He could not breathe. If only his mind would clear of the panic, he was sure that willpower alone would allow him to sprout wings and soar out over the trees to reach his parents residence that much faster. All the movement he could make was the clenching of his jaw, the smashing of his foot on the gas pedal, the gripping of the wheel. The hour it took to drive lasted an eternity, yet somehow, through the haze of his fear, he could not, for the life of him, recall a single detail of the road.

Racing into the house, every fiber straining to keep from wailing in premature grief, he saw his nemesis sitting calmly. Not answering his biting demands. How could this be real? Was it another nightmare, and would he soon wake up in his cell again? His mother's desperate plea for him to breathe did nothing to relieve the anguish until suddenly...air. Light. Love.

Like brittle porcelain, the pain of loss crumbled away from his shoulders. The tears that fell were now a mountain stream of joy. The gravity of her pulled him to her, so close that he could feel the soft warmth of her sweet form. her smell swirled around him, comforting him further still.

Her beseeching eyes, her fluttering hands; it was so hard not to reach out and drag her into his arms, to relish in the delicate shape and feel her yield. Yet even standing here was enough, their souls were intertwined, in a lover's embrace that was melted in fire and nothing could tear them apart, nothing.