When enemies are at your door, I'll carry you way from war
The ring glimmers with a low light, reminiscent of fireflies rising like winking hope amid the dark.
Something more that could be done. Maybe not a true shield or fix, but better than just being laid open like a book, better than blurry. The relief is brief. It collapses into something far more dangerous as her warning surges, no better than seafoam amid the shove and pull of this tide. Maybe being aboard a boat had been a bad call.
His body tightens all at once. Understanding, more than surprise, cinches down. The secrecy. The struggle to say it. The way she’d carried it all this time. His jaw works, muscles pulling taut along his neck as a cold, steady fury rolls through him, so controlled it almost feels calm. “Is that why you kept his secret?” he asks quietly. “Did he, threaten you, Flora?” The loathing that grinds through his chest provides such a discomforting pressure he has to actively manage it. Kaisel drags a hand up through his hair, the movement trembling in it’s sweep until he exhales hard through his nose.
“No, no.” His hand drops with a stiff shake of his head. “You’re definitely keeping it,” he says firmly, leaving no room for argument. “And I’ll get one too.” Anger and the underlying hum of panic bleed off into planning. “We’ll make them as strong as we can,” he continues, low and certain. “Strong enough that he never gets that close again.” The sound barely rises above a murmur, pitched low and rough in a way that vibrates against the back of his teeth. Whatever anger sits beneath it has already settled into something colder and more deliberate. This threat has been seen, and it will be answered.
The disbelief in voice hits harder than anything else she’s said, and for a moment, all the noise in his head goes quiet. He doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t soften it, the force of his conviction coming through in the full force of the rushed truth. “I never plan for us to say goodbye again. I let go of you once already, I won’t make that mistake twice.” Not a promise shaped for comfort, it’s a decision, one he made the moment he first told her he loved her on the beach.
The thread of her fingers with him, locking into place like something sure when everything has felt opposite of that, flares hope too fast and too bright. Instinctively he wants to look away from it, afraid it’ll vanish if he stares too hard, but he holds it in his peripheral as he keeps her eyeline. With every word she says, the impossible fear of there being something other than them unravels.
Relief overwhelms him and he folds more around her, leaning into her and holding her with equal brace, balanced together. A sound that’s half laugh and half sob, all wonder, tears loose from his chest and her name slips out like it belongs to a god. “Flora…” He clings for a heartbeat longer than he means to, grounding himself in the reality of her before he dares to pull back. When he does, it’s only enough to look at her, copper eyes bright and unguarded. “Only you,” he says, voice rough with feeling. “I pick us. Every time. Forever.”
He draws back abruptly, breath still uneven, one hand slipping into his pocket with a nervous, deliberate motion that sends his pulse skidding all over again. When his fingers close around the small box there, the nerves morph into something steadier. “Let’s build our own secret,” he says softly, almost reverent. “A good one.”
He opens the box and holds it up between them, hands trembling but sure, the ring catching the light like it’s always belonged there. “Marry me,” he says, breathless and earnest all at once. “Today. As soon as we can.” A crooked, hopeful edge creeps into his voice. “We can have a real wedding later. For everyone, but I’ve only ever needed you.”
Kaisel gives Flora
Everblooming Band | A gold engagement ring shaped from delicate interwoven vines, set with a central diamond and accented by alternating opal and rose-quartz stones like tiny petals, with a few peridot stones in the band like leaves. At sunrise each day, produces one fresh, random flower. Works only for Flora.
Something more that could be done. Maybe not a true shield or fix, but better than just being laid open like a book, better than blurry. The relief is brief. It collapses into something far more dangerous as her warning surges, no better than seafoam amid the shove and pull of this tide. Maybe being aboard a boat had been a bad call.
His body tightens all at once. Understanding, more than surprise, cinches down. The secrecy. The struggle to say it. The way she’d carried it all this time. His jaw works, muscles pulling taut along his neck as a cold, steady fury rolls through him, so controlled it almost feels calm. “Is that why you kept his secret?” he asks quietly. “Did he, threaten you, Flora?” The loathing that grinds through his chest provides such a discomforting pressure he has to actively manage it. Kaisel drags a hand up through his hair, the movement trembling in it’s sweep until he exhales hard through his nose.
“No, no.” His hand drops with a stiff shake of his head. “You’re definitely keeping it,” he says firmly, leaving no room for argument. “And I’ll get one too.” Anger and the underlying hum of panic bleed off into planning. “We’ll make them as strong as we can,” he continues, low and certain. “Strong enough that he never gets that close again.” The sound barely rises above a murmur, pitched low and rough in a way that vibrates against the back of his teeth. Whatever anger sits beneath it has already settled into something colder and more deliberate. This threat has been seen, and it will be answered.
The disbelief in voice hits harder than anything else she’s said, and for a moment, all the noise in his head goes quiet. He doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t soften it, the force of his conviction coming through in the full force of the rushed truth. “I never plan for us to say goodbye again. I let go of you once already, I won’t make that mistake twice.” Not a promise shaped for comfort, it’s a decision, one he made the moment he first told her he loved her on the beach.
The thread of her fingers with him, locking into place like something sure when everything has felt opposite of that, flares hope too fast and too bright. Instinctively he wants to look away from it, afraid it’ll vanish if he stares too hard, but he holds it in his peripheral as he keeps her eyeline. With every word she says, the impossible fear of there being something other than them unravels.
Relief overwhelms him and he folds more around her, leaning into her and holding her with equal brace, balanced together. A sound that’s half laugh and half sob, all wonder, tears loose from his chest and her name slips out like it belongs to a god. “Flora…” He clings for a heartbeat longer than he means to, grounding himself in the reality of her before he dares to pull back. When he does, it’s only enough to look at her, copper eyes bright and unguarded. “Only you,” he says, voice rough with feeling. “I pick us. Every time. Forever.”
He draws back abruptly, breath still uneven, one hand slipping into his pocket with a nervous, deliberate motion that sends his pulse skidding all over again. When his fingers close around the small box there, the nerves morph into something steadier. “Let’s build our own secret,” he says softly, almost reverent. “A good one.”
He opens the box and holds it up between them, hands trembling but sure, the ring catching the light like it’s always belonged there. “Marry me,” he says, breathless and earnest all at once. “Today. As soon as we can.” A crooked, hopeful edge creeps into his voice. “We can have a real wedding later. For everyone, but I’ve only ever needed you.”
Kaisel gives Flora
Everblooming Band | A gold engagement ring shaped from delicate interwoven vines, set with a central diamond and accented by alternating opal and rose-quartz stones like tiny petals, with a few peridot stones in the band like leaves. At sunrise each day, produces one fresh, random flower. Works only for Flora.
Kaisel
If you need help, I'll shut down the city lights
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
