#or maybe she’s always been a creature of the space between worlds (what with the way she hops between them) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sorryimananti-romantic · 8 months

Text

Horizon (Chapter 5)

series masterlist

faerieprince!san x oc

royal/fantasy au, soulmate au

chapter wc: ~18k

chapter warnings: fluff, angst, tragedy, violence warnings, mention of death/su!cide, past traumas, atz interactions, suggestive

chapter synopsis: yeosang manages to contact neve and together with gaeul, yena, yunho and mingi, they open a portal to another world and find out what those monster-like creatures are and why they kidnapped not only faeries but darklings as well. they get answers that connect everything from the beginning to the end. gaeul must come to a decision and finds herself in a dilemma- she can either return her magic to her original state or save her soulmate bond with san who loves her anyway.

manager-nim: @eightmakesonebraincell (couldn't have seen it to the end without her :') <3 )

[Day 132 in other dimension/132 hours and 47 minutes in Mirinae]:

Yeosang was not having fun moving around in his dimension as a spirit.

As the Prince of Space who ruled over the dimension, he had an unquestionable authority over all those who dwelled in the bridge of a dimension between life and death. With his soul intact in his body, that perhaps rendered him a force to be reckoned with.

But as a spirit just like the others? He was certainly not enjoying the lack of said authority.

Now that he felt like any other soul in that dimension, most dismissed him as background. Those who did not either went after him or spread word around, which was worse- there was always a spirit a little unhinged that dared to try something with him. Thankfully, his loyal friends in that dimension were sticking with him- at the price of a few favours.

“I’m just sayin’, eh?” One of them said- a boy who might still be in his teens, though he looked older- or perhaps, his long stay here was making him look older. “You can’t be away from your body too long. It’s funny business, tryna find a darkling in ‘ere. Like finding a needle in a stack.”

“We’ve found one before,” Yeosang, who was walking aimlessly along with his two partners, said. “We can find one again.”

“It’s quite a long shot, though,” the other soul- older than Yeosang, said. “I’ve a better chance trying to remember my name.”

Yeosang casted him a glance- these two were one of the few who had stayed in this dimension long enough to forget their names but still hadn’t gone insane. They gave up on moving on, instead deciding to serve Yeosang from here with a promise that they could be a part of his court in this dimension and do his bidding for him. Yeosang was pretty sure the idea of freedom in this dimension appealed to them much more than actually serving the prince, but as long as they were sane, he wasn’t going to let them go.

“And you’re only getting weaker the longer you stay away from your body-”

“I’m not, actually,” Yeosang smirked at the boy. “Since my body is not home.”

“Oh,” the boy nodded slowly. “Does that mean you’re staying for long?”

“I’m only here to find a darkling, and if I have to open up a door to another dimension here, so be it. I’ve had enough of simply waiting.”

“But, sir,” the older one said. “That’s dangerous- if the balance gets shifted, this dimension could fold in on itself.”

“Yeah? Maybe it’s time I got rid of you lot…” Yeosang tsk-ed.

“Ay, you don’t mean that,” the boy poked Yeosang in his arm and Yeosang actually paused to look at him and let his careless action sink in. However, he shamelessly continued. “If it weren’t for us, some darkling monster would have gotten your arse-”

“And that’s your cue to shut up if you don’t want to meet my new friend Gaeul,” Yeosang said and the two straightened. “Funny how you’re more scared of her when I can do worse here.”

“She sent them from the home dimension,” the older one pointed out. “They ceased to exist. I doubt you can do that.”

That was true. Yeosang nodded in agreement and the three fell silent again, staring into the thick cloud of fog they had been moving in for days now, relying solely on straining their visions and detecting the souls with magic. If Yeosang stopped and shut his eyes as if meditating, he could hear his friends back in the other dimension- he was pretty sure he heard something about Yena opening a portal to whatever dimension that held those creatures. He was praying she noted down the calculations because that was a dimension they definitely needed to explore, especially since those creatures could come and go as they pleased- which made him wonder yet again if Gaeul could actually control the dimension and serve as a bridge, just like him. Was she attracting those creatures to Mirinae without her knowledge?

That made Yeosang actually clap in realisation and his partners frowned in confusion. “I have an idea. What would attract a darkling’s attention?”

“A helpless faerie?”

“You?”

“A portal to Mirinae, where the faeries live,” Yeosang was smirking dangerously and though the idea wasn’t all that bad, the two had some qualms about it.

“That would attract anyone’s attention, sir.”

“And that’s why I allowed you to serve in my court,” Yeosang straightened, the plan already running through his head. “Make sure the faeries know not to interfere if they don’t want to be burned into non-existence. We have a trap to set.”

The two got right into action, disappearing into the fog and leaving Yeosang alone as he waited for their signal. He wished he had a helping hand because there was no guarantee a rogue faerie wouldn’t make things worse, but he had to make do with what he had. As soon as the boy returned with his own plan of his friends acting undercover and roaming around to keep watch, Yeosang opened a portal to the part of the basement in his castle where he usually practised his magic, and let his plan play out.

Even though San had never felt weaker than this before, he wasn’t one to sit and wait, much to the younger princes’ dismay. Wooyoung and Jongho only watched helplessly as he went through old scrolls on magical bonds and pushed himself to come up with a way to keep that bond intact, even when it felt like one snap could break it forever.

“Not gonna work,” Jongho, who had given up trying to stop him since it was no use, opted to be his counsellor instead. He could feel what San was trying to do better, so he helped wherever he could. “Healing magic might have a better shot than Earth magic, if I have to say.”

“But Earth is what connects them,” Wooyoung, who was watching the two from the couch, sipping casually on a margarita, said. “Healing magic would scare the bond’s unnatural state.”

“Earth doesn’t connect them anymore,” Jongho said. “Gaeul’s magic is as far from Earth as it can get.”

“Not helping,” San muttered, taking a sip of Wooyoung’s drink. “There must be something that’s kept the bond alive.”

“Magic,” Jongho replied, resting his head on the table. “Magic keeps any bond alive. There must still be a kernel of her old magic inside Gaeul that kept the bond alive- or maybe, the bond itself is that kernel. In that case,” he yawned unceremoniously. “Good luck figuring it out.”

“It’s a loop,” Wooyoung sighed. “I’m lost.”

San resisted the urge to poke Jongho awake. He knew it was a shot in the dark but he had to think of something. Maybe he could save the bond- but for that, they’d have to be in the same dimensions, so that was not an option anymore. He slumped down hopelessly and Wooyoung tsk-ed.

“I’m sure they’re figuring it out,” Wooyoung said after a moment but San shook his head. “You don’t have to feel so hopeless. Everyone’s trying to help you here.”

“I just… I don’t know,” San almost cried. “If the bond breaks, would she still want me?”

“Yes, you love-sick bastard, I’m sure she will,” Wooyoung slapped San’s arm for good measure and Jongho laughed in his sleep. “Go sleep. You’re beginning to look more like Gaeul with each passing day.”

San smiled at that despite the situation, crawling to the nearest couch. “If only we could turn back time. Easy to say, huh?”

As San settled into the couch and wrapped himself up in his blanket, something clicked in Wooyoung’s mind and he waited for San to properly fall asleep before he went to write a message to Seonghwa.

I have the craziest theory, but it might be the only thing that could work. Asking you before I suggest it to Yena- if she hasn’t thought of it already.

Yena knew something was up with Yeosang when his fingers started twitching in his sleep mode. She thought she hallucinated for a second- after all, they would never admit it but they all were starting to feel a little crazy now that so much time had passed. But when Yeosang’s body jerked again, Yena looked around for Mingi.

“You didn’t notice Yeosang… moving or anything while you kept watch, did you?”

“What makes you think I was actually watching him?” Mingi, who was descending into a new level of laziness with each passing day, said. “If you didn’t notice, I’m always almost dozing off when I’m on duty.”

Yena pouted and Mingi asked what the matter was.

“I think he’s doing something funny in his realm,” Yena’s voice was low, as if she herself didn’t quite believe it. “I can’t sense anything but he moved quite a bit just now.”

“I pray he is,” Mingi sighed, going back to drawing things on the sand with a stick. “It’s kind of boring without him here.”

Yena wanted to joke but she had to admit he was right. “Well, let’s hope he’s not getting a beating there, eh?”

Yena wasn’t wrong.

Yeosang almost got thrown a good distance away by the darkling spirit he had managed to get in his trap. Problem was, with all his energy focused on the portal, he couldn’t dodge the first attack and the portal shut close, prompting the darkling to attempt another attack.

Yeosang wiped his face as he got up, glaring at the darkling who was now being held back by his spirit friends. He observed it for a moment- it didn’t look like it had been here for long.

“Do you know just who you were attacking?” Yeosang stepped closer. “I could burn your soul with a mere thought.”

“Ah, so you’re him,” he cocked his head. “Prince of this realm.”

“Well, you must know what I can do then,” Yeosang scoffed. “I need you to get a message to your Prince of Space- tell him I’m calling him.”

“Why would I? He will burn me as soon as he spots me.”

“I could do the same, but we’re striking a deal, and you must be interested in what you could gain,” Yeosang considered him. “What business do you have left to still be in this realm?”

The darkling broke free, swiping his unnaturally white hair back. “I’m looking for my sister.”

“Ah,” Yeosang nodded slowly. “Well, tell you what- if you get my message to Prince Neve, I can ask him to get you the whereabouts of your sister. Sounds good?”

“And what if she’s… gone?”

“You know there’s nothing that can bring her back then,” Yeosang said and he looked grim. “The only favour we can do, then, is give you the same fate as her with the hope you’ll reunite somewhere- unless you’d like to simply cease to exist right now-”

“Alright, I get it,” he groaned. “I’ll do it. I don’t know how to get to the Prince though.”

“Oh, I’m sure you do,” Yeosang smirked. “You can’t fool me.”

The darkling immediately dissolved in thin air and the boy clapped. “You think they can feel their prince like we can feel you?”

“Let’s hope that is the case,” Yeosang sat down. “Now we wait.”

—---------------------------

[Day 134 in the other dimension/134 hours and 32 minutes in Mirinae]:

Gaeul didn’t know what she was expecting when she poked Yeosang’s arm. She was on watch while the others scattered- some to get food just because they were bored and missed eating, some to roam around. She herself had been staring holes into the shell she had brought with her from the beach when she was with San- the shell that resembled the colour of his magic. But when she felt overwhelmed because she missed him and because the days were feeling too repetitive and everyone felt tired, she resorted to poking Yeosang’s arm, sighing. If he was awake, he would probably engage her in some activity and keep her distracted.

She poked his arm again, pouting to herself. She wondered if he would feel sore when he woke up- after all, he had been in the same position for days now. He didn’t look like he was sleeping peacefully either- there was a slight frown on his face, eyebrows furrowed a little. Gaeul pushed the blonde strands of his hair back from where it was poking his eyes, noticing his birthmark. She was about to poke it next but he opened his eyes-

Making Gaeul scream and making Yeosang wince in return and shut his eyes in disappointment. When Gaeul finished screaming, she frowned and poked his arm again, making him open his eyes and he let out a short laugh when she nearly jumped.

“Yes, I’m awake,” his voice sounded hoarse and he cleared his throat, though he remained unmoving. “What were you doing? You scared me so bad that I almost went back to the realm.”

Gaeul put a hand on her heart to calm it down. “I- nothing. Just… poking you because I was bored.”

“I thought I told you not to mess with my body.”

“Gentle pokes,” Gaeul stifled a smile and he laughed. “I was… bored.”

“Just admit that you missed me,” Yeosang finally got up with a groan, stretching his muscles and looking around. “Where’s everyone?”

“Taking a break, they’ll be back soon,” she crossed her legs and scanned Yeosang- he didn’t look any different. “So? Did it work?”

“Somewhat,” Yeosang got up and brushed his clothes. “I managed to contact Neve indirectly, but… I think the closer we get to Rukbat, the better it is.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Gaeul said and Yeosang nodded. “How did you manage to contact him anyway?”

“That’s a story I’ll tell only once,” he shuddered involuntarily. “Let’s go find them. We shouldn’t waste any more time.”

It looked like Yeosang was thinking as they walked in silence towards the town and Gaeul nervously scratched at her fingers, wondering if she was one step closer to going home. As soon as Yeosang spotted Yena scribbling in her diary, he whistled loudly at his twin and Yena perked up when she saw him.

“Finally,” Yena groaned, sharing a smile with Gaeul. “So? Got kicked out of your realm or?”

“Kind of both,” Yeosang chuckled, waving at Yunho and Mingi who spotted him and they ran towards him, Mingi attempting to put Yeosang in a chokehold but folding in on himself when Yeosang poked his stomach.

“We’re going to Rukbat- as close as we can. Chances are Neve will find us before we do.”

“How did you contact him?” Yena asked.

“I had to open a portal to the home dimension as a bait which caught a darkling spirit's attention…” Yeosang’s voice got smaller as Yena glared at him. “Come on. It worked.”

“I can’t believe I’m the one lecturing you about the rules, but that could have gone way worse, Yeosang. I’m surprised you came out unharmed.”

“Not entirely, I’m sore,” Yeosang rubbed his left forearm where he had landed when he received the blow from the darkling. “But we’re good. So are we portalling to Rukbat?”

“We should,” Yena nodded. “Should I get us to the outskirts of Rukbat, or straight to the mountains where he’s most likely to come?”

“He’ll definitely come to that place where it all started,” Mingi said and Yena nodded grimly. “So maybe save us the hiking part and portal us to the river in the mountains? We could wait there.”

Yunho snickered at that. “You’re just tired of walking around, isn’t that so?”

“Whatever, we are all tired,” Mingi sighed, looking apologetically at Gaeul. “No pressure.”

Gaeul laughed nervously- it was an inside joke at this point. “Let’s save the trip then, if that’s okay with Yena.”

“Of course,” Yena nodded, immediately opening the portal and making everyone step through it before she entered, shutting the portal. Gaeul shivered at the sudden drop in temperature and Mingi started picking some wood to light a fire while Yeosang and Yena sat down as she updated him on the calculations of the portals she had noted so far. Gaeul sat by the river at the same spot she had come with San, smiling faintly at the memory when they had flirted a bit and played around, still so curious about the other.

Yunho bent down and submerged his hands in the river, closing his eyes shut as if taking in something unexplainable. When he opened his eyes, he noticed Gaeul curiously watching him.

“Water has memories,” Yunho told her.

“Like… actual memories?”

“Not really,” Yunho settled down next to her. “Some memories are meant to be forgotten. Some… stay due to some sort of magic or intensity factor- I never understood why. I tried this when I was looking for the black hole too but it didn’t really work. But… it looks like you and San have been here before.”

Yunho grinned when he saw her gape at him. “What did you see?”

“You were throwing water at each other,” he laughed. “Is that a good memory?”

“I was just thinking about it right now,” Gaeul admitted. “We came here with Wooyoung and Jongho- they stayed down but he wanted to show me the river.”

Yunho nodded. “He really wanted to show you the river, yes. I think the memory here is because of San. He must really cherish that memory.”

“Really? How can you tell?”

“I looked at you through his eyes,” Yunho turned to Gaeul and she raised a brow. “What if there is no choice but to break the bond for you two to be together? I mean… it’s about time we started seriously considering that possibility. It might kill you, but there is a chance that you’ll make it out alive without the bond. What then?”

Gaeul took a deep breath. “I don’t think anything should change. It would hurt but I know I love San because he is… San. I don’t love him because we’re connected. Yes, it made me more drawn to him than I would have perhaps otherwise, but… I think I would have gone for him anyway.”

“Really?” Yunho teased. “None of us good enough for you?”

“Come on,” Gaeul laughed. “Okay, on second thought, Seonghwa is taken, that’s too bad, but Yeosang-”

“Shut up right there,” Yeosang put his hands over his ears and Yena and Mingi laughed out loud, knowing Gaeul did that to tease Yeosang but also because she actually thought Yeosang was particularly beautiful, just like everyone else. Gaeul sent finger hearts to Yeosang, making him hide behind his sister.

“You two are the prettiest!” Gaeul called out before turning back to Yunho, sharing a laugh. “Yeah, I think I would have chosen San anyway.”

Yunho pretended to be hurt, earning a slap and Mingi joined the two in their following banter. Meanwhile, Yena sighed as she laid down on the grass.

“Wake me up when Neve arrives.”

—--------------------

[Day 136 in the other dimension/136 hours and 43 minutes in Mirinae]:

Gaeul and Mingi held on to each other as they screamed their lungs out, making the poor man in front of them shut his eyes in plain old disappointment, waiting until Mingi at least came to his senses and stopped screaming, Gaeul following suit.

“Neve?”

“Yes, Neve. It’s honestly a surprise you recognised me. I thought you’d scream longer.”

Gaeul’s grip on Mingi’s arm loosened- the duo had been playing with magic, dodging each other’s attacks until one of them got hit, in which case they would receive a forehead flick. Gaeul was just preparing Mingi for the blow he was about to receive but the shock they both received when the door to the cabin, which was right behind them at the moment, opened and something dark stepped out, resulted in them holding on to each other for dear life.

Gaeul assessed the darkling- he looked and felt just like a faerie, maybe a tad bit different. It was his aura that confirmed he was a darkling. He was middle-aged but looked weary, his dark hair with streaks of grey a stark contrast to the paleness of his skin, going well with his facial hair. His dark eyes bore holes into her.

“Now what is that?” He wondered out loud. Mingi scoffed at the way he phrased it.

“That’s your new patient,” Mingi said and Neve laughed, patting Mingi’s arm in encouragement.

“Always the one stuck with the helpless, huh? You look better than the last time I saw you.”

“I’m not the only one this time,” Mingi craned his head to where the rest of them had gone- they would surely be coming back now if Neve wasn’t masking his powers. “And thanks. You look older.”

“Age. I can’t keep travelling in time to avoid that now, can I?” Neve smiled in defeat and looked back at the approaching figures, smiling cheek to cheek when he spotted Yena. Gaeul watched with curiosity and surprise as Yena approached Neve with a pout and let him hug her.

“Are you the same Yena that couldn’t manage a single portal?” Neve scanned her.

“In flesh and blood,” Yena grinned. “It’s been years. I might have reached my full potential, or maybe I still have some way to go.”

“You still have,” Neve confirmed and looked at Yeosang. “Your other half.”

“Yep. Yeosang,” Yena introduced and Yeosang nodded in greeting. “And that’s Yunho- Prince of Water.”

“And Prince of Ice,” Neve added and Yunho raised a brow. “Those two elements aren’t meant to be in the same person.”

“Really? Why?” Yunho asked, though his tone said he must have a reason to believe him.

“That’s a long story for another time, but it’s a miracle you’re… in one piece,” he said dismissively and Mingi rolled his eyes, telling Yunho that was just the darkling being himself. “Now, what was all the fuss about?”

“Who do you think she is?” Yena pointed at Gaeul.

“What do you think she is,” Mingi quoted to correct. “Let’s start with a blank slate.”

“Interesting,” Neve stepped towards Gaeul, making her squirm- she hadn’t found the will to speak ever since she came in the presence of the darkling, and she could understand now why Yena wanted her to meet him- it was like her slumbering powers were finally cracking open their curious eyes. “She’s not entirely faerie, but there’s not a hint of darkling in her. Yet…” he brought his hand and touched a stray strand of hair. “Yet my power sings of familiarity.”

“Can you feel if… Kieran has tampered with her in any way? Her magic or her memories?”

Neve paused and looked at Yena in surprise. “Kieran?”

“Don’t tell me how he is,” Yena mumbled and Neve looked around in surprise. Yeosang cleared his throat.

“We believe that Kieran somehow figured out the time-loop and killed Gaeul here to mess with us.”

“If he killed her, then why is she alive?” Neve frowned, looking at Mingi. “Don’t tell me you’re travelling back in time again.”

“We’re not,” Mingi shook his head. “Just confirm our suspicions and we’ll tell you the story.”

“Okay,” Neve shrugged, looking at Gaeul for permission before putting his hand on her forehead and closing his eyes, wincing before he drew back after a few moments and looking in utter surprise at Gaeul and then at the others.

“Kieran did leave one last gift for you, huh?” He managed to say, settling down on the grass as he processed what he had seen. “She used to be faerie, but now she is not. And it’s because Kieran killed her at the right time, though I’m not quite sure if he was aware of the extent of his prank…”

“You can tell him your story, Gaeul,” Yena urged, asking everyone to settle down. Gaeul nodded and looked around, Yunho beside her patting her arm in encouragement as she told him the events following her coming back from the dead, to her magic reversing and spotting those otherworldly creatures, to finding out that the Prince of Earth is her soulmate and that the bond might be the only thing that was keeping her alive.

“I think Kieran must have known that the bond could cause some significant destruction to the timeline- though it may not have been the outcome he expected. I should ask him just what he was thinking…” Neve looked cautiously at Yena who raised her brow. “He’s in our worst prison, don’t worry. Apparently we respect the treaty enough to punish even the Prince of Illusions.”

“Good riddance,” Yeosang muttered. “He’s created enough of a mess here before he left.”

“Well,” Neve crossed his legs, looking at Gaeul. “How does your magic feel right now?”

“It’s been weird ever since you came,” Gaeul admitted. “Why is that?”

“We must have something in common- I can feel it too,” Neve looked at Yeosang and Yena. “The same way I can feel with them. With those two, we are the descendants of the same magic- we’re practically related in that way,” he scoffed and Yeosang groaned, making Yunho and Mingi grin. “But with you… perhaps the dark nature of your magic speaks to my inherent nature, or perhaps…”

“The dimensional power,” Gaeul completed and he nodded grimly. “Have you heard of those creatures before?”

“I have seen them,” Neve said proudly and Yena clapped. “As she well knows, I have travelled a lot of worlds.”

“See?” Yena said haughtily. “I knew he would be of help.”

“I’m surprised you managed to contact me though,” Neve looked at Yeosang. “That was risky but it worked.”

“We’ve been here for how many days now?” Yeosang looked at Yunho and he told the day count- 136. “I thought it would be easier to reach you.”

“It would have been, but I stopped travelling in dimensions last year. It finally started taking a toll on my health,” he looked at Yena. “And so, I would advise you to limit your use of dimensional magic as well.”

“Yes sir,” Yena saluted. “So? What are those creatures?”

“The Panthers of Soca,” Neve said. “Originally from Earth but these creatures were the first to be transported to another dimension by the direct descendants of the original magic holders- those creatures are far too intelligent to have been manipulated by darklings, or even faeries.”

“Another dimension? Not another planet?” Yeosang asked.

“You know how there are uncountable dimensions layering our world. This here is still Mirinae, but another dimension that simply has a different time flow. The Panthers of Soca also dwell on Mirinae, long before it was inhabited by the faeries, but in a dimension where the state of Mirinae is accustomed to their needs.”

“So they’re… panthers? Animals?” Mingi asked.

“Not that simple,” Neve shook his head. “They have a single purpose- to bring balance to nature. They existed before faeries, and when the first faerie birthed from the purest kernels of magic, so did darklings from the darkest of magic- dark in nature but not evil, mind you. It is believed that the Panthers of Soca raised the first faerie and the darkling, making sure their powers were two halves of one whole.”

“So can they speak?” Gaeul asked.

“Not in a language we’d understand anymore.”

“So the question remains,” Yunho began. “Why did they kidnap the faeries from Mirinae? Why did they bow to Gaeul?”

Neve looked at Gaeul with curious eyes. “I’d have an explanation but the fact that they bowed to Gaeul is… unsettling. After all, she was once a mere faerie.”

