"Hold still, I'm almost finished," I say, my knees deep in the grass.
"You're killing me, Firefly."
"Just a little longer, Quicksilver," I promise, scribbling in the final doodle onto his cast, the smell of permanent marker thick in my nose. "And...done."
Peter helps me to my feet and smiles down at his recovering leg, "You're the best."
I smile back at him, "I know."
The two of us look of ahead of ourselves, watching the final beams of wood being levitated into their places, the mansion almost completely restored. The sun warms our cheeks, and I notice Peter staring up at the sky, looking at Magneto with unwavering attention. He grabs my hand.
"I didn't have the balls," he admits to me in a mumble, still staring off, "I chickened out."
I shake my head and rub my fingers up and down his arm, "There's nothing wrong with that." He plants a kiss on my cheek.
"Mystique told me he is your father." Our heads turn to find Storm, joining Peter in staring up at Eric floating in the blue sky. "Are you gonna tell him?"
Peter looks at me with a happy grin, for once not overcome with the need to keep moving, completely content with where we are now—the sun-filled moment playing out before us. I lean my head against his shoulder as he answers, "I think for now we're just gonna stick around here for a while." I slips on a pair of shades, protecting his eyes for what's coming next as he pulls my face up to his, colliding our lips firm and gentle. I don't try to hold back the glow of my cheeks.
Storm laughs, warmed by the display, then returns her gaze to the sky as she adds, "Me too."
I let a long, satisfied breath swirl in and out, overtaken by a new feeling radiating from me. It feels like hope. It feels like love. It feels like everything all of the stars and sunspots and hills and trenches have been leading up to is here right now, strengthening within. I feel whole. I feel new. Like a tree flourishing with color, with soft petals and syrupy fruit and a thousand little honeybees.
Like there's a little bundle of life, growing inside of me...
"Long you live and high you fly
and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
and all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be..."
-Pink Floyd "Breathe"
End of Book III
(to be continued in Book IV...)
YOU ARE READING
Heroes: Book III
FanfictionWithout any warning we were there, staring at the dark and pain of the world. I could sense it all. All the black matter consuming humanity. But for some odd reason I wasn't afraid. He just laced his fingers with mine and looked at me in a way that...
