"What's wrong with you?"

Eurydice couldn't help but lower her head when Orpheus stopped playing his lyre to finally look at her. It had been weeks since he had last sang a word, since the last flower had bloomed from his voice.

Winter had come and Eurydice felt like it wasn't leaving anytime soon.

She could feel her stomach turn and twist in hunger every step of the way back home from a useless trip to the closest market. Wine was no way of survival, despite the temporary burning delice.

"Do I really have to say what's on my mind, Orpheus? Because I will", she murmured, putting her arms against her skinny legs and trying to enjoy the last waves of heat coming from the fireplace. She couldn't find the strength needed to look him in the eye. "Something about us doesn't seem right these days".

If she had kept on hearing Orpheus's fingers lingering on the strings, creating a subtle and comforting sound, all she could hear now was silence. Eurydice knew Orpheus was now staring at her, and this, somehow, gave her the courage to go on.

"Life keeps getting in the way, Orpheus, and whenever we try, somehow the plan is always rearranged", she burst, dark hair hiding her broken expression.

Hurting Orpheus had never been part of her plans, but she had always put herself first, or tried to, in her life. Love was so new it only seemed to hurt her, hold her back from who knows what possibilities.

"It's hard to say, but...", she breathed in. "I think I've got to do what's best for me. You'll be okay, but I'm not, and I don't think I'll ever really get used to all of this".

Finally, she looked up. Orpheus was sitting on the ground, his lyre abandonded against his thigh.

He was not watching her like she had thought. His stance was on his fingertips, callous and bleeding from so much playing.

He was trying to do what was best for everyone, trying to catch the words and notes of a song capable of changing the world, Eurydice knew that. But she felt like dying more and more every passing day, and the hope of a brighter future no longer was enough.

The chips, the passage to Hadestown, grew warmer and warmer against her skin everyday. They were no promise - they were a certainty of a job, a real bed, a warm meal.

"I don't wanna leave all of this behind, but I get my hopes up and I watch them fall every damn time", her fingers lingered on the flower Orpheus had gifted her with after first singing the song. She could still hear the la, la la la la la la, la, la la la la la in her sleep, but the flower was no longer a comforting sight. Every trace of red was gone, and the blooming hope was now of a rotten grey colour. "It's just so hard to watch it all fade away".

She stood, her mostly empty backpack by her side, heading towards the exit of the little place she shared with the player. Maybe out of determination, maybe out of impatience - why was Orpheus saying nothing?

"I'm leaving today".

"What abous us?", a shiver ran up her spine hearing Orpheus's tone. It broke halfway through the question, but he went on, raising from his sitting position. "What about everything we've been through?"

Their eyes finally met. And if Orpheus's were full of confusion as to why Eurydice wanted to leave, hers contained a certain king of rage, a feeling of betrayal.

"What about trust, Orpheus? You promised me so much, Hermes even said you'd make me feel alive but now I only feel like I'm drowning in your everyday life".

"You know I never wanted to hurt you", his fingers tried and reach Eurydice's wrirst, but the girl stopped him halfway through with a flaming stare. Orpheus put his hand back on his side. "What am I supposed to do?"

Eurydice shook her head. What could he have done to make her stay? Sing that stupid song? Eurydice's hopes for spring and summer and love and happiness were long gone, had gone rotten together with the flower.

Orpheus didn't try to touch her again, knowing perfectly she'd step, another time, away. "Why do you have to go?"

"I just don't belong here!", before she knew it, she was raising her voice, in anger, in frustration, Let me go and let me be, this wasn't supposed to happen. "I hoped you'd understand".

"I'm trying to understand", Orpheus put himself between Eurydice and the door, in a gesture that could only make her angrier, but would make her stay a few seconds more. "The only thing I understand is that I want you here, and that yes, I made some mistakes, but I'll try and make it all better for us, if you stay".

I'll try and make it all better for us.

Promises were always so sweet dripping from Orpheus's mouth, were sugar Eurydice loved.

She wished promises were enough to keep someone alive, she wished sugar was a five course meal.

But promises could be broken, and too much sugar, her mama had told her, would make your mouth and teeth hurt.

Staying meant dying a sweet but brutal death.

Eurydice put her open hands on Orpheus's chest, closing her eyes to feel the heat of his skin through his clothes, pushing him away from the door and from her heart. But she couldn't. She could leave the house, but Orpheus wouldn't leave her mind.

"We might find a place in this world someday", she shivered, knowing hers was a promise, a sweet one she was not sure she could mantain. "But at least for now I-"

She felt his arms surround her waist, his player hands caressing her back. Was that a hug, or a snare?

When his mouth searched for hers, she didn't move back, letting his sugar lips over hers one last time. Was that a lover's kiss, or a snake's bite?

"I want you to stay", he murmured, stepping back from the kiss, his eyes misty with the awareness of having no power over something, over someone.

He wanted her to stay.

But he let her go when she pushed with her hands against his body, asking, in silence, to be set free. For that was love, too. The suffering of one for the other's shot at happiness.

"I gotta go my own way", Eurydice looked at Orpheus one last time before going out in the storm. "But you keep on playing your song, Orpheus. I'll be back with spring".

This little one shot was inspired by @/noeliaacosta21 on Tumblr.