Koa
I don't want to wonder if this is a blunder
He glances up as she fidgets and moves, tracking the path of her escaping shoe, the way she adjust the cushions beneath her. It's an interruption to what might otherwise have been just awkward silence, and Koa finds that focusing on Flora's actions keeps him from dwelling too hard on her - or rather, them, and the ties that strain between them, fraying from a lack of care just as surely as that couch.
When she does speak it's low and quiet, though still enough to draw a strangled chuckle from the lump of anxiety in Koa's chest. "No more fighting," the Dragoon agrees, eyes lifting at last up to her face. He shifts his weight, sitting up straighter, as if by posturing confidence he might find some in himself. "No more... I dunno. Being a shit, I guess." He means it about himself, the chagrined smile saying as much. Nervously rubbing the back of his neck, Koa opens his mouth and lets it shut twice more before finally deciding where to start.
"I bought you that arm band," Koa begins slowly. "The one you were wearing at the ball. I saw it and thought, 'That matches Flora's eyes'. I think that about a lot of things - how they'd look on you, whether you'd like them. And I thought it about the arm band.
"And so I bought it, and I planned to give it to you, but then I thought, maybe it would be the wrong message if I did? Maybe you'd think I was trying to, I dunno, buy my way back into your good graces, or that it was ugly, or that... that you wouldn't want to own something that reminded you of me."
He's picking up in speed and confidence, though he still cannot quite meet her eyes. The handsome face is more boyish than usual, earnest and open as he carries on. "I do that a lot - overthink how people will react to things. You may not have realized this about me, Flora, but I'm kind of a dumbass sometimes." He chuckles sheepishly, glancing up from beneath thick lashes in hopes of finding softness within her cerulean eyes.
When she does speak it's low and quiet, though still enough to draw a strangled chuckle from the lump of anxiety in Koa's chest. "No more fighting," the Dragoon agrees, eyes lifting at last up to her face. He shifts his weight, sitting up straighter, as if by posturing confidence he might find some in himself. "No more... I dunno. Being a shit, I guess." He means it about himself, the chagrined smile saying as much. Nervously rubbing the back of his neck, Koa opens his mouth and lets it shut twice more before finally deciding where to start.
"I bought you that arm band," Koa begins slowly. "The one you were wearing at the ball. I saw it and thought, 'That matches Flora's eyes'. I think that about a lot of things - how they'd look on you, whether you'd like them. And I thought it about the arm band.
"And so I bought it, and I planned to give it to you, but then I thought, maybe it would be the wrong message if I did? Maybe you'd think I was trying to, I dunno, buy my way back into your good graces, or that it was ugly, or that... that you wouldn't want to own something that reminded you of me."
He's picking up in speed and confidence, though he still cannot quite meet her eyes. The handsome face is more boyish than usual, earnest and open as he carries on. "I do that a lot - overthink how people will react to things. You may not have realized this about me, Flora, but I'm kind of a dumbass sometimes." He chuckles sheepishly, glancing up from beneath thick lashes in hopes of finding softness within her cerulean eyes.
When I kiss your lips I want to sink down to the bottom of the sea
