It was a short glance and Arme knew it well. Lass was worried. They were sitting on uncomfortable chairs in a cold corridor, a snowstorm raging outside. The plastic cup with coffee in Lass trembling hands had cooled down long ago but she hadn't taken even one sip. Arme's body next to her was warm and the arm around her offered comfort. Still she felt cold, the trembling refused to go away. Worry spiked up inside her whenever her thoughts drifted away. Tears always present in the blue eyes but never falling. It was too early.
"...You got what you wanted." Lass whispered and swallowed hard, the cold coffee almost spilling over her hands.
Arme stayed silent, didn't know what to say. What was there to say? It was the truth after all. He had wanted something like that to happen. Yet it didn't feel satisfying. He hadn't realized that Lass would react like this. That anyone would react like this. Sieghart was sitting next to him, his head hovering over the screen of his cell-phone as he kept calling the same number over and over again. There was also a green haired male with scratches in his face. Arme knew it was Grandark, but it felt weird to him. The former sword leaned against a wall, occasionally he would pace around, buy new coffee for Zero who was sitting next to Dio on the opposite side of the wall, the chairs not appearing to be any more comfy than the one Arme was sitting on. Next to the two demons were a set of twins. The red haired one had his arm in a cast, the other bandages at various places. They had been talking to each other not too long ago, but now both had fallen asleep, arms wrapped around each other.
Sieghart stood and put his long coat around the twins, then went back to his seat next to Arme and kept calling the number.
Lass let go of a heavy sigh and leaned into Arme. There were so many things she still had to say. Things she might never be able to say now.
"Do you have any idea how often i tried to call you?" Sieghart's voice suddenly pierced the silence as he had finally reached the person he had tied to call for over two hours.
Lass couldn't understand the reply.
"I don't give a shit about the connection." The immortal hissed into his cell-phone. "If you have any feelings for her left inside you, head over here."
Lass got curious, welcomed the distraction. Anything was better than thinking the same thing over and over again.
"This might be the last chance to see her alive, Lime. " Sieghart's voice cracked, several heads turned away.
The reply was louder this time, but still not loud enough to understand.
"They told us very clearly that the chances of her surviving this are very low." Sieghart took a deep breath and closed his eyes at whatever Lime had replied.
"Lime-" Sieghart started but suddenly Zero pulled the phone out of his hand and handed it over to Dio.
Lass was sure that both of them were able to listen to the conversation.
"Rufus is dying!" Dio yelled into the phone. "Nothing can be more important than being with the person you love in their final hours! She would have done that for you!"
Lass couldn't hold her tears back anymore and began to sob into Arme's shirt. The former mage wrapped his arms around the small woman and closed his eyes. This wasn't what he had wanted... He wanted Rufus to disappear again, not dying.
Dio gave the phone back to Sieghart, the call obviously ended.
"And?" Sieghart asked silently. He looked as if he had aged by decades. It was rare to see dark circles under his eyes.
Dio shrugged. "I think i scared him too much."
"You just stated the truth." Zero answered.
"Demons don't die that easily." Dio replied.
The green haired demon at the wall took a step forward. "You've seen the injuries. If she survives this she's lucky. And if she gets out of it without any permanent damage it'll be a miracle."
"Gran..." Zero sighed and nodded over to Lass. "Please stay quiet."
The demon shrugged and asked for money to buy more coffee. Dio took out his wallet and placed a few coins in Grandark's palm.
"Try to find some tea for Lass."
A few more hours passed without anything happening. Lass thought that no news was good news, but she was beginning to drift to darker thoughts, how to forget everything, how to deal with the worst. They had lived a decent life without Rufus. But she had missed her sibling.
Arme had left about an hour ago. They couldn't leave the children alone all day. Now Lass was staring at the white walls, almost alone in the corridor. Sieghart had left too, only Dio was still there. And the twins. Lass couldn't remember their names, but they had briefly explained that they used to be weapons. Rufus' weapons.
"You should sleep." Dio stated. He was sitting there with crossed arms, his face a mix of anger and worry.
"I won't sleep until they let me see her." The white haired woman stated firmly.
"I'll ask them again." Dio stood and disappeared behind a corner.
Lass sighed deeply. She was about to go mad, wanted to be with Rufus, even if it was just a second. No one deserved to die alone. Especially not someone like her. The white haired woman wished for magic to exist again, for everything to be back the way it had been so many centuries ago.
