Koa
Seeing the way Flora looks in that moment, hearing the things she says (and even moreso the things she doesn't say), Koa knows that it would be very, very easy for him to make a terrible mistake. One look from those aqua eyes, one shed tear, one sign. He's always been like butter in the sun with her, malleable and quick to melt in the heat of her attention. It isn't always healthy, has never worked out in the way he's so desperately craved, but those fleeting seconds of burning radiance as addictive as the sweetest sunlight, leaving him blackened with scorch marks he'll never be able to buff out.
'You love her too much to ask me that again,' cuts like a shadow through the sunlit haze, sharp and cold, a yanking rope that tugs him back to solid ground. Koa inhales as sharply as if he'd been slapped, quickly glancing away; his hand jerks back to the notebook, and he thumbs a paper tucked between the pages he hasn't reached. A letter written by Sohalia, bearing the faint scent of her perfume and the weight of her heart. He hadn't answered it, hadn't known what to say, and now guilt creeps into his features, shame and confusion rippling in his clenched jaw. For the very first time he thinks he understands how the Luminary felt that day in the Tower, or Flora in the Celestine. It's a very hard thing, to love two people.
And he isn't even being asked to choose.
"Yeah, you're right," Koa answers after a moment, but there's an unsteadiness in his voice, something that wasn't there when he'd said those words to Flora. . He does love Sohalia, love her kindness and compassion, her resilience, her stubbornness. Loves the way she loves so fiercely, loves the courage she's always displayed in a terrifying world. He loves that she finds so much wonder in small things, that she is selfless and protective, that she is strong, that she is good. There are so many things Koa loves about the Luminary, but is he in love with her?
Maybe he could be, if he's brave enough to try.
Swallowing, he pulls the letter further from the notebook, his thumb brushing over the scented paper, tracing the letters of the elegant script, faint, fond smile tugging his handsome mouth. "I do."
'You love her too much to ask me that again,' cuts like a shadow through the sunlit haze, sharp and cold, a yanking rope that tugs him back to solid ground. Koa inhales as sharply as if he'd been slapped, quickly glancing away; his hand jerks back to the notebook, and he thumbs a paper tucked between the pages he hasn't reached. A letter written by Sohalia, bearing the faint scent of her perfume and the weight of her heart. He hadn't answered it, hadn't known what to say, and now guilt creeps into his features, shame and confusion rippling in his clenched jaw. For the very first time he thinks he understands how the Luminary felt that day in the Tower, or Flora in the Celestine. It's a very hard thing, to love two people.
And he isn't even being asked to choose.
"Yeah, you're right," Koa answers after a moment, but there's an unsteadiness in his voice, something that wasn't there when he'd said those words to Flora. . He does love Sohalia, love her kindness and compassion, her resilience, her stubbornness. Loves the way she loves so fiercely, loves the courage she's always displayed in a terrifying world. He loves that she finds so much wonder in small things, that she is selfless and protective, that she is strong, that she is good. There are so many things Koa loves about the Luminary, but is he in love with her?
Maybe he could be, if he's brave enough to try.
Swallowing, he pulls the letter further from the notebook, his thumb brushing over the scented paper, tracing the letters of the elegant script, faint, fond smile tugging his handsome mouth. "I do."
the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway
is that it's you, and that you're standing in the doorway
is that it's you, and that you're standing in the doorway
