James slowly opened his eyes, still half asleep.
At first he could only make out shadows, but as his vision adjusted to the darkness, the figure sitting at the edge of his bed began to take shape.
"...Faust?" he murmured, his voice hoarse, propping himself up on his elbows. "What are you doing here? Did something happen?"
She didn’t answer.
She simply stayed there, sitting sideways, her head tilted slightly and her hands in her lap.
The little light coming through the window barely reached her face, but it was enough for James to notice the change.
That wasn’t the distant expression she always carried.
"Everything’s fine," she said quietly. "I just... I just wanted to talk to you."
The subdued tone of her voice was enough to completely erase James’s desire to go back to sleep.
So instead of complaining about the hour, he sat up fully and sat beside her.
"Sure," he said calmly. "I’m listening."
Faust stayed quiet for a moment, as if organizing her words before saying them.
"I wanted to thank you," she said finally. "For defending me that day."
"That again?" he replied with a small smile. "You already thanked me for that, remember? And besides, it’s not like you actually needed me to save you."
James shifted position slightly and leaned back on the bed.
"With all that magic of yours, you probably could have handled those four on your own without breaking a sweat."
"No... I wouldn’t have defended myself at all."
"What do you mean?" James asked, confused.
"Before you showed up, I already knew what was going to happen," she confessed. "My clairvoyance showed me what was coming... including what would happen if I tried to fight back."
James looked at her, not quite sure what to say.
"No matter what I did, things ended in the worst possible way... so I’d decided to do nothing and let whatever was going to happen, happen."
"Wait a minute, you were seriously going to let those guys beat you?"
"That’s what my visions showed me... and they’ve never been wrong."
"But that doesn’t make sense," James insisted. "Even if you’d seen something bad, you can always try to change it, right? I don’t know, do things differently."
"That’s exactly what I believed at first," she confessed with a bitter smile. "When I was younger I tried to change everything... but I quickly learned the hard way that denying the fate I see only brings worse consequences."
"That’s... a pretty horrible way to live."
"I know."
Faust clenched her fists in her lap.
"But then you showed up," Faust continued, her voice breaking. "And that wasn’t in any of my visions. Nothing that happened afterward was either."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
And for the first time in the entire conversation, a small smile appeared on Faust’s face.
"Since I’ve been with you, no matter how hard I try, my clairvoyance shows me nothing... It’s as if it just shut off."
"And is that good or bad?" he asked cautiously.
Faust took a moment to answer.
"You don’t understand, do you?" she said, her voice trembling slightly. "My whole life I’ve been bound to my visions."
She looked up, and this time she looked James directly in the eyes.
"But now, for the first time as long as I can remember, I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow."
It was then that he realized Faust had been holding back tears this entire time.
"For the first time in my whole life... I feel free."
And unable to hold back any longer, the tears began falling silently, sliding down her cheeks while she tried, without much success, to maintain her composure.
James wasn’t quite sure what to do, since he’d never been good at this kind of thing.
In his previous life, whenever someone cried in front of him, he tended to freeze up, not knowing what to say, and that night was no different.
So the only thing he could think to do was give her a couple of awkward pats on the back, trying to comfort her as best he could.
"Hey, it’s okay..." James said quietly.
But instead of calming down, Faust turned toward him and hugged him.
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face against his chest, clinging to him as if she were afraid he would disappear at any moment.
"Never leave me... please," she murmured against his chest, her voice broken.
James stayed still for a few seconds, surprised. But then, he returned the hug gently.
"I’m not going anywhere."
"Thank you..." she said between sobs.
Both stayed like that for a while, accompanied only by the soft sound of rain hitting the window.
Until, after a few moments, Faust pulled back slightly from him.
Her eyes were still wet and her cheeks were still flushed, but the tears had already stopped.
For a few seconds, she simply stayed there looking at him in silence, as if gathering the courage to do something.
Then she closed her eyes and slowly leaned in, until her lips met his.