#( .study )

“you’re here again?” comes a question, pulling him from his view, the mockery of a theater play he'd made himself out of a few young women whose names elude his memory like the plague. the paradoxical child stands before him in all his glory of dripping, hot energy. he still looks the same.

he wills his voice to form words, a task harder than he remembers it being. “this is where i reside. it would be natural for me to be here, no?” 

edward shakes his head at them.

his small finger —oh how easy it looks to break. humans are all so fragile. why is he choosing such a frail-looking shell when is is anything but?— points at the broken shard of time-space through which he’d been gazing down.

“i meant that,” he says. “why bother watching when your star’s limelight is long gone?”

there’s teasing to his words, haughtiness only few would ever dare aim at him, but even he has to agree for once. his eyes fall onto the world below once more.

“you are right,” he concedes quietly.

both of them are surprised at such an admission. edward’s eyebrows quirk up for the briefest of seconds.

“maybe I was just hoping for a minute more. or some such thing.”

edward hums in thought, peering down at herrscher’s spectacle. nothing unusual, and no red hair to be seen for miles.

“time isn’t on your side. not here. never here,” he says, almost offhandedly. “you can’t get a ‘minute more’. or a ‘some such thing’.”

herrscher almost thinks he’s being mocked, but there’s a spark to those pink eyes like no other. the fake child is thinking. “but I am here. with my help, you could have your second chance. that is, if you’re prepared to kill yourself for it.”

“why would you help me?” they haven’t spoken for decades, the few run-ins they’re had treated like nothing more than mere coincidence of their powers’ origins overlapping. “what do you want?”

edward looks away, gaze drawn to the floating energy cubes surrounding them, each on their merry way further into nowhere. there’s silence, and then just as herrscher is about to write this whole exchange off as another attempt at a prank he doesn’t quite get, edward clenches his hands. his face betrays nothing, not unlike herrscher’s own.

“if you happen upon me,” edward says, pointedly, “truly me, not one of the other ones, i want you to stop him from going back.”

“that’s—”

“yes, that is all,” edward cuts him off. He really resembles his form for that single, simple second, but even that is a second more than any other time. If herrscher didn’t know better, he’d think—

“is that why you sought me out yourself?” he asks (and enjoys Edward’s tense posture a little too much).

“i did not seek you out!” always quick on the defense, isn’t he? must’ve struck a nerve. “i merely happened upon you here.”

“we both know you are no samaritan. no matter, i like the odds you’ve stacked me.” the next question seems to hit the child completely off guard. out of the left field, one (immortal) might say. “what should I do if it isn’t truly you?”

just this once, he allows edward time to think without calling him out, but only because his weapons are preparing a pathway already.

he’s never seen edward take this long to think about something. considering this, the answer he gets is a laughably simple one.

“just... watch over them. they deserve to have someone covering their backs. and a nice word here and there wouldn't hurt them, if you’re even capable of any.”

herrscher’s lips don't move, but he snorts the barest amount, laughing deep within his throat. the portal is waiting for him, shining with new hope.

“i can’t promise the nice words, but I will see what can be done.”

edward’s whole posture relaxes. his whole demeanor and the next words, the last words herrscher hears before stepping through the swirling pink, only serve to let him know edward thinks he will be doing him a bigger favor than edward is doing him right now.

“thanks, herrscher.”