Of a Feather
"It's strange," the dark-red bird said, staring at the giant crater before him. He nudged at some glass-like crystals on the ground, mixing them into the dirt at his feet. "When you get hooked up as a battery to a giant weapon, coming back to take a look at it never gives you a good feeling about what happened. Can we leave now? Please?"
He looked to his left as Xerneas sighed, trying to smile as best as she could. Although she couldn't see his face in the dark of night, she could sense how flighty returning here made him. She stroked his wing softly, trying to calm her nervous counterpart down for at least until the investigation was over. "Only a few more minutes, Yveltal. Remember, we're not here because we want to be, but because Arceus requested it." She looked around Geosenge Town – or, what used to be the small village.
The crater extended as far as the eye could see, shards of glass and crystal mixed into the gravelly earth. Surrounding it that was the wreckage of many homes, wooden facades no match for the explosive energy unleashed when the ultimate weapon collapsed on itself. She could still see little personal remnants – shattered family photos, children's toys, things that were once hallmarks of everyday life. The destruction was complete, and only on a local scale. The deer god shuddered to think about the sheer devastation that would have occurred if the device didn't fizzle.
A gust of wind above the two brought her doomsday imagination back to the present. Rayquaza was impatient as always, little green arms folded across his plated chest as he scanned the scene from above. "Well, I'm done," the snake said tersely as always, yellow eyes narrowing at the two of them. "I didn't get consumed by whatever this weapon was, but I agree with Yveltal that there are many better places to be. Not many of us return to where we were once captured, you know."
"It's important to remind ourselves of what our power is capable of," she shot back acidly, feet digging into the dirt underfoot. "Of course, I wouldn't expect a sky-high airhead like you to even get that through that thick skull of yours."
"Excuse me? I am perfectly acquainted with my power – I did save the world before, you know." He puffed out his chest, looking down at the deer. "Every day of existence is a reminder of that. I don't need a Deerling to remind me of what power is."
She snorted in contempt, looking back up at the green snake. "So when you mean 'save the world', you mean shooting Deoxys out of the sky when she was returning from a trip? Just because the human papers describe you as a complete, selfless hero doesn't mean that you actually are one. I thought you didn't give credit to what humans thought about you, but it changes when it flatters you, doesn't it?"
"Well, Xerneas, at least I can control myself," he said, voice dripping with derision. "From what you and your friend have been doing recently, I don't think you're in a position to talk about respecting our power as deities."
"You want to say that again?"
She reared back and slammed her feet into the ground, antlers shining brightly in the dark as she took on her Active mode. "I don't care about what you say about me, but the moment you include Yveltal is the moment you cross the line. Are we going to have a problem?"
"Xerneas, c'mon, you know he didn't really mean it," Yveltal said, trying to get between the two legendaries. He put his wings out in an attempt to part them, feeling them pressing hard against him as they tried to stare each other down. "We don't have to fight guys. We really don't."
Rayquaza was wiser than he let on – picking a battle with Xerneas of all Pokemon would end poorly for him. Beyond her Fairy typing rendering his most powerful attacks useless, she was a competent fighter and a fierce ally in many past battles. He had witnessed firsthand what she was capable of, and knew that she could bring him down in mere seconds. "Fine, Xerneas," the serpent said, turning and twisting his body away from the two. "I'll get going before things get... messy. Just be sure to remember that bringing him here was not my idea, but yours. Deflecting the blame from yourself won't assuage whatever causing your active-bitch mode."
The last comment had her fuming at the quickly retreating shadow. "Asshole," she muttered under her breath as the deer turned back to her counterpart. "Sorry for that, Yveltal. It's just... what a dick!" She trampled at the ground angrily.
The assent Xerneas expected never came, though. When she turned to ask Yveltal about it, she instead found him staring back out at the crater. As she too gazed out as well, she saw how the moonlight reflected off the crystals embedded in the pit, causing the crater to glimmer softly in the darkness. It would have been a beautiful view had it not been a war zone.
