It was evening. Oak's Tea Room had closed, so I had ventured out from hiding in Airlia and Ethan's apartment to sit with Airlia in the café's serving area. We didn't really talk. We had talked enough when I had arrived there three days ago. I had nothing left to say.

After my disastrous confession to Errol, I had spent one day in bed. I had only left it for a bit of light food and the bathroom. Everything had just felt empty. Hollow. I hadn't even had any tears left in me.

Airlia had called me the next day. She had been all happy and excited, telling me they had just found out their baby would be a boy. I had made a valiant effort to be happy for her. But I hadn't managed. She had noticed and had asked me how I was. And I had broken.

I had only managed to get the most important point out over the phone. But Airlia had convinced me to come back home for a bit. Had even said I could lie to my professors by telling them she needed some help at home because of unexpected pregnancy stuff.

When I had arrived at the café, Airlia had pressed me for all the details, and I had told her as much as I had been able to muster. But since then I had barely spoken at all. Most of my time I spent hidden away. No one else from the village knew I was back, and I preferred to keep it that way. I didn't need their fake sympathy and curious questions. Didn't need them to gossip behind my back.

So I hid in the apartment and only left it in the evening when no one else was around.

"Can I do anything for you?" Airlia asked me where we sat opposite each other drinking tea.

"No," I answered.

"I could call him and..."

"You're absolutely not going to guilt him into anything. It's bad enough that I screwed all of this up on my own. I don't need to live knowing he's only with me because you guilt him into it."

Airlia's cheeks turned slightly pink while her eyes fixed on her cup.

I really had screwed all of this up. Had with my own stupidity, my own foolishness and fear, with my own obliviousness destroyed the best part of my life. I had no one to blame but myself, and thinking about it all, I had been so stupid to expect any other outcome. With how much I had hurt him over the years, it was more surprising he had stayed by my side for this long. With how much I had hurt him over the years, this was exactly what I deserved, to be too late with realising I wanted him as well.

A part of me ached to go back into being oblivious. To forget what I actually felt for him and all of what that entailed. But I guessed this was my punishment for having chosen to be oblivious for so long; to finally be brave only to have it backfire.

It was all that damn man's fault, that damn leprechaun. If he hadn't shown up, I wouldn't have dared to realise what I felt for Errol. I wouldn't have dared to go and confess. I wouldn't be sitting here in a café moping and being heartbroken. It was all his damn fault.

"Did I tell you I met a leprechaun?" I snorted to Airlia, feeling angry and turning that anger to her as the only available person to attack. "He blew some gold dust on me and told me my luck had increased for two weeks. Some damn good luck that was. How you can believe in magical nonsense is beyond me."

She looked hurt, like expected, and I felt guilty, like expected. She didn't deserve my anger in the slightest. She was the best possible twin. Always supportive and caring. She was the better one of us.

I was a real asshole for hurting her intentionally.

The bell over the door to the café jingled, which could only mean one thing. Someone from the village had arrived. Looked like karmic retribution worked fast. In just an hour, the whole village would be buzzing with one question. Why had Alasdair Bailey returned?

"I'll give you two a moment," Airlia said and stood, giving me a small smile as she did.

"Thank ye," the one who had walked in said. A voice I would recognise among a million, and one that made me stand and turn around with such speed I knocked my cup of tea over. Some of the hot water splashed on my hand, but I didn't feel the sting.

He stood right by the door. His hair was messy. He had dark circles under his eyes and it looked as if he hadn't shaved for a couple of days. But he smiled at me with that gentle smile I didn't deserve. Never had, never would.

"What ye doin' here?" I asked and lightly dug a nail into myself to ensure I wasn't dreaming.

"I'm here to talk to ye," Errol said and walked forwards, walked all the way up to me until he could place a hand to my cheek.

"How did ye know I was here? Did Airlia call ye? She shouldn't have done that without my permission!"

He chuckled, soothing my emotions. "She didn't. I went to yer apartment, but ye weren't there. So I went to the university an' found Kenna. She told me ye had needed to go home for a bit to help yer pregnant sister. I assume Airlia is fine?"

"Yeah," I mumbled, feeling heat rise because of my presumptuous outburst.

"Good," Errol murmured. It was low and sent shivers down my spine. For a moment, my eyes travelled down to his lips. My mouth felt dry, and I worked hard to create saliva, to no avail.

