I never ended up falling asleep, but that was one hundred percent okay with me. It might as well have been sleep.

After Sefal and I were tired and had... sealed our bond... we lay together for many hours. Just holding each other. I had never felt more at peace with life as a whole. At least in those moments, I felt for once that things were okay. That I would maybe be alright and that I didn't have to go on for a bit if I didn't want to.

It was relaxing, I guess. Neither of us really said anything to the other. Everything that needed to be said could be felt. In a strange way, I could feel everything she felt - how powerful her emotions were. She was just as at rest as I was, and when I would hold her or kiss her, I would feel bad in a way, like I was being intrusive.

Let's be real, I didn't know what I was doing. Up until a day ago, we were at each other's throats and she felt so far away from me. Yet now, it seemed like we were on the same wavelength. She was perfectly okay with everything I did.

I needed someone to hold and she needed to be held, and that was how we lay. She fell into a blissful sleep, and I was left with a sleeping goddess, in my arms at last. There was no need for restraint, I was free to look at, touch, or feel whatever I pleased. And it was no longer out of lust or lecherous desire, just love.

It was like I'd done a hop, skip, and jump right over puppy love and landed on pure, wholesome bliss. Every single time I moved my eyes, shifted my fingers, or felt her skin against mine, a new wave of a deep, deep calm came over me.

When morning came, she woke up, took one look at me, and smiled.

She was happy to see me. She was glad I was still there holding her. And that feeling completely melted me.

I didn't even know how to tell her good morning. And then moments later I understood exactly what it meant when people in the movies would say "just five more minutes."

We kissed and cuddled again as she lay over top of me, with the covers over her back letting just the right amount of light in between us.

"Like what you see?" She giggled mischievously, a tone I'd never expected to have come from her.

"Maybe," I looked away nervously, my face completely red.

"You were being such a cool romantic in the hot spring though..." she smirked.

"You're one to talk. You just about froze as soon as anything became serious."

"Oh that is not true!" She defended, her face a cute, scrunched up sign of guilty as charged.

It was my turn to giggle, seeing as to how we were arguing with half our bodies still pressed against each other.

But with the cuddling mood killed - in a good way - we ended up getting out of the covers and dressed up in the quick extremities of our clothing. I just threw on my loose pair of pants and my cloak, but didn't feel like putting on a shirt, and she just put on some undergarments and went straight for the white wolf hide I'd kept so coveted this whole time.

And as soon as she put it on, standing there with nothing but her underwear, I didn't blink twice about letting her keep it. In fact I didn't blink at all.

We whipped up a breakfast pretty quickly, then sat across the table eating in silence as we took a second look at one another. It was a sort of reevaluation, I guess. Like we'd been putting up with one another, but now that we were looking at being closer together, we had to get an idea of the whole picture.

I was the first to break the ice with my curiosity creeping up on me.

"So, now that the cat is very much out of the bag," I opened. "Where are we?"

"What do you mean?"

"As two people. What are we?"

She gave me a very disappointed look. "After everything that happened last night, you're really asking me that?"

"Listen, I just want to be sure," I raised my eyebrows honestly, then took another bite.

"I can't argue with that I suppose..." she trailed off, then chewed much more slowly.

Then I think we both kind of stopped as we realized that one of us would have to be the one to actually say it out loud first. It was one of those things where the answer was plainly obvious, but neither one of us wanted to stick our head under the guillotine in case it were to actually fall.

"I..." I began, then felt my throat dry up.

She moved her head down and looked up just a little, like she was desperately waiting for what I had to say.

"...I would like for us to be a couple. I said this last night and I'll say it again. I love you." I tried to channel how comfortable I felt with her last night, how completely vulnerable I could trust her to let me be, and just say things as I felt them to be. "Like you said before, you're bonded to me as a spirit. You and I have made it through thick and thin so far, and we both know what the world has in store for us out there. I don't want to just have your back in a fight. I want to have it physically, emotionally, and when it comes to your trust and feelings."

She froze completely and set her spoon down gently, folding her hands beneath her face as she lost the strength to look me in the eye.

"I agree..." she said very quietly, with the tiniest break in her voice at the end. A tear followed from her suddenly puffy eyes very soon after.

It was my turn to freeze. I hope I didn't say anything too much... I'd be pissed beyond all hell if I stuck my neck out this far just for it all to be in vain.

"I'm sorry I..." she cleared her throat and wiped her short-lived tears.

"What's the matter?" I asked after she remained silent for a minute.

