i'd wipe the dirt off your name with the shirt off my back
Flora’s throat tightens as Sohalia’s glass tilts, the amber liquid catching the low lamplight like it’s weighing options of its own. She knows that look—when the fight in you isn’t gone, exactly, but it’s sitting way down at the bottom of the well and the bucket’s too heavy to pull up again. She edges closer, slipping an arm around Soh’s waist and drawing her in until their shoulders press. "No one should have to keep paying the world in heartbreak just to stand still," she murmurs. "You’ve had more than your share."
For a heartbeat Flora hesitates—thinking of old entanglements, of dark corridors in the House of Midnight, wondering if Sohalia's vague encompassing gesture was meant to include Flora's part in all of this as well—but she lets the thought drift away. Whatever pieces of this mess belong to her, she’ll deal with on her own time. Right now Sohalia’s pain is the only thing that matters.
"The thing about you," she says, voice soft but certain, "is that you’ll always be warm. Even if you swear off love, even if you hole up in the coldest and tallest tower Vi ever made, that light in you doesn’t switch off. It’s who you are, Soh. That’s why strangers trust you in five minutes, why Stormbreak was happy to have you as its Heart, why gods call you Luminary. You don’t have to keep proving it or justify it just because some stupid boy gives you a weird compliment."
She nudges their glasses aside and laces her fingers with Soh’s free hand on the bartop. "Tonight you’re allowed to be tired. We can get a room here. We’ll eat something greasy, I’ll steal a bottle of something expensive, and we can decide tomorrow whether the sun’s worth bothering with."
Flora manages a small, steady smile. "Or, we can get really drunk and send Koa like, a thousand letters asking why he's such a moron."
For a heartbeat Flora hesitates—thinking of old entanglements, of dark corridors in the House of Midnight, wondering if Sohalia's vague encompassing gesture was meant to include Flora's part in all of this as well—but she lets the thought drift away. Whatever pieces of this mess belong to her, she’ll deal with on her own time. Right now Sohalia’s pain is the only thing that matters.
"The thing about you," she says, voice soft but certain, "is that you’ll always be warm. Even if you swear off love, even if you hole up in the coldest and tallest tower Vi ever made, that light in you doesn’t switch off. It’s who you are, Soh. That’s why strangers trust you in five minutes, why Stormbreak was happy to have you as its Heart, why gods call you Luminary. You don’t have to keep proving it or justify it just because some stupid boy gives you a weird compliment."
She nudges their glasses aside and laces her fingers with Soh’s free hand on the bartop. "Tonight you’re allowed to be tired. We can get a room here. We’ll eat something greasy, I’ll steal a bottle of something expensive, and we can decide tomorrow whether the sun’s worth bothering with."
Flora manages a small, steady smile. "Or, we can get really drunk and send Koa like, a thousand letters asking why he's such a moron."
