all i want

He didn't care that she fell. She wasn't real. She wasn't here. He had chosen Romina—chosen wrong—and instead of a life of bronze and fire and a soul who had seen through his hideousness and his stone, he had been sent here. He had always vowed to follow Romina wherever she deigned to lead him. He just didn’t think she’d lead him to hell quite so quickly. Shouldering his things and stomping forward, the monstrous man didn’t expect to be struck. Though his center of gravity was low and he weighed considerably more than the petite missile headed his way, the snow and the venison near his feet barrred any attempts he might have made to right himself. Tumbling into the snow like a tree felled in an empty field, Ru’in landed with a muffled ooomph, finding Kiada more or less on his chest. Still he would not look at her. As she recalled their collective history, Ru’in grit his teeth, nostrils flaring with each word. Even so, he glared steadfastly over her shoulder. Of course a demon would know these things. It meant nothing. It meant nothing. The bridge of his nose crinkled as he snarled, her recounting his death making something inside of himself flinch darkly. “It’s nahht—“ He began to say, but then her words sliced off the remainder of the reply. —I loved you so much. An unsteady dry-sob sort of sound left his lips, and his teeth gnashed against one another, his breathing rapidly increasing. He should have cared about what happened to Khairi, but the lingering echos of her words in his ears drowned out everything else. Slowly, as if someone was holding his head in place and he had to struggle against it, Ru’in turned his bi-coloured gaze towards Kiada. For a moment he didn’t see, couldn’t see her through the blur of icy-water that had built up on his eyes. Blinking it away harshly, Ru’in took several stern breaths as if he were about to view something decidedly unpleasant. It was then he let his eyes focus on her. For everything else that had changed, her eyes hadn’t, and in them he saw the truth. Raising a mittened hand to the side of her face, decidedly too rough despite his attempt at gentleness, he held his breath, eyes scanning her face for signs of trickery. “Keyahdah.” He whispered, his mouth making a mockery of her name even now. Leaning up slightly in a half-crunch, his other hand shook itself rapidly to try and remove the mitten covering his fingers. Once done, it reached out for the warmth of her cheek, his lips parted in a silent gasp. “Buht...how?” ru'in And I don't want to see another night Lost inside a lonely life while I'm here.