The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

As soon as Reed realized that the soft voice above him belonged to Ember, he finally looked at her properly. His heart shook with pain when he saw the tears in her eyes. Those tears were being shed for him. For me. He lifted himself slightly, then collapsed into her, tightly wrapping his weak arms around her. The sensation of her arms slowly snaking around his shaking body allowed for a small feeling of happiness to swell in him. As he held her, that small fraction of happiness blossomed into so much more. He began to feel like more than just a vampire that had all of eternity with almost no one to truly love. His eyes were opened up to the hope for an eternity with her. 

Ember pulled away from Reed, gingerly cupping his face with her hands. "Why the hell am I the only one crying? Reed, you have every right to let everything out after what you just went through. I won't judge you, just let it go. It will make you feel a hell of a lot better."

Reed's bottom lip disappeared beneath his teeth. He chewed on it, desperately trying not to fall victim to her words. His eyebrows scrunched together, slightly quivering as he kept holding on to the diminishing bit of pride inside of him. That pride of his was thrown away the second that tears began to well in his eyes. Sobs broke through his mouth as he let his head fall onto her shoulder. Others would call him pathetic for this but she...she wouldn't say a single damn thing. All she did was smile. It was a sad smile that silently expressed her pain. Hearing him cry like this was enough to make her begin crying again as well. 

As he cried, holding onto her like she would slip away at any moment, she regretted her past decision of trying to wait for him to open up to her. She should have known that such a powerful High-tier would never willingly express that he was suffering. Instead, he would keep it to himself, hoping that maybe one day the source of his suffering would let go of him. That day had finally come but it left him in near ruins. 

It took him almost twenty minutes for him to fully piece himself back together, but throughout all that time, she stayed by his side, never once complaining or laughing at him.

"Thank you, Ember, thank you so much," He expressed his gratitude to her, though she couldn't quite understand him due to the fact that his head was still turned into her shoulder.

"Lift your head. I can't understand you," Ember told him, unsuccessfully attempting to get him to turn his head toward her.

Suddenly, her vision was obscured by his hand. He wanted to spare her from the sight of him looking so pathetic and helpless.

"I said thank you," Reed finally repeated himself, a little smile breaking over the frown on his face as Ember tried to pull his hand off her face.

"If you're really thankful, then let me see you," Ember nagged him, still pulling at his hand.

"I'm an ugly crier. You don't want to witness this, Little Rabbit," He came up with an excuse that made Ember mirror the partial smile on his face.

"You're already ugly, to begin with. There's no way you could possibly get any uglier because of some tears and snot," She teased him, happy that the shaking in his voice had disappeared.

"Do you always insult people when they cry?"

His voice was much closer than it had been before. Her imagination fantasized about the idea that he was only centimeters from her face, and sure enough, when Reed removed his hand from her face, all she could see was the deep purple of his eyes staring into her own. As always, they captivated her, just as the rest of him did. Slowly, with a bit of caution in her movements, she inched closer to him, softly pressing her forehead to his. It was a simple action that was able to reassure Reed in a way that no other could. Unlike Aiko and almost everyone else, she would never hurt him. He was sure of it.