Heroes: Book III

XIV

I woke up gasping for air, encompassed in an ocean full of green.

I saw the sky at first, a soft and gentle blue, but behind glass. Slowly, I lifted my torso up from the dirt, untangling from the thicket of vines wrapped around my limbs.

I was sitting in the Professor's greenhouse, in a bed full of wildflowers bordering where I had once laid.

"__, how are you feeling?" A voice asked. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked at the Professor sitting in front of me.

"Good. Great, actually." I glanced around, "Would you happen to know how we got out of Egypt?"

The Professor chuckled a bit, his wheelchair drifting closer to me, "That was a little while ago."

I rubbed my head, "How long?"

"A month."

"Yeesh."

"We almost buried you, but Peter wouldn't let us," he released a short breath, "thankfully so."

"Is he alright?"

"He's been sleeping in here ever since we got back. His leg's healing, though he's still on crutches."

"And the others?"

"We're alright. We're rebuilding the school," Charles said, looking out past the glass walls at the stone foundation.

I peered around myself, asking, "Did Peter plant all the flowers?"

"No," the Professor answered, scratching his head, "there was nothing in here. We laid you on the dirt and it was only a matter of minutes before it all started growing." He sighed fondly at the color surrounding us, "Your powers are quite beautiful."

"Thanks," I replied, smiling with rosy cheeks.

"I better get Peter. I had Hank force him to sleep in a real bed for a couple hours so he could rest." He reached his hand out to help steady me to my feet. I wobbled a bit, feeling a slight soreness in my muscles. Charles added with a grin, "Glad to have you back, Firefly."

"Glad to be back."

The Professor headed toward the exit, but stopped in his path, prompting before his departure, "__?"

"Yes?"

"If you're up to the task, our new school could really use a science professor. Particularly one with a graduate degree in physics and that has an intimate knowledge of energy transfer."

I laughed, feeling the warmth return to my cheeks, "Professor, I'd be honored."

"Brilliant," he pointed outside and said, "Now I'm going to get your boyfriend before he realizes he missed your awaking."

And with that he disappeared out onto the lawn, headed toward the only complete wing of the school.

It didn't take long. In a matter of seconds a blur of silver streaked across the lawn in a great tunnel of wind. Peter stood in the entrance, his face bending into an uncontrollable smile.

He whispered as a tear raced down his cheek, "I knew you weren't dead."

I quickly ran to him, my legs immediately springing myself into his arms. I sighed in conveyed relief, now fully encircled in his energy. His fingers cupped my head to his chest firmly, holding me there with the same gravity of the Sun to the Earth.

I basked in the sheer euphoria of him.

"Wait a second," I peered down at the white cast molded around his right leg, "you're not supposed to be running on your leg."

Peter uncomfortably shifted his leg and told me with a smirk, "Hurt like a bitch, but you're worth it."

My hands caught him by the collar of his jacket, pulling him close to whisper, "Glad you think so, Quicksilver."

I gently pressed our noses together, the adrenaline building for the moment when our lips would finally reunite. But he hesitates when they're millimeters away, murmuring to me softly, "Marry me."

I pulled away, giving him a puzzled look, "What?"

He repeated without a hint of hesitation, his face still with sincerity, "Marry me."

I gave him a small grin, my brows still furrowed in confusion, "I thought we agreed the whole big wedding spiel wasn't our thing."

"I never said anything about a wedding," he told me, reaching into his pocket to pull out a cassette. Moonlight Mile by The Rolling Stones. The tenth and final track of Sticky Fingers. "I mean here and now."

It snapped in half between his hands with a prominent crack. His fingers rapidly unreeled the length of the supply reel.

"Peter, what are you doing?"

He pulled the brown, transparent tape apart, then took my hand in his to tie a piece of it around my left ring finger. And after knotting another piece around his own, Peter said with the most peaceful smile strung across his face,
"__, I promise to always be there when you need a laugh. I promise that we'll take care of each other, when even we're old raisins jamming out to Pink Floyd and Rush. And I promise to love you, every single beautiful part of you, until forever and a little more."

Comets of glowing tears began streaming down my face, dripping down into the dirt beneath our feet as I caressed the side of his face, pulling him toward me to kiss him long and tenderly and magnificently. And this time, it wasn't just my body that glowed.

Throughout the entire greenhouse, every flower and plant that had grown from my energy, lit up in a dazzling array of color, streaming together to fill the air like aurora borealis.

And I looked at this boy. This boy that let me know love, and that it's the most powerful energy in the universe.

And I promised him,
"Until forever and a little more."