flora
Flora draws Soh closer still, uncaring of the circle of curious eyes gathering like sparrows on a rail. Let them gawk. Grief is a private tide, and she is the seawall—unmoved, immovable—until the storm recedes. Her hand cradles the back of Sohalia’s head, fingers threading through dishevelled gold as though gentleness alone might knit that severed bond. When Soh’s sobs hiccup to silence, Flora’s voice slips in, low and steady, the current beneath the breakers.
"You don’t have to ask," she murmurs, every vowel thick with certainty. "I’m offering. Tarak is worth every plea I could ever shout to Mort, and more." A thumb brushes a tear track from Soh’s cheek, the motion firm enough to anchor, soft enough to soothe. "And trust me—he will want to come back." Flora says this with the sort of certainty borne from experience; she'd been the reason Enzo had died, and no part of her doubted that he'd want to come back.
"Until we have him again, it’s going to feel like someone carved a hollow straight through you," she goes on, voice a warm braid of steel and sunlight. "But that emptiness won’t echo forever. It eases—slowly, stubbornly—and I’ll be here for every stumble and breathless night until it does." She shifts just enough to press her forehead to Sohalia’s. "One step at a time, okay?"
"You don’t have to ask," she murmurs, every vowel thick with certainty. "I’m offering. Tarak is worth every plea I could ever shout to Mort, and more." A thumb brushes a tear track from Soh’s cheek, the motion firm enough to anchor, soft enough to soothe. "And trust me—he will want to come back." Flora says this with the sort of certainty borne from experience; she'd been the reason Enzo had died, and no part of her doubted that he'd want to come back.
"Until we have him again, it’s going to feel like someone carved a hollow straight through you," she goes on, voice a warm braid of steel and sunlight. "But that emptiness won’t echo forever. It eases—slowly, stubbornly—and I’ll be here for every stumble and breathless night until it does." She shifts just enough to press her forehead to Sohalia’s. "One step at a time, okay?"
I'm stupid but I'm clever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
I can make a shitshow look a whole lot like forever and ever
