We have highs and we have lows

KIADA

your battleworn tongue doesn't say the truth;

that you are ruined

It’s like ripping off a bandaid, the wound pulling in the air around it, stinging and painful, aching but only to heal. And it sucks, honestly, but at least she has Chulane there as well as Deimos and Amalia to make it bearable. She’s tired of losing people, tired of getting close and losing them. If she holds Chulane’s hand a bit too tight this time, she pretends to not notice – as if she might let go of his hand and he disappear too.

Her head tilts toward him, tired blue eyes searching his face as he asks her what she’d have said. And she contemplates it, swallowing hard and taking a few deep breaths while they walk through the Ruins. “That I’m sorry.” She begins, hand flexing slightly before she shakes her head a bit. “Sorry that I judged this version of her from the last one. That I think she would’ve made a good mom, learned from her mistakes. That I’m glad… I’m glad she has Bastien who treated her so much better than my father had.” A muscle feathers in her jaw and she shakes her head.

“That I miss her.” This comes out softer, quieter, as if she doesn’t want to say it aloud for the fear of letting it consume her again.

and you wonder why he lets you,

the butcher

touch him

the sun