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Society is a cruel thing.
There’s so many things wrong with it.
Society causes plentiful despair. Enough to keep the shadows of negativity greedily fed, unable to feel any remorse for its gluttony.
Society told them they couldn’t love a D(a)emon.
Society told them that they couldn’t love the Daemon that washed up on their doorstep, begging and pleading to be let in.
Society told them they were a fool for urging him inside, tending to his wounds as best they could worriedly until he was calm and strong enough to do it himself.
Society told them they were stupid.
And they definitely agreed. They were stupid.
Stupid with nothing but love for the Daemon that chose their doorstep.
They were stupidly happy.
Yet Precious, still having the lingering bitterness of their past people pleasing era, laid down on their side and couldn’t sleep.
Feelings of guilt were some of the most torturous things out there.
Their guilt ate away at them, rubbing their hands over their skin and whispering reminders that they had betrayed everyone they loved.
Even if none of them had loved them.
They wrapped their arms around them and pulled their hair away from their ear so they could lean closer and tell them how many people could have been put at risk.
Precious squeezed their eyes shut and buried their face into their pillow, exhaling shakily as the guilt poked them until tears pricked their eyes.
They had nothing to be guilty for, that was the problem.
They didn’t feel that way about Regulus at all. They regretted nothing about their relationship. He made them the happiest they had ever been in the cruel and unfeeling world around them. He accepted them as they were.
He only made them better.
Everyone else was dragging them down with their biased and crude ways.
So why did they feel so bad about letting them all down?
They sniffled and let their tears out, knowing that Regulus wasn’t home yet.
It would have been a crime to weigh him down, just as others had weighed them down. A crime to cry in front of him and cause the happiness in him to go out because of the knots in them.
Precious became a criminal when the door opened silently, and Regulus creeped in.
The meeting between Avior and the free D(a)emons had ended early when Vindemiator had called Avior back to the “Haven”. He had rifted back to their home and tried to be as quiet as possible so they would grin at him and hug him tightly in surprise.
He paused when he heard a sniffle coming from their room, his eyebrows furrowing.
Knots. Guilt. Societal pressure.
Bad combination.
He gently knocked on the door, not wanting to startle his Precious love too much.
They sighed in shame at the fact that they got caught, and they pulled the blankets over their head so he wouldn’t be able to see their face. It was bad enough that they had tainted him with their own problems.
“Precious? Can I come in?” He asked from behind the closed door, leaving the choice of a conversation up to them.
They sniffled and took a deep breath, not ready to admit the things they wanted to discuss. “Yeah, you don’t have to ask.”
He opened the door, and his eyes softened when he looked at the ball of a person underneath a mountain of blankets.
Regulus walked over to the bed and laid down next to them, gently putting his arm around them over the blankets and pulling them closer to him. He didn’t say anything for a while, knowing they would tell him when they were ready.
He did, however, sit up and put his hand onto where their arm was.
“Precious, do you think you could come out from under there? I wanna show you something.” He shifted back so his head rested against the headboard, and they turned over so they could peek their eyes out.
His instincts tore out his heart when he saw the tear lines at the ends of their eyes.
They stayed silent, waiting for whatever it was that he was doing that made him sound so excited. It must have been worth seeing. Though, everything he loved was really worth seeing.
He smiled at them and turned back ahead so he could lift out his hand and conjure up little swirls of color that exploded quietly. Precious looked at it, and his heart melted at the reflection in their eyes, shining against the tears in their eyes.
“The room is dark.” He said, watching them flick their eyes to him and sink into the bed a little more. “But that only makes it easier to see the bright things, whether or not they have colors to them or not.”
Precious sniffed quietly, watching him with curious eyes.
Boy did he love those eyes.
“Kind of like you and me.” He said, turning his head to them and smiling gratefully. “This world is dark, and that can make it hard to see. But that also makes you shine brighter.”
They sniffed again and pulled the blanket up a little.
Regulus turned his cupped hand and watched as the swirling colors changed into little colored birds soaring around each other.
“And these birds are like our responsibilities.” He held them out and let them fly around the room, watching them grow older and bigger as they flew around. They lit up every corner, and Precious pulled the blanket down a little more.
“They grow and grow as time goes on, but the two birds stay together no matter what.” He watched as the birds landed on the bed next to Precious, making them pull back the blankets more. They sniffled and looked at the birds curiously.
“Just like even though we both come from different worlds, and that causes rifts in between us and the people that look down upon us,” He watched as the birds bowed at them before they flew back to his hands, each of them resting on one of his palms. “But we don’t let that stop us from loving each other.”
He let the birds turn back into swirling colors and lights, curling around his fingertips and tickling his palms.
They took the blankets off of their body so they could sit up and get a better look at it.
“In the same way that the lights are the brightest part of this dark room, and the birds are together even when flocks try to get them to fly away from each other,” He reached out with one hand to gently grab theirs, and Precious watched in awe as he held the fireworks in their hands, casting a bright glow over their face. “You are the light and we are the birds.”
He used one hand to gently take hold of their cheek, stroking his thumb over their skin. “Precious,” He said, letting his fingers curl with theirs and letting the light of the colors into their hands. “Society is awful. It tries to rip us apart and forces us to move around Dahlia a lot, but even if the darkness around us gets darker everywhere we go, we’ll still have each other.”
They rested their forehead against his, taking in the serenity of levity.
“You promise?” They whispered, holding onto his hand tightly.
He smiled and pulled them in for a kiss. “I promise now and for as long as forever.”
Even if the pretty lights were gone, they were each the brightest thing in each other’s eyes.