Day 20

Canon!Verse

FAITHFULNESS

When the study's door opens, he half-expects it to be the Candlemaker. Which is why he doesn't look up from the chessboard, where the pieces still lay scattered where their last game was left until a well-known and equally hated voice speaks.

"She was winning"

"I don't know what you want here, but I want you gone. Now" Xibalba snarls. The goblet between his fingers is already half-empty and he grabs a nearby bottle and pours himself more wine. It glimmers under the dim light like blood and his visitor sets her eyes on it before reaching for the goblet set across from his almost absently "Don't touch that!"

La Noche eyes him amusedly for a moment before she cups it with both hands and lifts it, leaving a visible gap on the dust upon the table. She turns it, feeling the ornaments with the tips of her fingers, finding the swirly hearts and skeletons upon it.

"Let me guess…hermanita's?"

"Put. It. Down" he all but snarls. His fingers are closed around the bottle so harshly he's surprised it doesn't crack under them. Her smile doesn't falter.

"Oh, am I defiling it? She does seem upset whenever I lay hands on something of hers…" she lets the phrase hang for a moment, smirking and starts bringing it to her lips "I take it she's conveniently forgotten she snatched something of mine once–"

"What do you want?!" Xibalba barks, the wine bottle flying off his hands to crash against the wall behind her. For a moment, she seems startled, but she immediately recovers her nerve, sliding next to the chair. His very mustache ruffles in fury.

"Ay, cuñadito" she mocks in a sing-song tone, still toying with the goblet, ignoring his clear annoyance at her intentions of taking a seat "Don't get your feathers in a bunch, I'm only joking–"

"Don't you dare!" he roars, the moment La Noche slides her hand over the back of the chair and starts to seat, and teleports so that he's in front of her, grabbing her by the neck roughly and pulling her away from the chair. The goblet clatters to the ground. She half-screams and grits her teeth at him, struggling to free herself and he thrusts his face in front of hers, teeth sharp, candles burning like an inferno and voice hoarse with fury, shaking her with each word "That is my wife's goblet, and her seat! Don't you dare touch them with your claws, you wench! Speak your business and then leave my castle or I shall treat you like the viper you are! Understood?!"

He releases her and she recoils, hand on her throat.

"I will ask one more time" he continues in an ominous hiss, crossing his hands behind his back to stop them from clawing at her "What do you want?!"

She glares and breaths heavily for a moment, before regaining poise.

"I– I have been thinking over the past days…" she licks her lips and seems to brace herself for a very unpleasant task "…and it is possible that I…that I overdid myself with that little prank I played on both of you"

"What?" his entire body racks with the need of striking her. But whatever this woman's done to him, Xibalba is no brute like his brother, so he all but holds himself in place, looking at her in angry bewilderment.

"Yes…I may have taken it too far" she hurriedly continues despite her attempt to appear nonchalant, as if fearing she'll lose his interest unless she does.

"You have to be kidding me!" he scoffs, wings flapping in anger, moving away because with every word a little of his self-control slips away, his teeth are so gritted he's surprised his words even come out "You MAY have taken it too far?" he lets out a bitter laugh "Next you are going to tell me you didn't intend to ruin my marriage…"

"Oh, please, Xibalba, you can't pin the blame for that one on me" she protests, crossing her arms, chasing him around the table insistently "May I refresh your memory to the fact that you weren't exactly resisting with all your might-?"

"Because I thought it was her!" he snarls, his fist contacting with the table. The chess pieces, so lovingly preserved in an eternal game, stagger and fall over the board; it's of no importance to him, he has memorized the positions after setting his eyes on them for hours on end as if taking his eyes off could kill him. His shoulders are hunched and his face is glowing with rage "…I would have never even touchedyou otherwise"

"It might help if you stopped saying it like we actually did anything" La Noche flatly offers. Has he hurt her ego? Good"We both know nothing happened"

"But she doesn't" an idea flares in his mind and he turns, the ghost of a smirk playing in his lips "Come to think of it…I don't think your husband does either"

He knows he's hit the nail in the head when she flinches angrily at the comment, eyes flaring at him, so he straightens, receiving the first semblance of comfort he's had since his wife left his castle in a spell and now it's his turn to chase her around the table as she turns her back on him and starts to walk away.

"Let me guess, he didn't take too kindly on his Cielo having an affair with his brother– I know!" he teleports in front of her, cutting her escape, a mock-comprehensive expression on his face "He wouldn't even let you explain, am I right?"

"Shut up" she growls, trembling with fury, clearly not appreciating the way the control of the conversation has slipped off her hands.

"Or did he let you explain but didn't believe you all the same? I can't say I blame him. Especially when your entire marriage is based in spite and viciousness"

"Enough!" she bellows, fists shaking and tight at her sides. He drops it, if only to favor a more pressing matter.

"What were you expecting to gain by coming here and putting up that contrite act, hmm? Did you want me to clarify to him that, indeed, nothing happened?" she glowers at him silently and he laughs to her face "What makes you think he'd sooner believe my words than yours? Is the distrust between both of you that big?"

"Mira quien habla!" she retorts, face flushed in humiliation and anger "Your situation is not much better than mine" she breathes in, trying to regain her calm "But I could fix it! I could tell La Muerte–!"

"And what makes you think she'd listen to anything you have to say? To her eyes, you're as guilty as I am" he chuckles once more, relishing her frustrated expression, even though realization that, yes, nothing can be done for his marriage hits him like a blow in the gut "You have nothing to offer and much to lose, whereas I, thanks to you, have nothing left to lose"

"We're on the same boat, Xibalba" she tries, this time pleadingly.

"But unlike you, I didn't knowingly bring this upon myself" he hovers over her, his voice a low hiss "I thought you were my wife, and everything I did, I was doing it to her" she shivers angrily "But you? You knew it was me. Diablos, you sought for me! Are you really pathetic enough that you held a candle for me all this time even though I made my disgust for you clear after you almost got your own sister killed? Even after you got married?"

La Noche's frozen in pure anger, flaming eyes pinned on him.

"You understand nothing!" she finally manages, her voice choked.

"No, La Noche" he tiredly spits, going back to his seat "Don't forget you and I are the same, I understand all too well. You don't care what the prize is as long as you get what you want– even if it's just a whim you're getting in exchange of something far more valuable"

She looks at him a moment longer, before furrowing her brow, turning her nose up to him.

"He can't truly believe I would be unfaithful to him" she declares. She's speaking in a tone that seems to intend to erase her past emotion, to say she's not really half as worried as she appears to be, but her worlds make her vulnerable. This is the hope she's been clinging to, Xibalba knows, it makes him want to take the opportunity to crush it, if only to see her suffer the way he's suffering.

Ah, but he's so tired.

"Ah, but that's the catch" he says, picking up his goblet once more, motioning with a finger absently so the chess pieces take their places where he and La Muerte had left them that night, without knowing that game might as well be their last. Her goblet also hovers back into place as if awaiting for her return. Xibalba takes his seat again and rests his head lazily on his hand, eyes set on them "Faithfulness is unbecoming of us"

C. C (a) the Author here.

Still wondering WHAT exactly was that happened between Xibalba and La Noche. One of my guesses is she thought it'd be funny to pretend she was La Muerte and get all lovey-dovey with him and trashlord fell for the trick.