the echoes of the thunderclaps
reverberation of the dead
reverberation of the dead
Harper whirls on her immediately, eyes guarded. “I know this is a lot when you feel you’ve been gone minutes, but you’re being cruel. I am not your exes - you know I would never cheat on you. Or at least I thought you did.” And it hurts more than he will ever let her see that she accuses so quickly, so easily, after all they’ve been through. How many times Harper has waited, forgiven. How much work it had taken to get over Kora, dead for years by then, before he’d even entertain being with Phoebe.
Taking a deep breath he turns away, hand rising to pinch the bridge of his nose until his heartbeat slows enough that he deems himself ready to speak civilly again. “Nobody says two ruling regents are mixing business and pleasure. I even offered to step down in light of us starting a relationship.” Don’t presume on a single sentence what our relationship is when you weren’t even here to see it start, he wants to bite, but doesn’t. No, that would be his hurt speaking, and despite having grieved her with no expectation of ever getting her back, he will equally never stop loving Phoebe. And he can’t hurt her - even when she does it to him, even when the words are right there. It wouldn’t be fair. She hadn’t chosen to leave. But wasn’t that always the case?
Scoffing, he shakes his head. “If anyone is vanilla, Phoebe, it’s me. And you know that! Not to mention you are Frey’s Demigod. You can’t seriously be using that as a reason - sex has never been a deal breaking thing for me. If you had never wanted sex in all your life, I still would have -” married you, he wants to say. But they hadn’t, had they? Because she had too much trauma around that type of union. Sighing, he sinks into the chair opposite the couch, and stares resolutely at his shoes. “What do you want to know? I don’t know where you want to start. If you even want to do this right now at all.” If she didn’t, she would be more than welcome to spend the rest of the day with Jude alone, and Harper would give her space and time to absorb all she’d been forced to contend with in such little time. He wasn’t cruel - he could still see her side, how hard this must be for her.
Taking a deep breath he turns away, hand rising to pinch the bridge of his nose until his heartbeat slows enough that he deems himself ready to speak civilly again. “Nobody says two ruling regents are mixing business and pleasure. I even offered to step down in light of us starting a relationship.” Don’t presume on a single sentence what our relationship is when you weren’t even here to see it start, he wants to bite, but doesn’t. No, that would be his hurt speaking, and despite having grieved her with no expectation of ever getting her back, he will equally never stop loving Phoebe. And he can’t hurt her - even when she does it to him, even when the words are right there. It wouldn’t be fair. She hadn’t chosen to leave. But wasn’t that always the case?
Scoffing, he shakes his head. “If anyone is vanilla, Phoebe, it’s me. And you know that! Not to mention you are Frey’s Demigod. You can’t seriously be using that as a reason - sex has never been a deal breaking thing for me. If you had never wanted sex in all your life, I still would have -” married you, he wants to say. But they hadn’t, had they? Because she had too much trauma around that type of union. Sighing, he sinks into the chair opposite the couch, and stares resolutely at his shoes. “What do you want to know? I don’t know where you want to start. If you even want to do this right now at all.” If she didn’t, she would be more than welcome to spend the rest of the day with Jude alone, and Harper would give her space and time to absorb all she’d been forced to contend with in such little time. He wasn’t cruel - he could still see her side, how hard this must be for her.
provides the tempo for the song
describing how all things went wrong
describing how all things went wrong
