{tw:// small mention of suicidal thoughts}
♛♛♛
"Keep your eyes open, Canton"
No.
Stop.
"What do you see?"
Make it stop.
Please.
Make it stop.
"They are talking to you. Talk back. And never remove your gaze from them."
No.
The sudden pain.
The current on my body.
It hurts.
I need to keep my eyes open.
"Eyes. Open."
No.
I gasped.
I'm in pain.
I want to go home.
I'm in pain.
I'm in pain.
I opened my eyes.
They're still here.
They're still begging.
And I'm still hurting them.
I'm still making them bleed.
I'm still killing them.
Another current. Stronger this time.
More painful.
I wonder how strong the electrocution should be in order to kill an Ink like me.
I wonder why they are not killing me already.
I'm in pain.
I want to go home.
Let me go home.
"This is your last chance before the procedure ends. If you don't comply, we're gonna lock you in here for approximately a week. No food. No rest. Only torture and the minimum amount of water for you to survive".
I know I should have obeyed.
But it felt real to me.
It felt very real to me.
The blood was on my hands.
And I kept stabbing them and they kept screaming and begging.
They kept their eyes on me.
Only on me.
I just wanted to go home.
But I can't.
ERROT
"You were gone for hours." He said monotonously, his gaze stuck elsewhere.
I closed the door of the cabin and leaned against it, my hands buried deep inside my pockets.
I started staring at the floor, suddenly finding interest at the wood I was stepping on.
"Yeah. I'm sorry, your highness" I mumbled.
Canton turned to look at me. "What?"
I threw a quick glance at him. "What...?"
He was furrowing his eyebrows and I felt like he was staring into my soul.
I started playing with the sleeve of my sweatshirt, nervously.
It felt like hours when it was only half a minute.
He just wouldn't take his eyes off me.
My nerves intensified.
He suddenly got up.
He took a few steady steps towards me, his face cold. "Did someone hurt you?"
I felt the air getting sucked out of my lungs for a single second.
Only for a moment.
I raised my gaze up to his face, realising too suddenly that he was standing rather close to me.
Our eyes locked.
I gulped.
He looked angry, like he had murder on his mind.
"Will you tell me who had the nerve to raise a hand on my-" Brief pause. "property?"
I kept staring through his eyes. "What's behind your eye contact fear?"
A small frown formed on his face. "What? What are you-" Canton grabbed my hands and raised my sleeves, now inspecting them all over.
I raised an eyebrow at him.
When he didn't find what he was looking for, he took a hold of my hair and begun examining my face while moving my head around, always according to his liking.
"I see no bruises. Should I force you to get naked again or will you tell me if someone tried anything on you?"
I considered him in slight surprise.
"I'm fine. Nobody touched me, nobody started any fights."
"Then why do you look like a hurt puppy?"
I shrugged. "What's behind your fear of eye contact?" I repeated.
"I thought you would be smart enough not to ask this question again after I ignored it the first time" He deadpanned and extented the distance between us.
"Well, curiousity."
"Killed the cat, Errot." He mumbled.
He decided to sit back down to his bed and drop his head against his hands.
I examined him.
"Do you...need..something..?" I asked lowly.
"No." His voice came out muffled.
My hands started trembling a tiny bit on my sides. "Like...a hug?" I dared to ask.
He was silent for a few seconds.
"...no."
I begun sucking at my bottom lip.
"No..?"
He didn't reply.
Of course he doesn't need a hug from me. I am the last person he would ever need a hug from.
Maybe Elvina will try to make him feel better.
"Do you want me to leave you alone?"
"No." He exclaimed rather fast.
"Alright."
I sat down next to him.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Just stay quiet."
I pursed my lips into a thin line.
Minutes passed like that.
The room was dead silent.
He was stuck at the same position.
I couldn't see his face.
But I could hear him.
I could hear him breathing quite audibly all of a sudden, breaking the silence of before.
I snapped my eyes at him.
"Your highness...are you...?"
I couldn't finish that sentence.
And I couldn't finish that sentence because my heart was breaking.
My heart was breaking and I don't even know why.
Maybe it's because I'm overly sensitive.
Or because I never expected someone like Canton to..cry.
Or it's just breaking because of me.
Because I let myself loosen up.
And because he chose to let his guard down with me present.
He chose to trust me enough to cry in front of me.
And when he refused my hug, it was just his pride talking.
That cruel façade he puts up for the wicked creatures he rules over.
Because he is at his lowest.
