Happy birthday Eve! This is a short story for Eve's birthday...and as usual, its an ElsEve.

This story does not follow the canon some of my Elsword stories contain that Seris is alive, and it does not go by Elesis being with them all yet.

So its just typical canon with a typical ElGang on Eve's birthday.

The Metal Angel's Heart

'To love is to know...and no one knows her better...'

The twenty-third day of the eleventh month of every year. This day was a strange day for most of the ElGang to deal with. It was the day they had first found and met Eve; the day they destroyed the Nasod King and got her to join them. She had tirelessly wasted all of her efforts to hold her race, only for them to completely turn away from her...and then get taken away. Sometimes, the others were never sure how to take the fact that they had murdered the last of what she had. It wasn't like they could have avoided it, but still. They all know very well that look Elsword had seen in her face, the one that had caused him to step up and offer his hand to her in friendship. All of them know it had been conflicted and broken, possibly even...sad. Sad, an emotion that most nasods aren't supposed to even feel. Emotions weren't something Eve would often acknowledge having and she was often difficult about them, but she did better as she came to know the first boy that offered to be her friend.

It is during the reflections of this important day that they always come to one complete conclusion as a consensus every single year; that Elsword is the only one that really knows the depths of her mind. Not just her mind, but even her very metal heart. If there really is such a thing within her, considering her origins. They had a lot of supporting evidence towards this fact too. For one, Elsword was the only one that Eve really had very deep conversations with, and he was the one she had fallen in love with. She had always been more indifferent to the others, but he had always turned to be one that reached out to her. He always called to the depths of her, the part of her that she didn't show anyone else, and he was the only one she allowed this part of her. They had forged a similar, but different bind, since the twenty-third day of the eleventh month that one year they found her, three years ago. So this day was one that they considered to basically be Eve's birthday, and it was a day now that they were rushing to build the celebration for, under the guise of Elsword's distraction.

Eve wasn't stupid, and they all knew that. They all knew that she knew what they were doing. However, they also knew she would never object to having her favorite knight by her side while she waited majestically. Oh and she was just that majestic beautiful lady that always had Elsword's attention whenever it was viable to keep. It would not be surprising to know that the pair was cheerfully cuddling on Elsword's bed to watch movies. Except they weren't really watching them, they were talking. Talking and snuggling and even exchanging kisses. It was no different from typical household behaviors, and why should it ever be? The nasod of the pink and black outfit, the woman that would murder any who dared threaten her or Elsword, had always been more to him. Even though she had taken so long to admit it, he had always been more to her. It was he who had first bore his heart to her, when everyone had first retracted from Eve as a brief consideration of her possibly being a threat.

Really. The bond had been obvious before it had truly began.

"Do you guys think things would have been different if Eve had needed to reach to Elsword instead?" Aisha inquired momentarily, when the though crossed her.

"Huh..." Rena pondered it, "-actually, I think it would. But, like...I think it would have meant she would have had to open his heart instead. I wonder if he would have let her, if that had been needed."

"Considering Elsword," Raven began, "-I don't think Elsword would have ever been the person that had to open. He's always been that open guy. But if he were ever the closed one, I don't think he would have ever succeeded in opening Eve too."

"Hmm...what if it were the opposite then? So, maybe Eve would have been the open one, and Elsword were the closed one?" Ara wondered.

"Well then it wouldn't be any different! Except we'd be here saying that Eve is the one that knows Elsword best, instead of the other way," responded Chung.

"What if she does though? Maybe there's something we don't know?" Rena pondered.

"To be honest, I can't discount that. They've grown extremely close in these past three years," Raven murmured softly, "-but maybe that's something we just can't define. There's obviously things they know of one another that...we just don't."

"Well of course! They are a couple," Ara chimed, "-it's a different version of the sibling bond. Elesis probably knows a lot about Elsword that we don't know, wherever she is. I know Aren sure knew a lot about me that no one does. I mean, siblings were there before anyone else. The love relationship works similarly! Obviously they share on a different level."

"Right," Aisha responded, "-so clearly then we can say both things are true. However, although Elsword is pretty open to all of us, and Eve clearly watches out for us, I don't think any of us can say we know as much of her as he does."

"I feel like...she may as well have just handed him her metal heart," Chung shrugged, "-he's the one she trusts with it the most. The one she trusts to not leave her behind, like her race did. He's clearly the one she understands is going to be there no matter what."

"He was the first boy, maybe even the first human, that ever wanted to be her friend. So surely there's a difference. I can even confidently say that Seris has a part of me I will never hand off. Its the same with Eve. Elsword has something of her she will never hand away, even when she outlives him. Although I think that day, when he finally faces his human mortality, will be the one day where Eve determines that she no longer wants to be activated."

At everyone's brief confusion, Raven continued, "I think she'll blow out the light then, whatever actions that requires. I don't see her, after living for at least ten-thousand years, even daring to continue after the only one she ever loved has gone. I had to continue...because I know Seris would have wanted me to, but this is different; Eve doesn't ever really just...die. I don't think Elsword would ever ask her to continue into so many years alone. Seris at least knows I will one day go to her, wherever she is now. Elsword knows Eve won't, unless she makes the necessary actions."

"Unless Eve maybe made Elsword mostly nasod on the inside or so? Something like that? Then maybe he wouldn't perish? That technology is really unique you know," Aisha pointed out.

"And subject him to the thousands of years they'd destined to continue? Eve would never torment him like that," Ara replied, "-I'm sure she could never be that cruel."

"Exactly," Chung agreed with Ara.

Aisha shrugged, "You have a point. I wonder how they'd be laid to rest then."

"Oh please," Rena responded, "-you know they'd be buried side by side. Eve would have to be buried, where no one could ever reactivate her and bother her again. Where she can just rest with Elsword."

"True," Raven nodded.

"Well, let's leave that topic for now anyway. Not the time to be talking of death when we have another year of Eve's to celebrate," Aisha added, "-come on, let's do it!"

"So, same conclusion as last year?" Rena inquired.

"That Elsword knows her best? I conclude that," Raven stated.

"Same!" called Ara.

"You got it!" Chung chimed.

"Please, that will never change," Aisha laughed.

It really never would. Eve herself knows that much too, especially in her everyday life beside him. As Eve thought about these things of this day, this day of another one of her birthday celebrations, she decided to make one difference. Softly in her hands, crafting alone as she often did with a throne or such, she carefully made a white metal heart. Of course it didn't beat or anything, it was just a figurative shape of the human heart, but she knew what she meant by it as she crafted the small little representation...and gently placed it in Elsword's hands. It was odd for him to see it after these three years in such a physical form, but the message he already knew was so clear...as he gently took it into his warm hands, and kissed her gently for her birthday. Because he knew...