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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
"Mmm," Yang groans as he stirs awake. The morning sun shining directly into his face through the window causes him to squint in annoyance. Feeling the aching soreness in his body he tries to get up, barely lifting an inch off the hospital bed before he collapses back into its soft embrace.
With an annoyed sigh, he focuses enough to take in his surroundings. Seeing the familiar hospital walls around him he doesn't panic, the exhaustion in his body is set aside as he cranes his neck to look down at his body. Bandages wrapped his torso and right leg. He can even feel bandages on his head. All with small red spots of blood seeping into them.
'Still bleeding, what?' he can't figure out why he wouldn't be healed already if he's already back in Babel.
'Shit, if I'm here then...Alatreon, we failed.'
"Fuck," he groans aloud and lays back into his pillow.
"Hm?" Freya hums as she stirs awake and sits up in her chair. A thick white blanket wrapped around her as she blinks the sleep away.
The first thing she sees is Yang staring back at her, neither sure what to say.
"Uh, hey," Yang greets weakly.
Without wasting a second Freya throws herself at him, wrapping him in a tight hug, throwing her weight onto him, as usual.
"AH!" he screams in pain.
"Sorry!" she jumps back, holding her blanket in her arms.
"That seriously hurt, shit," Yang takes a moment to understand exactly what just happened. "Wait, why did that hurt, what? What's going on?"
"You'll be alright you just need time," Freya says. Giving him a small nod she reaches out and touches his cheek. "I'll go get Airmid, you've been in this bed for three days, she'll explain everything."
"Thank you."
A few minutes later Freya enters the room dragging Airmid by the arm, the girl having a very annoyed look on her face.
"See," Freya says. "I told you he's awake, now check his progress."
Airmid snatches her arm away as they arrive beside Yang. Turning to Freya she gives her a murderous glare, "that doesn't excuse the fact that you dragged me out mid examination of a patient."
"As if anyone cares about that loser," Freya rolls her eyes. "Just see how Yang is doing."
"After days with you, now you're just another unbearable wife," Airmid grumbles as she holds her hands above Yang. A diamond-shaped magic circle formed below her, pure white healing magic spreads from her magic circle into Yang as she continues her chant. As the magic stops Airmid gets an annoyed look on her face. "Just as I said, he won't be able to begin fully healing for at least another month, at best. Try your magic," she says.
Taking a deep breath Yang blows the air out of his lungs, and nothing happens. "That was supposed to be fire," he says with a very worried look on his face.
"Your magic will be back at around the same time," Airmid says. "All you need to do now is wait, it may take a day or two until you can walk on your own, until then I can't allow you to leave here. Normally I'd at least scold you for your reckless behavior, but you've suffered enough."
"Thank you Airmid," Yang says.
"Just try not to get hurt like this again, this is the third time I've had to operate on you in the last two years, it's becoming a bad habit," Airmid turns to Freya and gives her a surprisingly intense look, ignoring the feeling bubbling in her chest because of the woman's charm. "No strenuous activities, and nothing that will increase his heart rate much, understand? That means NO SEX."
Freya frows, "shouldn't you be telling him that?"
"No, I'm fairly sure I'm warning the right person," Airmid says.
"Not even a little bit?" Freya asks.
"None!"
"Tch, fine," she mutters out.
Airmid turns back to Yang who was simply looking at both women with tired eyes, "I'll have the medicine ready before you're discharged."
"That won't work," Yang says. "My Falna resists most poisons and medicine, doesn't resist alcohol for some reason."
Airmid gives an annoyed sigh, "then you'll have to do without painkillers. Any questions?"
"Nope," Yang says. "I just need to rest and wait so that's what I'll do."
"Good, I need to get back to my other patient who I was so rudely torn away from," she shoots Freya a dirty look. "And again, no sex," she says before leaving.
