#this took me two days and I've never been prouder of anything oh my GOD

[sisi-halloway]

Wishing Well Heart

@id13vil

Thomas stood toe to toe with his destiny. He didn't think he'd face it that day, not anytime soon.

"There's a lot we've got to do tomorrow," Curtis informed Thomas, a man 10 years his junior who held more wisdom than he himself had ever managed to gather.

Thomas was sitting at the workbench, sleeves rolled up, taking one last look at the mechanisms inside this wooden death trap of theirs.

"You're preaching to the choir, Curtis," he replied, not even looking at his colleague, for he was too focused on his task at hand. His glasses were catching the last orange light that streamed through the dirty panes of the neglected workshop, causing a reflection to dance on the floor.

Curtis scoffs, grabbing his vest and throwing it over his broad shoulder. Deft, scarred hands, the single shared trait of all the men of the workshop, flicked off the lamp and found its way into Curtis' own pocket. A smirk creeps onto his lips as he watches the young man in front of him refuse to come up for air.

"You're to drown in this work, Tom. Give it a rest. There's always tomorrow."

Thomas waves him off.

"Then tomorrow is when I'll see you. Goodnight, Curtis."

Curtis gave a hearty laugh that echoed against the high tin ceiling as he approached the door. He admired Thomas in more ways than one. Envied his prowess, his determination, his ingenuity, and his dedication to science. It was all so very impressive, and everyone in Maeth thought so... except the man himself.

And with that, Thomas was left alone with their latest invention.

The sun wilted in the sky and the shadows of the oak trees outside stretched to their most monstrous length. Thomas looked at his watch. His family always had dinner together on Thursdays, and at this rate, he was spiraling toward a good scolding for being late. His sisters and his mother wouldn't let him get off easy, as it wouldn't be the first time he's walked in just in time for dessert.

He allowed himself a few minutes more before tidying his workspace the best that he could. He never cleaned it completely unless he was done with a project. Thomas would have a hard time getting started tomorrow if the bookmark on his creative processes fell victim to organization.

He stood up and put his suspenders back on his shoulders. His collared shirt always started the day buttoned to the neck, and would always end it buttoned to the upper chest. It got much too hot in this workshop, with the tin ceiling and many windows, and seven sweaty bodies. Not to mention it was the beginning of Maethisse summer. Maeth wasn't exactly known for inventing air conditioning. Thomas hadn't cracked that one yet.

The last light crept into the workshop when Thomas opened the door to leave, getting his keys from his pocket to lock it. This had been how his night ended every day this week.

As routine, mundane, and day-to-day this work had become, Thomas loved it. His life was less exciting now in these days, with projects taking longer and longer, with more and more time between milestones; at least there was always something to look forward to.

Their phonograph was almost to the testing phase, a long-awaited feat. Also, his sister was pregnant. A niece or nephew would be in his future, and Thomas was quite excited about that. There were a lot of new concerns and preparations that came with this news, like helping her husband Shu renovate Isabella's old house. They'd be busy for the next few months for sure... But Thomas was a little sad when he thought about his life in isolation.

Outside of work and his family's accomplishments, there was nothing differentiating about his days. As long as he'd been okay with that, he's now longing for something to bring excitement, newness, adventure... something like

"Salice?"

---

And so here they were, staring at each other, some meters apart, like in some Western movie. Except instead of their guns drawn and their mouth stretched back into snarls, they were smiling like kids.

Thomas would've lost his duel, for the keys in his hand quickly clattered into the dust below.

"I believe so... hello to you too..."

He almost didn't recognize her with her back to the sun like that, for she was nothing but a dark shadow against the waning light. Hell, she was the light. So bright that Thomas could barely behold her.

Thomas stood there slack-jawed and wide-eyed and soon to be knock-kneed. Never in a million years did Thomas think that the girl of his dreams would come back to Maeth on an ordinary Thursday... if at all.

