Italicized is a flashback

*Play Song*

"Aphmau..." Katelyn manages out, embracing her best friend with such intensity, even the girl who defied death was showing signs of no air.  

The group was taking their turns with their heartfelt reunions, but they were sadly hurried as the reunions transpired in the Caravan in The Tundra. They were journeying to hinder a train shipment of Eridium, which Jack was going to use to try and raise the Warrior, a horrid, powerful creature, from the second Vault. Unsurprisingly, the Eridium cargo isn't the group's single target, as there is something even more valuable aboard the convoy.

All Aaron could do was look at her, marvel at her very actuality. Her movements, her words, and her smile. Good god, nothing in the cosmos could ever amount to her smile.

"Hey guys, could I have a moment alone with Aph?" Aaron asks, everyone obliging as they filed out of the room to other sections of the immense caravan.

Aphmau envelopes her robotic and natural arm, like a pretzel of metal and meat. The deafening stillness lasting several seconds before Aaron starts.

Aaron was leaning against the edge of the medial conference table, his arms also folded.

"I want to know...what happened after the...explosion." Aaron says, eyeing Aphmau mindfully, memories of them subtly overwhelming his judgment.

Aphmau drops her head, studying her feet as she inched closer to the man who was a good foot taller than her.

Aaron behaves as he used to, knowing whenever she averts her gaze to redirect it back to him by hooking her chin with his fingertips, holding her gaze.

"I missed you Aph. God, I missed you so much just the act of breathing ached." Aaron reminisces, reliving the times of eternal mental anguish which he had to undergo.

"I know. I missed you too---" Aphmau starts, before getting caught off-guard by Aaron's unforeseen harsh tone.

"Do you know...Aph?"

Aphmau just furrows her brows in dismay at the man, Aaron freeing her chin to step away from her to the other side of the table.

He rest his knuckles against the table, staring at the table's rustic facade. "You never looked for me. I mean, the accident happened months ago—"

"Aaron—" Aphmau risks again, but Aaron doesn't yield.

"I was left to mourn you, Aph..." Aaron asserts fiercely, letting out his past pain. "It was an uphill battle just to get through the day."

"...."

"The pain of losing you was so bad I nearly handed myself over to the damn marauders!"

"I was healing okay!" Aphmau ultimately yells back, also letting out bottled rage. Aaron then goes mute, his grimace still exhibiting anger, however now with a trace of understanding.

"I lost my arm, Aaron. When I woke up, yes, I felt the physical pain, but the mental and the emotional." Aphmau utters, veiled tears outlining her cheeks. Aaron's angry gaze softens at his lover's broken words. "I thought I failed all of you...you remember what happened that day."

"Like it was yesterday."

"You finished it yesterday? SERIOUSLY?!" Aphmau screams over the vibration of the high-speed wind on the vault hunter jeep, which is the other mode of transit besides the caravan, going full speed, buckling her harness with the draft in her brunette locks.

"I fancy milk chocolate too, you know?" Aaron also yells over the racing wind, adhering onto the frame of the vehicle as they bumped quickly across the hilly terrain of The Dust.

"Not even an apology...tsk tsk Lycan." Aphmau scolds, as the jeep gained on the Bandit Technical ahead, which held the Eridium orb, one of three of the orbs necessitated to defeat Jack and prevent him from resurrecting the Warrior.

"How do you expect to get lucky with an attitude like that?" Aphmau jokes, equipping herself for the transfer before getting swept off her feet with a fervent locking of the lips.

"Um hello love birds, kinda have a time-sensitive mission going on," Garroth shouts from the wheel, the couple smirking through the ludicrous kiss.

"See you around, Lycan." Aphmau whispers in his ear as she slams down on a button on a nearby console, propelling a bolt to soar in the direction of the Bandit Technical, imprinting itself in the bumper, securing a landmark. A few seconds later, Aphmau follows suit, kissing a certain object which dangled from her neck, launching out of Aaron's arms to be uprooted towards the enemy carrier.

Aaron watches from afar as Aphmau whips through the air, her hair and special necklace flapping behind her as she approaches the landmark. He sees as she shoots two of the marauders, both tumbling out the side of the vehicle to the sandy terrain below.

"That's my girl!" Aaron bellows, observing with a miraculous smile the woman go back and forth with the driver, finally using the butt of her gun to knock the marauder's temple strategically, dazing him as she took this opportunity to lodge a bullet in his noggin.

