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Genya turned to face him.

"You can ask whatever you want.

I don't mind.

I swear..."

Her voice was soft, like a spring lullaby.

She smiled.

His hand clasped the side of her face. "Do you want to..." His voice broke off. "Er... kiss?" His face went red. "Okay, should I just have gone for it?"

---

Genya froze.

Her face went tomato red.

"Y-you.....s-should've gone for i-it...." She squeaked.

Her face felt like it was burning.

She couldn't move.

"Okay, got it-" Suddenly, his lips were pressed against hers. They were kissing.

A loon called in the distance.

---

Genya's hear pounded in her ears.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

She couldn't believe it.

She was kissing.....the boy she liked.

Alexander pulled back. "Those... were the seconds," he laughed, awkwardly, ruffling the back of his hair. "Thanks... Gen."

---

Genya blushed.

"T-thanks.....Aleko..."

-----------------------------------

Raiyhan lay down on the floor, outside his room.

He groaned.

Lightning crackled.

Isla sat up in her bed, her eyes red and raw. She glared at the puppet, who'd been half-hazardously flung against the wall earlier in her fit of rage. "Get up!" she spat.

It didn't move.

She was on her feet in an instant. Her gaze flashed, and she began wobbling. No- not now! She forced herself to stagger towards the puppet and crouched besides it.

She tore the puppet's handhold open from the ragged stitches that she'd formed back when she was seven. When the fire had burned everything down...

Empty. She thought as such.

Isla cursed her stupidity Why hadn't she been more careful? This was bound to happen...

She clasped her hands together... and concentrated.

A specific soul...

Fire burned behind her eyes.

She concentrated on it.

Think back to that day...

Think back to who had died.

With a gasp she had jerked out of her mind.

The puppet's button eyes glowed red for a second- And then it woke up. "Hey, what happened?" it complained in its usual whining keen. "What did you do, Isl-WHOOAH-" She was hugging the puppet, squeezing it tight to her chest. "What's with you?!"

"You're okay," she whispered. "You're okay..."

"Well, yeah, I'm okay," the puppet grumped. "As I have been, for the past ten years."

She scoffed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Don't be ridiculous. This state? Okay? You could die any moment if light so much as touched you."

The puppet snorted. "As if you'd let that happen, freak."

She relaxed. Everything was fine. It'd just been a one time thing. And... the puppet didn't know.

"I wouldn't. I never... would..."

After all, keeping this person alive forever was the only reason she still existed, wasn't it?

---

Alexander's cheeks flushed with colour, and suddenly he was on his feet. "Come on, lemme take you on a real date," he declared, pulling her up. "Not one by a body of water..." Suddenly, his arm jerked the wrong way, and she was sent falling into the water. "Oh, cra-"

---

Genya shrieked.

The water enveloped her.

She thrashed around, but was stuck.

Waves began to loom over her, tall, and dark.

Genya screamed.

Her sweater was torn off her.

A loud RIP of her shorts caused her to cry in horror.

It was happening.

Her...transformation.

The water glowed.

Her clothes were torn off her, replaced by the waves.

They shaped into a billowing blue gown, with purple wave marking on the front and back.

Beige colours weaved into her hair.

Her eyes glowed purple.

Genya screamed.

Alexander crouched over the edge of the water, his arm extended. Genya, he seemed to be saying, perhaps calling. Genya, are you there? His face was a blur, hidden by the waves.

---

"ALEKO! I- I CAN'T GET OUT OF THE FREAKIN' WATER!" She screamed.

"H-HELP!"

She began to panic.

"Aleko....i-if I get out of the water, the transformation completely goes.....NOW CAN YOU SEE WHY I'M PANICKIN'?"

He clasped her wrist. "H-Hold on! Just- give me a second-" Her hand slipped from his grip. "Crap- I'll find a branch-"

---

"NO! YOU CAN'T! I'LL BE...AHHH!" Shrieked Genya.

His grip turned to stone, and suddenly he was dragging her up, out of the water. "Hold on-"

---

"NO! ALEKO....STOP!"

Genya started to panic.

"Listen to me clearly Aleko. If I touch the ground....the transformation will disappear. Completely. Do you understand me now...?" She said slowly.

With a final jerk he pulled her up onto the shore. "What was that?" he asked.

---

Everything was hazy now.

When he was younger, everything was clear. Everything he wanted was right there for the taking, he just had to be strong enough to grasp it.

But it wasn't like that.

At least not now.

It was a battle. Every move had to be calculated. Every match had to be met. He had to be on alert every second. Or he'd lose everything.

Everyone would leave him.

Adrik remembered when he was little there was an alcove in the wall. He'd loved to curl up in that one spot in his parent's mansion. It was cozy, like a little cocoon wrapped around him. He could read in there, learn about magic. Learn how to earn love from other people. And when he came out, he'd be the most beautiful, magical butterfly in the world. Not like the quiet, sad butterfly (or moth) which had died in the corner of his room.

But it had never worked like that.

Perhaps he had emerged as a butterfly. But that had hardly changed anything. Still no one loved him. His teachers praised him of course. His peers stared on in envy. His dad ruffled his hair one time while going out the door.

But it wasn't love.

Were they afraid of him? Or were they regretful, realizing that they hadn't realized the potential of the caterpillar and could've made it the way they wanted if they'd only seen it first?

Love wasn't supposed to feel like that.

The day before he left, then he had curled up in that alcove again. He hadn't read. He'd just stared blankly at the top of it. His blankets had been removed years ago, perhaps by one of his parents or step-siblings. Or perhaps by the maids.

He was positive that this time, he was going to emerge from every cocoon that held him. At St. Venti's.

...

And now that he was here, he understood why that butterfly- (or moth)- had gone inside his room, instead of staying outside with its friends, where it was warm and beautiful.

Freedom. Love. None of that mattered once you realized the cost.

The cost which had left a gaping, terrified hole in his chest.

And now, Adrik longed to return to his alcove. To his cocoon.

But there was no escape for a butterfly.

There was only a room. There was only the friendship of people. People who truly didn't love the caterpillar hiding in the depths of the cocoon. People who only wanted the beauty of the butterfly.

There was only an identity that Adrik didn't want to be at all.

---

Genya shrieked as the transformation disappeared, hair, clothes and all.

The sunlight glinted off her pale, alabaster skin, as she jumped back in the water, swimming up to shoulder height to cover her bare skin.

"ALEKO YOU...YOU....AHHH!" She shouted.

"NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!"

His mouth opened and closed. Then her burst out laughing. "That's what you meant!"

---

Genya fumed.

"....you are so annoying Aleko...."

She sighed and turned her back on him.

Bobbing peacefully in the water, she managed a small smile.

She breathed shakily.

He was cackling like a hyena. "Oh my god, I can't believe that- oh gods, that's-" He keeled over, laughing. "Don't rescue meeeeee, Aleko!"

---