slow down, you're doing fine
Flora lifts her chin with such imperious triumph that it almost feels like she should have a crown on, her brows rising in a regal arc as she declares, "DEAL." The word lands bright as gold leaf. "But first," she continues, tapping his chest with a fingertip that pretends to scold when really it just wants an excuse to touch him again, "you’ll have to convince Sohalia to let you ride her, which—good luck. And second..." Her grin sharpens, wicked and delighted in the way only he ever gets to see. "I’ll just ask Ronin or Sunjata if I can ride them. And I promise," she adds with an infuriatingly smug flutter of lashes, "they won’t bounce me around."
Flora can feel a quiet shift inside of herself; the steady unwinding of an old knot she’d kept looped tight since she was a girl with too many ghosts and not enough certainty. Hearing Kai say he likes being a soldier because it lets him test himself makes something deep in her chest warm and tighten at once, as though her heart has wrapped gentle fingers around the thought to tuck it away and keep it safe. "Trying to get better, with you, sounds..." she murmurs, her voice dipping into something quieter, something vulnerable enough that she has to swallow gently before finishing. She never finds the non-cheesy word she's looking for—nothing fits that doesn’t feel too small for what the idea actually means to her—so instead she just looks up at him, eyes shining with the weightless sweetness of possibility. The sentence lands unfinished, held in the space between them the same way their fingers lace: open, certain, full.
But then of course she ruins it by asking the most mortifying question she’s ever let cross her lips.
Kai’s startled recoil is so immediate that Flora lets out a strangled, nervous little huff of laughter before she can stop it. "I just needed to be sure!" she blurts, heat blooming painfully across her cheeks. To hide her embarrassment, she lets herself collapse sideways, forehead thunking gently against his shoulder with all the subtlety of a dropped book. "Gods," she groans into his shirt, voice muffled and miserable and absolutely dramatic. "This is so embarrassing, you have no idea."
She peeks up at him, mortified, her aqua eyes wide and shimmering. "It’s just...so many people I know have, and..." Her eyes widen emphatically, because in fact there's just one person she's thinking of, but she isn't inclined to say his name right now. "I guess this seemed as good a time as any to be sure?"
Flora can feel a quiet shift inside of herself; the steady unwinding of an old knot she’d kept looped tight since she was a girl with too many ghosts and not enough certainty. Hearing Kai say he likes being a soldier because it lets him test himself makes something deep in her chest warm and tighten at once, as though her heart has wrapped gentle fingers around the thought to tuck it away and keep it safe. "Trying to get better, with you, sounds..." she murmurs, her voice dipping into something quieter, something vulnerable enough that she has to swallow gently before finishing. She never finds the non-cheesy word she's looking for—nothing fits that doesn’t feel too small for what the idea actually means to her—so instead she just looks up at him, eyes shining with the weightless sweetness of possibility. The sentence lands unfinished, held in the space between them the same way their fingers lace: open, certain, full.
But then of course she ruins it by asking the most mortifying question she’s ever let cross her lips.
Kai’s startled recoil is so immediate that Flora lets out a strangled, nervous little huff of laughter before she can stop it. "I just needed to be sure!" she blurts, heat blooming painfully across her cheeks. To hide her embarrassment, she lets herself collapse sideways, forehead thunking gently against his shoulder with all the subtlety of a dropped book. "Gods," she groans into his shirt, voice muffled and miserable and absolutely dramatic. "This is so embarrassing, you have no idea."
She peeks up at him, mortified, her aqua eyes wide and shimmering. "It’s just...so many people I know have, and..." Her eyes widen emphatically, because in fact there's just one person she's thinking of, but she isn't inclined to say his name right now. "I guess this seemed as good a time as any to be sure?"
Flora
you can't be everything you wanna be before your time