"I was correct in assuming you'd be here," she said.

The woman approached him as he scrambled to pick up the keys, and Thomas focused up on her. Her outfit was classic, one that drove him crazy when she'd worn it all those years ago. A white button-down blouse that mimicked his collared shirt, a tea-length skirt, and her walking oxford shoes. With Salice, the attention was always on the details. The ribbon in her long curly hair matched her lace socks, which also matched the gloves on her hands. Thomas tried not to gawk. Even after traveling miles, which Thomas assumed she had, she looked as stunning and as well put together as a movie star. With those doe eyes and celebrity smile... She'd been gone so long, she might've become one without him knowing! Thomas knew she'd be a natural on-screen... she'd been playing on the one in his head for years.

"And how would you have figured that?" He asked standing to his full height, towering over the woman.

Salice shrugs as they turn and take a few steps away from the workshop.

"First one in the morning, last one in the evening, isn't that what you used to tell me? They hardly know how to get on without you here, so I assume it's still that way. Isn't that right?"

Oh, the flattery. Thomas didn't know if he were to survive.

"You don't give them enough credit, Salice. They can get on without me at least part of the time."

He tried to keep his cool. Frankly, Thomas wouldn't be surprised if he came down with the bends, considering how fast the excitement in his voice was rising. He still managed a suave and teasing smile.

"Oh, my apologies. I should be more mindful of what I say then..."

When Salice looked at Thomas from the corner of her eye, the inventor couldn't help but fall in love all over again. He figured he'd never fallen out of it. This young woman held an importance to him not even she knew. What started out as an awkward acquaintanceship, as he was just the best friend's brother, grew into an honest friendship. Then Thomas one day suddenly realized that everything Salice had said or done for the last year of her stay acted as a coin in the wishing well of his heart. How he wished all of those little things that don't mean much on their own could compile into a hope so strong that they could end up together as lovers. His wishing well heart, it called to her, for her from its enchanted depths. The only thing that stopped all his wishful feelings from pouring onto her was... him.

He remembered all the hesitation. He remembered all the doubt. He remembered the hopelessness that he'd never have the courage to tell Salice how much he loved her.

Then he remembered the sinking feeling when he watched her pack her things to move away. And what good would telling her have done then?

For years he'd tried to get over her, through her, beyond her, since he couldn't dive into her. Nothing had ever worked. He used his inventions and his work to stave off his longing. It did the trick thus far, but every now and again there was a pang of frustration, regret, anger and sadness, and shame. He'd imagine her, what her face and body and voice were all like. He'd wish himself in a world full of her. He'd manage to go there for a night, but in the morning, he'd wake up again alone. The worst part about it all, the part that made this agony, is that nobody else ever stood a chance.

Plenty of suitors and suitresses would be so happy to have Thomas as their husband. There were so many wonderful things about him, things he was oblivious to, things he neglected to see and appreciate. But Thomas wouldn't let himself be satisfied so easily. Even when he thought he could use the word happy to describe his life... he couldn't take a full breath. Not really. The well descended deeper and darker, abandoned and neglected, unused, unloved, and unoccupied. The coins that had been tossed in long ago were depreciating, the feeling from them weakening. That well, nothing more than a vacant hole now, longed for the girl who used to sing beside it and tend to its mossy stones.

Thomas' wishing well heart wished only for Salice.

Salice, walking beside him, was in a two-handed struggle with a beautiful carpet bag. Not even the sinews of muscle in her upper shoulder as she carried it in front of her were too minor a detail for Thomas to notice. How sore she must be from carrying it.

"Here, let me take that."

He rushed to grab it from her, their hands brushing. Salice let out a breath of reprieve. It seemed so small in Thomas' hand. So small, so light, so insignificant. That bag had been burdening her for a full day and a half's journey, and he diminished it with ease. That was one of the many things she's missed about him. How, like a magician, he could make all her trouble disappear.

"Thank you."

