Numb ✧ Ghirahim x Reader ✔

chapter 54

a/n

HAPPY LUGHNASADH GUYS!!!

I SHOULD PROBABLY BE DOING SOMETHING MORE FESTIVE TODAY BUT GHIRAHIMS A-CALLIN

oki now

let's finish up this thing!!

・

If Ghirahim were to have one regret, it would be not taking [Mother]'s words to heart. Due to its faulty repairs, the Gate of Time used the life force of its users as juice, rather than magic energy. He assumed he was an exception, considering that he breathed off of Demise's sword.

[Mother] wasn't so lucky, and died almost immediately. According to [Name], the reasoning was that since she'd been possessing so many different bodies for so long, her soul had been divided up over and over again that she barely had any life left in her anyways.

Although a bit uncanny to think about, it benefitted Ghirahim greatly. [Mother]'s death released [Name], and now everything seemed to have cleared up. Bulblin's whereabouts were unknown, but for the time being no one cared for him.

They returned to their time, to [Name]'s bedroom on the second floor of Telma's Bar. Ghirahim immediately collapsed onto the mattress, though never once let go of [Name]'s hand. She sat on the bed's edge, staring down at the ground.

While her lover seemed exhausted, she was restless. She wanted to move around and dance in circles and maybe even scream while she was at it. Losing control of her body was torturous, and with every step she took now it felt so surreal. She'd learned not to take her freedom for granted.

However Ghirahim held her back, trying to coerce her to join him in bed. (His intentions were pure, lewd human!) Although she truly felt like she couldn't sit through anything, part of her did want to reconnect with him. The emotional abuse [Mother] dealt out to him pained her, too.

Sliding beside the Demon Lord, she pulled her comforter up to cover her mouth. Her toes were digging into the sheetsーin the most appropriate ways, mind youーand her hands fidgeted with the blanket's seams nonstop. She tossed and turned to find a comfortable position, though deemed that pointless after a while.

"Stop moving," Ghirahim mumbled from her left. She turned around again to face him.

"I thought you didn't sleep?"

"I can make exceptions when I'm with you."

"But I don't want to sleep, so there's really no point iー"

"Yes, you do..." He pulled her body closer to his, silencing her as her face was pressed into his chest. She sighed, bringing her squirming to a cease. With his chin comfortably resting atop her head, she supposed she could try to unwind a little...

Which did work. Her muscles begin to relax, her eyelids increasingly drooping as she felt like fading into his cozy warmth. Ghirahim coughed once, which snapped her back into attention for a moment, but she easily fell back into her drowsy trance. But then he coughed again.

"Stop coughing on me, twat."

Then again.

And again, and again, and again, and soon he had to pull away from her, facing the floor to bark out the phlegm stuck in his throat. [Name] was up on her feet in an instant, rushing to his side to see what ailed him.

"This is nothing," he managed to inform her, though his body screamed otherwise. Continuing to hack, he eventually spat out a red fluid. His blood splattered the floor, and a tense moment of silence flooded the room. He had stopped coughing, at least.

"I'll get water," [Name] announced, rushing toward her bedroom door. However Ghirahim's hand shot out to grab her shirt, preventing her from running away.

"I don't need water, fool," he said, then released her in order to cover his mouth again. His wheezes tumbled out one after the other. [Name] scrunched her nose up. No matter the topic, conversations with Ghirahim always ended in him condescending whoever he was speaking to.

Though, if water was unnecessary, she figured he might need Demise's sword instead. To, like, recharge or whatever he did in there.

She sprinted over to the other side of the room, almost tripping over her bare feet sliding across the wooden floor. She grabbed its hilt, bringing it over to Ghirahim when she noticed a crack running through the blade.

The fear she felt at that moment was even more excruciating than when [Mother] had possessed her body. Without a second to spare, she shoved the sword in front of the demon's vision.

"Why is there a crack?" She didn't mean to quiver, but her hands couldn't stop shaking as she handed him his true vessel. She knew for a fact the sword couldn't simply crumble without an intense amount of force. She couldn't imagine how or why this had happened.

"That explains the coughing," Ghirahim sighed. In comparison to his Sheikah lover, he was quite calm, considering that his body was chipping away as they spoke. Shard after shard, the sword's metal flaked off, and [Name] hastily tried piecing it back together, to no avail.

"Stop panicking," the demon demanded, though his heart fluttered seeing how concerned she grew for him. [Name]'s brows furrowed at the continuously flaking sword, attempting to discern why it was breaking apart.

"...When you passed through the Gate," she realized. "It malfunctioned, and took your life force."

"That wouldn't make sense, because this sword wasn't with me at the time."

"But there's no other explanation. Agh... We need help."

Once again, [Name] stood up to leave, and, once again, Ghirahim stopped her. He took her by the hand once more, pulling her toward him. He held her close, her eyes staring straight into his chest as his hand pressed against the small of her back.

"All I need is you," he muttered. She scowled.

"Goddess, stop being cringy! You're dying!"

When he still refused to let go, she teleported out of his grasp, and grabbed Demise's sword. She healed this once before; she should be able to do it again. Yet no matter how much magic she breathed into it, the fragments just wouldn't snap back into place.

"I'm not dying," Ghirahim denied, crossing his arms. He then stood up from the bed. "Let's take this to Zant."

Her jaw slacked.

"Zant?!" He must be joking... The Twili King was such a random personーnot to mention, an enemy! "Oh, Hylia, you're really out of it now..."

"No I'm not," Ghirahim hissed, though his words were slurred now, as if he were a bit tipsy. "Just go find Zant."

"Uh, okay, but you'll have to stay here."

"I'm not leaving you agaiー" He interrupted himself with another series of obnoxious coughs, howling out into the night's silence.

"You're going to have to," [Name] insisted. She then, still clutching onto Demise's sword, sprinted out of the room. No way in hell was she going to enter the castle itself, so she'd have to lure Zant out somehow...