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Don't ask too many questions.

Cain heard his name being whispered by Edin, and he hugged her even tighter, but then something started to happen. He started to feel her. Really feel her. His chest was moving, and he was breathing. His eyes widened with shock, as he saw his golden locks on his shoulders. He didn’t understand. It must be a dream. He must be hallucination. Edin grabbed his face and kissed him. He kissed back. He felt his lips against hers, he felt his heart beating in his chest. He broke the kiss, catching his reflection in a puddle. No. It couldn’t be.

It was his face. He was looking at his face. The broken, useless prince. Everything he had run from. It wasn’t just whispers anymore. It was him, looking back at himself. At his nightmare. No! It just couldn’t be! After her lost everything. He couldn’t live while everyone else was dead. Every breath he took felt like betrayal. He smashed the puddle with his fist, destroying the image of himself. Then there was water. Water on his cheeks. Were they tears? Was he crying?

His chest was heaving, he was going into a panic attack. It was too much to handle. “Edin.” His voice was hoarse and broken. “It’s not you. It’s not you.” She didn’t know. She couldn’t know everything. If she misinterpreted all of this to be about her. About her powers. It wasn’t her. “It’s not you.” He kept saying it. It was the only thing he could say. A sharp pain hit his chest. He couldn’t take it anymore. He broke from her, from the ball that they shared, and started running. Running harder and faster than he ever had.

His foot got caught in a discarded fishing net not far from the mouth of the face and he fell, tangled. The net feel over him and he ended up entangled and trapped under it. All the memories of being trapped. Of being kidnapped. Of being helpless. Of pain and suffering. All he could do was curl up in a ball under the net and shake. He must look pathetic to Edin. Like a scared child. She would never want to see him again after this.

Don't ask too many questions.

Cain wrapped his arms around her back. He couldn’t run anymore. He couldn’t do anything. All he could do was cry. He held Edin tightly as his entire body shook with the intensity of the sobs. Cain thought he ran out of tears a long time ago, but now he felt like he could fill a sea with them. His grip on Edin only became more intense. He could feel her, smell her, all the things he couldn’t do before. Sensory overload had completely taken him. The smell of the ocean. The feeling of sand. It felt like just screaming in his head, and a quiet one nagging at him. That he wasn’t suppose to be the one to break down and cry.

When he was all cried out, he pulled out of her grasp and sat next to her. There were visible bags under his eyes. All of the emotions had completely worn him out and taken their tole on him. Cain pulled a cigar and a lighter out from his pocket. His hands shook as he lite up, but he couldn’t help it at this point. He just need something. Something to calm his nerves. Cain just stared at the ocean as he puffed. There was nothing he could say to Edin that would explain everything he was going through right now. Not a single word he could think to say to make everything okay.

Don't ask too many questions.

He put out the cigar in the wet sand as soon as it hit her nose. He was such an idiot, he didn’t even need, it was just something he enjoyed. His eyes were dead and tired as they focused on her. “I’m 500 years old, Edin.” His whole face must have looked emotionless and dead. “Everyone is dead. And so am I.” His heart was in pain. “I don’t hate who I was. I hate…. I hate that I was so weak. That I made so many mistakes. I let so many people down.” His voice got caught in his throat. He closed his eyes for a moment before he would speak again.

“Cervantes.” He grumbled, his voice low. When he was like this, it didn’t feel right to go by any other name. His skeleton form. The form of a failure. Of someone who had nowhere to return to. Who was cursed to roam the earth alone. That was Cain.

Don't ask too many questions.

He kissed her back. It had to be her. Him and her. There was no doubt about it anymore. It could never anyone else. The kiss broke, and he rubbed the back of his head. “Do you know how long this is going to last? It was your magic… right?” He looked at her, a big confused goof. He didn’t know what to do. How to explain this sort of thing. Thinking about looking at himself as a skeleton made his heart hurt. There was just no escape from the pain.

