I woke up to what sounded like a terrified animal fighting for its last breath. Great start to the morning, huh? I sat up, rubbing my head already pounding with what promised to be a killer headache.

"Thomas?" I asked, feeling the space besides me, but he wasn't there. My eyes shot open as I rose to my feet too quickly, causing the world to sway around me a little bit. I righted myself and looked around. "Thomas?" I repeated, finding him pushed in the space underneath the desk. "Thomas! Thomas, what's wrong?"

He pushed himself closer to the wall. "Go away."

"Thoma—"

"Just go away, Alexander!" he hissed out.

"What's wrong?" I asked again, sitting down by the desk and reaching out for his hand, which he hesitantly gave me.

"Alex, I don't want to hurt you."

"Are you...?" I trailed off, knowing that he understood what I meant. The thought pressed down on my throat, making it next to impossible to breathe.

He nodded.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked softly, afraid that any louder and he would be scared off like a frightened animal.

He shook his head, tears streaming down his cheek. Was it from the pain or the understanding of what was awaiting the both of us? His hand pulled away from mine, leaving me staring at him.

"Talk, okay? Maybe that'll make it better. Does it hurt?"

He nodded again, his eyes peeling open so he could look at me. "I have this really bad headache, and I feel so...lightheaded." He paused, bringing his hand to his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Alexander," he managed to choke out. "You don't deserve this."

I reached out for him, trying to get something of him to hold onto. Just for as long as I could. And then, the realization hit me.

"Thomas, no! No, you aren't... Changing or whatever. It's just a hangover!" That wasn't a sentence I thought I'd ever say with so much relief.

He stopped and looked up at me. "A... a what?"

"A hangover. It's what happens when you drink too much." I laughed at the idea and reached for his hand again.

"So, I'm not...?"

"No."

He let out a breath of relief and slid out from underneath the desk. He smiled at me sheepishly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to freak out or anything."

"No, it's fine," I said, wiping away his tears. "I'm glad you're okay." He nodded, letting me pull him closer. I watched the rise and fall of his chest, and I let out a breath of air I didn't know I had been holding. I didn't deserve him.

"Alex?" he asked after a while. His heartbeats were still erratic.

"Hmm?"

He slid away from me, reaching out for my hand. "I have to show you something."

"Is it a good something?"

"That depends. It's something I started doing a long time ago to help calm me down, but I can't go without somebody, and I'd rather it be you than anybody else, so will you come with me?" he rambled, his eyes fixed on the floor.

He was referring to the spell Angelica had cast, which would alert her every time he was by himself. He had protested to it, of course, claiming that it stripped away his independency and his freedom, but she gently explained that it was for his own good.

"Yeah," I said, standing up and pulling him to his feet. "Come on, let's go! What is it?"

"You'll see," he said half-heartedly. After we put away everything I had set up from the night before, he led me down the stairs and through the hallways, his steps even and in time. I watched curiously, unable to take my eyes off of him. "What are you staring at?"

"Nothing."

"Mmhmm. Oh, guess what!"

"What?"

"I have to go back to Avionerra soon."

"Yeah, you said."

He gave me a strange look but didn't question it. "There are a few things I'd rather do than go home, but my mother is being very pushy."

"Are you going to see if you're going to be the next lord? Through the tree?" I asked, to which he nodded slowly. I could sense his discomfort with the idea, so promptly dropped it.

I was expecting us to stop outside of Thomas's bedroom, but we passed right by it and headed towards the end of the hall. Thomas's grip on my hand had tightened, and his jaw had set. This only added to the recent anxiety and the constant dejection he had only recently started to display.

"Thomas? Is everything okay?" Something was going to happen, wasn't it? Something bad. I had to stop it.

He didn't respond. We stopped right at the end of the hall, and his head lowered for a second. Hanging against the wall was a painting depicting some scene of a forest with a plethora of birds. Thomas raised his hand, his fingers hovering over one of the blue ones sitting in a pine tree. He looked over at me, and I smiled in return. Any trepidation he experienced quickly fled as he matched my smile and touched the bird.

