Isla
to share the space with simple living things, infinitely suffering
"Nobody's perfect," Isla says with a soft smile and a shrug of her shoulders. "For my part, though, I've never been so happy to be the problem in someone else's test framework." Laughing and pressing another kiss against the inside of his wrist, she leans into the way his fingers curl before drawing back to let his hand drift wherever it pleases. Everest can spend the afternoon exploring her if that's what would make him happy, so long as Isla can explore as well in turn.
Relaxing further against him and simultaneously enjoying and trying not to enjoy it too much, the way their bodies so effortlessly fit together, Isla eventually shifts ever so slightly to rest her head against his shoulder, smoothing out an invisible crease in his linen shirt. "Good," she says emphatically about the lack of purple in his thoughts. "That means all of this is just you, now. You can trust it to be real; it's not caused by anything external. These feelings are all yours."
Relaxing further against him and simultaneously enjoying and trying not to enjoy it too much, the way their bodies so effortlessly fit together, Isla eventually shifts ever so slightly to rest her head against his shoulder, smoothing out an invisible crease in his linen shirt. "Good," she says emphatically about the lack of purple in his thoughts. "That means all of this is just you, now. You can trust it to be real; it's not caused by anything external. These feelings are all yours."
fighting off like all creation, the absence of itself
