Every Day After

Rius leads me back through the forest, Minor at our sides, ever alert despite the darkness. Stopping outside the shop’s back door, Rius bids me goodnight before leaving. Inhaling, I push open the door. Oria is sitting at the table, her head in her hands. Gods, I shouldn’t have left like that.

“Oria?” I ask gently, placing my hand on her shoulder. She immediately looks up at me, her eyes rimmed with red. Cupping her cheek, I wipe the tears away. Oria leans into my touch, her eyes closing. She looks exhausted. Sitting on the chair next to her, I take her hand in mine, pressing kisses to her palm. 

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?” I massage Oria’s hand, waiting for her to look at me. When she finally does, her expression cracks and she tips forwards, her head landing on my shoulder as her arms hold me tightly.

“I can’t lose you, Temi,” she whispers, her breathing uneven. Stroking through her hair, I swallow thickly. 

“I’m not going anywhere, Oria. I meant it when I said I’d stay here with you forever,” I reassure her, except she doesn’t seem consoled at all.

“How long is forever though? What if one day-“ her breath hitches and her hand twists in my shirt. “What if one day you do that other part of your plan and you leave me all alone?”

What other part of my plan? There’s wasn’t another part of my plan, it was always just kill my father and then- oh.

“I wouldn’t do that to you, I promise,” I take Oria by the shoulders, pushing her back to look me in the eyes. “I originally planned to take my own life after my father’s because revenge was the only thing keeping me going, but after spending even just a little time with you, I knew I didn’t have to die anymore. I had something else making me get up each morning, something nice.”

Oria takes my hand from my shoulder and kisses it, her eyes still sad. “I’m worried that if we have a fight one day, you’ll consider it.”

I shake my head quickly. “I can’t promise that I’ll never think about it, since it has sort of…been a prevalent thought in my head for many years. But I can promise that I won’t act on it in any way. If I’m upset, I’ll go on a walk and shoot arrows into a tree until I feel better, alright? Like I did today? It worked quite well,” I smile, stroking her cheek. Oria nods, kissing my hand again.

“I just want to move on from everything horrible in the past. I want to focus on running my shop and foraging for herbs and hunting with the dogs. And you. I want to focus on making you happy, and I want a simple, peaceful life,” she smiles, tipping to rest her forehead against mine.

“I want that too, I really do. My shitty family has taken up enough of our lives already, but they’re ancient history now,” I agree.

Oria sighs, then presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Thank you. For avenging me. For thinking about me, for so many years. For coming back to me.”

I smile, running my fingers through my apothecary’s soft hair. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

Building a relationship when there is so much history between you, but over a decade and a half of missed time in the middle, is hard. But we both want this, and we keep trying no matter how many times we fall. We tell each other the little things, the likes and dislikes which have changed, grown or evolved since we were children. Oria tells me about the people in her life now; Rius, his mother and lover, a few assorted people from the town…I don’t have anyone to tell her about, but I mention a few kinds souls I met over the years. People who offered help for nothing in return, people who showed me support and warmth, that sort of thing. It isn’t long before all of the town knows of my existence, and Oria is honest when she tells people that I am her first love, reunited after all this time. They think it’s the perfect love story - how even time couldn’t keep us apart. Only Oria and I, as well as Rius, know that there were a lot of steps in between parting and meeting again.

But we don’t focus on that. We focus on now, on each other, on our shop and our dogs and the little pocket of peace in the woods that we have crafted together, for each other. Our little safe haven. 

I find it difficult, leaving my past in the past. For so long, I have never even considered the possibility of a peaceful future. Until l met my apothecary, and found myself craving that peace, that warmth and bliss. My mind automatically strays to my mother, out there somewhere, grieving my absence, and my sister, being an evil little shit I’m sure. And at night, I still occasionally wake up after hearing Oria’s screams, only to find her perfectly asleep, comfortable curled against my body. It’s like my mind doesn’t understand that she is alive now. That she was always alive. But we’re both safe now, and if it takes my brain a little time to understand that, then so be it. I just have to let myself adjust, however long that may take.

Eventually, I start to create my own life in the town. I meet people who become fond acquaintances, which then turn into friends after spending long enough hunting together. I even bond with some trappers - ones entirely different to Scorpius, that band of trappers who harassed Oria. Those have long since left town, which I am very thankful for. I don’t want to have to raise an arrow against another person again. I don’t want to need to.

“Ready to go?” Oria takes my hand in hers, bringing me out of my thoughts. Gripping my bow, I nod. My apothecary leads us out into the woods, whistling for our dogs to follow. Oria has herbs to collect, and I have cute little animals to kill and prepare for our dinner. I never thought a simple life, a life of helping out in the potion shop, of cooking together, of hunting together…I never thought I would enjoy a simple life like this.

But it isn’t just simple. It is…blissful.

It’s what I’ve always wanted, because Oria is right by my side.

The End