Work Text:
"So...you're staying?"
Arons question hung heavy between the two, her eyes wide as she stared at Sam. His own eyes were rimmed with tears, conflict written across his expression as he replied.
"...yeah, I'm staying..." his voice was quiet, quieter than she ever heard.
Arons eyes averted to the side, but she wasn't looking at anything in particular. The rest of her body went completely still as she took in the information.
He was staying. And she'd be going home.
Her eyebrows furrowed in a way that she looked almost confused. So was it all a lie? Her mind replayed when the question of staying in the demon world was originally presented, when Sam told her he'd choose her over the throne after learning Diana had left it to him. Was it a lie?
But then her expression then morphed to one that was more difficult to read. Like she was deep in thought. His mother. He was staying for his mother, his people. Aron knew that.
She was staying in the human world with her mother. Her people. And he was staying in the demon world with his mother. His people.
He was staying in a world where he could be himself. His home.
A twinge of bitterness formed in her chest. Followed by guilt. She wanted him to be happy. But she wanted him to go home with her. And she couldn't have both, could she? Asking him to come home would be selfish. Cruel.
Her lower lip quivered as tears began filling her eyes, her cheeks and the tip of her nose turning a shade of pink, her breathing turning shallow, but her eyes stayed averted.
"...oh..." was the first thing she said, her voice trembling. Tears fell down her face but she barely noticed them, more focused on the ache in her chest.
"...oh..." she repeated again, this time followed by her saying, "oh- okay...so...so this is- we're- theres-"
She was cut off by her own sob, but still, *she didn't look at him.* She wasn't even mad, not really. Maybe on a surface level, maybe that selfish part of her, the part that felt abandoned.
She felt his hands, warm and calloused, graze her arms, like he was trying to comfort her, but she couldn't even react. Reason and logic fought with love and emotion. "You're staying," she repeated again.
She was going home. Home to the house they bought together, to the life they'd built together. But it wasn't *theirs* anymore.
"So- so- we...." she sobbed again, her body shrinking in on itself as she tried to stop, *she was being so selfish, unfair,* "we- there's. There's gotta be a way that we can- I mean...theres..."
There is no way. She knew that. A gate spell couldn't be opened enough times for them to travel back and forth without someone ending up dead from energy loss.
They were going to be separated. Literally worlds apart.
They'd never work.