Work Text:
Kristin had found herself bewitched by a strange human.
It was odd. Entirely alien to her. Even when she watched her son's work, carrying out her will on the world and making room for a new beginning, she constantly found her thoughts drifting to him.
Maybe it was because of how he trailed behind them, doing his damndest to parent them despite all their protests and refusals or the way he didn't even flinch at her boys constant violence. In the end it was all the same, his pretty words and easy smiles completely captured her every drifting thought.
She couldn't stop her giggles as he held onto her son's chins, drying away the streaks of blood smeared across their faces as he tutted about how messy they were, nor could she stop the fond amusement that rose every time he threatened them with ‘calling their mother’ any time they misbehaved too severely.
What really got her though was how he’d sing her praises. She could never stifle the rising heat in her cheeks every time he spoke to other mortals about everything he loved about her.
He always rambled about how beautiful she was, saying she put even the prettiest of night skies to shame. He went on and on about how he was so proud that ‘their’ sons took on so many of her qualities, fawning over how amazing she was and how he was so lucky to have her as his wife.
She could never forget the way her crows teased her when she waved away her view into the mortal world at his words the first time he did it, her face painted a deep red as she hid away behind her fingers.
Even then, that feeling couldn't possibly top the way she felt when they first met. Her strange human fell on one knee, taking her hand in his before peppering it in kisses as he professed his adoration for her would forever be burned into her mind.
She had never met the mortal before, only visiting to see why the odd man was so set on parenting her sons, but instead he made her dead heart flutter within the first minutes of meeting. He rambled on and on about how he’d missed her, how he wished he could see his wife more often but that her ‘work’ always took her away from him.
At first she thought the man was just delusional for thinking he could seduce death to see his lost wife after so long being dead, but when she asked who the woman was she had only been met with confusion.
Those pretty blue eyes twinkled up at her as he smiled something fond before saying that it was her. That she, death incarnate, was his wife. It went without saying that she wasn't. She had never met the man before, she couldn't just marry him right off the bat. That'd be ridiculous, no matter how many times she considered it.
But it did spark an interest in her. One that twinkled from deep within her being, an odd curiosity rearing its head to hear more of this strange man's delusions.
So she asked him to tell her the story of how they met, desperate to see how deep his insanity went. He didn’t disappoint. He wove tales of walks through beautiful woodland, of mutual friends that they never had introducing them and everything just clicking. He spoke about wonderful views, hiking trails and stories so filled with life that she found herself wanting to believe him, wanting to play pretend with him.
She’d be lying if she said she didn’t watch him far more closely after that, her heart fluttering every time he picked a flower and proclaimed that he was saving it for her before letting it rot and die. A small vase of such flowers soon sat next to her throne.
She watched as he took ‘family pictures’ of him and their boys on top of taking care of them as best he could, attenting to their every whim as if it was his job. He happily looked past the bloodshed that her sons had caused, snapping a litany of pictures to fawn over and look at when they finally all sat down to rest. It sparked something fond in her, something warm and irrational.
The man was insane. He had to be for deciding that death herself was his wife and her harbingers their sons, but maybe, just maybe he could be her insane human.
It's not like it'd be harming anyone, after all. He already took care of her boys when she couldn't, eagerly teaching them things about the world and jumping to protect them at any opportunity. Honestly she was just being fair by extending his lifespan a little.
It wasn't at all because her dead heart skipped a beat in fear at seeing how little he had left. Of course not. She was death and all would meet her eventually she just felt he deserved a couple more years for his kindness. Nothing more.
She diligently ignored the fact that she’d add longer and longer each time he faced any danger.
Her crows didn't ignore it, though. They’d swoop down from her void and croon love messages and childish songs about the man that had death enamoured with him. No matter how many times they sang it, she didn’t go around sitting in trees kissing him. Where they got such a notion baffled her.
It didn’t help that her sons had started calling him ‘dad’ now too, the implications not being lost on her.
Every time she thought she landed on her feet, unable to be caught off guard again by the humans cute chin scruff and entrancing blue eyes, he managed to throw her off balance and send her tumbling into an embarrassed pile all over again. One such occasion was a conversation he had with her youngest in some alleyway.
More often than not, she’d just keep her view into the mortal world going on in the background as an odd sort of company while she worked. But this time, her attention was quickly dragged back to it when her Tommy started teasing Phil for his adoration towards her.
