“It smells very strong.”

Scott laughed a bit as he led Mitch into his studio. “It’s paint thinner, sorry about that.” He stood back as Mitch had headed off towards one of the drying racks.

“You did this?” 

“Mmhmm. Care to explain? Because I would love to know just how the hell I suddenly gained the ability to paint.”

“I...” He tried to think, but he was just so distracted. These paintings…  they were all so sad. Even something as ambiguous as a landscape had the feeling of loneliness, emptiness. But these were no ordinary scenes and it took him a few to realize that these were images of his own world. This was his home in stunning detail. “How did you do this? How did you ... This is Illyria.”

Scott shook his head. “I don’t know. I was hoping you could tell me.” He motioned him towards another rack and the fae froze as he came to the same painting that Kirstie had commented on days before. 

“This is me.” 

“Do you understand now? You left me, you blocked my memories of you but I still knew, I still felt you. I lived with a loss I couldn’t explain for years, Mitch. But you…   you are a part of me. Don’t you see that?”

“I do not understand. I do not know how you were able to do this.”

“I dreamt it. I dreamed of you practically every night.  I have sketchbooks full of your face… your eyes... “ He reached out to slide his thumb over that rosy bottom lip that drove him absolutely crazy… “..your lips.”

Mitch smiled and lifted to his toes in order to bring their mouths together, letting himself enjoy what was offered to him while he still could.

Scott grinned, giving him one last peck before pulling away.  “This could be us, y’know. We could be this way all the time…   happy, together… in love.” 

Mitch’s eyes turned sad again. 

“I know it would be hard, and I don’t want you to have to leave your world, but we could figure it out. Maybe I could stay there with you... find a place in the woods where we could just… be and not worry about your father. I don’t think I can live without you again. I could visit my parents through the veil from time to time.”

Mitch turned his head away. It was too complicated, too difficult. He wasn’t sure what he wanted. His eyes spotted a blank canvas sitting there already on an easel. He walked close and reached out to touch it.

“Go ahead.” Scott motioned towards the multitude of brushes and paints, palettes and tools on one of the nearby islands. 

He looked at him with wide, golden eyes, not exactly sure what he should be doing.

Scott understood and moved forward to lay out a few colors onto a large palette. He was just about to reach for a brush, but Mitch’s hand was quicker.

The fae slowly slid a green arch across the front of the canvas before sliding it backwards again. His hand moved in a slow swirl of color as he wiped clean and alternated colors.

Scott slid his arms around him from behind, watching silently as he worked. He kissed at the back of his neck…lips moving around to the side. He had no idea what was happening there, the colors overlapping, a steady hand keeping them from becoming muddy. He felt Mitch lean back into him, and he nipped at the back of his ear.

As Mitch’s hand went towards the canvas again the fae let it hang there in mid air. 

Scott waited a moment, and after a bit more hesitation he slid his hand down and over the other’s. He buried his face in that elegant neck again, as he led their hands back to the canvas and together they created a shining silver stripe across the middle. He felt him pressing back into him, a whispered sound as teeth scraped against his skin. The brush moved, led alternately by each of them, but it didn’t really matter what was happening there on the now colorful canvas.

Mitch felt like he was glowing. He could feel the warmth from Scott’s body and wanted it to surround him. He inhaled sharply as a large hand slid out across his stomach and he let his head completely fall back against him and to the side, giving the mouth that was already making knees tremble more access to sensitive skin. He felt warm and excited, happy…   his heart was so full of Scott he had to release the brush suddenly and hold tight to him for fear of falling. He should have realized he had nothing to fear as Scott turned him around, holding him as close as their physical bodies would allow.

Time seemed to stand still and it wasn’t long before he was covered in paint, exposed on cold granite... all for the man he loved as he slowly drew whispered words and strings of foreign speech that not even magic could translate.

~

“So you’re telling me dwarves are bad guys?”

“You do not listen. All that I have encountered are malicious, yes.” 

He tried to keep up with her as they moved through the forest. “Ok, so you’re not elves right? You’re fairies...? Or something in between?” 

She stopped then and gave him a look, head tilted as she stared him straight in the eyes. “Your memory is short. It is tedious.”

He burst out laughing and her eyebrows shot up in surprise, eyes flashing through a multitude of colors before settling on chartreuse.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be … tedious.” He grinned, trying to hold in his laughter.

“Come. We are close.” She turned and headed off, leaving Avi and his giggles to try and keep up.

“Are wizards real? Or hobbits?”

“What is hobbits?”

“What ARE hobbits. Plural. They’re little short people with hairy feet.”

“I have never seen human feet. Fae do not have hairy feet. The moss trolls may be hobbits, but they only live in very dark places, and I have never asked to see their feet. Are hairy feet important to you?” 

“No.” He smiled, adjusting the backpack on his shoulder. “Just asking.”

She stopped suddenly and held up a hand for him to stop as well. "Wait here.”

He busied himself looking at the foliage around him. It was so familiar and yet also confusing. Some things looked the same as they did in his world, but the smells, the colors… it was different. He reached out to touch a purple flower that had a pulsing glow emitting from the closed bud. The moment he made contact the petals began to unfold and he retracted his hand as he stared.  The petals folded in, closing tightly around the ball of light once again. 

“You should not touch. The wisps are not ready to be woken.”

He swallowed a bit. “Sorry.”

She laughed and held out her hand for his.

He chewed on his lip as he took her cold hand in his own and followed through the thick curtain of leaves. He knew his eyes were wide, mouth forming an actual O as he gazed around the stone cavern that was lit by the luminescent flowers, but more from the bright light coming from somewhere beneath the water of a vast lake.  It was beautiful. He only realized he was holding his breath when his lungs began to send out a tingle of protest.

