Hell's 'gifts' (male reader x helltaker) (discontinued)

Chapter 23: loyalty

Issei pov

Walking down the sidewalks in the moon. It was calming to say the least the soft breeze of the air along with the occasional midnight cat roaming was charming.

Even though y/n and the others mean well. I'm afraid in all honesty. Love is beautiful don't get me wrong. It's just, after what happened between me and raynare I've grown nervous about falling in love.

It's pathetic I know but I can't help it but guard myself from it. Raynare was the first woman I fell in love with. During that time all that mattered to me was making sure she had the perfect date.

I gave her all the love I could give but still life has a way of being cruel. Getting stabbed in the gut by the woman who showed you love and insulted afterwards can scar anyone, no matter if they have will of steel or not.

'Would you die for me?'

Those words. They haunt me every day and night. Every time I see a woman their face transforms into raynare's. Her taunts and laughter ring in my ear like a flashback of torrent.

I want to get into relationship really I do. But I can't when all I see is the face of my greatest failure. On that day when raynare begged for me to let her live she still wore that little bracelet. It was meant to be a symbol of how much she mattered to me.

Yet I did nothing. As I stared into her face fires of rage were drowned by the sea of dead love. The waves of emotion ran through me splitting my heart in two. In the end I chose the cowardly path and I looked away as Rias killer Raynare behind my back.

I could have saved her. She would be alive if I had intervened. But she's not. Maybe it was for the best.

No one's POV

Hatred. That was all that pointed towards him. Issei hyoudou, a man loyal to his companions and his lover('s) tainted and cracked by the false love of a manipulator. Despite his pain he works to protect and serve those who gave him a second chance.

But every good deed, every show of strength, all of his resolve, all of his loyalty, it was overshadowed by one singular piece that was to blame: his perversion. He dreams and thinks about inappropriate actions and views.

Yet he does nothing of the sort to his companions. He hides his pain to try to seem stronger but. When he is in solitude his true colors show as his tears flow freely as the pain is laid bear to no one but himself.

Then he met y/n, his best friend, his brother. Issei looked up to him as his role model. Y/n's was shown to the world and the world gave him pity. For years Issei wanted to know how y/n can show his emotions to everyone so easily.

Whenever he tried to tell everyone his pain they shunned him and told him to 'man up' he ask.

"How? How can I be like you?"

In that moment y/n placed a hand on his shoulder as he replied.

"Issei, the reason I can break down in front of everyone is because I don't care. Showing your true colors and showing your tears shows that you too are not made of stone. That is image that has been placed upon us. We are forced to never cry or show emotion because we are the fearless and the brave. But by showing that your vulnerable side it's the bravest thing a man can do. So don't be afraid to be you no matter what anyone says."

People say they had it hard, but they never met Issei. He has been betrayed, used, ridiculed, hurt, and hated almost all his life. Yet he is still smiling and being perverted despite all the negativity.

He may never find love again but he came to accept it.

"Your hopeless you know that?" Ddraig spoke to him as Issei gained a grin.

"I know that. But it stings to have to accept it. Well it seems that we better get back we leave for home in the morning." With their words spoken. Issei stands up and heads back the hotel.

Though not everything is going to be simple. Things are going to change but one must ask. How much will change? For good or bad that is for us to decide.

In the shadows a voice calls as it stared at Issei.

"Ara Ara~"