It was the smell of the ocean bubbles of Bad Wolf Bay popping in her ears, temporarily plugging her into deafness, that she remembered most when his twin stepped towards her. But, with each proceeding pop of the ocean and each flourish of a wave, the resonance of his words bounded in her head and bopped around, becoming louder and louder until his whisper was all she could hear. She recalled the perfect starlight and dust of a thousand different nebulae floating behind her eyes, making her blind. But when his skin, new and ancient, swooped against hers, she saw the light escaping out of every pore in their skin. Rose could smell the blood of the war and the anger-lust that had devoured him in a previous life, but she felt her soul rising when he pulled away from her and saw in his eyes the desperation and utter need he never quite allowed to leak through before. And so she felt her heart swell when she discarded the horizon and the flash of blues, blacks, purples, and blinding star-whites and drew him into an unashamed kiss. And, as she and him, as it should have been, as the universe had always planned, they were much much bigger and much more magnificent than even the infinity of time and space could ever hope to be.

art by burdge-bug.