He looked over at Oryn, the purple, pink and green flowers creating a glow on her flawless skin, the movement of the water reflecting a dance of light on her lavender hair and again he felt his chest tighten, eyes unable to look away.

She gazed at him with a soft smile.  “I come here sometimes when I wish to be alone with my thoughts.”

He smiled. “It’s really beautiful. Stunning actually.”

“Come, sit. The elementals will be waking soon, I do not want you to miss it.”

She tugged at his hand again and he followed her to a rock outcropping in the cave wall.

“How in the world did I not see this mountain from the forest?”

“You must not have been looking.”

She moved with a grace he’d only seen in CGI and he could barely keep up with the quick movements, but she was considerate and made sure to pause to wait for him. They sat next to each other, watching creatures come and go, Oryn answering the barrage of questions the curious boy threw at her. When she laughed it bounced off of the stony walls and he knew he wanted to do everything he could to hear it again.

“Oryn, can I take your picture?”

She looked at him with that confused look he was beginning to know quite well.

“My phone.  It’s … technology. So I can remember you.”

She nodded in half understanding. “Your memory is short. I do remember.”

He smiled and pulled out his phone, hoping the lighting would be enough. “Woah…” He stared at the screen of his iPhone and then back to Oryn and back to the screen again. There was a mist of sparkling blue around her every time he tried to take a picture. It was interesting, beautiful, so he took them just like that … even when they hid many of the features of her beautiful face. He’d take all he could get.

“Is that magic?” She leaned in to see.

“No. It’s a communication device.”

“Like a translator?”

He laughed. “No. So you can talk to someone who is far away. If we were all in my world we could call Scott and talk to him wherever he is… well if he has reception.”

“And it paints portraits to save?”

“Sort of. You can also listen to music …” He chose Andare by Ludovico Einaudi and the look on her face caused a smile that nearly split his face.

She kept blinking, eyes wide, looking back and forth from the device to him and back again. Her ears twitched just barely and she leaned in closer to it before looking back at him again with a smile. “It is beautiful.”

He spent a few more minutes showing her his phone, but the battery was diminishing quickly.

“Hold on.”

She grabbed his arm and it took him a microsecond to work out why.

“Oh. Um, not literally hold on. Sometimes when we say hold on it means wait a moment.”

She let out a sigh and released his arm.

He quickly pulled his backpack over and took out his iPad, careful not to disturb the items he’d taken from Scott’s house.  “This is a tablet. You can play games on here or watch movies, which is what we’re about to do.”

“Movies?”

“Um… moving pictures? Like a story with visual.”

“For a being with no magic, you certainly seem to have much of it.”

He navigated to the video section with a grin and a shake of his head. “I am about to take you on the greatest adventure there ever was.” He smiled as the opening credits to the Fellowship of the Ring began and she leaned closer to see, eyes wide with amazement.

He couldn’t help himself when he shifted, scooting just a bit closer to her, their arms pressed against one another. She was too into the movie to even notice. He found himself watching her reactions instead of the movie. When she would ask questions he was patient just as she had been, but found it amusing that she whispered quietly as if not to disturb those in the movie.

“Is he your kin? You look much alike.” She looked up into his eyes after pointing at Strider.

He laughed. "That is the most amazing compliment I have ever received, 100%. Thank you.”

She didn’t understand and it was obvious, but she just accepted it as another of his quirks and just gave him a nod. “You are very welcome.” Her eyes suddenly darted to the water. “It is starting.”

He pressed pause on the screen while Oryn was distracted. He didn’t notice anything at first but then the light beneath the still water began to stir, shifting and reshaping. The water began to ripple and swirl, and what had appeared to be one giant light source began to split into many as they moved closer to the surface. It was like a lightning storm as they broke the surface, hundreds of yellow specks of light moving so quickly that they left streaks in the air. Their light was so bright he had to squint, but soon they were dispersing, leaving through cracks and openings in the rocks.

He felt a hand on his and looked down to see the elegant hand laying over his own which looked huge and filthy by comparison.

“Look, Avriel.” She whispered as she pointed to the flowers that were beginning to unfurl. It was only when the colorful wisps of light had begun to take flight that he realized that the flowers were actually white.

It also didn’t take him long to realize that they would soon be left in the dark as the strange beings began to exit. A few lagged behind, flying around the two of the them… tugging gently at hair and nibbling at ears. 

They giggled as they watched and soon there were only a couple left and the cavern was nearly too dark to see the fae sitting next to him.

He opened his mouth to state the obvious, but the hand that wasn’t resting on his lifted and blue stars began to form along the walls, lighting the cavern just for them.

He looked over at the beautiful girl next to him. “You are incredible.”

She turned away shyly but only for a moment and she looked back at him with a smile. “You are kind.”

He wanted to kiss her, even when he knew it was foolish and impulsive. He felt like a magnet was drawing him in, but he managed to restrain himself.

“They went away. Are they alright?”

It took him a moment to realize she was referring to the ipad and the figures on the screen. He quickly turned it back on and resumed the movie. 

This had to be the most romantic first non-date he’d ever been on, and regardless of the fact that he knew he had to leave her in a couple of hours, he knew he’d never be able to forget her. 

When she let out a gasp, burying her face into his shoulder due to a particular scene, he pulled the ‘movie move’ and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, rubbing it gently.

He hoped if he ever really fell in love that it made him feel like this… nervous, happy, excited, protective, intrigued… so many emotions at the same time crowding his chest.

“Will he be alright?” Her quiet, worried voice asked, her cheek propped on his shoulder now so she could watch but be ready to hide again if need be.

He smiled and squeezed her just a bit closer. “He’ll be ok…”  He just hoped he himself would be when he had to leave all of this behind.