#echo steele(oc)

Edgar’s POV

I walk down the hallway to the twins room, feeling excited and trying to maintain my calm façade. Knocking in my usual way it only takes a moment for Echo to answer the door. Her mismatched eyes tell me her sister is in the room as well. 

"Hey, are you both decent ? Can I come in?” I question her and she nods, opening the door and letting me in. I step into the room and see Hazel is sitting in the chair in front of the vanity. Echo goes back to her sister's side while I take a seat on the couch. 

"Hey Ed. I heard it was your birthday. Happy birthday” Hazel greets me with a warm smile, her amethyst and seafoam green eyes seem to sparkle in the sunshine. Echo is behind her doing an elaborate braid in Hazel’s waist length black waves, weaving a lavender ribbon through the braid to accent Hazel’s normal Amethyst eyes and dress. 

A second knock is heard just as Echo is finishing up and Zero enters sitting on the couch next to me until the girls are ready. 

"Almost ready?" He asks Hazel who nods, kissing Echo’s cheek and she takes Zero's hand, heading out. I go to the vanity where Echo sits, brushing her own shoulder-length black waves and watch in fascination as her purple eyes fade into her normal seafoam green eye color. 

“Hey” I softly whispered to Echo, placing a hand on her shoulder and I notice she stiffens under my touch, a blush forming on her cheeks as she meets my eyes in the mirror. 

Hey. Her greeting is simple, but I can tell she is a little flustered. I take in her figure, she is wearing a white lace button up shirt with gold buttons and a deeper seafoam green corset skirt hiding her usual white combat boots. She wears while gloves that go to her elbow and a seagreen cloak with a hood. All of her scars are covered except for the one that runs from under her right ear to her collarbone, she goes to cover it but I catch her wrist loosely and meet her eyes in the mirror.  

"You look beautiful" I compliment her, enjoying the blush spreading across her face as she turns away, putting down the makeup and standing up. I reach my arm out to her and can’t help the smile on my face as she slowly reaches out and takes my offered arm. I forget for a moment how strong she is when I feel her fingers wrap around my biceps, they are thin and small, but there is a power there, hidden under the surface. A hum fills my mind and I relax, waiting for her to talk. 

 Ed? Where are we going? Her voice is curious in my head. I chuckle at her and give her a mischievous smile. 

“Somewhere off base." I tease her and I notice her eyes meet mine and she looks startled, gripping my arm tightly. 

The King said I could leave? Her eye meet mine looking for the truth,her hand slipping form my arm. I turn and place one hand on her shoulder, gently lifting her chin with my other, she instinctively tenses and I keep my grip loose so she can shrug me off is she panics.  

"As long as you stay by me. Can you do that? I question watching her eyes light up but worry quickly replaces it.  It has been 2 months since we rescued her, but she still refuses to talk. "Echo everything will be okay I'll be right here."

Are you sure it's okay? Are you sure it's safe ? I'm so tired of hurting people. Echo looks down, tears pooling at the corner of her eyes, her hand going to her scar on her hip, the deep burn that marks her past. I carefully move her hand off the scar and bring her attention back to me. 

“Echo I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise” I reassure her and a peaceful smile breaks it on her face. She retakes my arm as I lead her out frot where a carriage waits. Her fingers grip my arm tighter as she enters the carriage. I can feel how nervous she is and I decide to continue to distract her, making small talk and soon I feel her grip lessen and a smile graces her features as we pull to a stop and we exit  the carriage.

Ed? Where are we? Echo's voice enters my I as we walk down the street.

“Its the Midsummer Festival. We use it to celebrate the longest day of the year and the shortest night.” I explain, thoroughly enjoying her look of absolute wonder as she looks around.  There are tons of food stalls, some activities for kids and showcases of precious & rare treasures. A little ways down there would be games and puzzles.

Echo is staring at everything unsure, but I feel a laugh bubble in my chest as I squeeze her hand and we start exploring.

Ed can we have ice cream? Echo's voice in the head sounds happy and her smile makes me pause for a moment. I don't think I've ever seen her smile this much since we've rescued her. I feel a strange sensation in my chest as I watch her, a warmth runs through my body. I push the feeling down and smile back.

"Come on we can get Ice cream" I agree, pulling her to the stand and watching her ponder flavors. 

I can't choose. Echo looks at me worriedly and I snicker, ordering her a chocolate swirled ice cream and watching her eyes light up as she tastes it. I get a rainbow sherbet and I take her by the hand to lead her to a bench, sitting down to enjoy the ice treats. 

