Page 101 of A Soul to Touch

Not just because he was ashamed that he hadn’t been able to save himself, but because he just hadn’t wanted her to know he was tormented. His time with her could be short. He didn’t want it to be filled with anything painful.

After she’d fallen asleep, Faunus had tried to ease his own aching mind and heart by petting her cheek, neck, and hair, but his whirring thoughts refused to stop turning.

He’d chosen to come outside and watch the world brighten, knowing the number of times he’d see it was lessening by the day.

Faunus wasn’t used to being so solemn or sorrowful. He once believed his orbs were yellow because he’d been easy to make laugh or curious. It was only after the Demon King trapped and tortured him inside that inescapable room that Faunus had changed. It could only be opened from the outside.

Things only worsened when he realised his own doom was lingering above his head like a cloud after the day Jabez had cracked his skull with his thumb claw.

He grazed his fingertips over the bone of his eye socket.The crack hasn’t extended since I returned.

It was sturdy, still strong, but for how much longer?

He worried he’d fall apart at any moment.

Faunus turned his hands over in his lap to stare down at his claws with hunched shoulders.

She told me to leave.She’d given him an ultimatum. Of course he’d chosen the path that would allow him to remain by her side, but the fact she’d uttered it... he felt as though he meant little to her.

He understood enough to knowwhyshe had. He wasn’t so disillusioned and underdeveloped in his humanity to be blinded by the truth. But it seemed her feelings were so lacking towards him that she had come to the decision easily.

All he’d seen was anger and not even a shred of remorse that he may be gone because of her words.

Her body heated and yearned for his. Her heart, however, seemed as cold as the steel he’d seen her wield.

She is like a rose.Like its petals, she could be soft and malleable. Like its scent, she could be intoxicating and rich. She was just as beautiful, if not more so.

But she could also be as sharp and cruel as thorns.

He had to be careful. Otherwise, he could hurt himself. Her affections could also wither just as fast as the flowering bud above its dangerous stem.

Vicious but delicate, that’s what Mayumi was to him.

With every step he took towards her, the more he felt like she firmly held a sword that he would willingly drive into his own chest.

Thinking about this, about his past, about her, his heart hurt in ways he’d never imagined possible.I don’t want to leave her.

He turned his gaze up to follow a bird that circled above.It flew away just as he heard quick, thudding footsteps.

“Faunus?!” He heard Mayumi’s panicked shout before she’d even shoved the door of her home. It flew open with a loudbangagainst the wall.

With his skull already looking over his shoulder in her direction, whatever tension she had in her body eased at seeing him there.

She was naked other than the blanket she’d thrown around her shoulders. She often used it to cover the parts of her he was unable to shelter in his warmth at night.

“What is wrong?” he asked, only tilting his head because her complexion was paler than normal.

Her light, fawny colour returned swiftly to glow in the morning light.

“I thought you left,” she answered with a croaked voice, revealing she’d woken up with a start and immediately bolted to the door.

She was alert but wobbly, as though she’d only just been lying down. There were even impression lines across one of her cheeks from it lying against the back of her own hand.

“I told you I would remain here.”

That hadn’t changed because of what he’d told her. The only way he’d leave was if she was to take another male and have his sexual scent all over her. He would never stop Mayumi from doing what she wanted, but heknewhe would be unable to contain his outrage and jealousy in her presence.

Currently, in spirit, she was his female. He’d marked his territory, and he would feel the need to defend it. Especially since he had no other to fight for.

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