[M] Until Silence Is Broken

"I can try... But I'm just wary... I can try to do things with you, but like I said it must be my way. I must be able to control the situation or I will not be able to go outside or allow you those small tastes of the outside you are craving you so badly," he said looking down at her. He watched her nuzzle into his hand, felt her lips kiss them so softly, and he felt guilty. What she was asking for was so small. She wanted him to love the world, but it was so easy to say, but yet so hard for him to do. The idea that the world was entertaining still or it help some kind of spark of life that would ignite a flame within him was. How was he suppose to care for something so old.. It felt so strange to know she wanted so much for him, but yet she couldn't.

He sighed softly. She wanted so much...but it was really so little. "I'll try... but we need guards. I won't risk harm to you. You will thank me later," he told her softly. "Many are wary of me for my age... and some feel I'm too old to stay a ruler. Let me do this my way... I promise you'll see the outside again."

He seemed so distraught by the small request. It wasn't as if she were asking for his throne or to lead an army. All she was asking for was to simply leave the tunnels and go above ground if only for an hour. The girl couldn't understand why it was so hard for him to really agree to it. He would try for her, but he seemed so put off by it that it made her heart break a little. She wouldn't want to put him in a situation that he didn't like or felt uneasy by. She'd never do that to him.

Lia gave a faint smile at him as she thought about it. She gave a small nuzzle to his hand before turning slightly to kiss the tips of his fingers, one by one. She held his hand in her own, looking somberly down at where their two hands now met. "Nevermind Razor... Forget I said anything," she said quietly, still looking down at their hands as her hair slowly slipped from behind her shoulders to frame the sides of her face; blocking her face from his gaze. While she agreed to let him do things his way, it no longer seemed as if it were a good idea. The way he treated it was enough to put her off about it and no longer consider going outside. It was a silly request. She had everything she could ever need here and he was trying. He even created this room for her so she could feel as if she were outside. Maybe she was asking for too much. She could be fine with how it was now.

A wave of sadness slowly kept lapping at the back of her mind as she thought about it more. What she wanted was out there, but not at the expense of causing a rift between them. She'd stay where he wanted her, tucked away quietly in the palace walls. Lia bit back the urge to sigh as the pain slowly was getting to her. She needed to be alone for a bit and digest what was going on today. "You should go back to work... I've taken enough of your time for today dear." She gave another soft kiss to the top of her hand before glancing up at him to try to give him a smile. She was hurt, but she'd deal with it when she was back in her room. Lia held his hand for a few more moments before letting him go.

"I'll see you for dinner?"

"Yeah I'll see you then," he told her as he looked at her. He wasn't an idiot. He could hear it. That small sound. The sound most people dreaded to hear and when they did it broke their hearts. His heart was harder though, but it couldn't even stop the faint pain that came from this. Her voice was broken, defeated, and seemed to have lost that spark again.The way her mouth moved as she tried to smile was even different. He could see the small twinge that came with it, even if she tried to hide it. The sign that she was slightly forcing it for him.

He watched her for a moment before getting up himself. He gave her a small hug and whispered 'I'm sorry' before letting go and walking off. Each step hurt more then the last. He had hurt her. The simple no had done that. All he wanted to do was protect her but he wasn't sure how to. Not outside of his home. His home... his castle, structure, fortress, his- He paused. This place was almost impenetrable with the wards and how he had it set up. It was nearly perfected in security over the years. Maybe she was a thrill seeker... Maybe that was why she wanted to go outside. Even though he had offered to take her, it had been under heavy guard and she didn't seem to like the idea as much.

The king would think this over during his meetings. They normally didn't require too much attention from him. Maybe he could come up with a solution... He looked up and found himself having walked to the throne room and opened the door. Ah well, a day of work was ahead of him.

Shoot. There was that small sign that she had done something wrong. No matter how she tried to make it so she would cause the least issues for him, she still was able to inflict pain on the king. Those last few words still clung to her as the last of him walked away. Her head turned to watch as he faded from view, but she said nothing. How could she? No matter if she tried to abide by his rules, it caused pain for them one way or another. What she wanted seemed to be out of reach, but what he wanted didn't appeal to her. How were they supposed to make it work when what one wanted, the other disapproved of? A heavy sigh escaped her lips as she glanced back to the room that was now hers. Servants roamed around busily as they tried to construct what she had been imagining. They were hard at work, she'd give them that. The demoness could still feel the faint breeze that kissed at her cheeks; a last reminder that this was all created because of him. Slowly, both of the palms of her hands rested lightly against her stomach as she watched the servants work quickly on her design. The was her home now.. And this was the closest she'd get to the outside world.

- x -

Hours had come and gone by, by the time dinner came around. A few of the servants had been busy at work cooking dinner for the royal family and their guest. The food was as grand as any other night with multiple dishes made to accommodate the different dietary needs of each of the members. Lia had been tucked away in her bedroom, curled up in a small ball. The sheets where thrown around her to form the the small demon's body. Her hair was sprayed out behind her, leaving a small wet residue wherever it laid from the bath she had taken earlier. In her hands, resting against the tops of her knees as she laid on her side, was a newer book she had picked up to replace the old one she had finished. It was the only way the girl knew how to spend her time.

She rested comfortably waiting for dinner to be served. Lia had sent word to the servants that she wanted her meal delivered to her in her bedroom. Along with one of the servants, she gave them a note to give to Razor to let him come join her if he chose to. She didn't want to eat in the dining hall or anywhere else. Here, in her room, she felt the safest.

