flora
Flora slides into the chair opposite with a grateful little hum, boots tucking closer to the hearth as if proximity alone might convince the warmth to stay. Her hands wrap around the edge of the table, fingers slowly loosening as feeling creeps back in, and she listens with an attentiveness that is all the more genuine for the playful edge hovering just beneath it.
The story draws her in despite herself. A fire that never goes out, tended across generations, woven into hunts and departures and moments that matter..there is something about that kind of continuity that presses pleasantly against her ribs, much as the stories Vai used to tell her as a girl did. When Nina finishes, Flora leans forward, elbows resting lightly on the table, chin tipping to one side as her smile turns crooked and curious all at once. "Never?" she asks, brows lifting with deliberate emphasis, eyes bright as they search Nina’s face. The word lingers between them, daring and intrigued. "It has never gone out?" Her voice drops just a touch, conspiratorial without being unkind, as if she’s inviting Nina into a shared secret rather than challenging her. "Do you believe that?"
The story draws her in despite herself. A fire that never goes out, tended across generations, woven into hunts and departures and moments that matter..there is something about that kind of continuity that presses pleasantly against her ribs, much as the stories Vai used to tell her as a girl did. When Nina finishes, Flora leans forward, elbows resting lightly on the table, chin tipping to one side as her smile turns crooked and curious all at once. "Never?" she asks, brows lifting with deliberate emphasis, eyes bright as they search Nina’s face. The word lingers between them, daring and intrigued. "It has never gone out?" Her voice drops just a touch, conspiratorial without being unkind, as if she’s inviting Nina into a shared secret rather than challenging her. "Do you believe that?"
and if you'd never come for me, I might've drowned in the melancholy
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up
I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I, Right before you lit my sky up
