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His fingers cascade through your hair, a slow and gentle motion he repeats for an hour. His other arm wound around your waist tracing mindless circles into your back. You lay splayed on his chest, listening to his steady beating heart. Feeling the steady rise and fall of his chest.
A rumble goes through his chest, causing you to shift so you can look up at him with a smile. “What is it?” you ask him, seeing his wistful expression. The soft smile upon his lips as his golden eyes meet your own.
“My dear hero….” his voice speaking those three words like a prayer. “I just realized something…” he tells you. Humming intrigued you raised a brow waiting for him to continue.
But Emet-Selch does not continue, besides his grin you get no answers as you pinch him lightly. “Come on, do tell.” you plead with him.
Emet-Selch snorts, pulling you even closer. “I am immortal, I am free… and you….” he looks at you longingly. His hand threads through your hair again, slower and more gentle than before. “... you are with me.”
A blush spreads across your cheeks along, and a thought festers in your head. “For a time..” you reply with a sigh. But even this realisation can hardly dim the happiness you feel. A whole mortal lifetime to be spent with Emet-Selch, to be loved and cherished by him.
“Yet you are right, I am with you. Think of all we can do together!” You exclaim excitedly, indeed now you possess so much time. Time to be spent with a man who loves you more than anything. A love that had already transcended time and space, even his tempering.
“Oh my dear hero…” he says with a chuckle. “How right you are!” The sorcerer shifts beneath you raising your chin with an affectionate smile. “An ancient like me surely has plenty of things to enjoy with my newfound freedom.”
“Like what…?” you ask, still feeling the heat on your skin. Those eyes off his can look into your soul, you know as much. It was as if he always knew your deepest and darkest desires.
“Oh there are so many things we can do right now… as for the future...who better than to show me the joys of mortals than you my love.” he says softly. “Perhaps… perhaps I would even love to try for children, and this time not be so disconnected from them.”
For a moment his words make your head spin, swim with affection. You are the warrior of light, no man had ever spoken of a future with you, much less children. The feelings that bloomed in your chest at the mere thought.
His finger tilted up your chin smiling down at you as the question flowed from your lips unbidden. “Would you find me again?”
It startles him for a moment. You can see a flicker of confusion surge through his expression. “That you would need to ask, I do not know if I should be offended or amused, my dear. Have I not made a case that I refuse to be in a world without you?”
You feel warmth spread through you, the delicious feeling of being loved. Loved in that special way you had not experienced so far, until now that is. “I….” there is still a lingering uncertainty with you as you gather your courage. “..I spoke of my next life.”
Emet-Selch does not seem any less serious as he raises an eyebrow, in fact his expression makes you feel as if he certainly understood your first implication. As if he cannot believe what you are asking. “ My beloved. ”
His voice is sweet like honey, dropping nearly an octave lulling you into its spell. “I refuse to be in a world without you. I will always! Always venture to find you. Again and again…” he said. “Every reincarnation, every new form you take I will seek out and love like I love you now,” he promised.
There it was once more, this certainty he spoke with. The things he made you feel, such love and such devotion for just you. Ancient. Eternal. A feeling you can hardly comprehend, yet you can feel it so keenly in your own soul.
You have known him, known him in a time before time. You have loved him, loved him through space and time. And you would always love him, for the rest of this lifetime well into the next. He would find you again, and you would love him again for that whole lifetime into the next.
A cycle to be repeated endlessly, a love that will never cease. “You have freed me from Zodiark… my mind is so much clearer now.”
Again his voice grows wistful, admiration shining through his words. Admiration for you. “What you’ve given me is so much more than anything else… I still have my magic, my own heart of mind. My soul...and you.”
“I have you to spend all this time with, I can redeem myself… I can make sure that our tragedy never comes to pass again.” Your heart swells with his words, that he would find himself to find such compassion after all his hardship, that you were the reason for it.
“I am glad…” That is all you can say as you feel the emotions overwhelm you.
“But through all… through all this the greatest gift you have given me, my hero. ” His fingers tilt up your chin, his thump wandering over your lips. “.. it will always be your love. The future we will have together.” His voice barely above a whisper as his lips hover over yours. The hot breath causes your skin to erupt in goosebumps.
“..I will be there to give you all the happiness you wish for, all the aid you need. I shall pamper you with all the love I can give.” he promises with a sudden smirk. “All the pleasure my lovely hero can ask for of course…”
You blush sputtering for a moment as your heart thunders in your chest. “My dear you need only ask and the world shall be yours….”
Your hands place on his cheek, stroking it. “Just be mine…” you whisper.
“Just be mine forever… through all the lifetimes I will have.” His eyes light up at your words, the emotions so clearly on his face. Love and pure happiness.
“Always.” Emet-Selch said before sealing his lips with yours.