“A mere faerie of the yin-yang bloodline who just so happens to be the Prince of Earth’s soulmate,” Yeosang began, making Gaeul hide her face in her hands. “Who used to have affinities for at least three elements, which is unusual as it is, even if she is from the prestige bloodline, but who just so happened to come back from the dead after being killed in a time-loop, resulting in her magic reversing so now she has the power to make a thing unalive- not kill, but lose its meaning, its existence-”

“Yeosang-” Yunho warned but he continued.

“-and who holds an affinity for cold fire- an element that was supposed to be a myth, and that’s not all- her soulmate bond remained intact after death. And you’re still wondering why the Panthers of Soca, who apparently strive for balance, bowed to her, a mere faerie?”

“I would have thrown up if I was back in Mirinae,” Gaeul muttered but everyone ignored that, staring at Yeosang who had just stated the very obvious but overwhelming facts.

“She’s the epitome of unbalance,” Yeosang said and Gaeul was the first one to laugh at that, making everyone join in defeat. “It’s honestly a relief they didn’t decide to kill her instead.”

“Okay, now I will throw up,” Gaeul warned and Yunho put a cautious hand on her back, finding that she indeed felt queasy and sent some comforting magic through her. “But why kidnap the faeries?”

“The faeries aren’t the only one that went missing,” Neve revealed and a collective gasp sounded. “A few darklings too. I never thought it could be connected to something bigger.”

“So do we open the dimension and I don’t know, talk it out with the Panthers? Or do we make sure Gaeul is trained well first?” Mingi asked.

“You said she is my patient,” Neve smirked. “I think that means we’ll have to train.”

San was sure this must be how Yena had felt when some foreign darkling magic was interfering with her soulmate bond and even healing her was hurting her. Because for the past couple of days, he was positive he was simply dying. There was no other explanation- he was deteriorating from the inside, and that was a nice way to put it- his organs felt like they were catching fire though he physically felt cold.

As he sat under the glass roof of Wooyoung’s room and stared at the dark cloudy sky that kind of reflected his current state, he wondered if this was how everything would end. If he would wonder for the rest of his life what it would have been like had he lived a happy, normal life with his other half.

He liked imagining how he would have come across Gaeul- maybe she would have finally left her home for good and come to live somewhere in Jongho’s kingdom, where she could practise her Nature magic freely. Maybe they would have crossed paths somewhere on a beach there, stopping for a moment feeling something strange in the air and going back to their separate paths, only to find each other again soon.

Or maybe she would have come to live in his kingdom. Maybe she would have met him while he was travelling, in disguise, like he had encountered Yena. Maybe he would have offered to show her around if they met on the road.

Or, in a more romantic scenario, he would have been drawn to her anyway. Maybe he would have found himself going to the beach in Ascella and met her where she was perhaps the most powerful- with earth, nature and water element in one place. That might have heightened her soulmate bond especially when he would be closer. They would have taken one look at each other and known they were meant to meet, though it would have been a bit difficult to accept it.

San started to wonder for the first time why his soulmate wasn’t just another ordinary faerie. It could have been anyone, but Gaeul was from the most privileged bloodline of the fae. That itself was something- the fact that she possibly held affinities for not one but three elements. Even ignoring the mess that Kieran had created, it was strange enough for San’s soulmate to be this powerful. Perhaps the fates had written for him someone who could be his counterpart- someone that could match his magnitude of power.

The Earth element, as simple as it sounded, was perhaps the most vague elemental power to possess- stranger than water and nature elements. Earth wasn’t simply the soil under your feet or the bringer of life- it was also the bringer of death and destruction. The fact that the yin-yang bloodline had mostly nature and earth magic users was alarming enough, but to possess water affinity with it? Wasn’t that combination unstoppable?

And now it had taken an unknown form- he wondered just what was going on in that dimension- was Gaeul able to hold control over her powers now? Just what could she do now that she wasn’t just his counterpart but his complete opposite as well?

Nature, earth and water. What a combination-

San got up slowly, looking at the sleeping figure of Hongjoong next to him as realisation started to dawn on him. He contemplated not waking him up but figured if what he was thinking was somehow plausible even though it sounded far from it, he had to let Hongjoong know. Plus, Hongjoong always made something out of their senseless opinions too.

San poked Hongjoong’s arm repeatedly until he stirred, opening one eye. “You okay?”

“I was thinking-”

“Ugh, stop thinking and go back to sleep,” Hongjoong groaned and shifted away from him.

San sighed. “The faeries that have been kidnapped. What magic do they possess? And how many were there?”

“It’s in the report we received a few days ago,” Hongjoong muttered sleepily. “Read that.”

“Weren’t they earth, nature and water elements holders?”

“So you did read? What’s the problem then?”

“Think about it,” San crossed his legs, his tone urgent. “What elements did Gaeul have an affinity for?”

There were a few moments of complete silence and San wondered if Hongjoong had actually gone back to sleep before he got up abruptly and stared at San as he started connecting the dots. “So you’re saying this isn’t random?”

“Does it look random to you?” San countered and Hongjoong shook his head.

“I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to overwhelm you, but I think you should know now,” Hongjoong sighed, scanning the face of the younger Prince who looked pale enough as it was. “Those creatures that took the faeries? Apparently Yena accidentally opened a portal to their dimension. When they saw Gaeul, they bowed to her.”

San felt like someone had kicked him in the gut. “They… bowed to her? Out of fear-”

“Or respect,” Hongjoong countered. “Maybe both.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Nobody does,” Hongjoong patted San’s arm. “But I think I should contact them now- let them know this is something they cannot simply dismiss as coincidence.”

“How are you going to contact them?” San asked.

“A little trick I’m learning thanks to our little time-traveller,” Hongjoong smiled. “Apparently light can travel through different dimensions and time-flows without losing its form. So a simple message like this-” he snapped his fingers causing a spark to light for a few seconds. “It can travel through our dimension to theirs.”

“Wow. That’s really convenient but please don’t send it to the past,” San looked paler if that was possible. “We’ve had enough of messing with the past.”

“Don’t worry, Yena’s controlling the other end of it for now,” Hongjoong assured. “I’ll go contact them-”

“Wait-” San held Hongjoong’s wrist, stopping him. “Can I… can I see her?”

“Gaeul?” Hongjoong asked and San nodded sheepishly. “Are you sure? Actually, you can but I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea for her to see you in this state…”

“I just wanna talk to her,” San pleaded and Hongjoong gave in, sending the spark-message and asking him to brace himself for a portal opening in the room.

They felt it before it appeared in front of their eyes- a tingling feeling in the air followed by a tear in the space and the portal opening with sparks. Yena waited in front of them, Yeosang beside them.

“Every time I think he couldn’t look any worse, he surprises me,” Yeosang commented and San scoffed.

“It’s not that bad.”

“You just look like a grayscale painting of yourself, other than that? It’s fine,” Yena shook her head. “You go first, Hongjoong, because we have a lot to say.”

Hongjoong sighed in relief- it looked like there was finally a positive outcome. “Funnily enough, San’s brain actually works even when he looks like this. He says the missing faeries are all either earth, nature or water element holders.”

“See?” Yeosang looked pointedly at his twin who bit her lips guiltily. “Another item to add to my list of why Gaeul is not just a ‘mere faerie’ like Neve said.”

“Neve? You’ve done it then?”

“Just two days ago- two hours for you, that is,” Yeosang began. “Those creatures aren’t simply animals, Hongjoong. They are the Panthers of Soca- the ones that maintain the balance in nature. The ones that were there when the first faerie and darkling came into being.”

“The Panthers of Soca?” Hongjoong was positive he had gone paler than San. “I thought that was a bedtime story.”

“I thought so too, until I saw them for myself a few years ago,” Neve came into their vision and passed a subtle nod to the two. “Greetings. You look like death.”

“I feel like death, thank you,” San muttered.

“So you’re the poor lad who’s had the misfortune to be Gaeul’s soulmate.”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” San raised a brow.

“Oh, you wouldn’t?” Neve raised a brow back. “Because I’ve been thinking about your two’s situation, and honestly? Things don’t look so bright, Prince of Earth. You’ll have to start weighing your options soon-”

“Neve,” Yena warned politely, turning to San. “He’s a darkling. He never looks at the bright side of the picture. I don’t know how I made it back when he trained me, to be honest.”

“I know what my options are,” San looked grimly but firmly at the darkling who met his stare.

“Yeah, anyways, if the faeries have something to do with Gaeul’s original powers, then what do the darkling have to do?”

“Darklings?” Hongjoong asked.

“Your kind isn’t the only one that got taken,” Neve said. “We had a few darklings that went missing, and now I’m wondering if it’s related to this.”

“Well, I think before anything we need to confirm that,” Hongjoong looked at Yena and she nodded. “If the faeries reflect Gaeul’s old powers, the darklings must have something similar- or something that resembles Gaeul’s current powers. Once we confirm…”

“We’re looking for a way to communicate with the Panthers,” Yeosang told them. “We should know why they are still keeping the faeries alive, and check if there really are darklings there too. You should go back to your library, Hongjoong…”

Everyone laughed at that as Hongjoong groaned. “Alright, I’ll see. San?”

San nodded at him before turning to Yena. “Can you call Gaeul here? I need to see her.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Yena looked at Hongjoong who nodded in approval. “I’ll get her then…”

San waited nervously and the others simply watched his face change when he finally spotted Gaeul, his eyes looking livelier than they had ever since she had left.

Gaeul, however, saw San and nearly fell on her knees right there as the feelings she had been suppressing finally let loose. San smiled weakly at her and looked at Hongjoong.

“Can I get a little privacy?”

“Uh,” Yeosang looked at Yena. “I think as long as you two don’t interfere with the portal, you can. No touching, though, you hear me? ANd no poking through it”

Gaeul raised her hands in surrender and Yeosang muttered something about how he would be monitoring her before leaving with the rest and San waited until Hongjoong left the room before turning to her.

“Hello, love.”

“You look… like me,” Gaeul laughed, suppressing her tears and San chuckled at that, warning her not to cry. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he got up from the bed and Gaeul watched his significantly weaker steps towards the portal and Gaeul dared to take a step forward herself. “How are you? Is it too much?”

“I’m okay with everything, I’ve trained a lot here-”

“I heard,” San smiled. “Cold fire? Seriously?”

Gaeul shrugged, smiling back. “Unexpected, isn’t it?”

“I hope they aren’t too hard with their training,” San asked. “Now’s the time to complain.”

“I’m okay with everything, San, I just… I miss you so much. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you-” Gaeul looked up as tears blurred her vision. “More than 4 months. That’s a lot of time without you. I feel it more with each passing day.”

“It may have only been a few days for me, but I feel it too, if you can’t tell already,” San joked and Gaeul glared at him, making him laugh. “I never thought I’d physically need you. I think I finally understand why you couldn’t stay away from me.”

“Excuse me, you were the one who couldn’t stay away from me,” Gaeul corrected and they shared a grin.

“I just wanted to see you once. I feel a lot better now, even though I can’t actually feel you,” San sighed. “Stay strong, Gaeul. You’ll figure this out, okay? You’ll figure this out, and then you will come back home.”

“I will come back home, to you,” Gaeul promised. “So hang in there, San.”

San took another step forward, merely inches away from the portal and it took everything in his willpower to not step right through and hold her in his arms. Gaeul reached out a hand but stopped when she heard the warning groan from Yeosang, who walked to her and held her hand, squeezing it and she was surprised he didn’t scold her.

“I think you should say goodbye now,” he told her and Gaeul looked at San who nodded at Yeosang.

“No goodbyes. I’ll see you soon, Gaeul,” San said and Gaeul felt short of breath all of a sudden, about to say something but San had already waved his hand in front of the portal, effectively dismissing it and Gaeul stood staring at empty space, feeling lost until Yeosang squeezed her hand again.

“It’s all going to be over soon. Don’t give in now.”

The tears finally escaped at the gentleness of his voice and Gaeul wiped her face with her free hand. “I just… I don’t know if it’s worse to see him like this or to not see him at all.”

Yeosang sighed, patting her back and urging her to follow him back to where everyone was waiting, looking anxious. Gaeul pursed her lips and Neve cleared his throat before he spoke, “I’ll need to confirm what powers the missing darklings possessed, and for that, I’ll have to portal back home. I see no other way, but portalling back home and then coming here again is going to be tough on me. I’m not the same person I was a few years ago, sadly.”

“Just say that you’re old now,” Yena rolled her eyes and everyone laughed a bit, lightening the mood. “How dramatic.”

“Uh, there is another way but that would involve us preparing a little,” Yunho suggested, looking at Gaeul. “We could have Yena open the portal there. We could go there.”

“Go there?” Mingi shuddered at the thought. “Those creatures will rip you apart. I’ll stay here to collect your remains, though.”

“They… won’t,” Gaeul looked at them and Neve raised a brow in surprise at the confidence. “I felt it back then. They won’t hurt me. I don’t know what we’ll do if we go there, but I know they won’t hurt you if you stay with me. If we go there and Yena can bring us back, then I’m up for it.”

“You don’t have to rush,” Yeosang reminded her, knowing very well that a part of her wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible now that she had seen San in that state.

“I know,” Gaeul nodded in thanks. “But tell me you’re not worried about San. He looks closer to death than I ever did.”

“That’s true,” Neve commented. “He does look like he’s moments away from… fading. Whatever her magic does to life.”

“And if we can’t make it back?” Mingi dared to ask.

“Well then,” Yunho clapped as he met eyes with every one of them. “It was nice knowing you all.”

—---------------------------

[Day 142 in the other dimension/142 hours and 17 minutes in Mirinae]:

It took a lot of planning, to put it simply. A lot of planning and arguments and bickering to finally agree that yes, they were going to open the portal to the dimension where the Panthers of Soca dwelled. It was a risk, but everyone was fully prepared to defend themselves, fight back or face worse consequences.

Despite playing it safe so far, everyone did admit they were a little tired of everything now and just wanted to solve this matter and get it over with. It was Neve who finally pushed their buttons and got them to admit it, and Gaeul was thoroughly impressed by that, reminded of Wooyoung who would have probably been even quicker than Neve.

It was actually Gaeul’s big plan- she was the one who was tired of sitting and waiting. She was tired of seeing the others pretend that each passing day wasn’t wearing them down- yes, the break must have been very much welcomed when they first came here, but it had been months. Everyone had a life they wished to resume. They missed their court, their people, and hell, even the boring meetings. They missed their friends. Yena missed her husband- it was plain as day.

And Gaeul missed San. She could not simply wait for some miracle to happen now that she had seen San in that state, looking just like she had when she came back from the dead. She would make that miracle take place.

And for that, she needed Neve- probably the only one who could perhaps understand her. And she had been right.

“That’s easy enough,” Neve said, glancing at the others who were looking zoned out- either playing with their surroundings or staring into the space. “I think they’re going a little crazy anyway. They need some action.”

“Right!” Gaeul instantly relaxed, making Neve stifle a grin. “I know they’re doing it to make me comfortable and whatnot but if only they knew how uncomfortable all of this is making me… And they keep talking about training me. Haven’t I trained enough?”

“You can never train enough, Gaeul dear,” he pointed out and Gaeul groaned.

“I know, but…” Gaeul bit her lip in frustration. “I just want this to be over already. And I don’t think just sitting and waiting for something to happen is the better choice.”

“I understand,” he nodded in approval. “I think the Panthers of Soca are intelligent enough to try holding a conversation with us instead of simply attacking us. And you know what? I have this strangest feeling that they’re connected to this in more ways than we can imagine.”

“Like?” Gaeul frowned.

“You’ll see,” he smiled knowingly. “I can see what’s coming. If you use that pretty little head of yours, you might see it too. The others are far too done to even form sane thoughts.”

Gaeul looked at the rest again, laughing a bit at the sight of Yunho arranging water drops in the air, Mingi sketching in the sand, Yena and Yeosang back to back pretending to read something but Yeosang’s book was upside down and Yena’s eyes weren’t on the book at all.

“They’re hopeless,” Neve shook his head in amusement. “But they’re an odd bunch. They’d do anything for the people they care about.”

“Well,” Gaeul rubbed her arms. “I hope they don’t get too disappointed with what happens later.”

So, after countless arguments and defence plans, Yena was finally ready to open a portal to their dimension, Gaeul next to her and Neve behind them to control the portal if something went wrong. Yena took a deep breath, glancing at the rest before meeting eyes with Gaeul. “Ready?”

Her powers sang in answer as if they had waited for this very moment. Gaeul nodded and Yena shut her eyes, concentrating on getting the right calculations and getting the portal working, Neve providing help once she started opening it- a tear in the space itself, Gaeul was always surprised to see. The portal grew wider, the murky cloud in it clearing and revealing-

The same spot where they stood, except the world seemed darker and shadows prowled the land.

For a few moments, everyone was simply too surprised to react as the sight of the Panthers became clearer- their eyes sharp colours of green and yellow as they spotted Gaeul. She held her breath, watching them turn and then walk with cautious strides towards the portal. Yena waved her extended hands with a sense of finality, letting the portal hang in the air so she could relax back and Neve followed suit.

One of the Panthers came forward and scanned each of them slowly before fixing its eyes on Gaeul and then, with a small bow, it rose. Gaeul could feel everyone holding their breaths, and when it opened its mouth to speak-

“It’s been a while, Im Gaeul.”

Gaeul glanced around but they all looked beyond confused. She cleared her throat. “How do you know my name?”

It was a simple, perhaps stupid question, but she hadn’t heard her full name in such a long time that it shook her to the core. Yena whipped her neck back to gape at Gaeul.

“We know everything about each one of you,” the Panther spoke and Gaeul felt its voice echo in her head in the most odd way- as if she could hear it from her ears and from inside her mind at the same time. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“We do,” Gaeul said and once again, watched everyone around her lower their defences as they tried to make sense of the situation.

“How come you’re talking to it?” Yeosang was the first one to ask. “What language are they speaking? Do you understand?”

Gaeul looked in confusion at Neve who simply looked oddly satisfied, as if all his predictions about how this encounter would go were coming true. He scoffed. “She seems to understand their language.”

“They’re speaking a different language than all of us?” Gaeul whisper-screamed, making Yena stagger on her step and she wrapped her trembling hand around Gaeul’s.

“If you allow us to enter, we shall talk about everything. We have the answers to your questions, but first, you must allow us to enter into your world.”

“You didn’t need that when you stepped in Mirinae, why do you need my permission now?” Gaeul dared to ask.

“Because we’re finally contacting you. We shouldn’t have let it get to that, but we are finally making contact. There is no other way.”

“What are they saying?” Yunho asked.

“They want to enter this dimension so they can talk,” Gaeul looked at the rest. “Shall we allow them then?”

“You should,” Neve was the first one to speak. “And all of you should take care not to disrespect these creatures.”

Mingi looked pale- perhaps, he sensed something different about this situation. “Allow them to enter then.”

“You sure about this?” Yena asked Gaeul and she nodded. Yena nodded at the Panthers and two of them stepped through the portal and their presence finally hit-

Power. Raw, limitless power. That’s what this was. Gaeul wondered why the Panthers bowed to her when they should have been bowing to such power. She watched them sit, their wings drawn in and tails moving in the slowest motion.

“We bow to you because we must apologise for letting it get to this point,” the Panther began. “All that has happened. All that has gone wrong. It wasn’t meant to be like this.”

“Why do I understand your language but they don’t?” Gaeul asked.

“All the answers in due time,” the Panther was almost smiling. “But first, you must hear our story and make a decision. Only you are allowed the privilege to make your own decisions.”

Gaeul’s heart sank- she looked at the others and translated their message. Yunho said it was better that she heard them out first and they would talk later, so Gaeul readied herself to hear their story.

“The reason you are here today, Gaeul, is because we allowed something to happen after your Prince of Illusions, Junyoung, died. His uncle was far too gone to let it go and he performed necromancy- the worst sin. That is the moment everything started to go wrong.”

“But that happened more than 25 years ago?” Gaeul frowned in confusion.

“It was something that should never have happened. If we had taken care of it at that time, you would have been living your old life. We are the maintainers of balance, yet, a bad judgement on our part that perhaps, the darkling Kieran who got brought into this world by force could live like a faerie… we didn’t foresee the corruption and the wrongs that would follow.

“Kieran was forcefully brought to Mirinae. Junyoung’s uncle could have very well raised him as his own, however, his mind deteriorated and he resorted to the ugliest path of them all. He kidnapped Yena- and that would not have happened had we stopped it right when he performed necromancy.”

“But that must not have been the first time necromancy was performed, right?” Gaeul glanced at Yena and Yena realised what they must be talking about. “Why was this time different?”

“We have the power to see all the possible flows of time and events that will follow after a decision,” the Panther said. “Thus, we have the power to change the time flow if something goes horribly wrong.”

“But you let it happen?” Gaeul almost whispered.

“It was the first time we could not see the time flow clearly- perhaps, the necromancy was supposed to happen. Perhaps, Yena was supposed to get kidnapped. That’s why we stayed put, because everything was still in balance. However… when Yena reunited with her family and the Prince of Dark got killed… that’s when we realised the time flow was damaged already- beyond repair. And only one thing could fix it now.”

“I… I don’t understand,” Gaeul’s voice quivered and Yena put a hand on her back, knowing her life events were involved since her name was being called so frequently.

“The time-loop is a complex thing, and it is the first time we witnessed such a complex loop. It would have been a never-ending series of Yena going back in time to save Seonghwa, and Seonghwa getting killed again and again. It would have looped for infinity- but we could foresee that, and if we let it run its original path, perhaps, at one point, Yena would have given up on saving Seonghwa. How would the timeline have flowed then? It would have been the demise of your kind- for a time-loop to repeat itself for infinity before it breaks and follows a route unforeseen, it would have caused the end of your species. Your world would have folded in on itself and none of you would have remained.”

It hit Gaeul then- just how she was connected. Why the Panthers, such powerful creatures, bowed to her- in apology.

“And to prevent the time-loop from looping into infinity…” Gaeul almost whispered.

“Yes. For that, we had to intervene. We should have intervened earlier, but the damage was done. We used you as the last resort- a yin-yang faerie who’s soulmate happened to be powerful enough. We planted in Kieran’s head the idea to kill you. We let you die at the right time so the time-loop would end, so the faeries who sacrificed so much by leaving Earth and making Mirinae their home… they could all live. But for that… you had to die first.”

“Should I have remained dead then?” Gaeul could feel the sting of tears already.

“Not at all. Because we let you die at the right time, you came back. It is us who brought you back to life, slowly, surely. It is your bond with your soulmate that allowed us to do so. Your natural powers reversing is just a consequence you have to live with now. It seems like you’ve embraced it.”

Gaeul didn’t answer. “Why kidnap the faeries and the darklings then?”

“The reason we took all these faeries and darklings is because they possess magic similar to your original magic and your current one. They are safe- you need not worry. If you choose to live, their magic might help with the restoration. If you choose death, they will wake up with no memory of being here. But you need to make a decision-”

“Why give me a choice at all?”

“Because we have wronged you, and we will allow you a choice now- you can choose to remain dead. Your soulmate will never know he lost his other half. Because you have come back now, and the timeline is restored to something that does not lead to the end of the faeries, we can make it so that you never came back at all. None of them will know you ever existed.”

Gaeul couldn’t believe her ears and her heart tugged at her. “I should have been given this choice before you brought me back to life.”

“We couldn’t allow it to happen at that time,” the Panther shook its head slowly, the other grunting in agreement. “But you can choose now. Or… you can continue down this road.”

