For the rest of the evening I just sat and stared at the device. The purple glowing grew brighter as the hours passed, which was a good sign.

I can finally go home, but only if the device takes me to the correct time this... er... time. I remember how I got here in the first place, both the century and the continent were completely off. Though at least I still landed on the same planet, in a time and place where my English could be somewhat understood by at least one person.

Speaking of which, Saoirse finally returned just after sunset. I found myself hastily hiding the now working device for some reason.

“How’s Maebh?” I asked. Saoirse sighed.

“That girl… She is okay now, but she should be more careful.”

“Wait, what happened?”

She shook her head.

“She fell into a bush of nettles.”

I winced. Yeah, that would do it.

“Did you make the new core?” asked Saoirse. “Did the potash work?”

“Uh…”

I hesitated.

“Y-yeah, I did. I think it should work… but… I don’t know if– if it will, so… so yeah.”

Saoirse looked at me suspiciously, then started preparing dinner. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, why I couldn’t tell her the truth.

Is it because she gets upset at the idea of me leaving? But why though? I know that she finally has a friend her own age and all, but somehow I feel like there’s something… more–

“Radha.”

“Yo!”

I snapped out of my thoughts to find Saoirse looking at me with confusion.

“Where is my iron pot?”

Ooooohhh...

“I uh... I needed it. For the core. Sorry...”

Saoirse simply nodded, then got back to work. Okay, I expected her to be a lot madder at that. Anyone else would've skinned me just then! So why didn't she...?

I wonder what that's– wait...

No.

No!

She can’t have… feelings for me, can she…?

I stared at her while she made dinner. I love her, I know that now. But to think that she might love me back…

What do I do now? I have to leave tomorrow, my meds will run out soon. There’s no choice in that matter.

Unless… I took her with me…

Wait, no, that’s ridiculous! As smart as she is, I doubt she’d last even a day in my time. Plus Maebh is here, I don’t think that kid would be too happy to find her adoptive big sister suddenly disappeared. As for Saoirse herself, well, she clearly cares for her a lot. After Tadhg died Maebh was the only one in this town who actually called her by her chosen name, no matter what.

Saoirse finished making a vegetable stew, and we both started eating. It hit me that this was going to be my last dinner here, and my heart started throbbing.

Regardless of what happens I will be leaving tomorrow, that’s for sure. But at the very least I can confess my feelings for her tonight, so there won’t be any regrets on my end when I get home.

Yeah. No regrets.



Both of us sat by the fire after dinner. Her mending her overdress, and me rehearsing my confession in my head. My heart was doing acrobatics just thinking about it, but… it has to be done now.

“You want to talk,” said Saoirse, suddenly. Apparently I didn’t realize I’d been glancing at her all night.

“Um… yeah.”

Saoirse smiled. My heart throbbed even harder.

“What happened?”

I took a deep breath.

“S-so… um, remember when we were talking about… love… yesterday?”

Saoirse raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. I noticed her face suddenly flash pink.

“Y-yes…?”

“Yeah, so you said that you always, um, yelled at any man who tried to… uh… court you…?”

“Yes,” said Saoirse, looking away. “I hated it. But Bríd… when we went to the fair she let herself be taken away by every man who asked for a dance. I… did not. Tadhg would laugh, but Bríd would look at me as if I were… broken.”

“So wait, you’ve never had feelings for a man then? Ever?”

Saoirse frowned.

“No. I don’t care for them. Dirty like pigs, all of them.”

I failed to suppress a laugh. Yeah, that sounds about right. My friend Long is pretty cool though. In most respects.

“W-what about…” I began. My heart was exploding. “What about women…?”

Saoirse glanced at me, her eyes wide with shock.

“M-me? Feelings for… women…?”

“Yeah.”

She now looked down at the floor. The overdress she was supposed to be mending sat on her lap, forgotten.

“I– They– They say it’s… sin…”

I noticed her face slowly turning red.

“Oh come on, Saoirse. I know you don’t care about sin. Lying, especially to a priest, is also a sin, yet you yourself said you do it all the time.”

I got up and sat next to her. She continued to stare at the floor.

“So, um… let me ask you this. What would you do if– if a woman tried to court you?”

She vigorously shook her head.

“I… I don’t… know…”

“Okay... then what if… I… tried to court you…?”

Now she turned to look at me, completely stunned. Her face was still red.

“What are you s-saying…?”

She stared into my eyes. I stared into hers. Her bright, beautiful, blue-green eyes…

“I’m saying that I… I think I’ve fallen in love with you, Saoirse.”

We stared deeply into each other’s eyes for a good while, before Saoirse finally turned away again. Though this time, I could tell that she was trying to suppress a smile.

“But I can’t… I can’t marry you…”

“Wait, what?”

Saoirse suddenly got up, not noticing the overdress on her lap falling to the ground.

“We can’t be married! The townspeople… they won’t like it, they'll think us... possessed– those words, they… they’re not for… us…”

I got up and walked over to her. She turned around, and I gently held her arms.

“No one is asking you for marriage, Saoirse.”

“But–”

“No, listen. What I’m asking is… what do you want?”

She looked up at me. I think this was the closest we’d ever been so far.

“What do you want, Saoirse?”

Our faces were mere millimeters apart now. We gazed into each other's eyes as she slowly put her arms around me.

“This…”

Our lips met.