"Echo, do you want to go play games?"  I ask her, and she nods, smiling at me. I decide to brashly take her hand in mine and interlock her fingers, she looks startled but doesn't pull away, seeming to tighten her hand around mine.

We walked to a few games and played them, winning little prizes, Echo got a couple of good sized puzzles for us to do, and she won some candy. She gave me the candy, being more of a fan of chocolate than sweet fruity flavors. 

We find a cool shooting game with stuffed ducks and Echo stops, wanting to play. The guy offers her to play for free, telling her that she could win his number and two ducks if she knocked 5 bottles down in 5 shots. Echo rolled her eyes but accepted after watching the pattern of moving bottles. 

She carefully picks up the little gun, her eyes narrow and become colder as she focuses on the bottles. Once the game starts she quickly shoots 3 shots, clearing out 3 bottles with the first shot, 4 bottles with the second and hitting two isolated ones with the 3rd. 

Her eyes widen and she looks startled, an icy mask goes up, her face going emotionless, only the subtle tremble of her fingers give her away. 

She looks at the shocked guy behind the counter and gives him an icy glare, the darker side to her coming out. She holds out her hand and he gives her the two ducks. He tries to give her his number but she ignores him, taking my hand instead, cradling the ducks in the other arm and tugs me away. 

I led her away and into an alley and put our stuff down. I pull Echo into my chest, letting her hide her face from the world. I rest my chin on the top of her head and carefully rub her back. I press my lips to her forehead, keeping them there, I carefully watch for clues that she is panicking and try to watch her calm down.

Ed? Her voice fills my head and I hum in response. I feel her body shake a little, Thank you.

The voice is sincere and I hum again, glancing down to see her face is still in my chest, but she has put down the ducks and wrapped her arms around me, Anchoring herself to me, she pulls in her emotions and I feel her body relax. She looks up at me with a small, sheepish smile.

Sorry. I quickly shake my head.

"Don't be. You did a really good job." I promise her as we gather our stuff to leave the alleyway.

She blushes and we intertwine our fingers again as the sun begins to set. I bring her back to headquarters, dropping off everything but the stuffed ducks in our rooms. 

Ed? She asks once we arrive at the riverbank. I turn to face her and she hands me one of the little stuff ducks she won. Happy birthday. 

Her voice is flustered and she doesn't meet my eyes. I take the duck and touch her chin, lifting her eyes to mine, not missing the emotion that flickers across her eyes. I don't know quite what it is , but I feel the same emotion. 

The moonlight spills through the halls as Edgar makes his way to the courtyard in search of a friend, upon finding the infirmary empty he heads for her favorite bench in the courtyard. As he exits the building, he hears a soft violin playing, the notes being lost to the moonlight. He silently approaches, and stops a few feet away from the figure, watching her fingers dance across the violin. The figure makes no indication of feeling his presence and continues to play the piece, the melody haunting and beautiful. Edgar finds himself captivated as he listens, a deep emotion that he doesn’t understand running through his veins. As the last notes fade into the night the figure turns her head his way, acknowledging his presence. 

“Caught me again I see” He muses, stepping closer to the figure as she places the violin away, completely ignoring his existence. Edgar lets out a rueful chuckle at her lack of response and he sits next to her on the bench, studying her profile. This is the one person other than his Uncle that he can’t sneak up on, no matter how hard he tries, it is a fun game, one that he has lost so far. 

The woman before him was slightly smaller than he is, still underweight from her time in the tower. Her seafoam green eyes stay focused ahead, still ignoring him as he studies her. Her hair is a little more even now that it has been cut to her shoulders, the teal and purple tips seem to glow in the moonlight. The wind blows her hair off her neck revealing the scars of her past, the ones that made her who she is. 

“Aren’t you curious how I found you out here?” Edgar prompts, trying to get her to strike up a conversation, but she ignores him, staring out at the garden, her body tense, waiting to see what he wants. 

“Echo” Edgar tries to get her attention again and succeeds for the briefest of moments as she meets his eyes before flicking her gaze away. Edgar notices the slight tremble of her hands in her lap, and her flightiness only meaning one thing. 

“Another nightmare?” He asks quietly, choosing to divert his gaze in hopes that she would talk to him. He hears the soft hum in his mind. 

Yes. It is better for me to not sleep. 

Her voice rings in his head and he sighs softly, shaking his head. He understands where she comes from, the guilt from her past eats away at her just as his does. No matter how much he washes his hands, the memories are still there, the victims by his hand. The same pain is reflected in the women's eyes next to him.  Edgar knows that he is the only one who can break the walls of the woman, promising the King and her twin that he would reach her heart.

