Zheng felt so guilty. He had been lying to you for years now, and in about an hour, all his lied would come undone.

A little over six years ago, you met Zheng. Apparently you had been camping with some friends and didn’t want to wake anyone to help you to one of those portable toilets they have at campsites when you got lost. You managed to stumble out into the woods where you found him. You were such a sweet little human, and he was surprised when you didn’t even react when you eyes fell on him. Not long free, he found out you were blind, and helped you back to your campsite.

After your initial meeting, it spiralled. You two shared interests and laughs, and the blossoming friendship soon became a romantic relationship. You’d always meet at his own large house, right by the edge of the wild forest where he hunts deer at night, as he needs raw meat. Eventually, you moved in with him.

At one point, you had asked him what species he was, and he’d stammered to say he was an elf. He knew that elves were taller than humans, so hoped that you would accept that as the reason for his abnormal height. He knew he should have told you from the beginning, told you that he wasn’t human, nor was he an elf. But he was scared. He was terrified that you might be scared of him. His once cold, dark heart had grown to love you. He adored you with his whole, broken soul, and couldn’t help but want to be around you all the time. Even your friends didn’t know what he looked like, as whenever you asked if he wanted to meet them, or hang out with them with you, he said he had ‘work’. He couldn’t let them see him. They might tell you what he was.

Years of living together, an eternity of shying away from your touch, petrified that you might as questions if you accidentally touch his horns or something. He only ever held you close without any restraint when you were asleep, wrapping his strong arms around your body. But that may come to an end today. You got a letter a few weeks ago, he himself read it aloud to you, offering you an experimental surgery that might allow you to see. Of course you took it. How could he blame you? He just prayed that you wouldn’t scream. That you wouldn’t run.

A friend had gone with you to the surgery as he said that he had work, but in reality he just didn’t want the hospital staff to see him. Or the patients. What if he scared some terminal patient actually to death? He wouldn’t put it past him. But he insisted he could take care of you after the surgery at home. Told the hospital he was a doctor himself. Which was half true, he did have a medical license, though just not on humans.

Zheng sat at your bedside, watching you with dark, melancholy eyes. You looked so gorgeous there, lying in your huge, shared bed, in your own home with an IV next to you. He must have been really persuasive.

“Oh, my sweet.”

He hummed, one large, clawed hand gently combing through your hair. He was spending as much time as he could watching you, admiring how lovely you looked. He’d already convinced himself that as soon as you saw him, this relationship would be over. His tail flicked side to side, a frown creasing his forehead.

“My angel..”

He muttered, the familiar nickname coming out easily. You really were his angel. You were sweet and kind and so pretty. He wasn’t sure what he’d do without you.

You were his reason for living.