Love Can Save {An Aphmau Fanfiction}

Travis

"Today's the day!" Katelyn snorted, punching me in the shoulder as we left the house, heading out of Phoenix Drop together. "Aren't you excited? After all, you've been trying to make this happen for months now." Katelyn shook her head with a smile, allowing me to pull her against my side.

"Of course I'm excited. And now that Tula is really coming for us, everyone will be more inclined to finish this as soon as possible." I hummed, nodding my agreement. She wriggled away from me, smiling and brushing her powder blue hair off of her neck.

"It's too hot out," she complained, pulling at her breastplate in an attempt to get some air flow. I laughed at her, using my hands to fan her before she swatted me away. "No, that's just blowing hot air over here!" I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at her.

"Who's doing the construction on the academy?"

"I think Levin said it was Dale and Kyle, Maybe Richard and Corey and some of the other people around Phoenix Drop."

"Didn't Malachi mention something about Brendan coming over from the Island?"

"Yeah, I remember him saying that."

We trailed off into a comfortable silence, walking towards the outskirts of town. I was happy that we had this relationship; I had never been happier if I was being honest. I was madly in love with Katelyn for ages, everyone knew that. But only for this past year had she returned that feeling, and to finally know what reciprocated love felt like was honestly the best feeling in the entire world.

After another ten minutes of following the path out of the village, we finally arrived at the large clearing. Boxes and piles of wood were already littered across the empty space, and half a dozen guys were gathered at the far end, either arguing or just talking very loudly. I chuckled, reminded of when Laurance and I had tried to build a house on the Island back when it was just a few of us living there. Katelyn threw me a glance, similar thoughts flashing through her mind.

"Is there something here we need to break up?" Katelyn called out, drawing the attention of the men across the clearing. A few of them looked concerned at Katelyn's words, but Dale and Brendan just laughed.

"No, we're just working out some logistics," Brendan called back, looking the same as ever. There were more lines around his eyes, and it was clear that his daughter, Dell, had been keeping him up recently. At nearly three years of age, she was definitely a ball of energy that never stopped. I hadn't seen the girl in a while, or his wife, Issa, but I was sure they were doing well.

"How is your family, Brendan?" It was like Katelyn knew exactly what I was thinking. I flashed her a smile before looking over at the man she had addressed.

He rubbed the back of his neck, laughing. "Dell just never stops, and Issa is going crazy trying to keep her out of trouble. Actually," he added, brightening, "Issa is expecting again! We just found out last week!" There were rounds of congratulations from everyone in the clearing, Brendan blushing from all the attention.

Dale clapped his hands together, breaking through the conversations. "It's about time that we got started, don't you think?" Murmurs of agreement met his words, and his gaze turned towards me and Katelyn. "Are you two here to help, or to make sure we don't mess something up?"

I laughed, holding my hands up in surrender. "I'm here to help if you need it. Katelyn may be wanting to act like the foreman of this project though." Katelyn elbowed me in the ribs, to which I replied by bumping my shoulder against her's. "Alright, we're both here to help."

That first day was mostly spent planning. Of course, we had spent the days since Malachi and Levin had given us this land planning out the building, but now we had to lay out where everything was going to go. While Dale and Katelyn and Brendan focused on that, it was up to me and the other guys to start clearing away trees. The clearing just wasn't big enough for what we needed, and besides, we needed wood for the construction anyway.

Wiping an arm across my brow, I glanced up at the sky to find the sun disappearing. Katelyn and the men were rolling up the plans, and the other guys with me were starting to pack up their stuff. Lifting the axe up to rest the handle against my shoulder, I headed back towards where my canteen sat near Katelyn. She saw me coming and hid the water behind her back, ignoring my whining as she kept it away from me.

"Thank you so much for everything you're doing for this academy, Dale. It means a lot to see this finally happening." Katelyn offered a smile, and Dale grinned right back, sliding the plans into his satchel.

"Of course! It's been a while since I've had a good project to work on. Last time I built something must have been that wall around the old village." Brendan laughed from across the clearing, already ready to leave.

"Man, we built a lot of stuff then. And we were super quick about it too!" The guys laughed and Katelyn smiled. I took that opportunity to try and grab my canteen back, the axe now sitting on the ground beside the others (Richard had brought them all from the guard house and was going to bring them back). Katelyn kept me away easily, continuing to converse with the other guys as everyone prepared to head back to the village.

Katelyn and I were the last to leave the clearing by about fifteen minutes. After a lot of chasing around, I was finally able to get my canteen back. So now we were walking back home together, the summer night growing chilly as the sun descended even farther past the horizon. My hand was wrapped tightly around Katelyn's, wishing that I could hold her close. Every part of me wished that I could just hold her at night and wash away all of her worries. I wanted to keep her safe from the world and Tula and everything else that meant her harm. But Katelyn was too strong. She would do whatever she could to make sure that Phoenix Drop and the Capital Island and everyone she loved safe. And I could only stand beside her and pray to whoever was up there to keep her going strong.