“How can I continue down this road when I’m still struggling to live with myself?” Gaeul’s voice raised in anger and the rest shifted in confusion.

“We can try to restore the soulmate bond to its original state. It is the only thing we can do for you now.”

“If you can see the multiple time flows, you must already know how this ends?” Gaeul asked.

“We cannot see it because you are an anomaly, and your decisions are being influenced by us. Therefore, we do not know what will be better for you. Magic is a part of our existence, and losing it is losing a part of one’s own self forever- and you have lost your original magic forever. However… a soulmate bond is equally as precious, though your mate can continue to love you even without the bond. But we cannot guarantee your wellbeing if you choose to live and restore the soulmate bond. You could end up losing this magic too- forever. Or you could end up losing what is left of the bond too. ”

“But the bond is the reason I was able to come back, wasn’t it?” Gaeul was crying now. “Is it the only reason I had to be the one to be sacrificed?”

The Panthers didn’t respond and Gaeul finally understood why they gave her the option of death as well. She could go back so she never got to relive this misery.

But… her life now was anything but miserable. She had found a family now. San loved her. Could she give him up? And if she chose to restore the soulmate bond…

Could she live as a faerie without magic? It was, she had heard in old poems, worse than losing a limb. It was like losing a part of yourself- she had experienced some of it herself and it had almost driven her crazy. What if she couldn’t take it?

And worse of all, what if she ended up losing everything just because she was selfish enough to want to live? She would lose her magic that she had just started accepting, and her soulmate bond. She would be nothing without the two. It didn’t matter if San would still love her- she didn’t doubt that. San would love her no matter who she was, but…

Could she live with herself?

“What happens if I choose to live and everything goes wrong?” Gaeul asked, startling everyone.

“We do not know. What is a faerie without its magic and its bond? If it is a risk you must be willing to take… then you are very brave. Think about it, faerie. And when you have made a decision, we will be ready..”

“I understand,” Gaeul nodded and the Panthers got up, scanning each one of them before turning around, a portal appearing in front of them. They disappeared into it and the rest of them relaxed but Gaeul remained motionless.

“I have no idea what they talked about,” Yena patted her back again. “But I have a feeling I know.”

“I have a feeling I’m right too,” Neve muttered.

“I don’t know,” Gaeul sighed. “Do you mind if I take a breather before I tell you what we talked about?”

“Not at all,” Yena assured and Gaeul passed a weak smile before going towards the shore, leaving the rest confused but they would wait. They would give her all the time she needed to sort her thoughts out.

But to everyone’s surprise, Gaeul called Neve to talk in private and he passed a knowing glance to Yena before he joined Gaeul by the shore.

“You look too pale, kid,” he began. “Everything alright?”

“I need advice- and I’m not asking any of them because I know what they will say,” Gaeul looked at the rest who were stealing cautious glances. “Would you like to hear what the Panthers said about all of this?”

Gaeul told him everything and Neve looked oddly satisfied. “I knew it was something along those lines,” he admitted. “The thing with Kieran definitely should not have happened. I figured you were used as a sacrificial goat too, but… I didn’t expect them to be apologetic about it, neither did I expect that the world would basically have ended if they let the timeline in which Seonghwa remains dead run. Makes you wonder just how powerful they all are, doesn’t it?” He glanced back, spotting them getting closer every second as if they couldn’t contain their curiosity anymore. He waved his fist in the air in warning and they scattered off.

“They’re… so young right now,” Neve sighed. “They would not understand how their actions have forever changed something in this universe.”

“Right,” Gaeul felt nauseous. “What do you think I should do?”

Neve glanced at the faerie- she looked torn. “I think the dumber decision is to choose the plain old death when, if you choose to live and restore the bond anyway, there is a chance you will eventually die.”

“Thanks for the confidence boost,” Gaeul muttered.

“But if they do succeed…” Neve was smirking. “It’s a win-win situation, isn’t it?”

Gaeul pursed her lips. “I’m more scared of becoming something I am not because there’s still a chance this could go very, very wrong.”

“You’re already something you are not,” Neve pointed out and she realised he was right.

“I don’t know,” Gaeul sighed, biting her lips. “Death seems pretty appealing right now. San would never know I existed. Everyone would go on living their life and I’d move on.”

“You won’t,” Neve’s eyes twinkled. “Yeosang will still remember who you are when he meets you as a dead spirit. It’s one of the drawbacks of his powers- I know, because we share the same powers. And I wouldn’t forget you either. Not sure about Yena, but if she also remembers you? She’ll go to hell and back to undo the damage she has done and make it worse than it is.”

“And that is exactly why I’m not talking to her right now,” Gaeul groaned, feeling her heart torn between her love for the princess who really would do anything for her no matter what and anger because she did not know what to do and how to handle this.

“Look, it’s your decision,” Neve raised his hand. “I’m just pointing out the odds. It’s worth trying to live because you’re going to die either way- a clean death or a slow death will be the only difference. You’d actually be a coward to choose death-”

“You would have done the same,” Gaeul glared at him. “Can you imagine losing your magic and the soulmate bond?”

“The former, I can,” Neve sighed. “Sometimes… it is wise to be a coward. You should have let me finish the sentence.”

“Thanks for your help,” Gaeul sighed. “I’ll talk to them now. They need to know the whole truth. They deserve it- Yena deserves it.”

—----------------

Gaeul had just finished telling the others what she had learned from the Panthers and she watched them settle into a confused, somewhat angry but a bit satisfied mess.

Satisfied because all of it finally made sense.

“I still can’t wrap my head around it,” Yena broke the silence after what seemed like an hour of letting all the information sink in. “Because I planted the dreams about Seonghwa’s fate in his head so before he died, he could tell me what to do to save him when Kieran decides to kill him. Does that mean the idea wasn’t mine?”

“I’m wondering how I knew just where and when to find you when you jumped back in time,” Yunho was staring into the distance. “I don’t think my water magic alone could have done that.”

“Right?” Yena huffed. “I don’t know what to make of it. I just know that I’m really, really angry all of it had to happen this way.”

“Can we make a decision now?” Gaeul almost whined. “You’ve done enough thinking- it isn’t that hard-”

“It is,” Yena insisted. “The Panthers said they can’t see the influence of your decisions on the timeline anymore since they intervened- this means there can be another path, another possibility we haven’t entertained yet. I’m not letting you risk yourself like this.”

“Neve,” Gaeul begged for help but he ignored her, drawing figures in the sand. She looked to her next ray of hope- Yeosang.

“Please tell me you see the obvious answer.”

“I’m with Yena on this one, sorry,” Yeosang almost laughed when Gaeul groaned loudly. “Look- there are a number of ways this could go differently, not just the two paths they told you. They’re not all-knowing. Give us some time to think.”

“Mingi?” He was near enough that Gaeul poked his arm for good measure. “What do you think?”

“I’m with whatever you choose,” he said with a tight-lipped smile. “Unless you choose dying because I’m not letting that happen-

“Not you too,” Gaeul groaned, meeting eyes with Yunho who seemed lost in thought. Gaeul waved a hand in front of him and he came back to reality, getting up.

“Come with me, I want to talk to you about something.”

“You can talk here,” Yeosang narrowed his eyes and Yunho laughed.

“Not for your ears, this one,” Yunho pointed at every one of them and they stuck their tongues out collectively, making Gaeul smile for the first time in a while before she followed Yunho.

“I think it’s about time I talk to you about why Seonghwa asked me to keep an eye on you and let him know if things went south,” Yunho revealed and Gaeul gaped at him, making him shake his head. “I was quite burdened by the task, you know. I’m wondering if I should involve him now.”

“I feel betrayed but also pleased that you all care about me like this,” Gaeul smiled in defeat. “I was wondering who to burden with such a task again-”

“Gaeul-”

“You’re the right person,” Gaeul paused, facing him and Yunho looked like he wanted to run away. “If I choose to live and become someone who I am not… I would like someone to do something about it instead of letting me live like that and letting me lose myself. You understand, right?”

“This isn’t right,” Yunho shook his head furiously. “You deserve a happy, healthy and long life, Gaeul.”

“But what if it’s just not possible?” Gaeul smiled sadly. “I don’t think I deserve a sad, miserable and short life, do I?”

“You know what?” Yunho put his hands in his pockets. “You should fight back for once. I don’t like how you just accept things as if you have no will to live. Ask the Panthers to do their best for you. They should be able to restore your bond at least, if not your magic, with the powers they have. They should do that for you because they’re the reason you’re here now. And Gaeul… I was wondering if you had finally started enjoying life. Was I wrong?”

“You weren’t,” Gaeul sighed. “I’m selfish, aren’t I? I wish I could think like you guys but… you should understand I’ve never been able to be selfish about something until now.”

Yunho admitted defeat then- Gaeul was right. So much had happened to her ever since she came back to life and the way she had lived her previous life hidden from the world, forbidden from venturing into unknown territories even of her own magic? It was no surprise Gaeul found it so easy to give up on things.

“You have something you want to live for now, don’t you?” Yunho asked.

“I do,” she smiled at the memory of San. “But not just for the reasons you think. I like where I am- I like what we have, even though we didn’t meet in the best circumstances. I have found a family in all of you, and I wish I could keep it.”

“Then try, for us. Let us be selfish with you for once. Do it for yourself and for us. And… I promise that if things go south and I find you in pain that you cannot bear… I’ll take care of things. Me and Seonghwa and Hongjoong… we’ll take care of it.”

Gaeul looked in surprise at Yunho- not at his offer but at his candid confession that he thought the same of her-

“But for that, you have to try living first, Gaeul. You have to give yourself that final chance. Don’t leave us wondering what would have happened otherwise.”

-but because he, all of them returned her sentiments. All of them would want her to live. She was overwhelmed with this feeling of being wanted, of being loved, and she found herself looking around, sitting at the nearest rock and sighing deeply, looking up at the sky and basking in hope.

Hope that everything will be alright.

Yunho seemed to understand that and he let her have a moment. Gaeul finally spoke, “I’ve never had someone do so much for me. I may not be the best at returning this, but I want to. I’ll try living, and I won’t forget what you all have done for me. And I’d like to do something for all of you in return, when everything is over.”

“You don’t need to do anything for us,” Yunho scoffed in amusement. “Don’t let Wooyoung hear you say that, by the way.”

Gaeul laughed, wiping her eyes. “But I’ll also ask you to keep your promise. If things go wrong… please don’t make me suffer for too long, will you?”

Yunho pursed his lips, looking like he could cry as the weight of it finally started sinking in. “Is there… is there a place you would like to rest at if it comes to that- heavens forbid it comes to that.”

“You’d know even if I don’t tell you,” Gaeul winked and Yunho shook his head. Of course he did. And when Yunho put an affectionate hand on her head to caress it and tell her the things he wanted to say out loud- to be strong, to face this with a smile on her face, to put her worries aside for a while and trust that everyone here has her back, Gaeul found herself burying her head in her knees, feeling sure for the first time in her life-

That she was meant to be here.

—----------------------

Gaeul had made her decision.

For the people who loved her, for the family she had found in them, but most importantly, for herself, she made the decision to live and restore the soulmate bond so it would stop killing both San and herself.

She could live with this magic. She could live being ‘the Queen of the Underworld’ as they were calling her. If she managed to restore her soulmate bond with San and her yin-yang element remained intact, she might even be able to tap into San’s power and share it. It wouldn’t be her own, and it would probably be too dangerous to even try, but…

Gaeul smiled to herself- perhaps it was a gift that her soulmate was San who possessed pretty much the same elemental power as her original magic. She would find solace in San even magically. Perhaps, it was meant to be this way.

Besides, her new magic wasn’t all that bad, Gaeul was realising. There was much more than wilting nature- she had a whole new element now. She could master that and venture further into the unexplored territories of her magic- hopefully, her magic wouldn’t have those spontaneous outbursts of uncontrolled power now. If it could get less chaotic and controllable… she could deal with that.

“What are you thinking?” Yeosang gave Gaeul a funny look, having spotted her smiling as they prepared to contact the rest and tell them about Gaeul’s decision. Yena had taken to explaining what they had talked about with the Panthers earlier, knowing Seonghwa would be distraught and feel the same as she felt- like somehow, this was all their fault when they, too, were simply chess pieces in the game of time.

“I’m thinking that I wished I had known how much my perspective of life would have changed if I had simply been a bit more optimistic about the future,” Gaeul almost muttered the last part, making Yeosang laugh out loud.

“There’s a reason pessimists exist,” Yeosang grinned, “so there’s someone to ground the optimists.”

“You should simply be a ‘realist’,” Mingi commented, handing Gaeul a sliced piece of peach that he had found in one of the stalls in town and was binge-eating.

“Wasn’t I a realist?” Gaeul asked.

“I was the only one with a remotely realistic perspective-”

“No, that’s me,” Yunho intervened and before the two could argue, Yena clapped to get everyone’s attention.

“Gaeul- it’s time to tell San what your decision is and bring him here- Hongjoong should have explained everything to him by now.”

While Yena waited for Gaeul to exit the group that was pointing fingers at each other now, Neve elbowed her. “Do you reckon we bring everyone here? Just in case? The faeries and darklings might not be enough.”

“Oh?” Yena wondered. “But the Panthers said something about them having the same powers-”

“Come on, think about it,” Neve looked at the group. “All of them are connected to Gaeul magically in some way, right? Yunho and Mingi with ice and fire for the cold flame, Yeosang being a bridge to two worlds like Gaeul, and you,” Neve looked at Yena. “Gaeul can probably willingly open portals to the Underworld.”

“Seonghwa with the darkness of their magic,” Yena continued, seeing Neve’s point, “Jongho with his nature magic, but what about Wooyoung and Hongjoong?”

“The only elements that might be able to combat her magic,” Neve smiled in satisfaction. “The Panthers should have just kidnapped you lot and made things easier for everyone.”

Yena laughed at that and Gaeul finally joined the two. Yena immediately opened the portal, not wanting to waste more time- the rest were gathered in Wooyoung’s room with San, who immediately brightened as soon as he spotted Gaeul, waving enthusiastically at her. Neve opened the other portal to the Panthers and three of them entered this time. Gaeul explained what decision she had made and Neve told them how it might help with her decision if all the elementals were present. When they agreed, they gave them some space and Yena smiled at Seonghwa.

“Can you step in, Hwa?”

Seonghwa looked confused- he did not know of their new plan. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, please, step in,” Yena was jumping up and down with excitement now, making the rest laugh and when Seonghwa stepped in, Yena jumped in his arms as she hugged him, Seonghwa swinging her around and kissing her temple. Gaeul smiled at the two, her heart aching to do the same to San even though she knew she couldn’t- not right now.

“They’re getting busy,” Neve made a face as he spotted the couple kissing each other everywhere. “Hongjoong, you next.”

“Are we all going?” Even Wooyoung looked excited.

“One by one, yes,” Neve rolled his eyes, clapping. “Hurry up!”

Hongjoong grinned, walking through the portal and giving Gaeul a somewhat awkward pat on the back and telling her she did well. Next, Wooyoung came through, immediately crushing Gaeul in a hug.

“I’m so glad-” Wooyoung broke apart, squishing her cheeks and making her groan in pain, “-that you’re normal now. Somewhat. San couldn’t shut up about you so I kind of hate you a little right now.”

“Not sorry about that,” Gaeul grinned and Wooyoung left to join the rest of his friends, taken aback when he was the one who was showered with hugs and kisses now- after all, it had only been about 6 days for him while almost 5 months had passed for the ones in the other dimension.

Yena finally came back, looking the happiest she had in a while, instructing Jongho to help bring San to their dimension after the Panthers would put a shield around Gaeul so that their proximity would not cause her magic- or San’s- to burst explosively.

San wished he could go and simply even hold Gaeul’s hand when he saw her up close but even with the shield, the two sucked in their breaths when they spotted each other, their hearts swelling with a flurry of emotions and their magic roiling restlessly inside them. The Panthers couldn’t help but strengthen their shields as they felt the shift in the air- a shift that made even the creatures restless. Jongho passed a weak smile to Gaeul, having felt San’s magic through direct contact, and steered him away where the others waited.

One of the Panthers grunted to catch her attention. “We have gathered faeries and darklings that possess the same kernels of magic that you once did, or do now. They are safe- we have tapped into their powers which will help shape our own magic as we try to restore your bond with your soulmate. On our cue, you must tap into the deepest part of your magic- but do not take one step further. Wait right there.”

“Okay,” Gaeul nodded- she had learned how to do that pretty recently. “What about San?”

“Once you are ready, we will bring him into the circle which will cause your powers to explode- before it can do any damage, we must contain it. The darkling is wise- or perhaps, we have been too dependent on what we could foresee to think for ourselves. The rest of them must tap into any magic that resembles yours and right at the moment when San enters the circle, they must direct all their energy into the circle.”

“Is that safe?”

“We cannot guarantee your safety or San’s.”

“But I cannot risk San’s safety-”

“It has been decided. The decision was not only yours to make in case you decided to restore the soulmate bond, faerie. The decision was also equally San’s to make.”

Gaeul looked at San in disbelief who smiled knowingly, nodding. “...How?”

San pointed to Hongjoong and Gaeul realised he must have been some sort of messenger between the Panthers and San. She made a mental note to ask San just how it happened, half tempted to exit the circle and simply grab him by his shoulders and shake some sense into him because he was risking his life. He chose to risk his life when he could very well have denied it. All Gaeul could pray was that if anyone was getting hurt during this process, it would be her, not him.

“You do not understand that your pain is his, and his pain is yours, as long as you are bonded,” The Panther said. “It doesn’t matter who makes the decision because the outcome will be the same for both of you. However, we only thought it fair to alert your other half that you were about to make a decision that would affect him no matter which path you chose. Even if you had chosen to give up, San would have lived with the pain of a dead soulmate.”

Gaeul’s heart swelled at the thought and she nodded- some things were just beyond her control and understanding. Praying one last time to all the forces above that things wouldn’t get more messed up from here, Gaeul instructed Neve on what to do and watched all of them take their positions, San waiting right outside the circle the Panthers had formed.

“The union of 3 worlds takes place- the faeries, the darklings and us- the Panthers. The trinity loop comes to an end for once and for all- the one that began when Kang Yena time travelled- a timeline where Seonghwa would have remained dead, the current timeline where Seonghwa was brought back through time travel, and… a timeline where none of this would have happened in the first place. Thus we begin to fix what has been broken, to provide compensation for a sacrifice that had to take place without the consent of the involved.”

Gaeul’s heart sank- it was finally clear just how messed up the time travel business was. She shivered involuntarily and the Panther told her to tap into her magic. With a cue to the darkling, Gaeul shut her eyes and muted everything around her, pushing every thought away and willing herself to peek into the deepest part of her magic-

Where it was so, so dark. Where an eerie silence threatened to swallow her, hanging like impending doom on her. Where there was no one but herself and what her magic had become-

And the lone spark of bright magic in front of her, moving around like a firefly, glowing a brilliant shade of golden. The magic that connected her with San- the soulmate bond. The one thing that brought her back to life, the one thing that kept her alive.

She could feel in her heart that she had made the right decision.

The magic moved around her, watching her and circling her, waiting and waiting for what was next. And then all of a sudden, it exploded with such force that if it wasn’t her subconscious but herself standing there, she would have burned to ashes by the sheer force of it. Gaeul thought it was beautiful that the last thing she saw was the colour of San’s magic, that the last thing she felt was how warm his magic was, before she passed out in its embrace.

—----------------------------

“Look, there’s a reason it is called butt and not ‘butts’. It is one unit.”

“And when we give a shot to someone, we just call it a shot on the butt, right-”

“But there’s two of them”

“-not a shot on the right butt or the left butt!”

Gaeul groaned, clenching her shut eyes as she tried to move her limbs but all she could focus on right now was-

“Look, it’s just one unit with two subunits, the left buttcheek and the right buttcheek-”

“Right! You don’t say the left butt and the right butt, do you?”

“No, that’s different, it’s two because-”

“It’s one, now please, for the love of god, stop talking about butts,” Gaeul finally managed to open her eyes, the lights flooding her vision. She could feel someone check her pulse, someone opening her eyes wide- probably checking her vitals. She pushed them back as best as she could, muttering a ‘wait’ before sitting upright, her head spinning. She buried her head in her knees as she tried to make sense of what was going on-

She looked up again, inspecting her surroundings as her vision started to clear. There were a few women standing cautiously around her. She didn’t recognise them nor did she recall ever being in this room- it looked like a healing chamber but where was she?

One of the women stepped forward, her eyes curving into a smile. “Can you tell me your name?”

“... Gaeul. Where am I?”

“Where do you think?” She smiled knowingly. “How does your magic feel?”

Her magic.

It was so calm inside her. It felt like she was breathing for the first time in her life- no dangerous gut feelings, none of that tickling sensation in her nerves that was a sign of her chaotic magic. Gaeul raised her hand in front of her eyes and willed her magic, wondering if she just had a very long dream-

A snowflake that burned like fire formed and settled into her hand in cold ashes. Everyone around her shifted uncomfortably- some out of curiosity, some out of fear of the unknown element in front of them. Gaeul looked at the woman in front of her who was the least surprised and it finally came to her like a flood of memories-

San. Her magic. Her bond.

She could feel something in her heart this time, something that resembled neither the doom she was so used to feeling now, nor the chaos, but something almost pure, resembling hope. Was it her soulmate bond? It felt so different now- it was not demanding, it was not overwhelming. It was simply there, waiting patiently, something timeless.

Gaeul sucked in a sharp breath. “Is… Is San here?”

“You’re in Prince San’s kingdom, in the Healer’s chambers,” the woman said. “I’m Jihyo, the Head Healer.”

“Jihyo,” Gaeul nodded- she had heard about her from both San and Yena. “What happened- how long have I been here?”

“You’ll know everything soon, please allow me to inspect your magic first,” she insisted and Gaeul nodded, letting her put a hand on her forehead. She watched her shut her eyes and go somewhere for a moment before she nodded, drawing away. “Do you feel overwhelmed in any way? Any indication you might have a magical outburst?”

“None, it feels very… different now. Almost new,” Gaeul said, recalling her last memory- the Panthers of Soca around her. “Is everyone… Did it go okay?”

“Everyone is fine, you returned safe and sound,” Jihyo finally relaxed. “And everything about your magic looks good. Welcome to the Kingdom of Cancer, Gaeul. It’s a pleasure to have you here, and San has been waiting for you for quite some time. Do you want me to escort you?”

Gaeul nodded, following her and pausing midway when she spotted a mirror-

Her skin no longer looked like death. There was life on her face, in the pink tint of her cheeks, in the way her eyes glowed. Jihyo grinned at her. “Like what you see?”

Gaeul laughed at that. “I just… it’s been a while since I looked like myself.”

“I heard,” she nodded in understanding and Gaeul asked her to lead the way.

As they exited the healing chambers, Gaeul noticed the details about San’s castle that he had shared with her during the last few days they had spent together before Gaeul had portalled to the other dimension. She loved the fact that the castle was more beautiful than she had imagined- the simple traditional style of the castle with all its grey and brown tones felt like it was meant for the Prince of Earth.

Along the way, Jihyo pointed out the details of the castle- the Great Hall, the library which she promised to give a separate tour of later, the frames of some individuals of importance, a secret passageway that Gaeul wondered just how ‘secret’ it was if she knew now. Finally, when they reached the section of the castle where the royal family and guests dwelled, it started settling in and Gaeul could feel her heart fluttering, the bond growing restless.

“And that,” Jihyo pointed, “is Prince San’s chamber. Do you want the guard to call him out or let you in?”

