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It took a lot of energy not to scoff at the other’s words. Was he serious? Did he really think that he was justifiable in what he did? But as his nails began to dug into his hand, he looked up, watching the other with a look that could only be called cold. “It’s a little late, isn’t it?” but the glare stopped and soon he took in a breath, shaking his head. “I’m sorry… I’ll stop… I’ll stop fighting.” With another breath, he looked up and watched the man, frowning just a little. “Your three reasons, Monty? I know that you’ve lived a long time and you’ve probably learned much but… what are your reasons for doing all this?”

Kalore jumped but he should have known that the other was going to do something like that… he was strong again, or getting there, so it wasn’t a surprise to find that the table didn’t withstand him. However… “Your reasons make sense… but the last one.” He frowned more, standing up and walking away. Grabbing a rag, the man shook his head as he was silent for a while, thinking about what it was that he was saying. Really? He thought that abuse was the only thing that came from them? Yeah, there was a lot of threatening and a lot of yelling… but there was also a lot of talking, happiness, and making sure the other was okay as they helped each other through their problems. It was… angering, to say the least, that he was a cause.

“It makes sense to leave if there are problems.” Walking to him, he gently moved the man so that he could hand him the warm cloth. “Put it on your knee.” Kalore walked back to his seat, shaking his head. “If the plan was to get rid of me then you shouldn’t have given me those,” He pointed to the bow and quiver, “Or this.” Pointing to the pendant, the man shook his head again. “I gave up on you, Monty. I thought that you were gone and I was actually ready to accept that. Apparently I can’t do that.” He sighed, shaking his head before leaning back on the chair. “I don’t know why… but apparently it’s just not happening. As for this? What abuse, Monty? Other than the last few weeks…”

For some reason or another, Kalore didn’t move. Most would have cowered, run from the angry demon, but him? He had no intentions of doing so. Sighing softly, the man took a step before he was looking up at him, unmoving by the anger in his red eyes. Instead of saying anything, the first thing the elf did was place a hand gently on Monty’s shoulder, the other gently leading him to another chair. “Monty… Do you honestly blame yourself for this?” He frowned, shaking his head before sighing some. “Yes… Lech did a number on me, but I bounced back from it; partially because of myself, partially because of you. You realize this… right?” Before the man could say anything else, however, Kalore continued to speak, shaking his head some.

“If you ended your life for me… do you realize how devastated I’d be?” Looking up at him, his emerald eyes were bright, matching the other’s ruby hues as he frowned more. “When you died on us, Monty, I lost it. It’s one of the reasons why Gambler had it to where I couldn’t go to your funeral; because she didn’t want people to wait hours because of a hysterical elf.” There was bitterness obvious in his voice about that… he thought that he behaved himself quite well at the funeral, even if Gambler didn’t want him there. Brat. “Even if you wouldn’t have come into my life… do you really think it would have been rainbows and sunshine?” He raised a brow. “I was a stripper, Monty. Dancing for money, an escort when asked to be, on drugs, and abused without caring. If Gambler wouldn’t have done the sarcastic ‘join me if you want’, I would have still been there.”

Kalore shook his head, letting his hand drop. He didn’t know why he was so calm. It probably had something to do with the amount of energy he had spent over these past few weeks, these past few months. It had to run out some time. “I’m not blind and I’m not deaf. I know the things that you’ve caused for me, Monty, but I also know that I’d be terrified to go back and live through what I would’ve gone through. I would have still been with Eri, I would have…” No, he wasn’t bringing that up. Kalore had shared plenty of the horrors that he had dealt with living for centuries with Eri, but there were some big things that Monty didn’t know; actually, he didn’t think he knew about the escort thing… Oops. “It would have been bad, Monty. Bad things happen, a lot of bad things happen to me especially, but it’s not because of you. Not the biggest ones, at least. This bad thing, you dying, that’s the worst yet.”

The man grit his teeth, “So… Were you actually awake then when I found you?” He didn’t care if the man was just healing… If Monty actually heard him freaking out, for over an hour, and did nothing, Kalore would kill him. He didn’t like the idea of someone seeing him like that; he had composed himself by the time Joker got down there with Kit and Rave. Fists clenched, he snapped but there was only a little anger left in him. “I wasn’t scared of you, damnitt!” he was yelling, exasperated. “I left you alone because I didn’t know what to do! I knew that you couldn’t have burned me, because you wouldn’t take me in just to do that!” his nails dug into his palms but he shook his head again. “I hated the damn arguing and I didn’t like seeing all this but… don’t blame that on you faking a death.”

