warm, warm flame, flickering always on the edge of her mind, her soul

"How? How could you hold that connection?"

She hesitates, cold blackness holding back that small bit of Flai's mind. 

And then she opens it a little further, and shows him the gap, the empty piece of her that he fits so neatly-

He jerks back from that, shock reverberating through him.

The girl pulls back from his mind, but not before Flai grasps a frantic, terrified stream of losslosslosslossLOSSLOSSLOSS-

"Wait! Wait, I'm sorry-" He quickly reconnects them, and feels the rush of relief from her. "I'm sorry, I just...I guess I've never believed in soulmates?"

She tilts her head, frowning. 

inadequacy. 

Flai laughs a little at that. "More than a soulmate?"

MORE-

Flai laughs in earnest. She's offended for him!

"I'm sorry, I won't use that word again."

satisfaction.

Flai smiles down at his feet, but then looks back up at her. 

"I don't have a piece for you, or a hole. I'm-"

He doesn't say complete, but he can feel her react to the word anyway.

Her reaction, however, is not negative. There's no sadness, no loss, just...confirmation.

She's happy that he's complete without her.

"But- if I mean that much to you, but I've never seen you or heard you, or felt you before today-"

The girl smiles, grey eyes so bright.

better than before, better than ever, today, today

"Because...because before me was..?"

A memory, clearer than the ones before.

she escapes the others, stumbling through endless shifting landscapes, running through dreamscape and nightmare and on and on and on but there was nothing, no one to run to, and only the others knew her, could see her-

Flai shuts his eyes against that awful pain, the loneliness-

He keeps saying he's sorry, but it feels so inadequate. It is not enough to encompass the horror, the sadness, the fury...but he supposes he doesn't need words. He simply sends the feelings he has for her terrible memories through their bond.

For a moment, the girl seems breathless against the flood of emotion.

And then, from her-

warmth, such incredible warmth, enough to banish the cold that chills her veins.

Flai tips his head back. 

The feeling of that was...freeing. Was that his own feeling, or hers?

Another memory.

she runs from the others, stumbling through endless shifting landscapes, running through dreamscape and nightmare and on and on and on, until-

there, lost in dreams, Flai.

"I would've protected you, if I knew you were there."

she knows.

He reaches out into her mind again, to feel that warmth again, but-