ooc: Takes place the morning after this thread

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The more he thought about it, the more he actually wasn’t sure he could move at all despite being awake. Was he paralyzed? He felt incredibly stiff, stuck in his position facing out the den’s entrance as he peered out with his one eye. One eye. The events of yesterday came storming back in a painful rush: the challenge, the ensuing war, the loss of an eye, the retaliation of Dio.

Whatever stiffness was there before, was gone in a whirl as he snapped his neck around to see her sleeping figure beside him. Sleeping, not dead, correct? Wi, he sighed, though who could blame him for his constant state of worry in her condition? She had been unconscious the entire trek back to his den, even throughout his many stumbles annd slow steps, and even as he lowered her onto his pelts and began to clean her wounds. She may have woken up after slumber finally pulled him into its grasp, he wasn’t sure, but she was definitely still asleep now. Good, she needed it.

He calmed his rapid heart and settled back into her, taking in her warmth and nuzzling his nose into the back of her neck. This moment together may not last, but he wouldn’t let it go to waste either.

@Diomedeidae

art by drifty | code by bluey

There is quiet. It's a quiet unlike any Dio has known for the last year. There isn't a ghost plucking at her mind's cords nor are there restless dreams and fitful barely sleep. She would find in time that she could barely remember the war in Scilla at all- the first fight muddled with images of her father and the second seering red hot because of an angry fuel poured upon her fire. But after? Quiet. Dark. She slips away from her body and into a space of nothingness unknowing of where she was being taken and by whom. For the entire walk her body hung limp and weak save for an occasional twitch of life paired by the steady movement of her chest.

She rests. Her body aches, what was bleeding has ceased but she is drained. Totally and utterly. It isn't until morning that she is allowed consciousness again. Her senses gradually come back to life. She feels the warm pelt below her. Dio hears the faint sound of an ocean bird outside of the den. There is a presence at her side, enveloping and warm. The spirits? The ghosts? She groggily groans and Dio begins to stir in his arms. She awakes confused of where she is and unsure what has led her here. The immediate reaction of her body is to jump up her heart rate and her breathing. Danger she thinks and tries to wriggle herself upright; only just beginning to realize how familiar and safe the smell was hanging in the air, how familiar the arms around her were...

@Matthieu

art by drifty | code by bluey

He wasn’t long into his own return to sleep when her movements and soft audibles roused him again. They became more than just waking activity; she was trying to get away. "Dio, Dio. Li oke. Li oke." It’s okay. His assurances came out in fervent whispers, not wanting to startle her anymore. He gripped her tighter in his arms and kissed at the back of her ear, hoping to calm her.

So strange to think she had never been to his den before (and he to hers). It felt as if they’d known each other for far too long for that to be the case. But, as it was, she was in a strange—to her—place, held by a face she had yet to turn and see. What would she say when she saw him? The dressings surely needed changed after his night of rest. Would she be disgusted, knowing this is what he would look like forevermore? Would it make it easier for her to move on?

They’d come together once before after his initial declaration to leave her. One brief night together to bolster his determination. It had been hard to leave her then, just as he knew it would be hard to let her go today.

"Dio," he croaked. "Ye be safe, now." Safe with me. Please, don’t leave.

art by drifty | code by bluey

Dio. Her name is a balm to the rising sense of urgent panic that had threatened to drag her out of his den and into the horizon. She comes to her senses fully- the pieces all there are put together. The sand is Scilla, the sea bird is from the waves outside in the distance somewhere. The scent is warm and friendly, stirring up all sorts of memories for her. The kiss upon the back of her ears calms the beating of her heart. The voice is his. He is real. Her legs that had been trying to find ground to push away from him curl back up, her body is lowered back to the ground and she tries to turn herself so that she can face him while still leaving his arm draped across her. Ye be safe, now. "Matti." Her voice is tired still, the body is on the mend but there's much still left for her mind to sort through.

She gets her first good look at what has happened. It shocks her in the way that she is horrified this has happened to him at all. He was hurt. Her memories of the war may be fleeting and in pieces but some of it begins to come back as she looks, and keeps looking, at his missing eye and the damaged skin around it. She remembers that woman and seeing her taking that eye, lording over him with prize in hand. She remembers and anger unlike anything she's felt before, and how pleased it made that malicious presence feel when she reacted. "Matti." Relief fills her voice when she repeats his name a second time and she leans in to press her forehead into his mane, bury herself away in him and begin to cry.

@Matthieu

art by drifty | code by bluey

He wanted to keep her from turning, wanted to keep her from seeing what the woman had done to him. And for a brief moment, he tried, tightening his grip to hold her in place. But he knew this wasn't something he could hide from her for forever, and so he relented, letting her see him fully. Let her see, then let her go. There was no need to drag it out. Surely, after everything he had put her through—pushing her away, encouraging her to find someone else, giving them both hope of reconciliation with no definitive end in sight—this would be the final straw. The one where she realized he wasn't worth all the heartache.

He couldn't meet her gaze, but he could feel her eyes raking over the fresh disfigurement. Could feel the horror crawling all over him. He felt disgusting, exposed, paralyzed and waiting for the inevitable rejection.

And then, she simply spoke his name. Matti. Her voice was soft and warm and it sought to banish his fears to never return. Instead of pulling away, she burrowed deeper into his embrace. He lay, stunned—overwhelmed—by her acceptance and love for him, despite his many flaws. Until her crying reached his ears...

