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Irony. Joshua hated the word. He felt the shock, distaste and hatred rolling through Amelia's veins and thus his. He'd felt those feelings from her before, but they were always directed at him. It was rather ironic that her feelings of negativity were swapped. She hated Owen at that moment, and everything loving and happy was directed towards Joshua.

Ironic, indeed, he thought to himself.

He couldn't work out what exactly was happening, but he could sense she was in distress. He wanted to go round there, all guns blazing, make sure she was okay, but he couldn't. She'd cheated on her fiancé, and if he showed his face, he ran the risk of Owen finding out what they'd done. As much as he hoped she would throw his lying arse to the curb and come back to him, he couldn't run the risk of having her hurt. She needed to make the moves on her own, of her own accord.

He was concerned, though. He could feel her emotions at their height, just like a roller coaster that was stuck at its peak, just teetering off the edge. He didn't want to touch his Knot in case it fucked her over, but he also couldn't stand around doing nothing. She had somehow touched her Knot earlier, but he could feel her willing him not to return the favour because she was proving a point to Owen.

He tried to do the same. He placed his hand over his tattoo and thought as loud as anything: calm down, Amelia. I'm here.

He didn't know if she could feel his words, but he felt her emotions calm down a little. He walked back up the stairs to start the shower.

He turned the dial on the wall just as a familiar feeling began in his hands.

"Fuck, no," he muttered. He touched his hand, massaged it, ran it under the water, but it didn't stop.

The Change was coming. He could feel it, and it made him want to be sick. The Declaration hadn't worked.

He ran into the bedroom and grabbed the pen and paper from the bedside table. 'Dude, the Declaration didn't work. We need to try it again. Amelia here knows about us being Drifters, so you don't need to be careful around her. Be honest that we're Drifting right now. She'll catch you up on what's happened. Something has happened with her fiancé, ask her to explain. Just do not go near that guy, he's faked his Knot with her, it's fucked up.'

He stripped and got in the shower. The water felt like teeny tiny bullets penetrating his skin, but he wasn't being killed by them. They were washing away the stress, washing her from him.

He felt her then; loud as anything, calming as anything, his Knot burned under the water. He tried to attune to her; she was stressed and pissed off. Immediately, he put his hand over his Knot.

Just as the water was doing, he could feel both their anger, shock, annoyance, and disappointment melt away, fall off and go down the drain.

When the moment was over, he turned the shower off and got out. He wrapped a towel around himself and grabbed his phone. He could feel she wasn't calm, and the Tether was only an instantaneous fix that didn't stay around for long.

This was bad.

Two messages from Amelia: 'He's admitted to faking the Knot. He did this.'

Joshua sighed, but he didn't know whether it was relief or anger, or both. He knew as soon as he saw that Knot that it was fake. He just wondered how in the Hell a nineteen-year-old coffee shop manager could have the kind of tenacity to do that kind of shit.

The second message was more desperate: 'This isn't good, Joshua.'

He immediately dialled her number.

"Hello?" She'd answered on the third ring.

"What's going on? I can feel how... intense this is," he asked. "Do you need me? I'll be there in five minutes."

She sighed down the phone. "He's currently in the bedroom... Josh, he's admitted to faking our Knots. He hasn't told me yet, but... this isn't good. I don't know what to do."

"Amelia, I'll be there in—"

"No. It took enough to get this much out of him. I... I don't think seeing my real Fated One will help matters right now, you know? But thank you."

He nodded, even though he knew she wouldn't see him. "I get it. Look, I know this might not make sense to you, but I don't know how else to tell you. I get symptoms before I change, you know, worlds. I've started getting them."

She fell quiet before inhaling deeply. "You mean... you'll be gone soon? The Declaration didn't work?"

"I guess not. I don't know when it'll happen, but I want you to know because it might not be me next time we see each other."

"Okay. I'll... make sure to check," she joked lightly.