"I'll tell you later." She definitely didn't seem to feel good about saying that, and I had to fight to not blurt out, "why not now? Do you not trust me?" It was easy to feel like she was blindsiding me and didn't think I could handle her vulnerability responsibly.

"What's important," she continued, having already regained composure. "Is that I agree. As much of a thick-skulled dumb-bell as you are, you're the only one I can bring myself to trust with my life and future."

I smiled at her as I tried to come up with a response that properly handled the amazing thing she just said, but couldn't, and instead we ate in silence for a few more minutes, until both of us were finished and just left staring at the other.

Something just didn't feel right... like there was a barrier. It was half-smashed, but still there, and I'd glimpsed into all the wrong parts of what lay on the other side.

"Do you really..." we both began at the same time, then immediately cut ourselves off and stared at the other in shock.

"Do you really feel the same way about me that I feel about you?" I finished my sentence on impulse.

She replied by, slowly at first, then confidently, walking towards me and wrapping her arms around me.

"Let's just slow things down. I don't think we'll get anywhere trying to just say how we feel. How about I show you, and you show me."

So that's what we did.

I did everything I could and more to show her just how I felt about her. How I'd already decided that no matter what, I wanted to give her everything and more. That the smile I saw when she woke up in my arms was worth facing any darkness and garnering whatever strength was necessary to protect it.

But that's not something I could just tell her yet. Part of me knew that if I just went and blurted everything out, she'd trust me enough to believe it, but never get to experience it, and then things would just die out.

I used to write love stories with bad endings. Maybe those were just my instincts telling me what not to do in the future. In a way, I already knew some things just based on all these hypothetical love stories I'd made up as a lonely kid in his bedroom upstairs.

We trained together, now so much more fruitfully than ever before. We sparred four hours every single day, or at least until we remembered we're still recovering from near death. But that time grew longer and longer, and we learned about each other in those battles.

I couldn't explain it. We fought to kill in the sense that we were training, but it wasn't like we were pissed off and wanted to show off to the other just how good we were at x y z. We were discovering our strengths and weaknesses and doing what we could to correct the other on the latter.

Granted most of that was her still teaching me, but when it was coming from her, I was finally open to her critique. Mostly. Barely. Listen, a little bit is improvement, right?

When we grew tired, we studied, we ate, and we talked. We made fires, spent long nights talking by them and telling stories. We'd already told each other the cliff notes of our lives, but now we had the time to sit down and talk about the finer things, and both of us had our own fair share of histories to tell from.

As we made our steady way back to health and prosperity, we delighted in spending all kinds of time doing what we could to help. Not really in a medicinal way, but more just things that a couple would do. We would lay in the midday sun after a long training session and massage the soreness out of each others' bodies.

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In a way it was kind of like making love to each other. All we wanted was to make the other feel better in every way possible, and every reaction only garnered more.

Some nights, we skipped bed entirely and put up my hammock next to the fire, snuggling up close together to share body heat. Even though if it got too cold we could easily kill ourselves, it was so comforting. It was something we'd grown used to after all that time in the cave, and now that we were no stranger to being close together (which, now it was usually naked since that works so much more nicely for sharing body heat), it was something we came to enjoy.

I think when it came to us falling in love, it was just kind of the right place and the right time. I was certainly in no hurry to have my heart stolen, but she and I share a need to have someone we can trust with everything. We're not quite there yet, but certainly close - and much more so than just about anyone else.

The other biggest thing we did with our free time was gather information.

We had all kinds of journals and notebooks to pour through, and we sure didn't leave a page unread.

There was so much those many writings taught us, but the most important of them came down to why this underground castle existed in the first place. Sefal was right on the money when she said it was the resting place of the Golden Warriors (a name not ever mentioned in writing), but the reason why is what turned my head.

The man responsible for it all, Levahn Cassliamastro, was a brilliant mage, to put it short, and ruled over a massive kingdom during the Dark Ages. Humanity revered him as being a bright light in the unspeakably terrifying conditions they all suffered at the time, but following the passing of his First Consort and Queen, Valkyrie, he later killed himself and his kingdom didn't make it too long after that.

That all is common knowledge (at least to someone like Sefal). What we didn't know, and presumably nobody else knew, is that he didn't kill himself. He organized a group of people, all with the sole intent of ending the century-long global war - the Kavari War - and whether they live or die being of no concern to any of them.

He effectively masterminded the end of the war, and nobody knew what he'd really done.

I was kinda jealous, for the sole reason that he got to be a badass and didn't have to deal with people and their attention while he did it.

What remained of his followers sealed themselves in this underground castle, living out the rest of their days to never see the surface until they died. And that was that.

