Alchemised

by SenLinYu

“The war is over. What is it you think you’re protecting in that brain of yours?”

“when I heard it was you I’d be getting, I was looking forward to breaking you.” He shook his head. “But I don’t think it’s possible to exceed what you’ve done to yourself.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is that all? And here I was hoping you were plotting to seduce me.”

She was not so foolish as to mistake calculation for kindness.

“I have warned you, if something happens to you, I will personally raze the Eternal Flame. That isn’t a threat. It is a promise. Consider your survival as much a necessity to the Resistance as Holdfast’s. If you die, I will kill every single one of them.”

“You’re like a rose in a graveyard,” he said, and his lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wonder what you could have turned into without the war.”

“You made me feel like the parts of me that aren’t useful still deserve to exist. Like I’m not just all the things I can do.”

“Nothing! I just spent a lot of time making that medical kit for you, and I did spend an hour teaching you how t-to use it, so—I think it would be really ungrateful if you—d-died.” He gave a hollow laugh and stepped closer so that his chin grazed the top of her head. His sigh was almost despairing. “All right…” he said, “but only because you asked.” The words ran through her like a knife through the chest.

“You’re mine. You swore yourself to me. Now and after the war. I’m going to take care of you. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. You don’t have to be lonely. Because you’re mine.”

“You are. It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you will still be mine.”

“There’s a point when you have to realise that you aren’t going to get everything you want. You have to choose and let it be enough for you.

I’m not going to let anything take me from you.”

Too much has happened to ever really put it behind us, but if you choose me, and I choose you, I think we’re strong enough to make it.”

If he’s a monster, then I’m his creator.”