Lovely (Ruby x Dyrroth)

eleven

Dyrroth slunk furtively out of the room, glancing left and right. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he strode soundlessly away from the small prison, the unlit lamp dangling from his left hand and creating a soft, metallic clinking sound. 

He knew he had to be on high alert, for he recognized the footsteps he'd heard earlier before he left the room. They'd been consistent and light, but not as if the individual were trying to be sneaky. There had been a rather 'composed' quality to those footsteps that gave Dyrroth a strong feeling they belonged to his mother.

He kept his head lowered once he was out in the open. If he did so, he would be harder to differentiate from the other demons. The Abyss was nothing but a crevice in the Land of Dawn, filled with nightmares, shadows and predators, and Dyrroth often felt as if there was a strange difficulty to telling things apart in the dark and bloodthirsty civilization, as if there was no contrast to anything at all. He didn't know whether it was the way all individuals mirrored each other's menacing air, or the eternally dull lighting that made it hard to see in the Abyss, to notice the smaller details.

He was almost there. So far, he'd made it unnoticed. But he could sense that his luck was running out.

Right at that moment, he spotted someone he knew not far ahead. A familiar elf-demon girl with silky pink hair and matching pink eyes, and who wore an aura of feigned sweetness and innocence. Dyrroth stiffened, drawing in a breath through gritted teeth. Why, oh why, for the thousandth time, does it have to be...

'Dyrroth?' Selena wondered aloud, taking several tentative steps towards him, her surprised expression laced through with a little suspicion. 'What're you doing out here?'

Dyrroth tried hard to mantain his composure, keeping his face perfectly blank as he emotionlessly raked his magenta eyes over the elf in front of him. 'I think the question is,' he responded calmly, 'what are you doing out here?'

A wry grin pulled at Selena's rose-pink lips with practised elegance. 'Oh come on, it's not that strange, is it?' she said jokingly. 'You know I'm a free elf, I can go wherever I want, whenever I want to. Whereas you're the Prince-'

'-who has even more freedom than you, okay? So stop being so fucking nosy and leave me be!' Dyrroth snapped. The contempt he felt inside had involuntarily wormed its way out, and he flinched inwardly at how rude he sounded. Even though he hated Selena, he'd clearly just crossed the line.

Selena didn't react frankly, but Dyrroth's shrewd magenta eyes caught the brief flash of hurt in her face. She lowered her gaze to the ground, her shoulders rising an inch as she took a deep breath. 'Fine,' she said simply. Dyrroth heard the mingled anger and pain in her voice, although she was putting tremendous effort into hiding them. 'I'll...I'll do as you said. You won't be hearing from me anymore.'

Her sleek pink hair curtained her facial features as she walked past him quickly, the tap-tap-tap of her footsteps echoing behind her. Dyrroth didn't know whether to feel sorry. All princes were this ruthless, weren't they? It would be weird to feel sympathy for Selena, although deep down he did feel a nearly imperceptible hint of regret for being so tactless.

I hate being a prince. I hate having things I'm supposed to do and not supposed to do, feelings I'm supposed to feel and not supposed to feel.

Gritting his teeth, Dyrroth forced himself to continue walking, doggedly pushing all thoughts of Selena out of his mind. It was better to not think about the bad side of being a prince at all. Fantasizing about a much better life would be nothing but wishful thinking, and would only make reality seem even more tedious and depressing than it already was. He would have to get used to this stress eventually, as much as he hated to admit it. It was somewhat similar to surrendering. But, oh well, in reality, things rarely happened the way you hoped they would.