tempt my trouble

Koa

I'm the king, and you're the queen
and we will stumble through heaven

Ah, there it is.

It starts when she turns away from his hand, that little nagging feeling in the pit of his gut coming back with a roar. And then she pulls away entirely, and in her absence Koa is left with nothing but a howling absence as his heart empties out into his stomach and his mind screeches to a halt and all he has to give to her is a quiet, broken, "Oh."

That's all there is for a moment: just his hand hanging uselessly and the rarefied air between them, Koa blinking dumbly, his mouth gone dry. He should say more, has to say more- and really, really, what did he expect? Of course there's someone else, someone better, she's a queen after all. They made no promises, brokered no vows, exchanged little more than a handful of kisses and some whispered words beneath a starlit sky. He's done the same with countless others, and come away unscathed.

So why, this time, does it feel so different? Why does it hurt so much?

He steps back. Suddenly all Koa wants is to be gone, to be anywhere but here, because beneath the shock of pain and loss he can feel anger rising, vitriolic and hateful and protective, a shield of hot despair. "I see," he murmurs, not looking at her, his voice tight with withheld emotion. "Of course. 'course. Yup. Ok. Well."

Pipsqueak, bless her tiny pea brain, has figured out that something is wrong, and so abandons Tarak to slither over and claw her way up Koa's leg. The pain of it jolts him from his fugue state: he reaches down to scoop her up, holding her close like a child might a stuffed toy. The smile he wears is weak and mirthless, his copper gaze dampened by despair as he looks again to Soh. "I, uh, I'm gonna go. Sorry for taking up your time."

If there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes
I know you wanna go to heaven, but you're human tonight

{/code}