Before It Gets Away From Us

Roy sat on the couch and tried not to think.

It didn't work.

Silence settled over the apartment in a way that felt almost deliberate, like the space itself was holding its breath. From somewhere down the hall came the faint rustle of fabric, the soft, intermittent sounds of Zara moving around in her bedroom. Small, ordinary noises that carried far too much weight.

His hands rested on his knees. Still. Useless.

Varoonth's voice hadn't left him.

One wish per life.

No control over the outcome.

Still in progress.

Roy dragged a hand over his face, pressing his palm briefly against his eyes as if that might slow everything down. It didn't. If anything, the thoughts came faster, stacking on top of each other, refusing to settle into anything manageable.

The bartender had said there was nothing to be done. Nothing to fix. Nothing to stop. Just let it play out.

A humourless breath slipped out of him. That was easy for Varoonth to say. He wasn't the one sitting on a stranger's couch, waiting for a woman to walk back into the room completely and utterly changed because of something he'd asked for without understanding the cost.

Zara.

The drive over replayed itself whether he wanted it to or not. Her voice, bright and earnest and unfiltered. The way she'd tried so hard to be smooth, to be confident, to be something she thought he wanted. And underneath it, impossible to miss, the truth she'd handed him without even realizing how much it mattered.

Before you I'd never even looked at a man.

Roy exhaled slowly.

Not inexperienced. Not just nervous. Something else.

A word hovered at the edge of his thoughts, something he'd heard before, read somewhere, maybe. People who didn't feel that pull. Who didn't experience attraction the way others did.

Asexual.

That was it. The idea sat heavily in his stomach. Because if that was true, if that had been her, genuinely, fully, then what exactly had the wish done to her? Changed her? Unlocked something? Or overwritten it?

His jaw tightened.

Tabitha's face flickered through his memory, uninvited but impossible to ignore. Sharp features, short blonde hair, that blunt, unimpressed way of looking at the world. She'd been so clear about who she was, about how being a lesbian was a part of her the same way having arms and legs was parts of her. She knew what she wanted, until the wish had changed her, made an exception.

For Roy.

For a while, she'd been all in. Emotionally. Physically. Entirely. And then, once the wish's magic had been passed on to Elaine...

Nothing.

Reset.

Gone.

Like Roy had never existed.

Did Tabitha revert back to being gay? Had the exception carved out for Roy changed her in any lasting way?

And would Zara be the same?

Because this was no longer about what had been done to her. It was about what came next. Varoonth had made it clear that there was no going back once the wish had been made. What was done was done. So Zara being caught up in Roy's magic was a fact. But what he did with her in the time that they were in a relationship mattered.

She deserved her agency. That part was obvious. Non-negotiable. Whatever the wish had done, whatever it was still doing, Zara hadn't chosen it. Not really. Not in the way that was real to Roy, at least.

But...

Roy's gaze drifted toward the hallway.

She seemed to be really happy.

Not just going along with it. Not confused or distressed or trying to reconcile something that didn't fit. Excited. Alive in a way that felt new. Like she'd stepped into a part of the world that had always been closed to her and suddenly the door was wide open.

And he was standing in it.

This wasn't about Roy, about her being in love with him. This was about the wish giving her something she'd never had before. Feelings. Urges. Needs. And Zara seemed to be cherishing every second of it.

So what was the right thing?

Let it continue knowing it wasn't real, not entirely, not in the way it should be?

Or end it, free her, and potentially take something away she'd never had before?

His fingers curled slightly against his knees.

If you'd asked him the day before, it wouldn't have been worth considering. He was as much a victim to the randomness of the wish as the women in his life. They came, they went. Only, sometimes they didn't go. Sometimes they stayed. It was that change that had gotten him thinking. Why had Elaine and Michelle stayed? Why hadn't he been erased from their lives?

He had a theory. What had set Elaine and Michelle apart from the others? From Charlotte, from Tabitha, and especially from Agnes? Roy had feelings for them. Real, true, honest feelings. In the short time that he'd known them, somehow Roy's heart had cracked open enough to let them in. Now, with them as a part of his life, he had a hard time imagining living without them. Elaine's hot, steady affection. Michelle's eager, enthusiastic love. Roy loved them both.

He'd said it.

He meant it.

Could he love Zara?

If love was the answer, if finding a way to open his heart for one more woman would give Zara the thing she'd been denied her whole life, would it be better to take his time and let her in, or to free her from his influence?

