Fire Meets Water - A Kotlc Marellinh Fan Fiction

Chapter 15 - Linh

The next few hours passed in a blur of shouts of joy, hundreds of imparter hails, thousands of suffocating hugs and lots and lots of tears of joy.
Sophie was a mess. She'd blamed herself for Linh and Marella's disappearance in the first place, and now, seeing them alive, seemed to be too much to handle for her in her already weakened mental state.
Keefe was skeptical. He thought that maybe this was one of his mom's tricks to get them to let their guard down.
Fitz wasn't sure what to feel. He'd been on a downward emotional spiral (along with Sophie) since they disappeared and wasn't sure what to be mad at - or if he should be mad at all.
Biana and Dex had been confiding with each other and seemed to have developed a deep emotional bond in the time that Linh had been away.
Tam had become a hollow shell in Linh's absence, barely eating or sleeping. No one could get through to him. When he saw Linh, he'd ran over and hugged her and tried to tell her through his sobbs how much he missed her. Linh could tell everyone was slightly surprised by this outburst of emotion from him but no one said anything. 
Amy has hailed Sophie on her emergency imparter, and while she had said to come alone so her parents wouldn't see anything, Sophie had hailed everyone. Amy had been pretty mad but once she saw how much they had missed Linh and Marella, she'd sent her parents to their backyard claiming that their dog "didn't look good".
Linh and Marella leapt back to the Lost Cities and saw Marella's parents.They were both so happy to see her. Her mom, Caprise, kept switching between happy tears and scolding Marella for running off. Her dad just tried to make sure Caprise didn't strangle his daughter with her hugs while holding back tears of his own.
Linh's parents didn't show, and she was perfectly fine with that. As far as she was concerned, Tam, Tiergen, Prentice and Wylie were her only family.
She'd been sure that it would have taken weeks to eat back all the pounds Linh lost during her time with the Neverseen, but it turns out, Elwin is a wizard and all she needed to do drink two elixirs and get a good night's sleep and then poof back to normal.
At least the physical scars didn't last.
Linh wished she could say the same about the mental ones.
Over the next few days, both Linh and Marella found themselves knocking on the other's door, shaking and sometimes crying after a dream or flashback and they'd stay up until dawn talking through things and crying on shoulders. Sometimes they even hailed Keefe and they compared stories.
He was the first to know about their relationship.
He didn't seem surprised. "I was there when you 'almost' admitted your feelings, remember?" Keefe had said, pointing to Linh. She'd blushed, oh she remembered all right.
"Well, I know now, and that's all that matters," Marella had said, swiftly taking Linh into her arms and kissing her. 
Linh was starting to get more comfortable with their relationship and was determined to be the best girlfriend ever.
           
                                                       -----

    Things returned to a sense of normality. School. Homework. Training with Marella. Hanging out with Tam (she'd make sure to spend lots of quality time with him).
But soon, the big day arrived.
Elwin had postponed his wedding after Linh and Marella disappeared, giving everyone time to grieve and for the Black Swan to investate. But now that everyone was back and safe, the wedding was set to start as originally planned. Elwin had hailed saying he wanted Linh and Marella to be the flower girls at his wedding. Linh had been happy to accept (she'd been surprised that Biana hadn't demanded to be a flower girl too, but she seemed happy designing Elwin's wedding dress).
Everyone was bustling about in the hours before Elwin and Abner's wedding was to start. Elwin wanted to be married on his estate, and Abner has no problem with that. It was a truly gorgeous place, Elwin's rainbow house was placed atop a cliff that overlooks the glittering sea. Wooded glens sprawled across most of the rest of the property, with gurgling streams and the soft pitter-patter of animals scurrying around, chasing spots of sunshine that filtered down through the foliage. Near the house, there were fabulous meadows on which the wildflowers looked as if an artist had flicked a paintbrush full of color onto the grass. It was in a meadow like this where Eliwn and Abner were to be wed.
Linh and Marella had to arrive on the early side to fulfil their duties as flower girls, meaning they arranged Mandevilla flowers on the arch under which the couple would stand as they got married (Sophie had said that for humans "flower girls" mean that they would throw flower petals at the audience and on the path, which sounded very weird to Linh). Mandevilla flowers let off an aroma that makes you feel calm and happy. It's an elven tradition to be married under these blossoms to symbolize a long, happy marriage. Once they were done, the arch was beautifully decorated with vibrant pink flowers that hung from a dark green vine.
Linh looked around and the commotion around her. The gnomes were setting up benches in a circle around the platform and arch that Linh and Marella were standing on.
"Oooh! It looks so good!" Elwin said. Linh spun around, startled.
"Yeah, thanks so much, this means a lot to us," Abner added, coming up beside his husband-to-be.
"It's our pleasure," Marella replied, "and it was a lot of fun," she slipped her hand into Linh's at those words.
"Well, it's perfect, and I couldn't think of a better place to marry my favorite person in the world," Abner leaned over and pecked Elwin on the cheek.
"Aw. I love you too," Elwin said back, smiling.
Linh smiled. They were adorable.
"Abner! Elwin! I need you guys for some final food decisions," a gnome called across the field.
"Oop. I think that's our que!" Elwin said, taking Abner's hand and heading off toward the gnome. "You two should head back home and get ready!" he added over his shoulder.
"Okay!" Linh called back. She turned to Marella. "See you in a few hours?" she asked pulling out her home crystal with her free hand. 
"Yep!" Marella answered, smiling as she let go of Linh's hand in order to hold her crystal up to the light.
Linh took one more glance around, before her eyes landed on Marella's ice blue ones. She felt her lips pull into a smile as well and let the light carry her away.

Word count: 1.13k

Art Credits: imaramennoodle