It wasn’t the plan. It couldn’t be the plan. How could it _possibly _be the plan? How could it possibly _happen? _Mariel didn’t know. But it was happening, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was a risk; a stupid, ridiculous, dangerous risk. But it didn’t matter, really. She focused her thoughts back to the task at hand: her descent.

It wasn’t like it was the first time someone had run away to be with their everything. Mariel pictured him as she picked her way down the trellis at the front of her house. Anyone could look out of their window and see her; but the city was asleep- and she was awake. Which meant, for now, she was safe from prying eyes.

The mental image conjured instantly- dark green eyes perfectly contrasting with dark brown hair and sharp, pale cheekbones. She hit the ground. Felt the soft earth tremble slightly with the impact. She had read plenty of novels in school describing situations like hers as free fall. This wasn’t that.

It was rock solid.

Her dreams, her future, her destiny.

Well, destiny was pushing it a little. She wasn’t _that _dramatic. It was tangible, something’s she felt like she could hold in her hands. And she actually could, if she managed to make it past the square and the guards stationed there. 

She reeled her thoughts back in, _again. _Although, Bone never really left her thoughts. He was always there. Which was why she was doing this. Why _he _was doing this. 

Mariel broke into a sprint, taking deep, even breaths through her nose and exhaling through her mouth. She could feel the burn working it’s way up her throat. She wasn’t a runner.

After way too much physical activity for her taste— three minutes of jogging; maybe she was dramatic— she arrived at her biggest obsticale. The square. It was lightly lit with the warm glow of flames that spilled from the lampposts to the rocky cobble street below. Mariel had heard that some countries had created something called electricity, and while she didn’t know a whole lot about it, she knew that her country didn’t have it. A shame. But she didn’t need it anyway. None of her people did. Most of them were seeres. They could see perfectly well in the dark.

She used her keen eyesight to spot the nearest patrol. They were on rotation, but Mariel didn’t pay enough attention to know when the rotations swapped out. There was a reason she wasn’t choosen to fight in the war. They could train her, sure, but her skills were better used elsewhere. 

This time of year, the sqaure was blooming with flowers; all different colors, shapes, and sizes. She was partial to the purple rangalas that tended to sprout in the middle of the square. They’re her mother’s favorite, and she had grown to love them, too. The smell- not so much. It was like inhaling rotten eggs and sulfur. 

To get to Bone on time, she would need to go through the square. Past the rangalas and the guards. Past her childhood. This was it. After she left, she’d never see Ranka again. Mariel started inching herself along the outer wall of the square, taking care to sink lower in an attempt to become the shadows. As she continued along the wall, leaving the alleyway she was camped in behind, she considered the idea that these guards could be seeres. There was no way to know, so she tracked their movements intently. 

They were turned away from her at the moment, looking up at the sky, possibly admiring the yellow dandals that wound their way up the cracks of the nearest stone wall. No, that was ridiculous; not everyone had time to admire flowers. They were just doing their job, keeping lookout. 

Mariel glanced around to check her progress, she was almost to the other side. Just a little further. She felt her weight rock. No, no, _no. _She could not risk failing at such a simple task. Run away from your family and everything you’ve ever known? Easy peasy. Except nothing was, apparently. She had tipped a little too much to the right, and now she was falling. The free fall was happening. She was definitely dramatic.

As the concrete neared her face, or, rather, her face neared the concrete, she felt a fist at her back, grabbing her shirt in a bunch and tugging her with way more strength than she had into the safety of teh shadows. Mare turned to greet her stranger, perhaps with a thank you or a bolt out of there, when she saw his eyes. Bone. She couldn’t help it, her face split into a big grin. His eyes reflected her ridiculously happy expression. She could breathe again.

Then her thoughts came back, and she tilted her head, her happiness converting into confusion. 

“What are you doing here?” She mouthed.

His eyes twinkled. “Saving you,” he mouthed back.

She punched his arm lightly. “Me? Needing saving? Never,” she breathed.

He took her hand, fingers intertwining in hers, and tugged her slightly; motioning for the inching fest along the outskirts of the square to continue. He had just saved her, whether she wanted to admit it or not; but she didn’t care, she was ok with admitting her mistakes. That was one of the things he loved about her. And it was something Mariel loved about Bone, too.

The patrol had since moved on to another branching alley, leaving the dandals behind. She and Bone picked up the pace, and as they went, Mariel took the opportunity to study their intertwined hands; as she had done many times before. His were calloused from spending so much time in the forge of his city. They were tattooed along his fingers with bones, after his namesake. She had traced those tattoos too many times to count. Her light brown fingers tracing his pale long ones in the afternoon light. That was the only time they could slip away for long periods of time without notice.

Mare looked back up to find that they had made it to the alley across from the one she had started at. She would worry about how and why Bone had slipped into the city later, right now she had only one thought. And clearly Bone shared it; because as soon as they were behind the cover of some stacked crates, he whipped around and looped his arms around her waist, squeezing just the right amount. In response, her arms snaked around his neck, pulling them flush. He buried his face in her neck, inhaling deeply. She turned her cheek to rest on his shoulder.

“I’ve missed you,” she murmered.

“You need not have to ever again,” he whispered.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” he said, pulling back to examine her face, “more than you could ever know.”

“Oh, I know,” she grinned.

He smiled back, and lowered his mouth to hers. All of their problems flew away in that one kiss. Their warring people, their plan to run away, the things they would leave behind. It didn’t matter, because Mariel could live a lifetime fueled on this one moment. Except she didn’t have to, because there would be many more to come.