A story I wrote for my couples thread in celebration of me getting two major dreamies.


Thanatos and Sapphire
She tapped her chin thoughtfully with the end of her pencil, her eyes distant as her mind wandered through unseen worlds. She dropped her gaze to the paper, the depths of her sapphire eyes searching the parchment for answers, inspiration, advice - anything really. Looking up, she began to tap her chin with the pencil again, her eyes clouding over with the fantasies of her imagination. In the five days he had been watching her, she had never deviated from this pattern, even though he knew that she had something to write, something to say. Was she perhaps afraid of being heard and being rejected for her opinions? No, he knew she was far too bold to be afraid of that. Well, what then? He looked her up and down, x-raying her with his blood-red gaze, taking note of every pore on her skin, every freckle, every minuscule detail that, even though it was often overlooked, made her unique, made her who she was. He longed to reach out to her, to touch her, to feel her, to see if that sponge-like nature of hers would take him in too, but he knew that he couldn't; he knew that if he touched her, she would end up like everyone else he had touched: fertilizer for the grass. He couldn't help himself though; he had to at least
talk to her! Finishing his coffee, he rose to his feet silently and walked over to her.
"Why do you never write anything down? I know you have something to say." Startled by the mellow, seductive voice, Sapphire jerked out of her trance and looked up to see who had asked her such a question.
She just sat there with her mouth open, admiring his pure physical beauty of his tall, lean frame, dark, slightly haunted features and blood-red, almost unsettling eyes, for a few seconds before she responded. "I... I don't know." She bit her lip, feeling completely and utterly stupid for not being able to articulate a simple sentence. "I guess... I guess I just think that my ideas aren't worth writing down because no one will listen to them." She looked up at him, terrified, for once in her life. No, not because of the fact that he probably had thirty pounds on her and could hurt her very easily if he wanted to, but because he was curious and his curiosity was leading him to pry at the shell she kept herself locked inside of at all times.
"I will listen," he told her gently, uttering those words she so wanted and yet so feared to hear. He sat down almost silently in the chair next to her and then affixed her with that gaze that gently poked at and completely ripped open your soul in the same millisecond of its intensity. When she didn't answer due to drowning in those pools of blood he had for eyes, he murmured, breaking the spell he had created, "Well?"
She blushed slightly, embarrassed at making him wait and angry with herself for becoming so distracted, and then began to speak.
"I feel like this society as a whole is broken, is torn, and we don't have the tools to fix ourselves like we think we do." There was no hesitation in her voice now, only raw, unbridled passion for the subject at hand. Glancing over at him quickly to make sure he following - as if he wouldn't be! - she continued when she his gaze on her. Well, it wasn't just his gaze on her - it was his everything on her. He was clinging to every word she said like a dying man to the hope of life; he had dreamed about the chance to talk with her, to be near her, for every day of the last two weeks, and, now that he had gotten such a chance, he certainly wasn't going to waste it.
"And what do you think can fix us, if we cannot do it ourselves?" He was genuinely interested in her answer, and for more than just the fact that she was speaking.
"Another person. Well, to be specific, the love of another person." She smiled a distant smile at him, her eyes and mind no longer in this world. "Call me a romantic, but I believe that we need someone else to truly make ourselves whole, to truly fix our flaws." She shrugged, her eyes and mind returning to Earth from their adventure into lands of thought.
"I admire your romanticism," he told her, returning her smile with a genuine but small one of his own. Oh, how long had it been since he had last smiled! It felt good - no,
excellent - to truly have a reason to be happy.
"Well thank you." She nodded her head gracefully in recognition, the sapphire depths of her eyes dancing a jig to the happy tune of her heart. "Not many do."
"And shame on them for not," he replied elegantly and eloquently. The smile on his face grew a tad larger as he discreetly looked her up and down, still trying to piece together the puzzle that was her; he found her incredibly hard to read but also incredibly attractive because of all the unique little facets of her personality. Suddenly it hit him like a brick wall; he had been talking to her for nearly fifteen minutes and hadn't yet asked her name! How foolish he was! "You know, I just realized that I have not yet had the pleasure of knowing your name," he murmured, meeting her slightly puzzled yet charming gaze with a ravenous one of his own. From the moment he had set eyes on her, he had wanted her, wanted her so bad that the hunger hurt, and currently the fact that one touch of his could kill her was the farthest thing from his mind.
"My name is... Sapphire." She seemed rather unnerved by his unblinking, single-minded stare. He couldn't blame her; it probably was rather daunting to have such an insatiable gaze fixated upon you. "And yours is?" He almost missed what she had asked, due to his incredible focus upon her, but he heard it well enough to know that he was a fool.
He couldn't tell her his name, so why did he ever ask her hers?! It was a simple reaction to ask someone their name when they asked you yours, but clearly he had been too distracted, too sidetracked to bring logic into it, and now he was paying for his stupidity! What would he do now? Tell her a false name and then disappear, never to been seen from again, like he had done with every other woman he had ever fallen in love with? No, it was time to break the pattern, he decided. It was time to return the favor and be as open and honest as Sapphire was; he knew and appreciated how brave she had been to come out of her shell for a complete stranger, and felt that it was the least he could do to mirror her and do the exact same thing.
"My name is..."
There's still time to turn back, Thanatos, and leave her behind, jabbered the little, logical voice in his head, but he brushed right past it; now was not a time for logic and planning, it was a time for passion and spur-of-the-moment decisions. "Thanatos." As he finished the sentence that he never thought he would finish and sat in front of the girl he never thought he would sit in front of, he reveled in the overwhelming feeling of success, of victory. In a sense, he had been victorious - over himself and his damned logic and secrecy that had kept him locked up too long. However, his attention was drawn away from this great conquest of his by Sapphire.
"You're too beautiful to be death," she murmured almost inaudibly, her gaze that
still wasn't frightened fixated upon him with the utmost attention.
So she had figured it out.
"Death can be the most beautiful thing in the world to the right person, Sapphire." He returned her gaze evenly, knowing that now was definitely not the time to falter. "If life hurts you so bad every day that you can't bear it any more, death is a wonderful, dazzling escape, a promise of no more pain and suffering."
"But..." She grasped at words, searching for some to vocalize what she felt, an feeling that maybe couldn't be vocalized. "How? How do you exist, how are you
here, of all places!?" She was stunned, completely and utterly blown away, and saw that as he reached a hand out to comfort her, he pulled away at the last second. "I'm dead if you touch me, aren't I?" she asked him quietly, searching his unsearchable face for a reaction.
He nodded his head in response, his gaze on his lap, clearly not able to bring himself to admit such a thing. He looked up at her and she saw tears forming in those rubies of his eyes. He opened his mouth and murmured, unbearable pain infusing his voice, "I guess this is it then. I leave you be, once and for all; you'll forget about me eventually, I can assure you." He rose to his feet and turned to leave, everything about him
broken.
"Thanatos!" Sapphire called after him, her heart aching for his pain and at seeing him go.
Much to her surprise, he stopped, turned around to face her and asked, "Yes?"
"It is better to die in love than live without it." She closed the gap between them and kissed him.