My face every time Rose falls into Dezel's arms in Zesty X: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The anime is frankly crap (choppy pacing, plot-holes galore, OOCness, etc.) but it's giving me so many Dezerose feels, I ain't even mad. If Dezel still ends up dying, he should fall into Rose's arms instead. :')


A few months ago

"Hey, Dezel! You up to armitize?"

Rose's shouts earned her the attention of the wolf hellion. It lunged at her with a snarl, but Sorey cut it off. Outlined in radiant red, he cast a fireball at the beast, driving it back.

"You have to ask?" Dezel said flatly. His hands darted out as he imbued the ends of his pendulums with the power of the wind, but they just glanced off the beast's thick hide. He cursed under his breath.

"Just say yes," she said, resisting the urge to sigh. So much for trying to be polite.

Out of everyone, Rose knew Dezel the least well. He was one of those quiet loner types, the kind that gave gruff one-word answers to friendly questions and looked at you disapprovingly all the time. Pity his personality wasn't as attractive as his shoulders were.

"All right."

That would have to do. Rose took a deep breath, then called the true name that until this moment, she had yet to utter: "Lukeim Yurlin!"

Dezel disappeared, and instantly, Rose was aware of him inside her. Raw power coursed through her, wild and free as the wind itself, and at the same time, apprehension and fear slammed into her—Dezel's emotions. The armitization connection went even beyond power or heightened senses: she could feel his emotions as if they were her own.

His anxiety confused her. Sure, the hellion was tough, but they'd faced tougher, right? A moment later, however, Dezel's fear lessened—as if he were quashing it. So he didn't want her to know, the dork.

They made quick work of the hellion. The wind came easier to Rose than she'd expected—it was like she didn't even need to consider what she was doing, she just acted. Wind was such a commonplace thing—almost benign—but with it, she easily cut through the hellion's thick hide. Gradually, Dezel shed his fear and apprehension, and by the end of the battle, he seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself.

Together, Sorey and Lailah purified the weakened hellion, enveloping it with blue fire. Afterwards the purified wolf lay on the ground, unconscious but alive, and Dezel felt a surge of concern for the poor animal. Rose smiled, and thought, Nerd.

She dissolved their bond, but as soon as Dezel left her body she stumbled, suddenly woozy.

He clasped her shoulders, steadying her. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, shrugging him off. "Thanks, though."

"Hm." He dissipated into thin air.

What a grump.


By Rose's estimate, they were about a day and a half's journey away from Aifread's Hunting Ground. Over the past two weeks the malevolence in the air had gradually intensified, to a nauseating degree. If the Lord of Calamity could produce this sheer amount and they weren't even close to him ... she didn't want to think about it. They hadn't run into a single hellion, either, despite the ever-thickening malevolence, and that freaked her out even more than if there'd been an entire army of them.

No Dezel, of course. Nobody talked about him—for the past week, no one'd even made a halting mention of him—but that certainly didn't mean he was out of Rose's mind. The mere thought of him disgusted her and made her furious, but she couldn't stop. Every time she tried to, a few minutes later, she was back at it again. Traversing the endless fields of Pearloats Pasture didn't leave much in way of entertainment, and most of the time everyone was too tired for anything more than small talk, so she had almost nothing to do but think.

About the past. About how things were between her and Dezel, before she knew. She'd ... liked him. Trusted him. Thought of him as a friend. And she'd thought he'd liked her, too. The way he'd always treated her like a little kid in need of a babysitter had been annoying, but Rose had thought it was just his weird way of showing he cared.

But she'd been wrong. He hadn't cared for her personal well-being—he'd only wanted to keep his perfectly crafted vessel safe, for the time he'd need to use her.

Nights were the worst. Her body was exhausted, but her mind wasn't. She obsessively reminisced about all the important battles she and Dezel had fought together—all the times they'd armitized together. Every time she'd accepted him into her body. It made her sick, but she couldn't stop. The fire trial, Forton, the water trial ...

Purifying the souls of all those abandoned kids at the earth trial. Lost kids always shook Rose up, and that time, it was so, so much worse than usual. After they'd separated, Dezel had asked if she was okay. Of course she'd automatically answered in the affirmative, but that hadn't stopped him from awkwardly raising his hand to touch her arm, just for a moment, before turning away as if nothing had happened.

That was a rare side of Dezel, one she almost never saw. She'd always thought that beneath his prickly exterior there was a sort of gentleness, revealed every time he healed a hurt animal or protected the humans he claimed to hate. That's what she'd thought.

She could almost still feel his touch now. It made her want to puke.

Originally the intimacy of the armitization bond had excited her, but now, she couldn't even tolerate the prospect of having to go through with it again—even without Dezel. How she was planning on effectively fighting the Lord of Calamity, she didn't know. She just didn't.

She never thought she'd be one to agonize over something like this. If someone revealed himself to be an irredeemable dick—fine then, she'd just cut him out of her life without a second thought. Simple. Effective. But it seemed like these past few weeks were only revealing that Rose wasn't quite the person she'd always thought she was.

