vatheon | This is why we can't have nice things.

[The vampire goes on alert at the sudden change. He can sense and see the nervousness and the fact Sola is running away again just sends alarms off in his head. That was it. What the hell was going on?

He reached out and took Sola's arm, expression clearly reflecting the concern and confusion he felt.]

Stop. What's wrong? And don't say nothing, this isn't the first time you've done something like this.

[Long sleeves are always a part of Sola's wardrobe. He's lucky, really, otherwise a change to always wearing high collars and covering clothes would be exceptionally noticeable. But with Johnny's hand on him - a hand he can't feel other than the pressure from his grip - Sola knows he's caught. He can't feel anything and his mouth won't form words or maybe they will but he doesn't know because he can't feel it. His hearing wavers, everything sounding distant and muffled, as if coming from another room or outside the window in the street. He tries to pull away tries to wrestle himself from Johnny's grip but he's sluggish and thin and the arm in the vampire's grasp almost feels like nothing at all.

He has to get away, he doesn't want Johnny to see, doesn't want him to worry... so he says the only thing that he knows will make the vampire let go, shoulders shaking and voice sounding thick and far away to his ears.]

You're hurting me!

[Tears roll down his cheeks completely unheeded. He can't feel them, not at all, but the flour gives way to tracks regardless. When Sola lifts his head, Johnny can see the opposite wall as if looking through a shadow cast by some other object.]

[Sola's actions were scaring him. He was afraid it was like Ghirahim, where something or someone was hurting the person he loved and he hadn't noticed until it was right in front of his face. He just wanted to know.

But those words scared him more. As if he'd touched a hot stove, Johnny snatched his hand back.]

I'm-

[The word 'sorry' didn't have a chance to come out before those tears and the transparency registered and cut him off. He ignored the self-deprecating voice in his head that was still berating him for gripping too tightly, and took hold of the Hylian's shoulders.]

Sola! What-?

...What's happening to you?

Edited 2012-08-22 05:52 (UTC)

[He doesn't want this, he doesn't want it at all, this isn't how it was supposed to work. He's supposed to just enjoy what time they have left and then...

And then what? He'd disappear? Would the coral bring him back five days later all fixed or would he have to endure this every time? Or would he simply cease to be? Vanish, without a trace?]

I-I don't...I...

[His voice catches in his throat. His is a psyche at war, the urge to hide, to cover his ears and scream and pretend none of this was happening vying for dominance with pure, unadulterated fear. Fear of vanishing, fear of nothingness, fear of never getting to make pancakes again, never getting a hug again, never seeing what he learns, if he grows, never getting to take that next step that all relationships reach. Of never...

He gulps air, the action hurting his throat, stinging his lungs as feeling slowly comes back in the form of pins and needles everywhere. It hurts, it hurts and that's good because he's still here.]

I don't want to die again.

[It's a small, broken and raspy plea but it opens a gate and suddenly he can't stop the words.]

I want to stay with you, I don't want to fade away again. I don't want to be nothing but I don't know what to do! I don't- M-Master Ganondorf is gone and Zelda can't do everything and there isn't anyone else but I-I just wanted to make pancakes and go to the dance i-in matching coats and stay! Why can't I stay?!

[The replica sinks to his knees right there on the kitchen floor, grasping at Johnny's legs. Not enough to send him toppling, but to hide his face and wail brokenly.]

Why can't I?

Edited (formatting fail) 2012-08-22 06:17 (UTC)

[Johnny didn't say anything, he couldn't. He'd never felt so useless and combined with the guilt, anger, fear, and sadness, words had no place in his head.

Gently, he broke from Sola's hold so he could lower himself to the ground as well and wrap his arms around his boyfriend. He knew his hold was tighter than a normal, comforting, hug....but he didn't care. If a tight hold would keep Sola grounded and with Johnny then fine. Bruises would heal, disappearing would not.

Why was he disappearing anyway? The coral was supposed to heal and protect them, why wasn't it protecting Sola? Was this it's way of warning them that it was going to send the Hylian away? Was this how it acted with Sola because he was different?

