With every broken bone, I swear I lived
Were they both presumtuous, then, to believe in anything beyond what they already had? Maea would have loved nothing more than to assure him that it really was enough - but she did not want to lie to him. The quiet singing in her spine at his touch said enough about the limits to friendship and the slippery slope into something far more intimate, and she knew herself enough to know how badly it could end.
Had she been getting her hopes up anyway, somehow? Or was it sympathy for his losses that made her chest ache with a soft burn that wouldn't relent no matter how deeply she inhaled?
"The one thing I've learned from dying," she murmured, "is how foolish it is to make promises. Things like 'I won't die' or 'I'll stay' or 'Forever'... No one should ever swear that. They can't possibly keep it. There's no way for anyone to know beyond a doubt - because it's not possible. There will always come a time when someone has to go on ahead, and someone will always end up behind."
Sitting up slightly, without leaving the cradle of Harper's arms, Maea looked up to catch his gaze. Flushed and with her hair tousled from rubbing against his chest, her smile was a ghostly thing, sweet but fleeting. "I don't like cages. There's nothing I'd hate more than being one. So I'm never going to ask anyone to stay or not go or... I don't know. I just think, that if someone is enough... there won't be a need to be anywhere else. Or with anyone else."
Which meant... that perhaps they both had some walking left to do. And some learning left to absorb. Or maybe she was just making up excuses so she wouldn't start to cry.
Had she been getting her hopes up anyway, somehow? Or was it sympathy for his losses that made her chest ache with a soft burn that wouldn't relent no matter how deeply she inhaled?
"The one thing I've learned from dying," she murmured, "is how foolish it is to make promises. Things like 'I won't die' or 'I'll stay' or 'Forever'... No one should ever swear that. They can't possibly keep it. There's no way for anyone to know beyond a doubt - because it's not possible. There will always come a time when someone has to go on ahead, and someone will always end up behind."
Sitting up slightly, without leaving the cradle of Harper's arms, Maea looked up to catch his gaze. Flushed and with her hair tousled from rubbing against his chest, her smile was a ghostly thing, sweet but fleeting. "I don't like cages. There's nothing I'd hate more than being one. So I'm never going to ask anyone to stay or not go or... I don't know. I just think, that if someone is enough... there won't be a need to be anywhere else. Or with anyone else."
Which meant... that perhaps they both had some walking left to do. And some learning left to absorb. Or maybe she was just making up excuses so she wouldn't start to cry.
maea
