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[sink_nor_swim]

It had been, without a doubt, the best night of Mikal's life after death. Everything about it seemed perfect, inasmuch as that was possible in a place like this, from finding the beach itself to spending the night there curled up in Zia's arms. It couldn't have gone better if she'd imagined it, which she had, more than once in the time they spent

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[sink_nor_swim]

This wasn't right. None of it was, from the question to the look on his face when he asked it, and it sure as hell didn't reflect any of the things he'd said to her the night before. Maybe she'd made a mistake, as hard as that was for her to want to admit with something like this. With a quiet, incredulous laugh, she pulled herself to her feet, brushing the sand off her legs before picking up her backpack and sweatshirt, and trying all the while to fight off a hurt expression.

"Don't - don't worry about it," she said with a slight sharp edge to her voice, gesturing absently with one hand, not quite able to bring herself to meet his gaze. "Look, just tell the others I couldn't stick around, okay? Good luck finding Kneller's dog, and your girlfriend." She wasn't going to stay if this was how it was going to be. After a moment's hesitation, she pivoted on her heel, turning to set off in the other direction down the beach. The more she looked at it, the more certain she became that it wasn't where they'd spent the night, but the atmosphere changing would hardly have been the strangest thing about this place.

[seekingmiracles]

Her storming off was definitely something he remembered. The mention of Kneller's dog was enough to make him realize exactly why she'd just gotten upset, though. He should have known she had come from that night on the beach.

"Mikal. Hey, Mik," he called after her, jogging to catch up with her. He wouldn't let her slip away. Not again. When he was close enough, he did the only thing he could think to do, and wrapped his hand around her wrist to stop her from moving. That seemed like the first step, though he didn't entirely know how well it'd work out. "Wait. Wait a second, okay?"

[sink_nor_swim]

"What is it, Zia?" she asked, obviously exasperated, as she turned to face him. The truth of the matter was that it was too hard to be around him after what had just happened, and sticking around now was bound to only make everything worse. He'd made pretty clear how he felt about everything the moment before. There was no reason for her to hang around, not when she could be off looking for the People In Charge even as they spoke. "What else do you want me to say? You know, I thought I'd said plenty last night, but..."

Trailing off, she shook her head. It wasn't worth getting herself all upset over, if this was the way he was going to act about it. She was just lucky she hadn't said more than that the night before. This was hard enough already.

[seekingmiracles]

Now that he'd stopped her, he found himself at a loss of how he was supposed to explain it all. He barely understood the island himself, nevermind knowing how to break it to anyone what was going on. There was a strange comfort in the fact she had at least not left from a time when she was alive. She had to think this place was an upgrade compared to where they'd both been.

"You're not where you were last night," he settled on. She had to notice the changes, even if it'd been dark out when they found that beach. "It's been a few hours since you've last seen me, but it's been...god, months since I've last seen you. I'm just a little surprised right now, that's it."

That he hadn't ever expected to see her again back where they were, too, wasn't something he was going to talk about - yet, anyway. He had a hard enough time explaining people appearing and disappearing.

[sink_nor_swim]

The landscape changing hadn't been enough for her to focus on, with as strange as the place they'd been was, but with his saying something like that, she had to pause, no matter how difficult it seemed to be standing there in front of him. It didn't make sense, even less than everything else did, and that was maybe why she was inclined to believe it. That didn't stop her from being skeptical, though. Even compared to the afterlife, that sounded pretty unbelievable.

"What do you mean, months?" she asked, puzzled, though she couldn't stop her voice from softening just a little bit. "Zia, that doesn't -" She cut herself off with a shake of her head, but glanced over her shoulders at everything around them, as if there might be some answer there. Her gaze fixed on him again after a moment, though. "If we're not where we were, then where are we?"

A part of her wanted to ask if they were alive, if they'd somehow both been sent back, but she couldn't bring herself to. If the answer was no, she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.

[seekingmiracles]

"I don't know," he admitted, finally letting her hand drop now that he was sure she wasn't going to go run off. "An island of some kind and we're all stuck on it. I thought it was just some other version of where we ended up, but...a lot of people who didn't die got brought here too, or didn't off, at least, so it's never made any sense."

He paused, knowing how completely unsatisfying an answer that was. It wasn't like it was his fault no one understood the place at all. After a long pause, he shrugged and added, "It's better than where we were, at least. I'd take here over back there any day."

[sink_nor_swim]

It was unsatisfying, alright. For a moment, Mikal just stood there, stunned, not even sure what to ask first. The story was a ridiculous one, but at the same time, she didn't want to doubt it. She just didn't know what the hell any of it was supposed to mean. Where she'd wound up after dying was weird, but this was already weirder, and she hadn't even thought that possible.