He had gotten her note semi-early in the day. He had read it carefully as he let his fingers glide against the parchment, feeling where her feather pressed harder in some places then others. The small places were the ink ran. He would wonder if she had hesitated there to tell him something or was pondering a word. He read over it more then once. He memorized where the ink had ran too much and a letter looked like a smudge or where it looked nearly perfect and all those in between. As he ended his day, he folded the note two times and slipped it under his shirt sighing.

For a moment, he stopped in the hallway. One way went to his room and the other one went to hers. He could leave and go to his room or go and see her and see if he could fix this even though he didn't really understand her point at all. He sighed softly and turned towards her room. He had sent a servant he saw with orders that's they'd be dining together in her room.

Slowly he made the walk to her room and just outside the curtain that would open to her room. He paused. He could feel the tension as if it was a living being. It was choking. Finally he walked in. "You asked for my presence?"

...But from the left all that could be seen was- Lia glanced up as she heard that familiar sound; the sound of her significant other. It took her a moment to process that he had come to join her after all, or that she even requested him to come. The demoness had been so engrossed in her novel that she had forgotten about their earlier quarrel or that he may come by her. It took a moment, but soon enough it hit the girl as her eyes grew to reveal more of the canary-like yellow of her irises. He came to see her. If she had her tail out, Lia would have been wagging it in pure happiness. Instead though, the girl's expression softened as she gave him a smile. She bookmarked her location in the book with a small feather that was attached to some ribbon and closed the book quietly. She shifted her weight to sit herself back up and placed the book in her lap. Her legs were still tucked to the side of her, not sure what she was supposed to do. She could hear the hesitation in his voice, the reluctance that something may have been wrong, but she bore no ill-will towards him. Lia understood why he wouldn't allow her to go out and even with the provisions he wanted, it was too much for her to ask of him; especially with a newborn on the way.

"Hi Razor," she meekly said as she gave him a warm smile. She didn't want to argue, or for him to think she was upset. True, she still was, but it she'd learn to live without. All she wanted was for them to return to that peaceful bliss they were in this morning. Only happiness and nothing else. "I figured we could dine in here tonight if you wanted... I would have suggested your room, but I wasn't too sure if you'd want that.. or where we stood for the matter." She didn't want to fight, to bicker, to be in this odd place they seemed to keep finding themselves in. Maybe some dinner and some cuddling would help; that was, if he wanted to do that.

Lia glanced back down at her book that rested comfortably in her lap. She lightly brushed at the leather spine with her index finger, slowly working her was towards the feather that poked out of the top to indicate where she was. It helped to distract her, and keep her calm. "..Want to come sit with me?"

"Where we stand had not change just my opinion of your safety and your need to put yourself in unnecessary danger. Part of me wonders if you have a true grasps of the horrors outside of these walls as well as within them with how freely you wish to go between them without so much as a second thought. It is too dangerous out there," he told her watching her. She had been reading. From his position he could not exactly tell which book it was she had been reading, but he was slightly curious to say the least.

He walked into the room finally deciding to stop hiding by he door. He looked at her as a servant not long after his arrival came with food for two. It was the answer to her question. He'd join her tonight. He had already made plans with the kitchen for it. He motioned for her to take a seat at the table they were preparing for them to eat at. "We can talk more about this over food once we've both been fed and perhaps not so harshly then."

As for his part, he sat down at the table as they set his plate for him and poured him a fresh glass of blood wine. For the lady they gave her straight blood, no alcohol in it. "I don't want us to fight anymore.... but we need to work this out if we are to move forward..."

Lia watched him quietly unsure of how to reply to him. She didn't spend her life in the safety of a castle like he did. How dare he assume like she didn't know the dangers that were outside. He assumed too much from her without ever stopping to see from her point of view. "I know very well of the dangers outside of these walls Razor. I lived out there not in here," she growled at him as she moved the book from her lap to a spot next to her on the bed. She got up from her spot to go join him at the table where her plate and glass awaited her. "Yeah, we can talk after dinner..."

She wasn't happy to say the least, but it could have been the hormones. The girl took her seat across from him quietly. How was she supposed to make him see? Lia picked up the glass to take a quick sip. She sighed. "I don't want to either Razor... I grew up out there and you grew up in here... What we see in the world is different.I just want us to be okay."

"I didn't grow up in here. I was born before this place was built. You do not even know about me past what people say, do not assume. I've seen and created horrors beyond your imagination," Razor commented as he took a bite of food. He was no child. Yes he stayed in the fortress now, but the outside world had grown dull to him. It wasn't fear that kept him in here. It was fear that would keep her in here. He knew what the horrors were out there because he had made quite a few of them himself.

Razor sighed. "Look this home was built during my lifetime, but before. I use to live in the open with my mother and sister until we made this place our home. We knew pain... We were monsters and hunted and some thought we were not fit to lead because of what we were. Royal demons came from royal angels. That meant we were traitors right? We had to fight for everything we got blood and sweat."

"And you don't even have a clue about be past the time we've spent together," she commented back at him as she slowly cut into her dinner with a fork and knife. "At least with you I have a general idea because of what has been said and written about you. To you, you have no idea what I have endured out there yet here I sit across from you." She understood their lives were nowhere near the same as one another. He was at least thousands of centuries older than herself, but she had been around long enough as well. The two were so different that it made times like these part to see eye to eye.

Lia moved the food around her plate mindlessly as she kept herself occupied. She wasn't one to typically play with her food, but the dinner conversation didn't leave her with much of an appetite. She sighed softly, knowing that they would not get anywhere if they kept this hardheaded approach to each other. "Well it seems we just don't know enough about each other to see why we think the way we do... So.. Tell me a little bit about your mother and sister." She looked up to him with soft eyes. She'd try to make it work with him. They hadn't really 'tried' outside of the bedroom or small conversations at meals or in the library.