There was a time when Elaina Hart went to bed cursing the stars.

She'd wrap up her quiet days with even quieter nights, sitting alone in her little cabin as she wondered why she even bothered. Every once in a while, she'd take the path down to the river and follow it to where the waters dropped into a rocky basin before continuing its journey to the ocean.

She'd stand on the ledge of the cliff, looking down and visualizing the waters running red with her blood. She wasn't sure what she hoped to accomplish with the exercise, but after a while, she found herself numb to the gruesome imagery. In fact, it almost felt comforting. The problem is she would always grant the stars one last look, to remind herself of why she was doing this, to recall the terrifying pull of a Gifted's light. But, in return, her anger would inflame and her fists would clench.

Patronizing fucks, she'd curse at the night. It's so easy to look down and judge.

She would prove them all wrong. Prove to them she was better, that she was stronger than they were, that she could live outside of society and keep them safe from herself. Dying wouldn't prove her point. It would instead show that the Gifted didn't know how to live without hurting others. She hoped that one day her struggle could be a beacon for others, a model for the Gifted on how they can live their lives without collateral damage. She wanted her life to have meaning.

She hated the stars for reminding her how far away she needed to be from humanity to stop herself from burning anyone that approached her. Yet, now she'd do anything to see those stars again. Until then, however, she took in the simple pleasures, like waking up to the sounds of birds.

Her eyes fluttered, coaxed by the trilling of their morning song. Through her lashes, she spotted a ceiling composed of rough-hewn wood dappled by the morning light. She breathed in deep and winced as the pain in her bruised ribs reminded her of what had transpired. Not that she knew how many days it's been since Shockwave battered her, but it felt like an eternity.

With a groan, she rolled to her side and dug her face into her pillow. As she cozied into the soft fabric, the scent of lavender encompassed her. The sweet scent eased the tensions in her muscles. The smell had always had that effect on her, which is why she would put sprigs of lavender into a little sachet she kept under her pillow.

As she savored the scent of the flowery perfume, the touch of the warm morning sun, and the sound of the birds' distant song, a whispered epiphany turned into a loud shout.

"The fuck!" she cried as she popped out of bed and found herself sitting upon the little mattress in her cabin home. "How? Why?"

She stumbled off the bed and looked out her window to find a chilly spring morning with frosted grass blades sparkling in the early sunlight. With her pulse racing, she crawled across her loft and gazed down at her living room. She prepared herself for a rough descent until she saw something amiss in her little home. Something that stopped her in her tracks.

"What the fuck is that?!"

"Sorry, sorry, I was in the shower!" called a muted voice, that became clearer as the bathroom door swung open. "I didn't want to cover your floor in water in my hurry to meet you before you came down."

"D-Dominic?" she gasped, her heart pounding so hard in her chest, she thought it might create new bruises on her already damaged ribs.

"Yes, I hope you don't mind me spending the past couple of days here. I just didn't want you waking up here alone, which you obviously did..."

"You're..." Dom stepped out from his spot beneath the loft so Elaina could see him from her perch above. He was soaked from a shower, his hair ruffled and wet from a quick toweling, while his thick muscles gleamed with a sheen of water. All that protected his dignity was a small towel wrapped around his waist. She cleared her throat and returned her attention to the first surprising thing that she found in her living room. "You... did you put that rug there?"

"I hope it's to your taste," he answered, scratching the back of his head as he contemplated the recent addition to her home décor. In doing so, he flexed several muscles in his body and Elaina felt her already sore limbs getting weaker. "Walt picked it out based on what he recalled of the one I bled all over."

"Walt..." she mumbled. "Is he here too?"

"No," answered Dom with a shake of his head. "It's just me and you."

"Just..." She swallowed, her throat sore from the sudden and emphatic use of her voice. "I'm coming down."

"Please be careful. Civic gave you a clean bill of health, but I know what it's like to have damaged ribs from Shitwave. That will not heal in a matter of a few days."

"How many is a few days?" asked Elaina, her whole body shaking as she attempted to lower herself down on the first rung of the ladder.

"You were out cold for a day and a half. Civic says the mental stress of what you did was going to take a long time to recover from. In fact, she thought you might slip into a coma. However, you woke up madder than a hornet after a while. While I may be chatty when stuck in a painful stupor, you are full on inferno level cranky. Given how bad your headache must have been, none of us could blame you."

