"Daire. Did you notice anything different about me yesterday?"

"Yesterday? Different?"

Turning meat in the fire, he thought for a second, but nothing came to mind.

"Hmm. Different how?"

Violet paused. Trying to pick the correct words.

Daire finished the wolves' meat and passed it to them.

"Like my clothes."

Violet's old dress came to mind.

"You wore that dress made of yellow and green leaves, right? It suited you. Although I think this one tops it."

Violet knitted her brows.

Daire didn't notice Violet's immodesty after her dress went kaput. He'd been too caught up in magical revelry.

When delivering the berries, her body was half-submerged in dark fur, while long hair covered her front. When he had gifted her the handkerchief to use as a comforter, the fabric had conveniently blocked her body. There was also constant growling from Night, so he made a quick retreat, never seeing anything.

Violet didn't know all of this. However, the pixie concluded her modesty remained intact through sheer luck. The main factor behind her reasoning was how Daire currently gazed at her with admiration and attraction. There was no embarrassment or guilt in his gaze. Neither was there any lust.

Relief flooded her tiny bones.

Daire handed over two Violet sized meals, fulfilling her order of one garlic and one berry sweetened skewer.

Violet chose the garlic-flavored kebab first. Her throat stinging slightly with how pungent it was.

She loved it!

The entire experience was new and interesting.

After, she devoured the sweetened one. It cooled her throat, working to counteract the harsher flavor of garlic. Violet decided this would be her new favorite combination.

Finishing her meals, Violet leaned back on the log with contentment.

The starry night lit the clearing nearly as bright as day. Aided by a modest campfire, the surroundings received a dark golden glow.

The wolves relaxed, Light lying on his side, and Night's head lay across Light's stomach. Eyes closed, their breathing was even, chests steadily rising and falling—flickering fire's gleam reflecting off their fur.

Willow swayed silently. The calm pond acting as a second sky. Movement among the stars as fish swam through the reflected galaxy. Nearby, Daire's new home morphed into the natural landscape, blending in with the stout boulder landmarking the clearing. Sitting only a foot away was Daire himself.

Daire showed up only a short while ago, and her life has already changed drastically. Life finally returned to her home. All those years alone. She never wished for anyone else. Violet couldn't wish for what she never understood. She had Willow, and Willow had her.

Violet had never enjoyed a meal before.

Violet never had someone to converse with, no one that talked back.

Violet never laughed, cried, smiled, and enjoyed herself as much as these past days...

It was as if her life had started the moment Daire popped out of that portal.

She had books, yes. She laughed, smiled, and cried. But she wasn't living. She was somewhere far off, somewhere no one could reach her. It was nice there.

But whatever this was.

It was nicer.

Staring up at the figure of the strange man who crash-landed into her life, she asked what was on her mind.

"Why are you here?"

=

"Why are you here?"

Halfway into the bite, he heard Violet's question. Looking down at the beautiful pixie, her face was unreadable. Posture directed towards Daire, yet stiff and unyielding.

He could read the seriousness.

Moving the skewer away, he let it lie. Daire peered into Violet's eyes. They were too bright. He needed to look away; otherwise, he would fall in. Instead, he examined his surroundings, noticing many of the same things Violet had.

It was a beautiful night.

Risking the glance up, he saw the flickering sky above. A cataclysmic, shining, silver circle hovered.

"...Do you mind if I speak my thoughts aloud?"

Violet was silent, so he took that as affirmation.

Daire allowed the words to flow out as they came.

"I want a family."

"I do have parents. They are kind and loving. Relatives were distant, so it was just us. I wanted a sibling. A brother that would look up to me. Or a sister I could protect."

"One never came, so it was just us."

"I went to school. My parents put me through college. I studied several different subjects but never graduated with an actual degree. The scholarships, grants, and loans caught up to me on my 7th year in college."

Daire thought about how much debt he accrued and how he and his parents would spend the rest of their lives paying it off. But they didn't care, just wanting him to be happy. That was the problem.

"I was happy."

"I loved school. I loved my parents. I loved my life. But..."

Daire's expression turned forlorn.

"I never belonged."

He knew it wasn't exactly that simple, but he had trouble explaining it.

"It was as if everything was out of alignment. I had friends. But something imperative was missing. Something intangible."

"I struggled with this feeling for years. I went to doctors and therapists, took medicine to make me feel better, tried to find people feeling this same way, tried to find an explanation for this yearning in my chest."

His fist unconsciously grabbed at his chest. The shirt folded and crumpled between his fingers as they tightened and twisted.

"Something was wrong. Something was missing."

"Then it hit me."

"I had finally figured out what it was."

"A family."

