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It was a quiet date in the village. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. Nothing ever changed.
Night had left off to the forest to collect himself. He sat down under a tree. The tree had nice shade and was placed next to a thin part of the river. It just looked like thin stream of trickling water from where he was. It fell down from some rocks that gleamed under the sun. If he was going to have a day off, he wanted it to be a quiet day off.
Except, he wasn't alone. He never was.
"It's quieter than normal," Mare commented.
"People don't go out here."
Night felt some tugs at his back, and then saw two tentacles by his sides, coming out from behind him. He sighed. No one was out here, they wouldn't be seen, it was fine.
The thought was communicated through the two of them. If they shared the same soulspace, they could share the same mindspace and pass thoughts back and forth from each other like notes.
Night thought of the stream in front of them. How clear the water was. Mare thought of the sounds of it. The light streaming falling noise of the water. Night thought of the reflection in the water. The way the rocks and the grass could be seen in it. Mare thought of the trees above it and the hints of sky seen in the water.
Night felt a rare, but slight smile on his face at the simpleness of what they were doing. No one else could communicate this way to each other.
Mare slowly tucked his tentacles around his lap, resting, but still heavy like a hug. Like if a body were actually to be lying on his lap. It felt of comfort, safety... and...
Night sighed, a mix between wistfulness and guilt. "It's not real."
"What isn't?"
"You're a dark apple-" Night decided, "You can't feel love."
Stated out-loud rather than felt. "What makes you think a dark apple couldn't?"
Night caught himself, trying to figure out how to most carefully explain. "The tree... The fruits that grow from it feed on either negativity or positivity."
"The fruits are not sentient or aware," Mare pointed out. "They just mirror what is around them."
At those words Night caught attention of the lake again. "Maybe you're mirroring," he decided. "Feeding off of the feelings around you and reflecting what you catch."
"I'm already not what I was," Mare argued.
Night interrupted him, "All they are is mirrors. They absorb what is around them. They take feelings around them but do not feel themselves."
"Am I real?"
"Are you?"
"I am."
Mare pressed a tentacle against Night's chest, pushing him further against the tree. It was him deciding this.
Night breathed slowly in and out.
"They can grow a mind of their own after attaching to a host," Night decided. "But you're still just made out of negativity." Night pulled out one of his hands, and drew a line up one of the tentacles, getting the sap on his finger and sticking it in his mouth.
It didn't have a taste. But it still had a strong sensation, as if you were trying to drink a bottle of cough syrup. But it didn't taste like that, it was just... strong. It dissolved quickly, though. Night coughed. "If this is your... physical form, all it is is bad feelings you've absorbed- so all you are is... bad feelings. There wouldn't be room for other things."
Mare spoke, "Love,"
"Obsession," Night responded.
"Trust,"
"Jealousy,"
"Respect,"
"Possessiveness,"
"Companionship,"
"Lust-"
Mare interrupted Night at that. "Is lust bad?"
"Guilt is bad."
"Arousal doesn't need to be associated with guilt, in the same way love doesn't have to be tied to rejection." Mare didn't have a face, but Night could feel his grin. Like he had won.
"You haven't proven anything," Night retorted, "I was trying to stand for your case that a negative being could still feel aspects of the emotion."
"And I've proven to you that I understand that and see the clear difference between the two and love you."
Night fiddled with his hands. "If a negative being... Made of nothing other than the fear, loneliness, anger and anguish in others souls... Can feel positively, then either attaching to someone has let them develop some separate, unaffected headspace... And you'd have to be storing it on my heart."
"I already draw from your magic," Mare elaborated. "It's how I woke up."
Night continued fiddling. Mare poked at his hands, in-between his fingers and started moving them, wrapping around his wrist and palm and pushing on each of the fingers lightly.
"I love you." Mare stated. Clearly, this time.
Night stared down at the hand that Mare was fiddling with.
"You are my second half," Night decided. "You took pieces from me I did not want. You are a companion that guides my thoughts and knows everything I know about myself."
"You're worth protecting."
"I like you here with me."
Night set his other hand down on the grass. Warm, soft, and his other hand still tangled with Mare.
Night and Mare.