He chuckled. "I don't know when it'll happen, but... if you can, can you get out tonight?" He knew he was treading a fine line.

"It depends on what happens here. But I can try," she said.

Joshua heard Owen's voice in the background. The guy was angry, and just the sound of him made the very fine hairs on the back of Joshua's neck stand to attention, ready and poised to shoot if they could.

"I better go," she whispered. Her voice went incredibly quiet. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said. She cut the call just as he heard Owen start yelling.

He wished he could get away with punching the crap out of him, but he was better than him, and he knew for certain that Amelia thought that now, too.

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Joshua opened the front door a few hours later to see Amelia. He couldn't say he was surprised, but he was also a little confused.

"Amelia, what... what happened?" He closed the front door after her. She just walked past him, removed her slip-on shoes before she marched into the lounge.

He followed her and stood in front of her sad form. After she had hung up on him earlier, he felt nothing but sadness and betrayal in her mind.

"I... don't want to talk about it," she eventually announced.

He embraced her cheeks with both of his hands. He'd never usually be so bold; he had no idea where their boundary was, but he knew neither of them cared. They'd told each other they were in love with each other, they'd had sex; Joshua figured his boldness wouldn't matter.

"Then we won't," Joshua assured her. "I just want to know one thing, then I won't mention it until you want to. Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head, and he felt the truth riding through her like a roller coaster. It made him satisfied that she was as okay as she could be.

"Good. Come here," Joshua said. She fell into his embrace.

The comfort soared through him to her, and he felt all her troubles melt away like butter on a hot potato. Whatever happened, whatever Owen did or said, he could feel she knew she would be okay because she was with him.

It was then that Amelia sniffed. She was crying.

"Hey," he whispered. It pierced his heart like a bullet to hear her crying, to see the tears leak like a fountain from her coffee-eyes. She looked at him and he kissed her lips ever so lightly, he would've been forgiven if he questioned that it happened.

"I... I just need you," she whispered.

He smiled. "You'll always have me. Wherever, whenever, however you want, I'm here for you."

"You said you'd be leaving soon," she said.

Joshua sighed and stood back. "Fuck."

She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her cardigan before she perched herself on the edge of the sofa. She was still wearing the dress she'd had on earlier and though the situation wasn't great, it brought back memories Joshua would cherish for a long time.

"I assume you meant that you'd be leaving for the other world," she mentioned.

"Yes," Joshua answered. "Basically, before The Change happens, I get a slight headache and pins and needles. Almost like I'm ever so slightly drunk. I started feeling the pins and needles earlier. They get stronger as the Change gets closer. But when I returned last time, when we kissed? I was drunk because I was trying to get back here, and tried to Declare, so I don't know how it works anymore. But it's coming. I don't know when, or how, but I wanted you to know."

"Thank you for telling me. Could've been awkward if I tried it on with, well, you. I suppose he'll be expecting me to full-on hate him?" she joked.

Joshua laughed. "I don't know. I told him not to fuck up things with you, that's why he was rather... cold. But now you know the truth, so you can be open with him now."

"Are you going to try Declaring again?"

Joshua nodded. "I'll try to do more research on it, I'll try whatever it takes, and I will come back as soon as I can, I'll do whatever it takes to come back to you. I promise."

She strode across the floor to him. He didn't know what she wanted until she dragged him to the sofa, pushed him on the seat and straddled him.

"Amelia, you're upset." He put his hands around her waist regardless.

"I don't care," she retorted. "I realised something in the last... however many hours it's been since I went home."

He looked her straight in the eyes. Though the drama and confusion were high in the air, one thing always amazed him when he looked at her; she was a work of art. He found her attractive; fuck, there wasn't even a word large enough to express how gorgeous he found her.

