Zacharie had his back turned to the purifier, his breathing slightly more... rushed, than normal.
It seemed like he was staring into an abyss, his hands touching the frog mask that sat atop his bronze skin, but they were frozen in place.
He breathed deeply, trying to rid himself of the anxiety filling his cranium.
The Batter stood behind him, running a hand through his short blond hair, wondering why it took so much emotional preparation to remove a mere piece of glass from one's face.
He never knew the merchant was so... insecure under his calm appearance. He felt quite sorry for the other man, honestly.
Zacharie's voice snapped the taller male from his thoughts.
Even with his voice shaking, and stammering, it still sounded like silk being spun from his vocal cords.
"Elric, I trust in you to not react negatively to my true appearance, do you understand?" said Zacharie, trying to sound stern, but it was obvious he was scared.
"As I've said before, Zacharie, I would rather fail my duty as purifier, than make you feel even more distraught than you already are," the Batter replied, having thrown quite aback at Zacharie's use of his real name.
Zacharie nodded, now removing the piece of delicate porcelain from his face.
He shut his eyes tightly, and turned to face the other man. He opened them, expecting to find a look of disgust on the Batter's face. He didn't.
The Batter was... intrigued.
Scars, large and small were laced all on his dark skin, and small amounts of freckles here and there were dotted across the surface.
The Batter walked up to Zacharie, cupping a cheek with one hand, and moving curled locks of ebony colored hair from his face.
He looked closer at the shorter man, and noticed his eyes.
Oh, how they were to die for.
His hooded, ice green eyes stared up at the blond. They had a dull sparkle to them, Batter was sure of it.
The eyes started to look around frantically, and words were mumbled out as Batter was trapped in his mind once again.
His feelings, for once, got the best of him, as he planted his chapped lips onto Zacharie's soft ones. Before Zacharie could freak out even more than he already was, Batter stopped him.
He softly, once again, cupped his scarred cheeks. "Sh, don't worry so much. You're beautiful, Zacharie. It's okay, you look amazing," he whispered.
A small, sad smile began to make it's way onto the black haired boy's face.
"Thank you."
