soulreleaser | --- IC INBOX

[ it'd be impossible for anything to go terribly awry and I am taking you down with me, hand in unlovable hand ]

Very well! I will make sure to keep my eye on the developments then--I want to help.

[ because that's what a Guardian did

even if right now, said Guardian is looking a little puzzled as Rose turns things on him, shifting so that he can look at her eye to eye, sitting on his knees as he tips his head just so ]

Me, be careful? I'm in no danger, Lady Rose--I'm the Storm Dragon, Veldora Tempest! There's nothing in any of the worlds that could best me.

[we go together]

[into the screaming pits of hell]

I know you are, Dora. I know you’re strong.

[She doesn’t know just how strong, but she knows enough to trust him.]

But this place it’s…”odd.” Conventional strength isn’t always enough. It twists your emotions. If something happened and you got taken, I’m not sure even your powers would be enough.

[ boom ]

[ he can't help himself; he preens a little when Rose praises him, but her voice stays so serious and steady, and Veldora listens to the drop in her tone keenly

he is careless, frivolous, and so strong that most things are beneath his radar for concern

he isn't stupid.

even if he was stupid, he's not callous enough to look Rose in the eye, with her gentle, if stern warnings, and dismiss her out of hand. he looks at her, really looks at her, and sets his book to the side so that he can catch her small hands in his, letting his ungloved thumb brush the edge of one of her callouses--and then he squeezes her hands with his, cupping her hands between his larger, rougher paws. ]

... I hear what you are saying, Lady Rose, and I will heed the warning. I... will admit that I have been caught offguard before, when I was more certain of my own untouchable immortality, so the advice is not remiss.

We will safe together, right? Buddies watch each other's backs. You'll keep me safe, and I'll keep you safe.

[ and his smile is as bright as the sunshine on his shoulders, eyes glittering gold and so certain of his own place in the world that everything feels so inevitably safe and calm--that the bad guy will be defeated, and all will be well by the time the chapter closes.

fool. ]

[Rose isn’t sure what reaction to expect, and Veldora takes her completely off-guard.]

[She had expected him to insist more on his own strength, to expect to be able to handle it. She hadn’t expected him to be so soft.]

[There’s no helping the blushing. She’s got to stop giving him romance manga.]

I——yes, you’re right. I’ll watch your back, and you’ll watch mine.

[She has a feeling this is probably when they would fistbump, but her hands are otherwise occupied.]

[And it’s working.]

[There’s a light in Veldora’s eyes that she can’t miss. One that tells her everything is going to be okay. She’s warm. She’s safe.]

[Perhaps for the first time since October, she’s truly safe.]

I trust you. I can’t imagine anything happening with you there to protect me.

[ it's strange, being so soft

the Storm Dragon doesn't do soft--it's a calamity, a concept, a being that is for now, Veldora, and Veldora has been filled with all these strange ideas. how do you take a concept like storms and chaos and calamity and teach it what friendship feels like? what companionship is?

as it had happened for his elder siblings, so too did it happen for Veldora--for the simple love of something simple, someone finite and comparatively mortal; he looks at Rose with that bright, unfaltering affection, and it's like he's always known what it was like to have something so close, so warm.

the redness in her face brings a blush his own cheeks, and he tosses away his composure in favor of coming up to his feet and tugging Rose with him, one of his hands remaining where it is for Rose's to rest on while his other hand makes a fist that he holds triumphant to the side, shoulders pulled up as he stands at his full height. he's proud and strong and so is Rose--and together, they're invincible. ]

We will act as true companions do--raising one another's strengths, and guarding one another's weaknesses! And we will protect the people of this city together! I don't know what frightful beast has visited us this time, but we will weather this lesser storm together!

--- IC INBOX - KAISOU

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