with each love i cut loose i was never the same
"Oh really? That's weird," Flora says breezily, shuffling a few more star charts back into some semblance of order. She doesn’t ask Finn to elaborate. If there’s anything she’s learned about her family, it’s that asking too many questions tends to open doors she’s not always ready to walk through.
Still, she flashes him a grin as he confirms her hunch. "I am," she says, a little proud and a little sheepish all at once. "And guilty as charged on both counts: Mateo’s sister and queen of the world’s most aggressively tanned region." The title still feels like a hat she’s borrowed from someone older and more serious, but there’s no denying she’s worn it long enough now that it mostly fits.
She accepts the recovered binder with a grateful nod, tucking in a few curled edges. "My best friend’s a cartographer," she explains, her smile going a little soft at the edges. "So I’m putting together a sort of celestial map. But not just stars, but like, mapping it onto her life, you know? The places that matter. I figured, if anyone would appreciate something full of impossible connections and constellations only we could name, it’d be her."
Her fingers tap against one of the unfolded sheets with a mixture of affection and nerves. "I just didn’t expect the archive to fight back about it."
Still, she flashes him a grin as he confirms her hunch. "I am," she says, a little proud and a little sheepish all at once. "And guilty as charged on both counts: Mateo’s sister and queen of the world’s most aggressively tanned region." The title still feels like a hat she’s borrowed from someone older and more serious, but there’s no denying she’s worn it long enough now that it mostly fits.
She accepts the recovered binder with a grateful nod, tucking in a few curled edges. "My best friend’s a cartographer," she explains, her smile going a little soft at the edges. "So I’m putting together a sort of celestial map. But not just stars, but like, mapping it onto her life, you know? The places that matter. I figured, if anyone would appreciate something full of impossible connections and constellations only we could name, it’d be her."
Her fingers tap against one of the unfolded sheets with a mixture of affection and nerves. "I just didn’t expect the archive to fight back about it."
