Mirror, Mirror

3.06 Savior Complex

Starla woke with a start from a dream about making out with...

Rayvin looked up at Starla from across a small fire. He smiled. She frowned.

"Look, I finally made a fire," he said proudly, poking the embers. "Had a nice nap?"

"The sun's already setting?" Starla asked, disoriented. Feeling sweaty, she began unpiling the layers of blankets on her. Then, she stopped, remembering she was practically naked. "Why didn't you wake me?" She looked frantically around for her clothes.

"I don't know, maybe I care about you not dying," Rayvin rolled his eyes. "And your travel clothes are still drying." There they were, laid out next to the fire. Precariously close to the open flames, in Starla's opinion.

"We were supposed to make it to the checkpoint town by tonight," Starla said, alarmed. She began to weakly scooch around the fire toward her clothes, blanket wrapped around her shoulders. "We're already moving more slowly than we should be because of how thick the snow has been. Why did you already change out of your travel clothes? We have to keep going."

"Woah hang on, take it easy," Rayvin said, getting to his feet to intercept her advances. "We're not going anywhere until tomorrow morning." He'd been wrapped in a blanket too, which he dropped to the ground. Beneath, he was already dressed in resting clothes.

"We can't fall behind schedule because of me," Starla said, overwhelmed. "We need to make it across the pass before the storm hits." She tried to dodge Rayvin, but that was challenging swaddled in a thick blanket while trying to avoid touching the fire.

"Starla," Rayvin said calmly. "It's going to be night soon. That means it will not only be below freezing, but it will also be dark. Before we go anywhere, we'll need to cross the frozen river you almost died in. And besides, your clothes aren't even finished drying, and it's dangerous for you to be too cold right now." Starla's heart sank. Everything he was saying made sense.

"This is all my fault," Starla said miserably, stopping and drawing the blanket over her head. "I can't believe I fell in a hole. That's like lesson one of being an Ice Princess! I should've been more careful..."

"Hey, hey! It's OK," Rayvin said gently, and she sensed him crouching beside her. "Let's take a breath. It's on me too for not noticing the water so close to our camp. I'm the one with the ice powers! That's my responsibility too. I'm just glad you're OK. And anyway, I can't travel right now either. I used more power than I ever have, and I need to recover. And that's not your fault, so don't you dare say sorry, Starla, or I'll smack you." Starla shut her mouth, the apology dying on her tongue. She lowered the blanket to glare at him.

"As if," Starla snorted, ignoring the warmth of emotions flooding her chest. "The only time you land punches on me is when I let you. You know I'll always be the better fighter."

"And that's exactly why I need you," Rayvin said with a small smile. "So let's just— take a beat. Rest. We'll get back on the journey again tomorrow."

"OK," Starla breathed. She didn't like it, but he was right.

"You saved me, again. Thank you," Starla said softly after a while. Then, cautiously, she continued, "And... thanks for helping warm me back up." Were they going to talk about the fact that he had been spooning her practically naked?

"Of course," Rayvin said, and gave her a smile that could mean literally anything. Guess they weren't going to talk about it, then.

"I would've died. It's a miracle you happened to find me when you did," Starla murmured.

"Mmm, yeah. Lucky," Rayvin said evasively. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Hang on, how did you know I was in trouble?" Starla asked, realization dawning. "Were you following me? What if I was going to go relieve myself, you perv?"

"No! I wasn't following you," Rayvin said quickly. "I uh... I can sort of... sense living things through their heat signature, sorta like a pocket of heat in the cold around me. I think it's an ice power thing? Anyway, I felt yours disappear suddenly, and I got worried. I knew the general direction you went, and I was able to figure it out from there. But I know that's like, creepy! Sorry I didn't tell you sooner that that's a thing I can do." Starla's mind reeled at this new info. Had he been able to sense her location all this time? That made sense how he never seemed to lose her when they were briefly separated... She must stand out like a beacon in this cold, barren wasteland.

What was the range of this power? And how granular was his heat reading? Was it just a general aura of her?

Or could he sense when parts of her body were warmer than others?

"I'm just glad I'm alive," Starla said truthfully. She'd grill him about the heat tracking later.

"Me too," Rayvin said, and in those two words, Starla heard thinly masked vulnerability in his voice. God, she must have scared him. Which meant he must care for her a lot. Which was normal. Friends cared about each other.

Starla's skin prickled with heat, and she trained her eyes on the fire. Rayvin cleared his throat, as if trying to think of something to say.

So, Starla asked Rayvin about his family again, and he asked her about hers. They talked, like they usually did at night, and the tension lessened. They had nothing else to do, as they waited and recovered.

Eventually, Ri-Yu came up again. Starla felt furious at herself for bringing her up again, without meaning to.

"But it's fine, I'm over her," Starla said quickly, and Rayvin gave her a concerned look.

"It sounds like you're over her," he said. "But maybe not over what she did to you. It sounds like she really, really hurt you, long before the recent mess with her proposing to you." Starla looked away. She was being overly dramatic, wasn't she? Ri-Yu had acted like what she'd done wasn't that big of a deal. So maybe it wasn't?

But something about the way Rayvin was looking at Starla right now made her feel safe enough to share what had happened, even if it was silly. Even if it was embarrassing.

"So, as you know, Ri-Yu and I used to be really, really close," Starla began. "Well, she used to go to the Winter Palace Academy. Her father and my father were friends, and we were both princesses, and we just sorta... clicked. But we would fight all the time. Like, all the time. And that was fine! At least when we were younger. We would always make up and be inseparable again. But it got messier as we got older, especially as we got to... better understand our sexuality. I loved her, and I wanted nothing more than for her to love me back." Starla glanced at Rayvin.

"Keep going," Rayvin said. "I'm listening."

So, she told him.