"You're living life the way it's meant to be lived, I think," he agreed, admiring her strength as always. Forgiveness was no easy thing, and kindness often took its toll on a person, but Rexanna bore them both with dignity and grace, and her warm smiles were proof of the resiliency of her spirit. "A philosophy that we all could learn from." The hardest person of all to forgive and be kind to, after all, was himself. He had spent so long thinking he was unworthy of both...
Her next words echoed his thoughts almost eerily. Caido's differences had been blessings in disguise, the portal to this new world a form of both literal and figurative rebirth. It wasn't that he was starting anew here, but that a distance had arisen between him and his past that was finally allowing old wounds he had kept open for far too long to begin scabbing over and healing at last... something else he had not thought he deserved. Not until recently, at least. He looked down to smile crookedly at the woman who stood beside him, straight and proud and beautiful in the night. "I have not found it so easy to shed them," he admitted quietly. "There is pain, in letting things go. Defenses, habits, instincts ingrained throughout a lifetime. They are not pretty or particularly good... but they are pieces of us all the same." But pieces that no longer aided them, but rather got in their way now. Pieces that were important, yes, but perhaps not all change was to be feared after all...
Everything changes, he heard Rory's voice whisper in his mind, and again Rexanna anticipated his thoughts, her smile sly and sweet and fearless. First Amalia, and now her? "Did everyone know but us?" he asked her, grinning down at his friend and hoping the darkness hid the hint of a blush he hadn't yet learned to control. Things were still too incredibly, wonderfully new and he couldn't help but savor the feelings that welled up freely now when he thought of his lover, no longer tucked safely away behind masks of demure patience. "And what of you? Is Bastien still treating you like a queen?"
Her next words echoed his thoughts almost eerily. Caido's differences had been blessings in disguise, the portal to this new world a form of both literal and figurative rebirth. It wasn't that he was starting anew here, but that a distance had arisen between him and his past that was finally allowing old wounds he had kept open for far too long to begin scabbing over and healing at last... something else he had not thought he deserved. Not until recently, at least. He looked down to smile crookedly at the woman who stood beside him, straight and proud and beautiful in the night. "I have not found it so easy to shed them," he admitted quietly. "There is pain, in letting things go. Defenses, habits, instincts ingrained throughout a lifetime. They are not pretty or particularly good... but they are pieces of us all the same." But pieces that no longer aided them, but rather got in their way now. Pieces that were important, yes, but perhaps not all change was to be feared after all...
Everything changes, he heard Rory's voice whisper in his mind, and again Rexanna anticipated his thoughts, her smile sly and sweet and fearless. First Amalia, and now her? "Did everyone know but us?" he asked her, grinning down at his friend and hoping the darkness hid the hint of a blush he hadn't yet learned to control. Things were still too incredibly, wonderfully new and he couldn't help but savor the feelings that welled up freely now when he thought of his lover, no longer tucked safely away behind masks of demure patience. "And what of you? Is Bastien still treating you like a queen?"
