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.

She listened. She kept her eyes on him while he knew every instinct in her was telling her to dart away. He knew the pain that the question could drag up, and a large piece of him was absolutely expecting her not to be able to handle her own response to it. She did, though. She listened, cooperated with one of the most difficult questions someone in her position could be asked. Kalt had been afraid of her answer, possibly more than she was. He gave her a black and white, not allowing grey to weasel its way into the equation. If she wanted it, he would disappear. If not, he would stay. There was no in between, and he would keep his word. If she wanted it... Gods, what did she want? He needed to be there for her. He needed her to say she didn’t want to be alone because he needed to be able to help her, help to keep her head above water, out of the dark. If she said to go... There was lingering silence between them, a silence that drowned out the storm completely, and he could hear his heart thundering in his ears. He saw the tears well in her eyes and had the urge to wipe them away, to hold her and tell her to forget the question, that they could enjoy here and now. But that wasn’t possible. He needed an answer. She needed an answer, the answer that she had been denying herself any time she was asked anything similar. And then... Warmth flooded his body, and his eyes flickered closed, feeling her lips against his. He breathed slowly, feeling her, tasting her, holding onto that moment like it was his last in the world. He felt the fuzzy vibrations from her magic traveling between them, whether in reaction to the storm or the kiss, he didn’t know, didn’t care. As she drew away from him, Kalt opened his eyes, seeing hers remaining shut. He couldn’t tell what was going through her mind at that moment. Hells, he couldn’t even tell what was going through his mind at that moment. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip, savoring the taste of her mixed with the sweet wine. Two years suddenly disappeared completely. It was suddenly as though they were facing the world together again in Northwind. Nothing that happened in the past two years held even the slightest bit of power over him then and there. ’Stay.’ It was a plea, a quiet begging, asking him not to leave her. There wasn’t a fucking thing that could steal him away from that rafter with her in the middle of the thunderstorm. Not a single fucking thing. He flickered a small smile to her, his hand reaching up to her face, fingers burying themselves mostly in her hair while his thumb gently stroked over her cheek. Kalt leaned forward then, claiming her lips as she had his. He breathed her in deeply, an addiction he had been without for two years suddenly rushing back. And he surrendered himself to it completely, willingly, his entire being was hers to command if she wanted it. I’m yours. Against his own better judgment, he forced himself to part their lips, not moving away from her. Kalt touched his forehead to hers, his hand still buried in her raven locks, as his crystalline eyes met her fire-blue. ”I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered, flashing her a crooked smile. Ashetta kalt give into the night.

a s h e Before Ashe even processed what she had done, Kalt’s fingers curled into her hair and cupped her face, holding her attention. Then his mouth fit against hers again and thought fled her as quickly as her breath did. There was just the way he breathed her in, and his lips were soft where they joined with hers. She Near sighed into him, and her chin tilted up after him as he pulled away to rest his forehead against hers. She looked up at him and held his gaze as she heard his smile rather than saw it - And the world crashed back in all at once. Ashe blinked rapidly and broke her eyes away, her chest suddenly caving inwards. She kissed him. Why did she do that? Stay. She told him to stay, she kissed him - she should not have done that. Her chest was rising and falling heavily as she turned wide eyes outward, not entirely focused on anything as her mind raced much too fast for her to keep up. She trembled with numb hands, numb lips, her brows pulled together harshly. Ashe didn’t know what to do now. What had her mother said? All you have to do is want it. Maybe she still didn’t know what she wanted. But suddenly she knew she didn’t want to be alone and… and she kissed Kalt. He kissed her. What was she going to do now? What was she supposed to do with this? She had to be alone, no matter what she wanted, because more than she didn't want to be alone? She didn’t want to hurt anyone anymore. She had done enough, leaned on them enough. People had died for caring about her, and she had quite effectively wounded the others all on her own. Alone was what was best. But she had asked Kalt to stay. She’d come back from the wild when her mother called, she missed Ronin, wanted to see Remi, wanted to hug her mother, wanted her father to speak to her again. Selfish, selfish, selfish, selfish. Alistair knew. He’d taken the brunt of her jagged and sharp edges that she didn’t know how to dull. Ashe pulled in a sharp breath and moved to sit up from Kalt. A large part of her protested, regret lancing through her at the sudden absence of warmth and security. Still, she could see dark eyes that were once soft looking at her with harsh truth, and she felt like she couldn’t breath. The world tilted abruptly as she sat up too quickly, and the raven-haired girl pitched forward. She had to thump her hand down on the rafter to hold her there, and she blinked hard at the wobbling floor below her. There was a brilliant flash and a crack of thunder, and a think flicker of lightning bounced down her arm as she held herself in place. Breathe, she told herself, and she made herself look up at Kalt. She still didn’t want him to leave. The she-wolf blinked a few times and then offered the hint of a smile before she looked down to the temple floor. ”Where’s your daughter?” she asked quietly.

