Sls final

 "Wait, so what you're telling me is, <i>you</i> made that hurricane on your wedding and yet you blamed your brother?!"

Pepa looked uncomfortable, and a fogbank obscured her face as she answered. "Yessss... I took his joke too seriously."

"You're both okay now, right?" 

There were a few conversations like that during their meal as Elly was told by various family members the stories of what happened after Bruno left and then came back. Most were a little awkward, at best, and her man tossed some salt backwards at the table at the end of breakfast for good luck. He wasn't quite sure everything was going to go as smoothly as they wished, and they could use all the extra luck they could get.

They retired to his tower to discuss plans, and she was silent the entire trip up. 

"Is everything all right, love?"

"Yes!" She hugged him before flinging herself onto a comfortable chair. A rat scurried onto the back with a brush in its paws, wriggling its whiskers and staring at her hair with longing.

Bruno raised an eyebrow at it. "<i>Not now</i>," he mouthed silently, shooing it away with a panicked look. The furry creature pouted but ran off.

"Everything's better now than it's been for years," Elly continued with a smile. 

He stared at her for a moment, coughed, and sat on the bed beside her. "I don't think my mother -"

"She doesn't approve of me for some reason. I know. She didn't when we were kids, and she doesn't now."

He shrugged. "I don't care. The present is more important than the past."

"And the future?" She paused, hesitating and unsure. "Bruno, <i>our</i> future?"

He sighed, rubbing his arms and withdrawing into himself. "Please don't ask about such things."

Elly apologized at once. "I'm sorry, I just - you know I'm scared. If I lost you again I don't know what I'd do."

He stared at the floor for several long minutes before sighing. "If you want, I'll share one with you, but! It might not be what you expect, and it may show you what you do not wish to know." 

"I - I don't want to cause you pain."

"The visions themselves don't hurt," he informed her, rubbing his temples. "It's what I See, when and how much, along with the stress of trying to decipher it all. And, and, well... it's worse when it's unexpected or I wake up with the remnants of one like this morning."

"People interpret your visions badly, right?"

He nodded. "<i>Si</i>."

"But there's different sides and ways of seeing things... like Mirabel realized. Right? I'll chance it. I want to share this at least once, since it's a big part of you." She took his hands in hers and held them to her lips. 

He watched her silently for a few long seconds and then sighed dramatically loud. "All right." 

"Thank you."

"But we have to go outside here. The room before this has the area I do this in."

"The one with the candles." He nodded and helped her up with a hand gone suddenly cold. Elly frowned in concern but as soon as she was up he was out, preparing the sandy floor beyond.

The room was circular, as it was the top of the tower, and flanked with sconces that held candles. Green glass depictions of his previous sessions were set into the wall in intervals, peppered liberally throughout with the trials of human life. They weren't all depressing, she noticed - the few she could see showed happy marriages and similar scenes. She watched as he readied his viewing space.

"Okay." At last Bruno sat inside the circle and crossed his legs, taking a deep breath as he lit the leaves around them. "I - I need to do this, to help me..."

Elly curled her tail neatly around herself and sat across from him. "You don't have to explain if you don't want to. It's stressful enough and I appreciate your efforts."

He nodded gratefully and closed his eyes. When he opened them a moment later the green was lit from within, though curiously blank as he looked at what she couldn't see right away. The fire between them roared up and sand spiraled into a cone around the couple, whirling rapidly. She laid her ears back but sat quietly watching the sand as it began to coalesce into images. The dark-haired man suddenly stood, his poncho whipping about himself and his hands balled into fists.

It was two older people; both, however, easily identified. His older self lay on a bed and a a grandmotherly Elly sat beside him, holding his hand. She kissed it, then laid it on his chest before setting her forehead on his motionless arm to weep.

"Oh," Elly whispered as the scene unfolded, sobbing. "Oh my god."

His knees gave way and he crumpled to the ground, still-glowing eyes pouring tears down ravaged cheeks. He instinctively caught the glass piece the vision produced from the sand and held it up, tilting it this way and that. "Now you know," he husked. The fire in his eyes went out all at once.

"Why are you sad?" Elly grasped his face in her hands and covered him in kisses, still crying a little. "Everyone is going to die someday, but your vision shows we'll be together right until the very end. It's bittersweet, yeah, but look how much we're in love."

"There was death but <i>you saw love</i>?" His large eyes focused on her, wet with tears and filled with wonder. "You - you really still want to be with me?" 

"There are no bad visions," she insisted. "It's life. There's no way to escape it. You don't make these things happen, Bruno. I won't leave. I love you."

"I showed you <i>death</i> -" his voice broke and he took hold of her by the shoulders, tilting his head as his eyes still poured tears. "Or something close to it, my <i>gata</i>, my precious one... and you? You still..?"

She looked deeply into his eyes and nodded. "There is no life for me unless I can be with you until the end."

"I - I can't..!" He sniffed loudly, then grasped her around the waist with a determined grunt. "The - the <i>official</i> marriage can wait. I can't anymore." He lifted her in his arms and purposefully carried her into the living quarters.

He laid her on the bed - <i>our bed,</i> she mused dreamily as she held her arms out towards him. <i>This is our bed now</i> -- and joined her, kneeling above. 

Clothing was shed as they kissed and caressed, writhing on the sheets and tangling them in places until he muttered and tossed them aside. He turned back as they fluttered to the floor and their eyes met and held.

"I've never done this before."

"Me, either." She held out her arms. "But I think we can figure it out, no?"

Bruno smiled then, a genuinely happy smile. "I think you're right. Here, maybe if..."

They shifted and moved together slowly until their bodies became one.

"<i>My god</i>," he gasped, shuddering. "You're so <i>hot</i> inside, <i>mi alma</i> - my soul -- I never thought..!" He fell over her, his forehead pressed to hers and his eyes dark with passion. His hair tented over them, giving them more intimacy as they came together in a devastating kiss.

"You feel so good," she moaned. "Please don't stop. Keep loving me."

He arched his back, sweat dripping from his brow and beading on his skin everywhere else. "I'll try my best," he wheezed, "but <i>this</i>, this is different. It's so much <i>more</i>."

She raised her legs along his sides and kissed him seriously. "Don't worry, give me what you can and I'll do the same."

"Oh god." He moved slowly for fear of losing control, his hips bucking now and then as a shudder of pleasure wracked his body. As predicted, however, the pleasure was simply too much; he couldn't hold back and lost himself in an explosive release of pleasure.

He needn't have worried, however.

His love was with him in body and in soul, as she would always be.