#[ ship. ] inanna: 'i feel like a part of my soul has loved you since the beginning of everything.' « yue | ofaetherium »

[starsasunder]

“You’re not alone, baby. You never have been.” \\ yue to inanna

hurt / comfort starters // accepting.

Grief has been her constant companion so long, Inanna isn't sure what it feels like to live without it.

Some days she can ignore it, like the weight of a heavy, well-loved coat. Other days, it weighs on her like a full suit of armor, suffocating her. And always, always there is no time to acknowledge it, process it. Always there is something that needs to be done, someone who needs to be saved. The world always needs her, but today, the world can wait.

It hurts. Everything hurts.

She's been crying so long her breaths have gone ragged, hiccuping when she tries and fails to regulate it. Her face is puffy and red and ugly and the tears won't come anymore, but Yue has seen her this way before and Inanna can't bring herself to care.

The curtains are open and the light is too bright. She buries her face into Yue's stomach, lets the fingers brushing through her soft curls relax her enough to steady her breathing, struggling through the scattered mess of her thoughts to drag in several long, deep breaths. Yue's voice is soft and Inanna can't make sense of what she's saying, but just hearing her helps. Her heartbeat begins to steady, her fingers slowly unclench from the fabric of Yue's skirt.

"You're not alone, baby. You never have been."

Gentle, nimble fingers rub at the base of Inanna's ears, tentative at first but growing in confidence when Inanna does not reject her touch. It feels good, too good, and before long Inanna feels her lids begin to droop.

"Sleep, Inanna," Yue's voice gently chides. "It will all make more sense in the morning."

That strange, primordial magic of Yue's descends over her like a warm blanket, and Inanna sleeps.

[starsasunder]

He spits sweetheart at her like it's a curse, but by now she's grown used to it. 'Hero,' 'Sweetheart,' 'Darling,' 'Brat,' - they're all the same in the end. Anything but her name, anything to avoid acknowledging that she was someone different than whoever this mysterious 'she' was who had come before. She had tried everything she could think of to treat him the same way, but it mattered not whether she called him 'Emet-Selch' or 'Ascian', nothing seemed to faze him.

Nothing, save for her questions.

He towered over her, looking down on her from on high with those piercing golden eyes. The outrage he felt was misplaced, as it so often was. He only ever viewed her as a fragile, broken, pathetic shadow of whoever she had been, no matter what Inanna did or did not do. His lessons worked to suppress the agony of the Light growing inside her, and that was why she continued to come to these secret rendezvous despite her better sense.

At least, that's what she kept telling herself. But at this point, it almost didn't feel worth it anymore. Perhaps it would be better if she let the Light take its toll.

Glowering up at him, she stomped in place, ignoring the jolt of pain that sent up her spine as her tail gave a derisive flick. "If you would kindly get your head out of your ass for two stars-damned seconds, Emet-Selch, you would actually hear what I am asking!" she spat.

"You said I inherited her power. You offered to teach me how to wield said power. I accepted, and that is what I am here to learn. If I ask about her, it is because I am trying to understand the power she wielded and how I might do so myself. If it pains you to talk about her, fine, but don't bite my head off for it!" She was tired of his cutting remarks, but she had never seen him lose himself to anger like this. She would be afraid if she had the sense, but at the moment her temper was burning far too hot to care.

He turns on her, lightning crackling with every motion as a manic laugh bubbles in his throat. "You aren't done with me? Oh, sweetheart. You have no idea just how very done with you I am." He moves towards her then, at a speed faster than he had ever before shown her. The grass around them is singed, the acrid smell of it burning in his nose as he towers over her.

"Let me make one thing very clear, hero. I owe you nothing." Every word is heavily enunciated, anger and rage behind every syllable. "My past is not yours to dig around in. You are but a piece of her, do you understand?" He pauses for a moment, taking in her disheveled appearance. It is obvious that their fight took a much larger toll on her than it did him, the Light snapping at her seams slowing her motions and making her movements so very predictable. How could such a fragile thing have so much...He had yet to decide if it was courage or idiocy that made her so bold.

He was beginning to lean towards the latter.

"You go on and on about how you are not her, how you will never be her, yet you attempt to pry her history from me as if you have any right. Make up your mind, Inanna. Either you are her, or you are not. You cannot have it both ways."

Her constant hypocrisy was weighing on him. The more she attempted to drag out of him, the more he was forced to relive, and mourn. She was so adamant that she was her own person, that Azem had nothing to do with who she was now, yet she treated his history with her ancient counterpart as if it was her own to demand whenever she desired.

He could not handle it.