Tags/Warnings: Mention of cancer remission/healing, sexual inexperience, canon divergence/alternate canon, dreamwalking
Written for @femslashfeb.
A gift for @nooowestayandgetcaught. Also tagging @oddsocksandstuff and @rosemoonweaver because reasons.
“Who are you?” Layla asks the fairytale-pretty redhead. This isn’t the first time she’s seen her flitting about Layla’s head, she’s been haunting Layla’s dreams for weeks. Ever since she stopped praying for a miracle and truly accepted her fate. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe, it was that—maybe it just wasn’t her purpose, maybe her life was meant to be short. And she was okay with that, she’d been coping—
“Don’t worry about that. You, though. Layla Rourke. You’re important.”
Layla’s skin prickles. Her hair stands on end. Her head feels—odd. “No more than anyone else.”
“You have work to do.” The woman invades Layla’s space, her eyes stealing Layla’s breath. Old; wise. Intense and otherworldly. “You need to live.”
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s okay.” The woman smiles. She doesn’t ask. She touches Layla with soft, gentle hands. Presses their foreheads together. It’s intimate. In a way Layla’s never experienced.
“Can I see you again?” It’s the most selfish she’s ever been and she’s not sorry. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I am here, always. Watching over you.”
Layla shivers. Pulls back the slightest bit but it’s only so she can kiss the woman’s temple. “Tell me your name. Please.”
“Anna.” The red-haired beauty entwines their fingers and warmth unfurls itself in Layla’s chest. “My name is Anna.”
“Anna,” Layla says, tasting her name. “I hope this is real. I hope you’re real.”
Anna opens her mouth to answer but they’re interrupted by Layla waking up, grinning from ear to ear.
**
“I’m better,” Layla blurts as soon as Anna appears in her dreams again. “The doctor’s say it’s as if the brain tumor was never there.”
Anna nods. “And it will stay that way.”
“You did this,” Layla says. “You healed me.”
“I did.”
Layla stares. “So. You said—you said I have work to do. What exactly does that entail?”
“Only you can know what is worth doing, Layla. I can’t decide it for you.”
“I don’t want to be without you ever again,” Layla says, reckless. She means it.
“I told you, I—”
“Yes, you’re always with me. But I don’t get to see you. I want to. I need to see you,” Layla says, gripping Anna’s shoulders. “Don’t you want to see me? Up close? We could—we could do anything.” She blushes at the significance of those words, how true they are. How bold.
“This would make you happy?” Anna asks. There are wheels turning behind those big eyes. Layla’s almost afraid of what they might see. Almost.
“It would. I can’t even begin to tell you how much.”
“Then it’s done. I’ll find the time.”
Layla thought finding out she was cancer-free would be her happiest moment, seeing the relief on her mother’s face. Oh, the celebrations they’d had that day.
But it’s not her happiest. It’s this; now. It’s knowing she’ll see Anna again. In the flesh.
**
They’re at the park near Layla’s home. Far too old to be here without children in tow but Anna has no shame. She pushes Layla on the swing and it’s all kinds of nostalgic. It reminds Layla of a simpler time. Girlhood excitement, wonder, and crushes. There had been a part of her, even then, that knew she wasn’t straight.
She’d never had a reason to act on those feelings, though.
Until now.
“You’re so gorgeous,” Layla sighs out. Maybe she’d have more tact once upon a time. But she used to be dying and now she’s not. It’s done something dangerous to her.
Anna hums. “As are you.”
“I don’t think you mean it the way I mean it,” Layla says, laughing awkwardly.
“How do you mean it?”
Layla stretches out her legs, stopping the swing. Tilts her head back slightly so she can catch Anna’s gaze. “I’m really attracted to you. I think a part of me always knew that I’m a lesbian. I never felt like saying it before. But you… make me want to scream it. I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what people might say.” She says it all way too fast. But if she didn’t do it now, she might never do it. And Anna deserves to know.
Anna drops a kiss on her forehead. As lovely as ever. “I’ve watched you for some time. I know who you are. I love you more because of it.”
Layla doesn’t know for sure what this means. She’s not even sure Anna’s human. How could she be? But Layla isn’t scared. She knows, deep down, that Anna is good. Whatever else she might be seems rather unimportant. Anna’s here for a reason. They met for a reason. It’s up to Layla to decide what to do about it.
