❆ █  ▌▌ 𝕄𝕪  𝕚𝕔𝕖  𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕤   ( 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅 )  ࿐ᐤ                【  𝑀𝐸𝑀𝐸𝒮  】⇢  8.)  a dying kiss.

   { @mareanguiis. ♔ ━━  *

█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ   BLOOD. It was the only shade of red that he knew. The shade of red that had splashed onto his face and stuck, meddled into his crisped &&. tear-drenched countenance. A cruel color; more than anything, he despised how it felt so out of place ——–– on her fair skin, the deep maroon staining so carelessly against her prone abdomen. Gravity forced him down to his knees, but his hold around her weak form NEVER cease. The snow spared no one.

No, no. no.

           BROKEN. He was broken. Shattered, split into pieces that seemed impossible to put back together. Again, the grueling fate that permeated all he is—- it burned him. SINGED him. &&. It reminded him of the VISION that he cannot extract from his mind. A gruesome phantasm of her demise; in another dimension, another universe, another world in which she had D I E D.

 ( Shots piercing her flesh, muscles &&. bones. It was too late, she was UNSAVABLE. )

Tears sprang to Gray’s eyes, but it FROZE before they’re allowed to fall —- &&. there came the first dampness; gelid. A moment of lucidness ensued. He tried to speak but barely had the strength left for more than another pained sound, pitiful and raspy and confused. He didn’t understand. Everything felt cold, and his vision swam. Any sense of comfort, of relief, had been obliterated and turned to POISON.  

          ❛❛  ——–– I- I can’t save you again. ❜❜And he didn’t understand.

          The world was silent. The waves still. The snowfall lightened, and his world was BLACK. Everything began to slip away, incoherent sound and bloodshed as the battle began to swing away from their favor. From his FAVOR. Gray raised his trembling hands &&. cupped her pristine cheeks, leaning in to steal her dying breath with a kiss tinged with heartbreak. He gathered her frail body closer to him, gripping hard at the back of her blood-drenched shirt. His lips were cold against Rayne’s —– but he was desperate to feel even the weakest, eluding MOVEMENTS from her to tell if she was somehow still holding onto the last remnants of her life…

He kissed her until the remaining warmth of her lips is GONE,         until the very last of her fracturing inhale touched against his quivering mouth. 

                        He kissed her until her body went limp,                                         until he felt her fading heartbeats came to a HALT.

       And he kissed her until her final breath died at his lips. 

        ⠀⠀⠀⠀

          ❛ Wake up, Rayne… please. ❜ Gray squeezed his eyes shut &&. inhaled the feel of her dormant form against him, with him ——  but the coldness of her body was making him TREMBLED.   ❛ Please, please, please, don’t leave me anymore.❜   He repeated her name over and over again, like the word he only knew to say was her goddamn NAME. Like her name was enough to salvage her, to somehow bring her back.

And everytime that her poor, tortured soul eluded him through the palm of his hands, she took with her the last remains of his beating heart — his long, forgotten HUMANITY.

        “Please. I’ve tried so hard.”

        ⠀⠀⠀⠀

█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ  HIS BODY WENT still upon the moment she hurled her weight on him, muscles ridged with tension before it snapped like a recoiling band. The reflex would be enough to cause an instant distaste towards a person, but Gray was QUICK to procure his composure. He tried to eye the culprit — craning his neck awkwardly to accommodate; the most subtle shift in a virile expression masked with outward introspection.

    ❛ Tch, Rayne. Ya gonna break my back?       …What the hell was that for ??  ❜ 

            Though it was not a REBUFF he relayed. Rather, Gray decided to balance her idly on the expanse of his back and hooked his arms around the slender of her legs to steady her. Much to his chagrin, his pliant body yielded to her request &&. began to amble forward. He can’t picture the other with rejection in her eyes. 

  ❛ Whatever. ❜ 

Politeness is a sign of DIGNITY, not subservience - Aesthetic for Rayne Lockser

❝ — Sorry about that, didn’t see you there. ❞

          A HAND WOULD extend to the fallen girl, OFFERING aid on returning to her feet after Ur had ROUGHLY, and accidentally, KNOCKED her to the ground. Being in a rush AROUND this area was something she had PICKED up herself, mainly to be UNSPOTTED by anyone who knew her APPEARANCE. And so, it lead to this.Ur knocking over ANOTHER. 

                 ❆ █  ▌▌ 𝕄𝕪  𝕚𝕔𝕖  𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕤   ( 𝒹𝑒𝑒𝓅 )  ࿐ᐤ                      【  𝑀𝐸𝑀𝐸𝒮  】⇢  not accepting.

    { @mareanguiis.♔ ━━  *

█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ        ONE.  A heavy swallow. The Lacrima felt HEAVY in his hands as was the heart that hung beneath his ribs. He hated the hollow feeling within his chest, it was like a pit of regret that instantly broadened —– and Gray felt like he could implode; no forceful slap could compare to the STIFLING sensation inside his throat. What she said struck him … shattered his resolve, purloining his facade of ice with just a roughness in her voice —

&&. the tears that (no doubt) surfaced in her EYES.* 

Very carefully, Gray breathed through his nose as if measuring the output of carbon dioxide from his frost-laced lungs &&. into his throat. He breathed in. 

TWO.  Steel-edged eyes of blood hardened. Erza had asked him to do it. It had to be only him for this operation to be successful. There was darkness lodging within him already, and she knew his light was STRONGER ( —— or so he hoped. he is still scared ). But it was an undercover mission, and it is a safer move to not comprise more people than absolutely necessary. 

After all, Avatar is an undoubtedly VAST organization —– and it is inevitable that there are spies acquiring intel about people who are trying to infiltrate them &&. tear them down. Not that he hadn’t navigated the bleaker sides of magic already…

But they could easily have used Rayne to threaten Gray. 

THREE.  When you love someone, you’d want to keep them safe no matter what. He knew she was hurting. And he knew … that he had filled every crevice of her willing heart with EVERYTHING that is him. It was cruel. It was cruel that he became the gaping numbness that wrapped itself around her bones; that he became the loneliness that defined her darkest nights. 

——— It was cruel to leave her behind.* 

     ⠀⠀⠀

FOUR.   His grip intensified slightly as he contemplated, mind reeling to gather his thoughts; words becoming unspeakably HEAVY on his tongue… but Gray steeled his resolve, and—–

       “I’ll call you again soon.”

     ⠀⠀⠀

     ⠀⠀⠀

     ⠀⠀⠀

█▐ ❆ ࿐ᐤ   GRAY ELICITED A mellow groan as he sat upright. His dark, thick, raven locks drove askew in all sorts of directions despite Rayne’s attempt ; his bangs slumping against his cool, pale forehead. God, his bravado was at STAKE.

                      — —–—– But this was Rayne and Gray, like an idiot, allowed it. 

                      Because girls are so complicated. With their bows &&. smiles —– and the SPARKLES that they have in their eyes…        ( He was, but, powerless against them. )