"But you've been here for months," she repeated almost warily, not quite a question. "And I was with you last night. So, what, you just - appeared?" For all she knew now, he might not even know about the night they'd spent on the beach. That thought was more worrying than she'd have even expected, though, so she tried not to dwell on it. If he didn't remember, it wouldn't have been her place to try to tell him.

[seekingmiracles]

"Same as you. It's really weird," he replied, finding himself being purposely vague on where, exactly, he'd come from. It would mean a lot of explaining he wasn't ready to talk about. He shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. He'd been hoping to see her again, but now that she was here, he wasn't so sure what he was supposed to do. After a long moment, he looked up at her. She was exactly like he remembered her. "It's good to see you again. I was, um, hoping you'd show up one day."

[sink_nor_swim]

"Right," Mikal murmured, glancing away instinctively. A little while before, she would've taken that as an undeniable good sign. Now, she didn't have the first idea of what it meant for them. It didn't seem right to hope for anything, as difficult as that was after everything that had happened the night before, no matter how weird the circumstances were now. That was all the more reason, though, not to just leave things as they were. "So, um - look, I don't know how much you remember, but -"

That wasn't right, though, and she shook her head, looking up at him almost hesitantly. "Just don't worry about it," she decided on, trying not to let on how difficult that was to say. She doubted she did a very good job of it. "It's not a big deal."

[seekingmiracles]

It had been over six months since he'd seen her, yet he was realizing he still felt the same way about her as he did that night. He just wasn't sure what to do about it, now.

"I remember," he said, though he wasn't sure how to tackle things beyond admitting that. He had wanted the chance to make up for what had happened, but now that it was staring him in the face, he wasn't sure how to even beginning. "That night was probably the best I had in a long time."

It was strange how the next night after it had probably been his worse. In one fell swoop, he had lost everything that made the place not so depressing. He hadn't blamed either of them for going, but that didn't mean it was easy.

[sink_nor_swim]

Hearing that wasn't as relieving as she'd have thought it would be, which left her only continuing to feel unsettled. Something, though she couldn't put her finger on what, seemed to still be off, even if it was only what he'd told her that was still sinking in. Either way, it wasn't quite right, and she hated that. She'd wanted what had happened the night before for too long to leave things awkward.

"Me, too," she agreed quietly, head tipped down slightly, though she still looked up at him. She had been about to speak again when something strange happened. There was a strange yet familiar tugging sensation at the corners of her mouth, and it took her a few seconds to place what had happened -- she was smiling, albeit faintly, for the first time since her accidental death. "Zia," she breathed, awestruck, any worries momentarily forgotten. "Zia, we're - we're alive."

[seekingmiracles]

He knew that would've come up eventually. She seemed to have figured it out herself, though, and her reaction wasn't too surprising. She had wanted what she had now - what she got back where they'd been - since the very beginning. He had only started to realize that was what he wanted as well when he met her.

"I told you this place was better than where we were before, didn't I?" he pointed out, and there was a faint smile on his face now, too.

[sink_nor_swim]

That it still felt somewhat awkward wasn't so obvious now that she had something better to focus on. With the same slight smile, she nodded, shifting her weight in the sand. She'd wanted this for so long that she had to still be a little incredulous, but she couldn't fully disbelieve it, not with evidence like this. It all just seemed so sudden, so strange, too much to wrap her head about all at once.

"So what now?" she asked, a bit hesitant still, but not as much as before. "You gonna show me around or something?" Maybe it was too much to ask, with what was still hanging between them, but she'd have rather been with him than left to make sense of this all on her own, that much was undeniable.

[seekingmiracles]

That sounded like a good idea. They'd figure things out once she got settled. He at least knew all the usual spots people went day by day by now.

"Yeah, of course," he replied. After another pause, he offered his hand for her to take. "Come on. It's actually pretty easy to find everything around here once you know where to look."

[sink_nor_swim]

Mikal considered his hand a moment before reaching out to tentatively take it, her smile fading almost imperceptibly. The whole time she'd been there, it seemed like she'd gotten nothing but mixed signals, and while that wasn't really anything new, it was more difficult after the night she'd just had -- the one that was, apparently, six months in the past for him, which made the whole situation even more complicated.

"I guess we better get going, then, huh?" she asked, though she couldn't quite manage to sound teasing, no matter how light she kept her voice. "Sounds like you've got a lot to catch me up on."

[seekingmiracles]

He wasn't trying to be difficult. It occurred to him only afterwards that he was probably doing a pretty terrible job with all of this, though he never was good at it to begin with. Even when they had kissed back on that beach, it'd been a spur of the moment thing that had just happened to work out.

"Most of the stuff here you're sort of going to have to see it to believe it," he admitted as he started leading her on toward the closest boardwalk. He didn't even know how to start explaining the fictional people walking around the island, among other things. "This place is...weirder than you're probably already guessing it is."