She paused for a moment, considering the scene. Despite his hulking birdlike figure and the tales associated with a legend of death, Yveltal was normally jovial, casual, happy, eager to go anywhere at any time with her. That completely changed after the event, though – he was so reluctant to return to the real world, instead hiding away in the cave they called home. She had hoped bringing him back here would reignite anger, understanding, or any emotion that wasn't the dourness scoring his face. "Yveltal?" she asked much more carefully, slowly sneaking her head into his field of vision.
He blinked suddenly, as if caught in a trance. "I ah – sorry, Xern," he said, flapping his wings a couple times. "I was just thinking of what happened back there – I mean, here. I was abused, used for my energy, forced to fight children by some awful man, stuff like that. It's just thinking about it, and what could have happened, I..." He turned to face Xerneas slowly, and she could see his darkened expression, the way his eyes stared lifelessly at her, and the completely lack of energy in his body. "Could I have stopped it, Xerneas? I mean..."
As Yveltal searched for some more words to string together, some way to express his compunctions, Xerneas reached out with her legs and brought them over his shoulders, embracing him gently. As she touched her head with his, she could feel his shortened breathing and how fast his heart was beating. "It's okay, Yveltal," she said, feeling his body loosen just a hair in response. "Let's just go home, alright?"
"Hey, Xern?"
"... yes?"
"Why did you bring me to Geosenge?" Yveltal sat on a straw, nestlike mat as he stared at the flickering fire between the two of them. The constant patter of rain sounded from the cave's mouth, chilly gust passing through the chamber every once in a while. Unlike many other legendaries, the two didn't have an actual place that signified home, like Dragonspiral Tower or Spear Pillar. Instead, they lived roaming the world, settling in a forest or a cave for a month or so before they got bored.
As strange as it seemed, Geosenge seemed to be the only place Yveltal felt could have been his actual home, if not for what had happened there months ago. If he closed his eyes, he could see how he was hooked up to the machine, unable to prevent the energy from leaving his body. Unable to stop himself from fueling that wicked machine. Unable to prevent the lion-like man from attempting to kill everything. If he could have just been stronger, he could have controlled the situation better.
"That's your question?" he heard sleepily besides him. Xerneas picked up her head from the mat, shaking off her grogginess. "Aren't there better things to talk about at this time of night?"
Yveltal smiled a bit, nudging her slightly with a wing. "Careful Xern – you're starting to sound like Rayquaza."
He knew that the accusation would get her immediate attention. She stood up and huffed, glaring as if the bird had a death wish. "Excuse me?"
"See!" The red bird snickered, grinning as he pointed at her. "You're just like him! Everything you two do is similar!" he started, puffing out his chest and posing grandiosely. "Like your phrasing! 'Aren't there better things to do? What did you just say? Excuse me? Well, I don't need a little Tailow explaining things to-'"
His eyes widened as Xerneas mock charged at him, force of her antlers in his chest causing him to tumble backwards as his laugh turned into a wheeze. "Don't compare me to that airhead!" she shouted at him, though she too was unable to keep her own composure as she heard Yveltal's unabated giggling. "You look absolutely ridiculous, you know. There's no way you'd pass for Rayquaza."
"Oh, that wasn't supposed to be Rayquaza," he said, getting back up on his feet. "That was supposed to be you."
Yveltal grinned as he heard that deep, exasperated sigh out of her, nudging her out of the way as he got back on the bed besides her. "You're so easy to tease," he said, watching her as she just shook her head in response.
"I could never quite understand how the arbiter of death has such a juvenile sense of humor," she returned, giving him a wry smile.
Yveltal smartly chose not to pursue that statement – besides knowing that she was absolutely right, he probably couldn't win a war of wits with his counterpart. He instead contented himself with watching the fire, feeling the warmth radiate over his feathers as he settled back down next to Xerneas.
Out of all the legendaries, he couldn't have asked for a better friend than Xerneas. She was intelligent and wise beyond her years, always able to understand what he meant and how he felt just by observation. It shouldn't be surprising that a deity responsible for life and rebirth had such an emotional capacity, but Yveltal found himself so able and willing to confide anything important or personal to her because no matter what the problem, she was able to somehow reassure him and provide comfort and support when necessary.
