Who am I to Disagree?

[Echo]

Nights ago Lucifer woke with a scream upon her lips, sheets sweats drenched, and twisted in her terror. Her lover had been succinct about what had happened. A dream, a nightmare. But for the Lost...

Echo was worried, but she was usually worried for her heart. Whispers and rumours abound, many thought her a Loyalist or worse. Many didn't even want her dear lady of candle light to live within the bounds of the Freehold of Sacramento, and now this....

Echo stretches as she hooks one corner of the fitted sheet to the mattress, keeping herself busy as she waits for her lady love.

Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
- Eurythmics

[Lucifer]

Suffice it to say, Lucifer had not been sleeping well. After having her dreams invaded by the touch of They who stole and abused her, when even the sweet kiss of oblivion in the night was wrested from her, what was left? She could hear Echo rustling sheets in the other room, but she couldn't bring herself to leave her slump on the coach, her hair spilling in tangled masses across the cushions, dark rings lining her capricorn eyes. A meaningless show played on the television, though her eyes didn't see it. Her body ached.

How much more of this could she take?

Mustering what was left her self, tattered and beaten though it was, Lucifer dragged herself from the couch and slumped towards the bedroom. She got as far as the threshold, where she stopped, her head against the wood.

"Echo?" Lucifer murmured softly. "I'm afraid..."

[Echo]

Ears flick as Lucifer takes her steps through the room to the next, action pauses, as her tail freezes before she springs into action.

Dropping the sheet, she approaches her lover on careful steps. Spooked prey-no. Lucifer wasn't prey. She wasn't! She was afraid, admitted it, and Echo wouldn't add to it. She would throw herself from a building before scaring her heart.

Slowly she makes her way to Lucifer's space, she doesn't touch her, no. Not unless Luci would welcome it, not unless it would help instead of hurt. "Tell me your fears my love, and I will slay them."

[Lucifer]

"They're here, Echo," Lucifer intoned, her voice sounding like the toll of a forgotten warning chime.

"They've come. They touched me in my dreams. Tried to take me, there, and I had to kill my dream self to escape. And that bitch you call a Queen was there. Just as well I gave up the crown. I was helpless. The dream was too strong and I...

She broke off, the sting of salt rising behind her eyes, though she did not give in to the desire to crumple into her lovers arms, weak and helpless as a babe.

"But what is worse, Echo, the Shadowed Beauty continued, "is that this Freehold is so weak. If even one of them comes, there's no way we will stand before them. We're too wrapped up within our own twisted, pathetic, petty whims to truly unite against them. Most of us are too broken, and the rest are too blind to the fact that they are just like those Demons!

[Echo]

Her worry crystallized, frozen. Leaden. Something more akin to Autumn and Terror, then the fearless breath of Desire she knows and loves and chooses.

But this is Lucifer, candle light in her eyes, and barbwire in her smile. She Desires an Autumn and loved one too.

Echo gathers the Fairest into her arms, "I am here, and I'll guard your dreams. Patrol them and stand sentry, if that is your wish my love. I can sooth your hurts and weave happier dreams for you." ever so earnest, rubbing soothing circles along her back. "I'll talk to Ingrid. If she was there, she'd have seen what you saw. Lot of the 'hold might be ostriches but they gotta listen to her."

She hums something, a lullaby maybe? Something she only half remembers, "We can get stronger, focus outward, at actual threats instead of at petty slights. Or tweaked whiskers."

[Lucifer]

Lucifer collapsed into the hug, her eyes closing as she felt the warm embrace of her love, the soothin circles upon her back quieting the storm in her heart even as rain leaked from her eyes.

"How can you be so nice?" Lucifer whispered into those sandy locks of hair and fur, the Lioness' presence so comforting against her. "How can you have such a beautiful heart after everything that you've been through?"

It made no sense. Scorned in life, forced into the brutality of the Faery World, and here Echo was, so pure of heart, so trusting, so understanding. Was it possible that this was real? Was it possible that this wasn't simply the false signs given by a master of deception?

Was she getting love bombed?

But, what could she possibly gain, aside from the oppurtunity to later torment Lucifer's heart?

The Shadowed Beauty never let go, though her spine stiffened beneath the Lioness' hand.

[Echo]

She continues to hum next to Lucifer's ear, rubbing rhythmic circles, as her heart speaks. Echo considers her own words in return, frowning internally at the tensing muscles she could feel as she kept the Fairest within her arms.

"It's because of what I've been through that's made me this way. I've always given my everything to those I've loved, but now...now I'm made of love and loyalty. Or enough of me is the merit a kith." she quirks her lips up, and tries to get Lucifer to do the same.

[Lucifer]

"What do you mean?" Lucifer asked, pulling back so that she could look Echo in the eyes, though she didn't step away from the embrace of her comforting arms. "Did you discover this truth about yourself after you escaped? Did someone show you that it wasn't just your gory gifts that made you so precious?"

[Echo]

Echo is already shaking her head as Lucifer asks her questions.

"No, She's why I know myself. She's why I am better then I was. People would miss me now....Before....I didn't even merit a Fetch. I just. Died, lost in the desert after a rave and no one cared. No one looked I was nothing.

"Yes, I lived in horror and terror and fear and dread....but...there was love too. Or something like it. There had to be. Or I wouldn't be the way I am now...outside the blood stained sand, and countless, timeless deaths I've dealt.

"There had to have been something within Her to love. There had too." She whispers then, more to herself then her heart.

[Lucifer]

Her lover's words were like chips of ice sliding down her skin.

She...

Not she, SHE!

The Gentry that had stolen Echo's life, or...perhaps saved it. And yet...and yet, Echo couldn't be that naive, could she? She couldn't truly believe that the Gentry had loved her. She couldn't believe that only hers had been different, that somehow, it was worthy of anything besides hatred and terror?

And yet, Echo's words revealed her heart, as plain as day, and Lucifer stepped back, withdrawing from her lover's embrace, a look of horror upon her face.

"You...love Her? You love one of Them?"

Tears had begun to spill down the sublime rise of Lucifer's cheeks, her limbs trembling.