you wouldn't be the first renegade to need somebody
Flora’s mouth curves immediately at Kai's correction, the shape of it sharp and knowing as she tilts her head just enough to study him, as though reassessing the terms he’s just laid out. "Ohhh, I see," she hums, drawing it out with deliberate slowness, her tone tipping into something far more wicked as her eyes narrow playfully. "So only sub ghosts who are on a leash?" The snicker slips out before she can dress it up into anything more polite, her grin flashing quick and bright as she adds, "didn’t know you had that kink."
The teasing lingers just long enough to soften the edge of everything else, and when he brings up Enzo, something in her expression loosens instead of tightening, the tension unwinding in a way that feels almost unexpected. Her gaze lifts to his, and she nods, echoing him. "Birthday candles," she hums, quieter now, the smile that follows not forced, not borrowed, but something that builds slowly from the inside out, fragile at first and then warmer as it finds its footing. For a moment it feels easy, like standing in sunlight instead of under the storm, at least until Ludo plucks up Sohalia's lantern.
"I don’t—" The words falter, break apart before they can find anything solid to land on, because of course she should be happy, she wants to be happy for Sohalia, and that expectation sits heavy and sharp in her chest, pressing against something far less willing. Her throat tightens around it, the contradiction of it, the way relief and dread and something far more fragile all tangle together until there’s no clean way through. So she turns instead, the motion quick and ungraceful, pressing her face into Kaisel’s chest as though that might block it out, the sight, the moment, the man. The bright yellow of her coat crumples against the orange of his, her fingers curling more firmly into him now, not quite seeking permission and not quite asking for anything at all as she draws in a breath that doesn’t steady so much as it holds, suspended somewhere just beneath breaking.
The teasing lingers just long enough to soften the edge of everything else, and when he brings up Enzo, something in her expression loosens instead of tightening, the tension unwinding in a way that feels almost unexpected. Her gaze lifts to his, and she nods, echoing him. "Birthday candles," she hums, quieter now, the smile that follows not forced, not borrowed, but something that builds slowly from the inside out, fragile at first and then warmer as it finds its footing. For a moment it feels easy, like standing in sunlight instead of under the storm, at least until Ludo plucks up Sohalia's lantern.
"I don’t—" The words falter, break apart before they can find anything solid to land on, because of course she should be happy, she wants to be happy for Sohalia, and that expectation sits heavy and sharp in her chest, pressing against something far less willing. Her throat tightens around it, the contradiction of it, the way relief and dread and something far more fragile all tangle together until there’s no clean way through. So she turns instead, the motion quick and ungraceful, pressing her face into Kaisel’s chest as though that might block it out, the sight, the moment, the man. The bright yellow of her coat crumples against the orange of his, her fingers curling more firmly into him now, not quite seeking permission and not quite asking for anything at all as she draws in a breath that doesn’t steady so much as it holds, suspended somewhere just beneath breaking.