A door opened, revealing an incredibly promising—and borderline scary—hallway cloaked in shadows.

"Woah," I said. "That's really cool. I didn't know you could do that."

"Yeah, well. I have a thing for being dramatic, right?" He nodded to the doorway, his other hand curling up into a fist. "After you. It, uh, it closes after I walk through."

The nerves that were so obviously plaguing him slowly spread to me, but I swallowed them down and stepped through. I couldn't make out anything ahead in front of me, and a dawning panic rose into my chest. I held out my hands, and when each one brushed a wall without having to fully extend, my breathing only spiraled out of control.

"Alexander?" Thomas asked slowly. When I turned to look back at him, the door was closing behind him and leaving nothing but a fine coat of darkness. I felt the warm brush of his hand against mine, and I clung to him like a child to a life preserver as the ocean tried to pull them away. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm good."

"You don't sound good."

"I just...I don't really appreciate the tight hallways, you know? Too cramped." I laughed, and, in a desperate attempt to seek humor, added, "But I'm not the one who has wings, so."

Thomas didn't find it funny. "Take the cuff off of me."

"I can't—"

He didn't so much as falter. "Please?"

It was the please that got to me. I undid the clasp of the cuff, and the sound of the metal hit the floor. "I thought you could take it off yourself?"

"I can." He offered no other response or explanation. A light appeared in the palm of his hand, bright enough so that I could see where I was walked towards. The walls seemed to pull themselves away from me, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little relieving.

"Thank you," I breathed, making a note to study those two spells, particularly the one with the walls. "Now, what do you have to show me?"

"You'll see," he said quietly.

"I'm starting to get worried. You aren't going to murder me, are you?"

He playfully frowned as if he was considering it. "So what if I am?"

"Thomas!" I warned, just as playful.

"No, Alex. I'm not going to kill you. You're too cute for that, and then I'd have to find a new boyfriend." His voice always had the unique ability to put me at ease, and I've never been more happy to hear a person talk.

The hallway was shorter than I was expecting, and it opened up into a room that was just as dark. Thomas muttered a quick apology, and seconds later, the room melted into a soft, dim glow, revealing its contents to me.

I frowned and cocked my head. Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn't this.

"Here," he said, his hand extended to me. A book appeared in his grasp, just as smoothly as if it had always been there. "So you won't get bored or anything."

"Umm, thanks," I said, taking it from him and looking down at the title, which read Alice in Wonderland. I smiled at the familiarity of the book and looked back up at the instruments surrounding me, trying to understand.

Thomas stepped over to the centerpiece of the room, a grand piano that seemed so out of place in the rest of this magical world. He sat down and closed his eyes for a moment. "You don't have to listen, you know. If you don't want to."

"It's fine," I said, finding the sitting chair. "I can listen."

He seemed embarrassed, but his fingers rested on the keys of the great instrument. I sat down in the chair and opened the book. I figured I would read it to give the illusion that I was tuning him out, which was what I think he wanted, but I could still listen.

I glanced up when he began to play. A slow dance of the notes rose up into the air, followed by a proceeding of a soft rhythm. I wet my lips, watching with curiosity. Something gripped a hold of me, something unlike anything I had ever felt before. After a while, the piano was joined by other instruments, and I turned to see each one as they rose up into the air.

When I looked back at him, Thomas hadn't moved from the piano, his eyes staring intently ahead of him. I listened intently, letting the book fall into my lap and my eyes fall shut.

Suddenly, I was pulled away from the room. I don't know how to describe it, but my body felt like it was flying through the air. I opened my eyes, and found that I was no longer sitting in the chair, but rather on a grassy knoll.

I took in a deep breath of air, looking around me. The music was still playing, loud and clear as if I was standing right next to him. The sky was a beautiful shade of dark blue, lined with stars glimmering triumphantly. The moon was a brilliant crescent calling out to me. I swore I could feel its light dance across my face. I leaned forward in the cool grass, my hand sweeping through what felt as smooth as silk.

