walk me home in the dead of night
As they both turn in on themselves trying to assuage the other of guilt or blame, Flora heart suddenly clenches before lodging in the back of her throat. "Hey—" Without thinking, she stretches out a hand to try and stop him. Likely the butcher is too far ahead of her for her fingers to do anything more than brush against the space he'd just occupied, but gods the queen suddenly regrets everything she spitefully said to him over the past few hours and in the few letters they'd sent. "I saw what I wanted to see." She says, nibbling at the inside of her cheek. "You were...different than everyone else. Better, and I just...I wanted you to think of me the same way." That he hadn't wasn't his fault. Maybe one day she'd even come to understand that it wasn't hers either, but both then and now, it had felt like a monumental failing on Flora's part.
As the trees begin to thin and the fields open up, Flora tries to slip as unobtrusively as she can by his side. Much as his shadow offered a slight reprieve from the heat, it had been strange enough to stare at the dark satin of his waistcoat for the majority of the walk thus far. "Well, you aren't a monster." The queen points out. Even after all they'd been through and the snippets of the butcher's history she'd learned and gleaned from his comments now and then, she still didn't think he was. Accepting his arm with only a moment's hesitation, Flora sneers up at the sun. "The more I learn about her, the more it's clear that she's the only monster around. She's careless with the lives of others, as self-centred and willingly ignorant as they come, and...and gods if I didn't know she was an Ancient, I'd say she had some magical ability for knowing exactly where to press to make her words and actions hurt the most."
The whisper of the grasses against her legs has the queen shivering somewhat and picking her path more carefully that the flat blades wouldn't cut her skin. "Maybe you should have." She huffs, glancing up at him with a smirk that has her eyes darkening. "Everything would have turned out a lot different if you had." She adds with a self-deprecating roll of her eyes.
As the trees begin to thin and the fields open up, Flora tries to slip as unobtrusively as she can by his side. Much as his shadow offered a slight reprieve from the heat, it had been strange enough to stare at the dark satin of his waistcoat for the majority of the walk thus far. "Well, you aren't a monster." The queen points out. Even after all they'd been through and the snippets of the butcher's history she'd learned and gleaned from his comments now and then, she still didn't think he was. Accepting his arm with only a moment's hesitation, Flora sneers up at the sun. "The more I learn about her, the more it's clear that she's the only monster around. She's careless with the lives of others, as self-centred and willingly ignorant as they come, and...and gods if I didn't know she was an Ancient, I'd say she had some magical ability for knowing exactly where to press to make her words and actions hurt the most."
The whisper of the grasses against her legs has the queen shivering somewhat and picking her path more carefully that the flat blades wouldn't cut her skin. "Maybe you should have." She huffs, glancing up at him with a smirk that has her eyes darkening. "Everything would have turned out a lot different if you had." She adds with a self-deprecating roll of her eyes.