The stories go deeper than that, and deeper than even the notebooks told of, but we learned a lot of truths about the world, and the very real reality that the new Demon King, being the one that killed the original one during the Kavari War, has a mission to end humanity, and considering he was never actually killed, only sealed away, I don't imagine that stopping him for long.

That gave us a mission. We figured if we can get a piece of all the action that's to come, and come out on top, it certainly wouldn't hurt to be owed favors from a world that turned its back on us.

So that led us to another important discussion after dinner one night:

Making a new promise.

"So, after we get out of here, what's the plan?" I asked openly.

"I'm open for anything. I am your fairy spirit after all," she said halfheartedly.

"No, seriously. What's the plan? Do you still want to fight a war?"

A mischievous smile grew on her face, which made me gush a little bit. "Of course. Especially if it's with you," she gently added.

I smiled wholly. "So then, let's make a new promise."

From there, we had to sort of draft up our own promise to each other, which we decided to say out loud - together.

"I promise to stay by your side. No matter what trials we face, together and alone, unto each other and unto ourselves, nothing will ever shake, nor will we ever try to shake, the trust that keeps us together."

Every part of our relationship was built on trust. Trust in each other. Trust with each other. Trust in our feelings for the other, and trust with our lives in the other's hands. So, while it sounds kinda goofy, that was the promise we ended up saying to one another, sealing it with a kiss.

Every time we kissed, I couldn't help but feel the urge to bite on the spot I had before, and this time, I just went with it. I drew blood, and feeling taken over and completely out of my own senses, drank it.

Sefal didn't stop me. If anything she was just curious. She didn't understand why I had some of these traits, since according to her, this whole sleepless thing (which thankfully being with her has helped cure ever so slightly) is not normal at all.

And, well, it's not worth trying to hide or anything. I think I may just be a vampire. Which Sefal says is impossible, so it could be something similar? It would explain why I'm so addicted to eating the hearts of my prey. Nevertheless, I finally had an answer and didn't have to feel so shy around Sefal when it came to stuff like that.

Now that we were talking, I figured I would bring up why she cried during that breakfast a while ago when we were discussing our new relationship.

"I was scared of my bond to you," she said. "Not that I was scared of you. I was afraid of all the things that I didn't understand and I wasn't ready to tell you at that time but I was just happy you wanted to have a relationship - that we were so close."

"Well I'm glad I can make you so happy I bring you to tears..." I replied, more confused than anything.

She took a deep breath. "I guess I was just realizing how scary it is to be as far in the dark as I am. It could have been anyone I bonded with - it could have been a real demon who I would have been stuck having to live with for possibly an eternity."

"Are you saying I'm not a real demon?" I was offended.

"Nonono that's- that's not what I meant by that-"

"No no, it's okay, I get it, I'm not a big scawwy demon wike the udder ones," I mocked her as my pride took a dive for a moment.

She sighed dramatically and gritted her teeth. "That wasn't the point and you know it."

"Yeah yeah sure, but you got the shit dud of a demon and you're stuck with him so, deal with it."

She rolled her eyes and I stuck my tongue out, and since we were in a laughing mood, I thought it the perfect time to spring a more important question:

"What are the customs here when it comes to getting married?" I asked, very nonchalantly.

She laughed, then blushed, then couldn't hide a full and sincere smile.

"I guess it depends. Humans like Lydia never really get married. They just have a child and are considered together forever."

"And that's not happening," I chimed in firmly.

"Correct," she agreed.

"What about fairies? You make it sound like you have something different?"

That made her pause for a moment.

"Well, it's a 4 stage process. First, you foster life in nature."

So we went outside, found the biggest tree, and planted one of its seeds near the hot spring. Sefal explained that this meant we had promised our union within the earth, and its life is a symbol and testament to our relationship.

Then came the next step: "You then have to trade life' with one another."

I guess we'd already kind of done this. At least I did. We waited until nightfall, and then in a much more intimate, sacred light - far less lustful than before - we each bit into the other's neck and drank a tiny drop of blood, taking a piece of each other into ourselves. To be honest I thought it the tiniest bit weird from a tradition standpoint, but Sefal's passion behind how important the custom is for fairies made me want to try it.

Well, that was kind of two steps in one. The marking of life and the trading of life.

Sefal said that fairies perform these steps at a pace they generally keep private from others and one that's left up to how comfortable they are in the relationship.

When it came to the two of us, we did them all in one day. We'd already fought to keep each other alive for so long and have had to depend on each other for every aspect of living, not to mention how deeply at least my feelings run for her. That's all to say that, especially in a world like this where people don't exist so superficially like they do on Earth, it wasn't wrong or hasty in the slightest to be married so quickly.