This caring personality came with an ego to match, though – he smirked at her outburst at being compared to Rayquaza, whose conceit was unparalleled by any other living being he knew of. He may have joked about it at first, but some truth laid in the comparison. Had he not been there to temper her ego, Yveltal reckoned that she could have easily become just as bad as Rayquaza in that department. Teasing her and joking around was lots of fun for him, but it also served as a way to remind Xerneas of how silly her attitude was sometimes no matter how good her intentions were.
That's why it really bothered him that she took him back to where he was captured and enslaved. Shouldn't she have known what memories that place would have triggered? Xerneas was the most compassionate partner he had, waiting over him for countless days and nights as he recovered from the ordeal – there was no way she couldn't have known how afraid he was. The most surreal aspect of it all was that when he initially refused to accompany her back to Geosenge, she insisted, telling him that Arceus himself ordered the two of them to investigate the ruins. Based on Rayquaza's statements, he suspected that to be a lie.
"Xern," he said softly, poking at her with a wing, "Why did you want me to go back there so much?"
"Arceus' orders," she said, giving him a confused glance. "The command was to investigate the ruins to see if there were any unusual residuals months after the event, and he selected both of us to go. I thought I told you this already, Yveltal."
Unconvinced, Yveltal hummed in response and gauged her reaction. Xerneas was also an earnest Pokemon, almost too earnest – it took some coaxing, but she was unable to lie about anything lest guilt eat away at her for the rest of eternity. It was that particular quirk Yveltal relied on to determine her real intentions behind her actions.
"Do you remember what I talked about back then?" she asked, breaking the tenuous silence between the two. "The concept of understanding our power as legendaries?"
Bingo, Yveltal thought. "Yeah – it was the thing that got Rayquaza riled up, right? I remember you two having an angry shouting match over it."
Xerneas nodded, stretching her legs as she looked up at him. "Right. I..." She trailed off, trying to pick the words delicately. "I had discussed with Arceus the merits of bringing you back to Geosenge to examine the extent of the damage caused by the weapon's misfire. The idea was that it was important to recognize that we, as legendaries, are capable of things both miraculous and disastrous that have tangible effects on other living beings." She got up and paced around the fire, light casting her shadowy antlers on the wall behind her. "A failure to understand our potential can result in calamities far greater – what if the weapon had actually fired, for example?"
"I don't want to think about it," he said, staring into the fire. "What had happened back there was horrible enough. The entire town destroyed just because the weapon had failed..." The bird looked up across the fire into Xerneas' bluish eyes, seeing those X-shaped pupils sparkle back at him. "But you know how I feel about that place." He sighed as he lowered his head. "You know what kind of memories I have."
"I just thought it would be informative," she said, breaking eye contact with Yveltal as she turned away. "Besides, what would I have done if I were stuck with just Rayquaza? I probably would have killed him, you know."
Had he been in a better mood, Yveltal would have chuckled at the joke. "C'mon, Xern" he sighed, rolling his eyes. "You've always been a bad liar. Couldn't you tell me the actual reason?"
"The actual reason to what?"
"You know already."
She gazed at him, mouth opening but failing to produce anything as she struggled for the right words . "Yveltal," she said after what seemed like an eternity, "I don't want to hurt you."
"It's fine. "I don't think much else could compare to being forced to go back there, to be honest," he said, grimacing.
He didn't realize how bitter his statement sounded until Xerneas snapped at him. "Do you think I enjoyed going there too?" he heard her say, voice echoing strongly off of the walls. "It's not like Rayquaza or I wanted to return there in the first place, you know. We tried so hard to get Arceus to send someone else, anyone else to investigate Geosenge, or just leave it alone so none of us had to revisit that horror, but he chose us!"
