Hey everyone! It's been awhile, and I have barely had the time to work on anything with college.
So... while I have no updates on anything I've been working on, I do have this MariamXElluka one-shot that I had to work on for my Creative Writing class. This does mean though that this isn't the final version, since I had to submit it for peer-critique and then I'll have to revise it, and then submit it a final time. I'll post the final version here I think, whether by replacing the document or by adding it on as a new chapter.
Yes I also know that using fanfic for Creative Writing is cringy, but I write at such a slow pace that this it would have taken me too long to work on something else! We're allowed one piece of fanfiction, so this is going to have to be it.
This was a request by someone on the Evillious Chronicles discord (you can message me for the code to it if you want). The cover image is by s-aturnales on tumblr, she's also the one who requested it.
I would say I can do commissions but ehhh who honestly pays for writing? So if you want a request I can do it, just keep in mind that it'll take a bit. All of the writing I do at the moment is for free and I have college and everything.
The crimson rays of the dying day tempered the color of Elluka's blue bedsheets as she entered her room. With a soft sigh she closed the oak door carefully behind her.
Elluka practiced dealing with visiting dignitaries before as the "Witch of Beelzenia," but not nearly with as many as was required in the Lucifenian court. With the burgeoning kingdom's power only growing more and more people of high note and rank attempted to establish trade and contact, an excellent direction for the kingdom.
But it was quite tiring for an introverted sorceress. Elluka let herself flop onto her bed and stare at the ceiling. The light from the sun felt lukewarm, though it was fading. As the room grew dimmer Elluka glanced at the torches on the wall, debating on whether to stay up. "Hm. I think I'll pass..." She turned to her side with a yawn and grabbed a blanket she had pulled up and slipped down underneath it. The scuffle of fabrics brushing against each other reminded her that she forgot to take off her clothes.
"Damnit."
A few minutes later, with her robe and accessories tossed over the side of the bed, Elluka was freed. Elluka closed her eyes and drifted off instantly.
Elluka found herself met with the hellish yard having replaced earth as she rose from the rubble. But the dirt smudged across her robes did not draw her attention like the complete silence that surrounded her.
She held her hands up, inspecting their pristine condition. She reached down and lifted up the remnants of her robes, noting the absence of scars or scratches on her skin as well.
As she looked around though, Elluka's eyes widened. The ground was covered with black ash and rubble. Not really just the ground either. Just…everything. She stared up at the sky, noting how gray and cloudy it was. If it weren't for the fact that her soot-stained robes still held traces of gold trim, along with her hay-colored hair, she would have thought that color had faded into monochrome.
"Hello?" Elluka glanced around, desperately searching for someone to break the silent environment. "Is anyone here?" She heaved aside debris and checked decimated buildings for any sign that she wasn't alone here.
"What happened here..." She replaced her memories of the most recent experience, that of the survival competition. Her blood froze in her veins as her focus lingered on the final memory of that event.
Pain burst from her back while two small arms still embraced her. Elluka still could hear the soft growl that came from her loved one as a dagger was plunged into Elluka's back. "Irina… Sis... W-why?"
No answer came from Irina as she stepped back and watched Elluka fall to the ground. But crazed chuckling poured out from her mouth and Elluka felt hot clear liquid drop onto her nose and face from above.
Elluka blinked to get out of the memory and clutched the sides of her robe with her hands. She managed to choke back a sob, despite a lack of people there to witness it. "A-anyone?" She let herself fall back onto the ground and settled one a piece of blackened rubble. She didn't want to imagine what it used to be. Other than her heavy breathing Elluka couldn't hear a thing. She brought her knees to her chest, placed her arms on top, and then buried her head inside.
There was a soft rapping against the door of her room, and Elluka looked around in the darkness. "W-who is it?"
"Mariam, can I talk to you, Elluka?"
"Uhh… Sure." Elluka snapped her fingers and the torches around the walls of her room lit themselves. She sat up and pulled her blankets around her as she blinked to adjust to the light. "Come right in."