“Don’t call me Cervantes in front of the others…” He whispered. That was for her to know. For her to call him. Anyone else wouldn’t understand. He didn’t want to. Now he just had to think about a way to explain the rest of it to her. Perhaps, tonight, he would leave his journal out. Leave it for her to read. It would tell her better than he ever could. For now, there was a party going on. He looked back towards the beach. “We can be sad later.” He stood, bringing her up with him. “There is a party, just waiting for us to tear it up.” He grined, his big, wide, real grin.

Tyrese didn't believe he would be lead into a death trap, near exclusively for the fact the brunette had put herself first upon going inside. (To what, he wondered?) He, however, was stopped to stare at the jagged stone teeth Aubrey floated over. He could fit, definitely, but wondered if he was claustrophobic at all should the walls come in much closer once he followed. After lingering to feel the cascading trails sand drift over him, the wolf did take the edge and pull himself upwards and forward. It seemed testy to be flailing any limbs too animatedly, pushing off walls and other grabs spots seemed acceptable- natrually he did look at what his fingers hooked over, checking that it wasn't a home for...Who knows, so long as it was capable of biting or pinching he was fine to avoid it. His companion wasn't coming back into sight as he paced himself in search for caverns he could accidentally wonder in, should he encounter a forked path she may have ducked into. None looked big enough to take him in, so it wasn't likely she'd taken them herself. It was a straight shot down the rudimentary shaft, the water only so vaguely warm and getting colder. Had it not been for the faint light snaking outwards and up as it began to, he might not have kept his head for a prolonged time. Admittedly he was slow, eyeing shells and what seemed like small bits of coral sticking to the walls. There were crustacean and fish even, the former of which he lifted himself well away from before passing them by. They seemed more inclined to scuttle off towards the nearest rock or crevice, at least the smaller ones did. The bigger baddies were quicker to draw their claws out and twirl whatever degrees proved enough to keep their backs faced away from the water foreign predator.

It was ticking until he came into a large cave (compared to the route he came form, that is) with a clear dead end lining each wall. The only way out was one in the same to the one he'd entered through. No Aubrey in sight. The wolf looked up without much thought, trusting that the light was the sign of their destination. Surely enough he could visually outline a silhouette and an expectant, clearly extended hand. His own touched the bottom of the dip, scouting for his feet as he turned that way and kicked off. The calm float and cling of water began more aggressive, the split of water almost seeming surprised at itself as the wolf steadied and cradled head and he shoulders at the surface. Not to poke fun at her, but Tyrese in no way trusted the stout female to be pulling him up any ledges, not even small ones. The hair that had been comfortably suspended was now draped over his eyes as he pawed for an edge to lift on. He found it, turning midway to sit on the platform and hack the combination of dry air- actual air, and his scarred vocal cords. The coughing was worse than anticipated, more like he'd swallowed cotton a wad full of itchy straw pieces. Paced breathing helped as he swang his lags around to land on the solid lining of-- Tyrese smoothed his hair back and tried rubbing at the goggles before ultimately ripping them off with a crisp snap. The newly freed navy orbs fully adjusted before they widdened on the first thing. It wasn't a single spot, really, but the whole room that outright flew over his head with the initial perception. It was the colors that he couldn't seem to grasp without staring for a good few awed seconds. The 'what' revealed itself as he blinked, not believing his own eyes. Her voice startled him, but aside from a quick jump in her direction, his gaze was immediately back to scouring the room.