Yveltal flapped his wings a bit, surprised by her sudden outburst. He was starting to formulate a response when Xerneas cut in again. "Do you have any idea what it was like for me? Having to see all of that destruction, all of those lives that will never be the same again. People died, Yveltal! And to know that I, as a god of Life, don't have the power to make it right again? It was agonizing to recognize what had happened, and even worse to realize that I couldn't fix anything."
"So what was the purpose of me coming with you?" he was finally able to ask, bright blue eyes ablaze as he glared at her. "Did you need someone beside you to suffer with? Is this some revenge for what you felt when you rescued me? You knew nothing good could come from there, so why exactly did you bring me?"
"You needed to learn about what happened," she said. "I know that returning was tough, but insulating yourself from the world is not going to help you cope."
Yveltal stood up, the height of his frame rivaling Xerneas'. They both towered over the fire, posed staunchly as they exchanged glares. "What if I don't want to learn? What if I don't want to realize what happened because I couldn't stop some nutjob from using me as a weapon? What if I don't want to understand that all that destruction was my fault? Is that so much to ask for?"
"Yes!" she shouted back, slamming a foot down on the hard rock below. Shocked by her fervent, angered exclamation, Yveltal actually backed away as she gave him the complete opposite of what he expected. "The first thing you need to do is to learn! For months and months now you've been mild and timid, shying away from anything reminiscent of what happened – is this the way you want to live? Hiding away and afraid of everything? Well," she said, standing up to her full height, "You might be satisfied with that kind of life, but I will not stand idly by and let you become consumed by self-guilt and pity!"
"It's easy for you to say, on that high horse of yours!" he spat back, blood pounding through his head. "You've never been responsible for something like this before! You can't tell me that you understand how being responsible for this disaster feels like! These things you say make you seem so smart and so important, but you just don't understand!" He huffed for a moment, trying to regain his composure after the outburst.
"Sure, I know what you're thinking – 'Yveltal is death incarnate, so it's not a real problem to him. He works with it on a daily basis, so it doesn't matter too much. Why is it such a big deal, anyways?'" He shook his head, glaring at Xerneas. "Well, you should know that I myself don't kill or destroy, like how you don't resurrect the dead and give life to what's passed on. Sure, we bend the rules once in a while, but I only end those who deserve it! I don't want to be responsible for killing innocent people!"
Despite how viciously her feathered friend stabbed back at her, Xerneas didn't flinch once at anything he said. She only stood silently, contemplating his words as the storm outside howled. "You're missing my point, Yveltal," she finally said, sighing. "I'm not ignorant as to what you're going through. I rescued you from the rubble and the ruins after that event, you know. I watched over you day and night until you could fly again! You wouldn't believe some of the things you said in your sleep," she said, eliciting a somewhat bewildered look from Yveltal.
The deer then walked around the fire, walking straight up to the angered bird. "Listen," she said, catching his full attention with the force of the word. "I'm not on a high horse. I'm not doling out platitudes to appease you, nor am I speaking to feed my ego. The fact of the matter is that you need to understand that it's not your fault."
"You're bullshitting me," Yveltal said almost immediately, staring back down at her. "Do you really think I didn't try to pass the blame to someone else? Do you know how much I would give to know that this wasn't my fault? That it was that the scientists, or the kid, or AZ who was responsible for everything? Anyone but me? The fact is that I wasn't strong enough to resist them taking my power – all of this was happening around me, but I didn't do anything! I couldn't do anything!"
Xerneas looked deeply into his face, seeing more a wounded animal than a legendary in his expression. "I read the reports about the incident too, you know," she said in a bid for his trust. "From start to finish, I read about everything that you went through. You were hibernating when they first found you, right? Did you really expect to fend them off in that state? It's an illogical deduction to believe that you're guilty because you were taken advantage of. If you were active and had gotten trapped, it would be a different story, but that's not what happened here. You were clearly a victim – it's not that you weren't powerful enough to fight them off, but rather that you weren't in a position to do so.
