Eamon and I spent months after that day working together, him sitting in on my English lessons from time to time. A new school year had started after a few months, where we both moved up to Level Six. Despite only being Level Six, I was given access to the Level Eight Linguistics class so that I would have a more formal way of learning my languages. Everyone else on our team had the same, although Atlas and Juno were most likely going to be in the course anyways. 

Despite having my formal lessons and my informal lessons, the informal ones being the ones Eamon would sit in on to be an extra help if needed, it was like I was getting nowhere. I could tell my teammates were getting slightly frustrated with me. They had all already been able to excel in at least holding a common conversation, basically meaning they could go to their areas and order food if needed. I was able to grasp vocabulary and was starting to understand when people would speak to me, but speaking myself was extremely hard. It was like I was unable to release the sounds despite my mind knowing what needed to be said. 

Despite my struggles, as planned we went to visit Eamon's extended human family and met with everyone. He explained to everyone that I could mostly understand what they were saying, but I had difficulties talking myself. The easiest lie was to say I was a friend from Greenland who spoke Greenlandic, as he figured his cousins would have no idea what Greenlandic would sound like. They were a bit surprised to find that he spoke Greenlandic, so he mentioned that it had been over two years since they saw him and he had actually done an exchange program there where he was forced to learn. They bought the story, and it allowed him to translate for me when needed, and give me a voice when I had things to express I couldn't do in English. 

No matter though, I was getting frustrated with myself. Despite my improvement, I knew I would never be as good as they wanted me to be in a time constraint. With each passing day I was worried that would be the day Eamon would tell me to not bother and just go home, and to tell me that the council decided my lack of progress meant that I would no longer be welcome on the team. 

That never happened, though. I started to slightly improve a big quicker once my mentor from the previous team valiant, Haelyn, reached out to me and started to join in on my lessons, as she didn't know English either and figured it would make me feel better if there was another person in the room as clueless as me. It turned out she was just as bad at learning languages as I was, and we bonded as we took turns helping each other improve. 

One day, though, it was particularly hard. I woke up late and almost missed school, I got lunch detention for entering my morning class late, and my last class that day was my linguistics class where my teacher gave a long, agonizing rant on how difficult I was to teach--complaining that normally she'd be working through multiple languages with her students, but I was having trouble picking up even one. She made a snide remark about my age, and I recognized that she believed the class was meant for Level Eights for a reason. 

When I got home both my parents were at their restaurant, and when I opened my homework to begin I made the realization I had left behind all my notes by accident. With each new thing that happened that day, I felt like all the past months were coming crashing on me. It had been almost a year since I manifested, and while I felt confident in those abilities, it was like those were my only talents. Fire. 

I was to a point where I wanted to ignore Marella's warnings and summon everblaze in hopes of it backfiring and burning myself alive. At least it would mean I would no longer be forced to learn English. Grammatically the worst language to ever exist. 

All my pent up emotions started to release and I found myself sobbing into my pillow, hoping it would swallow me and all my misery. I tried to assure myself it was just a bad day, but considering the past few months had been a series of bad days with the occasional happy day sprinkled in, it felt like a lost cause. 

After a long cry, and failed attempt to calm myself down, I picked up my imparter. Normally I'd call Blythe, but she had told me during lunch that day that Arrowe was going to take her out for dinner. The two had grown increasingly close over the months, especially as I had started to become busy with my extra work, and I was simply waiting for Blythe to come right out and say they were together. 

She told me that she'd say it as soon as I admitted my feelings for Eamon, which immediately led to the conversation being over and me shutting up. As I thought of Eamon, I weighed the pros and cons of calling him in my moment of distress. I didn't want to scare him away, I'm sure I looked extremely crazy after an hour of sobbing, but at the same time I figured he'd be the one out of everyone else in my life to calm and reassure me the quickest. 

I quickly ran to brush my hair and fix my face before calling him. "Hello?" he answered cheerfully. I opened my mouth to respond, but instead it seemed like I was just reminded of everything and let out another sob instead. I felt slightly embarrassed at my lack of response, but he didn't make fun of me. Instead he simply stated in a more serious tone, "I'll be there in a few minutes," and then hung up. 

He was punctual as expected and let himself into my house, and I heard him taking the stairs up to my room most likely two at a time. No words spoken, he climbed into my bed beside me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders so all I could do was rest myself against him so I was practically laying on top of him. 

In the past few months it wasn't the first time he saw me cry, occasionally an English lesson would make me so frustrated a tear or two would spill, but it was definitely the first time he saw me full on breakdown. I was surprised he didn't talk or try to get me to stop, instead he simply ran his hands up and down my arms as I cried into his shoulder. When I stopped we continued to sit in silence until finally he broke the tension and whispered, "Do you want to talk about it?" 

I sighed, sitting up so I was no longer resting on him. We sat next to each other on the bed and I shrugged. "I just feel like I'm only getting worse. The only thing I'm good at is being a pyrokinetic. But none of my other sessions are good. Sure, I'm passing everything, but my Linguistics teacher is moments away from throttling me every single day. I'm failing at the one thing I was asked to do for the team. Everyone knows it. I'm just waiting for them to decide I'm no longer useful and to kick me off." 