He hugged her closer, as tight as he could, his own salty tears streaming from his remaining eye and burning the wounds on his face as they passed. He tucked his chin, trying to reach her face to rest beside hers. Trying to absorb as much of her presence as she would allow. Before she had to go. "Mwen regrèt anpil, Dio." I'm so sorry.

art by drifty | code by bluey

"Maua please-" She softly prays, her head and face turning so that it could lay across Matti's. The words she speaks are hardly a whisper, muffled and muted in their close embrace. She can feel the warmth of his breath, even the fluttering of his eyelashes, against her. "-he means so much to me. Please help him to heal well and let him feel your love." While she speaks to Maua she cares not that Matti might hear and know the extent of her feelings for him. That beyond the love Dio herself felt that she wanted her god and creator to share in this love, she wanted Maua to know Matti. She wanted them to see this lion even if he should drift from Dio's side. She'd known few as deserving as Matti, few who exemplified Maua's creeds and beliefs as well as he.

Knowing all too well just how limited Maua truly was. All the love in the world could not stop these things. Love could not change that they were more likely to lose each other to war than anything else. Still curled against him she wraps her arms tight along his shoulders towards his mane. There she begins to run her fingers through his hair. "I can see her standing over you still... I thought I was going to lose you." As she says this her fingers grab tighter, tugging a little but unintentionally, as if afraid she still might lose him if she didn't hold on. If the thought of his patrons keeping them apart was miserable then the thought of death separating them for eternity was terrifying.

@Matthieu

art by drifty | code by bluey

He heard only the start of her prayer to Maua, the rest too stifled to fully grasp other than sparse words. So much. Please. Love. He swore he could hear both their heartbeats mingling into her whispers, though, evidence of their love for each other. He willed his being into her prayer. Her grasp in his mane as she finished tugged right into his core.

I thought I was going to lose you. It was a horrid thought. The idea that she had already lost him, however temporary, by his own doing, but that it could have so easily become permanent right there in front of her. Hate began to creep in. It was a foreign feeling prior to the war; not once in his life had he ever held it for anyone or anything. But he couldn’t stop its spread. That woman hadn’t just hurt him; if she had, he could have—and would have—just swept the anger away with forgiveness. But she hurt the one woman he had come to revolve his entire world around. His gaze drifted to the wounds peppering what he could see of her body, a snarl building deep in his gut and fear at this new feeling rippling down his body in a shudder. His ever present ache to finish what he started came gnawing back; he needed to be with her. Coming to the realization that she was hurt right in his presence, he couldn’t bear the thought of what could happen in their separation. Their time apart must come to an end… as soon as it possibly could.

Before, he’d felt almost sorry for himself, having a little pity party and falling into a state of melancholia. Working towards his goal but afraid it would never come. Now, a stronger determination filled him. He would see this through.

"Don’t ye worry, mwen cheri. It will take more dan dat to be rid of me." Just as soon as his anger had made its appearance, it fell away. The war. The woman. They were yesterday. Dio was now and tomorrow. And the next.

"’ow are YOU feelin’?" he asked, nosing her muzzle. He cleaned up as much as he could the night before, but he was no expert on wounds. "Do ye need any of our ‘ealers?" He probably needed to pay one of them a visit anyway to change out his dressings, so it wouldn’t be any trouble for her to come along.

art by drifty | code by bluey

The longing for this to be their normal grows. Not necessarily the getting hurt thanks to an invading war party, but the comfort. The availability of it. Life was hard and in this world they would always have the violence, the malice. Love and kindness was a far rarer thing indeed- if she must weather the bad oh how she longs to have his arms to fall back into each night and make it all okay. All worthwhile. In the dark and quiet of his home there is peace the likes of which she has never known before.

"I'll find Heloise before I go back to the Summit." She promises. Dio is in a state where she needs some help, some kind of expert eye to take care and promote healing. But she is in no hurry to leave Matti just yet. She lays her muzzle to rest against his abs and reaches a paw to lay along him where she can feel his breathing and deep inside the gentle thrumming of his great heart. "I need this right now. If you're okay with me staying for a bit longer?" She knows he would not mind. But would he worry about his commitment to Ezrulie Freda?

art by drifty | code by bluey

Good, good. "Mèsi. She will patch ye up well." It wasn't a short journey between the Lagoon and the Summit and it most definitely wasn't an easy one. He wanted to make sure she was well prepared by the vodou queen to avoid furthering her injuries. He also desperately longed for her trips there to become temporary ones—simply visits to her family—but for her to call Scilla her permanent home. For her to call him her home.

If you're okay with me staying for a bit longer? Of course, he would be fine with it. Why ask? Unless—"Wi, it be oke. Dis be a time of 'ealin'." Something they both needed. Their entangled bodies were a comfort and a source of strength. A reinforcement of why he was doing what he was. "It be more dan oke." He pulled her in tighter, happy to extend the moment as long as they could.

-exit-

art by drifty | code by bluey

"Thank you." She was grateful for the chance to remain a bit longer. Anything to spend time with him, this was the silver lining to it all. She'd build up enough strength that with a send off from Heloise Dio could be sure she made it up to the Summit without much issue or concern. And until then she'd be in the safest, warmest, place in Scilla. Still entangled Dio begins again to drift off into a healing sleep. One where now she found dreams came to her like usual, the spirits and fates plucking at the cords of her mind.

/Exit

art by drifty | code by bluey