He arched a brow but said nothing as he shook his head in amusement, pushing through the passageway so he could get them to Ali's room. He still felt slightly strange—perhaps an innate human thought?—but he knew he would have to if he wanted to get her to sleep for once. He knew the effect he had on her sleep, knew that she slept the best with his cool temperature next to her warmth.
"Your armor's clunky, but you're still comfy." She muttered, more to herself than to him as she tapped the metal of her armor a couple times. Lack of sleep may have been catching up to her. "Rhyme is my side hobby. Hey, Ellie?" Now, she was speaking to him, gold eyes blinking up at his face.
"Hm?" he hummed, looking down at her. He didn't falter in his stride as he walked down the passage. He used the echoes of his footsteps to follow the layout of the passage, that way his focus was solely on Ali instead of his surroundings. Her mutterings were kinda cute, though he had a feeling they were the product of her body telling her that she needed sleep.
"I'm glad you're here. But how'd you get to be human? And are you really sure you want to be stuck here?" She asked, frowning slightly with what looked like worry. Worry that being here would be bad for him. That he needed freedom, and she knew all too well the palace didn't offer much of that. While she wanted him here, she didn't want him suffering the way she had.
He opened his mouth to answer, then hesitated and closed it again with a soft sigh through his nose. "How about we talk about this when we're in your chambers," he murmured, glancing over at the walls next to him before diverting his attention back down to Ali. It was a slightly complicated thing, and it would be easier to explain when they were both comfortable.
“You’re going to hate it here.” She continued, still looking incredibly worried. “There’s so many rules that don’t make sense. And too many skirts. You’ll have to dress up all fancy for events. The guards and knights have dress armor that looks even more uncomfortable than the dresses I have to wear. I’m sorry.”
He reached her room and opened the door with minimal struggle, keeping the princess in his arms as he did so. He turned around and used his back to close it, then strode over to her bed and gently set her down. His hands slipped away and began working on undoing his armor, fingers nimbly dancing over the straps and buttons keeping the leather and metal in place. "I didn't come here thinking there wouldn't be sacrifice," he said softly, smiling sadly at her, "but I told myself—and still do—that it's worth it, that it's minimal compared to never seeing you again, never trying to get you out."
“I love that you’re here, and I missed you more than words can ever communicate.” Ali said, tucking her legs underneath her as her unscarred hand traced the scars on her other arm. “But I don’t want you to suffer while here. I’m-again, I'm sorry for how miserable you might find it here.” She met his gaze, gold eyes showing guilt and apology swimming in them.
Elijah shrugged off his armor, setting it all off to the side against the wall in an out-of-the-way corner. He was now only clothed in a simple tunic and pants, and barefoot—he had discarded his boots before taking his armor off. He kind of wanted to take off the tunic altogether, as it was hotter than he was used to. Strange, how he could barely stand a tunic without complaint but he was comfortable next to Ali. He came back over to her and braced his hands on either side of her, hunching over her with his diamond-colored eyes on hers. "It's not your fault for the failings of this place. It's my choice to be here, like this. You have nothing to feel guilty for."
Ali followed him as he stepped towards her, tilting her head back to keep her eyes on his. His words helped a bit, but it was obvious they couldn’t fully rid her of the guilt. “You could still be free.” She whispered, hands finding his larger ones and settling on top of them. Missing piece of her heart or otherwise, he could have stayed free. “But you came back. For me.”
"I did," he murmured, "And I'm not leaving unless I have you with me," he added. And he wouldn't—he would stay as her knight for as long as it took to get her to come back to him—forever, without the castle interfering again. He didn't spend nearly a year learning how to adjust to this body for him to turn around and leave Ali behind because he couldn't handle the life of a knight.
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and nodding. He really was set on this. While she still felt bad, she also felt comforted by that fact, by the knowing. “We should. Runaway, I mean, together. When the opportunity shows, we should leave. We can…travel, see a million new places and pick which one we want to stay in.”
He lowered his eyes so they were half hodded by his lids, leaning forward to touch his forehead against hers. "I still have my dragon," he whispered, the words barely a breath of air for fear of someone hearing, even if they were in private. "I'm not completely lost." He would explain the process he went through to gain the second body, the lessons he had to endure to be able to switch between the two flawlessly and keep them separate, the practice and patience it took to relearn how to even breathe because of the different body. It was like being born anew, only he had skipped the hatchling stage.