“Am I allowed to go in?” Gaeul asked, earning a chuckle from Jihyo.

“Well, you are his soulmate. You can scare him to death if you want,” Jihyo winked and Gaeul grinned.

“He can probably feel me as well, can’t he?” Gaeul asked and Jihyo nodded, smiling.

“You know what? I’ll go in and brief him. He’s not the strongest when it comes to matters like these. Meanwhile… oh, here he comes. Dokyeom! She’s awake! Give her some company while I go tell San.”

“Oh my god, she’s awake!”

Gaeul laughed at the tall man who rushed towards her and stopped abruptly a few feet away from her, scanning her once before baring his teeth in surprise at the healer who warned him not to try anything funny before she knocked and went inside. Dokyeom bowed dramatically. “Welcome to the Kingdom of Cancer. I am Dokyeom, Prince San’s Right Hand. Do you know what a Right Hand is?”

Gaeul shook her head in amusement, anticipating his answer. He cleared his throat. “A Right Hand is basically the actual person running the castle while the prince sits on his ass on his fancy throne and pretends to give orders. It is I who is burdened with the royal affairs and the never ending duties!” He sighed dramatically and Gaeul finally laughed- she had heard all about him too and knew all about San’s court of comedians. “Now that Prince San has found his soulmate, my burdens will increase-”

“I could help decrease them, if you’d like,” Gaeul decided to play along and Dokyeom’s eyes lightened.

“Ah, I didn’t realise this could go both ways. What’s the catch?”

“Hmm… I’ll think about it and let you know, yeah?”

While the two grinned at each other, both suddenly feeling like partners-in-crime even though they had just met, Jihyo came back and folded her arms at the two, already knowing nothing could be done now that they had teamed up.

“Gaeul… He’s ready to see you.”

Gaeul gulped and the two practically had to push her inside. Once they shut the door and Gaeul was left alone…

It hit like the first time.

She could see San’s back from where she stood at the entrance of what she presumed had to be the living room- not as lavish as she thought but magnificent nonetheless. San was standing at the edge of the balcony, facing the sky- she could tell he was nervous. She recalled the first time she had felt him before she had seen him, when he found her in Wooyoung’s basement. This felt just like that time.

Slowly, Gaeul walked until she reached the balcony herself and then paused- she could now see San’s chest move as he breathed. She knew that he was aware that Gaeul was right behind him. Perhaps, he didn’t have the strength to move right now, just like Gaeul didn’t have the strength to call his name and make him look at her.

She didn’t know how many days she had been unconscious here, but it had been almost 5 months in the other dimension for her. 5 months without San. She couldn’t believe how she survived that but oh, was she glad to be here right now.

So without waiting any longer, Gaeul walked to him and wrapped her arms, slowly but surely around him, hearing him suck his breath in as she pressed her body to his in a back hug. San didn’t move, didn’t dare breath for a good few moments, almost making Gaeul worried but when he finally relaxed and sniffed, Gaeul knew she wasn’t the only one overwhelmed with emotions right now.

San paced his hands on hers- this time, they didn’t feel that tingling sensation, that course of electricity in their nerves that they had become addicted to, yet… this felt way more intimate, knowing there was no interference of magic this time. Just simply two people who had lost each other and found each other, over and over again.

They stayed like this for a moment until Gaeul finally nudged her head against his body. “Hello… San.”

She could feel him smile even though she couldn’t see it. His rich, smooth voice rang in her ears as he said, “Oh, how I’ve missed you, Gaeul.”

Gaeul sighed, unwrapping herself and letting him turn in her arms until he finally faced her and the two grinned at the sight of each other before they hugged again, this time fiercer, almost crushing. San rocked her body against his and they both laughed as they tried to find the words.

“I missed you too,” Gaeul finally said as she drew back, his arms around her waist while she caressed the soft skin of his face, pushed the strands of his hair back. “It’s been too long.”

“It’s been long for me too,” San pouted. “You were out cold for 33 days now. Do you have any idea how scared I was?”

“33 days?” Gaeul gasped. That was unexpected. “Just what happened?”

“Well, what happened was that you gave it your all,” San smiled proudly, pressing a kiss on her forehead that made her flush. “I was out cold for a few days too. They said our bond was stronger than any, now that it had survived death. And everyone who was there- everyone shared their powers with you, for us. So we could have a second chance. And look at you now,” He smiled widely. “You’re okay. We’re okay, Gaeul. We made it.”

Gaeul rested her forehead against his chest as she let the words sink in. She had done it. Her magic was no longer chaotic- it was new but it was hers. And her bond… “Are we okay?”

“We’re more than okay,” San caressed her head. “This is where I’m meant to be.”

“This is where I’m meant to be,” Gaeul drew back. “Thank you for believing in me, San.”

San nodded- it was the least he could have done. He pressed another kiss to her forehead, wiping the tears that left her eyes. “No more crying, okay? You’re home now.”

“Home,” Gaeul smiled. “I’ve always been home, San, when you were with me.”

“God, I’m so glad you’re back,” San hugged her briefly again before drawing back and cupping her face. “Can I kiss you?”

Gaeul’s heart warmed at the way he was so cautious as if doubting her need, her want to be with him. So in answer, she fisted his shirt and he wasted no more time crashing his lips on hers.

Again, Gaeul couldn’t help but be surprised at the fact that it felt just like the first time- perhaps, it was just the soulmate bond that made everything more intense. Gaeul moved her lips along his desperate ones, trailing her hands up and down the soft material of his button-up shirt. San picked her up effortlessly in between kissing, the two sharing a laugh as he brought her inside and placed her on the couch as if she was fragile. It broke Gaeul’s heart.

“I’m not a timebomb anymore, San,” Gaeul scoffed. “You can be yourself.”

“Oh?” San raised a brow, a devilish glint in his eyes- the first time she saw it and it made warmth course through every nerve in her body. “I thought you wanted to go slow-”

Gaeul arched up to kiss him, earning a surprised yet pleased groan from him. “For you it may have been some 30 days, but for me it has been 6 months-”

“5. You were out cold for one-”

“Shh,” Gaeul smacked his arm and San laughed, kissing her jaw. He continued to trail his lips down her neck, peppering kisses along the way. “I won’t break now. I’m feeling so different now, San. Do you feel it too?”

“How so?” He asked, sitting back and bringing Gaeul to rest on his lap so he could caress her head or kiss her as he wished.

“Just… so normal. There’s no funny feeling anymore when we touch, so I guess it’s just-”

“Just the plain old nerves,” San smiled knowingly. “But heightened.”

Gaeul nodded. “And my magic- well, basically, I don’t feel like death now, but I also don’t feel so good.”

“That’s because your magic now has a new potential that needs to be unlocked,” San traced his finger along Gaeul’s neck, moving to her collarbone. “The amount of magic you possess right now is honestly crazy. It seems you’ll have to train like a normal faerie now.”

“I’ve had enough training,” Gaeul pouted. “Everyone must be tired now-”

San kissed the pout off her lips. “You haven’t trained from the best trainer amongst us yet.”

“Oh? Who is that?”

“Who do you think?” San buried his nose in the crook of her neck, inhaling before kissing there.

“Certainly not you… right?”

Gaeul felt his lips curve into a smirk against her skin and before she could take that comment back, San was on top of her and tickling her, her laugh roaring in the room. And when she finally caught her breath and they had had enough of drinking each other's gaze, San kissed her slowly, surely, one hand craning her face to his while the other rested on her hip and caressed the skin exposed from her top. Gaeul ran her fingers through his hair, tugging at it, making his kisses grow deeper and more passionate.

All night, they lay in each other’s arms, moving to the bed at some point. San caressed parts of her skin or her hair as she told him her stories of her time in the other dimension. They would share a laugh over something funny, wipe each other’s tears when they felt overwhelmed, sometimes interrupt the other with a kiss which would escalate things for a few moments. But it was comfortable, it was safe. Finally safe in every sense possible. They didn’t even notice when daylight started filling the room, though they didn’t mind.

They had all the time in the world now.

—---------------------

“Pass me the potatoes.”

“It’s right in front of you, Yeosang.”

“Did I stutter, Wooyoung?”

“My hand is farther than yours, don’t be an ass-”

“Just admit you’re short-”

“There you go,” San groaned, making the effort to get up from his seat and lean across the table to push the potatoes in front of Yeosang who couldn’t stop laughing now. “Kids.”

“Don’t you act mature just because you have ‘someone’ now,” Wooyoung scoffed. “You used to be the one-”

“That ‘someone’, Gaeul smacked Wooyoung’s head, making everyone laugh, “Is right here.”

“Ah, she’s here again,” Wooyoung muttered and Gaeul took a seat next to him, scoffing in disbelief as she looked around the table.

“I thought this party was in my honour. Who invited him?”

Jongho was the first one to giggle out loud at that, making the rest join as they joked about kicking Wooyoung out. Yena even opened a portal to Wooyoung’s room while Yeosang and Yunho manhandled Wooyoung as if they were about to kick him back home in the most literal sense. Gaeul shook her head at the crowd, meeting Seonghwa’s eyes and sharing a grin.

The party was arranged by Wooyoung, ironically, who wanted to celebrate one year of ‘crime-free, evil-Gaeul-free, and sappy-San’. Everyone had gathered in San’s castle thanks to Yena and Yeosang’s portals. Gaeul offered to open a portal as well but no one was brave enough to entertain the possibility of stepping in the portal and ending up in the dimension where the Panthers of Soca dwelled- the ‘Underworld’, they called it. Gaeul had to admit that even though she was getting better at portal practice, thanks to the twins who offered to teach her in their free time, she couldn’t trust herself with portals right now either.

Everyone was still helping her train her magic- since there was no urgency now and Gaeul had learned the basics in her time in the other dimension, it was slow now. It was mostly San teaching her with everything else along with magic too- defence, offence, speed, strength, agility. Dokyeom was always there to save her when she got too tired of having San as her personal trainer.

Jongho and Hongjoong, perhaps, were the ones learning the most from her. Hongjoong’s magic was probably the only thing that could combat Gaeul’s magic so he mostly trained her on how to prevent her magic and herself from becoming restless when they came in contact with his magic. Light magic could nullify the darker elements of her magic but it seemed like it couldn’t do anything against her cold fire element so often they just researched it as best as they could. Hongjoong also took it upon himself to record every characteristic of her magic for any similar cases in the present or the future and they decided they would search around the planet for anyone with similar magic so they could make a more detailed record.

Jongho ventured into the anti-nature territory of his element and the two would often spend a couple of days together every few weeks. Their magic was probably still the most similar, other than Seonghwa’s. Gaeul found herself the most comfortable with the Prince of Nature, often reminded of her past while with him. Jongho learned that the yin-yang bloodline had a different method of wielding their nature magic and while Gaeul taught him about that, Jongho taught her how to manipulate her magic so it could still resemble the properties of her original magic and each day, Gaeul found herself getting closer to having a natural characteristic to her magic as well.

With Seonghwa, it was like exploring the darkest parts of her magic. In the beginning, it had been a little awkward as they both figured out just what parts of their magic were similar in nature but a few funny incidents melted the ice, such as Seonghwa’s magic accidentally creating a dark sphere around them, rendering Gaeul blind, or Gaeul accidentally littering Seonghwa’s garden with cold fire snowflakes that started burning the ground as soon as they touched it, making them lose all rational thoughts for a good few moments as they started stomping on the ground to put the fire out, later realising they could have just waved a hand and undone the damage. Yena found them a laughing mess once they put out the fire and she wished she had been there to witness it.

With the twins, it was usually teamwork because they were still learning the limits of their dimensional magic which each other while also teaching Gaeul- she learned that she could open a portal to different worlds in the same dimension more easily than opening portals in this world like Yena did, and since it was risky business they decided to only teach her the basics and leave it at that. Yeosang helped her with the consequences of being a bridge between two worlds- often, they found their consciousness in the other world while they slept. He explained that it was essential to be aware of your bearings at all times because she could unconsciously dissociate her soul from her body and find herself in two different worlds at the same time. It was complicated, but Yeosang was probably the most patient teacher she had-

Unlike a certain someone, being Wooyoung, who didn’t even have to train her since their magic was not similar in any way, but took charge of her physical training anyway, finding any excuse to mess with her. San would often butt in and smack his friend but he soon found himself sidelined as the two grew closer so he would just watch them spar with each other and learn how to build their defence better.

Mingi and Yunho were often together while training Gaeul, and most of the time, they weren’t sure who was training who. The three would always sidetrack while training and either find themselves experimenting with something else entirely or sharing stories and talking all night. Gaeul could now make her cold fire as hot as Mingi’s fire or as cold as Yunho’s ice. She was the bridge between those elements and since their training had been the quickest to end, Gaeul still found herself visiting Mingi sometimes to learn about the history of fire magic or just to have him show her around his kingdom which she had always wanted to visit the most since she was a child.

Visiting Yunho was probably the most relaxing- mostly because of her water element. He himself was very welcoming and since his castle bordered the sea, they often spent time at the beach with the waves washing their worries away. Yunho found himself opening up more to Gaeul and she returned the sentiment. They would often exchange water-messages- Yunho told her he could send a message through water bodies to any one of them but he couldn’t get a reply, unlike Mingi’s fire message- probably due to the complexity of water which he still couldn’t figure out. Gaeul was convinced she could reply back and after many failed attempts, her first message that Yunho received was ‘San thinks that there are two butts, not one. What do you think?’ which had him hollering.

Gaeul slumped back in her seat as the rest argued among themselves and joked, still teasing Wooyoung who was arguing back loudly and she shut her eyes in amusement- some things never changed. When she opened them and looked at San, he motioned at her subtly to join her outside, sneaking out without making a sound. Gaeul was sitting right next to Wooyoung so it was a bit hard to sneak out especially when he kept involving her but with an excuse that she was going to get a drink (which was right on the table had Wooyoung actually processed what Gaeul said), she got up and exited the Great Hall-

Only to be caught by the wrist and turned around to bump into San, melting when she found herself in his arms.

“Hey, beautiful,” San grinned, tucking her hair back. “What do you say we go get some fresh air?”

“Sure,” Gaeul breathed, laughing. “I think I need it.”

“Ah, do you?” San teased and they grinned, planning to go outside but he couldn’t wait and took a turn in one of the empty corridors, pinning Gaeul against the wall and kissing her, smiling in between.

“That’s not what I meant by fresh air,” Gaeul exhaled. “But I think this works too.”

“Works better, right?” San kissed her again, drawing apart to look at her with the warmest smile on his face. “They won’t know we’ve disappeared until Wooyoung shuts up, which is probably going to take another hour-”

The sound of someone throwing up drew their attention and they burst into a fit of laughter when they spotted the said man himself, pretending to throw up at the sight of them making out while the rest finally revealed themselves, joining Wooyooung. Though it would have been embarrassing, the way they were all making fun of them made Gaeul laugh until tears glazed her eyes.

“Did you follow us right after I left?”

“You’ve learnt stealth from me, you can’t beat me at my own game, Gaeul,” Wooyoung shook his head and San gave up, sinking to the floor and burying his head in his hands.

“We should have waited until they took it a step further!” Mingi complained. “I wanted to catch them right in the middle of doing something dirty-”

“Cleanse your brain,” Yunho smacked Mingi’s head. “Besides, you didn’t even bring a camera.”

Another argument started where some pointed their fingers at the duo for having dirty minds while the rest agreed that they should have captured this moment, and Gaeul once again found herself giving up, slumping down beside San.

She had never smiled so much in her life, laughed so much. Not one moment in her life where she felt alone or like an outsider. Gaeul watched them with fond eyes as they argued, San’s own gaze settled upon her and she thought that after all that she went through, all the hardships that she had endured, that they had endured for her, this was exactly where she was meant to be. As San’s fingers brushed hers, she intertwined their fingers- something that came so naturally now.

Everything was finally right.

taglist: @yunnierights @monstaxdirtywonk @moni-cah @uyumilk @atxxzist @hazysan @bewitchedinyourhunger @kk-fleury @sincostansan @onedumbho3 @wooya1224 @icouldntcareless22 @jjaelly @huachengsbestie01 @ztjileen @charreddonuts @mdibby @gugggu6gvai @altgojo

98 notes · View notes

the-gt-fairy · 9 months

Text

Day 28: Cursed

One of the first toh g/t ideas I had was an au where instead of ending up in the Demon Realm, Luz gets shrunk for bullshit reasons and discovers a secret magic tiny society in the woods. Sorta like Epic 2013. While she's working on a way to get back to normal size, the rest of the Nocedas think she's gone missing

Here's the one and only complete thing I've written for it

Luz was in a very conflicting situation.

On one hand, in the span of just a couple minutes, she had found that magic was real! Turned out that one last walk through the woods before she was shipped off to camp was a good idea.

On the other hand, this was not exactly the magic adventure she had dreamed of. Normally, she thought about stumbling into another dimension full of fantastical creatures to be met, epic quests to be completed, and diabolical villains to be overthrown.

Though while at first glance it didn’t seem like it, she was still very much in the same dimension. Only it was now several times bigger than her.

The dilapidated house she had wandered into had become a wooden cavern, almost giving her a sense of vertigo as she gaped up at it. The hole where her foot had caved into the floorboards was now three times her size, and the box she had found beneath was about twice.

Of course she had been instantly curious about that box, that swell of maybe this was the moment returning whenever she found such things. She hadn’t actually expected it to be The Moment (that sort of hope had dwindled long ago), but then she had opened the lid to a face-full of light, blinding her and sending her falling back.

And falling.

Until finally her back hit the ground, and she blinked away the spots in her eyes to reveal the sight she was met with now.

The box had tipped over when she dropped it, allowing her easy access into it now. But as she crept inside, there was nothing hidden in the crevices. No magic light, no ancient scroll, no cursed jewelry.

Just this.

Luz stepped away from the box, staring into space dumbfounded. Was it permanent? Did this mean she didn’t have to go to camp? Oh gosh, what was she supposed to tell her family???

How was she even gonna get home?

She snapped out of her thoughts by a rustling sound and a slight tremor through the floorboards. Her attention was brought to the door at the back of the house, and a large shape appeared around the frame.

The biggest raccoon she had ever seen trundled into view.

Now, Luz knew a lot of useless trivia. One such being that raccoons were omnivores, and rodents were part of that diet. A raccoon probably couldn’t distinguish between a rodent and a shrunken human.

And it probably didn’t care.

Without a thought, Luz ducked into the box, pulling the lid closed behind her. Dread sank into her stomach as she was cast into darkness, and she froze. The scrabbling of the raccoon’s steps slowly grew closer, languidly shuffling about the room. Eventually, it reached just outside of her shelter, and she could hear it sniffing the wood.

And then her whole world tilted.

She yelped, barely managing to keep her grip on the lid as the box was shifted. The raccoon’s claws scratched against the outside, trying to pry it open. A sliver of light began to peek in, and she quickly hooked her foot on a knot in the wood, using the leverage to shove the lid back down.

Luz kept her grip tight to avoid being tossed around, her muscles burning from the effort. Even as she tried so hard, she knew it was going to be useless. She was going to die. Oh shit, she was going to die. She always thought raccoons were so cute, and now she was gonna be eaten by one–

“Luz?”

Relief flooded her at that sound. Vee had found her, she was going to be fine, she was going to be saved–

Her stomach swooped as gravity took over fully, sending her tumbling even more rapidly than before. Her hold finally slipped off as she was banged around in the box, until it quickly came to a jerking stop. The lid fell open, revealing the dim space beneath the floorboards.

Luz quickly scrambled out, looking up and hearing Vee gently shooing the raccoon away. Vee’s frame appeared above the hole, and dang, Vee was gonna tease Luz for weeks about how she was the taller twin now.

Luz took a breath, preparing to shout. But she had barely gotten out the first “Vee–!” before something clapped over her mouth and pulled her into the shadows.

She struggled against her assailant, screaming against the palm over her mouth. “Quiet!”, they hissed in her ear.

Luz proceeded to scream louder.

Her captor shook her, knocking the breath out her lungs. “I mean it, kid! There’s a human right there!”

Said human was now wandering out of the house, wood creaking as she left. Luz could only watch as her one chance of help abandoned the house and left her behind.

Frustrated, distraught, and frankly just annoyed, she licked her captor’s hand.

“Ew, kid, what the hell!”, the other exclaimed, taking their hand away to wipe off the saliva. Luz took the opportunity to wriggle out of the hold, whirling around to face the mystery person.

It looked to be an older woman, long, silver hair slicked back like a mane. She wore a red dress, some equivalent of hiking boots, along with a backpack and a belt filled with multicolored potion bottles. Her eyes were a striking gold that almost seemed to glow in the dim light, and her ears were pointed.

In any other situation, Luz would’ve been entirely fascinated. Here was a tiny humanoid, looking appropriately witchy and like she had a wild backstory. But this wasn’t another situation.

“What the hell?”, Luz parroted the woman incredulously. “You’re the one who captured me–”

“I was saving your ass, you’re very welcome.”, the woman cut off, “Did you really not see that human?”

“Of course I did!”, Luz shouted, “That was my sister! I needed her help!”

“Your sister?”, the woman repeated in disbelief. She laughed, clearly mocking and making Luz’s blood boil as her cheeks heated up with shame. “You sure you didn’t hit your head in that fall?”

Luz crossed her arms and looked away with a pout, but didn’t reply. She could tell when no one would believe her, no matter what she said. It was better to just let the woman come to her own conclusions, play into what she wanted Luz to say until Luz could find a way out of it.

“Anyway, kid, what are you doing all the way out here?”, the woman went on.

“Just…taking a walk.”, Luz replied in a mumble.

“That’s one hell of a walk.”, the woman joked, “You’re a while’s away from Bonesborough.”

“Bonesborough…?”, Luz questioned.

“Yeah, are you not from there?”

“Uh…no?”

“You don’t sound too sure about that answer.”

“Hey, like you said, maybe I hit my head too hard.”

The woman snorted. “Yeah, well, unless you know any other towns around, then that’s where I’m taking you.”

Luz’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you actually kidnapping me?”

The woman barked another laugh. “Unless you wanna get yourself killed, I’m not. You hardly look prepared for a trip out here.”

Luz glanced down at herself, definitely looking underdressed compared to the woman. The only item she had on her was the duffel bag that had somehow shrunk with her. At least she had a change of clothes and some of her Azura books…

The woman turned on her heel, beginning to walk in a seemingly random direction. “Well, we don’t got all day.”, she declared as she waved for Luz to follow.

“Wait!”, Luz called, making the woman pause and look back at her. “What’s your name?”

She flashed a grin, a gold fang glinting in the lowlight. “You can call me Eda. You?”

“Luz Noceda.”, she nodded back.

“Well, Luz. You comin’ or what?”

For just one more moment, Luz hesitated. It was all beginning to sink in that she had shrunk and she had met another tiny woman who was presumably about to take her to a town of other tiny people.

She had no idea what this all would entail. Whatever this was could wear off in a day, or be stuck to her forever.

Either way, it would get her out of going to camp for a little longer…

Without much of another option, Luz fell in step with Eda. Despite the circumstances, she couldn’t help a swell of excitement. This was it, the literal magic moment she had been waiting years for. Even if it wasn’t exactly what she wanted, she couldn’t deny what she got.

Through a small hole in the foundation, Luz stepped out of the house and into a new world.

