Eventually, the younger kids started winding down, so Morgan’s family headed home, followed soon after by Sterling’s family.

I waited until a few minutes after Riven had headed off to bed – Percy was still up, talking to my parents downstairs – then cautiously knocked on his door.

Riven opened the door and let me in, now dressed in his pajamas.  “I figured you weren’t going to let me go to bed that easily,” he teased me.  “Need some more hugs or what?”

I let my wings out again and noticed the way his eyes immediately darted to them.  “You wanted to touch them, didn’t you?  I’m fine with that.”

He let out a huffing sigh.  “Sometimes it scares me that you can read me that easily, but yes.  Yes, I did.”  Without waiting any longer, he reached out and started gently gliding his fingertips over my wings.

I hadn’t been entirely sure what it would feel like to have someone touch my wings since it wasn’t a regular thing.  Having Riven touch them, though, was entirely a different experience.  I almost shivered under his gentle fingers, feeling his curiosity as he explored and the soft touch of his fingers against the magic of my wings.  It was intimate, somehow, and had it been anyone else, I probably would have pulled away, but I wanted Riven to see me more, to feel free to ask questions, to understand that I would do anything he wanted.

“That feels a little different,” I said, almost breathless.

“It feels like magic and nature,” he murmured.  “Somehow your wings make sense – like they’re made of flowers and water and magic, which sounds like fairies.”  He pulled his hands back.  “I know Sterling ruined the surprise, but since you showed me your wings – want to see the unicorn vision thing?”

I nodded eagerly.  “Please!”

Riven closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again.

I had not expected his eyes to change.  Instead of his usual beautiful gray color, his irises were now a lavender color and the pupil was pure white instead of black.

“Interesting,” he murmured softly, his eyes fixed on me, but somehow it didn’t feel like he was exactly looking at me.  “I can see things in unicorn vision, like more about magic and stuff, but I can also see people’s souls.  Yours is – yours is beautiful.”

I blushed hard, suddenly embarrassed at the idea that he could see my soul.  But…I also was kind of eager for him to do that, in a way?  To see more about me than anyone else had before?

“I can see our soulmate bond, too,” he waved his hand in the air, presumably at whatever magic he was seeing.  “Sterling and Aunt Gwen can’t see those, we’re not sure why I can, but – it’s kind of reassuring to see ours.”

Well, I guess it was a good thing we’d told him he was my soulmate before now, otherwise he’d have just found out anyway.

Riven closed his eyes and they switched back to normal when he opened them again.  “It’s not fancy like wings,” he told me almost shyly, “but that’s the unicorn vision trick.”

I suddenly decided I hadn’t had enough contact with him all evening and stepped forward to hug him tightly.  “It’s amazing, Riven.  And I’m glad you like my soul, because, you know, um, it goes with yours and all.”  I took a deep breath of his scent, for a moment just appreciating being in his arms as he hugged me back.

“Yeah,” he responded softly.  “Yeah, I – I really like it.”