Her voice was quiet, Thomas strained his ears to hear its every decibel. They began walking through the forest path toward town. As they walked, Salice tugged at her gloves. Finger by elegant finger, she loosened them until they slipped off, revealing soft and delicate hands. Her umber skin was soft and blemishless. Always had been.

Thomas remembered what it was like to touch that skin in the most casual of ways. Holding open a door for her and ushering her through it, helping her up and down steps and the like when she was wearing heels, putting a small bandage on her finger when she pricked it. He's touched her many times, maybe hundreds, but it was never enough. At this moment, with him looking at her now, he regretted every single opportunity that he's ever had to touch it.. and didn't.

"How was your trip? Not too rough was it," Thomas inquired whilst switching her bag to his outside hand.

She gave a queenly wave of dismissal, pardoning all the trouble she'd gone through to arrive.

"It wasn't too rough, no. Thank you for asking. Though I couldn't catch a train out of Hjalle, so I took a stagecoach to the next station in Pativeaux. Ended up being a tedious business, that one, but arduous, hardly."

Thomas basked in her words. She spoke so aristocratically, and articulately. She was a dutchess in his eyes, and everything she did proved him right. Even back then she'd spoken that way, being the most well-spoken in any room. Thomas would be entranced even if she had just read him her grocery list.

"That's a relief. For all that, you look stunning."

Thomas made an effort to compliment her, but that wasn't hard since he was just speaking his mind.

"Mh, stop you. You always know what to say, don't you?"

Thomas chuckled and shrugged. He always knew what he did know, and her beauty was something he was always sure of.

"So... how are you?" She asked.

Thomas thought about it. He'd been well, but there were underlying things that would make him not. He would find it so hard to explain what. He decided to keep it light.

"Very busy. Our project at the workshop is almost ready for testing... it's been hell getting that up and running, but I have faith the prototype will be finished by September at least."

Salice smiles when she hears him go on about his inventions. She's always loved hearing about them. When she'd moved away, she'd loved reading about them in the Vesuvian paper. Thomas hadn't realized, but the work they do in Maeth is revolutionary if one chooses to be humble about it. To think a small team of men, less than a dozen, could bring the surrounding lands inventions of spectacular convenience. She remembered when her father had installed their telephone in their surgery office. Salice had swelled with such pride that she'd even so much as met one of the men responsible. And to think Thomas was even closer to her than that.

"Yes? That's some fantastic news, Thomas. I'm so happy to hear that... but how are you?"

And as usual, Salice could see through his deflection. That was common. Anytime Thomas was asked about or checked up on, he'd always respond with his work, which he thought to a certain extent defined him. Salice knew it didn't. Thomas knew that she knew and it scared him.

"I'm..." He takes a minute to think. "I am doing fine, I suppose. Nothing worth noting personally... but I'm very happy you're here.."

Her belly grew warm and she couldn't hide her fond gaze.

"I'm happy I'm here too..."

When their eyes held this gaze for a bit too long, she plucked Thomas' glasses from his nose, beginning to clean them with her skirt. She clicks her tongue at him.

"Tsk, these aren't the same pair I left you with, are they?"

Thomas was guilty of neglecting newness in his life, staying stuck on the same thing even if it wasn't the most efficient or useful. What a contradictory habit for an inventor.

"They might be, but how would you know?" He inquired earnestly.

Salice tittered in amusement while sweeping her expensive skirt over the frames as well as the lenses. These were the same ones. The left wire was bent out of shape, just like it had been then. He hadn't even taken them to get repaired?

"I just know Thomas. Some things you just know."

Thomas didn't think she knew how right she was.

"Here..."

She places them carefully back upon his crooked nose, those hazel eyes greeting her with new clarity. She brushes a bit of hair from his face and nodded in approval when she stepped back from him.

Thomas grew so feverish at her gentle touch. He was certain a rouge flush had put a down payment on the property of his face.

