“It’s weird to have someone break into my place every day to make me breakfast,” Riven muttered as he sat at the dining room table.

“I’m not breaking in,” I pointed out.  “I have a key.”

“You also never got permission to do this, you know?  Yet you’ve been doing it almost every day for months now.”

I flashed him a smile.  “And you complain but you never tell me to stop, so…yeah, I’m going to keep doing it.”

He gave me a soft smile as he watched me put the omelets on plates.  “I can’t exactly tell you to stop when I enjoy seeing you every morning.  It’s a nice feeling.”

“Same, babe, same.”  I beamed at him, returning his smile with interest.  Then I swallowed, a little nervously.  “I actually have something to show you.”  I pulled a folded up letter out of my pocket and placed it next to his plate as I set it down.  I waited anxiously as he curiously opened the letter and read it, his eyes starting to widen.

“Ren!  You won a photography contest?”

“My parents encouraged me to enter, so I did,” I explained, “but I wanted you to be the first to find out I won since you were the first person who saw my talent and believed in me.”

He jumped up and gave me a long kiss that tasted like apple juice and love.  “I’m so proud of you!”  He exclaimed.  “You’re amazing – didn’t I tell you?  And you don’t even need magic for that!  You have a different kind of magic, a photographer’s eye, and that is magic all on its own.”  He still hadn’t let me go, his bright smile making my heart thump faster.

I rested my hands on his waist, feeling my face turn red at his words.  “Thanks – thank you, really.  It means a lot that you’re proud of me.”

“Always.”  He leaned into another kiss, longer this time, more intense, leaving us both gasping when he pulled back.

“Oh, uh, I guess we should stop,” I murmured breathlessly.

“Really?”  He seemed disappointed.  “I guess so, then.”

But when he went to pull out of my arms, I didn’t let him, searching his face intently.  “You – want to continue?”

Riven bit his lower lip, a slight blush on his face.  “Well, yes, don’t you?”

“’Course I do, but I don’t want to seem like a horny teenager and push you into stuff you’re not ready for.”

Riven laughed lightly, running his hands through my hair.  “Ren, love, we’ve been dating for more than three years now, and I think we’re both of the opinion we’re permanent, right?  Pretty sure being interested in each other physically is normal for a relationship like ours.  Pretty sure we’re allowed to be interested in sleeping together, and who said I’m not ready?”

I leaned in to kiss him again, this time letting my desire spill through.  “You’re sure?”  I whispered when I broke the kiss.

“I am.  Are you?”  He whispered back, his gray eyes locked on mine.

“Yes, yes, very sure.”

He laughed when I immediately grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up the stairs, eager to take this next step in our relationship now that I had his permission.

Apparently, breaking in to make him breakfast had unexpected consequences that I was 100% on board with.

~~~~~

Riven was sleeping contentedly in my arms while I just basked in happiness and slowly let myself sink into the joy of observing him.  Feeling his smooth, bare skin, running my hands over his body, kissing us both into oblivion, feeling the way his fingers and lips felt on my own skin – I would never get over being able to sleep with him.  I felt so insanely happy I wasn’t sure I could contain myself.  I mean, no, actually, I was kind of glowing right now, which was a fairy thing, but I still didn’t usually glow this much so yeah…I was still floating in ecstasy and didn’t know if I’d ever come down.

Actually…wait a moment, I was glowing too much.  I frowned suddenly, concerned at the amount of light I was putting off.  This wasn’t normal.  I focused on it, trying to pull it back, when instead I felt something building inside, pounding against my head.

I knew this feeling, but it had been a while since it had happened.  I was 17 now, I hadn’t really expected it to happen again, to be honest – despite all the talk about me being a late bloomer and my magic just being delayed.

But I was definitely getting magic again.

I shook Riven awake, not really thinking this through except I wanted him to know what was going on.

“Riven!  Babe, wake up!  I’m – I’m getting magic again!”

He’d started out sleepy but woke all the way up at my words, sitting upright and staring at me in wonder.  “You’re glowing.  You’ve got all this magic just floating everywhere around you!”

He could see magic, it would look different for him, but I could feel my own magic as it started to pulse and stretch.

Instinctively, I let out my wings, then felt a shudder go through my body as the magic settled into place, every nerve tingling, every muscle suddenly feeling alert and ready, like they wanted to take my new magic out for a test drive.

I looked back up at Riven to see that he’d switched to unicorn vision and seemed fascinated by whatever he was seeing in me, so as long as he was happy, right?

I held my hands out, palms up, and just let the magic flow through me, feeling it settle into place as I started to use the new magic for the first time.

“It’s beautiful,” Riven murmured, “all that gold magic – you’re practically glimmering in it.  You’re beautiful.”

I blushed, but still kept the magic moving, knowing it was helpful to do so right after a magic increase.  “I wish I could see through your eyes sometime – I’d like to know what all this looks like.”

“Hmm.”  He sat back, smiling at me, his normal gray eyes in place again.  “I see a hot young fairy with sparkling teal blue eyes, beautiful auburn hair, a nice body – those visits to the gym have paid off – and he’s amazingly kind and caring, and he has a magical artist’s eye for photographs.  And right now he’s got all this golden magic swirling around him like a beautiful light show, sparkling and dazzling just for me.”  He leaned forward, placing his hands in my open ones, and then leaned forward even more so he could kiss me.  A gentle kiss so full of love and adoration it almost left me more breathless than the steamy ones from earlier.

“Riven.”  I grabbed him when he started to pull away and pressed him back against me, resting my head on his shoulder and breathing in deeply.  “You – thank you.”  I couldn’t begin to describe how his words affected me.  Made me fall even more in love with him?  That was one thing.  Made me feel like I couldn’t breathe without him in my arms?  That, too.  “I love you so much,” I murmured.  “I can’t wait until we can get married and just be together all the time.”

“Are we waiting for something specific for that?”  He slid his arms up my back, lightly caressing the base of my wings, which were still out.

“Mmm, my graduation, apparently.  Dad and Mom think I should at least graduate before I get engaged.”  I sighed deeply.  That was more than a year off, and somehow that felt like way too long.

“Ah.  Well…in the grand scheme of things, what’s another year?”  Riven reached up to gently stroke my hair, making my eyes close in satisfaction.  “It’s not that big of a deal, and I can understand why they’d want you to wait.  Even if we both know it’s going to happen, and so do our families, humans would probably think it was weird, so…yeah, waiting makes sense.”

I sighed again.  Right.  Supernaturals might understand that finding your soulmate and knowing they were forever meant there wasn’t as much of a reason to wait, but humans…humans usually found it weird to get married in high school.

“I love you, Ren,” he whispered softly in my ear.  “I can wait as long as we need.”

I hugged him tightly, then sighed a little more contentedly.  He was right, I still had him and just because we were waiting for me to graduate didn’t change anything.

We could afford to wait a year.  We’d be okay.