Xela

And and and imagine you get a genuine apology from Sylus afterwards. No joke weaved in, no teasing tone, no nicknames. Just a soft, breathless "I'm sorry." whispered against your hair as his arms hesitantly wrap around your frame to hold you close. "Please don't ever do that again."

He stays with you until you stop trembling, careful not to overstep, not to hold you too tight. He vows to treat you gently moving forward; something precious like you deserves more than he could ever give. But he'll do anything he can to atone.

A while afterwards, he offers you a proposition. "Just say the word, and you won't have to see me ever again. I'll escort you back to Linkon with any information you came here to seek out, and leave your life forever."

God I just, I love a healer who hurts themself to save another (staring sidelong at Zayne...)

Sylus who never really thought about how your Evol would manifest. Like, of course you can heal wounds, but surely you know the extent of your powers, right? Surely, you know when someone is already too far gone to even try?

He's just so stunned that no, you keep trying even if the damage would kill you. And that you'd do it to a stranger who hurt you before

Sylus isn't more careful with himself (he likes the pain, the feeling it gives him of being alive, the thrill of escaping death's clutches again), but he is more careful with himself around you. God knows he isn't about to take a death blow when you're there, so instinctively ready to heal any hurt. Because even if he begs you not to do that again, you're just so good. How can you help yourself?

Little scratches and knicks on the twins get healed the minute they're through the door. Your companions at work, from papercuts to gashes from Wanderers. A stray animal caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, given a second chance because you endeavored to catch them and take their pain

When his Evol runs thin, and he's sore and tired and has a few wounds that haven't healed yet, there's an intimacy as you look him over. Check his injuries, know they're not serious enough to do him any harm, and you still deign to heal him anyway. He hates watching the scratch bloom on your arm and disappear from his own. Hates to see you wince in pain and move on to the next

But there's a ritual in it. He knows, you do it because it reassures you that he's safe and alive and whole. He's no longer in pain. Gods know you'll do anything to make sure he isn't hurting or bleeding. And once you're certain he's fully healed once more, and the injuries have faded from your own skin, you smile up at him and tell him to take a shower and you'll have the chef whip up some food

Nods nods nods nods

I've always kinda hc'd him as being a bit self destructive before he finds MC. Even then, he's still seeking danger and the thrill, but he's got more to live for now that his kingdom and amassed wealth can be put to good use (spoiling the other half of his soul)

I also had an idea literally right after I posted that addition like ough just

You focus as you use your Evol to pull the injury from his waist to your own. You feel the bloom of pain at your side as the wound opens. Feel the injury closing beneath your palms as you steal it away. The glow from your hands fades and you tilt forward. Sylus catches you, pulling you to lean against him as the pain and draw of power makes you dizzy. He watches your brows pinch together, then, finally, relax as your Evol heals it.

"There!" you cheer, pulling away even as your head spins just a little. You smile up at him, like there isn't a matching splotch of blood on both your clothes now. "Good as new!"

He smirks softly in turn. "Didn't hurt too much?"

"Nope, not too bad. Not the worst you've had."

"No, but I still wish you'd only take half."

"Next time! I promise."

"You better keep it, sweetie." He leans forward to press a lingering kiss to your forehead. "Thank you. Let's go get cleaned up now, hm?"

Ough but now I'm imagining like in the middle of a firefight, ducking behind some rubble with him as he's bleeding out, clutching a bullet wound, unable to heal it. The Twins rush in, stealing the attention away and cleaning up the mess. You try to heal Sylus, but as you start to take more than half - when your vision is starting to blur, hands starting to shake, skin going grey all from the pain ripping through you - he rips your hands away from him. Tight grip, stern almost scary expression. "That's enough," said with no room left for argument

You're still antsy even after the threat is gone, because you know he's still hurting. But the bleeding has stopped, you managed to draw the bullet from the wound, and he's able to walk like nothing happened back to the jet/car to go home. You insist on looking at it, and he relents so long as you agree not to try healing it. It looks bad, but not terrible. You won't be able to fully relax until he's able to heal the rest on his own, but you promised and you trust him

I feel like a lot of expectation and pressure would be put on an Evol like that. Taking the suffering of others onto yourself as like the ultimate act of selflessness. The expectation for you to take on every hurt, because how easy is it to heal even the most minor scratch? It's certainly not a sacrifice to heal something so small? But oh imagine how much pain they must be in with that nasty cut! Surely you can help ease that for them, right? Just building and building until you feel like you have to heal everything, or else you're just a selfish cruel person who wants others to suffer needlessly

And Sylus helping to dismantle that, bit by bit, because you don't have to do that for anyone if you don't want to. You don't have to give into the guilt because they can't deal with a bandaid for a few days. You don't have to do that and suffer even if it would take so much out of you

"I'm alright, sweetie," he assures, because he is. He's taken worse. Honestly, this is a 4 at best. He doesn't need you to hurt anymore because you feel like you have to. He just needs a nap and some food and it'll be gone in no time, and he's waited longer through worse conditions to fix himself up - this is no big deal

Just Sylus learning not to seek out pain more because he sees how much pain is causes you emotionally, and you learning not to try carrying everyone's burdens and shoot yourself in the foot just to help someone else

Until eventually it gets to a point when you're stealing half of his pain and it doesn't hurt to stop midway. Holding up the affected area to admire the matching injury for just a moment before it fades from your skin. Healing him because you want to, not because you need to, and still honoring the way seeing you in pain also hurts him by stopping halfway

Due to getting a sudden awful gut feeling out of nowhere, Sylus decides to abandon his plans for the day in favor of shadowing you during a high-stakes mission you take from the association. In the end, he's so incredibly glad he did. Because when he arrives, you're alone, on your knees in a pool of blood, hunched over a dying civilian with trembling hands and tears in your eyes.

Immediately from the look of their wounds, he knows there's no way they're going to make it. And yet you seem determined to take all of that suffering yourself, to trade your life for theirs. You're completely covered in their blood, and your own is quickly beginning to seep into your uniform in the same location as their wound.

He steps in immediately, pulling you back and away from the dying person on the ground. They're nearly slashed in half, deep enough to see their entrails as their blood escapes in rhythmic pulses. The only thing keeping their heart beating was likely your intervention.

And you fight. You fight him as hard as you can, even at the detriment of your own health, as he struggles to find a safe way to hold you still. You're partially delirious from a mix of blood loss and trauma as you kick and squirm and sob and ramble incoherently about how they have a family and their kids need them and to please, please let you save them.

Sylus knows that taking you from the situation too soon will only complicate things in the future. Memory is a fickle thing, and he doesn't want yours to twist today's events into something that you could have stopped, something that was your fault. So he waits, holding you still and keeping your head tucked against his chest. It doesn't take long for you to give up on fighting, your voice too hoarse from yelling to keep talking over him, and your body completely exhausted.