firing across the sky [OPEN]

a s h e Ashe blinked slowly at the brush of Kalt's thumb over her lip, and her eyes only flickered to his hand to see it come away red. She didn't want to think about the familiarity of that sight. Instead she turned her eyes back to the window, struggling to focus on the panes. The sound of heavy rain in the wind thrashed against the temple with another bright flash, and Ashe's body rippled with sparks of pale blue. There was murky dark somewhere in her head that lingered so close, close enough to sink down, and down, and down into and never find her way back up. Ashe was going to bury her face into Kalt, to lose herself in being held until she was sober enough to draw away, but she froze at his firm command. Ashe blinked and let out a soft breath then as Kalt shifted her and himself.. and she obeyed, looking up at him, listened to him. As he spoke, the harder her heart pounded, the harder it got to breathe. ”Don't look away, I don't care how hard it is.” She fought her desire to tear her eyes from his right then, to look anywhere but at the raw fire in his eyes, fire she knew had been snuffed out in her. And gods, she was shaking, bones rattling hard enough that she would come apart completely… but she didn't look away. No, she thought, and she thought about bolting just then, she knew he wouldn't accept her sliding past what he was asking of her and carefully moving around his words. So she could run, she … There isn't a single person alive who I would rather have by my side. Gods, oh gods - Do you truly, honestly want to be alone? Her lips parted, and the only thing that came from her was a soft and shaking breath of air. She couldn't think, couldn't speak, trapped in a roaring silence that blocked out even the storm. Ashe's breath was hard to keep, chest rising and falling as she stared up at Kalt with something that might have resembled fear. Not of him, but what he asked, the answer she skirted around every time this was asked of her. Did she want to be alone? She isolated herself so thoroughly, so determinedly that it had become her new normal, as it should be. She should be alone, deserved to be, and no one deserved to be subject to the collateral of her inevitable self destruction. She should tell him to go, tell him that she needed to be alone, wanted to be. She had been isolating herself for a reason, a damn good one, she had to be left alone. Ashe had started right, when she first turned on the Guild. She'd gone into the King's dungeons with no intention of leaving that castle alive, that was supposed to be the end of the road, finally an end to her worthless life. But.. she'd been given a second chance. A second chance she never fucking deserved. She was a black stain in the world, and she had proven it. Over and over and over again she proved the pattern she wasn't sure she would ever break: destruction of herself and the fallout everyone close to her suffered. She never looked away from him, not even as silver lined her eyes and the world felt like it was dipping and swaying from where she lay against him. Her heart thundered in her chest in an erratic rhythm with every silent moment, the quiet filled with only her breathing, the rain, the roiling thunder. Yes, I want to be alone, I have to be. Leave, just leave - Ashe's heart flung itself forward and she leaned up faster than she could think, and she claimed his lips with hers. Electricity rippled from her, through her, through him, and she felt something searing hot pour into her veins. At first the kiss was a desperate thing, because it was Kalt, and he was here, he was here, he was here. Reason was so far from her, and every nerve was alive with electrical currents, lightning flickering in her skin as she kissed him. She parted her mouth from his, but her eyes stayed closed for a moment longer. Think tomorrow, she thought. Her head was spinning, but she couldn't discern what it was just then that intoxicated her. Finally her eyes flickered open, looking up at Kalt, and thunder rumbled outside as she met his eyes. ”Stay,” she quietly pleaded.