-Okay, so I thought that Ruination was over, but then I realized there was still a question to be answered about Newt's and Minho's relationship. So, this epilogue is to answer that question. This is the ending to the main storyline of Hellfire. Though, I love this world so much, that I think there's gonna be some more one-shots coming soon. But as for all the loose ends, this ties them all together and sets up our beautiful little couple. :)
I'm so happy you all loved this so much, because I know I did too. Thank you for all the wonderful support you've given me. I hope to write more for you in future :)-
-EPILOGUE-
A nightmare of Max's laughter, fire, and screams jolted Minho awake in an unfamiliar room. Gasping, he sat bolt upright, sheets slipping down his torso and his eyes wide. He glanced hurriedly around the room at the ornate fireplace and maroon-and-ebony furniture. None of this was his! Where was he!?
Then, in a flash, he remembered. A long sigh of relief escaped him as he relaxed in the lavish circular bed. The covers were red-and-black silk and they were soft in every place they touched his bare skin. He realized that that was pretty much everywhere at this point, considering he wore only his boxers. Running his hands through messy black hair, he released another breath, sharp with lingering fear. That nightmare had felt much too vivid, too real, for his liking. He'd thought he was going to watch Max slaughter everyone he cared about right in front of him, blood spattering the walls and flames leaping—
His thoughts crashed to a halt when a figure shifted from the mattress to his right, a hand splaying on his stomach. He blinked as a gorgeous fair-haired demon drew himself up to rest an ivory cheek on his chest. "Mmm, darling, what's wrong?" Newt asked sleepily, eyes still closed as he leaned against a still-upright Minho.
Minho wanted to melt under Newt's chocolaty sleep-voice. "I'm fine," he murmured. "Bad dream about Max, I think."
"Ugh, don't talk about him here." Newt touched a few lazy kisses to Minho's chest. "Come back to bed."
Minho braced a hand on the mattress and ran the other down Newt's back once. The demon looked odd and beautiful without his colored nails or cross necklaces. He still sported his obsidian cross pierced at his navel though and Minho adored it. "Newt," he began reluctantly. "You know...I have to go home at some point. My parents are probably furious by now."
"Oh, don't bother." Newt gave a light yawn. "I'll alter their memories for you later."
"Well..."
"Minho," Newt complained, and nuzzled into Minho's chest. His whimper came muffled: "will it help if I beg? Please, love, come back to bed. It's cold without you." He blinked up at Minho, drowsy and with half-lidded blue eyes.
Oh, Minho was a sucker for Newt's bedroom eyes. "Okay," he said softly. He pressed his lips to the top of Newt's head. In return, Newt dragged him down onto the mattress again. Minho swallowed an overwhelming surge of affection as Newt tugged the covers up to their chins. The demon had been utterly devoted to Minho's comfort since they'd made love for the first time the night before. Minho had awoken halfway through the night, dazed, and found piles of lush pillows surrounding him. There was also a feather-soft blanket added to the bed and it had felt marvelous. When he questioned Newt, the demon had just said, "if there's not enough, let me know."
Now, Newt was tucking himself up against Minho's side, curling a leg around Minho's as sleep tried to overtake him again. Minho played with a strand of Newt's hair. God, did he love him. "Newt?" he tried.
"What?"
"Are you...um. Nothing." He wasn't even sure what he wanted to ask.
Newt shifted under the covers. "Nothing?"
"Yeah, I forgot what I was gonna say," Minho lied. A yawn threatened to rise out of him and he sank himself down beneath the warm sheets even more. "What time is it?" he asked.
"A few hours before dawn." Delicately, Newt ghosted his fingertips over Minho's forehead and then his eyebrows, coaxing his eyes shut. "Go back to sleep, Minho," he murmured, index finger continuing down Minho's nose. "I'll wake you when it's morning."
"Kay," Minho mumbled, the tiredness already ebbing back into his bones.
Newt's hair brushed his neck and they laid silently for a few minutes. Newt's breathing sounded like a lullaby. Then Minho broke the peace again. "Izikk."
Newt's breath hitched. "Yes?"
"I'm glad you were my first."
Newt's eyes flicked open. He stayed where he was for several moments, unmoving. He didn't answer. His mind was running over those words, the words he'd uttered last night with Minho in his arms. He hadn't meant—That is, he hadn't known he'd slip up. Beneath him, Minho's body stilled into the peaceful breaths of sleep. Newt swallowed and propped himself up on his elbows. Bending over Minho, he studied the human's features: coal-black hair all mussed and his curving eyelashes and the tempting details of his sleek touchable skin. Newt watched his human sleep and a strange warm feeling stirred inside of him. He thought of those words and reached up to gently cup Minho's cheek. "Wretched human," he whispered, "you made me love you."
