Stop the world

Koa

Don't you just wanna wake up dark as a lake
Smelling like a bonfire, lost in a haze?

He would very much like to be kissed, please and thank you, but of course that's not what happens. Because for all their youthful romanticizing and the perceived perfection of this moment, reality always finds a way to crush it all to bits. Flora's steps back from his embrace, fixing Koa with a glare that would be more intimidating were it not for the adorable scrunch of her nose. Even with his hands still on her shoulders the distance yawns between them; even moreso when she speaks, the question leaving him at a loss.

"My stuff...?" Koa wonders, having forgotten all about the camping excuse and everything else, lost as he'd been in her embrace. Understanding follows the blip of bemusement, smile fading from his face as the weight of everything he has to tell her dims his copper gaze. "I wasn't.... Flora, I wasn't actually camping." He takes a step back, releasing her shoulders. Running a hand through long, disheveled hair, Koa finally looks away from the Queen, his expression dark and clouded. "I was lost. For weeks. Fucking thrown into the Wilds by a man who..."

He swallows down the rising panic, Adam's apple bobbing in the scruff of his neck. When he speaks again his voice wavers, as through straining beneath what he has to say. "I tried to stop him, but I couldn't. Couldn't even touch him. And he... he took her, Flora. He took Soh."

If you're drunk on life, babe, I think it's great
But while in this world I think I'll take my whiskey neat