i could be the reason you can't sleep at night
"I know," Flora admits, her eyes pressing tightly closed against the tears that snarl behind them; she knows he'd have come if he only knew, knew that she hadn't told him. They're each a step closer to one another now but they might as well be worlds away for the distance between them, and against it the queen finds herself once more wrapping her arms around herself. Not normally one prone to gestures of self-soothing, Flora finds she can't help herself just now. "It all happened so fast..the monster, my Dads having to step in...even after they took me to the fountain, it still took days to get back on my feet." She'd spent the entirety of that time with Jack to be fair, but nearly dying at his side had changed something between them; perhaps it had just made it impossible to ignore any longer. It wasn't Koa's fault that he hadn't been there, but maybe it wasn't Flora's either.
It was selfish of her to have forced him to stay as long as she already had, and while it would have been monstrous to ask him to linger longer, the words were on her lips, her eyes already wide with tears as he thrust the sunflowers toward her. Choking on her pleas, Flora reaches for the bouquet before she's even aware of it, her fingers flinching as they brush against the crushed stems. "Koa—" But what was there to say? In what world could she possibly explain to him the fickleness of a young heart, and how it had chosen the dangerous older man rather than the young golden knight? A man who'd merely tolerated her presence for years, rather than the one who'd adored her from the start? A man who didn't even love her back, rather than one who did?
"—I'm so sorry."
It was selfish of her to have forced him to stay as long as she already had, and while it would have been monstrous to ask him to linger longer, the words were on her lips, her eyes already wide with tears as he thrust the sunflowers toward her. Choking on her pleas, Flora reaches for the bouquet before she's even aware of it, her fingers flinching as they brush against the crushed stems. "Koa—" But what was there to say? In what world could she possibly explain to him the fickleness of a young heart, and how it had chosen the dangerous older man rather than the young golden knight? A man who'd merely tolerated her presence for years, rather than the one who'd adored her from the start? A man who didn't even love her back, rather than one who did?
"—I'm so sorry."
