Page 120 of A Soul to Touch

“It is,” he stated as he drew away from her.

“What if you live for another hundred years?”

Faunus let out a terrible expire. “And what if I don’t? That’s not a risk I am willing to take with your life.”

Then he grabbed her hand and turned it so that it was flat against her chest, forcing her soul to go back where it belonged – within the shelter of her body.

She was too distracted to notice what he’d done, that she was no longer holding it. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“I’m sure you will come to hate me for it, but I didn’t want you to change. I know it is selfish, but I wanted you to accept me. I wanted a taste of what I could have had if I had come here before the Demon King cracked my skull.”

He braved trailing the tip of his claw under her jaw, being careful to not cut her buttery soft skin.

“I have wanted you for a very long time. When you were small, I just wanted to protect the one creature that had been... kind to me. I wanted to see you flourish in this world filled with teeth and blood. I wanted to know that I wasn’t just capable of death but also something... good. As you got older, I realised you didn’t need me at all, and I was in awe of you for that.” Then Faunus drew his claw down the centre of her body, brushing it over her tunic. “I did not know what desire was until a little after you had already left to become a Demonslayer, but suddenly I wanted more than just to watch you, protect you. I thought you would never return my desire... or my feelings. I am no better than a Demon to your little warriors.”

“I became a Demonslayer eleven years ago,” she mumbled. “I’m twenty-nine now.”

“And it has felt like eons for me,” he rasped. “You cannot imagine the longing and yearning I have felt in that time. I spent my time with the Demons at the centre of the Veil because I hated being alone, that I couldn’t be with you. Some of them eventually accepted me, but I was never trusted. If they wouldn’t truly befriend me, creatures who are just as much of a monster as I am, what hope did I have that you would? I expected you would try to kill me if I came here and you discovered me.”

“You couldn’t have been more wrong...”

“I know that now, but that does nothing to change my future. It doesn’t change what has happened.”

Not even the Witch Owl had been able to heal him of his wounded face, and if she couldn’t, nothing could.

He watched as the softness in Mayumi’s features hardened. She squinted her eyes at him. “There must be a way we can save you. Iwillchange your mind, Faunus.”

She’s so damn stubborn.

She said that now, but when she realised it was futile, he was sure she would come to resent him. He’d changed her body for himself, played with her, when he knew there would never truly be a future between them.

“You can try.”

Despite everything, he refused to pull away from her until she started to. He would take everything he could, even until his last breath.

Mayumi lifted the clumpy spoonful of porridge she’d prepared, watching as the honey she’d drizzled over the top stretched from the bowl before tipping everything from her spoon sideways. The quietsplatdid little to distract her as she thought deeply.

After their eventful morning, going from a sexual high to an emotional low, Mayumi had requested some time alone.

Faunus left, probably to circle the house or sit in some tree or whatever Duskwalkers did.

Do I love him?She picked up another spoonful and just let it... splatter back into the bowl.I kind of just went with the whole moment, but I don’t really know how I feel.She started stirring her steaming porridge now, just playing with it.Then again, I’m pretty shit with understanding my own feelings.

Still leaning against the kitchen counter, she took her eyes away from her food and looked out the window at the white wasteland before her.

A month is a little early to really develop feelings for someone... right?

It was hard to deny it when her literal soul had called to him. It was like her body was speaking on her behalf – it always did that.

Her gaze changed its focus, and she stared at her own reflection.But it hasn’t really been a month, has it? I’ve kind of always felt a shadow in my mind ever since I was little.

The dark entity of her desires, the shadowy creature her mind had been fantasising about, had always beenhim.

“Is that why I’ve never been able to get attached to anyone?” she quietly asked her own reflection.

Mayumi darkly laughed at herself as she turned her spoon upside down and slipped it into her mouth, only gaining what had been coating it.

“Be pretty stupid of me to wait around for someone who may never have come back... or may never have existed in the first place.”

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