Paradise Found

Kalt I say goodbye to my weakness, So long to the regret, and now I see the world through diamond eyes.     ’I’m not afraid.’ He simply raised his brow at that, using all of his willpower to keep from outright laughing at that bullshit statement. Not afraid. Yes, she was. It was written all over her face, never learning how to properly control what her emotions looked like when she outwardly wore them.     He felt the conflict her words and her wants, her needs, suddenly sprouted. She tried to back away from him, but her body rebelled against her, holding tighter to his hand, and his grip tightened just slightly in response to her, almost without his conscious consent. Kalt listened to her, an unwavering form, both of them so strangely out of place in the vibrant paradise. Not a single sentence had made it all the way through, and once again, he shoved down a grin at that. Ashetta didn’t look him in the eye for any longer than absolutely necessary, darting between his eyes, their hands, and the beauty that surrounded them. Whether or not she couldn’t look at him or wouldn’t look at him was a question he didn’t need answered.     Finally, their hands separated, and he watched her walk around him, watched her near the shimmering pool. Kalt observed quietly, turning to face wherever she moved. He listened to her words, the statements drawing a frown over his lips, his brows meeting for a fleeting moment.     Once again, silent steps brought him briskly towards her, stopping behind her as his hands brushed over her waist. He would take her hands, wrapping her arms around herself with his own resting over them. ”Ashe, you didn’t fuck up,” he said, his voice hushed and gentle. ”You tried your best for someone who was unable to meet you halfway. That wasn’t your fault.” He lowered his head, pressing a soft kiss to her shoulder before speaking once again. ”It’s no one’s fault. He wasn’t able to understand you, and good for him. He didn’t live through what we did. He’ll never know that kind of hell, so it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t meet you in the middle. But you? You survived it. That doesn’t mean it’s over, but you survived. We survived.”     He didn’t bother try to stifle that chuckle, the breathy sound of smothered relief that he didn’t know was waiting to be accepted. They survived. They got out, and they could live.     ”You can’t have a normal life,” he muttered. ”No one who lived through what we did could ever have a normal life, but believe it or not, that’s okay. Normal’s fucking boring anyway. He didn’t understand that, none of them ever will, and you should be thankful for that. But you should also know...” Kalt released her then, walking in front of her and tipping her chin up to face him. ”...experiencing what you did doesn’t make you any less worthy of loving someone and being loved in return.” He brushed his finger along her cheek, flickering a smile to her. ”I’ll be here for when you realize the first part...because you’ve never been without the latter.” He leaned down slightly, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead, squeezing his eyes shut for just a moment before drawing away again. Ashetta