‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉.

‍ everything i wish to say to 𝒚𝒐𝒖，@goIdndear，
‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ ‍ is burnt to ash by the 𝐡͟𝐞͟𝐥͟𝐥͟𝐟͟𝐢͟𝐫͟𝐞 in my throat. ‍ ‍ ‍

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

https://t.co/EcOF9NSlg5

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

no.

[sylvain. @crestIing]

@ISOLATlNG do u want to be my valentine next yeat

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

. . . . . . . . . . . .

[sylvain. @crestIing]

@ISOLATlNG hey babycakes.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

His father had been right. It was like falling asleep after a grueling day, his body finally getting the final rest it finally deserved. None of his wounds ached, there were no voices, no life.

Darkness.

Nothingness.

Peace.

Silence.

𝘈 𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Ah, he hadn't quite told Claude how much he loved him. Had it been his guilt preventing him from doing so? Had he hoped that it would give the beautiful deer the ability to move on from the vanquished beast?

What an unforgivable, final failure from such an exhausted monster.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Silence falls over it, chest rising once more before its lungs stutter to a halt. The fingers around Claude's hand slacken, and for once, Dimitri looks truly at peace.

A final thought crosses his mind, lamenting and full of another regret that he cannot help but cling to.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Death, his father has described before his own untimely end, was nothing more than a sleep one would never awaken from. It is to be a peaceful rest of the soul, with funerals meant to acknowledge the departed's life by the living. When Lambert had died, did he too, have regrets?

[𝕲𝙤͟𝙡͟𝙙͟𝙚͟𝙣͟ 𝖂𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 ˎˊ˗ @goIdndear]

The rain shared the misery, plastering his hair against the alliance leader’s scalp. It stings, ice cold, but it’s easy to ignore as Dimitri surges. Claude’s grip tightens around it, attempting to keep Dimitri still to prevent him from worsening his wounds.

“Careful. Careful."

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

"Will you live for yourself as well?"

The smile on his lips grows, not unlike the boyish, charming smile of the prince of the past. Perhaps, had he the strength, he would have laughed at the irony of the question.

He did not need an answer, not truly. Claude would 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

The fallen prince no longer had the strength to hold onto the other man, fingers simply curling weakly against his hand. Was Claude just as cold as him? Everything felt utterly frigid.

"I wonder. . ." His voice is low, whispery at best as his lungs struggle to take in air.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

"Stay with me?"

It's a request that he shouldn't be allowed to make, so quiet it can barely be heard through the rain beating heavily around them. It's selfish to ask Claude to witness his crossing through Death's gates, yet he truly wants him here until his very last breath.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

If they were as beautiful as Claude, then it laments the fact that it will never be able to see it for itself. The Goddess truly was cruel to silence his phantoms now, especially when they may have talked him out of such mournful, yet hopeful thoughts.

Claude deserved more.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Even now, it should know better than to cling to the offered hand.

"Liar," it murmurs, the corners of its lips curling up weakly, "You. . . will be disappointed that I will not live to see the next sunrise." Briefly, its thoughts drift, wondering how the sunrises in Almyra were.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

How amusing, that even then, neither of them had shown their true colors.

Its tongue feels heavy as its eye slowly slips shut, unable to keep it open any longer. What a farce. Claude had never failed it. Disappointed? Yes, of course, but any sane prince should have known better.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Such thoughts had not occurred to him since all those years ago during a moonlit night within the stone tower of the monastery. When he had been far more naive, he had dreams of running off with the Golden Deer leader, escaping their responsibilities and simply being themselves.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

"How dare you," Dimitri rasps, the following wheezing noise a mockery of a laugh, "How dare you give me hope now, Claude von Riegan?"

It's small, a barely there flicker within his chest, yet, he finds himself imagining the life he could one day have.

Freedom from duty. . .

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

The death that befell the beast now was merely a tragedy of its own creation. All those hands reaching out to it, for once, caused it to finally realize who they had belonged to, who continued to have faith that their prince, no, king would return to the throne and save them all.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Claude looks at him with unconcealed love and affection, and. . . had he always looked at him in such a manner? Or had been too blinded by his hatred and anger to notice just how loved he had always been?

He thinks of the Blue Lions, as loyal as ever, and knows this to be true.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

How could Claude have failed him, when he had never allowed their bond to restore itself to what it once was? Even now, his chest caves within itself at the memory of their last kiss, of how he had brutally punished himself and insisted that there was no lost love between them.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

To live with the failure of taking proper revenge should be unheard of, yet, as it continues to watch Claude, to 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯, something within it falters. Cracks begin to form along the walls the beast has long caged itself within, and its next exhale is a shuddering breath.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Something wet traces down his cheek, and he finds himself no longer capable of differentiating rain from his own tears or Claude's.

𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧.

The very concept is absurd. How dare it choose to live when the ghosts continue to wail for their own lost lives?

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Was it Claude's near bruising hold on him, as if he were desperate to keep him from leaving this mortal coil? Had this been any other moment, perhaps it would have smiled at the deer's foolishness.

To be so close to this sort of rot, would it not only put him in further danger?

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Who would dare to sympathize with a monster? Such emotion should only be reserved for. . .

His train of thought comes to a grinding halt, watching as the image of Claude continues to blur and falter. Still, something is causing him to remain tethered to this moment in time.

[‎ ‎ ‎ ‎𝖊𝖝𝖎𝖑𝖊𝖉. @ISOLATlNG]

Dimitri's regrets continuously pull him down, dragging him towards the depths of darkness that he knows await him with well-deserved torture. Yet, with all of the sins it has committed, why is it that Claude sheds tears for it? Pity had no place here, so could it be sympathy?