His brothers were tearing apart some other civilian, someone who had tried to mug them she was sure, but Tommy had taken it upon himself to keep the conversation going despite that, evidently bored with the slaughter.
“You’re a bit fucked up, dad” his voice had echoed, bouncing off the walls of her throne room “a right wrongun’.”
Phil had just laughed, something fond and indulgent as he responded. “And why’s that, mate?”
“You’re a human. You’re bound to die” her son had huffed “it's odd that you’d love mum so much when she’ll just take you away like all the others.”
She looked up from the line of souls in front of her, eyes turning to watch as the two spoke. Her heart clenched a little at her baby's words. She knew she’d have to take Phil eventually. It was something that filled her with an odd sadness every time she thought about it.
Why would she ever want to take such a vibrant soul and cast it to be destroyed? She’d rather keep it close to her so that she could treasure it. She was sure her strange human wouldn't mind such an arrangement. He’d probably happily sit with her to keep her company, spending infinity with her like he proclaimed he always wanted.
The prospect never failed to make her more than a little giddy.
“How could you love something that’ll end you?” Golden locks tilted to the side as he asked his question. It was a habit her sons had picked up from the human early on, heads tilting like a crows whenever curious.
“How could I not?” those wonderfully manic eyes twinkled with a dreamy look, one he always wore when he spoke about her “she is everything that ever was and everything that will be. If I have to die to join her then why would I fight it?”
She could feel her face flushing already, a red tint finding its way to her cheeks at how fondly he always spoke of her. Her hand raised to wave away the vision, to cast her silly humans ramblings to the side but the flutter in her heart demanded she stay until she heard more. Who would've guessed that death herself would be so susceptible to flattery.
“But she’ll kill you!” There was a confused furrow on her son's brow now, a little pout lining his mouth as he tried to work out the man's beautiful delusions.
“And I’ll let her” Phil had hummed, a hand cupping Tommy’s cheek before he turned to the twins and saw them finishing up mangling the body. He looked impossibly fond despite the gore splattering the alleyway walls. “You’ll understand when you’re older, mate. Maybe you’ll find someone half as wonderful as your mother and it’ll all make sense.”
The cooing of her crows only made her blush go deeper in shade, teasing comments already being thrown her way as she waved away the view. Her dead heart beat away in her chest as her stomach fluttered with butterflies.
Her feet kicked childishly and her hands rose to hide her cheeks. She was a goddess, it was odd to feel like this. To feel her heart flutter whenever he said her name so fondly, to feel the way her cheeks burned every time a new flower was brought down to her.
To feel like someone who wasn’t just a goddess. It was all alien, completely unheard of in her millenia long lifespan. It was addictive.
In all honesty it made her feel more than a little dangerous, like she wanted nothing more than to consume the soul that made her feel this way whole. Her heart fluttered again at the knowledge that he’d let her.
Her human played nothing but dangerous games, it seemed. He trailed behind her sons without a second thought that their violence may one day consume him as well. He fell to his knees before death and welcomed her presence with nothing but an undying adoration and he had the nerve to haunt her mind and make her heart flutter.
It would only be fitting that his punishment for such a thing would be to stay by their side forever. If he was so eager to cling to them then he mustn't have a problem if they decide to never let him go.
The way her sons looked at him wasn't lost on her. When their gazes were first filled with confusion and a mild anger it had now become something fond and loyal. Where they once called him their father out of mockery, they now did so out of love and trust.
Her human had wormed his way into both her and their hearts. It’d be cruel to deprive her boys of something they were so fond of and she was nothing if not an indulgent mother.
So she took that wonderful, vibrant soul and condensed it into something tangible, something she could hold and covet while he was off with their sons. She watched as it took shape into a beautiful green gem, humming with magic and madness and warm with life.
It was an emerald, her crows had cawed, something that meant truth, love and life to the humans. Privately she thought that it fit her Phil perfectly. Everything he said had become true so far, after all.
She attached it to a small chain and hung it from her ear right beside her son's gemstones, content to hear their hearts beat in tandem as they enacted her will out on the world above. Every now and again his laugh would echo out from the stone, bright as a bell and wholeheartedly alive.
To her it was one of the prettiest sounds of all, especially when her son's own laughs would echo out alongside him.