When enemies are at your door, I'll carry you way from war
Every bit of new knowledge she hands him is an act of displacement. Worries melt away while new ones firm up, reassurances few and far between. The weight of all her injustices and the immense failures of those around her threaten to crumble in on him, but newfound resolve ladles out what it can. Through it all, ignorance bleeds out to rancor.
Piece by piece, he picks up her history, her truth. The implication of ruin, the way the threat had never needed to bear its teeth to be effective, the purpose that protecting him had given her in the shell of their love. She commits fully and fiercely, and she loves by throwing all of herself over the edge, never once expecting wings to appear but always hoping they might. That she did all this, for Jack, is no surprise, much as Kaisel wishes it had come to different ends before it bore down into her like this.
That was then, and this is now, and now is different. “So,” he says after a beat, tone full of considerations rather than barbs. “What if we post it on all the notice boards? If everyone knows, maybe he does what he said and vanishes.” The idea isn't perfect, but he scratches it out like it's the place to start from. “I don’t want the threat of him hanging like a bad shadow over us forever,” he adds quietly, and there's as much truth to that as there is the cold, slick, vengeance coiling inside him.
As momentous as Jack's reveal is—arguably the catalyst for sparking the next shape of their love—it's her that consumes the moment in full. It always has been. So the monster fades, because right now. Right now, the woman he loves more than anything, has just said yes.
The word lands like something too heavy to have come just on breath alone. Surely, the containment of his whole world can't rest within three, wonderful, perfect letters? Yet the manner in which time stilled, the wait brief but enough to live a lifetime inside of, is the very same one that spins now into something terribly rushed. Maybe that's just his stomach doing that, on second thought, the one he feels like is trying to float up behind his eyes for all the weightlessness he feels. With breath caught between careful hope and eager wonder, he slowly lights up from caution, becoming near incandescent with joy. “Y-yeah?” he exhales, and that first rush is an effort to squeeze past the swell of his heart.
When she nods again, tears spilling freely now, the rest of him gives way. All the tension and fear and uncertainty collapsing into something bright and overwhelming. His hands shake just a little as he slides the ring onto her finger, entirely new and yet looking like it has always been made for her. He can’t help himself after that. He leans in, drawing her down with him as he kisses her with his own anxious tears pinching free at the corners. He claims her with something deep and unhurried, pressing devotion and promise and future into each breathless kiss until they’re sinking together, flat out toward the floor. Laughter catches between breaths, nerves shaking away with a flood of certainty like he's never known. Yes, she said yes!
“I'm so glad I was on my way from picking it up when you wrote,” he says with a soft huff, forehead resting against hers. “Although this was nothing like my plans.” And that feels very fiitting for how loving Flora has gone, because she's effectively tossed most of his plans out the window, and he's never been happier for it, each and every time. “This feels better than what I imagined. Better than perfect. Because I want every day with you, Flora. Even the ridiculously messy ones—the ones where we're sad and on the floor.” he admits, voice rough with emotion. “Especially those ones, because they never feel all that bad as long as I'm with you.” They have clawed out of wreckage before and always stood stronger for it, and though he'd like perhaps the actual wedding day to be upright, he'd not trade any of the moments where they fought for each other. "Because you, my fiancé, make everything better."
His words dissolve into adoration, raw and full as his palm cups her cheek, holding her gaze steady. The smile that breaks across his face feels too big for all the fragility they just escaped, and his breath hangs high in his chest, puffing out slow and low, this moment preserved soft and calm. His thumb brushes against her face again and again like he needs the contact to convince himself this is happening, that they're here and whole and not dreaming. Needing to share every rampant flare of love for her with her, he leans in to kiss her once more, warm and lingering and full of a happiness that still feels a little unreal. His heart pounds hard enough he’s sure she must feel it too, echoing the truth of it all through his ribs. It's them, now and always.
Piece by piece, he picks up her history, her truth. The implication of ruin, the way the threat had never needed to bear its teeth to be effective, the purpose that protecting him had given her in the shell of their love. She commits fully and fiercely, and she loves by throwing all of herself over the edge, never once expecting wings to appear but always hoping they might. That she did all this, for Jack, is no surprise, much as Kaisel wishes it had come to different ends before it bore down into her like this.
That was then, and this is now, and now is different. “So,” he says after a beat, tone full of considerations rather than barbs. “What if we post it on all the notice boards? If everyone knows, maybe he does what he said and vanishes.” The idea isn't perfect, but he scratches it out like it's the place to start from. “I don’t want the threat of him hanging like a bad shadow over us forever,” he adds quietly, and there's as much truth to that as there is the cold, slick, vengeance coiling inside him.
As momentous as Jack's reveal is—arguably the catalyst for sparking the next shape of their love—it's her that consumes the moment in full. It always has been. So the monster fades, because right now. Right now, the woman he loves more than anything, has just said yes.
The word lands like something too heavy to have come just on breath alone. Surely, the containment of his whole world can't rest within three, wonderful, perfect letters? Yet the manner in which time stilled, the wait brief but enough to live a lifetime inside of, is the very same one that spins now into something terribly rushed. Maybe that's just his stomach doing that, on second thought, the one he feels like is trying to float up behind his eyes for all the weightlessness he feels. With breath caught between careful hope and eager wonder, he slowly lights up from caution, becoming near incandescent with joy. “Y-yeah?” he exhales, and that first rush is an effort to squeeze past the swell of his heart.
When she nods again, tears spilling freely now, the rest of him gives way. All the tension and fear and uncertainty collapsing into something bright and overwhelming. His hands shake just a little as he slides the ring onto her finger, entirely new and yet looking like it has always been made for her. He can’t help himself after that. He leans in, drawing her down with him as he kisses her with his own anxious tears pinching free at the corners. He claims her with something deep and unhurried, pressing devotion and promise and future into each breathless kiss until they’re sinking together, flat out toward the floor. Laughter catches between breaths, nerves shaking away with a flood of certainty like he's never known. Yes, she said yes!
“I'm so glad I was on my way from picking it up when you wrote,” he says with a soft huff, forehead resting against hers. “Although this was nothing like my plans.” And that feels very fiitting for how loving Flora has gone, because she's effectively tossed most of his plans out the window, and he's never been happier for it, each and every time. “This feels better than what I imagined. Better than perfect. Because I want every day with you, Flora. Even the ridiculously messy ones—the ones where we're sad and on the floor.” he admits, voice rough with emotion. “Especially those ones, because they never feel all that bad as long as I'm with you.” They have clawed out of wreckage before and always stood stronger for it, and though he'd like perhaps the actual wedding day to be upright, he'd not trade any of the moments where they fought for each other. "Because you, my fiancé, make everything better."
His words dissolve into adoration, raw and full as his palm cups her cheek, holding her gaze steady. The smile that breaks across his face feels too big for all the fragility they just escaped, and his breath hangs high in his chest, puffing out slow and low, this moment preserved soft and calm. His thumb brushes against her face again and again like he needs the contact to convince himself this is happening, that they're here and whole and not dreaming. Needing to share every rampant flare of love for her with her, he leans in to kiss her once more, warm and lingering and full of a happiness that still feels a little unreal. His heart pounds hard enough he’s sure she must feel it too, echoing the truth of it all through his ribs. It's them, now and always.
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
