you came for me || illyana & erik
They’d been back for a week and Illyana hadn’t left Barney’s room since the day they arrived.
Changing back had proved to be more difficult than she thought it would be, even with the Soulsword and her amulet returned to her. She’d been trapped for so long in her full Darkchylde form that she’d forgotten what it felt like to have fingers, to have toes and to be able to cry. The first day that she’d switched back, she had wept for hours on end, curled into Barney’s side and clinging to his shirt. She knew it probably made him feel guilty but the tears were not sadness, they were relief. She was human again, she could be Illyana again and she was home. She was safe here with the people that loved her.
Apparently more people loved her than she believed. More people had come to save her than she thought would and that warmed her heart in ways she couldn’t describe. The one that had surprised her the most, though, had been Erik.
She hadn’t expected him to be there, she hadn’t expected to ever see him again after what had happened the last time they’d come face to face. She had brought her wrath down upon him in the worst kind of ways and then she had left him to lick his wounds without a final farewell. She had left him; she had left him behind in the dust even after all the safety he had provided her with over the years.
She could still barely walk, her legs wobbly beneath her and her body still covered in marks that she was yet to heal but the part of her that was the most broken was her mind. It was the emotional torment that she had been put through that hurt her more than any physical torment and as much as she loved Barney and even though he knew everything about her, she wanted to see Erik. She’d made a detour to Kitty’s office first, practically begging her best friend to give her the key to the holding cells so that she could mend bridges with the man she’d once admired. It had been a bit of an argument – there was no shouting since neither woman had energy to shout – but eventually Kitty had caved and said just this once.
Hobbling her way down the stairs, clinging to the banister the entire way and then through the halls, hand skimming across the wall until she received the elevator. The walk from the elevator to the holding cells wasn’t that far once she reached the right level but she was taking baby steps and using the wall as a way to steady herself but eventually she reached the door and unlocked it, stepping inside of the holding area opposed to standing on the other side of the glass. She was out of the safe zone and in with the man that many considered a monster. She could literally hear the screams of warning in her head from the few friends she had saying ‘THIS IS A BAD IDEA’ but she didn’t care, she wanted to see him.
No, she needed to see him.
“Erik?” She said meekly, leaning her back against the now closed door in order to keep herself upright.