She then saunters over to a sack in the passenger seat, tossing up the orb with satisfaction, thrusting it in the air in hand while howling back to the jeep.

Aaron's cheering is then horrifically disturbed, as an enemy buzzard zooms through the air from behind the Jeep, shooting a fatal missile at the Bandit Technical, the vehicle disappearing in a volcano-like mass of flames. The unspeakable sight reflecting too realistically in Aaron's eyes as shock takes over him.

Pieces of debris disperse from the wreckage, all still aflame.

Garroth brings the Jeep to a startling halt, his shock shifting to instantaneous sadness as he collapses out the side of the open vehicle, on his hands and knees as he cries out his friend's name.

Aaron stumbles out as well, only able to hobble over to the blazing husk of the rival car. He shivers in complete shock, a roaring in his ears, yet silence. So much silence—empty. 

It seemed like he would never stop, just perpetually wandering The Dust alone, but Aaron came to a halt as he found something at his feet.

He does too, fall to his knees, hyperventilating as his eyes focused on the piece of silver in his hands. This is where he loses himself, grasping the object of sentimental value in his fingers as he shouted up the heavens, the flames perishing around him. Along with his sense of happiness.

Gunshots still reign around him from the Buzzards, knowing he had to move.

But nothing could get him to, clutching desperately in his hands the necklace which Aphmau kissed before departing, and wore around her neck, near her heart.

Aaron lets a tear leak as he retrieves the exact same necklace from a pocket in his cargo pants, suspending it between him and the woman which he gave it to all those years ago.

Aphmau exhales sharply at the sight of it, biting her lower lip as she scrutinizes the familiar object in great detail.

Aphmau's cheeks then mirror Aaron's tears, as he reveals the exact same piece of jewelry from beneath the neckband of his shirt, holding one in each hand.

"Do you...even remember that night?"

"How could you—Of course I do!" Aphmau cries out, sniffling. "The real question is...do you really think so little of me that I wouldn't?"

"I don't know, Aph. I honestly haven't the slightest clue." Aaron sighs, dodging around to look away from her, casting the invaluable design of silver onto the conference table carelessly. His expression was cold, but there was palpable melancholy to it. "I don't even know if you are the same person I fell in love with...."

"I love you...Aphmau Shu Phoenix." Aaron says brightly, joy coursing through his veins and smile as he finishes up reading his vows out under the fractured arch of the humble church in Sanctuary.

His hands were intertwined with Aphmau's, her warm smile also beaming at her husband-to-be, wearing a modest, angelic dress of pure, clean white which was rare to come by in such dire times. 

Aaron continues: "I never thought...that in such a desolate place that is this planet, that there would be someone...as good...as kind, as amazingly outstanding...as you."

Aphmau's heart glows so warmly at her love's words, barely managing out her own cause of it."I love you too, Aaron Lycan...so much."

"Rings?" The dubious, but willing priest asks of the churchgoers. Aaron just shakes his head, his earnest gaze never straying from Aphmau.

"Wait—please, may we use these, minister?" Aaron requests politely, holding up the two necklaces, each a half of the yin and yang, which could connect, showing that when together, the good and bad parts of each other were balanced and fueled their eternal love. Also a remembrance of how they met.

The minister merely shrugs, saying something resembling the word "whatevs...." before continuing the ceremony. Both Aaron and Aphmau adorning the other's neck with the sentimental jewelry, their lips subsequently colliding passionately.

The church, consisting of their vault hunter companions, erupts in delight and joy, welcoming to the world, the newly married couple.

"Well," Aphmau says, tracing the surface of her metal appendage, trying her best to stifle her cries. "I am the same person I was before I disappeared, and from all those years ago...the person who gave you that necklace, and I'm not. How could you ask that of me?" Aphmau shakes her head softly. "I went through so much, Aaron. So, so much. You don't come out of what I went through the same, there's no way. You shouldn't, but I am still me, Aaron. And when you can finally stop blaming and judging me for a moment, when you are able to take a step back..." Aphmau shuffles out of the room, turning around one last time in the doorway, the suffering so unmistakable in her eyes that it made Aaron nearly wince.

"You let me know."

A long chapter for you, crystals, cuz I love ya guys! <3

Have a nice day my crystals!