flora
Flora’s mouth pulls into a small frown as the memory resurfaces, the House of Midnight dim and heavy with things neither of them had said, the way she and Koa had simply stood there letting history hover between them like fog neither could quite step through. The thought barely has time to settle before Kai admits he told Koa to go after her again, and the sound that leaves her is an exaggerated groan, head tipping back as she reaches up to flick the metal rim of the strainer perched on his head. "You are the worst," she declares, half fuming and half laughing, the word sharp but fond, before the humour drains just enough for her to look back at him more seriously. "You would have ruined both of our lives if he’d actually listened to you," she adds, softer now, the truth of it threading through the tease.
Her fingers stay splayed against his chest as he keeps talking, feeling the steady proof of him there beneath her palm, and something deep and quiet settles into place the longer he speaks, a sense of inevitability that has nothing to do with rings or ceremonies or even the fact that they’re married now. It reaches further back than that, all the way to the centre of her, to a place that feels ancient and sure, as if there was never really another ending available to her no matter how many wrong turns she took along the way. When she answers him this time there’s no smile tugging at it, no joke to soften the edges, only the weight of it spoken cleanly. "I love every moment of everything with you," she says, and it isn’t something she’s saying for reassurance or romance, but because it feels as true as bone.
She snickers at his agreement, her mind immediately sprinting somewhere filthy, amusement lighting her features, only for it to falter, then slide into uncertainty, then confusion, and finally something close to horror as his last question lands. Her eyes widen, mouth parting as she shakes her head slowly, disbelief rippling through her. "No...no, but I quested for it," she says, the words tumbling out almost defensively, as if saying them again might make them solid. "Ludo wouldn’t..it.." The protest dies halfway through as the realization hits, sharp and sickening, because of course Ludo could have, because of course a trickster herald might promise one thing and deliver another. A shiver runs through her, not from cold but from the sudden vertigo of it, her fingers turning cool where they rest in Kai’s hand as she looks back at him, searching his face. Slowly, carefully, she asks, "Why do you think Koa might still remember?"
Her fingers stay splayed against his chest as he keeps talking, feeling the steady proof of him there beneath her palm, and something deep and quiet settles into place the longer he speaks, a sense of inevitability that has nothing to do with rings or ceremonies or even the fact that they’re married now. It reaches further back than that, all the way to the centre of her, to a place that feels ancient and sure, as if there was never really another ending available to her no matter how many wrong turns she took along the way. When she answers him this time there’s no smile tugging at it, no joke to soften the edges, only the weight of it spoken cleanly. "I love every moment of everything with you," she says, and it isn’t something she’s saying for reassurance or romance, but because it feels as true as bone.
She snickers at his agreement, her mind immediately sprinting somewhere filthy, amusement lighting her features, only for it to falter, then slide into uncertainty, then confusion, and finally something close to horror as his last question lands. Her eyes widen, mouth parting as she shakes her head slowly, disbelief rippling through her. "No...no, but I quested for it," she says, the words tumbling out almost defensively, as if saying them again might make them solid. "Ludo wouldn’t..it.." The protest dies halfway through as the realization hits, sharp and sickening, because of course Ludo could have, because of course a trickster herald might promise one thing and deliver another. A shiver runs through her, not from cold but from the sudden vertigo of it, her fingers turning cool where they rest in Kai’s hand as she looks back at him, searching his face. Slowly, carefully, she asks, "Why do you think Koa might still remember?"
you don't know that you're living til' you're carrying scars
you're either falling in love or falling apart
you're either falling in love or falling apart