Heavy footsteps and the soft squeaking of the linoleum floor made her frown. Soon a tall man dressed in a dark winter coat and covered with melting snow showed up. He was wearing a hat and a scarf. Also gloves and carried something wrapped in paper. Flowers? A small boy appeared next to him, holding on to the coat of his father with a frightened look.
The man nodded towards Lass and sat down next to her. Now that she got a better look at him she realized that it was Lime. The man's face was devoid of any emotion, his eyes staring blankly at the floor. He was trembling slightly.
Uriel climbed on his father's lap, his eyes wide and full of fear. Why had Lime brought him?
"So you actually showed up!" Dio exclaimed when he returned. He sounded relieved and happy for some reason, but got serious again when he turned to Lass. "No chance. They still don't let anyone in."
"What's the point of that?!" Lass finally snapped and jumped to her feet. "I want to see her!"
"Lass!" Dio grabbed her arms to hold her back, but when Lass began to cry he let go.
"I...failed her once..." the woman whispered. "This time... i can't..."
"What do you mean?" Lime now asked.
Lass shook her head and bit back a sob when she stormed down the corridor.
Lime took a deep breath and placed the flowers next to him, before he wrapped his arms around Uriel.
"Why'd you bring the kid?" Dio wanted to know.
"I wanted to leave him at home, but he insisted..." Lime answered silently. Uriel nodded quickly. It seemed as if he was too frightened to speak.
"I see." Dio replied and leaned against the backrest of his chair. "Back then we never had to wait that long for answers..."
"Back then..." Lime bit his lip and swallowed hard. "...I could have done something."
Dio's magenta colored eyes met Lime's for a second. They were piercing into his blue eyes as if the demon was trying to tear him apart.
"H-How bad is it?"
Dio flinched and nodded to Uriel. Lime kissed the boy's hair and held his ears, then stared at the demon, who sighed deeply.
"...We don't know everything yet, but internal injuries are part of it..."
"How...?"
"Only Rufus would know." Dio scoffed. "They don't let anyone in..."
Lass returned, tears streaming down her face and she didn't even bother to wipe them away. Lime locked gazes with her, trying to get an answer.
"They let me in.. for a minute." The woman slumped down on a chair as if all strength had suddenly left her. "I get why they didn't want us to see her..."
Uriel freed himself from him father and stood. He muttered something about trying to find someone to play with and walked off. Lime let him, there was nothing else the boy could do anyway.
Lass wiped her face with her sleeve and sniffed some tears away. "You can barely see her between all these machines... Shit i always thought I was the weak one!"
"Lass..." Dio muttered silently. "Both of you are strong... she'll pull through. You can't kill Rufus that easily."
"...A demon's life can be taken as quickly as a human's life..." Lass sighed deeply and ran a hand through her hair before she closed her eyes.
After that more hours were spent in silence. Lime had taken his coat off and found a vase for the flowers. He was lost deep in thoughts about long forgotten things, stuff he did when he was still a girl back then. How he had met Rufus for the first time, and how curious he had been. Back then all it took was a little push. The bounty hunter had wanted to trust someone, but didn't know how and Lime was willing to teach him. Yet now with their genders being the opposite , not only their appearances had changed. So much more was different.
Lime looked up when Lass suddenly grabbed his arm and stared in shock at someone walking towards them. The white haired woman had lost all color from her face, clawing into Lime's arm with her long nails as if he was the last thing she could hold on to before she fell into a pit of never ending darkness. A blonde man was approaching them, hair neatly tied and a smile plastered to his face. It was faint but there.
"She's out of danger." The man reassured them. Lime needed a moment to realize that it was Lire.
Lass immediately jumped to her feet and stormed past Lire, almost colliding with Zero who just walked back to Dio. Lime breathed a sigh of relief, still not sure how to feel. He had to do something.
Lime didn't sleep well that night. He had to go back home as Uriel needed to sleep. He got a short glimpse of Rufus, but Lass had been right. It was painful to look at the once strong demon lying there like that, battered and broken, obviously in pain. Lass didn't leave her side, just like back then when either of them got seriously injured.
The tall man turned around in his bed, tangled in his sheets as he hugged his pillow, pressing it against his chest. He didn't know where all these feelings came from, couldn't tell if they were old feelings, worry, or something else. His hands were trembling at the thought of ending up alone again, although it was his own fault. He had ended it. There was a feeling he got when he saw the person that once had been his lover, but it wasn't the same as back then.