Was it faked? Did Monty even really get hurt? Judging by how hurt he had been found… probably, but now Kalore was just doubting it all. He shook his head, grimacing for a moment as he watched him. “I do care that all of that happened, Monty. It hurt but it wasn’t like you weren’t hurt as well. I’m more breakable than you, I get this, but damn it all, I’m used to s**t like this. I’ve been burned before. I’ve been terrorized before. If not by Eri or by those damn clients, then by Lech and Sin, if not by them then it’ll be someone else. It just happens. It happens to Rave as well but he doesn’t go into some safe place,” Well, that wasn’t completely true… it was why he never did anything more than one night stands in order to get his ‘people time’ as Dusk called it.

“Are you forgetting every good thing that happened because of all this, Monty?” Frowning more to him, he shook his head. “For every bad thing, there were a hundred moments, at least, to make up for it all. Almost every moment I spent with you had me happy, whether we were joking around or pleasuring one another or even just lazing around and doing nothing. Even arguing. It didn’t bother me until things got bad but then things got better; every time they got better.” Kalore watched him, looking confused. “You have to agree with that… otherwise, I wouldn’t have that.” Pointing to the bow and quiver, the man continued to watch him, confused. “Would I?”

He knew that Monty wasn’t someone that would torture him like that but… what was Kalore supposed to think? The man may as well have said that he was awake the whole time… but hearing the door slap and the demon walking away from him, he wasn’t sure what to think. His ears twitched, however, as he passed the bedroom door, trying to just get his things. He shouldn’t speak… he shouldn’t say a word… but Kalore was still Kalore, no matter how angry or annoyed he was. Sometimes he never stopped talking; even when he knew that he shouldn’t.

“I used to.” He spoke clearly, facing the door. “I used to let things happen to me because I didn’t care.” Walking away from the door, he placed the quiver on his back, touching the ruby bow carefully. “Used to, Monty… you changed that for me.” If Lech would have done all those things before he had met Monty, the man probably wouldn’t have cared. It was something normal for him, at least with Eri and his little jobs that he had the man do. Unless he was working for the royal family or the castle, Kalore never cared about what was done to him, never cared about any of those things. Monty forced him to care, breaking him of all those habits. Apparently the demon forgot that.

Sighing softly, Kalore’s ear twitched again as he heard the door nearly give from whatever the other threw at it. He should leave… he shouldn’t bother with the other, but something kept him back. He would take a step and stop, look at the door, go back, only to do the same thing over again. Touching his forehead, Kalore muttered softly, “What the hell is wrong with me?” The door was right there. Monty had turned his back on him and everyone else; he should want to leave so that he didn’t have to deal with him anymore. However, every time he tried it just wasn’t working. Maybe Monty really needed to shove him out.

The door slam had Kalore jumping, covering his ear for just a moment before he felt Monty’s hand on his arm. Freezing, the elf wasn’t sure what to do at first as he was dragged out. On one hand, this was what he needed in order to leave. On the other hand… this was making it harder to leave. By the time that they got to the outside, Kalore was still frozen. “Monty…” Glancing over at the other, he frowned more but didn’t move. When he finally did, he took a step, touching the strap on his quiver and the feeling of confusion and pain came through him again. He didn’t want to leave him; he had to leave him. Turning, Kalore didn’t think as he went on tip toe, face to face with the demon before a quick kiss was placed on his lips, whispering, “Had to have one more… for memory.” Damn.

Brought back to the other, Kalore looked surprised but the deep kiss brought a sound from him as his arms instinctively wrapped around the other. Staying on tiptoe, he closed his eyes slowly, cherishing the kiss from someone that he hadn’t been close to in far too long. This hadn’t been what he had expected; he hadn’t even expected to kiss him at all. As nervous as he had been about it, the familiarity of this was something that he adored. He held onto the other, planning on doing so until he either ran out of air or was pushed off… probably the first one would happen first.