"T-thank you." He stammered.

"You're welcome."

They walked in a comfortable silence while Thomas recovered from his close encounter with the grim reaper of bashfulness. He was hypnotized by the way Salice's brown tresses tossed as she walked in her stately gait. He focused on the white lace ribbon like a mantra, keeping himself from saying or doing something absurd. Absurdly embarrassing. It resembled something like a doily, swaying back and forth with every step. He decided he should ask the second most pertinent question on his mind. He couldn't possibly ask the first. He wasn't on one knee.

"Salice, what brought you back?"

A bird canaried its melodious song in the trees overhead as if it was answering the question itself. They didn't have these types of birds in Vesuvia. Salice had forgotten how magical a place Maeth was, and how privileged she'd been to live here for three years. The truth was, her life had lost its magic.

Her father had undergone a most traumatizing heart surgery... by her hands. Their bond was never the same after that. Not for his lack of trying. Salice just couldn't bear to look at that man knowing that she could've possibly killed him and it would've been all her fault. It scared her more than she could ever believe. It made her think of mortality and fate and how Vesuvia was just not a place she wanted to spend the rest of her life. She wanted to travel and live and experience beautiful things.

She'd offered her father to travel with her here, but he'd politely declined. The surgery center wasn't going to run itself and "Vesuvia can spare one of its brightest doctors, but certainly not both" in Dr. Dabney B. Halloways's own words. So Salice had promised to keep her visit short, so she could return to her father and pick up the pieces of the life she almost destroyed.

"I... I needed to show myself some compassion. I needed some peace. I couldn't think of a place more peaceful. Vesuvia is overwhelming me, and I needed..."

Thomas saw the forlorn look on Salice's face. He'd wondered what happened. What damage happened in the five years they were apart that she thought only Maeth could repair. He smiled knowingly.

"A cosmic baptism?"

Salice raised her brow. Those were two words she'd never thought she'd hear uttered from Thomas' analytical mouth.

Thomas was amused by her shock.

"That's what Isabella would say anyhow. She'd say something about feeling stuck or sad and that's the remedy she'd mention. It sounds like she'd know how to help you."

Salice shook her head good-naturedly. This was a small reminder of how much she loved the family she found here. How different they all were, a nurse, an inventor, a painter, a witch, and her sword-wielding teacher husband. What a wonderful family she'd come to find.

"How silly of me. I should've mentioned that on the telephone when I phoned about my visit. Whatever am I to do?"

Thomas played along with her repartee.

"Isabella might be booked through the month with these cosmic baptisms of hers... She'll have to squeeze you in somewhere..."

Salice was giggling. A sound Thomas thought ethereal.

"She's pregnant, you know? Isabella?"

Salice dropped her jaw and turned to Thomas with a look of pure joy. Thomas sometimes thought about that face in other ways. He used to think it could be their own pregnancy that could make her look so happy. Maybe he shouldn't use the past tense for that.

"She is? She neglected to inform me over the phone? Oh, that's wonderful! Why didn't she tell me, that girl and her secrets..."

A nervous hand found the back of Thomas' neck.

"Well, she probably didn't tell you because it might've been constituted as a surprise. A surprised that I probably ruined..."

Salice touched Thomas' arm as they happened upon the bridge. As old habits are the hardest to break, Thomas found her hand and held it as they crossed. The way she squeezed his fingers made something soft inside him. Another coin in his wishing well.

"Oh, I won't let you believe the surprise is ruined. You didn't spoil anything. I'll be just as happy the second time told."

"Then twice in one day then? Because I'm due for dinner at my mother's soon, and I'd love for you to come with me? I mean, everyone would love to see you. But of course, if you're too tired-"

"I'd love to come with you, Thomas."

The serenity of her voice gave Thomas the will to solve all the world's mysteries and right all the world's wrongs if that was what she desired. His dimple made an appearance as he grinned at her, daring ever so boldly to bring her hand to his lips. Salice watched him as he kissed her skin, the sensation making her skin pitter-patter like raindrops on a calm pond.