#g/t #giant/tiny #sfw g/t #my art #my writing #gtjuly #toh g/t #tiny!luz

99 notes · View notes

elena-mayfair · 2 years

Text

Daring to dream

Paring: Morpheus x f!reader, Sandman x f!reader Warnings: tw abuse, sexual violence, swearing, graphic violence, adult themes, reader discretion is advised Summary: The Witch had always led a life full of nightmares, both living and dreamt ones. So when a Dream entered her life she simply shut him down and hid behind the safety of her walls. Will she dare to bring them down? What will Morpheus do when confronted with violence in her life? Word count: 6.9k Note: Gifs are not mine, credit to the authors.

Series Masterlist Part Twelve: Living Nightmare

***

"Alright! So what are we doing here exactly?" Matthew asked as he flew down and sat on the table. The library recreated itself anew, a space that had not long ago been ruined and empty was now filled with shelves reaching up to the very ceiling of the castle, and each day new books appeared. For the past few days, Matthew had been finding Lucienne and Mervyn in the central area of the library surrounded by piles of books on every side. That day, curiosity got the better of him and he decided to join in.

"We are helping Lord Morpheus to find answers," Lucienne answered vaguely.

"To what exactly?!"

"Haven't you heard?! That Witch was able to do magic in the castle!" Mervyn answered without hesitation.

"Yeah, I wasn't here yet. I guess it is not something normal?" he asked unsurely.

"No, it is not," Lucienne answered kindly, "This is Deam's realm, no one has power in here, except Lord Morpheus."

"Where is Boss anyway?" Matthew asked.

"You are a lousy raven!" Mervyn snapped at him, "Shouldn't you be his eyes!? Whatever happened in the Waking World caused him to disappear under a mountain and create whatever monstrosities he created there!"

"Hey! For once I did what he asked me to do!" Matthew tried to defend himself.

"You never do what he asks you to do! Not exactly anyway! You got a lot to learn kid!"

Lucienne only exhaled heavily and massaged her forehead. Mervyn was right, but she knew that Matthew did what he thought was best. All of them had Morpheus' best interests at heart. A few days ago Morpheus suddenly returned home and without a word of explanation he ordered her to find anything that could explain Y/N unusual abilities and after that, he simply disappeared into the Dreaming. She haven't seen him since and didn't dare to go look for him.

Residents of the kingdom brought her word that he had spent some time sitting on top of a mountain in stillness staring at the changing sky above him. Word was that the terrible storm that hit the land two days past was his doing. Rumor spread that nightmarish creatures had taken up residence in caves beneath the mountains, while in the forests some gloomy voice was deceiving travelers from their paths.

"I've seen what she can do!" Matthew began again, "Even before he gave her his sand!" brief silence fell between them as Lucienne and Mervyn gasped in disbelief.

"He did what?!"

"What did you say?"

They asked simultaneously.

"He gave her a vial of sand," Matthew replied, "You didn't know?" he asked Lucienne.

"No I did not," she replied thoughtfully, "Why would he do that?!"

"Ha!" Matthew crocked loudly, "And who is lousy now! You really don't know?! There is a benefit of being new you know? You two had been away from humans way too long!" he snapped at them, "It's obvious that Boss is in love!" he cawed with certainty.

Lucienne answered nothing, Mervyn only snorted cynically but they both looked at Matthew as if they had suddenly received a miraculous enlightenment.

"You really didn't notice that?! Like, come on guys! Jasmine field was kinda on the nose don't ya think?" Matthew mocked.

"Lord Morpheus does not..." Lucienne started but Matthew didn't waste time interrupting her.

"Hey, listen Boss, I am the one who is with him there on the ground right?! I am the one who has an eye on her whenever he asks me! I know what I'm talking about! Maybe you two forgot a few things, but let me remind you, again, that not so long ago I was a human! I know love when I see one alright! And when I say that the Boss is in love, that means he is fucking in love! You should have seen his face when he saw her dancing with some random in the club!"

"That could destabilize the whole realm..." Lucienne murmured to herself.

"His in love?!" Merv exalted, "Stop! The kid has been here like five minutes!

"We need to find anything that could possibly explain the source of her unusual abilities..." Lucienne picked one book from the pile and started paging through.

"I'll help," Merv offered, "And you," he directed his attention to Matthew, "you better go and watch her. Look for any unusual behavior."

"Said the pumpkin to the talking bird" Matthew sassed, "She is a Witch! Everything involving her is unusual!"

"Then more unusual than usual! And birdie, you see anything you tell Lucienne before you tell the Boss."

"Mervyn!" Lucienne objected.

"Stop! Everyone knows that you secretly run this place!"

"I've got no problem with that," Matthew agreed, "Besides I don't think that in his current state Boss would even talk to me."

***

Morpheus knew that night was falling in the part of the Waking World where Y/N lived. He could feel it spreading its veil over the dreaming humanity to bring them, one by one, into his realm. Each night they wandered unknowingly on the paths he had created for them. Each night they welcomed one of his dreams or nightmares, and with its help, they embarked on the most beautiful adventures, realized the most beautiful dreams, faced the most terrible nightmares. It has been so since the dawn of time. It will be so until its end. However, the time he spent with his sister gave him much to think about. For billions of years he had not thought about the purpose of his existence. "We are here for them. This is our function and purpose." that's what Death claimed. Not so long ago, he would have agreed with her. He knew who he was, or rather what he was, he accepted his duties and carried them out thoroughly. For in his hands he held the entire dreaming consciousness of all existence. He had seen their dreams, he had seen their desires, he had seen their fears and nightmares. He had known each of them better than they knew themselves. To create a dream is to know how one feels. After all, what is a dream if not the most lucid articulation of our true self?

He had known people so well, knew their deepest desires, and yet he had long ago ceased to care. He had been creating dreams and nightmares in such a way as to allow them to take any shape, any form, to fulfill their function, regardless of who they were serving that night. He had no need to personally supervise their work; he had known what people were dreaming about, even if he had not been personally present in their dreams. "For what purpose would that serve." After all, people do not change; eons of life spent controlling their dreams had taught him that not much could surprise him anymore. He would occasionally influence the dreams of mortals personally when he deemed them too dangerous for humanity when an individual posed too great of a threat to life on earth. He would also personally oversee the dreams of great people, humans whose influence on the world would prove invaluable. Scientists, inventors, philosophers, and writers, the latter of whom he was most fond of. For in his eyes, those who told stories had an indescribable gift in their hands, the gift of shaping mankind's desires, the gift of inspiring, the gift of shaping human souls. They were bringing solace to those who suffered, strength to those who had fallen, inspiration to those who dared to dream. They were creating and making dreams a reality. He smiled slightly to himself at the memory of the words that he had inspired long ago….

All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds Awake to find that it was vanity; But the dreamers of day are dangerous men. That they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. - T.E. Lawrence

"He wrote that so well..." he thought, "I inspired him and he inspired so many dreamers of the Waking World."

Yes, Morpheus was particularly fond of writers.

But the rest of the dreaming consciousness of mortals did not concern him, people ceased to be of any interest to him, his function was to control their dreams, not to care about them, it was a task, a duty, and duties are carried out without emotions.

And yet, this night on the nightward shores of a Dreaming he felt lonely. Loneliness was washing over him in waves lapping and pulling at his spirit. That night, for the first time in eternity, he found himself worried, he felt that he cared.

He closed his eyes and, as he sifted through the grains of sand in his hands, he recalled images from a few days ago. The rage in her eyes, the pain on her face, the bloody bruises on her neck, and the wall she so desperately tried to surround herself with every word she spoke. "There is so much empathy and kindness in her, and yet she has received so much pain from life." He didn't want to feel it, he didn't want to feel care and compassion, he didn't want to feel desire, he didn't want to feel rage. Yet the feelings flooded him in waves, unleashed, burning, powerful, uncontrollable. "It isn't about a quest or finding purpose outside our function. Our purpose is our function." Death's words echoed in his head and yet they sounded empty, meaningless. Purpose, function, his duty, the duty he fulfilled for eons suddenly became nothing, like a void at the end of everything.

"It is not enough. Not anymore." he let the grains of the sand disturb the water and enter the dreams.

At that moment Dream of the Endless decided to dream.

***

"How do ya even find anything in here?!" Constantine asked as he scouted your bookshelf, "it's uh bloody mess!"

"Hey! I don't recall asking your opinion! It's my mess deal with it!" you sassed with a smile, "Keep looking! I'm sure it is there somewhere."

"I swear love, one day I'm going to catalog all of this in an alphabetical or chronological order!"

"Don't you even dare Constantine..." you warned and handed him a cup of tea.

For the second night in a row, you spent together in your apartment surrounded by books, manuscripts, empty whiskey bottles, and cigarette packets. The air around you was heavy with smoke and suffocating, neither of you would like it any other way. This was your world, a world of magic and sorcery, a world of secrets and mysteries that wanted to be found, that you wanted to understand. And your current undiscovered secret was your new abilities, your ability to wield a fragment of the power of the Endless.

"Sorry love but I don't think we will find any explanation in books," he took a sip of his tea and reached for one of the volumes.

"What was the thing you used to say? One thing I've learned is that you can know anything, you just need to find it."

"Don't ya' bloody quote me to me!" he snapped, "besides there is nothing to be found! cuz nah one ever in the history of this plane or any other had been able to wild power of the Endless n not suffer horrible consequences."

"Well lucky me then..." you sighted, "I just need to know!! It's driving me crazy!!"

"No bloody surprise here! Why did you keep it anyways?" John asked from above the book.

"Because Morpheus gave it to me..." you answered quietly, "It was a gift."

Constantine closed the book, grabbed his teacup, and sat down on the couch across from you. He looked at you closely for a while, the bruise on your face had almost disappeared, and its remnants were cleverly hidden under concealer and foundation. On your neck, however, fingerprints continued to reflect with colors of red, purple and green. You did not escape his gaze, you had nothing to hide from him. More than once he has seen you in a worse shape when you were hunting together for anything supernatural. And although these bruises were of a different nature, personal, with him you had no need to hide them. He was one of the few people you trusted, with whom you felt safe, with whom you didn't have to wear a mask and could simply be yourself. You had a true friendship, the kind of friendship that was a miracle and a rarity in the vicious world you lived in.

"I've never apologized..." he began with his eyes fixed on your neck.

"And you never have to," you cut him off shortly.

"Why you never told me? I would have blood killed the bastard!"

"That's why!" you pointed at him with your finger, "Because I knew you would do that! And that is not something that we do. Besides..." you hesitated.

"Wha'?"

"Come on John!! What was I supposed to tell you!! That I, a Witch, a sorceress, who hunts monsters for a living, I let some fucker abuse me?!" you snarled in frustration.

"Humans are often bigger monsters than the ones we hunt," he consoled.

"Be careful John, or I might just start to think that you do have a heart after all," you quipped.

"Heart? What's that?! Never heard of it!" he chuckled and lit a cigarette. "But going back to the subject, we won't find any answers in books or anywhere...."

"I don't need exact answers, but I don't know...I guess I was hoping that something at least similar had happened in the past," you sounded disappointed.

"We are going about it all wrong," he put down his cig in the ashtray, "Answers are not in books or in some wankers journals," he gazed at you, "They are in you."

"Poetic," you chuckled.

"Zip it! I bloody mean it! We are going about this like it's a case! But the bloody subject is not your powers but you. You is the case!"

"I don't wanna be a case!" you fumed.

"Well too bloody sorry, you are, so tell me everything from the beginning."

And so you did. Sparing very few details, you told him everything, starting from the moment you involuntarily began traveling to the Dreaming in your dreams, when for months you were seeing Morpheus standing in the distance overseeing his fallen Kingdom. You told him about how Morpheus had saved your life when you foolishly wanted to jump from the fourth floor, convinced that you were still dreaming. About how he invited you to his castle and how a shard of painted glass showed you his castle in its past splendor. You recounted memories of killing a demon, of being dragged down to Hell by Lucifer, witnessing Morpheus fight him and of your feelings when you held a vial of sand in your hand. You talked about how you accidentally heard Morpheus' thoughts when Dee used his ruby to destroy his kingdom, and along with it the human ability to dream. You had told him about it all and you had to be honest with yourself, it felt good to get it all out.

"Bloody hell..." he let out after you finished, "I've seen and been through my fair share of insanity but love... you take a grand prize!"

"Not funny," you murmured.

"So where is he now?! After all of that, where is Sandman?" he glared at you with a sneaky smile on his face.

"Fuck off..." you snarled.

"You are calling him by name so easily, it seems to me that you two is friendly," he pushed slightly, "What did you do, huh?"

You remained silent for a moment, focused only on dragging the cigarette that you held in your fingers. You frowned your eyebrows angrily, annoyed at yourself for falling so easily into the trap.

"Love?"

"I told him to fuck off alright!!!" you exploded which only caused Constantine to burst into an uncontrollable laugh.

"You did wha'?!" he guffawed.

"You are an asshole! Stop laughing!" you demanded, while simultaneously laughing yourself.

"Bu' it is too bloody good! You told a bloody Endless to fuck off," he wiped out tear that formed in the corner of his eye, "Oh bloody hell it's worse than I suspected!"

"What the fuck do you mean?!" you frowned.

"C'mon love," he grinned, "How long we know each other?"

"Fifteen years?"

"Exactly! It's fucking obvious don't ya' think?!"

"What is?"

"You're bloody in love with sodding Endless!"

***

On yet another night in a row, Morpheus made the decision to find him in the Dreaming. Since that fateful night, Y/N has not appeared in a Dreaming. He was convinced that she must have been drinking an enhanced Asfodelus potion to sleep without dreams. He was unable to look into her dreams, but he could find his. This was not an easy task, after all, he didn't even know his name. Nevertheless, he knew mankind, he knew that it had to be a man, a man who dared to hurt her. It never ceased to amaze him how much violence and hatred people harbor within themselves. Instead of searching for the unknown man in never-ending nightmares, he decided to find her in the dreams of others.

He first found her in the dream of her friend, a kind woman who surrounded the people around her with care after Dee used his powers on humanity. She was a good woman. With a good pure heart and an empathetic soul. There were very few people like her left in the world. In her dream, he saw Y/N sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace reading a book to the smiling children huddled around her. There was no magic, no horrors, no pain, just love and the warmth of a peaceful home. He smiled. This is what she wished for her. It was a good dream.

Then he found her in the sleep of a black Dane. He saw the relief in the dog's eyes as her horrified face leaned over him. She stroked him gently and tenderly, promising that no one would ever hurt him again. She promised to take care of him, promised that he wouldn't have to fear anything anymore, that he would still be a happy dog. She gently lifted him off the ground without even touching his body. Her power allowed her to carry him steadily in the air. He felt a gentle tickle on his sore dog body as her magic poured over him. He knew he could trust her. He whined quietly and allowed himself to be carried to warmth. No one would ever hurt him again.

The third dream in which he found her belonged to the woman whose life she had saved. He saw her huddled against the wall, looking at Y/N's smiling, bloodied face. He saw the exhaustion on her face, saw how much effort it took to stand on her own two feet, how difficult it was for her to speak words of comfort. However, he saw that in this woman's eyes Y/N was someone else entirely. To her, she was strength, she was someone who had changed her life, she was a voice of comfort and inspiration. He saw the way she looked at her when Y/N extended her hand to help her rise from the ground, the place on which she had spent so much time. The woman did not felt fear as she looked at her bloodied body and face, she was not afraid of her even after seeing what she did moments ago. For to her, she was the bearer of hope. Hope that she would never have to be afraid again. Hope that from now on her and her son's lives would be happy.

Morpheus left the third dream and moved on through the ocean of dreaming consciousness of mortal beings. He walked through the heather fields, where a couple in love indulged in passion and desire only to find himself moments later on a battleground where a brave knight fought a golden dragon. He entered a tavern where a bard sang a song about a fisherman's daughter while collecting coins from the gathered folk. Then he stepped into the black and red, a hellish ruined world painted itself before his eyes. He stopped for a moment as the sky lit up with red lightning flashes, and the all-encompassing silence was shattered by the aggressive riffs of an electric guitar. A young man with a storm of curly hair stood on the roof of a wrecked camper, he cranked up the amplifier and passionately began to play Master of Puppets by Metallica. The black sky above his head flashed with red as he furiously moved his fingers across the guitar's neck. He was good. "Most metal shit ever!!!" he heard in the distance as he left his dream to move on to the next one.

And the next dream was his.

Morpheus found himself in a small apartment so different from the one in which Y/N now lived. The colors of the walls, the pattern of the floors, the furniture, the curtains, the accessories everything was perfect. Perfectly matched, perfectly clean, empty, without a soul. There was nothing here that belonged to her.

"Hey baby!" he heard her radiant voice coming from the kitchen and he followed it. The rays of the afternoon sun illuminated her as she hurriedly bustled around the pots. Although her voice sounded cheerful her face was tired, sad, the fire in her eyes which he loved so much extinguished, they were empty and soulless, like all her surroundings.

A man appeared in the hallway. Tall, stocky, with hair the color of dark blond, he shed his leather jacket and revealed tattooed arms.

"Hey," he replied and walked into the kitchen, a cigarette was hanging from his lips. Morpheus watched as Y/N forced the most sincere smile possible and greeted him with a kiss.

"Launch will be ready in a moment," she said softly, "Shall I make you some coffee? How was your day?"

"Like every other day," he replied, "How long will I have to wait?" Morpheus did not like the tone of his words, as if he was deliberately trying to start an argument.

"Almost ready!"

The man took a beer from the refrigerator, then headed to the living room, sat comfortably in an armchair, and turned on the TV. Morpheus stood in the hallway in a way that allowed him to observe both him and her at the same time. Y/N's hands shook, but she quickly calmed them down. She corrected her hair, took a deep breath, and began to plate the prepared food. Perfectly served and presented, she brought the meal to him first. He did not wait for her.

"Roast again?" He stabbed the beef with his fork.

"You like a roast!" She replied after which she once again fled to the kitchen to plate her portion.

They ate in silence. He was looking at the TV, while she was looking at him. He could see that she wanted to ask him something, he could see her glancing at him longingly, waiting for him to ask how was her day. A gray face hidden under a heavy layer of makeup, sad eyes, nervous gestures, so unlike herself.

"You could ask how my day went…" she began quietly.

"You sat at home all day doing shit, probably reading your stupid books again, as I worked hard for us." he gruffed.

"Yeah, I forgot that you're the only one in this relationship working hard…" she muttered under her breath. A trace of her fire still burning in her.

"Am I wrong?" the fork hovered halfway to his mouth.

"No darling, of course not. I know you work hard, it's just…" she hesitated, weighing her words, "I spend my days alone and I miss you. I know you're tired, but you could at least ask how my day was…" her tone of voice so cautious, so apologetic.

The man did not answer anything.

"Alicia called, she and Darek are inviting us to their place for the evening," she changed the course of the conversation, "I said we would come."

He continued to say nothing. With contempt painted on his face, he chewed his lunch and sipped his beer.

"Are you even listening to me?"

He dropped the knife and fork abruptly and looked at her angrily.

"Can't you see I'm trying to watch the show? Fuck! I can't even have a moment of peace and quiet in my own home!" he growled after which he abruptly stood up gathered the plates and went out to the kitchen. Out of the corner of his eye, Morpheus saw as he furiously threw them into the sink, one of them cracked.

She entered the kitchen lured by the sound of the cracking plate.

"I didn't mean to upset you…" she whispered.

"Of course! You never want to upset me and yet you always succeed!" he raised his voice, "You sit here like a fucking princess all day doing shit and a man comes home after a hard day's work and can't even have a moment of fucking peace because all you do is talk!"

"David, you're exaggerating…"

"David…" he got what he was looking for, he found out his name.

"I'm exaggerating!!!" he stepped dangerously close to her, "I work my ass off for us every day, every single day, and you can't even fucking make dinner on time!!!"

The blood in Morpheus' veins began to boil as he watched him walk up to her and yell in her face. He saw the veins in his neck surging with blood as he clenched his hand tensely into a fist.

"I didn't fucking ask for this!!!" she shouted, and flashes of thunderstorm ignited in her eyes, she was there after all, stifled, humiliated, enduring, burning, "And I'm not your slave so don't treat me like this! I take care of you, I take care of you and in return I don't even receive a bit of affection from you!!!"

"Well here we go again!!!" he rolled his eyes and turned away sharply heading back to the living room.

"Oh no, I'm talking to you!" she ran after him, "I'm sick of you ignoring me all the time!!!! I'm so fucking sick of you blaming me for everything!!! And when I want to talk to you, the thing that people in a relationship should do, you don't listen to me at all! You are always tired! You never have time!" she was furious.

"Because you keep yapping about the same thing!!!" he shouted back.

"Because you never listen to me!!! I didn't ask for us to go abroad! I didn't ask for us to live away from family and friends! You think I like sitting here alone all day and playing perfect housewife!!!? I'm suffocating! And you don't give a damn about all that! You don't give a damn about me!" tears run up to her eyes as anger boiled inside her.

"If you don't like it, get the fuck out! No one is keeping you here!" he slammed his hand on the table and pointed to the door.

"It's so easy for you to say…" she lowered her voice, "I mean nothing to you? Years spent together mean nothing to you? I wonder what you would do if I were to leave for real."

David sprang to his feet and jumped to her. Morpheus saw her instincts take over as she reflexively took a few steps back.

"Are you going to blackmail me now?" he growled at her, "You said you loved me, you said you wanted to support my dreams, you said you would follow me anywhere. And what, your words were worth shit!"

"Bullshit! I supported you! I tried! And you won't tell me I didn't! First, a second, and a third time! But before this trip, I told you from the beginning that I didn't want to! That I don't want to live away from my family, I don't want to live away from my friends!" defended her case, though her posture diminished with each step he took.

"Then you should have stayed home."

"And what!? Be there alone and wait for you to kindly come home!? What kind of life is that!"

"If you don't like it, get the fuck out," he hissed furiously.

Morpheus saw something inside her snap. He saw the remnants of the love she had for him die.

"Fine! That's what you want! That's what years spent together are worth to you! Have it your way!!" she growled furiously and headed for the dressing room. She grabbed her suitcase and frantically began throwing clothes into it.

"And where will you go?" David snarled, "What are you going to do? You don't have a job, no money and you don't have anything to go home for either. You won't survive without me."

"Fuck it! I'd rather live on the street than one more day with you!" she hissed.

David approached her, his hand tried to stop her as she angrily threw more clothes into the suitcase. She tried to yank her hand out of his grasp.

"Leave me alone!" the shirt ripped in half, "all you do is humiliate me and treat me like your slave, bullshiting me about white picket fence house, sweet apple pie life, but at the end, it's all shit anyway. I'm sick of it all, your lies, your unfulfilled promises." He grabbed her hand and with a strong yank forced her to stand up, pain covered her face, "Let me go!!!" she screamed but he held tight, "Fuck you! You and your lies!" she yanked her arm.

"Stop…"

"You and all your promises! That you'll stop drinking, that you'll never hit me again, that things will be like before!"

"I said stop…" with his other hand, he grabbed her shoulder and tried to calm her down.

"I'm done with you! You killed everything in me! You took everything from me!" tears began to flow from her eyes, "I gave you all of myself, I sacrificed everything I had to you, and you pissed on it. So fuck you!"

"I said stop!!!" he yelled, and with all his weight he pinned her against the wall. She tried to push him away, tried to kick him, so he pressed his forearm against her throat and steadied her, "Stop…"

Morepheus' blood began to burn in his veins. The grip on her neck, the bruises he had seen a few days ago. This was his doing, he was the one who had hurt her. And he didn't do it for the first time.

"Let me go…" she choked out through a clenched throat.

