I Love You, Flaws and All

A ruby-tipped onyx ear flicked when Manea apologized for her doubting him, but the brute didn’t give any show of emotion or response. One of the best parts of being dead inside since childhood was that one got very, very good at smothering any expression of feeling. Alastor simply stared blankly out across the clearing, feeling nothing inside so that he wouldn’t feel the hurt instead. He knew he’d fucked up, but what choice had he had? Ignore Relm’s pleas and let her perverted father rape her and put an incestuous litter in her? Between that or killing him and knowing where he’d end up, Alastor prayed he’d make the same choice again. The screams and sobs his dead sisters would make whenever their father raped them echoed in his head. Even if it cost him his marriage, he would make that same choice again.

Alastor had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t even noticed Manea moving to sit beside him until he felt her body lean into his. The demon brute turned his head a fraction of an inch to acknowledge her presence, then felt her cheek lean into his. His heart ached knowing he’d hurt her trust in him, but he didn’t know how to fix it. Alastor was so good at breaking things that repairing them felt like his Sisyphean task. She began to brush and rub her muzzle against his, and it felt impossible for him to resist her affections, though he felt nowhere in the mood for them. He felt her toes dance along his foreleg on the edge of his ceremonial cuff Manea had given him on their wedding night, obsidian eyes glancing down to watch the way the rubies on hers that symbolized him sparkled in the light. Yes, he loved her, loved her with all his black heart and twisted soul—but he wasn’t fool enough to believe that this made everything okay.

"A grand show of power would be quite the spectacle… but I don’t think anyone in Elysium demands that from you, Manea." He lifted his head to lean his muzzle back into her nuzzling, releasing a heavy sigh. "That’s all they want: a home. Stability. Normalcy. Routine. Our family needs it too." He looked into her aqua eyes when she pulled back to look into his while he spoke the truth of their reality to her. "You’re not settling. You’re changing your mind on what you want. You have bigger priorities than putting on a show right now." Alastor’s ears flicked up again at the mention of her approaching heat season and raising another child, then folded back to his skull in a display of shame and agitation. A hard scowl pulled over his lips and he averted his gaze once again. "Are you sure you want to be raising a child from an adulterer? Someone who broke their vow to you?"

"Alastor Mendacium"