There wasn't a clean answer. There probably couldn't be.

He glanced around the room, looking for insight. Neat. Ordered. Carefully arranged. Every surface intentional, every object in its place. Shelves lined with books, graphic novels, manga, exactly as she'd described, down to the almost obsessive organization. Figurines stood in deliberate clusters, posed like they were mid-scene. Near the small dining table, a box sat tucked neatly out of the way, labelled in clear handwriting: paint supplies.

And the games.

Roy's gaze lingered there for a moment.

Two full shelves. Board games, card games, titles he recognized mixed with ones he'd never even heard of. Strategy, party, co-op, an entire world of systems and rules and shared experiences, all catalogued and ready.

Ready to be played. Ready to be shared. Everything about the space said the same thing: prepared. Not just for company. For him. She'd cleaned, she'd organized, she'd prepared everything so he would feel comfortable, so that she could show him how she was ready for him to be in this part of her life.

This wasn't accidental. Not the cleaning, not the organization, not the way she'd been acting all night. Zara had put so much effort into this. Thought into it. Built something, an experience, a version of herself, that she believed he would want.

A persona.

"Sexy Girl," as she'd clearly decided.

A faint, conflicted smile tugged at his mouth. Not that he minded being with a woman who looked and acted the way Zara had been that evening, but she didn't really need it. That was the part that twisted at him.

The awkward jokes, the rambling enthusiasm, the way she bounced between confidence and complete self-awareness, that was what made her... her. It was what had pulled at him before she'd stepped into high heels.

If they'd met before the wish, before all of it...

Roy shook his head slightly. Pointless thought. Didn't matter. Didn't change anything. They hadn't met before the wish, and even if they had, she wouldn't have seen the point in pursuing romance with Roy. It wasn't even that he wasn't her type. She didn't have a type.

A soft click from the hallway cut through the spiral. His head lifted. The bedroom door opened. And for a second, everything else dropped away.

Zara stepped out.

Roy's eyes widened before he could stop them.

The outfit, if it could even be called that, was unmistakably her and at the exact same time completely not. Red lace, bold and bright, structured in a way that drew the eye immediately. Blue beneath it, patterned with white stars. Stockings. Heels. The colours, the pattern, it all looked familiar, bringing back memories of comic books as a child. Of a powerful Amazon. A warrior. A champion.

And somehow, layered over all of it, still unmistakably Zara.

She moved toward him with exaggerated confidence, hips swaying just a touch too deliberately, like she was following instructions only she could hear. The smile on her face gave her away, excited, barely contained, proud.

"Do you like it?" she asked, words rushing together as she tried to keep them steady. "I saw it and I couldn't resist. I thought you'd like it. I hope it's not too much. I mean, we can take it off if you want. I hope we take it off, but like, if you want me to put on something else you can say."

A short laugh escaped him before he could catch it.

"Zara," Roy said, shaking his head slightly, "you look incredible. It’s okay."

Relief lit up her face instantly.

"Oh, good. I know I can overthink sometimes, but I want tonight to be perfect for you. And for me. You know, for us. I've been thinking about it. And planning, and I set the apartment up, and then I bought this outfit, and..."

She stopped.

Right in front of him.

Something clicked behind her eyes.

Roy barely had time to register the shift before she leaned in, hands settling on his knees, her lips brushing his in a quick, soft kiss.

Then she moved. Lower. Kneeling in front of him. The world narrowed in a way that felt almost physical.

"I thought," she said, a little breathless, a little proud of the idea, "since it's my first time, we could role play a bit. I mean, Wonder Woman's from an island of only women, right? She'd have to be shown what to do on her first time too. Right?"

For a moment, Roy just looked at her. At the enthusiasm. At the effort. At the absolute sincerity behind every word. And something in his chest tightened painfully.

This was exactly what the wish wanted. Escalation. Fulfillment. Release. But if he wanted to stay in Zara's life, if he wanted her to have the thing she'd always been denied, he needed more time.

His hand moved before he fully decided to act, settling gently over hers where it rested on his knee.

Warm.

Real.

"Actually," Roy said, the words slower than they should have been, pulled through resistance that came from somewhere deeper than just hesitation, "I was hoping we could talk for a bit before things... you know... get away from us."

Zara blinked up at him, surprised. Not hurt. Not yet. Just caught off guard.

The room felt very small all of a sudden. Roy held her gaze, forcing himself not to look away this time. Because if there was a moment to choose, this was it.