slow down, you're doing fine
Flora doesn’t rush to contradict Kaisel, because the truth hangs between them with the kind of wry honesty she’s learned not to sugarcoat; the night had been ruined, or at least knocked entirely off its rails, but that had never been the same thing as blame in her books. Chaos could be born from anything under a Blood Moon, and guilt wasn’t something she planned on letting Kai drag around behind him like a broken net.
As he loops his arm through hers, the instinctive tightening of her own is immediate, a happy little flex of connection that warms her far more than the clammy morning air. The feel of him pressed close after everything they’d stumbled through steadies something inside her that had felt slightly adrift since last night, and she lets that small, radiant smile bloom as bright as any sunrise Torchline could offer.
"I honestly think your drink was spiked," she says, voice light as she guides them around a puddle deep enough to swallow a boot whole. She glances up at him with a thoughtful tilt of her head, curls darkening in the drizzle, and lets her shoulders lift in an easy shrug that makes the idea seem perfectly reasonable. "Or maybe someone cursed you a little. Could have been either." There’s the faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth as she considers the likelihood of Caly or Jack doing something like that and the fact that she hadn’t spotted either of them doesn’t mean a thing in a crowd that breathed chaos.
Flora beams up at him again with renewed brightness. "Either way, it wasn’t you," she adds, as many times as it takes, nudging his shoulder with a reassuring sweep of warmth before letting humour slip in. "And if anything, Asta was probably just worried about his shirt. He takes his fashion very seriously."
Her stomach gives a theatrical little protest at his mention of pancakes, and she hums an indulgent mmmmmmmmmm that rounds itself into a pleased sound as she steers them across the lane. Mud squelches beneath their boots while the welcoming glow of a small breakfast boutique comes into view, its hanging signs boasting FRESH SQUEEZED JUICES and PANCAKES AS BIG AS PIZZAS in cheerful lettering that cuts through the gloom of the morning like a promise she fully intends to keep.
As he loops his arm through hers, the instinctive tightening of her own is immediate, a happy little flex of connection that warms her far more than the clammy morning air. The feel of him pressed close after everything they’d stumbled through steadies something inside her that had felt slightly adrift since last night, and she lets that small, radiant smile bloom as bright as any sunrise Torchline could offer.
"I honestly think your drink was spiked," she says, voice light as she guides them around a puddle deep enough to swallow a boot whole. She glances up at him with a thoughtful tilt of her head, curls darkening in the drizzle, and lets her shoulders lift in an easy shrug that makes the idea seem perfectly reasonable. "Or maybe someone cursed you a little. Could have been either." There’s the faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth as she considers the likelihood of Caly or Jack doing something like that and the fact that she hadn’t spotted either of them doesn’t mean a thing in a crowd that breathed chaos.
Flora beams up at him again with renewed brightness. "Either way, it wasn’t you," she adds, as many times as it takes, nudging his shoulder with a reassuring sweep of warmth before letting humour slip in. "And if anything, Asta was probably just worried about his shirt. He takes his fashion very seriously."
Her stomach gives a theatrical little protest at his mention of pancakes, and she hums an indulgent mmmmmmmmmm that rounds itself into a pleased sound as she steers them across the lane. Mud squelches beneath their boots while the welcoming glow of a small breakfast boutique comes into view, its hanging signs boasting FRESH SQUEEZED JUICES and PANCAKES AS BIG AS PIZZAS in cheerful lettering that cuts through the gloom of the morning like a promise she fully intends to keep.
Flora
you can't be everything you wanna be before your time
