April 5th. Gray and Ultear.
Prompt: sealing darknesses and sasusaku forest of death hug.
He stiffened and trembled as she embraced him, her arms reaching around him over the dark, black mark stretching over the scar he carved into his abdomen for her with bloodred ice that was hisfrozen redblood. Her ragged, strong whisper of "Please! Stop this!" pierced through his crimson soul and he stilled, stumbling in her strong, tight grip, fighting with himself to focus on the ache and fierceness of her voice reaching for him through his haze and bloodlust.
For her, the dark horror gripping him in his control wanted to yell. He wanted feel the blood splash on his pants and the crack of bones in his fingers because the worthless piece of shit had broken her and bruised and bloodied her and he saw red and nothing but red, but she yelled at him, clearing the red for him and making him see her haunting crimson-muave iris and only hers, her nails digging into the skin of his stomach, calming him despite himself.
"The man who sealed away my darkness wouldn't forget himself! He wouldn't give into this sort of darkness again! Not after knowing the horrors it can bring, Isn't that right Gray?!"
He looked over his shoulder into her swirling, aching ashdark eyes that were filling with painful tears and begging him to come back to his senses and his heart squeezed and he hurthurthurt and he couldn't stop and he struggled against his dark haze until she became his undoing
His graygrayeyes widened and he began breathing hard, rebelling against the rebellious mark on his darkening steel of his right iris and brow, forcing it to recede.
She was right. This isn't what he wanted. He didn't want to become a monster, no matter what the cause. He wouldn't be much different from Deliora then! He struggled harder, concentrating on her words and the feel of her strong arms pulling him back from the edge of his dark precipice.
He panted and inhaled, feeling his darkness being devoured by the broken jagged pieces of her uncompromising heart, her sadsad broken heart that loved him through the pain and hurt they both understood so well… and his marks were receding.
She was bringing him back.
Like the time he fought with Doriarte and remembered the horrors of Deliora, and the time he fought with his Father and decided he must die. She was just always there for him, helping from the shadows and asking nothing in return.
Every time he should lose himself she would be there to bring him back. He could feel it with every beat of his dark heart that she would, even if she had to tear herself apart for him. Like he had brought her back that one time even if he had to bleed or crash down a mountain with her for it. And she remembered he had and it meant something to her.
Warmth coursed through him with an intensity he didn't understand.
This became the third time didn't it? She had become the angel to his devil now and he felt the whiteness of the ribbons in her long, dark hair contrasting painfully against the black darkness of his skin, the engulfing marks fading away into himself.
She had sealed away his darkness like he had sealed away hers.
Were their destinies so closely intertwined, they followed behind each other, in their sin and suffering and healing too? He didn't know. He found he didn't care if it meant he was going to find her beside him through it all, and at the end of it no matter what.
But he made a silent vow to himself then. He would never ever let himself get so broken that she would have to break herself to un-break him again.
If he had her beside him, safe and sound and alive and warm and as unbroken as he could keep her, then nothing else mattered as much.
The intensity of his emotions scared him but he was so tired and aching and full of need. Overwhelmed, consumed by something, and simply needing her, he whispered her name hoarsely, "Ultear!" and turned around, and buried his face in her chest, hugging her to him, his tears shaking her to her core.
And she cried with him, for him, her arms soft, twining around his neck, engulfing him, and whispered gently in broken litany's, "Shhh. It's Okay Gray. It's all over now. I'm with you. Always. I promise. No matter what. I'm not going anywhere. I love you. I won't let anything tear us apart. We can forgive and break and heal and love together. You have me. And I have you. Always."