Salice had since stopped walking. They were at the highest point of the arched bridge now, the wind gliding across the lake, tangling in their hair. Thomas slowed to a stop beside her, still holding her hand. He noticed the mix of emotions on her face. He was afraid he'd done something out of turn.

"What's wrong?"

She shakes her head and closes her eyes for a moment, letting the wind kiss her rosy cheeks. When they opened again, Thomas saw jade divinity reflected in them.

"Nothing... it's just... so calm here. I missed this."

They watched the sun disappear and the purple twilight engulfed them in reverie. Fireflies had begun their shift well before their appointed time, and the crickets followed not long after. This was the magic Salice had been longing for. The feelings from this place were unique. She felt so small, but she felt that everything small here had a purpose. That she had a purpose. Even if that purpose was just to bask in undeserving beauty.

Thomas enjoyed these few moments. He, an inventor, standing on this bridge with her, a doctor, carrying her carpetbag in one hand and her own hand in the other, felt the most tranquil he's ever felt in just about half a decade.

"I can see why you came back," he said.

He often took for granted what beauty lies within this place. He often overlooked the intricate wildlife around him that strangers from faraway lands would call enchanting. He often let fall between the cracks the very magic in the air. Magic that he himself could not harness, but thrived on all the same.

Salice looked up at her friend. She saw the tan the spring had left him with, and it was only to get deeper now that summer was here. She saw the little brown moles that dotted his neck, frolicking around his Adam's apple. She saw the beginnings of fine lines around the corners of his eyes, where the crows had been dancing. The texture of his skin was smoothed by the low light. It made Salice believe she was looking at a gorgeous oil painting curated by some timeless romantic. She'd never thought this moment would really come, but here she was beholding it.

"Thomas..."

Her friend.

Salice quickly realized after Thomas became her friend that she didn't just desire friendship from the young man. He was sweet and doting and incredibly smart. He made her feel like the leading lady in a film. He was always there when she cried, and he was never the reason why. The times he'd gone without a jacket because he had given it to her on a spontaneously rainy day. The times he'd arrived at her door with a bouquet of flowers from his sister's garden for no other occasion or reason save for the fact she liked them. The times he'd given her expert advice on whatever problem or tribulation was plaguing her, walking with her to the ice cream parlor for deliberations. She loved Thomas far differently than one loves a platonic friend. And at this moment, looking at him now, she wondered how she could be so foolish to leave without telling him that. There must have been reasons they've never phoned their confessions or traveled the distance before to tell one another how they've felt. She couldn't speak for him, but she was certain in thinking all of her reasons could hardly be justifiable now. And if five years apart hadn't caused the wilting to the blooms of affection in her heart, what other reason did she need to confess?

"Thomas, I came back for you."

Thomas was suddenly submerged in the vast underwater world of his own emotions, the world around him completely forgotten. The thunder of his own heartbeat roused the waters all around him. Every breath he'd managed after the initial gobsmacking plunge was fuller and more vibrant than he'd ever known. He was being swept away, Salice's words carrying him to something he likened to true bliss. He felt everything, yet saw nothing until Salice's visage appeared to him out of the water like a siren. He was keen on her lips as they confessed her true feelings.

"Thomas, I love you."

The bag dropped onto the sturdy wooden bridge with a thud as Thomas reached hurriedly with both hands to cup Salice's face. He felt her fingertips touch the underside of his triceps as she came closer. The passion in her eyes and the desperation in his married together like two raw elements. Thomas' energy was whizzing about him like a valence, but when he touched the woman in front of him, he felt complete. Whole.

