I'm hoping you'll understand...

[deals_death]

WHO: Selene (deals_death) and Youji Kudou (smokeandwires)
WHAT: This is goodbye.
WHERE: Selene's loft.
WHEN: Thursday night.

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[smokeandwires]

He was smoking, which wasn't too unusual. Youji always found himself with a cigarette in hand anymore, especially when important decisions had to be made.

And there she was. Youji sat up straight on the couch, smooshing out the cigarette in the ashtray. "Hey," he offered, not sounding as smooth as he hoped he would.

[deals_death]

Her stomach sank a little more at his tone. She took a slow breath and reached over to push a hand through his hair.

"...you want to leave me?" She asked, unflinchingly.

[smokeandwires]

"What?" Youji blurted out. That had been the last thing he'd expected her to bring up. "No, of course not."

His hands were in his lap, and he could feel himself pressing his palms down onto his thighs. "I made up my mind." Here went everything.

"...I'll do it. You can turn me."

[deals_death]

And that was the last thing she'd expected him to say.

She stared at him. She stared at him for a long time. She didn't quite know why she was staring, there was certainly nothing more than a fuzzy blur going through her head.

At length, she reached over and gently guided his chin up, so that he could look her in the eye. If he really wanted that, he'd have to say it.

"Why?"

[eatshootsnleves]

Roy busted through the front door hard enough to scar the wall and charged straight up to the loft that had to be Selene's.

Dammit, dammit, dammit. He hadn't known Youji, maybe spoken to him once, and that transmission didn't sound like he'd get another chance. Whatever lay behind Selene's door, she was going to need backup in there.

If he broke the lock to get in, he didn't notice.

[deals_death]

Being in his profession, Roy was likely quite familiar with carnage. The scene that met him may not have been the worst he'd seen, but it was by no means pretty.

Selene was wrapped in a red bedsheet. Perhaps if it had not been red, the disconcerting amount of blood it was bathed in would have been more evident. The blood was seeping from two puncture wounds at Youji's throat; seeping weakly, as the man was by now very pale. Selene sat in his lap, clinging to his soaked corpse even has his skin grew cold and his body grew stiff.

Crying was not the word for the sounds coming from Selene. She was wailing, screaming out as if to curse the gods and saviors alike. It was a sound that, if Roy had an empathetic bone in his body, would make his heart sink and his chest ache.

As for Selene, she was not even cognizant of herself. The pain consumed her body and soul.

[eatshootsnleves]

He didn't have to check for a pulse to know. There wasn't anything to be done.

He also knew better, damn better, than to try and pull Selene away now. Roy shut the door, stepped up to the fallen journal, shut that as well.

With this done, he dropped his hands by his sides, bowed his head, and stood vigil until Selene's breath and voice ran out.

When she was reduced to gasps, the exhausted choking sob that all grieving souls eventually stumble towards, Roy was there to drape his jacket over her bare shoulders. He was there to wrap his hands around her arms, to hold and to support. He was there, amidst the thick stench of human blood, to gently pull her back.

[deals_death]

Selene stiffened at first, arms tightening around her beloved's shoulders. She wanted to lash out, wanted to scream and protest and cling to the corpse until she was nothing but ash and bone. But logic was beginning to creep back into her agonized consciousness. Reluctantly, she allowed herself to be pulled away from the couch.

She was trembling, shaking like a leaf in the wind, and when she stood she very nearly collapsed against Roy. She didn't even feel like she wanted to stand.

"I didn't..." she said weakly, "I didn't think he would..."