Shadowed Heart

[Tigress]

"Mmm a long way indeed. I missed the light in my time in the shadows, I never felt right there.... Unless I was with you" he murmured softly, blushing at that confession as he held her hand gently, humming to himself. He always felt so contented when he was with the Princess of Death, even though they were so different. Something about her just made him feel... Special.


Shiro blinked for a moment, staring at Grim in deathly silence before finally registering what his beloved had said, and his red eyes widened in shock. "He... What? But I've spent just over a hundred years working beneath him and he's always been a freaking skeleton? How did...." he blinked slightly, tilting his head to the side before turning towards Soul with a frown. "You don't think meeting my mother has anything to do with this, do you?" his voice was soft as he asked that, and he hoped desperately that the other male didn't hear him.

 

[TheCommander]

Soul grinned and nodded then put her finger to her lips to signal to him to not say anything about it. She dropped her hand and pulled a neutral face when her father turned back to face them. He looked unhappily at her then gestured toward the souls that had followed them here, "I'm going to take these to Death, don't stay out too long" he said and with a wave of his hand he was gone and so was the large swarm of souls that were behind him.


Soul turned to Shiro again and nearly burst with excitement, " noticed he was acting funny when he met your mom, really funny and then after we returned he went to Death for a while, he does that when he wants to think, and then bam! I walk past his room and there he is looking like that! He was just as confused as I was but its definitely him, I can tell by the way he blushes. You know he always had trouble hiding emotion but now that he has skin and muscle he really can't hide it, he keeps turning away because he can't stop blushing and he's embarrassed by it!" she told Shiro everything. She was so excited that people could finally see how sweet he really was, "maybe being around your mom brought some of her power to him? Maybe he got his form from having been around life? I'm not sure how or why it happened but I can't say he isn't drop dead gorgeous" she laughed and nuzzled into Shiro's shoulder.

 

[Tigress]

Shiro immediately nodded and returned to a normal, neutral expression, still watching Grim closely with slight confusion in his eyes. He listened to what he had to say to his daughter, nodding politely and bowing his head in a silent way of saying farewell before hugging Soul close, chuckling happily. He was so glad his mother had interfered, otherwise he wouldn't be able to hold his precious love close. Large wings fluttering, he stepped back as she poured out the whole story.


He listened closely, grinning at the story and having to hold back laughter at the description of how everything happened, but at the suggestion as to how it could have happened, he bit his lip thoughtfully. "Hopefully it wasn't mother's power that gave him that form... Hopefully it was just her presence..." he murmured before glancing up and deciding to elaborate. Soul deserved to know what he meant, he couldn't keep secrets from her at all. "Mother is... She's very weak. And her powers cause her a lot of strain. That's why she never leaves the Void, except to go to the Afterlife to collect souls. Coming down to Life is an extremely difficult task..." he told her softly, squeezing her hands and nuzzling her contently. He made no comment about what had been said about Grim's new appearance, he did look quite good after all.

 

[TheCommander]

Soul listened carefully and frowned, "is there nothing we can do?" she asked, "any way to revive her somehow and restore some of her powers?" she found a bench and sat down, thinking carefully. Maybe there was a way for her father to give her some of his power, he had an endless stream of it but it was dark power. She sighed looking up at Shiro, his beautiful face made her forget what she was thinking about and she smiled.


After careful consideration she frowned and decided to voice her opinions with Shiro, "This is just speculation but is there a way to change Dark power into Light power? My father has an infinite flow of power that he barley uses so if he could transfer some to her it could help revive her somewhat. The only problem lies in the fact that it is Dark power, I don't know if there is a way to change it" she paced back and forth now, trying to think of something then stopped in front of Shiro. She kissed him on the lips lightly and grinned, "Been wanting to do that for a while."

 

[Tigress]

Shiro tilted his head to the side at the thought, biting his lip. "Hm.... Well...." he began, pausing only to think before his eyes widened in shock at the sudden kiss. He looked at her, frozen for a minute before laughing softly and hugging her close, giving her his own quick, sweet kiss. "You surprised me and didn't give me time to reciprocate." he tutted softly, running fingers over her cheek gently.


