firing across the sky [OPEN]

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.