Enzo
“Or just do some basic math babe, 80% puppy in the window and 20% knows how to cook and clean and pay bills. Mature doesn’t have to mean jaded.” He looks her up and down, eyes raking in feigned mimicry of how he so often used to do right before shredding someone verbally. “Though if that’s how you’re defining it, I don’t know how we can save you. Your personal essay is so jaded at this point you could sell it at the docks with the other fake gems.”
When she then smashes his face into the shape of an anaphylactic puffer fish’s kisser, Enzo can only think yeah, fair. But he obnoxiously peels his lips back to look even more ridiculous while clacking his teeth with the little leverage he has, going mlah, mlem, mlooooh. The last being ‘no’ of course because he doesn’t deserve this treatment after three seconds of fair punishment.
Upon release he pouts fiercely. “Don’t damage the goods! It’s all I’ve got in the afterlife!” They don’t even get their own magic. Well, that he can remember.
There’s surprisingly no sour twist in his stomach at the idea of Mystery Boy coming close to truly knowing her. It’s what he wants for her, sincerely, and though Enzo is a shamelessly selfish man he is also overly confident - especially when it comes to his place in Flora’s heart. Which is above any and all others, obviously. It’s why he intends on banning her from giving him nephews or nieces.
With his hands in her hair and her head on his chest as she spills her heart out like dice on a table, it would be easy to trick himself into thinking nothing ever changed. If he had his bed beneath his back they could be transported back in time to when this was a nightly routine. Sometimes she would fall asleep, sometimes Enzo - until she would pinch him awake and whine over him ignoring her. He can’t believe he ever did back then. Now, he hangs on every word and tries to memorize the way shadow falls on her cheeks in the shape of her lashes every time she blinks.
“But do you need it again?” The bar and all the power, purpose, and creativity it gives her. Because what if it isn’t ‘gives’ anymore, but ‘gave’? Risking trying to fit into a safe, comfortable old shape only to find she’d changed too much - with or without her consent - to go back? But for all she’d asked for his brutal honesty Enzo won’t say that. Sometimes it hurts too much to admit you changed when you didn’t want to. Sometimes instead he poses it as a question; “And do you think it will feel the same if you take it back? Regardless of who and how and why it might be free for you to run again.” Which means fuck how they might feel, how would you feel? “Given one of them is literally your messy ex’s kid - which, don’t get it twisted Flora we’re not old news, they copied us with the whole aging straight into the sexy-age-bracket thing - I’m gonna give a fat Fuck No on the working with them thing personally.” He wrinkles his nose to really drive the point home because if he pinches her again she might cave in his chest next time with all the poking and pushing.
The fingers in her hair catch and pull gently to grab attention he already has. “You ran it when you couldn’t be queen. But you are now. And yeah you’re a bit lost but guess what? Shady or not, you have the power to evict and dare I say exile them if you wanted. That’s also something you built - y’know, by being a kickass queen well before you had to take a little vacay.” He manfully doesn’t say the ‘duh’ out loud but its presence is felt.
Wrapping his arm tighter around her shoulders where she has readjusted against him, Enzo drops a kiss to her temple and lingers there to murmur nearer to her ear. “Don’t go to a safe place that you love so much every day just to see one lost love’s child be happy because she’s dating another lost love. You’ll never be able to step foot in there again by the end.” He kisses her temple again and hides his forlorn sigh in a soft gust of an exhale. “Put your own heart first this time. If things changed for you but not for him, then it’s definitely gonna hurt more than it’s gonna help.”
And in the background of it all Enzo files the two names away for that ‘someday soon’.
When she then smashes his face into the shape of an anaphylactic puffer fish’s kisser, Enzo can only think yeah, fair. But he obnoxiously peels his lips back to look even more ridiculous while clacking his teeth with the little leverage he has, going mlah, mlem, mlooooh. The last being ‘no’ of course because he doesn’t deserve this treatment after three seconds of fair punishment.
Upon release he pouts fiercely. “Don’t damage the goods! It’s all I’ve got in the afterlife!” They don’t even get their own magic. Well, that he can remember.
There’s surprisingly no sour twist in his stomach at the idea of Mystery Boy coming close to truly knowing her. It’s what he wants for her, sincerely, and though Enzo is a shamelessly selfish man he is also overly confident - especially when it comes to his place in Flora’s heart. Which is above any and all others, obviously. It’s why he intends on banning her from giving him nephews or nieces.
With his hands in her hair and her head on his chest as she spills her heart out like dice on a table, it would be easy to trick himself into thinking nothing ever changed. If he had his bed beneath his back they could be transported back in time to when this was a nightly routine. Sometimes she would fall asleep, sometimes Enzo - until she would pinch him awake and whine over him ignoring her. He can’t believe he ever did back then. Now, he hangs on every word and tries to memorize the way shadow falls on her cheeks in the shape of her lashes every time she blinks.
“But do you need it again?” The bar and all the power, purpose, and creativity it gives her. Because what if it isn’t ‘gives’ anymore, but ‘gave’? Risking trying to fit into a safe, comfortable old shape only to find she’d changed too much - with or without her consent - to go back? But for all she’d asked for his brutal honesty Enzo won’t say that. Sometimes it hurts too much to admit you changed when you didn’t want to. Sometimes instead he poses it as a question; “And do you think it will feel the same if you take it back? Regardless of who and how and why it might be free for you to run again.” Which means fuck how they might feel, how would you feel? “Given one of them is literally your messy ex’s kid - which, don’t get it twisted Flora we’re not old news, they copied us with the whole aging straight into the sexy-age-bracket thing - I’m gonna give a fat Fuck No on the working with them thing personally.” He wrinkles his nose to really drive the point home because if he pinches her again she might cave in his chest next time with all the poking and pushing.
The fingers in her hair catch and pull gently to grab attention he already has. “You ran it when you couldn’t be queen. But you are now. And yeah you’re a bit lost but guess what? Shady or not, you have the power to evict and dare I say exile them if you wanted. That’s also something you built - y’know, by being a kickass queen well before you had to take a little vacay.” He manfully doesn’t say the ‘duh’ out loud but its presence is felt.
Wrapping his arm tighter around her shoulders where she has readjusted against him, Enzo drops a kiss to her temple and lingers there to murmur nearer to her ear. “Don’t go to a safe place that you love so much every day just to see one lost love’s child be happy because she’s dating another lost love. You’ll never be able to step foot in there again by the end.” He kisses her temple again and hides his forlorn sigh in a soft gust of an exhale. “Put your own heart first this time. If things changed for you but not for him, then it’s definitely gonna hurt more than it’s gonna help.”
And in the background of it all Enzo files the two names away for that ‘someday soon’.
whether death or distance comes between
there comes a time when everybody leaves
there comes a time when everybody leaves