But if that where true...then why? He thought this place was different. He thought, he'd told others, that being here meant you could be happy even if you weren't at home...Johnny had faith in this place and now it was trying to take something precious to him away.]

Sola...

[He buried his nose in Sola's hair, taking in the familiar scent and shut his eyes. When he spoke, there was Iron-hard determination in his voice.]
I won't let you leave. I won't let go.

You can't leave me.

I don't want to go...

[Shaking arms wrap themselves around Johnny's shoulders just as tightly as the vampire holds onto Sola. His matesprit is his lifeline and he doesn't care how hard Johnny holds on so long as he does, so long as Sola can stay here. He's told Kurow, he's told many people, that he never wants to leave and that's hardly been more true than at this moment, but weeks of a steadily worsening condition leave Sola with little hope left.]

...but I don't know who could help...

[He was quiet a moment, mind flying through a thousand different things at once. Out of everyone he knew, he could only come up with Zelda, Crowley, and Aziraphale who could have the power to help.

Considering their relationship, he was willing to bet Crowley was a no-go. Sola didn't seem to think Zelda could help. Aziraphale...Aziraphale could change reality itself, he'd said as much. But...if he couldn't help....Johnny had already had his faith shaken once today, he didn't want to hear the words 'I can't' come from one of the Heavenly Host.

...Well, Azi would be the back-up plan.

He pulled away enough to take Sola's hands, tightly, in his, still not willing to physically let go of his boyfriend, and leaned his forehead against the other's.]

Come on, we're going to get you help. I won't just sit around and watch you die. I can't.

[A small nod is the most Sola can work up the energy to reply with. He doesn't know who Johnny has in mind but at this point he'll take any chance. It's kind of a relief, in a melancholic way, to have someone else sharing the burden of worry and while he's still exhausted and there's still pins and needles everywhere and numbness tugging at his extremities, for once, he can be relatively calm. He can be calm for Johnny.

Sola rubs at his face with his sleeve, still with that hand in Johnny's and inadvertently smearing wet flour across his cheeks and nose before turning his gaze to his matesprit.]

Sorry...

[Slipping one hand from his matesprit's grip, Sola reaches up to wipe the flour he had left on Johnny's cheek, but the apology encompasses so much more than that. So many times he'd wanted to confide in his matesprit about this and never had. He'd backed down, afraid there was nothing to be done, afraid even to hear there was nothing so he didn't try. He couldn't bear knowing for certain that he was going to fade into nothing and no one could help... but that look on Johnny's face, that heart wrenching concern, he knows he should be fighting tooth and nail to stay, to keep Johnny from ever looking like that again.

He hates that expression. Johnny should always be smiling.]

Where are we going?

[Johnny flashes a small smile -the best he can manage right then- and Brings them both to their feet.]

Don't apologize. It'll be okay.

[And he has to believe that that's true; for both of them.]

We'll go to Zelda first.

[And that's where he leads them, not pausing in his pace till they were outside her door. He glanced at Sola as if the hand he still held in his own wasn't confirmation enough that he was still there, then knocked.]

[For his part, Sola is trying to keep it together. Both literally and figuratively, if he were honest. He keeps his hand firmly curled around Johnny's as the taller man knocks, so certain that Zelda isn't going to be able to do anything. She couldn't even heal a small burn of Johnny's. How can she heal him?

He waits for the door to open, head hung and ears drooped.]

[To say that Zelda was surprised to see just who was at her door would be an understatement. Her first thought was that the nosy vampire's gone and dragged Sola to her house so that they'll make up again, and it irritates her more than a little - but the expression on Sola's face isn't that of a sullen boy.

He's scared.

Her face shifts from discontent to worry almost instantly as she holds the door open to allow them to come inside.]

Sola, Johnny. Please, come in.

[Johnny led Sola through the door and turned to face Zelda, determination the only thing he was allowing to himself to express right now.]

Sorry for the unexpectedness, but we need your help. Sola's disappearing.

[And saying it to someone else just made it more real and that much more frightening.]

Please....is there something you can do?

[Sola's ears twitch but there's not much other movement from the replica at all. He doesn't want to see the look on Zelda's face, that expression of pity because there's nothing she can do. His grip is white knuckled in Johnny's hand. It's hopeless.

