I had convinced Yuu to not uphold his promise to not physically interact with me within an hour. He made a new one in its spot. To help me figure out what was within my mind that harmed me so. He still seemed unconvinced that the source of the pain was me and not him.

"Right now?" He asked, looking at me as if I were mad from across the wooden dining table.
"And there I was, up against these three buff guys covered in tats," Tetsuya was saying to the others, hand gestures as animated as he was. Even the shine on the rim of his glasses seemed to showcase his vibrant mood. Chi gasped at whatever he said as I stood from the table, Yu mirroring my actions. Min and Tetsuya wiggled their brows at us. One serious, the other teasing. I ignored them both, instead studying the other faces that had turned to us. Some greeted me and my friend by name, others merely staring.
In curiosity.

The thing about myself- about my memory, is that I have secrets. These secrets are something that I hide from myself. I do not know where they are. As much as I want to know what they are, I believe, for the most part, that it is for the best. That I wouldn't like the truth.

But I wanted to know. It killed me to not know what I had done before I washed up from the ocean. Who I had known.

Many things about myself.

Of what I was- the one thing I was convinced I was not. I wanted to know more about the Anemoi. So I could understand what I was and what I could do. If I was lethal or not.

Why my wings became a part of Yuu whenever we were touching.

So, that's how I ended up in the empty music room, hesitant hand lifting to Yuu's. Our palms pressed together, a faint shock coursing through my limbs. It was my body's warning sign of what was to come. My brain ached as I remained locked with him.

It was a long stretch, but I knew that there was something in that scene that played by so quickly I couldn't see. A memory of mine. A white room. If I could just get the memory to stretch long enough, bear the pain in enough time to see-

The searing pain entered as my determination to see the scene rose. Yuu was the first to notice, his hand shooting away from mine. A ringing in my ears remained, temples throbbing in poor sync with my quick breaths.
"Did you see it?" He asked quietly. So quiet I almost didn't hear him.
"No. nothing. Just that flash. like a camera." I groaned, laying on my back.
"Maybe you don't... want yourself to remember?" He proposed slowly. I opened my right eye to look at him.
"Probably. But I have to know. I know that I would know how we had become connected like that. Why your touch inflicted pain on me when it didn't before."

He paused. And pondered. Then he spoke. Hesitantly.
"You seemed to be in pain when we first
Met. When I was carrying you, actually. You kept mumbling about something and turning your head."
Strange, I couldn't recall dreaming the second time I had fallen unconscious.
"What was I saying?"
"I don't know." He was lying, obviously. He had heard something but wasn't sure on what it meant, so he couldn't tell me.

I had sighed, sitting up with ease. I took his hand in mind, a minor experiment. With my hand clamped around his, there was only a white noise in the back of my mind. When I intertwined our fingers, the pain returned. Yuu's eyes were wide as he watched on with curiosity, eyes almost never leaving my bracelet. He was transfixed with something within the ruby gem. Awe was plastered on his face, a rare sight to see such innocence.
"It only hurts me if we get intimate." He snorted at my words, still awestruck by whatever he was witnessing.
"Once again, phrasing is important, Mika." He commented, not as phased by my strange way of speaking as he was the first time those words spewed from my mouth. He'd grown used to it. Tetsuya always seemed to get a kick out of it, only laughing harder when I looked at him in confusion. Min would sigh and say 'ignorance is bliss' after that. It was actually really stressful, not knowing why what I was saying was wrong. Of course I figured it out a couple hours later when I would be working, my body freezing in shock. Rinse and repeat.

"Oh. Right," I mumbled. "When we are in close contact, my mind goes haywire. Like it's being fried, y'know?" I explained loosely. It was his turn to take my hand. Gingerly he lifted it, his reflection in the crimson gem that was the color I wished I bled.
"Shockingly, I can relate. But I cannot tell you the experience that led to that feeling. Not yet." He said in a hushed tone. I remained silent, distracting myself from the pain. I noticed that I could silence it when it remained at the way it was. By distracting myself with watching Yuu. A strange feeling was seeding within me. Something that was alien to me. Something deep in my heart told me that he was all that mattered. That I could be shot in my ribs and it would not matter if I were taking the bullet for him. All that mattered was him. Not myself, no, I felt nothing about that. My life wasn't disposable, but a feeling told me that I would end my own life for my savior. So easily throw away what he had returned to me.

But he seemed to want me very much alive. So that was how I remained, my heart pounding through my chest as I sat, frozen with my hand outstretched to him as he studied my bracelet like a rare specimen.

Why do they call them slave bracelets, anyway? I wasn't a slave.

Yeah, you're a slave to Yuu, A tiny voice in my head joked. I didn't know whether or not to be repulsed or intrigued by that strange compulsion and comment my mind provided me.

I chortled at it before I could ponder on what I wanted to do about the strange thought that must have come from a little too much time spent with Tetsuya and Min.

Yuu didn't ask what I found so funny, instead pursing his lips.
"Your bracelet reacts to me like it does to you." He mumbled. I sat up straight in a flurry, looking at him in concern.
"How?"
"I don't know. But when you absently rub your hand on it, the shine in it followed it with some sort of mist inside. When its merely showing your reflection, it glows really faintly. I think it... wants me. But I don't know in what way or why." Yu theorized. In response, my bracelet on my now free hand gleamed at the two of us in what I assumed to be satisfaction. Reminded me of a child when their parents let them figure out what they were trying to tell them.
He was right, then.

The satisfaction of the ruby quickly faded as a pain tore through my chest. Agony rippled from my core outward. Then I screamed, my body shuddering and hitting the floor in one quick motion. I couldn't even see Yuu's quick reaction of horror as my consciousness abandoned me.

Why?

We weren't touching.

Why is my body punishing me?

• ♛•

"Orpheus. Calm down." I soothed his nerves, a book strewn across my stomach. Golden hair covered most of my view of him, but I could tell he was stressed. His brows were furrowed together, a hand gripping his hair with a tight fist. Electricity seemed to be rippling through the room with every step.
"I can't calm down. I killed him. And I liked it." He spat, visually distressed. An act of treason, Gloria informed me as Neridia sobbed into her lap, a horrible mess in herself. A maid offered a handkerchief, which the pair had taken instantaneously.
"Brother." I ordered. He stilled, head snapping to me. His eyes were wild, face just as bit on edge as he.
"You cannot beat yourself up over this. You already killed our dear brother." He seemed to open his mouth in protest, jaw tightening instead. Smart move.
"I know what to do." He muttered, storming from the room without another word. Gloria and Neridia entered soon after. They busied themselves by fussing over me. The tired look in my eyes, how tight my lips were pressed, hell, they even sighed at my partially tangled hair. Gloria had made a comment even Neridia didn't expect.

"You haven't looked this bad since the prince's passing."

Only three months ago, I had looked like this. Except I was sobbing and broken, desperately wanting Corinna's embrace and reassurance over anything. My brother's advisor and a lady of his court may have sufficed in comforting me, but nothing would do the same thing a hug from my love.

Unless bringing back the dead counted.

But, apparently, that was against the laws of nature.

But my people weren't.

No matter what the humans said.

If we could exist, we were normal.

We were just a bit different.

That's all.

Hell, I'm sure we could even be compatible with humans.

Well, I mean, I was. It felt as natural as breathing, being attached entirely to a human.

It still caused a lot of pain.

Both intentional and unintentional.