Embers of Sun and Flame (Fuegoleon Vermillion x OC)

Chapter 25 "A week. Tops."

"It's about time you got back here," Mereo remarked as she saw the three of them, Arcturus, Fuegoleon and Solara, return.

The air had been rather tense on the way back, Arcturus not uttering a word as he was deep in thought; wondering what to make of it all. The wish to see his daughter happy collided with his sense of responsibility and the still echoing fear in his heart. The images of the past flashed before him in his mind's eye.

"[Dad!]" The scream still far too vivid in his memories; the piercing, numbing, tingling pain, it all still haunted him. The events played in his head, as if they had happened yesterday.

-

A searing, slashing pain coursed through him, making him tumble onto the ground. His legs, they had given out. Something warm spread across his back as he gasped for air.

He heard a scream. Someone screaming for him; screaming out to him. The voice, it wasn't weighed down by a life full of experiences and difficult decisions. No. That voice still had so much to live for, so much to look forward to. That voice was going to grow to be more than he ever was.

Even if, at that moment, it wouldn't add up to much, his life. No. Not as he laid there, on the ground, struggling to even catch his breath.

And so, he propped himself up with his arms and grit his teeth. There was no, way, that he was dying just yet. No. Not yet. If he was going to add up to anything, then by the Seven Heavens, he would not die quite yet.

"They will not pay for my mistake", he had thought.

"YOU WILL NOT HURT THEM!" He had yelled as he had turned himself around to lay on his back, his grimoire appearing next to him in swirling flames and smouldering heat as it fluttered open.

The marble tiles under him cracked up.

"...Red marble... it's supposed to be white..." he had found himself thinking. Even if that thought had only passed through him for a brief second.

But. Perhaps. That which had come later was worse.

After it all, as he regained consciousness in a hospital bed, he was greeted by a pair of eyes. Many pairs of eyes, but only one of them made his heart sink. In a sea of green, much like those of his wife, specks of gold radiated, much like those his own, but there was something missing. And in return something had taken its place.

Those eyes were lined with red, looking weary and tired, but no tears fell from them. Not anymore at least. They were scared and aloof. They were distant. And, the worst of all, there was a wall over them. It might have been thin, as if only a sheet of glass, but it was there. And though it now showed what lied beneath it, little by little, it could grow thicker until no light would shine through.

-

Arcturus had kept stealing glances of the two, and had seen how she had linked her arm with his. Her frame had been pressed against his, as tightly as was convenient, while walking side by side. He had seen the careful smiles that had been painted on their lips, ones that they couldn't hide even if they had wanted to. Maybe... it'll be alright... he had whispered to himself in the back of his mind as they had walked back.

"It's a large forest aneue," Fuegoleon had replied, his gaze shifting to what Mereo was holding, while hers was fixed in how his arm was linked with Solara's.

"Oh? And that is the only reason why you took so long?" She grinned.

"The conversation took a while too, of course," he replied, keeping his tone calm and factual.