1. Hidden
When Tyki looked into the mirror, he wondered if anyone could truly see the division within him. His smiles always felt false, and in that same mirror, they never seemed to reach his eyes, leaving him with a feeling of renewed despair when no one seemed to notice. Glancing through the bathroom's open door, he wondered if the sleeping boy who lay half-clothed upon the rumpled sheets had seen it, since his own nature echoed the duality. Returning to the bed, he smiled at the Exorcist's relaxed face, deciding that perhaps he would rather the boy had not seen.
2. Meaning
No one could explain to Lavi what it meant to love someone. They had always replied with giddy laughs, or longing sighs when the person they loved was mentioned. He thought that a person was confused, blinded by the presence of a loved one, unable to name the emotions.. Perhaps love served only to rob a person of sense? Watching the sleeping form of his 'captor', he found himself at a loss as to exactly what this feeling should be called, that urged him to pull the thin sheet higher, or to lie down himself, to better keep him warm.
3. Change
Tyki Mikk feared nothing. In his years of service to the Earl, he had seen things that would have destroyed a lesser man, things that even now chilled him to recall.
Watching the varied expressions that crossed the face of his all-too-willing captive, he wondered if the boy knew that he had succeeded where all others had failed.
With the slightest of efforts, the Exorcist could raise or lower the older man's spirits, leaving him all bemused at himself.
But now, seeing the boy's face relaxed in sedated calm, he wondered if he could ever be fearless again.
4. Once
If Lavi had ever been asked to define both the happiest and saddest moments of his life, he could have spoken of a single instance, a scant few seconds that had simultaneously elated and terrified him beyond all reason. Waking from a sound sleep, he had opened his eye to gaze at the form beside him, taking in the angular features and slightly mussed hair of the man who kept him bound by nothing save the briefest of words:
Yes.
That word now defined the entirety of his remaining life, leaving him shaken with something far beyond either emotion:
Hope.
5. Vision
Tyki had often heard that the eyes were the windows of the soul.
Looking into the deep blue of a newborn child's eyes had shown him nothing but hope and endless possibilities, and the eyes of the nurse who came to take the child away again had shown him patience, a sincere dedication to the path she'd chosen for herself.
The lack of one eye did nothing to hinder the depth of Lavi's soul, his care and desperation showing clearly through that single outlet.
In retrospect, Tyki wondered what it meant that his eyes had never been anything but black.
6. Comfort
Lavi wondered constantly what it was that drove the man across the room to keep him.
After his assertion that the silence didn't bother him, Tyki had calmly taken a seat in a nearby chair, pulling open a drawer in the side of a small table that sat beside it. After a moment, he straightened, a worn book in his hands.
Glancing at the fidgeting Exorcist, he smiled. Beckoning silently, he urged the boy to join him, hooking a padded stool with his foot.
Leaning forward to see the pages, Lavi also wondered if the man knew why he stayed.
7. Hold
When Tyki woke from a sound sleep, he was understandably puzzled. Taking stock of the darkened room, he heard no sound, nothing to indicate what could have disturbed his rest. Frowning to himself, he shifted slowly beneath the blankets, halting at an unfamiliar sensation of weight around him. Without turning, he trailed the object atop the covers backward, stopping at the clear point of an elbow. Sliding carefully forward, he moved away from the sleeping boy with a quiet sigh. Closing his eyes, he relaxed, only to stiffen in surprise as the feeling of pressure returned, this time more firmly.
8. Wake
Lavi had always been a sound sleeper.
Opening his eye tiredly, he wondered what could have awakened him. The room was warm and dark, and only silence met his straining ears, making him feel both foolish and worried. Feeling the body beside him shiver for an instant, he frowned, concentrating on a noise that seemed out of place. The slight rustle of the man's hands tightening on the blankets was abnormally unsettling, as was the shaken intake of breath that preceded it.
Moving slowly, he pressed gently against the man's back, expecting him to move away as usual.
He didn't.
9. Thanks
As ridiculous as it was, Tyki was less than fond of shopping.
Carefully milling through the crowd of smiling customers, he paused beside a display of scarlet-and-black Irises, mildly surprised at their vivid color.
Giving in to a momentary urge, he lifted a small bundle from it's place, briefly inhaling the light, clear scent. Sighing, he paid the vendor and left the marketplace, flowers in hand.
Presenting them to his no longer unwilling guest, he was surprised at the boy's wide-eyed expression as he touched the fringed petals carefully.
He was even more surprised by the kiss.
10. Sun
Lavi never complained about the low lighting of the house, but Tyki knew that he must miss the brightness of daylight, having spent years travelling the outdoors.
Half-expecting an outright refusal, he asked the boy if he'd like to take a walk around the house's modest grounds.
Surprisingly the redhead had agreed, but once outside, he questioned the other's intent to leave him alone there.
The man sighed quietly, confessing that the grounds were heavily warded to prevent a possible escape.
Latching onto his hand with a stubborn frown, Lavi asked if they were also warded to prevent companionship.
11. Rend
He wanted to hurt him.
He wanted to tear him apart.
Struggling to contain his sudden rage, Tyki flung himself abruptly out of the bed, half-rousing the sleeping Exorcist. Standing without a word, he ignored the boy's slurred questions, grabbing the first articles of clothing that caught his eye, pulling them on hurriedly as the other made to rise. Willing himself to a place far away from the confused redhead, he materialised just outside the walls of a distant city, slamming his hands against the unyielding stone with a rasping howl.
When he returned, Lavi silently bandaged his knuckles.
12. Flight
Sometimes, Lavi still thought that his would-be captor had gotten the worst of their arrangement.
Seeing the man look at him with those oddly wide eyes made something inside him twist painfully, almost as if his very expression had taken hold of the Exorcist's heart in place of his hand.
Sometimes, he thought that the other could see the effect, when his brow furrowed marginally during prolonged looks. Those looks often led to things that left a vague feeling of unease in the boy's chest, something like the sensation of birdwings pressing quick against his ribs, almost like flight.
13. Wither
Tyki wanted to cry.
He remembered weeping for his bretheren, but it had been beyond him, as if the act and it's trigger were only slightly linked. Even the guilt he'd felt had failed to bring dampness to his eyes, making him wonder if perhaps the pain inside was less than he imagined it to be, less significant than his mind had claimed.
The scents of blood and fear in his home had come close, as had the utter despair and wretchedness that lingered there.
The sight before him was even closer, a form nearly-beloved gone silent and pale.