Eamon gave me a gentle smile. "Nova, we're barely six months into this work. You've only been learning English for about five months. You're not going to learn an entire language and the ins and outs in less than that. And you're getting so much better!" Then, just to prove his point, he started to speak in English. "You're understanding me now, aren't you?" 

"Yes," I replied back in English, although the word felt odd on my tongue. 

"Look at that!" he shouted in encouragement, staying in the foreign language. "Try to say something else." 

"My name is Nova," I responded, humoring him. He gestured, encouraging me to continue. I sighed before deciding that he was only trying to help, so I would let him. "I am a normal human. Not an elf. Elves don't exist." It took me a few extra moments to put the phrases together, but I was sure I got the grammar correct. 

He rolled his eyes. "I taught you that as a joke, you can't actually say that when you're with the humans," he told me, switching back to the language I actually knew how to speak. "But, I'm extremely proud of you. Just a month ago you weren't able to do that!"

He was correct, but I still felt miserable. "How come everyone else is able to move so fast, though? I don't get it." 

Eamon sighed. "Well, most of them already knew some slight English while you were starting directly from scratch. And that's okay, that's what the program is about. The council is watching to see, and with your struggle they're able to get a concept of what struggles others might face. They're preparing for everyone, not just those who are good at learning languages, to start working on this. I doubt they care how long it takes you because of this." 

"It's just been a bad day," I finally told him. I explained my entire day, and he sighed and pulled me back into a hug. 

"Bad days are going to happen all the time, but hey? Why don't we do something to turn it into a good day. What homework do you have?" 

"A lot," I responded. "I don't think I have time for fun, especially because I wasted so much time crying. Besides, it's going to take me extra long since I left all my notes at school." 

"Well, we'll finish your homework together and then we can go back to my place. I can show you some more human movies since you're supposed to be studying them, and maybe we can even sit around and listen to some human music. Have a party, but it's just the two of us who are invited. Would your parents mind?" He looked at me. 

I shrugged. "I doubt it, if I pass it off as Team Valiant exercises." 

"It is an exercise," he said, although the wink he gave proved otherwise. I knew he just wanted an excuse to watch a movie and listen to music. The good days I previously mentioned that were sprinkled in pretty much were all the days that Eamon would have us ignore the rest of our responsibilities and instead just hang out and do exactly as he planned. 

I thought about it for a moment and then offered, "You do my Elvin History assignment and I'll try my best to get through my linguistics?" 

He stood off the bed and moved to my desk so he could grab the work I mentioned. "You don't even have to ask." 

With both of us working together to finish my work, we were able to get it done within the next hour. That meant we had until into the night to watch movies and hang out. The next day was a Tuesday, and as we made the small trek to his home I mentioned excitement for my session with Marella the next day. "We're going to work on my drawing heat but focusing it on one part. The idea is to possibly heal someone who's going through being burned, I guess. I don't know. It sounds like fun though." 

He talked about his own telepathy session as we passed his parents in the living room, who smiled at us. As months passed they got used to the two of us hanging out in their home, so it was getting to a point where they would barely acknowledge us whenever I'd come over. Being that he left in such a rush, though, I figured they might be a bit worried. What had he told them when he left?

"Are you doing good?" Sophie asked, concern melted into her features. "Eamon didn't say much, just that he needed to go see you immediately."  

I sent him a thankful look as I remembered that he dropped everything to come see me, and then I turned back to her. "It's been a rough day, but I'm feeling better now, thank you."

"We're going to work on her cultural integration," Eamon told his mother. 

Keefe snorted and said, "We know you just want to watch some movies. You don't have to lie. You're allowed to watch them, we made the trip to the forbidden cities to get them for a reason." 

I laughed at Keefe's words, but Eamon simply waved him off before grabbing my hand and dragging me to the roof. What was once a place where the family would have picnics and watch Keefe paint was now Eamon and I's hangout spot. To be completely honest, we got a bit tired of his parents constantly watching us while we were in his room, but didn't want to be mean about it. Being on the roof simply gave more privacy, not that we had anything to hide. But in his room he wasn't allowed to close his door, the roof was the opposite. If he didn't close it, bugs would get in. 

There was a large projector set up, a giant white sheet hanging off a clothes line being used as the screen. I wondered why they did that, as I'm sure Serena's father could have set up something more tech-y, and better working. Eamon mentioned that it was something his mom liked doing specifically from when she thought she was human, but he didn't go that much into detail. 

"What genre do you want to do today?" he questioned, flipping through the different options. "We watched comedy last time." 

My nose scrunched as I thought of the raunchy romantic-comedy he had put on. "Maybe let's go in a different direction this time. I liked that one action movie you played!"

"It's actually part of a series," he said, getting excited. "We can watch something else from it!" I agreed that it was a good idea, and he immediately got everything set up. We had pillows and blankets set up so we were lying down. When we first started doing movie nights I would get super uncomfortable and sat as far away from him as possible. As the months went on I started to get more comfortable in the situation and eventually we got to a place where I would sit up with my back rested against a table and he would lay down, using my legs as a pillow. 