The bejeweled walls seemed surreal, there were just so many basking in the sunlight, undisturbed and unsoiled from top to bottom. "Heh..." The laugh was so breathless it could only be quietly exhaled through the sparkling but slightly lopsided smile his lips formed shortly after. He caught her gaze then, and lingered there long enough for it to sink in with him that it was approaching too long- his head dipped to let his hand scoop his hair and the water dripping down his face from it. The wolf then pushed off the ground, careful that it may be slick and slippery, and offered his hand after a thoughtful pause mid-step towards one of the walls. Where was the sunlight coming from? What part of the cave was above water and where? The water too, he figured it'd be completely submerged. If that were the case then this place wouldn't have been carved out, he supposed. "It's a surprise you ever come home." Tyrese's hands met his hips and adjusted the hem of his trunks as he casually performed a tourist's walk along the inner perameter of the room, avoiding dips in the floor as he peeked down what he suspected was a corridor here and there. 'A hidden wonder of the world,' he should think, still resonating with awe as he stopped to feel along the wall. The wolf couldn't help the feeling that they were one of the first to ever find this place, like he'd stepped through a portal into the past. "So..." He began meandering another slow round about, eyes flickering in Aubrey's direction, "This is your world, hm?





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There wasn't much to say after that, whether the wolf's mind lingered behind in contemplation or, in the case of the second statement, he nodded silent gratitude. Did he like it? "I'm positively enchanted." He replied, smiling briefly. Hopelessly, even in a place like this, he'd stared at her a lot longer than the ceilings and walls; he'd realized and corrected, feeling only faintly regretful of his mind flitting off without his body. Rotating slowly, he'd rubbed his forearm, tempted to explore the afar off sounds from hallow halls beconing with more light. Aubrey seemed fine to remain in place for now, and he gave pause to stray far should she slip or he somehow get lost. The former was more likely, even if he were the one slipping; he would eye the floor for suspicious dips and downward tunnels leading back into the water. Still, interest called him, the catcalls of his footsteps echoing backwards from his direction of walking as he motioned to the brunette that he was meandering elsewhere.

There was reason to come home now and days, yes, but Tyrese hadn't always found much to live for. Why'd he held on, he hadn't always been sure, but even when the contemplation tore through his thoughts he was always after haunted by the stigma and weight of burden he'd leave behind. Even if, on occasion, he didn't always want to exist anymore, the wolf felt it was more right to consider the decision as more than just an act of personal effect. Tales of horror fortold that such an act never stopped at just that person, it rippled out like stones on a water's surface. When he considered his family the last thing he wanted was to impart grief and guilt onto them, even if he himself felt in the mindset that the nothingness offered rest and finality. The father wondered, further, and judging by a look that had often deadened the light behind her eyes, whether Aubrey had crossed the same tracks in her recent months; and in turn, what made her double back until she could latch onto the more positive hope of always having something to come back for.

What made him wonder these things anyway? Simply, he'd questioned that, whether there was always something to come back for. There was, if one could train their mind to look for positivity rather than it's opposite. Often times this as his weakness, though hopefully he was getting better at that. Still he wondered, could he think so had he not found her? Between the break up and the disjointed event that had shifted his feelings for the brunette, then was when he wanted more than anything to just...go away. Being abandoned in utter turmoil, even his Sela couldn't dissuade the persuasion of nonexistence. Then,...Then...Her light, and if not for, would he have come though the darkness? He wondered. Could he have if it weren't for latching onto another person. Tyrese visibly winced, distracted navy orbs dancing across the walls as he walked. Was it necessarily bad that he needed another person to do so? Maybe not. The timing just...worried him sometimes.

Even if Lillian hadn't taken him seriously when he had said such, the idea to leave Sela had been close to real for days on end. He was glad he wouldn't have to answer whether he would have had the strength to make it on his own, he hadn't had to. A warm buzz warmed his thoughts at that comfort, a breathless chuckle sticking to his lips as he addressed the mother to be with a glance over his shoulder. "Thank you..." If she could read the dept of the look in his eyes she might feel that he meant this deeply, but the weightiness of the words would be lost on her without him explaining why. Which, he was okay with, turning down the chance to say a lot more with, potentially, three more words. That might be playing too much into the moment and the mood, from which he was restraining despite the look in her own swirling orbs. He was curious about the voiceless pleading, but it was more than just her bargaining with what went unsaid.



Out Of Chamomile: