around my bones {h.s. au}

in the end we'll all become stories

A shaky breath falls from her lips. "You're getting very good at these speeches." Lena tells him, taking his hand in her own. Noticing a faint scar from where they had spilled their blood so many lives ago. As she runs her finger over the scar Harry shudders. And it is quick. Silver flashes against flesh. Red pools. Blood falls.

Turning the blade to her own palm, Harry reaches out with his good hand. Eyes looking at her as if to say, together. Again. The knife cuts into Lena's palm. Along a matching scar.

Quickly, Lena guides their hands to the flames. Harry weaves his fingers through her own. Blood dripping between their palms into the fire. Orange flames dance and twist into the air. Reaching for the stars. And if Harry notices the flames turning white, he says nothing. Together, they stand. Two souls against the night. Blood splattering around them. Eventually it will absorb into the sand. Their blood soaking into the very earth. A reminder. They had lived. They had existed. They had been real. Long after this world ends and begins once more, Harry and Lena will forever be a scar on this land. A phantom pain whispering through the night. Alive, alive, alive.

Lena hesitates. Words catching in her throat. Eyes wild and unfocused until Harry's hands find her face. Stilling her. He smears blood along her jaw as he pulls himself closer to her. Close enough she can feel his breath against her cheek. Heart beating against her chest. It rings through Lena's head like a song. "It's alright." Harry assures her, shaking hands tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I will love you forever -it's alright."

Chills run across her spine as Lena closes her eyes. His hands rest on her face and she leans into Harry's touch. Inhaling deeply. Eyes opening. And there he is. The ghost she has been chasing all these years. Before her. Drenched in firelight just as the night they met. Lena loves him. Entirely. Completely. For everything he has ever been and everything he might become.

Heart drumming against her ribs, Lena reaches for him. Blood staining her fingers where it had flowed freely from the cut. He pulls closer to her. Until she can feel his breath on her cheek and his heart in his chest. The sound echoing the song of her own heart.

"Forever." She whispers into his ear. Lips trailing along until they find Harry's mouth.

Turning from him, Lena faces the flames. Beyond it, the full moon hangs heavy in the sky. Night so dark one could not tell where it met the sea.

And Lena could feel it in her bones. Magic drifting through the air. Radiating through her body. Calling to her in a way she has not answered in a very long time. The language of the dead brushes across her lips. Falling around where they stand. Flames shoot up from the fire. Higher, higher, higher. And in the distance Lena can hear the seas rising and roaring as she calls to them.

Then she hears them.

Thousands of years of the women her mothers always spoke of. Speaking the words alongside her. Holding her hands as she starts to tremble. The witches the world had burned. Together. And Lena knew, in that moment, she was the most terrifying thing to walk this earth.

And then, nothing.

Flames extinguish.

Silence engulfs them both.

The seas fall docile once more.

Nothing but the sound of their labored breathing. Lena faces Harry, looking at him as if it is the first time. Waiting. For something. The stars to crash to the sea. To fade into the dark. For the gods themselves to answer.

Anything.

It is as Lena's hands sweep across Harry's temple, she realizes something is happening.