If anything, it was both romantic and spiteful. The way we changed our names and now the way we're performing these ceremonies to ourselves - at the end of the day we're making a statement between us and to the world we face in the future: nothing, including customs or expectations or tradition, comes between the two of us and our peace.

"How do you get married where you come from?" She asked, genuinely curious as the two of us had long since cozied in for a finally warm night after a nice long bath together.

"For the most part, the couple has a ceremony where the bride's - or the woman's - father brings her before the man and lets her go from his life. It's a bit dated and more of a ceremonial thing by the time I was alive, but at least most couples would invite their families and friends and throw a giant party."

"Giant parties sound nice but..." she trailed off.

"Not really the people?"

"Yep," she agreed instantly. Glad to see we were on the same page. "I mean, personal celebrations and dances are pretty common at each of the stages of union for fairies, and humans will have at least some form of feast or celebration, be it not as formal as you described."

"So what should we do?" I asked.

"I don't really need a celebration or tradition to tell me or anyone else that I love you, but I think they're fun either way. Your human celebration of marriage sounds lovely."

"Let's have one then," I suggested. "We will celebrate as fairies now and as humans later when we're out of here and the war is out of the way, regardless of who comes or doesn't come."

"I can get behind that," she said with a little giggle as she turned around and gave me a kiss - which was something we thankfully did a lot.

It's amazing how quickly things between us moved once the cat was out of the bag.

So, with that, we spent our few remaining days there first celebrating - we made our own feast with most of what was left of the food, since we'd probably be the only ones to ever eat it before the magic inevitably wore off. I took it upon myself to crack open the bottle of wine I'd found in the treasury, and boy lemme tell you, it certainly spoke to all the time it had sat down there.

We enjoyed our last few nights in the bedroom at the top of our little mansion, then went back and wandered the castle for a bit even if just to say that it was our subjectless kingdom, and then we geared up.

There was a fair share of treasure left here, and we did our best to gather it all up. Sefal took a bow, which she said was her preferred weapon, but not one so easily used in these often narrow caverns. I found someone's old red suit, but couldn't bring myself to abandon my cloak, and Sefal found what looked like a mixture of a bandit's and a witch's clothes.

As soon as we saw each other dressed up, we both said in unison: "What kinda look are you going for there?" with her tracksuit-witch and my cloak-over-the-suit-with-a-loose-tie getup, I don't think either of us were trying to draw attention by being fashionable.

In all seriousness, it was some real clothes and I kinda liked what I had going on in a weird way, not to mention completely obsessing over Sefal, but we don't talk about that part, right?

I dumped what I no longer needed out of the bags and rolls and any other kind of container I'd managed to collect along the way, and stuffed in the most useful of the journals, plenty of knives and hooked on a couple shortswords, and then decided to keep my spear.

I'd been training with it with Sefal and given my nature as the stab first and don't ever ask questions blitz fighter, I could use it to single out enemies and finish them quickly without getting closer than I needed to.

Unfortunately, most of the stuff here was old, and even then, aside from knowledge, we didn't gain a lot other than whatever gold I could manage to stuff in before my back felt like it would snap. I was kinda bummed. No artifacts or crazy world-changing stuff. Just some old people's junk. But hey, what I did find down here was the love of my life. So you won't catch me dead complaining. At least about her... mostly... listen, I complain a lot.

At the edge of the manmade meadow was a small gondola with a pedestal that directed us to place our hands on in order to leave. We approached it, took a deep breath, and made the decision to go to the surface at last. After all this time, we were finally going to start having the real fun.

We took each other's hands, and took one last look at the mansion.

"Sefal?"

She looked at me.

"I promise you, we'll build ourselves a house someday. One with a hot spring and a garden just like this one."

She nodded firmly, and with that, we placed our free hands on the pedestal, and a blinding white light surrounded us as we were finally brought to the surface.

I could only step back and reflect - think about something I wrote after Gabriel died that fit this quite well...

I once had a dream that I'd seen the depths of hell

I screamed and cried for mercy, for someone to save me, and yet the only reply was the echoes of my misery

My wings turned black and my kingdom crumbled,

For what is made of wood and fueled by mistakes and supported on fragile hope is destined to burn with the night's wrath

After I'd lain in the crimson grip of hell, I saw nothing before me but the reflection of my empty eyes and soulless smile, bearing the fangs made of my greed and blindness

The only thing I'd left to do was raise my head and leave the fiery pit on my own

Carried by nothing but Midnight's Wings