"Ever The Same"
Daine X Numair
Songfic to "Ever the Same" by Rob Thomas.
Challenge from: Mage of Dragons
AN: I recommend you listen to the song as you read this… it was a brilliant idea from Mage of Dragons, it made me cry just thinking of them and listening to this song!!!
*************
Numair fell to his knees as at last the great battle was finished, landing on his knees amidst the pounding rain. With one final blast of magical energy, the last enemy who had yet to retreat had fallen dead. And now he was alone, in the middle of the blood soaked field. Tears fell, unheeded, down his cheeks as he looked with pained eyes over the scattered bodies, enemies and friends mingled together in careless heaps.
We were drawn from the weeds
We were brave like soldiers
Falling down under the pale moonlight
You were holding to me
Like a someone broken
And I couldn't tell you but I'm telling you now
Daine. Daine was somewhere among those bodies. He had seen her fall, an arrow from an enemies bow lodged in her stomach. His beautiful, beloved Daine. Life without her was… unimaginable. Intolerable. The pain burst from his heart and spread over his body, waves of agony that were more real to him then any physical pain he could have suffered. Numair lurched to his feet, scrambled through the mud to stand on weak, shaking legs. Stumbling, he pulled himself over to the nearest pile of bodies.
And there she was. The body of his student, his friend, his dearest love. Crumpled on the ground, just another casualty of war. She was wet and covered in mud. her dark hair hanging in limp curls around her small, pale face. A blood stain gathered around her torn shirt, and she gripped an arrow in one limp hand.
Numair let out a cry - a sound that was more animal then human. A broken, lost scream that was caught by the rain and tampered out before it could be heard. Once again, he dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around her and cradling her limp body close to his.
Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you and we'll both fall down
Fall on me
Tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
forever in me
Ever the same
"Daine?" He moaned, as he began to rock back and forth, constantly, hopelessly. He ran his hands over her beloved face, kissed her cheek, her forehead, her cold lips. "Magelet? Please, please, Daine, don't do this to me!"
His voice was hoarse, raw. The tears mingled with the rain, but did not cease. His chest heaved with sobs that he was in too much pain to let out, and his entire body trembled with the shock.
"Please, Magelet. Come back to me. You cannot leave me… I love you. Daine?"
We would stand in the wind
We were free like water
Flowing down
Under the warmth of the sun
Now it's cold and we're scared
And we've both been shaken
Hey, look at us
Man, this doesn't need to be the end
He closed his eyes and bent his dark head over her body.
"N-Numair?"
He froze. It couldn't be. It simply couldn't be. Before he even opened his eyes, he tried to tell himself not to get his hopes up. It was impossible, the voice could not be hers. But his heart wasn't listening, and at the sound of his name hopeful joy spread like wildfire thought his veins.
Numair opened his eyes. In his arms, Daine had done the same, and those eyes, so familiar to him in every way, gazed up at him. They were distant, glazed with pain, but they were open, conscious, looking at him.
"Oh, Gods, Daine!" He yanked her against him, kissing every inch of Daine's face he could find, running his hands through her hair. "I thought you were dead!"
She shuddered in his arms and whispered, "You've thought I was dead before."
Numair remembered it as well as she did: The first time they had kissed, the first time they had admitted - both to each other and to themselves- how they felt about each other.
"Your wound…"
He began to pull back to look at her wound, but Daine shook her head fiercely and pulled her back to him, burying her face in his shoulder.
"N-no. It's okay. It didn't hit anything important. Please, N-Numair, just hold me."
Just let me hold you while you're falling apart
Just let me hold you and we'll both fall down
Fall on me tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same
Call on me
I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me
Forever it's you
Forever in me
Ever the same
More then happy to comply, he pulled her even closer to him and wrapped his arms more securely around her, cradling her as he had the first time they had ever kissed, what seemed like an eternity ago now.
Numair laughed again, a shaky, broken sound that held no humor. "Gods, Magelet, what would I do without you?"
Daine pulled back slightly in his arms and looked up at him, placing one pale hand against his face.
"Numair Salmalin."
When he looked at her, she met his eyes with her own and her face grew solemn.
"Numair Salmalin, I will not die here on this field, and neither shall you. There shall be battles and wars, and enemies that seem to be undefeatable. There will be times when we think all hope is lost. But none of that - none of it - could ever separate us."
Tears filled her eyes as she looked up at him and her voice became choked, shaky. "We have been through too much together to let anything defeat us now. And even when… it's time for us to go, we will be together always. Not even death could keep us apart."
He smiled tenderly down at her, then stood, lifting her easily in his arms. "I know it Magelet. I love you, forever. Beyond death and beyond eternity."
Reaching up, Daine kissed Numair, and they traveled together back towards the castle, and the safety of its walls.
You may need me there
To carry all your weight
But you're no burden I assure
You tide me over
With a warmth I'll not forget
But I can only give you love
Fall on me tell me everything you want me to be
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same
Call on me
I'll be there for you and you'll be there for me
Forever it's you
Forever in me
Ever the same
Forever with you
Forever in me
Ever the same