Giving a soft cough, he stepped back slightly. "As I was saying... Mother used to tell me that Life and Death should live in harmony.... But she and Grim never knew each other, because they only met when I was 'revived'... She used to say that ruling Life would be much easier for me because I would get to meet you on one of my travels giving souls new life, which was close I suppose. I just met you in a different way, but then we'd be able to rule the two with ease... I think your father and my mother need to get to know each other better to help her, because they've both been ruling blindly alongside each other." he mused before blushing slightly and shrugging. "Just my theory."

 

[TheCommander]

Soul smiled then after careful consideration she cocked her head to the side and nodded, "that could work...maybe we can set a play date for our parents" she laughed at the idea. "We could solve two problems at once, both you and I could spend more time together and he could help her restore power." she tugged on Shiro's hand wanting to stroll around together in the setting sun.


The idea hit her hard and fast, an idea that could either solve their problems or destroy both Life and Death's little harmony that they had. She looked up at Shiro shyly, "What if we join the Divide and the Void?" she said quickly then held her breathe, waiting for his answer. The Divide and the Void were theoretically right next to each other and were the living places of Life and Death's masters but they had always been separate. Taking away the barriers between them would either merge them or set them loose to try destroy each other.

 

[Tigress]

Shiro folded his large wings properly and took his beloved's hand, walking with her through the streets once his invisibility spell had stretched over her as well. Now no one could see them, and she didn't have to hide. "Setting a play date for them, ah I think your father would kill me" he said with a chuckled and a shake of his head, moving to wrap a large wing around her before stopping at her next suggestion.


"The Divide and the Void...? Together... Hm... It's not a bad idea, dear, but you have to imagine the consequences... If we just tear down the barrier, then the inhabitants would go to war with each other. We'd have to warn them that this s for the sake of the Masters of each realm. And then there's the fact that the Void is connected to the Afterlife and the Divide isn't.... The Divide can't be connected to the afterlife, so how would we work around that?" he was hopeful now. Maybe there was something they could do that would help his mother get better. She didn't deserve to carry the pain of each soul's life and death on her shoulder anymore....

 

[TheCommander]

Soul nodded, "It's too risky" she agreed, one wrong move could end the entire world. She gently brushed her fingers along Shiro's delicate yet strong wings, loving the soft feel of them. In silence they stayed for a while, thinking about how they could solve this threatening problem. "What about a sort of passage" she said at last, "some way to link the two but not merge them entirely?" it seemed possible and a lot less drastic this way, she would just need to discuss it with her father and Shiro's mother.


"How about we set up a meeting for them of sorts" she said after a pause, "present our ideas and let them take it from there. Hopefully if they aren't stubborn enough they will figure something out together, that way they wont complain to us if it doesnt go well" she chuckled, then stopped suddenly. She broke away from Shiro and ran toward a house they were nearing, leaving his spell and darting up the side of the building effortlessly and into the third story window. When she entered the room she knew her instincts were right, a soul had just left a body, a couple stood crying in each others arms at the side of a bed and within the bed lay the body of a small girl.


She was already beginning to turn blue and her cause of death was not apparent but that was not Soul's concern, she was more fixated on the tiny blue orb that now floated above the bed. She reached out and pulled it toward her gently, the feeling of heartbreak was choking the room and she hugged the orb gently too her as she looked unhappily at the parents. This was the first time she had been so close to the actual death of a body, normally she would only see them a few days after the initial death and as funny as it was, she didn't expect the sadness that overwhelmed her. Normally she was happy to take a soul to Death and let them rest in peace and happiness but she now all she wanted to do was push the soul back into the child's body and give her back to her parents.


Soul gasped when she felt the soul at her side gently nudge her and she looked down only to blink in surprise when it spoke, "Will you allow me to put them at ease?" the tiny orb asked her in a voice that surpassed the maturity level she expected from the child. Soul merely nodded and walked toward the parents, not worrying about them seeing her as they were to transfixed in their grief, extending her hand and allowing the soul to get closer to them. With a bright blue burst the room went quite, the sobs from the parents stopped and they looked at each other in a way Soul could only convey as understanding. She seeped back into the shadows and looked at the soul in her hand and it answered her unasked question, "I told them my proper farewell and told them not to cry because they made my life perfect even though it was short and so they must not be sad." The feeling of peace radiated from the soul and from its parents and Soul herself could only stare.