raised on the edge of the devil's backbone

// and if i was the only thing you couldn't bear to lose,
i'd set fire to the wood, just so you wouldn't have to bury me too //

He manages to light the cigarette, drawing in the smoke and letting it settle him, letting it hang from the corner of his lip when he hears the sound of her approaching. He doesn’t turn yet, not until she’s through the door and her hand touches his elbow, when he can turn to her and pull the cigarette from his lips to peer down at her and those worried eyes. It hurts, he realizes, that he’s just going to make that concern worse. It hurts that he’s going to do the same to Nate when he returns.

So he exhaled the plume over the edge of the balcony, turning so he can face her a bit more fully, wings tucking in a fraction with the motion. “You’re going to want to sit.” He manages, moving to reach for her arm even if his fingers still tremble, to sink into a chair beside the one he’s picked as his, fingers moving to slide off the box of smokes and matches to reveal the notebook sat in the middle of it, taking another drag from the cigarette before setting it in an ashtray left on the metal table. “I should have told everyone sooner than now, and that’s my mistake, but things are going to be rough for a while.” Muscles feather in his jaw as his hollow gaze lifts to meet her face. “There is a rumor going around that I brutally attacked Vai.” Evidence of the split lip is clear on his face, the bruising to his jaw from the impact.

They’re not the only wounds he bears, even if they’re the only visible ones.

SUNJATA