"So, why are ye here? What do ye want to talk to me about? I thought... I thought ye never wanted to see me again," I mumbled the last bit and looked down to the floor. Tears stung my eyes. I didn't deserve for him to be here, and I didn't understand why he was. Or my mind was screaming a reason as to why, but I didn't dare hope that was the case until he said it himself.

Errol lifted my head with two fingers under my chin. He still looked at me with gentleness when our eyes met again, and a little part of me dared to hope.

"I guess I am insane," he answered. "Or I'm just a fool so deeply in love I can't help it." He took a deep breath. "I wasn't in the right mindspace to hear everythin' ye had to say last time. But I am now, an' I would very much like to hear it all."

A second chance. A moment to be brave again, and I knew I needed to take it. For my sake, as much as for Errol's. For my sake, to prove to myself I could be brave when I needed to. For Errol's sake, to prove to him I was serious, that I wasn't wavering, that it hadn't been a spur of the moment before, that I still was ready to admit it. That reality hadn't scared me away.

My second chance to make everything right again. My second draft, my moment to turn something flawed into something beautiful.

I removed his hand from under my chin to hold it in mine and placed my other hand against his cheek. Brushed his skin with my thumb. Hoped I smiled with the same gentleness and adoration as he wore.

"I love ye, Errol Aitken. An' not just as a friend. I'm in love with ye. An' I think I always have been. I've just been an oblivious fool," I told him, echoed the words I had spoken to my ceiling that day, meaning them as fiercely as I had done then, if not even more.

The next second was the most excruciating second of my life. A million ways in which he could reject me flashed in my mind as his eyes roamed my face.

But then his smile widened, and a shaky breath left me.

"Ye really have been an oblivious fool," he said. I had hated it when he had called me that the last time we had been in the café together, when he had confessed his feelings for me for the first time and then walked away. "But ye are my oblivious fool." Now they didn't hurt at all. Now they instead felt like a term of endearment, albeit one tinged with slight frustration. But I could live with that.

We leaned in at the same time. As the shorter one of us, I leaned a bit up while he leaned down. Then our lips connected.

It was absolutely nothing like our first kiss and thank god for that.

This one started off tender, gentle. Our lips brushing together, then forming themselves after each other, fitting together. Conveying the extent of our love in a way words never could. Bone deep. Soul binding.

He was my everything. My best friend, my protector, the love of my life. He was Errol Aitken. My Errol Aitken. And I knew I was his everything as well. Knew he would do all he could to keep me happy and safe for the rest of his life, just like I would do the same for him.

After a moment of that tender kiss, it morphed, however. Errol's arm went around my waist, pressed my body to him. I had my arms around him and up his shoulders, clinging as close to him as possible. The scent of a loch filled my nose.

Our kiss deepened, our tongues connected and tasted the other; he tasted slightly of mint. As our tongues explored, the rest of my body, my whole being, reacted. I fitted myself closer to him, though far from close enough, it didn't feel like I ever could be close enough.

I had kissed so many people before, hell, I had fucked plenty of others. But all of those experiences paled to a mere kiss from Errol. It was just one kiss, and it was enough for me to know I could never kiss anyone else again. Nothing would ever compare to the life-altering experience of kissing Errol Aitken.

Then his lips disconnected with mine. They travelled over my jaw, down my neck, kissing, sucking, lightly biting. I both gasped and moaned, and that caused Errol to stop and groan.

"What... What's the matter?" I asked, my voice trembling and in my head I cursed Errol for having stopped. I wanted nothing more than for him to continue. For him to take me, claim me, make me his. So I could feel absolutely secure I would never lose this.

"I wish we were somewhere private," he mumbled against my skin. He kissed my cheek and then moved back a bit to meet my eyes.

My cheeks heated because I had quite forgotten we were standing in the café's serving area, which had huge windows for anyone walking by to look through and Airlia and Ethan probably getting ready to sleep up the stairs.

Errol laughed. "Ye really are adorable, Alasdair Bailey, an' I love ye so bloody much," he told me before leaning in and kissing me again.

And in that kiss, in this space, in Errol's arms, everything felt right. As if I had been a child afraid of the dark my whole life who had finally realised there was nothing to be scared of.

Errol was there, with me, and he was mine.

I had no reason to close my eyes to anything out of fear anymore.

Everything would always be alright.