He's dug a hole so deep for himself, he can't get out anymore.
He's trying to scream but nobody is listening.
He's been trying to make himself heard for so long but no voice comes out.
So I refuse to believe that the crying boy before me doesn't need a hug right now.
He didn't move when I scooped closer and placed my arms around him.
He didn't even flinch.
He looked like he either expected it, longed for it or he just felt defeated.
I pulled him closer to me, mentally hoping it wasn't the latter even though something was telling me it was a mixture of all of them.
This time around, instead of staying frozen against my arms, he wrapped his own around my neck in painfully slow movements, his face now hidden on my shoulder.
And he broke down.
ODA
I rushed inside our room and slammed the door shut behind me, letting my body slip down on the cold floor.
My eyes were closed shut while I was replaying everything that happened the last hour or so.
How I could have been so reckless.
Why did I ever open my mouth.
Why would I even confess my feelings to anyone.
"Because you're stupid."
A scream managed to escape my lips, my eyes now widely opened.
"What the freezing fudge are you doing in here, Santos?"
"Do you talk to yourself now? Finally lost it?" He mumbled without really looking at me.
He was casually laying on the bed, hands comfortably placed behind his head.
"You don't get to judge me when you're literally hanging out in someone else's room when they aren't there. Stalker much?" I was frowning at him, my anger showing.
"I'd rather be a stalker than get shamelessly rejected"
I clenched my fists. "So you're telling me that instead of following your king's orders and spying on your sister, you're wasting time on Elvina and I? "
"Already exposed Nerissa about forty minutes ago."
"That's what I thought. I literally can't believe you woul-- wait. What?"
Santos rolled his eyes. "The moment king Canton gets back, she's done and over with. Not my business anymore." He muttered the last sentence under his breath.
"It was about time. What took you so long?"
Santos stayed still for a second and then relaxed again. "Don't you have a rejection to cry over?"
I scoffed. "Don't you have another place to be?"
He stayed silent.
"Seriously, get out of my room."
"Not your room."
"I literally live here, so it's my room too."
"Until she gets bored of you and passes you on to king Canton who will most definitely end your existence."
"She would never do that".
Santos then turned to look at me. He huffed. "So innocent." He said without an ounce of emotion on the tone of his voice.
He got up and walked to the door.
"People can screw you over only if you let them" he opened the door while I picked myself up from the floor and stood right behind him.
"You have never fallen in love, have you?"
He came into a stop.
I thought I heard him scoff before he walked out, leaving me alone to drown into my misery.
ERROT
A bit of light is sipping through our cabin window.
The sun finally rose.
I didn't get any sleep.
I stayed awake laying on my own bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark.
Canton apparently did the same.
Nobody had uttered a word for hours.
I turned my head to look at him.
His eyes were still glued to the ceiling.
He seemed to be in thought.
I opened my mouth to talk but he was faster.
"I don't call that crying."
"Uhm.. what?"
"My eyes simply got wet for a bit." He said coldly.
"That's called crying." I replied while trying not to get amused as I felt like it wasn't the right time.
"Did I ever judge you for bawling your eyes out when you got beaten up?"
"...you definitely did." I couldn't help the tiny smirk that formed into my lips.
He clicked his tongue. "Well, that's not the point."
"And I never judged you for crying. I actually loved it."
He turned to look at me at that, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.
I burst out laughing. "I didn't mean that I loved the fact that you were sad."
"Sounded like you did to me."
I turned serious again. "You finally showed emotion. You expressed your feelings instead of oppressing them to stay buried behind that exact glare that you're giving me right now."
He mocked my voice. "oh really, doc? Tell me more"
"I do not talk like that."
He shook his head and looked away from me.
"Do I talk like that?" I was now frowning.
He ignored me while sporting his usual cold poker face.
"Anyway. We are here."
Canton groaned "every word that comes out of your mouth is poison to my ears".
I raised an eyebrow at him. "The phrase is music to my ears."
"But music is nice."
"Excuse me."
"I'm just not in the mood to face the annoying, white haired children". He mumbled coldly.
"The twins?"
Canton blinked at me. "No, the triplets."
I rolled my eyes at him.
"Why do I even bother talking to you" he said coldly.
"I was actually asking myself the same question."
"Keep asking it. Who knows, maybe one day you'll wake your brain up and it will decide to finally work."
"Ha. Ha. Hilarious."
There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Canton ordered coolly.
A smiling Nora walked in and gave Canton a bow.
