- Last Breath -

                                    

                                          
As Soren walks into his bathroom, I find myself pondering my morning as I take a seat on his bed. Rayla's undiscovery has me on edge. 
How do I tell Soren? 
"This stuff is surprisingly easy to get out," he calls, his voice muffled by the water rushing around him. 
"Mhmm," is all I manage as my gaze stays focused on the wooden floor beneath my boots. How am I supposed to tell him my hatred with the fact that his father may be alive? 
Just thinking about it makes me feel horrible. 
The tap turns off and the room is left with silence. The light emitted by the window in his bathroom casts movement in Soren's shadow across the floor. I hear his cautious footsteps as I feel the presence of his watchful eyes. 
"You alright?" He inquires and I nod my head slightly, thinking of what to do. What to say. 
My body thankfully makes the choice to stand and I turn to look at Soren. "We need to talk," I say solemnly as a simple way to start.
He smiles slyly, "talk away," he pronounces. However when he realises I don't reflect his own emotions, the gesture fades and I inhale deeply before speaking.
"Rayla visited me in my room this morning-"
"Hey, that's nice," he interrupts and I give him a stern look. "Right, continue."
"She told me..." my words trail off as I break eye contact. I feel his thumb and forefinger grade my chin as he guides my head back up. What am I doing. Acting like we haven't been with each other majority of our lives. I can talk to him. "She didn't find Viren's body." 
Sure is one way to rip off the Band-Aid.
His hand falls from my face and I feel slightly better when his visage reflects my own emotions. 
"Claudia?" He asks quietly. 
"She wasn't there either," I tell him and I watch his jaw clench. Regarding him at this state is always hard, how his confident facade can fade so easily. "Are you okay?"
I take a step closer, minimising the space between us. Not in a romantic way, but a comforting one, showing how I'm not far out of reach. We need to be here for each other. "Well," he begins and I see his shoulders grow as he regains composer, "it's been a long time, I'm pretty sure we would know if they're alive."
It's hard to contain my frown, realising that's exactly what I said to Rayla jsut some hours ago. It can be hard to face the facts. Especially when you don't know how dangerous they could be. 
"You're right," I choose to say, trying desperately to grasp at the last granules of hope trickling out of the hourglass. "Plus," I find a true grin creep onto my features, "look at us," I gesture between our bodies. "I think we can take on anything that comes our way. We have each other." 
Soren's smile is like a sudden beam sunlight, illuminating the darkest corners of worry in my head. 
"Yeah just look at these muscles," he brings his left arm up, not caring that I can't see anything under the metal, and plants a kiss on his armoured bicep. 
"Ugh," I exclaim dramatically before walking out the room. 
I don't need to walk far until I hear his footsteps hurrying behind me. 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The celebration has now been moved to the podium down by the sand. The whole Kingdom has come. The sun is setting and it's lovely. Callum, Soren and I flank Ezran going up the large steps. We join Opeli and Corvus on the stage.