Kaya was disgusted with herself...Well not really. It was really that she was disgusted with what he called her...A fucking galaxy!? Of all things a galaxy. Was Milky Way taken? Or solar system? He pretty much compared her to a candy bar and what did she do? She just smiled and took it. Acted like it was the cutest thing she'd ever been called.

In a way, it was her fault. She should not have gone the insecure route, but it was the fastest. Men like him always want someone they need to take care of.

They spent time in the gardens holding hands. The flowers looked different at night. There was barely any light to even see them, but what she could see was terrible. They looked faded and dry. At night the flowers lost their beauty and just looked ragged.

She wanted to step on them, to hear the cracking of their dry petals, but Xander held her hand leading her along the path. Unfortunately he had better eyesight and whenever she strayed from the path he would gently tug her closer to him, in fear of her slipping into a flower bed.

Everytime she would even attempt to crush the flowers under her shoe, he would pull her closer. And each time this happened, she could hear the flowers taunting her in their annoying high pitched voices adding more wood to the chaotic bonfire inside her.

They finally reached the end of the path, the end being the beginning. Circular gardens were always so fun.

He walked with her to her room, and he kissed her goodnight as she closed the door, finally alone.

Months had gone by since they had met, and he was illogically in love with her. They had even established a quaint little schedule. They would eat breakfast together and head to a council meeting. After the meeting, Xander would have more meetings so Kaya would scamper off to the library, researching as much as she could on werewolf weaknesses, strengths, etc. After he finished with work, they would eat dinner and spend the rest of the night with each other.

It was all so boring. She hated the routine. Research was getting old and there couldn't possibly be another book in that library that she hadn't already skimmed through. Xander would always find her with his superior nose and she would always have to smile and act sweet and innocent in front of him. God, it got old.

The next morning, Kaya put on a simple dress that melted sunlight as she moved. It was light and flowing and made her feel godlike. She knocked at Xander's door, composing the epitome of happiness upon her face.

"Good morning," Sunlight filtered through her voice as he opened the door, sleep sprinkled in his eyes and wearing nothing but plaid pajama pants.

When he registered that it was Kaya at the door, a smile replaced his drowsiness and he moved aside gesturing for her to come in. As she stepped through the entryway, he began to walk toward the walk-in closet next to his bedside table. "Gimme a minute to get changed," He called from the closet.

"Okay," She yelled back as she took a seat on the couch and stared at the small pile of novels he had on the coffee table. He wouldn't take too long, so she grabbed the book on the top of the table and mindlessly read the words on the dust jacket.

After exactly 10 minutes—she knew this because she spent a majority of her time staring at the gilded grandfather clock—he finally emerged wearing a white sweatshirt and ripped jeans. It took ten minutes to find an outfit this boring?

Imagine how great it would look with blood on it.

She imagined how it'd look tie-dyed with red. "We should make matching tie-dye sweatshirts," she said out of the blue.

He nodded. "Sure, let's make some tonight."

"Okay. I'll bring some clothes we can tie-dye." She beamed as he took his hand in hers and they walked to the kitchen together.

After a mediocre breakfast, she was full with small-talk. Retreating to the library, she spent the rest of the morning in the library listening to the voices around her.

Young werewolves—or werepups, as she had dubbed them—were listening to a librarian read them a children's story about a rainbow fish.

"We read you that story when you were younger too." Her mother's voice was blended with nostalgia and desolation. "I don't remember what it's about," Melancholy forced her voice to split. "Why can't I remember?" She shouldn't cry about something as stupid as a children's story.

"It's okay, Darling," it felt like her mother was stroking her hair, "As we get older, our memories are burned away into something new. Our story will burn away and become something new...something beautiful." Her mother's voice wrapped around her like an intangible hug. "Doesn't that sound better? Hmm. A beautiful new story to replace tragedy." Kaya nodded, the familiar feeling of her heart in her throat, threatening to send a waterfall out her eyes.

"Well, Baby, in order to do that, we need to finish this story. Turn it into something beautiful for us." Her mother whispered into her ear like an angel upon her shoulders. Kaya nodded her head, afraid that if she were to even attempt to speak, the only sound that would come out would be sobs. Her mother understood, and she just continued to stroke her hair, soft waves of validation tingling through her scalp.

Sunset came sooner rather than later. Xander always finished work around this time so she waited for him to come meet her. He was still wearing the same white sweatshirt.

She beamed up at him as he leaned against the corner where the wall and the indentation of the window met. "I'll tie-dye your sweatshirt and you can tie-dye my shirt." She held up a plain white top that she had gotten from her room many hours ago.

She used the hand that was resting by his side to help herself up, and he lead her towards a random room in the halls.

Someone had already set up some tie-dye colors on a table wrapped in a plastic sheet. There were tubes of every color in the rainbow.

Xander took off his sweatshirt and handed it to her as she handed him her own top. He began to make a pattern of pink and purple and blue as she began to splotch colors of red onto the back his sweatshirt. After waiting a bit, she used fabric paint to write on the sweatshirt. It was significantly harder than she imagined as she struggled to draw the curve of the A's and the R's.

When she had finished, Xander was still working on his swirl. "Xander, look." She smiled at him as she held up the sweatshirt to show him. "Marry Me?" Was written in blocky-red letters, as Xander's face turned a bit red from the shock and tears slipped out the corners of his eyes.

She only knew he had said yes by the feeling of his arms around her and the dizziness of being spun in the air.

Kaya couldn't register anything coming out of his mouth. Just shock. Shock at what she had done. There was no turning back now.

What seemed like an auspicious blessing to him, felt like a curse to her. This was the final nail in her coffin of memories. As she spun around and around in her lover's arms, she saw the blurred illusion of Belle and the warped disappointment on her ageless face.