// smile like you mean it //
As she reaches out for him, he moves precisely where she wants him, settling in front of her and not against her, hands resting on the bar on either side of her, dark eyes looking up to hers as she perfectly blocks him from seeing Danta but it doesn’t keep the Maverick’s voice from crooning around them. Her hands are warm as they press gently against his cheeks, thumbs smoothing out the hard lines of wrinkles formed along his lips from a smile that nearly almost always remained (faded now with the seriousness of the conversation).
“What?” Slips from his lips in almost a whisper, confusion flaring in his dark eyes as he tries to search her aqua ones, darkened by the liquor and something else that scratches at the back of his mind in a fleeting memory, a conversation he was supposed to have. But it’s blotted out by the question she asks, his smile fully falling as he realizes he’d said he’d answer honestly.
Clearing his throat and staying perfectly still, he regards her as he tries to parse his thoughts. “I… I don’t know what love is, Flora.” Comes the honest answer, belatedly wondering whether or not she was wearing the ring that would say whether he’s lying or not. It wouldn’t flare with this answer, though, because he truly doesn’t know what it feels like. “I know that he knows everything about me, the good and the bad. And that I have done terrible things to him.” He pauses, blinking as his faded smile shifts into a flat line, pulling at the hands that cup his cheeks.
“And I can trace all of the scars I have given him. I can’t sleep well unless he’s there. If I start feeling flighty he knows exactly what to do to help so I don’t… lose it.” He pauses, dark gaze focusing on anything but Flora’s face until the comment of him losing it. “I worry about him getting hurt or put in danger.” But that isn’t love, right? That’s just being overprotective and feeling like he owes Danta for all of the terrible things he’s done in the past.
“What?” Slips from his lips in almost a whisper, confusion flaring in his dark eyes as he tries to search her aqua ones, darkened by the liquor and something else that scratches at the back of his mind in a fleeting memory, a conversation he was supposed to have. But it’s blotted out by the question she asks, his smile fully falling as he realizes he’d said he’d answer honestly.
Clearing his throat and staying perfectly still, he regards her as he tries to parse his thoughts. “I… I don’t know what love is, Flora.” Comes the honest answer, belatedly wondering whether or not she was wearing the ring that would say whether he’s lying or not. It wouldn’t flare with this answer, though, because he truly doesn’t know what it feels like. “I know that he knows everything about me, the good and the bad. And that I have done terrible things to him.” He pauses, blinking as his faded smile shifts into a flat line, pulling at the hands that cup his cheeks.
“And I can trace all of the scars I have given him. I can’t sleep well unless he’s there. If I start feeling flighty he knows exactly what to do to help so I don’t… lose it.” He pauses, dark gaze focusing on anything but Flora’s face until the comment of him losing it. “I worry about him getting hurt or put in danger.” But that isn’t love, right? That’s just being overprotective and feeling like he owes Danta for all of the terrible things he’s done in the past.
Astaroth
// take a chance and you could seize it //
