Stay

"Could you please, just for a minute, just for a moment more, stay?" she asked, limbs entwined with her partner's closely, as if the mere thought of them leaving her was physically painful.

They looked at her as if they knew that, too.

"You know I can't, love." The tone was lovingly condescending, as if lecturing a small child.

"But... I don't know when you'll come back." That wasn't only it. "What if you forget? What if the plume of the lake is so strong that you forget me, you forget us, you forget to-- to return, to--"

"Darling, shh. Don't say a word." they begged, passing their fingers through her hair in a languid gesture. "I'll always be here," they said, jokingly poking her chest, "no?"

"You can save future me at another time, no?" she grasped at straws, ignoring the light gesture, pleading at them to stay. "Time is relative. Why risk now for the future, Elleim? Now I'm here, and I can feel your cold hands on my stomach seriously stop that--" She batted their hands away, jokingly annoyed with the scheme.

They just laughed.

"I love you, you know." they said after a while, cupping her cheek tenderly.

She instantly grew wary, and placed a palm over theirs, looking over at them with fear in her eyes. "You never say that, not unless things get serious."

No answer.

"You want me to know that things will get serious."

Still nothing; they averted their gaze, almost shameful.

"I need to come." she uttered in a moment of defiance, and they instantly rose to protest. "Shh, no, hear me out." she tried to cover up that reasonable frustration with her words. "I'm not going to live without you. I'm not going back to living alone, to being a shell, to feeling that agonising piece of dulling nothing--"

"Poetry doesn't become you, stop trying to--"

"Shut up for just a second!" she all but whined, pressing her forehead on their chest. Exhausting, that's what that was, but she had no other choice but to try. "You're not just leaving for a simple trip to the shadow realm, you're going to swim right into that godforsaken water, and for what? Grasping at straws from future notes your future self might have left? This is mad." They went to interrupt again, but she gave them no choice.

"If you think it's so important, I'm coming with you."

They were beginning to get from just mildly irritated to moderately furious. "I'm not having this conversation, where I'm begging you to come to your senses because you're special to me, and because I cherish you. You know how I despise being coerced; should you want me to say something, ask." Thinly veiled exasperation, that didn't pass unnoticed by her.

"Then, what is it?" she queried, a small voice, no louder than a breathy whisper. "Am I not your equal? I'm not fragile, just because I'm--"

"Nothing to do with fragility." they interjected plainly, effectively cutting her off.

"Then... what? Why would you want me to stay back and just wait like a selkie, dreading the time you'll come back and you just won't recognise me?!" She was almost heaving, cheeks red with effort, eyes stinging with unshed tears.

Their face almost turned ashen.

"Trust me?" they asked, awaiting recognition.

"Always." came the reply, not a slither of a doubt.

"Then, trust I'm doing the right thing."

She had nothing to counter. "...come back safe." she muttered moments after, pressing her head into the nape of their neck. They rubbed her arm, as if to warm her up, a last sentimental gesture.

They stood after a while, and donned their battle armour with the flick of a delicate hand.

"Alma?" they asked, their back at her.

"What is it, love?" she turned in the sheets, lying on her stomach now.

"Give me one of your earrings." That way, you'll have something to show in case I forget. Words unspoken, but still hovering there, between them.

And Alma was, for once, grateful they couldn't see her face.

Placing a kiss at the warm jewel she removed from her left ear, she guided it towards them with a dismissive gesture, cherishing their rigid posture for one last time; even when most out of their waters, they were beautiful.

She'd become such a sap.

"I'll have soup done when you're home." she tried one last time, trepidation trembling under her light words.

"Won't miss it."