Kotallo walked to the fence line, glanced over his shoulders and used his FOCUS to look at the cabin. Aloy was still sitting on the bed. She couldn’t see out the windows and he’d closed the door. Kotallo slid his boots off, hunkered down and crept back up to the cabin. He edged around it and put his swag down as carefully and quietly as possible. His chest hurt and his heart was in tatters. He sat on a rock and closed his eyes, pressing his fingers to his nose.

What could he do?

She didn’t want him around.

He was part of the problem.

But Ally needed him.

Never mind being unable to perform the most basic tasks. Ally’s fear of being in the primitive futuristic world that she believed was partially her fault as it came out of a fiction she ‘wrote’, diminished when he was around.

Aloy couldn’t communicate with her.

Ally would be alone with no idea why.

Kotallo was trying to work out where he could sleep so that he was unseen by any of the windows of the cabin but close enough so that if Ally called out to him, he would be able to respond, when the cabin door opened and soft footsteps thumped the wood.

Aloy was probably checking to make sure he’d gone.

Kotallo shifted back slightly, trying to hide himself in case she looked around the cabin. Without her FOCUS, Aloy would need to lay eyes on his physical person before she could see him.

He was starting to wish he’d left the property altogether when he heard her voice.

“Kotallo? Kotallo!” He held his breath. In the stillness where only crickets were singing, he heard her sob. “He’s gone…he’s left me…He’s…I drove him away!” Kotallo closed his eyes, Ally’s emotional voice reaching him. He could almost hear the tears trickling down her cheeks. She’d shifted back to the forefront. “What am I going to do? I’m all alone! I’m such a fool! He’s gone!”

“Ally,” Kotallo called, coming out from around the cabin, seeing her standing, bare legged with the sleep shirt hem about her thighs, “I’m here.”

She spun around, her green eyes locking onto him. Kotallo walked to where the steps of the cabin rested on the ground.

“You’re here?”

“I couldn’t leave you,” he admitted, “Aloy told me to go and I wanted to honour her request but I knew how frightened you would be and I…” He stumbled backwards when Ally ran at him, her arms thrown around his neck, her lips planted on his. It was all Kotallo could do to not respond. This was the body of the woman he loved, whose visage marked the skin over his heart and her lips and form were precious to him.

But this was Ally…not Aloy.

“Ally,” he urged gently disentangling her from himself, sure she was kissing him out of relief and nothing more, “what…”

“Kotallo,” she held his face, up on tip toe, gazing into his eyes, willing him to understand, “it’s Aloy…I’m Aloy.”

Kotallo stared at her, stunned and disbelieving. “Aloy?” She nodded. “But…”

“I didn’t really think you’d leave but when I looked, you were gone,” she licked her lips, “and I realised I’d lost you. I can’t track without my FOCUS anymore and I didn’t know how to find you,” she shuddered, sniffing her sobs back, “I thought I’d finally driven you away…”

Kotallo slid his arm around her waist and drew her close, her arms threaded around his neck, their bodies pressed against each other.

“I couldn’t leave Ally on her own because if anything happened to her…it’d happen to you,” he buried his face in her shoulder, his chest aching like it would snap, “and I couldn’t bear to be apart from you, even if you weren’t aware I was there.” He drew back and pressed his forehead to hers, feeling her breath against his lips. “I am marked by you.” He said, tapping his chest.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Still?” Aloy laughed sadly. “After all I’ve done?”

“You’re still you.” He said, cupping her face. “I love you.”

Aloy took his hand in hers, drawing it down. Her jaw firmed. “I am not Elisabet…” Kotallo looked confused as Aloy continued, more to convince herself than he. “I am not she. I am me…at least half of the time…and,” she took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes, “I love you.”

Kotallo stared, his jaw dropping a little. “What did you just say?” He whispered.

“I, Aloy, am in love with you, Kotallo.” She swallowed. “I couldn’t say it before. Or maybe I could but I was too afraid…but I’m not now. Elisabet never let anyone into her life, not like this,” she put her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, “not where all barriers, not just physical but emotional and mental ones are gone. I love you.” Despite standing on cold ground under the night sky, she was soaked through with his warmth, not just his body heat but the strength of his love for her. He’d never faltered and she had only just realised what he really meant to her. “I don’t know what to do about Ally.” Aloy admitted in a whisper.