He thought his heart stopped when his cell-phone rang. He sat up, tried to locate it in the darkness while his whole being wanted to hide under the blanket and wait until the caller gave up. He found it on the floor, must have knocked it down when he fell into a light sleep earlier. He picked it up, dropped it again when he saw the caller's name.
"No..." he breathed, a sting shooting through his body when he picked the phone up once more and finally accepted the call.
Silence engulfed them for a moment, neither of them dared to speak. Lime held his breath, prepared to hear the bad news Sieghart obviously had, if he called this late. Tears made his eyes useless, not that he could see much in the dim light anyway. Rufus was dead now, right? Sieghart wouldn't call at 4 am if the demon was still alive.
"Lime..." Sieghart muttered, his voice was hoarse and sounded strained. "Head over-
"No!" Lime shouted at the phone as he jumped to his feet and stormed over to the clothing he had thrown to the ground just a few hours ago.
"Listen." Sieghart calmly said.
Lime couldn't. He couldn't remember what the immortal had said when he once more stood in the cold corridors of the hospital, this time without Uriel who would find a note on his nightstand that his father was with 'the prince' when he woke up.
Sieghart blocked his path soon after Lime had entered the building. "You didn't listen to me at all." The immortal muttered with a sigh.
Lime could only stare at the shorter male while he tried to hide his trembling hands. Sieghart almost dragged the other male through the corridor, then put his hands in the coat of the taller man when they stopped next to a door.
"She's fine." The immortal reassured with a sad smile. "Just confused and has a lot of questions. She wanted to see you."
"Roo... is awake?"
The immortal nodded. "Yep. Lass is with her, she's still weak, but she'll make it. They already moved her to a normal room." He kept speaking in that reassuring tone, making it hard for Lime to stay nervous. That was a good thing, wasn't it?
Silently the older male lead him over to another door. Once more Lime wanted to hide, run away, afraid of what he would see. What should he expect? The person he loved dearly lying there, half dead, unable to speak, staring at him with red eyes? He remembered a similar situation from a long time ago. Rufus had been injured in battle, so badly that he almost bled to death. He had been pale and didn't respond to anything. Lime made sure that her revival spell did not vanish as long as the demon had been in danger, she had kept watch for a full night, Arme and Ryan with her as support. Lass had walked into the infirmary countless times, and he had been scared too.
"Lime?"
The man flinched when Sieghart put a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down, she's okay."
"What does 'okay' mean?" Lime spat make with more anger than intended.
Sieghart laughed. "She doesn't look like she's about to die any second anymore. Don't worry." With that, the immortal knocked at the door and Lime felt his legs freezing to the ground when Lass told them to enter.
The room was dimly lit by a reading lamp, Lass sat on a bed with a book on her lap and a bandaged hand on top of it. She was holding it, but it wasn't hers. Lime couldn't move a hair. Lass' hair was tangled, she had dark circles under her eyes and she looked tired and exhausted. Lime followed the bandaged hand with his eyes. The arm was bandaged too, there was a hospital gown. Brown hair rested on the shoulders the arm belonged to, a pale face covered with scratches. They had been treated. There was no second arm.
Two red eyes instantly locked with his when he finally managed to locate them in the face. Their color was brighter than he remembered, the gaze fierce and alert, yet somehow tired. The brown bangs covered most of the forehead, a few stray strands sticking up, the wavy hair spread all over the pillow below.
"How long do you want to keep standing there?" The pale woman asked.
Lime flinched badly. The voice wasn't as strained as he had expected. It was clear and firm, not trembling in the slightest. The tall man forced himself to move. His legs where shaking and he thought he would fall down any moment, but he managed to enter the room and reached the chair next to the bed where Lass had been resting her feet on. She had taken her shoes of for that, and removed her feet when Lime reached her. Lime didn't have any intention of sitting down, he just used the backrest as support.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." The brunette woman joked with a scoff.
Lime couldn't say anything. The woman was speaking with such confidence, that he found himself unable to tell her what was on his mind. There was a lot, but no words left his lips. Lass smiled warmly at him when she carefully removed the bandaged arm from her lap and rested it on the bed sheets before she stood and put her shoes back on.
