Gold Dagger
One-shot

Characters: Eriol and Tomoyo.
Type story: One-shot

Sumarry: Eriol looses all that he cherishes. Love is not lust. It is companionship with qualities irreplacable by the desire to bed someone. That's the gist.


"If you must thrust that gold dagger into my back, aim for my heart."

He stared at her through unmoving eyes, watching her as she fit against his body, and the blade carefully tucked in his shirtsleeve slid out from under the cuff.

She peered endearingly at him. Almost as if to plead for him not to do it. Her mouth was drawn slightly open and her eyes watched him under wondering eyebrows.

"Why do you still come when you know the inevitable will happen? That I will eventually kill you?"

Nothing wavered. Her finger nimbly tugged at the buttons on his shirt. "We all die," she whispered, "I would step up to the plate if I knew I would be able to die in your arms. Then I wouldn't be afraid. If I should die this very moment, wrapped in the warmth of you, hearing you breathe, I would die forever bound within this dream."

The sternness of his eyes withered. A thin sheen filmed his eyes, the eyes she always felt was so intangible and yet, alluring. She stood on the tips of her toes, whispering softly in his ear. "I would know that I have loved someone."

He felt the hot teardrops falling from her eyes, dampening his shoulder. She laughed nervously. "However one-sided that love may have been."

He swallowed the regurgitable lump in his throat.

"Well?" A voice from behind him rung loud and clear in the marble hall. She stared over his shoulder, watching the demanding figure on the throne and then redirecting her eyes, focused in opening the window into his mind.

His mouth trembled. Her finger delicately wiped the tears away. There were never two choices. Always one.

His eyes burned in a stressed red, holding in the tears. Her melancholy smile brushed the nerves of his heart. She stretched up and kissed his lips very softly and grazed her fingers down the side of his body. She stood there with him motionless; clearly understanding how amused the god must have been, watching his mortal knight make the decision.

He felt like jumping out of his body, running away and taking her with him, but wishes don't come true. He gazed at her, questioningly. Her eyes brimmed with crystal tears. Unspoken, but asking why he could do something like this to her, but selflessly she knew she had walked into this path.

"Hold me one last time, even if you do not mean it." And he did, embracing her very strongly, but very lightly, as if he would never hurt her. He could hear her breathe in his scent, knowing she savored him as much as he savored the smell of her sweetly lustrous hair.

She pressed him away. She stared up once at him and traced her hand along his arm. Meeting up with the very hand that could, at any moment, dig the blade into her soft, porcelain skin. And with a sharp intake of breath, she had pushed the blade he held in his hand, into her back, aiming at her heart.

"No!"

"No, no! Why did you do it? I wouldn't have done it. I swear."

She shook in his arms, from pain or from automatic body reaction, he didn't know, but he knew the blood that seeped through the back of her dress. She collapsed to the ground.

"No..." He rocked her in his arms, holding her close, kissing her brow, and wiping the blood creeping along the lines of her lips. His mouth shivered uncontrollably and he shuddered.

He was loosing her. He had betrayed her and at his own cost, he was losing her.

His face twisted tragically. "You're free."

He lifted his eyes in contempt at the young god. "You told me if I didn't kill her, the world would suffer. You said the noble thing was to take the life of one person instead of the whole world. I stood here tonight before her and I knew I could not do it, but I held the dagger in my hand and felt her blood stain my hands. You are no god, you are a coward."

The young god raised his eyebrows mockingly. "Oh? But had you not betrayed her already?"

Eriol conveyed a look of disgust. "What the hell are you trying to say?"

The immortal stood up from his throne, walking slowly to the two figures on the floor. He looked down and smiled at Eriol holding Tomoyo selfishly in his arms. He bent down and reached out a hand to touch Tomoyo's face.

Eriol growled possessively under his breath and the immortal withdrew. "Fiesty little mortal, aren't you? Give her here."

"Unless you can bring her back, you will have to kill me before I let go of her."

"Hmm... well you see, technically, that's not her anymore. You killed her, remember?" He chuckled. "Now give her here."

Eriol tightened his grip around the nape and waist of Tomoyo's body. "Awww, now look, first you kill her and then you try to bruise her poor, supple body. Hand her over."

"Make me."

The young god's face became suddenly dangerous. "Oh, I will."

Everything rushed through Eriol like lightning. His body tightened up and he felt heavy, iron chain bound to his arms and legs. He felt dizzy and all of a sudden, Tomoyo was lost from him. The immortal coward had taken her into his arms, carrying her bloody-stained body and lying her on a marble alter before the throne.

He sat down on the alter next to Tomoyo. "You see, my young mortal friend. I made a deal with your beloved the other day. Gods know things humans do not and I knew you were with... that other woman. So I came to your doorstep and she generously welcomed me in. I've been watching her. She became quite frustrated when I told her that her to be was caught in a web of infidelity and she refused to believe me. You must be one hell of a liar. She was so sure you were loyal to her. She was wrong, of course, and she had lost herself to our deal."

"And what is that, you bastard?"

"I made a deal. I told her if she was right, I would bestow upon both of you mortal riches beyond all your wildest dreams."

"And if you were right?"

He smiled menacingly.

"She would die and forget everything of you and be my immortal wife."

Eriol wanted to vomit the revile he felt in the back of his mind. The thought that someone else would touch Tomoyo the way he had and bedded her at all was a thought he did not want to imagine.

"By tomorrow, everything will be fine, Eriol. Don't you worry. Everything will be back to normal."

Through tired, shadowed eyes, Eriol peered daggers at the imposing god. "Stop speaking in riddles, bastard."

"Tomoyo will no longer exist on the earth. She will not be a memory. She will never have existed, but you. You will remember her. Her face will forever be besmirched in your mind. No one will know of who you speak of. No one will believe you. After so long, you will go mad as all mortals do. May those who love you save you. Try that fiery red head. I'm sure she doesn't have much trouble pleasing you. As for me... you can watch my wife heal and forget all about you tonight. Have fun. I know I will. If I'm feeling up to it, you may watch us perform our wedding rites as husband and wife."

Author's note ok, yea, a Seperate Face is doing really bad so I did a spur of the moment one shot that doesn't really make sense. Flame me if you want, I'm not up to it, though.