Flora
Flora huffs softly, the sound warm and fond as she shakes her head, her braid shifting against her shoulder with the motion. "Nooo," she drawls, the word stretching out with affectionate disbelief before her smile tilts into something a little sharper, a little more knowing. "But that says way more about you than it does about him." She bumps Soh lightly with her hip as they walk, like she’s nudging her friend back into herself rather than letting her orbit something long since gone. The rain beads along the edge of her sleeve as she reaches down for another shell, turning it over between her fingers before deciding it’s only half-interesting and tossing it back toward the tide.
As Soh continues, Flora listens with a thoughtful sort of quiet, her expression softening at the edges while her gaze tracks the shoreline. There’s something familiar in the way Soh describes it, that careful balancing act between wanting something and not wanting to be swallowed by it too quickly. "I get that too," she says, glancing over with a small, wry smile. "After Jack, even the most basic nice things Kai did felt like—" she exhales a quiet laugh, shaking her head as though the memory still catches somewhere between absurd and tender, "—like he’d hung the moon just for me, when in reality all he'd done was ask about my day and actually listen." Her fingers hook briefly into the handle of the basket as it swings at her side, the shells inside clicking softly together.
"But just..." she adds, her tone gentling without losing its steadiness, "don’t let Koa setting the bar on the ground mean that’s where it stays for Zavien, okay?" The words are light enough on the surface, but there’s something firmer beneath them, a quiet insistence that Soh deserves more than simply better than before. Flora doesn’t say anything else about it, though the thought lingers, flickering briefly through her mind; Zavien’s easy charm not quite enough to erase the memory of past sharp edges, the way he’d handled things before, the way he was clearly unwilling to bury the hatchet with Kai over something he'd started.
She bends again to scoop up another shell, this one pale and smooth, before straightening and glancing back toward Sohalia as the conversation shifts. Flora nods slowly at first, because yes—losing the weight of something like Stormbreak would make anyone feel lighter, freer, like they’d been unhooked from something dragging at their ribs—but then one brow lifts. "And that doesn’t strike you as weird?" she asks, tilting her head slightly, the question gentle but edged with curiosity as her eyes search Soh’s face. "I mean...if I hadn't come onto Kai, nothing would have ever happened with us, and given how strongly Zavien reacted about it, it seems a bit...I dunno...I mean, to not do something, then one day suddenly be all over you out of the blue and the next day wake up worried again?"
As Soh continues, Flora listens with a thoughtful sort of quiet, her expression softening at the edges while her gaze tracks the shoreline. There’s something familiar in the way Soh describes it, that careful balancing act between wanting something and not wanting to be swallowed by it too quickly. "I get that too," she says, glancing over with a small, wry smile. "After Jack, even the most basic nice things Kai did felt like—" she exhales a quiet laugh, shaking her head as though the memory still catches somewhere between absurd and tender, "—like he’d hung the moon just for me, when in reality all he'd done was ask about my day and actually listen." Her fingers hook briefly into the handle of the basket as it swings at her side, the shells inside clicking softly together.
"But just..." she adds, her tone gentling without losing its steadiness, "don’t let Koa setting the bar on the ground mean that’s where it stays for Zavien, okay?" The words are light enough on the surface, but there’s something firmer beneath them, a quiet insistence that Soh deserves more than simply better than before. Flora doesn’t say anything else about it, though the thought lingers, flickering briefly through her mind; Zavien’s easy charm not quite enough to erase the memory of past sharp edges, the way he’d handled things before, the way he was clearly unwilling to bury the hatchet with Kai over something he'd started.
She bends again to scoop up another shell, this one pale and smooth, before straightening and glancing back toward Sohalia as the conversation shifts. Flora nods slowly at first, because yes—losing the weight of something like Stormbreak would make anyone feel lighter, freer, like they’d been unhooked from something dragging at their ribs—but then one brow lifts. "And that doesn’t strike you as weird?" she asks, tilting her head slightly, the question gentle but edged with curiosity as her eyes search Soh’s face. "I mean...if I hadn't come onto Kai, nothing would have ever happened with us, and given how strongly Zavien reacted about it, it seems a bit...I dunno...I mean, to not do something, then one day suddenly be all over you out of the blue and the next day wake up worried again?"
There's somethin' warm about the winter when you come around
there's nothin' boujee 'bout you cozy as a hand me down
there's nothin' boujee 'bout you cozy as a hand me down
Code stolen from Queen Sky
