See I'm never gonna quit, got my legacy set in motion
It's understandable how people believe in something like fate, although he never really has. A sense of destiny and the pulling of strings by forces too complex and massive to even fathom are easier comforts to bear than the random possibility of everything. Because what if he hadn't gone to her that night? With Noe in barely manageable pieces after being cured and Koa fragmenting beside her, staying there with them would have made sense. The night had already worn into late, the day taxing after the brush with violence, and yet he couldn't have slept if he'd tried without seeing her first. That alone could be likened to a divine hand tugging him to her, because otherwise did it truly come down to a moment, so easily altered with just a small choice? From that one, the impossible branching strands of all the choices thereafter that had to happen, only one path sure to lead him exactly here. If he'd let Bassian scare him off, or declined the offer to stay, or if she'd never kissed him. What would they be, then?
Her assessment of ruin isn't one he can fully agree with. Not when she'd been the one brave enough to try. She'd let him glimpse some vulnerability and he'd urged her to cover it back up like it was a secret he shouldn't have seen. Jack only posed a risk when Kaisel hadn't been willing to take one. Fortunately, they didn't succumb entirely to his fuck ups, but he can still groan about them, and does so now.
The small clasp of his sleeve that she tugs to keep herself firmly with him serves a purpose similar to being pinched when clarifying dreaming and waking. It pulls him from the past to the present, to the reality of her warmth and the quiet words she exchanges like pawn shop goods—small parcels of meaningful pieces that aren't valued high enough by most for what they're truly worth. He does though, value them. Because even if they're married now and more surefooted than ever before, it's never easy to strip yourself down to just the secret ingredients, to the little truths and wants that compromise more of your soul than you ever want to notice, much less let anyone else. "You do have incredible grip strength," he concludes with a small smile, the bond shivering with the more honest feeling of relief. It's as rich and warmed as gourmet hot cocoa, stirring through him with a cozy quality as he peeks over at her. Held impossibly perfect in the adoring cradle of her gaze, he can't imagine now how he would have managed a life different than this, and he's relieved he doesn't have to. "And I'm glad for it." If it had just been the little piece of her, he would have been glad for at least that, too. Though it would have been like a rock in his shoe, impossible to ignore despite the small size, and whatever distance they kept, she would have been there still with every step.
A small laugh puffs out into the wrinkle his lean sets into her shirt. "It was rhetorical," he hums, amusement a welcome crack against the swelling affection for her that threatens to thicken his throat otherwise. Inhaling, the scent of the room from that night drawn in with all its lilac and salt, he tells her now what he should have told her then. "I thought, let me keep her." His voice keeps the sort of quiet that's only meant for two people, too delicate to bear too much notice otherwise. "Because in that moment, I knew I wanted you by my side for the rest of my life. Not just for kissing, but for everything life would throw at us. It's always been you for me." That night had been the first time it felt possible, everything else before just imagined. The reality that he let the morning strip it away is one he'll never not regret, and he'd spend every morning he could with her now lazy and tangled, unwilling to give it up ever again.
Her assessment of ruin isn't one he can fully agree with. Not when she'd been the one brave enough to try. She'd let him glimpse some vulnerability and he'd urged her to cover it back up like it was a secret he shouldn't have seen. Jack only posed a risk when Kaisel hadn't been willing to take one. Fortunately, they didn't succumb entirely to his fuck ups, but he can still groan about them, and does so now.
The small clasp of his sleeve that she tugs to keep herself firmly with him serves a purpose similar to being pinched when clarifying dreaming and waking. It pulls him from the past to the present, to the reality of her warmth and the quiet words she exchanges like pawn shop goods—small parcels of meaningful pieces that aren't valued high enough by most for what they're truly worth. He does though, value them. Because even if they're married now and more surefooted than ever before, it's never easy to strip yourself down to just the secret ingredients, to the little truths and wants that compromise more of your soul than you ever want to notice, much less let anyone else. "You do have incredible grip strength," he concludes with a small smile, the bond shivering with the more honest feeling of relief. It's as rich and warmed as gourmet hot cocoa, stirring through him with a cozy quality as he peeks over at her. Held impossibly perfect in the adoring cradle of her gaze, he can't imagine now how he would have managed a life different than this, and he's relieved he doesn't have to. "And I'm glad for it." If it had just been the little piece of her, he would have been glad for at least that, too. Though it would have been like a rock in his shoe, impossible to ignore despite the small size, and whatever distance they kept, she would have been there still with every step.
A small laugh puffs out into the wrinkle his lean sets into her shirt. "It was rhetorical," he hums, amusement a welcome crack against the swelling affection for her that threatens to thicken his throat otherwise. Inhaling, the scent of the room from that night drawn in with all its lilac and salt, he tells her now what he should have told her then. "I thought, let me keep her." His voice keeps the sort of quiet that's only meant for two people, too delicate to bear too much notice otherwise. "Because in that moment, I knew I wanted you by my side for the rest of my life. Not just for kissing, but for everything life would throw at us. It's always been you for me." That night had been the first time it felt possible, everything else before just imagined. The reality that he let the morning strip it away is one he'll never not regret, and he'd spend every morning he could with her now lazy and tangled, unwilling to give it up ever again.
Kaisel
I've only just begun, I won't stop until it's done
Wearing a watery blue, faded and stretched-out sparkling hair tie on his left wrist