"Good morning. We've reached our destination. His royal highness is waiting for you king Canton and you Errot right outside the boat."
Canton nodded at her, his face indifferent.
Nora kept smiling. "It was a pleasure to be at your service even only for a few hours. Have a nice rest of the day." She said and walked away.
"Notice how she didn't even spare a simple glance at me."
"Stop nagging and get up. Let's get this over with so we can finally go home."
Home.
The word didn't feel so foreign to me.
I even liked the sound of it.
The trip to this dimension only made me realise how much I yearn to go back to Ink Blood.
Maybe I can see Oda and talk to her about all the crazy things that have happened the past few weeks.
I haven't seen her in ages.
I don't even remember the last time we actually had a conversation and it's driving me mad.
I wish I had a few minutes with her again.
Canton could spare me for a little while.
Maybe if I asked nicely...not.
I'm just doomed.
The sun rays literally blinded my eyes for a few seconds there.
I had to use the palm of my hand in order to protect myself from causing some serious damage to my eyesight.
Canton was apparently oblivious to it.
This guy.
I sighed and kept walking. The moment my eyes finally adjusted to the light, Canton came into an abrupt stop making me stop as well before I bumped into Quinn.
"Canton." Quinn said. "What a surprise." He didn't sound amused.
"Quinn. What a disappointment." Canton copied his tone.
Quinn sighed. "Amara informed me that she found you on Riverland."
"No shit, Sherlock." He dripped sarcasm.
"Were you perhaps looking for my long lost parents?"
Canton's face darkened at that. "Asking that question like you never helped them get the hell away from this island. What happened? Did your sister's girlfriend betray me once again?"
"Let my family go, already." Quinn said now annoyed but a tad worried as well.
"I wonder, Quinn. What would you do if the roles were reversed?" Stern.
Quinn opened his mouth to speak but no words came out of it.
He closed it.
"I figured. Now, where is the damn portal, I wanna return to my dimension." He said, his tone severe.
Quinn turned around and started walking, possibly guiding us to the portal without uttering another word.
Canton started following him and I turned to glance one more time behind me.
Amara had her eyes glued on us, her face looking a bit dark from afar.
I immediately looked away and begun catching up to Canton and Quinn before they got very far away.
I'm so glad I will never have to see this creepy lady again.
So glad.
♛♛♛
The portal led us to Canton's throne room which was only occupied by some guards.
They were immediately ordered to bring Canton's inner circle here.
Not even a minute passed and the whole group was gathered in the room.
Canton was sitting on his throne, his face cold as usual.
Elvina looked like she was ready to run to Canton but didn't. Instead she took her position next to him, while trying to desperately hide her smirk.
Oda on the other hand wasn't trying to hide anything, her smile as wide as it gets, matching my own.
I felt like I took back all the energy I lost during the weekend just by looking at her and the happy expression on her face.
Adan was as far from anyone as possible, his gaze stuck on me.
The moment I turned to look at him, he gave me a big smirk and a wink.
I bit at my bottom lip, feeling slightly guilty for an unknown reason.
I shrugged it off and gave him a small smile back.
Last but not least, Nerissa was standing still a few steps before Canton, her hands intertwined behind her back and her head lowered down.
She was waiting for Canton to speak. And by the look on her face I can tell that she's feeling a bit nervous.
I hope she knows she got exposed.
Canton better give her the punishment she deserves.
"Nerissa." He started, face stone cold.
"Your majesty. Welcome back." She mumbled.
Canton got up and took a few steps towards her.
Nerissa froze.
"I'm so exhausted, I don't even have the energy to play dumb." He stated.
Nerissa kept being unmoving. "I..what do you mean?"
Canton took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly.
"I'll deal with you later. But until then." He looked at the guards close to him. "Arrest her."
Her eyes widened at that and she let out a small gasp. "What?"
Before she even had the chance to say anything else, she was being handcuffed and dragged away from the throne room, possibly getting thrown into a cell to rot.
Hopefully.
Everyone else looked satisfied with Canton's decision, mostly Elvina who now had a relieved expression on her face.
"Santos." Canton ordered.
Santos immediately revealed himself.
He bowed. "Your highness." Even though he had no smirk on his face, his tone alone was giving him away. "I also caught her talking to-"
"Later." He interrupted him. "You can go back to your old duties."
Santos nodded, his gaze respectfully fixed on the floor.
"Elvina stay. Everyone else out. I want to have a conversation with my knight."
Santos, Adan and Oda started for their way out while I hesitated to move.
Canton glanced at me. "You too. But don't go far."