The movie got interesting extremely quick, and I specifically fell in love with the romantic storyline, although I would never admit that to him. Without even thinking I found myself saying, "If I could find someone to look at me like he looks at her, I think everything in my life would just fall into place." 

Eamon chuckled at my words, but my cheeks still turned red in embarrassment. "What I take away is being so lucky to have someone to look at like that, to be so grateful to have that person in your life who means so much to you, that every time you look at them it's like falling in love all over again." 

I hummed at his response so he knew I was listening, but was once again sucked wildly into the plot. More than just the romantic subplot, the rest of the movie itself was just as entertaining. I found myself moving when characters moved, leaning in anticipation whenever I'd be worried of something going wrong. I even shed a few tears when the main character's parental figure sacrificed himself so that the main character could live a long, happy life with their love interest. 

"Wow." I felt like I couldn't say more. "Eamon, I swear there better be more movies in that series." 

He nodded, laughing as I wiped more tears from my eyes. "We can watch another one tomorrow if you'd like?" I nodded immediately, not even trying to hide my interest in it. 

"Well, let's listen to some music now. I can even show you some of those dances my cousin was trying to teach me." I laughed, full-well knowing that while he was good at a lot of things, dancing definitely was not on that list. He had two left feet, something he had apparently inherited from his mother. My mind flashed back to just a month ago when we had our opening ceremonies, where we all dressed like yetis. Somehow he was able to find me in the crowd so that we could dance badly together. 

I went along with what he said anyways, knowing that I wasn't a prize either when it came to dancing. "Sure, go ahead and teach me." He started playing more upbeat songs where we jumped and flailed around, mostly off-beat. Oddly enough we were still always in unison. 

After a while a more slower song started playing, and he almost switched it off but I told him it was fine. "We need a break from the moving anyways," I said, smiling. 

We stood still for a moment, breathing heavily as we'd been jumping around to loud music for a lot time at that point. A glint entered his eyes and suddenly he turned to me and held out a hand. "May I have this dance?" He smiled. 

I took his outstretched hand and jokingly curtsied, remembering this happening in one of those movies he had showed me. We tried to waltz around at first, but after a few too many times of stepping on each other's feet, we decided to simply walk in circles very carefully. Another slow song continued after that one, but neither of us tried to switch it back to more upbeat ones. A gentle male voice started singing, something about a dress and hair. I tried to focus on the lyrics of the song, knowing that technically I was doing this so I could work on my English vocabulary. Still, I was getting distracted by the fact that as the dance continued my arms had naturally made their way so that my hands could be interlocked behind his neck, and his hands were resting casually on my hips as we spun. 

Originally as we were spinning around, we were laughing as we avoided running over each other's feet once again. But as we found a steady rhythm, although it was debatable whether that rhythm actually matched the rhythm of the song, we started to calm down and instead turned silent as we looked into each other's eyes. 

As we danced, listening to the sounds of the male singer declaring his love for the subject of the song, I thought about our earlier conversation about the romantic storyline of the action movie. As the months went by and Eamon and I grew even closer than before, I found myself thinking even harder about Blythe and Lyra's teasing. They stopped being as loud about it, but every once and a while we'd have a sleepover where it would be brought up again. As time went on I stopped being as mad, and in the past month or two it had even gotten to the point where I found myself slightly gushing with them. 

"If I could find someone to look at me like he looks at her, I think everything in my life would just fall into place," I had told him. But what I didn't say, was it would be finding him looking at me like that to have the pieces of my life fall into place. But in that moment, it was like my walls started to tumble down. I was hoping he was feeling that too. I was too scared to say anything, he had always been the one of the two of us to be more open. To constantly express loving having me in his life. To constantly express wanting me around. 

The girls had me convinced he liked me too, and after time went by I did start to recognize that we were starting to flirt. But he never tried anything further than that. Was he just as scared as I was? Suddenly I wish I had manifested as an empath. Maybe I'd know. 

He let out a sigh and pulled me in so we were still spinning, but with our posture we were hugging. "Hey, Nova?" he broke the silence. 

I felt my heart beating. "Yeah?" 

"I can't ever imagine being this close with anyone else. I don't think I ever want to." 

"I don't think I ever could be this close with anyone else," I responded. We didn't say anything else on the subject that night, but it felt like enough. 

We continued to dance like that for the rest of the song, the song ending with the singer revisiting the first verse about the dress and the hair. 

When I woke up late and ended up having the worst day of my life, I don't think I realized it would soon turn into one of the best ones. 

---

... 

that's all i have to say. 

kidding. 

i have a lot to say. i wrote this ten days ago because this scene has been in my mind since i started the book and it's all i've ever wanted to write for the two. 

next chapter is the last one before the epilogue. ahh. probably will be dropped either tomorrow or the day after depending. book will be ending this week :(

happy valentines day, you are all my valentines officially so i want you to know i love you so very much! thanks for reading thus far and i'm hoping the end of the book does not disappoint!