How…did it end up like this? The Yama Raja wondered silently as she felt the Deadly Chaser moving against her. How did it ever come to this point, when all they had wanted from the other was to wallow in their self-pity, to take out the frustrations of their unrequited loves on the other? The clawing, biting, screaming and moaning that should have been for their most treasured person, irrelevant to the other, who wanted only satisfaction. To ease their troubles without once giving a care to the other's woes.

They had been meeting in secret for months. She, who loved the elder Sieghart couldn't bear the rejection that was bound to come if she made a move towards gaining the girl's favor, and he who loved the rather annoying mage, who in turn loved Elsword, had come together to ease each other's troubled hearts. It was she who had suggested this; that they take out their frustrations on the other, and let it be nothing more than that. At first he was hesitant, but with a little goading, he had gladly accepted.

And at first, it had been just that. The more she goaded him with insults of his heart's desire, the more he would try to smother her words with rough kisses, the more he would envision the girl beneath him was the girl he loved most and let loose his pent up lust. And the same had been for him to her. They neither cared nor dared to ask what happened, all they had wanted was release from the fate that awaited them.

And every night, as soon as they were finished, there would be no words. He would simply dress and leave, leaving the girl to clench her fists and hold back the tears that would no doubt come as she wondered just why she could not have what she wanted. Why she could not lie with the girl she held most dear.

However, she was never able to hold back the tears for very long, and her sorrows were finally displayed to the world. The girl who everyone believed to be so strong-willed and inflexible, was truly nothing of the sort. She was broken, miserable, and let her body be used by a man she could not say she loved. No, they were distant from one another, nothing more than acquaintances. They only knew each other by name, and that was all.

But now, he was gentle with her. The painful groping and biting replaced by gentle caresses and kisses, causing her skin to heat up, and her heart to pound. Her harsh breaths which had first egged him on to continue torturing her body and use her however he wished, only spurred him to be gentler, as if doing so was his way of repairing the damage done.

Why? She wondered time and again as he kissed the bruises and scars, running his tongue affectionately over them like a dog licking its own wounds. Every now and again there would be the slightest pinch as he gently nibbled on them, making the girl flinch ever so slightly, and blush even more.

His hands, which at first would touch her anywhere they pleased, seeking only to heighten their owner's own lust rather than her own, were now gentle and deliberate, straying away from the places they knew would make her feel even the tiniest bit more than she did now. Instead they caressed her thighs and hips, her arms and her back, but never anywhere more intimate than that, while his lips stayed at her neck and her arms, never straying below her collarbone or above her jaw.

Anticipation made her frustrated, and frustration made her want more than this. Where were his stinging insults? His curses and his flat-toned declarations that she would never satisfy him like he imagined Aisha could? Where were the vulgar words that would shatter her to her core and make her give her all to him, if not out of love or need, then out of obligation? Why was he treating her like this?

Why now, when self-destruction was all she craved?

As she opened her mouth to wonder aloud, she felt his lips finally crash upon hers, but not as roughly as he normally would. She felt his tongue licking slowly along her bottom lip, begging for entry, and she allowed it. As the kiss deepened, she felt the hands running up her hips stop, felt his weight fall upon her, and his tongue slowly brush against her own. She felt his tongue withdraw for a moment, as if seeking rest, before it darted back into her mouth, waking her own tongue as began to dance about. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her face burned even more.