"Max…Maxciel…" Xenith began, his usually deep and expressionless blue eyes were nervous and unsure.
He'd never seen Xenith that way before. Maxciel felt something akin to what many authors have described as 'your heart clenching' something that felt almost like a heart attack, crushed with Xenith's soft hands unknowingly. But he no longer loved Xenith anyways. After all, that woman, she'd reversed the effects of her talent. He was in control of his feelings now. Perhaps, this was just a lingering side effect of her talent that would soon fade. For he, Maxciel Bane, the words top hero, was no longer in love with Xenith Vain, the worst most wanted villain. "I've realized it" Xenith tried to continue, but his voice wavered, that small besot of his tone was the most emotion Maxciel had ever seen from Xenith. Once again, he felt as if someone had pricked his heart with a pin. Perhaps soon his heart would pop like a balloon. "Why.. I feel this way. I don't hate you Maxciel, I can't hate you anymore" Xenith tried his best to push the words from his lips but his struggle was apparent. The distance between them was only a few meters but the Xenith standing in front of him, so gentle, so full of emotion, so human like, felt as though he were a billion kilometers away, the illusion in front of him, couldn't possibly be so close.
"The feeling of wanting to be near someone is not wanting to destroy them, caring what you think that's not anger not jealousy, thinking you're beautiful isn't envy, I love you… the way, the very way you feel for me. That kind of love. Perhaps I should word it, I'm in love with you, Maxciel" for the first time since they'd known each other, he watched as those merciless and uncaring eyes filled with tears, his face was as twisted as his voice. His smooth voice cracked with emotion like glass or the panes of sidewalks. But weirdly, he smiled. He smiled for the third time since they'd met. But this one, was special. Almost as special as the first. Anyone who saw it would feel every little thing he felt as well.
Maxciel smiled back, his expression was warm like summer, that same longing look he'd always given to Xenith heavy in his eyes, dripping like honey. "I love you too. I've said it a thousand times and I'll say it a thousand times again. I love you, Xen" Maxciel whispered, his voice was soft and calm, beautiful and soothing like a siren as he approached him slowly like walking up to a skittish little cat. Xenith smiled so brightly, he looked so new, there was no other way to describe it. "I'm happy. That's the first time I've ever got to mean those words" Xenith cried and no longer being able to stand the short distance between them ran at Maxciel and held him in his arms. Maxciel didn't even have it in him to be shocked or confused. All he could focus on was the deep pain in his chest, it stung like heartburn but worse. It felt deadly. But he disregarded it. "Can I kiss you, Maxciel?" Xenith asked softly but clearly seriously.
He supposed one kiss was the least he could give a man he was about to throw behind bars, after all he was a man he'd spent months with now. Maxciel leaned in and pressed his lips to Xenith's, neither of them had experienced their first kiss yet, so it was messy and unpracticed. A mesh of lips, soft and rough all at once. But to both of them it was electric, a feeling of longing, and never wanting this to end. Heat pooled through veins and transferred from person to person through lips like vitality. And in that moment, like the number one hero should do with a criminal, he teleported Xenith to the prison building. It was done just as soon as their lips parted. At first Xenith didn't seem to notice, having been to absorbed in experiencing first love and first desires. And then it hit him. They weren't in his house anymore. "Maxciel…? Why am I here…?" he asked his voice desperate to hear anything other then what he knew was reality.
"Loving you wasn't real, Xen. It was a mistake, a mistake on someone else's behalf. And like you said once before, I feel you're a bad person, and I want to protect those I deem good, and this is the only way to do so. Plus, it's only fair, you've hurt so many people Xen, a conscious like yours could never be wiped clean" Maxciel rambled. He wasn't usually one to ramble, at least not like this. But it was strange, he felt more like he was explaining to himself, or rather convincing himself of the words he was spewing. "I've always hated you, Xenith" Maxciel said seriously. But for some reason he felt disgusted with himself, not with Xenith, himself. He felt dirty. He felt like a liar.
Xenith stood there silently. Maybe he didn't know how to react, or maybe he just didn't want to. Maybe he felt as though if he never interacted with this reality, it would make it untrue. And so, Maxciel, unable to handle only receiving silence, disappeared, the last he'd see of Xenith would be watching Xenith, without struggle, cooperate with the police as they dragged him to his new cell.