Before we get on to the hating me bit... I am sure will come - let me pause and thank my dear reviews and readers - ya know, YOU! Thank you! I have to add that some of you are just using too many superlatives like "greatest story ever" or "I love this so much" - and really just made my coming back to writing a bit easier. So... before I torture you *mauaahaahha* I am happy to say I have have paused a few other fics (ya!) and am thinking doing a sequel to this one. So... I am bouncing a few ideas and I have to say the Phantomhive Staff has been kind enough to pause their other activities and help brain storm. I love character development as much as useless sex scenes, so there may be more characters popping up in "This is How We Feel, Too"... perhaps, if the muse is willing. If not... does anyone object to useless sex? No? Ok...
The young master sat at his desk and signed another form. He glanced up as Sebastian strode in, another stack in his hands.
"Honestly? Does the Queen think I have time to sign every paper in the whole Empire?"
"I do not know that, my lord."
He sighed and pushed his chair back, looking at his butler as he placed the fresh stack of papers on his desk. "How is Mey-Rin?"
"Having a better day, my lord," he replied, standing beside his master. "More tea?"
"Please. This will take my hand. You mind a one handed body to consume?"
Sebastian chuckled. "Joking about the end, a good sign you are happy." He paused and looked down at the boy. "No, your soul will be all I need. A body can be repaired."
"Damn, you sound like a real demon now. Go get me more tea. And another ink well."
Sebastian bowed, "Yes, my lord."
Mey-Rin had started to feel weaker and more emotional as her pregnancy went on, now seven months along. They wanted to celebrate their one year, human anniversary away from the house, but her pregnancy was not allowing her to move much. They even had moved their bed down to the living room, the cats finding new perching spots. He glided down to the kitchen and spotted one of the cats sitting in the doorway. Sebastian grew worried; it was Aristotle and she never ventured close to the house.
"What is it?" he asked, bending down to pick up the orange tabby. She purred and meowed, digging her claws into his jacket to reach his face to rub her cheeks on his.
He listened and stilled. "Mey-Rin!"
He flew with the cat still in his arms, her fur flattening as he moved faster than the blink of a normal human. He placed her gently down on the garden bench and threw the door off its hinges as he entered the cottage. Mey-Rin was in obvious pain. Clutching her stomach, big and full of his child. He sat on the bed and recoiled; she was burning as hot as the flames of deepest hell. Her body would be singed and blistered if not for his seed growing in her.
"Mey-Rin," he said softly. "Oh my love."
"It…it hurts! Oh god it is so hot! So cold! So painful!"
He took his coat off and his shirt, watching as she continued to cry and occasionally screamed through the pain. He knew the pain. Had lived it. Had inflicted it.
"This is not the time to be naked, Sebastian!"
He smiled and shook his head. "I need the heat off you. Something is trying to kill our child. I know this fire - someone knows." A hardness came over him as he realized the impact of his own words. Someone knew.
She sizzled under his touch, sending small waves of steam where he wrapped her up in his body. He breathed and cooled himself more, taking the heat out of her as much as he could. He held her stomach and felt his unborn child moving, actively trying to throw off the burning of hell as well.
"I know, little one, daddy is trying."
"Sebastian."
"I'm here, always here." He kissed his lips to hers and felt the sizzle, a different kind this time. "Just keep pushing through. It's okay."
"It hurts! It's so hot! I thought you said this was easier!"
His heart shattered. "It is. It really is, my beloved. Soon you will be feeling better and in two months we will be holding our baby in our arms," he sobbed. He rubbed her belly and kissed his child. "It will be better. Just give me all of the pain."
He bore her grip down his arm, her nails slicing his skin, the heat flowing into him easier. He breathed through it, it was a delicious way to to have a piece of his nasty soul with him. But not for her, not for his human, mortal lover. He breathed in her scent, still vanilla, a bit sharper, sweeter, as her pregnancy went on. And he smelled his baby, sulfur and jasmine. He hoped it was a girl. He hoped it was a immortal human-demon. Sebastian gathered her up and walked up the stairs, to the bathroom, the large tub suddenly seeming like the best place he had not thought of. He turned the water on and felt the cold rush to fill the empty cavity. He stepped in, and held Mey-Rin's still clothed body. He ripped the clothing off and she screamed.
"It's too cold! It's too cold!"
"Shh, my sweet one. Please, still, I'm protecting you."
And even as he said it he heard the rumble.
The clattering of chains.
The whip as it sung in the air, cracking the stone as it landed.
He had done that.
He had felt that.
He had only a few moments left before he lost his form, to fight and protect and lick off the very depths of hell off the clean soul of his life mate. Off of his soon to be half-human, half-demon. Off of his child being claimed by the very talons he now was letting grow.
"I love you, Mey-Rin."
And she screamed as he let her go, and vanished into the air, like spilled ink.