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“I like Mei.” The two of them had been sitting in a comfortable silence not too long ago, but Elysia had never really been one for silence, he supposed.
“I know.” He had brought Mei here for precisely that reason, after all. After fifty-thousand years, he still hadn’t forgotten his promise to her. A Herrscher who loved and fought for humanity, just as Elysia had. The truth is that no one could ever be like Elysia, but Mei…she is just as human as Elysia had been, fights on the side of humanity just as Elysia had; she is also more selfish than Elysia, she fights for the girl she loves. Perhaps that makes her more Kevin.
“You’re always so stoic and serious now! Even more so than you used to be.” She says that every time he visits her in the Elysian Realm. He isn’t annoyed by it. Maybe he should be, but he misses her far too much. She was right anyways, he’s changed so much since then, as all people would if they had to go through what he has. Elysia asks about it sometimes, and Kevin never replies, not with the full truth anyways. Truth be told, he doesn’t know how or even what to tell her.
“Mmhm.” A small smile creeps into his countenance. His gaze is soft and he’s relaxed. There isn’t a single person alive in the world who could make him feel like this again. Keyword: Alive, which Elysia isn’t. She is here and she is real, but she isn’t alive, merely a remnant of the past; the past he longs for. How he misses her, and everyone else so dear to him.
She notices his smile and wraps her arm around his shoulders, moving in closer. He reacts simply by leaning into her touch. “Honestly, Kevin! Would it kill you to show a little more emotion?” Her voice is light and teasing, light as petals, just like her.
“Maybe.” He shrugs. It’s playful, more playful than he’d ever allow himself to be nowadays, in the real world at least, but he’s in the Elysian Realm now, he’s with Elysia now, so it’s fine. It’s fine when he’s here with her. They fall into another comfortable lapse of silence, eventually broken once again by her.
“You know, Kevin. I’ve always wondered…” Kevin looks at her expectantly, “When you cry, do your tears freeze?”
Throat closing up, he turns away, afraid that if he looks at her, he’d see the image from the last time she had asked that question. Her death was a memory that he’s held so near and dear to his heart. Not because he wants to remember it, in fact he almost wishes he doesn’t, but he had promised her—
He’s fulfilled that promise now, but it isn’t enough. It’s never enough. He wishes she were alive.
“Yeah. They do.” He says after taking in a shaky breath, looking at her again. He still sees the Elysia that’s sitting next to him, the Elysia that still exists. That Elysia had not expected him to answer so honestly. She doesn’t look shocked, but he knows her well enough to tell. Perhaps she would’ve expected such an answer had she been the Elysia who had witnessed it herself.
“Really? How does that feel?” She continues asking, excitement bubbling in her voice. She looks at him so earnestly and he wished that this was how it had gone last time.
“Cold, I guess. Just like the rest of me.”
“Au contraire! You've got a very warm heart." Elysia says, interjecting. It makes him jump, but she leans into him still. "It's just buried under that frosty personality of yours!"
“You’ve felt them yourself before, you know. The tears, I mean.” He says it without really thinking. The honest vulnerability shocks them both, but deep down, he wanted her to know.
"I didn't think you'd have let me see you cry." Elysia says. He probably wouldn't have, had the circumstances been different.
“I let you do anything.” He replies instead. Elysia smiles wider, so warm like her, and so completely unlike him. “You said that they felt cold, but warm at the same time.”
The look she gives him is indescribable, he’s seen it only once before. “Your tears, Kevin…they’re just like you.” She says with a gentle laugh, and Kevin lets out a chuckle. Elysia is the same as always. She never got the chance to change. Deep down, he wishes he had been given the same mercy. For now, he just leans closer into Elysia, letting himself play pretend.
“Yeah. I guess they are.”