"Sure," he said, "When you say it that way it makes me completely innocent, which sounds nice and all. But if I were strong enough, if I just had the power, I would have-"
"We both know that's a lie." She cut him off swiftly, shaking her head. "You don't have to try to impress me with how 'strong' you can be. Do you blame Palkia for the Cyrus incident because he was under the Red Chain's control? What about Dialga and the near-collapse of Temporal Tower? Or how about Kyurem and how he managed to freeze half of Unova before he could be stopped? Do you think they are guilty for what happened, or do you think they were caught by unfortunate circumstance?"
"It wasn't their fault," he said, looked abashedly at the ground. "I... but I could have stopped it! There has to have been a way for me to stop it! I mean, if I had just-"
"Yveltal!" He looked up as she called his name sharply, eyes narrowed in anger and scowl clear on her muzzle. "I don't know how many times I have to repeat myself, but you just have to get it in your head that it's not your fault! I don't know if you got a martyr complex or where it came from, but you are not someone I can watch do this to himself! Get this through your head, you stubborn idiot – you were in a bad spot, and a total dick found you and got you mired in whatever fanatical plans he had! You weren't actively attempting to kill everything around you, nor were you planning to! You just were in the wrong place at the wrong time. So just shut up and think about it for a second instead of giving me these half-assed excuses!"
As she finished her outburst, Yveltal stared at her, petrified. He knew that Xerneas had a vicious temper, but she rarely got angry at him of all legendaries. Despite being a god of life and his best friend, she was still perfectly intimidating –as if her glowing Active form weren't enough, she wore a façade tough enough to inspire fear in even the most seasoned of warriors. He backed up a little, nervous, turning his head away so that he didn't have to face the intensity of her ire head-on.
Xerneas must have realized how she appeared as well, for she calmed herself in an instant. "I- look, Yveltal, you need to listen to me. Please," she said, cave growing darker as her horns lost their glow. "What happened was terrible, and it should never happen again if we can prevent it. But no one blames you for this event. No one. Not even me."
The bird simply sat down after hearing her statement, saying not a word as he just stared into the fire. Xerneas too sat next to him in front of the fire, stretching out her legs as she shot him a glance. She finally seemed to have to struck a nerve – his expression was thoughtful, contemplative, contrasting heavily with his gloom from before. As Yveltal stroked his beak with a wing, the deer just hoped that he would arrive at the correct conclusion instead of finding yet another reason to blame himself.
It took several moments before he turned to look at her, finally able to meet her gaze. "Is it really not my fault, Xerneas?" he asked in a small voice, seeming almost afraid of the answer she had repeated so many times. "You don't blame me for everything?"
Xerneas just looked at him, relief flowing through her at that small glimmer of recognition. "Oh, Yveltal...," she said softly, giving him a small smile, "Do you think I would have spent that much time nursing you to good health if I thought you didn't deserve it? Do you think I would have put up with you for so long if I thought it was your fault? Right now you're questioning my judgment in character, and we both know what happens when someone questions my judgment in character."
Even as a deity of death, Yveltal had to grimace as he recalled the outcome of that particular situation. "Well, the last one to do that was Rayquaza, and, well..."
"Good to know you still remember." She saw the traces of a grin start to appear on his face, and knew that she only had to persist a bit longer.
"It's just that... someone has to be responsible for what happened!" he said, casting a glare into the dark recesses of the cave. "You can't just have incidents like that occur without someone responsible! Cyrus got exiled to the Distortion World! Palkia erased Darkrai's memories for messing with the timeline. Ghetsis is rotting away in prison! What about those responsible for controlling me?"
"You haven't really thought this through, have you?" she asked, watching him with a knowing look. "Those who controlled you have already served their punishments. Lysandre is most likely dead – being buried under solid rock will do that to almost anyone. And the original creator of the weapon? AZ is cursed with immortality, Yveltal. Immortality! Can you think of a worse punishment for a mortal than that?"
