Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep

Never had he seen such a strange creature. Her hands as soft as satin, her hair as red as blood. Captivated by her movements did he make his decisions, just for her, not seeing they were wrong. Yet she kept her promise and he kept his.

He was eleven when it happened. He was outside, outside the safe boundaries of the castle's garden. Not that he didn't like the gardens, seeing that that were his favourite place of the palace, but Phobos had seen a rare Magnolia butterfly, a butterfly with sapphire blue wings on the top while they were blood red on the other side. The particular butterfly managed to get him unseen out of the castle grounds and into the forest nearby. He nearly managed to catch the butterfly when the sound of thunder surprised him. Scared he looked upwards, only finding a blue sky. Confused he looked around, forgetting about the butterfly, and his eyes fell upon a strange blue ring in the forest. Lightning came off it, but it did not harm the girl who was standing in front of it. Her hair was as red as the bottom side of the wings of the butterfly he'd been chasing and her eyes as brown as the bark of the trees around her. She looked like she was five, six at best and wore strange clothing. Peasant clothing, but cleaner and she wore trousers, something he'd never seen on a woman. Engrossed by her he came closer and found she was holding a strange flower in her hand. It was red and held thorns but these didn't hurt her.
The cracking of the branches seemed to grasp her attention, for her eyes widened and settled on him. With his own grey eyes he studied the girl. She wasn't scared, but it was obvious she wasn't from around here. She smiled at him and Phobos smiled too, feeling happier than ever before.

"Hey." She said, her voice soft and warm.

"Hey." He croaked in return, blushing when he found his voice to be heavy and uncontrolled.

She laughed at him, a childish laugh full of joy and again he smiled. His eyes widened when she walked to him and raised the flower.

"Do you want this rose?" She asked, still smiling at him.

"A what?" Phobos replied, looked curiously at the flower.

"A rose." The girl replied. "Mommy told me to give this rose to someone I liked."

"You don't know me." Phobos said, taken aback.

The girl shrugged but smiled friendly at him.

"You look nice." She said simply.

He took the rose from her hands, but the moment his hand enveloped it, the thorns pricked his skin. A small stream of blood seeped down his hand, but Phobos kept on smiling at the girl. She gave him something out of niceness, instead because he was the Prince.
She could see the blood dripping down his hand and looked surprised.

"What is that?" She asked, looking as curious at his blood as he had been looking at her rose.

"My present for you." He said without thinking.

Her eyes widened by surprise and she gasped when out of nowhere a sapphire blue vial appeared in his hand. Phobos grinned when the girl crowed in delight, while he let a few drops of blood fall into the vial.

"How did you do that?" She asked.

"Magic." He said with a grin, causing her to look in wonder at him. Perhaps even admiration.

He liked it. She liked him for him. She admired him for what he did, not who he was. He liked her.
He closed the vial and gave it to her, telling her to never open it.

"This is what I brought you and which you may keep. Even if you might forget me." He said, to which she nodded.

"I would nev…" She started, but from far Phobos could hear the guards
A sudden fear befell him. What would happen to the girl if the guards found her with him? Would they think she lured him out?
She seemed to catch his fear and looked scared herself. Her lower lip trembled and Phobos looked one more time back before turning to her.

"How did you get here?" He asked quickly, to which the girl pointed back to the blue ring. "Then go!"

The girl looked at him, as if she didn't want to leave him. She took a step forward and kissed his cheek. Phobos started to blush and looked confused and surprised at her. She looked back at him and smiled sadly.

"I promise to depart, just promise one thing." She said.

"What?"

"This is no farewell."

Phobos smiled and words left him before he could fully control his tongue.

"My queen will return."

She smiled and jumped into the ring, disappearing with it as if it hadn't been there to begin with. Within seconds the royal guard was around him, asking him questions and tending to his injured hand. Phobos smiled fondly at the rose he held. He wondered when she would return. Perhaps he knew her name by then. He couldn't wait to see her smile when she would see the whole garden full of roses and he could give them to her.

…

He couldn't believe it. The girl of nine years ago, the one who gave him his first rose, was the Guardian Leader. How long had he been cursing fate? How cruel could his life be? He wanted her as his Queen, but now she was his enemy.
These thoughts had caught up to him when he walked through his garden. It was mostly dead or filled with carnivores plants, except for one part. That part was filled with roses, all as red as her hair and all neatly kept especially for her. After today's failure of stopping the rebels escape from the mines and defrosting Cedric afterwards, he just had to take a walk to clear his mind. Instead, his biggest failure haunted him.
A turn left, a turn right. Only he knew the way to the rose garden. Any other would die in an attempt to reach it. That's what he thought. That's what he believed. Until he found those believes crushed by someone with brilliant red hair. His pace stopped abruptly and his breathing stopped for a second. There she was, the Guardian Leader, standing in front of the gardens. Her eyes were widened in delight, just like that day nine years ago. His own eyes widened when he found the vial he'd given her clenched in her hand.
Silently he snuck towards her. Her eyes were only meant for the roses and when she closed them to smell the roses, Phobos couldn't help but pluck one.
He could easily crush her, capture her or take the Heart from her. Why didn't he do that? Why was he closing in on her, his heart thundering in his chest?
As if she could sense his troubled thoughts, she turned around. She took a sharp gasp of air and looked alarmed at him, but all he could do was smile. There was no challenge now. Why would he take her now, if could also win her?

"This is what I brought you." He said, pointing at the rose garden. "And this you can keep."
He gave her the rose and she looked weary at him. He bowed his head, trying to convince her he meant no harm.

"Why?"

Her voice was filled with suspicion, but again a smile crept over his face.

"You promised it was no farewell."

