,” Natalia muttered.
“Hey, look at that! Stage five of the Kübler-Ross model. I’m proud of you.”
"The what now?"
“Stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. You skipped the middle three.” lissa said, raising her bottle.
Natalia blinked slowly, then chuckled. “You’re still…”
“Insufferable?” lissa tried.
“Well…”
lissa gave a mock gasp. “You’re supposed to argue with , you know.”
Natalia smiled despite herself. And weirdly, it helped. She took a sip. The burn hit fast but faded just as quickly. “It’s like drinking mildly aggressive fruit juice.”
lissa eyed her. “Your tabolism is ridiculous. Fire Gifted and immune to literally everything. Like, God-tier immunity.”
Natalia’s pulse kicked up for no reason. Then she laughed: light, surprised, relieved.
lissa looked thoroughly confused but watched her anyway, smiling softly.
“You haven’t changed,” Natalia said quietly.
“Haven’t I?”
Natalia shook her head. “Still trying to look cool with alcohol, but you picked the one that tastes like lted marshmallows.”
lissa gasped again, offended (but not really). “I thought you liked marshmallows.”
“About that…” Natalia muttered, then said nothing more.
lissa narrowed her eyes but didn’t press. Instead, she pulled out an empty cup and let her magic swirl inside. Water filled it halfway, shimring with a soft blue glow.
“Here. For science.”
“Is this your idea of homade experintal juice?”
lissa smirked. “No. Well—yes. But it’s safe.”
“That makes it worse.”
“I’m curious to see how your tabolism handles my… juic—uh, water.” lissa cleared her throat, suddenly looking away.
Natalia blinked. Then, without thinking, because thinking never ended well for her, she took the drink anyway.
The mont the liquid touched her tongue, warmth spread through her, but it wasn’t just that; it was sothing deeper and vaster, like diving beneath the sea and forgetting where the sky ended and the water began.
Stay with , Red.
Her heart skipped a beat because this ti, she recognised the voice. And it was neither a dream nor a mory. It was real. She rembered how it felt to hear it. To fight it. To shove it away, again and again.
Only to find it still there, waiting. Like the tide.
Like…
Natalia’s fingers clenched around the cup. “It was your voice.”
lissa stilled, montarily. Then, she let out an amused breath. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Liar.
But Natalia stepped forward and hugged her anyway. Tight.
She didn’t care about boundaries. Only that lissa hugged her back. Only that her own hand stayed clenched around the cup, like spilling it would an losing sothing important.
The tears ca. But she didn’t hide them.
Not this ti.
They sat together as the hours ticked by, the sky gradually brightening with the first light of dawn peeking over the horizon.
"Will it ever stop hurting?" Natalia whispered.
lissa tilted her head back and sighed. “God, I hope so,” she muttered. Then, like that hadn’t been dramatic enough, she took another sip of her drink.
Natalia let out a weak laugh. “Wow. Super reassuring.”
“What, you want the scientific version instead?”
“Hit ,” Natalia said.
lissa’s blue eyes caught the early light. “Your brain kind of falls apart, chemically speaking. Dopamine tanks, stress hormones go wild…”
Natalia groaned. “Why are you like this?”
“You asked,” lissa murmured. “But the brain figures it out. Eventually.”
“So it gets better?”
“The pain fades, yeah,” lissa trailed off, as if debating whether to continue. But like always, she didn’t shy away from the truth. “But so parts stay with you. Your brain holds on to what matte—”
She stopped, her eyes catching on Natalia’s face, noticing the tears clinging to her lashes. She shifted closer and draped an arm around Natalia’s shoulders.
Natalia leaned into her without thinking. Her head found lissa’s shoulder like it had done so many tis before, when they were younger.
“So how do I get over soone,” she murmured, “when I can’t make myself forget?”
lissa’s fingers moved slowly through her hair. “Step one,” she said, “fix your taste in won.”
“Joke’s on you. I didn’t even have a taste,” Natalia retorted. “One minute I’m reading enemies-to-lovers with soft himbos, and the next I’m—god, what even is this?”
lissa rolled her eyes. “You’re in your gay awakening arc.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m just saying, you could’ve chosen a himbo,” lissa went on, grinning. “Instead, you went for soone who glides, probably communes with crows, and maybe doesn’t show up in mirrors.”
Natalia shot her a glare. “You’re really not helping.”
“I’m an MD, not a therapist.”
“What’s the difference?”
“One puts you back together. The other just watches you fall apart. Either way,” lissa paused, smirking. “You’re getting billed.”
Natalia let out a soft, watery chuckle, swiping at her damp eyes with her sleeve. The tension in her chest loosened, just a little.
And then, before she could lose her nerve, she asked, “…Will you stay?”
She wasn’t even sure what she ant. Here? In Achymia? In her life?
Maybe all of it. Maybe none of it.
She rembered the last ti she asked that question, back when lissa had just returned from the UK, during pizza night at Lionel’s, when it almost felt like nothing had changed.
But back then, lissa had paused too long. Had given a non-answer.
And now… now, with her head resting against lissa’s shoulder, she found the courage again.
lissa didn’t answer at first. Her fingers kept moving through Natalia’s hair. Then, finally, she turned and looked Natalia in the eyes, her gaze warm and sincere this ti.
“I never really left, Red.”
Natalia let herself breathe, but she didn’t reply right away.
lissa added with a mischievous smile, “Start with ‘Natalia,’ then I’ll be on my way.”
Natalia gave a soft laugh. “How about fireworks as a signal then?”
She raised a hand, snapped her fingers, and a tiny fla flared to life.
lissa looked unimpressed. “You could’ve saved from hypothermia, but sure, let’s set my building on fire instead.”
Natalia grinned, eyes still watery. “Can you just say ‘cold’ like a normal person?”
lissa’s voice was gentle. “Would that make you smile?”
Natalia’s only reply was the way she leaned closer, not worrying about personal space because she figured lissa wouldn’t mind. Through the tears, through the ache, the longing, the heartbreak. The rejection she never even got the chance to face.
But right now, she wasn’t alone.
Even when the dawn turned to day and this mont beca another mory to hold onto when everything else faded. She knew she’d rember it. The warmth of lissa’s shoulder. The scent of mint and sea salt. The taste of waterlon and alcohol. The feeling of being safe.
Calm. Cooling. Soothing.
Like water.
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