this time I’m torn, please wake me if I lose that face
search in these eyes: there’s still fire in the darkness
That crooked grin looked a little too good on him and she glanced away with a subtle flush in her cheeks.
"We can learn about ourselves together then. It could be fun."
She turned a curious brown gaze on him. Fun? There had-- He sidled in closer, his shoulder bumping hers and his muzzle reaching out for her. Her breath caught and she tensed, blushing more. Nobody but Kerberos had ever touched her and even though this was so general, not at all as intimate, it still shocked her. Her heart raced and she glanced away again, uncure how to respond to such contact. Even as an orphaned girl on her own, she hadn't had such touches. Were they normal? Probably.
Only so foreign to her.
"When all of this is over – the plague, I mean – will you go back to Ischia? Or will you stay here with me?"
There was a quiet echo in it, and he drew her eyes once more, studying his face for the genuinity she found there. Ischia had always been home though, even if he didn't remember it. It had been his, too. She shook her head a little, because when it came down to it, she went wherever her family was. Despite that she didn't fit in, would never fit in even with her own family she helped make, she stayed with them.
"Ischia is where we belong, Tiphon," she reminded him gently, stepping nearer but not quite able to reach out for him even for a casual touch of reassurance. We meant him as well, though. "You led it. Ischia was likely created for you and Ea. And Ashley." Though that name now stings her with hurt, a wicked burn. How could he have turned on them that way? How could he have offered up their home, her family, to complete strangers with terrible intentions?
"I remain with my family. I take them where it is safest. Ischia has been the only home they've known. I'd rather return them there if the plague can be healed from it, if they can be protected. It is where they were born, where I've lived since being nearly as young as they are now. Ischia is our home."
She sighed, wishing she could reassure him in some way.
"It does not seem that Ischia will be safe for some time, though. And until then, I am here to help you, Tiphon. After your disappearance, we lead Ischia for a time. I would help you however I might. But I do not take well to strangers stomping on in and claiming what is not theirs as we've had before, nor requesting alliances without first offering a visit to whatever hell of a kingdom they've come from. Why in hell would we ever contract to ally with complete strangers without knowing anything about them?"
And so if he bothered to, she would not support it. She was too vigilant to accept such empty promises from strangers and blindly trust them. She had been through too much. People could not be trusted, no matter how kind they seemed. She only trusted Tiphon because she had known him before so long ago.