-X-X-X-
When Minho next woke up, he guessed it was morning. This room was deep in the vast house and so had no windows. But the silvery blue flames had been snuffed out in the fireplace and a lamp was lit on a bedside table. Forcing himself to sit up, he smoothed a strand of hair out of his face. He glanced at the empty space in bed beside him. Newt must've been awake already. Sighing, he stretched with his arms reaching for the ceiling, the bend of muscle feeling good in the morning. There was a shuffle of someone's feet in the doorway and he glanced up.
"Good morning." Newt leaned against the doorway, looking casually immaculate in his oversized ivory sweater and black jeans. His hair was still a little ruffled from sleep. Half of a smile tipped his lips. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah." Minho lowered his arms again. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"
Affection warmed Newt's gaze. "You looked so—" Abruptly, he cut himself off, a hint of pink in his cheeks. "That is, I thought you'd want to sleep longer."
Minho wondered what he'd been about to say. "Thanks," he mumbled, shyly ducking his head. "Um. Last night was..."
"It was," Newt agreed quietly.
Minho found that he was smiling. Then the smile was wiped right off his face when Newt strode to the bed and then kept coming, bending over Minho, making him lean back on his elbows with a hitched breath... Newt kissed his bottom lip and Minho whimpered, "Newt..."
A sigh fell from Newt's lips. "Do you know what you did to me?" he asked, and Minho was surprised by how his voice shook slightly. "You made me so..." He bowed his head into the crook of Minho's neck, nuzzling in and closing his eyes. "I never thought I'd take a human mate, Minho."
"I never thought I'd have a demon boyfriend," Minho replied, lightly massaging the back of Newt's neck.
The demon purred in his arms. "It's more than that, though," he whispered. His fingertips danced a path down Minho's torso. "I meant the things that I said last night."
Minho paused. "What are you saying?"
"You see, um... I love you." Swallowing, Newt closed his eyes. "If you had asked me if I thought I'd fall for you when we first met, I would've laughed in your face. Now I'd give my entire existence for you."
Minho kissed the top of Newt's head, the hair soft under his skin. Newt's body relaxed against his in response. "Well, now I have a problem," Minho said.
"What?"
"I don't wanna leave you." Stroking down Newt's spine, Minho wrinkled the hem of his sweater in his fingers. "But I have to go home eventually."
Newt shifted uncomfortably. "About that... Demons' mates usually live together."
"Newt, I can't," Minho replied sadly. "I still have a human life and a family. How could I just leave them? What would I tell them?"
Newt trailed a finger in circles on Minho's arm. "You don't have to tell them what I am. Consider it, Minho." His legs twined with Minho's on the bed. "You have my power marked on you now. Demons give human mates their power so that...so that you can live immortal with me." Minho stiffened and Newt hurried on, "I know it's sudden, but I want to spend eternity with you."
"Eternity?" Minho repeated.
"Yes." Lifting his head, Newt touched a kiss to Minho's chin.
"Newt, I..." Minho closed his eyes. "I don't think I can. What about my family and everyone else I know? Am I just gonna watch them all die without me?"
"Well—" Newt broke off, because that was exactly what Minho would have to do.
Minho slipped a hand under Newt's shirt, soothingly rubbing the demon's lower back. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "But I don't think I can do that."
Newt's body stilled. "You know that if you don't, I can't be with you," he replied, a hollowness in his words. "I have to keep away so that my power won't affect you."
Minho's heart stopped. He couldn't see Newt? "I...know. But...God." His eyes shut, a hurt expression tightening his jaw. "I'm sorry. Please, I know that you—Newt?"
In a flicker, Newt had vanished from Minho's arms. He reappeared across the room, arms around himself like a kid in the cold. His eyes were shadowed. "I understand," he said, but his voice was flat. "We can do...this, for one night, but we can't be mates. I won't force you to live forever, but it will take some time for my power to leave you."
Minho stared. "Wait."
"I know, I should've told you earlier than this, but I was so sure you'd—" Newt huffed out a shaky breath. "I apologize."
Sitting up, Minho started to get out of bed. "Hold on. Newt—"
But Newt didn't let him finish. There was something in the demon's face suggesting that he was about to snap. Muttering, "let me know when you want to leave," he blinked out of sight.
Minho was left in an empty room.
He felt as though his heart was being torn in two directions.
-X-X-X-
Dammit, dammit, dammit, why did he have to be so blind? Of course Minho would want to stay in his human life. Newt couldn't expect him to give all of that up. But he had. He had thought he'd have all of his existence with Minho. A foolish part of him had believed that Minho could be convinced so quickly. Obviously, he'd been wrong. He knew he was in deep deep trouble, because if Minho couldn't accept immortality, he would have to stay away from Newt until the demon's mark on him faded away entirely. He would choose his humanity over Newt.