I closed my eyes, for the first time in a while feeling completely content.  I had my Riven in my arms, we were together, and even if it was temporary, I was the happiest I could be.

~~~~~

I was surprised to see Riven calling me late at night in late September, several months later.  Not that I minded – as a fairy, I usually only slept about 2 hours a night anyway, so I was available whenever he wanted to call.  I was just surprised because we’d already talked earlier when my family had called to wish him happy birthday and have him open the presents we sent, and then I’d talked to him for almost two hours before his family had summoned him for their birthday celebration.

So I wasn’t expecting to talk to him again today, but I definitely didn’t mind.

“Riven?”  I accepted the call and put the phone up to my ear.  “Is everything okay?  How did the party go?”  It wasn’t a “party” party with his school friends and all, just his relatives and Morgan’s family.

“He got me a car.”  Riven sounded almost mad.  “Dad bought me a car for my birthday.”

“Okay.”  I tried to figure out why that would upset him.  “You’re 16 now so you can drive it, right?  Or do they have different license requirements there?”

He groaned in frustration.  “No, of course you don’t get it – all you rich people think it’s fine to buy ridiculously expensive gifts.  A car?  He could have just gotten me – I don’t know, a bicycle?  That would make more sense.  It’d be reasonable.  How am I supposed to be okay with getting a car for my birthday?!”

I tried to bite back a smile.  Poor sweet Riven still wasn’t used to the idea of people wanting to spoil him and spend money on him.  Honestly, he’d admitted to me that he felt fortunate enough to just have three regular meals a day, clothes that weren’t used, and family that cared about him – to him, stuff like cars was extreme.

“Riven, you’re kind of one of those ‘rich people’ too now, you know?  Your dad is pretty wealthy.”

“That’s Dad, that’s not me!”  He almost growled in annoyance.  “You know I’ve been thinking about getting a job to try to save for college and Dad says he doesn’t want me to, he wants me to just focus on my studies and ‘enjoying myself,’ as he says.  I think he’s planning to pay for college, not to mention that credit card he gave me with an insanely high spending balance that he said I could use for whatever I wanted,” not that he’d touched it, I knew, “and I don’t – I don’t know what to do about all this!”

My smile disappeared.  Riven actually was sounding almost panicked.  “Riven, please don’t worry so much.  My parents like to put it this way – they see their money as a way to help their friends and family when they need it.  It’s a tool, something that allows them to help.  Your dad isn’t trying to buy your affection or anything, but he wants to show you how much he cares, and I think he feels bad about all those years you didn’t have anything with your mom and is trying to make up for it, if you will – to show you what it’s like when you’re with people who care about you and want to take care of you.  It’s normal to want to help the ones you love and give them things that will make them happy.  That’s all he’s trying to do.  And it’s not like buying you a car or paying for your college is going to strain him financially.  He can afford it, his business makes him a lot of money, so just – just let him show you he loves you, okay?  That’s all he’s trying to do.”

Riven was quiet for a bit, then let out a heavy sigh.  “You’re probably right, but it still feels like too much.  But I’d feel bad turning it down, too – it was clear he was nervous about my response and wanted me to like it.  Bother!  Why can’t things just be simple?  Or better yet, why do we have to celebrate my birthday anyway?”  He grumbled.

I was pretty sure Riven had never had a chance to celebrate his birthday before and he was probably embarrassed with the attention, which I kind of thought was sweet.  “Because we all love you,” I told him firmly.  “Me, my family, your dad, your aunt and her family, Morgan and their family – we all think you’re great and we want to spoil you.  Don’t be so stubborn about letting us.”

He laughed, making me feel a little relieved that he was feeling better.  “So now it’s selfish to not want people to give me stuff?”  He teased.

“Yep, very.”  I smiled broadly.  I loved it when he felt relaxed enough to tease me – it told me he felt comfortable with my reactions and trusted me to not respond poorly.  I’d noticed he didn’t tease everyone else yet, and I liked feeling special.

“Well,” he murmured, “the only present I really didn’t mind was the one from my boyfriend.  That one – that one was sweet.”

I felt a pang in my heart.  Riven hadn’t mentioned anything about a boyfriend when I was there visiting, leading me to think it was just an excuse, but now he’d mentioned it several times since, and I still felt no closer to answers.

I wasn’t sure I could take it anymore and found the question pouring from my mouth before I could stop it.  “Are you really dating someone, Riven?  Is your boyfriend real?”

There was a pause, then, to my surprise and a bit of humiliation, he started laughing.

“It took you forever to ask that!”  He gasped, still laughing.  “I expected you to ask months ago and you just kept ignoring it!”

I felt a little insulted by his amusement.  “I didn’t – I wasn’t sure – I didn’t know if I should ask!  I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer!”

His laughed stopped abruptly.  “Ren,” he said in a surprisingly tender voice, “yes, he is real, we just…haven’t exactly made our relationship official.  He kind of kissed me out of the blue, stole my first kiss, and then never said a word about it after that, and I’ve been waiting for him to ask me.”

Wait, that sounded an awful lot like…me.

“Ren?”  He asked after a long pause.  “You still there?”

My heart in my throat, I suddenly needed to see him and I pressed the button to switch to video call, hoping he’d accept.

He did, and the moment I saw his beautiful face I could see he looked a little nervous.

Suddenly I got it.  All these months, Riven had been trying to figure out how I felt about him, trying to prod me into saying something by mentioning a boyfriend.  Did that mean I’d been the mysterious boyfriend I was jealous of?  I’d been jealous of myself?  And – did that mean if I’d asked when he’d first said something, that we could have been official all this time?  And I could have actually kissed him again when we’d visited?

Now I was kind of annoyed with myself.

“Riven,” I told him, my eyes fixed on his tentative gray ones, “I really, really love you.  Not just platonically, I think – I think I’ve had feelings for you for a long time and just didn’t realize it initially.  I shouldn’t have kissed you back then without getting your permission first,” I’d gotten a whole lecture from my parents after we’d gotten home about getting consent first, and I’d thought about apologizing but was afraid to at the same time, “and I am sorry about that part, but, um, I really would like to kiss you again with your permission sometime.  And all the time.  Forever.  Um, I mean, I would like – if you’re willing to – I would really like to officially be your boyfriend.”

Riven had slowly started smiling during my muddled speech and now he was almost glowing – I actually was, thanks to fairy magic – his eyes looking happy.  “Ren, I love you, too, and you don’t need to apologize for the kiss – I liked it, it just surprised me, and then you didn’t say anything afterwards so I wasn’t sure what it meant.”

I blushed a little but forced myself not to look away.  “It meant I wanted to make sure I kissed you at least once because – even though I didn’t realize I was falling in love with you yet – I just, um, needed to kiss you?”

He laughed lightly, his face all happy now.  “I kind of wish we’d talked about this before,” he admitted.  “I was thinking about that the entire time you were here, wondering if you’d kiss me again, but then you just went home with no more kisses.”

I blushed again.  “I’m sorry, I’ll definitely make up for it next time – I mean, if you’re agreeing?”

“Yeah.”  He now blushed a little, too.  “I’m definitely agreeing with being your boyfriend, so just make sure everyone knows you’re taken, okay?  You’re probably going to get a growth spurt soon and turn into this super hot guy and I don’t care, I have dibs first, so even if other people flirt with you, remember you’re mine now, okay?”

I was delighted with the idea of him being jealous over me.  “I’ll remember!  I’ll tell everyone I have a gorgeous boyfriend who loves me very much and who I adore, okay?”

He laughed, looking embarrassed, but his eyes were happy.  “That – works for me.”

“You too,” I warned him.  “You’re beautiful and you said people have flirted with you already, so make sure they know you’re taken, okay?  I know we’re kind of stuck with a long-distance relationship for now but I promise I’ll try to be the best long-distance boyfriend I can be and you won’t regret dating me.”

He gave me a soft, gentle smile.  “I could never regret being with you, Ren.”

I blew him a kiss, reluctantly ending the call soon after since he looked tired, then laid back on my bed, a huge smile on my face.

Riven and I were dating.  I was officially his boyfriend.

I was pretty sure I’d just hit the lottery.