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Entry tags:
the devil's backbone
Title: the devil's backbone
Fandom: Mogeko Castle + The Gray Garden
Character(s): Ivlis, Yonaka
Pairing(s): Ivlis/Yonaka
Genre: Angst/Fluff
Word Count: 620
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Summary: Yonaka exposits; Ivlis introspects.
Notes: I don't know where I am for today.
“I used to have a brother,” she says. “But I stopped having one long before he died. I just couldn’t admit it.”
He listens, quiet. Sometimes she just needs to talk. Sometimes he needs to talk, too, but can’t.
“I loved him a lot, you know.” She knows he knows, so she doesn’t pause. “We were inseparable. Sometimes I wonder if we were too close, and if that had anything to do with how everything turned out. Sometimes I wonder if it was our unlucky names. I wonder a lot of things.”
She’s told him before: Yonaka, Shinya. Four. The number of people in their perfect family, but also, the unluckiest number in their language.
“There’s nothing I can do about it now. He was gone before I came home. Years before. Nothing I did would have made a difference for him, and I’m glad I survived in one piece.” She laughs at herself, a hollow sound. “Well, maybe not one piece. But I’m alive, is the most important thing.”
She’s silent for long enough that he takes this as his moment to speak. “Glad you made it out alive.”
He had a sibling, too. A long time ago. He doesn’t anymore, even if they are both still alive.
Is she still alive? If Siralos had found her to be useless and done away with her, it wouldn’t completely surprise him, though the thought does make his heart clench.
Well. It’s nothing he can confirm or deny without going back up there. And he won’t, not without an army behind him.
The feeling of her head on his shoulder distracts him from his thoughts. He strokes her hair, playing with one braid with his claws.
“I’m glad too,” she says. “Not about everything else, but at least that I met you.”
He makes a small noise of agreement. Affection is difficult, but she knows what he means.
He’s a Devil. A selfish, cruel-hearted Devil whose chief desires are power and revenge. She knows this as well as anyone.
But even a Devil can be kind to the people who are kind to him. Anything else is pointless, and likely to drive away any allies he might have had. That was his reasoning in the beginning, when they were only ‘allies’, though there was little she could provide him with in such an alliance.
She let him call friendship by those terms for as long as he wanted to. Now it’s something else entirely, that he finds harder to explain away.
Maybe she’s selfish too, in her own ways. If he’s kind to her, she’ll overlook him treating everyone else poorly. He doesn’t judge her for that: it’s a way of survival, putting your own needs first. And he knows it’s been hard enough for her to survive so far.
Maybe that makes them a good pair. Maybe their scars hurt less with someone else around.
There’s a sinking feeling that he knows well, that of some other Devil entering his world, and reluctantly he pushes her away. “One of those two are here. Go hide.”
She knows not to argue, though he can see in her eyes how badly she wants to. There’s nothing she can do for him, not against those two. Especially not if it’s Satanick. He dreads the day she tries and Satanick retaliates.
She pecks his forehead instead. “I’ll see you later. Stay strong, okay?”
He scoffs. “Who do you think I am? They’ll never break me in ten million years.”
...Ugh, the thought of this lasting for ten million years is horrifying. Her expression says she agrees.
“Just get going.” Ivlis can’t protect himself, but at the very least, there’s someone he can keep safe.
Fandom: Mogeko Castle + The Gray Garden
Character(s): Ivlis, Yonaka
Pairing(s): Ivlis/Yonaka
Genre: Angst/Fluff
Word Count: 620
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Summary: Yonaka exposits; Ivlis introspects.
Notes: I don't know where I am for today.
“I used to have a brother,” she says. “But I stopped having one long before he died. I just couldn’t admit it.”
He listens, quiet. Sometimes she just needs to talk. Sometimes he needs to talk, too, but can’t.
“I loved him a lot, you know.” She knows he knows, so she doesn’t pause. “We were inseparable. Sometimes I wonder if we were too close, and if that had anything to do with how everything turned out. Sometimes I wonder if it was our unlucky names. I wonder a lot of things.”
She’s told him before: Yonaka, Shinya. Four. The number of people in their perfect family, but also, the unluckiest number in their language.
“There’s nothing I can do about it now. He was gone before I came home. Years before. Nothing I did would have made a difference for him, and I’m glad I survived in one piece.” She laughs at herself, a hollow sound. “Well, maybe not one piece. But I’m alive, is the most important thing.”
She’s silent for long enough that he takes this as his moment to speak. “Glad you made it out alive.”
He had a sibling, too. A long time ago. He doesn’t anymore, even if they are both still alive.
Is she still alive? If Siralos had found her to be useless and done away with her, it wouldn’t completely surprise him, though the thought does make his heart clench.
Well. It’s nothing he can confirm or deny without going back up there. And he won’t, not without an army behind him.
The feeling of her head on his shoulder distracts him from his thoughts. He strokes her hair, playing with one braid with his claws.
“I’m glad too,” she says. “Not about everything else, but at least that I met you.”
He makes a small noise of agreement. Affection is difficult, but she knows what he means.
He’s a Devil. A selfish, cruel-hearted Devil whose chief desires are power and revenge. She knows this as well as anyone.
But even a Devil can be kind to the people who are kind to him. Anything else is pointless, and likely to drive away any allies he might have had. That was his reasoning in the beginning, when they were only ‘allies’, though there was little she could provide him with in such an alliance.
She let him call friendship by those terms for as long as he wanted to. Now it’s something else entirely, that he finds harder to explain away.
Maybe she’s selfish too, in her own ways. If he’s kind to her, she’ll overlook him treating everyone else poorly. He doesn’t judge her for that: it’s a way of survival, putting your own needs first. And he knows it’s been hard enough for her to survive so far.
Maybe that makes them a good pair. Maybe their scars hurt less with someone else around.
There’s a sinking feeling that he knows well, that of some other Devil entering his world, and reluctantly he pushes her away. “One of those two are here. Go hide.”
She knows not to argue, though he can see in her eyes how badly she wants to. There’s nothing she can do for him, not against those two. Especially not if it’s Satanick. He dreads the day she tries and Satanick retaliates.
She pecks his forehead instead. “I’ll see you later. Stay strong, okay?”
He scoffs. “Who do you think I am? They’ll never break me in ten million years.”
...Ugh, the thought of this lasting for ten million years is horrifying. Her expression says she agrees.
“Just get going.” Ivlis can’t protect himself, but at the very least, there’s someone he can keep safe.