That concept forced Yveltal to stop and think. The legendaries were immortal by design, unlike any other living being on the planet. Because of this, they could only pursue relationships with each other, distancing themselves from significant contact with mortals. Attempting to connect with them would only result in agony when one of them would outlive the other, memory of the deceased in their mind forever. That's the reason why Arceus created so many of them – an eternity of solitude and suffering would drive even Xerneas or Mew, arbiters of life, to suicide or insanity.
"Yeah," he said, shrugging with a wing, "Honestly, I couldn't even wish that on anyone at all. I'd rather flat-out end their lives as mercy just because immortality is... I mean, if the other legendaries didn't exist, and you weren't here, Xern..." He shuddered at the mere thought of it.
"But it's not like that," she said softly, nuzzling against him. "I'm here for you, and you're here for me. Isn't that how it's supposed to be?"
A smile broke out on Yveltal's face as he looked down into the fire. "Yeah, Xern," he said, looking at her with an expression she had not seen in a very long time. "That's how it is."
The two legendaries simply sat next to each other, only the faint crackling of the fire interrupting the quiet of the cavern. Yveltal, for the first time in a while, felt content with himself. He looked down at his counterpart just lying there, Xerneas' head drooping on her legs as she struggled to stay awake. He didn't dare say it out loud, but she looked rather cute. She seemed so vulnerable and calm, nothing like the fierce but kind personality she was renowned for. Maybe if he were a little braver...
"So, Xern," he said, clearing his throat and reigning in his thoughts before they could go further, "That whole thing about power that you were talking about before..."
"Yes?"
"Why bring that up at all? I mean, you did say that's why we went out there in the first place."
She shook her sleepiness off as best as she could, raising her head to look at him. "Weak. Powerless. Helpless. These are all words you've described yourself with over the past month. I figured that you, ah..." She hesitated for a moment, trying to pick the right words. "Needed to see that you were powerful, that you did have strength inside you."
"God, Xern!" he exclaimed, mouth agape as she actually recoiled slightly. "Was that really your plan? Reminding me of how powerful I was by showing the sheer destruction I – no, Lysandre caused? You know damn well that what I meant was that I didn't have the ability to stop that power from being abused, right? Please tell me you actually knew that."
"Of course I did!" she said, looking as if she was scrambling for an excuse more than anything else. "It's not like there was any other option! Everything else I attempted failed, so this was a last resort to inspire some sort of catharsis in you. At the very least, the trip would open you up enough to actually discuss it with me. And I was right, wasn't I?" She held her head high, expecting to see Yveltal give his complete agreement there. When he failed to respond at all, she sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, don't give me that look! I know it was an awful thing to do, but it was the best option I had. The only one! You understand, right?"
For a moment Yveltal considered yelling incoherently at just how stupid her plan was, how it almost physically pained him to be standing at his ground zero. But... she wasn't wrong, was she? The rawness of the scene forced him to consult with Xerneas on an issue he had been avoiding for a long time. If he hadn't gone, he probably would have still been stuck in the past, afraid to venture out for fear of losing control again.
He begrudgingly admitted to himself that her logic was correct, but that didn't mean he had to voice his agreement – Xerneas' ego was already big as it was. A devious plan quickly came to mind; he just continued to stare at her with that same shocked, offended expression. He put effort into looking particularly scarred, mouth slightly ajar and eyes as lifeless as possible. She needed to know that she had committed a grievous, soul-destroying transgression.
"Yveltal, are you okay? You're not angry, are you?" Xerneas said, almost scared as he stuck stoically to his act. "I know it wasn't right, but I didn't have another choice in the matter. I didn't want to see you destroy yourself over guilt, and I tried talking to you before, but it didn't work. It was the last option! Yveltal, say something. Please. I swear, I'm sorry... talk to me, say something, at least!"
As she continued to sputter, the bird couldn't help but let a smirk sneak onto his face at the sight of the flustered deer. Xerneas, looking desperately for any kind of validation on his face, needed a moment to register what exactly was happening. "I don't believe you! Really, Yveltal?!" she almost yelled as he howled with laughter. "You make me apologize, grovel at your feet, plead for mercy, and to think that you were pretending the entire time?! This is... ugh!" Yveltal raised a wing in defense as she reared up, beating at him with her front legs. "You're unbelievable, you know that?! Impossible! So immature! Absolutely ridiculous!"
