Tainted Hearts

[Scion]

Bubbles!: Honestly, how are you so funnnny? It's not fair. I am jealous. You are awesome. That is all.

Ciuty80: As always, your comment makes me the happiest girl ever. Thank you so much!

Emily: Tut, tut. I expected better from you. Nothing epic to say. Sheesh.

Alexys52: Awww, thank you so much! I don't think I deserve such a lovely comment, though. But I'm so happy you like this! And I hope you enjoy some of my other ones, too; in all honesty, they vary in quality haha.

ElementsofGray: I appreciate your comments sooooo much. Thank you a millions times for taking the time to make me so happy hehe.

Candy: Ahaha, thank you so much! And yeah...my obsession with angst is a dangerous thing.

Part Ten:

~Epilogue~

One month they’d lived in Ahrbon, and still Arion hadn’t “gotten back” to Shem on is reason…and it bothered Shem. It bothered him a lot. A fact which he, of course, kept to himself, because communication was…

Pretty freaking important, he told himself. In fact, it was lack of communication that caused this whole mess in the first place.

Take the fact that Arion had been slowly losing his mind. Every interaction with another human being caused him to pick up a piece of that person and consequently lose another of himself. He was literally losing himself, and it had taken him a month to confess.

Sure, Lunar had known all along, but that in itself was part of the issue. Shem didn’t have a problem with Lunar…he just had a problem with the amount of time she spent in a certain someone’s company.

Again, something he needed to fess up to.

On the bright side, since Arion had stopped receiving his monthly injections of Lift, his memories had improved, and he was no longer having spells of who the heck am I?

On the not-so-bright side, Mercury’s mom had never shown up, not in any visions had by Lunar or anywhere else. Still, Shem knew the girl hadn’t given up hope.

The seven of them were currently divvying up the rent so they could live together, something that Mercury had suggested, which wasn’t exactly surprising. He’d never met anyone more dependent than Mercury Gosstall.

Shem didn’t know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, didn’t have a niche like Arion did with computers (and pretty much every electronic). Nope. But he was okay with that; he was not okay with pretending day after day that nothing had changed--which is why, when Arion got home from work at Avitz, Ahrbon’s main computer and photographic plate production company, Shem was ready and waiting.

He wondered vaguely if aliens had zipped down and ‘napped his man-card, but decided he was merely missing the point.

“I need an answer,” he said the second Arion walked in the door.

Arion didn’t jump back in alarm or even act like anything out of the ordinary was happening as Shem practically bit his head off.

He smiled slightly, dropping his swipe-key on the hall table, and said, “You remember that time you accidentally squashed that Musca domestica and started crying like a baby, saying how sorry you were and wailing ‘why couldn’t it be meeee!?’ at the top of your lungs?”

“Um. What?”

“The house fly,” Arion elaborated.

“Oh. I guess.”

“That’s the reason.”

Shem thought about this for a minute. “That is so…anticlimactic.”

“Do you regret it?” Arion asked, gaze averted. “Shooting Glev?”

“Arion,” Shem said slowly, holding the boy’s gaze intently, “how could I possibly regret doing something that saved your life?”

His mouth tipping up at the corners, Arion went to Shem, stopping only when a centimeter of space separated them; he dropped his forehead to Shem’s shoulder and nodded. “Okay,” he sighed, and stifled a sneeze against his knuckles. “Hhmmpt’ahh!--uhh. Thanks.”

As a possessive protectiveness and deep affection roused inside of him, Shem wrapped his arms around Arion and said, “I’m going to ignore that, as not to embarrass you.” He could sense Arion smiling, even if he couldn’t see his face. “Oh, and don’t even think about leaving me like that again--or I’ll seriously have to kill you.”

Arion leaned into Shem. “Like I’d ever make that mistake again.”

One day, the war would end, and when it did, they’d be there to see it…together.

- - -

~THE END~

In other news, I am working on something new. I can't guarantee it will be any good.

[EmeraldThread]

I think you read my mind. I was JUST thinking "I hope Scion updates soon, I'll go check the stories again" not at all expecting you to have actually updated! Either way, I loved the whole thing, every single part!! I wasn't expecting it to end yet, though! But it was so cute~ I LOVE Arion and Shem, absolutely love them.

You're working on something again?! I can't wait to see it, I'm sure it'll be spectacular like all your other stories.

[Ciuty80]

awwww

what a wonderful end!!!

THANK YOU!!!

[VividBubbles!]

Woah, this was awesome! I can't wait to read your next fic!

BYE!

[Emily]

oh, you and your happy endings I'll have something epic to say soon, don't you worry

[Akahana]

I just wanted you to know how much I LOVED this!! <333 The story was so original and on top of that the sneezes were quite cute~ I admire your writing skills, your diction is simple but clean, and very to the point. The story is also easier to follow than I expected, and was really interesting. If you ever decide to take this plot and expand it further, please inform me, I really love the idea!!! Your characters are also very nice, though simple. GREAT JOB!!

-Akahana <3