Falling in Love with the King of Beasts

GAHRYE

The following afternoon before dinner they were watching television—something Gahrye still found deeply uncomfortable, but also fascinating. The pictures moved and spoke, played music, and did incredible things that were impossible. It always left him slightly anxious. But Elia seemed to find it relaxing, so he sat on the couch with her, thumbing through a book, while she watched somethings she called a movey.

They were all moveys as far as he was concerned. He'd never seen pictures that moved before. But then he shrugged. Elia must have had similar experiences when she arrived in Anima, and she'd weathered them willingly. He would try to do the same.

That reminded him.

"I was thinking about when you arrived in our world," he said carefully.

"Yes?" she asked him, still chewing. She'd asked Kalle to bring a bag of popcorn. Something Gahrye had never seen or tasted before. It was explosive in his mouth, but then dissolved.

He hadn't decided if he liked it, had commented on the strange, unnatural flavor of it, when Elia told him it had been cooked in a machine that didn't use fire, yet heated food, and he suddenly lost his appetite.

Human technology was sorcery.

"How did Reth convince you to walk the Flames and Smoke the very first night?"

Elia snorted. "You forget that I'd just watched eight women be murdered," she said dryly. "All I was focused on was staying alive. And Reth explained it all, made it… very obviously the right thing to do. He told me it was like getting married." Her expression softened for a moment. She looked down at the bag of popcorn with a small smile.

Gahrye smiled. It was the first time he'd seen her look happy since they'd arrived. But it faded quickly. "Married," he said. "That's the human version of mating?"

Elia nodded. "Sort of. It's more of a… vow. A contract. And it means that you're committing to stay faithful to each other. Or at least, that's what it used to mean. I'm not so sure anymore. And people get divorced all the time now."

Gahrye blinked. "Human mates don't mate for life?" The breaking of a mating bond happened in Anima, but it was rare enough to be shocking.

"Human mates don't have the bond," she said. "At least, not usually. They can… grow apart."

This was an aspect to mating humans he'd never even considered. "How do you stop that from happening?" he asked, his voice a little strangled.

Elia gave him an odd look. "I'm not growing apart from Reth, Gahrye," she snapped. "I feel like a part of my chest is missing being away from him."

"I know, I know," he soothed. "I wasn't… I was just curious… if humans don't feel the bond—"

"Of course I feel the bond!" she snarled. "Why do you think I'm so miserable here?! You think I don't want to go out and find my friends and see people? Have a life? But I can't—I'm… all I can think about is him and what if something happens to him!?"

Gahrye gaped, uncertain whether to try to help her, or ignore it as her lower lip trembled. But then she sat back and took a deep breath, eyes closed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," she said quietly a minute later. "I'm just… fuck, nevermind. There's no way to change this. Why did you want to know?"

"I was just curious about the difference between human and Anima mating rituals," he said hoarsely. "I hadn't really thought about what you must have gone through those first few weeks. And you were mated right away… that must have been really strange?"

She nodded. "But it was the good strange, you know? Things with Reth were never hard. The difficult part was the rest of you all. If it hadn't been for you, Gahrye…" she shook her head, staring at the popcorn in her lap. "I don't know if I ever thanked you properly for those first few weeks when you took the time to explain things to me." She turned to look at him. "I'm so sorry, Gahrye. You saved my life. In more ways than one. I don't know why you were willing to be that guy. But… I'm so glad you were. Thank you."

He squeezed her hand. "You're welcome. You were easy to want to help, honestly," he said with a wry grin. "You always looked so lost and afraid and…" he trailed off. Was that how he looked now?

Something in him bristled. Was that what had happened? He'd become the old Elia that he'd felt such pity for—stumbling around, uncertain and afraid?

Shit.

"I don't want to be that guy," he muttered.

"Don't worry, you aren't," Elia laughed. "I mean, I still get a kick out of the way you look like you're about to karate kick the TV every time I turn it on, but I've watched you with Shaw and… you're not like I was, Gahrye."

Wasn't he? He suspected when Elia wasn't there and he wasn't being strong for her, that's exactly what he was. And… did that mean that's what Kalle was seeing?

Fuck. He had to get his shit together!

"So, if the roles were reversed and Reth had come here… what would you have done?"

"I suppose he would have gotten down on one knee, and we would have gotten married. But he wouldn't have had to fight to the death, and we would have waited a little bit of time. Planned the ceremony, and stuff first."

"Wait, down on one knee?"

Elia gave a dry smile. "It's tradition—the old tradition—that the male would get down on one knee and ask the female to marry him. And if she said yes, he'd give her a ring, then they'd start planning a ceremony. Like I said, it's the old tradition. Not everyone does that anymore."

"Ceremony? What kind of ceremony."

She took another bite of popcorn, crunching as she spoke. "We have a ceremony we call a wedding where everyone gets dressed up and then you take vows to each other in front of the people you love, and then there's usually a party afterwards, and then you're married." She shrugged, her face sad. "It's really only the vows that are important. That's the point of it. The rest is just… show."

"What kind of vows?" he asked, and wished he could take notes without her asking why.

"'Til death do us part," she murmured, playing with a piece of popcorn, but not putting it in her mouth.

"What?" Gahrye breathed.

****

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