[o] [SE] longneck, ice cold beer never broke my heart

Iskra

BREATHE IT IN, IT'S JUST SNOW, WE'RE JUST FALLING
WE WON'T ALWAYS FREE FALL BACK TO NOTHING

It was easy to be around her, he realized as they both were smiling again. Her cheer was quick to rise, perhaps guided along by the drink in her hand, but he suspected she had a deep affection for life that made her charm so quick to settle. As for himself, Iskra's one drink hadn't been enough to stir more than a mild hum, too accustomed to more, too used to chasing a numbness by abusing the drink's warmth each night. He'd tried to slow it down, ever since those days in the Greatwood, when Sunjata and Mel each pulled a few rocks free from around him. As for life? He'd found it charming, once, but that had been a while ago. Maybe it'd return again, once he was fully out of the wreckage he'd used like bed all this time. Little by little, he was starting to glow again.

She was helping too.

Her laughter, her words, they inspired him. He never wanted her to stop, because she made it all better just by being a part of it. Whether she knew it or not, she was pulling some rocks free too.

"Hey," he said with a sudden sharpness, but there was still a playful gleam to his gaze, at odds with his tone. Then he pointed a finger towards her, tutting disapprovingly. "Much as I'd love to hear you tell me all the things I need, I'm not letting you work tonight." He offered her a lopsided grin, to keep the delivery soft and kind. He did wonder how often she slipped into it though, the analyzing, the structuring of the broken around her. He couldn't imaging walking past a tree and feeling an itching need to hack away at it, but then she had a passion he knew he couldn't match for the work. He liked his job, but he was pretty certain she loved hers. She was healthy enough to set her own boundaries, without his help, and seemed to pull herself in as he cut across her. "I mean," he tried again, inhaling audibly. "I'd love to talk more with you, about that, another night." They both agreed, he was certain, although the more he was getting to know her, admittedly the harder it'd be to want to share those darker, twisted places of himself. If she knew him, all of him, would she distance herself? He wouldn't blame her, might save her the trouble and do it himself.

The moment faded, his attention turned instead to her notebook as she offered it. He pushed his nearly empty beer to the side and pulled the notes towards him. He was quiet for a moment, eyes darting back and forth across the page as he read, absorbed by the detail she put into the exchange between the merchant and customer. He didn't think he'd have noticed even half of these small tells. He glanced up at her after what felt like far too long, his eyes moving more than his head as they flicked to hers. "This is incredible." There was excitement in his voice, appreciation for something he had never once thought to admire until now. "You notice everything." It was enough to make the back of his head prickle, a bit worried at what various clues he'd dropped for her that were undesired by him. She was terrifying, in a way, but he didn't have it in him to truly be scared of her, just awed by that power.

For all of her abilities to notice the finer details, Iskra lack them, unless it was the grain of wood. The small moments of alcohol-induced flirtation she'd granted him had not been well appraised by him, and any he'd returned in kind had been unintended. He was just happy to get to know her, to discover this new world through her eyes.

"Alright, what book do you recommend I read then?" he asked, reluctantly sliding her notebook back towards her.

I'M JUST STARTING TO LEARN
I'VE ALWAYS BEEN CHASING GHOSTS