i could be the reason you can't sleep at night
As her name hits the air Flora presses her eyes closed, the knots in her stomach now so tight she's sure they'll never come undone. No, please—she thinks desperately, praying that some nearby spirit might take pity on her and freeze time, allowing her to escape, or at least to undo. Nothing happens of course, and as the queen turns, the sight of Koa's too-bright smile and fist full of sunflowers has the cracks in her heart widening with a cavernous yawning that makes her want to double over in pain. Gasping, one hand going to her throat as if to unclench the invisible hands making it impossible for her to breathe, her head begins to shake against the words she knows she must say, but gods, not yet. Not yet.
Running to him, the Doubletake flings her arms around the dragoon's neck, her body carelessly crashing into his as she clutches him tightly enough to squeeze the air out of her own lungs. "Don't say anything yet—" She gasps against his neck, tears already trickling down her cheeks as the muscles of her stomach convulse against the way her body screams at her for air.
Gods, it's so selfish of her, but she knows that this will be the last time that they're ever like this and even though it's probably wrong to want it, she wants to remember. To cement everything Koa ever was to her and will never have the chance to be, in her mind.