"Are you going to backstab me?" Mariam chuckled as she entered. But as she looked up and found Elluka's expression, she faltered a bit. "Oh, I know you wouldn't dream of it."
Elluka smiled weakly regardless. "But I have no reason to...yet," she said as she attempted to play along. "Unless there's a sin vessel hiding behind you that I don't know about?" She was grateful that Mariam knew about her true task—which was to gather the vessels of the seven deadly sin demons—yet still kept quiet about it.
"Ah, but I would imagine you could sense one of those on me from a mile away." She shut the door behind her and pushed a lock of her silver hair behind her ear. "I hope I'm not intruding."
Elluka laughed dryly at that. "Not with how exhausted I am, you could easily backstab me too, rogue..." She stretched and pushed the covers down as she sat up. Her gaze met Mariam's by chance, yet afterwards Elluka couldn't draw her gaze away after getting a good look at her. Heat swept right into her cheeks. "Y-you're fine though..."
Mariam's hair was lose and sitting around her shoulders, framing her chest. As Mariam took off her cloak Elluka noticed that the modest attire that the head maid usually wore was replaced with nightgown of particularly low cut, providing an even clearer vision of her cleavage. While Mariam was pale-skinned, her breasts still managed to stand out from her hair by a small amount, though they were starting to sag. Her figure was slender and her face wearing a warm smile that emphasized the wrinkles beginning to grow in the corners of her eyes.
The age was starting to show on Mariam, but Elluka's heart fluttered regardless at her tall, proud posture and cunning gaze, in addition to her still fine physical features.
"I also have no reason to, it sounds like we are both safe here," Mariam spoke softly. The former assassin traveled across the room without making a single sound. When she reached Elluka's bed her grin stretched a bit farther. "Though it looks like you just left a battleground!"
Elluka blushed harder knowing that Mariam was right, by now her head would be covered by a robin's nest of pink hair, and she could feel the bags starting to form under her eyes from her disturbed sleep.
Mariam leaned forward and planted her hands firmly in Elluka's bed before lifting up a hand and brushing crumbs of something off of Elluka's cheek. It was a few seconds before she realized that it was dried saliva. "I didn't know you were the kind of person to drool in your sleep, Elluka."
"Don't usually, just when I have nightmares." Elluka's gaze shifted a little to the floor on the side of the bed. She wouldn't mention that she has them nearly every night.
"Oh, so you had a nightmare then?"
"Why do you care so much? You sound sappy Mariam."
"I can relate."
Elluka turned and eyed her. Mariam's eyebrows lifted and she chuckled bitterly. "I have them too." Her head was tilted to the side and Elluka noticed a miniscule amount of water gathering around her eyes. "You can't participate in our line of work without some degree of damage to our sleep, don't you agree?"
Elluka paused and nodded. "They almost never leave..." She realized she kept oogling Mariam's face, running her eyes over the dark circles under her silver eyes, her soft skin and cheeks. Heat drew to her face. "You're pretty close Mariam..."
Then a soft teardrop ran down Mariam's cheek and landed on one of Elluka's hands. The fellow hero collapsed onto Elluka and brought them plummeting backwards onto the bed. "Mariam?"
"We're just always so alone, and when we finally have others they'll eventually just die..." She whimpered in Elluka's ear. Elluka inhaled at the pain that flashed in her chest. As someone immortal, she was familiar with it. Her train of thought wandered through the forest of memories for people who she knew during their lifetimes, but died while she was forced to move on.
Elluka forced herself to exhale. "I definitely know the feeling..." She sensed Mariam's arms reach around her and hug her tightly. The two women were now both laying on Elluka's bed, with Mariam on top of Elluka. She returned Mariam's hug. A gentle prodding was perceived on her body above the covers.
"You're without clothes!" Mariam exclaimed, her eyes widening.
Elluka blushed, "I was sleeping before you came in here, I didn't feel like changing into a nightgown..."
"Oh, my apologies." The other woman's pale cheeks also filled with red, contrasting against her white complexion. "That is quite improper of me-" She started to rise away from Elluka.