There was a moment where they just sat together, Ashe lost in her own mind, while Kalt watched the girl practically curl in on herself, dissolving into her own mind with no sign of actually stopping. He knew why. He understood the conflicting energies inside of her, and he understood that wasn’t something he could directly help her with, no matter how much he wanted to, how much he tried. That was a darkness that she would have to choose to walk away from, and he knew it would be difficult. She pulled away from him, and the place where she had lay against his chest suddenly ached with the loss of her, her warmth, her small form. Just...her. A piece of him hated himself for the way that he came unraveled simply by her looking his way, but he had accepted it a long time ago that he was hers to command, that he was hers entirely. He swore that to her the night she had returned from the eight months away from the Guild, and he hadn’t broken that oath to her since then, not once, no matter how hard it was to see her with other people. Not once. Hers since the beginning. Kalt watched her catch herself on the beam after she moved away too quickly, and his hand instinctively reached out to make sure she stayed balanced. He drew an exaggerated breath, quirking a brow at her with a frown. ”At my house,” he muttered, not looking away from her. ”A girl is watching her tonight, but I have to be getting back. And if you think I’m leaving you here, especially drunk on a rafter, you’re more insane than I thought. Come down. You can hold onto me if you need, and don’t be fucking stubborn about it, ‘kay?” The man took his cigar and tucked it into his pocket. He flashed a gentle smile to the girl as he hopped off of the rafter, holding his hand out to her to go with him. Ashetta kalt give into the night.

a s h e At his house. Ashe blinked at him as he explained, but something about the way he spoke was... strange to hear from him. He had a house. A daughter to get back to. She let out a long breath and shook her head. Some moments with Kalt were like no time had passed at all. So many felt like lifetimes lay between them. She leaned heavily on her arm as he held his hand out to her, not unlike he had at the mouth of the underground. The assassin pursed her lips. Differences? Well, she was a little drunk. Pretty drunk. She had kissed him. He had kissed her. She let out a heavy breath through her nose as she glanced to the other side of the rafter with a frown, then back to Kalt . He could help her down and then she'd go and find herself some cozy hole to curl up in with her nose tucked into her tail. Or maybe go and take a better peek at some new place she hadn't explored yet.. Ashe reached out with one hand to Kalt, held on, then reached back to grab her bag and Reckoning. She bit down on her tongue as she strained against his hand for balance, and she just barely managed to get a grip on her things before she pulled herself back. She took a slow breath as the world tilted for just a minute, but she dipped into it, swinging a leg around so she straddled the rafter again. She strapped her back across her chest, over her middle, pulling Reckoning and its scabbard over her shoulder before she scooted herself forward. Ashe stopped when her knees touched his, and she bit the inside of her lip as she made herself meet his gaze. "I'm not that drunk," she finally said, levelling a half hearted glare at best. She quirked her mouth to the side and reached out to him again, flickering a half smile. Tomorrow, when she was a little less drunk and had time to think, she'd figure out whatever the fuck she was doing. She'd think about what this meant tomorrow. Right then, she scooted around him, reaching her arm over his shoulder to brace herself on a wood panel over the wall, swinging a leg down to deftly find purchase with a textured sole. Ashe pulled herself forward, and she paused as she slipped around Kalt, casting her eyes to him. She looked at him, remaining still for just a moment before she briefly pressed her face against his shoulder.. And she pulled herself to the wall as she began to pick her way down. Carefully. A bit clumsily.