Sometimes Ned couldn't believe she was really there, alive and tangible and real and alive and he was babbling again, wasn't he?
She could be a ghost, for all he knew, he'd only touched her once since he was nine. Just a phantom, a specter, this beautiful creature that was all he had ever wanted in life.
Except.
The catch, that was it, the worst thing about this whole arrangement. Not being able to touch her, feel the warmth of her skin under his fingers, knowing she was there. Not thinking every moment that he wouldn't believe enough and she would fade away and be swept by the wind.
And sometimes he wished it, that the wind would carry her back to the gated house full of cheese and birds, wished she could go back to her life with her Aunts Lily and Vivian. Maybe they would have run into each other, and had some semblance of a normal relationship.
But no. This was how it was, and so he closed his eyes and clapped his hands.
I do believe in fairies, I do believe in fairies…
And he did. He just hoped it was enough.
Standard disclaimers, blah blah.