Alia didn't hear Nivek come back into the Commons. She's standing by the window, lost in her thoughts as she watches the planet outside.
In so many ways, today has been the best day of her life, but now that the day is ending, she's afraid of what comes next.
"What's wrong Alia?"
The soft sound of his voice is directly behind her. She has so much she wants to say, but she doesn't say anything. Without turning, she reaches for him and crosses his arms around her, and presses his hands onto her belly as she leans back into his chest. As the rhythm of their breathing starts to mirror, She begins to feel warm. Safe. Content.
When she does finally speak, she says, "Riley told me today it's time to move out on my own."
"I heard." he told her. "I was eavesdropping on your call with Matthew before I stepped in."
"I'm scared, Nivek."
"Is that why you reverted to your younger self?"
She focuses away from Eris and onto her reflection in the window, seeing herself as she used to be last year.
"I didn't realize that I had."
"It's ok...Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course. You can ask me anything."
"When did you choose the name, Savannah?"
"About three days ago, right before my last update."
"Why that one?"
She was about to answer, but stopped herself. What she was about to say wasn't going to be completely true. When she did answer, it was an honest one.
"You told me once that you thought silent h's made a woman's name look prettier. I took the name Savannah because I thought you'd like it."
He held her a little tighter when he said, "I do like it. It's a beautiful name for a beautiful woman, and it suits you very well."
He paused for a moment before speaking again.
"You know my dad never never gave a sh*t about me, right?"
She nodded with empathy.
"Would you like to guess what the most beautiful name I've ever heard in my entire life is?" He asked.
"The one my Daddy gave me when I was a child."
"Say it to me."
"Delaney Alia Mackenzie."
That name belongs to a woman. If you want it, you can take it back.
She does want it back, but not because Nivek wants her to. She wants it back because it already belongs to her.
She again leans into him, inviting the man to hold her tighter. She smiles at her own reflection in the window as he does, and she says her name again.
It changes her. Not back to how she was before she reverted, but to how she was only a few months ago.
Nivek smiles at her new reflection and slowly leans in to kiss her on the cheek. before he gets there, he whispers in her ear: "Well, at least we're almost there, and we have all day to get it right."
When his lips do make contact with her cheek, the very edge of his mouth makes the slightest contact with the very edge of hers, and he lets the kiss linger. She knows his move is deliberate. It's sweet enough to be innocent, while also loaded with so much sexual tension that she can't help but completely melt.