The flames along his crest burn low and close to his dark skin, his tail is cropped and neat. There had been little to no rain in the last few weeks, and Levi is overly cautious in this dry weather as he forges a path through the dense overgrowth.

But there is a heaviness in the air now, a stagnant heat, and in the distance the threatening rumble of a tropical storm about to break itself on Tephra's coast.

A wiser man would have found shelter, but the few times in his life he had possessed something close to wisdom, he failed to act on it. And now, after he had caught wind of Rapture's trail, was not the time to abandon his mission.  He had precious little time before the storm erased any evidence of the woman who had filled his thoughts fo the majority of his miserable life.

He had not forgotten her, although it may seem that way to any intelligent observer. In his dreams, he lay with her on the beach, and in the morning he would wake scowling as she dissipated like smoke. He didn't know why his subconscious was always drawn back to that moment, of all the moments they had shared. There had been good ones, and there had been ugly ones, they had raised two children together and he had laughed with her and truly loved her in his own way. And yet many nights he found himself standing above her on that ghostly shore, the endless void of white, her crumpled form, and the deathly stillness as real as the day he found her there.

In front of him, the underbrush thins and he comes to walk alongside a steep embankment. The sound of hooves on gravel echo off the stone as the hill becomes a looming cliff, taller than even him. And when the cliff becomes an overhang, and her scent grows the strongest, he halts. There is evidence of her here, evidence that someone has spent a lot of time in this place. He looks west, through the latticework of tree-trunks and jungle-vines to the specks of grey-blue he knows to be the ocean, as a breeze sweeps in through those little cracks. It lifts the heat that had been building, and the first spattering of raindrops ricochet off the dense canopy above him.

If this was where she had been spending her time, maybe she would be back before the storm. 

If not, well, he had nothing but time.

Levi

She shivers in the humid breeze. Not because of any chill in the air, but rather because the impending storm sends an electric tingling down her spine. She breathes deeply, holding the familiar scent of salt and nostalgia.

She knows what draws her here. She knows, but a part of her refuses to admit. Even though it becomes harder and harder with each passing day, it's easier than admitting she might finally feel as though life had been breathed back into her. A feeling that tastes of both freedom and betrayal.

It's foolish, but she's always been a foolish woman.

For a moment she loses herself in the distant horizon, the wind of the storm tangling with her blue locks as stray droplets spatter against her slim form. For a moment, until a faint flicker of orange catches at the corner of her eye. Slowly, her gaze drifts, heart slipping in her chest with futile longing. Longing that swiftly settles into a dreadful guilt as her eyes settle on his familiar features.

For a seemingly endless span of time, she forgets to draw breath. When she finally does, it shudders in her lungs as she shrinks almost instinctively in on herself. "Levi," she finally manages to whisper, her voice filled with painful despair.

She doesn't know what else to say. Doesn't know if there is anything that can be said.

Make me a promise that time won't erase us

That we were not lost from the start

Rapture

He waits, the first drops of rain finding their way through the architecture of fronds and branches, speckling his mahogany coat with damp, onyx-dark spots. The flames which dance across his body spit and hiss as the rain falls into them, burning hotter to counter it.

And then, she is there.

He had thought he was above this, that the sight of her wouldn't make him feel one hundred different things. She harbors a longing that strikes him when he sees it, softening the bitter-sweet lines of her face as she speaks his name.

He wants to fall to his knees, to fall into her endlessly, but something is wrong. The moment which he had anticipated is nothing like reality. He had been prepared for her to react in so many different ways, but nothing could have prepared him for this.

The curve of her belly and all the possibilities it implies cause the muscles of his neck jerk as his jaw clenches shut over the words he was about to say.  He is left speechless, the pressure building inside of him as he stands stunned, cuckolded.

He trembles, taking an unsteady step forward as he feels the red-hot blood rushing into his face and limbs. He feels weak. He feels unbridled fury. He feels the flames in a way he hadn't since he was young - in a way that reminds him that he hasn't changed at all. 

The detached facade he wore so often was shed now, there was no hope of hiding the storm that ripped through his chest. The flames grown, wings sprout from his shoulder and the forest starts to burn. But he doesn't notice; the power of his mismatched gaze never leaves her face.

"There's someone else," he snarls, using everything he has to stay where he stands. "Where is he."

Levi