[2/2]
You were announced to be wed by the time you grew to my initial human age. You told me it was fine, you had expected it, but the panicked thrumming of your soul indicated otherwise.
"I can take you from here," I told you through your tears. "You need not stay here."
But you were hesitant.
"I cannot leave my family," you said. "I cannot betray them."
I took your hands, and stared into your eyes.
"I promised to stay by your side," I reminded her, "I will follow you forever."
Your eyes crinkled with confusion.
"I value your choices," I said. "Your choices, not those of your family. If you ever wish to leave, I will leave with you."
You wiped your tears, grasped my hands once more, and decided to leave.
**
It was a difficult life for you, but I guided you through a civilian lifestyle. You taught geometry and arithmetic and I made sure you were safe. At times you cried, for the life you had left, but you would later say, you were not alone.
"I have you."
Despite offers of engagement, you refused them all. Some were particularly insistent, but you made me promise not to devour them.
You grew old, and I with you.
Your body aged and weathered, but your soul shone as brightly as it had when we first met.
"I will follow you," I said, as your body began to die. "I will find you again, and I will remain by your side."
Your eyes, so bright as they were, shimmered with tears. You struggled to squeeze my hands.
"I won’t forget you," you swore, though I knew you would. "I’ll remember you."
"Of course," I said. "Of course."
You died, far from your family, but by no means alone.
"I will find you again," I said, as your soul broke from your body, and vanished.
And I did.
**
I found you, years later, after the fall of your father’s dynasty. You were once again a math teacher, but born into the job. You taught with a familiarity and talent I remembered, and your eyes lit up the same was they had before.
Your name changed, you loved your parents, and your words flowed from you in a different accent than I recalled, but I had found you again.
You were kind to me, and delighted in someone your own age. We became friends, and I never spoke of your previous life.
I remained by your side as your closest friend. And when you died, I searched until I found you again.
And I did.
Over and over, for reasons I didn’t yet know, I followed the soul of a once-princess who’d saved me. I continued to live by your morality, and only fed from those who merited such punishment.
I never told you who you were to me, nor I to you. I dared not push your kindness so far.
I have a life beyond you, of course, and it entertains me between your reincarnations. The times I met you were my most cherished, no matter your lives.
But then, at some point, I lost you.
By the time the First World War, as humans called it, began, I realised I hadn’t seen you for over two centuries. You had remained around the region humans classified as China, regardless of the shifting human borders. Sometimes you spoke different dialects and languages, but I could still learn and understand.
I tried to find you, still. I promised you I wouldn’t leave you.
But I can’t. I can’t.
I haven’t abandoned you, I swear. I have lost you.
Yet…
That’s okay, isn’t it?
You never needed me through your lives. For so long, I was only your friend. Only ever your friend. You knew nothing of my true self, and you need nothing from me.
You are perfect, on your own.
So I stopped looking for you. I tagged along with humans, playing with them. I feed, not enough to kill those with the energy I need. Slowly, and slowly, I regress to a younger and younger form, and make more and more mistakes.
I realise, I am trying to emulate my age from when I first met you.
**
Humans have developed, but so have the supernatural.
The human children I blend in with now are much more amusing than they were a millennium ago, but their worries and concerns are appealing.
“Who’s Eva?”
This voice halts my actions. I lower my hand, and turn right over the staircase.
“She’s the new girl in our Computer Science class,” Julie, the girl I’d spoken to earlier, says to another girl next to her. She points up at me, and realises I’m staring.
Not at her, but to the girl who’d spoken.
My eyes meet yours.
It’s you.
You stare back with surprise. From so far away, it’s only my powers that allow me to notice how familiar your expression is. Your eyes are blue, this time, a product of a different heritage, but it’s still you.
“Who is that?” I ask Ben, who has noticed my staring.
“Uh, her name’s Alyssa.” He says, put off by my sudden change in focus. “She’s a pretty nice person.”
“Alyssa,” I try your new name. It’s the closest to your original, of any of the names you’ve carried in your lives. “Lisa.”
“Excuse me?”
I break and rush down the stairs. The human form I’ve recently altered is trembling. You look at me, stunned, and I meet you again.
“H-Hello,” you say, in a language I learned only decades ago. “You must be Eva.”
My current name is only an approximation of the name you gifted me so long ago, but it flows from your mouth the way it always did.
“Yeah,” I say, “And you are…?”
“Lisa.” You say. You're still stunned. Your friend nudges you, and you correct yourself. “I mean Alyssa- Alyssa!”
“Alyssa,” I repeat your new name. I offer my hand. “It’s lovely to meet you, Alyssa.”
You stammer, and blush, and take my hand. You smile. I smile back.
“It’s nice to meet you too.”
**
fox credit: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12173046
** Alyssa loved the fluffy abomination that her sister bought her as a house warming gift. >>30-33