[ WP ] What if Death found a reason to live ?

Death could not be defeated. He simply *couldn't* be. Death himself found himself a bit shocked at the situation as well. This little, feeble child had managed to break him. He'd taken hundreds of millions of children, but this one he could n't seem to bring himself to take. She was nothing more than a sad, lonely girl named Eva with nothing to live for. 
 
 Eva had never done a terrible thing in her short, 10 year life, but he found her severely ill and living in a cramped alley with no one to take care of her. Death was n't even there to pick her up when he met her: he was taking her neighbor in the alley when he heard her shuffle behind him. She looked up at him with these sad, grey eyes and asked him why Henry had to die. After shaking off the initial shock of her being able to see him and figuring out who Henry was, he responded in his usual chilling, calm manner. `` It was his time. He was old and sick.'' Eva just nodded like she understood, completely unshaken by his hollow, empty voice, but how could she possibly? How could she not fear him, Death, the one thing all men feared? She was just a child pretending to understand what he, Death, had been going through for the entirety of his existence. But as he looked into her eyes, he felt like maybe she really did understand. After he too Henry, he ghosted off and did n't think another thought about the little girl for a long while. 
 
 A few days passed and he found himself in the same town for another ill street bum. Death went up to him, did his usual job, and was about to walk away when he saw her again peeking at him from around a corner. Curiosity got the better of him and he wandered over to her, his hollow voice brushing past his lips. `` Why are n't you afraid of me?'' She just continued to stare at him with her huge, watery grey eyes for a moment before hugging his legs. `` You seem lonely.'' Sunken eyes turned down to look at her and for a moment he felt something like a spark in his eternally empty chest. It faded just as suddenly as it had come and was replaced with his usually icy chill. A small child was managing to unravel him. 
 
 Months passed with him returning to take away more of the population of her town. Once he found himself contemplating going there without having any reason to. He was saved from his decision when another death required him to be elsewhere. When he did have a reason to go there, though, he did speak with her. Eva did most of the talking though, because he did n't want to scare her away and she was right: he was lonely. 
 
 A week or so and hundreds of thousands of jobs later and Death finds himself back in that city, but when he faces his client he ca n't bring himself to take her. He knew that her time was short when he had looked at her, as he could see all timelines in the eyes of people, but he had tried to ignore it. Had he known about the cancer? Yes, but Death had ignored it, thinking that he would have more time before he had to pick her up. Death knew that he could save her, but he also knew what that would mean for him. *I'll take her next time*, he told himself. He returned to that area many times after that, telling himself the same thing each time. As she grew worse and worse, Eva began to resemble himself more than any child should. Her skin was pale from illness, her eyes sunken in and almost all life gone, but she acted as though nothing was wrong, anyway. 
 
 One trip was all it took to break him completely. 
 
 `` I wan'to stop hurting.'' Death knew he could just take her just like his job entailed, taking away her pain in the process, and continue on as he always had, but he could n't bring himself to do it. How a small child had managed to fill a void this heartless entity did n't even know he had he would never know, but all he knew was that he could n't bring himself to kill her nor could he see her continue to suffer. It was in that moment, seeing her so broken, that he broke himself. He was in no way the first bringer of death, and he knew he was n't to be the last. Placing his deathly thin hand on her head, Death gave up his eternity to let Eva live. Death did not fade away or wither, but his flesh began to fill out and a color came to him. Air filled his newly formed lungs and Death began to live. Fears and emotions that he had never known filled him. A new Death would be formed to take his place and when his time was near, he would be taken by the same being he once was, but for the time being this living Death was content being with his reason to live. 
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 ( I apologize for the length of this. I got really into the prompt. )