His fingers start to go numb again in his despair and he squeezes his eyes shut as he begins to lose feeling once again.]

Edited 2012-08-23 02:02 (UTC)

[Though the princess's first reaction is indeed shock, it's not despair that comes afterwards. It's determination, the same she displayed when confronting Ganondorf. She reaches out for one of Sola's hands, speaking calmly.]

When did this start?

[Johnny feels a little relief when he sees her reaction. Good, then he wasn't lying, it would be alright. He lets go of Sola's hands and gently pushes him towards Zelda, still keeping a hand on his shoulder, not quite ready to loose physical contact.]

[Zelda's soft words and the movement of Johnny's hand from his to his shoulder makes Sola look up. Zelda's expression mirrors his matesprit's; that unheeding determination, the certainty that everything will turn out, that there's hope.]

U-umm... about.. a month ago? After Ghirahim took some of my energy. Was this his fault?!

[It's easier to have someone to blame, some face to put on his misery.

The pins and needles return, but it's a welcome feeling.]

If he took some of your energy, yes, it very well may have been. This may feel a bit strange, alright?

[Zelda folds both hands around one of Sola's and lowers her head, sensing him with her magic. She's all to aware of exactly what this feels like from having Duke do it to her, but it's too important to know what's happening right now. She can't be squeamish.]

[He finds himself angry in that moment before Zelda puts her other hand over his. Furious that Ghirahim had done this to him and then asked him to be moirails. Forget it! All that garbage about brothers and being cut from the same cloth? And yet the demon is the reason he's going to die. He doesn't want to die!

His thoughts are snapped by Zelda's magic curling around the spell that struggles to keep him whole. It feels good, soothing, filling into the gaps and making Sola's posture sag a little in relief. It's not a fix, he knows. He magic still is foreign this way, but he feels less in immediate danger with it than without it.

There are however, definite holes in the spellwork. The magic used to construct Sola is ridiculously complex and Ghirahim's grab for the strains of Ganondorf's power had unraveled it in places like a sweater caught on a nail. Sola's refusal to bring this to her sooner also didn't help matters; The proverbial sweater is more hole than yarn, now.]

[When she draws back, Zelda looks grave but not daunted. So Sola is falling apart. She'll just have to put him back together again, won't she? And this time, she'll put him together like a person, not like a weapon. Meant to last, meant to live.]

We are going to need to see Link, Sola. I'm going to have to reconstruct you, and I think he will be the best basis to use. Alright?

[Johnny allowed some of his fear and concern to show since only Zelda could see it, though the hand on Sola's shoulder tightened it's hold slightly.]

Will there be enough time for that?

[Are you sure you can fix him?]

You can fix it?

[He speaks at nearly the same time as Johnny, looking up at his matesprit as soon as the words are out of his mouth. Zelda's expression gives him hope, Johnny's...

Well he's worried too but somehow, the fact that Johnny's that worried, that he's showing it, makes him feel a little warm inside even as he wishes he wasn't the cause of such negative feelings.]

[Her eyes flick up to Johnny's face. Whether she can or not isn't an issue. She will, and with her magic, that's half the battle. She won't let Sola die under her care again.

Generally, the Triforce isn't something she mentions around people - but she's quite certain Johnny will insist on watching the process anyway, so she might as well.]

There is absolutely no reason I shouldn't be able to. Ganondorf created you with the Triforce of Power as a reflection of Link. Link and I hold the other pieces, not to mention the fact that Ganondorf didn't actually have Link present when you were made. I don't intend to make you exactly like Link, of course - you are still you. If anything, you'd be somewhat like a Sheikah.

Like a Sheikah.

[The idea is actually somewhat appealing on some level, but he's unsure as well. Would he still be himself even if he was less like Link? What would change?]

Would I have to wear a mask?

[Johnny looked between the two of them, confusion in his tone.]

What's a Sheikah? What will happen to him?

You don't have to wear a mask.

[The princess looks up at Johnny again.]

Sheikah are a race of people from our world. Shadows, but complete people all on their own. Sola resembles a Sheikah already, but he is not truly flesh and blood. This would make him as such.

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