Embers of Sun and Flame (Fuegoleon Vermillion x OC)

Chapter 45 The One Room

A wooden door. The heavy wooden door of his office. It smelled like oak and metal, oiled metal, because he had gotten the hinges oiled yesterday. The door had been crying for far too long, so it was about time for it to be done. The door. It had whined and cried with its faint sound that still seemed to prick through the air, poking his brain each time it was opened or closed.

The door. It reminded him of so much. He was reminded of the first time he had sat there, in his office, as the Captain of the Crimson Lion Kings, and she had sat across the table from him with a courteous smile. And all he was able to think to ask from her that time, had been if she was of noble birth or not.

He shook his head. What a foolish question to ask...

But she had smiled that day. She had smiled at him. She had teased him. And... she had laughed. And that laugh had been so sweet. It had been sweeter than anything he had tasted, much more comforting than any song that he had heard. It had made him feel warm, butterflies swirl in his stomach, and a wave of every good thing that had happened to him, wash over him at once.

His lips tugged up into a smile as tears started pushing the backs of his eyes. That smile...

Then the conversation, after the first night they had slept together... They had talked. And she had smiled again. She had held his heart on the night before, and she had smiled to him. She smiled like angels ought to smile.

She had smiled...

And... I told her to keep my brother safe...

A memory of something he'd never really forget. The memory of asking her something, only to have her do just that. She had done so, out of her own volition, and yet... The memory of what he had felt when she hadn't returned, was still far too vivid.

And the door. The door had seen so much.

He placed the fingers of his left hand onto the surface of it.

I should get it sand too... So that no one gets splinters from it...

But the door didn't budge. The door. Didn't say anything. It had seen so much of them two already. It knew them so well, and yet, it never said anything. It just was. It had always just been. And once upon a time it had been between them. Though it had never been locked. It had never prevented either of them from simply opening it, and walking in, or out. Depending from which side you were coming from. It never prevented them, either of them, from reaching onto the other side.

The door simply was. It didn't judge. It didn't prevent. It just was. And yet, Fuegoleon found himself apprehensive to open it. Which was absurd. He had opened it. So many times before, he had opened it. He had... they had... breached a gap between them. Him and her. But now... the door.

The door was silent, but it almost seemed as if it was mocking him.

There was another knock. It was soft and silent, asking to be let in, despite the door being unlocked. And she knew that he was just on the other side. Her mana was prominent, and so was his. They both knew who was on the other side. The mana made no mistake.

He gazed up to the ceiling for a moment before taking a deep breath. The fingers of his left hand lifted from the wooden surface, as his right hand settled onto the cold door knob. He turned the handle and the door started creeping open. There was a click of the clasp, but it was followed by a soundless flow. Not even his breathing rang in the air, as the sight that was revealed to him from the other side of the door, came into vision little by little.

The tears that were hidden behind his eyes began burning. A lump got lodged in his throat, preventing him from saying anything. If he really had any right words to say. What even were the right words? If there were such, he lost them the moment he looked into her green eyes.