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“You should have told me,” she cried. “You should have told me...”
“I know. ...I’m sorry.”
She grabbed his shirt, and they both sank down to the floor, Eden’s legs unable to hold her for real this time. She didn’t care that they were metal. She just couldn’t find her balance with the sadness overwhelming her. They both got down on the cold floor, and she finally broke down in tears, in Dante’s arms, unable to hold it in anymore.
Eden kept crying for a long time. She couldn’t stop herself sobbing real, big tears for the first time in a very long time. She just couldn’t stand it all. How painful the truth was, and how foolish she felt.
Because this was the worst. To realize she had been completely played for so long. All the energy, all the efforts she had made to try and keep her mother safe had all been completely and utterly in vain. She couldn’t help but feel terribly sorry for herself, and foolish that she had held on for this long to an illusion, a horrible trap. It was a nightmare, just to think about everything she had done, how much she had suffered all this time, for nothing. For a mother she would never ever see again, for a mother who had been dead for so long while her daughter was played at the hands of the Core. Everything she had gone through, reduced to a mere, bitter, and cruel laugh. She was a pawn, like everyone else. Just an idiot down to play their game because she had believed in a foolish dream.
Not only had she never felt so stupid, but Eden felt lonelier than ever. The only remaining member of her family was gone. The one person she had held on to all this time, the one she could call to forget her hardships, the mother whose embrace she had almost forgotten, was gone. She was an orphan now. She had always tried to keep up the appearance, to look like a tough independent girl with no ties, but now that it was real, it was unbearable. It was as if her entire childhood had been crushed, her memories shattered. Eden felt sick to her stomach, just thinking about how much she and her mother had sacrificed, in the hope of each other’s survival. All of this for nothing.
Her legs. Eden cried even harder when she realized she had sold her legs, her own flesh and blood, to feed the same machine that had eaten her mom. She screamed against Dante’s shoulder, unable to hold her frustrations in. She was just unbearably sad and angry at the same time. If it wasn’t for Dante hugging her, she would have destroyed this room, probably harmed herself, or wreaked havoc in some way. However, the Tiger wasn’t letting her go. As if he knew, Dante just held on to her tightly, caressing her hair while whispering calm words into her ear. His lips would press against her temple from time to time, her cheekbone, like how one would soothe a child.
“You should have told me...” she sobbed quietly against his torso.
She kept trying to throw her fists at him in anger, but they were no stronger than a little bump against his torso, not even making the Tiger flinch. Dante didn’t care about Eden venting at him, he was ready to take it all as long as she could calm down. The frustration was even worse as he was the only person she could be mad at, and at the same time, the one gently holding her. His touch was almost too gentle for her broken heart. Eden felt helpless and just kept sobbing and muttering incoherently, her own cries echoing in the room. Dante’s comforting embrace was the only thing keeping her sane right now. Otherwise, she knew she would have drowned in despair.
He was all she had left. The one person who could hold her like this, make her feel loved and cared about. This thought terrified Eden. She had always been scared to depend on someone else, and now, Dante was right there, making her feel like she could depend on him all she wanted. However, getting attached to someone meant she opened the door to more pain and loss, and right now, she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.
“I’m here,” he whispered against her ear.
It was as if he knew just the right words to mend her heart, and help it beat again. Eden’s crying slowly subsided at his gentle words, his warm breath, and his deep voice. She could just rest in his embrace, the two of them sitting on the floor of this deserted and cold surgery room. This position ought to be uncomfortable for him as she was resting against his torso and leaning in, but Dante didn’t show an ounce of that. He just held her for the longest time, relentlessly caressing her hair, numbing her pain with his gentle hands. As her sobbing calmed down, a pounding headache crept in instead, and Eden groaned against his shoulder.
“...Are you alright?”
“No.”
Her grumble made him sigh a little, but as expected, there was nothing else she could have answered. Her throat was hoarse from all the crying, her eyes stung, her head kept pounding like a hammer, and she felt terrible overall. However, as Eden began shivering from the cold in the room, they both knew it was time to go. The rest of the world wasn’t going to wait for her to feel better, especially not the Zodiacs, the Core, or the messed-up city they lived in.
Dante gently helped her up, and the throbbing pain that hit her thighs from the change of position made Eden hate her mechanical legs even more. She didn’t even want to think about it, it made her sick. Without a word, she got back on her feet, massaging her thighs a bit so they would stop aching. Dante was about to put an arm behind her to lift her up and carry her, but she refused.
“I want to walk,” she muttered.
“Okay.”
He left another long, gentle kiss on her forehead, and Eden couldn’t help but close her eyes. Now that the worst of the crying had passed, she realized how much she needed his warmth. Those lips pressed against her skin were enough to keep her going, for now. She just wanted to hold on to him, to have his arm around her, his torso she could lean on, and forget about the rest for a little while. That was all she needed.
The two of them got ready to go out again, pushing their hair back and straightening up their messy clothes for a second. Eden hoped no one would notice her red eyes; she hated crying, but hated it even more when people knew she had cried. She forced herself to take several deep breaths, wipe away the tears not yet dry, and clenched and unclenched her fists a couple of times to get the blood flowing again. No one on the other side of the door was expecting her to be fine anyway, and she had no intention of putting on a show. This was more like her own self-defense reflexes coming back on their own.
The door opened in front of them, but to her relief, only Loir was there, playing with the pups again. Beer and Bullet ran to her as soon as she appeared, their little legs taking a while to get to her. Eden let out a little sigh and bowed to lift them up in her arms, a bit grateful to have those two. The two puppies immediately began licking her cheeks, as if they could taste the salt of her tears. Eden grimaced as their breath smelled like tomato-flavored chicken... Their weight had definitely gone up since she had found them too.
“Stop feeding them crap, Loir,” she groaned.
“It’s not crap!” he protested. “Do you know how hard it is to find good pizza nowadays? Those little, four-legged burritos love it too!”
Eden frowned a bit, worried for the pups’ stomachs, but both seemed fine, just a bit plump. She didn’t want to stay mad either; she already had enough of a headache and didn’t want to add some painful frowning to it.
Suddenly, her instincts noticed the stares coming from the side. Some of Dante’s men, who were most likely there to guard the room, had their eyes on her exposed legs. Eden didn’t think anything of it since about seventy percent of them were nothing but a piece of metal anyway, but to those men, it probably just looked like flawless legs... She was about to glare back, but decided to ignore them.
“Where are Circé and Jack?” she asked.
“Oh, the ladies went to change!” exclaimed Loir, already back to his keyboards. “Everyone followed what the Kitty said, so they gave them a room to shower and change... Ah, it must be nice! I haven’t showered since... wait, since when again?”
“You know you can take a shower too,” grimaced Eden.
“I only take lavender-scented baths, once a year!” protested Loir, making a horrified face. “Otherwise, I get all pruney and my hair falls out!”
Eden wondered if he actually knew he had no hair, or if he was making another one of his weird jokes... She was never really sure, but she knew not to feed his madness. She sighed and turned to Dante.