I nodded and followed the others out of the throne room.
As soon as the door closed behind me, I fell into Oda's arms and held her so tight, I might have sucked all the other out of her body.
She smiled and reciprocated the hug.
"I missed you so much, E." She said.
"I promised myself I wouldn't cry"
"Are you crying?" She loosened her grip on me and then pulled away with a shocked expression on her face.
I gave her a playful smirk. "Obviously?"
She rolled her eyes, amused. "Such a tease."
"Well, don't I get a hug? A kiss maybe? A 'I missed you Adan'?"
"A kiss?" Oda asked dumbfounded.
I looked at Oda and tried to explain when Adan opened his arms wide for me.
When I reached him and went to hug him, he grabbed at my shirt and gave me a long kiss.
Even though I can't see Oda, I'm one hundred percent sure her eyes are widened right now and she's looking at us with her mouth gaping open.
When I pulled away from a now grinning Adan, I turned around to grasp my best friend's reaction only to confirm my guess.
"What did I miss??"
I sighed. "I can explain."
ELVINA
"Shit, Cant. I'm so sorry..."
"No. No, you're not. You didn't want me to find them in the first place"
"Can you blame me? You could have been dead!"
"I could have been free." He said, sounding like he has now given up.
"Canton.." I mumbled.
"You don't understand, Elvina. I know you're trying to. I'm aware of that. But nobody will ever understand what hell I've been going through for a thousand years now. And then, my one and only chance for happiness appears and it gets snatched away from me in a matter of a few hours."
I looked down, sudden sadness taking over me, clouding my mind.
"And to top it all off, I might have shed a few tears in front of the Merlot." He mumbled lowly.
My eyes widened. "What?"
"Just..can you not act so shocked? It was some useless tears streaming down my face. I didn't order them to fall."
"You cried...in front of Errot?" I asked feeling a bit startled.
"A..little."
"Canton, oh my god. You cried in front of him. That's incredible." A grin immediately formed on my face.
"First, I had the human tell me how he loved seeing me cry and then I have my own sister tell me that me crying is incredible. What else? Let me guess. Me dying would be immaculate, right?"
I let out a small chuckle at that. "What a drama queen. It is incredible because you don't even cry in front of me anymore. That means that you're giving him the permission to get close."
"No. I only did this because I couldn't hold it in anymore."
"You felt safe, Canton. You became comfortable around him."
Canton rolled his eyes and completely ignored me. "Can you believe he told me that he doesn't hate me anymore?"
"He did? Awe you guys." My grin got wider at that.
"Awe you guys" he mocked my voice. "More like oh no you guys. Oh no, Elvina. Oh no. No, no, no. Nope. No. Do you perhaps remember a curse laying around somewhere? A curse I didn't manage to break and probably never will?" I can see the despair on his eyes.
"You've managed to trick your curses before. Force them not to have a huge impact on you. You can do this with this one too."
"No, I can't. I can't. I tried. But now it's too late. It's already happening and I can't control it. I even told him to keep hating on me but he won't listen."
I couldn't hold a laughter back at that. "You told him to keep hating on you? Do you realise how bad this might have sounded to him?"
"Well, that was the whole point, El." He said as a matter of fact. He frowned a bit. "that rhymed." He mumbled.
I shook my head at him. "Don't let this curse win you over completely. If you can't beat them, join them."
"Easy for you to say." He said and started rubbing at his temple.
"... what's the first thing you'll do when the curses are gone?"
"If."
I rolled my eyes at him in a playful manner. "If."
He shrugged. "Sleep."
I nodded at him.
"And..." He trailed.
I looked at him. "And?"
"And..." He scoffed. "The curses won't break. I should stop getting my hopes up. You're not helping."
"They can't have gone too far, Canton. The island was their secret place. They've been in there for a thousand years, they don't know where to go now and that is your privilege."
"I will send a few guards in Riverland. In case they appear again." He mumbled.
"Yes, do that. And we can put spies in Teal Blood. To search for them. Meanwhile, you can torture information out of Nerissa."
Canton sighed and pulled an expression only I can read.
I sighed as well. "You want to stop talking about it and have our special sibling day?"
He nodded, his head down.
I smirked and got closer to him. "Waffles, gossip and knife fights?"
He nodded again, now more eagerly.
"Look at you, a baby king" I teased him.
I saw the knife coming straight for my throat, making my amusement grow wider.
I caught it in time and gifted my brother a huge grin which he kind of returned.
