Golden eyes watching our every move
Losing time without the sun or moon
It’s easy, in a way, to hold her demons at bay. Far easier than his own. But then, he would give her anything she needed. Would be anything she needed. Would battle even invisible monsters, without blinking an eye. It’s so easy, when it’s for her. Especially if it means wrapping himself around her and holding on until she returns to him. For a thousand years, if that is what it took.
It still surprises him sometimes, that despite her nightmares, she had chosen him. Him. A creature of infinite night that would forever be worse than anything that might haunt her dreams. But to her he is simply Ether. And that is perhaps the most beautiful thing of all. To know that she could look at him and see beyond the heavy shadows that encapsulate him forever in their hold. That he could be a protector rather than a haunting predator.
So yes, it is easy. With her, it is always easy.
To see the way she so tenderly brushes her lips against their daughters small forehead is an incredible thing. He had never imagined himself with a family, before her. Had never imagined he might understand how his father felt for his mother. Never imagined that such a thing might be within his grasp. As a boy, watching his family from the shadows and feeling as though he were different (as though he didn’t quite belong), he would never have believed he might one day understand.
He revels in her touch, feeling as though it were the first time rather than thousandth that her lips have met his skin. His eyes glow a bright, fierce yellow, filled now with only greedy love rather than the uncertain caution that might once have met her. He leans closer, nose pressed against velvet black, exhaling deliberately into her skin as she tugs at the shadowy strands of his mane. And when she curls into him, repeating her love back to him, he draws her in close, pressing her so tightly against him he is almost surprised they don’t simply meld into one.
“Always,” he replies immediately, his words soft yet firm with certainty. “I will always be yours.”
ether