Her eyes widened and a new gasp left her full red lips her Guardian form bestowed on her. The hand around the vial clenched even more and she became white around her knuckles. He continued to look at her and found instead of the happiness he felt, a sort of sadness in her eyes. Frustration befell him but he kept it hidden, hoping she would accept his gift.
Slowly her other hand reached out for the rose while the other hid the vial within her outfit. It trembled above it, as if she was scared it would poison her, but then her fingers flexed around the gentle stem of the flower. He could see her wince and now he looked engrossed at the few blood drops that dripped down her hand.
He heard her breath a laugh and when he looked up, she looked at him. The sadness was still there, but the happiness of long ago seemed to overrule it. She smiled at him before her other hand created a vial, this one being blood red, and she dropped several drips of blood in it.

"How did you do that?" He asked, hearing a new soft laugh from her.

"Magic." She replied, corking the vial and giving it to him, telling him to never uncork it as well.

He smiled, looking at the vial. She didn't know he could use it against her, but he knew he never would. She held his vial closed, so he would too.

"You know." He said as the silence between them started to become unbearable. "I promised you my heart that day."

"Yes." She replied, nodding while smiling sadly at him. The same sad smile as back then. "Your Queen, wasn't it?"

He nodded, knowing her answer to it in advance.

"Just promise me, that one day, you will sing to me."

Her answer was a ghost of a smile, telling him she wouldn't join him so easily. He bowed his head, gesturing her to the exit of his garden. The soft breeze her wings caused, passed him and he didn't have to look back to know she was looking at him with a sad smile.
Phobos looked over the garden, which now missed one rose. He looked at the small vial in his hand and smiled sadly as well. Fate might be twisted, but it didn't stop him from seeing her perhaps more as a challenge than just a prize.

…

A year. A year he'd been in this prison after he'd spend a couple of hours within Cedric's stomach. It was him told that the Guardians had defeated Cedric, but Phobos wasn't surprised. He'd known about her plan. Her plan to make him lose all of his powers and to free his sister. His first idea, after claiming all those powers, was to ignore Kandrakar for the rest of his life. He thought that through conquering, he could show her he was the better party. He'd even been more merciful for the rebels when they were building the fold ring. But when he saw her disappointment, her anger and her grief, he realized he didn't want it. The power became meaningless to him if there was no one to share it with and she knew that. That's why her sad eyes haunted his dreams.
His eyes went back to the bars of his cell. They were special, far more than those of his other inmates. Will herself had created them. Sometimes they shone brighter than the brightest sun and sometimes they were so dull you barely saw them, yet they were always strong enough to keep him in. As if she wanted to be sure to keep him in.
Annoyed voices filled the prison and Phobos took the interest to look down, finding that Vathek walked in, his eyes sharp and full with anger. Behind him someone in a cloak followed him. Phobos found Vathek's glance and he received the glare of the warden, but he shrugged it off. His warden had never been that intimidating. His eyes were pulled to the cloaked one, who now made very agile jumps to reach his cell. When the person came close enough to his cell, she casted away her robe. Phobos felt his own breath stop as he looked at Will, without her Guardian form. Even if it had been a year, she had changed. Now she started to resemble her confidant Guardian form. Her eyes were sharp and filled with a wisdom she didn't have the last time he'd seen her. Her body was more trained and she seemed to realize what was happening all around her. An awareness Phobos had only read about in books, but he was sure she had it.

"Why?"

He looked surprised at her, his surprise clashing with the confusion in her eyes.

"What?"

"Why did you want to step into Kandrakar?"

Phobos froze. He never thought she would wonder about it. No one had questioned him, thinking he was arrogant. Why would she think differently?

"Why do you ask?"

She raised an eyebrow, defiance shining in her eyes. He knew he couldn't lie to her.

"You know more of magic than I do." She told him, something Phobos started to doubt. "You wouldn't make the stupid mistake that could cost you all your powers."

A silence fell in the cell, in the prison entirely. He knew everyone listened in and he didn't feel obliged to tell them he went soft. To say he wanted to show her he wasn't power mad. That he'd failed thanks to his general and now doomed to rot in prison for the rest of his days, without her knowing he wanted to give up. Telling her that she was a too big of a challenge.

"I thought you needed me." He finally said, he voice barely above a whisper.

He knew he was stupid. He knew it was his fantasy that he needed her, but it had made him happy over so many years.
Her eyes softened when she looked at him. He loved to see her look concerned, preferably at him. As if she cared about him.

'That was what I thought, so think me naïve." He said, now evading her eyes. "I promised you a heart."

"Which I promised to keep." She replied, which made him look up.

Awe filled him as she walked through the bars, no harm befalling her. He could see a glint in her eyes. A glint of happiness and he couldn't help but smile.

"How did you do that?" He asked her.

"Magic." She replied.

She walked at him and pushed some of his locks away. Phobos smiled when she tucked them gently behind his ear, seeing the grin on her face. Her lips parted and a melody came from them, which softly lulled him. The melody was soft yet forceful, just like she was, and slowly he started to feel drowsy. She helped him to his bed and he felt her lips brushing his forehead while the melody continued. As if he realized what she was singing, he parted his lips and sang the last line in sync with her.

"Kiss my eyes and lay me to sleep."

[A/N] Well, that was it for this Valentine special. I know, Will is a bit OOC just like Phobos, but for some reason, this idea came to mind when listening to the song "Prelude 12/21" from AFI and I liked it. I always liked the WillxPhobos pairing, especially when it's a sort of Romeo and Julia relationship. Anyway, I hope you were entertained.
You may have noticed that I simply ignored that Phobos was ruling Meridian before Will could even walk, seeing that (according to the lore) he ruled even before his sister, or around the time his sister was born and we all know Will and Elyon share the same birth year, with Will being born in January and Elyon being born on Halloween.

Review!