The music was sad and mournful, but still so sweet and beautiful. It induced a feeling I couldn't begin to explain. I faintly recognized it, but I couldn't place from where. A chill ran up my body, and I felt the prick of tears in the corners of my eyes.

And your childlike eyes...
And your distant smile...

I looked around at the familiarity of the voice, but I couldn't find him.

I'll never be this happy again...

I closed my eyes to blink back the tears, and when I opened them again, the moon was still shining brighter than I had ever seen it. I reached out, hoping to touch it, but it just evaded my grasp.

I had never been here before. On this grassy hill so close to the night sky. But I didn't feel out of place, nor like I had never seen the moon this close. I felt like I belonged here.

The music built up.

You and I...

I listened to it as the tears returned to my eyes, not giving up on their endless barrage.

You and I...

I smiled at the moon like it was an old friend welcoming me home.

You and I...

I felt peace, love. Nothing else.

And no one else.

I sat in the grass, happy to listen to the gorgeous music. But like all good things, it found an ending, one that came way too soon. When the last note was played, I closed my eyes and opened them again to find myself in the room from earlier. I was sitting in the same position, like I had never left at all.

The memory of the knoll was fleeting into obscurity, and though I tried to reach up and grab it, the feeling disappeared all together until there was only that one scene of the moonlight dancing along the grass.

I swallowed and looked up at Thomas, who was still sitting at the piano. I couldn't read the expression on his face. He was about to begin another song when I jumped in.

"Thomas. That was... that was amazing. What song was that?" I didn't want to accuse him of what I thought, or rather what I had been hoping.

He looked up at me, and I could see his embarrassment from where I was sitting. "No One Else. You know? Great Comet?"

I tried not to show any disappointment, as it was still a beautiful song. "That's from the Great Comet?"

He gave me a certain look, his worries dissolving instantly. "Have you never listened to the Great Comet of 1812?"

"I guess I have to now, huh?" I asked. I stood up and joined him at the piano, leaning against it and smiling down at him.

"Umm... did you like it?"

"It was amazing," I reassured him. "And how did you do that?"

"Well, I spent a long time learning each instrument an—"

"No, not that. Well, that was the best part, obviously. But that place. The knoll and the moon."

He frowned, staring at me like I had said something insane. "The what? What place?"

"Haha. You're very funny, you know."

"Alexander, I'm serious. I have no idea what you're talking about. What place?"

The smile slipped from my face and shattered on the floor as I stared at him, trying to search for any signs of humor tucked away somewhere in his smile or eyes. But there was nothing but concern.

"Well, when you began playing—play something else."

"Uh, okay? Any thing you have in mind?"

"Whatever works."

Thomas leaned forward and plucked the papers off of the music stand and rifled through them. I closed my eyes and waited for him to pick one. Once the music started, my body relaxed again and I listened intently.

I didn't recognize the song at all, but when I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the room standing by Thomas. There was no knoll or moon, though, either.

This time I was looking out a window at a gray sky that threatened rain. But the dark shades of the clouds made the vibrancy of the green plants out there waiting for me come to life, something I had never noticed before. But just like the previous time, a sense of peace washed over me as I leaned back and stared up at the clouds.

It was over almost as quickly as it had come, and the minute the last note disappeared, I was  standing next to him again.

"Alex?" Thomas asked, slowly and unsure. He rose from the seat and stepped over to me, lifting my fave so I was staring straight into his eyes. "Are you okay?"

"What?"

"You're crying."

"Oh. I'm sorry," I said, wiping at my eyes. "It was just a really pretty song. Both of them were." I was really going to have to listen to the Great Comet now.

Thomas didn't look too convinced, but he didn't say anything when I hugged him. "That was beautiful, Thomas. You're really good."

"What about the place you were talking about?"

I shook my head. "Don't worry about it. It must have been me."

I knew for a fact that it wasn't, but as I led Thomas to the couch so I could lay against him and kiss him and listen happily as he continued to play, I promised myself that nobody else would know about this.