“That means you can still fly.” She breathed, nudging his head slightly with her own. “You love flying.” That, for whatever reason, made her incredibly happy. Knowing he could still do something he loved so much.
"Mmhm," he hummed, eyes crinkling with happiness. Ali remembering that made him unreasonably happy, but he was glad that she did remember these things, remembered the little things about him. "And I can still take you flying," he added softly, opening his eyes fully to look at her.
She opened her eyes at that, gold sparkling with happy excitement. “Really? Gods, I missed that so much. I didn’t really get why you loved it so much till you took me out with you.” She mused, huffing slightly to try and blow her hair out of her face.
He chuckled at that. "I still remember the look on your face when I first took you." He studied her face for a bit, then slowly pulled away so he could join her on the bed. He sat on the edge, still slightly hesitant, though he didn't shy away from her too much. He curled one leg up, letting the other dangle off the edge, and rested an arm on his knee.
“It was terrifying.” Ali said happily, hopping up from the bed. She slipped behind the dressing screen in the corner of the room to change out of the dress, still talking to him. “I’d never been that far off the ground before, obviously. It was so different and scary and I loved it.” She really had. It made sense, why he loved it so much, once she was in the air with him.
Elijah smiled, the expression hidden from Ali's view as she was behind the dressing screen. "Clearly, seeing how you asked me to take you on more flights." He finally broke down and reached behind him to grasp at the cloth on his back, wanting it off. He'd be much more comfortable without it, even if he was trying to cover more with Ali there. He pulled the tunic over his head, then balled it up and tossed it over at the pile of armor he had in the corner.
“It’s not like I could fly on my own, you know.” Ali pointed out, tossing her dress out from behind the screen and into the corner of the room. The ladies in waiting wouldn’t be happy, but they’d get over it, especially once she picked it up. Their problem was more her mistreatment of the dress itself. “So I couldn’t just-“ Her sentence cut off as she stepped out in a loose pair of trousers and a tunic, cheeks reddening as she caught sight of Elijah. It was funny, that he hated sleeping in shirts. She usually slept without pants, in an oversized tunic, but had compromised because he was here. Shaking off the quickening pace of her heart, she made her way over and climbed into the bed, on top of the blankets.
It wasn't that Elijah hated sleeping in shirts, it was that he didn't like shirts in general. His lowered body temperature made him less tolerant of anything warm, save for Ali's naturally raised body heat. He suspected it was because they balanced each other out, cooled and heated each other until their temperatures were both in a happy medium. Elijah watched her climb into the bed, then turned and adjusted himself so that he was also lying on the bed, on top of the blankets. He didn't get too close to her, as per usual, letting her make the move to come closer if she wanted to.
Ali tucked her arms close to her body, legs sprawled out as she studied Elijah's face. She stayed like that for a few moments, before huffing a breath, scooting closer to him. "Too warm." Was the first thing she muttered, followed by "You always feel nice." Snuggling even closer, her eyes drifted shut, a happy sigh slipping past her lips as she settled.
Elijah rolled his eyes, though there was a soft smile on his lips as he opened his arms and wrapped them around her, pulling her against him as he partially curled around her. He had a feeling she was going to say that, so he wasn't too fazed by her snuggling up against him. "Better?" he murmured, tucking her head beneath his chin.
"Mhm. Much." She hummed happily, the familiarity of being so close to him making her drowsy quickly. He may not have scales anymore, or be over thirty times her size and in the form of a dragon, but it was still Elijah. Her dragon, in human form, finally next to her again. "Missed you." She was a broken record, sure, but she meant it.
"I missed you, too," he whispered, tilting his head to press his lips against the top of her head. He then stared at the wall behind Ali, figuring he would give her a brief rundown of how he was human before she fell asleep. "I knew a dragon wouldn't exactly be the most inconspicuous thing, so I needed a way to get to you that wouldn't raise any alarms—figuratively and literally. I found a sorceress that was willing to give me a second body, a human body. I had to basically relearn everything with this body, and also learn how to properly switch between the two. That's what took me so long." He paused for a brief moment, then sheepishly added as he ducked his head and spoke against her hair, "I was… also afraid you wouldn't like how I look." The words were barely more than a whisper, his cheeks flushing slightly.