Does he know that he has brought the stars down with him?

She is certain, that at one point, they had been far (too far) above them. They had been dim, star-crossed things that Lilliana couldn't see through the mangled branches that raged above. The autumn wind had protested against so many things during this dark night and Lilli is sure that the starlight, at some point, had gotten lost against the backdrop of the velvet hues of midnight. There had been darkness and shadow and now-

Now, now she is certain that he has brought the heavens down with him.

The stars linger at the corners of her eyes, a whole universe weights them down as she looks up at him from beneath her dark lashes. His masked face reaches for her shoulder, down to her wither and constellations come to life in her blood. What had been fire - rampant and raging and demanding - dissolves into the patience of whole galaxies, the knowledge that there are macrocosms still to explore and more yet to come. 

She makes no motion at first. The copper mare only turns her head and regards him with those blue eyes that hold the weight of entire galaxies and there is the formation of a smile that curves against the dark edges of her lips, soft and so entirely different than the one she shares with the rest of the world. This is one that is made of wildfire, tempered with wonder. Lilliana can't help think (blaspheme, really) - what use is their Mountain against moments like this? 

The Mountain might boast power but... this is magic. This is the very thing that awakens a soul, that illuminates and Lilliana's is no different than any other. Where she once burned from the inside out, where she had once rendered herself so hollow with all those thoughts of him, now - now there is only a soft glow that radiates out a slow warmth.

He presses himself into her side and her weighted gaze drops, watching where the shadows of his iridescent stripes melt into the auburn on her coat. Lilliana can't help herself - she reaches out for one, to trace its jagged edges with a delicate touch that lingers above the heat of her breath and the lightest amount of pressure. Her smile grows and she closes her eyes, unable to keep herself earthbound.

It is the sound of her name whispered against the night air (there are never enough times he could say it, she thinks). It is the feel of his teeth against her skin, the way that it grows heated and fierce that could suspend her for eternity in those heavens above. Lilliana could spend a millennium there and not miss this world, she marvels.

Of all things, it is his laughter - as ragged as it might be - that brings her back down. But she doesn't mind. When those eyes open and she lifts her copper head from his muscled back to gaze at him, she realizes how much she loves the sound of it. She realizes that all those days and nights that he speaks of, this is the thing she wants to hear the most of. Oh, how she hopes to hear more of it. 

And those days and nights to come, he paints a picture of something she had never known she wanted. Had never allowed herself to want.

There is an exhale, her way of trying to contain the stars and galaxies and the way that he has shifted the gravity around her. Lilliana finds herself pushing the concave of her face into the muscle of his golden haunch. Just a moment of peace, just a moment to simply be. She hides beneath a curling forelock and whispers into the warmth of him, "What if I just want you?"

@[Wolfbane]