firing across the sky [OPEN]

a s h e Don’t deflect. Ashe furrowed her brow at that, her heart stalling for just a moment. ”I’m not deflecting,” she hissed. His eyes were unwavering, but she stubbornly held it, narrowing her eyes at him. He didn’t answer her question, hadn’t answered any of her questions, and seemed entirely intent on making her talk about her feelings. She didn’t need to do that, didn’t want to, couldn’t. Not about that. She’d told plenty of people what she was, who she was. Hadn’t she? Her mother knew more than anyone in their family, perhaps got a closer look at her pain than most. Dev.. she told him very little, but he knew her scars, her demons. And Al - Ashe looked down sharply from Kalt’s smile. This pain was hers. It was meant to fester in her, eat her alive. No one needed to know the depth of her shame, how it extended so far beyond taking lives. You don’t have to be strong all the time, Ashe, he’d said. She never had been. Not once. He knew her, had been there with her through it all - he saw her weakness. She glanced up to him, to his chest, as if she could see the scar she knew to be there. Her eyes flickered up to his face at the sound of his voice through the rain outside, and she froze when he reached a hand out towards her. Her lips parted for a moment, and she looked back up at him with wary eyes. Sit with me like you would have two years ago. Her chest swelled as her heart suddenly thundered in her chest, but she didn’t look away from him. Run. This was about when she should run, should leave, should cut this off before it went any further… but she frowned at herself. He was right. She turned and glanced down to the temple below, to that shrine, then assessed her escape routes. He’d have her - she wasn’t so drunk to think she could actually get away in this state, or do any real fighting. Stubborn as ever, he wasn’t going to let her run. Ashe let out a long and deep sigh before she turned to look back at Kalt. She considered him in silence for a moment, his grin and the hand he held out to her. A crash of thunder rattled the temple after a brilliant flash illuminated the pair through the window, and she didn’t look away from him. Not even as she reached out a slipped a scarred hand into his. Ashe didn’t let herself consider what she was doing as she pulled herself forward. She world tilted around her for a moment as she moved towards him, and her grip tightened on his hand as she nearly lost her balance with a quiet gasp. Maybe drinking in the rafters of a vaulted temple hadn’t been the best idea she’d ever had. She managed to rover herself at least, and in a few moments.. The raven-haired girl eased herself to sit between Kalt’s legs, cautiously laying back against his chest. She was holding her breath at first, stiff, afraid to let herself settle against the solid mass of him behind her. A soft tremor rippled through her, forcing her shaking breath from her lips. He smelled like cigar smoke, like rain, and distant pines with sea breezes. Ashe shut her eyes and made herself breathe steadily, and she finally relented. She settled back against Silver Wing with a long exhale, nestling herself against him. For a second, they were both infamous assassins again, staying away from the Keep or out on contract and waiting out a storm before returning home. Ashe didn’t speak at first, staring out into the storm as she tried to absorb what was happening: Kalt holding her. Letting it happen. She couldn’t help the way she sunk into him, and she wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol that made her body feel so heavy, or knowing that her only other physical contact had been with her mother, over a week ago. ”Tell me about your magic,” she said quietly, her voice barely carrying above the storm outside.