• He stepped through the darkness again...the same beginning. Always starting from nothing. He walks toward me with not a limp or hesitation, but a shadow of both. I don't start in the same place, but this was different from the times before. It was just darkness, all around. There was no floor, yet I stood on solid ground. No walls, no boundaries; it could have gone forever, but I could only see the black surrounding me. I felt a sound ahead. I held no fear of this place -- it seemed home to me -- but my heart began to beat for the first time in ages. A step. I had felt a step being taken in my direction. I hadn't known if my eyes had been shut, but I opened them now. Another step. I could taste the faint lines of his, I now realized, consciousness. It was metallic and earth; liquid and smoke. A familiarity plagued my senses, but no recollection came. I waited, unmoving, the beat of my heart unfamiliar within my chest. He drew steadily nearer, my pulse quickening. A silhouette appeared in the darkness, then he emerged into my sight...My heart stopped, my breath hitched, and I turned from this ancient creature back to the girl I had once been so, so long ago. I couldn't cry out, call his name; my voice had forsaken that creature long ago. Instead, I ran. The short space closed in just two bounds, and I felt my little human body crush into him, my feeble arms wrapped tightly around him. He didn't move for a moment, but when he did, it was slow. He raised his arms and paused, almost unsure of what he should have done. Then he came to life, arms securing around me, hand in my hair as I buried my face in his shoulder. He held me tightly to him as if to crush the lost years between us. He whispered in my hair, a language that I no longer understood, yet knew every word. I smiled, and as I did so, I felt a warmth spread from my newly beating heart to every inch of my body. The shadow light had come back to me. In response, I felt the cool sensation of darkness, familiar and comforting, spread against my skin, our essences seeping into one another. He pulled back, my face in his hands, and just gazed into my eyes. He ran the back of his fingers down the side of my face, then, lightly lifting my chin, brushed his lips against mine. My mind raced with the memories of his touch, a weightless feeling spreading through me. We parted and he looked at me again, that beautiful smile playing across his lips. I felt an answering smile spread across my face, and I reached up to touch his hair, his face. I traced the two long scars across his eyes with a tentative finger, and when I gazed into those beautiful blinded eyes, I knew I was home.