As Dom explained, Elaina took slow steps down to the first floor, landing off balanced upon her tired legs. She fell backwards and though she could have caught herself before she hit the ground, that didn't stop her companion from swooping in and capturing her against his firm chest. His wet body dampened the back of her shirt, and the chill it brought caused her to shiver against him.

"Sorry," he said, brushing his stubbled cheek against her temple so his low voice would reach her ear, "I'm just a little overly protective of you now. You've given enough of yourself in my defense. It's my turn to take care of you."

"Seems our roles have switched," she replied, her voice raspy as she leaned into his firm grip. "So, does that mean this'll end with my blade at your throat this time?"

"I'm so sorry, Elaina. Now that I know you're okay and that you eventually woke up in a normal state of mind, I'll be out of your hair. Let me just get dressed and..."

She silenced his words with a kiss, her neck craning to reach his lips while her body turned to face him. With her willful engagement, Dom regained some confidence, his arms encircling her and pulling her against his chest, though he kept his grip loose enough to ensure he didn't add too much pressure to her ribs. After a few minutes of blissful ecstasy, Elaina pulled away and looked up into his blue eyes. Inside his gaze, she didn't see the same animalistic hunger that had been there before. Instead, there was a quiet patience and affection.

"We've spent a lot of time miscommunicating," she said, her voice firm, though a careless hand still took some time to trace the outline of his pectorals. "Before we make any decisions about your future, I want to clear some things up. In fact, I think we should make a contract."

"A-a contract?" he asked with a cock of his head.

"Yes, a binding agreement that we both sign so that when any more of these moments of guilt or uncertainty arise, we'll have an irrefutable document to correct the matter."

"Oh yeah," said Dom, his lips turning into a smile, "and what will be in this contract?"

"One, you will never bring up your failed assassination attempt again. It happened, you're sorry, and I've moved on. Let it die. Not to mention, I kind of tried to kill you and so we're even... I hope."

He took a deep breath, waited for her to retract her statement, and then nodded in agreement.

"I'm fine with that, but in return, I want you to agree that I love you because that's how I feel and not because of your feelings for me. I can give numerous examples to prove that point and a rather embarrassing testimony from Tudor if need be."

He watched her dark eyes as she chewed on her bottom lip. After a moment, a sheen glinted off her hopeful gaze.

"You...you love me?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh of relief, "it's okay if you don't feel that way back. I've been trying to vocalize that for a while, but I'm not great with words. That's why I stick to numbers. But, yeah, I'm crazy in love with you. I'd have to be, all things considered. Love, though, doesn't always make sense, you know? Yet, to me, this does. I'm...I'm rambling again." Still, he smiled in a way she'd never seen before. It lifted his cheeks and painted them a blushing pink. His brow raised so the skin on his forehead scrunched together, creating happy little wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. It made her realize that all the times she walked away from that waterfall, it was so she could live to see this.

"Please don't go," she said, her voice hiccupping with fear. "I don't know what your plan had been and I don't know how soon you have to get back to work or what obligations you're tied to, but please, just don't go."

She leaned against the hands on her back so she could look up at him with the full force of her pleading gaze. Her lips hung in a loose O-shape as she wrestled with herself over whether she needed to say more or if she already said too much. Her hands rested upon his shoulders, her fingers tracing his skin so she could memorize as much of his body as possible before he fled from her life.

Then he broke the silence.

"You know what one of the many benefits of being a billionaire genius is?" he asked with a playful smirk that caused Elaina to feel a flutter of hope in her chest.

"No," she said with a trembling smile. "What is one of the benefits?"

"I can do whatever the fuck I want. Including hiding away in the mountains for a few months, for a few years, or for forever if I wanted to. So long as I can find someone to house me."

"I've got a vacancy here, if you're interested," she said with an awkward half smile upon her wet lips. "You'll have to learn how to work the land to make your food, how to raise livestock like chickens and goats, how to live in the same tiny house with a powerful Gifted with only a marginal amount of control over her powers..."

"Is the Gifted an adorable, foul-mouthed woman with zero patience for anybody's shit?"

"So, I've been told."

"Great, sign me up."

And with that, they sealed the contract with a kiss that lasted through the day and ended with a view of the stars upon her roof, where the both of them wondered when it was that life became such a gift.