But it wasn't just her looks, Joshua concluded. She always had this deep thoughtful look to her, like she analysed everything and anything. He was always intrigued by her; he could never know enough about her or her thoughts. He could listen to her for hours and it wouldn't be enough. He wanted to stare at her, study her, write a thesis on her, sculpt her into a thousand wonders of the world, write a million books on her, immortalise her in every way possible.

She amazed him, and he didn't know if that was the fact they were Fated, or whether it was because he was madly and deeply in love with her. A woman who was eight years younger than him, who annoyed the fucking daylights out of him, who had the attitude of a child, who threw her toys out of the pram when she was frustrated. Yet she was the woman who held his heart across time and space.

She was Princess Jasmine, and he was Aladdin, but the magic carpet ride literally took him to a whole new world.

"What did you realise?" he asked her.

"I didn't want to waste my last hours with you in this world on him. I don't hate you. You drive me absolutely insane, and though it frustrates me how arrogant you can be, and I still loathe how you've just imposed on my life, I'm glad you did," she answered. Her hands fiddled with the material of his t-shirt until she pulled it off completely.

He shook his head and smirked at her. Her fingers ran across his chest, forcing jolts of need across his skin, seeping through his blood until he was completely ready for her to undress him completely. She was his distraction, and she knew full well what she was doing.

"I realised that I don't... I can't love Owen after what he's done. It's you. I never really believed in soulmates or The One because I think there is more than one person for everyone. But I didn't believe in that because my connection with Owen wasn't real. But I think I really do believe in the Knot Shit now."

"Knot Shit?" Joshua grinned at her.

She giggled and claimed his lips as hers. Her lips were smooth, tasted like coconut and felt like home to him. He pulled her until she couldn't physically be any closer.

"If I don't know when I'm going to see you again, then I want to spend every second we do have together," she whispered.

"Amelia, I—" He stopped. "I don't want to take advantage; you've just been through—"

"Sh," she retorted. "He's not worth a second more of our time. I'll deal with it when you're gone. For now, just... love me."

He chuckled. "You don't have to ask me twice. I do that all the time."

"Smooth."

"I tried."

Amelia kissed his neck, fuelling every single nerve into a firework show. "I also realised how much of a fine line there is between love and hate."

"A very fine line," he agreed with a groan.

"I think I find myself stepping over the line into the love category," she admitted. She stopped and looked into his eyes. "Because I love you. A lot. You're my safe space, you're my home. I love you."

He couldn't take it for one more second. She'd crossed the line of romance and entered a different realm all together. "We'd better get upstairs now."

He grabbed her and lifted her so he could take her upstairs, but he was fighting the knowledge all the way that he didn't have long left until he'd be changing realms for real. He just hoped it would at least last the night.

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When Joshua woke up, he realised something. Life was good. He'd spent the night beside the naked woman he loved, though he knew reality would set in after a while and she'd have to either tell him the story or go back and face the wrath.

She'd told him she loved him, more than once. She came to him, told him she wanted him, and though he knew she would have to go through a heavy broken heart, he was ready to wait for as long as it took.

He finally opened his eyes.

But things were different. The curtains were on the wrong side of the room, the colours were duller, different than he remembered them before closing his eyes.

"Fuck," he cursed.

Joshua turned over in bed. He was still naked, but there was no Amelia beside him.

"Well, that's what we did last night, for sure. Morning, sleepyhead."

"What the fuck—"

"Oh. Shit."

"Emilia?" he asked.

"You two world-swapped, right? Yeah, He told me all about it. Told me he couldn't keep it in any longer," she said. "You got some explaining to do—you've been cheating on me, right? For me?"

He threw his head back on his pillow. He didn't realise it was going to be that soon, and he didn't know That Joshua would complicate things further by explaining it to her.

"I'll let you get dressed," Emilia said and slipped her pyjamas on. "Coffee?"

He nodded. "Please."

She hummed a response before she walked out of the room. He supposed the good thing was that she knew, so he could be open with her about his feelings and what was happening.

He just hoped Amelia was okay.

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