7. The Three Lies

Inspired by: Tianyi, Yan He, 'Magnet', 'Alluring Secret~Black Vow', Lee Soo Young's cover of 'Fate'.

Disclaimer: Nope.

Pairing: Tianyi x Yan He.

AN: girl/girl. The fact that a girl's name is spelt 'He' may be a bit confusing.

"I think I've told you three lies."

Feathers fell all around He and she could only stare. Her voice had been locked, and no matter how hard she tried it was impossible to force her lips apart and speak.

"First, I lied about not knowing you were a girl."

A white feather fell on the top of her head. It was cold, and as it melted into water the coldness spread across her hair. What?

The world was filled with falling feathers and flakes, dancing down to their awaiting taint in this world.

Snow. It was snowing near their end together.

How clichéd. How fitting. How romantic.

But He didn't want that.

"Second, I lied about what I saw in school. Back then, I really did see the tiger demon."

No. Wait. Please.

This wasn't what He wanted. She wanted to get her life back. She wanted those demons to stop bothering her.

But most of all, she wanted Tianyi to stay with her like she had for over a year. She wanted Tianyi to love her and she wanted to think or pretend that He was a boy just like they'd been doing for almost all of their relationship.

"Third and last . . . ." Tianyi trailed off, and her fingers ran down the feathers covering her wings. Large, graceful, magnificent, like the wings of a pure white swan.

Or an angel.

"I've lied about myself," Tianyi finished simply.

He's voice unlocked at the end of Tianyi's words, granting her permission to speak. "What are you going to do now?"

Tianyi reached out to wipe gently at her face, and the gentle touch rubbing off hot, burning liquid on her face told He that she was crying. "I'm going to do what all angels do when they sin."

It was a movie, it was an anime, it was a bad shojo manga. Wherever the storyline came from, Tianyi's wings began to be dyed black. It was only a quick move that allowed her girlfriend to pluck the white feather from the tip of her left wing moments before the area was turned black.

"Keep this with you," Tianyi said, taking He's hand just like she always did in movie theaters and curling her almost unresponsive fingers around the white plume. "It'll keep you safe."

"I don't understand."

That was a lie. He understood. Somewhat.

Tianyi only smiled. "I love you, He."

It was only a second, not even – a split second between the extremely short period of time that it took for He to blink and Tianyi was gone from her sight, a heartbreaking shattering sound scattering black feathers across the top of the building.

"Tianyi?"

Tianyi always answered her. Always. She'd respond, right? Tell her this was all a bad dream or something cooked up by drugs slipped into her drinks. Then they'd laugh and she'd take her to a café, still pretending to be a guy.

But there wasn't an answer.