"Stop yanking, listen to me," he began in a soft tone, "I'm sorry. I don't want to hurt you. I don't want you to leave." Y/N didn't even look at him so with his free hand he grabbed her face and violently forced her to look at him, "Listen to me. I don't want you to leave. I love you. Why this drama? After all, you know I love you."

"You have no idea what love is," she growled venomously.

"I know these past few months have been difficult, I'm sorry, I'm really sorry," he continued, ignoring her words , "I know I've promised many times that I'll get better, and you know I'm trying. You know I'm trying. But you have to help me. I can't do it without you. Without you I am nothing." His words sounded so true and yet Morpheus could see right through him. "I know it's hard for you, and I promise we'll find a solution. If you really want it, if you really miss your family so much we will come home. Will that make you happy?"

"I want nothing more…" tears flowed from her eyes.

"Please give me three months, six months max, I'll make some more money and we'll go home."

"It will be like always again…you won't do it…"

"I swear to you, " he assured, "After all, you love me. After all, you don't want to leave. You love me don't you?" He loosened his grip on her throat and with his other hand slipped a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Of course I love you," she confirmed quietly.

"See? I love you you love me so why the screaming?"

"You know very well why, " she looked away again, "You don't care about me."

"I care, I don't want you to leave," he begged in a false tone, "Stay please. Where would you go without me?"

"I don't want to go anywhere without you," she smiled weakly.

"Then stay…" he said and kissed her, violently, aggressively, invading her mouth pushing her against the wall. She yielded to him. "Will you stay?" she nodded, "You see, I don't want to hurt you. I want what is best for us. You just have to listen to me," he stroked her face then grabbed her hair, tilted her head and began to kiss her aggressively. With his free hand, he forced her to get down to her knees in front of him. Morpheus looked away, he could not bear to see her enslaved and humiliated. He could not watch as this man violently took his pleasure from her mouth.

He left the dream.

He had to leave. Even if the desire to end his life burned in his veins, even if every fiber of his being wanted to send him the most horrible nightmares he had created, nightmares that would drive him insane, he could not do it. Not yet. He suppressed within himself the desire to inflict pain on him. After all, he was the Ruler of Dreams, and he knew all too well how treacherous human minds can be. He had to confirm that this was not just a fantasy. Vicious, vile, discussing, creation of lesser human being mind. He had to be sure that it had really happened. And the only person who could confirm it was her. And the last time he saw her she told him to fuck off.

***

"You lost your goddamn mind!" you laughed maniacally at his statement, "In love? Really?"

"Yeah right," John inhaled deeply, "you can deny it all you want but I know love when I see it. And you are bloody in love."

"Really, just stop, please!" you reached for a bottle of whisky and you poured two glasses.

"Oh now you gonna drown it all down?!" he teased, "Heh, like I haven' seen that before!"

"Shut up! Since when you are such an expert?!" you handed him a glass, "In love...unbelievable... I wonder where did you get that from? Was it in the part where I killed a demon? Or perhaps in Hell? Or maybe when I was talking about burning man?!" you mocked.

"Kinda everywhere..." he smirked, "you haven' seen your face love! All blissful and dreamy, radiant, and those dreamy eyes of yours. You can't deny something that you can't even hide! Should I bring you a mirror?"

"Listen to me John Constantine and listen to me well," irritation took over you, "It is perfectly understandable and normal to feel in the weird way when freaking Dream of Endless suddenly becomes a part of your life. After all, he is who he is. But just because he makes me feel wired doesn't mean I am in love with him!"

"And I'm sure that your weird feeling got nothing to do with the fact that you told him to fuck off. C'mon love! Don't be a bloody mug!"

You took a long deep sip of your whisky and became lost in your thoughts for a moment. A pleasant shiver ran through your body as you thought of Morpheus, his eyes like endless galaxies glittering from the dancing stars, his voice piercing every fiber of your body, his touch lingering on your skin like the touch of a god himself, his barely visible smile on his statuesque face. John said nothing. He just smiled slyly and continued to observe.

"You know..." you started, "I know who he is, or rather what he is. I'm not a mug as you call it. And sometimes he is this unbelievable entity that brought itself down to the human world," you gazed into the distance, "he....he can be scary you know. If he wants to. And sometimes when I am around him I feel like I am in the presence of god, like...like the universe itself is a part of him and with his each and every gaze, each word, it's drowning me into its endless darkness. Does this makes sense?" you tried explaining, "Sometimes, especially in our reality, I look at him and I don't see anything human. I look at him and I see endless galaxies hidden inside the marble statue, slowly sipping out covering the world around him. But the way he speaks, the way he acts...he is more human than a lot of us. There is kindness in him, empathy, and so much compassion. I feel like he understands us humans, more than we do. He creats such an odd, unreal image." You stopped and took another sip from the glass, "And at other times, like in my dreams, or when we were in Hell, it is the exact opposite! He looks, walks, and talks more like a human. Like the endless universe in him is somehow less visible outside of our reality, like he is no longer this unreal animated statue but a human, very stiff one but human. Yet at the same time, there is nothing human about him. When he gets angry it's like the all-encompassing darkness spreads out of him to cover everything and everyone around him, when he talks his voice sounds like from the deepest and darkest depths of the cosmos, when he cares, feels, it's like stars themselves falling down from the sky...I can't explain this, words can't explain this..."

"What were you saying about not being in love?" John chuckled.

"My impeccable taste in men! Creeps, abusers, and now the anthropomorphic personification of a Dream!" you groaned, "Even if I am so what!? He is a Dream of the Endless, and I? Well, I am me. Even thinking about its pointless. It's not like I can even allow myself to think about it." you added and sadness crept into your voice.

"Why?" John put down the glass on the table and focused his blue eyes on you, "Why not? Why the hell not?"

"I just said it."

"Listen, love," he leaned back on the couch and reached for his cigarette, "We ain't exactly leading normal lives, you and I. If you is still thinking that you'll have sweet apple pie life, husband, white picket fence, and all that bullshit then you are delusional," he sneered, "You and I, we gonna probably die bloody, horrible deaths, strangled in a dark ally, knifed down buy unsatisfied customer, ripped apart by our mistake, or with our guts turned inside out by some monstrosity we brought on ourselves. So why not dream a little huh?"

"It sounds like you are encouraging me, " you noted suspiciously, "Not so long ago you were all fuming and pissed just because I mentioned an Endless."

"Maybe I am encouraging you! Our lives are fucked up! We are fucked up! We do not exactly belong here among normal people, and we do not exactly belong outside of this realm either. We're kinda in the middle. So why not dream a little bit? What is the worst that could happen? Looks like he is a good lad, for an Endless immortal being. But even angels come down on earth and take humans as lovers."

You lit your cigarette and drifted away in thoughts as he continued.

"You're searching for answers that you might never find. But I get it, we do that, that's our thing. But perhaps there is no answer to find. Perhaps you were meant to venture into his world, perhaps you meant to have these abilities of yours, perhaps there are bigger forces at play here. You've always said that you do not believe in Destiny, but if you believe in Dream you gotta believe in his brother."

"That is not exactly an encouraging idea," you chuckled quietly.

"Dream of the fucking Endless is a part of your story now. So perhaps you should accept that. You've met him. So now it is your turn to be daring a bit. Dare to dream a bit. Who knows, tomorrow we both might be dead."

"What would it be like to love him?" your own question echoed in your thoughts, loud, vibrant, replacing all other thoughts, filling your heart with a desire, removing all other doubts. At that moment you decided to be daring, you decided to fly high even if it meant that you might fall hard. You wanted this. Now it was time to find out "What would it be like to be loved by him?"

Part fourteen: Dream

~~***~~

Authors note: It's funny because I started this week with a lot of work on my hands, I was super busy, and I was very worried that I wont be able to deliver this chapter before weekend. And suddenly I've found myself with a word count of almost 7k! I have no idea how this happened! And guys! After 13 chapters and 52k word they are finally both in the same place emotionally! Hah! Progress! :) At least we know it, they don't :) But I promise it will not take another 13 chapters for them to find out :) Quick info from me, next week I'm afraid I will be able to deliver only one chapter. I have some additional work to do which means overtime, which means less time for writing. Hope you'll all forgive me. But for now, next chapter will be out in Sunday as always (at least Sunday in my part of the Waking World). For now, as always my dear Readers, I thank you for reading :)

~~***~~

Tag list: @mycrazyfandom @unavoidabledirewolf @calicoevening72 @uzumaki-mj @thegreatestsandwich @parabatai-winchester @munsonmunster @consistentreader578 @jupiterclipse @fangirlmary @clown-princesa @galaxypox @dilfsandtherapy @kc-265 @midnxghtblue @sallysal9 @0shippingtrashaway0 @lu123sworld @octo-octopie @asmallhobbitruinedmylife @xxbeckybeexx-blog @jesllianaquilesrolon @dollfaceyourfear @shaewithyou @heavenmaycare @moon-enthusiast @home-of-disaster @xmxrfx @missnightingale1971 @lilfoxyqueensworld @fate-huntress @bionic-donut @kaifloof @mischiefmanaged71 @beakami @mm2305 @redbircl @floatingintheupsidedown @chaoticmessneutralplease @selena-mayfair

@goingwiththewind @sapphireonline @thecrazytealady @hedwigprewett12 @mikariell95 @asianfrustration13 @seninjakitey

#morpheus x reader #sandman x reader #the sandman x reader #the sandman #Morpheus imagines #the sandman imagine #Morpheus x you #Morpheus fanfiction #Morpheus fic

345 notes · View notes

versegm · 9 months

Text

“I’m so, so sorry, I literally do not understand what is wrong the door should be working I’m-”

You smile kindly at the barrage of excuses the engineer is telling you. She is obviously incredibly stressed out, what’s with the new Director coming soon and all that. You can hardly blame her. After spending so long in the odd space between singularities and history, being thrust right back into the rest of the world is jarring for everyone.

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault.” You respond calmly. “Tell you what: you go finish your rounds, and I’ll give a look at the doors. Clearly you’re not going to solve this right now. Maybe in a couple hours it’ll be more obvious to you.”

She doesn’t seem convinced, but agrees to do something more productive than angsting around. And so she leaves, with a small thank, leaving you alone in this room.

You’re no engineer yourself, of course. The inner workings of machinery and electronics alike elude you. Still, you stride towards the side of the door, where its control panel lays open, exposing its wires to the world.

“My friend,” you whisper to the air, “you know you must let go of me eventually.”

The engineer has long left. You are alone in this room.

Alone with me.

I flicker the lights briefly, in acknowledgement. You are different from the other humans who have roamed my walls; you know I have a voice, even if I cannot speak. You know I am alive, in a way most creatures of stone and mortar are not.

How could I not be? You filled me with blood. You filled me with ghosts. How could I not grow a spirit to haunt myself with?

You lay your palm against my door. You are so, so incredibly warm, and just as incredibly soft. You are the opposite of me, little being of flesh; I am made to have an outside that is cold and solid, my engines and softest organs carefully hidden away in the deepest parts of my body.

“You have been my companion for these long years. I thank you, Chaldea. Thank you… for everything. But I have to go now, you understand? The world has been saved. The singularities have been corrected. I have to go back to my normal life.”

What life? What life could possibly lay outside of this land of ice and snow? You have only ever witnessed what occurred within your guts. You know what life within you is like, for staff, for servants, but what is outside?

You don’t want them to go. You don’t want to let them go! What kind of life awaits them out there? You know about the files they upload to your server. You have seen how they’ve all been carefully edited, removing as much of your involvement as possible. What life?

Don’t you understand? I can’t protect you out of here. Here, even if the whole world were to end again, you will live. Why must you leave? I don’t want to! I won’t let you!

Carefully, you lay your forehead against my door. It’s important, a head, for a human being- important in ways no engine or generator can ever replicate for a machine. Important in ways I can never understand.

But you trust me. I have no tongue and no word, but you trust me to understand.

“Chaldea. Please.”

…

Yes, I know. You… you don’t belong here.

I will always welcome you within me. I will love you until I am torn apart. But you…

You are a person from the outside. And so you must return.

Softly, I let the door fall open again.

You smile. Do you realize how odd of a gesture it is? Pulling your muscles back, showing your innards. Of course you don’t. This is natural to you, like breathing, like laughing, like speaking.

I wish I could breathe with you. I wish I could speak with you. I wish. I wish. These walls are too far apart. I cannot hold you in any meaningful way.

“Thank you, my friend.” You head to the side, to the control panel. “We have to say goodbye, but… it doesn’t have to be a sad thing, does it?”

I do not understand. What do you mean?

“Here, let me show you something interesting. A last gift, from a friend to another.”

Impossibly gently, you reach inside the opened control panel. I am used to people manipulating my guts; pull a wire here, cut another there, reconnect things.

But you don’t do any of that. Instead, you start stroking my innards, with as much care as if they’d been made of flesh.

I cannot repress a shiver. Your smile only grows wider, as the ground trembles beneath you.

(You, and only you, has ever heard my voice; you, and only you, as ever noticed that I am alive. You, and only you, would know that this tremble is not a result of the harsh winter, but of what you’re doing to me.)

“Does this feel good?” You slide your fingers between my wires. If I had a body of my own- is this what holding hands would feel like? My flesh encased in yours, our warmth against one another? “Chaldea, my friend, my companion, my protector.”

You lean forward then, and press your lips against the cold stone of my wall. It shivers under your touch. Oh you, you, you, human they call my Master, you who gave me a soul.

You pinch one of my wire, not even hard enough to nick at the insulation- but I can’t help it. The door suddenly slams closed, then back open a few seconds later. You jolt in surprise at the noise, then chuckles quietly.

“Ah, my friend. I love you. I will miss you.”

Me too, me too, me too.

You touch me, like no one has ever touched me before, like no one has ever cared to touch me before. Still now, you kiss me, even if I can do nothing to reciprocate, even if my body of concrete and wood must be repulsive to your lips. And when, at last, my lights flicker wildly, my door falls open and shut with reckless abandon, I hear you whisper to the wind that you love me.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

*****

And cruel fate it is, now, here, not even my walls can you safe.

The oprichniki roam through body, taint my with each of their steps. They apart my walls, break open my engines, me in ways a human can never be destroyed.

But still I must on.

You are still alive. You are still running.

My body is in shambles. My is soon to follow. But I must stay awake. I slam the doors shut behind , scatter furniture and on the floor, flash lights and alarms to their sensitive flesh eyes. With each attempt at they break me further and further- but with each at resistance I earn you another second.

Run. . Run. R , my friend, n, my love-

YES!

You are gone. I can feel it. I would your heartbeat among thousands. If I can longer feel you, then you have left. If I can no feel you, then you must lived.

LIVE! My friend. My . You who me a life. LIVE! My . My love. You who me something I not bear to lose.

LIVE! My . My friend. I love . I you. love you.

LIVE! My friend. My . love you. I you. I love .

. For . For all the corpses within my body.

My . My . You gave a heart.

I . love . you.

#my writing #fate

58 notes · View notes

mizusnose · 3 months

Text

Love, Poisoned by Betrayal

heavy heavy TW for emotional abuse, implied physical abuse, and toxic relationships. Mikio is also a TW because I hate this man so much. be safe reading.

“How did this terrible creature come to be? Hate alone wasn’t enough. It took one more ingredient:”

———

Getting away was supposed to be helpful. Leaving her small town, her abusive father and absent mother, Mizu thought she’d be able to make her own way in the world. Yet, as she sat near the edge of their shared bed, Mizu gripped the hot spill of blood leaking from her knee, and thought: This isn’t what I thought I wanted.

It was an accident. Mikio had bumped into her. Sent her to the ground and she felt silly thinking about it: the story she would tell to her friends. A lie to calm them, one she’s gotten used to keeping like a prayer.

Her homework was still unfinished. Had been for the past few days now since Mikio’s been angry. Her thoughts felt scattered and unfettered, a birds molting wings in birth, the rot of it in death. There had been more arguments, more yelling, more crying. No time to finish her essays, even lectures felt like too much work these days.

So today was supposed to be a peace offering. Her, outside to visit her friends. Mikio, home, without her or her whining or crying or distractions. Something she thought he’d wanted.

“You..you upset me.”

Mizu shuddered. Held the clean sweep of blood in her palms. Her breath taut like a string of the guitar she’d been learning how to play—the same one Mikio had been teaching her on. His own.

“You made me do this.”

Mikio was there again, his face still faint with the lines of anger. A frown indented between his brows, the scruff of his beard, his canines peaking out wild and hurt.

“I’m sorry..”

Mikio’s hands were larger than Mizu’s. It had been the thing that turned Mizu on so much the first time they met. Mutual friends. A bit older. The age difference didn’t matter—but now, as Mizu watches him push her hands aside and start cleaning up her knee she wonders: This was a bad idea huh?

“Shh. It’s okay. I just—you shouldn’t go.”

Mizu felt caught. A thread through the thin bones of a bird, caged to the ground, forever held from flight like an interrupted tide of breath in sleep. A swift sudden thing, yet one that was there all along, waiting for the perfect time to catch—to devour.

Maybe I’d just been too blind to see it before now..Mizu thought.

It wasn’t unlikely. She’d been so vulnerable a year ago. Caught up in escaping her past life, the pain that came with it. She’d push past the insistent Lets stay friends from Mikio, let him turn away when she’d be naked, teach him how to say I Love You when she had said it first.

There were signs, a scarlet thing in the sea of darkness and yet—she hadn’t listened, didn’t want to.

“This is okay. It’ll be okay.” Mikio pushes too deeply on the cut and Mizu whimpers, pulls away. Doesn’t get far before she’s being pulled back. Mikio’s always been stronger than her, even if she pretended.

Mizu meets his eyes across the small space between them. In their shitty small apartment, the angle of sunlight from outside the windows. A car honks in the distance. Mizu is terrified.

It looks ugly, the cut. It’s held open now by Mikio, a clean slash that aches. The fight starts up again then. It’s Mikio, washed in watercolor blue, red, black. The screaming is simple and Mizu barks and bites: a dogfight that lasts only a couple seconds yet Mizu is wrung out and exhausted at the end of it.

The way he sees her is this: stained sheets against Mizu’s bruised chin, her gasping throat, the working of her jaw as she pants.

And the tide of his guilt brings him back once more. A cry, a whimper, and Mizu is pulled into his embrace again. His words are sweet, soft, bitter like cherry wine.

Mizu texts her friends she can’t make it—traffic is bad despite it being the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Explains that they’ll meet up later, maybe next week. She knows she’s lying when she types it out and sends it.

Knows because it’s the same way she comforts herself when Mikio gets like this. I’ll leave tomorrow, the day after, the day after that, the day after—

It’s rare, the blood that spills. Takes longer for it to heal, a bump of flesh that was once puckered and leaking. And still, Mizu will ask again over and over: are you hungry for me baby? are you hungry? are you?

And she will give every time.

———

She escapes the awful relationship and finds true love after all this FYI, please don’t hate me :,)

inspired by cherry wine by hozier and the giver by sarah kinsley

#blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #fanfiction

48 notes · View notes

greenhousethree · 11 months

Text

In Search of an Oak (Microfic and New Fic!)

2nd June Prompt for @hinnymicrofic: Today (500 words)

This scene preludes my latest fic, which can be found on AO3.

“Trying to give my brother space?”

She’d found Hermione on the back porch, secluded in the Burrow’s shadow, rocking the swing with one toe on the ground. The chains creaked when she sat.

Finally, the gathering in the garden was dwindling. Maybe some had finally arrived at the idea that her family couldn’t wait for today to end. That her parents needed rest after burying their son.

Hermione’s lip quirked. “I didn’t want to be in the way.”

Ginny examined her, finding the same guilt she’d seen in Lee. It was less frustrating than all the pity. “You know Harry broods alone, not Ron, right? My brothers are pretty social creatures.”

Across the garden, Bill was conjuring a lantern, surrounded by red-haired men at the table from where she’d come.

Hermione smiled wanly in response. “He needs time with family. He’s been around me plenty.”

Ginny swirled and sipped her wine as a lonely chill slipped down her spine— a longing to wrap her arms around herself, hold herself together. It crept in to fill her suspended detachment, born from a unique combination of grief and liquor.

“Sweet of you. Seems like he’d want you around, though. Things are different between you two now, yeah?”

Hermione shrugged and smirked, lifting her glass to drink. Ginny watched her family and guests, plates of hors d'oeuvres and murmured conversations. Her gaze wandered involuntarily to the lone dark-haired figure sat beneath the huge old willow, and Hermione’s followed.

“Is he alright?” The question tumbled out without permission, startling her.

Hermione sighed, raising one halfhearted shoulder.

“What happened out there, Hermione?”

Surely she'd be far from the first to ask. Far from the first who needed to know.

Hermione watched Harry, lips forming a thin line. “I don’t even think I know the whole story,” she finally said. “He’s got a lot on his mind.”

“That’s new.”

The older witch snorted into her glass before giving her an odd look. “I’m sure he would tell you, you know.”

Ginny drank deeply. Bristled at the fear tingeing her voice, incapable of more than a whisper: “We’ve barely exchanged more than five words. He doesn’t want to talk.”

Hermione frowned. “Harry's always been rubbish at this…. he’s probably been trying to give you space. But he still has feelings for you.”

“And what makes you think that?”

Her smile was pained. “It wasn’t easy to keep secrets, Ginny.”

They both jumped as the back door opened and Fleur swept outside, levitating several flasks of pumpkin juice.

“I’m serious,” Hermione pressed with finality as they both rose to assist.

Ginny eyed him again as she collected empty plates, her stomach churning uneasily, firewhisky and wine smudging the edges between her thoughts. Today, her brother was in the ground. Today, they’d all made it past the end of the world. It filled her with the distinct resolve of having nothing to lose.

She refilled her glass, armoring herself, and took the first few steps across the garden.

Read the full story here.

#hinny #microfic #harry potter #ginny weasley #post-war reunion #ao3 fic #fanfic #lots of wine... maybe too much wine

92 notes · View notes

kitcattales · 1 year

Text

Something There - Akaza x Fem! Reader Chapter 2: Wrapped in Lantern Light

Author's note: Here's chapter 2 of my Akaza fic, ya'll! c: If you're liking the story so far, please maybe consider supporting me and my work on AO3 and my other cross-post sites! c: Chapter 1 - 4 are all available on those sites! <3 Your support means the world to me! <3 If you've made it this far, thank you for keeping up with the story up to this point! As always, God bless and happy reading! <3

Please find information about warnings and the rating for the entire fic in the post featuring Chapter One linked below! I will also be doing my best to tag these posts with appropriate warnings as well!

CHAPTER ONE, CHAPTER THREE

Cross-posts: AO3, FFN, Wattpad, and Quotev (I am most active on AO3!)

Word count: 11,172

Chapter 2: Wrapped in Lantern Light

The forest had fallen into a peaceful silence when Akaza began to trek down paths familiar to him despite their unmarked existence.

His footsteps were quiet as they traversed the foliage around the cluster of cedars though he walked briskly with the unconscious woman in his arms. His bright golden gaze remained fixated ahead of him, trying to focus solely on the environment and the beings in the forest around them, but try as he might, he couldn’t dedicate his full attention on where he was going. There were subtle things about the girl in his arms which continued to cause his attention to stumble upon her repetitively, wordlessly beckoning those otherworldly hues of his onto her being.