Newt couldn't see him anymore. He couldn't be with him anymore. He couldn't wake up with Minho's arms around him, or see the way he smirked, or feel him in the dark the way he'd been meant to feel his entire life. He couldn't be Minho's mate.
And now? Now look at him. A powerful demon reduced to this: curled in a corner of a luxurious bathroom, the scarlet rug soft under him, and tears in his eyes. "I ought to condemn you to Hell for this," Newt growled, a sob catching somewhere in his throat. "Doing this to me." Newt did not cry. But he was crying. He wasn't accustomed to rejection and certainly not to rejection by the person he'd finally chosen as his mate.
He'd had one-night lovers in nineteenth century London and short-lived romances in Italy. But nothing compared to Minho. Newt would ravage the universe and put it all back together again for that one weak human.
What he couldn't do was keep Minho forever.
"You stupid demon," he choked out to himself, arms on his drawn-up knees. "You've ruined it and you'll never meet another like him." He didn't think he could stand this. Burying his face in his arms, he struggled not to sob out loud. The last thing he wanted was for Minho to hear him and come looking for—
The door clicked open in slow reluctance and Minho's spiky hair appeared first, then his concerned face. His black-silk eyes held such gentleness and he still wore nothing but boxers low on his hips. Newt ached inside. Why did he have to look so beautiful while he broke Newt's heart? "Hey," Minho said, quiet.
"Get out," Newt mumbled.
"What?"
"Get out."
Minho stepped across the threshold and shut the door behind him. "Why?"
"I don't want you to see me like this," Newt confessed. He didn't say another word as Minho knelt down beside him. Minho looked around at the burgundy walls and the sink that matched the obsidian in the rest of the mansion. Then he turned his attention to Newt.
"Why didn't you tell me before this?"
Newt was still. "I knew you'd choose them. But a part of me wanted to keep you for a while longer." He shut his eyes, fighting the sting of more tears. "But I waited too long and now that you've said no, I can't accept it."
"I'm not saying no," Minho argued in a quiet tone.
"If you stay with me, you'll never die. If you want to be human, you have to leave me."
"You don't understand..."
"Dammit, Minho, you've ruined me!" Newt snapped. Fixing a glistening gaze on Minho, he struggled to pull himself together. "Do you see that? I've had partners before, but—but none of them are you! Do you think I can take watching you grow as a human? Watching you find a human husband? Damn it all to Hell, Minho, it'll destroy me!" Squeezing his eyes closed, he speared his fingers through his hair. He couldn't believe he was letting Minho see this. "I don't know how to live without you anymore. I'm going to see the world burn and when a new world comes, you won't be in it. I'll hand myself over to exorcists or angels before I try to find another mate."
Minho didn't speak for an infinite minute. The only sound in the room was Newt's choked breaths. What was Minho even still here for? Why didn't he just get back to his stupid humans? Finally, Minho rested a hand on Newt's shoulder. "Newt. Please get up."
"No," Newt answered into his folded arms.
"...if I...if we still visit my family, will you at least change their memories so that they don't notice when I stop aging?" Newt's head jerked up, but Minho lifted a warning hand. "I'm going to think about it. But, until I decide for sure, I'd really like to wake up here, Newt."
Newt's lips parted in breathless longing. "You'll live here?"
Minho grimaced. "You might have to change my parents' memories about that too. I don't think they'd like the idea of me living with my boyfriend."
Newt felt as though he might wilt or throw Minho right back into his bed. "Oh, Minho, love," he murmured, the relief so strong, he couldn't form anything else.
A wonderful smile appeared on Minho's lips. Then, with no explanation, he looped his arms under Newt's knees and back. Newt blinked as Minho scooped him up off the floor, cradling him bridal-style. "What're you doing?" he asked.
"Well, first, I'm taking you back to your room because my clothes are in there and I need to grab them," Minho replied. "Then, I'm gonna take a shower. Then, we're gonna visit my parents and make them think they're okay with me living with you. Plus, I think you need to recover from the heart attack I gave you."
Chuckling, Newt rested his forehead against Minho's. "You don't have to carry me," he pointed out.
"Do you want me to put you down?" Minho asked, his smile widening.
Newt's heartbeat skipped as Minho nosed at his hair, strong arms warm around him. Not to mention that he was still shirtless. He could get used to this. "I suppose you can carry me," he said, "just this once." He tucked his head into the curve of Minho's shoulder, a hand coming up to the back of Minho's neck.
"I'll carry you to bed every night, if you want," Minho whispered. "Because I love you, Newt."
Oh, Newt could've officially married him right there. He pressed a lingering kiss to Minho's mouth, cupping his cheek. After pulling back, he stroked his thumb along Minho's cheekbone. "I'm looking forward to eternity," he murmured, and Minho carried him back to his room.
Demons gave in to no one.
But Newt found that he didn't mind giving in, just this once. And then every day after that.
-END-
