"She was his sunset, his reminder at the end of horrible days that there was still beauty in the world no matter how ugly everything else seemed."
~Maxwell Diawuoh

Spencer

In hindsight, trashing the room wasn't the best idea. It helped my mood at the time, but I was now left with a horrible mess. I sure as hell wasn't going to have the maids clean this either.

I began clearing the floor, starting with the larger objects. I figured getting those out of the way would make things look nicer right off the bat.

I was wrong.

It still looked like hell.

I was picking up magazines when the door opened. I wanted to tell Dom to go back to his meeting, that I was fine, even though the truth was far from that. I just wanted to be alone.

"What the hell happened?" A girl asked.

I looked up in shock, my mouth slightly ajar. "Elsa?"

Her blue eyes scanned the wreck of the room as she shut the door behind her. "Hi."

"What're you doing here?"

"Dom called." She motioned at the debris. "What happened?"

"I... lost my head."

"I can see that." Elsa shrugged off her coat, hanging it on the door. She knelt down, picking up loose papers.

"You don't-"

"You told Dom to stay in his meeting, and I have nothing else to do, so I'm helping. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to, but I'm here if you do."

Of course, I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to tell her everything.

I wanted to explain why I lost control.

I wanted to ask her to run away with me.

I wanted to tell her she's the only girl I wanted to marry. That she's the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, have kids with, raise a family with, grow old with, die with...

But Elsa was hurting. I could see it in those blue eyes. I wondered if she knew they changed hues, depending on her mood. A beautiful Cerulean when elated; icy when angry; deep sapphire when upset.

At this moment, they were the darkest blue I'd seen yet.

I couldn't offload my problems onto her while she dealt with her own issues. That wasn't fair to her, especially when I was the cause of most of her problems. I didn't mean to hurt her, and I didn't want to hurt her further.

Elsa looked up. "Why are you staring?"

The words tumbled out involuntarily. "I missed you."

"I missed you too. Now come on, we're not wizards. We can't wave a wand and have everything float back into place."

I nodded, returning to the task at hand. I caught myself stealing glances of Elsa in the process, stupidly hoping I'd find her staring back. But she never was, and that was okay. Elsa was here, and that's all I cared about.

I disappeared briefly to grab a vacuum. When I came back, Elsa was on the phone. It dawned on me as Elsa hung up that it'd been Killian. My jealousy surged again, and I quickly pushed it down before she could see it.

"That was Killian," Elsa said, shoving her phone into her... bra? She must've seen my expression because she said, "Hey, the dress doesn't have pockets, so I improvise."

"Do all girls do that?"

"The ones I know do. Anyway, I was just telling him I was going to be back at the hotel later than expected because I'm helping you clean."

"You told him you were helping me?"

"I told him certain circumstances arose that made me come over here out of concern."

"And he's fine with you hanging out with a Stark?"

Elsa blinked before it registered with her. "I never told you! Wait, of course, I never told you. We haven't been talking. Look, Killian reached out to me because we've both dated people from the Stark packs. There was a girl named Emma Parks who was a part of the-"

"Borealis pack," I finished. "She's at our compound right now, her and her sister Ellie. They're the only survivors of their pack. They don't know what happened to the rest."

"You're serious? Spencer, I have to tell Killian! He's going to be at your wedding! If he sees her-"

"Go call him back," I said. Elsa flashed me a smile before going onto the balcony again. I wondered how she could stand outside and not be cold. Or maybe she was, and she just wasn't showing it.

I went back to vacuuming all the dirt and little bits of debris out of the carpet. Elsa returned about ten minutes later, her arms crossed tightly over her chest. I noticed her shivering, so I grabbed my suit jacket and handed it to her. She hesitated before accepting it. She then went about straightening things up while I finished vacuuming. Thankfully my tantrum mostly centralized itself to the living room, so the bedroom was easy to clean.

Once we finished, Elsa strolled over to the window. "It's a stunning view from up here."

"Yeah, it is." I scratched the back of my head. "How'd Killian take the news?"

"He's ecstatic! Couldn't even form a coherent sentence. I might have Anna check on him later to make sure he's okay."

I smiled. "How have you been?"

"Well, I haven't had a rampage in my room yet," she replied, glancing around the now-clean hotel room. In a gentler tone, she added, "I'm hanging in there."