The gentle, almost ticklish sensation of her hair brushing against his arm with every move he made when she’d sway just the slightest bit though he tried to maintain as stable a grip on her as possible; the rhythmic warmth of her constant, quiet breath blanketing the skin of his bare chest, causing gooseflesh to come to life along the length of his arms every so often; the occasional tear which slowly dripped and trailed from her cheeks to wet his flesh and soak into his open haori; the odd scent of her, so feminine and delicately mixed with the natural essence of the woods, something so foreign to him, it kept him wondering how long it had been since he had smelled something similar from this close.

In a word, the human woman was completely and utterly distracting.

He was normally much more focused and attentive when it came to his objectives, but this entire scenario with the Slayer in his arms was totally off-script from what he was accustomed to. It left him baffled with himself, almost at a complete loss on what he should be doing. He had some course of action to take for the time being, but whether that was the right move for him to make or not was still incredibly unclear to him.

As he pondered the thought, his walking slowed, and subconsciously, his gaze lowered upon the nameless woman swaying lightly in his arms. He didn’t really need to look where he was going. He had walked through the spaces in between the densely packed cedars so many times, he practically had every single seedling, adolescent, adult and fallen tree perfectly mapped out in his head. Effortlessly, he could sense the weaker beings which inhabited the forest alongside him, but he didn’t really care about their presences. Unlike the humans, he didn’t need to worry about the other demons. It truly had to be a mindless creature freshly born of rage and desolation with nary an idea on how the world around them works for one of them to charge at him like the weakling from earlier.

That in mind, he presumed he could devote a moment or two to observe the woman in his arms.

He found himself staring aimlessly at first, the sound of the breeze encouraging the leaves of the cedars to dance to the sound of the orchestrating crickets filling the space of existence around him.

Even asleep, she looked incredibly…sad. Somber. Distraught. Her brow was furrowed lightly, creasing her delicate skin on her forehead. Her lips, plush and softly reflecting the distant glow of the moon whenever the canopy allowed, were pulled downwards. A few of her tears had left their streaming trails on her skin alongside the corners of those lips of hers before they had dripped and disappeared beneath her chin.

He supposed it was only natural that she looked that way after what happened. He assumed most humans would be fairly distressed or troubled to have a confrontation with a couple of demons in the woods – but then again, she wasn’t just any ordinary human and he already knew he couldn’t have been the cause for her original strife.

Mimicking the expression on her face, Akaza’s brow had furrowed, perplexed once again by the thoughts running through his mind.

What a strange human, He thought to himself. Coming to me on her own like that. She must be out of her mind. If I had been any of the others, she would’ve been a pile of bones by now.

He frowned, stopping a moment to adjust his hold the slightest bit so he could carefully stroke a few strands of hair behind her ear the wind had blown astray. By then, the blood on his hands had dried and brushed off on the two of them, allowing her hair to remain dry this time when his ink-dipped fingers lightly tucked those silky strands back in place.

He stood still where he was, just staring at her, his eyes slowly trailing down her frame to take in the curves and contours of her plump, feminine figure before trailing back up to her face to take in the small detail of her long lashes gently brushing the tops of her wet cheeks. The world around them kept moving, the woods kept breathing life and eliciting excitement into the beings hiding amongst the cedar, but he felt like he was stuck in place despite knowing exactly where he had been going. Everything about what this woman was, what she represented and what he was doing with her was all completely against everything he knew and did throughout his lifetime as a demon. It caused things to stir in him which left him feeling unlike himself.

Uncertain.

Hesitant.

He didn’t like feeling like this. This feeling of instability on the ground he walked on no matter how firmly he planted his feet nor how sturdy he made his stance.

Tearing his gaze away from her figure, he turned to look towards the direction he knew led back to the village he assumed she came from. For an instant, he considered to just take her there. He could leave her at the edge of the village before any of the other humans saw him and disappear. He’d have saved her from death’s grip tonight and would be free of the uncertainty she planted in him.

Long, seemingly endless seconds passed him by as he considered it, his eyes staring into the distant empty foliage as far as his sight allowed him. Ultimately, he turned sharply on his heels, dismissing the idea and simply continuing along the paths he knew as well as the back of his hands.

Forward he walked with purpose and focus once more, the distractions of the woman in his arms pushed to the back of his mind for the time being. He didn’t want to linger on possibilities and open air anymore. He needed a sense of grounding, a sense of stability and concrete direction of the likes of which he thrived from. So, he kept walking, swiftly ducking and passing in between the gossiping cedars smoothly no matter how packed and dense the woods around them became.

Deeper and deeper into the dark he wandered, the two of them consumed in a world he knew she couldn’t survive on her own. Without him, she’d be a sightless, bloodied lamb, wobbling around and bleating in her lost, innocent ignorance until a starving wolf came along to do away with her life so as to stain the blades of grass beneath their feet with red. In that scenario, what did that make him? He could’ve very well been the wolf, and he very well still could be, technically, but he knew better than anyone that would never happen. So, what is he? What role is he supposed to take in this story?

He shook his head, deciding that the answer didn’t matter.

Thankfully, his hastened, quick footsteps made it so he didn’t have to wonder about it for much longer, either.

Before long, he had found the path of forest floor bordered by two twisting rows of thick, ancient cedars. The massive, impressive trees stood side-by-side, on guard, their canopies outstretched to keep all light at bay along the trek to the door of the old cabin at the end of the trail – the abandoned cabin he often called home when he needed sanctuary from the brilliantly scorching sun; something the humans looked at as a symbol of hope and happiness, and likewise, something demons like him looked at as a symbol of a cruel, painful death.

What did it feel like? He wondered absently. The warmth of the sun on my skin without the feeling of it blistering me like a burnt piece of meat…Did I like the sun when I was human too?

The questions made him frown again though he felt more at ease at the sight of the cabin’s inviting wooden structure. The feeling of walking below the cedars’ shadows had always covered him with a sense of safety and refuge; a place he knew he could rest in without worry of the sun’s burning rays hitting his sleeping body. Regardless of what he must have thought about it in his prior lifetime, the sun was now an enemy he would have to battle against for the rest of his eternal, immortal days. As long as she was in the cabin with him, she would be safe from the others on the outside even during the day.

Sliding the cabin door open with his right foot, he stepped into his home, greeted by a calming dark within. The dim light casting hazily from the open door allowed him to see the little furniture he had in the small room was right where he had left it last.

The cabin itself didn’t have a lot to look at on the inside. The structure was relatively small, primarily consisting of one main room and a small closet towards the back. There used to be two windows on opposing walls, but he had boarded them up when he first found the place to ensure it would be shrouded in complete darkness whenever the sun rose. Within the main room there was a simple one-person futon, tucked towards the center of the room away from said windows just as a precaution. Its comforter was thick, the edges bordered in white with an intricate pattern of waves displayed on the middle fabric. It wasn’t exactly his taste, but he wasn’t picky, either. He had stolen that from the nearby village, actually, not so long ago.

Beside the futon, there was a lantern with a recently replenished tall, white candle confined within the detailed metalwork. Naturally, it wasn’t lit. A few feet away from the futon was an irori pit with a cooking pot setup above it and two beige zabuton cushions on either side. In the irori pit itself, there were a couple of cedar logs haphazardly beaten down to size, edges jagged and misshapen. He wasn’t in the habit of cooking at home often, but considering his specific dietary lifestyle, he would sometimes simply hunt animals in the forest and cook the meat he harvested from them in his cabin. Of course, he didn’t have to do this, but he wasn’t really the type to go out of his way to kill off just any human for a meal, either. Consequently, the fact that the cabin had its own irori pit was actually a bit of a plus for him. Eating cooked animal meat whenever it was convenient to fill him was just…well, convenient. When he wasn’t cooking anything, however, he would light the irori anyway to better illuminate the entire cabin.

The walls themselves were barren, the natural grooves and rings of the wooden planks the only decoration offered in the room. Against the wall to his left, there was a basic wooden cabinet with a single door hiding what was stored within. Beside the cabinet, there was also a basic wooden dresser with two sets of three drawers. All in all, it wasn’t a whole lot that he had there, but it was enough for a being like him who never stayed in one place for too long.

The floorboards beneath his bare feet hushed out quiet creaks in greeting as he approached his futon. Kneeling down before the mattress, he carefully lowered the woman in his arms down onto it, one of his hands sliding to the back of her head to guide it tenderly to his pillow while the other straightened and adjusted her legs. Once she was settled in and his hands were free at last, he looked towards the Nichrin sword sheathed by the woman’s hip. He didn’t expect her to use it on him, and even if she did, he knew he could handle it, but he still figured it would be for the best for him to remove it from her person so she didn’t hurt herself if she started tossing around in her sleep. Taking care not to jostle her body too much, he detached her sword from her belt – sheath and all – and placed it on the ground beside him for the time being. After that was taken care of, he turned back to her and moved the comforter gently out from underneath her legs and hips to pull the warm blanket atop of her weakened frame. He took a moment to tuck her in loosely, making sure she was warm and well-covered by the comforter.

Only when she was completely settled is when he got back up on his feet and went to close the cabin door, the dark within the room completely consuming the two of them for a moment’s breath. Still, even in the pitch black of these four walls, he knew exactly where he was going and where he shouldn’t step. Instinctively, he walked towards the dresser against the left wall and pulled open one of the top drawers. He rummaged inside for a few moments, his tainted fingers feeling around various miscellaneous objects he had stored away until he eventually came across one of his matchboxes. He fumbled with the box, his thumbs pushing the lid open so he could pluck a single match out of the bunch. Closing the box and holding it firmly in his hand, he swiped the match

once,

twice,

three times

until fire sparked on its head.

He hummed, pleased, and tossed the matchbox back into the drawer before pushing it closed. He then returned to the woman on his futon and knelt down beside her to face the lantern at her side. He opened up the small cage’s door, a squeak of rusted metal groaning with the motion as it revealed the candle hidden within its framework. Pinching the match between his thumb and forefinger, he lit the candle, its graceful flame dancing to life bathing the cabin in a warm, orange glow. Once it was lit, he blew the fire out on his match and tossed it carelessly into the irori’s sands to swallow up the faded giver of light.

For a moment, he considered lighting the irori, his eyes lingering on the pit and the cedar logs he had yet to use within it, but he shut the lantern’s door closed and decided against it for the time being. Instead, he took the woman’s Nichirin sword and went to rest it against the wall by the closet door before returning to kneel by her bedside once more. Bathed in the lantern’s glow, as he gazed upon her sleeping figure, he began to drink in her details in a different light almost without even noticing. He didn’t really know where to look at first, so many details long since forgotten suddenly pushed onto his lap out of the blue tonight having made everything somewhat confusing to the demon, but in time, his gaze began to focus on the small details again just as he had done out in the woods.

He took in the sight of her chest rising and falling consistently with her breathing first, the subtle motion causing for the comforter atop of her to ruffle quietly along with her shallow breaths. It was lulling to watch, a constant rhythm which made him feel somewhat…peaceful. Strange that he got a feeling like that just by watching over her like this. His eyes then traveled back up to her face, taking in the sight of her feminine softness bathed in orange light and brushed crimson where his hands had touched her earlier. Despite the macabre undertone, she actually looked quite beautiful with her thick locks of hair splayed out across the pillow around her. Womanly and graceful even in the state she was in.

He hummed at the thought as he took in, once again, the troubled and pained expression the woman harbored on her delicate features he caught himself admiring. Her frantic crying and pleas to be killed set aside, there had been something else going on with her that caused that look on her face to surface. She had been limping when she approached him, having practically dragged herself all the way to him from wherever she had come from. He wouldn’t be surprised if her body was littered with all kinds of injuries beneath that uniform of hers, considering her line of work and the humanity she couldn’t help.

“If you were a demon, that wouldn’t matter. You would have gotten over it by the time you blinked twice.” He commented lowly, hushed under his breath, an innate response which rolled off of his tongue instinctively. “…But you’re not. You’re human…You’re weak.” He remarked, gently reaching down to comb his fingers through a few locks of her hair. “You’re fragile…You can’t take care of yourself on your own like that, can you…?” He repeated the motion a few times, starting near her head without actually touching her and combing his fingers leisurely along until they carefully pulled themselves out of her luscious waves by the tips. He watched curiously as the strands gracefully fell from his fingers onto the futon and pillow, unused to the silky sensation and the odd sense of peace these simple, insignificant actions continued to bring him.

On the sixth time his fingers found themselves swimming in her (hair color) waves, his hand had paused midway. He stalled there to allow his thumb to rub those silky strands between the pads of his fingers, the smooth, honeyed sensation of it abruptly causing the inkling of a memory to shyly lift its head within his mind. He blinked a few times, his fingers stopping and his brow furrowing, the shy memory he didn’t know he had becoming bolder and extroverted, suddenly hitting him with a quick flash of images and words that forced him to stir from where he sat with a start. He straightened up, his brow creasing further, taken aback but actively motivated to move with the sudden information he had at his fingertips. Finally allowing her hair to fall from his fingers one last time, he stood to his feet and got ahead of himself, already rushing towards the door, but he stopped himself halfway with an annoyed click of his tongue.

“Water.”

He turned back around and moved towards the closet, sliding the door open to reveal a pail set on the floor below the shelves he used to bring water to cook with and to refill the small outhouse outside. He grabbed its handle with his bloodstained fingers, and the sight of their bloodied state casually reminded him he needed to wash himself up after his encounter with the lesser demon. After he made a mental note of that, he closed the closet door and rushed out of the cabin, making sure he had slid the front door closed behind him.

He was sure she’d be fine on her own for a little while. After what happened earlier, he doubted any of the others would really dare themselves to come near her now that he’s taken her in, even when he wasn’t around – at least not tonight.

I’ll remind them why it’s an awful idea to try if they forget quicker than they should. At the very least, it would make for an entertaining couple of minutes.

~¤ ¤ ¤~

The evening air was warm, the cool breeze carrying the sounds of people conversing and traveling, caught up in their own bubbles and lives. The lights above were warm and golden, easy on the eyes, but bright enough to make the scenery come to life for those who walked along the station platform. Up ahead, the train tracks were empty, a wide and vast forest left in full display on the other side during its temporary vacancy.

_______ felt disoriented by the familiar sights and sounds of the Mugen Train Station, aware that she had visited a few times in the past, but she couldn’t remember visiting it recently, let alone coming tonight to sit on that metal bench she was on right now. She looked around her, eyes squinted, lips parted slightly as confused, labored puffs of air left her. The sight of the crowds of bustling people and the bright ticket counters illuminating the dark of night came off blurry to her, so she lifted her hands to rub her eyes in an attempt to bring the world back to clarity. She tried to orientate herself, remind herself on where she was and what she was doing, but her mind kept drawing a blank no matter how clear her vision became nor how focused she tried to make herself be. The only thing she was able to really acknowledge was that this was, in fact, the Mugen Train Station. She didn’t need to read the signs to know that. Still, that didn’t tell her anything about why she was there and how she got there to begin with.

“You’re awake, young _______!”

That voice…

That voice.

It shook her to her very core to hear it ring so vividly in her ear. It sucker-punched her in the gut to hear it clear, bright and warm like the comforting lights above her. It forced the air out of her lungs to hear the laugh which followed soon afterwards, full of vigor and life. Slowly, she turned in her seat, coming to face the side of the station she had neglected since her eyes opened in the midst of the hustle and bustle of common life. Upwards her gaze rose until it landed on those lively, unique golden hues and that brilliant, heartwarming smile she had burned in her memory to the very last detail. Right down to the dimpled creases and the fiery rings of color within his irises.

“R…R-Rengoku…? Is that…? B-but…but how can…?”

He simply widened his smile, chuckling further as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Don’t trouble yourself too much with how right now! We have other things to discuss, don’t we, young _______? More important things.”

_______ shook her head, her hands trembling on her lap before they grabbed tightly at the hem of her skirt. Her nails tugged roughly at the fabric, so strong she swore it would tear, but that didn’t matter.

All that mattered was that Rengoku was there.

He was alive.

“Tell me, why are you here?”

Still completely floored by the Hashira’s appearance, _______ slowly shook her head in response. There was so much she wanted to say, so many things she wished she had said, but none of it came to her tongue now that he was sitting in front of her like she thought he never would be again. Everything jumbled up in her mind in a large, convoluted knot, forcing her to hyper-focus on his presence as a whole instead.

“I…don’t know why I’m here…I don’t even know how I got here…”

“Yes, you do know why you’re here. I’m sure you do. Dig in a little deeper, _______, I know you can do it!”

Her lower lip began to quiver at his familiar encouragement, her eyes beginning to mist up.

“But I r-really don’t, Rengoku, I-I don’t know why I’m here…I can’t give you the answer you want…”

“Yes, you can! Search within yourself and you’ll find the answer you need!”

She shook her head again as it lowered, pulling her gaze away from his brilliant expression completely to instead stare at his flame emblazoned haori draped beneath him on the bench.

“You always had so much faith in me,” She whispered meekly. “Why…wh-why did you ever have that much faith in someone like me?”

Though she no longer looked at him, his smile softened and his head tilted gently to the side.

“I had many reasons to have faith in you, but there’s more to this.” He remarked softly. Vaguely. “Dig a little deeper.”

She shook her head one more time, tears now beginning to roll down her cheeks, clinging to the edges of her jaw before falling in fat droplets onto the fabric of her skirt and the metal of the bench.

“B-but, Rengoku, I don’t care why or how I got here, I-I’m just…I-I’m so happy you’re here…I d-don’t even know what to do with myself, my head feels so empty but so loud at the same time…There’s so much I want to s-say to you, but I’m…” She couldn’t completely end her sentence, a heartbreaking sob wrenching itself free from her gut forcing her to cut herself off. She bent forward, ducking her head down lower into her chest as she brought her pained, heavily squinted gaze down to her laps where it heavily blurred with her tears. All the while, the bustling, busy crowds around them continued on their ways, carrying on their own lives and business, completely ignoring the two of them in their shared bubble.

Roughly, she bit into her lower lip, surprised she didn’t taste blood from how brutely she had dug her teeth into the tender flesh, but she didn’t question it.

She just needed to try to compose herself.

She felt like it was crucial.

She had no idea how much time she had.

“Why are you here, _______?” Rengoku asked again, the feeling of his large, gentle hand reaching down to press and rub against her back forcing another devastating sob to rip through her throat no matter how hard she tried to swallow it down.

“Y-your hand,” She sobbed. “My God, Rengoku, your hand i-is so warm…Without saying anything o-or…or d-doing anything in particular, you’ve always made me believe l-like things will be okay at the end of the day…J-just like that…J-just because you’re so reliable a-and dependable…S-so strong…”

“_______...”

“W-why would you ever waste s-something so compassionate and k-kind on someone like me…? W-why, out of e-everyone you could sit with, did you come to m-me? I don’t deserve this – I-I don’t deserve you…!”

“Why are you here?”

“I DON’T KNOW!” She suddenly cried out loud, as loud as her lungs allowed her to proclaim. Her back straightened, bringing her to sit up and face the Hashira with an expression completely crumpled in heartache and every single sense the sentiment held.

“I don’t kn-know why I’m here, R-Rengoku…! I never did!”

Rengoku’s expression softened further, warm and full of compassion and care, not at all shaken nor deterred by her outburst.

“You wandered into that forest on your own,” He remarked. “You went in when you were most vulnerable. You dragged your feet across roughened soil and through shadows in the dead of night knowing fully well what you were getting into – but why? Why did you do that, young _______?”

She couldn’t answer him. Her trembling lips quivered heavily and broken, painful whimpers erupted pathetically from her throat as the tears distorted her vision of Rengoku further, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer that question.

Not to him.

She would sooner confess it to the entire world before she would ever confess it to him.

“I know it hurts,” He hushed softly when she didn’t reply, the hand he had rubbed her back with coming to slide upon her cheek where he brushed her tears away. His touch was gentle and thoughtful, the warmth of his skin reminding her again of the life beating in his heart in this moment in time. When he wiped all of her tears away, he brought his hand up to pet the top of her head in comforting strokes. “I know it’s hard to move on, but you can do it, ________. I’ve always known you could. I never had a doubt.”

Still, she could say nothing. All she could do was continue to fall apart right there in front of him, new tears taking the place of the ones he so tenderly wiped away for her as she reveled in the feel of his petting – something she almost forgot the feeling of. The way his large hand would lay flat against her head and gently stroke backwards towards the back of her head before lifting to the top to start over again. The way his fingers would sometimes get caught in her locks and the memory of how they would laugh when he pulled some of her hair out of place when he was done. It all only served to break the small pieces of her heart which remained into smaller, miniscule, jagged shards, devastated that she had really forgotten how this used to feel.

In the midst of his petting and encouraging words, she could hear the distant sound of a train’s whistle blowing. The sound caused for her heart to leap to her throat, the widening of her eyes clearly showing the panic she felt bubbling because of what it meant – because of the fate she knew it carried within its carts.

“Whenever you need me, I’ll be here,” Rengoku promised her, his eyes closing into gentle crescents as his smile splayed softly across his lips from ear-to-ear in his own unique display. “When you figure out why, I’ll be here too. I know it’s hard right now and the answers aren’t as clear as you’d like them to be, but you’ll get to them in time. Be patient not just with this, but with yourself. Be patient and be kind.” Giving her one last stroke of the head, he allowed his hand to slide to her cheek where it lingered for a few seconds before he stood to his feet as the Mugen Train came to rest at its station.

Instantly, _______ began to shake her head vigorously, her body moving on its own to stand her up along with him.

“R-Rengoku, please, don’t go! D-don’t get on the train!” She gripped at his arm desperately, trying to pull him back to her, trying to pull him away from the open maw of the Mugen Train and the destination she knew it would lead him to. “Stay! S-stay with me! J-just…j-just a little bit longer! You don’t h-have to go! We can think of something else! W-we can get backup from the Corps and m-make a proper plan! PLEASE, just stay with me…! Don’t get on that train!”

He let out a soft sigh lightly laced with a somber nostalgia, his eyes shifting to look at the Mugen Train with the smile still on his face before turning to look back at _______ once more.

“You and I both know I can’t do that,” He commented softly. “But that’s okay. I’ll be okay, and more importantly, you’ll be okay too.”

With that, he gently removed her hands from his arm, squeezing them strongly and reassuringly in his own for a few seconds longer. When he released them, he turned towards the Mugen Train and boarded it with the other passengers, flashing her one last smile before he disappeared in his cart. Suddenly, the entire train station was empty of the crowds and the atmosphere was silenced from the chitter chatter of the pedestrians. All the doors of the train closed and locked, the beast of iron and coal roaring to life once more with a loud blow of its whistle and a shrill screech of its wheels beginning to turn on its rustic tracks.

_______ shook her head desperately once more, watching as the train began to leave the station at a slow, leisure pace which gradually picked up speed the more its wheels turned.

“N-no, no, no, no, no…! Rengoku! RENGOKU!”

Despite the futility of the situation, she raced after the Mugen Train, trying with all her might to run alongside the cart he had boarded. She could see the top of his fierce mane of blonde locks with their bright red tips from one of the windows, the small sight of him beckoning her to kick her feet as fast and as hard as she was able against the platform floor – but there was only so much platform she was able to run on and only so much time she had before the train was traveling at a pace she could never dream to compete with.

Skidding to a clumsy stop at the very edge of the station platform, _______ watched the Mugen Train rush down its tracks, carrying Rengoku away with it to a fate she knew she couldn’t change no matter how strongly she wished she could.

From there, all _______ could do was watch from the lonely, empty platform as the train quickly grew smaller and smaller in the distance until it was completely out of sight. By then, she was sobbing openly into the blowing wind, orchestrating her deep, wrenching anguish to the vast woods – the only audience she had left.

~¤ ¤ ¤~

Orange.

