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The physical and cultural differences separating our species seemed insurmountable. Passionate unions between Yulians were vanishingly rare, let alone with an alien human. No law or precedent existed to guide such an improbable pairing.
And even if we surmounted the challenges, what future could I offer Noelle here in this world of endless winter? She was a creature of warmth and light who would inevitably wither in Yule’s unforgiving climate and customs.
With a heavy heart, I had to concede the barriers between us were likely insurmountable. The few stolen moments we’d shared would have to sustain us both through lonely lifetimes to come.
Yet try as I might, I could not quite silence the small insistent voice inside that whispered perhaps we were owed this one impossible chance at true connection. That somehow, across all odds, we would find a way.
So I clung to hope, and waited anxiously for Noelle’s first communication to arrive through the fathomless darkness separating her world from mine.
The day Noelle’s first communication arrived, I was adrift in the cavernous toy workshop, staring blankly at an untouched block of ice. Crafting toys had lost all joy without her vibrant spirit to rekindle my imagination.
Suddenly Jingle rushed in, clutching the communication tablet excitedly. “A message for you! From Earth!”
My pulse quickened as I took the tablet with trembling hands. Noelle’s delicate script filled the screen:
My dearest Xanther,
Not a day goes by that I don’t think of you and our magical time together. The memory alone sustains me through the long, lonely days.
Christmas approaches again, but all I wish for this year is you. To see your smile, hear your laugh...even for a moment would make my heart whole.
Please say we’ll be together again. You have a place here always, if you wish it.
With all my love, Noelle
Reading her heartfelt words, an ache seized my chest. How I missed her gentle spirit, her joy, her wisdom. No gift or toy could ever bring me contentment without Noelle’s light to guide me.
“Reply immediately and promise you will return to her,” urged Jingle. But expectations weighed heavily, and I could make no guarantees.
With a bittersweet pang, I began a carefully worded response:
Dearest Noelle,
Your letter was a ray of light in this interminable winter...
I clenched my stylus, pouring all the unspoken words in my heart into that glowing screen. And prayed she would understand why I could not yet make the promise we both so desperately wanted.
In the ensuing months, Noelle and I settled into routine communication via the tablets. At first we simply shared anecdotes of our days, but soon a deeper intimacy emerged.
Our messages grew longer, more vulnerable and affectionate. Noelle confessed her innermost dreams and regrets, trusting me as she would a lover. I found myself revealing long-buried pains and fears I had shared with no other soul.
Before long, flirtation and suggestion crept in. Noelle would reminisce on our passionate interlude, describing in vivid detail how she yearned to be with me again. My pulse raced reading her sensual missives.
I began responding in kind, voicing my own burning memories and fantasies. We spoke freely of pleasures we wished to share, inhibitions lowered by distance and anonymity.
At night, I lay restlessly imagining Noelle’s soft caresses, the taste of her lips. My body ached across the lightyears for her tender touch.
By day, I tried to focus on my work, but anticipation for her next sultry message kept me perpetually distracted. This unconventional romance was becoming an exquisite torture.
And through it all ran an undercurrent of longing - a shared ache to abandon caution and close the gap between our worlds. But the forces separating us remained formidable.
So we kept to the safety of fantasy while slowly, word by word, drawing our souls ever nearer, orbiting inexorably closer like binary stars locked in each other’s gravitational pull.
***
At some point, I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed a release. I couldn’t fathom ever letting any woman other than Noelle touch me, so I had to take care of myself.
As I entered my private bedroom, the door clicked softly behind me, sealing off the rest of the world and leaving me in a cocoon of intimacy. The dim light from the bedside lamp cast shadows that danced on the walls, while the scent of the candles I had lit earlier still lingered in the air.
