37 parts Ongoing MatureAerion curled into Damien, clinging like something broken. Damien stroked his hair in silence, gentle, aching.
"Aerion?" he whispered.
Aerion pressed closer, unwilling to let go.
"You have to leave."
"Why?" came the muffled reply. "I want to stay. With you."
"It's not right," Damien said. "To want the one who hurt you. To bleed for the hand that broke you."
"And is it right to let go of the only thing you've ever known?" Aerion's voice trembled. "You hurt me. I know. But it doesn't matter."
Damien's voice turned low. "Because I've been your whole world for a while-your joy, your ruin. I broke you. And still, you cling to me. Not out of love, but because pain feels familiar."
Damien paused. "I once felt that for you."
Aerion looked up, desperate. "Then how did you let go?"
Damien met his eyes.
"I didn't," he said. "You left."
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Aerion and Damien had wounded each other beyond repair-but neither ever truly let go.
Millennia ago, Aerion betrayed Damien, and died for it.
Now, in another life, they meet again. Damien saves a boy from being sacrificed to a god-not out of mercy, but bloodlust. He didn't know the boy was Aerion reborn. Not at first.
But once he saw it-once he knew-his cruelty sharpened.
Damien never speaks of the betrayal. He doesn't need to. His silence is thick with rage... and something else. That old, cursed fondness, crawling back in.
Aerion, unaware of who he once was, cowers before the titan. But still, he slowly found himself drawn to him. Because in this life, Damien-cruel, cold and brutal-was the kindest one he'd ever known.
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