Scarlet didn't stop kissing him.
Her fingers gripped the back of Kale's neck, pulling him closer like she was afraid he'd vanish again. Her lips were soft but urgent, trembling but full of fire.
Kale's breath hitched against her mouth.
His hands found her waist, sliding up beneath the folds of her tunic. The contact made her gasp—but she didn't stop. She pressed her body against him fully, arching into him like she had done it in a hundred lifetimes.
Because in a way—she had.
And so had he.
"You remember," he whispered against her lips, disbelief cracking in his voice.
She smiled softly, her mouth still brushing his.
"All of it."
Kale's hand cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing over the tear she didn't know she shed.
"I've kissed you in dying timelines. In burning worlds. In dreams where I knew it wouldn't last," he murmured, eyes glowing with something tender and wild.
"But this…"
She kissed him again, slower this time—fingers sliding down his chest to the waistband of his belt.
"This is real," she whispered.
Clothes were discarded in quiet urgency.
The fabric whispered to the floor.
Skin met skin, heat blooming between them like wildfire caught in a still forest. Kale's breath hitched as she ran her hands across the runes on his back, which glowed faintly beneath her touch—symbols written in pain, in power, in prophecy.
And Scarlet kissed them.
Each mark.
Each wound.
Each scar.
As if reclaiming him from time itself.
Kale groaned low in his throat, flipping her beneath him, his lips trailing from her collarbone to her navel, worshipping every inch of her like a prayer.
Their movements weren't perfect—but they were honest. Hungry. Desperate.
His body pressed against hers fully, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him in, gasping into his mouth as he whispered her name like it was the only word he still believed in.
They moved together, slow at first, then building—two people who had burned through centuries apart, finally touching in the same moment.
After, they lay tangled in the sheets, sweat cooling on skin, hearts thudding as one.
Scarlet's fingers traced the line of his jaw.
"You were never meant to carry this alone," she whispered.
Kale looked at her—like she was the last star left in the sky.
"For the first time… I'm not."
The moonlight filtered through the window. The world, for once, was still.
Scarlet curled against his chest, their breaths syncing.
And Kale smiled.
Because for the first time in thousands of years…
He wasn't preparing for death.
He was preparing for life.
One day later…
The glow returned.
Power flooded back into Kale's core.
No longer fractured. No longer restrained.
His soul realigned with his body, the runes across his back burning bright.
Scarlet stood beside him, watching as the wind bent to him, the light curved around him, the world remembered who he was.
He turned to her.
"I have everything again."
She smirked. "Good."
Then softer—
"Now let's make sure you never lose it again."