Flickering, swaying orange delicately tinged with a golden inner glow casting shadows while performing on what seemed like a wooden stage.

That was what the world around her was gradually coming to be as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her eyelids felt heavy, almost too heavy to lift, the weak effort she put into opening them causing for her lashes to tickle the skin of her cheeks. The world still didn’t make much sense to her in those senseless moments of groggy forgetfulness. She couldn’t tell where she was, couldn’t remember what had happened last in that very moment, but she did acknowledge the colors soothingly dancing on the foreign ceiling above her.

The colors were vibrant and strong, lighting up the space of the room she was in perfectly in its comforting glow though she made no move quite yet to look around. She could just tell and feel that it did from the intensity of the colors acting out their play on the ceiling. She felt safe watching them, wondering how it was they got there but having no real determination nor interest in finding out.

She didn’t want to question it.

She knew what happened was just a dream, but she wanted to pretend for a while longer.

She wanted to feel safe and comforted in a way she had long since forgotten for just a little bit longer.

It was a feeling the colors on the ceiling tried to mimic with their performance, and they did quite well, if she were to critique. The play they put on for her made the feeling linger for a while, though it was naturally diluted and nothing like the real thing. It was as though she were coming down from a numbing high, plummeted back into a reality she didn’t want to accept, but allowed a few more minutes in blissful ignorance and disassociation of the truth she hated to accept.

Her vision slowly began to mist and cloud as she watched the colors dance and flicker in the sporadic climax of their stories, but her expression remained the same. She didn’t grimace nor crumple nor pucker. The tears simply came to be in her eyes and slowly began to slide down the sides of her temples, because that’s what they were supposed to do. They were supposed to be there, welling and building up in her sore, tired eyes and marking her skin with their paths repeatedly until she was covered in well-worn tracks. For this instant in time, she was too exhausted to react, too battered to care and too far deep to struggle.

Thus, she simply allowed it to be.

Yet, despite all of that, something beyond the colors was beginning to seep into her current reality. She was gradually becoming aware of the sound of what she believed was bubbling water, consistent and lively somewhere to her left. Along with the bubbling was the occasional clang, pank, clang, pank of metal lightly bumping into metal. Lost in her vague awareness, she shifted her focus from the dancing colors on the ceiling to the shadows which surrounded them. Most of the shadows bore no defined shapes, constantly changing and altering with the movement of the bright glow. She assumed those shadows were stationary objects in the space she was laying in, though she still showed no interest in moving to see what they were.

Amongst the majority, however, was a more persistent shape. Naturally, it would distort and bounce gracefully on the wooden ceiling at the dancing glow’s demand, but through it all, the shadow itself owned its own fluidity. She could make out what appeared to be an arm steadily turning over and over in circles. There was something held in its hand, though she couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Occasionally, the arm would stop its rotating motions to pull on whatever it held – or was it lifting it? Yes, it was lifting it. A ladle of some sort. Shortly after she labeled the mystery object, a larger shadow came into view; a head and upper body bending forward seemingly peering into the ladle. The person who inspected whatever was on the ladle didn’t stay in view for long, already dipping the ladle back into what must be a pot of some sort to continue their stirring. It was then that she picked up on an earthy aroma warmly enveloping the air, reminding her of flourishing fields and endless plains of grass sprouting from earth recently bathed in cooling rainwater.

Where exactly was she supposed to be? The last place she remembered being in was the cedar woods. She had been close to death then, but had she actually died? Was that what the vision of Rengoku related to? Was that why she was in the Mugen Train Station with him?

No, that didn’t make sense. If the afterlife was really cruel enough to torture her with those kinds of visions, then it would be the same kind of hell she lived in day-to-day. Besides, even if that was the afterlife, why wasn’t she at the station now? This wooden ceiling didn’t belong to the modernized train station, that much she was aware of. It was much too rustic for a bustling, up-and-coming city like the one that station resided in.

That begs the question: if she hadn’t died and she wasn’t laying in the space between life and death, then where exactly was she?

She knew she should turn her head. She kept asking and wondering where she was while watching the shadows and lights on the ceiling, but she was fully aware she could begin to gather an answer if she simply looked around.

Pull her gaze away from the ceiling.

Lead her eyes astray from the calming, warm glow.

It’s such a simple action. If she just turned her head even the slightest bit, she would already have more detail and information to work with to piece together what had happened to her, but that one simple, minuet action felt harder for her to accomplish than the training she endured to become a Demon Slayer and every mission she ventured on up to this day. Turning her head away meant turning away from the warmth of the orange and bright golden glow which kept her company during their comforting play. Pulling her gaze away from the lights and shadows on the ceiling meant turning away from so much more than just absent, blissful ignorance.

It meant turning away from the vision.

It meant turning away from the comforting, temporary fake feeling of okay.

It meant turning away and simply allowing the door to close and lock again.

‘You’ll be okay.’

She grimaced lightly as his voice echoed in her mind. She could practically hear him laughing, could practically see him smiling down at her with reassurance from within the glow. He said that with so much confidence and faith in his voice for her, but how could he be so sure? How could he believe in her that much when she held no faith in her own self? Though he had been certain of what he said, she was convinced she would never truly be okay again, so she wanted to keep pretending. She wanted to keep existing in the pathetic copycat of the safety and encouragement he made her feel when he was still there. When he spoke to her. When he expressed so much belief in her when it was difficult to see an ounce of worth on her own.

When he was still alive.

She lingered a few moments longer, envisioning his smile and repeating everything he told her in the station, the clang, pank, clang, pank of the shadows having long since turned to soothing background noise. If it had been up to her, she wouldn’t move ever again, but deep down, she knew she had to – even if it was only to live up to Rengoku’s beliefs in her.

Though it was difficult, though it shattered her heart to watch his image dissipate and fade amongst the dancing lights, _______ began to turn her head in defiance against everything in her that told her to sit there and rot. Slowly, stiffly, she turned to the left, taking in the mostly barren sight of the room she was laying in. In the process of it is when she realized she was tucked into a futon, its thick comforter hugging her close to the thin mattress beneath her. Not only that, but her Nichirin sword had been taken away from her, although it was still close by, leaning against the wooden wall facing her. Being disarmed didn’t unnerve her. It simply was.

Beside the futon itself was a lantern, its metal frame housing a burning candle. For a few seconds, her gaze lingered on the intricate cage of the lantern, taking in its crisscross detail highlighted by the flame burning within. When she caught herself becoming too comfortable with the soothing glow once again, she forced herself to shift her gaze beyond the lantern.

Close by, there was an irori lit, the planks of wood in the pit of sand roaring with brilliant, lively flames which licked at the underbelly of a dark pot strung above them. The most jarring part of the scene, however, was the person who had been casting the shadows on the ceiling she was watching mere moments ago.

Of all things she expected to see, Akaza tending to something in an irori’s pot while she laid in a futon a few feet away from him was not one of them. He was stirring something he had cooking over the open flames, his dual-colored eyes focused on the broth. The glow of the flames danced and reflected off of his skin much as they had done on the ceiling, highlighting his features to her from the angle she observed him in.

He has long eyelashes…

It was an odd thought, but it was one of the first things she noticed, the very first being how much his eyes stood out even in the dimness of the room they were in and the fierce glow of the irori’s fire. The blue of his sclera was shattered with dark veins, the brilliant color reminding her of a cloudless, sunny day, his striking golden irises taking the role of the sun for themselves.

What does that make his eyelashes then? Pink and full…Maybe an oncoming sunset?

Again, a strange thing to think about. She was just soothingly fascinated by his natural colors and how much they actually stood out. His nature as a demon and the terrible things he had done set aside, Akaza was quite beautiful in his own regard, but maybe that was her artistic side talking. She used to be the type who appreciated that sort of thing, but every now and again, that side of her personality peeked up from the murky depths they now hid beneath to help her cope with the world around her.

He was, after all, the reason why Rengoku was gone.

“You’re awake.”

The comment startled her some, causing her to shift slightly on the futon as she turned her focus to the demon as a whole. Had he maybe heard her head moving? Or maybe he saw her eyes open from the corner of his? Who knows? He seemed the observant type, something that was taken to an extraordinary level when paired with a demon of his caliber.

“Good to see. I was starting to wonder whether you’d be out cold ‘til morning.”

He didn’t look at her as he spoke. His eyes remained on the pot and what he was stirring, his free hand resting in a fist upon his lap. The expression on his face was one of neutral concentration, not aggressive nor particularly friendly. He just…was. Paying attention not to burn whatever it was he was brewing.

“Wh…Where…” She began to speak, her throat feeling raw, her voice sounding not like her own to her. She frowned in distaste, weakly clearing her throat and swallowing the dry lump before continuing. “Where am I…?” Her voice came out in a murmured whisper, almost lost to the crackling of the lively flames of the irori, but not to Akaza.

“In an old cabin, I guess is the best way to describe the place.” He hummed thoughtfully, his expression softening with a light purse of his lips as he pondered his choice of words. “I found it a long time ago. Abandoned. So, it’s my cabin now.” He corrected himself, nodding his head, satisfied with the clarification.

“Your cabin…” She echoed, her eyes wandering away from him to take a better look at the cabin. There didn’t seem to be any signs of struggle anywhere she looked. No claw marks on the walls, no broken bits of furniture scattered on the ground, no old bloodstains forever soaked up by the wooden floor. The only thing that was slightly out of place was the fact that the windows were boarded shut, but seeing as he had come to claim the place as his own, it made sense that they would be that way. “Why did you bring me here…?”

“You weren’t making a whole lot of sense back in the woods, but if I had left you where you were in the state you were in, you’d be dead by now. I knew you’d be safe here until you woke up, so I just brought you with me.” He replied matter-of-factly as he pulled the ladle he was stirring with out of the pot to prop it on one of the handles. Turning to the other side of him, she watched him pick up a cup he had waiting on the floor before taking the ladle once again and dipping it into the pot. He poured a little over two ladles full of the broth he had cooking, steam wafting above the cup he handled with care. Once it was full, he propped the ladle back on the pot’s handle and stood to his feet. Her gaze followed him as he walked over to her, their eyes meeting while he closed the short distance between them until he was kneeling down by her bedside.

“Sit up.”

She knew what he said was more of an order than it was a request, but the way he said it and the gentle way he looked at her confused her by suggesting it came from a good place. It was bizarre, to say the least, the way this demon spoke to her with such…decency despite the unwavering firmness of his voice. Her brow furrowed slightly at the detail, her lips parting the slightest bit more so in bemusement than with intention of speaking.

“Ah,” He seemed to realize something when she didn’t react after a few seconds. “That’s right. Human. You’re human…” He muttered to himself, carefully setting the steaming cup on the floor beside him before turning back to her, his hands coming to rest on his laps again.

“Do you need help?”

Do I need help…?

What was going on? This is the demon that killed Rengoku? How? He was treating her with respect and even offering to help her sit up if she couldn’t do so herself. She had heard of the other demon on the Mugen Train, Enmu, who had lured people in with false kindness of sweet dreams before he plunged them into horrific nightmares, but Akaza didn’t have that kind of profile. From what she was told, he was an abrupt and upfront fighter; someone who didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point. He wasn’t a manipulative demon. He was a close-range demon who fought for the sport of it, starving for the thrill of a challenge like the one Rengoku had to offer that night.

This demon isn’t at all what she expected to be confronted by when she set out to the woods tonight.

Even in her baffled silence, he patiently waited for some kind of response from her, no annoyance or hasty agitation in the way he looked at her. His hands remained on his laps, not moving an inch to touch her, but his striking stare did remain on her face, studying her the same way she studied him. That is, until his gaze had shifted towards the cup at his side, his head nodding in its direction as well before he refocused on her.

“It’s an herbal tea. I went to fetch some water and to find the herbs and roots I needed to make it for you while you were asleep. You’re weakened from your work with the lessers. I noticed. This should help.” He informed her, offering a small smile to appear friendlier. He understood her apprehension. If their roles were switched, he’d be apprehensive too. From a human’s perspective, what was a demon supposed to be serving them from a pot of a boiling brew they couldn’t even see because of their incapacitated state? It really could be anything, so it’s not like he expected her to fully believe him the moment he brought it over and explained it to her.

Hell, even he couldn’t believe he had this herbal remedy stored away somewhere in his faintest memories.

He supposed it made some sense. He was human once, but that was centuries ago. Yet, he somehow remembered the recipe and what he had to look for as if he had made the tea every day since he was turned.

Something about her triggered the memory, that was all he was sure about.

“…How do I know you’re not lying…?”

He let out an amused breath, his head tilting again in his good humor.

“I guess you don’t. You just have to take my word for it.”

She shook her head the slightest bit at him, a distant look befalling her as her lips angled into an exhausted frown.

“Why didn’t you kill and eat me…?” She asked, the question leaving her so naturally, it unsettled her; unsettled her how much she wanted to know; unsettled her how much she had wished he had been what she had expected. Something in her told her he had ulterior motives. That he was keeping her alive to make the thrill of the kill more exciting in some way or another. Maybe he thought if he gave her the idea of being spared, she would take back her death wish and be eager to escape to the village. Then, he could enjoy the chase, too, before inevitably sinking his fanged maw into the tender flesh of her neck when he tackled her onto the ground.

Akaza, however, didn’t answer her question. He simply stared at her, the small smile he had given her straightening the slightest bit but retaining its foreign friendliness despite it. Genuine.

“Would you like me to help you sit up so you can drink your tea?” He repeated his question instead, making no move to place his hands on her if she didn’t answer him. She considered denying him, but she supposed she didn’t have much to lose either way she went about this. So, she finally gave him a small nod of her head.

“Please…”

His smile widened up a bit once more when she accepted his help, giving her a curt nod of his own in return. Reaching over, he folded the futon’s comforter halfway so the upper half was resting on her legs. Once he did, he turned to her as she began to prop herself up carefully on her elbows. She would wince with each move she made, he noticed. As gently as he could, he slid one of his hands down her back until he had it pressed against the middle of it, slowly pushing her upward while his other hand took a hold of hers to help give her more support.

His hand felt warm to her. Probably warmer than it should be, since he had been holding the steaming cup of tea. Looking upon his larger, masculine hand, taking in the feeling of his calloused palm wrapped around her own, she took notice that the blood from the other demon he fought earlier was gone from his skin. Her eyes traveled up his arm, across his chest and down his other arm. Nothing. The blood was gone, cleaned away probably while she was asleep. For a second, she wondered if the fight had actually happened, but the speckling of blood around what she could see of the ends of his white pants told her otherwise. Images came to mind of the short-lived confrontation he held with the lesser demon as she stared at the bloodstains on his clothing. It was a stark reminder of how powerful this man actually was.

“Why didn’t you kill me?” She repeated her question, her gaze slowly lifting to meet with his once more when he helped her sit up properly. “If you wanted to, you could have done away with me just as easily as you did that other demon…Why didn’t you…?”

His small smile had fallen entirely this time, morphed to a bemused look of his own.

“Why did you want me to kill you?”

The retort caught her off guard. She hadn’t been expecting any kind of questioning on his part of this. He’s a demon, after all. Demons kill and eat humans. That’s just what they do. That’s what they’ve always done. Why would he care for her reasoning? Why did he want to know? She didn’t know, but being put on the spot like that so curtly made her squirm in discomfort, her gaze dropping to her hand he still had gripped in his own.

She had spilled a lot of what she thought about her predicament when she approached him, she knew, but…telling him exactly why was something she didn’t want to do. She didn’t want to tell anyone why. Nobody knew. Nobody had the slightest idea that she had these thoughts running across her mind, and the one person who came closest to uncovering her inner turmoil was dead now. It was an accumulation of a lot of things which caused this spiral in her person, and the thought of saying all of those things aloud left her feeling unbearably shameful and vulnerable in a way she absolutely abhorred.

Akaza didn’t press. He simply pulled his hand away from her back and picked up the cup of herbal tea, bringing it down to their joined hands. There, he released hers and placed the cup in her grip, wrapping both of his hands around her own this time to make sure she held onto it properly. When she didn’t lift her head nor squeeze the cup on her own, he leaned down and peered up at her, offering a gentle, patient smile.

“You should drink it while it’s warm. It’ll be good for you.”

At first, as soon as his face came into her line of sight, she turned her eyes away from his, looking off to the wall on the right of them. When she felt him lightly squeeze her hand in both of his, however, she hesitantly looked back again. His eyes were softly narrowed, masking some of the kanji in both of his irises, and through them, he still gave off that friendly vibe he’s been carrying from the start.

His hands completely covered both of hers, enveloping them in a warmth she didn’t expect him to radiate. She had assumed it was from the cup of tea, but both of them felt the same way and it wasn’t changing after he put the cup down. She had always expected the touch of a demon to feel…cold. Chilling. Yet, his wasn’t. It was the kind of soft warmth you’d seek out during a cold winter’s day. The type of warmth you’d want wrapped around you when you feel scared and need comfort. The type of warmth you’d hide in during a stormy night to help lull you to sleep alongside the melodies of pattering rain. How could something so…wholesome radiate from someone like him? She didn’t know how she was supposed to take this nor how she was supposed to react. Should she really believe in that friendly gaze and patient smile? Should she buy into the kind act he was showing her?

Without a doubt, she would be a fool if she did.

She gave him a small nod of her head and squeezed the ceramic cup in her hand. He pulled his hands away from her own when she did, bringing them back down to his laps as he straightened up his posture again. She followed his lead and straightened up a bit as well, her gaze dropping again to peer into the cup she brought close to her chest in both of her hands. There were herbs floating in the amber-tinted brew, partly living up to the demon’s explanation. Bringing it closer to her face, she took a curious whiff of the drink, noting that the earthy aroma she picked up on earlier had come from the tea. Letting out a shaky breath, she dropped her shoulders and caved, finally deciding to bring the edge of the cup to her lips to take a gulp of the warm brew.

After the first two gulps, she pulled the cup away from her and grimaced heavily, making a face of clear distaste. It certainly tasted like a medicinal tea, that’s for sure. Actually, it tasted almost identical to the remedies the medics at the Butterfly Estate often had her take whenever she was brought in with injuries. Granted, she may be wrong about that. All those herbal remedies tasted the same to her: like dirt. She never liked drinking them, and this tea Akaza had given her tasted just like the others. She didn’t want to take another sip, but when she peeked over in his direction, he was staring at her pointedly, lifting an eyebrow at her in question. She didn’t need to be told what that look meant. The medics gave her similar looks whenever she reacted this way…It was just jarring to receive that look from a demon of the twelve Kizuki.

Deciding not to try her luck as she often did with the Butterfly medics, she tentatively brought the cup back to herself, stalling in awkward pauses until she eventually pressed it to her lips once again. She wanted to get it over with as soon as possible, so she just went for it. She shut her eyes tight and drank the warm tea in large gulps, slightly tilting her head back to take in all the liquid while doing her best to avoid the leaves in her way. When there was barely anything left, she pulled the cup away from herself again and dry-heaved to the right, a short series of coughs following soon afterwards.

Akaza chuckled a bit at that, taking the cup away from her and setting it to the side once more before leaning over to pat at her back with minimal strength in the gesture. Only just enough to help her get over her coughing fit.

“I take it you’re not a tea type?” He questioned, smirking lightly in amusement.

“Medicinal tea tastes like mud…If that is what that was…”

She replied without missing a beat this time once she had calmed down, shakily bringing her hands up to wipe at her eyes and face. When she pulled them away, she looked at her palms and narrowed her eyes in confusion for a moment. There were…red streaks covered all over them. When she realized it was blood – dried blood she must have dabbed onto her hands when she wiped the tears off of her skin – her hands began to tremble before balling up into tight fists and quickly falling to her sides out of her sight. All of a sudden, she became all too aware of the scent of blood on her person – the demon’s blood Akaza had wiped on her back in the forest before everything went dark.

“Oh, that’s right,” He commented, beginning to stand to his feet with her cup in his hand. “You probably want to wash off after what happened earlier, right? Let’s go do that now.” She looked up at him when he said that, watching his back as he walked to the other side of the cabin to place the cup on the dresser before he opened up one of the top drawers. He pulled out an old towel from within, gray in color. Then, he wandered over to the closet and pulled out a small wooden washing basin which he tucked the towel into.

When he heard no kind of reaction or response from her, he turned around and lightly waved the basin in her direction.

“You do want to wash away the blood, don’t you?”

Again, he was being so polite and considerate. It threw her off, and perhaps in the right state of mind, she would’ve rejected his kindness and labeled it a manipulative fraud. Right now, however, she simply saw it as an odd direction life was taking her in, completely skewed from the one she had chosen to walk upon earlier this evening. Maybe it was also because she was desperate to get rid of the scent of blood on her. Normally, she was completely accustomed to it, but having it on her person like this, mixed with her tears, with what she had dreamed of still in her head? It was suffocating.

“…Yes, please…”

“So polite~” He mused lightheartedly, walking over to her bedside once more, but this time, he simply bent down by the knees, his legs spread on either side of him with ease, his free hand resting upon his left thigh. Offering her a more playful grin this time, he handed her the basin with the towel, and once she accepted them, he propped both of his hands on his knees as he looked her in the eyes once again. “Right, then. I figure you can’t walk much right now, can ya? ‘Course not. You’re pretty beat up. So, do you want me to help again?”

“I…I-I suppose I need your help, yes…” She really couldn’t deny it. She had been a wreck when she wandered into these woods, and right now? There was no way she could do much of anything without it hurting her like hell. Acting like she could walk without support through the woods on her own again would be a pathetically obvious display.

“Right. Okay, hold tight.” When she had been expecting him to help her to her feet so she could walk with her arm over his shoulders, he had surprised her by instead pushing the comforters of the futon completely off of her before scooping her up in his arms, one hooked beneath her knees and the other coming to wrap around the back of her waist. Easily, he propped her body up against his chest, secure in his grip. Tight and cozy.

_______, in response, stiffened up something fierce, ignoring the ache it forced to spread throughout her body. Her arms hugged the basin he had given her tightly against her chest, her nails digging into the wood while she stared up at him wide eyed.

“Comfortable enough? Is it okay for my hands to be where they are?”

His…hands?

What kind of a question was that? He cared about something like that?

“I-I…Y-yes, this is fine…”

“Okay, good. Tell me if that changes on the way.”

She really couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This man – this demon – had gone from crushing and dismembering one of his own kind brutally without an ounce of remorse, to making her medicinal tea and caring about the way he touched or held her. It totally, completely contradicted everything she thought she knew and left her floating in a strange feeling of vacillation and gray areas.

This wasn’t how the night was supposed to play out.

Yet, there she was, being carried out of this demon’s cabin, snug in his arms.

On the way out into the cedar woods, she even became acutely aware of his large hand pressed firmly against her waist, propping her up against his chest. She could feel each individual inked digit of his digging securely into her waist to keep her close to his person and safe from falling. She could feel his palm splayed on her side, radiating with that surprising warmth of his even through her uniform. Come to think of it, pressed up against his bare chest like this, she could feel his body radiated that same warmth as well.

She could have told him to move his hand if she wanted to, but decided against it.

The warmth felt soothing.

Familiar.

Instead, she allowed her head to lull against his bicep and for her eyes to slowly close as she watched him walk them away from the cabin, the light of the flames within still somewhat visible through the sliding doors.

Instead, she decided to keep pretending.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you so much for making it this far and supporting me and my work! I hope you've been enjoying the story up to now and that it's been meeting expectations! <3 Your support encourages me to continue with this series, so thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring and interacting with it! <3 God bless you all and til next time! <3

42 notes · View notes