"Not a biological family, but a true bond, tighter than blood and not nearly as forced. A companion who would stick by me, never leave me, always have my back. I never wished for more than one because no matter how hard I tried, I could never find a single one. Just one. Just one person... Just one. One. Only one. One-"

Tears.

"Just one."

Squeaking. Crumpling.

"They left. They all left. No one. Nothing."

"Despite being surrounded by people..."

"Cold. Dark. Loneliness. Pain. Longinglovelost without."

Daire stopped talking. Taking a minute to stop hyperventilating.

It was all coming back to him. The pain. The heart wrenching, soul-crushing, excruciating, and everlasting pain nesting in his chest.

There was no one. Not a single one. One. Just one. I only need one. One is enough. Only. One.

Spiraling.

Down.

Down.

He couldn't leave. Too much. Too little. Pain. Only pain. No. No nothing. Love. Loving. Longing.

Tears. Tearing tracks of tears.

Silence and crackling. Sobs and crickets.

Broken. He was broken.

Just expend it all. Expend. Use it up. Drain it. Remove it. Relieve it. Expelled. Exiled. Forget.

Gone.

The pain faded. It ran out. He wasn't dead, so he lived. He would keep living. Until one day, the pain was too much, and the void took him in.

He was scared of the dark.

*sigh*

Daire was able to loosen the grip on his chest.

Now empty, he stared at the sky—the scary abyss.

"I had friends. But they left. Everyone, no matter our relationship, moved away."

"I couldn't understand. I can't understand it. Why? Why do they keep leaving me... Why are they not here? Why am I alone? Why?"

"They each lived their own lives. They walked their own paths. They wouldn't take me with them. They wouldn't let me walk beside them. They built walls between our paths. Blocking my view. I tried calling out, but they never answered. I tried dismantling the walls, but there was no one on the other side. The phone lines were cut. The bridges burned down. The only connection was a tightrope that I kept falling off."

"My goal. My relief. So long as I was beside them, I could live happily."

"But they had their own goals. Goals that were not me. Goals not involving me. Goals that could only be completed without me."

"And when they didn't reach their goals, they would reach out again."

"Every time! So blinded by happiness. So Naive. So pure. So stupid..."

"They stayed only to take the fuel they needed. Leaving me stranded once again."

"I watched them all move away. My eyes were always on them."

"Their eyes were never on me."

Daire yearned desperately for the same look in his eyes to be reflected back in another. The look of never wanting a moment to end. To never abandon each other. To fight through hell and high water just to keep them close.

He was young. People kept telling him, one day he would find someone that would never let him go. Daire searched and searched, wading through heaps of junk. He found treasure, desperately trying to tie the treasure to himself.

Daire brought the treasure gifts. Only to have them taken and be left behind.

Daire elevated them, showing their brilliance to the world. Only to be crushed underfoot.

Daire had practically worshiped one treasure. Only to have that same treasure smite him.

"They never saw me the same."

"By the end, my heart was gone. Given away as a gift, fee, or tribute. Pieces of himself torn off by my own hands. I couldn't leave the house without the emptiness in my chest aching."

Still clutching his chest, he could feel it even now.

His grip slowly, ever so gently, released.

"My parents were always there to shine a light on me. Without them..."

"They gave me books. Stories where dreams come true. Stories where dreams shattered."

"Each book was a new world, filled with new ideas and places. I traveled there, lived with the people, ate meals with them, fought by their side, and died at their side. They never knew I was there. They never looked at me."

Daire's face hardened.

"But they never once left me."

A large wind blew through the clearing. The insects and birds halted their nightly activity. The trees rustled and sang. The wolves woke up looking around. Rabbits tumbled.

It died down

"They are still with me. In here."

Daire bumped his thumb to his chest.

"And they are out there."

Waving his hand in an all-encompassing gesture.

"I couldn't find my family back home. So I came to the place I knew I could find them. They are out there. Outcasts, thrown away, disregarded, or slowly fading into obscurity. I know them. I have lived with them their entire lives while they've never known me. So, I am going to look them in the eye and tell them straight."

"I am here. You are not alone anymore."

"They have always been real. When they were just characters on a page and even now. They were never not real. They have already been a huge part of my life, changing me into who I am today."

Anyone who tells you the characters in your book are all fictional is full of shit.

"Even if they can't return my gaze. Even... even if they reject me. I need to repay my debt. I can't just leave them alone when they never left me alone."

The space where his heart previously inhabited was filled with the lives of these people. They were a part of him. He couldn't lose his second heart.

Daire looked into the dwindling fire, still not bringing himself to gaze at Violet. She'd been entirely quiet, not making a sound.

Daire didn't even know if she was still there.

If she was even real...

"That is why I am here."