Sometimes I am quite sure there are two souls trapped inside this withered corpse, like some poorly written fairytale I was a creature of such passion and tenderness, and with that there was a stark difference of turmoil, a monstrous taker of life. Mortals can only grasp what little they can of who they are in the short time they have, often their failure of character and of spirit is only truly realized once they are at their end. For us...for those of us that must face ourselves day after day for centuries...we become far too familiar with who we are, and we may either break at the revelations of our own being, or we become stronger and able to hone ourselves into something more controlled..more focused...more dangerous.

This revelation had been my gift of this past decade, and with it had come an understanding that I could neither be the man I wanted, or be entirely the man I feared. I was stuck in this middle ground, a pretender of smiles and a wielder of the scythe of death. My grey tinted blue eyes returned to Yejide as the basket reverberated a thud around them, my attention so focused now on her it seemed to echo through the atmosphere like a drum. As her body moved towards me, I felt the muscles in my body tense slightly, her gentle hands touching my face was strangely comforting, and I found myself not resisting her familiar attention, and instead I found myself nearly wanting to embrace her, something I hadn't done to anyone since...I couldn't remember when. I did not though, instead I reacted to her warm hand on my own, and I let my other hand rest on top of hers, my cold touch a vast difference to her own. Her voice was gentle as she commanded me to look at her, and this I did without hesitation, and in my eyes was nothing but sincere warmth. I was delighted to see her, and I felt a smirk spread over my face as I looked at her own beaming expression, a smile I could never leave unreturned.

"Has it?" My eyes narrowed slightly in a teasing expression. "It's strange seeing a firefly in captivity." My words were spoken with a hint of sadness etched in them, I knew why of course...this was no place to be too open, and yet at the same time it was like seeing a bird with clipped wings, it's existence diminished. She seemed to retreat from her overly affectionate demeanor, and I confess I wish she hadn't...it was something I had grown to love about her, rather than find obnoxious as I may have once felt. Her invitation caused me to smile again and I chuckled gently, "Well given my previous rudeness, I think I owe you. If you wouldn't mind, I'd be obliged to walk you home...or we could stroll through the park?" I bent down and set the Peony basket on the ground, and shrugged. "I didn't even like it anyway." I then stepped forward and offered her my arm, my old manners never wavering in the passing of time. In truth I didn't want to let her go, moments like this were fleeting for me, and any blemish of goodness in my otherwise wretched life was surely something to savor.