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The last time he had experienced love was aeons ago, back in the very first cycles. It was a warm, fragile thing, one that left him floating for days on end. A feeling that he could no longer find.
But now, love was a far away dream he had long since given up on. Even as the true Era Nova came about, he experienced no such feeling. Not when everyone knew what he had done.
He locked himself away the second the trailblazer left, only talking to the trailblazer when they had enough service to text him back. His home felt empty, but it was better than looking the rest of the heirs in the eyes. Regardless of their reactions, Khaslana didn't think he could stomach it; he knew what he had done and he knew what he deserved because of it.
It would be better for everyone if he simply wasted away, another footnote at the end of Amphoreus' history.
He didn't eat, barely slept. All he did all day was stare at his cieling, too tired to even cry anymore. It had only been a few days but there was a noticable decline in his looks, blonde hair greasy and untamed, wings full of broken and dirty feathers, golden eyes dull as they had always been.
Somewhere around day three there was a knock at his door.
"Deliverer! Come open this door before I break it down!"
There was only one person who still called him that. The only one person who had called him that consistently in every cycle. The only person who he could ever begin to feel safe around.
Mydeimos.
Yet, still, Khaslana couldn't bring himself to move. He lay there, unmoving, wings haphazardly splayed out across his bed and eyes transfixed on the cieling.
More knocking could be heard throughout the house before it went silent. Khaslana almost thought he got lucky enough for Mydeimos to have left before a loud bang could be heard, followed by the sound of the door being swung open. He had likely broken off the doorknob to get in.
Khaslana still didn't move, closing his eyes to avoid looking at his past lover.
Heavy footsteps approached his room before the door opened with a click.
There was silence before those footsteps approached his bed, stopping right next to one of his wings. Khaslana startled when a gentle hand, devoid of any metal, combed lightly through the feathers at tip of the wing.
"So you are alive." Mydeimos' voice was gentle, almost teasing. Khaslana didn't respond.
Mydeimos sighed before his hand dissapeared from his wing. Khaslana almost thought he was leaving before he heard the sound of boots hitting the floor and felt a weight join him on the bed.
Mydeimos carefully snuck his arm beneath Khaslana's shoulders before he pulled him into a sitting position, Khaslana limply being dragged along. He kept his eyes firmly shut, refusing to open them to face Mydeimos.
He could feel the other's breath against his cheek. Khaslana didn't dare make a sound outside of his own breathing, heartbeat gone dead in his chest long ago.
"Deliverer…" Mydeimos started, "…open your eyes."
Khaslana's breath involuntarily hitched, but he gave no other signs that he had heard him.
Mydeimos' grip around his shoulders tightened, a gentle hand grasping Khaslana's cheek and tilting his head to face him. "C'mon, HKS,"- he gently stroked Khaslana's cheek with his thumb -"I promise nothing bad will happen if you open them."
Khaslana's breathing paused for a moment, then two, before he hesitantly opened his eyes.
Mydei had compassion in his eyes, just as he always had. His long blonde hair fell around his face like it usually did, his eyes were the same golden honey color, his tattoos the same blazing red.
"You look as beautiful as a dying star," Khaslana whispered, voice hoarse and full of unshed tears.
Mydei's thumb brushed underneath his eye, gauntletless fingers soft against the skin there. Every possible emotion passed through Khaslana at that moment. Anger that this was ever taken away from him, joy that he had it again, sadness that it would never be the same; most of all he felt fear.
Fear that this was all a sick, twisted dream.
It must have reflected in his eyes because Mydei leaned forward, lips barely ghosting his.
"I'm here, Khaslana," he murmured. "I'm here, and I'm never leaving again."
Khaslana hid his face in Mydei's shoulder and brought his wings around to cradle them both. He didn't even realize that tears were falling until he let out a soft sob.
"Shhh, you're okay," Mydei comforted. "Everything's okay now, thanks to you."
They stayed there for an undetermined amount of time, Khaslana's sobs slowly dying down until it was just the sound of their combined breathing and Mydei's heartbeat.
Mydei slowly drew away. "Let me take care of you, okay?" His voice was soft, softer than Khaslana had ever heard it before.
All he could do was nod.
Minutes later Mydei had him sat down on a chair near his balcony, wings splayed out across Mydei's lap. He took a damp cloth to his wings, gently wiping away dirt and grime that had been building in his feathers for days. He then brushed his fingers through the feathers, straightening them and occasionally plucking out ones broken beyond healing.
Khaslana lost himself in the gentle rhythm, every gentle stroke along his wings adding to his growing exhaustion. Eventually, he let himself drift, knowing that with Mydei, he was in safe hands.
It felt as though hours had gone by while he was drifting somewhere in between the realms of waking and sleeping before Mydei was done. He gently shook Khaslana's shoulder to rouse him, softly smiling when he opened his eyes.
"Time to get you into bed, Savior of Amohoreus." He then helped Khaslana to his feet, the two of them slowly maneuvering to the- now clean- sheets of the bed.
They laid in each other's arms for a while before Khaslana spoke again.
"Thank you," he whispered, drifting off before he could hear Mydei's response.
Mydei smiled and kissed his forehead. "In every lifetime, Khaslana. Every single one."
And as they slept on, the stars smiled down at them.