Welcome to Gaia! ::

It took awhile for Hybris to answer, heart still pounding and mind full of the sight of Eles-as-Faustite dressed in power and wreathed in the glow of fireflies once more. The sight of Eles-as-Faustite’s ruthlessly efficient motion with that dagger. The sudden absence of that hand around his starseed and the smear of intimacy that remained in its wake.

It was, very simply, a lot to take in. And Hybris gave himself that time.

Slowly his breathing began to ease, matching Eles’s…Faustite’s, as a matter more habit than choice. Eventually, leaning heavily into his boy, he answered, “Sometimes it puts you into a waiting area. It’s not bad, good for collecting extra energy. Just a little more tiring.”

A few more steady, matched breaths, “Do you remember?” It didn’t seem so, not with how things fell out. But all possibility of Eles getting to live a life purely as Eles was now gone, even if the boy didn’t know it yet. The leaning turned into an embrace, a firm, almost bruising one that even so, wouldn’t hurt. Not when both of them were like this.

“Being Faustite,” Hybris sighed as he finally, fully, and simply crossed that line that had floated vaguely in his periphery for a while now. And before the disagreement could begin, he added, “You’re different. But he would have recognized you as Faustite, more than perhaps anybody else.” Youma not included.

“He was, is,” so gallingly, “Faustite’s…your,” he sighed again at the twists of it, and he should be delighted for those twists. But maybe he’d skated a little too close to death tonight, and mourned the very blessed simplicity of Eles’s life to this point more than he’d been expecting. Maybe he’d find it funnier tomorrow. “Your husband,” he finished, apologetic.

“The Negaverse is going to know you again.” Not just some random agent recognizing his boy’s talent, but the whole of the organization, finding their prodigal general king.

The denial was fast, firm, and not at all interested. Hybris couldn’t help but smile at the lack of profound change to be gained from either unlocking wherever his powered self had been or Hybris’s declaration. The smile could be felt through that kiss, full of blood, fake and real, and whatever else Albite had left in his mouth. Neither cared.

Except…maybe a little.

“Blood caps,” Hybris admitted. Oops. “I was hoping he’d let up sooner.” Then sighed yet again, “I think he just enjoyed it more, though.” The potential downside of that particular tactic. Exciting the other party, becoming some kind of broken doll that would be even more lovely to break a bit further.

Remembering how the eternal had looked at him, fist in his chest, Hybris could feel his heart rate pick up again, “I am looking at you, like you’re the bravest, most skillful, and caring person I’ve ever seen,” Hybris described to Eles in that pitch black, and was all the more straightforward for it.

“You saved me. You keep trying to save me and you have.”

Trying not to laugh out loud, the shaking of his chest gave Hybris away quickly enough. Strange that his eyes were burning for it as well, though. His throat thick with it. Hybris nosed at Eles until his face met that neck and he planted another kiss there, hoping it smeared the boy with a red letter.

The confession hit like an aftershock, still managing to shake the air between them even after all that had come about. Twisting his hand to better take the other boy’s, to better explore their fine lengths with his thumbs, Hybris considered that. And remembered the hammer. The shock of it reverberating through the days after. No regrets but still…

Had that been the result of touching the edge of fear?

And this, a body brought down in a swift arc of blood and blade, was that Eles going past that edge and plunging his fist into that fear, the same way he might, soon, pull out a starseed. His boy was really dangerous when afraid, wasn’t he? A good thing for so many, that he was so rarely caught up by it.

“How did it feel?”

And it should be a throw away line. A little joke. But Hybris knew the thread of truth to it, the possessive ownership of his own life and death. And he was reminded, again, that they were getting married. The same way he was reminded daily, hourly, since they’d decided. Shocking. Delighted. Painfully hopeful.

“That’s right. Next time,” and yes, he agreed wholly in that inevitability, “...they need to ask your permission first. It’s yours after all.” And here he lifted one of those hands to his chest, exactly where a much larger, angrier one had been not very long ago. And then he pressed, in silent urging.

“It’s what I deserve,” Hybris confirmed as he aimed a kiss at Eles, met his chin, then landed right on target. “And you so kind and hardworking, to bear the effort of tossing me about.” It would take a bit longer then, for his boy to overwrite that other signature across his soul. But he would, given time, experience, and maybe a little less peril.

“There’s a piece of good news, though. At least if someone makes you go to whatever…place, the Negaverse has.” Giving up, he moved the hand from his chest and to his mouth, for Eles to feel the smile there. “She isn’t there anymore.”

He trusted the answer he’d been given, fair for the price he’d paid. Though not worth his starseed. Albite and that youma, that Headache were so greedy. Maybe this was a lesson they’d needed. To know the cost of certain desires.

What a maddening way for memories to float up, like unhelpful bits of confetti. And the clearer parts always awful. “It does,” Hybris insisted, voice turning solemn. “It means we aren’t moving. Out of this city, maybe off this continent entirely.”

Because he wasn’t brave. Or particularly strong. But (usually) Hybris knew when to cut his losses and run. And that woman waiting for Eles in the Negaverse would have meant running. Far enough that Destiny City’s magical factions couldn’t drag Eles further in, couldn’t so easily reach out and grab at his boy with those greedy fingers. No Mirror, either, from what Hybris understood. But between the Mirror and some woman setting Eles on fire again, the choice was easy.

“Not unless you want to.”

With his free hand, Hybris traced exploratory fingers along the unfamiliar seams and trim of the uniform. “And this, I intend to enjoy this so much.”