As Airmid shuts the door behind her Freya pulls her chair up to Yang's bed and takes her seat. Allowing the awkward silence to suffocate them as neither was sure of what to say.
After a tense minute of staring at each other Freya broke the ice.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"Like shit, like I worked out every muscle for a week, like a failure."
"Anything else?"
"No," he mutters. "Just tired."
"So you aren't angry about being forced to retreat?" Freya asked.
Yang takes a deep breath and shakes his head. "It was the right call. I was blinded by my goal and, I made bad decisions, we would have died." He chuckles deeply, "my jaw really fucking hurts though, not sure if she had to do it like that."
"Well Thalie kicked it so it was fractured, but it's healed now," Freya says.
"I'll have to thank her for that," Yang says as the conversation comes to another somber moment. "What about you?" he asks.
"I'm...conflicted," Freya says.
"Conflicted?"
"Mhm," she leans back and folds her arms below her chest. "On one side I want to trust you and support you no matter what, but on the other side I want you to stay with me forever," she says with a frustrated look on her face.
"And?" Yang asks. "What's the other thing, I know that look, there's something else."
"And I'm really mad at you for ignoring me," she says. Her faces changes into fury which startles Yang for a moment, "you were really planning to just ignore me, finish your adventure and leave, what the hell is wrong with you?!"
"Well," Yang looks like a deer in headlights. "In my defense, I never expected to be here having to explain this."
"Seriously?!" Freya shrieks as she stands up, now looking down at him. "That's all you have to say for yourself? I'm trying to keep us together, and right now I feel like you don't even give a shit about me. I know you love me, you'll never say it for whatever reason, but it couldn't be more obvious. Everyone knows! Just---" Freya stops herself and takes a deep breath. Forcing herself to calm down. "Just pick me, or at least tell me the truth."
"Freya, you know I can't te---"
"Yes you can," she argues. "You're Yang fucking Shen, you can do whatever you want, and nobody has ever been able to stop you, no matter how hard we tried."
"Some things need to stay secret," Yang says.
"No," Freya shakes her head, refusing to believe him. "I-I can't accept this," she steps away from him and begins pacing in the hospital room.
"Freya, calm---"
"Don't tell me to calm down!"
Yang smartly shuts up and gives her a few minutes to pace around the room.
"Alright," Freya approaches his bedside once more and takes her seat, reaching out and touching his shoulder. "No more secrets, either of us. Let's both come clean, fully."
"Freya---"
"Just listen. Just do this for me, and I swear whatever choice you make afterward I'll accept it, but I have to know why. And you know the kind of woman I am, you're many things but stupid isn't one of them. I'll tell you everything I've been hiding as well."
Yang narrows his eyes at her, "give me your word."
"Whatever the decision, I will respect it," she nods sternly.
"Is what you did that bad?"
Freya looks away, "if it worked, you would have stayed, but you would have never forgiven me, and I would have been happy with that."
Yang narrows his eyes at her, "what did you do?"
"Nothing I did worked, clearly," Freya says as she looks at him. A moment later her skin glows a bright white. Yang flinches and turns his head, and when he turns back to look at her.
"Syr? What the hell?" he sees the kind waitress Syr in the hoodie and pants Freya was wearing moments ago.
"It's not real," Freya says, speaking in Syr's voice. "It's part of my divinity, shared beauty. One of my adventurers, my chambermaid, has a spell that allows her to use this appearance. We both can be Syr."
"This is weird," Yang says. "Can you please change back?"
"Right, sorry," Freya says as she switches back to her regular appearance. "Horn and I can either become each other or Syr. While I spent almost every day as Syr, she would spend all her time as me, living her dream of being me."
"What?" Yang immediately becomes angry. "Did you make me sleep with... Horn was her name, right?"
"Her name is Horn, and no, she has never been with you," Freya says as she looks down at the floor once more.
"But?"
"But I wanted her to be, just for a few nights, just until..."
"Until what?" Yang's eyes narrow at her. "Until what Freya?"