"No no it's fine." Elluka squeezed her tighter. "I really don't mind…" She took in the stricken features of Mariam's face. Then she loosened her grip. She hadn't meant to clutch Mariam. "You can stay if it helps, I really don't mind." Elluka didn't want to be alone either.
But to her surprise, Mariam drew her in and hugged her back. Elluka opened her mouth, but no words echoed out to fill the silence.
"You know… you don't look different from the day we met years ago," Mariam murmured. "Is it the magic?" The other woman's hands began to caress Elluka's neck. Her skin was undoubtedly much clearer than Mariam's.
After a couple seconds Elluka moved her hand away. "You could say that..." To be truthful, Elluka didn't know. She had woken up immortal in the midst of a ruined city. She shuddered in Mariam's grip a bit, but couldn't figure out why, feeling warmth pass down her arms and the rest of her body from where Mariam touched her tanned skin. She saw her pink hair mix with Mariam's silver tangles, locking them together, a sunrise melting over the snow-capped Lucifenian mountains.
"Someday we're just going to be sitting on our deathbeds, me and Leonhart, and you'll be just as youthful as now?" Mariam asked, her eyes widened.
Elluka nodded hesitantly. "Perhaps..."
"Isn't that lonely?" Mariam's eyes held concern for Elluka as she cuddled the sorceress. Her long fingers stroked Elluka's back to express sympathy. "What's the point of all that power if you're just going to outlive everyone?"
A dry chuckle escaped Elluka's lips without her consent, damn that was a good question. "To take the sin vessels and destroy them. To protect the world from them. I didn't choose this path, but it's my only option."
"I still barely know a thing about your past prior to you being the Witch of Beelzenia, yet I still haven't felt this comfortable around anyone else..." Mariam sighed. "That is a horrid fate."
She took a strand of Mariam's hair from the tangle and began to rub it, admiring how the smooth texture felt beneath her fingers. "Hey hey, nobody here has a lick of information about your past, Mariam. The only person who's past is loud and clear is Leonhart, and that's just because he has a daughter who blabbers it to the entire court," she joked. "I wouldn't worry about it..."
She dropped the strand of hair. Her hand froze. "You shouldn't get too comfortable though..." Panic crept in like fog closing around a clearing. "I'm not the kind of person you want to get close to." The bleak landscape of an extinct kingdom flashed in her head. Elluka caught herself begin to tremble, fearful it would be repeated.
"You're a wonderful magician though… not at all a 'witch'," Mariam leaned forward and wiped some water gathering around Elluka's eyes. The paranoia scattered, but the image only faded. Elluka's sight zoomed into focus, targeting the tender smile of Mariam.
"That's not it… I've had more loss than you could imagine-"
"We just spoke about how we both faced great lost, Elluka. I can imagine a considerable amount of loss regardless of who faced more," Mariam snapped, then frowned. Elluka's lips followed suit. "Or maybe I can't, seeing as I can't even tell how long you've been alive… Once we all die will you just be alone again?"
"Well, that won't happen for awhile, but probably not." Elluka flipped her own frown, hoping it would provoke Mariam to grin as well. "After all, I could die with you guys as well." It wasn't a total lie, even if she wouldn't die of age she could still die through other means. The tension drained from Mariam's muscles. "We don't have to be alone though, as long as we're together."
Mariam relaxed into Elluka, placing her head on Elluka's shoulder. "It would be nice, to not be alone..." For a few minutes they simply cuddled, and listened to the gentle breathing of the other. A magnetism pervaded the air that kept Elluka craving proximity to Mariam. This wasn't the first time she felt it, but tonight it was stronger than ever. "Would you ever want children?"
Elluka sighed. One of her hands slowly clenched into a fist, with part of Mariam's nightgown still inside. "I did once, but I gave up that hope. What about you?"
"It was never a priority of mine, I wouldn't consider myself one for childrearing. But life is unpredictable. I wouldn't say no to one. I don't think it will happen though."
"Why the doubt? You're still young enough to have some if you wanted." Elluka felt a gentle cold breeze drift in from the open window in her room, she really should have closed it before. An owl hooted from outside.
