Learning to Dance

being so weak.”
Up wanted to chuckle. “You, weak? Never.”
She didn’t smile, and then he did reach out, to place one
hand on each arm. Her skin was soft, hot to the touch of his
human fingers. “Hey,” he said. “Mírame.”
She looked up, slowly, and her eyes found his.
“I knew why you left,” he said. “And I understood. But
I’d have waited forever for you. Taz, it’s - it’s always been
you and me, right?”
She blinked, rapidly, close to tears. “I’m sorry, Up.”
He looked at her beautiful face, the one he knew so well,
the soldier’s mask gone, and just Taz, his Taz, left. And
somehow, he found the courage she had tried so hard to tell
him he still had.
He bent, and caught her lips softly with his.
It was a question. He drew back, and her eyes were still
closed. She opened them, and for a moment, her eyes were
all there was.
Then she reached up and pulled him back down.
He was overwhelmed by the sheer force of her, the fire
in the way she touched him. She kissed him like she meant
it, like she was apologizing for their lost time, for
everything, and he responded, wanting her to know that it
didn’t matter, none of it mattered, that his feelings for her
had never changed, they never would, they had been there
all along. His hands traced the shape of her back, feeling
the three large bumps that would someday fade to scars,
ones that would match his own.
“I love you,” she gasped against his lips.
He pulled back, ever so slightly. He tried to find his
voice to respond, but it had gotten lost somewhere behind
the lump in his throat.
Taz stood on her tiptoes and kissed a tear gently from his
face. “Well, don’t cry about it, you big idiota. I always