"Well, I figured you'd never have to leave if you had a new family here, so we should just start our own," she gives a sheepish smile. Seeing the disgust and hurt on Yang's face she crumbles immediately. Turning to look away from him as she silently weeps.
"You really are the most dangerous goddess in heaven," Yang spits the words like poison, completely disgusted by her. "What else did you do?" he asks roughly.
"I-I just."
"Freya, speak, now," he commands, completely ignoring her tears.
"When Horn refused, I asked Riveria---"
"Riveria was in on this?!"
"No!" Freya immediately defends the Elf. "Well, she refused, and she was just as disgusted by it as you are. But I invited her to be with us because I truly wanted her to be happy with us, I promise that part is real," Freya pleas.
"And?"
"Mmm, and I may have become a bit more, desperate, when you were on the last expedition and ignoring me. So I was a bit more forceful in trying to convince her."
Yang sighs and sinks further into his pillow, now staring up and the ceiling. The look on his face made Freya feel like he reached into her chest and tore out her heart.
No anger, no disgust, just disappointment, and shame.
After an extremely tense silence, Yang speaks. "What else, can't be worse than this, right?"
"That's everything," Freya says. "You already know everything else."
"Think very very hard, because I'm only going to ask one more time," Yang turns his head to look at her. "What, else?"
"I swear that's all I did. Everything else between us is real and genuine, I really do love you, just like you love me!"
They both just sit in silence, Freya trying to stop her tears, and Yang quietly fuming as he constantly tries to justify Freya's actions, failing every time.
"You know," he says in a tired voice. "I-I wasn't ever going to tell you the full truth, about anything. I thought that it would hurt and I could never do that. And I still don't want to, even after I just promised I would, I was willing to go back on my word, but now. I still care about you, but now I'm just tired. So listen up...."
And so he told her everything.
For almost an hour she sat in silence as he recounts everything.
From how he grew up with his family before he came to this world.
To how he came to this world with no memories.
All the way to this very moment, and Freya doesn't interrupt once. Staring at him with wide eyes as all the pieces suddenly begin to fit together. But so many more questions are also immediately raised.
Why does he level up so quickly? What is The Angel? Why did the new monsters spawn? Why did only he get shunted across worlds?
As Yang finishes his story, Freya gets up with a stone-cold look on her face, and stares down at him for a long moment.
"This is it then, this moment?" Freya says. Not even giving any real response to anything he just told her, as if her brain couldn't even process what had just been said, as if she was refusing to acknowledge how far away her Odr would truly be from her. Too far for her backup plan to work.
"Do you regret it?" Yang asks, giving her a gentle smile.
Freya shakes her head. "The two years I've had with you, were worth all the eons I spent waiting, Odr. Was it as real for you too?"
"Every second," Yang says, honestly looking back at their time together fondly, part of him wishing it could have been forever. But that burning guilt in his chest telling him it couldn't be.
Freya nods and leans down to him, "my Odr, I love you, and I'll never stop as long as I live, and we will be together for all of your lifetimes," she says before sharing one final, long, passionate kiss, with the love of her immortal life.
Pulling away from him she stands up and wipes the last of her tears.
"Will you be alright?" Yang asks.
"I don't know, but I have eternity to figure it out, or until your soul finds a new body and comes back to me. This is where two logical, understanding, reasonable people would part ways, and wish each other the best on their adventures, right?" Freya asks.
Yang chuckles, but Freya doesn't even crack a smile. "Yeah, they would..."
Freya shakes her head, pitying him for not knowing what comes next, "too bad I'm a goddess, I'll see you soon, Odr..." She immediately turns around and struts out of the room, ignoring his confused expression and steeling herself.
This was not the time to mourn, and not the time for a goddess of love.
Now she needed to be Freya, queen of the valkyries, the goddess of war...
END CHAPTER---
Hope you are all ready for this :)