Claire didn't know what to do. Her mind was wrapped deeply in the problem at hand - Gilean's proclamation of his feelings right in the midst of her heartache with Psycho and the Radiant Heart. It had been a couple of days, days spent in impassioned study and surreptitious movements about the cottage to avoid Gilean. Home weighed constantly on her mind and bled from her when she could no longer hide from her roommate.
She spent that night packing - roughly tossing her things into her backpack. She couldn't deal with the ache, the confusion, the hiding in Westbridge - it was all overwhelming. She set her things to the side, planning to leave at first light. She would leave the house to Gilean and not look back, it was an infallible plan.
Often times it is when one has a plan that the universe smiles with a conspiratorial knowledge and twists the straight road into successive curves. So it happened that Claire was woken by Gilean sliding into her bed. Embarassed, he rose with a hundred apologies for his lack of attention. They did not, however, part. Instead they sat for hours talking and before the skies had changed color, they were in one another's arms.
Two beings of magic and light - it was nothing to note immediately the change in her body. It happened so quickly that before Claire even had a moment to consider this coupling a fair goodbye, she knew she could not leave. She had seen what her people had done to half espers, what others had done to them also. Now, in an instant, her body bloomed into a life giving realm for yet another being. She looked over at Gilean and took his hand in hers. Within the glow of her magical flames, she watched as his eyes danced in absolute awe. They were going to be parents.