"I know I told you we couldn't keep talking, and that still holds, because I hate that I understand why my parents wouldn't tell us the truth about the feud, and why they won't tell the pack... it'd cause a civil war within... but I don't want you to leave yet. I don't-"

Knocking interrupted the conversation. We shared a glance before Elsa darted into the bathroom to hide. I stuffed her coat into a cabinet before answering the door. It revealed Dom leaning against the doorframe.

"Is it safe to come in?" he inquired, peering over my shoulder. "Has she left already?"

"Elsa, it's okay, it's just Dom," I called out, moving aside to let him in. Els stepped into the living room.

"Thank you for coming," Dom said.

"Glad I could be here," Elsa replied sincerely.

"Why don't you stay for dinner?" Dom offered. "We'll order delivery. I can't be assed to go out in this weather again."

Elsa hesitated, processing the pros and cons of the offer before agreeing. Relief flooded through me.

The three of us went into the bedroom, sitting on the bed. I opened my laptop and pulled up a Chinese takeout menu. We ordered enough food to feed an army: wonton soup, dumpling soup, crispy wontons, Mongolian beef, Kung Pow Chicken, Szechuan Beef, Shrimp Chow Mein, Mushroom Foo Yung, and chicken fried rice. We had a feast, and you can bet we ate every bit of it.

During the meal, I discovered Elsa was not to be trifled with when hungry. More than once, Dom and I tried to steal some crispy wontons away from her only to have our hands promptly smacked away. Elsa said maybe if we asked nicely, she'd give us some.

"Can I please have some?" Dom requested.

"No," Elsa retorted.

"May I please have some?" I asked.

"No," she repeated. "That's what you get for trying to steal it in the first place."

Dom looked half amused, half offended, but went back to eating his food. As did I. A minute later, a crispy wonton appeared on my plate and Dom's. We both gave her cheeky grins, to which she promptly said, "Shut up."

We watched TV, mostly World's Dumbest, to make us feel better about ourselves because we'd done nothing half as stupid as some of these people. There was a lot of laughter involved, and we stayed together later than intended. However, around ten, Dom called it a night. I was wide awake and could tell Elsa was too. We said goodnight to my brother, but thankfully, Elsa stuck around.

At midnight, Elsa voiced it was probably best she went back to her hotel. After helping me clear the containers off my bed, she grabbed her coat, draping it on the back of a chair while she put on her boots.

"I'll hug you now because it's hell to do it in that coat," Elsa said. Our arms wrapped around each other. I held her tightly as I all but sank into the hug, realizing that after tonight, I'd never be able to see her again.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"I'm sorry, too," she breathed. My heart hammered in my chest, and I could hear hers too, beating as erratically as mine. I kept trying to pull myself away, to let her go, but every part of my being refused to move.

"I should be marrying you." The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. Elsa drew her head back to look at me.

"What'd you say?"

"I should be marrying you," I repeated. "I shouldn't be telling you this because you're upset about this whole thing and it's going to be terrible two days from now, but I want to make sure you know that everything I felt for you and everything I do feel for you is real. I want to make sure you know that you're the one I love and that if I had any say in the matter, I would-"

"Hey," she said softly. "I've never doubted your love. Listen, as long as you're safe, that's all that matters to me. If you marrying Callie is that road, then I'll be okay."

Tears rolled down her face, but she didn't seem to notice. I hated seeing her hurt, and I wanted nothing more than to fix it. I hesitated only a moment before I crashed my lips onto hers. She melted into it, pressing her body up against mine. It was a brief moment of passion cut too short because, in the back of my mind, I knew this was wrong.

"You deserve better," I said, knowing if we continued kissing, we'd end up doing so much more, things I feared she'd regret later.

In a surprisingly clear voice, she replied, "I deserve the man I love. That's you."

"We're never going to have another chance to be together." A burst of confidence overtook me. "So, what do you say we forget about everything and everyone keeping us apart tonight?"

With a breathtaking smile, Elsa pulled me into a kiss, as passionate as the first. We walked backward, and I pinned her against the wall, hands trailing down the backs of her thighs, effortlessly lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I carried her to the bed, setting her down gently on it. We crawled up towards the headboard, never breaking off the kiss. Her fingers swiftly unbuttoned my shirt. I slipped her dress over her head, momentarily breaking off the kiss. We both caught our breath, my green eyes meeting her blue ones. They were the Cerulean blue I had ached to see again.

"I love you," she said.

I brushed a stray hair out of her face. "I love you, too."

After that, there were no more words to be said.