"I'll get some coffee." She announced and left the room before either of them could say anything more.
Lime continued standing next to the chair, gripping the backrest as if his life depended on it. He didn't know what to do.
"H-how-"
The brunette head turned towards Lime and all his courage left his body. Tears filled his eyes. He knew he had to say something, something funny to ease the mood, but he couldn't think of anything funny.
"Like shit." The woman replied even though the question hadn't been asked completely. She smirked when she lifted her bandaged arm and grabbed Lime's coat. Slowly she pulled him closer, the smile still present on the pale lips.
"I'm myself again." She announced with a smirk.
"What?" Lime was confused, unable to understand what she meant.
Rufus sighed. "Yeah I'm still female..." she admitted. "But I think I can accept it now."
Lime's confidence came back and he finally sat down on the chair. "You almost died and that's the result?" He asked in disbelief.
The woman laughed silently and shook her head slightly. "I realized it before that. Just didn't have time to appreciate it."
Lime lifted an eyebrow. "What happened anyway?"
Rufus shrugged. "I only remember that the pain was beyond anything i had ever felt..."
The tall man bit his lip.
"Lets not talk about that. There is something I wanted to ask you." The woman smirked.
Lime felt like someone had stabbed him. The smirk looked so familiar. Something he hadn't seen in centuries. Patiently he waited for whatever the brunette wanted to ask, even though he wanted to run away.
"You know," She sighed, "I've been an idiot. I did the same mistakes and did the same shit do you that I did back then. I didn't mean to, but it happened. Maybe I'm just not meant to end up with happiness."
Lime glared at her. "What are you talking about? What kind of 'shit' have you done to me?"
"I treated you like dirt. A tool, something I could use whenever I pleased... something I could push away whenever I wanted to... I didn't deserve you back then... and i don't deserve you now."
She spoke with a voice devoid of any emotion. It irritated Lime quite a bit.
"I only realized all that when I was already here. I was... I am a terrible lover. Selfish, distrustful, complaining all the time. I never even listened to you..."
"Took you some time to notice..." Lime muttered, but his voice didn't sound angry or upset.
The woman sighed and shifted slightly, her face suddenly a mask of pain, but she managed to reach to a drawer and pulled it open. A small box was revealed and when she took it out, Lime was sure he knew what was coming.
"I had Lass buy this... It was hard to keep Sieghart from calling you before she came back." With a smile she placed the box onto Lime's lap and sank back into the pillows.
Lime couldn't move for a moment, didn't take interest in the box. He solely focused on the brunette's face, biting his lip as he realized that he couldn't do anything to ease her pain.
"Open it already." She huffed and turned her head away, a faint shade of red appearing on her cheeks.
Lime slowly directed his attention to the box in his lap, relieved that it wasn't the shape of a box that contained a ring, yet it was probably some sort of jewelry though. Slowly he grasped the lid and lifted it from the box. He held his breath when it revealed two silver necklaces. They had matching halves, one side with a blue sapphire the other with a ruby.
"As an apology..." Rufus whispered. "For treating you like this... for never listening to you. I don't want to be like back then again. I want to move forward this time, forget the past."
"Can you really do that?"
The woman shrugged. "I can try."
"You're fine with being a woman now?"
"Probably. There are things I still don't feel comfortable with, but I can get used to that."
Lime sighed and carefully removed both necklaces from the box. "It's not that I really don't love you anymore..." he admitted. "It's just that these feelings aren't as strong anymore. They have never been as strong as back then, again..."
"There's a saying I read somewhere." Rufus muttered while trying to remember where the phrase came from. "It was something like 'True love only comes once'."
"So... you'd say we were soul mates?"
The woman shrugged. "After seeing so many souls I don't think i can believe in anything like that."
"But you still love me?"
The red eyes stared at him as they filled with tears. "Yes."
The answer was short, but it sparked a feeling inside the tall male, something that made him want to try again. Rufus had to get better first, and then they had to find out what had happened. Lime was willing to try again, but he still wasn't sure if the feeling he had was love or just pity.
"I need a bit to get used to this myself..." Lime admitted.
"I thought you didn't care?"
"You're still you... but we're... somehow different." He ran a hand through his hair. "Hell, Roo, it's the first time in centuries that you actually noticed that you hurt my feelings..."
The woman shook her head. "It's not." She whispered.
"I just never knew how to apologize..."