The sun barely peeked over the horizon, but she and Sorey had already finished breakfast. Having gotten only a few hours of sleep for the millionth night in a row, she was exhausted. She sat on the damp, dewy grass, resisting the urge to rub her tired eyes as she packed her few belongings up. Once they started moving she'd wake up a little more, but she didn't know how long she'd be able to keep this up.

Sorey squatted beside her, a hairbrush in hand. "I think you forgot this."

"Oh, shit. Thanks." She jammed it into her pack.

He lingered. Rose realized, with mounting dread, that they were alone—the seraphim were a good thirty feet away, talking amongst themselves. Up until now she'd been careful to never be alone with anyone for any amount of time, especially Sorey or Lailah, but now she'd been too deep in thought to notice the others leaving.

Time for a delay tactic, then. "So I was thinking the other day," she said, putting on her best nonchalant smile, "why don't we get a small tent, to protect us while we sleep? I'm sure Mikleo would be glad to not have to protect us from the rain all the time. They can get pretty pricey, of course, and we'd only want the best, but I know someone who knows a guy in Pendrago who—"

"Rose."

She couldn't look him in the eye. "Yeah?"

"Can we talk about Dezel yet, or do you need more time?"

Sorey was oblivious most of the time, but sometimes he just saw right through her. She hesitated. "... Mmmight as well get it over with," she said with a sigh.

"You sure?"

She nodded.

He fiddled with the end of his cape. "Do you think—" He paused. "How do you think you'll feel, when Dezel comes back?"

"If he comes back," she said. "There's no guarantee he will. For all you know, we'll never see him again." If only I could be so lucky.

"But if he does—what do you intend, if anything?" After she didn't answer for a minute, he continued, "It's okay if you don't wanna talk about it right now. I can wait till later—"

"No, no, it's fine," she said. Waiting wouldn't make this any easier. "I ... I honestly don't know. I'd have to see how I feel at the time, when—if—it happens." She folded her arms across her chest. "But if everyone else wanted him to stay, I'd feel pretty bad about being the one to drive him away." That scenario had crossed her mind more than once.

"We'd all support you, no matter what. Dezel was in the wrong, here—not you. We'd all understand if you wanted him to leave."

"But if you annulled your pact with him, he wouldn't have a pure vessel, and knowing him he'd easily become a hellion."

"Oh." He frowned. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Dammit, Sorey, I'm supposed to be the dumb, impulsive one—not the one who thinks."

They both laughed—quiet, awkward laughs, more out of embarrassment than mirth. At least he found this as painful as she did.

And now he'd find it even more. "Edna told me you knew everything Dezel did, the entire time I've been with you." She watched him closely. Shame crossed his face and he lowered his eyes, giving her an inordinate amount of satisfaction. A moment later, though, he looked back up, and the intensity of his gaze flustered her.

"I'm so sorry, Rose." His eyes shone. "I know you're disappointed in me—as you should be. We've all let you down."

"Y-yeah," she said. His obvious sincerity made her uncomfortable.

"There's no real way for us to make it right," he continued, "except to say I'll never hide something like that from you ever again. And I'll encourage everyone else to do the same."

She wanted to punch him. Why did he have to be so pure? Why couldn't he just let her feel good about staying mad at him, if only for a little while longer? She couldn't complain about anything in that apology. It felt better to have a target for her frustration, rather than stew in directionless irritation. "Don't worry about it," she finally said. "It's in the past. I'll get over it."

He looked down again. "You're too good for me, Rose. I hope I can be a worthier friend in the future."

"Come on ..." It was her who didn't deserve him. Truly.

"Just—know this," he said, touching her arm in the exact same place Dezel had touched her. It took all her self-control not to recoil. "Everyone supports you. You don't need to carry this burden alone."

" 'Do as I say, not as I do,' I suppose." She smiled at him, and he sheepishly smiled back. After a moment of hesitation she continued, "When Dezel comes back, you have to stay out of it, okay? This is between me and him—just us—and I don't want you or anyone else to butt in."

"All right," he said. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but he held his tongue. Good.

"Thanks for coming to talk to me," she said. "You've made me feel a little better. I think." Just take your damn hand off of me.

"It's the least I could do."

"Well, yeah—it's the sacred duty of a husband to comfort his wife, isn't it?" She elbowed him, grinning.

He groaned, and finally, finally removed his hand from her arm. "You're never gonna let me forget that, are you."

"Nope!"

And they left it at that. Rose finished up her packing, stifling yawns all the while. She honestly didn't know how she'd react when she saw Dezel again—whether she'd try to punch him, start crying (Maotelus forbid), or just freeze up. At least all this thinking had one good outcome: she'd thought of some things she'd like to say to him.


CHAPTER 9: DEZEROSE'S FATEFUL REUNION. FINALLY.