He looked down into her eyes, the only hesitation was the moment they took to behold each other. In that small moment, the one that felt like a thousand years, they shared more amatory wisdom with one another than all the libraries that had been built since the beginning of time. Thomas suddenly knew what it would be to hold her and kiss her and love her. He'd seen it all before, fantasizing about it for years, but cradling her now, looking into her eyes he saw for the first time in colorful corporeality. When Thomas watched her feathery lashes flutter close and her sultry heart-shaped lips part, the world seemed to slow down.

He kissed her.

He kissed her with the pent-up passion of five years. He kissed her ardently. He kissed her so that the only thing he could distinguish from the world around him was her. But Thomas also kissed her from a place of servitude. His love for her was almost idolatrous.

He cast his large hand over the side of her head to smooth her curls behind her ear, gathering them up in a tight, yet tender fist. He let his other hand slide down the line of her shoulder, coast along her back, seizing the cloth-snatched curve of her waist.

He was overcome by her sweet taste, the only way to describe it was something between sugar and euphoria. When Salice melted in his hold, that soft sound in the back of her throat sounded to him like wedding bells. It made him kiss her harder.

Thomas could feel the empty ground at the bottom of his wishing-well heart tremble like the rest of his earthly body was doing right now. A geyser broke through the stones at its depths creating a rush of powerful water that whirlpooled upwards, whisking around in its wake all the loose change that's ever been cast into him. That she's ever cast into him. For the first time, he was restored.

It was there in the middle of Lover's Lake did Thomas and Salice share this first and inaugural gesture of their romantic love.

When he pulled away from her, their faces had become hot. Salice's sage eyes searched all over Thomas for where this act of passion could have possibly come from. It was a surprise but well warranted. Salice loved how he'd kissed her. She'd never felt so feminine in her life. She smiled at Thomas, a smile that held the future. A smile that guaranteed his.

"Thomas... what's... oh... I-... oh."

Her breathy laugh was surprised, ariose, and unbelieving.

Thomas pinched the shining red apple of her cheek, his hand roaming to hold her chin, then her throat, then her body, pulling her as close as she could possibly be to him right then. They could be closer still. That would be another time. Thomas would make sure that closeness was the best she'd ever had.

"I love you. I love you, Salice. I've loved you..."

He searches for his words. Salice sees him searching the vast maze of his mind for those words. She pressed her fingers to his jaw, tilting his head toward her once more.

"Kiss me again to tell me how much you love me."

A warlike bomb erupted in Thomas' core. That was far more sensual than anything his mind's fabricated version of Salice had ever said.

And so he did. He did kiss her. He kissed and kissed and kissed her.

---

Thomas wasn't scolded for being late to dinner, since he had brought an honored guest that everyone was so eager to see... but if he had been, he couldn't think of a better or more worthwhile reason.

Isabella had announced her pregnancy once more, and Salice was just as surprised. Shuhei hugged his old friend, one that fate had guided to him as it had also guided her to Thomas. Gallierie, Thomas' mother, was so pleased to have her third daughter with her again. Dinner was a wonderful time to be together that night. It made Thomas feel whole.

To think that was years ago. Thomas today, sitting with his newspaper on the sofa watching his wife and children dance to the phonograph in the living room, recalled that Thursday evening. That day seemed to be the most defining of his life. It was the beginning of his new life. He married that woman, that woman who loved him and cherished him and held a mirror to him and let him see how great he was. With that greatness he uplifted her, provided for her, and made her happy. He became a version of himself that he loved, that his wife, his siblings, his children, and nieces and nephews could love.

But Salice had always loved him.

He'd always loved her.

Because of that day, so many wonderful things had happened. Because of that day, Thomas was forever changed.

Thursdays were now Thomas' favorite day. Green was his favorite color. Twilight was his favorite time of day. Lover's Lake was his favorite place to go. And that old fountain in the center of town, the fountain that reminded him of himself, that fountain he'd gotten a petition together for, to repair and make new again, now that was somewhere he'd taken his children and had shown them that anything was possible. Happiness was always possible.

He was so happy that he found it.