But the soft silk of the bedsheets and nightgown kept Mariam's body heat pressed against Elluka.
"My… preferences for partners does not contain the possibility of pregnancy." Elluka's keep ears picked up the bitter undertones of Mariam's voice and her curiosity poked at her. She let go of Mariam's nightgown.
"Preferences... guys don't suit your tastes huh?" Elluka joked as she gestured to their current situation. That's when Mariam started to blush deeply, and Elluka's heart skipped a beat. "Ohhh, I think I see it."
"I don't make it particularly clear, court gossip is sensitive these days without war or intrigue to worry about," Mariam scoffed. Elluka shifted a bit to get a better look of her face. Mariam's face—illuminated only by moonlight and fading candlelight—contrasted from it's usual emotionless state. At the moment, snuggled up next to one of her closest friends, she appeared to show a bit of raw pain. Elluka resisted the urge to become sappy, and decided to continue with humor.
Elluka rolled her eyes. "I suppose that's true. Did you hear about the cook's wife? I heard that she is secretly enjoying herself with a horse from the stables!" She did begin rubbing Mariam's back though. "I bet the wife is the mother of that new foal, Josephine."
To Elluka's relief, she felt Mariam beginning to relax as she broke into laughter. To Elluka's surprise, she felt herself relax as well. Her fear started to dissipate in the embrace of the other woman. She rubbed her fingers in circles across Mariam's back above her nightgown.
"I'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone about it though… Though it doesn't seem like it would be a problem with you," Mariam murmured. The heat from her body spread onto Elluka's beating back any chill from the outside wind.
"Nah, I don't mind. Girls are just as welcome as guys in my books," Elluka whispered back. She kept her voice silky. She considered the other woman for a moment. Elluka hadn't been with a woman before, not since her fiance. After… that incident… she had never been able to get close enough to others.
It wasn't well known that the priestesses of Levia-Behemo in her long ago-decimated country had to keep chaste from men. Nowhere in the rules did it say that the priestesses couldn't engage in such relations with each other. "So you're welcome as well. We can keep each other company."
Mariam lifted her head up and locked eyes with Elluka. "You can't be serious?"
Elluka winked back "Of course I am, for once." Her head lunged forward and took Mariam's in a kiss. A sensation she hadn't felt for centuries swept through her body, arousal. She had dreamt once or twice of the nights of passion that she shared Kiril, her late fiance. Those dreams were drowned out by oceans of nightmares from the survival competition, and the aftermath that occurred when she woke up after the explosion.
But now, thoughts and cravings of him pressing his bare chest against her reformed into a newer, fresher feeling. Her skin was more ashen than Kiril's, and older. But that didn't matter to Elluka as the immortal sorceress held her close, slipping a finger down Mariam's spine and ending near where her tailbone was, feeling a shudder from her so slight Elluka was amazed it set off another burst of cravings as the other hand held Mariam down by her back. Afterwards she grabbed at Mariam's back and realized with regret that while Elluka herself was naked, Mariam wasn't.
It was brief though, and right after Mariam broke away with flushed cheeks. Elluka could tell that Mariam's face reddened beyond what the candlelight could create. A giggle that sounded somewhat shy broke out from Mariam. "I wasn't expecting that Elluka..."
"Wasn't I always considered the whimsical one?" Elluka's own face warmed, and she observed that the breathing of the two of them was more like light panting.
"Indeed, you always were the most unpredictable of us, suddenly changing sides like that years ago."
"Life is full of changing directions, I simply follow them as I feel the flow." Elluka gave a slight hum, following a tune bouncing in her brain for centuries that never left her thoughts. Whether it was from the echo of a music box or a song from much farther in the past she couldn't place it's origin.
If life could change as much as it has, perhaps she could get used to the attention of another, perhaps she wouldn't mess up this time. "This seems like it will just be another new path for me."
"I could say the same for myself, may our path prosper with us both working on it." Elluka felt a soft peck on her cheek.
"Yes, may it prosper."
If you feel like you have anything to say, feel free to review! I welcome all critique (I am in a creative writing class after all.)
