First Demonic Dragon

Abaddon and Valerie stared at each other intensely.

It was hard to tell whether or not the two were angry with each other or just frustrated. Gabbrielle was starting to think that maybe the abrupt approach wasn't favorable after all.

"You want to explain?" Valerie asked Abaddon sharply.

In response, the dragon just avoided her gaze.

"…I wasn't willing to risk you going. I thought that if I could make it so that there wasn't a problem you would have no reason to leave."

"And what if it was something I wanted?" Valerie asked back.

"Is it..?"

"That's not the point, M'anari, you kept a choice from me..! What's more, you got our children involved!"

Gabbrielle and Straga were only now realizing their plan might've had more volatile consequences than originally intended.

'She used his government name… t-they're not getting a divorce, are they??' Straga nudged his sister.

'D-Don't be stupid. They would never let each other walk away.'

Straga nodded slowly, choosing to believe her despite his own nerves.

"Kids, can you give your father and I a moment..?" Valerie asked with a small smile.

'But this is my room..' Gabbrielle wanted to cry.

Straga lifted his older sister onto his back and carried her outside of the room.

After a few moments of silence, Abaddon was the one to start voicing his own grief. "What about you..? You were just going to leave without telling me..? Without telling anyone?"

Valerie looked down, embarrassed.

"I-It would've been too hard... I knew that if I tried to leave you would just convince me to stay, so I was..." Valerie didn't finish her sentence, but really she hardly even needed to.

Abaddon grabbed her hand. "Why would that have been so bad..?"

She lifted his hand up to her face and enjoyed the feel of his warmth against her cheek.

"Because creation is way bigger than just our little family." Valerie said sadly. "You and I have a responsibility to ensure that what Yesh has created doesn't fall into chaos and bring about unneeded suffering."

Abaddon just looked away. Unknowingly making his wife fearful.

"What? Are you going to tell me that you don't care about anything beyond Tehom?" Valerie asked, hoping that wasn't the case.

Abaddon didn't bother denying it.

"...Everything else seems small in comparison to our family."

Just like that, their little argument over secrecy turned into something much bigger.

"But it's not! There are beings out there who deserve their own lives even if they aren't perfect. And even if they don't know it, we have a big responsibility in making sure they actually see it!" Valerie yelled.

A thought suddenly occurred to her as she straddled her husband. "Show me your hair."

Abaddon was confused. "It's not exactly hard to see, is it?"

"Not this. The other."

"...." Abaddon's skin became completely black. His tattoos turned a shining gold and his hair became divided.

80% black, and 20% white.

Valerie didn't say anything at first, just gathered up as much of his white hair as she could and held it out in her fist tightly. It almost seemed like she wanted to wring the color from it.

She made sure to hold the fist full of hair in front of his eyes so that he could see her trembling fist.

"This, my love." She said breathlessly. "I need you to always hold onto this, even if you never again do anything that I ask you. You have to care about things even if they don't directly affect us. Even if they don't have anything to do with us."

Valerie's worry was that Abaddon would become too apathetic to mortals. That he would eventually reach a point where all he cared about was her, their wives, and their children.

"...It's difficult ... for me. You know what I am, my love."

Valerie held her hand up to Abaddon's face. The pads of her fingertips just barely grazed the flesh of his lips.

"Did you think I married you... For this..?" She dropped her grip significantly lower. "Or for this?"

Abaddon's pupils wavered.

Valerie hugged Abaddontightly and buried her head in the crease of his neck. He felt her words send shivers along his skin.

"I married you because you were a being who was trying to be kind after genuinely losing your mind. You were trying to redeem yourself and care about others whom you didn't even know.

Because you cared about the safety and well-being of others, despite being so powerful that you didn't need to. You wanted to love instead of destroy.

That was what moved me. What made me say 'I do'. Everything else that came afterward was just an added bonus."

Valerie pressed her head against Abaddon's forehead. The tears running down her face stained his chest like drops of rain.

"I need you to not lose that love for the worlds above you. Even if, god forbid, I or anyone we love was no longer in front of you every day. I need you to put that love for us into everything that you do. Treat every life like a precious light. Let indifference be your last resort if anything."

Abaddon bit his lip so hard that he actually drew blood. "How can you ask me to do something like that...? If I lost any one of you, I.."

"You have to stay the same. It's the burden of responsibility that comes with your power. You have to keep making jokes. You have to keep trying to help people even if they don't want it. Even if they don't know you're doing it."

Abaddon shook his head. "I can't.."

"You have to smile. You make everyone else feel better when you smile."

"Valerie, I-"

"And you have to be responsible. Because there are many in our family who probably won't think to be, and you would have to hold them together."

"Valerie!" Abaddon grabbed his wife tightly. "Do you have any idea what you're asking me?!"

As Valerie cried, she smiled at Abaddon beautifully. Her radiance was a sight to behold.

It tore his heart to pieces.

"I know it's hard... and I know it's selfish of me to ask this of you when I don't even think I'd even be able to do the same.."

"Then why would you-"

"Because I know it's important... And because more than anything else, I know that you are a good husband who'll listen to me even when I make unreasonable requests... I guess that doesn't make me a very good wife though, does it?"

A red tear fell from Abaddon's left eye. He loosened his grip on her arms and hugged her so tightly that neither one of them could breathe.

Valerie held Abaddon's head in between her breasts as if she were attempting to nurture him the way she had their children.

She kissed the crown of his head and whispered soft, loving words that were laced with their own apologies.

It didn't matter, though. Abaddon didn't hear any of them.

*Sniff. Sniff.*

Valerie's head whipped around in the room.

Her gaze settled on a full-body mirror sitting against Gabbrielle's wall. And the familiar blonde-haired nature spirit standing within it.

"I'm sorry..." Daphne sobbed. "I-I was just coming back from work, and I didn't mean to intrude, but... WHY ARE YOU GUYS FIGHTING!?!"

Gabbrielle's long-time partner fell to her knees sobbing. The dignified aura of a teacher had almost left her completely.

Daphne was one of a very small number of the family who was completely soft and sensitive. She couldn't fight. She couldn't be yelled at. She was as frail as a dandelion.

Satan wasn't even allowed to go near her at all.

Valerie got up from her husband and went to pick up Daphne off the floor.

She wrapped her arms around her and spoke in a soft, soothing voice.

"Daphne sweetie, we're not fighting. Just… having a little talk about some things." Valerie looked away.

Daphne's eyes were still full of tears and she "Y-You're not leaving, are you?! Gabby said you might not have to anymore!"

"I… What? Why would she say that?" Valerie turned her head.

Daphne wiped her face so that she could see the room a bit more clearly.

She went towards Gabbrielle's desk where a thick, blue-ringed binder was sitting neatly beside her computer.

"She's been working on it nonstop for the past several nights…"

Daphne kneeled on the floor beside Valerie and placed the binder between them.

As soon as the binder was opened, she was immediately intrigued.

Her daughter had been designing blueprints.

"She called it the Agronomist or something I think..?" Daphne sniffled. "But I don't really think she has it all figured out yet if I'm honest…"

Valerie was flipping through the pages at a mile a minute.

Her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. She was continually doing mental calculations while she flipped through the booklet.

There were over six hundred pages of notes, diagrams, questions, and theories all heavily labeled.

Valerie finished reading it all in one minute and thirty seconds flat.

"S-So..?" Daphne asked with a twinge of hope. "I know it's not done, but do you think it might work..?"

Valerie's pupils trembled.

She lifted the booklet up with shaking hands and a small smile threatening to spring free.

"B-Babe, this.."

Valerie whirled around to show Abaddon, but it was too late.

He had already left some time ago.