"Yeah. She and Jude." Which Koa hadn't known about, until he had, and then he'd bowed out, and then... he shrugs, running his tongue over the roof of his mouth and tasting the lingering gin. "So she told me to fuck off, and I did, 'cept then she told me to un-fuck off cus she was into us both, and I told her to fuck off, and then she and Jude broke up, and then... I dunno."
Suddenly feeling a little bit dizzy, Koa leans forward far enough to rest his forehead on Boreal's scaly hide. The coolness of the lizard skin soothes his fuzzy, burning brain; he sighs against her, breathing her in and letting his eyes fall shut. Gold fills the backs of his eyes, gold and blue and sunlit smiles and the smell of jasmine on starlit nights. "I'm never gonna be good enough for her," the boy groans, and it isn't clear just who he means: Sohalia? Flora? Safrin, perhaps? His mother, dead and yet still looming over, a shadow cast across his heart?
He turns his head to look at Tal, cheek still on Boreal (or his own knee, he can't be sure). "I'mma catch a boat?" he answers uncertainly, a youthful quaver in his voice. Wasn't that the plan? Catch a skyship home? Though now that he tries to think about it, he isn't sure when the last ship was supposed to leave from port.
Or is he, again, too late?
Suddenly feeling a little bit dizzy, Koa leans forward far enough to rest his forehead on Boreal's scaly hide. The coolness of the lizard skin soothes his fuzzy, burning brain; he sighs against her, breathing her in and letting his eyes fall shut. Gold fills the backs of his eyes, gold and blue and sunlit smiles and the smell of jasmine on starlit nights. "I'm never gonna be good enough for her," the boy groans, and it isn't clear just who he means: Sohalia? Flora? Safrin, perhaps? His mother, dead and yet still looming over, a shadow cast across his heart?
He turns his head to look at Tal, cheek still on Boreal (or his own knee, he can't be sure). "I'mma catch a boat?" he answers uncertainly, a youthful quaver in his voice. Wasn't that the plan? Catch a skyship home? Though now that he tries to think about it, he isn't sure when the last ship was supposed to leave from port.
Or is he, again, too late?
