She almost smiled, and his thumb brushed away another tear.
"Tell me them," she begged, desperate for visions of a future to hang on to.
"Ah..." A jagged breath left his lungs, and she saw his jaw clench. "Watching the sunrise with you in my arms," he began. "Showing you the ruined village under the water—“
"And the water dragon remains?" she fantasized.
He smiled, hand hugging on her waist. "Of course, the water dragon remains," he assured her. His weight shifted over her, and he swallowed as his thumb stroked her cheek. "Really fighting with you," he continued. "To the point that you slap me and tell me off," and she almost laughed.
"Domestic fighting, that's what you're looking forward to?"
"Abso-lutely," he grinned. "I cannot wait for you to storm off and for Lex to ask me what I did to send you spiraling."
"What would the answer be?"
"My calling you spoiled after you leave clothes everywhere around the house," he said as though it were obvious. "They catered to your every whim at Magnice. That's obviously the first fight we're having."
Her chest hurt at the laugh, and she choked on a sob. "What else?" she begged to know.
"Ah... Teaching you the language," he added. "And then hearing you tell off my people with it... Fighting with you in the water again and knocking you off the rolling logs. Your knocking me off and embarrassing me in front of my entire village. Watching you try to cook and burning food we've worked an entire harvest on... Oh, this is a good one— harvesting fruits from the forest."
His eyes were lit up with that wonderment she craved, and her body began to shake at the domestic bliss he spoke of. But he settled in front of her, his hand threading behind her neck and into her hair, and she watched the smile soften.
"You know what I am most looking forward to, though?"
She knew whatever he was about to say would be her end, but she wanted to hear it.
"What's that, Commander?" she asked.
"Dancing with you at the Eyes festivals."
And once more, reality seemed to falter around her.
She was back in his arms at Magnice. Floating around that dance floor in a dream that never happened. Back in his arms on his beach, fighting in the sand, holding him in the ocean as the water lapped around them. Walking with him through the forest and riding in his boat upriver. Lying in his embrace as he kissed every inch of her. Walking with her through the villages.
All fantasies she wasn’t sure she would ever see.
"I want that too," she heard herself whisper.
His eyes glistened with hers, and he bent his head to kiss her softly. She clung to their bubble of happiness as she savored him. And when they parted, she closed her eyes, their foreheads rested together, and a tear slipped down her cheek.
Thunder rumbled, and reality crashed into her. She gripped to his shirt as desperately as she could, not wanting this moment to end. Words sat on her tongue that she begged to tell him, but she didn’t want it to feel like an end or a last.
"Nyssa, I—“
"No," she cut him off, terrified of the words she thought he might say and if they were the same ones she wanted to. "No," she said again, pulling back, her hand cupping his cheek. "Not here. Not like this. You say this is not the last I will see you, then do not say that to me."
He kissed her palm, and she wiped the tear off his face. "Okay, Princess.”
Thunder cracked again, and it physically hurt her to know she had to walk away from him.
But it was time.
Her heart dropped to her stomach at the thought.
Everything would change the next day.
“I have to go,” she whispered.
