"Almaz… Almaz…"
Princess…
"Almaz…?"
Princess Sapphire!
"Almaz, what is it? What's wrong?"
Oh, Princess…it's alright, you don't have to be concerned over someone worthless like me.
"What is it, Almaz?"
She is so kind. What a beautiful heart she has.
…Her heart.
"Almaz…?"
With trembling fingers, he reached for her. Her platinum honey hair glittered and shone in the dying firelight glowing from the smoldering embers in the fireplace.
"Princess…" he whispered and his voice rasped.
Her eyes widened—such gorgeous, deep pure crystal blue. He could get lost in those eyes for hours. He touched her and electric heat shot through his fingers and up his arms. His dark hair fluttered and rose, standing on its ends. She always filled him with these foreign, burning emotions. Just by being, by existing, standing beside him like this, she could make him blind and hungry with need. He brushed one thumb across the exposed skin of her hip (porcelain white in the dim light of her quarters), relishing her soft gasp of surprise as burning heat flashed up his neck and face. He drew her close.
"Princess…" he rasped again, cleared his throat. It sounded like he was growling. "My princess."
"Almaz…" she whimpered, her breath catching in her throat and her eyebrows quivering with an unclear emotion. He longed to keep it there on her face; it sated his hunger. His hands climbed up her body, caught on her soft, perfect shoulders, slid under the white feathered jacket and slowly, purposefully slipped it down and off her arms. Her eyes filled with crystalline tears. "Almaz…!" she gasped.
His consciousness fought to gain control of his body, but her scent was everywhere, overwhelming and overpowering him. His mind spun sweetly, maddeningly. He pulled her by her arms abruptly closer and she cried out in surprise, flinching away. His heart almost broke at the look she gave him. She was so innocent, so pure, so fragile. He wanted to do everything and all in his power to protect her from all harm.
"Sapphire…" the name rushed out from between his lips, like a hiss. And like a secret signal, he leaned over and began kissing her. First her bare shoulder, then the curve of her exposed neck. Her collarbone, her jaw, her cheek. He tasted her tears and mumbled to her soothingly, incoherently.
"Don't be scared—"
Princess.
"—don't worry—"
I, the legendary hero...
"—I will protect you."
Kissing, kissing. Feeling her skin against his lips, the sheen of sugar-tasting sweat on his mouth, her whimpers, her chest heaving and quivering with unsteady breaths…Almaz felt himself falling and did not try to stop himself. I want this. I want her. I want to be with her, forever. I…I…
"ALMAZ!"
The new voice snapped him out of his thought spiral. He heard an angry growl and turned his head up, away from the princess, to look at the intruder standing in the doorway. It was Beryl, holding a tea tray. "What…what have you done!" her hands relaxed in fear. The bronze tray crashed to the floor, hot tea and painted ceramic shards skittered every which way. Furious with shame at being caught like this, Almaz found he had no words to explain himself. He simply released the princess and stepped away from her. Not having anyone to support her, she fell over, landing hard in the mess of hot tea and ceramic fragments. Princess! He lunged for her. A hand caught him by the throat and forced him back, flung him into the opposite wall, knocking his head against the cold damp stone. He ignored the pain and the ringing in his ears and dove for her, screaming.
"Princess! Princess!"
"Get her out of here NOW!" he heard Mao exclaim. A foot connected with his face and down he went again, howling in pain. His nose was broken, he didn't care. He could still smell her around him, taste her on his lips, could still feel her in his grasp.
"No!" he howled in pain and rage. "NO! YOU CAN'T TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!"
The slam of the door made him howl again. Now it was only he and Mao. The white-haired demon glared at him in a mixture of anger and pity.
"I somehow feel this is all my fault," he murmured. With grim determination burning in his eyes, the son of the Overlord drew his blade on Almaz. The other boy was too angry to be confused or afraid. He wanted Sapphire back in his arms! He wanted to keep kissing her and whispering to her and feeling her tremble in his—
Beryl flew down the empty halls, Asuka and Kyoko right on her tail. Sapphire's ragged breathing echoed down the dark passageways.
"Don't jostle her!" Beryl warned.
"There's too much blood!" Asuka wailed. "I don't think—"
"We need to get her to the nurse's office as soon as possible!" Kyoko cut her off harshly. "Don't think, just run!"
"You thought you were holding her, didn't you?" he asked. There was no answer. "You thought you were caressing her skin and kissing her face and…and loving her," Mao's nose wrinkled at the thoughts, the implications, but he didn't turn around. He couldn't turn around. "Almaz…" he continued. "This really is my fault after all… If only I hadn't switched our hearts. If only I hadn't wanted to become a Hero so badly…" He lifted one hand and looked at it, as if he expected holy light to come radiating out of his palm. He tried to hate it, but he couldn't. He was a Hero. He had smitten something wicked…a demon, to protect a princess. It was what Heroes did. As for the demons they slew…
"Almaz," he whispered, regret and sorrow thickening his voice, "I am truly sorry for what I've done to you." He bowed his head and left the blood-drenched room behind, slamming the door shut on the image that would haunt him in his newly-arriving dreams for the rest of his life.
…Sap…phire…