“When you are Ally, I will care for her, provide and protect,” Kotallo pushed her back a little, brushing her hair away from her face, “but when you’re you,” Aloy shivered at the intensity in his eyes, “I get to love you with all that I am.”

Who kissed who was unclear. They both reached for each other, arms holding on as Kotallo lifted her in his embrace and carried her inside.

“This is what I want,” Aloy murmured as his lips trailed down her neck, “forget the world, forget the missionaries, the danger and the peril. Let someone else deal with the rebels and the bandits,” she stood on her feet and grasped his hand, “this is what I want. You and me and nothing else.”

Rather than reassure him, Kotallo’s expression showed consternation which took her completely by surprise. “Aloy…uh…sit down,” he took her the bed and they sat on the edge, “I need to tell you something.” He swallowed, his eyes deeply troubled. Aloy held onto his hand, refusing to let go. “After things ended between us…after I travelled east…”

Aloy’s heart sank. “You fell in love with someone…”

Kotallo’s head came up sharply. “What? No!”

“You slept with someone?”

“Absolutely not!” Kotallo exclaimed. “It’s not that kind of confession!” Aloy had to sit on her questions and wait for him to speak. “When I returned from the east, I reached a point where I had accepted your decision that we were over. And I heard about the rejuvenation capsule and its capabilities…”

“You wanted it to reconstruct your left arm?” Aloy looked at the space where his left arm ought to be.

“No,” Kotallo smiled sadly, “I wanted healing for something less obvious…but with lasting repercussions…”

Aloy blinked as his eyes met hers then looked away. She gasped softly. “The Stalker mine…you couldn’t have children…”

“I didn’t know how much it meant to me,” Kotallo admitted, “until it was taken away.” He paused, licking his lips. “I thought…if I could move past how I felt about you…”

“You want to have children.”

The statement hung in the air between them. Kotallo glanced at her then looked away. “If…If I had known that we would end up here, like this once more, I…” His distress was out of character, sure his hope for the future had just derailed his chance for love.

Aloy felt her lips curl up. She stood and turned to face him, his words fading out, waiting for her to put conditions on their relationship.

But Aloy had finally moved beyond that.

She sat on his lap, straddling his waist and kissed him deeply. Every time Kotallo tried to speak, she kissed his words away. She could feel his body responding to her, desire flooding every pore but he managed to grasp her hands in his and leaned back.

“Aloy,” he rasped, “you could become pregnant. I know being a mother is not something you want.”

It hadn’t been.

Aloy had made that very clear.

But that was then.

This was now.

“When I said I wanted you and I and nothing else,” she stroked his chin, “I meant nothing else outside of us. What I want is you and I…and whatever that includes, for better,” she kissed his cheek, “for worse,” she kissed the other, “if we’re unwell,” she kissed his forehead, “or if we’re healthy,” she kissed the tip of his nose, “if we couldn’t have children,” she kissed his lips and stayed close to him, “or if we can…I want you.”

The way he held her told Aloy all his questions had been answered and his doubts, dispelled. They fell back onto the bed, reassured and whole. Coming together was like coming home as Aloy shed the final layers, not of her clothing, but of the shield she put up around her heart.

In the middle of the night Ally woke with a start, a little dazed and struggling to see in the dimness of the room. The bedding smelt new, soft and smooth, no straw to itch or animal hide to smell. She was curled up against a warm body, her arm across his chest which rose and fell gently. She lifted her head a little and squinted at the profile of the man she had clearly been intimate with if their lack of clothing was any indication.

She closed her eyes and breathed out. “Joshua,” he made a soft ‘hmm’ sound, “I had the worst nightmare. I’d lost everything and you weren’t there…”

His arm reached over to cuddle her even closer, his lips pressing to her forehead.

“I’ll never leave you. I love you.”

Ally closed her eyes, her heart at rest.

“I love you too.”