with each love i cut loose i was never the same
Flora shrugs, not entirely sure if Maea’s being serious but willing to roll with it anyway. "Honestly? A lot of practice in front of a mirror," she admits, grinning crookedly as she glances over her shoulder at the ancient. "The number of hours I’ve spent making sure my smile looks exactly the way I want it so that I can fool people into thinking things are fine..." She trails off with a little shake of her head, curls bouncing. "Faking it ‘til you make it isn’t that hard if there’s at least one person actually on your side. For me, it was always Enzo. Maybe now that you’ve got Liam, he can be that for you."
She listens to Maea’s rundown of the whole fireproof-body thing with a nod, wrinkling her nose at the idea of “fulfillment” in the way Maea framed it. "If I don’t know what I’m missing, it’s not like I can really compare, right? But...flying does sound pretty epic." There’s a wistfulness in her tone, a rare softness she doesn’t usually let linger before she shrugs it away again.
Her gaze tracks a pair of drifting will-o-wisps until they disappear back into the underbrush. Then she sighs. "I think I’m about done with flower-searching for the day. I think I'll sweet-talk the woods into taking me to my friend Niki’s house, but maybe you and I can pick it up again another day?"
Flora flashes Maea a genuine smile, bright as lantern-light. "I really do appreciate your help today," she says, voice gentler now. She lifts her hand in a casual wave before turning to head off, curls bouncing and boots crunching through the leaves as she goes.
~FIN
She listens to Maea’s rundown of the whole fireproof-body thing with a nod, wrinkling her nose at the idea of “fulfillment” in the way Maea framed it. "If I don’t know what I’m missing, it’s not like I can really compare, right? But...flying does sound pretty epic." There’s a wistfulness in her tone, a rare softness she doesn’t usually let linger before she shrugs it away again.
Her gaze tracks a pair of drifting will-o-wisps until they disappear back into the underbrush. Then she sighs. "I think I’m about done with flower-searching for the day. I think I'll sweet-talk the woods into taking me to my friend Niki’s house, but maybe you and I can pick it up again another day?"
Flora flashes Maea a genuine smile, bright as lantern-light. "I really do appreciate your help today," she says, voice gentler now. She lifts her hand in a casual wave before turning to head off, curls bouncing and boots crunching through the leaves as she goes.
~FIN