"I'm so glad I don't have to control myself around you." He said.
"I'm so glad I have a brother I can throw knives at without feeling the slightest of guilt." I said and threw the knife back at him.
He gave me a tiny chuckle, the knife now back on his hand. "Come on, let's go to the rooftop."
"We have to inform the kids first."
"The kids. Yeah. You're right. We should tell them that mum and dad want some alone time. Maybe they could babysit each other"
"In all seriousness, they are kids. We are both perverts."
Canton raised an eyebrow at me. "Both?"
I exhaled and tried to find the right words.
I noticed a small side smirk forming on his lips. "No way, you and the blonde finally..?"
"No. No, we didn't."
He grew serious again.
"But...we kissed. I kissed her. She told me she likes me and I kissed her." I bit at my lip.
"Why is that a bad thing?"
"I...rejected her."
Canton blinked at me. "Why?"
"We better talk about it during our gossip session along with the chocolate waffles."
"Good idea. And bourbon."
I scoffed playfully at him "And bourbon."
ERROT
It's almost past two am again.
Oda is peacefully sleeping next to me and even though I haven't had any sleep in the past twenty four hours, I don't feel extremely tired.
My eyes aren't closing on their own accord and when I try to finally get some peace and sleep, they automatically open.
I've been tossing and turning for an hour now and it's irritating me.
It's supposed to be my day off and I'm supposed to relax and rest but I can't seem to do any of those things.
I sighed and got up from the bed, careful not to make any unnecessary noise and wake Oda up.
She thankfully is a heavy sleeper.
I closed the door behind me and started for the exit when I bumped into Adan.
He smirked. "I was looking for you. Where are you going?"
"Hey." I smirked back and shrugged. "I don't know, I couldn't sleep so I decided to take a walk."
"Great. Walk with me?" He extented his hand to me.
I playfully rolled my eyes at him and intertwined our fingers.
"What are you doing up so late?" I asked him.
"Same as you. Can't sleep."
"Something on your mind?"
Adan turned to look at me. He smirked again. "Yeah. You."
"Oh."
"Oh. What about you? What's on your mind?"
"Stuff. Canton."
He stopped walking, losing his smirk immediately.
He looked at me. "Canton?"
"Not like...this." I felt my cheeks getting a bit heated up.
Adan stayed silent and waited for me to elaborate.
"I mean..damn. He's so..hurt. And like...sad. Nothing seems to go right for him."
"So you pity him."
"I don't. Maybe a little. But it's not exactly pity. I just feel a bit..sad myself. I find it unfair. So unfair." I realised I was frowning the entire time I was talking about it. "He's not..as bad as he portrays himself to be. No. He's not bad full stop. I think that deep down he's a very kind and caring person that doesn't deserve all this shit he's putting up with."
Adan was just staring at me.
"This weekend.. made me realise a few things.." I caught his stare and snapped out of my daze. "I'm sorry. It's probably the only free time we'll have in a while and I'm waffling on about cotton candy." I gave him a teasing smirk at the end.
He kept looking at me intensely. "What things?"
"Things."
"Are you hiding something from me?"
"What? No." My heart unwillingly picked it's pace up. I looked at him in the eye as well. "Will you kiss me already?"
Adan looked like he hesitated for a bit.
"Alright, fine. Don't kiss me." I started walking ahead again.
"No, no." He grabbed me by the arm to turn me around so I can now face him again.
I gave him a smile but his face kept being serious. He gently placed his palm on my cheek and started caressing it a bit with his thumb.
His eyes were now fixed on my lips. My smile got wider at that.
I placed my own hands around his waist and pulled him closer to me.
He then started leaning in as slowly as he could which resulted in him softly pressing his lips against my own.
I kissed him back just as slowly. This pace only made me crave him more. It wasn't rushed, it wasn't sloppy. It was passionate. Sweet. Full of emotion.
I caught myself getting lost in the kiss, not caring about anything else that was happening around me.
My hands traveled from his back to his neck and I tried to deepen the kiss.
But he pulled away.
And smiled at me.
I couldn't help but smile back at the charming expression on his face.
"Feeling quite romantic today, aren't we Adan?"
"Seems like you liked my romantic intentions quite a lot, though" He didn't move his eyes away from my face but I competely understood what he was trying to say.
"Same goes to you too." I retorted back at him. "But seriously, you should kiss me like that more often"
His smile fell just a tad. Before I could start talking again, he leaned in for another slow kiss, making me forget about reality and Canton even for a little while.
♛