“I know,” she said gently. “I know,” she breathed out, her eyes sliding to the floor.

“I told you once, and I will tell you again,” his voice rumbled, filled with agony. “If I have to I will keep you with me, no matter how reluctant you become. If you come to despise me, then there is a solution. The first home I ever owned here is a tall house, on the edge of a cliff. I would keep you there, where you would not have to see me, but I could know you were safe. But still I would know where you are. You are mine, Stare. Nobody else's.”

“So you don't regret it?” she said, now pain and sorrow coming into her voice. “Taking my life from me? Making me … this?”

His head tilted around. The white hair wavered as he twisted at the shoulder, the stern line of his jaw coupled with the smooth curve of that nose and the corner of a single ice blue eye that bore into her black ones with an intensity that told her that he was listening. That he did care about this conversation. That he did care about everything.

“I regret what you had to endure for it,” he quietly replied. “That I have hurt you. That I am … hurting you. But you have to know that I cannot - I -” he twisted back around, his expression twisting into something macabre. “Fuck this darn world,” he cursed, “These people in it. You want to never see me again? Fine. I'll make it that you do not, I'll send you to that house. But there is danger out there, Stare, a far greater danger than there ever has been before and I - cannot see you get hurt again. Not by me. Not by him. Not by anyone!”

And he threw himself all of a sudden. His ringed fist rose, glinting with power and wonder as it flew. In a split second he went from calm to a swift, his hand colliding with the wall of the empty building closest to him.

[B]Wham.[/I] There was a mist of dust. Tiny hurricanes twisted into the air, rising on unseen currents with a rain of brickwork splinters. Stare jumped as the god gouged out a heavy portion of the wall, the stone crumbling like powder as his divine strength slammed against it. But she remained quiet and as the mist cleared, slowly but easily, the brown dust falling to the ground she could see him remaining there. Arm extended, elbow high and fist still shoved into the wall. His face was a contorted mess of frustration, angry at himself, angry at his world, angry at what his father had done to him, and how he had treated her even as time had gone on and he had learnt more about what she meant to him, what she could do for his life, how she was bringing him closer and closer to the god he could honestly be …

“Fucking shit,” he whispered as he stared.

And in that moment Stare felt pity for him. Or, she had always felt pity for him, knowing what he had been through in his own life, all of it out with his control. He was her rapist, her enslaver, the one creature she truly blamed for all that was wrong in her life, yet - yet.

As he began to shake, she took a step forwards. And, as slow as a bear first emerging from its winter hide, she extended her hand forwards, her clawed fingers twisted and black, as black as he had made her or as black as perhaps she had always been, and he had merely found that side of her. Carefully she stretched and touched his shoulder, fingers shaking as their flesh met.

“Vitruvion?” she whispered.

And his eyes slid closed. He moved, head coming forwards to meet his fist and pressing his temples against the cold, broken stone. A god, but broken, hating what he had done to her, not able to forgive himself yet still unable to give her up.

“Vitruvion, “ she breathed slow as she came closer. “My lord, I'm not going to ever truly be happy, but I -” she tightened her grip around his shoulder, swallowing for what she was about to say. “I … I want to make a deal.”

Confused, and alert, his eyes sparked open. Now his sorrow and anger was quickly gone and he turned to look at her directly, brow coming low over his eyes with deep concern.
“A deal?” he asked, unsure, not hiding his disgust and distrust at the idea. “Stare, this is about you and I, not-”

“Will you please let me speak?”