For a few minutes, you can forget. It doesn’t matter that a man was executed for crimes he wasn’t guilty of, and that in your mind, it could have easily been Martel. It doesn’t matter you’re both trapped in this city at the mercy of unaffected men in coats who could wipe your memories, take away everything you love, kill you on a whim. It doesn’t even matter that you’re thousands of years older than she thinks you are, that you’re not her Yuan and you can’t be anymore. For those precious few minutes, all you can think about is the fact that you’re together again, so close you can feel her heart beat.
A bird starts chattering in the tree behind you, and you remember where you are. There are better places for a moment like this than standing in the middle of the doorway. You pull away slowly, trailing over her arms before taking her hand in yours.
“We should go inside.” You speak softly but try to keep your tone light – you want to hear her laugh and agree, even point out that you’re the silly one who didn’t want to move into the house in the first place. Anything to keep up the illusion a little longer.
It was a terrible thought, but it was nice to have Yuan close, even in this circumstances. I felt like he didn’t want to spend time with her anymore, but this gave her confidence that there must be a reason for that. Martel gave him a solemn nod and a squeeze of the hand before leading him inside.
They were lucky they had the living room to themselves today. As much as she knew both of them cared about her brother, this seemed like a bad time for him to be around. Sometimes it had to be just the two of them, a lesson that hard for her to learn on their journey. Once she searched the living room, she went to the couch. He looked tired. Maybe sitting down would help.
“Yuan-” She paused, unsure of what to say. Should she ask what the thing in the video was? No, that seemed too sudden. Say he was welcome there? No, that was too sudden as well. All Martel could do was giving him a sympathetic look.













