crave the applause yet hate the attention

// seems like the whole damn world went and lost its mind & all my childhood heroes
have fallen off or died. fake tears, real living, fake tears, but the alcohol never lies //

She confirms that he isn’t going to hurt her feelings but Sunjata can still feel the twinge of regret that forms from having denied her, the brief realization that crossed over her face. She returns to his side but doesn’t take his arm yet — that’s fine, he understands, and they begin to walk back up the path toward Haulani with ease. “I do know where to find you.” He repeats, as much idle chatter as it is committing it to memory. Perhaps that’s better, after all. To part now and go be with his family. Still, it lingers, and he’s distracted enough as is to need to focus more on their surroundings and not inside his head as evidenced when his arm tenses when she finally decides to reach for it.

He relaxes it immediately, but there’s no doubt in the way they remain mostly parted, the heat and warmth radiating from him. The path takes them up to the center of Haulani, opposite to where the Haulani is, and Sunjata does his best to keep his face neutral — to keep from chewing on the inside of his ruined cheek, to keep from the brief lift of a grimace when he sees those still out and about that had only weeks before been calling for his head. He thinks he manages it despite it all. “It has been some time since we’ve all actually gotten to be together.” He offers the small talk easily, even if it’s delayed in when it arrives. “Given everything that’s happened.” His shoulder rises and falls in a shrug, but he casts his gaze back to her, searching for something though even he doesn’t know what.

some princes don't become kings

SUNJATA

Maeve

Maeve nods slowly at his words, pursing her lips as her eyes stay trained ahead of her. She wonders if he'll actually come see her. If he actually wants to. Surely he's too busy for the likes of her. He's the governor. He was missing and now he's back. He must have loads to deal with. Plus, he's married. If he wants a quick fuck he'd surely call on one of them, right? It only makes sense. What happened back there was merely a moment of weakness for him. It had to be. Which is fine. Really. She doesn't mind it. She has plenty of callers. Plenty of people who want her. She doesn't need to add someone else to that list. Except there is something else that twists in her stomach.

The conversation they had back at the cathedral swirls in the back of her mind and she can't help acknowledging that it was perhaps the most vulnerable she's been with someone. Yeah, there was the thing with Locke. Except that had ended fairly poorly, hadn't it? This though? She had bared herself to Sunjata in a way she wasn't expecting. He probably knew more about her from this one conversation than majority of the people on this fucking island. That was a strange thing to come to terms with.

"Right... I'm sure you're glad to be home. To have your husband back and all of that. I hope things get better for you." The words are clearly genuine as she looks up to meet his gaze and there is nothing but honesty in those soft green eyes of hers. Maeve, despite everything, has a tenderness about her that she can never seem to shake. No matter how hard she tries. So when their eyes meet, she offers him a small smile in return, "You deserve a little bit of peace..."

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending

fire in the ground between my teeth, we're dancing on the poison in their graves
at the end of the night, we'd all seen better days

Sunjata’s used to masks and playfulness and ignoring his problems — but that’s exactly what had caused most of the problems he’s gotten into. He’d come to the cathedral, assuming he’d be alone, let go of his emotions as he tried to become raw enough to properly deal with them. And then she’d shown, and he hadn’t been able to get that comfortable mask back into place until after the open admissions. But he manages it, manages to keep his mind back under wraps, guiding her back toward the Halenani — a place he had passed by many a time and had only been into once.

“Peace isn’t exactly in my repertoire.” He informs her. Indeed, if she knew of his past and the things he’d done, well — he wasn’t good, he didn’t deserve the chances everyone gave him, he was pretty certain he didn’t deserve happiness in any sort of way. For now, though, he has it — fresh and warm and welcoming for the time being, and he clings to it for as long as he can.

The door to the Halenani approaches and Sunjata lets her go, turning to face her a bit more fully. “Have a good night, Maeve. I’m sure we’ll cross paths again.” Letting her go more fully, he steps back and flashes her a charming roguish smile, before he’s shifting completely into his Pegasus shift, long feathered blue wings stretching out as he inclined his pale head, marred with black to her in a parting bow, before his hooves click against the stone of the road when he turns to take to the sky and head home.

i know you tried, i know you're cursed, i know your best was still your worst

SUNJATA

Maeve

Her lips twitch at the comment as she slowly steps onto the path that winds through the small front garden of the Halenani. The door lies just beyond, lanterns flickering on either side to light the entrance of the darkness. "Maybe you should work on that. I know a few things that can help." One final jest offered to him as she closes the small gate behind her, wrapping her arms around her middle. Maeve draws in a breath, sighing softly as he takes a step away from her, "Goodnight, dear Flood." She tosses the moniker at him with a faint smile, watching as he shifts before her eyes into a pegasus. Something she's never seen in person before. She has to push down the awe that wells up in her chest, giving him a final wave of her hand before he disappears into the night.

~FIN~

Poor little girl
still waiting for her happy ending