Bound- Red Threads of Fate Jaya AU

They say in heaven, love comes first; we'll make heaven a place on Earth

Note: We took a really long break for Jaya week (which took way longer than a week) and just summer stuff, but we're back with the last chapter/epilogue! I'm not sure why I keep referring to myself as we. I'm only one person.

Anyway, this happens a bit after the last chapter, so I guess it can be counted as an epilogue. It still has a title though, cause I've been saving it for this one. Pretty soon I'll try to put out a list of links to all the songs the different titles are from.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

The metal blades of the shears were cold against Nya's neck, and she shivered slightly as she felt the long pieces of hair fall to the floor. A moment later, Skylor stepped in front of her, staring at her hair as if mentally measuring it.

"What do you think?" She handed Nya a gold hand mirror. "I'm not sure if it's quite even, but I think it looks pretty good."

She had spent so long carefully trimming, Nya hoped it did. She looked in the mirror.

"Wow." She looked so . . . different. Her hair only reached just past her chin, where it ended blunt and straight, even on both sides. Her bangs, which had been cut by her mother when she was young but now were usually long and unevenly trimmed, were cut straight across and somewhat thin in the middle, with some longer pieces, almost the length of the rest of her hair, in front of her ears.

"How'd I do?" Skylor said, sounding rather unlike her confident self, as she often seemed to recently.

"You did great. Thanks." Nya waited for Skylor to unwrap the sheet they'd been using to keep the hair off her clothes from around her shoulders, then stood. "I hope it'll have the right effect."

The point of cutting her hair was to, alongside other things, help people see her as an average teenage girl. Not the weird, almost divine or inhuman thread-mage. Just a person who had feelings and problems like them.

Except her problems were, arguably, bigger.

"Will you have dinner with us tonight?" She asked Skylor, trying to think about something else. She felt like she had hardly seen Skylor recently, but she and Jay were leaving so soon, and she thought they should make the most of their time here. After all, they didn't know when, or even if, they'd be back. Now that their time to leave had almost come, she wished they had spent more time together. But ever since Kai and Cole had decided to leave for the new army boot camp the emperors had set up in preparation for the war, the rest of them hadn't made as much effort to do things as a group.

Luckily, Skylor nodded. "Of course. Guess we'd better have one last great hall dinner before you guys go back."

"Great," Nya smiled. "I'll invite Zane too, of course. See you then."

---

"You know, in a strange way, it kind of seems like we've been here forever." Nya said to Jay as they walked to dinner later that day.

"I know. It'll be so strange to be back home. No running water, or electric lights. It kind of seems like that was a whole different world, except we lived our whole lives there." He sighed. "I'll miss it here, but it'll be nice to see my parents again. I can't imagine what they think has happened to us, being gone for so long."

He looked so sad, Nya was almost glad they were leaving. "I wonder what they'll think of all this. I'm sure they'll be glad to see you, of course, but . . ."

"Don't worry, they'll like you." Jay said fiercely. "They already do, for keeping me out of trouble."

"They probably don't anymore, since they likely think I've led you to your death." As soon as she said it, she wished she hadn't. "I'm sorry. I know they'll be happy to see you, and I don't really matter. Not anymore."