Yveltal wrestled with her mock attack for a bit, but she got the better of him as he toppled over from her relentless assault. "But seeing you beg for forgiveness was too good to pass up, Xern," he said, almost crying with laughter as her long legs rained down from above. "Imagine that – the god of life, so beautiful and wise, telling me repeatedly that she's sorry, promising anything to re-earn my trust, looking so pitiful as I tower over at her..."
"Enough!" She haughtily stood up, turning her head and huffing. "To think that I could be so easily debased by someone so childish! I swear, Yveltal, I just don't get why I put up with you sometimes Why did I bother rescuing you?"
"It's because you'd go mental without me," he said, picking himself off the ground. "Sometimes even the greatest need to be humbled sometimes."
"Stuff it."
That earned a chuckle from Yveltal, her response affirming all of his suspicions. "But really, Xern, thanks," he said, looking down solemnly. "Your idea was still dumb, stupid, and awful, but it worked... somehow."
He felt Xerneas come closer, raising her legs around his neck in an embrace. "You're welcome," she whispered as she laid her head on his shoulder, "And I'm glad you're back. What would I do without you harassing me every day?"
He hugged her tightly, giant wings reaching around her back. "Live with Rayquaza at the Sky Pillar? Maybe you two could actually be friends."
Yveltal heard her sigh, feeling the exhalation in her chest. "We're having a moment. Don't ruin the moment."
"Fine, Xern. I'll try harder – uh, how about..." He paused for a moment, looking past her and out of the cave. As he listened to the rain drizzle lightly outside, he found that he had actually missed these interactions with her, silly as they were. Sure, he would joke with her once in a while, but the earnest enjoyment, that particular connection between them he held dearly simply failed to materialize. On the surface there was no difference, but the sickness ran deep.
As she relaxed in his wings, he realized that though for months on end he had done nothing but sit in melancholy, she never once gave up on him. She played her cards right, he realized, in getting him to go to Geosenge with her. She read his reactions like a book, responding accordingly with what she thought was the best thing to say. It was impressive and touching, if not slightly disturbing how on-point she was. He felt his heart beat faster, blood running just a bit warmer as he thought about how impossible it was not to reciprocate those feelings, to respect them as signs of how highly Xerneas thought of him.
Yveltal hugged her tighter, the deer responding in kind as if daring never to let go. With brutal honesty he knew that there wasn't anyone else in the world kinder, more valuable, or more worthy to him than Xerneas. If she asked him to stay with her for the rest of his life, he would have absolutely no problem about that. It was with this fact in mind that he contemplated what to say back to her, how exactly to enunciate those emotions that he couldn't quite identify but knew existed deep in his heart.
"I missed you too, Xerneas" he said mechanically, monotonically. "You complete me. This world would be duller without you in it. With you, time stands still. You're my every minute of my every day. I go to sleep every night thinking of you." He paused, looking back at her as she audibly groaned. "How was that?"
"I regret saving you already."
"Fine, fine," Yveltal grumbled, "We'll have your dumb moment instead. Happy?"
"Plenty," she said, eyes drooping as she sagged a little in his grasp.
He didn't think anything of it until he heard heavy breathing just a moment later. He didn't believe her to have the audacity to fall asleep on him at first, but faint rays of light trickling from outside indicated just how late they stayed up talking. Rolling his eyes, Yveltal laid her on the bed and fanned out the fire, settling in besides her as sleepiness hit him like a train.
"Night," he whispered softly, looking at her soft deerlike face. "And..." His mind raced with what he should have said, anything besides the cheesy copout he used to divert her suspicions. "One day, Xerneas. One day I'll tell you." With that his heavy lids finally closed, one of his wings draped over her body as Yveltal too fell asleep, soft snoring of both legendary beings punctuating the silence of the cave.
Any feedback is appreciated! I'm looking to improve my writing, so anything constructive is good.