“Why do I know you?” The man paced back and forth in front of Darcy, “Why are you in all of my dreams? Why do I call your name at night?”

“I don’t know,” Darcy answered; still sitting as small as she could make herself in the corner of the couch, hands folded in her lap. Her eyes were on her shoes.

“But you have to know!” He slapped his hand down on the table, making Darcy jump. “You must know! If you don’t know, and I don’t know, then it makes no sense!”

“Then it makes no sense.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m Darcy. I’m a healer, I’m 17, my boyfriend thinks I’m hiding something from him, thinks I’m cheating on him, all because you call my name at night. I don’t even know you! And you’ve made trouble for me without even knowing me.” Darcy had risen from the couch and was now standing in front of the man, looking up at him angrily, “If I had just let you die instead of taking you to Murphy’s mother, I wouldn’t have this problem. Maybe that’s what I should have done!”

“You wouldn’t have done it, you’re a healer for a reason, you can’t break the healer’s oath and you can’t let people die if there’s anything you can do about it.”

“I’m sure the council would understand. Murphy and I are engaged, and you’ve screwed this up.” She poked his chest with her purple manicured finger. “Now you leave here, and you never come back, or I will tell the council that you were injured not at your post, not protecting the fae world, but at a young lady’s home, and managed to transport yourself to me covered in lipstick and with your clothes half off, oh, and without your saber.” She had found his saber in the days when she had been banned from Murphy’s home by his father, banned from seeing the fae soldier she had saved. She had tracked him by his magic trail, found the young human woman that he’d been with, found the marks of a magical attack outside, though not being a soldier she wasn’t sure what had caused them, and she’d found his saber, disguised as a pocket knife to the human eye. But Darcy had known better, she’d known it was a soldier’s saber, and that it could only have come from her soldier.

“I…I…I wasn’t—“

“Save it. I know where you were, I know that girl is younger than me, and I know you weren’t checking wards. If you ever come back I will tell the counc—“
Darcy was cut off mid-sentence as the soldier kissed her. For a moment she gave in, letting his soft lips caress hers, letting his tongue stroke hers, letting his hands roam her back. But as soon as she realized what she was doing she shoved him away.

“Stay away from me! Don’t you ever come back here. You’ve caused enough problems for me!” The soldier, though, was smiling. Perhaps he knew that Murphy was coming into the building, about to use his keys to enter his fiancée’s apartment. He kissed Darcy again, and this time she didn’t give in, she shoved him off just as she heard Murphy’s keys in the door. She ran to it, threw the door open and flung herself on him. They walked into the living room, and all that was left of the soldier, was the bowl of spaghetti he’d been eating.