“Everyone needs sleep Echo, you can’t hold it off forever.” He calmly tells her, watching her face for her reaction. 

What else am I supposed to do? Whenever I close my eyes they are there, haunting me. 

Edgar looks down at his gloved hands, remembering all the times that he would wash his hands trying to get rid of the blood. Remembering every time he had a nightmare and would wake up to scrub his hands till they were bleeding, trying to get the blood off of them. 

“When you wake up what do you want to do?” Edgar asks slowly, trying to pinpoint her guilty action, maybe he can help ease the guilt, the gloves did help him after all a little. 

My scars, no matter how much I cover them, they still burn, they need to be cleansed.  How do you sleep? How do you stop them from haunting you? 

Exhaustion tugs at the words in his mind as she continues to talk to him. Even though he longed to hear her voice out loud, at least she still spoke to him, even if it was telepathically.  He thinks for a moment, the question catching him off guard. How does he cope with the guilt and the nightmares? A thought tugs on his mind and he stands up, offering his hand to the women. 

“Come, let me show you. They still should be up” Edgar gently holds Echo’s hand as he leads her down the path to the river behind Headquarters, carefully guiding her as neither made a noise in the night. Edgar looks over with a smile as he sits down on the river bank, tugging her down with him. Echo doesn’t let herself get tugged down and resists his pulling with  glare. Edgar quickly drops his hand and pats the grass next to him. 

“Sit next to me Echo and I will show you the best way to relax” Edgar looks up at her and she cautiously sits down, clearly uncomfortable.  Edgar makes a call and after a few moments 3 ducks appear from the bushes, Edgar chuckles to himself as he notices Echo’s eye grow wide and immediately soften.

“Echo, meet the Creek's. They are my family of ducks and they are amazing when you have nightmares.” Edgar watches as Echo reaches out to the ducks with a childlike wonder. 

Her eyes hold a sparkle to them that he only sees her have with animals and he chuckles as Creek Jr. hops into her hand and starts trying to groom her sleeve. She gently reaches out with her finger and grooms his wing, causing him to lean into her touch affectionately. The hum of their connection closes off and Edgar pets Mr. Creek as he watches Echo start to relax, soon a hum leaves her throat. 

The hum of their connection opening fills Edgars brain and he tilts his head looking at her and waiting for her to speak, but the words never come. Looking down, Edgar sees why. She is lost in her own thoughts, Creek Jr is on her lap while her fingers are digging into the healed burn, her brand of her past. Emotions flicker in her eyes, but neither of the ex-assassins know quite what to make of these emotions. 

Edgar carefully places his hand behind him, lacing his fingers through hers carefully and slowly, giving her time to pull away, but to his surprise she only flinched and tensed. Pressing his shoulder against hers the two figures stay by the river in the moonlight surrounded by the little duck family, embracing the silence and pulling strength from their past scars.  

“I promise we will find a way to atone our sins, we will heal our scars and together we will find a new destiny.” Edgar promises the women and she raises her eyes, uncertainty and pain swirling within their depths. 

What do you mean together? You have nothing on the amount of people I’ve killed, you are still so innocent. There is no atonement for me, only death and destruction. 

Edgar pauses at her words, the usually cold and rage tone is filling them, and he looks down at her. He knows what she is doing, her mask is going back in place, she can’t process the emotions and so she is shutting them down. 

“Don’t hide, you are shutting down the emotions in your heart, that is why the nightmares are so consistent. If you work through the emotions, the nightmares will come less and you will feel better.” Edgar advises her and she looks up at him, a snarl forming on her lips, but the pain was still there in her eyes.

Edgar watches as the pain and exhaustion in her eyes seems to take over the rage in her body and tears start to run down her cheeks. Carefully so he doesn’t startle her, Edgar pulls her into his arms and wipes the tears, the Creeks adjusting themselves around the pair, offering comfort.  She reaches up to see why he was touching her face and looks bewildered at the tears, looking up shocked at him. 

Why? 

“Relax, its natural and good for you to cry. Come here, I won’t let anyone else see you cry” Edgar pulls her into his lap and buries her face into his chest, feeling the sobs rack her frame. Edgar keeps his emotions at bay, watching her fall apart. How much more did she go through that she didn’t tell us? How long has she been suffering alone? 

Edgar waits until her sobs have stopped before pulling her back a little to see her just watching him. He carefully hands her his handkerchief to wipe her face and stands up. 

“I promise Echo, if you ever need to process emotion tell me, I’ll help you and never leave your side. You’ll always have me” Edgar promised as he leads the exhausted woman back towards the infirmary to rest. Kyle will have a fit in the morning if he finds out about the little meetup.