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“I think I’m in love with you, and I’m terrified.”
The words slashed at Elina, hurting her far more than losing her wings had.
Hearing the one person she truly loved confess that she felt the same should have been an elation, it should have sent her shooting to the moon with heart-shaped sparks trailing after her.
Instead, Nori had pierced her, pushing Elina over a cliff of heartbreak.
“Why are you terrified?” Elina asked. She thought it would be simpler than asking why the other girl hated her, or why she wasn’t enough for the mermaid. That would be the only reason why Nori would be terrified, right?
“Because you’re so perfect. Because I know that no matter how much I love you, I’ll never be as good or as kind as you.”
Nori’s hands twisted, her tail flapped slightly in the shallow water where they sat.
Elina reached towards the mermaid, brushing her striking hair out of her eyes. “Nori, is that really what you think?”
Refusing to meet her eyes, Nori nodded slightly, but Elina felt the way she leaned into her touch even still. “I don’t want you to think any less of me because of this, but I had to let you know.”
“Oh, Nori.” Elina could feel her heart cracking for the other girl and knew she needed to bandage her wounds, even if they couldn’t be seen from the outside. “I love you so, so, much, and I’m sorry if you haven’t realized that.”
“That’s the thing though,” Nori slid away from Elina’s touch, putting distance between them on the sandy beach, “you love everyone. There’s nothing special about the way you feel for me because you treat every person you meet with the same kindness.”
It was true that Elina radiated warmth and friendliness, but she knew her feelings for Nori were different. She knew the love that she felt for the mermaid was stronger, more piercing than anything she had felt before.
“That’s not true,” she said simply, before leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Nori’s lips.
The other girl’s eyes widened, her lips moving against Elina’s automatically before she relaxed, pressing closer against the fairy. Pink and blue should have clashed, but the two colours fit perfectly together in an unexplainable tandem.
When Elina finally pulled back, cheeks flushed and eyes bright she smiled crookedly at Nori. “I hope that showed you how I truly feel about you.”
“I’m not entirely convinced,” Nori said, her eyes flashing with a blazing cunningness that Elina loved seeing on her face, “you might need to show me again.”
Laughing, Elina wrapped her arms around Nori’s neck before showing her just how much she loved her.