for shallurangstweek day 2: failed // saved
She barely realizes what's happened until she feels a warm pool gathering under her. Eyes wide, she looks down from Shiro's eyes to the lower half of her body. There's a dark bloom over his torso, a triangle of silver at the center. Streams of red dribbling over her paladin armor.
She looks back up at him. "You're dying," she gasps.
His smile doesn't waver. "I saved you," he simply replies, voice calm.
"But you're dying," she repeats. Her chest tightens, her breath quickens, and the thoughts in her mind start to fog. This couldn't be happening. This can't be happening. This can’t be happening again.
He can't die now. He can't die ever.
She would never allow it. She cannot let him die.
Not here. Not on this mission. Not when the end is so so close and their happy ending is just within reach.
This mission failed. This mission failed again.
How many times does she have to try to keep him alive?
How many times does she have to reset reality?
Each and every time it ends the same way. He saves her, and she loses him. No matter what she does, no matter what she changes, this is always how it ends.
Is this how it is always going to end? Is this really what fate offers two star-crossed lovers?
He coughs, then turns his head to spit away some blood before he returns his eyes back to her. She cradles his head in her hands, holding back the tears in her eyes.
She's seen him dying hundreds of times over. She should be used to the sight of it by now. But she's not.
"Hey," he reassures her, lifting a hand from the floor and taking her wrist. "It's okay. It's going to be alright. You — "
"No," she tells him. "No. I'm going to make this right. I won't fail again."
"What?" he asks, confused. His eyebrows furrow as they do each and every time she tells him again.
She intends to keep it that way.